31 Jan 2018

Co-Creation Hub (CcHUB) Incubation Program for Aspiring Entrepreneurs and Startups 2018

Application Deadline: 16th March 2018 at 3:59pm.  However, applications will be reviewed on an ongoing basis until all spaces are filled so startups are advised to apply early.
To Be Taken At (Country): Lagos, Nigeria
About the Award: In the last 7 years, CcHUB has supported the growth of a community that is passionate about using technology to solve local problems and transform Nigeria. One of the ways we have done this is through our incubation program, where we provide startups with the resources and support they need to grow their businesses into sustainable companies that employ people and solve local problems.
To date, over fifty (50) ideas have enjoyed our support at various levels through our incubation program, some of which include Lifebank, BudgIT, WeCyclers, Truppr,  Mamalette, Stutern and Genii games.
In our quest to continue to provide the right support, we identified areas of improvement through feedback from current and past incubatees as well as the larger community, and revamped our incubation program to produce better outcomes.
CcHUB is an innovation centre dedicated to accelerating the application of social capital and technology for economic prosperity. The technology hub is the first in Nigeria to serve as an Open Living Lab in which user-driven innovation is fully integrated in the co-creative process of new services, products and societal infrastructures.
Type: Entrepreneurship
Eligibility: To be eligible to attend the program, startups must meet the following criteria:
  1. Have a revenue model and be generating revenue.
  2. Have a functional product (web or mobile).
  3. Have gained Users/customers.
  4. Been in operations (since launch date) for at least 6 months.
  5. Have a management team consisting of up to 3 members which includes a technical lead and founder(s) that are fully committed to the business.
  6. Have the potential to scale.
The program is open to startup teams from anywhere in the world that are looking to grow their businesses in Africa, particularly Nigeria. We are looking for committed and ambitious founders with technology solutions that have gained some traction,  generating revenue, addresses a clear need/want and has the potential to scale.
Number of Awards: Not specified
Value of Award: Startups that are accepted into the program will receive the following:
  1. Funding of up to $25,000 to run your operations during the program. In addition, startups will get direct access to possible follow-on capital between $100,000 – $250,000 from the Growth Capital fund by CcHUB.
  2. Office space for up to 6 team members, high speed internet, meeting rooms & more.
  3. Hands-on support:  Business strategy, financial management, recruitment, product development (advisory)
  4. Access to experienced entrepreneurs and industry experts via mentorship.
  5. Access to our network of corporate partners.
  6. Access to investors for funding post-incubation.
  7. $15,000 Amazon Web Services Promotional credit and more products from partners.
CcHUB takes 7 – 10% equity in startups that are accepted into the program.
Other benefits of the program include: workspace for up to 6 team members, meeting rooms and high speed internet.
Duration of Program: The 2018/19 Program is scheduled to start first week in April. The incubation program will now run for a fixed duration of 12 months, as opposed to 18+ months.
How to Apply: You can find more information and apply here.
Award Providers: CcHUB
Important Notes: It is important to note that startups will have to work from our incubation space in Lagos, Nigeria for the duration of the program.

Scuola Normale Superiore PhD Scholarships for International Students 2018/2019 – Italy

Application Deadline: 28th February 2018
Offered annually? Yes
Eligible Countries: International and Italian citizens
To be taken at (country):  Italy
Field of Study: PhD Program in the following fields: Cultures and societies of contemporary Europe, Literature, Art and History in Medieval and Modern Europe, Philosophy, Classics, Physics, Mathematics, Financial Mathematics, Methods and Models for Molecular Sciences, Nanosciences, Neurosciences, and Political Science and Sociology.
Type: PhD
Eligibility: Applications are invited from candidates who, irrespective of their citizenship, have an Italian laurea magistrale (MA/MS degree) or an equivalent degree awarded abroad, or who expect to have obtained the degree required for admission by 31 October 2018 – failure to obtain the degree by this date will disqualify the candidate for admission.
Admission to the selection process is restricted to candidates who:
  • were born after 31 October 1988;
  • have no past criminal charges resulting in a prison term of more than three years;
  • have not been subject to the disciplinary measure of “expulsion” as specified in the didactic regulations of the SNS;
  • are not in possession of a research doctorate issued by an Italian university, and in any case have never benefitted from a scholarship for attending a research doctorate course in Italy.
To apply for the scholarship in collaboration with the Istituto di Nanoscienze del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR-NANO), candidates:
  • shall, at the time of the application deadline, be in the first four years (full-time equivalent research experience) of their research careers and not yet awarded a doctoral degree;
  • should not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Italy for more than twelve months in the three years immediately prior to the time of the application deadline.
Admission interviews can be conducted in Italian or English; the admission interview for the PhD course in “Political Science and Sociology” and “Methods and Models for Molecular Sciences” must be conducted in English. The candidate’s level of competence in the Italian and English language must be stated in the application, with reference to the EUROPASS language grid
Selection:
  • The selection is based on candidates’ qualifications and interviews.
  • The candidates’ level of competence, talent, motivations and inclination towards scientific research will be assessed on the basis of their qualifications and research project, and through an interview.
  • Candidates are admitted to the interview on the basis of an evaluation of their qualifications and of a research project in Italian or English (about 20,000 characters, spaces included). The research project must reveal the candidate’s scientific interests and their cohesion with the scientific guidelines promoted by the SNS, but it will not be a determining factor in the subsequent choice of the thesis. The project must show the candidates’ full awareness of the state of the art in the selected scientific field, and their competence in the research methods in use within that discipline; it must also include an adequate bibliography.
  • All classes are in English. The courses in “Cultures and Societies of Contemporary Europe”, “Literature, Art and History in Medieval and Modern Europe”, “Philosophy”, and “Classics” are both in Italian and English.
Number of Awardees: 78
Value of Scholarship: All students admitted to the PhD program receive full financial support. This includes tuition, fees, free meal, and a cost-of living scholarship.  All students will be assigned further funding for their research activity and travel.
Duration of Program: The courses have the following duration:
  • “Cultures and Societies of Contemporary Europe”; “Literature, Art and History in Medieval and Modern Europe”; “Philosophy”; “Classics”; “Financial Mathematics” – 3 years;
  • “Physics”; “Mathematics”; “Methods and Models for Molecular Sciences”; “Nanosciences”; “Neurosciences”; “Political Science and Sociology” – 4 years.
  • All courses will start on 1 November 2018.
How to Apply: 
  • The online procedure will be activated within the section dedicated to the call on the SNS web site, at the address http://phd.sns.it/
  • It is important to go through the Application details on the Program webpage (see Link below) before applying.
Award Provider: Scuola Normale Superiore

