Em.'s In & Outs

Current Research Plans! Comments Welcome

2010-04-07T11:04:00.002-04:00

Here is a current snapshot of my research ideas =) Comments are welcome!

Transition Towns (TT) have been identified as a key player in Strengthening the Movement for the 2010 Summit on a People-Centered Economy. TT seek to put forwards solutions for community adaptation to climate change and peak oil, and as such embody a practical response to the following question that emerged as a priority for SE research for our times: “what explicit strategies are being used for the social/solidarity economy to play a role in sustainable development and the “green” or conservation economy in the face of climate change and how can this be strengthened?” (Downing, 2009). While it is clear that the interface between the sustainability and social economy (SE) movements is linked in theory, with the literature on de-growth, re-localization and ecological economics, and in practice through the work of the Canadian Centre for Community Renewal (CCCR), there has been very little applied research on the topic in Canada (McPherson and Fontan, pers. comm., 30/03/10; Tremblay, pers.comm., 16/02/10). Transition Towns are creating a groundswell momentum for applied sustainability in Canada, and now is a real opportunity to research resilience indicators as put forwards by TT (Colussi, pers.comm., 01/04/10) and to share those with other non-profit organizations seeking to increase resilience. This study will provide insight towards other needed research outputs such as a scan of community responses to climate change and peak oil in Canada with a comparative rural/urban and TT/non-TT lens (Côté, pers.comm., 09/03/10), in order to help the Canadian non-profit community understand how TT build systems of communications, social learning and advocacy that best stimulate success and policy insight (Downing, pers.comm., 15/02/10). As a result, the research question addressed is: how does the TT movement in Canada mainstream and evaluate resilience into its community visioning and planning activities, and what are the implications for SE organizations?

This study abides by principles of action research with the researcher taking an active role in the beginning process to establish an Energy Action Descent Plan (EADP), as discussed in preliminary community research design conversations. It adopts an original triangulated mixed methods basket. Data collection will happen over the May-December 2010 time period, and will consist of in-depth case studies of Transition Guelph and Eden Mills Going Carbon Neutral, which will include participant observation, a series of community meetings for visioning and backcasting following the TT model, and a digital storytelling workshop on resilience. This will be supplemented by a questionnaire on best practices and indicators circulated to TT groups in Canada. This will be based on a literature review of sustainability planning.

It is expected that this research, of whose results will be shared widely and which has small/rural as well as Canadian national implications, will provide a backbone sample of resilience indicators for increased sustainability. The action research methodology will act as a catalyst for the establishment of the first Canadian EADP, while allowing for reflection on the processes for setting resilience indicators, and for important evaluation questions to emerge. The digital stories will constitute a creative asset for Canadian communities to foster dialog on resilience.

Great job opportunity - Microfinance in Toronto

2009-12-28T13:35:00.000-05:00

ACCESS Community Capital Fund

Development Manager

The ACCESS Community Capital Fund (ACCESS) assists small and emerging businesses gain access to financing when it is not available through conventional sources. ACCESS is a Canadian registered charity that operates a community loan fund through the provision of loan guarantees. The fund was created by investments from socially minded individuals, organizations and businesses. ACCESS has developed strong community partnerships and is seeking to expand its mandate across the greater Toronto area. For additional information please visit us at www.accessccf.com

Position:

Reporting to the volunteer Board of Directors of ACCESS, the Development Manager is responsible for expanding the geographic scope of ACCESS and the volume of community-based lending through the development of chapters in Toronto. The position will work closely with the key stakeholders of ACCESS, including community organizations and related agencies, fund investors and the committed team of ACCESS volunteers. Actively involved in all aspects of the daily operations of ACCESS, the Development Manager will be integral to delivering upon ACCESS’ key strategic goals in the area of microfinance.

Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities:

• To identify, develop and establish new chapters of ACCESS that are focused on providing microloans to promising entrepreneurs in their local communities. The position will guide the chapter in implementing community-based lending in accordance with ACCESS’ loan review criteria and other practices.

• To manage the key operational aspects of the community loan fund and to champion its key strategic initiatives.

• To promote the sustainability of the community loan fund through the increased provision of microloans, strengthening ACCESS’ investor base, and engaging in fundraising activities, as well as other charitable activities targeted at new and existing individual and institutional donors.

• To support the Board’s outreach program for identifying, developing and nurturing key partnerships with community organizations and other potential partners, including those focused on business mentoring and other related services.

• To assist in coordinating ACCESS’ dedicated volunteer base to staff its loan review committees, as well as promote their engagement in community partnership and other activities related to social finance.

• To provide assistance and support in relation to the ACCESS Board of Directors and its related committees, as well as reporting as required to external stakeholders.

Qualifications and Attributes
Required:

• University graduate;
• 3 years business development experience (or equivalent) or 6 years senior business experience which included responsibility for building and maintaining customer relationships;
• Experience in evaluating credit applications or alternatively in financial analysis;
• Experience either as a volunteer chair, board member or staff in a not-for-profit organization working for at-risk communities;
• Excellent oral and written English communication skills and interpersonal skills

Preferably:
• Demonstrable experience in fundraising and event planning;
• Multiple languages.

Location: Toronto

Compensation:

Contract position with compensation commensurate with experience and comparable with the compensation offered in a non-profit organization.

We recognize the value of diversity in our communities and interested candidates should send a letter of interest, their resumes and three references by email in Word or pdf format to: hiring@accessccf.com.

We thank you for your interest in ACCESS. Only those applicants being considered will be contacted. Interviews will commence on January 11 and we will accept applications until the position is filled. Please distribute this posting to eligible candidates in your network.

Mindblowing research on whistleblowing

2009-12-06T21:00:00.001-05:00

A repost from some research one of my students did on whistleblowing, mindblowing!

"The following is a list of the presented statistics on whistleblowers in the U.S.:

100% were fired - most were unable to find new jobs

17% lost their homes

54% were harassed by peers at work

15% were subsequently divorced

80% suffered physical deterioration

90% reported emotional stress, depression and anxiety

10% attempted suicide

Source:

http://media.www.brockpress.com/media/storage/paper384/news/2004/03/30/Business/Famous.Cases.Of.WhistleBlowing-645453.shtml

Now, take these stats for what they are, but it is interesting that standing up against a higher authority on your own will likely bring a very uncomfortable and/or painful situation as a result of the higher authority trying to cover up mistakes or to silence the whistleblower. There is a good example of whistleblowers in the documentary "The Corporation" where two reporters are pressured to falsify information on a news story. The reporters refused to mislead the public by falsifying information and claimed their whistleblower status. However, the reporters' whistleblower status was overthrown by the courts as a result of the courts determining that falsifying information was not in fact against the law and subsequently fired the two reporters.

The Corporation Video Clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZkDikRLQrw"

Munk Debate on Climate Change

2009-12-01T19:53:00.001-05:00

Some notes on the debate... Right at the heart of my (current!) research topic =)

Eizabeth May (pro)
CC first threat and then water crisis.
Canada was a lead of the Our Changing Atmosphere: Implications for Global Security, one of the first conferences
Consequences of CC could be second only to global nuclear meldown.
Margaret Thatcher : “thread to our world comes from tyrants and their tanks, it can be more insidious.. the danger of CC is unseen but still blablah we need to change” (15 years ago)
Sea levels raised 80% faster than the 3rd IPCC report predicted..

George Mombiot (pro)
“how lucky do you feel?” is what the “con” guys are talking about..
Commission by Nicholas Stern got other results regarding costs. Mitigation = 1% of GDP; Adaptation = costs with living with that levels of CC : 5% of GDP at the very best, or up to 20% of GDP in the worst case scenario.
Adaptation. Yes we can adapt to some of it for a few years in the developed world. But different in poor world. Adaptation technologies : drip irrigation, new crop varieties, etc. but doesn’t work so smoothly in practice. He worked many years in the Horn of Africa, and saw some of the new climate-induced droughts (that used to come every 30-40 years and now every 2-3 years).
Why should $ for tackling CC could come out of military budgets, etc.. we should invest in both CC and foreign aid.
Question of Copenhagen : do we continue as we are now, or do we pick up our responsibility and recognize the scale of that crisis? How lucky do you feel? (Copenhagen as unique moment in history).
Lord Nigel Lawson (con)
Critique of global
Founder of Global Warming Policy Foundation
Thinks if some policy issues would be implemented, it would be highly damaging. A survey of mainstream climate scientists, asking what the most pressing issue facing humanity, and 8% identified CC as such.
IPCC : likely cost of CC = $. Using a small groups of scientists in the UK for their sources on climate, apparently many incompetents there. Apparently no real warming this year.
In the most gloomiest economic times, apparently the incomes of developing world would be 8.5 times what it is now, compared to 9.5 times.
Carbon-energy : the cheapest energy source. Maybe shift in developed world. But in developing world, he says the fastest rate of economic growth is what they need, to address poverty, and that’ll need the cheapest sources of energy.
China and India not willing to not use carbon, France also urged Europe to do the same.

