Economics

It's a battle of the ideas. Watch. Read. Be critical. Argue. Figure things out.

Teaching

It's more important to teach how to think than what to think.

Cooperació internacional

Des de la solidaritat, l'estima i el respecte entre els pobles i les persones.

Technology teaches

Tech tools that help us teach... and learn.

Londres no és Itaca

Però ha d'estar en el camí.

dilluns, 20 d’agost del 2012

Kill all the bacteria!


Como tengo menos tiempo (y fuerzas) para escribir os dibujo una escena corta, casi una foto (quiero puntualizar que el hecho de que intuya que se agradezca por parte del sufrido lector no tiene nada que ver: ni una concesión al márqueting, faltaría más, yo soy un artista):

Sí, sí, cinco estrellas, sí.
Imágenes de mi primer empleo miserable en Londres. Sinopsis - Un hotel de cinco estrellas es un sitio limpio y fiable donde puedes comer tranquilo un plato por un precio ridículamente abusivo, ¿no? Escena - Una sala de eventos modernamente decorada y llena de casetuchas de esas de arquitectura efímera, todo poliuretano y pegatinas de vinilo con eslóganes ocurrentes. Como veis al fondo hay un ventanal que ocupa toda una pared con una vista prescindible del tráfico de Londres, las mesas son funcionales pero suntuosas y el suelo es de moqueta. Se celebra un congreso (digamos que de contenido indeterminado) y el lugar está todavía desierto. Ahora imaginaos el backstage, lo que no ve el público. Pasad por una  doble puerta batiente y veréis, ya sin parafernalia ni letras sofisticadas, un pasillo larguísimo que comunica la sala con una cocina inmensa, para cientos de comensales. Apoyadas contra la pared hay unas estanterías metálicas y anchas llenas de platos, vasos y cubiertos limpios, recién salidos de los lavavajillas industriales. También se acumulan contenedores de plástico de distintos tamaños, grises o blancos, con más platos de postre, de café, jarras, tenedores. Son las ocho de la mañana y los cocineros se hacen bromas en algún idioma eslavo mientras un manojo de camareros se dedica al polishing del que ya os hablé en capítulos anteriores. Si os fijáis estoy yo sentado en un cajón, dándole al trapo húmedo como un buen soldado. Estoy con un húngaro bendecido con una calva de padre y un tipo de Manchester, cuya madre claramente fumaba durante el embarazo. Crack, fumaba. Sentaos a nuestro lado, con legañas como panes de pueblo y observad esto: Entra uno de los managers del servicio, acelerado, coge una botella de desinfectante industrial: el líquido es rosa fosforito, en la etiqueta hay pequeños cuadrados negros y naranjas con letras blancas, teléfonos de emergencia en caso de ingesta involuntaria y una equis amarilla bastante grande. Es un producto de limpieza de los que puedes elegir entre ponerte guantes o quitarte la piel poco a poco, porque además es corrosivo. En la etiqueta pone: usar con guantes. También pone: aclarar abundantemente con agua, comprobar el efecto en una pequeña parte de la superficie que no se vea antes de aplicarlo de manera general. Lo empuña y con una risa maléfica rocía todos los platos, todos los vasos y todos los cubiertos al grito de kill all the bacteria, kill all the bacteria. Ala, y vosotros a pulir el instrumental que ahora ya está húmedo sin necesidad de agua caliente. Quizá deba insistir en el detalle de que esos son platos limpios, que ya han pasado por el lavavajillas y que no van a volver hasta que los huéspedes los hayan vuelto a ensuciar despreocupadamente.


el post visto por @SaraMarcos4. Eres grande, chica.


Vale, vistas así dan asquete, pero, ¿estamos todos locos?
A ver, my friend, pedazo de hotentote, las bacterias son unos simpáticos microorganismos que viven por millones en tu cuerpo sin molestarte especialmente y que, de hecho, necesitas para muchos de los procesos digestivos. En todo caso no se me ocurre qué bacterias potencialmente dañinas pueden salir vivas de un lavavajillas industrial. Pero no, mejor matemos a las bacterias llenando los vasos y los platos de plomo, metales pesados, ácidos de nombres heptasilábicos... luego pongamos alguna delicatessen con, por ejemplo, salsa de arándanos y alentemos a los comensales a que mojen pan en tu desinfectante industrial y se lo beban en el café. Así podemos seguir la acción corrosiva y desinfectante desde dentro de los clientes, que la calidad del hotel les acompañe hasta la tumba. Literalmente. Eso sí, bacterias ni una, oiga. Yo por mi parte voy a comer en un plato de papel, gracias.


