International Events

Any event that involves two or more nations.

Formula E is the All-Electric Alternative to Formula 1

- Adam Clare

Car racing is a popular sport around the world and it used to be a great testing bed for new, more efficient, technology used in internal combustion engines. Today, the technological improvements seem to be more on material science rather than fuel efficiency (most racing leagues still allow leaded gasoline).

Formula E will have it’s first season in 2014 and the new FIA-sanctioned championship wants car companies to focus their efforts on electric cars.

Formula E’s intent is to show how exciting electric vehicles can be as they race around inner city street courses. Ten cities are being lined up for the stage races in 2014 – with nine announced so far: London, Rome, Los Angeles, Miami, Beijing, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janerio, Bangkok and Putrajaya, Kuala Lumpur.

Formula E has the backing of the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile) – motor racing’s global governing body, which also oversees Formula One.

Landing Renault is significant. Renault is the engine supplier and a big sponsor of Red Bull Racing and a former F1 champion itself. Renault has also invested more in all-electric cars than any other manufacturer and believes Formula E will give it a global marketing opportunity to show off the performance and safety of electric cars.

Read more here.
Check out the Formula E Reddit here.

Brazil Restructures Debt With African Countries

- Adam Clare

Brazil has announced that they will essentially “write off” about $90 million in debt from African nations. This is for helping the countries alleviate their huge levels of debt while helping create stronger economic ties between Brazil and their indebted partner nations.

“To maintain a special relationship with Africa is strategic for Brazil’s foreign policy.”

He added that most of the debt was accumulated in the 1970s and had been renegotiated before.

A spokesman for Brazil’s Foreign Ministry told Efe news agency that the debt restructuring for some countries would consist of more favourable interest rates and longer repayment terms.

Congo-Brazzaville owes the most to Brazil – $352m – followed by Tanzania ($237m) and Zambia ($113.4m).

The other countries to benefit are Ivory Coast, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mauritania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, and Sudan.

Read more at BBC.

The Conflict Kitchen

- Adam Clare

Conflict Kitchen is a take-out restaurant that serves cuisine only from countries with which the USA is in conflict. It’s located in Pittsburg and founded/operated by artists and chefs to humanize the international conflicts that the USA engages in around the world. It functions as a space to get food and a space to expand one’s understanding of the world around them.

“In contrast to the polarizing effect of broadcast media, we’ve sought to create a platform which can support a more subtle exchange of culture and politics,” notes Dawn Weleski, a multidisciplinary artist wiht a performance bent, who co-founded the project with Jon Rubin and John Peña. “With food as a mediator, it becomes easier for customers to consider the everyday life of people — they become responsive in a different way and consider more nuanced perspectives. They start to consider the people and culture behind conflicts [that are conducted] at a government or military level.”

Read more at Design Observer.
Conflict Kitchen’s website.
Thanks to Trevor!

Worldviews Conference Looks at Media and Education

- Adam Clare

Universities and colleges do a lot of research and sometimes their findings can make a large difference on the world around us. Unfortunately, it can be hard to get the media to represent what the research actually means and how the media can best work with academics to ensure that the coverage is accurate. At the same time, individuals who perform the research need help explaining quite complex ideas in rather simple ways.

The Worldviews Conference is focused on this very topic and their second conference is happening next month in Toronto. If you’re interested in media and academics than you’re going to want to check this conference out!

How do media cover higher education issues – locally and around the globe? How does coverage shape public perceptions? Does the academy look in media’s mirror to see itself? Can the academy help the press translate complex issues into accessible stories?

Let’s talk about it.
Given the crucial role of higher education and its explosive growth in some parts of the world, the stakes are high for the academy and ultimately the societies we serve.
In both higher education and media, much is in flux and many global trends are at play.

Let’s assemble thinkers – academics, editors, students, journalists, communications professionals and others – to chart where we are and forge new paths in a fast-changing landscape.

Find out more at the conference’s website.

Gross National Happiness is a Good Thing

- Adam Clare

Bhutan is a small country with a big idea that can change the world. For many years now gross national happiness is how the country monitors its progress, which is the opposite to how other countries measure success (which is from the quantity of money exchanged).

With a world population more knowledgable about environmental destruction there is an increasing concern that wealth accumulation outranks the needs of people. Gross national happiness can change how we measure progress.

Since 1971, the country has rejected GDP as the only way to measure progress. In its place, it has championed a new approach to development, which measures prosperity through formal principles of gross national happiness (GNH) and the spiritual, physical, social and environmental health of its citizens and natural environment.

For the past three decades, this belief that wellbeing should take preference over material growth has remained a global oddity. Now, in a world beset by collapsing financial systems, gross inequity and wide-scale environmental destruction, this tiny Buddhist state’s approach is attracting a lot of interest.

Read more at The Guardian.

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