Name: The brave new world of ‘Tech-plomacy’ | Red Cross Red Crescent magazine podcast - Episode 03 by RCRCmagazine
Duration: 19 min 20 s
Description: Digital information technology holds tremendous potential for easing human suffering. But it also poses many risks. In countries impacted by conflict, for example, those risks can be a matter of life and death. Humanitarian ‘tech-plomat’ Philippe Stoll decodes plusses and minuses of the humanitarian tech revolution.

This is so interesting, good moment learning on tech, data, privacy, IHL and more, thanks Philippe and the RCRCmagazine team!

Even on this crowded planet, there are places on Earth where one could argue that even the notion of humanity is all but nonexistent. Where the human element is so scarce and the environment is so harsh, you might as well be in the void of space. This is a journey into one of those places and it’s a story about the people who end up there, either because they feel they have no other choice, or because they feel compelled to bring some humanity to this place. 

On this special RCRC magazine podcast, we go with photographer and videographer Alexia Webster into international waters in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea. She takes us on a journey aboard the Ocean Viking, a ship chartered by the humanitarian group SOS Mediterranee in partnership with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies, the IFRC. The ship has a singular mission of saving people who find themselves lost in international waters between Europe and North Africa, where every year thousands of people lose their lives as they try to find safety, and a better life in Europe. With the help of audio clips from her interviews, she will introduce you to people who've made the journey on little more than a rubber dinghy. We'll also hear from crew members of the Ocean Viking, people who spend their lives at sea trying to prevent even more lives from being lost.

‘What made me try to cross this sea? I must be crazy’.

In this episode, we speak with Hassan, a refugee of the Syrian conflict who became known worldwide as the "man in the airport." Hassan spent 6 months living in an air terminal as he tried to find a country that would grant him asylum. We also speak with Houda, also a Syrian refugee who is struggling to restart her cooking business after the recent earthquake.

In this series, we revisit some of the most interesting and inspiring people we've interviewed during 40 years of Red Cross Red Crescent magazine coverage of humanitarian action.

'We tried everything' - Red Cross Red Crescent magazine podcast - Episode 01

In this episode, we explore the many challenges that have faced volunteers in Ukraine, and we talk with an artist and volunteer from Syria about the connection between art and humanity.

‘To feel the pain of others’ | Red Cross Red Crescent magazine podcast - Episode 02

Digital information technology holds tremendous potential for easing human suffering. But it also poses many risks. In countries impacted by conflict, for example, those risks can be a matter of life and death. Humanitarian ‘tech-plomat’ Philippe Stoll decodes plusses and minuses of the humanitarian tech revolution.

The brave new world of ‘Tech-plomacy’ | Red Cross Red Crescent magazine podcast - Episode 03

In this episode, we talk about the power of storytelling to inform and inspire. “Storytelling is a fundamental aspect of human communication,” says our guest Prodip, a volunteer and multi-media storyteller for the Bangladesh Red Crescent. “It inspires us to be a hero of our own community.” We also speak with one such community hero, Dalal al-Taji, a longtime volunteer and advocate for inclusion of people with disabilities in emergencies response. “In disasters. persons with disabilities sometimes get forgotten.”

The power of storytelling | Red Cross Red Crescent magazine podcast - Episode 04

It’s the stuff of dystopian science fiction: machines used as weapons of war that can make decisions about who and when to kill. They’re referred to as “autonomous weapons” and they’re already in use to some degree. In this episode, we explore the increasing development of autonomous weapons systems and we speak with an expert in the field, the ICRC’s Neil Davison about whether such systems comply with international humanitarian law, otherwise known as the rules of war, and what it means for humanity to give machines the power over human life and death.

What happens when machines can decide who to kill? / RCRC Magazine Podcast / Episode 06

In this episode, we talk with a long-time magazine contributor and humanitarian communicator Kathy Mueller who produced our first magazine podcast series, The Wildfire Diaries, about massive wildfires in Northern Canada in 2017. The wildfires choked local communities, both literally and figuratively. Indigenous people, who rely on the forests for their way of life, were among the most affected. We talk to Mueller about that series, as well as her many international humanitarian missions, including her reporting for the magazine about the 2014-15 Ebola Virus Disease outbreak in West Africa and the many changes in humanitarian communications since she began with the Canadian Red Cross almost 20 years ago.

'Wildfire diaries' and radical change in communications / RCRC Magazine Podcast - Episode 05

In 2013, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement marked its 150th anniversary and the magazine marked the occasion with a visit to what was then its newest National Society: the South Sudan Red Cross (SSRC). We traveled the country, spoke with volunteers, branch managers and leaders. One of them was John Lobor, the secretary general SSRC.  Now, ten years later, as the magazine looks back at its own history, we reach out to Lobor to see how the National Society is doing in the face of many challenges, most notably, a long and very complex internal conflict.

The brave new world of ‘Tech-plomacy’ | Red Cross Red Crescent magazine podcast - Episode 03

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