Here’s our eclectic list of ten innovative solutions to social, economic and political problems around the globe, drawing from our Signature series reporting, as well as other sources.

View our slideshow of the top ten choices:

Politics:

Rwanda – The small East African nation is the only country in the world with a female majority in parliament — women hold 56 percent of parliamentary seats.

The political rise of women is partly due to the country’s electoral quota (at least 30 percent female) and is also a consequence of male deaths during the country’s 1994 genocide.

Still, Rwandan voters have elected women in numbers well beyond the mandates dictated by the post-genocide constitution. And though women in Rwanda still face discrimination, female legislators have influenced major reforms in banking and property laws.

Worldfocus special correspondent Martin Seemungal spoke to some of the powerful women in Rwanda who are guiding the country through a long process of reconciliation, including Aloysie Cyanzaire, chief justice of Rwanda’s Supreme Court.

Iran — This was the decade that social media grew up. Activists in countries around the world — from Ukraine and Moldova to Madagascar –  used Internet-based communications to amplify their political protests.

While some commentators take issue with the now well-worn term, “Twitter Revolution,” there is no doubt that the opposition movement in Iran has used social media to take political dissent to a new level.

After authorities expelled or incapacitated foreign media in the aftermath of the disputed presidential elections of June 2009, words and pictures shared via Twitter, Youtube, and Facebook became the go-to sources for news about the Iranian opposition’s “green” movement.

Technology:

Estonia — The tiny Baltic nation of Estonia has embraced the digital age. It boasts hundreds of free public internet access points, and all Estonian schools are connected to the Internet.

Online phone service Skype grew up in Estonia’s capital, Tallinn. Citizens can vote online, and they access official documents, bank accounts and public transportation with national identity cards.

Worldfocus anchor Daljit Dhaliwal and producers Sally Garner and Ara Ayer reported on E-Stonia in the spring of 2009.

Israel — Because of its small size and urgent need to reduce its dependence on foreign oil, Israel may be the perfect incubator for a concept that still seems very futuristic — the electric car.

Headed by Israeli entrepreneur Shai Agassi, the company Better Place has installed thousands of electric charging stations around the country. Worldfocus special correspondent Michael Greenspan and producers Yuval Lion and Ara Ayer reported on the progress of the electric car in Israel earlier this year.

Environment:

Denmark — Long before Copenhagen, the Scandinavian nation had made huge advances in energy efficiency.

In the last 20 years, the Danish economy has grown 78 percent even while its energy usage has remained constant and its carbon emissions reduced. The country has also become a net exporter of energy; wind alone has created 30,000 new jobs.

Special correspondent John Larson reported on the Danish miracle in our Worldfocus series “Green Energy in Denmark.”

Guyana – This year, Guyana’s President Bharrat Jagdeo proposed a low-carbon development strategy that compensates the nation for conserving its rainforests, which make up about 80% of the land.

It is likely to be the test-case for the U.N. plan to reduce deforestation worldwide.

Economy:

Brazil – Building on the success of similar programs in Mexico, Brazil has implemented a strategy aimed at curbing poverty and promoting education.

The Bolsa Familia provides more than 11 million impoverished families with a stipend, in return for guarantees that families will send their children to school.

Since its inception in 2003, the poverty rate in Brazil has fallen from 34% to 22%, according to government statistics.

Bangladesh — In 2006, the Nobel Committee awarded the Grameen Bank and founder Muhammad Yunus the Nobel Peace Prize — a sign of the widespread acceptance of microfinance as a means of combating poverty.

As a group of economics professors summarized: “Microcredit is undoubtedly the most visible innovation in anti-poverty policy in the last half century.”

Health:

Bhutan — The former king of the tiny mountain kingdom of Bhutan pioneered the concept of gross national happiness. The idea has spread, and Bhutan continues to inspire other countries.

Last year, the government of Bhutan adopted a new Constitution, which mandates that government programs be evaluated based on the happiness that they foster.

