In case you missed it, there’s a fascinating piece in the New Internationalist magazine – Bad Education: Time to fix it – that’s being widely read.
A curious story on the West’s fatal attraction to Asia’s education system
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Category Archives: Education
Five paradoxes about the state of the media
We are living in a time full of threats – and unprecedented possibilities, especially when it comes to the state of the media. Let’s consider five paradoxes, in no particular order.
Is print dead or reviving?
Rumours of the death of print magazines and newspapers have been circulating for years – but many of us are still here. What’s more, we are seeing signs of a renaissance in independent, alternative print magazines and hyperlocal newspapers.
The internet, that great disrupting technology, has prompted print’s decline, cannibalizing the revenue of publishers. After all, why buy news in print when you get it all for free online? The proportion of readers actually prepared to pay for news online (nine per cent) cannot replace those who used to buy print.1
But the internet has also been amazing for media like ours. In the days before the worldwide web, we never imagined that two million people a year would be reading our content and getting our kind of journalism, rooted in social, economic, global and environmental justice. Continue reading
A chat with Sir Tim Smit – co-founder of the Eden Project
Today I had a chat with Sir Tim Smit, serial entrepreneur and co-founder of the Eden Project, ahead of his forthcoming presentation for the Planet Talks at WOMADelaide 2017.
In the prologue to his book, Eden, two sentences stand out, and they sum up the spirit of our chat: “Neither do I make any apology for being optimistic about the future. I am.”
Creating hope – Simran Sethi at WOMADelaide
There could well be a serious outbreak of optimism at WOMADelaide 2015 when two of the world’s eco-heroes discuss “Creating Hope”. Simran Sethi will be in conversation with Sylvia Earle as part of WOMADelaide’s Planet Talks. Sylvia Earle was named by Time Magazine as its first Hero for the Planet in 1998, and Simran Sethi was listed in The Independent’s 2007 top-10 Green List, along with the likes of Al Gore and Nicholas Stern.
I spoke to Simran Sethi this week for a preview.
The hockey stick vs a sustainable economy
Australia’s Treasurer has wielded the hockey stick with great enthusiasm and inflicted many blows, but missed the goal of a stable and prosperous economy. However on an objective analysis I have to agree with him on the following: “We need to live within our means”, “We need to be sustainable”, “We don’t want to squander our children’s future” and there is a “moral dimension”.
He is not quite right about “the age of entitlement is over”. It isn’t; but it’s fair to at least head in that direction.
Why I’m drinking fair trade organic Ethiopian coffee
Ah. The Aussie summer. Catching waves. Watching cricket. Fresh local fish. Friends. Sleeping in. Coffee.
Super rewards – crowdfunding finale
There are just days till the New Internationalist digital outreach crowdfunding campaign finishes, so to go out with a flourish we’ve released three super rewards for those who make a new pledge. Our supporters have done very well – thank you so much – but at just over $8,000 raised so far, we’re still a very long way from the $28,000 we need for full implementation of the project.
42 World Maps in under 4 minutes
Bob Abramms of ODT Maps in the US – our long-time collaborator on a range of world map projects – says “As far as I know, this video holds the world’s record for explaining the most world maps in the shortest amount of time”.
Sponsor a School Subscription
Can you spare either $110 or $11,000 to help build global justice awareness among students?
For the next part of our crowd funding campaign, we’re looking for 100 people who will assist us with $110 (or maybe one person who can spare $11,000).
Crowdfunding our iPad App
Thanks so much to all of you who’ve already supported our crowdfunding campaign, raising the money that we need to design and distribute our latest New Internationalist digital service – the Apple iOS App for iPad and iPhone.
At the time I write this we’re within striking distance of the first goal in the campaign, which is to reach our tipping point of $7,000. Just 15 pledges of $50 (or one donation of $700!) would get us over this all-important tipping point hurdle.