ColaLife at the G20 Summit – G20 Voice – London - 2/4/09
March 31, 2009 by Simon Berry · Leave a Comment
I’ll be blogging here:
Tweeting here:
All blog posts and tweets with by tagged with g20voice
So far I’ve posted on:
- ColaLife is off to the G20 Summit!
- G20 Voice: Folding in the edges?
- Matthew Taylor on globalisation and the G20
- Keep an eye on those G20 Voice bloggers!
- Let’s mash it up at G20 Voice
- What are people in the G(n-20) countries thinking right now?
- An AidPod Made in Zambia
- Don’t forget the children plea
- Dame Barbara Stocking on ColaLife (video)
Over the next few days look out for:
- Gordon Brown on ColaLife (courtesy of Yoosk.com hopefully)
- Managing without growth
- Why innovation is needed to save children’s lives
PLUS a take on the other bits and pieces I pick up at the G20 Summit.
Dame Barbara Stocking on ColaLife
March 28, 2009 by Simon Berry · 1 Comment
I was asked to pop down to the headquarters of Oxfam GB today to put Yoosk.com users’ questions to Dame Barbara Stocking, Oxfam’s CEO, in the build up to the G20 Summit. While I was there I had to ask her for her views on ColaLife and the AidPod. Unfortunately, there was a technical clitch with the flip video (user error) and I missed the first part of her comments where she made the point that it is true that you can get a Coca-Cola in most places but access to simple medicines was more difficult.
Dame Barbara highlighted the ‘issues’ associated with the ColaLife idea which are very familiar to those of us who have been working on the campaign for 10 months. We have several red lines:
- The way ColaLife is implemented (or not) in any locality must be determined by local people and institutions. It should make these people and institions more effective;
- ColaLife must not undermine the existing Coca-Cola distribution system;
- ColaLife must have no detrimental effect on the incomes of those involved in Coca-Cola distribution and should preferably enhance it;
- ColaLife must not undermine local livelihoods;
- ColaLife must not undermine any system that is working!
You will note that at the end of the clip she says “Very exciting”.
Our thanks to Dame Barbara for allowing me to video (part!) of the convesation.
Don’t forget the children plea
March 27, 2009 by Simon Berry · Leave a Comment
. . . . from Save The Children (and me).
To put the staggering amounts spent to save the banks into context, the World Bank estimates that universal access to water and sanitation would cost $20-$30 billion and that not addressing the problem will cost roughly nine times as much. See 2006 Human Development Report: Beyond Scarcity: Power, poverty and the global water crisis, humdev2006.pdf pp. 8, 14, 42.
An AidPod Made in Zambia!
March 25, 2009 by Simon Berry · 3 Comments
Image credit: Alison Pearson
This is the first AidPod to be made in Africa (to my knowledge). And it was made in Zambia which is where the ColaLife idea was born way back in 1988. My friend Alison has been volunteering in Zambia for a couple of decades (or more) and currently helps out in the N’gombe Compound in Lusaka. Alison took this photo and here is the story behind it in Alison’s words:
Dear Simon,
Eh, they got a bit excited - there WAS a crate in there somewhere but it was
swamped in the melee!! However the boy is holding a coke and they are
shrieking with laughter so I thought it was a good one.
I got a teacher to explain what you were doing and why we wanted a photo
and they understood very well and were very eager to take part. Not many
of them would have reached their age without facing the death of a sibling
in their own homes so it’s close to their hearts for sure. They are from
N’gombe Compound in Lusaka. I volunteer there mainly raising cash for books
and desks, do a bit of teacher training and workshops etc and I run a feeding
programme for 60 kids two meals per day. I mainly pester friends and
relations and the Wild Geese etc but this year I was very fortunate to get
a little funding from the Catholic Secretariat which took the pressure off a bit.
If you want another pikkie with a crate I can try again.
All the best with the campaign.
Love, Ali
Thanks Ali! You’ve made my day!
How could Coca-Cola possibly say ‘No’?
What are people in the G(n-20) countries thinking right now?