dimarts, 14 d’agost del 2012

about charities

Few months ago I was shortlisted in a selection process for a Grant Scheme. At the end, unfortunately, they decided not to give me the grant but I got to the last stage and it costed me a big effort to answer all their questions with only a few spare hours a week -I was making long shifts as a waiter and living far away. Yeah, it was a pity. However I believe that the work done say something (either good or bad) about me, my view of the charity sector and some of my skills. It could be they had someone better fit for purpose or just I was a  newcomer to London -Now I'm living here a whole year and I believe I've got the grip. Although I am specialized in international development, there are all across the UK many charities I'd love to work for, and quoting one famous gentleman, I'm an optimist, it does not seem too much use being anything else, therefore I've decided to recycle some answers here, just in case someone in the sector think they are worth an interview. Indeed, we live the social job hunting era so, why not?


Do charities make a profit?

Of course they do. Even though charities are sometimes called Not-For-Profit, I believe that this name can be misleading. The third sector organisations make a social profit, it is to say, they make a profit not for their owners, as a private company would do, but for the whole society. And we don't need to be talking about economic profit only. Actually, I don't like the name charities either, because it seems to me that it takes to a picture of unequal and hierarchic relationships going from who has to who has not (money, capabilities, knowledge) based in a sort of somehow hypocritical generosity, a picture which I believe is completely wrong. I'd prefer to talk about cooperation, social organisations, third sector or non-governmental organisations. Words are important, they say and they do, as we might put it, and I try to use them in a conscious way.

Describe the purpose of twitter in 140 characters

twitter is the most powerful, immediate and horizontal tool for spreading information, ideas and actions #p2pmedia #democraticmedia




Why is it important to build a relationship / partnership with a donor?
uncle Scrooge willing to donate

In my opinion it is key to build a healthy and honest relationship with donors. NGO work is not an occasional and static work, it is rather dynamic and constant, so it is fundamental to establish a transparent and careful relationship with them, because it is very important to ensure that donors are aware and satisfied with the work done and that our performance fits with the donor's interests and priorities now and in the future. In addition, a good relationship with current donors is a basic tool to achieve new ones and, besides, the feedback generated between both parts is an essential improvement tool for our organisation. Donors must know what we do, how we do it and which actual results are provided with their contribution, while we need to know how they feel about it and how they think we could improve our performance.

What are the three greatest challenges currently facing the not-for-profit sector?

This is a rather difficult and opened question, in a complex and changing environment. I would say, firstly, that the current financial crisis affects the sector in a particular double way: on one side it is harder to obtain the resources needed to develop the tasks entrusted and, on the other, it increases the targets we have to try to achieve and reduces the social protection networks and other formal and informal support tools that the beneficiaries could use before. Therefore I would consider the global crisis, together with a certain dismantling of the welfare state, as the first challenge we are facing. Secondly, too many times the NFP sector, in part may be due to the name issue, is not considered -and regrettably sometimes dealt with- as a serious, reliable and results-oriented sector. Consequentially some initiatives don't develop their full potential and at the same time we could find examples of superficial evaluations within the organisations themselves. My third challenge would be the mismatch between the skills of its workers and volunteers and the demands of the society. Consistently with what we have commented about charities displacing public sector in many fields and a not completely professionalized workforce, we find a gap between skills and needs, which should be resolved with a big effort in formation and a change in mentality. In any case, challenges are opportunities, and this is an exciting time to start a career in the UK's third sector.


I love when they ask you to write a tweet about the purpose of twitter o.0 I can't help to link here this awesome answer to another question about NGOs, in a Spanish Town Hall. Sorry, not-Spanish speakers, I haven't found subtitles:



Stage 3:

They asked a few more stuff related to charities management, community management in Charities and ICT. Firstly, they asked me to write some tweets, promoting now different campaigns of a charity. I am rewriting them again, to make it more realistic:





Then I had to make a pie chart with another charity's budget. They gave me this:



and I gave them back this:


I also had to create a poster promoting a fundraising dinner. This was a bit tricky because I didn't have too much info, nor original pictures neither time enough to do it as I'd have liked to. I managed to do this:



Well, there were some more questions -a Facebook profile, chosing business to visit and invite them to the dinner and so on. Anyway it was fun, despite the lack of time.