Senegal – An innovative grassroots initiative begun in Senegal to combat female genital mutilation has spread to other African nations.

The NGO Tostan uses a community empowerment model and and now encompasses work on health, human rights, and democracy.

More than 4,000 villages in Senegal have made public declarations against female genital mutilation and child marriage.

In this extended interview — recorded in May, prior to the crackdown following the disputed election — Iranian students discuss how they bypass filters to find music and films, both online and in shops on the streets. They also share their ambivalence about the prevalence of Western popular culture in Iran.

For more, view our Voices of Iran extended coverage page and listen to our online radio show on Baha’i faith and modern Iran.

These days, the Iranian authorities do all they can to control what Iranian citizens see and hear. But as Worldfocus correspondent Bigan Saliani and producer Richard O’Regan discovered during a trip to Iran earlier this year, technology is making that virtually impossible.

Modern buildings such as this nightclub and restaurant have emerged out of the old Accra.

Accra, the capital city of Ghana, was host to U.S. President Barack Obama’s recent trip to Africa, during which he pushed developing countries to strive to build prosperity and progress.

Although Accra continues to have problems with its sewage system, among other things, it is modernizing at a relatively quick rate. Ghana as a whole maintains an 11 percent unemployment rate and a 28 1/2 percent poverty rate, both comparatively lower than many of the country’s neighbors.

Ethan Zuckerman of the blog My heart’s in Accra visited Accra and compares the city now to the city he saw during a trip more than a decade earlier.

Visiting Accra feels like time travelling. [...]

I feel as if I could recreate the past by layering a thin film on top of the current reality - a scrim that covers that new four-story shopping plaza with the disused concrete and rebar hulk that stood there a decade before. Add some burning plastic and we’d be able to take me back to a past I remember, if I squint a little bit. It’s the same place, just gentrified, in a particularly Ghanaian fashion. My friend Amos met me for lunch at Asanka Local, a deservedly popular chop bar that’s new since my last visit, and mentioned that he was looking for a house in the area to use as an office. He figured he’d need to spend at least 100,000 cedis, or about $67,000. Makes me wish I’d bought the apartment building I used to live in.

When I visited the Accra Mall on Sunday, there was no amount of squinting that could have convinced me that I was in a country I knew and understood. Ten minutes past the airport, the mall features two supermarkets, a cinema, several high-end boutiques and an excellent bookshop. It’s beautiful, as nice as its counterparts in Nairobi and Cape Town, and it’s got a steady buzz of people, tourist, Filipino overseas workers, Lebanese traders and lots of middle-class Ghanaians.

The bookshop left me babbling. In 1993, the only bookstores we had in Accra were the university shop in Legon, which featured required reading texts, Akan-English dictionaries, and the occasional heavily used Mario Puzo novel, for $5.

[...] And then there’s the grocery store. When I first came to Accra, I asked the bartender at the hotel where I was staying where I should shop for food. “All the obruni go to Danquah Circle. You can get anything you imagine there.” I walked around for a couple of hours, visiting the handful of western-style food shops and discovering that my imagination now needed to be limited to canned corned beef, canned mackerel, dried beans and pasta. Add in the amazing fruits and vegetables on sale on almost every corner, and we had a perfectly servicable diet, but one light on the comfort food that everyone needs now and again. My family and friends ended up feeling like they were supplying a prisoner, sending me letters that included packets of dried orange cheese mix so I could buy pasta, oil and a little milk and make macaroni and cheese. A letter from Rachel included sheets of nori, which led to a sushi party, using soy sauce bought from one of the Chinese restaurants in town. I almost got into a fistfight with a housemate about his incursions into my most prized posession - a jar of Skippy peanut butter.

And now there’s a supermarket, and it has cheese. A whole cold case full of it. Apples aren’t luxury items sold for a dollar a piece by roadside hawkers - you can buy them by the kilo. I looked like a madman, walking through Shoprite with my camera, snapping photos of remarkable, miraculous sights - chickens, already gutted and plucked, frozen and in bags! - that looked completely ordinary to everyone around me.

