Links for a Quiet Tuesday Evening. Including, of Course, Ashton Kutcher

A few of the more interesting links from the past week or so:

- A fascinating article from World Vision - posted on AlertNet - on the strange intersection between media coverage and humanitarian crises: Camera-shy rebels keep Congo crisis out of the news

- Following the rather heated debate last week over NGO neutrality, wanted to post a few interesting pieces by David Lepeska on the DevEx blog.

In Must Humanitarians Remain Impartial, he reports on a recent conference on humanitarianism at the City University of New York, including a discussion about whether humanitarian organizations need to reach out to everyone, including groups like the Taliban.

Given the number of attacks against aid worker over the past few weeks (for instance in Pakistan and Somalia), Lepeska's piece on Humanitarianism and the Question of Security is also worth a read.

- Gideon Gono, the Governor of Zimbabwe's Reserve Bank, recently admitted that the government raided private bank accounts, including bank accounts belonging to aid agencies.  According to the AP, Gono then pleaded for a little understanding, asking "to let bygones be bygones".

- Chris Blattman also has a great post about the various uses of Zimbabwe's near-worthless currency.

- Speaking of money, Harry Rud in Afghanistan has a phenomenal post about salaries - who thinks they're paid too much, and who to little:

"Compared to other similar INGOs, our national staffs’ wages are a little above average, but that’s little comfort for them. Compared with USAID and its myriad of contractors, ours are a pittance. It can make finding and retaining suitable staff a pain in the arse."

- Finally, as promised, Mr. Kutcher - according to my social entrepreneurship co-blogger Nathaniel, Ashton Kutcher became the first twitter user to gain 1 million followers, partially by pledging to donate 10,000 anti-malaria bed nets if he won.  As Nathaniel reported:

"Then the coolest thing happened: Ashton started mobilizing his celebrity community. In the last hour alone, he's got his wife Demi Moore, Oprah, Ryan Seacrest, CNN to donate between 10,000 and 20,000 nets. It looks like P. Diddy might be next. If that's not community freakin' mobilization, I don't know what is."

Nathaniel has started an action to try and get Ashton to raise $1,000,000 to buy bed nets for Malaria No More.  To learn more - and to sign the petition - see here.