Month: December 2010

Islam in Indonesia

Islam in Indonesia

Arif Zamhari is an advisor and top activist for the largest Islamic organization in Indonesia. The organization – Nahdlatul Ulama – has 40 million members and runs 12,000 Islamic schools throughout Indonesia. Nadhlatul Ulama promotes moderate and progressive Islam, and Arif Zamhari himself advocates tolerance, dialogue, education, and engagement with civil society as a way to counter terrorism.

Battling HIV/AIDS in South Africa

Battling HIV/AIDS in South Africa

Thembi Xulu is the clinical director for one of the largest HIV/AIDS treatment NGOs in South Africa. It’s called Right to Care, and it partners with the government, the private sector and other NGOs to improve access to safe, effective, and affordable treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS. It currently has about 170 service sites throughout the country and is actively treating some 105,000 patients.

Corporate Social Responsibility in China

Corporate Social Responsibility in China

Diana Tsui is the Director of Corporate Social Responsibility in China for the global powerhouse audit and tax firm KPMG. She also runs the KPMG Foundation and is the architect of the firm’s initiatives on poverty, diversity, and climate change in China. Before taking on these challenges, she was the Managing Director of Mercy Corps in East Asia and the Head of Community Affairs for Nike in Asia.

Black & White: Race Relations in the UK

Black & White: Race Relations in the UK

Marvin Rees is an activist on race relations and race equality in the UK. He hosts a BBC radio show on issues relating to the UK’s African and Caribbean populations, and directs the Bristol Partnership, a multisectoral initiative to improve health, sustainability, and standards of living in the city of Bristol.

The Financial Times Deutschland

The Financial Times Deutschland

Wolfgang Proissl was until recently the Brussels Bureau Chief for the Financial Times Deutschland. When he leaves Yale in a few short weeks, he will take up his new post as Frankfurt Bureau Chief for the same paper. He is known for his expertise and advocacy on European integration and has been responsible for a number of years for defining the editorial line of the Financial Times Deutschland on European issues and global governance.

Tea & Sympathy: A Plantation in India

Tea & Sympathy: A Plantation in India

Subhashini Chandran owns and runs the Woodbriar Group, a company with business interests in insurance, real estate, and tea. Its flagship operation, Tea Estates India, is the largest privately owned tea plantation in all of India. She is also engaged in social entrepreneurship, regional biodiversity councils, and ecotourism.

Drug Violence & Human Rights in Mexico

Drug Violence & Human Rights in Mexico

Ana Paula Hernandez is a 2010 Yale World Fellow who works on the front lines of the struggle for human rights and drug policy reform in Mexico. For several years, she worked on the ground in the largely indigenous and very poor region of Guerrero, where she was deputy director of a human rights center. More recently, she has turned her attention to reforming Mexico’s drug policy.

Lebanon: Politics & Peace

Lebanon: Politics & Peace

May Akl is the foreign press secretary for member of parliament and former prime minister of Lebanon, Michel Aoun. She is a founding member of the Free Patriotic Movement and also a university lecturer. Earlier in her career, she worked for An-Nahar newspaper and as a press officer in the office of the late Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Censorship & Speech in Bangladesh

Censorship & Speech in Bangladesh

An interview with 2009 Yale World Fellow Zafar Sobhan. Zafar Sobhan has been the Op-Ed Editor and a columnist for Bangladesh’s English-language newspaper of record, the Daily Star, for the past 6 years. He is also editor of Forum magazine, which has been described as Bangladesh’s first “think” magazine — providing serious commentary and analysis of the country’s most pressing issues.

Filming China

Filming China

An interview with 2009 Yale World Fellow Jian Yi. Jian Yi is an independent documentary filmmaker working primarily in China. He is the founding director of the Participatory Documentary Center in southeastern Jiangxi province, as well as of the ARTiSIMPLE Studio. His films Super Girls! and Bamboo Shoot have won him awards and acclaim on the international circuit – and reveal the social and cultural tensions of contemporary China.