Author: Worldcrunch

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Geopolitics OneShot Society

Watch: OneShot — UNICEF: Back To School, Bravo Teachers

Detail of a classroom photograph in a displaced persons camp in Nigeria.
Detail of a classroom photograph in a displaced persons camp in Nigeria. Ashley Gilbertson/VII Photo/UNICEF

Holidays are over, and it’s back to school. Frightening or fun, this week marks the beginning of a new adventure for millions of children around the world who will be given a great opportunity to learn, make friends and thrive. This opportunity is made possible by the skills and commitment of teachers who dedicate their life to education and helping kids to build a future, for themselves and society at large. With this OneShot for the start of September, UNICEF France celebrates the singular mission of the world’s teachers. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/embed/18TPuP4QxGo expand=1] UNICEF: Back To School — ©UNICEF/Ashley Gilbertson OneShot […]

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Future Ideas

Why Data Rights Are About Much More Than Just Privacy

Worse than Big Brother?
Worse than Big Brother? ev

How economic actors, communities and developing countries fare in the digital economy will depend in large part on how much control they have over the data they produce.

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OneShot Society

Watch: OneShot — 75 Years Ago, The Joy Of Liberated Paris

Detail of Aug. 1944 photograph
Detail of Aug. 1944 photograph Richard Boyer

On Aug. 24, 1944, the first French and U.S. armored tanks entered Paris, after a week of intense fighting with German soldiers — effectively freeing the capital from Nazi occupation. The next day, General Charles de Gaulle, who had been heading the French government-in-exile from London, made his impassioned “Paris Libéré !” speech from the Hôtel de Ville, roared on by a large crowd. It would take another nine months for Allied Forces to finally defeat Germany and put an end to World War II. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/embed/Jn01pnyW3CY expand=1] The Joy of Liberated Paris (© Richard Boyer) OneShot is a new […]

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In The News

A Facebook-Based Collector’s Cave Of Nostalgia In Post-Revolution Egypt

Baba Museum opened on May 10, 2013
Baba Museum opened on May 10, 2013 Hany Rashed/Facebook

Hany Rashed’s Facebook-based Baba Museum displays personal objects of dead people and plays with nostalgic idea of the past.

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In The News

Caste Discrimination Still Casts A Long Shadow Over Indian Politics

The BJP's politics offers no promise to lower castes.
The BJP's politics offers no promise to lower castes. Luisen Rodrigo

NEW DELHI — Mangesh and Aarti loved each other. Both belonged to the same village, professed the same religion, had the same cultural heritage. Their class and status in society did not differ much either. Yet, their families objected to their marriage. The two were from two separate castes. Marriage would mean going against the set conventions of society. The two, who had hitherto been loved and admired by their respective families, suddenly became the target of their own families’ hatred and disgust. The village panchayat (council) swung into action. It censured both and levied penalties on the girl’s family. […]

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Future Ideas Society

In India, God Is No Environmentalist

Dumpster in India
Dumpster in India Avishek Das/SOPA Images/ZUMA

The country’s landscape is ravaged by plastics and environmental collapse seems imminent. And yet religion appears to often be on the wrong side of the issue.

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OneShot Society

Fifty Years Later, Iconic Woodstock Photograph Still Makes Waves

Detail of Woodstock photograph
Detail of Woodstock photograph Burk Uzzle

Burk Uzzle’s image of loving (and muddy) couple at Woodstock has become a symbol for the 1960s hopes for a better future.

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Geopolitics Ideas

Kashmir: Revoking Article 370 Is Undemocratic And Dangerous

Anti-Modi protesters in Peshawar, Pakistan
Anti-Modi protesters in Peshawar, Pakistan PPI via ZUMA

Indian Prime Minister Modi’s decision is both unsurprising, and a shock.

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In The News

Health Miracles, Hard Statistics And The Powers Of Prayer

Gujarat, India
Gujarat, India Adam Cohn

Nothing’s wrong with praying for an illness to go away. Just don’t count on it…

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In The News

Egypt: Costs And Benefits Of Working In The Informal Economy

An Egyptian market
An Egyptian market Ahmed Gomaa/Xinhua/ZUMA

CAIRO — Some people prefer working in the shadows. Egypt“s vast informal economy has drawn the focus of government officials in recent years. Authorities have been looking to merge the informal economy with the formal economy as quickly as possible in order to boost official economic figures, which have been marked by low rates of […]

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Future Ideas

On India’s Space Success And Big Tech Talent Poaching

ISRO launch in Sriharikota
ISRO launch in Sriharikota Xinhua/ZUMA

ISRO is forced to compete with U.S. tech giants for India’s engineering talent. And with its breakthrough moon mission, India shows the success of its working model.

