SFL Around the World: March 2017

Here’s what SFL-ers around the world accomplished this March:

Charter Teams

Charter Teams might be the smallest region within Students For Liberty, but that doesn’t mean our coordinators on the ground aren’t doing fantastic work to advance human flourishing and well-being. Southeast Asia had an especially good month in March! The team in Hong Kong brought together over 1,000 people for a panel on “The Morality of Business” and two talks by human rights activist Yeonmi Park. 

Charter Teams Member Tyler Prochazka also organized a great conference on the Universal Basic Income in Taiwan, and our leaders in the Philippines are working to plan their first-ever Regional Conference, which is set to take place in Manila this May. Read more here!

North America

Free speech is the big focus in North America this month, with the launch of the spring #SpeakFreely strike team – a grant program offering up to $250 for on-campus activism related to free speech and free expression. We also hosted a pro-speech event at the University of California, Berkeley with Dr. Tom G. Palmer. UC Berkeley was the same campus where a riot ensued which resulted in the university canceling an appearance by known provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos back in February. Dr. Palmer was well received and the event livestream attracted lots of attention.

It was also a good month for media attention, with Campus Coordinator (CC) Natalie Le publishing a piece in the Harvard Crimson criticizing the school’s restrictive speech policies, CC Jacob Linker placing another pro-speech piece in Townhall, and CC Anna Richter appearing as a guest on the libertarian Remso Republic podcast. Read more here!

Europe

The sixth annual LibertyCon was a smashing success. Over the weekend of March 17-19, 750 attendees came together in Prague to learn about the sharing economy, modern technology, classical liberal thought, and to plan for the future of liberty in Europe. Speakers included Jeffrey Tucker, Matt Kibbe, Henrik Jönsson, Jennifer Grossman, Tom Palmer, and many others.

Other events in Europe last month included the “kNOw Gazprom” panel discussion, which covered recent Georgian gas deals from a libertarian perspective, an Austrian lecture on the history and current state of the Middle East, and the very creative Freedom Bananas fruit giveaway in Vilnius, Lithuania. Read more here!

EsLibertad (Latin America)

Here in EsLib, we’ve been having applications for the Local Coordinator program. The application process closed this past Friday and we got around 380 applications! Besides that, our team in Mexico has been touring the country organizing leadership forums and our guys in Argentina have been organizing “Beers and Ideas” to talk about libertarianism. See more here!

Brasil

March was a great month for Students For Liberty Brasil! During weekends, Group Retreats were held in all regions of the country. More than 100 group leaders were trained at these new events. They were focused on fundraising and strategic planning. The question they were required to answer by the end of each session was “How will you advance our mission by your group’s actions?” Moreover, the biggest leadership selection in our history started in March. 5 Regional and 27 State Coordinators stepped up to their new roles after the process took place with 92 applications. See more here!

South Asia

In South Asia, SFL is hosting a Virtual Reading Group on The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible by Ken Schoolland. The book tells the story of a boy who becomes shipwrecked on an unfamiliar island after being swept out to sea in a storm. Having previously lived in a relatively free society, in this new strange land, he experiences culture shock as he learns of bewildering laws and traditions of the island’s inhabitants. SASFL LC Sougandhi Bogupally, with the help of fellow SFL leaders Sai Praneeth Macherla and Parth Valluri, hosted Dr. JP Narayan for an interactive speaker session on “What makes countries prosperous?” and SFLers in Pune held a colloquium on the “Uberisation of the World” on March 6th.  Read more here!

Africa

In Africa this month, the first Ugandan Local Coordinators got to work on a few exciting events, including two Entrepreneurship events at Kyambogo University and Nkumba University. Regional Director for SFL East Africa, Aimable Manirakiza, was recently on Radio 10, Kigali, Rwanda to discuss the ASFL “Foundations of a Free Society” Project in Burundi, Rwanda, and Democratic Republic of Congo. ASFL Kenya kicked off the Campus Caravan program, visiting three universities so far. And, SFL Southern Africa Regional Director, Nicholas Woode-Smith, organized a two-day book fair at the University of Cape Town. Read more here!