People may be too embarrassed to openly talk about it, but everyone does it, toilet or not. World Toilet Day helps people celebrate the importance of sanitation and raise awareness for the 2.5 billion people who don't have access to toilets and proper sanitation. This video by the nonprofit WaterAid highlights the luxury of having a toilet.

Celebrating your can may seem silly, but not having one can not only lead to embarrassment, lack of dignity and safety issues, but also preventable diseases and even death. When people don't have toilets, they're forced to relieve themselves in open streets, fields, or back alleys. The result? The contamination of drinking water and food sources, which leads to a slew of health risks. Lack of sanitation is the world’s biggest cause of infection and kills 1.8 million people, mostly children, a year. Even countries with abundant toilets have to deal with problems ranging from unhygienic public toilets to waterway-destroying sewage disposal.

Vanilla, blogging on Let's Look At It This Way from Singapore, says that people should care about toilets:

“I know this is a crappy topic to most people. It is unfortunate that it is a ‘taboo' topic to talk about openly and many people remain ignorant about the scale of the problem. I fail to understand how this can be an unimportant topic when, on an average, we visit the toilet 2500 times a year, or 6-8 times a day. In our life time, we would have spent 3 years in the toilet.”

Organized by the nonprofit The World Toilet Organization, World Toilet Day is being celebrated globally with various events. To further increase awareness, WaterAid announced the launch of its new ToiletFinder UK App for iPhone users this week. The free app helps Brits find the nearest public toilet while reminding them how lucky they are to have clean and safe toilets. The largest event today, called The Big Squat, asks people to stop and squat for one minute in a public place to raise awareness. These photos show people squatting globally, including this one of preschoolers in Singapore:

A blog from Brunei, the world according to panyaluru …, also shows appreciation for the toilet by putting it into perspective:

“Imagine if we are walking along in the row of shops in Kiulap or Gadong. Suddenly the tummy grumbles, just like the worst ribut you can think off. No rest bite. Grumble and grumble. Rumblings. The light is on amber and ready to turn green. But no toilets in sight. Not a single public toilet in the rows of shops…Add to that no water, no tissue, nothing! That could be the worst day of your life, your worst nightmare, ever worse than the nightmares those kids have in the Nightmare on Elm Street Movies. On this day, let’s show our appreciation to our toilets.”

Despite its serious side, many people have used humor to celebrate World Toilet Day. In the U.K., the blog London City Drains features a 10-question toilet quiz, while in this video high school teacher Matt Cheplic sings about the day.

Some bloggers point out that toilets alone may not be the answer. Sandhya, blogging on Maradhi Manni in India, says many men don't use available toilets:

“In a city like Chennai, where the climate is hot nearly 10 months of the year, I see men urinating on the roadside all the time. When women can control and go home and relieve themselves, why can't men do so, I don't know. So, first of all people should be fined heavily for doing this crime (yes, it is crime) on the spot. I have seen them doing this on the wall of the public toilets! In Srirangam, I saw them urinating on the compound wall of the temple even though every street surrounding the temple had toilets, which were clean, but pay toilets!”

While lack of sanitation impacts everyone, the taboo around toilets can disproportionately affect women. In some countries, modesty forces women do their business in fields before sunrise or to hold it until after the sun sets, leading to health and safety concerns. Joanne Sprague, blogging on Overturning Boulders in India, observes that women are absent from the morning toilet run in Chennai, while in Ethiopia the blog AN ADVENTURE IN ADDIS notices a similar situation:

“I’ve heard so often about the lack of toilet facilities for women or lack of toilets in general; that teenage girls in the countryside get up at 4 am to go out in the dark to do their business so they don’t get bullied by the boys at school or stop going to school altogether. Men just pee anywhere, cigarette in hand and there’s an assumption that women don’t need to, if they are thought about at all….I want to see a huge billboard in Amharic saying ‘Girls go too’ with a picture of Barbie sitting on a toilet.”

To celebrate World Toilet Day, blogger Jonathan Stray, takes readers on an international tour of toilets he's visited, from Thailand and the U.K. to West Africa and Oman, concluding:

“We in the west with our flush toilets and toilet paper and sparkling shower stalls are the exception; the rest of the world thinks a bathroom is a wet, smelly place, when they have a bathroom at all. A good toilet means you probably have a very good quality of life, so enjoy yours. Happy World Toilet Day!”

