Yesterday, a huge debate on Twitter ensued when Mother Jones reporter Mac McClelland began tweeting the graphic story of a Haitian rape survivor – complete with too much personal detail like the woman’s name, age and medical situation. An editor at Mother Jones, Clara Jeffery, also re-tweeted parts of the story and encouraged her followers…
A recent article in the New York Times about India’s Right to Information law made me incredibly happy, because the power of this law demonstrates how law can be used to empower poor and marginalized parts of the population. Law is often vilified. By Americans, but also around the world. The common cartoon of a…
Last night, I finished reading “Strength in What Remains” by Tracy Kidder. It’s the incredible, heartbreaking, and moving story of Deogratias, a young medical student in Burundi who became a refugee during the genocide. It tells the story of his harrowing and indescribably difficult escape from Burundi and his subsequent arrival in the U.S. In…
Recently, through a particularly enlightening conversation with a friend, I realized that there are, essentially, two pathways or methods of thinking about social change and development approaches. There is the “capitalistic” mode of thinking, and the “social justice” mode of thinking. While this is, essentially, the split that so starkly separates the Democrats from the…
It has taken me way too long to write this blog. When Akhila reached out to me asking if I’d be interested in contributing to the “Be the Change” series, I immediately thought “Yes! Of course!” But, you see, I don’t really know how to write about myself and my experiences – on my blog,…
If I could advocate for one cause, it would be clean and portable water solutions. For the past year, I’ve been wrestling with the notion of getting those around me to care about a social issue, any social issue. Over coffee dates, workshops, team meetings the night before a final exam, I’ve met and re-met…
When people asked me why I decided to join the Peace Corps, I always have a difficult time constructing a good answer. Truth be told, I didn’t join the Peace Corps to change the world. I joined because I wanted to continue living abroad but couldn’t decide where to begin finding a job. I liked…