World Views

Oasis changing lives through football.

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Oasis Founder Clifford Martinus has a contagious passion for sport and community. This is evident in the work done at Oasis Place with his belief that the connection to a team, fair play and sport can support an individual in overcoming the odds, both personal and social. This South African non-profit creates positive personal development opportunities for youth from marginalised backgrounds.

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Latest Posts in World Views

“The robots are coming…the robots are coming!”

If Paul Revere were riding now with the purpose of warning America against a clear and present danger, he might well proclaim, “The robots are coming!”  For indeed they are, and quickly.  Until now, though technology has reduced jobs at an ever-increasing rate, we’ve been able to create new ones just as fast, though many of these have been low-wage service positions and others, low-security “gig economy” activity. 


From Oregon: Building Democracy Around the World

Pat Noonan and Ron Schiffman are lawyers who have been working in international law reform in countries in transition. Pat’s first assignment was working on a project in Cambodia shortly after the UN sponsored cease fire, in cooperation with the University of San Francisco School of Law. Since then, Pat and her husband Ron have worked as consultants for United States Agency for International Development (U.S.A.I.D) projects. After the break-up of the former Soviet Union, Pat worked with legal professionals and judges from the Supreme and Constitutional Courts, lawyers, law schools, and non-profit organizations in Central and Eastern Europe. In the past few years, she has been working with Kosovo, Ukraine and the Republic of Georgia on strategic planning, curriculum development, interactive teaching methods, gender equality, transparency, ethics and anti-corruption. 


Well-Being and Happiness

WELL-BEING AND HAPPINESS—AN ATTEMPT AT DEFINITIONS

These days, there seems to be a growing consensus that the old measurements that nations have used to evaluate economic success—most notably, the Gross Domestic Product—are blunt swords which tell us little about quality of life.  Around the world, many countries are looking for new metrics.  In October, I joined 1400 people from 60 countries at the OECD’s annual Measuring Well-...


“Robust” Ivory Trade Continues

Despite progress, “robust” ivory trade continues 

Every 15 minutes, an elephant is killed for its ivory. In spite of a 1990 ban on international ivory sales,  Africa’s current elephant population has been reduced to perhaps less than half of the 1.3 million that roamed just 35 years ago. Asian elephants face an even grimmer fate: today perhaps just 40,000 remain in the wild, according to Bagheera.com, a website...


Nadezhda Popova: Rising To Her Times

Nadezhda Popova was a true heroine of the Soviet Union – a real-life Luke Skywalker who flew biplanes with canvas wings over enemy territory to drop bombs on the advancing German Army.

She was from Donetsk – that embattled part of eastern Ukraine that is mostly Russian-speaking today and was firmly a part of Stalin’s empire. In Russian, her name was “Nadia.” And, by all accounts, she was all woman.

The women of the...