Australian aid cuts at odds with changing public opinion
To put it another way, most Australians didn’t think aid needed to be cut last week. (…) The appetite for cuts is waning, and the small group of Australians who think their country should be doing more appears to be growing.
Terence Wood & Ryan Edwards for the DevPolicy Blog with an important reminder that #globaldev cuts are not driven by ‘the taxpayer’ or ‘the budget’ but by anti-aid ideology usually from conservative governments.
How The Sewing Machine Gave Power — And Fashion Cred — To African Women
Sewing machines have troubling history. They arrived on the African continent very close to the time the camera came: around the mid-1800s. They were reserved for the colonialists to use — primarily for making uniforms and clothing for the Empire and to piece together cloth they [colonists] then used in exchange for slaves in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Unlike the camera, Africans were able to quickly democratize the sewing machine, and you would find it in almost every household of some means, on the streets, in ateliers and as part of dowry lists. This made me think again about all the possibilities for this thing — not only in the sense that you can make something beautiful for yourself and others but that it really is an economic tool.
Masego Madzwamuse for Wyoming Public Media with a great essay on the history of the sewing machine-now often seen as a meme for #globaldev satire rather than a tool for empowerment…
Pangs of guilt: Exiles in India torn between safety and resistance
Khar Te said he is now having second thoughts about continuing his education, even if it were possible to obtain a visa to travel abroad. He and some friends have discussed assembling a medical team to respond if full-scale armed conflict breaks out in Chin State. “If I get a chance to go to university, what will happen if there is a civil war [in Chin State]? I don’t want to feel guilty about the decision I’ve made,” he said.
Emily Fishbein & Nu Nu Lusan for Frontier Myanmar with a touching essay on the difficult choices Burmese exiles are discussing & making in their exile in India.
Keep in touch & check out this great open access journal article & report!
Tobias
