Hasta La Gadget!

A considerable number of college students struggle with mental health-related issues such as anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and eating disorders, among others. It is encouraging to see the growing dialogue and resources surrounding mental health on campuses; however, conversation surrounding mental health can be unevenly geared toward clinical diagnoses or solely attributed to academic stress. For such a pressing issue, on our campus and across the world, a limited understanding of mental health is potentially detrimental and thus unacceptable.

In reality, mental health is affected by a slew of other factors including class, sexuality, race, culture, and family history. Minorities within these categories are often especially affected, so it is vital to address cultural identities within our discussions of mental health. As an Asian American, I can attest from my own experience that there are pressures on my mental health as a direct result of the fact that I am a minority. For instance, I have been particularly affected by intergenerational conflict within my family as a result of immigration, language barriers, and the pressure to assimilate into Western culture. Typically, general discussions of mental health would not accommodate these culturally specific and relevant factors.

“In reality, mental health is affected by a slew of other factors including class, sexuality, race, culture, and family history.”

A study conducted by the Maryland School of Public Health in 2007 came to similar conclusions. Researchers analyzed the mental health needs of Asian-American young adults from eight communities: Asian Indian, Cambodian, Chinese, Indonesian, Korean, Taiwanese, Thai, and Vietnamese. The study examined 1.5-generation immigrants (defined by the study as individuals who came to the US before they were 16) and second-generation immigrants (individuals who were born in the US). Findings showed that participants reported several common sources of stress that affected their overall mental health, including discrimination due to their racial or cultural background, the pressure to live up to the “model minority”–a stereotype which inaccurately portrays Asian Americans as having integrated into mainstream culture and conquered the challenges of racial bias–difficulty balancing two different cultures, and developing a bicultural sense of self. In addition, participants reported that discussing mental health concerns was considered taboo in many Asian cultures, leading many Asian Americans to dismiss, deny, or neglect their symptoms rather than seek out help.

I grew up in California’s Bay Area, where the headquarters of major technological corporations like Google, Apple, and Intel, as well as the epitome of the American Dream for many immigrant families, are located. Underneath the happily-ever-after guise of manicured lawns and elite top-performing schools, however, many of my peers from immigrant families struggled with severe mental health problems. I went to Lynbrook High School, ranked the 32nd highest performing high school by Business Insider this year with a school-wide average SAT score of 2130. Despite these promising statistics, countless numbers of my peers struggled with stress, anxiety, and a pervading sense of failure due to culture-specific issues, like the struggle to reconcile bicultural identities and the pressure to fulfill their parents’ decision to migrate across the world for a better future. In my first year of high school, a suicide cluster occurred at a neighboring school, Palo Alto High School, where three students jumped in front of the Caltrain to their deaths. This horrific and rare series of deaths was a direct result of immigrant pressures and the extreme demands for excellence.

“For many immigrant families, war trauma, colonization, or industrialization in their homeland is a mere one or two generations away.”

Inherited historical trauma is another factor that ought to nuance our mental health dialogue. For many immigrant families, war trauma, colonization, or industrialization in their homeland is a mere one or two generations away. My grandmother lived through the death of her siblings, the introduction of electricity to Korea, and crossing the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea after it closed. Effects of colonization include the erasure of indigenous culture in exchange for Western values, and this has troubling implications with regard to how Western conceptualizes and treats mental health. Historical trauma becomes suppressed on an individual level as coping mechanisms take over, but it inevitably gets passed down from generation to generation. This sort of context cannot be excluded when discussing mental health because it then redirects blame from stigma within our communities toward greater evils, such as war or colonization. Broader concepts of mental health often neglect these especially relevant cultural ambiguities.

When discussions of mental health take place, it is important for us to integrate those relevant factors that have otherwise been left out of our conversations. As our society continues to rightfully destigmatize mental illness, a more nuanced discussion that prominently highlights the importance of our cultural backgrounds is necessary. From my experience, I know that pockets of minority groups struggle with pressures specific to their background and difficulties that arise from the disorienting experience of immigration. By factoring in these cultural differences to further our discussion of mental health, we allow our campus to be a more sensitive and inclusive space. There can obviously be no easy solution to mental illness, but a more culturally nuanced discussion of it is a necessary start.

The original article appeared on The Chicago Maroon.