Photo of Tiled Toilet by nedrichards on Flickr, Creative Commons.

On 3 November it was announced that USAID would not be extending the work of the local branch of the International Republican Institute (IRI). Officially, the reason given was that IRI had not submitted an application, but many have since cast doubts on this explanation as one comment on In Mutatione Fortitudo explains.

After an initial covering up by the Embassy (claiming IRI didn’t even submit a proposal to stay) more information came out in the press. It seems the US (more specifically USAID, a branch of the State Department that oversees development projects) is not cutting its budget for democracy programs, rather they are devoting all of them to the National Democratic Institute. It seems it is not a change in US foreign policy, but it has major foreign policy consequences, it seems they are not unhappy with IRI’s work, but they are destroying the very projects they have spent millions on to build.

The blog post itself speaks highly of the IRI's Country Director, Jake Jones.

[…] Jake was for Azerbaijani blogosphere what Columbus was for Americas - something like he was the first discoverer of it. And this discovery happened at those times, when I was almost the sole English-language blogger out there on the ground and was writing under a pseudonym of “a political scientist from Azerbaijan.” I now hear that a lot of foreign organizations in Azerbaijan are thinking of pumping support into blogging, bloggers, et cetera, but it was Jake and IRI who first noticed the potential of new media field in Azerbaijan, and are still careful enough not to overestimate it as other organizations and individuals do.

Flying Carpets and Broken Pipelines, set up with the encouragement of Jones, also comments on the main force behind the organization's work in Azerbaijan.

About a little over a year ago, I was skyping a friend living and working in Baku. The topic of our discussion that day was finding a name for my blog you are currently reading. It took us a while but at the end, “flying carpets and broken pipelines” was created.

[…]

I have never met a person so interested in the region. He learned the language, traveled the country and gets on well with everyone. When Emin and Adnan were arrested, he was there to support and help in any way he could. […] All of this is only a small portion of what Jake and IRI has done in Azerbaijan, which also involves endless trainings and seminars held all over the country.

[…] IRI presented itself as an institution investing in the country and hoping to have made an impact (among other international institutions working in the country). It would be a loss for Azerbaijan to see IRI leave so please USAID (if anyone there is reading this blog) let them stay and do their job because they are worth it!

There seems to be a general misunderstanding that IRI didn't make any proposals for its next year activities in the country. It is NOT true, IRI DID propose. In fact there are local partners who can SUPPORT and JUSTIFY for this.

Both blog posts also report that a Facebook group, Keep IRI in Azerbaijan!!!, has been set up. At time of writing it has 830 members.

Seed by theogeo

The Alzar las Voces (Raise the Voices) project in Nicaragua brings farmers in rural communities the possibility to speak out  through video telling of their concerns, their projects, their wishes and ideas.

There are six organizations in Matagalpa Honduras who are working on this project including women's collectives, Matagalpa Organization for the Blind,  farmer organizations and an information center for Sustainable Development with the aid of Simas.   The website is part of a project which will serve to showcase the work these organizations are doing with the members of the community by having members of the rural communities speak about their life, concerns and interests.

In this next video,  Marcial Gonzalez, a promoter of the Farmer to Farmer program, explains how the program has helped them: first, they learned they shouldn't burn their lands to clear them,  how to build or grow ditches and barriers to help control erosion. Another lesson they've learned is the importance of saving and keeping seeds from national varieties of plants, since they are ideal to grow in their environment and why trees should be kept and not cut down, since they provide oxygen, shade and maintain the water sources.

Juana Urrutia, in another video, explains what it means to be a community promoter. A Promoter is in charge of a group or community, protecting the community's interests, be it in fieldwork, production or socially. They also transmit knowledge which they received during workshops or activities, since it is their responsibility to put into practice what they have learned within their communities.

Martha Elena Montenegro is a beneficiary of the credits and programs to help women start their own businesses. She makes some products using materials she harvests from her farm, however, after all the effort, she now has to pay back her loans, and she uses the video medium to ask how she should best distribute her earnings in order to be able to pay back her loan.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) should be used to support and encourage cultural diversity and to preserve and promote the language, distinct identities and traditional knowledge of Indigenous peoples, nations and tribes in a manner which they determine best advances these goals. The evolution of the information and communication societies must be founded on the respect and promotion of the rights of Indigenous peoples, nations and tribes and our distinctive and diverse cultures, as outlined in international conventions. We have fundamental and collective rights to protect, preserve and strengthen our own languages, cultures and identities.