Université Paris-Saclay Master’s Scholarship Program for International Students 2018/2019 – Italy

Application Deadline:  The Scholarship Application Deadline for each wave will be sent by email to all students concerned. However, interested applicants should go through the application deadlines to Université Paris-Saclay Master’s programmes available in the Program Webpage (see Link below)
Results announcement dates:
  • Wave 1 results: mid-April 2018
  • Wave 2 results: mid-June 2018
Eligible Countries: International
To be taken at (country): France
About the Award: Université Paris-Saclay seeks to promote access to its master’s degree programmes to international students, taught in its member establishments, and to make it easier for highly-qualified international students to attend the University, especially those wishing to develop an academic project through research up to the doctoral level.
Scholarships will be awarded for the 2018-2019 academic year. The scholarships are aimed at students enrolled in Université Paris-Saclay Master’s programmes and are awarded based on academic achievements.
Fields of Study: 
  • All academic fields are concerned,
  • All Master’s programmes for which Université Paris-Saclay is accredited, except for vocational training.
Type: Masters
Eligibility:
Are eligible:
  • Newly arrived international students, aged 30 and under during the course of the selection year.
  • International students living in France for less than a year, enrolled in a student programme that does not lead to a qualification.
  • International students living in France for less than a year, taking language classes (type FFL or the like).
Are ineligible:
  • Individuals already living in France at the time of application (except in cases mentioned above).
  • Individuals who have interrupted their studies for more than two consecutive years.
  • Students holding any other type of scholarship whose amount exceeds 600€/month.
Students who have already stayed in France within the framework of an internship or a study-abroad programme as part of their curriculum (e.g. Erasmus) are eligible.
Selection: 
  • Being admitted into a master’s programme does not automatically entitle the student to be eligible for a scholarship.
  • Candidates for the international master’s scholarship programme will be selected by the admission panel among all the students enrolled at Université Paris-Saclay.
  • Only the students contacted by email can submit an application.
  • No unsolicited application is allowed.
The evaluation criteria take in account the following:
  • Academic level,
  • Personal project,
  • For students enrolled in an M2 programme: written motivation to pursue a thesis in a Université, Paris-Saclay laboratory.
Number of Awardees: 160
Value of Scholarship: 
  • The amount of the Université Paris-Saclay scholarship is 10,000€ per year. It is paid by the institution the candidate is registered with for the duration of the academic year, and for a period of no less than 10 consecutive months per year.
  • A maximum of 1,000€ for travel and visa expenses can also be awarded depending on the candidate’s country of origin.
  • Laureates will receive the scholarship as well as travel and visa coverage only upon their arrival in France. No advance payment can be made.
Duration of Scholarship: Scholarships are awarded for 1 year to newly enrolled Master’s students at Université Paris-Saclay (M1 or M2 level).
How to Apply:
Selected students will automatically be sent a link by email to an online application form.
Upon receipt of this email, students wishing to apply will need to complete the online application form and provide (mandatory) the names of two references who would be willing to submit a reference for the candidate (professors, internship coordinators…).
2) Each of the two references named by the candidate will be sent a link by email to an online recommendation form. They will be asked to complete and submit the form prior to the closing day of the scholarship call.
The candidate will automatically be informed when each reference has submitted the form.
3) The application will be considered complete when both recommendation forms have been submitted by the two references.
Please note: the candidate will not receive a message confirming that the application is complete.
It is the candidate’s responsibility to make sure both references complete and submit the form by the deadline given in the invitation email.
Applications that are incomplete or received after the deadline will automatically be rejected.
Award Provider: Université Paris-Saclay
Important Note: Upon receiving the confirmation email, students will have 8 days to accept or refuse the scholarship. If students fail to respond within this timeframe, they will be deemed as having refused the scholarship.

