On Saturday I watched the above National Geographic show on The Human Family Tree. I was pleasantly amused to see it was based in my diverse neighborhood of Queens: Astoria. If you ever need a reminder of how we are all one, you should definitely watch it!

Seeing the progression of human migrations in the video, I was reminded how humans have evolved as a part of a larger group and as inseparable from the environment. Now, however, we find ourselves removed from the whole in many ways and living lives devoid of meaning and purpose.

Thanks to a tweet I came across about the idea of “data smog” leading to depression, I’ve also just started reading Spontaneous Happiness by Dr Weil, and was struck by his main idea that modern lifestyles are the leading cause of depression. It may not be his unique idea, nor anything new, but it helps to remind ourselves how foreign our lives are to the way we have evolved over thousands of years.

He says, “Our lives in the developed world have largely gone from hard and generally content to easy and often depressed.” He also delves into the flaws of the existing biomedical model of mental health, and how pharmaceutical companies basically created a market for themselves. I find it really interesting & hope to share more as I go through it…

Funnily enough, I also happen to like sci-fi and technology so also watched a documentary called “Transcendent Man” about an inventor, Ray Kurzweil, who has many crazy predictions about the future of artificial intelligence and human evolution. Given our tricky relationship with technology, though, I disagree that things will proceed as smoothly as he claims, where we will become infused with bots to keep us healthy and immortal.

One interesting point raised in the film that I would be more likely to agree with is that there will be a group of humans who will worship technology, specifically the god-like artificial intelligence which will be much smarter than us. The problem I foresee is that intelligence is much more complicated than simple logic; the idea of emotional intelligence is gaining traction. But what about other, traditional wisdom that isn’t currently recognized by the mainstream?

Yes, I’ve been taking advantage of Netflix streaming: I also recently watched the Steven Hawking “Into the Universe” series, and the Star Wars movie!

My main impressions of the entire experience can be summed up as the following:

• I feel very badly for the store employees, whose holidays and sleep cycles are interrupted. More than that, their sleep deprivation seemed to cause several pricing and other errors–the cashier didn’t put my paid item in my bag and we had to fetch it the next day!
• I was afraid of how others might behave, pushing and fighting, but actually I surprised myself at how badly I behaved. Feeling rushed, I was more short-tempered with my husband and when I couldn’t find him on a couple of instances I almost began to panic.
• The aftermath was not pretty, and it took me a while to unwind and get out of a quick grab mindset, where I was mulling over whether or not my purchases were worthwhile. My husband and I also spent quite some time discussing the financial impact as we hadn’t previously set a budget.
• I found myself comparing the day to the shopping spree game shows I’d seen as a child. Rather than being like a dream come true, I wasn’t fully able to enjoy the thrill, and was more fatigued than anything.

The whole thing went by in a blur, the rush of extreme accumulation. I thought I had set my alarm for 5:45am, but when I woke up at 7:15 I scurried out of bed, roused my husband and off we rushed with our packed lunch Thanksgiving leftovers. We had carefully plotted out our itinerary the day before, along with our intended shopping list, but I tried to remind my husband that in such situations of 60% discounts, detours from both were not only ok, but highly desirable. Unfortunately, our detour cost us time, the most precious commodity of the day, and we missed a 40% discount by only 30 minutes–in fact, we’d arrived in the store just as it was ending.

I realized that I’d probably interacted with more people that day than I have in the past month. Actually, it seems like shopping is one of the only socially acceptable ways to speak to strangers. That’s one of the reasons that farmer’s markets are such a lovely way to meet your community and connect with your food source.

Which brings me to my last thought: that somewhere rooted deeply inside this ritualized shopping extravaganza is a desire to connect and feel more than our little selves. Sadly, accumulation is not a panacea to our feelings of inadequacy.

While at the Mashable Social Good Summit, I was interviewed for Ericksson’s Networked Society “How Come?” series. Was surprised to see my video just near Pete Cashmore  You might have noticed that I enjoy asking questions only slightly less than finding answers! This was the first time I’ve been recorded while doing so, though…

I’m still not able to comprehend the digital divide and the lack of connectivity; if you have some solutions I’d love to hear from you!