I don’t know that one could come to Accra and pretend that it’s 1994 anymore. If the mobile phones don’t give it away - with phonecard sellers, repair shops and charging stations on every corner - the architecture does. [...]

My friends who support the NDC - the party that regained control in the most recent election - tell me that NDC won because people felt like eight years of NPP government had resulted in a lot of developments that looked like Citizen Kofi and not much improvement of schools or infrastructure. I’m not sure that’s entirely fair - driving throughout the city, I saw roads I knew to be almost impassible that are now paved and smooth. I ask about whether a particular neighborhood is still plagued by traffic jams and learn that a two-lane road has been replaced with a six-lane carriageway with two flyovers.

Is this just benefitting the comparatively wealthy who are lucky enough to live in the capital city? No idea - I was there for 51 hours, and I didn’t get outside Greater Accra. And I know it’s a mistake to characterize the direction of a country based on half a dozen long walks and conversations with a dozen old friends. But I felt like I was catching glimpses of a future Accra, the stylish capital of a middle-income nation.

To read more, see the original post.

The views expressed by contributing bloggers do not reflect the views of Worldfocus or its partners.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user ethanz under a Creative Commons license.

Last September, China launched a 60-hour mission highlighted by the country’s first space walk. China hopes to land an unmanned rover on the moon by 2012 and a manned mission by around 2020, the same year the U.S. hopes to return to the moon.

Asif Siddiqi, a professor of history at Fordham University, joins Martin Savidge to discuss the future of space exploration for the international community.

The attack brought down several major American and South Korean Web sites at least temporarily. But other South Korean officials expressed doubt that the North Koreans could carry out such an attack.

Keith Epstein, an investigative reporter for BusinessWeek whose specialty is cyber security, joins Martin Savidge to discuss who is behind the cyber attacks, the consequences of the attacks and how the U.S. can improve cyber security.

“Freedom of the moment:” An Estonian boy cries out at the apex of a climbing tower in Tallinn. Photo: Ara Ayer

Symbols of ethnic pride abound in the Baltics. Whether it’s Riga’s Freedom Statue, Vilnius’ Gediminas Castle or a little boy exalting on a climbing tower in Tallinn, no definitive monument stands to represent the ongoing struggle for independence in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

The Baltic states may have traded membership in the former Soviet Union for entry into the European Union and NATO, but they struggle to maintain their separate identities. That they exist at all is a testament to the fortitude of their people. Before the Soviet onslaught, empires of Poland, Prussia, Russia and Scandinavia all tried to incorporate one or more of the Baltic states.

Possessing a prized coastline — an approximate collective land mass of two West Virginias, Vermont and New Hampshire, with a population less than New York City — the Baltic states remain vulnerable. Producing stories with Worldfocus colleague Sally Garner, I found each country has different approaches to self-preservation.

Up until the global economic downturn, Latvia had the fastest growing economy in Europe. It quickly shed its communist past and looked for security and success in the credit and economic structures of the West. Yet rather than providing safety and sustainable growth, Western banking policies and an awakened Latvian consumerism exposed the country to excessive risk.

Now, Latvia teeters toward bankruptcy. Street protests, government instability and rising unemployment are the hallmarks of a once-proud nation. In our reporting, we spoke with a Latvian on the brink of losing his job. He said Latvia is failing because it forgot itself, its strengths and limitations, in the headlong rush to become part of Europe. Disenchanted with a dream deferred, he says he’ll join thousands of his countrymen leaving Latvia for a better life. With over 40 percent of Latvians being of Russian, Ukrainian, Belorussian and Polish descent, the loss of every ethnic Latvian puts the country in a quandary.

Lithuania and Estonia are in better shape economically, but not by much. The Lithuanian government is investing in language, specifically Lithuanian, to help preserve its national identity. Lithuanian is the official and sole language in matters of law, commerce, government and public life. If you are Lithuanian and speak Russian, Polish or German, check your ancestry at the door.