Bjorn Lomborg(con)
Time Magazing in top 100 intellectual and influence
Copenhagen Consensus Centre
Rhetoric : creating dichotomies saying if CC is the worst thing ever or you’re an enemy of mankind. This approach fundamentally unsound. Poor way to help world and GW.
Costs of changing and keeping to 2degrees cent. : 43 trillion dollars of costs for benefit of 3 trillion dollars.. because the response is too costly. (I wonder if Costa Rica’s approach is costly?)
We need to make solar panels so cheap that everybody including Chinese and Indian can buy them – we need R&D
We shouldn’t focus all the other problems in this world and throw them out the window, we also need policy.
I agree with Elizabeth, we need to change policies : we didn’t deliver with Rio or Kyoto, and so he thinks Copenhagen will be confettis and champagne and nothing more. We need to start being smart.
We have many problems to fix and we need to fix global warming smartly – to do good. It’s not the only challenge we need to fix in this century.

Rebuttals
Lord Chose-bine-trou
Stern review apparently criticized by a lot of people (mostly economists at Harvard and Yale..) saying that the Stern figures are absurd/rubbish.
2 things you should do about Stern review : 1) he was a government employee; 2) didn’t peer-review it;
Elizabeth May
Scientists don’t like focus on year-on-year because we’re dealing with very larger systems (cuz land mass warming at different rates than the oceans, for example).
Acidifying of oceans and threatening lives there – something the “cons” ignore in their books
Scientist at NASA communicating at scientist at East Anglia : discrepancy in data. NASA 2005 warmest year, 2007 same as 1998. (creepy, looking at emails between people, but people have different data sets)
387 ppm now. Never since industrial revolution has it been over 250 ppm.
Georgie
Stern Review was the greatest review of reviews, it’s a meta/uber review of peer-reviewed talks. It is the most scholarly thorough review of it.
Nigel said there has been no warming this century! (WTF?)
Bjorn Lomborg
Stern review almost universally discredited by economists. It’s not a mainstream review apparently. Stern was apparently asked to come up with the most extreme figures possible.
Damages can range from -1% - 5%, with average of 2%, but apparently Stern said 30%.
You can’t just pick up one economist (Stern) that has very high numbers, and say 1000s of climate economists agree, because apparently it’s not right.
Nigel
Idea of insurance. How do you address : are we insuring ourselves for the house burning down, e.g. the worst case scenario.
Elizabeth
Cost trade-offs in what Elizabeth proposes. Finite global economy. Charges that too aggressive action on CC would take us away from other issues in developing world?
E : $3t went to bailing out big companies. Nobody said “we have competing values, we don’t know what is the best action?”
People in developing world are very concerned with climate crisis. President of Lesotho said last night that climate crisis making HIV/AIDS worse of in my country every day!!!! And so the other guy’s idea that the focus should be on HIV and poverty alleviation is flawed.
George
I don’t know anybody in CC activism that isn’t concerned with poverty, malnutrition, etc. they ARE because of CC, these problems are exacerbated.
Droughts force people out of the land, they have to leave to find work elsewhere, prostitution, and bring back HIV/AIDS back to village (according to someone from OXFAM)
If oil peaks – all costs go through the roofs some more…
Nigel
Do you feel secondary effects of defossilization of economy? Could be valuable
N: big oil discoveries recently, also tech for extracting gas.
Look at China : it’s not gonna sign to turn to renewable energy. We need to look at different approach. China is dominant in Sub-Saharan Africa and is buying up Nigerian and Angola and Ghanaian oil – they intend to use it.
(China will double their emissions by 2030! What’s the tipping point when you get worried about ppm?)
Bjorn Lomborg
Yes we’re gonna see dramatic increases in CO2, China promised in fancy game of Copenhagen, they’ (carbon intensity : carbon/$produced, reduce 40-45% by 2020). So China will improve carbon ratio without doing all that much because they’re switching to a more service-intensive economy : so China said they were doing something awesome by doing nothing at all.. =/
We need better technology – it’s hard to ask anyone including ourselves to cut our emissions.
Do you really want to address HIV/AIDS by cutting emissions (doing very little at very high cost, so that’s it’s slightly less bad in 100years) or do you want to hand out condoms? What do we want to focus on?
Elizabeth
Also calling for technology.
Price of carbon – technological revolution to have better cars (will also be best for reducing SMOG and better health)
Pay-back time of a lot of good efficient green tech have negative costs! We waste more energy than we use in Canada!!!! If we improve energy productivity in the same way that we improved labour productivity. (yes!)
Look at tech, societal breakthrough, etc. but look at tracks to
Stone age didn’t end cuz we ran out of stones, it ended because we found something better!
George
What if there’s a global food deficit cuz of an increase of 3 degrees? OUCH! The world can get into structural famine.
Yes we need to deal with hunger and poverty, but let’s not create these false choices. We need to do both. Unless we deal with CC, we can’t deal with other issues.
Africa : 2 degrees of warming catastrophic. And we’re responsible for that warming! And Af picks up the bill, it’s a much severe bill, not paid in $ but paid in human lives. And those lives aren’t calculated in cost-benefit analysis (no moral backing whatsoever). Human lives must come first.
(modeling $ costs of loss lives and ecosystems. Moral claims made by “pro” people, how do you guys relate?)
Bjorn Lomborg
Is the right way to save species is to do CC mitigation? Or is it to make those countries rich so they will preserve those forests? (cuz developing cut down forest cuz no other choice, and developed c reforest)
CC mitigation is very incremential. What about having people living better lives?
Lord
Great killer is poverty. Aid can do a little bit, the thing that really gets people out of poverty is economic development. This is how we did it, this is how China is doing it.
George
(what would the cost be that if China didn’t eliminate a lot of poverty burning nasty coal?)
Don’t want to see a pay-off between access to energy and access to food!
False choice : poverty/people rot VS fossil fuel/CC
But you can do poverty alleviation without to build coal power stations and extract more fossil fuels, which all threaten many more lives than that we’re trying to protect!
The “con” side says that everything is ultimately flexible (I guess soft sustainability, or how economists think).
You can’t tell ecosystems to behave themselves!
If we shed out trillions of $, let’s spend those $ on green energy.
Elizabeth
The problem with this debate is that we haven’t looked at the context.
Impacts of GW have huge impacts. Depends on when we stabilize and at what point we stabilize. A huge supporter of adaptation/mitigation. a big part of this is poverty alleviation; decentralized energy supplies, more solar, etc. could all be part of this strategy, also is protecting the world’s forest.
Biggest contribution of developing world to CC: (mostly illegal) logging of Amazonian forest
We need to address loss of permafrost..
Stephen Lewis : “On top of everything, Africans are likely to experience more poverty, famine, droughts, conflicts over water. And climate crisis is a nightmare for Africa.”
George
When working with OXFAM in E-Af. Drought in Kenya. Only option was to raid neighboring tribes to steal resources from them. CC is a major program here, if we don’t address CC, we better pack out and leave.
OXFAM, Action and Christian aid are lobbying for CC to be on the agenda in Copenhagen. OXFAM: “CC is mankind defining crisis”.
Bjorn
A lot of studies saying this is the only and defining crisis.
Al Gore “how do you want to be remembered by your kids?” (relating to CC as a defining moment)
Spending trillions of $ and making no difference, or spending a lot less and making lots of + changes
Elizabeth
Science compelled even Mulroney and Thatcher..
Millions of environmental refugees.
CC a profound security threat.
When you’re in a crowded theatre and the floor is warming up and there’s smoke and someone says “stay in your seats ladies and gents” – but you have to still see the exit sign..
Lord
Real problem would be addressed with better water management, capture water when it comes.. strategies that address the “real” problems.
Don’t practice marginal exacerbation.
Believe in reason (ahah theory class! A rational planner, did he ever read Davidoff or Friedmann?)
Okay Elizabeth totally wins as always =)

2009 Toronto Microfinance Conference

2009-11-19T20:44:00.001-05:00

Hey guys,

I attended the 2009 Toronto Microfinance Conference last week-end. It was really neat - I had been to a couple planning meeting, and it was a huge success; 300 people came! That shows great interest in microfinance, woot!