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In The News

From India (Its No. 2 Market), Doubts About Facebook Speech Monitoring

Social Media companies are the primary actors in the future of public speech
Social Media companies are the primary actors in the future of public speech Thought Catalog

India knows about the power of Facebook. And a single ‘board’ will likely be insufficient to incorporate more diverse opinions and contexts into the company’s content moderation practices.

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In The News OneShot

Watch: Oneshot — A Closer Look At Iconic Man On The Moon Photo

Buzz Aldrin on the Moon
Buzz Aldrin on the Moon Neil Armstrong/NASA

Along with all the hardware to get to the moon and back, the Apollo 11 mission also brought along three Hasselblad 500EL cameras. With video and audio equipment to beam sound and moving images back in real-time, NASA also wanted to preserve the history in crisp, high definition photographs. Two of the Hasselblads were taken to the moon’s surface: one was a Hasselblad Data Camera with a Zeiss Biogon 60mm lens, which was attached to Neil Armstrong’s chest to document what he was seeing during his stroll on the lunar surface; the other, a Hasselblad Electric Camera (HEC) was used […]

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In The News

An Indian Writer’s Faraway Farewell To MAD Magazine

An Indian Writer's Faraway Farewell To MAD Magazine

Growing up in the 1970s in the hectic but more innocent India, the magazine offered a young man the right dose of irreverence to shape his world view for a lifetime.

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In The News

Morsi Death Exposes ‘Medieval’ Medical Care In Egypt’s Prisons

Egypt's Former President Mohamed Morsi in a court in Cairo on June 18.
Egypt's Former President Mohamed Morsi in a court in Cairo on June 18. Ahmed Gomaa/ZUMA

After the death in prison of deposed President Mohammed Morsi, rights organizations accuse again Egypt’s authorities of medical negligence within prisons.

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Geopolitics OneShot

Watch: OneShot — UNICEF: Children And The Right To Have Fun

Detail of photograph by Brian Sokol
Detail of photograph by Brian Sokol Brian Sokol/UNICEF

Yes, to have fun and relax — at least sometimes —should be considered a human right. Especially for children. UNICEF France and One Shot put the concept together in a single image. Enjoy! [youtube https://www.youtube.com/embed/TEEL7GoPex4 expand=1] UNICEF For Summer Holidays 2019 ©UNICEF/Brian Sokol OneShot is a new digital format to tell the story of a single photograph in an immersive one-minute video. Follow OneShot:

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Ideas Society

In India, Dissent Gets More Dicey Since Modi’s Reelection

BJP activist hold Prime Minister Modi picture during BJP Lalabazar
BJP activist hold Prime Minister Modi picture during BJP Lalabazar Saikat Paul/ Pacific Press/ ZUMA

There has been an obvious and unnerving crackdown on dissenting voices in the weeks since Narendra Modi began his new term as prime minister.

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Geopolitics Society

The Fourth Pyramid? Mohamed Salah As Pious Meme For Arab World

A fan holds the mask of Mohamed Salah in the stands prior to the start of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations Group
A fan holds the mask of Mohamed Salah in the stands prior to the start of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations Group Omar Zoheiry/DPA/ZUMA Press

Egyptian soccer star Mohamed Salah has been turned into a symbol of pride, modesty, and good morals. But what is at the heart of the hero worship?

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In The News

Government Helps India’s Girls Manage Menstrual Health

A protester in May in Kolkata
A protester in May in Kolkata Saikat Paul/Pacific Press via ZUMA

In the face of the stigma associated with menstruation, growing efforts are underway to help girls understand menstrual hygiene management as a health concept.