But can ICT truly preserve and protect distinct identities and culture? Does ICT by its very intervention introduce an element of westernization amidst the indigenous culture that it purports to preserve and protect? What is the optimum balance between preserving traditional knowledge and embracing remix culture? The cultural debate surrounding deployment of ICT in the field of indigenous/ knowledge and culture simply refuses to die down.

According to Mark Oppenneer, “the implementation of ICTs in service to indigenous peoples in development settings is a double-edged sword”, as both the critics and proponents of ICT4D have seemingly irreconcilable perspectives.

Questioning the cultural neutrality of the ICT medium, Charles Ess, in his paper “Questioning the Obvious? Ethical and Cultural Dimensions of CMC and ICTs” states that

[..]. Far from serving as value-free or morally-neutral tools, CMC (Computer mediated Communication) technologies themselves appear to embed and foster the cultural values and communicative preferences of their Western designers. As a first example: South Africa has attempted to establish Learning Centres intended to empower indigenous peoples by helping them take advantage of the multiple potentials and capacities of ICTs. A series of observers have noted, however, that these Centres repeatedly fail – in part, because of basic cultural conflicts. Briefly, the Centres reflect their designer’s Western emphasis on individual and silent learning – in contrast with indigenous preferences for learning in collaborative and often noisy, performative ways (Postma 2001). This conflict is also captured in Edward T. Hall’s distinction between high and low context cultures (1976). In this schema, contemporary societies such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Germanic countries show a preference for literate (i.e., textual), high content (but low context) information transfer – while societies such as Arabic cultures, indigenous peoples, and many Asian cultures prefer instead more oral, low content (but high context) modes of communication.

[…] Similarly, Western Group Support Systems (GSS) that favor anonymity as a feature intended to encourage open and direct communication proved disastrous in the Confucian cultures of South Asia, as this indeed succeeded in encouraging subordinates to make comments that were culturally interpreted – and condemned – as attacks on one’s “face” (Abdat and Pervan 2000). These and multiple other examples make clear that CMC technologies carry and further a specific set of cultural values and communicative preferences - ones that, far from being universally shared, are indeed limited to specific cultural domains.

Secondly, because these technologies thus clearly embed and foster specific cultural values and communicative preferences - the initial enthusiasm for these technologies inadvertently but powerfully only aids and abets a form of “computer-mediated colonization” that threatens to override diverse cultural values and communicative preferences with those defining the dominant economic and political powers of the West.

While Ess, worried about the medium defeating the intended purpose of preservation, calls for a more culturally-aware framework, others have pointed out that such concerns are not entirely correct.

In response to a query by David Sasaki, director of Global Voices' Rising Voices section, as to whether or not helping under-represented communities join the online global conversation inevitably leads to their westernization/Americanization,  Álvaro Ramírez and Diego Gomez, co-founders of the HiperBarrio project, spoke of the community adapting Western culture to their own needs, infusion of new knowledge and broadening horizons.

Citing the example of hip-hop music, Alvaro pointed out that for the community, while there was definitely some US influence, the issue was not so much Americanization as adapting something western to their own needs. So it was not only about getting influenced but exerting influence as well, giving birth to something new, new knowledge or culture. Diego noted that the project had also opened up other doors of communication beyond westernization.

I think that in this project especially they have been influenced not just by Americans they now begin to think about India, Dubai, and other cultures that they didn't know existed before. Or they didn't have much reference.

Projects such as the E-Bario project in Malaysia, Community project of the indigenous Ngalia and Badimaya people of Western Australia, the Alan - Gluban project in Taiwan are a few cases in point.

In the final analysis, as Mark Oppenneer points out

…the critics are right: misguided ICT4D implementation that doesn’t take into consideration a wide range of cultural factors and explicitly or implicitly imposes Western processes or structures upon indigenous recipients does constitute a new form of computer-mediated colonialism. And yes, the proponents of ICT4D are right: ICTs, when implemented thoughtfully and respectfully – keeping the needs of the recipients at the fore – can be powerful agents of change in the fight to reduce poverty and improve the lives of marginalized peoples in developing nations.