Three highlights from speakers:
- Had heard someone from CARE once talk about how they're experimenting with "micropharmacies" in Kenya; that's giving financing for people to start medical and phara outlets where there is little access. Very cool - someone from Gems of Hope went as far as saying that health is the "future of microfinance"...
- on the same line of thought, OpportunityInternational has launched this project called MicroSchools, that's providing financing for people to start private schools in areas that are not served by the public system. It's creating employment for excess teachers and also providing safer access, esp for girls for whom it's not always possible to walk to the next village to go to school.
- the big theme of the closing session was "partnership" - with a $2.25 billion gap between supply and demand for microfinance services, there's a big big scaling up debate going on with institutions talking amongst each other about how they can fund each other's borrowers and so on.. fascinating!

I've been doing the back channel on Twitter so check it out for more info (username : onomatopee)

Also, Opportunity International has a youth committee that hopes to stir things up for youth with an interest in microfinance. I'm thinking of staying in the loop. Email amadonia@opportunityinternational.ca if you'd like to be a part of it too =)

Cheers,
Ém

iWay reparations

2009-08-08T10:13:00.000-04:00

Tabor

That was our longest ride so far and we somehow (after a day off, that's usual) managed to leave quite late, and then rolling out of Prague took a while... And the 130km ended up being super (I mean, super) hilly! I almost collapsed from being over tired after getting lost about 4 times despite our countless attempts to ask for directions on a winding bike route. At 5pm we were still only 30km from Prague. Anyways, epic day, I thought I wouldn't make it, but we rolled into the coolest accom ever just as it was getting dark. We stayed at CESTA, a mill bought up by artists running residency programs for people all over the world. Paintings everywhere, and we got a yummy meal over a chat on the gypsy and skin heads situation in the Cz Rep!

Tabor II

We had a chat with our hosts in the morning about arts and funding and social entreprises and I wish I remembered more of it - oh well, it was really interesting to listen to those guys' perspective on the world. cesta.cz for more details. Our riding day was about 35km, and I was riding with Shani and Jo. Shani's knee started hurting so she stayed back to wait for our support vehicle. At that point things were going well, we sort-a missed a turn though and a few miles later asked for directions and were given a map, which was awesome! But then... We somehow compared that map with the maps we found in the villages, misread a towns' name, ended up on a dirt road and then in a random village looking for our host's address (in the wrong village..!) and a quite large communication barrier. After about 2hours of trying to get back on track we finally talked to Phil on the phone and were like.. 8km away. It was really cool to get to the hosts though, they're a British couple that purchased these barns in Tabor and are striving for a sustainable lifestyle -- they have solar showers and composting toilets! They were super welcoming (we had a hog roast!! very tasty!) and we had really awesome conversations about civil society. A day to be remembered!

Cesky Budovice

That day we took the bike path because the highway was not too great when we saw it. It was the rainiest day of the trip so far - it poured on us all day. We had a good stroll however across a number of villages and then rolled into CB, a larger town with not sooo much to do. This was actually ideal - - we were staying in a school gym (it was Saturday) and so everybody was just chilling and relaxing, and then Gala lead an activity on why we were here, and we got to share with others in the group, it was fantastic. After some yummy stir fry dinner, we had a quick chat on microcredit, which was also good (but it was getting late). Overall a good, long day of physical and mental work and great conversations cumulnating on some serious joy of feeling connected to everybody on the trip.

Cesky Krumlov

I along with a few of us had our second interview with Boudless, our documentary crew. That was meant to clarify and expand on our answers on "being an agent of social change". We all sat in a coffee shop for a while, did the interviews, then Erin had an epic flat (the tube came out of the tire and was rolled around her cassette!). With her, Jenika, Jake and Robbie, we took the bike route to CK, a town which is entirely a UNESCO World Heritage site (screams UNESCO dance!!). Our ride was super mountainous but stunning, and rolling into the town was a magical moment - it's all 15th century buildings preserved, and the town is built around a river that turns and turns, and there's a beautiful castle, and lots of great spots to eat amazing Czech dumplings! We had a great evening walking around and letting our eyes being marvelled at all the beauty.

Linz

Bye bye Czech Republic, hello Austria! My legs were very tired this morning and it took a long time to warm up, especially as we were biking along a circling uphill for most of the morning! Just after the Austrian border, things started getting muuucccch better as we started having downhills, the most memorable being the 10km descent from the mountain range into the Danube valley. We went faster than cars, it was nuts =) Some people's computer said 60km/hr! It is here that we finally encountered the beautiful river that will be our companion until the end of Romania. We had a grreeeeeat ice cream and then found a place where I had sushi, which I was craving since the day we left Toronto! It was magical. We stayed at this soccer/multisports stadium and had a really great game of bump -- haven't played basketball in so long, it was great! I then got started on reading Everything is Illuminated and consequently parcelled the silence with giggles. Great day!

St-Poelten

Funny how things are relative. Today was the longest day of the ride so far (145km) and it felt like a piece of cake. Mind you, we were cycling in the Danube valley and so it was very flat. And also very beautiful -- lots of mountainous, foresty scenary along sparking water, very enjoyable! We had a 2hr stop under a tree and I had a really cool conversation with Mark about "project managing our lives", it was super good. Then we rolled.. Then : Ice coffee (a theme of this trip!) And then we met up with Yashar's pod and sped up the last 25km to roll in a field near a hockey arena where we were staying (having showers there was awesome, it was so cold in there!).

Vienna

This morning it was 28degrees at 7:30 am. Soooo it was even hard to be in the sun making sandwiches at that time! Jo and I jumped into the river to refresh ourselves in the morning, and then a bunch of us took off for Vienna. The B1 highway was really hilly and it was a hotttt day. We thought we were smart taking a break around 1pm to let the heat pass us, but we were wrong : it kept on getting hotter and hotter. The break was a great opportunity for sharing thoughts around the following question : "what goes through your mind when you're climbing a hill?" (answer : snap! poopy pants!) and also politics and election campaign thoughts from mark, super interesting as always. So it was a really though ride, and it took us a while to find our accom spot in Vienna. When we got there (it's a building owned by a church that Daniel, this cool CouchSurfer, had found for us), everyone was napping. We weren't so lucky and did ice cream instead. It was Maryam (our documentary crew producer)'s birthday and so the dinner was well enhanced by some champagne and great dancing on Ghetto Superstard and such hits. We were all pretty drunk (I was speaking Chinese, that's a great sign) when we hit the public transportation to go downtown. 1.5hr later, we find the place the Lonely Planet suggested, it was boring, we find a club, I was exhausted so we had burgers and took a cab back. It was still a great night of bonding over ethylic alchool.

Vienna II

Our day off in Vienna was well packed with external and media activities Daniel arranged for us. We made it to the center of town to meet with radio and television delegates who interviewed us and took a bunch of shots and footage (it was crazy seeing it online afterwards!). Then we made our way to the UN complex where we were given a tour of the buildings and then a lecture on the more political (and popular) aspects of the UN, that is, the General Assembly and the Security Council, which was interesting except that I slept through most of it -- I'm more interested in development. Oh well. It was really neat being in some meeting rooms and being explained how the official UN languages and translation worked. We had a few hours in the afternoon which were mostly dedicated to go to a bike shop to take care of our multiple squeaky noises and cracks and deficient pieces. Still found the time for a delicious ice coffee and a nice tour of downtown (really amazing city architecture!!) before having a yummy meal in a nice restaurant with Daniel, some local politicians from the Green Party and a few more media representatives. After dinner, Eileen snuck into the theater in from of the place and a few of us had the utmost privilege of attending the last couple songs by this really entertaining African band. Zoumba, ba ba ba ba zomba, ba ba ba ba zomba yo yo yo ba ba ba zoumba! (New theme song of the trip!) It was super genious.. But not quite as impressive as the EPIC rainstorm that followed our getting back to our accommodation (worth mentioning that our group didn't have the keys so we had to wait under the rain!). It reminded me of monsoon : chairs flying in the street, horizontal rain, trees falling, it was nuts. I'm glad we weren't riding through that!

Velky Biel

Today we were going to Bratislava, which I was absolutely looking forwards to! We left as a double-date pod with a chaperon, and had a mellow start, followed by two complicated, long-to-fix flats and complemented by a ride leader meeting on a 2km long bridge. I also met some French couples traveling on tandems, it was fun! The ride was otherwise pretty straightforward, we ended up catching just a little glimpse of Bratislava, which I was a bit disappointed about because I got such great vibes from the cycle into. Those concerns were soon to be dispersed when we met with some friends of our hosts (my friend Zuzana's family friends) who rode with us to Velky Biel, the village we were staying at. Their welcome was just so astounding : they made a huge banner welcoming us, there were balloons, it's just.. impossible to describe! We had a wonderfully yummy home cooked meal and Ivar and Katarina were just totally in for a good time : we had some dancing, some swimming in a crystal clear lake near their house, then we ever had a "second dinner" consisting of amazing Slovak sausages. The entire evening was a charm, it was so nice to be with such a great family too =) Amazing amazzzzinnnnggg

Gyor

Off to Hungary already.. Incredible. So we left Slovakia (some of us, myself included, pretty sad to be leaving!) and head into Hungary. Today was a though day for me, had some interpersonal mishaps but they all got sorted out thankfully. We met with the Unitarian church in Gyor, which was really specila : cool to meet young members of the congregation too! We sung our national anthems, so funny

MORE TO COME, GOTTA GO, STILL 50KM TO RIDE!