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I came to Cuba to learn how a friend runs a top-rated place to stay on the island. I left with the pick used by Keith Richards to play the first song of the Rolling Stones’ historic free concert in Havana, selfies of our posse grooving next to the stage, and having chatted with Grammy Award winning music professor Rob Bowman of York University (whose interviews with the band members became the basis for the book According to the Rolling Stones). Here’s his review of the concert again.

By popular demand, here are two quick and generalizable take-aways of what it takes to create and grow (at last check) the No. 7 rated specialty hospitality business in a rapidly changing economy, and what Rodolfo’s Casa Caribe has in common with one of the most iconic acts in popular culture:

1. They love what they do. Professor Bowman echoed what others have observed about the Stones: “they don’t need to be doing this — they absolutely love performing.” Similarly, Rodolfo’s motivation and drive comes from genuine love for hosting guests: “I wanted to see the world but could not, so I brought the world to me.” He and his partner actually skipped the Stones’ free show out of exhaustion and the need to wake-up early to prepare breakfast for guests the next morning. That’s love and sacrifice and attention to one’s calling!

2. Behind the scenes is a relentless work ethic. What’s less obvious in both cases? That there is discipline and a ruthless dedication to detail and craft. According to Professor Bowman: “Jagger spends 4-6 hours per day prepping just dance moves before a tour, not counting other rehearsing.” Similarly, it is not unusual for Rodolfo and the closest members of his team to be attending to guests’ needs and itinerary planning and tidying-up during the day and past midnight, and then to be up at 5am taking care of guests all over again.

Upon further reflection, these are the two characteristics that have made practically anyone a success in any endeavor, including the arts, business, science, philanthropy, public service, attaining spiritual wisdom, sports, teaching, and raising a family.

Come to think of it, another embodiment of these two traits is Professor Bowman, who was asked to interview the Stones after Keith had read his carefully researched history of Stax Records. I asked Bowman: “how do you interview Mick, who’s been asked the same things a million times?” Bowman’s answer: “Preparation. A lot of preparation. Watching dozens of hours of video of him in concert dancing, and reading about how he’s prepped his stage moves from the start of his career. I was able to ask him about some movements that seemed new, and he engaged with me on where he found ideas, saying ‘This is quite interesting. No one has ever asked me these questions before.'” Again: love for one’s calling combined with a relentless work ethic tends to yield unusually good results.

May you also find your passion — a joy in whatever it is you do — and a drive that sustains you in your quest for your own unique choice of stardom. And also…

If there’s ever a spare t-shirt for VIPs thrown your way from backstage, may you catch that too, or better yet, may you end up a VIP in the eyes of the fans that matter most to you!

Keep an eye out for a teaching case study with more details about Rodolfo’s story of starting-up and growing his business in Cuba!

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The Hype Cycle, created by Gartner, provides a helpful and entertaining way to map how a technology develops from conception to maturity to adoption. As new technologies and ways of doing things come into the world, it takes experimentation to fully grasp the potential (or lack thereof) of something new. And much like in the private sector, where the Hype Cycle originated, it can be applied just as well to government.

New technologies start in the technology trigger phase, climb the peak of inflated expectations, fall into the trough of disillusionment, and traverse the slope of enlightenment before – finally – arriving at the plateau of productivity. Things go from new and shiny to mature, from hyperbolic to realistic expectations, from courageous first users to mainstream adoption. Some of course never make it to the end and fall into the graveyard of discarded ideas.

New Public Management (NPM) was at one point at the peak of inflated expectations but is now firmly and, many would argue, productively embedded in the practices of many governments. Along the way governments have learned, sometimes painfully, how to make best use of it.

With that in mind, and without being too serious or scientific about it, here are 10 selected hot topics in government innovation and their place in the Hype Cycle.

1) Artificial Intelligence: out with the humans, in with the machines
Transitioning out of technology trigger phase, scaling peak of inflated expectations
If you’re a policymaker, you should be very afraid. DeepMind has beaten the world’s best Go player, something all experts thought was at least another decade out, and governments are only beginning to grasp what might be possible using machine-learning and AI. When will you be replaced? Expectations are high but will rise even more as governments start experimenting in earnest with this technology.

2) Blockchain: one replicated, shared ledger to rule them all
Peak of inflated expectations
Blockchain is the technology behind Bitcoin. While worthwhile government applications for blockchain will surely emerge, hype notwithstanding, few people seem to genuinely understand what blockchain can and cannot do. Everyone is still trying to figure out where applications of this technology really make sense for governments and their citizens and what it’s really good for. No doubt worthwhile and potentially radical applications will emerge, but some disappointments seem inevitable along the way.