In his 2008 presentation, UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples - The Role of ICTs, Jesse Fidler listed various possibilities for ICT to actively engage the indigenous communities and realize their visions.

And as far as preserving the pristine, isolated local culture is concerned, Professor Amartya Sen perhaps summed it up best in his talk at the 3rd IDRC/ Harvard Forum on the future of information and communication technology for development (ICT4D) when he said that there is “no such thing as ‘unaided culture”, or ”culture that exists in isolation”.

When the legendary TED conference came down to India, Indian bloggers were understandably excited.

In the run up to TEDIndia, a few Indian bloggers got together to interview TEDIndia fellows and Geetha Krishnan put together a compilation of the TEDIndia fellow interviews.

During the conference, the TED blog fed the excitement by posting session-wise roundups (session 1, session 2, session 3, session 4, session 5, session 6, session 7, session 8, session 9) and reactions to the most popular talks (Hans Rosling, Devdutt Pattanaik, Tony Hsieh, Scott Cook, Pranav Mistry, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, Shukla Bose, Anil Gupta, Kavita Ramdas, Sunitha Krishnan, Sidi Goma, Ramachandra Budihal, Ananda Shankar Jayant, Kiran Sethi, Eve Ensler, His Holiness the Karmapa, Shashi Tharoor) and even did a roundup of reactions to the conference.

TED India participants at the venue. Image by Kiruba Shankar

Several bloggers wrote posts about how TED touched them in unexpected ways.

Rajiv Dingra was one of them –

In my last 3 years and more of blogging experience Ive attended over 50 events (atleast) and each of them have left me richer in knowledge or in insight. But none of them have ever moved me to tears or made me go in deep thought or made me proud to be Indian all in the matter of days. TEDIndia infact was more a reflection of what are the grave issues in India and the brilliance and the fallacy of India rather than being specific to Technology, Entertainment and Design.

Peter Elst summarized TEDIndia in ten quotes.

While the overall reaction to TEDIndia was overwhelmingly positive, several attendees were left a little underwhelmed.

TEDIndia fellow Amit Varma complained that TEDIndia catered to Western stereotypes of India –

There was much exotica, and much mysticism served up that says nothing at all about the country we are today. The average foreign attendee would have gone away with his stereotypes about India reinforced, not shattered. That’s an opportunity missed.

Awesome backdrop for a dance party. Image by Kiruba Shankar

Amit also shared an interesting sociological observation –

The pharmacy at the Infosys campus in Mysore does not sell condoms. I want you to think about that for a moment. This is a campus where thousands of young men and women stay and work together. The official Infosys position on this matter, thus, seems to be that either a) Infosys employees do not have sex or b) Infosys employees have sex, but it should not be safe sex. Isn’t this interesting?

Aditi Machado was surprised by TEDIndia's strong focus on India –

In retrospect the India-focus at TED was too strong. When TED is held in the UK or the US, does the conference become all about those countries and those countries’ contributions to the world? I don’t think so. The running theme at TEDIndia, beginning with the first talk by Hans Rosling, seemed to be: ‘India will become the next superpower. Oh, and China too. But we’re in India and India is a democracy and we hate Commies, so we like India better.’ I’m sure many Indians were flattered, and I’m as patriotic as the next person, but it was disturbing to see that almost every speaker, especially the non-Indians, felt obligated to give us a big pat on the back.

Manjeet Kripalani at Financial Express also complained about TEDIndia's uni-directional programming –

The title was promising: “TEDIndia: the Future Beckons”. On the Mysore campus, India’s future had already arrived. It did not reflect in the programming of TEDIndia. The idea of TED is unique. Brilliant new minds who expound their futuristic ideas in 18 minutes to a sophisticated celebrity audience, interspersed with entertainment, music and some socially responsible talk. This TED conference was more “Bono Saves the World” than either Technology or Entertainment or Design. No soft or hard power, but powerlessness.

