Mayweather vs. Boycotters: The Fight Against Domestic Violence
/0 Comments/in News /by Caroline BodianAs this Saturday’s Pacquiao-Mayweather boxing match fast approaches, there has been talk about Floyd Mayweather and his history of domestic violence. Longtime partner Josie Harris says she suffered abuse from Mayweather on six occasions, and former fiancé Shantel Jackson filed a civil lawsuit that include claims of battery, false imprisonment and allegations that the boxer pointed a gun at her. In one case, Mayweather pled guilty to two counts of domestic battery against Melissa Brim, the mother of his daughter Ayanna, and received a suspended six-month jail sentence, a $3,000 fine, 48 hours of community service and two days of house arrest.
Many plan to boycott the fight, but will that really make a difference when so many others are willing to pay to watch the fighting champion? Why not spend your money in a way that you know can aid women who have suffered domestic violence?
There are many things that remain beyond our grasp: the outcome of the fight, the pain that Floyd Mayweather inflicted on his loved ones and his refusal to apologize for it; but there is one thing that is within our control, choosing to boycott the fight. And while Mayweather himself doesn’t care if you do this, there are many other people who do.
We propose that instead of spending $100 to watch the fight on pay-per-view, you use the money to help survivors who can greatly benefit from your generosity.
$100 can go a long way, according to Women’s Resource Center to End Domestic Violence, featured in A Path Appears. It’s the cost of ten hours of coverage for their crisis hotline, a full day of meals for all the families in their safe house, 24 hours of shelter for one woman and two children and ongoing legal advocacy for one woman.
We hope you’ll consider this alternative and share it with your friends and family.
Making Way for Sustainable Impact
/1 Comment/in News /by Caroline Bodian“If I die BASE jumping,” Bryan Swick Turner wrote in a letter addressed to his closest friends, “Please, and I cannot emphasize this enough, do everything you can to help end extreme poverty by 2030 and do your utmost to achieve sustainable development beyond that. Don’t waste time being upset about my dying; be upset about the seven million kids that die every year and don’t even get a chance to live…”
The Columbia University graduate was only 32-years-old when tragedy struck. Bryan, who died on March 9, 2015 while BASE jumping in Idaho, spent his life supporting anti-poverty efforts. In those 32 years, he achieved great things: leading the largest student movement to end extreme poverty in North America and holding prominent positions at the U.N. and Columbia University Earth Institute. His accomplishments don’t stop there.
Bryan has been described as “a one-man army saving lives in the most significant way.” Even after his jarring death, he has served as a catalyst for change. His family, friends and the development community have created the Bryan Swick Turner Memorial fund to strengthen the development of a new field – Behavioral Science of Sustainable Development. The fund is set to launch on April 11, 2015 with an initial donation of $20,000. The program will be based at Columbia University, which will sponsor a fellowship, course and summer fieldwork opportunities in honor of Bryan.
Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s book A Path Appears opens with the story of the big-hearted Rachel Beckwith who, like Bryan, moved us to act. On Rachel’s ninth birthday, she asked that instead of birthday presents, guests donate to an organization called charity: water that drills wells in impoverished villages around the world. Her fundraising goal: $300. Rachel didn’t meet her goal at her birthday, but after a tragic car accident took the altruistic 9-year-old’s life, donations for charity: water came flooding in, reaching up to $1,265,823. By requesting donations instead of birthday gifts, Rachel laid out a foundation for change.
“First, never underestimate the power of inertia,” writes Richard H. Thaler in his book Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness. “Second, that power can be harnessed.” Thaler proposes that simple changes to common policies, like making organ donations opt out rather than opt in, can have large effects on the behavior of individuals. Rachel could have asked for a birthday present, but instead she made donations the new status quo.
A follower of Thaler’s theories, Bryan believed poverty-alleviating efforts could be much more effective by applying insights from the behavioral sciences – making giving the norm, not the exception. Books such as Thaler’s Nudge and A Path Appears show that simple and inexpensive changes often have big effects on the behavior of individuals.
Every day we have the ability to make the same kind and charitable decisions that Rachel and Bryan made to make giving back the norm. And the benefits go beyond dollars raised. As Nicholas and Sheryl wrote, “A path is now appearing to show us how to have a positive impact on the world around us. This is a path of hopefulness, but also a path of fulfilment: typically we start off by trying to empower others and end up empowering ourselves too.”
Click here to learn more about Bryan’s initiative to end poverty.
One World. One Story.
/0 Comments/in Guest Author /by Molly Bingham, President/CEO of OrbI’m the fourth generation of a newspaper family. My great-grandfather saw journalism as a public service and passed that journalistic tradition to my grandfather, and then to my father.
As an intern at the family papers, I decided I wanted to be a photojournalist. My career started in Rwanda in 1994 – a sinister time in the country’s history. The human wreckage from the genocide taught me about the brutality that people can inflict on one another.
1994 was the beginning of a decade spent mostly in war zones: Rwanda, Burundi, Zaire, Chiapas, Russia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Afghanistan, Gaza and Iraq. As I gained experience, I learned that my photographs could connect people who would never witness violence firsthand to those who are caught in its vortex.
In 2003, days before the invasion of Iraq, I headed to Baghdad. Early in the morning on March 25th, I was surrounded in the hotel lobby by several Iraqi men. They were members of Saddam Hussein’s highly feared Iraqi intelligence.
They held me and four other Westerners at gunpoint and we were driven to a walled compound outside Baghdad – Abu Ghraib. I was stripped of my possessions, given a prison uniform, and placed in solitary confinement. My country was invading theirs. They were accusing me of being a spy. I knew that this might not end well.
Each day I was blindfolded, led by the elbow from my cell down a long concrete path to a carpeted room. Each time I realized it was possible I was being led to my execution. Each time I discovered that it was only for interrogation.
Eventually, after eight days, all five of us were released unharmed. The visceral experience of that week has faded, but how it challenged me remains. I emerged from Abu Ghraib with a fresh appreciation of the brevity of our time on Earth. I found myself reflecting on what my greatest life contribution might be and how I might make it.
Orb was my answer to my questions.
I’ve spent most of my career covering conflict around the world. I’ve seen how societies are shredded – and how it often takes generations to recover.
Our global resources are finite and our population is rising. There’s no disputing the challenge this presents us as a human community. Oftentimes, our world settles disputes about limited resources through conflict.
We are also presented with tremendous opportunities through innovation. As an example - we’re more connected than ever, thanks to the wild digital renaissance of the last thirty years. In order to manage our global opportunities and our risks, we need to be able to collaborate as a single human community.
Nationally and culturally driven narratives in journalism produce a fragmented image of our world, hindering our ability to see that, in spite of our differences, we share a core that profoundly outweighs them. To understand that collaboration is in our own best interests, we need to recognize the reality of how interconnected we truly are.
Journalism has a role to play here. Uniquely tasked with helping us interpret our world - in real time as events unfold - journalism has the power and the responsibility to shape our narrative about our world.
I founded Orb to deliver journalism to a global audience that unifies us around our human story. Orb’s stories reveal the stake we each have in our global challenges and opportunities, and help us see our interconnection more clearly. By demonstrating our interdependence, Orb fosters our sense of membership in one human community.
It’s early days at Orb, but I invite you to check out Orb’s very first story, released earlier this month, and to join Orb on this journey.
About the Blogger:
Watch Molly talk about the genesis of Orb in her TEDx talk.