Posts by Cemil Alyanak
Where's home?
Are we living an era where one’s ‘home’ is no longer clear? Where do people really come from? Is it where they were born? Is it where their parents were born? What happens when all three places are different? What happens when you move away from your birthplace before you even turn one year old?…
Read MoreStudies show… People are…
For years, I have been trying to put my frustration with hogwash into more formal terms. I may have found a way. I believe in evidence. Growing up, my dad used a gravity to engrain the notion. He asked me to pick up a coin and drop it. When I did, he asked me to…
Read MoreMedia yes! But…
Full disclosure: I am a media and news junkie. I enjoy watching, listening to, reading or otherwise ingesting what the world is up to. I believe that an informed population can individually and collectively advance in the right direction whereas an uninformed population makes mistake after mistake. And so, when CNN came to be, I…
Read MoreWhen campaigns don't matter
Public interest campaigns are critical. They help mobilize funds. They leverage policy. The can raise public awareness. Sometimes, but not always, they change behavior. Behavior can change if targets are predisposed and able. Predisposition presupposes an added value for changing. We change because we will benefit. Ability implies having the resources or competence to change.…
Read MoreA cheap campaign
Rick Santorum has just placed second, by 8 votes, in the Iowa Republican Party caucuses. He was outspent by number one, Mitt Romney, by literally millions of dollars. I have seen this same scenario countless times. In the modern era, it’s often due to viral marketing successes. In the older days, it was word of…
Read MoreNo more money?
Is the world running out of money? Have we created more debt than capital? For the purposes of my argument, it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that the public interest sector is finding it increasingly difficult to find it. I want to talk about solutions but first let me just slip in one word…
Read MoreNeed vs. want
You might call me a kill-joy as we approach this holiday season. You might be a retailer, in which case you would want me, and others like me, to stay out of the way. If you are a wholesaler, distributor or manufacturer you will think the same. And, of course, if you are union or…
Read MoreEducation relevance
Here is something I hope we can someday solve: the relevance of education. I did enjoy geography, history and biology. Philosophy taught me thought and physics made me aware of the real world we live in. But I ask you, did all those subjects prepare us sufficiently for the real world we live in? I…
Read MoreSeven billion
When I was born, we were headed for four billion people on Earth. Seven billion? When did that happen? Sure, we were raised with graphs of the population curve, but it’s one thing to learn it and another to live it. Actually, the same is true for climate change and so many other early warnings.…
Read MoreWorld Vegan Day
I’m a vegan. I did not become a vegan for ethical reasons. Now I am a vegan for ethical reasons. I am also a vegan for scientific reasons. Ethically, go to a slaughterhouse, look at cattle being transported, look at a deep ocean trawler bringing in the nets and you too will become ethically vegan.…
Read More