Rocking this continent!

2009-07-15T09:39:00.002-04:00

Amsterdam
We rode from Den Haag and then entered Amsterdam through some lovely forest and then met with some of the GAFC crew (including Jenika!!)at the super modern (best ever) central library, which has a great restaurant and bar and patio. We had some meetings and interesting conversation about internal engagement and polished off orientation. We went out to eat and then to a ?coffee shop?, then talked about development while drinking rose wine on the stairs of a church.

The next day we rode into the campground where the first half of orientation would be held. Robbie and I bumped into 6 other lost riders trying to find our way to the place. It was the first time the entire team met, and it was really great to see Joanna again and catch up about the trips from the previous few weeks!

Orientation ran smoothly, people volunteer to run the different sections (values, logistics, bike maintenance, etc.) and we even ended before scheduled, which left us some time to hang out and shave heads for those who were so inclined. We also met with the Bahai community, our hosts who were paying for our camp spaces. The following day, there was some free time in which people went to bike shops (a new favorite outing) and then we met at another campsite where we had a ride leader meeting and a meeting with the country coordinators about accommodation.

Amsterdam ? UtrechThat morning, we had a flat patching session, after which we all came into a circle, had a check-in and then Yashar had us jump around while saying ?Utrech Utrech?. Great energy!

We left for Utrech and all took very different routes to get there. Regardless, it was beautiful countryside, alongside canals and shiny golden fields. It took us a little while to get there even though it was only 45km, but getting there was so cool : our host, Sam, lives in an abandoned office building for which he pays a fee (much lower than average rent) to prevent squatters from taking up the place. The result was that we stayed in this humongous place with tons of different rooms! It was really cool, some dancing, pasta, a meeting about a route change around Prague, followed by hide and seek =)

Utrech ? EdeWe first made it to Zeist, about 15km out of Utrech, for an external meeting at the headquarters of the Triodos bank, which was just awarded the Sustainable Bank of the Year global award, which mostly stands out for its really innovative financial products allowing savers to have their money invested in microcredit institutions around the world! We found about this place through Monica, Robbie?s friend from EWB, whom we also had a chance to meet! It was a really neat way of quicking off the trip, and I?m looking forwards to further conversations about microcredit!

The ride today was short, which ended being quite taxing for me physically! I was with a much faster pod and had trouble keeping up. I tried to adapt to the riding style (mostly compass-oriented) but I did find it quite stressful as I was not used to it. I was also very tired and so when we got in the military base in Ede (after they abolished conscription in the Netherlands, many military bases are left almost vacant so we got to stay there!), I immediately took off for a lonnnggg nap after which we chilled out with people until bedtime.

Ede ? Vreden

Today was the first long distance day : supposedly 100km, it ended up being 108km, which broke my record big time! I was riding with Jenika and Shani, and we had a really good time talking and singing and sharing stories. It was Shani?s birthday and so we stopped for an amazing ice coffee and mango ice cream on the road for like, 1:30 hour, just the time to see a few pods riding by us. The scenery was nice too : very cute mills around as we navigated a route we had confirmed from looking over maps at the tourist office. We did end up on the freeway for about 200m, which wasn?t cool, but then Shani saw a parallel road and we were then able to find our way pretty well, except when we got near the border we got sort of confused. But we found Vredener Weg, and after a few k we see this sign which welcomed us to Deutschland! Right there, just a sign, that was it, with neighbouring houses and a field with cows just happening to land on different sides of the border. It was a very special feeling, just starting to get this whole EU thing! We accelerated the pace and got into the football club juussst as the swimming pool next door was closing (very sad!). The night was fun though, Erin led an amazing stretching session and we had Jager shots and cake and then a night of sleep slightly bothered by a group of teen football players hanging out and listening to hits from the 90s (Green Day, Blink 182).

Vreden ? Munster

We took off for Munster with Joanna, Robbie and Mark. We had a good ride in some romanesque bike paths covered in cobblestones in forests letting out a bit of light that was reminescent of some fantastic stories. We hit the first hills of the trip (yes, goodbye Netherlands!), and got better at navigation as we found many information points along the way helping us figuring out which was the most direct and rideable. We rode through some really lovely small towns with an architecture typical of Wesphalia : lots of red brick houses with triangular roofs. It?s also nice to get more into the ?cycling? part of the trip, and start thinking of winds, weather, etc. The weather had been amazing since Amsterdam (32 degrees sunny days), but it became dicey as we rolled into Munster, so we had a crazy acceleration spree in and out of the bike capital of Germany to get to the Organic Farm where we would stay. I was a bit hedgy as I really wanted to put up the tent before it started raining (which was veined as I now grew up to having our stuff get wet anyways!). As time went by, our hosts, the Young Greens of Munster, started showing up and we introduced ourselves and mingled, talked about different policies in Germany and Canada, it was cool!

We had a day off in Munster the next day, which was helpful to do some housekeeping (heart-to-heart conversations, laundry, Internet!). I was in a better mood that day too (maybe helped by some great lunch ? cheese tortellini and ice coffee!) and had a more social evening, chatting with the Young Greens and signing all the hits from forever ago with the guitar and the fiddle. A great night! Munster ? GuterslohThis morning I was up and ready early, and we left with a big pod, including some people I hadn?t ridden with before : Jake, Chris, Charles. We had a good time, it took us some time to figure out where to take the bike route but otherwise we had a talkative ride by a beautiful river. We had some help by some great cyclists who showed us our way, and the day went smoothly (except for Jenika?s first flat!), we found directions to our campsite quite easily. We got there and there was a latino band playing and there was what seemed like a great chunk of the local population (including an aspirant mayor, also of the Green party!) hanging out with their families. We played volleyball and went swimming in the river, also tried my first real brakwurst and had a quiet chat with Jenika when others were having bread on a stick with our hosts.

Gutersloh ? Huxter

We had the best breakfast ever (I had 3 coffees) with tons of buns, cheese and meat slices, and so Gala and I were ready for our sweep day. Robbie and Mark rode with us, and 7km into the ride, a pin found its way in my tire : first flat! We fixed it, then started rolling at 23km/hr for a few hours, which was my best pace so far! Things were going well, and we finally met the R1 trans-european bike route, which was cool cuz we got to see signs pointing to St-Petursburg! Crazy! The day was going super well and we were making up lyrics to all types of songs until we realized that we had taken a wrong turn and got back to the exact place we were an hour ago, even after seemingly following signs for Horn, the next town. We asked for directions and did our best to follow them, then found 2 bike signs pointing in different ways for the same destination (not unusual, those bike signs can be confusing!) so we took one ? the wrong one ? and climbed a 20grade MOUNTAIN for 3km! That was the hardest climb I had never done ? panting the whole way on my gear 1-1. It was great getting to the top though, although frustrating to find that we had made very little progress. The downhill was really kick-ass though, and then after asking a couple people we found the most direct route to Huxter. We already had a very long day, and so it was really discouraging to find that we had 50 more km to go! And it started raining.. And we were on the highway. So little to say about this part of the ride. The hills also started rolling in more regularly, and it was hard to keep the pod together as we had different speeds, so we stopped regularly, and even lost sight of each other. As we were waiting we were passed by another pod who also got really lost. We all rolled into Huxter at 9-9:30pm, and our host, who is a volunteer fire-fighter, brought us to a late-night visit of the local fire hall, which was really neat! The moment we went back to the church-owned building we were staying at, I fell asleep right there!

Huxter ? Goslar

Somehow I really replenished my strengths overnight because I felt very willing and able to tackle the next day?s 100km, which is becoming pretty common! Joanna, Robbie, Mark and I started the day, without knowing what was ahead: a lot of hills! We really rocked it though, ate lots, drank lots, and made it there second! The town of Goslar absolutely beautiful, it used to be at the crossroads of medieval trade routes and was made very prosperous by a neighbouring silver mine. It is like a fairy tale, pretty much, and we got there during the local carnival, so there was a bunch of roller coasters around too =) The group had a debate as to whether we should change the route to have our day off here, and we ended up keeping the original plan because we had lots of long rides awaiting us. We made some yummy tacos, had a meetings reminding people of rules and then went to bed.

