Trying to follow

Your looking at a $100 laptop developed by MIT students to help bridge the digital divide in the developing world. This could potentially be a wonderful invention.

From One Laptop per Child

Why do children in developing nations need laptops?
Laptops are both a window and a tool: a window into the world and a tool with which to think. They are a wonderful way for all children to learn learning through independent interaction and exploration.

More info on One Laptop per Child

I was reading the other day when a guy looked over and asked what I was reading…
“Ms. Magazine,” I said, “It’s really good.” All I got in return was a funny look. I think I tried to justify it, but nothing was going to convince him.

Ms. and B**** and other magazines like it our written off as “feminist propaganda” and they receive a slim readership because of it. Instead of being the often informative piece of journalism that they could be, they end up preaching to the choir. Unfortunately, the very people that should hear a lot of the things that are said in those magazines, men, are the last ones to ever think about picking them up.

Men, go to your local magazine rack and instead of sneaking around looking at inappropriate magazines, boldly pick up Ms. Magazine and give it a read through. I think you’ll find yourself learning things you never had a clue about, hear stories that will break your heart, and considering new perspectives you’d never imagined.

Of course, you’ll probably need some proof that you might read something worthwhile, so here are a few tidbits:

In September, the court ordered an end to discrimination against menstruating women, confronting a tradition in parts of Nepal of keeping women in cowsheds during their periods.

From Paradise Lost

That expensive blouse you’re wearing? It may have been sewn by a Filipina garment worker laboring in a factory owned by a Hong Kong mogul on a western Pacific island. The Northern Mariana Islands, a territory of the United States, offers the possibility of an American label — Made in Saipan (USA), Made in Northern Mariana Islands (USA), or simply Made in USA — to garment manufacturers, and throws in a unique exemption from U.S. minimum-wage and immigration laws.

From Too Many Women in College?

Although American women still struggle for parity in many arenas, we have outpaced men in at least one: undergraduate college education. Currently, 57.4 percent of bachelor’s degrees in the United States are earned by women, 42.6 percent by men. This is an almost exact reversal from 1970, when 56.9 percent of college graduates were males and 43.1 percent females.

There’s even a pocket guide from an expert in nonviolent confrontation tactics. An anti-harassment tool kit that really works.

To start here’s a pretty good definition of gentrification:

The rehabilitation of a deteriorated neighborhood by new residents who are wealthier than the long-time residents. This can cause an increase in housing prices and lead to displacement of the long-time residents. via

Recently I’ve been looking at houses in the nearby neighborhood, helping our friends search for a potential home to buy. Every time I turn my eye to real estate I’m flooded with an overwhelming feeling of a need to do something about gentrification.
I first noticed gentrification when we were in Atlanta doing Americorps and the concept was explained to me. It was white flight in reverse. Wealthy folks had long lived on the outskirts of the city, but now there was a desire to move back in. It’s becoming cool to be a city dweller again. Neighborhoods that had been well in-tacked for years contained families that did not have huge incomes, but they had the stability of owning a home, some a home that had been in the family for a while. Money though, is a powerful thing. When a house would go up for sale in one of these neighborhoods (take Grant Park for instance), a realtor would buy it up. They’d then tear it down or do major renovations and double or triple the houses value. This in turn increase the property tax on all the homes in the area, eventually forcing some families to sell who had had the stability of owning their homes for years. Eventually, these neighborhoods turned from what they once where to something completely different. The houses our different, but more tragically, all the people in the neighborhood are different. And what happens to those who used to live there, who used to call that home for years prior? They search for what they can afford, which is now farther from the city, their jobs, their previous community. This is wrong.
Atlanta was not, and is not, the only place this is occuring. Every major city I’ve been in, from Chicago to Minneapolis to Nashville, they are all experiencing serious gentrification. And the terrible thing is there doesn’t seem to be a solution to it. It’s been my experience that those with money do not enjoy or desire to live next to those without (though they often live quite close). Large homes are not built next to public housing in happy harmony. The solution, and the force that drives the problem is Money. If I had a million dollars I could buy up every home in my nearby neighborhood and make sure it was not turned into something that would force out it’s current residents. But I don’t have a million dollars, and in the end it seems no one who has the money or power cares enough to actually try and stop this. I’m looking for stories of solutions, stories of communities that don’t force people out, but figure out a way to peacefully care for all their members. If anyone knows of any solutions, please let me know.