make the world go round

Scientists and cartographers, having absorbed the revelation that the world is not flat, realized at some later point that the world is actually an ellipsoid. This as I understand it is due to the force exerted by the rotation of the earth, causing mass to accumulate at & near the equator.
In a similar but inverse process, due to human adaptation patterns and subsequent opportunism, wealth has thus far tended to accumulate in the more temperate areas north and south of the equator. Although the first imbalance is not so easily corrected, and doesn't cause us a lot of problems aside from occasional miscalculations and accidents on very precise cartography endeavours (and really, lots of people really like ellipses), the second is an enormous problem for the majority of the inhabitants of the planet, and due to the fact that we all live on the same chunk of dirt flying through space, threatens to pose more and more problems for those living in more affluent neighbourhoods. Here you'll find a synopsis of a study carried out by the Worldwatch Institute in cooperation with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) that gives a few reasons why the health of developed areas depends on the health of developing areas.

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If you feel motivated to make a contribution to help resolve this disparity and the problems it creates and may create in the future, you of course have many options. You could, for example, make a donation directly to one of the organizations linked to on the first post on this blog. As well there is a spectrum with more colours than a crayon box with a sharpener of organizations doing great work to help us all get along better. If you'd like to make a contribution to a specific domain, I would suggest entering the word NGO (for non-governmental organization) along with your topic of interest into a search engine. And although perhaps a bit dated, there is a list of UN-recognized NGOs here.
If, however, you're interested in doing something a bit more connected to your personal life, and you happen to be someone who knows me, you can contribute to my fundraising campaign. CUSO has explained the Netcorps fundraising system fairly succinctly on their web page. Of course funds that I raise will be contributed to Canadian Crossroads International. We've been given a goal of $2000 each, but CCI understands that, especially given that we're doing this on fairly short notice (I'll be leaving in early November), we may not be able to reach this amount. Such a contribution is classified as a donation to a non-profit organization, and thus can be used as a tax deduction. If you're interested in making a contribution, you can do so online at this address. For other methods, please send me an email, and I'll let you know how it works. Or perhaps you know someone or a company that might be interested, if so please send them a link to this blog. Donations can be any amount from $2 to $2000. Or even more, if you're so inclined.
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"money
is a hit"
--Roger Waters

au quai...

so it appears that I'm going to be in africa in about a month and a half, maybe less.

while I continue to process this revelation, here are some links to information about what I'll be doing over there.

I'm going to be in Bamako, which is the capital of Mali. I've been selected by Canadian Crossroads International (CCI) to work with an organization called Association Jeunesse Action (Youth Action Association). There are some articles about AJA here, here, and here. This all is taking place as part of the NetCorps program, which is run by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), and cooperates with 9 different international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including CUSO, Canada World Youth, and of course CCI. NetCorps' mission is to place tech-savvy youth in developing countries, where they share information technology skills and get to take part in another culture for 4-6 months at a time.

I don't know too many specifics at this point but the gist of the situation is that i'll be teaching computer skills ranging from using office software to hardware repair and upgrading to website development to the association's members. more news will certainly follow, after these messages from our sponsors... [READER clicks on links]