Goslar ? Stassfurt

Today was mainly a highway day. We followed major roads from Goslar to Stassfort, and stopped at a grocery store after 10km (1/10th of the way!) ? I found some really neat pants and jacket, and bought 3 big things of soft cheese for like, 2.5 euros. We enjoyed the food and some coffee in a bakery before taking off. The rest of the ride was really smooth : we had tail winds for the first time in the trip, and were going pretty fast with minimal efforts (it was flat too!). We had a great time, and somewhere crossed into Eastern Germany where Shani had a flat and then Robbie fell and it started raining, but everything turned out fine. We made it to our host the long way, but got there, unfortunately having missed an ?interesting? meeting with the community about social change (whose agenda was apparently pretty much oriented by the meeting leader). We had some good conversations ? lots of emotions already with the group dynamics and everything ? and then snoooozing it pretty well.

We had a day off in that really small town, which was probably a good idea because we were all very tired and enjoyed just reading and relaxing (and doing laundry!). We went out to town for some minor bike shops things, it was really weird just observing the small and big differences between here and Western Germany : more decrepit/abandoned buildings, and just less opulence generally, in all its forms. People were super generous with us though, we went to shower in the fire hall and then had a delicious meal at the local restaurant.

Stassfurt ? Zhana

Today was quite the historical day, we were going through Dessau,which is really famous for its importance in modern architecture, and Wittenburg, the city of Martin Luther, the founder of the Reformation (Protestanism). I rode with Joanna today, it was really neat cuz I neeeddded some space and she?s always a great listening hear. We had a bit of a chaotic morning trying to get everyone out in time (unsuccessful) and making some shots for the documentary crew. Half the day was pretty quiet, and then frustrating because we were getting there pretty good and then we got lost (twice, once longer than the other, some dude pointed us in the wrong direction and we lost almost 1:30!), but then we took this really cute ferry and had gummy bears, which was a great mood booster! The rest of the ride into Zhana went really nicely, we didn?t have time to visit Luther?s church but it was nice to roll into the church?s adjacent house and meet our host. We quickly found out that one pod had a accident and a bike frame broke, and someone fell on their heads. It was pretty stressful and our documentary crew went and got the 5 people in two separate trips, as we were having a nice time chatting about politics (again! My studying of Hertz laws and the German training system came in hady!) and then having a really nice spiritual retreat into the most beautiful church I?ve ever seen. The echo in there was nuts, we did some humming and it sounded like opera! Then our host read to us about us being social change agents, it was really neat.

Zhana ? Riesa

We left Zhana knowing that Robbie and I were the only ones on dinner crew likely to get there in good time, so we took it one click faster than usual. Eileen rode with us for the first time, and we were flying the entire day, going 25km/hr regularly, which is a first time for me! It was a great feeling to know that I could do that! We rolled into the water park in Riesa first, and then it started raining, which seemed to delay our grocery shopping efforts, which took longer than expected (never shopped for 20people for 5 meals on a 4$/person/day budget before!). Frying potatoes on the camp stove also took forever, and I was almost dead by the end of it. We ended up with a tiny bit of yummy poutine for everyone by 11pm, which I felt so-so about. Some people went to join the community party next door, while others enjoyed the dance hits while trying to get to sleep.

Riesa ? Dresden

I was sooooo tired this morning, I was like falling asleep on my bike, until a nice 1euro cappuccino stop and a discussion about wealth. It was neat, the ride went smoothly, some of it along the Elbe river was quite stunning with animals and really special towing techniques along the mountain sides. It was a fun ride, and then we met with two different sets of hosts near the gym where we were staying. We had a meeting afterwards, and then Jean-Pierre lead us to town, which was a lot better than I had expected! We had some cheap dinner and saw really nice buildings.

Dresden ? Usti Nad Labem

So Dresden was nothing like I had read in New Europe, which describes it as modern and boring. It had some truly beautiful architecture, and the Elbe River bed made it somewhat look like Ottawa, as Jenika pointed out. This morning was our first very early morning (we had to be out of the gym we were staying at by 5:30am so they could clean it for morning classes) and the first day riding without having set accommodation. Getting up after a late night (read : 11pm) basketball game was quite the effort, but soon the team was out and rolling towards the Czech Republic. Robbie and I were sweep and tied a few loose ends while giving pods a bit of headway, which some pods clearly didn?t need ? some teams cycled past a biggg mountain and got there in 2:30! Go team go! Today was, in my mind, the most scenic route we?ve done so far. Our enthusiastic host, Jean-Pierre, had warned us that it would be the most beautiful ride we'd had done - he was right! Beautiful river, amazing rock formation, just beautiful beautiful all the way. There was crazy art on the bike path crossing the border, it was absolutely unique and crazy. Rolling inot the Czech Republic was really neat, it was a bit of a shock just knowing 2 words in the language =) The bike path was well marked though and we found our way easily into Usti Nad Labem, after bumping into poor Erin who had heat exhaustion and was waiting for the car to pick her up. We met some of the crew (lost) under a bridge -- the city has a couple bridges, a bunch of high-perched high rises and a big open mine in the middle of it, pretty crazy! -- and then went to our meeting point to find out the great news that, after talking to people at the information point, Shawn and Charles had been put in touch with the mayor of the city which found us a place to stay near hot springs!! That was a big relief! So we got there and had amazing Czech snacks, followed by a plentiful dinner with the most vegetables I've eaten since we started this trip -- it was great! An animated meeting to close up the evening, and certainly a great day on this epic adventure!

Usti Nad Labem ? Prague

I had a crappy morning and was really edgy most day (poor Jenika who was riding with me!). I thought I lost her at a crossroads after climbing this long hill and totally lost it, and got it all out (i.e. cried for a half hour) but then it felt a lot better. We had absolutely no directions today so we were going by the compass and asking people where Prague was (actually, just saying hello and saying Praha with a confused look on our faces!). We somehow managed to find our way without big detours, and ride into some nice countryside. It?s crazy to be in the Czech Republic! Such a big change already from Germany, and I only speak like, 3 words of the language. Aiyaaaaa! Anyways, we had some good chats and the day was really hilly, but then seeing the signs to Prague was really special! We navigated to downtown the best we could and met most of the crew at the bottom of Charles Bridge, which is a really stunning landmark of the city we have yet to explore! We rode into the accommodation Maryam found for us (the same day!), and it was up a huge hill and so the shower getting in there was one of the best I ever had! I had great intentions of going out to town, which were jeopardized greatly by the amazing couch I ended up laying on, from something like 10:30pm to about.. 4am when people were coming back from the bar!

Prague!
It's our day off today in Prague! Overall feeling great, emotions have been quite intense those past days, actually, everything is so much more intense and crazy than I expected! I'm sleeping a lot (missing out on some things for sure but body is going like "woahhhhh take it easy" pretty regularly), like, yesterday I fell asleep on the couch and people tried waking me up for 30min apparently.. and then slept through a thunderstorm.. Oh well! Prague is beautiful, looking forwards to an awesome dinner and beer before taking off for the longest day of the entire ride tomorrow : 130 km! + it's gonna rain, oh yeah!

Beginning of the trip!

2009-06-28T03:23:00.003-04:00

Short update on the last two weeks!
Robbie and I have been having a great time in France! The cycling from Tours to Paris went smoothly after that first day incidents. We rode through beautiful sceneries and always found someone to help us find our way =) We most of all had only very very great Couch Surfing Hosts, which made the experience 300x better! Thanks to all of you, Catherine, Jonathan, Sylvain, Alexandre and Nicola!

Our 4 days in Paris were delighful and laid-back! The city is extremely beautiful, super super busy and it's so magical to see and associate meaning with places that reminds me of literature courses and whatever little we learnt about the French revolution. Abdel was an incredible host, and it was really cool to see Vero again after all those summers together at PVC! We were there during Fete de la Musique, and had a fun night of listening to bands playing in the street (with a few interruptions like someone setting a car on fire at the Bastille and two dudes fighting in the subway!).

The day we head out of France was a little stressful; we just got bike boxes the day before (it seemed like a superhuman effort to be hunting for bike shops at 6pm at night!), and given our famous slow pace, got into the train super last minute (like, 1 min before the doors closed!) All that stress was put aside with amazing beer, cheese and chocolate in our stop in Brussels! Then we went on to Den Bosch, a really neat 100,000 people city where 2 super nice Couch Surfers Robbie had hosted lived. We had a good time before heading of to the Hague, where we went to visit the ISS, a school I thought of doing my MA/PhD. It was quite strange to be talking academic and I found myself a bit at loss, but it'll be allright! Nicola and Audrey welcomed us in their home for two nights, and we talked about the city and everything over amazing crepes in a pretty park (and there's also a beach -- nice city!)