3) Design Thinking: Post it-sized, citizen-centred insights
Peak of inflated expectations
Originating in the world of product and service design, this method borrows heavily from ethnography and is particularly valuable to improving governmental services. Design is not likely to be the solution for all of our governmental problems, but you wouldn’t be able to tell if you only listened to some of the star speakers at design conferences. It’s a solid method that delivers great results if used thoughtfully and in the right context. We should stick with it through the disillusionment that may be coming as governments learn about the limits of the method the hard way.

4) Policy Labs: creative laboratories for better government
Just past the peak of inflated expectations, about to descend into the trough of disillusionment
Policy Labs are the hottest property in government innovation land. They bring together design thinkers and other creative problem-solvers to tackle government’s hardest problems. Organisations such as MindLab, OPM Lab and the UK Policy Lab are leading the way. The trough of disillusionment will likely come as more governments adopt the model, but it’s worth sticking with it since they, if set up and run well and given the necessary political backing, can make a difference.

5) Randomised Control Trials: randomise this!
Trough of disillusionment
Having originated in development economics many countries, regional governments and cities – developing and developed alike – are warming up to the idea that randomised studies of interventions can help them figure out what works and what doesn’t. After an initial hype practitioners and policymakers are now getting better at understanding where and how this method can deliver most value.

6) Social Impact Bonds: pay for success only
Trough of disillusionment
Social Impact Bonds, SIBs for those in the know, were first trialled in Peterborough, UK, in an attempt to reduce prisoner recidivism by using an innovative financing mechanism where private investors would get a return if a new intervention performed better than a conventional one. After much initial, and justified, excitement it today seems clear that they should work in theory, but it’s less clear how well they work in practice. SIBs are difficult and expensive to run, they likely have a place in the social services landscape, but it may be more limited than was initially thought.

7) Open Data: spray and pray
Trough of disillusionment
To the casual observer, it may not be immediately obvious if “open data” has produced much of practical value to citizens, other than better public transportation apps and free pizza at government-sponsored open data “hackathons”. Making government data easily accessible should improve accountability and allow smart outside actors to spot opportunities for improvement, but so far actual results have been somewhat below expectations.

8) Behavioural Insights: gently nudging citizens to better decisions
Slope of enlightenment
Behavioural science has given governments a new tool not just to better understand the sometimes odd decisions their citizens make but to find ways to gently nudge people towards better choices. The method is well on its way to mainstream adoption in some (Anglo-Saxon) countries, but remains under-utilised in others.

9) E-Government: bringing government websites into the 21st century
Slope of enlightenment
Allowing citizens to conduct their interactions with government online is a somewhat unexciting but absolutely essential service to citizens. No one should be subjected to long, pointless queuing to pick up a piece of paper anymore. Government Digital Services in the UK, 18F in the US and the entire Estonian government are showing how it can be done. Building user-friendly government online services can also act as a gateway to a more digitally enabled government in other areas.

10) Lean in government: cut the slack the Toyota way
Plateau of productivity
As a structured way to cut waste in all kinds of processes, “lean” has long established itself as a useful tool for government operations too, not just for car factories. While “lean” doesn’t generate any particular excitement anymore, it’s become a productive instrument to improve government services.

Not all countries, regions or cities are in the same place at the same time on this journey. Inflated expectations in one place co-exist with bitter disillusionment in others.

The movement of new ideas, methods and technologies through the Hype Cycle is inevitable, as we collectively take promising new approaches and figure out what exactly they can and cannot do. Asking about impact, rather than appearance, can help us get there faster and discern the useful from the hopeless a bit quicker.

Some amount of experimentation where the end result is unknown is, however, inevitable and indeed desirable. Odds are that all of these methods have some valuable contribution to make to better government. It is worth persevering all the way through to the plateau of productivity if we want citizens to reap the benefits.

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While society has made progress in its focus on nutrition and exercise habits, “the third leg of the stool is adequate sleep,” according to HuffPost president and editor-in-chief Arianna Huffington.

In the video above, Huffington sits down with Charles Best, the CEO and founder of DonorsChoose, to discuss how sleep deprivation especially affects kids and their education. The bottom line? Schools — and students — should be prioritizing proper rest.