World Bank Group/Wharton School Ideas for Action Competition for Students and Young Professionals 2018

Application Deadline: 28th February, 2018
Offered annually? Yes
Eligible Countries: All
About the Award: Ideas for Action, now hosting its fourth global competition, aims to provide young leaders with a unique opportunity to help shape the global development agenda.
Past winning proposals include a peer-to-peer hyper local approach to last-mile delivery in Nigeria, a mobile platform that allows users to inform themselves and alert others of traffic and security problems in real time, and a novel microinsurance product for remittance payments in India.
Selection/Eligibility Criteria:
  • Teams must consist of two to six members and may be formed across different schools, institutions, companies, countries, nationalities etc.
  • Students and young professionals between the ages 18 and 35 from around the world are invited participate.
  • Teams must register at www.ideas4action.org prior to submitting their proposal. Once registered, teams will receive additional materials to help them prepare their proposals.
  • Submission requirements can be found on the website.
Number of Awardees: 10 teams
Value of Scholarship: The finalists and winners will be selected by a panel of academics and experienced development professionals from public and private sector institutions. Winners of the competition get the opportunity to:
  • Present their ideas at an event during the Annual Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank Group,
  • Receive support from a project incubator at the Wharton School, and
  • Benefit from unique networking opportunities with experts from international development, academia, and the private sector.
Duration of Scholarship: Ongoing
How to Apply: Proposals must be submitted in Microsoft Word or PDF format using the SurveyMonkey link below.
Your proposal should include the following:
  • Title and team name
  • Short abstract
  • Explanation of the problem and context: Briefly describe the problem that your proposal is addressing.
  • Your solution: Succinctly describe your idea (including design, target population, stakeholders, incentives, and implementation)
  • Expected impact: Why is it relevant?
  • Are there similar examples? If so, where and how?
  • Challenges: What are challenges you might face and how can they be addressed?
Award Provider: World Bank Group, Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Federal Government Scholarship for Nigerian Undergraduate, Masters and PhD for Study Overseas (Bilateral Educational Agreement) 2018/2019

Application Deadline: The BEA interviews are between Monday 19th February – Thursday 22nd February 2018 across the six geopolitical zones. Candidates are advised to apply online before these dates.
Offered annually? Yes
Eligible Countries: Nigeria
Accepted Subject Areas?
  • Undergraduate level – Engineering, Geology, Agriculture, Sciences, Mathematics, Languages, Environmental Sciences, Sports, Law, Social Sciences, Biotechnology, Architecture, Medicine (very limited), etc; and
  • Postgraduate level (Masters Degree and Ph.D) in all fields.
About the Federal Scholarship: The Honourable Minister of Education, is hereby inviting interested and qualified Nigerians to participate in the 2018/2019 Nomination Interview for Bilateral Education Agreement (BEA) Scholarship Awards for:
  • Undergraduate (UG) studies tenable in Russia, Morocco, Algeria, Serbia, Hungary, Egypt, Tunisia, Turkey, Cuba, Romania, Ukraine, Japan, Macedonia; and
  • Postgraduate (PG) studies tenable in Russia (for those whose first degrees were obtained from Russia), China, Hungary, Serbia, Turkey, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, e.t.c
Type: The Awards are for Undergraduate (UG) and Postgraduate (PG) studies.Federal Scholarship Board
Eligibility Criteria
• Undergraduate Scholarship:
  • All applicants for undergraduate degree courses must possess a minimum qualification of Five (5) Distinctions (As & Bs) in the Senior Secoundary School Certificate, WAEC (May/June) only in the subjects relevant to their fields of study including English Language and Mathematics.
  • Certificates should not be more than Two (2) years old (2016 & 2017).
  • Age limit is from 18 to 20 years.
• Postgraduate Scholarship:
  • All applicants must hold a First Degree with at least 2nd Class Upper Division.
  • The applicants who are previous recipients of Foreign Awards must have completed at least two (2) years post qualification or employment practice in Nigeria.
  • All applicants must have completed N.Y.S.C.
  • Age limit is 35 years for Masters and 40 years for Ph.D.
  • Evidence of readiness to be released by employer.
• Since the BEA countries are non-English speaking, applicants should be prepared to undertake a mandatory one year foreign languare of the country of choice which will be the standard medium of instruction; and
• All applicants for Hungarian Scholarship must visit the website: www.stipendumhungaricum.hu. before 15th February, 2018.
• Complete the application form online
• Print the completed form and bring to the interview venue in addition to 2.0 above.
Number of Scholarships: Several
What are the benefits? The participating countries are responsible for the tuition and accommodation, while Nigeria government takes care of supplement, warm clothing, health insurance, research grant where applicable and take off.
How long will sponsorship last? The duration of the scholarship offer ranges from 4- 9 years depending on the level of study and the country.
Interview Dates and Zones (Venues):
North West: Location of interview is Federal Polytechnic, Kebbi
  • Mon 19th Feb: Kano and Jigawa states
  • Tues 20th Feb: Kaduna and Katsina states
  • Wed 21st Feb: Sokoto and Zamfara states
  • Thurs 22nd Feb: Kebbi state
North East: Location of interview is Govt Girls’ Sec Schl, Damaturu
  • Mon 19th Feb: Taraba and Adamawa states
  • Tues 20th Feb: Bauchi and Gombe states
  • Wed 21st Feb: Borno state
  • Thurs 22nd Feb: Yobe state
North Central: FGBC Apo, FCT
  • Mon 19th Feb: Kogi and Kwara states
  • Tues 20th Feb: Benue and Plateau states
  • Wed 21st Feb: Nassarawa and Niger states
  • Thurs 22nd Feb: FCT
South West: FSTC Yaba, Lagos
  • Mon 19th Feb: Ondo and Osun states
  • Tues 20th Feb: Oyo and Ogun states
  • Wed 21st Feb: Ekiti state
  • Thurs 22nd Feb: Lagos
South South: BDGS, Bayelsa, Yenogoa
  • Mon 19th Feb: Cross River and River states
  • Tues 20th Feb: Akwaibom and Edo states
  • Wed 21st Feb: Delta state
  • Thurs 22nd Feb: Bayelsa state
South East: FGGC Owerri, Imo state
  • Mon 19th Feb: Abia and Enugu state
  • Tues 20th Feb: Anambra state
  • Wed 21st Feb: Ebonyi state
  • Thurs 22nd Feb: Imo state
What to bring to Interview: All eligible applicants are to report for interview at the venues scheduled for their respective Zones of origin for proper identification. Two sets of the Printed, Completed application forms are usually submitted at the various interview centres with the following attachments:
  • Two sets of Photocopies of Educational Certificates and Testimonials of previous schools attended with the originals for sighting;
  • Only ONE certificate is accepted i.e WAEC of May/June only for undergraduate applicants;
  • Two copies of Birth certificate  from National Population Commission;
  • State of Origin/LGA certificate duly signed, stamped and dated;
  • Four (4) passport sized coloured photographs on white background;
  • Academic transcripts and NYSC discharge or Exemption certificates will be required from applicants for Postgraduate Studies.
How to Apply: Candidates nominated and finally selected by the awarding BEA countries will be required to submit to Federal Scholarship Board the following:
  • Authenticated copies of academic certificates;
  • Data page of current International passport, and
  • Specified Medical Reports &
  • Police clearance certificate where necessary.
Sponsors: The Federal Government of Nigeria through the Federal Ministry Of Education, through the Federal Scholarship Board (FSB), Plot 245 Samuel Ademulegun Street Central Business District, Abuja