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Geopolitics Green Or Gone OneShot

Hot OneShot: Watch As Europe Tries To Beat The Heat

Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes Hauke-Christian Dittrich/DPA/ZUMA

Record temperatures are likely to be broken this week as a brutal summer heatwave hits large swathes of the European continent. As mercury rises, so do our concerns about climate change, with France’s health minister Agnès Buzyn warning that “we are going to have to change our habits and stop thinking these episodes are exceptional.” From above, this OneShot captures these dog days — in the heat of the moment. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/embed/qoFkqb8db4w expand=1] Heatwave and Waves (©Hauke-Christian Dittrich/DPA/ZUMA) | OneShot OneShot is a new digital format to tell the story of a single photograph in an immersive one-minute video. Follow […]

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In The News

A Meditation: Modi And I Share The Same Position On Yoga

Modi participating in a mass yoga demonstration in Lucknow
Modi participating in a mass yoga demonstration in Lucknow Xinhua/ZUMA

-Essay- NEW DELHI — I’m convinced Prime Minister Narendra Modi and I have one thing in common: We both practice our version of yoga regularly and desperately want to be yogis. Sure, the prime minister encouraged the United Nations to declare June 21 as International Yoga Day and millions of Indians watch videos of Modi’s animated self perfectly executing various asanas, while I haven’t even managed to convince my husband to join me in a surya namaskar (sun salutation). Still, I believe Modi and I are kindred yoga spirits. After perusing many videos and images of the prime minister doing […]

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Geopolitics Ideas

Morsi’s Death: How Cairo Controlled The Narrative

File screen shot of Morsi
File screen shot of Morsi Egypt State TV

CAIRO — If Egypt’s daily newspapers are your only source of news, you might have woken up Tuesday to discover that a citizen by the name of Mohamed Morsi al-Ayat died yesterday during a court hearing on espionage charges. In actuality, the seemingly unremarkable 67-year-old was the first democratically elected, civilian president of Egypt. A […]

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In The News

Ljubljana Postcard: Slovenian Native Son And A Beauty Restored

Cobbler's Bridge in Ljubljana, Slovenia
Cobbler's Bridge in Ljubljana, Slovenia alicealicka/ via Instagram

The author grew up in the city. On a recent trip back, he finds the Slovenian capital revitalized in a way he’d dreamed about during his youth.

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Food / Travel Society

Past And Present Mingle In The Vibrant Markets Of Delhi

Delhi market at night
Delhi market at night Aurelien Sandulescu

NEW DELHI — While growing up we were subjected, like most school-going children in this country, to rather boring texts in class. The texts were taught by teachers who were even less interested in the excruciatingly painful narratives than we were. The results of such exchanges were obvious: we remember little of what we were taught. Amid all our vagrant behavior, when we were trying our level best to – in the words of Mark Twain – not allow school to interfere with our education, there were things that were somehow imbibed and some of them have remained embedded in […]

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Geopolitics Migrant Lives

Refugee v. Migrant? What We’re Missing In Immigration Debate

A migrants boat on Lesbos island, Greece
A migrants boat on Lesbos island, Greece Socrates Baltagiannis/ZUMA

By distinguishing between refugees and migrants, international law underestimates the plight of people displaced by poverty and climate change.

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Ideas

Memories Of Tiananmen And A Passing Yugoslav-Chinese Flirt

Remembering the Tiananmen massacre, 30 years on
Remembering the Tiananmen massacre, 30 years on Ringo Chiu/ZUMA

I was not at Tiananmen those weeks in the spring 1989, when thousands of students occupied the square, demanding more room in a modernizing China. Nor was I there in those horrid hours between the third and fourth of June, when under the cover of night the People’s Liberation Army first surrounded the area, then […]

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Geopolitics OneShot

Watch: OneShot — UNICEF Against Child Labor

Detail of photograph from UNICEF archives
Detail of photograph from UNICEF archives Olivier Asselin/UNICEF

First adopted in 1989, the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child is “the most complete statement of children’s rights ever produced.” Since then, 196 countries and non-state entities have signed it, making it the most widely-ratified international human rights treaty in history. Unfortunately, the rights of children continue to be violated every day around the world. In 2019, for example, an estimated 10% of children around the world work, undermining their education and/or damaging their health. It is a chilling reminder of the Convention’s Article 32: “States Parties recognize the right of the child to be protected […]

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Society

India’s Scavengers Seek Recognition As Sanitation Workers

An Indian manual scavenger cleans a manhole in New Delhi in August 2018
An Indian manual scavenger cleans a manhole in New Delhi in August 2018 Indraneel Chowdhury/Pacific Press via ZUMA Wire

As India votes in national elections, manual scavengers are trying to overcome caste stigma and prejudice.

