Displaying Archive for the ‘social change’ Category

Today is International Women’s Day: Time to Take Stock Again

Connie K. Duckworth / March 8th, 2011 / posted in afghan women, events, social change / 3 comments

All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual.

- Albert Einstein

As I began to reflect over the weekend about the meaning of today’s global holiday, celebrating the achievements, rights and worth of women, my thoughts took a flight of fancy to a world (if not run by women) where women had an equal say in all things, large and small. Then, I opened the newspaper and was jerked back to reality.

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An empty stomach is not a good political adviser.

Connie K. Duckworth / January 12th, 2011 / posted in afghan people, business social responsibility, economic sustainability, opportunity, social change, social investment / 1 comment

An empty stomach is not a good political adviser.

– Albert Einstein

Everyone I know personally or professionally shares a singular perspective—how glad we are to see 2010 in the rear view mirror. The past two years, in fact, have been exhausting on every front—economically, politically, globally—and our collective fatigue level is high. It’s hard to run life unceasingly at DEFCON 2. At the same time, there’s an innate optimism that comes with flipping to the blank slate of a new calendar year. It refreshes our spirits, revives our energy, stiffens our resolve and restores our hope for positive change.

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Update from State

Connie K. Duckworth / October 28th, 2010 / posted in afghan women, events, social change, social entrepreneur / no comments

Last Friday afternoon, Melanne Verveer, Ambassador for Global Women’s Issues, convened a meeting of the U.S.-Afghan Women’s Council in Washington, DC. I am honored to have been a member of this bi-partisan delegation since its inception in 2002. This is a group that is keenly interested in understanding the Administration’s position on protecting the hard-won rights of women in Afghanistan. Despite her hectic schedule due to the presence of the Pakistani diplomatic delegation in the building, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, USAWC’s Honorary Chairperson, joined the meeting to address our shared concerns head-on.

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Women’s Rights and Talib, The Night Visitor

Connie K. Duckworth / October 19th, 2010 / posted in afghan people, afghan women, events, social change, social responsibility / no comments

The reconciliation process with the Taliban got underway in earnest last week when senior Taliban leaders were secretly allowed into Kabul to meet with President Karzai and his advisors. These are the kind of guys who, if not for the white flag extended to them, might otherwise have a drone on their tails.

There have been two immutable conditions for such talks: 1) agreement by the Taliban to recognize Afghanistan as a democracy, and 2) women’s rights. But this week, we’re starting to see language shift around the first point–that the Afghan Constitution, hammered out and proudly ratified by the Grand Loya Jirga in December of 2003, already has proper mechanisms in place to sufficiently ensure democratic principles. What is glaring is the silence on women’s rights.

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Don’t Count Out the Afghan Voters Yet

Connie K. Duckworth / September 13th, 2010 / posted in afghan people, events, social change, social responsibility / no comments

With the Afghan Parliamentary elections less than a week away on 9/18, like clockwork, the naysayers are out in force talking them down. At the top of the list is the Taliban with its particular election messaging. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid is quoted as saying:

“We urge people not to participate in the election. Everything and everyone affiliated with the election is our target — candidates, security forces, campaigners, election workers, voters are all our targets.”

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Common Sense Is Not Common

Connie K. Duckworth / July 12th, 2010 / posted in social change, social programs, social responsibility, sustainable economic development / no comments

When I read about colossal development missteps, like the $104 million sewage system in Falluja, Iraq, funded for five years but never finished, that we’re walking away from, I can hear my mother’s voice reciting the litany of common sense truisms that I now try to drum into my children’s brains:

It’s quality, not quantity that counts.
Don’t bite off more than you can chew.
Good things come in small packages.
If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right.
Bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better.
(I’m sure you can add to the list.)

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A Ride on the “*hitter” and a Serendipitous Idea

Connie K. Duckworth / July 6th, 2010 / posted in afghan people, social change, social programs / 1 comment

According to the Oxford English Dictionary “serendipity” means: “the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way, as in “a fortunate stroke of serendipity; a series of small serendipities.” Horace Walpole coined the term in 1754 from the title of a fairy tale called The Three Princes of Serendip, where the heroes “were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of.” Flying back to Camp Leatherneck on a helicopter known as the “*hitter” because the ceiling pipes continually leak hydraulic fluid, I was once again struck by how much of a role serendipity has played in building ARZU STUDIO HOPE.

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Forced Marriage: A Crime Against Humanity

Connie K. Duckworth / June 1st, 2010 / posted in afghan women, opportunity, social change, social responsibility / no comments

Memorial Day’s New York Times article entitled “Afghan Child Brides Escape Marriage, but Not Lashes” is a graphic reminder of what’s at stake for girls and women in Afghanistan today. This is 2010 and the laws of civil society are supposed to now govern this country.

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Distribution: The (Social) Entrepreneur’s Dilemma

Connie K. Duckworth / May 27th, 2010 / posted in business social responsibility, economic sustainability, social business enterprise, social change, social entrepreneur, social investment, sustainable economic development / no comments

If “earned income” is the roadmap to sustainability for non-profits, then, for innumerable international NGOs, identifying robust distribution channels for the goods they produce is the interstate highway to success. These are the direct routes that connect emerging market seller with developed market buyer. Developing these connections is the hardest part of the entrepreneurial journey.

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For the Country to Work, Everday Afghans Need Work

Connie K. Duckworth / May 17th, 2010 / posted in afghan people, afghan women, economic sustainability, opportunity, social change, social programs, sustainable economic development / 1 comment

I founded ARZU STUDIO HOPE after a single visit to Afghanistan. I had no experience in the field of “International development,” no political agenda, and no special expertise. What I did have was some common sense and a firmly held point of view that a job is the universal enabler of hope for a better future. What I have come to understand is that it is also the universal equalizer in a civil society. I have come to see the right to work for one’s living as a basic human right.

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