The Lithuanian government has empowered a language police corps to yank down foreign language street signs, correct publications and catch the nation’s newscasters in Lithuanian pronunciation and grammar mistakes. One wonders if such forced obedience will play out in a multilingual world. But then again, they aren’t trying to save the world — just Lithuania.

Estonia by and large is the most technologically-evolved of the trio. The country has placed its future in the digital age by building a “state of the art” civic Internet service. Via computer and phone, one can view everything, from a child’s report card to a live press briefing from the Estonian prime minister. A specially-encrypted Estonian identification card with an embedded digital signature allows Estonians to securely authenticate legal documents, vote, even pay for parking — all online. Estonians believe such Internet access makes for transparent government, responsible citizenry and better business — touchstones of resiliency in uncertain times.

No one can fault these small countries in their ongoing attempts to ensure their existence. Possibly the most important thing each is doing to protect themselves is participate in NATO, United Nations and U.S. coalition military missions. All sent combat troops to Iraq and all are continuing to send troops to Afghanistan. Though their collective deployment has never exceeded 2,000 troops per mission, their commitment to building modern armies and strengthening their ties with NATO cannot be questioned.

The reemergence of Russia as a world power has the Baltics — people, politicians and military men — on edge. Speaking softly but carrying a NATO membership may be the best defense and innovation in preserving Baltic identity and integrity yet.

- Ara Ayer

Estonian Internet guru Linnar Viik explains Estonia’s quick technological development and shares lessons learned from 2007’s massive cyber-attack.

Google’s Lok Sabha Election Center

The Australian government announced plans to build a 43 billion dollar Internet network to bring broadband access to 90 percent of the country. The development will be administered by a publicly-owned company providing 37,000 jobs.

Blogger Sam Varghese of “iTWire” responded to the news with skepticism, writing:

I’d be really happy if some company or group could build something that just doubles the 6 to 8 Mbps that I get at the moment. Provided it happens in my lifetime.

I don’t mind if North Korea can provide it. Or even Iran. I’d just like to use something that works at a decent speed before I die.

Talk of decent broadband in this country is beginning to resemble talk about the unicorn.

Another country making headlines for its Internet use is India, where Google India predicts rapid growth this year, citing 50 percent growth in 2008 in a country traditionally known for its low Internet use.

Google is not only studying but also feeding India’s online interaction as the country’s general election approaches, with its Lok Sbha Election Center information portal. Gaurav Mishra writes for his “Guaravonomics Blog“about Internet technologies in India’s elections:

The Indian National Congress seems to be stuck in the web 1.0 era. Both the official Congress website and the Congress Media websites are online brochures. The Vote for Congress portal, which was supposed to revolutionize its online campaign by providing the Congress candidates a platform to blog (Hindu/ TOI), is still not up. None of the senior Congress leaders — Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and Manmohan Singh — have a website and, what’s worse, their URLs are owned by cyber-squatters (Indian Express). The party does want to set up 600 internet kiosks across the country (Hindu) but without engaging interactive content, their effectiveness might be limited.

Shashi Tharoor — author and former Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations — is perhaps the only Congress candidate to seriously leverage the web in his campaign, with presence on Facebook and Orkut (CIOL/ Sify). Former Karnataka chief minister SM Krishna has a Twitter profile. Some of the younger Congress candidates like Priya Dutt, Milind Deora (Facebook) and Sachin Pilot also have well-designed websites, but aren’t really active on social media (Hindu). Some regional Congress leaders, like Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, also have a respectable presence on the web (Hindu/ Exchange4Media/ Indian Express).

China already has Internet traffic to match its population, and a January Economist article showed it passing the U.S. in Internet use. Andy of the “Saving to Invest” blog writes about the importance of considering international traffic and catering to a global audience: 

In time as the world adopts e-commerce at a consumer level the “value” of a transaction is likely to increase overseas much faster than it will locally. Which means that you need to ensure your online business model factors in this new audience and potential revenue source. In time, I have a feeling that the most successful online businesses (and blogs) will be the ones that appeal to a global audience and not just a local one.