Missed the Social Good Summit, NY? Catch Our First Hand Coverage

The dust has now settled after Mashable’s Social Good Summit in New York last week, which united “a dynamic community of global leaders to discuss a big idea: the power of innovative thinking and technology to solve our greatest challenges.” It was a star-studded affair, with speakers including former model, Christy Turlington Burns, actress Geena Davis, Lance Armstrong, singer Mandi Moore, and even a surprise appearance by Richard Gere. What do we all have in common? A commitment towards social causes and an interest in new technologies (except for Gere, who claimed to be a Luddite). You can still watch the recorded livestream too!

 

Ted Turner was charming and funny. His lighthearted approach to serious humanitarian problems made them seem manageable without undermining their urgency. He came out with many one-liners and certainly had the confidence of a media mogul. He also promoted the Economist as a source of unbiased international news, which I’ve been reading since college. It’s a good thing he’s so likeable!

There were a number of panels focusing on the influence of youth, which was fitting but unexpected. It makes sense that since these new “digital natives” are so tech savvy, they’re using it towards social good, but I hadn’t personally come across many examples until yesterday. It’s a great twist to the normal power equation, where younger people are teaching others; as is the case with One Laptop per Child, some children are even teaching their parents how to read. Loved this quote by Monique from GimmeMo:

You can do it all, you don’t have to choose between success and social good. You can contribute as you’re growing. Humanitarianism will find you!

I’d definitely like to check out these orgs:

• One Young World
• DoSomething
• Teens Turning Green

As could be expected at a tech conference, there were lots of launches: CharityWater Dollars to Projects, IdealistNYC.org, USAID’s FWD fundraising campaign to help the nearly 12 million people affected in the Horn of Africa. One Laptop per Child showed us their solar-powered tablet prototype which really got the crowd going.

Simon Mainwaring’s enthusiasm for a “third way” was infectious: between profit and charity, there’s a way to tie them together. See his slides below.

Mashable Slides

I’m glad that Christy Turlington & Heather Armstrong (Dooce) are publicizing the issue of maternal mortality with Every Mother Counts; I’m surprised to hear that many people are surprised by the number of deaths that occur due to childbirth. Then again, most people haven’t studied development issues! Often it takes a personal experience for us to wake up to reality–as happened with Christy’s childbirth complication, she became inspired to champion the issues on a large scale.

See the official Recap of Day One from 92Y.

In pure immigrant fashion, last weekend we moved from one sub-let apartment in Astoria, New York, to another, bigger one via pushcart. The big dent in the plan was Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene, who had yet to rear her not-so-ugly head and the preparations were on in full force throughout the paranoid city. By Friday afternoon, I was enjoying the calm before the storm by ignoring all the news, but suddenly it all hit me and I panicked.

We were moving to only a block away from the “C” evacuation zone–should we spend the night in our old apartment, just a block away? Should we rush and try to transfer all our stuff on Friday night, before everything shut down the next day? I started throwing things in the suitcase and running around like crazy. Why was my husband not sensing the urgency and continuing to work? After a quarrel, I only made a couple trips before collapsing in exhaustion. But after eating dinner, we finished most of the packing and waited for Saturday, and Irene, to show her face.

I awoke at 5:30am in a state of emergency, the only way out of which was to get busy. We had to get everything done before it started raining, which could happen at any minute as far as I was concerned. The weather reports said it would rain “by late morning.”  By 7am we had brought the first of many cartloads to our new place and inherited a new cart so that our efficiency could be doubled. We finished around 11am and it was only just starting to drizzle; we were at the uber-crowded supermarket at 1ish when it started to pour, but then it stopped soon after. So we just began waiting, too fatigued to do much else. We watched a movie and enjoyed ourselves.

We noticed some loose windows by the time the winds picked up on Saturday night. Unfortunately, we also had an active leak in the bathroom, which was un-Irene related and which we had known about previously. By Wednesday, the crack finally became a hole. Fortunately on that day, we had a friend from Jaipur visiting and spent most of the day sight-seeing with him!