2nd International Conference Financing Social Policy in the 21st Century 2018 -University of Ghana

Application Deadline: 
  • Submission of abstracts: Monday 19th February 2018 at 17hrs GMT.
  • Notification of presenters of selected abstracts: Friday 9th March 2018.
  • Confirmation of participation by presenters: 31st March 2018
About the Award: The overarching theme for the CSPS International Conference: Financing Social Policy in the 21stCentury has been inspired by past research from institutions such as UNRISD, whose findings and conclusions from studies of welfare states and developmental states leave one in no doubt of the complexity of mobilizing resources to sustain social wellbeing. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) launched by the UN in 2015 are unequivocal in their call for social transformation that leaves no one behind, no matter the cost. By all indications the challenge is not simply about wealth and other resources, but equally about the politics of resource allocation. Seemingly intractable differences between pro-efficiency policymakers on the right and pro-equity policymakers on the left have endured into the 21stCentury, leading to tensions between the two camps that have directly affected commitments to welfare provisioning. In some advanced countries these tensions have sparked serious social spending cuts that have left the less privileged even more vulnerable to shocks and risks. On the other hand, policymaking in developing countries is in an age where convergence is seen to be preferable to polarization and many countries and development partners have shifted their stance on social spending at least to the extent that they express strong rhetoric in favour of inclusive development. But in reality many of these countries are struggling with finding the resources and the political will to prioritise social spending to back their talk on inclusive development.  The Conference is intended to provide the space for both policymakers and academics, as well as development practitioners to deliberate on the challenge of financing social policy in the era of rights based development in developing countries.
Fields of Study: The conference sub-themes for which papers are being sought include:
  • Ideologies and policy models of [financing] social policy
  • Options for financing social policy
  • Globalization and implications for financing social policy
  • Achieving empowerment through social investment
  •  External versus local actors in financing social policy
  • Public and private investment in social services
  • The cost of enforcement and regulation in social policy implementation
The suggested themes are not exhaustive. Other topics relevant to the theme of the conference are welcome. The conference will have plenary and parallel sessions.
Type: Call for Papers
Eligibility: 
  • The abstract should contain information on the objectives, methodology and findings of the research. Conceptual and theoretical papers will also be accepted.
  • The submission must contain information on the title of the paper and the name, affiliation and email address of the corresponding author.
Authors are encouraged to collaborate to form panel sessions comprising four papers. Submissions for panel presentations should include a summary of 250 words and an abstract for each paper.  The panel submission must include the name and email address of the person organising the panel.
Number of Awards: Not specified
Duration of Program: 8th & 9th May 2018
How to Apply: Abstracts of papers under any of the themes not exceeding 250 words, must be submitted to csps@ug.edu.gh on or before the deadline stated above.
Award Providers: University of Ghana