Theresa of “Lives of Wander” writes about her difficulties finding an Internet connection in South Africa and other African countries, nowhere near as connected as the countries she and commenters visited in South and Central America:

Unfortunately, however, Internet here is not the God-given right that many of us have come to expect. We’ve had Internet access in about half the places we’ve stayed. Or at least we have access to a computer that is supposedly connected to the Internet. Most of the time the computer is so old and so slow, that it’s a miracle if it connects. If it does connect, getting any page to load can take ages. And the kicker here is that you’re paying for it. Internet is not only not ubiquitous, it’s also not free. So while I’m waiting 20 minutes for my Gmail to load, I’m paying for each of those 20 minutes. And it’s not even cheap either, costing $4 or more per hour. So if you haven’t heard from us lately, if you haven’t gotten emails or comments on your blog or a Skype call, you know why. Sorry.

Commenter Audrey writes about similar troubles in Central Asia and how technologies like Twitter can circumvent both censorship and obscenely slow lines:

We started using Twitter in this part of the world to let our family and friends know we were OK and to give them a little taste of what’s going on (in 140 characters or less). The interface is rather simple, so it comes up much quicker than having to go through a blog editor. Also, we found that government censors in highly controlled countries (eg, Burma, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan) hadn’t been turned onto Twitter yet, so it was usually open when other communication channels had been blocked. If internet continues to be difficult, Twitter might be an alternative to get a quick message out.

Internet connectivity proves an ongoing problem across the African continent outside of big cities, but Africa is included in Google’s long list of development sites, and the Google Africa blog traces the company’s efforts across the continent.

In Sweden, connectivity is not the problem, but rather what people choose to do with their Internet connections. Sweden launced aggressive anti-piracy campaigns with the adoption of a new law allowing copyright holders to take names of users from ISPs. The day the law went into effect, Swedish Internet traffic reportedly dropped 40 percent. Techdirt’s “keep-whac’ing-that-mole department” speculates on the boost this gives to encryptors while really commenting on the misguided infeasibility of these aggressive practices.

With Sweden’s new antipiracy law in effect, it seems that one industry is getting a nice boost: apparently there’s a lot of new interest in encrypting your internet traffic, and services that provide encrypted VPN services are getting lots of new business. This, once again, points out that near total pointlessness in playing Whac-A-Mole over file sharing. It just become an endless game where each side continues to elevate itself, and it makes it that much more difficult in the end for the entertainment industry to do what it will inevitably be forced to do anyway: start building business models that embrace file sharing. But the further they push users of such services underground, the more and more difficult they’ll find it to embrace these services down the road. Each attempt to knock out these services or their users only comes around to backfire on the industry itself.

Meanwhile, South Korea continues to inspire envy in Web users around the globe.

As Worldfocus correspondent Daljit Dhaliwal and producers Sally Garner and Ara Ayer report, Estonia is quickly becoming E-stonia.

Watch an extended interview: Estonia’s Internet guru Linnar Viik shares cyber strategy.

Flickr user mallix constructs a Twitter class portrait. Photo under a Creative Commons license.

A draft curriculum review of the British education system calls for primary school pupils to learn how to use Twitter, Wikipedia, blogging and podcasts as part of their school studies.

The proposals also suggest that history topics such as the Victorian era and World War II be given less time in the curriculum. The final version of the review is due out next month.

“The Cowfield” blog rejects the curriculum shake-ups, arguing that technology is over-emphasized:

As a history scholar, I firmly believe more should be done to encourage people to question their pasts, and to connect the present with what has gone on before. The suggestions [in the proposals] indicate that this is no longer a concern for governmental officials. Instead, it seems, we should be encouraging the ‘life skills’ of how to use Twitter, or how to blog.