We have been cleaning more than we ever have in our lives, and just when it feels never-ending I begin to notice how much we’ve done. It’s rewarding to see the results of our labor, and to create a new home together. But it has also brought up some issues from our past in Jaipur.

I’m not exactly sure why I’m more tolerant of the difficulties we’re facing here, and why things bothered me more there. We also had some leaks there which really got under my skin. Maybe I’m more mature, and I’ve learned that problems exist everywhere; maybe I’m just more willing to be here than I was there.  Either way, I constantly feel like I’m at a crossroads–shedding the past and hurtling towards a mysterious, miraculous future.

I really wish I had more before and after photos, but in the heat of the moment I couldn’t capture much. I guess I had more on my mind at the time!

Much to my surprise, I’m slowly discovering how to live sustainably in New York. When we left India, I was well aware that we were leaving more than just a place, but a certain lifestyle and mentality. Sure, its slow pace would frustrate me on many occasions–even cows have right of way!–but it’s something I now look at nostalgically, with fondness. I’m looking into volunteering in local community gardens, and discovering that there are several farmer’s markets in Queens, where I can even deposit compost. Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised, because New York has it all; but I’m new here and it’s easy to be distracted by the glitz and flashy lights.

Last week, I attended part of No Impact Week at Jivamukti. Naturally I watched the “No Impact Man” documentary beforehand on Netflix, and was struck by the similarities between the way Colin (No Impact Man) lived and the way we lived in India by default. On Friday, we all went to see “Bag It,” which provided the inspiration to be more firm in my commitment to living sustainably. The trailer is below. In a nutshell–Plastic doesn’t just go away; reduce (that means buy less, people!), reuse, then recycle… If you’re into eco-conscious media, definitely check out the Story of Stuff, too.

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The concept of Chindia has taken on a new relevance for me since arriving in the US. On Saturday I visited Flushing, Queens for the first time. As I stepped out of the subway, I felt as though I was stepping into Hong Kong–tons of hanging signs in Chinese, crowds. Yet as I walked further away, I was walking towards an Indian section of temples. And as I returned to the subway, I could see a strip of Indian shops followed by Chinese ones.

In keeping with the Chindian-themed day, I selected “Eat, Drink, Man, Woman” as our evening entertainment. It was a wonderful movie in many ways, and I was struck by how similar Chinese culture is with Indian, especially when it comes to family.

The movie’s actually set in Taiwan, but the family is of Chinese origin. Three daughters are concerned about who will take care of their aging father; and they each have their own romantic sub-plots which deserve big announcements only when absolutely necessary at their ceremonial weekly family dinners.

The story of China and Taiwan’s economic development is drastically different than India’s, and that fascinates me. (Not to mention countless economists). It’s shocking to think that the “Asian Tigers” had similar levels of poverty as India back in the 50s.

Also I found it interesting that women’s roles in the movie were portrayed pretty differently than what I’ve seen in Bollywood movies, though I honestly haven’t watched too many of them. They were professional, independent, and modern in their approach to life despite having a deep sense of responsibility towards their father.

I know it was just a movie, but it really got me thinking about where the world is headed. There have been lots of predictions about who will end up on top; now we’ll have to wait & see…

Enjoy this opening scene from the movie!

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While you can find a good synopsis of what was said here, I’d like to delve into the issues a little more closely and provide a critique of how CSR and cause marketing have become sexy and make savvy business sense. Part of me is thrilled that supporting causes has become virtually mainstream, but I can’t help but be skeptical about the motives behind this move.

Isn’t it just another ploy by big corporations to make money? And is that such a bad thing, when after all, consumers will anyway consume, and people in need are benefitting in the long run? I don’t have the answers, but I’d love to hear yours in the comments!

