Hasta La Gadget!

By Adèle Charbonneau

Target 11.7 of the SDG on cities aims to “provide universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible, green and public spaces, particularly for women and children, older persons and persons with disabilities.” Public spaces are critical in cities because they are the places where exchanges happen and society mixes. However, many cities around the world lack adequate and safe public space, restricting the opportunities of many, including women. Learn from four cities around the globe that have tried to provide safer cities for all.

In Sao Paulo, where women are the victims of more than 70% of sexual assaults that get registered through Brazil’s public health system, Feminicity launched a program to make streets and public spaces safer for women. Felipe Villela says the project asks women to paste their stories around the city. Messages like, “I hear a lot of things from men, threatening to beat me up. How can a women go through such things?” were all around the streets on International Women’s Day, March 8. Simultaneously, other women gathered in Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia to do the same thing. The event highlighted the solidarity of women in reclaiming spaces that have increasingly become threats to their lives. Feminicity’s program left behind pictures and brief testimonies, reminding passersby about the daily troubles women in these cities face all across Brazil, particularly in regards to their daily movements.

In Delhi, parents also insist that their daughters return home before sunset. Fear of sexual assault is as real as in Brazil. Safetipin has been working to combat that. The organization uses a map-based mobile phone app that crowd sources data from users and trained auditors to enable cities to become safer. Input from users about what they see or feel are quantified through specific indicators, like lighting or visibility, into safety audits and safety scores for hundred of ‘pins’ or locations across the city. In addition to providing safety information, Safetipin gathers big data that will inform urban stakeholders like the police, urban planning departments, and policymakers in their endeavors to improve safety conditions. Mukta Naik takes the example of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and the Public Works Department which are successfully leveraging this data to improve lighting in different parts of the city.

In Indonesia, Widya Anggraini presents two programs launched by the city of Surabaya: Women Friendly City and Women Economic Heroes, as part of a city-wide gender mainstreaming effort to overcome gender-related problems. To improve the availability of women-friendly infrastructure, the Indonesian government started to provide public facilities that enable women to do their activities based on their gender differences and needs. For instance, many of government offices are now equipped with lactation rooms as well as in some public spaces. The government also requested shopping center management to provide lactation rooms at malls. Attention to women is also reflected through the budget devoted to increasing women’s welfare. On the one hand, the government supports women through appropriate and thoughtful infrastructure to ensure women are able to fully participate in public spaces, and, on the other hand, the government is partnering with the economic sector to increase household income and foster women’s economic self-confidence.

In Curitiba, Andréa Azambuja takes the example of a group of citizens, Praça de Bolso dos Ciclistas, which turned a degraded area into a living area of cultural effervescence. It all started when Bicicletaria Cultural, a support center for cyclists, settled in the area and a group of bicycle activists began to take interested in sustainability and the social impact economy. Noticing the potential of the abandoned corner in front of Bicicletaria Cultural’s headquarters as a possible living space, the group provided a construction project and sought the support of the City Hall with the help of CicloIguaçu, an interface association with the government. With the endorsement of the state government, which agreed to donate the material that it had in storage and lend machinery and technical support from the municipal administration, the initial team began to schedule group operations on weekends and, within five months, with the support of over 200 volunteers, celebrated the completion of the project.

These articles presented initiatives from around the world to provide safer cities to all. Check out more of the discussion on innovations for greater equitability on URB.im and contribute to the debate.

Photo credits: Eliane Matos – Feminicity and Juju pelo Mundo

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

The Green News Report is also available via…

IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: More deadly floods, this time in West Virginia; Raging wildfire kills two in California, destroys hundreds of homes; Brexit could undermine international emissions agreement; Volkswagen to pay $15 billion in emissions cheating scandal; PLUS: TransCanada demands $15 billion from U.S. for rejecting Keystone XL pipeline… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

Listen online here, or Download MP3 (6 mins)…

Link:
Embed:

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): The inter-generational theft of Brexit and climate change; From Brexit to Climate, Little Engagement From Young People Washington State Must Fix Salmon-Blocking Pipes: Appeals Court; Study Finds Drilling and Fracking into Freshwater Formations; BP Oil Spill Cost Fishing Industry At Least $94.7 Million In 2010; Africa’s Charcoal Economy Is Cooking. The Trees Are Paying… PLUS: How The Battery Revolution Will Change How You Fly… and much, MUCH more! …

‘Green News Report’ is heard on many fine radio stations around the country. For additional info on stories we covered today, plus today’s ‘Green News Extra’, please click right here to listen!