Obesity is a Serious Threat to Children’s Health

Cesar Chelala

In many cultures and in older times obesity in children was a sign of good health. This is not the case any longer. According to a U.S. National Institute of Health study, and because of its serious effects on their health, the global rise in childhood obesity has become an “epidemic”. “It is an exploding nightmare in the developing world,” says Peter Gluckman, co-chair of the Ending Childhood Obesity (ECHO) Commission.
Some studies carried out in Middle East countries show that childhood obesity is a serious problem in the region. The rapid pace of economic development in the region has been accompanied by decreasing levels of physical activity and increased caloric consumption, particularly of “junk food”. These are important factors in child and adolescent obesity.
Children who are obese are likely to remain obese as adults, and are at risks for several serious health problems such as Type 2 diabetes, asthma and heart failure. In addition, obesity in children can hinder their educational attainment. It is important therefore that public health and school officials develop a series of measures aimed at increasing the level of physical activity among children both inside and outside school, and conduct educational campaigns showing the risks of consuming high calories foods and drinks.
The World Health Organization (WHO) alerts that the rise in childhood obesity in low and middle-income countries is an alarming trend that demands a “high level action”. About half of the world’s obese children, 48 percent, live in Asia. Although many countries in South East Asia have achieved impressive economic gains in recent times, there has been, at the same time, a rise in conditions such as over and under nutrition, where some children are overweight while their peers may suffer from stunting and wasting.
This “double burden” of malnutrition is happening now in middle income countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. Christiane Rudert, Regional Nutrition Adviser for UNICEF East Asia and Pacific stated in a recent press release, “Asian children are now at risk of malnutrition from both ends of the spectrum”.
In China, a 29-year survey of 28,000 children aged between seven and 18 was carried out in eastern Shandong province. The study, published in the European Journal of Preventative Cardiology, found that 17 percent of boys and nine percent of girls were obese in 2014. This showed a significant increase from under one percent for both genders in 1985. The study also showed that the increase was particularly more notable in children aged seven to 12 than in adolescents.
There is not one factor that explains the high rates of obesity among Chinese children, although there are several contributing factors with varying importance in different settings and circumstances. For example, many formerly poor families are over feeding their children, particularly when the grandparents are in charge of their care.
Although Japan hasn’t totally solved the problem of childhood obesity, it has made significant advances in its control. One of the strategies used in Japan involved a redesigning of school lunches that are increasingly planned by nutritionists, and include a variety of foods such as fresh ingredients and locally grown vegetables.
Increasingly, children worldwide are being raised in obesogenic environments (the obesogenic environment refers to an environment that helps, or contributes to, obesity). One of the most important contributing factors for obesity is the high consumption of foods rich in carbohydrates and high consumption of sugary drinks. “Children are exposed to ultra-processed, energy dense, nutrient-poor foods, which are cheap and readily available,” says the WHO.
Physical inactivity is another important contributing factor, often associated with a significant increment in television viewing. It has been proven that each hour watching television is associated with a 1-2 percent increase in the prevalence of obesity among urban children.
Obesity in children can have significant economic costs. Obesity, which affects about 10.4% of children between 2 and 5 years of age and more than 23 million children and teens in total in the U.S., cost the nation $117 billion per year in direct medical expenses and indirect costs, according to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
It is important to educate parents before and during pregnancy for early prevention, and to work with governments to provide weight management resources for children who are battling obesity. As stated by Peter Gluckman, “WHO needs to work with governments to implement a wide range of measures that address the environmental causes of obesity, and help give children the healthy start to life they deserve”.

Weather Terrorism, W.T.F.?