TED India talks. Image by Kiruba Shankar

TED attendee Our Woman in Havana rounded off her series of posts about TEDIndia (day one, day two, day three, day four) by deciding that the real genius of TED lies in its ability to gather together people who are hugely talented and successful in a diverse range of fields –

Some of my best TED moments were little breaks when a randomly struck conversation brought nuggets of new thought –talking literature with A who worked in microfinance with the Acumen Fund and discovering our common heritage; discussing whether Urdu should be written in Hindi script in order to preserve the language in India with T; clashing head-on with J over Cuban politics at lunch; understanding from A why someone would want to put a boutique hotel in Ahmedabad; learning from B how designers can source organic materials; always always bumping into T and talking football, Punjabi and why lawyers are perceived as emptying rather than filling; dancing with a stranger; drinking coffee with an artist; discussing with C how to put Shashi Tharoor on the spot with a question about Indian state accountability over genocide. The genius in TED lay in those moments where nobody knew what would come next, and could then be blown away by what did come next. At times, those were the speakers, and often, those moments came in the all too brief meetings we had with people who already seem to have become friends.

For me, TEDIndia was about a rediscovery of the power of storytelling –

These stories reminded me that the most powerful stories we can tell about ourselves are, in fact, stories about other people. These stories reminded me that by telling stories about ideas that are bigger than us, we become bigger than ourselves. These stories reminded me that we are shaped by the stories we tell others, but even more so by the stories we tell ourselves.

TED India group photo - the crazy version. Image by Kiruba Shankar

The TEDIndia talks will soon be up on the TED website, so do look out for them.

Cross-posted at Gauravonomics, my blog on social media and social change.

“Our system is based on equality and justice,” Attorney General Ali bin Futais Al Marri said in a recent program aired on Al Jazeera and reported by local newspaper the Peninsula.

Bemused, incredulous and wistful, Doha bloggers have been debating the merits of Al Marri's remarks all week.

On Twitter, IvanGiesbrecht said:

hahahahahahahahhahaha!!!!!!!!

According to the Peninsula:

The Emir has never interfered with the judiciary. The Constitution gives him the authority to grant pardon to a convict only after the court has issued its sentence. So during a trial he has never ever tried to interfere, said Al Marri, adding that it was at the Emir’s directives that his office as well as the judiciary have been separated from the executive. Such is the level of fair play and equality in Qatar that once a senior police official was accused of slapping an Asian. The allegations were investigated and after the charges were proved, trial was conducted and the policeman was sentenced to six months in jail and stripped off his job.

On the forum Qatar Living,

Nic said

We, who work here, all, know the level of integrity this countries displays and this reputation is becoming well known in the west among those who have never been here. Qatar is starting to be known by its hunger for fame and good reputation and instead of improving things, they just hide the problems under the carpet! Look how the article puts it: “In other Arab countries, the political will to combat corruption is missing.” What makes these guys think that they are any better from other Arab countries?!?!?!

genesis was more optimistic:

But we are learning. Why do you think they opened all those universities at EC and encourge critcal thinking among locals? They know that once those who graduated from those universities will demand change. Why all those institutes are established? Why sign all those International agreements? The Emir yesterday have given full support and power to the public attorney office & Audit bureau on tracking down corruption cases. We are a “new” country in the world stage. 15 years ago, there wasn’t even a system. Just a copycat from other bureaucratic Arab systems.

On Twitter, peterlada pointed out someone in Qatar is indeed above the law:

Actually the Emir is. By definition.

Though press freedom is guaranteed to a certain extent in Qatar's constitution, the Advisory Council in June recommended harsh punishments for Qatar-based journalists who write against the Emir, national security, religion and the Constitution.

But the State Cabinet last week called for a new press and publications law to “keep pace with the demands of the changing times,” stressing the importance of opening up communication between journalists and government officials.

Yesterday, during a forum for media experts held by the Doha Centre for Media Freedom (which has had its share of controversy over press freedom), journalists called for a revamping of the “outdated” law.

Local newspaper Gulf Times reported:

Nasser al-Othman, a former chief editor of Arrayah Arabic daily and a trustee member at the DCMF, called for abolishing the imprisonment clause in the current press law and replacing it with monetary penalties. “I believe that suggestions made at today’s meeting could be useful if taken seriously by lawmakers,” said al-Othman, who was named as the dean of Qatari journalists.

Other journalists wondered at the point of the roundtable, as no government official attended the session.

