Chris is the Senior Online Campaigns Coordinator at ONE. Chris covers key moments and breaking news in the fight against global poverty for the ONE Blog. Before joining ONE in August of ’08, Chris worked on staff at the Children’s Defense Fund for two years. Chris was born and raised in central Illinois and attended Truman State University in Missouri where he received a degree in English and North American Literature. Chris now lives in Washington, DC.
Earlier this week, the Nigerian government removed a fuel subsidy that had kept gas prices in Nigeria artificially low. Because of this action, gas prices doubled basically overnight. As you could imagine, many people in Nigeria are not happy with this development (from CNN):
Furious Nigerians have since taken to the streets, staging ‘Occupy Nigeria’ protests and mass demonstrations across the country.
Police have responded forcefully with many arrests. At least one person has died amid the unrest: 23-year-old student Muyideen Mustafa was allegedly hit by a police bullet in Ilorin, Kwara State.
A police spokesman in Kano State also confirmed to CNN that they fired teargas into a crowd staging a midnight protest Wednesday in order to disperse a largely peaceful demonstration by Muslims and Christians.
For more information on the clashes, CNN has been following this story pretty closely and up-to-the-minute. And for a digestible rundown on the background leading up to the Nigerian government’s decision to eliminate the fuel subsidy, I’d recommend this useful Wikipedia entry.
Check out this great new slideshow from USAID reviewing the eleven biggest global health events of last year. It’s a very nice overview of some of the huge strides and achievements made in global health during 2011.
Welcome back to the ONE Blog! While scanning some of the big stories that broke while our offices were closed for the holidays, this one in particular caught my eye. Jennifer Hicks of Forbes reports on the new Lifelens Smartphone app that helps diagnose malaria with a drop of blood. Here’s Lifelens’ video explaining the app:
In case you missed it, Bono sat down recently for a great interview with Governor Mike Huckabee which aired Saturday night during his Fox News show “Huckabee.” They discussed the recent World AIDS Day event hosted by ONE and (RED) and the progress being made in bringing about the beginning of the end of AIDS. Governor Huckabee also discussed his involvement with ONE over the last 4 years.
So yeah, if you’ve been reading the ONE Blog, or getting our emails, or following us on Twitter or Facebook or Myspace, you know we’re pretty excited about our new app for iPhones. Please pardon all the shameless self-promotion. A lot of work went in to building this thing! And we’re excited that our members finally get to see it for themselves.
But of course, we made this app for you, our ONE members– tireless advocates in our campaign against extreme poverty and preventable disease. So what are you guys saying? Here’s a sample:
One other comment we’ve been seeing a lot of? “Why don’t you have a version for Droid/Blackberry/mobile web/etc.?” The answer: We’re working on that. Stay tuned, and those of you who have downloaded the app, let us know what you think in the comments. We really appreciate your feedback.
As Jeff noted earlier, the new ONE app for iPhones is officially available for download for free at your nearest iTunes store. If you haven’t yet, definitely check it out and let us know what you think. We’re working as we speak to enhance and improve it, and so far the feedback has been great. Here’s just a sample of the press we’ve gotten:
The ONE app is all about empowering the user. It acts like a tiny advocacy tool kit, teaching how to be a better activist. Take government calls, for example. The Latest section often asks users to call their local government official. The app provides the number, the official’s name and a sample text that users can read during the call.
The app, built by Radical Media (the folks behind Arcade Fire’s “The Wilderness Downtown” project), allows users to watch videos and read articles from ONE’s website, and then take actions based on those articles. Is ONE having a campaign to get the U.S. government to forgive developing world debt? You’ll be able to pull up all the relevant facts to convince people how important the issue is, sign a petition at the click of a button (and get your friends to sign, too), or be directed to who to call to formally lodge your opinion.
A friend just passed along this fascinating report on a new initiative being undertaken by our partner MercyCorps in Jakarta. Living in Washington, DC I’m pretty familiar with the concept of “food deserts” — that is, urban areas where it’s difficult to find grocery stores or fresh food in general. (You can read up a bit more about DC’s food desert challenge here).
This is of course a worldwide epidemic, and a big issue in Jakarta, Indonesia — a city in which “17 percent of children under the age of 5 suffer from acute malnutrition, while 12 percent are overweight” according to op-ed columnist Tina Rosenberg. A severe lack of kitchens and adequate sources of fresh, healthy food makes street vendors often the only viable source of daily meals.
ONE is campaigning to ensure that the Congressional budget does not cut foreign assistance programs like Feed the Future that help people break the cycle of poverty and hunger.
The Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in 60 years. More than 11 million people, mostly nomadic pastoralists and farmers in south-central Somalia, north-eastern Kenya, and south-eastern Ethiopia, are severely lacking access to food.
2011 marks 30 years since the first cases of AIDS were documented. Take a closer look at the specific, achievable goals we must hit by 2015 to make this year the beginning of the end of AIDS.
As aid agencies warn more than 9 million people could be affected by a food crisis in East Africa, world leaders are failing to keep their 2009 promises to tackle the causes of chronic hunger and support farmers in the world's poorest countries.
A friend just passed along this fascinating report on a new initiative being undertaken by our partner 
