What would you say if I gave your donations to someone whom (until recently) I never met, who used it on a country I've never been, and helped people I've never seen?
What you would get is this video:
First, it must be said that this is far less sketchy than it seems. Rohan was a friend of mine long before I sent him a dime. I trusted him enough as a friend before I entrusted him with part of this project. That, of course, does limit how often I can do things like this.
Second, there is a specific reason I wanted ...
Why I Went to VidCon
[caption id="attachment_2489" align="aligncenter" width="481" caption="Hank & John Start VidCon Early in the Morning (thus the rare shot of empty seats)"][/caption]
VidCon. In a word? WOW. As one friend put it, "it's like the internet exploded into real life". It was surreal, amazing, & awesome to meet people that I've only been able to see through my computer screen.
Even though there wasn't nearly enough time, I'm in awe at how seamlessly online friends turned into "real life" friends. In most cases it's like you've known someone for ages and are just hanging out.
[caption id="attachment_2488" align="aligncenter" width="482" caption="This photo makes me look more ...
My 5 Fact Pitch to Save the Children
It's the first of April, and I'm standing in a dimly lit room with a bright projector light blinding me. In front of me, some high ranking officials who came to hear me speak. This is no April's Fools joke: this was my presentation to Save the Children USA's Global HQ.
[caption id="attachment_2423" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Save the Children's USA HQ (pic by Madge Canning)"][/caption]
After an hour of Keynote slides, graphs, and videos I was pleased to see that my presentation was well received. Lots of nodding heads. But I needed one more thing. I need to drive the message home. It ...
Does Steve Jobs Care about Global Poverty?
Less than 24 hours ago, Apple surpassed Microsoft to become the world's biggest tech company. As someone who used to spell Microsoft with a dollar sign, I can't believe what I'm about to say: this is a bad thing for the world.
The only thing I love more than Apple is what I use my Mac gear for: fighting poverty in developing countries. In this regard, unlike Microsoft & Bill Gates, Apple & Steve Jobs don't seem to care much about poverty and global development.
[caption id="attachment_2235" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="One runs the biggest tech company in the world, the other is a global ...
Wow – what a difference a couple of months make. It feels like yesterday I was sweating bullets. There I was in Dhaka staring at a dead LaCie harddrive – three months old, full of important footage, and not turning on. I decided that, after over a year in the field, now was probably as good a time as any to take a much needed break. I returned home to find a renewal bill from my webhost that I couldn’t afford. As nice as they are, they were none to eager to sponsor something that wasn’t a tax-writeoff for them.
I’ve been very fortunate that there have been people that have swept in from nowhere and turned rotten situations into opportunities. The first was with the support of a company called Media Temple. If you’ve heard of these guys you know they are one of the biggest hosting companies out there. They host Adobe, ABC, Time, Starbucks, Toyota, Warner Brothers, and Sony. They generously offered to partially subsidize the hosting costs. Uncultured.com is now hosted with them and they foot part of the bill.
The switchover allowed me time to try some new things – like a new look for the site. For the past couple of weeks I’ve been spending time making a new logo, header images, and layout for this site. These past couple of weeks reminded me of why I absolutely love working on this project. Whether it’s going out in the field, helping hands on, editing footage, making YouTube videos, tweaking CSS, or making new logos – I love every aspect of this project.
I couldn’t have done this alone – I have to thank Patrick (the same Patrick whose donations were used to sponsor Jack in the Chittagong Hill-Tracts). Patrick was able to help me with some of the more complicated technical stuff a n00b like me couldn’t handle. I also gotta thank Morgan (FlawedArtist) who helped with some feedback on the header images I made (as well as with help trying to renew my Flickr Pro account). And, of course, my parents who (once again) dipped into their savings and helped me pickup a new harddrive at Costco so that I could get things rolling again.
The best is yet to come. And this new look is just in time for Blog Action Day too
I titled this video “Using YouTube with a Purpose” because, really, this couldn’t have been done without the help of a little website called YouTube and the community that is part of it (in particular the Nerdfighter community). From the donors Hank and Pat – both of whom are YouTubers – to the musicians who lent their music for free in this video such as Jamison Young, Brad Sucks, and Josh Woodward. And, here in Bangladesh, if Rick Davis never found my videos on YouTube – I would have never thought to make this trip nor would I have been able to meet the amazing children in this rural village.
If you notice in this video, I use a clip from one of my sadder videos – The Hard Lessons of Aid Work. That’s because, even though I don’t talk much about it in this video, I did learn a lot from this experience. I now have a better understanding about why big name charities need to have large overhead and infrastructure. I also have a better understanding of how help can sometimes come with a risk and how even trying to help can sometimes have it its pros and cons.
All that plus some photos from the field after the jump.
This is what I mean when I say I want to “YouTube with a Purpose”. If it wasn’t for YouTube, most of you wouldn’t be reading this. If it wasn’t for YouTube, I’d never get to meet Hank and John Green. If it wasn’t for YouTube, Hank would never have thought to donate to some guy with a crazy idea for a project in Bangladesh.
Photos, deleted scenes, and much more after the jump.
… or how much of my family in Bangladesh doesn’t give a damn about me.
I try and avoid writing about negative family issues because it kind of feels like I’m airing dirty laundry. Although I’ve tried my best to minimize how much I talk about this issue, the fact is the single biggest emotional toll I have had on this trip is discovering that most of my family here simply doesn’t give a damn about how I’m doing here or if I need their help. That’s not universally true of course. My grandmother has completely blown me away with her endless compassion and generosity despite her unemployment and her limited fixed income. But, as she often points out, “big wallets don’t always mean big hearts”. This also connects to what I’ve been saying earlier about many wealthy Bengalis living in an “aristocratic dome” (something thicker than just a bubble).
This ended up being a much longer article (rant?) than I imagined. So the complete article is after the jump.
Wow! I knew rural Bangladesh was beautiful. But the natural scenery and beauty of the Chittagong Hill-Tracts was a whole other level of beautiful. The people (like these kids above who asked if they could take a photo with me) were friendly and welcoming too! And, best of all, because I was in a mostly Buddhist village – I could finally wear shorts! I can’t really do that in most parts of Bangladesh without getting scolded (or getting stern looks) from the local Muslim population.
This is not a charity, organization, or anything formal. It’s my journey to try and make the world a better place - one meaningful difference at a time. It’s about inspiring others to believe that we can be the generation that ends extreme poverty. Hopefully, this project can also show the big multinational organizations that there is a better way to engage people on the issue of global poverty.
About Me
I'm Shawn - a 29 year old Canadian from Toronto. Before starting this project, I was a graduate student on scholarship at Notre Dame University. My life took a turn after I met Dr. Jeffrey Sachs (author of the book "The End of Poverty") when he came to give a speech at Notre Dame. That speech inspired me to withdraw from grad school, liquidate my savings, and begin this journey to try and make the world a better place - one meaningful difference at a time.