[...]I really do not think that further use of Twitter, Wikipedia et al should be encouraged. Many people are already moaning that there is too much exposure to the internet and computers, so surely encouraging further exposure should be frowned upon? At a period where we are frequently told of the growing obesity problem, surely placing kids in front of another screen cannot help? I’m still not sure what was wrong with classrooms and books personally.

Several commenters weighed in on the story in response to an article at the “TechCrunch” blog, both in support of and against the proposals:

Wendy wrote: We’re in a post PC era, my four year old uses youtube on my iphone, my 18mth old daughter plays with the bubblewrap app. To them it’s just part of life and nothing special. I’m all in favour of an overhaul to schools curriculum with regards to tech and media however I’m a little skeptical that putting Twitter on the agenda is just the government jumping on a fad. More optimistically they’re just mentioning this to get picked up on the news and there is a more considered well researched programme of change behind this?

Bas wrote: I think children should get lessons in thinking and in information retrieval. Yes, they should still be taught about history, etc. Yes, it’s important they learn stuff that they could need ‘on the spot’ - like calculating skills. However, we can go a little bit easier on drilling the information in - by the time they’re 25, augmented reality will be a fact and not even a luxury. We’ll be able to retrieve information at any time, any place, about almost anything, without even moving our hands to grab our handhelds.

Another British blogger at “Zeitgeist” says it’s “more dumbing down,” blasting the government:

I think the those people in authority are the ones who need educating. Children already know far more about the web than most adults! What is going on? Why does the government continuously insist on getting it wrong? Because getting it right would cost a lot more money, and it would probably take a lot longer than 4 years, and as most people realise the government only see[s] up to 4 years in to the future, they never think long-term.

At the “Twitterati” blog, Josh Crowse comments that the introduction of social media tools into curriculum may have a reverse effect:

Translation: in 10 years, students will have grown to hate twitter and wikipedia, after having to use them as part of daily homework.

Some American schools ban Twitter, including that of Minnesota teacher “Knaus,” who writes in support of the site as a learning tool:

I love Twitter. I use it three ways. I have a Twitter for my classroom that is private, a Twitter for my family that is connected to Facebook, and a school tech Twitter for my teaching and learning in and through technology. Having different Twitters lets me keep my information specific to each topic and I can’t “over Tweet.” I really wish it was unblocked at my school. I think it would be great for my students to use.

Monks head online in Phnom Penh.

Several decades ago under the communist Khmer Rouge, Cambodia was isolated and cut off from much of the outside world. While the Internet has since expanded the range of global communication, most Cambodians still lack Internet access — only about 70,000 people are online.

Tharum Bun is the information technology manager at The Asia Foundation in Cambodia and writes at the “In Asia” blog that while Internet access may be scarce, those who have embraced the Web — including a former king — have used blogs to engage in dynamic and open dialogue.

Cambodians Embrace Online Dialogue

Cambodia has over 13 million people, but currently, less than 2 percent have regular access to the Internet. Cambodia’s official language is Khmer, but these Cambodians who chat, e-mail, and blog on the Internet – and the approximately 23 percent of Cambodians who text with their mobile phones – find it easier to use English. While low Internet penetration, language barriers, and technical issues with using the Khmer scripts limit the amount of Cambodians who can engage in online dialogue, those Cambodians who are entering the international blogosphere are breaking a pattern of devastating silence and isolation.

The former King (or King Father), Norodom Sihanouk, now 86, makes regular postings about Cambodia’s past and present on his website. The former Prince – fluent in Khmer, French, and English – posts communiqués and reactions to media reports regularly. Originally launched in 2002, the King’s website became a new digital medium for global visitors. Cambodian media largely use their websites as a source for information, taking the King’s comments and those of his critics, and translating them into Khmer. The King’s online conversation and personal digital medium is inspiring young Cambodians to engage the Internet as a forum for discussion and debate, and to learn English as a second language.

