Our young people are bridge to a better future

I’VE BEEN following with great interest The Irish Times Young Ireland series over the past week as the various young contributors have articulated their views of Ireland’s current economic situation and their proposals to resolve it. They have written with passion and for the most part with a positivity that is shared with their peers, for the weekend opinion poll shows a great majority of young people are optimistic about the future.

Rising generation will regenerate a better Ireland

THE YOUNG audience at the recent Muse concert in the O2 went wild when the English rock band opened with these lyrics from Uprising from their number one album, The Resistance . My 17-year-old sister and those around her became even more animated when the lead singer, Matthew James Bellamy, delayed his rift to pick up a Tricolour, which had been thrown on to the stage, and wrap it on the drum stand.

A partial marvel

MICROCREDIT looks like a miracle. It involves providing unsecured small loans to poor people in developing countries whom most banks would turn away. Yet these small borrowers almost always repay their loans (and the fairly steep interest charges) on time, which suggests that they find productive uses for the money.

Charles Sirois: 'You need to be born an entrepreneur'

Charles Sirois says understanding risk has been key in his roles as businessman, banker and mentor to startups in emerging countries

Creating opportunities for the people of Eastern Uganda

Samuel Watulatsu overcame a difficult childhood to become the leading light for sustainable development in Eastern Uganda, empowering the disadvantaged to become self-reliant and productive members of society.

Women entrepreneurship in the villages of Nepal

Turning her back on a political career, Dhana Khatiwada established the Women Awareness Group (WAG) in Nepal to engage village women in an initiative to reduce rural poverty. She provides the tools with which the women take on roles in the village economy that transcend the boundaries of gender norms.

Middle East Youth Bulge: Challenge or Opportunity?

The youth challenge is the most critical 21st century economic development challenge facing the Middle East. Navtej Dhillon, Fellow/Director of the Middle East Youth Initiative, co-presented at a panel of experts to congressional staffers from the Foreign Relations Committee on the implications and opportunities of the youth bulge and how states and outside organizations are trying to respond.

Middle East's Dual Challenge: Youth and the Economy

Following President Obama’s speech in Cairo, Navtej Dhillion, director of the Middle East Youth Initiative, discusses the growing number of unemployed youth and declining economy in the Middle East with Kai Ryssdal on National Public Radio’s “Marketplace.”

THIS Magazine: Get your Goat

Images of cute, cuddly animals have replaced sad-eyed children in the latest campaigns to market charitable giving to Africa. But what does it really mean to buy a village a goat?

Middle East Youth Initiative

By creating an international alliance of academics, policy-makers, youth leaders and leading thinkers from the private sector and civil society, the initiative aims to develop and promote a progressive agenda of youth inclusion.

Frances Widdowson: The aboriginal healing boondoggle

Niki Ashton, the New Democratic MP for Churchill, has organized a petition calling for an extension of the government funding for the Aboriginal Healing Foundation (AHF). The AHF was formally created in 1998 to address the legacy of sexual and physical abuse endured at residential schools. Eliminating its funding (in March 2010) is opposed because the “healing … is far from complete after 10 years.”

Changing how we think about aid to have-not communities

What is so bad about rich nations sharing their wealth with poor nations to help them cope with their struggles? Plenty…according to Dambisa Moyo, a black woman born and raised in Zambia and educated at Oxford and Harvard. In her recently released book, Dead Aid, Moyo advocates to stop aid to Africa as the best way to help the troubled continent.

Native leaders battle gang violence

The sun beat down on three teenagers perched alone on the edge of the graffiti-filled skateboard park just off Hobbema's main highway. The boys were silent and seemed unsure when asked if it's been quiet around town. One joked about the second being a gang member, but he looked away and no one said a word. Only the mention of a proposed new youth centre broke the silence.

Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan aiming to help young women

An EU funded regional project has got under way in Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan aiming to help young women entering the employment market. A press release posted on the Jordanian EU Delegation website said the ‘Women and Work’ programme was cofinanced by the European Training Foundation – a specialised EU agency – and would be focusing on two key sectors in the three countries, information and communication technologies and tourism.

Let's drop victim tag and cheer native strength

There's an old saw that goes, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." I'm not certain of the origin of that pithy take on fitting in, but it certainly feels as though Assembly of First Nations Chief Phil Fontaine has taken it to heart. The Roman civilization self-destructed, burdened under its own weight, and Fontaine seems bent on taking First Nations causes along the same route.

The Many Crises of Iranian Youth

Since the beginning of the Islamic Revolution thirty years ago, Iran has asked many sacrifices of its youth in building and defending the Islamic Republic. In return, it promised education, jobs, and better standards of living.

The Other Pakistan

Salman Ahmad, Pakistani rock musician and founder of the popular band Junoon (as well as doctor, author, and film maker) explained last Saturday night to the standing room only crowd in the General Assembly of the United Nations that it was the video which pushed him into action. The video, of two men holding down a teenage girl while another beat her, sent by a friend from Pakistan, prompted Ahmad to fly to Pakistan from New York, his adopted home, to find the answer to the question that was tormenting him: "Which was the real Pakistan?"