We humans need to feed our minds, as well as our bodies. Here’s a story from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia-based journalist Norma Jean MacPhee, about how education is being used to promote peace in a village in Sierra Leone, in West Africa. The people of Mapaki are hungry for knowledge—and eager to bridge the chasm created by a decade of civil war.
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In the 1940s and 50s, journalist Tom Patterson became convinced that Shakespeare could help revitalize his hometown of Stratford, Ontario. Today, Suchitoto, El Salvador hopes to begin a culturally-driven economic revitalization that will build on Tom Patterson’s legacy through a novel partnership with Stratford.
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Rural-urban migration is a twentieth century phenomenon. Faced by numerous obstacles, poor farmers have always set off to the nearest big city in search of income. Opportunities are often a dream. Families break up, violence, alcoholism, and drug abuse are rampant … racism and discrimination too. In the end, migrants often forsake their most valuable card – their own traditions. GPM correspondent Jen Moore sends us this story, from the margins of a large Bolivian city.
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What happens when a refugee camp turns into a permanent community? Buduburam — home to hundreds of Liberians — is one such human settlement in the Ghanean capital of Accra.
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The development of rights for disabled people in industrialized countries like Canada, Germany, Japan and the U.S. is one of the more encouraging trends of the past twenty or thirty years – a sign of inclusiveness in this age of division and disparity. Imagine what it’s like to be a disabled person in a country like … Bolivia.
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For those who speak and write non-Latin languages, being able to type on a ‘standard’ computer keyboard is a major barrier to digital democracy. In Cambodia, this problem has been solved and communities are now experimenting with wireless communication.
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What if — during our teen years — we each had to write a sex advice column?
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Twenty-four hours in Zanzibar. What’s a person to do? Following up on a contact, I go visit the Dhow Countries Music Academy … and am amazed.
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To comprehend the obstacles that need to be overcome if peace and justice are to be achieved in the Middle East, one must spend time in the West Bank and Gaza, listening to Palestinians describe their hardships. The Israeli occupation is particularly egregious for youth, who — like Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet — feel seriously misunderstood.
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