hello there, i'm Nettra (pronounced according to spelling: net + tra = nettra).
i'm a global nomad and digital native currently based in Paris. i was born in California, raised in Phnom Penh and loved my three years in New York City.
i am a recovering political scientist keen on helping diverse stakeholders work together towards sustainable solutions to poverty. learning about the impact of technology, entrepreneurship and creativity on society is what gives me energy.
this tumblr helps me keep track of things which have happened to me, as well as the interesting, funny, inspiring and beautiful links i find this on this internet odyssey (read more).
for something more focused and structured (i.e., without photos of cute animals), you may like to browse my online art portfolio or visit my website. you can also find me on twitter, ask me a question or feed my fish.
Kant Help Me by Nettra Pan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Material posted here is my own, unless otherwise stated.
If you find your content here and would like me to remove or attribute it to you, please let me know and I would be happy to oblige.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
In that book, Aristotle criticizes the masses who do not act justly but “take refuge in theory and think they are being philosophers—behaving somewhat like patients who listen attentively to their doctors, but do none of the things they are ordered to do.
Sarah Ngu, on acting in the face of injustice.
Women have been particularly important to the success of Asia’s export industries, typically accounting for 60-80% of jobs in many export sectors, such as textiles and clothing.
(via Women and the world economy: A guide to womenomics | The Economist)
In poor countries too, the under-utilisation of women stunts economic growth. A study last year by the World Economic Forum found a clear correlation between sex equality (measured by economic participation, education, health and political empowerment) andGDP per head. Correlation does not prove the direction of causation. But other studies also suggest that inequality between the sexes harms long-term growth.
In particular, there is strong evidence that educating girls boosts prosperity. It is probably the single best investment that can be made in the developing world. Not only are better educated women more productive, but they raise healthier, better educated children. There is huge potential to raise income per head in developing countries, where fewer girls go to school than boys. More than two-thirds of the world’s illiterate adults are women.
Textiles is one of the, if not “the” largest export for Cambodia. Supporting “Made in Cambodia” often means supporting gender quality and female empowerment. You’re giving women the chance to earn a decent living and support their family in the countryside - often children parents not covered by social services (most developing countries cannot afford this). Or in some cases, the income is supplementing their partne’s hard work elsewhere.
To an economist, women are not exploited enough: they are the world’s most under-utilised resource; getting more of them into work is part of the solution to many economic woes, including shrinking populations and poverty.
Should the Pulitzer Board fail to meet these demands, I will have no choice but to unleash a torrent of bloody retribution that will shake this country to its very core. I shall slaughter young couples. Children. The elderly. Perhaps even precious Pulitzer favorite Nicholas Kristof, that smug prick.
Hilarious satire (is satire the right word here?). Thanks for sharing @NickKristof and for everything else you do.
I’m so excited to meet Bernard Krisher and Nicholas Kristof (again)!
If you have $325 to spare — this is the event to spend it on. FWAB is an amazing cause.
If you don’t have $325 to spare, but have a few minutes: please re-blog, re-tweet.
This organization is doing a lot to help poor families and sick children in Siem Reap, Cambodia. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting the founder, Kenro Izu (his photography is so beautiful) and some of the board members. While I’m no expert on these things, from the presentations I have seen at their previous benefits, their work seems comprehensive, sustainable and honest.
Cambodia has thankfully not experienced a natural disaster in the last couple of months, or years, but the country is among the poorest in the world and still lives with the effects of violent war and mass-killings. It is a developing country with ongoing needs and your money and attention would go far here.
Report From Tahrir by Nick Kristof
Nick Kristof blogs about his observations of the protests - before it was mostly male participants - but now it is democratizing. He notes that there are more women and even the cutest little thing:
Reminds me of a a tweet I saw earlier:
RT @dailydish Quote For The Day http://bit.ly/evNHuH
by Chris Bodenner
“its nice to see women who look like my mom/grandma hoping to overthrow a government,” - Tumblr user Aden, commenting on a family photo by Egyptian Flickr user monasosh.
Don't Try This Abroad - By Dave Algoso | Foreign Policy
Despite all my complaints, I think Kristof’s article does some good if it convinces more people to pursue international development as a career. We all start as amateurs. The difference is whether we seek to learn more or assume that we can just start doing something, muddling through as we go. The “DIY foreign aid” concept might spur a few people to launch ill-advised ventures that eat up scarce resources and get in the way of better efforts, but it might also convince a few others to read a couple books, go to graduate school, get jobs with professional aid organizations, and spend their whole careers making a real impact.
Let me introduce you to one of my favorite celebrities, Angelina Jolie.
- #21 of 100 Most Influential People of 2008: Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie by George Clooney
- Angelina Jolie on the Case Against Omar al-Bashir June 5th 2009
- Angelina Jolie’s Speech at the Council of Foreign Relations [Video]
- Reactions: She’s Actually Smart, Angela Jolie & Darfur
- Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie: Half the Sky Sweethearts
2009 09-21 - At Columbia University wearing my Cambodian krama with Nicholas D. Kristof, an award-winning NY-Times columnist who helped bring a lot of Cambodia’s darker realities to the public view, especially regarding human trafficking.
Here is link to his work on Cambodia: http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/cambodia/
Particularly interesting are his latest articles:
Does Haiti’s Earthquake Hurt Cambodia (http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/0 3/02/does-haitis-earthquake-hurt-cambodia/) and, on a completely different note:
Harry Potter in Cambodia (http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/05/harry-potter-in-cambodia/).
He also released a book in it’s zillionth printing about empowering women as a solution to poverty, called Half the Sky, which he (fittingly) wrote with his wife, also an award-winning journalist. Angelina Jolie loves it.
Can you tell I’m a fan?