And then off to Amsterdam! =) We saw a few of the people on the trip already, already some good, confronting discussions, which is telling me the summer will be anything but boring!

En France, olé!!

2009-06-15T07:06:00.002-04:00

Donc voilà, un petit update bilingue! I'm more of a photo blogger but hey, some things images can't tell!

So we've been here for just over a week and yesterday the "first part" of the trip finished, that is, we parted with Robbie's parents with whom we've been staying at this lovely little house, equidistant from Cognac, Saintes and St-Jean-d'Angely.

So we spent some time in those towns -- highlights : roman ruins, crazy just how much history there is everywhere around here! Also, the wine is so great: of four different types, 2 are now favorites!

What else to say, so we've been beach bumming for a day (check out the video on FB!) and we've seen some prehistoric paintings.. Et tout est si pitoresque c'est un peu fou!

Yesterday was the first real, unsupported, destination-oriented bike ride. And it was a bit of a nightmare. Just 25k to bike, so after 20 I get a flat. Can't find the hole. Realize the bolt on my back wheel is too thight for our wrench. Get a wrench from some dude mowing his lawn. Change the tire. Didn't realize I didn't get the nice kind of valve so use Robbie's smalll pump which puts my tire to something like 20-30 of pressure (normally ride at 80!!!) and so I ride the remaining 5k as FAST as I can (obviously all uphill) cuz we got a train to catch and, as a matter of fact, we see the train leave as we enter the station's parking lot!!! So a little drama after, we take the next train; exxxceeepttt that an hour later, when we're supposed to take our connection to the TGV from Angouleme to Tours, we're surprisingly informed that we can't take our bikes on the train! And that no train will take them for today.. So yeah, we tour around town, get to teh youth hostel; find the guy and it's closed on Sunday (like virtually everything, can't find anything open ever in this country --- big exaggeration, I'm actually envious of the work hours here!) so we end up picking our tent along a bike trail along the Charente river, with some drums in the background. Rained all night, gotta get up at 7 to take the train that'll take our bikes, slept maybe 3hrs, and finally get to Tours to get a puncture-resistant tire and catch up on CouchSurfing! anyways, pretty eventfull (or eventless, depending on how you look at it!) for Robbie and I's first day!

That's about it for now.. We're cycling along the Val de Loire to practice for cycling along the Danube =) Hopefully another update while in Paris in a week or so

Bye bye bye

Slow dance

2009-03-23T13:01:00.001-04:00

Slow
Dance

This
is a poem
written by a teenager with cancer.

She wants to
see how many
people get her poem.

It is quite the poem
Please pass it
on.

This

poem was written by a terminally ill young girl in a
New York

Hospital .

It was sent
by

a medical doctor -
Make sure to read what is in the closing statement
AFTER THE
POEM.

SLOW DANCE

Have you ever
watched
kids

On a merry-go-round?

Or listened to
the
rain

Slapping on the ground?

Ever followed a

butterfly's erratic flight?

Or gazed at the sun into the
fading
night?

You better slow down.

Don't
dance so
fast.

Time is short.

The music
won't
last.

Do you run through each day

On
the
fly?

When you ask How are you?

Do you hear
the
reply?

When the day is done

Do you lie
in your
bed

With the next hundred chores

Running through
your head?

You'd better
slow down

Don't dance so
fast.

Time is
short.

The music won't
last.

Ever told your
child,

We'll do it
tomorrow?

And in your
haste,

Not see
his

sorrow?

Ever lost
touch,

Let a good
friendship die

Cause you
never had time

To call
and say,'Hi'

You'd
better slow down.

Don't dance
so fast.

Time
is short.

The music won't
last.

When you run
so fast to get somewhere

You
miss half the fun of getting
there.

When you worry and hurry
through your
day,

It is like an unopened
gift....

Thrown
away.

Life is not a
race.

Do take it
slower

Hear the
music

Before the song is
over.

------------
--------

FORWARDED
E-MAILS ARE TRACKED TO OBTAIN THE TOTAL
COUNT.

Dear All:
PLEASE pass this mail on to everyone you know -
even to those you don't
know! It is the request of a special girl who will soon
leave this world
due to cancer.

This young girl has 6 months left
to live,
and as her dying wish, she wanted to send a letter telling everyone to

live their life to the fullest, since she never will.

She'll
never make it to prom, graduate from high school,
or get married and have a
family of her own.

By you sending
this to as many people as
possible, you can give her and her family a
little hope, because with every name
that this is sent to, The American
Cancer Society will donate 3 cents per name
to her treatment and recovery
plan. One guy sent this to 500 people! So I know
that we can at least send
it to 5 or 6. It's
not even your money, just
your
time!

PLEASE PASS ON AS A LAST REQU EST.

Dr.

Dennis Shields, Professor
Department of Developmental and
Molecular
Biology
1300
Morris Park
Avenue
Bronx , New York
10461

Intern positions - environment, activism and film

2009-02-25T11:57:00.000-05:00

Hello,

Sharkwater Productions Inc. has Intern positions available for people with a passionate interest or background in environmental issues / activism.

We are in development on our new feature film, Rise Again.

Rise Again is a film about how humans are going to survive the next 100 years, pointing to revolutions of past to hopefully further the most important revolution of our time, saving humanity. Rise again will take audiences on an incredible journey working with conservation groups to protect the planet, ecosystems, and ensure survival of our species.

We are looking for great environmental stories, initiatives, events and journeys to feature in the film, providing huge amounts of exposure to the cause and conservation groups profiled. We're looking for initiatives and efforts taking place over the next 18 months, that will hopefully have a tangible positive result at the end - rallies in the streets, the creation of a conservation area, new policy in place, etc.

Much of the intern work will entail researching these stories.

I have outlined the different positions below and welcome any interested parties to apply!

This is a great way to gain experience in a feature film production. Please send resume's to frame_kristen@hotmail.com
If you want to learn more about our company - visit www.sharkwater.com

Positions start immediately!

Thanks!

Kristen Frame

-----------------------------

TUTOR - 1 POSITION AVAILABLE
We are looking to find a literary enthusiast who enjoys learning about the environment and all that surrounds the issue. This intern would be asked to read a book - about one per week - and then teach that book to the director (Rob Stewart) through a dissertation or a one hour session in person. If interested, please send a letter outlining your credentials and any other information that tells us why you would make a great tutor! Emails can be sent to frame_kristen@hotmail.com

RESEARCH INTERNS
We are looking for dedicated interns eager to learn and source out the endless information needed to create a documentary. Ideal candidates would be well versed on current issues concerning conservation and the social and political issues that surround it. These interns will work out of the production office in Liberty Village

Slumdog Entrepreneur

2009-02-25T10:37:00.000-05:00

Slumdog Entrepreneur

by Sam Daley-Harris, Founder of the Microcredit Summit Campaign

When my wife and I slipped into our theater seats to watch Slumdog
Millionaire, we braced ourselves for a journey into urban slums, a world
inhabited by over one billion people globally.

But unlike the movie-goers in the theater that night who pinned their
hopes for one chai wallah (tea seller) escaping the horrors of the slums
of Mumbai, India, on the long-shot odds of his winning the Indian
version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, we knew that right now there
is a tool that has helped not just one movie character but more than 100
million of the worlds poorest people actually begin to escape the worst
devastations of poverty. That opportunity is not a game show but
microcredit-small loans to start or expand businesses like selling
tortillas or cell phone time to your neighbors. And if there was an
Oscar for assisting beggars, thieves, and prostitutes to find a
dignified route out of the slums, Id know where to look for the winner.

I wouldnt look in the cool dark of a movie theater, but in the bright,
hot sun of Nairobi where you can see the success of entrepreneurs in the
urban slums, Jami Boras "slumdog entrepreneurs." Jamii Bora, which
means good families, is a Kenyan microfinance institution that has grown
from lending money to 50 women beggars ten years ago to serving more
than 200,000 members today. One of those entrepreneurs is Joyce
Wairimu. Wairimu was one of the 50 women beggars who started Jamii Bora
with founder Ingrid Munro in 1999. Munro calls Wairimu one of the fast
climbers out of poverty. How fast? In ten years Wairimu has built six
businesses and employs 62 people.

Another of the fast climbers is Wilson Maina. Before Jamii Bora, Maina
was a thief, one of the most wanted criminals in Mathare Valley slum.
Starting with a loan of $20, Maina has built four businesses and a new
life for himself and his family. Along the way, he has convinced
hundreds of youth to get out of crime. Now thats a "lifeline" that
really matters.