After the Khmer Rouge fell in the 1980s, Cambodia experienced a big baby boom; today 60 percent of the population qualifies as youth. Because of their English language skills and affinity for technology, Cambodian youth make up the largest number of Internet users in the country and are, like the King, engaging in online debate. This group of active Internet users writes mostly in English, given both the technical difficulties of inputting Khmer characters, as well as the widespread use of English among their audience: their own peers and the international online community.

This dynamic online dialogue has helped pave the way for a more open discussion in a country torn by civil wars in recent decades. The trauma inflicted by the Khmer Rouge regime (1975-1979) is still a major point of discussion in Cambodia. Cambodian intellectuals, who were once the target of mass killings, and their surviving children, use their knowledge of the English language and technology to express their opinions and views. To move Cambodia past years of silence, this is essential. The King has used his website to post his thoughts on social order and past politics, encouraging today’s Cambodian youth to use online forums, chat rooms, and blogs to discuss issues from everyday life to larger, social issues.

While this new emergence of online voices, in a language other than their own, doesn’t necessarily reflect the progressive thinking of the entire nation, it is a starting point of voiced, diversified opinions.

To read more, see the original post.

The views expressed by contributing bloggers do not reflect the views of Worldfocus or its partners.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Magalie L’Abbé under a Creative Commons license.

Worldfocus special correspondent Michael Greenspan and producers Yuval Lion and Ara Ayer report from Israel.

Could Agassi’s plan work in larger countries like the U.S.? Watch an extended interview: Debate on the electric revolution of the auto industry.

Tech-savvy Catholics can install the “iBreviary” application on their iPhones.

The Vatican has approved an iPhone application for the first time.

“iBreviary” is a prayer book available for download on iTunes and created by Italian priest Father Paolo Padrini.

Though Pope Benedict XVI owns an iPod, the Vatican warned last month against the dangers of modern technologies like cell phones and the Internet, saying “In the age of the cell phone and the Internet, it is probably more difficult than before to protect silence and to nourish the interior dimension of life.”

Churches have experimenting with digital technology for years, and some have begun “godcasting.”

Read a Religion & Ethics Newsweekly report on “Godtube,” an online Christian broadcast platform.

“The Curt Jester” blog reviews “iBreviary” and recommends it.

A blogger at “Switched” writes that the Vatican has been somewhat conflicted on the technology issue, at times warning against cell phones and at other times using text messaging to engage young churchgoers.

A blogger at “Bright Hub” provides an overview of religious iPhone applications, writing that some are offensive and undermine religions rooted in natural energy and human contact.

Writer David Gibson writes about the faith of “Appleism,” using a religious analogy to discuss the iPhone’s arrival as a “Second Coming” for technology enthusiasts.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user William Hook under a Creative Commons license.

The One Laptop Per Child program (OLPC) launched in Rwanda in October with the aim of providing computer access to the country’s 2.3 million schoolchildren. President Paul Kagame has supported the program and efforts to expand schooling and educational resources in the country.

Worldfocus correspondent Martin Seemungal travels to Rwamagana, Rwanda — once a site of the country’s 1994 genocide, now the site of technological transformation.

Below, read what bloggers are saying about the laptop initiative from Rwanda to Peru.

Blogger “Brian,” an OLPC intern, posts his account of bringing laptops to children in Kigali, Rwanda.

Blogger “DSD” — another OLPC intern — writes from Ethiopia, describing how the laptops excite children in the country’s bare schools.

From Peru, blogger “Ivan Krstić” returns to the town of Arahuay one year after OLPC brought laptops to children there, writing that despite his skepticism, the program has brought about real change.

However, some bloggers express continued doubts about the OLPC program’s effectiveness.

The “Hyper Edge” blog argues that money could be better spent on food and infrastructure projects.

The “Thoughts on Freedom” blog writes from Australia that the program is flawed, as it does not take into account long-term maintenance costs and more pressing needs in rural communities.