John Davis

As the predicted storm pounded the narrow canyons in the hills above Montecito early in January, a rumble began to overtake the percussion of hard rain on scorched earth. It built, once the torrent of water had dislodged first soil, pebbles, small rocks, then boulders, into a mighty thunder as the mud gathered speed over the resin-slicked surface of the newly burned wild lands.
From out of the Wildland-Urban-Interface, the mudslide drove down into the leafy suburbs of Montecito and tangled with the fragile infrastructure that supports the life-styles of the rich and famous, the merely rich, and all those others who call this Santa Barbara suburb home.  It smashed through homes, businesses and, most critically, fractured the system of pipes, suspended across the naturally occurring drainages, that link a chain of reservoirs that serve as the community’s water source.
The broken pipes unleashed a sea of nearly ten million gallons of fresh water released from the reservoirs because their electrically operated control valves were inoperative in the storm related blackout. Much of the mud and water found its way to U.S. Route 101 which runs from Los Angeles to the Oregon border. The section that runs through Montecito, a few hundred yards east of the beach, was transformed into a rock and tree strewn delta where water ran twelve feet deep in places and over 100,000 tons of debris were spread along its length. The highway was reopened recently after a two-week closure. Restoration of the area’s water supply will take longer. Both were the collateral damage of extreme weather events.
We are a species in retreat. Pusillanimous descriptions of our geo-historical circumstances such as ‘climate change’ are daily challenged by the occurrence of extreme weather events that disrupt society, destroy infrastructure, and obliterate human life. Twenty lives were lost in Montecito and two others remain missing, buried perhaps, beneath mud or swept out to sea. These events might be more effectively described as Weather Terrorism. However, the ascription of such an inflammatory label to acts of ‘Nature’ – to grant weather agency – requires a profound philosophical re-orientation.
It is this task to which philosophers such as Bruno Latour and Timothy Morton, among others, are currently devoted. Latour takes the position that humanity’s place in the biosphere is now fundamentally altered by its industrial age activities, most notably the burning of fossil fuels, such that it is now a global, geo-historical force which expresses itself in species’ extinction and in its power to change the weather. We are in an age he characterizes as the New Climatic Regime when our political institutions have become entirely incapable of protecting their citizens from extreme weather events and thus risk their own irrelevance. He fully recognizes the unconstrained powers of the non-human to shape our destinies.
Morton, in arguing for the agency of the non-human takes a swipe at the academic humanities (fields in which he toils at Rice University) in which it is conventionally suggested “that there are no accessible things in themselves…. only things insofar as they relate to some version of the (human) subject…. thinking which is called correlationist”. But, he argues, “the screen on which these correlations are projected isn’t blank after all”.  Both Latour and Morton acknowledge that ‘Nature’ has traditionally served as the big screen upon which human activities are seen to play out. Each philosopher urges us to begin to understand that this erstwhile passive backdrop has a life of its own, composed of what Morton provocatively calls ‘non-human people’ existing alongside ‘hyperobjects’, all-subsuming phenomena like global warming or the weather that are, in part, reflections of the violence done to the biosphere by humanity.  Our species, fully constituted as a geophysical force, now contends with the terrifying consequences of engaging with other biospheric forces.
Within such heady realms we must negotiate the minutiae of our political positions. In the present duopoly, only tepid distinctions are offered within the powerful brew of neoliberalism which drives American political support of globalization and excessive consumption in the West whilst ensuring, by heavy-handed military and financial means, the complicity of other, recalcitrant regions. Consumed with a Coke versus Pepsi ideological battle, framed within an uncontested arena of historicized nationalism, most Americans, and the political parties to which they owe allegiance, are magnificently unprepared to grapple with their nation’s irrelevance in defending them from the unfolding realities of our geo-historical moment; even less, to comprehend the apparent acts of war being waged by non-human forces – forces with which we must now find an accommodation.
This message may resonate differently depending on where you live.  For instance, with as many as one in three Americans living in the Wildland-Urban-Interface, defined by geographers as places where indigenous landscapes impinge significantly onto the ever-widening perimeters of suburbia and exurbia, wild fire looms as an existential threat.  These are landscapes increasingly stressed by historically unusual drought regimes with expanding anthropogenic ignition sources. On these exurban frontiers, endemic wild fires may begin to erode the perimeters of our species’ range – despite the current post fire-event philosophy of re-build and return. At some point, the frequency of attack will change behaviors, just as repeated Jihadi bombing of market places eventually inhibits their function as viable locations for buying and selling.
Rising sea-levels and coastal inundation, storm surges and heightened wind and rain events may similarly impinge on the habitability of coastal regions. The inexorable loss of land at the coastal perimeter of Louisiana is likely more indicative of the future than the delaying strategies of sea-walls, dikes and floating storm surge barriers.  Like Baghdad’s Green Zone, where blast barriers and barbed wire were no security against rocket attacks or, finally in 2016, the uprising of the street, flood defense strategies will not, in the end, alter the geographical imperatives of global warming.  Thus, few in the USA, or elsewhere on the planet, can truly be safe from the impacts of Weather Terrorism.
The urban destruction that has become a signature of the kind of asymmetrical wars being waged by Imperialist powers across the planet – fought to the local architectural and societal death – routinely results in the tragic loss of historically, economically and socially significant human habitat. Weather Terrorism threatens to wreak damage on an incomparably larger scale.
You cannot outrun a wind-driven wildfire. We cannot double down on Modernity and stake our future on geo-engineering, or as Latour warns, “to increase still further the dosage of megalomania needed for survival in this world”. Fighting wild fires, hot-shots know that to find safety they have to outflank the fire and run ‘into the black’ – where the fire has consumed the earth and left it carbonized – where there is no longer fuel to support the other two legs of the incendiary triad, heat and air. Morton counsels a retreat to a time before ‘agrilogistics’, the term he uses to describe the algorithms humans run to facilitate farming, that hierarchical and ecologically damaging means of food production which he damns as “the slowest and perhaps most effective weapon of mass destruction yet devised”. This retreat, he imagines, will bring us to a more fully animated world, endemic before the rise of agriculture, where we might achieve safety in a solidarity with the non-human beings with whom we share the biosphere.
We live in an environment of extinction. We have subjected the planet to a pernicious miasma of global warming which we continue to exacerbate by our selfish actions, initiating rates of change in biospheric systems that offer non-human life-forms few options of adaptation other than death. Now, in refusing the accommodation of the non-human and the possibilities for coexistence, we must suffer the consequences – phenomena that it is quite reasonable (and politically useful) to call Weather Terrorism.

