Civil society in Yemen failed to respond to the revolutionary energy of 2011. However, in the midst of a civil war and diminishing space for activism, organizations like Mwatana for Human Rights stand firm.

Economic growth alone is not enough to alleviate extreme poverty. Instead, we need creative, targeted alternatives—like unconditional cash transfers and livestock donations.

As inequality deepens, so too should concerns about rural policies and unequal access to land. The decline of redistributive agrarian reforms coupled with growing patterns of land concentration and land-grabbing threaten to exacerbate cycles of inequality in the countryside, in the city, and around the world.

Recent decades have seen social activism turn to law as a battleground for social change. While the rejection in Argentina of a bill to legalize abortion left many feeling cheated, the effects of the campaign, Que Sea Ley (English: Let It Be Law), transcended purely legal change.

Companies that fear damage or loss of their reputation have begun to increasingly rely on legal tools such as lawsuits or lobbying to silence their foes and critics. Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP) cases have proliferated in the United States and beyond as a way for companies to sue individuals or groups in order to censor, intimidate, and silence their critics. In Colombia, this process has been incorporated into the Peace Process, as judges in the Special Tribunal for Peace (JEP) have come to prohibit the discussion of third-party actors as a manner to safeguard their reputation and legal standing.

“Nanette,” a Netflix comedy special, features Hannah Gadsby, a comedian who decides to give up comedy following a lifelong career, as she realizes that genuine connection between people emerged through stories and not jokes. Oftentimes the “punchline” of a joke leaves out much of the story — oftentimes, the more difficult parts that reside in stereotypes, satire, and mockery of the “other.”

The privacy policies of many of the tech giants—especially with regards to collecting and using information, profiling, automated-decision making, and data commercialization—continue to illustrate worrying scenarios for the right to privacy and related freedoms of netizens in every single country around the world. While the European Union has begun to address the challenge with the recently passed General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Latin American privacy statutes across the board remain rather weak for the digital age. These countries should begin to think of a supranational regulatory harmonization for the region, much like the one that has endowed Europe with greater bargaining power over data-driven companies.

Perhaps it’s time to state firmly, and insistently, that we see everyone who let themselves be swooped up in machines of inhumanity, and not just the masterminds. And perhaps it’s not too late to call out enough of the small bureaucrats and agents so that they, too, squirm, question and upend the pact of purposeful obtuseness that is required to carry on with systems of oppression designed to harm from a safe distance.

More than a trend, the increasing number of countries implementing a tax on soft drinks shows that this kind of fiscal measure is a cost-efficient policy to tackle the obesity epidemic in the Americas.