The price of the so-called “$100 laptop” has in fact grown to over $188 in past years, though OLPC plans to introduce a newly-designed laptop at a cheaper price by 2010.

Algae.

“Another day, another algae company,” says Michael Kanellos of Greentech Media.

Algae-based energy may not share the popularity of corn-based or sugar-based biofuels, but it is projected to be in commercial production within three years.

Along with green revolution trends like natural gas, nuclear power and ethanol fuel blends, people around the world are exploring a host of other “alternative” alternative fuels.

In Canada, a new cellulosic ethanol plant will make use of beetle-killed wood.

Blogger Patrick Kiger of “Is This a Good Idea?” weighs the idea of using artificial tornadoes to generate electricity.

Blogger “Naija Pundit” of “My Nigeria” excerpts a report from a Nigerian man using his septic tank as a bioreactor to generate electricity, provocatively joking that the success of this practice could put national power companies out of business.

In Patagonia, South America, plant scientist Gary Strobel has discovered a forest fungus that produces many of the same hydrocarbons found in diesel. Strobel proposes that it might be genetically combined with faster-reproducing bacteria to develop new energy sources.

In the arena of consumer vehicles, an air-powered CityCat car is schedule to arrive in the U.S. by early 2010. A version of the car was supposed to be in production in India in July, and the “Xtreme Machines” blog provides an overview of the machine.  Yet reports say that the technology is still in development.

Blogger Noel of “Green Stumbler” showcases other air-powered cars including South Africa’s Air Car, the South Korean Energine engine, and the French K’Airmobile.

Michael Kanellos at “Greentech Media” reports that Japanese car manufacturer Nissan is now developing a car that charges itself.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Olfert under a Creative Commons license.

Ara Ayer transfers files on-the-go in Bhopal, India. Photo: Mary Lockhart

Producer Ara Ayer reports from India with producer Mary Lockhart. Ara runs through what it’s like to be a high-tech, multitasking, multimedia journalist on the go.

A Worldfocus shooter-producer wears many hats in the field. I have to wear more than most since I’m bald –- yet that’s not the topic of this blog. I’d like to digress about workflow.

Gone are the days when an electronic journalist could spend a day reporting and shooting then hit the local watering hole for refreshment. Today’s multimedia journalist has to report, do lighting, sound, operate the camera and archive digital video clips in the field. It’s the new reality of media production: five jobs, one salary.

Not to boast, but I’m an analog guy. I shoot photographs on 35-mm film, listen to jazz through a McIntosh amp, and used to enjoy shooting video on tape. That is, until I started with Worldfocus and learned to joys and hardships of working in an all-digital news gathering format.

My trial by fire came on assignment in India and Singapore. Fellow producer Mary Lockhart and I ambitiously took on the task of producing seven stories in three weeks.

Neither of us were experts using the high-definition Panasonic P2 camera. Unlike cameras of old, a P2 doesn’t require tape. The P2 camera “captures” digital video on reusable — but limited — memory cards.

Mary and I had to often break our shoot schedule to download and erase cards. Fading computer batteries often sent us scrambling to find power to transfer clip files from the camera to portable hard drives. We started taking over wait stations in restaurants, hijacking offices for electrical plugs and, if need be, using the car’s cigarette lighter for power.

If the assignment gods were kind, this process would end at sundown. Yet after the shoot day was done, digital clip files on the portable drive and the remaining P2 cards all had to be backed up to two archival hard drives in real time.

So if I shot four hours of video during the day, I spend four hours archiving at night. Mary and I often took turns sharing the archival duties –- assuring at least one of us got more than fitful sleep before the next day’s assignment.

The great boon of digital technology is access to the media. I can screen and edit my work virtually anywhere on my laptop. I know it’s nothing revolutionary to the YouTube generation, but the ease of scrutinizing material before we decamp for the next assignment or home truly helps make me and my colleagues better storytellers and journalists. Plus, with all the late nights transferring files, our clips are archived and ready to edit when we touch down in New York.

- Ara Ayer