Separate But Equal Is/Isn’t an Option in Northern Ireland

Justin O’Hagan

When the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) was signed in April 1998, progressives recognised it as a positive development and gave it their support. However, they were aware that there was potential within the structures assigned to the new devolved government for communal politics to be institutionalised. Unfortunately, events have proven these worst fears correct even as Northern Ireland has moved on in many other ways. Due to mutual distrust among the main nationalist and unionist parties, the Assembly government has not been in operation since January 2017, despite fresh elections in March which solidified the support for the main sectarian parties. Negotiations mediated by the latest UK Secretary of State for Northern Ireland are currently ongoing.
Among the original Agreement’s more positive terms was a commitment “to facilitate and encourage integrated education and mixed housing” as essential elements in the process of reconciliation and the creation of “a culture of tolerance at every level of society”. As we shall see, since 1998 these commitments have been ignored, watered down and compromised by the Stormont Executive parties. Chris Jenkins, formerly a Community Engagement Officer for the Integrated Education Fund (IEF) argues that since the GFA, “politicians and the Department of Education have not honoured their obligations to integrated education”:
The language has been diluted consistently in political manifestos since GFA, expansions of integrated schools have been rejected despite clear demand being evidenced, and grass-roots community conversations about integrated education have not been facilitated or supported.  In a […] Belfast Telegraph poll of 1,167 people, only 18% felt the Assembly was fulfilling its obligations to encourage integrated education.
The background to what has happened in education is a tale of two reports, one which identifies reconciliation and integration as central and another which ‘accepts’ that  segregation will be with the people of Northern Ireland for the foreseeable future. In 2001 senior civil servant, Jeremy Harbison was tasked with producing a document reviewing community relations in Northern Ireland and indicating the approach which the new devolved administration should take with respect to difficult issues relating to culture, segregation and sectarianism as part of its first Programme for Government.  As it happened, before the Executive could debate Harbison’s review, the devolved administration was suspended in May 2002 and for almost five years Northern Ireland returned to Direct Rule from London.
In the meantime, Harbison’s review was published by the Direct Rule administration in 2005 under the title ‘A Shared Future’. The document stressed that the politics of “benign apartheid” based on competing ethnic claims should not be tolerated. Each individual should “mutually recognise our common humanity … rather than engaging in a perpetual and sterile battle for ethnic power. …[Moreover,] the state must be neutral between competing cultural claims”. Crucially, the document states that:
Separate but equal is not an option. Parallel living and the provision of parallel services are unsustainable both morally and economically. …the costs of a divided society – whilst recognising, of course, the very real fears of people around safety and security considerations – are abundantly clear: segregated housing and education, … and deep-rooted intolerance that has too often been used to justify violent sectarianism and racism.” (Their emphasis)
In 2007 devolved government returned with Sinn Féin and the DUP now the main parties in the Executive.  ‘A Shared Future’ was brought before Stormont for approval by the Alliance Party but a DUP amendment merely ‘noting’ the policy – parliamentary language for shelving it – was passed instead with support from Sinn Féin. Political commentator Robin Wilson noted that, “In spite of its official civic-republican ideology, Sinn Féin was no more enthusiastic [than the DUP] about a policy with a focus on integration – challenging, as this did, its traditional politics of Catholic-communalist assertion with its implied maintenance of sectarian  division”. Sinn Féin called the document “shallow and meaningless because it is based on a deliberate misrepresentation of the political realities in this part of Ireland”. Nailing her colours to the mast, Sinn Féin’s Martina Anderson stated that, “the reality of life for many people in the north is that there [are] people in desperate need of housing, who are at the top of the waiting list, yet they are unable to access vacant properties because of their religion.”
Recognising that some kind of policy on community relations was necessary, Sinn Féin and the DUP went to work with the result that in 2009 they each had come up with separate documents on their respective party websites, hardly indicative of a willingness to share. Eventually, in 2010 the executive produced another document on community relations entitled ‘Cohesion, Sharing and Integration’. This was very different from the now sidelined ‘Shared Future’ report. In a comparative study of the two reports Professor Jennifer Todd of UCD notes that:
Cohesion sees ‘cultures’ and ‘identities’ as given and stable entities. In Shared Future, the vision was of constant cultural change and dynamism: with individuals making their cultural and identity choices in a context of social division, economic difficulty and permeable cultural boundaries, the strategic aim being to facilitate these choices through … state-neutrality between cultures. In Cohesion, the vision is of ‘an intercultural society’ with ‘cultures and communities’ in contact. The strategic aim includes promoting ‘pride in who we are and confidence in our different cultural identities’. This can allow ‘mutual accommodation’ and perhaps long term change. This … does not acknowledge that political changes have led many to question aspects of their traditional cultural identities, and that this questioning and re-evaluation can lead to very positive repositionings, as well as to a sense of loss and sectarian reaction.
As might have been expected, since 2010 when the ‘Cohesion’ document was produced, the Stormont Parties have failed to develop practical policy on these issues. A small cross-party working group in Stormont was convened with the aim of producing an agreed blueprint on community relations but last year first the Alliance Party and then the Ulster Unionist Party walked away because of lack of progress. In December 2012 the Belfast Telegraph reported that, ‘Stormont’s long-awaited strategy for starting to tackle division and sectarianism’ had missed another deadline.