I admit, I was won over by Huffington’s positive outlook and do-gooder DNA, choosing the “abundance model” over the “need or scarcity model.” HuffPost’s Impact section strikes me as a more effective a way to solve social problems than just throwing money at them; it is an attempt to create, facilitate and showcase  sustained dialogue around them.

Yet, the issue is that social problems are much more complex than cause marketing or CSR would like to acknowledge–what if your very products are the source of immense suffering? Isn’t it better CSR to just stop what you’re doing, than to create huge white-washing campaigns? Take the case of Chevron’s “We Agree” campaign (see this spoof too, pictured below).

Nonetheless, I have no doubt that Huffington is correct in her prediction about cause marketing’s prevalence, and the question should not be whether it is good, but how to harness it for the greater good. Corporations should take a long, hard look at their DNA and see what needs to stay and what needs to go–if we are to evolve collectively.

What do you think? Am I just being a grinch, and should I just shut up and be happy about the money being directed to our favorite causes (and the ones that will earn big bucks, too)?

{This post was written with Beth Kanter in mind and at her suggestion}

What is the relevance of mobile technologies for the development landscape, given that the World Bank has estimated that more than one-third of the world’s poor live in India? This post will provide a snapshot of the “m4d” situation in India, and point you to further resources should you want to find out more about the exciting potential of mobile for development.

ICTD efforts in India have been ongoing for quite some time.  In some cases, mobile applications are being created as standalone measures; in others, mobile projects act as an extension of already existing ICTD projects. The models range from government or NGO-sponsored, to CSR and for-profit ventures.

When thinking about mobile in India, the first caveats to mention are language, illiteracy, and ICT experience. There are innumerable regional languages in India. Only 63 percent of the population is literate, not to mention the huge barriers to ICT access among the roughly 70  percent that live in India’s villages. One project that aims to address these challenges is the Brahmi phone, “the first phone designed for Indian languages.”

Here’s a brief overview of different ways mobile is being used in India’s development sector. New products are getting launched practically every day–if you know of any, kindly share in the comments below!

m-Health

• India Institute of Public Health’s infectious disease surveillance system: mobile phones replace paper transmission from field workers to public authorities.
• Dr. SMS, a Government of Kerala  project providing comprehensive information on health-related resources via SMS
• Wellness World, just launched last week by Uninor and Handygo, is available on both IVR (Interactive Voice Response) and SMS platforms. It will provide daily information to Uninor’s subscribers on health related issues.
• mPedigree – Started in Ghana and available in India, it’s a platform to protect users from drug counterfeiting.
• Sana — Partnering with one of India’s leading healthcare providers, Narayana Hrudayalaya, the platform will help to screen and manage chronic diseases in rural and semi-urban India.
• The Healthphone is set to launch on June 1st, with health and nutrition content in  English and 15 Indian Languages. It is been based on research from UNICEF, WHO, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNDP, UNAIDS, WFP and The World Bank.

It should be mentioned that the telemedicine industry is quite advanced in India; Apollo Hospitals was a pioneer in this regard. David Shafran‘s mHealth India article gives an excellent overview of additional projects.

m-Governance (complementing e-Governance)

• Kerala’s mobile initiative: Kerala’s m-governance projects have introduced transparency in operations and citizen-centric services. See this research paper for more information.

• Bharti Airtel was the first service provider to offer traffic automation as the world’s largest BlackBerry-supported law enforcement network. It has also facilitated property tax collection for Chennai Corporation via BlackBerry.

m-Agriculture

• mKrishi: a mobile-based service delivery platform by Tata Consultancy Services for farmers. It provides personalized advice specific to the subscribers’ needs.
• Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA): Each day, SEWA sends agricultural workers SMS messages with commodity prices so they can determine when and where to get the best price for their produce. For more on #mwomen initiatives, see mwomen.org/deployments. Thanks Trina DasGupta for the head’s up!
• Life lines India: Initiated by OneWorld in collaboration with British Telecom and Cicso Systems, LifeLines today serves rural communities in 53 districts across 4 states of India with information services in Agriculture and Education. BT’s first Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme based on digital inclusion.

(This post serves as research for a guest post I’m preparing.)