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

One-quarter of U.S. GDP growth over the past 15 years is attributable to U.S. exports, and 11.5 million Americans go to work every day because our companies sell best-in-class goods and services overseas. But many of us are already aware that our ability to compete and export is impeded by market access restrictions such as tariffs. Just as importantly if lesser known, market access is also restricted by non-tariff barriers that include country-specific technical standards, import quotas and licensing, and price controls. These barriers number in the thousands, and exist in economies throughout the world.

That is precisely why the U.S. Commercial Service, a part of the U.S. Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration (ITA), prioritizes opening markets for American firms, including small businesses. This begins with our trade specialists in over 100 U.S. Export Assistance Centers and 75 plus international markets. They are the first line of defense against non-tariff barriers. In addition, we have experts located at our Commercial Service headquarters in Washington, DC. Our specialists provide information to businesses on distinct trade barriers in different countries. And when an American business needs guidance to overcome barriers in global markets, they are at the ready, often working closely with the ITA’s Enforcement and Compliance unit (which allows businesses to easily report suspected trade barriers on http://tcc.export.gov).

Our country and regional experts also work with their counterparts in a wide array of countries to establish a common understanding of sound and transparent regulatory practices.

The U.S.-Canada Regulatory Cooperation Council, a joint body to harmonize regulatory activities, has taken steps to help exporters while protecting health, safety, and the environment. Those include establishing a common electronic approval system for pharmaceuticals, achieving mutual recognition of animal disease zoning and food safety, and aligning risk assessment methodologies for pesticides.

Progress in this work sometimes takes years, but when it happens, it is truly meaningful. After 10 years of collaboration under the U.S.-Brazil Commercial Dialogue as well as bilateral discussions between the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and Brazil’s National Institute for Industrial Property, our two countries launched a patent work-sharing pilot program. The Patent Prosecution Highway will assist us in our joint efforts to streamline patent examination processes and reduce backlogs, allowing for faster market entry and facilitating greater two-way investment.

Tackling barriers is often one element of a whole-of-government approach to increasing bilateral trade with some of the largest, most important markets in the world. Under our Strategic and Commercial Dialogue with India, we developed specific workstreams related to standards harmonization, access for businesses of all sizes to information on national standards, conformity assessment, and sharing best practices to facilitate trade at the border.

With China, we have in place a longstanding official mechanism, the Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT). Through the JCCT, China has made commitments to streamline drug and medical device approvals, apply its antitrust rules in a nondiscriminatory way, suspend IT measures in the banking sector that previously discriminated against foreign products, strengthen its law protecting trade secrets, and ensure non-discriminatory treatment of foreign firms as it creates policies to develop its semiconductor industry. We are intently focused on implementing these and other commitments.

Then, there is our work to secure two historic trade agreements that will reduce and eliminate tariff and non-tariff barriers in markets comprising more than 60% of global GDP.

Through the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, we are working to ensure our companies have better access to a region with the fastest-growing middle class on earth. TPP will not only remove 18,000 tariffs on made-in-America goods and services. It will also remove non-tariff barriers such as localization rules and restrictions on data flows.

In Europe, we are creating new market opportunities for U.S. firms, especially SMEs, through the development of negotiating proposals for T-TIP; linking U.S. and EU SMEs and innovation clusters; securing business climate improvements; and assisting efforts to ensure the free flow of digital data and an open Digital Single Market.

And as the global economy becomes the digital economy, we are prepared to support American businesses in this new global marketplace. We launched a Digital Trade Officer initiative at overseas posts designed to address 21st century trade barriers and help the digital economy thrive. The program will assist U.S. companies in navigating digital policy and regulatory issues in foreign markets.

