My tweets
- Downstairs to catch up on last Sunday's #MadMen I suppose. Maybe Don will continue to grow on me... 1 hr ago
- Is brand loyalty really just brand ignorance? http://bit.ly/aoGlOq 2 hrs ago
- @amyjmcnair We miss you. in reply to amyjmcnair 2 hrs ago
- @langley Snickerklish restroom? Like the old PC game? As if saying "PC game" signified its own, old genre. It probably does. :) in reply to langley 2 hrs ago
- More updates...
Blog Archives
Blogroll
poverty Archive
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We must do things these days
Posted on March 5, 2010 | View CommentsNot sure why I’ve chosen to post this today.
I am troubled, deeply, by the billions of people worldwide who will go to bed tonight hungry, fearful for their safety, or sick from disease. These days, it’s not worth mentioning the statistics concerning how many people live on less than $2/day. I even hesitate to use the word “statistics,” since it cheerfully allows us to ignore the very human lives behind the numbers. We know that it’s bad.
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Terrorism, poverty, and violence
Posted on January 25, 2010 | View CommentsIt’s not that poverty doesn’t move them, but more correctly it is an interpretation of poverty that radicalizes (and is itself radical).
When I started my studies at the University of Denver’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies, I made the mistake of joking with a German colleague. We were discussing “terrorism” as a theoretical construct and I parroted the oft-repeated line that views terrorism as an outlet to poverty. This particular interpretation (which, I must be clear, I do not believe), is that for people living in poverty, the promise of money, power, and most importantly, food, can drive people to do horrific things. My colleague’s response to my joke: “That’s bulls***. It’s a fortune-cookie truism, Tim. Too simple.”
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Five myths around disaster relief
Posted on January 19, 2010 | View CommentsEdward Brown, relief director for World Vision, debunks five myths around disaster relief. I offer my thoughts on each point in place of Brown’s remarks. This came in the form of a Facebook note:
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Poorism
Posted on January 4, 2010 | View CommentsOde Magazine, which I once subscribed to, ran a story this past April called “Slum tours: Traveling off the beaten path” detailing the rise of what some have dubbed “poorism”, or traipsing through the slums of this planet for an alternative travel experience. Coming from Ode, I figured that this would be a hit piece – I was wrong. The author actually did some “pooring” in the favelas of Rio. According to the article:
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Kenya Series – The Myth of Western Superiority
Posted on July 15, 2009 | View CommentsI’ve been with The 1010 Project for a little over a year. At the same time, I was working my way through graduate school at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. At the office, I learned about humanitarian work by doing, and through discussions with those who had been with the organization for some time. At school, I learned about international development by reading and listening to others who had been in the field for years. Some of my teachers in both settings were from America, some from Africa, and some from other parts of the world.
Read more on Kenya Series – The Myth of Western Superiority…
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Call. Response?
Posted on July 14, 2009 | View CommentsThis one came in from my buddy Ryan Linstrom, who is in the Holy Land working an internship. If you’re interested, give him a bell. Thanks.
“Call. Response?
I received an email from Robert, a Ugandan friend, last evening asking for support for some projects he is working on, specifically for his mother and some orphans from the community. If anyone has any suggestions, comments, or contacts that may be able to address his need, please let me know. I have been friends with him since 2005 and he has never once asked for my financial support. While I could not help him alone, I believe the wonders of social media could bring together some possible solutions. Let me know. A portion of his email follows:
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The Denver Dispatch of Doom – Vol. 11 (Kenya Edition)
Posted on July 13, 2009 | View CommentsHello all,
I hope this letter finds you healthy and happy. I’ve eaten a great deal of celery in the past week, a fact for which I have no explanation.
I am back from Africa! In my work with The 1010 Project, I’ve spent a lot of time telling the stories of social entrepreneurs and community-based organizations in Kenya, and it was a real treat to finally meet the people for whom I’ve been advocating; I was connecting names with faces and voices in real life. I’d like to pretend that I wrote most of this Dispatch while I was on the ground, but the truth is that I was too busy with our work there to handle a simple email missive like this.
Read more on The Denver Dispatch of Doom – Vol. 11 (Kenya Edition)…
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Tim’s Going to Kenya
Posted on June 5, 2009 | View CommentsI’m traveling with a team from The 1010 Project, a humanitarian organization here in Denver. We partner with creative and innovative social entrepreneurs in the developing world to break the cycle of poverty. As the Fundraising Coordinator, a big part of my job is writing the grants that help keep us trucking along. But to write good grants and to keep our international development work running smoothly, we need DATA.
We’re going to Kenya to meet with partners and friends in our community-based organizations. They’re mostly in Nairobi, scattered across the various slums and estates, but we do have a few rural partners as well. We’ll be going all the way out to Kisumu near Lake Victoria. We’re collecting boatloads of photos, lots of video and audio, and most importantly, stories. We view ourselves as storytellers – our tagline is “Join the Story” – and we’re going to talk with the people that our income-generation activities benefit. We’ll be visiting schools, orphanges, microfinance institutions, women’s empowerment groups, and HIV/AIDS support groups.
I’ve never been to Africa, but I hear good things. Our team is super-talented and super-cool, so I don’t expect any problems. I’ll be tweeting along with our Director of Communications, Mark Mann. With luck, we’ll be tweeting like mad by next Wednesday morning, or for those of you in Denver, late Tuesday night (there is a 10-hour time difference). So stay sharp, keep up with us, and we’ll see you when we get back!