From the Gulf Times:

Abdullah bin Hamad al-Azaba, a columnist at Al Arab, criticised the absence of a government representative at the meeting, saying that such an absence had turned the discussion into a “dialogue of the deaf”. “I was saddened that HE Sheikh Hamad bin Thamir (the Al Jazeera TV network chairman) was absent while HE Sheikh Jabor bin Yousuf (chief of the official Qatar News Agency) left before the end of our discussion,” he lamented. DCMF deputy director general Mariam al-Khater, who moderated the discussion, said the DCMF is supporting the issuing of a “modern press law” that considers the changes in all fields in Qatar. Al-Khater pledged that the Center would continue its efforts until a new law press law, free from any imprisonment penalties against journalists, is issued.

For now, however, press freedom in Qatar - Al Jazeera notwithstanding - is still a goal to strive towards.

On Qatar Living, Xena, who works in print media, said:

I got here at the start of the paper, everyone was gungho about being in a new country with new possibilities. The atmosphere was electric…Then come the blows - you cannot print anything vaguely opposite to government stances, you can only print press releases, and you are not allowed to change them, bad english or not… Trying to get interviews with people is like trying to reach the US president - impossible - phone call after phone call, lists of questions, approval of questions, wanting to see the story before it goes to print and then frequently changing or retracting statements.

On Here, There and Everywhere, intlexpatr reprinted one man's comments on the typical newspaper formula in Qatar, saying “I almost split my sides, I was laughing so hard.”

Truthful Stranger writes:

Hence you always get the presence of evil (there’s always an Asian gang being deported for doing something dreadful like burglary or selling liquor) page 1, bottom of the page, that covers the Evil In Our Midst; then the sycophantic article about HH who has just made some pithy pronouncement on The Necessity For Mutual Understanding And Education Across The World, page 2; some phony figures about how much more the Pearl property or other investments have increased pages 3 – 5; some baloney about how safe the country is for investment, page 6; then the gushing op-ed about how the best societies in the world are so great because they have been enforcing Islamic values, pages 6 – 8; Qatar Airways wins award for best in-flight hot towels, page 9, and a new order for 500 Airbus aircraft (thanks to the strategic profitability of the airline! ha!) . And not to forget, Gulf Escapes Economic Downturn for the fourth week in a row, page 10 ad infinitum.

In India, the most vulnerable populations to climate change — impoverished communities and women — are being affected first, and the most. For example, Oxfam India’s blog comments about the devastating impact of drought on farmers, and the direct effect on women and children.

In the last 12 years, almost 50 farmers committed suicide every year, one tenth of them being women farmers. (…) Increasing number of farmers started migrating to cities in search of food. And the situation became shocking when trafficking in women and children proliferated in the district.

Gender as a Factor of Vulnerability to Climate Change

It is estimated that women produce over 50% of all food grown worldwide. In India, more than 84% of women are involved in agricultural activities, and as a result they become the greatest victims of climate change’s impact. In addition, gender inequality makes them disproportionately vulnerable to environmental alterations. Blogger Pricilla Stuckey, PhD points out on the blog This Lively Earth that women are unequally affected by climate change:

Discrimination against women also plays an enormous role in how women experience the effects of climate change. In India, for example, where women have seen their crop yields cut in half and the quality of grain diminish because of climate changes, women’s health is impaired from the double whammy of inferior crops and inequality.

Farmer Sita Debi is an example of this. “When there is no rain, we women have to work really hard in the fields to try and grow crops. Our nutrition also suffers because we are the last to eat at the family table. A lot of us are anemic as a result,” she says in the video filmed and posted on the blog Find Your Feet. Other women farmers appear in the video explaining how badly climate change is affecting their lives.

When Women Fight Back

Indian women don’t just sit around waiting to be hit by climate change. They, also, fight back. As shown in the second half of the video, women are developing innovative ways to adapt and help prevent global warming.

As reported in this Inter Press Service article:

Agriculture accounts for at least 20 percent of Indian greenhouse gas emissions, mainly methane emission from paddy fields and cattle and nitrous oxides from fertilisers. According to the 2007 report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), India’s rainfall pattern will be changing disproportionately, with intense rain occurring over fewer days, leading directly to confusion in the agricultural scenario.

Another example of women taking proactive steps to combat climate change is taking place in the village of Bidakanne, where women are growing crops such as linseed, green and chick peas, wheat and other legumes in between the rows of sunflowers, all without water and chemical inputs, such as pesticides.

