Global Articles

Mobile apps and tablets have assumed a prominent position in the landscape of technology use in education and training, as anticipated by the EDUCAUSE 2012 Horizon Report. With mobile phone subscriptions totaling around six billion, and predictions that sales of tablets and e-book readers will increase substantially as prices continue to fall, mobile devices are rightly seen as a compelling means of solving pressing global problems in education. Numerous successes have already been recorded.

 In October 2012, Malala Yousafzai was shot by the Taliban in Pakistan’s northwestern town of Swat when she was returning home from school in a van. Why did the Taliban perceive a schoolgirl as a grave threat to its agenda of radicalizing youth? Armed with pen, enlightened with knowledge, and charged with the passion of fighting for the right to girls’ education, 14-year-old Malala has had no less of an impact than a drone in combating Talibanization.

In the shadow of China’s and India’s inroads into the African continent, South America’s emerging power, Brazil, has been increasing its presence in Africa. However, its role in Africa has remained relatively unnoticed by international media and academia thus far. Brazil’s low visibility in Africa cannot be explained exclusively by the fact that its financial engagement is still limited in comparison to that of China or India. An explanation would also need to include the unique way the South American power has interacted with Africa. Brazil has presented itself as a partner for Africa’s development challenges rather than as a business partner.

As the Doha summit came to an end last month, many left unsatisfied. No concrete progress was made on the planned new protocol agreement for 2015, which, unlike the Kyoto Protocol, would require all nations—not just the wealthy— to cut emissions. Even an outline of the new protocol has yet to be reached. Furthermore, the billions of dollars of funding intended to help developing countries adapt to potential consequences of climate change was postponed for another year. However, the failure of governments to reach effective solutions regarding climate change is not a new trend to the international community. Christiana Fugeress, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change stated after Doha that “the international policy response is fundamentally behind where the science says we are.” As the frustration over the slow pace of international discussions about climate change starts to grow, many people are starting to question whether the fight against climate change is something that should be left to the government alone, or whether the private sector should start playing a larger role.