Munro didnt stop at proving microcredit to help the poorest slum
dwellers. She decided to build a town with decent housing and business
space for her entrepreneurs. "Every poor persons dream is to move out
of the slums," Munro says, "not patch up the slums." On January 30th,
thats exactly what happened when the first 246 families moved out of the
slums and into the newly created Kaputiei town with nearly 1,800
families to follow. For the same monthly mortgage they had paid for
their one-room shacks, each family now lives in a home with two
bedrooms, a bath, a kitchen and a living room. But this is ultra
sub-prime lending that works because in order to qualify for a mortgage
the residents have to have successfully repaid three micro-business
loans.

Where does Munros capacity to innovate and defy conventional wisdom in
the microfinance field come from? It started 20 years ago when she and
her husband adopted three street children. It was in the fertile ground
of Munros relationship with the mothers of her sons friends in the
streets-women who were beggars- that her profound insights would grow.
When Munro, a Swedish trained architect and urban planner, retired from
the African Housing Fund in 1999, she thought she would also retire from
the little group of 50 beggar women with whom she had been working. But
when the women pled with her not leave them, Munro agreed to stay and
insisted that they must lift themselves out of poverty. For Munro that
meant the women had to start developing the discipline of saving on a
regular basis.

She had them come every Saturday with about 50 cents in savings. When
they deposited their 50 cents she would give each of them two scoops of
corn and one scoop of beans for free. She admits now that for those
first two months she was tricking them into saving with the lure of free
corn and beans. After two months, the bags were empty, but the beggars
continued to save and the free corn and beans never returned.

Another of Munros breakthroughs is that all Jamii Bora staff are former
members, previously destitute themselves.

Winning the war against poverty wont come from summoning the right
"final answers" to a handful of trivia questions to strike it rich on a
game show. Winning the war against global poverty will come when we
realize that we have one of the answers-microcredit-and summon the
political will to lift up those microcredit programs that have figured
out how to reach the worlds most destitute people. This is a final
answer we can stand behind.

******

Sam Daley-Harris is Founder of the Microcredit Summit Campaign which
seeks to reach 175 million poorest families with microcredit
www.microcreditsummit.org and of RESULTS which seeks to create the
political will to end poverty www.results.org

Please forward this message to anyone with an interest in Microcredit,
and encourage them to visit the Rotarian Action Group for Microcredit
www.ragm.org

Buddhist Economics vs Western Economics

2009-02-11T17:22:00.000-05:00

Buddhist Economics: A Comparison of Buddhist and Northern Attitudes Towards the Economy

	Buddhist	Western
Labour	Seek right to livelihood in order to develop one’s faculties and to contribute to society in a way that reflects well on oneself.	A disutility, to be eliminated (the employer wishes output without workers; the employee, income without work).
Leisure	Is complementary to work; both are necessary.	Leisure is preferable to work.
Technology	Tools are to help humans do creative work.	Technology is a means for abolishing human work.
Trade	A sign of local economic imbalance and failure.	A sign of economic progress.
Goal of Life	To perfect one’s character through good work which nourishes the spirit.	To accumulate wealth to satisfy unlimited wants.
Unemployment	Is unacceptable; all who want jobs should have them; mothering is a socially-esteemed profession.	Is tolerable; one who is not employed is probably lazy; mothering is not socially useful work, since it is not paid.
Nature of Work	Should be simple, non-violent, sparing of resources, uses local materials, and provide satisfaction.	Is energy consuming, high pressure, competitive, anxiety-creating; often employs imported materials.
Quality of Life	Consumption is incidental to living; attachment to wealth interferes with satisfaction; one’s role is to blend with the environment, to protect it and to revere life.	Consumption levels measure standard of living; nature is to be conquered and controlled; one should consume whatever comes to hand – one is a fool not to.
Material Goods	Should be simple, long-lasting, beautiful, unique, and as few as possible to live well.	Should be complex, mass-produced, cheaply made, short-lived, and as numerous as possible.

[Source: Excerpt from Clark, M. E. (1989). Ariadne’s thread: The search for new modes of thinking. (p. 146). Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan.]

ABC Campaign - Anything But Conservative

2008-10-13T19:03:00.001-04:00

Hi All,

I hope everyone is doing well. For me it's been a tortuous federal election time, I find it difficult to align with a party that fits me personnaly, has a young woman just out of University, professionally as someone whose work is directly impacted by immigration, training and employment policies and ideologically as someone who would like our democratic system to be proportionnal as to better reflect the desires and choices of Canadians.

Everyone has their key isues - for me it's sustainable community economic development, and while it's hard to choose between central-left parties talking of job creation and fight against climate change (I find myself supporting different platforms on different issues), what I am certain of is that the Harper government doesn't and will not do anything about what I really care about.

Far from me the idea of doing political propaganda, but I would like to take this opportunity to invite you to get informed about strategic voting and ways you can help stop Harper. Please take a few minutes to visit the following sites and spread the word around!
http://www.avaaz.ca/ca/stop_harper_pledge/?cl=133484414&v=2245
http://www.voteforenvironment.ca

In my home riding in Québec, Lévis-Bellechasse, for example, if all the opponents to Conservatives and supporters of the ABC Campaign got together and voted for the 2nd most popular party from the last election, that would give one less chance for the Harper government to win a majority that will continue giving tax breaks to big foreign companies, take Canada off world agreements on climate change, make senseless comments like "gender equality has been reached in Canada", brag about its economic know-how while most of the job created are temporary, part-time and with no benefits, and put 14 year old in lifelong prison.

If you do not support Harper's policies, strategic voting is a way to show solidarity and vote for your country's future. If you are more of a NDP/Green/Liberal type (like myself), voting with your heart gives 0,75$ a year to the party of your vote. However, unfortunately, it does not allow any representation to your beliefs in our current electoral system - a coalitition centre-left is the only way to change that. Thus, in the short term, strategic voting makes sense (www.voteforenvironment.ca

).

Hoping everyone will show up at polling stations on Tuesday, and don't forget other ways to be heard : all candidates meetings, writing emails or posts on web sites/blogs/discussion groups of your parties and ensuring that your friends, family members and collegues are registered to vote.

Happy Thanksgiving,
Em.

Education for Sustainable Development Case Studies

2008-10-13T18:54:00.003-04:00

These are four case studies I wrote while a research assistant at the City of Toronto Environment Office (TEO), working with groups called EASO (Education Alliance for a Sustainable Ontario) and EAST (Education Alliance for a Sustainable Toronto), who subscribed to the UNESCO Decade on Education for Sustainable Development.

These case studies were meant to be on TEO's website but never made it there. I tried to rectify the situation with no luck. While this was a source of frustration for me, I thought they'd better be here than nowhere =)

Rewire

Short-circuiting unsustainable behaviour at the University

Abstract
Rewire is a University of Toronto campus program to encourage environmentally responsible behaviour through applying recent community-based social marketing (CBSM) research. It taps on the potential for peer education to influence energy consumption habits of inhabitants of targeted buildings, by providing a toolkit of visual prompts – posters, pledges, stickers, etc. – with very specific, tailored information directly related to their audience’s lifestyles. Rewire rejects the idea that all that is needed for action to happen is information: in front of the observation that attitude and behaviour are not necessarily correlated, it tries to normalize lower-energy use in its promotion. Through various hand-outs, activities and campaigns, it makes it easy to be green and to make conservation efforts and contribute towards diminishing the ecological footprint of the campus by a minimum of 200 tons of C02 emissions over two years. It goes beyond the current 3Rs of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and into the “Rethink” sphere. The pilot project in 2006-2007 demonstrated the potential for collective action to affect the way the student population and staff relate to the environment; in fact, it saw an energy consumption reduction of 10% in residences and 5% in offices.

Background
Rewire was launched on September 26th, 2006, in the presence of former U of T president David Naylor. Its goal is “to promote a greener, more environmentally friendly campus”, through mobilizing the U of T masses into changing their daily consumption affects. A favourite of the innovative Sustainability Office and very welcomed by the University, Rewire is becoming an intricate part of the undergraduate experience, through offering part-time positions and welcoming students doing practical or research course work. This has been facilitated with excellent working relationships with the Psychology Department, for example. Rewire goes beyond lecturing about environmental studies but engage the school population directly in their immediate living and working environments. It instils it to action. It offers an holistic contribution towards sustainable development and achieving Canada’s Kyoto commitments favouring early and lasting behavioural change in tomorrow’s leaders.