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A woman in a Niger village cooks for her family. Photo © Stephan Gladieu/World Bank

The world is a better place for women and girls in 2016 than even a decade ago. But not for everyone, and definitely not everywhere: This is especially true in the world’s poorest, most fragile countries.

It’s also particularly true regarding women’s economic opportunities. Gender gaps in employment, business, and access to finance hold back not just individuals but whole economies–at a time when we sorely need to boost growth and create new jobs globally.

Some solutions to this problem are simple and others more complex, but all demand expanded investment to effectively boost school enrollment and completion rates, reduce deaths in childbirth, and get more women into good jobs with access to financial services and assets.

The World Bank Group’s new Gender Equality Strategy charts an ambitious course forward by focusing on approaches and interventions that achieve concrete results. Our strategy draws on a reservoir of data and evidence–gathered largely over the last decade and a half–that points toward specific policy actions to close gaps and expand equal opportunity for all.

First, we need to make sure that women are living longer and healthier lives and many more girls are getting the education they want and need. But in the poorest countries, maternal mortality remains unacceptably high, while many women still lack access to basic reproductive health services. Despite some significant gains, an estimated 62 million girls globally are out of school–while an unacceptable number of women still die needlessly in childbirth or from related causes every day.

The World Bank’s initiative in the Sahel, one of the poorest and most fragile areas in the world, aims to improve women’s access to reproductive and maternal healthcare. We are also scaling up investment in girls’ education, with US$2.5 billion to be disbursed over the next five years that will directly benefit adolescent girls, who often fail to transition from school to employment.

The second area that needs our attention is closing gaps in economic opportunity. Globally, women’s labor force participation has stagnated and even slightly fallen in some places. Women remain half as likely as men to have full-time wage jobs. Those who have paid work earn up to one-third less than men, partly as a result of occupational sex segregation.

Our Adolescent Girls Initiative piloted and rigorously evaluated innovative interventions that included business development training, technical and vocational training targeting skills in high demand, and life skills training. In Liberia, for example, it trained about 2,500 young women, with an emphasis on job placement and follow-up support. Through the project, employment rose by 47 percent while earnings increased by 80 percent.

Third is improving financial access. In many countries, women face legal and social barriers that prevent them from owning or inheriting assets, opening bank accounts, or accessing credit on their own. Female-owned businesses are generally smaller, with fewer employees, and they are more likely to be home-based. The credit gap for formal women-owned small and medium-sized enterprises is estimated at about US$300 billion globally. Nor is the gender gap in account ownership closing. In 2014, 58 percent of women had an account, compared to 65 percent of men–a 7 percent gap.

To support women entrepreneurs in Ethiopia, we disbursed US$22 million in loans to female entrepreneurs in 2014. The repayment rate was a stunning 99.6 percent.

Finally, we need to promote policies and reforms that give women more voice, in public and at home. This requires actions to change laws and social norms. And men and boys must be part of this.

There is some good news: More women hold parliamentary seats than ever before, while our research shows that 127 economies now have legislation against domestic violence, up from almost none 25 years ago. But 90% of economies covered in our survey, including developed and developing economies, have at least one law impeding women’s economic opportunities. In 100 economies, women are not allowed to work in jobs such as truck drivers, plumbers, carpenters, welders, and sailors.

Addressing the global epidemic of gender-based violence is vital. The Bank Group is supporting programs to reduce and respond to violence, to improve the safety and security of women in public transport systems and at work; and we are developing health and livelihood approaches for women in conflict areas who are at risk of displacement, violence, and rape. We are also exchanging best practices with other development organizations on how to integrate violence prevention and response into their work–and we are innovating.

Gaps in what we know about women and girls are huge, particularly in the poorest countries. This makes the task of diagnosing challenges, designing solutions, and benchmarking progress far more difficult. The Bank Group is working with UN agencies and other partners to address these data gaps–in vital statistics, asset ownership, time use, labor, health, welfare, and uptake of financial services.

Data gaps are particularly acute among the world’s poorest countries where more equality for women and girls will have a critical impact on poverty. Other data initiatives include Women, Business and the Law, Global Findex, the new Identification for Development (ID4D) Initiative, and support to the private sector to collect sex-disaggregated data.

Smart investments and sound policies that advance gender equality will be game-changers in building a more resilient, peaceful, and prosperous world. We know much better what works to achieve our goals–and the World Bank Group is resolved and ready to work with partners to get there.

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