Meanwhile, even as some cleave to their ‘traditional routes’ and fixed identities, society in Northern Ireland is inexorably changing. The 2011 census shows that Northern Ireland is a society of diverse cultures, identities and religious attitudes but the education system remains divided into Catholic and de-facto Protestant blocks, which between them cater for 93% of all pupils at Primary and Secondary level. Despite changes to the transfer system at age 11, the system remains further divided between secondary and grammar school sectors. Third level education is non-denominational with the exception of teacher training, where Catholics have a separate teacher training college, and there is a de-facto Protestant college.
The remaining 7% of primary and secondary pupils (almost 22,000) attend integrated schools, in which there is an annual intake of at least 40% pupils from a self-reported Catholic background and at least 40% pupils from a self-reported Protestant background. There are 62 schools in the integrated sector comprising 20 second-level colleges and 42 integrated primaries. Opinion polls show consistently high support for integrated education.  For example, in 2003 a majority of people surveyed (82%) personally supported integrated education in Northern Ireland and in 2011 this had increased to 88% of those surveyed.
The idea of enabling ‘separate but equal’ fixed cultures to be in contact with each other has clearly been behind recent developments in education policy in Northern Ireland. The legal requirement to promote integrated education has been all but dropped and replaced with a commitment to ‘shared education’, which involves structured contact between students from different school backgrounds. A 2013 report prepared for the Integrated Education Fund (IEF) noted this shift away from integrated education in official documents and most party manifestos:
The current discourse on shared education assumes that the vast majority of our children will continue to be educated in separate schools for the foreseeable future. By accepting this political parties move towards education policies that plan for separate development rather than structural change and reform of the separate school system.
This shift is reflected in key education policy documents such as the Education Bill of 2012, which made no direct reference to integrated education. Similarly, there was no formal representation for integrated education on a recently developed Education and Skills Authority (ESA) and, prior to the collapse of the Stormont government, there was no reference to integrated education in the Programme for Government.  The IEF report notes  that , “political manifestos and policy initiatives in Northern Ireland do not reflect many of the preferences expressed by parents and the wider population as represented in survey data”.
According to Chris Jenkins, “there is a concern within the integrated movement that the ‘shared’ programmes do not address the structural segregation of our children, and therefore can only have limited results.  If we want to truly address the segregation of our children we have to address the structures.” He notes that while shared programmes are positive, “this ‘sharing’ cannot be the end point in itself but must represent a process … [towards] integrated education, where children are taught side by side throughout the day in an environment of trust, confidence, and celebration of identity and diversity, becomes the norm”.
A number of projects are underway which are designed to show the high educational standards, quality buildings and value for money that ‘shared education’ can provide. For example, a 140-acre shared campus costing £100 million was due to open in Lisanelly, Omagh, in 2015. In recent years, the Department of Education has actually reduced its financial commitment to ‘shared’ educational activities and the money for Lisanelly has come from charitable bodies, notably Atlantic Philanthropies and the International Fund for Ireland. In 2016, it emerged that the project would cost £160m compared to original estimates of £100m. As of this writing, the project has been delayed and just one school in the complex has opened.
According to the brochure for the school, “each school relocating to the campus will have a core school building which will retain its name, identity and ethos. These core schools will effectively operate as they currently do on their individual sites however, as pupils move through the key stages, they will have access to the shared facilities.”  Sinn Féin’s John O’Dowd stated his belief that the educational experience at Lisanelly would “widen and enrich the educational experience of young people in our schools”.
Chris Jenkins describes Lisanelly as “a vanity project”.  He believes that there is an assumption that by simply putting children together in the same geographical space that good community relations will develop.  “The reality is that by putting children in the same space, wearing different uniforms, without facilitating and supporting conversation, dialogue, and understanding, you may possibly get the opposite effect.  Within an integrated school differences are brought out into the open in a facilitated and positive atmosphere.” Jenkins believes that Lisanella and other shared projects may have “the potential destructive power” to enhance segregation rather than lessen it.
Queen’s University, Belfast through its Sharing Education Project is also weighing in behind shared education.  Professor Joanne Hughes of QUB has recently written that “in Northern Ireland, ‘integrated’ schools for all children are not a realistic option. Nor is it conceivable that education could ever become secularized. In this context, if government is serious about its social cohesion objectives, it is clear that a more coherent and targeted approach to relationship building is needed. Based on research evidence, sustained contact between Protestant and Catholic children should be considered a core component in such a strategy”.
No doubt in 1945 educators and academics in the UK were making similar ‘realistic’ claims about the impossibility of comprehensive schooling, nationalised industries and a system of national health free at the point of demand. In short, what is absent is the political will to bring children together in an integrated system. And as long as the Stormont system of government (should it exist) operates with communalist designations at its core, then the government in Northern Ireland will only be able to produce the kind of piecemeal compromises that will impact on yet another generation of children. Jennifer Todd notes that “it is far from clear that a government goal of ‘mutual accommodation’ is enough to hold off the dangers of re‐sectarianisation especially among the young”.