#informal economy

[cognitivejustice]

Learning from the land: Using indigenous knowledge for climate-sensitive circular lifestyles

Indigenous techniques like natural resource renewal, tree-based farming, traditional mud-and-wood housing, and consuming local, uncultivated foods, can address some aspects of climate change and also bring about a sense of responsibility and connection with nature. Promoting agroforestry and integrating trees into farms can improve biodiversity and soil health. Adopting drought-resistant crops and traditional methods like rainwater harvesting, mulching, and using organic manure is vital for conserving moisture, enhancing soil fertility, and minimising external inputs. Building on these approaches, there is a powerful social dimension that further amplifies their impact.

But before proposing viable solutions, we need meticulous landscape mapping: understanding community environments, traditional knowledge systems, and specific vulnerabilities. Fully understanding these dimensions can pinpoint exact strategies to reduce our ecological footprint, and promote lifestyles that minimise electricity consumption and resource use, while drawing on ancient wisdom to enhance our modern lives.

[solarpunkbusiness]

Musana Carts: Solar-powered business in Uganda opts for open source IP over patenting

Taking its name from a Ugandan word for ‘sunshine’, the Musana cart uses an in-built solar panel to power an eco-friendly stove and a small refrigerator. By removing the need for charcoal burning, the Musana cart produces far less smoke than other food vendor carts, ensuring a cleaner and safer experience for both workers and customers. Other innovations include light bulbs, to allow the vendor to work at night, and phone chargers, so that they can offer mobile money services.

The decision not to patent the Musana cart could have been seen by Nataliey and the team as a setback, but it instead encouraged them to return to their original vision and mission of social innovation: making the livelihoods of Africa’s street food vendors cleaner, safer and more sustainable.

They realized that the more people who had access to their cart designs, the better, and that patenting their invention could restrict access. On this basis, they decided to open source their IP so that vendors across Africa were free to improve their lives through their innovation. When IP is open source, it means that other people and groups can freely use, modify and share it.

After several years of selling to vendors, Musana Carts is already having a positive impact in Kampala. The solar-powered food carts have proved to be cleaner, more hygienic and more sustainable than traditional charcoal-fueled food carts. The Musana cart’s in-built lighting allows vendors to work at night if they choose, giving them an opportunity to earn more. Musana carts can be purchased in installments, making them more accessible to poor workers. The company has also teamed up with Kampala Capital City Authority to ensure that Musana carts are legally recognized, freeing vendors from the risks and uncertainties of working in the informal economy.

Although she sees the value in patent protection in more economically developed countries, where the legal framework is in place to ensure that an individual can be remunerated for the use of their innovation or invention, she knows first-hand that this is much harder to establish in African markets. Consequently, Nataliey encourages female inventors not only to monetize their innovations in their markets, but to share them outside of their capacity as well.

Equally importantly for Nataliey, however, is the philosophy behind open source IP. When there are so many challenges facing the world, she argues, no one individual or organization can satisfy every market need. She feels that there’s room for many to thrive. Furthermore, Nataliey believes that open sourcing can incentivize further innovation by allowing people to build on each other’s inventions. It’s the concept of cooperation, codependence and community at the heart of the African philosophy of ubuntu: ‘I am, because you are.’ Nataliey’s hope is that her company’s use of open source IP will help make this concept a reality for street food vendors across Africa.

A case study on open source innovation from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)

[clearlyoutrageous]

It's easy to imagine capitalism as this inescapable, monolithic omnipresence, but that's not exactly true.

Capitalism has weight, it has variable density, it's stretchy in some places, and paper-thin in others. It can't reach everything because it requires infrastructure and people willing to carry it places. It needs to be fed, and you can choose to let it starve.

If you don't know where to start, start by paying attention to what people in impoverished communities do to help sustain each other and by extension themselves. They trade in food, time, manual labor, childcare, secondhand goods, and transportation.

Fuck self-sufficiency. It's time for Interdependence. Always offer help and always accept it. Cook meals for the people you love. Grow fruits and vegetables and give them to your neighbors. The "independent" person is merely the perfect version of a Consumer, eating directly from the palms of Corporation. Fuck self-sufficiency. Need one another.

