Like many,
I contribute to some non-profit organizations, and have been a World Vision child sponsor for many years. More recently, I realize the responsibility to go from easy act of giving to more thoughtful consideration to give where it creates impact I care about.
If you are interested in changing lives for the better including your own, you would love this book “A path appears” by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn.
In this world of unequal opportunities contributed no less by the lottery of birth, the book offers, the best I have seen, a path on how to help those who lose at the birth draw.
With Cure-Violence to combat inner-city conflicts in the United States by applying principle of epidemiology; or organization which brings in older Americans to tutor students in public school across the country, it gives a catalog of opportunities to support babies to teens, from combating inner-city challenges to transforming slums in Kenya. The true stories are riveting and convincing how small acts of individual can make life-changing impacts to others.
I love the refreshingly bold section that talks about challenges in managing non-profit organizations and at times competition among them. Recently, I read about pe
ople stop donating to a non-profit organization as they consider the CEO got a high pay (when it was pretty low compared to the business world). There is expectation that people associated with non-profit initiatives should be sacrificial. Such undermines abilities to attract best talent and create pressure to cut corners in the administration of non-profit organizations. Should we judge instead the impacts the organization make or not make?
The third and last section sums up to “help others help ourselves”. It echoes a childhood learning that helping is the origin of happiness. If altruism has a mixed record of success, it has an almost perfect record of helping ourselves.
If you just want to spare a minute on the topic, the last page lists six steps to take in the next six minutes.
Another on my reading list: “Half the Sky” from the same authors.
of years ahead. It is a future time machine. It is about love. It is easy to love a bright future, it is something else to love the last mile of a journey. It is humbling and same deal to most. What motivates may just be the constant need to overcome new loss of ability to slow down the deterioration. Life is circular and we end where we start – nothing. Yet, if life is a circle, some draws a humongous one; some is more like a dot, a small number with negative radius. The world is almost shaped by those few who journeys a lot in their lives. Take an example, the smart phones are not a result of public voting, yet it changes how billions are spending their time every day. Internet and search are not the result of the work of the majority; it changes the lives of many. Automation of repetitive tasks is not the choice of majority of workers; it is the effort of bright minds who believe human intelligence will better be consumed in higher order than repetitive and mundane activities, maybe many would not mind mundane jobs to make a possible living. How the world evolves does not tie neatly with the advocacy of democracy in many political systems. No-one protest about technology, the smart phones, Internet, Wi-Fi nor the many apps, we endorse it most wholeheartedly. Are people being selective in the pursuit of democracy?
of mostly disruptive behavior, however people justify them. The city has its share of problems, and more shares of fortunes when compared to many other places. The way it is going creates a real possibility that this generation grows up to see things from great to good, and could be in the hands of a few folks, from good to bad. There could be better outcome from brighter minds, and if not, life is circular so could the path of a city.
oliviatamccue 