Kenya's version of The Office rips on NGOs and it's hilarious. There are over 4,000 registered NGOs in Kenya and things can get pretty dysfunctional. That’s the premise of The Samaritans, Kenya’s witty new comedy series highlighting the often absurd world of international development. The mockumentary follows Aid for Aid, a fictional NGO that specializes in doing lots of nothing: The main characters are the staff who have to deal with the odd demands and decisions of the head UK Aid for Aid office and hopelessly inept local bureaucrats, while trying to write as many useless reports as possible, all under the guise of ‘saving’ Africa.
Like The Office, the show stars a clueless, jerky boss named Scott — in this case, a 28-year-old American whose only prior “Africa-experience” was a six-week internship in Casablanca. He introduces himself to the staff: “Many of you might be asking who I banged to get this position… I’m not as wet behind the ears as some of you may think, I’ve worked for my mother’s NGO since I was six years old.” 52 reasons not to date an aid worker | Global Development Professionals Network. Missionary, Mercenary, Mystic, Misfit - Kindle edition by J.. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com. J. on Twitter: "Last evening had an interesting discussion about "Missionary, Mercenary, Mystic, Misfit" with a reader who didn't know I was the author..." 52 break-up lines for aid workers.
It’s that time of the year. A time for giving. A time for family. And, maybe a time to break-up with that special someone you met while in the field. You probably used one of our 52 pick-up lines to win their heart. I have to go. I’m focusing my efforts on applying for these awesome positions with WhyDev and OIC: The Cambodia Project (shameless, we know)! Featured image is from Wikimedia Commons. The following two tabs change content below. The WhyDev writing team consists of Brendan, Weh, Rachel, Jennifer & Laurie. Copyright © 2014 - All Rights Reserved. 52 pick-up lines that will win the heart of an aid worker - WhyDev. Last Tango in Kabul: Blood and Chaos in a Desperate City. In the heart of Kabul's heavily guarded diplomatic district, down a quiet side street, sits a dilapidated two-story building fronted by a beige boundary wall topped with razor wire. Its front entrance is a gaping hole blocked with corrugated iron, and its windows, missing their glass, have faint scorch marks at the corners, like raised eyebrows above sightless eyes.
The alley to the right is pocked with bullet holes. The place is abandoned now. These faint signs of violence are all that's left to mark the 21 people who were murdered inside last winter. La Taverna du Liban. It was a popular restaurant that I had visited often over the past six years I've lived in Kabul. Restaurants like this, along with private homes and guesthouses, comprised the hidden archipelago of expatriate social life in the capital. I'd never seen it empty. Featured News From It was also one of the diminishing number of places in the city where you could get beer or wine, served discreetly in teacups. Are All Terrorists Muslims? It’s Not Even Close. Motorcycles and minibuses, fake IDs and frantic calls. This is how a former spy and battlefield commander leaves the Islamic State.
For all the attention paid to ISIS, relatively little is known about its inner workings. But a man claiming to be a member of the so-called Islamic State’s security services has stepped forward to provide that inside view. This series is based on days of interviews with this ISIS spy. Read Part One here, Part Two here, and Part Three here. Part Four: Escaping the Islamic State ISTANBUL — Abu Khaled looked at me across the outdoor hookah café table in the touristy Laleli district of Istanbul. Even though ISIS terror had struck inside Turkey the week before, the organization calling itself the Islamic State, al-Dawla al-Islamiya, felt very far away. “People started feeling bad about all the lying,” he said. They see themselves as superior—holier than thou in the proper definition. Abu Khaled was told that if he kept talking like that, he’d lose his head. Portrait of an Iranian Witch. A brass amulet to render its bearer more attractive and help her capture and subdue a lover.
The lover is symbolized here as a beast of burden. Aspiring for middle-class life in Tehran can become an occult pursuit In November 2008, I received a lesson in witchcraft. At a hole-in-the-wall café in Ariashahr, a young and populous district in western Tehran, my tutor, a 24-year-old woman named Mersedeh, sat with me at a table near the window, not far from two men smoking and playing backgammon. I peered over the pricey menu while she lit a candle and told me mournfully of her breakup with her boyfriend, a former national footballer and aspiring pop star. Then she edged her chair closer to mine, leaned forward with a pen in her hand, and we resumed discussing the symbols of Islamic talismanic magic. TNI Vol. 21: Witches is out now. This was my second time meeting Mersedeh there in as many months. Then, as if struck by an epiphany, Mersedeh turned to me with an amused grin: “You know what? Jessica Alba and the Impact of Social Enterprise.
Benefit corporations should share their performance against social impact goals, but few are doing so. If social enterprise does change the world, how will we know? At the moment, there isn’t much information to go on. Granted, the sector is relatively new, but there is still a remarkable lack of information about social enterprise impact, given all the hype. Now that Jessica Alba’s Honest Company, a maker of health and beauty products, is about to go public and worth around $1 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal, it seems that the benefit corporation as a blended organizational model for doing good while doing well is about to really take off. The Honest Company is a registered benefit corporation, which as SSIR readers know well, is a new form of corporate statute that allows companies with a social mission to register separately from standard businesses.
If this seems like rather a tall order, well, you’re not alone. But this is where things get tricky.