[detroittoaccra]

New book alert - Making an African City: Technopolitics and the Infrastructure of Everyday Life in Colonial Accra

If you haven’t seen it already, Making an African City – a new book I published with Indiana University Press – is now out and is available for sale on the IUPress website, Amazon, and other typical booksellers. Most exciting, however, is that it is also available open access on the IUPress website as part of a new initiative supported by the trustees of Indiana University and you can access it…

[worldstatisticsday]

Accurate data is the foundation for precise policies to tackle informality.

Newly adopted statistical standards will improve measurement of the informal economy.

[socialjusticeday]

Improving workers' protection and enterprises' sustainability.

On the occasion of World Day of Social Justice 2022, ILO Director-General, Guy Ryder, says international community has a rare chance that must not be missed to shape a recovery from COVID-19 that delivers social justice for people and protects the planet we all depend on.

We need a response that focuses on people. That promotes social justice for all while protecting the planet we all depend on.

One priority must be formalizing the informal economy, where 60 per cent of the world’s workers still earn their living, often in poverty, with few rights or protections.

Other key steps must include:

Universal social protection.

Improving workers' protection and enterprises' sustainability.

Promoting decent jobs and inclusive economic growth.

And, creating a just transition towards a carbon-neutral global economy.

To bring it all together we will also need greater and more coherent co-operation between countries and between multilateral organizations.

It’s an enormous challenge. But, we already have a roadmap to guide us.

[azuremist]

PSA for anyone raising funds here

I need you to know that tumblr is a KNOWN shit place to raise funds. Whether it be for commissions or for GoFundMes. Especially right now.

Whenever the topic of places to post to comes up in art or other freelance communities, people will say, "Don't expect a steady commission stream from tumblr." I've been doing commissions here for years, it's easily my biggest platform, and yet I have gotten over 300% more commissions from my Twitter (which has less than 1/100th of the followers).

I don't know why this is. My assumption is that it's because tumblr is populated by a bunch of disabled queers and fandom geeks.

Add that on top of the absolutely horrid state of the economy. $20 USD used to be enough to pay for an entire day's worth of meals. Today, one singular meal costs around $15. People, especially the already-notoriously poor people of tumblr, do not have money to spare. That is not their fault, but, more importantly, it is not your fault, either.

If you're able to, I suggest checking out "pay it forward" groups on Facebook, Discord and Reddit, in addition to, or even instead of, tumblr. Twitter and Instagram are also good places to get the word out. If you're able to offer services, look into dedicated platforms for offering those services, such as Vgen for the artsy folk, Fiverr, and the like. I joined Vgen recently, and, despite having precisely 4 followers, all of my commissions since joining it have been either on Vgen, or by people who found me through it.

Good luck!

[benjaminallhope-fulltimemind]

here's a fun little definition to help people understand what inflation is, please follow and reblog for more

/credit: Lily Orchard

[chaoticbug]

Part of my job for the last 9 months was analyzing far right content to understand how they push conspiracy theories and motivate their voters and I have one major takeaway.

By eroding the trust in news media and journalists, Trump created what was essentially an alternate reality of people where extremists created their own "news media" filled with right wing ideology as the "only trusted news source"

If you thought Fox News was bad, you have never had to bear witness the awfulness of Real America's Voice or One America News. These are places where I swear to god a daily part of their news show is to sell you "medical emergency kits" with ivermectin in it because "you never know when the next medical emergency will happen" implying that the government will intentionally try and poison it's citizens if they have proper health insurance. They say the FBI is lying to you about crime statistics, they tell you every crime is being committed by illegal immigrants. They lie about the economy and tell you to invest in gold if you want have any money in the future. They say constantly that Trump's trials were a conspiracy against rights against him to be used as way to start to round up anyone who supports him.