Helping companies break down obstacles to global trade is central to the work of the Commercial Service.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

We hear a lot about patriotism, especially around the Fourth of July. But in 2016 we’re hearing about two very different types of patriotism. One is an inclusive patriotism that binds us together. The other is an exclusive patriotism that keeps others out.

Through most of our history we’ve understood patriotism the first way. We’ve celebrated the values and ideals we share in common: democracy, equal opportunity, freedom, tolerance and generosity.

We’ve recognized these as aspirations to which we recommit ourselves on the Fourth of July.

This inclusive patriotism prides itself on giving hope and refuge to those around the world who are most desperate — as memorialized in Emma Lazarus’ famous lines engraved on the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

By contrast, we’re now hearing a strident, exclusive patriotism. It asserts a unique and superior “Americanism” that’s determined to exclude others beyond our borders.

Donald Trump famously wants to ban all Muslims from coming to America, and to build a wall along the Mexican border to keep out Mexicans.

Exclusive patriotism tells us to fear foreign terrorists in our midst — even though almost every terrorist attack since 9/11 has been perpetrated by American citizens or holders of green cards living here for a decade or more.

Exclusive patriotism is not welcoming or generous. Since the war in Syria began in 2011, we’ve allowed in only 3,127 out of the more than 4 million refugees who have fled that nation.

Republicans in Congress reacted to the Orlando massacre with a proposal to ban all refugees to the United States indefinitely. Rep. Brian Babin of Texas wants to place “an immediate moratorium on all refugee resettlement programs … to keep America safe and defend our national security.”

With El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua convulsed in drug-related violence, thousands of unaccompanied children and nearly as many mothers and children have fled northward. But rather than welcome them, we’ve detained them at the border and told others contemplating the journey to stay home.

Another difference: Inclusive patriotism instructs us to join together for the common good.

We’ve understood this to require mutual sacrifice — from frontier settlers who helped build one another’s barns, to neighbors who volunteered for the local fire department, to towns and cities that sent off their boys to fight wars for the good of all.

Such patriotism requires taking on a fair share of the burdens of keeping America going — including a willingness to pay taxes.

But the strident voices of exclusive patriotism tell us that no sacrifice should be required, especially by the well off.

Exclusive patriotism celebrates the acquisitive individual and lone entrepreneur. It tells us that taxes on the wealthy slow economic growth and deter innovation.

Trump wants to reduce the highest income tax rate to 25 percent from today’s 39.6 percent. No matter that this would result in higher deficits or cuts in Social Security, Medicare and programs for the poor. They’re supposedly good for growth.

A third difference: Inclusive patriotism has always sought to protect our democracy — defending the right to vote and seeking to ensure that more Americans are heard.

But the new voices of exclusive patriotism seem not to care about democracy. They’re willing to inundate it with big money that buys off politicians, and they don’t seem to mind when politicians create gerrymandered districts that suppress the votes of minorities or erect roadblocks to voting such as stringent voter ID requirements.

Finally, inclusive patriotism doesn’t pander to divisiveness, as does the alternative patriotism that focuses on who “doesn’t belong” because of racial or religious or ethnic differences. Inclusive patriotism isn’t homophobic or sexist or racist.

To the contrary, inclusive patriotism confirms and strengthens the “we” in “we the people of the United States.”

So will it be inclusive or exclusive patriotism? A celebration of “us” or contempt for “them”?

Inclusive patriotism is our national creed. It is born of hope. Mean-spirited, exclusive patriotism is new to our shores. It is born of fear.

Let us hope that this Fourth of July and in the months and years ahead we choose inclusion over exclusion, hope over fear.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

This $170 Chromebook has a super-thin design, 13 hours of battery life, and 4GB of RAM, all solid specs. But most importantly, it will support Android apps via Google Play in the coming months, which should dramatically
expand its capabilities. If you’re in the market for a travel-friendly portable, you could do a whole lot worse for the price.

Read more…