By Maura Kelly

Mayor Bloomberg has stated many times that small businesses are the chief engine of growth in New York City. However convincing entrepreneurs that his Department of Small Business Services isn't another "bullying" bureaucracy is still a challenge. A challenge that it's Commissioner, Robert Walsh has tackled for...

"Online everyone has a voice...We shape and are shaped by what happens there...Two billion people are now online, nearly a third of humankind. And increasingly, we are turning to the Internet to conduct important aspects of our lives."

So said Hillary Clinton, secretary of state, in response to...

By Maura Kelly

President Bill Clinton gave the keynote address at the second Global Irish Economic Forum in Dublin Castle Oct. 8. The Forum is an Irish government initiative to engage with the Irish diaspora in developing Ireland's global businesses and create new options for...

By Maura Kelly

The annual meeting was kicked off with Secretary Hillary Clinton urging the U.S. to join a treaty on women's rights and a special session on disaster preparedness. The focus quickly switched to jobs, jobs and jobs. Generating employment in the midst of the most prolonged economic slowdown in decades is a worldwide problem -- and in the developing world, a legal job can make the difference between life and death.

Highlights included a satellite interview with humanitarian leader Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma and Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu -- hosted by Charlie Rose. Archbishop Tutu spoke about the launch of "Girls Not Brides," a new global partnership launched by The Elders to end the harmful practice of child marriage. Aung San Suu Kyi spoke about freedom and stated that, while many people think democracy is a western concept, the concept of freedom and security resonates with people across the world. "We all want to be free, have the freedom to search and build up our own passions," she stated.

Later President Obama, fresh from this speech at the U.N. General Assembly, greeted the group -- calling the room "do-gooders," and Bill Clinton "the ultimate "do-gooder." He presented his jobs creation proposal and spoke about sustainable consumption.

Notable speakers included Chelsea Clinton and actress Geena Davis who discussed technology for economic empowerment. Several commitments were announced and one that got a lot of traction dealt with efforts to end modern day slavery. It is estimated that there are over 27 million people enslaved in the world -- toiling away in factories, sweatshops and in the sex trade against their will.

The Slavery Footprint Campaign launch coincided with the 149th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and aims to start a consumer driven movement to eradicate forced labor. With the tag line "How many slaves work for you?," the new website and app will reveal to the user just how many slaves work to make your smart phone, laptop and more. Through the supply chain -- human trafficking -- the truth will get exposed.

When I tried to get on the website that evening -- I could not. The traffic was so high, the site had to move to a larger server. MTVu will be a partner and launched their own initiative -- the "MTVu Against Our Will Campaign" -- that will shed light on America's role in this global epidemic.

Concluding the 2011 Annual Meeting Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, along with Chef José Andrés, announced a progress report on the Clean Cookstoves commitment first announced at the 2010 conference. Exposure to smoke from traditional cookstoves -- the primary means of cooking and heating for nearly three billion people in the developing world -- causes nearly two million premature deaths annually.

The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, with the goal of enabling 100 million households to adopt clean, efficient cookstoves by the year 2020, has raised more than $85 million to date. Hillary was later joined on stage by her daughter Chelsea Clinton for a conversation on the role of government, the impact of the Arab Spring and democracy and how to manage resources with population soon to reach seven billion.

In his closing remarks, President Clinton said he was optimistic and urged people to participate more to change the status quo. Commenting on surveys that say young people are pessimistic about the future, he said it was important to understand that the choices we make now shape what the world will look like.

"Nobody has a right to a life free of challenges -- everybody is called upon at some time or another to re-imagine all the premises of their lives... of their nation and to create a whole different future... You should be grateful that you're living in a time when you've been given a chance to build a new world," Clinton said. "The uncertainties of the moment don't have to exist 10 years from now."

Established in 2005 by President Bill Clinton, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) has brought together nearly 150 current and former heads of state, 18 Nobel Prize laureates, CEOs, major philanthropists and NGOs. These CGI members have made more than 2,000 commitments, impacting the lives of nearly 300 million people in more than 180 countries.
...