The amount of times that Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro would claim that they "went to prison so you didn't have to" was immeasurable. These people committed crimes and were held accountable and twisted it to say they were victims "protecting the American people"

There are thousands of unhinged right wing podcasts that stream for hours every day on a site called Rumble which I guarantee most of you have never heard of. These shows get hundreds of thousands of views daily. And they legitimize themselves by having sitting congressmen and senators on their shows frequently along with "experts" from right wing policy groups you have never even heard of. Then, they legitimize each other by showing up on each others podcasts.

All this to say is that there are hundreds of thousands of people who only get their news and any information here. These are people who will praise Trump's "they're eating the dogs line" because it was memorable and therefore it means he won the debate. This alternative media market has insulated these people from ever seeing the truth. It is impossible to convince someone of something if they are in the most tightly held echo chamber where all they hear are lies and they are being told anything other than this specific "alternative media" is lying to you.

Simply put, there is no left wing alternative to this. These people live in an alternate reality where the truth has been drowned out. We need to create that left wing alternative to bring truth back

[vote-democrat-president-congress]

To believe republikkkans are better for the economy/jobs, is to possess a stunning amount of ignorance and gullibility.

The truly devastating economic disasters left by the previous two republikkkan administrations is proof of this.

And, that the Obama and Biden administrations cleaned up these economic messes, shows how effective Democratic ideals are for the economy/jobs.

To believe republikkkan talking-points/lies about the economy, without doing a bare minimum of research as to their validity, is choosing ignorance.

Ignorance and misinformation must be replaced by fact-based/accurate information, if this nation is to recover.

Note: yes, it essentially started with the reagan/trickle-down lie, but more recent events should be enough to show the validity of the above statements.

[cognitivejustice]

The floating homes of Lake Titicaca

Created by the indigenous Uros people as protection against attacks from the Incas, the Uros Islands are one of the world's most innovative feats of human engineering.

The man-made floating islets, which are home to the indigenous Uros people, are created by stacking layers upon layers of totora roots and reeds. This water-resistant plant grows in the lake and is the lifeblood of the Uros community: it is used to make boats, houses, roofs, mattresses and more. The plant is also eaten (playfully called the "lake banana") and applied as medicine, and its flowers are used to make tea.

"There was something very haunting and appealing about this wide array of creation from a single material," said Amorós, whose art often draws inspiration from Peruvian cultural legacies and communities.

"The structure of the totora is cellular. It's a very hearty, stable material that's also flexible but prevents kinking," explained Vranich. "People often used to make skis with just a single piece of wood. Nowadays, they replicate the interior form of a cross-section of totora."

To build the islands, each of which is home to two to six families, the Uros first gather large blocks of totora roots, which often float to the surface during the rainy season. Multiple blocks are pulled together, and the roots and reeds mix naturally to form a layer about 1-2m thick, called khili.

To make sure the islands do not drift away, eucalyptus rods are stuck into the bottom of the lake as anchors and are tied to the root blocks using rope. Every 15 to 20 days, the totora reeds rot and need to be replenished with fresh ones. It's a laborious, endless cycle that is essential to the islands and the Uros' survival on them. "What struck me the most was how the islands and homes are in a constant state of flux, of creation and decay," said Amorós. "This ephemerality is magical."

Today, solar panels power bedroom lights and small TVs; a radio station operates on the main island; and Uros offer their homes or private hospedajes (lodges) on Airbnb.

"They already have called us from Lima, saying that we're in the process of becoming an official wonder of the world," he said.

Whether or not that happens, it's evident that these modern changes and tourism have altered the Uros' life on the lake. One thing remains certain, though: as long as there is totora growing at Lake Titicaca, the islands' rooted foundation will stay the same.

BBC

[solarpunkbusiness]

Dam Chan Nguyen saves dead and dying computers.

When he first started working two decades ago in Nhat Tao market, Ho Chi Minh City’s biggest informal recycling market, he usually salvaged computers with bulky monitors and heavy processors. Now he works mostly with laptops and the occasional MacBook.

But the central tenet of his work hasn’t changed: Nothing goes to waste. What can be fixed is fixed. What can be salvaged gets re-used elsewhere. What’s left is sold as scrap.

