Tag: war

Posted on

9/11 Personal Evacuation Kit

After the 9/11 attacks, we were given by our employer, Scudder Investments, now Deutsche Bank, a personal evacuation kit.

The months after the attack, many of us working in NYC office buildings thought another attack was imminent. I felt a bit safer with my personal evacuation kit. With my trusty kit under my arm, I would get out of a burning building unscathed.

Twenty three years later, I still keep my kit next to my desk at work. Fortunately, I have never needed it.

Yesterday I finally opened it.

Personal Evacuation Kit
Kit Ingredients

It’s funny what we think will keep us safe.

Posted on

Sanitation Entrepreneur Takes on War and Climate

Last fall we had the pleasure of speaking with entrepreneur Bara Wahbeh, Co-founder and CTO of Akyas Sanitation, from his home in Amman, Jordan.

Bara Wahbeh on the urgent need for sanitation

Wahbeh, with his team of four, created a sustainable toilet system after Wahbeh worked in Izmir, Turkey. For many months he witnessed thousands of displaced Syrian people live in make-shift camps around the city. With no access to food, healthcare, education or work opportunities, he witnessed thousands spiral into unimaginable poverty. To hear his inspired story, please watch the origin story below.

Continue reading “Sanitation Entrepreneur Takes on War and Climate”
Posted on

Is Community Essential For Veterans To Feel Connected?

We spoke with best-selling author and award-winning filmmaker, Sebastian Junger on helping veterans transition and integrate into the US after being overseas.   His interview will be used in FourBlock, a career readiness resource to help veterans find their calling.

In addition to Junger, the edX online course,  Find Your Calling: Career Transition Principles For Returning Veterans includes Columbia Business School Business Professor, Sheena Iyengar, author, “The Art of Choosing,” and one of the world’s experts on choice, and best-selling author, “Start With Why,” Simon Sinek.

Junger’s interview is so powerful and timely we want to share a few of the video highlights.  The other videos, equally powerful and informative, are embedded in the course and available for free for veterans and their families.  Learn more here.

Continue reading “Is Community Essential For Veterans To Feel Connected?”
Posted on

Wounded Warriors Soar at STRIDE Adaptive Sports Snow Fest

They came from all over the east coast to meet their friends and cheer each other on as they overcame physical and mental hurdles, not to mention braving the sub-zero temperatures and ski the slopes of Jiminy Peak.  We don’t know who was more inspiring, the Wounded Warriors or the STRIDE Adaptive Sports team, but watch the video and be awed.

Continue reading “Wounded Warriors Soar at STRIDE Adaptive Sports Snow Fest”

Posted on

Despite Death Threats A Gay Leader Emerges In Afghanistan

After the shootings at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, by Omar Mateen, a U.S. resident of Afghan descent, we can’t help but revisit a past interview with Afghani gay activist, Nemat Sadat.  His intelligence and honesty on what it means to be gay in Afghanistan is extremely insightful.

All eyes are on the upcoming run off of the Afghanistan presidential election between Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani in mid June. But millions of Afghans are talking about a new emerging leader not on the ballot, Nemat Sadat, who happens to be gay.   Continue reading “Despite Death Threats A Gay Leader Emerges In Afghanistan”

Posted on

Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School Addresses “Toughing It Out in Afghanistan”

Should the US start pulling their troops out of Afghanistan in 2011 leaving only a small peace-keeping force of 20,000 in 2014? Or should we stay in Afghanistan providing assistance until the Afghans don’t need us  anymore? By setting a time line do the U.S. and NATO signal to the Afghan people that we are not committed to their development or security? If that is the case, are we creating an opportunity for the insurgency to wait patiently to once again, continue to wreak havoc on the war-ravaged country?
Continue reading “Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School Addresses “Toughing It Out in Afghanistan””

Posted on

To Build a Nation: Kosovo, Behind the Lens #1

To Build a Nation: Kosovo, Behind the Lens examines the human effects of international interventions in war-ravaged Kosovo, more than five years after the war.

Although Kosovo declared independence from Serbia on Feb 17, 2008, the time leading up to that was filled with frustration and impatience for all parties. This short project exposed the limbo that permeated throughout the province in 2003 and 2004 leading up to it’s independence. Exposing a few of the many complexities inherent in nation-building, and as American commitments multiply, it was time to examine closely the experience to date of one of these experiments, the 1999 US-led NATO intervention in Kosovo. Kosovo’s post-war experience provides powerful insights into the critical steps and missteps encountered in the nation-building experiment, and serves as a valuable lens for viewing the potential success or failure of other such experiments. Kosovo’s progress to date can teach us about the limits of externally-imposed agendas, and draw our attention to the critical need for home-grown solutions.
Continue reading “To Build a Nation: Kosovo, Behind the Lens #1”

Posted on

To Build a Nation: Kosovo, Behind the Lens #2

To Build a Nation: Kosovo, Behind the Lens 2

To Build a Nation: Kosovo, Behind the Lens examines the human effects of international interventions in war-ravaged Kosovo, more than five years after the war.

Although Kosovo declared independence from Serbia on Feb 17, 2008, the time leading up to that was filled with frustration and impatience for all parties. This short project exposed the limbo that permeated throughout the province in 2003 and 2004 leading up to it’s independence. Exposing a few of the agendas, and draw our attention to the critical need for home-grown solutions.
Continue reading “To Build a Nation: Kosovo, Behind the Lens #2”