By Maura Kelly

The headlines about the Irish economy may be all doom and gloom but there is a magical side to it if you look at its exports. Namely, a sassy little pig named "Olivia," a Skunk who knows Kung Fu, little Brendan and a book, and more --...

By Maura Kelly

In mid-April I traveled to Ethiopia and zigzagged 1000 miles across the rolling hills and towns of the northern Amhara region with the HOPe Organization. I came here to better understand the current specter of HIV/AIDS and to assess an education and development project. For ten days...

By Tala Dowlatshahi

Many of the protests across the Middle East and North Africa are in the process of transforming Muslim society. They are a cause for celebration as democracy establishes a foothold in Egypt. The possibility that its legacy will spread, perhaps even into Iran, is one that all...

By Maura Kelly

"IRISH people have a long and proud tradition of creativity. From the poems of Yeats to the invention of Boolean Algebra - the foundation of modern computer science - Irish ideas have changed the way the world thinks," says Matthew Greeley, CEO of Brightidea. He would know....

By Tala Dowlatshahi

The recent call by Secretary of State Clinton to sanction eight of the highest ranking Iranian officials ranging from the Interior Minister to the head of the Revolutionary Guards has received widespread praise. And rightly so. For decades, a triangular system within government--the judiciary, military and the...

By Maura Kelly, Award-winning Producer & Co-founder, Reporters Uncensored

Bill Clinton is in top form, 25 pounds lighter, looking fresh and energized. To the cheering applause of Richard Branson, the former president greets all and opens the 2010 Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) in New York earlier this week....

By Maura Kelly

As we celebrate World Humanitarian Day 2010, there is no shortage of catastrophes that need immediate attention. Pakistan's worst-ever disaster is unfolding before our eyes.

Recent floods have ravaged an area roughly the size of England, affecting some 20million people. 6million people could...

By Tove Iren S. Gerhardsen -RUTV Europe Correspondent

COPENHAGEN - These days Copenhagen is, in Tom Waits' words: "cold as a well digger's ass." It is windy and snowing (!). But inside the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15) venue, the atmosphere is getting increasingly hot -...

By Chris Flaherty -Filmmaker

On December 28 2008, Birtukan Mideksa was arrested again and imprisoned to serve a life sentence after the pardon granted to her in 2007 was revoked. Medeksa was among more than 100 people jailed for offences after allegations of fraud took hold of the Ethiopian...

My show Reporters Uncensored (RUTV) wants out. Out of the stifling frame that limits what stories get told by the major news organizations. Each week, we take an out of the mainstream perspective and ask how the group or individual became a change-maker. After 10 episodes in season one and...

By Matt Ferrero and Maura Kelly

Teach a man to fish and you can feed him for a lifetime. Teach him to plant and
irrigate a high yield garden and you can feed...

By Matt Ferrero and Maura Kelly

See it, Film it, Change it is the mantra that WITNESS was founded on and this week in New York, testimony and video from the Zimbabwe survivors will be made public for us all to see. Going one step further, the evidence will...

By Matt Ferrero and Maura Kelly

Our social innovator this week comes with a remarkable personal story. As a youth, Anthony Mulongo was selected by the Kenyan Government as one of the country's 18 brightest...

By Maura Kelly

Imagine you and your family in Kenya's Kakuma camp, along with seventy thousand refugees. Dust storms darken the sky and dry out your skin and the few scraps of food that aren't...

By Maura Kelly

On October 22, RUTV will launch a new online mini-series, Underdogs and Social Innovators -- global tales of the disenfranchised, the downtrodden and the silent heroes who battle the odds to overcome all.

What do solar energy, human trafficking and potable water have in...

By Matt Ferrero and Maura Kelly

Starting this week, Reporters Uncensored TV will be launching a new series on social innovators. We will be bringing to your attention the people and organizations that are right...