“We utilize everything possible,”

Bao Loc eats his lunch in his shop packed with refurbished gear motors in Nhat Tao market, the largest informal recycling market in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Monday, Jan. 29, 2024. AP/Jae C. Hong

A Buddha head statue sits atop used electronic devices while shoppers browse for items at Nhat Tao Market, the largest informal recycling market in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, on Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Tu Chi Vy tiptoes through his shop packed with refurbished motors in Nhat Tao Market, the largest informal recycling market in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, on Monday, Jan. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Hoan moved to Ho Chi Minh City over a decade ago from the coastal Binh Dinh province in central Vietnam to try to escape poverty. She wakes every day at 4 a.m. in the tiny room she shares with two other people. She pushes her scrap cart—her biggest investment, costing $40—around Nhat Tao market from 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., collecting scrap from shop owners.

Electronic waste is the most valuable and she still remembers the time somebody sold her an old refrigerator. But all waste, ranging from aluminum or iron to the ubiquitous plastic and paper, has some value. On rare good days, she can collect up to 30 kilograms and make around $8.

She rarely takes breaks, but sometimes stops for water out of exhaustion from pushing the heavy cart around in extreme heat. At those times, she enjoys reading Doraemon comics—Japanese comic books about a time-traveling robotic cat—that she finds on her routes or gets as gifts from those who know of her fondness for the comics.

“I have to devote myself to this job as it’s my only option,” she said.

[priafey]

things the US needs to address:

the collective psychosis that leads people to make posts like these

[bloghrexach]

💥 … good news!!! — July 20, 2024!!

By: LaillaB, founder of ‘Reclaim the Narrative’, from LinkedIn …

“As Israel's genocidal war against Gaza continues unabated, the Israeli economy is facing a catastrophe.

The economic indicators speak of nothing less than an economic catastrophe.

Over 46,000 businesses have gone bankrupt, tourism has stopped, Israel's credit rating was lowered, Israeli bonds are sold at the prices of almost "junk bonds" levels, and the foreign investments that have already dropped by 60% in the first quarter of 2023 (as a result of the policies of Israel's far-right government before October 7) show no prospects of recovery.

The majority of the money invested in Israeli investment funds was diverted to investments abroad because Israelis do not want their own pension funds and insurance funds or their own savings to be tied to the fate of the State of Israel.

This has caused a surprising stability in the Israeli stock market because funds invested in foreign stocks and bonds generated profit in foreign currency, which was multiplied by the rise in the exchange rate between foreign currencies and the Israeli Shekel.

But then Intel scuttled a $25 billion investment plan in Israel, the biggest BDS victory ever.

Three Israeli historians, two Zionists and one anti-Zionist, have declared that the Zionist project has come to an end.

Israel's power grid, which has largely switched to natural gas, still depends on coal to supply demand.

The biggest supplier of coal to Israel is Colombia, which announced that it would suspend coal shipments to Israel as long as the genocide was ongoing.

After Colombia, the next two biggest suppliers are South Africa and Russia.

Without reliable and continuous electricity, Israel will no longer be able to pretend to be a developed economy.

The physical destruction in Israel has been minimal, but one thing has been destroyed: its future.

When a critical mass of Israelis, regardless of their political opinions, become convinced that Israeli apartheid has become unsustainable, they will no longer agree to invest energy and money and risk their lives and their families for the sake of the Zionist project.

They will seek out a better future for themselves, as every sane person would, either by leaving Israel, or better yet, by working towards a new and democratic political system in Palestine 🇵🇸 إن شاء الله

Mondoweiss.

🃏 An economy built on the exploitation and suffering of others is a house of cards destined to collapse.

إن شاء الله

#reclaimthenarrative — 🍉🕊 — #FreePalestine … @hrexach

[schneiderenjoyer]

I'm looking through character profiles and notice that every item has a labeled price/net worth. So, canonically in-game both Sharpodonty and Clear/Crystal drops are a form of arcanist currency with the Drops being the higher end of the currency sphere (based on item descriptions that uses Drops always mentioned to be highly expensive).

Then that means...I'm reminded how rich Sotheby truly is...

[ootbwithdriss]

Joe Rogan and Peter zeihan on the problems concerning the world population