March 23, 2009 by Simon Berry · Leave a Comment
Image credit: From J N Ruxon, Medical Hostory, 1994, 38: 363-397
Early one morning in 1988 I arrived early for a meeting in Chinsali, a small town in NE Zambia. I went into the dilapidated council chamber. There was no one else there and on the table was a copy of the Mining Mirror. It stood out because I’d never seen a copy before (Chinsali is miles away from Zambia’s copper belt, where the Mining Mirror is published) and it was printed to a very high quality which contrasted starkly with the dilapidated surroundings.
On page three, bottom right was a picture very similar to the one that accompanies this text except that it was an African mother and child and there was no medicine so the photo smacked of desperation not hope. Along with the photo was a caption that went something like this:
1 in 5 of our children don’t make it to their 5th birthday
When we’ve sorted out this human catastrophe
we’ll start looking into the AIDS issue
At that time this view was not unusual. AIDS was seen by many people in low income countries as a preoccupation of the rich world. It’s something we, in the rich world, could actually catch and die of - a direct threat to us. A child dying in Africa from diarrhoea evokes our sympathy but not our fear. Not so in Africa. Today, in Africa alone, 4 children die every minute from simple causes like dehydration from diarrhoea. That’s 5,500 a day, 2 million a year. And those statistics have not really changed significantly since that morning in Chinsali twenty years ago. Tragically, the figure for HIV/AIDS deaths is now very similar: 1 every 16 seconds.
I wonder what the poor in Africa are thinking right now about the credit crunch? What do you think?
Let’s mash it up at G20 Voice
March 20, 2009 by Simon Berry · 1 Comment
Image credit: Marcus Correa
I’ve gone through the elation phase after being nominated as one of the G20 Voice bloggers and now I feel a huge weight of responsibility on my shoulders.
Please help.
Post your thoughts and ideas. What issues are important to you? What should I blog about? Point to evidence to support your case if you can . . . . anxious not just to rant (too much)!
Comments please.
Keep an eye on those G20 Voice bloggers!
March 20, 2009 by Simon Berry · Leave a Comment
I’ve set up a Pageflakes page to help me keep a track of what’s going on amongst the G20 Voice bloggers and I’ve made in public. I will try and keep this up to date as new bloggers are announced. If you are a blogger and I’ve missed you, sorry! Please comment below and I will correct that.
Delicious bookmarks to the bloggers’ sites are also here: delicious.com/s1m0nb3rry/blogger+G20voice
Thumbnail on ColaLife in today’s Guardian 18/3/09
March 18, 2009 by Simon Berry · 4 Comments
The following mention of ColaLife appeared in a ‘Social pioneers’ supplement in today’s Guardian. It’s worth getting the supplement if you are interested in this sort of thing. People have been looking for this online and I don’t think it’s there. So here’s a photo of the ColaLife bit:
Matthew Taylor on globalisation and the G20
March 16, 2009 by Simon Berry · Leave a Comment
I was honoured to be asked by David Wilcox and the folks at Yoosk.com to put the questions of Yoosk members to Matthew Taylor, Chief Executive of the RSA and ex political adviser to Tony Blair. That bit was easy . . . asking the questions again afterwards to an empty chair, to get the reverse angle shots, was more of a challenge. Paxman need not worry. His job is safe!
Here is Matthew on globalisation and the G20.
You can see all of the questions and answers on the Yoosk’s London Summit site or on Yoosk’s YouTube Channel.
After the interview I showed Matthew the ColaLife AidPod. He’d heard of ColaLife and is to put me into contact with one or two people he thinks can help. I am a fellow of the RSA and ColaLife is to be featured in the next issue of the RSA Journal which should be out at the end of March.
Myaidpod turns up on the grass in Dundee
March 15, 2009 by Simon Berry · Leave a Comment
Redjotter is the first to post a picture to Flickr of an Aidpod made using the instructions here.
Tagging the picture with ‘myaidpod’ means it’s popped up here.
What others are saying about ColaLife- ColaLife on Flickr
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