Feeling like I was doing a lot of pointing-out-all-the-ways-you-can-go-wrong in Communication for Development (and in life itself), so I decided to put together a (certainly non-exhaustive) list of dos and don’ts for those of us wanting to cultivate our empathy and be better at Communicating for Social Change. DO: First …
The people of Lebanon have been taking to the streets for over a year now to protest for a change in the confessional, sectarian system of government. They echo the deep-felt experience of having no influence on the decisions that affect their lives, described by Thomas Tufte in his work, …
life needs truth “Life needs truth. Truth is essential.” With this forgotten life necessity, The New York Times closes its video, promising of truthful independent journalistic practice. I borrow this statement to start with, not to link it exclusively to the New York Times; it is as a comforting promise …
Alongside Clicktivists and White Saviours, there are a few other belief systems and behaviours that might just be a little less known and a little more insidious. Here are a couple of them – with comics to lighten the load – and their antidotes (spoiler alert, one of them is …
Black Lives Matter isn’t the first social movement to engage an international audience, create political and public engagement by using social media. Both the Fridays for Future movement (with Greta Thunberg in the lead), the Arabic Spring and #IWillGoOut have led the way in showing how social media can engage …
Today’s generations will be remembered for many things. We are the first communication and technology generations. The generations of widespread globalization. Of climate change. First wars on water. Migration crimes. The ones of the flourishing transnational social movements. But also, and in some senses most outstandingly, we are the generations …
The Covid-19 pandemic has completely reshaped the way we do our jobs, how we stay in touch with our family and friends, how we learn, shop, bank and a multitude of other activities that we might not traditionally have done online. For the 54% of the global population with access to …
With my latest post, I explored the Black Lives Matter movement and its roots, aims, and hashtag. At the end of the post, I provided a list of articles to further read about the movement, structural racism, and a list of what you can do to help the cause. The …
You may have read my How to be a Clicktivist post, you ought to know that being a White Saviour is a level up in the Development Game. Unlike Clicktivism, White Saviourism is not a new phenomenon (colonialism, anyone?). Sure, these days White Saviours don’t commit genocides, enslave people, and …
As fate would have it, I was born in Madrid, the capital of Spain, more than thirty years ago. “Mine” was one of the first and more bloody-minded countries to develop and implement the system that legitimizes the invasion and expropriation of other peoples’ lands and resources. The system that …