This type of agricultural activity is especially beneficial to the dalit or broken women, who make up the lowest rung of India's caste system. Through this system, women in the approximately 75 villages in the Medak district can now form associations to sell their crops, as well as gather surplus produce for poorer members. In addition, to using practices to reduce emissions and harmful pollutants, this type of activity also helps reduce poverty.

The leadership and effort of these Indian women has not gone unnoticed within the online community. Shiba Prosad Bhattacharyya comments on the site India Together

Thank you for your column that these women have been profiled here make a case for them being a role model to the world. (…)Food is a human right & not a corporate commodity for speculation.Mother nature does not operate on a boardroom profit.Corporate profit will mearly lead to more food crisis. Through you I am conveying my highest regards to these women leaders who have demonstrated no negative effects on the environment, public health & farming families that food production can be profitable, sustainable and feed all of us.

Obviously this battle is not fought by those with money who, for reasons obscure or not, are protected with bank accounts that would make mere mortals envious. According to a survey conducted in February by an English company, ECA International - Luanda ranks first among the most expensive cities in the world.

In his blog Mundo da Verdade [pt], Miguel Caxias writes:

“Só para terem uma ideia, o custo por noite no hotel em que estou é de 170 USD (quarto individual, com casa de banho e pequeno-almoço mesmo muito sofrível). Estamos a falar de um hotel que deve ter se tanto, duas estrelas. Para um europeu, não só por costumes alimentícios mas também por costumes de segurança, não se arrisca a comer em qualquer botequim de esquina, obviamente. No restaurante onde temos feito as nossas refeições, o custo médio de uma dose é de 30USD (junte-se a isso bebida, sobremesa, entradas e o preço salta logo para 40/45 USD de despesa individual).

Luanda está numa fase de construção massiva. Junto à Marginal existem apartamentos a 1 milhão de USD. Estão todos vendidos!!!”

The high cost of living in the country is paradoxical, since it does not correlate to a high quality of life, at least not for those faring worse economically. Angola registers high development indicators that, unfortunately, are not reflected in the finances of the majority of Angola's citizens. Excessive demand coupled with scarce supply make things rather difficult.

The Brazilian author of the blog Diário de África [pt] provides a quick analysis of what happens in Angola.

“Não são apenas os alugueres (habitação) que custam caro. Tudo é caríssimo. Um quilo de tomate pode sair por 20 USD. Uma bandeja de uvas pode custar 30 USD o quilo. Um bife com batatas fritas pode custar facilmente, 50 dólares. Um cano furado pode sair por 1000.000 USD. Tapar um pequeno furo na tubulação do ar-condicionado do carro e colocar o gás para enfrentarmos o calor luandense custa 200 USD.

Precisa de electricista? Ele não vai sair da sua casa sem ter tirado pelo menos 100 USD de você. Mesmo que só tenha trocado uma lâmpada. Porque é tudo tão caro?”

According to this blogger, the answer is simple and, once again, harks back to the war that robbed the country of more than 30 years of development.

“O atabalhoado processo de independência e a guerra acabaram com tudo. Primeiro, a independência. Em 1975, pelo menos 300 mil portugueses abandonaram Angola. Médicos, dentistas, advogados, empresários, encanadores, mecânicos, burocratas, professores. Em questão de meses, Angola ficou sem quadros. Não havia quem soubesse gerenciar as finanças do país. Depois a guerra. O esforço de guerra sugou o dinheiro que deveria ser investido na saúde, na educação, nas infra-estruturas do país. Agora multiplique essa situação por 30 anos. O resultado chama-se Luanda.

Com a alta no preço do petróleo nos últimos anos, os fretes subiram e por tabela, o de todos os produtos. Chegou-se a uma situação tal que mesmo os itens produzidos em Angola podem custar mais que os importados. Porquê? Os economistas que me corrijam, mas parece ter algo a ver com a tal lei da oferta e da procura. Quem quer agora, tem de pagar mais.”

O país não tem indústrias. Tudo é importado. Vem de navio. No porto, não há espaço. Os navios ficam dois, três meses atracados em alto-mar, aguardando autorização para descarregar. Só agora é que a agricultura começa a dar os primeiros passos. Mas só nas áreas em que não há minas terrestres. O último número que ouvi era de que mais da metade das terras cultiváveis do país estava cheia de minas. Enquanto o terreno não estiver limpo, nada feito. Portanto, até a comida precisar ser importada.