Social media and mobilization

Social media has seen the peak of citizenship participation. It has challenged barriers to the full exercise of freedom of speech. What on one end is a platform for self-expression is a catalyst for community action on the other. Social media has become a convenient internet street to where citizens actively take their issues and…

‘Reduce, not eradicate’ poverty

John Garrison, civil society specialist at the World Bank in Washington, DC, made a good point. He said when he started working in the Bank, he was always corrected: “Reduce, not eradicate” poverty. Those two words might seem the same. After all, either way, the intent remains: to do something about poverty. However you look…

Why civil society matters

What is a civil society organization (CSO)? I can’t say I know. I continue to struggle to define it. Some conveniently associate it with a non-government organization. It can be an indigenous peoples group, a faith-based organization, a trade union or a university. Their creation can be incidental or responsive. Not all may even know…

Divorcing Blog.Com

I started my love affair with blog.com on a cold day in autumn in the US. It was my way of unleashing the heat of ideas sparked by the series of discussions during the WB-IMF Annual Meetings in Washington, DC. It could have been my way of making available a public proof that I was…