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Society

Egypt’s Disabled Demand New Laws, Changed Attitudes

Wheelchair in Cairo, Egypt
Wheelchair in Cairo, Egypt Facebook page

CAIRO — Using sign language, Aya Mohamed, an ambitious secretary in a government-owned institution, explains that she is verbally bullied when she pursues simple daily activities, such as buying something. Mute and deaf, the 29-year-old has only her lips and hands to use to communicate her needs to a seller, and is often met with […]

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Geopolitics

Narendra Modi’s Mass Appeal, And Risks For India’s Democracy

Modi in New Delhi on May 25
Modi in New Delhi on May 25 Partha Sarkar/Xinhua/ZUMA

NEW DELHI — The great Indian electoral war of 2019 ended with Narendra Modi securing a historic mandate to rule India for another five years. The divided opposition should not have expected anything better as it had no national narrative, no credible agenda and no alternative leadership to contain a colossal opponent like Modi. It is ironic that in a parliamentary democracy like India, people have voted for the “leader” Modi, rather than members of parliament. No doubt, the president of his BJP party, Amit Shah displayed a shrewd strategy that helped secure this victory. Yet he still has a […]

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In The News

Mammas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Modi

Supporters during a Modi election rally
Supporters during a Modi election rally Saikat Paul/Pacific Press/ZUMA

With his untruths, bad choice of friends and unwillingness to apologize, India’s prime minister is everything our parents taught us not to be.

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OneShot Society

Watch OneShot: Alain Delon At Cannes, Yesterday And Today

Screen capture (detail) of Delon
Screen capture (detail) of Delon INA

The 2019 Cannes film festival will celebrate legendary French actor Alain Delon with an honorary Palme d’Or. At the age of 83, Delon continues to attract a generous dose of controversy for his homophobic views, accusations of domestic abuse and longtime friendship with founder of France’s far-right party National Front, Jean-Marie Le Pen. But in […]

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Future Geopolitics

Tracing A Link Between Science And Xenophobia

Xenophobia often borrows metaphors from immunology
Xenophobia often borrows metaphors from immunology Piron Guillaume

The self/other theory of immunology rests on the xenophobic assumption that ‘others’ are always dangerous and need to be removed.

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In The News

If Not Modi…? That Question Weighing On India

Voting in Barrackpore, India, on May 6
Voting in Barrackpore, India, on May 6 Avishek Das/SOPA Images/ZUMA

The question ‘If not Modi, then who?” points to a worrying lack of understanding of how a parliamentary democracy works.

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In The News

In India’s Job Crisis, Dignity In Employment Must Come First

BJP activist hold Prime Minister Modi picture during BJP Lalabazar
BJP activist hold Prime Minister Modi picture during BJP Lalabazar Saikat Paul/ Pacific Press/ ZUMA

India’s politicians have to understand that people are earning something to survive, but a survival strategy does not count as employment.

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Ideas

What The 1700s Teach Us About Today’s Fake News Epidemic

Old News, Fake News
Old News, Fake News Denny Müller

Just as they were during the information wars of the 18th century, education and critical thinking are key antidotes to disinformation.

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OneShot Society

Watch: OneShot — UNICEF Immunization, Philippines Vaccine

Detail of photograph from UNICEF archives
Detail of photograph from UNICEF archives Olivier Asselin/UNICEF

Unicef France marks World Immunization Week with this OneShot from the Philippines

Categories
Society

A Peek Inside Italy’s Murky Match-Making Industry

Bride and groom hold hands at their wedding in Italy
Bride and groom hold hands at their wedding in Italy Worldcrunch Montage

In Italy, while some agencies put people in touch locally, others help customers find a spouse in Asia — and then fly them over for the nuptials.

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In The News

In India, A Domestic Servant Rises To National Politics

Pramila Bisoi, 68 years old
Pramila Bisoi, 68 years old Ama Mausi Pramila Bisoi via Facebook

Married at the age of five and speaking neither English nor Hindi, 68-year-old Pramila Bisoi has seen the hardships of life up close.

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In The News

Exit Strategy? Why Scaling Back Refugee Aid Is So Tricky

Syrian refugees in the Zaatari camp near Mafraq, Jordan
Syrian refugees in the Zaatari camp near Mafraq, Jordan Mohammad Abu Ghosh/Xinhua/ZUMA

Aid groups have plenty of protocols for scaling up humanitarian responses to crises. Less clear is when or how they should phase down — and eventually out.

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