Partnerships
Rewire consist of a project team of 10 staff, supported by faculty and volunteer students, who act as peer educators in a variety of settings at U of T. Under the Rewire coordinator lays a communication liaison, whose role is to be the link with the Lead Coordinator (LC) of each residence, who is in turn supervising Floor Representatives (LC). The LC are responsible for organizing one large event for their entire residence per year, whereas the FC have to organize one smaller event per semester, e.g. movie nights, sleep overs, green pub nights, all focused on energy reduction. The Sustainability Office is responsible of subsidizing payroll for the required human resources, and its work is supported or sponsored by the Toronto Atmospheric Fund, the Better Buildings Partnership, the Ontario Power Authority, EcoAction (Environment Canada), Natural Resources Canada, the Environmental Careers Organization, the Human Resources and Social Development Canada. In conjunction with its success, Rewire also faces a number of challenges, namely: 1) time and resource commitment in preparing new and adapted instructional materials, 2) recruiting dedicated volunteers, 3) maintaining and increasing online interactivity and content on the website and on social networking sites like Facebook (a research opportunity student is currently tackling that one) and 4) keeping up with demand from new residences and offices.

Pedagogical Approach
Rewire is an interesting case answering the difficult question on how to get young adults involved in taking sustainable actions by lowering their energy consumption. It takes advantage of the proximity and concentration of university students living on campus and has developed a range of methods to appeal to them. This includes tool-kits, which are quick fact sheets and action tips distributed through project volunteers. All are geared towards particular young adult lifestyle components, such as laundry and computer use. Capitalizing on the idea of social networks, it is experimenting with online interactive content, such as opinion pools – e.g. how to help the environment this holiday season?, sustainability quote of the day and external links. Non-virtual items such as posters are also use, but face-to-face contact and discussion between project team leaders and volunteers remains the preferred way of passing the message. Rewire attracts to students through its fun and surprising monthly themes and activities. This participatory and accessible strategy not only increases environmental awareness, but it also facilitates the adoption of good conservation practices on and off-campus, triggers critical thinking, offers networking opportunities.

Evaluation
Even though it is still a young project, Rewire has registered high rates of participations by its stakeholders, as well as significant drop in resource consumption measured by electrical monitoring devices, which is all analyzed by the Sustainability Office’s research team. It also put together three years of data and primary research with students, mainly through surveys tracking behavioural change between the beginning and the end of the year. These investigations helped tackle such challenges as the energy consumption in University computer labs, which were left open overnight for software updates purposes, by using new software.

Replicability and Future

The success of the pilot project stimulated the expansion of Rewire from residences into administrative office spaces in 2007, hence not limiting its services and resources to students, but including faculty and staff. Rewire hopes to move from 7 to 14 residences in 2008 (of which 3 are already confirmed), while hoping to cover them all in 2009. In the immediate future, it also wishes to expand into more computer and science labs, while hoping to be present in every space at the university ten years from now. This trend is likely to be pursued beyond the St-George campus by implementing subsidiaries at the Mississauga and Scarborough campuses. In 2008, Rewire will be finishing their pilot project with University offices and organizing workshops to encourage and facilitate its adoption by other universities and institutions, which should be facilitated by resource availability as well the many positive prospects it offers in terms of cost savings and decreased resource dependence. It is also in the process of getting three journal articles published, in addition to the Rewire report, to publicize their success. In the long run, Rewire strives for financial sustainability and for residences to appropriate the project. Its strategy to achieve that is to ensure a Rewire representative (often an LC) is on the board of each residence’s environmental committee, a step already taken for Woodsworth College and on the way for Trinity College.

Contact Information
Rewire Coordinator
Leah Sumnauth McIntosh
416 978 6792

References
http://rewire .utoronto.ca
http ://www.sustainability. utoronto.ca/
(Sumnauth McIntosh, personal communication, 15/02/08)

Sustainable Enterprise Academy (SEA)
Abstract

The Schulich School of Business at York University proved to be an innovative leader in training top-management and decision markers into integrating sustainability into their different professions. It contributes to making Canada a world ESD leader, through its three top-down approaches - Sustainable Entreprise Academy (SEA), Sustainability and Education Academy (SEdA) and Sustainable Finance Academy (SFA) - designed to complement existing bottom-up approaches by influencing the vision of senior administrators, resulting in a systematic change and consistent support to programming rather than just isolate cases. The motto of SEA is “assisting business in the transformation to corporate sustainability by providing senior executives in business, government and civil society with the vision, education, tools and support necessary to champion sustainable development in their organizations”. The Business Leaders Seminars are offered twice annually and take the form of a four-day residential program. They go beyond the reductionist theme of Corporate Social Responsibility to lead actors to Rethink the current system and engage in Corporate Sustainable Development. Participants explore today’s corporate sustainability issues such as the role of business in global sustainability, the business case for sustainable development and the new triple bottom line. SEdA, designed in partnership with the Faculty of Education at York University, is a newer initiative targeting Education Leaders from Public School Boards aimed at integrating ESD into the curriculum. The SEdA vision is to see by the year 2014, at the end of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, all students in grades K to 12 across Canada being educated in the basics of sustainable development and being prepared to take their places as ecologically, socially and economically literate citizens, consumers, employees and leaders in Canadian and global society.

Background
The Sustainable Enterprise Academy was established in 1999 by the Erivan K. Haub Program in Business and Sustainability at the Schulich of Business, York University. It is recognized as the leading executive education program on sustainable development in North America, offering business and government leaders an opportunity to consult with acclaimed international figures in the field, helping participants expand their knowledge and develop a better understanding of the business case for sustainability. The primary goal for the SEA is to help businesses achieve corporate sustainability by providing senior executives in business, government and civil society with the necessary vision, education, tools and support. As much as the attendees will personally benefit from the program, they will also be able to share and apply what they learned to help their own organization champion sustainable development.

In terms of financial support, which is an essential necessity in order to provide leading Executive Education programs, a lot of funding for the initial phase of the Academy (2000-2003) has been contributed by large corporate companies. In addition to providing financial support to establish SEA, these organizations have further invested in the Academy through their participation in each seminar, their constructive suggestions on content and their assistance in recruitment of participants from other companies, government agencies and NGOs.

SEA is an initiative by the Schulich School of Business at York University. It strives with the support of its numerous corporate partners, many of which have an ongoing commitment to sending two new participants at each Seminar. The Seminars provide many deliverables, of which increased profits, competitive repositioning and human capital retention are a few examples.

Pedagogical Approach
SEA offers Business Leader Seminars on Corporate Sustainable Development twice annually, which are led by international business leaders, academics and other leaders in the sustainability field. The leaders will provide strategic insight, academic leadership and business experience and through attending the seminar attendees will acquire new understanding, knowledge and skills. The goal is to become more effective advocates and change agents for sustainable development in business, and learn ways to implement what they learn to transform the futures of their corporation and make sustainable positive change happen. It challenges the current “box thinking” of most businesses and offers solution to resolve the “creative tension” between the current reality of the bottom-line and a vision of sustainability.

During the four-day training, Executives attend seminars, in which time is divided between case studies, simulations, lectures, peer-to-peer learning sessions and personal reflection time. They are brought to simulate stakeholder negotiations, to think about the role of the government and NGO sector in sustainable enterprise and to learn about eco-efficiency strategies. In addition to the seminars, SEA and Jacques Whitford Training Institute collaboratively offer a series of professional training courses on Environmental Management Systems and Auditing. Participants who successfully complete both these courses will have the instruction necessary to meet the formal training requirements to become a Certified Environmental Auditor.

Alumni are involved in an ongoing fashion through the Academy’s Alumni Network, which publishes a bi-monthly e-newsletter, offers other events and training, and support in implementing changes towards sustainability in every participant’s businesses.

Evaluation, Replicability and Future
In the past, with respect to Seminar Evaluations, delegates were asked to provide evaluation and feedback on their experiences through three mechanisms: pre-seminar interviews, daily evaluations, and overall seminar evaluation. The overall response for the seminar evaluation was very positive. The following are some of the highlights from the May 2004 seminar evaluation:
- 100% of the respondents indicated that the seminar was very good to excellent
- 96% of the respondents indicated that the seminar had highly or very highly increased the likelihood that they would take strategic actions in the area of sustainable development
- 89% of respondents felt that the seminar had highly or very highly increased the likelihood that their business unit would take strategic action in the area of sustainable development
- 96% of the respondents indicated that they felt the Business Leader Seminar had highly or very highly enhanced or strengthened their personal commitment to a sustainable business strategy in their organization
- 69% of the respondents felt that the seminar had helped them become a sustainability leader

So far, SEA has welcomed participants from 16 countries and run 11 successful Business Leader Seminars in six cities their five years of existence.
The data collected from the evaluations is very important and beneficial to SEA as it is used for continuous improvement and fine-tuning of the Seminar for future offerings.

Sustainability and Education Academy (SEdA)
Background
The Sustainability and Education Academy (SEdA) was inspired by SEA and was initiated by the Faculty of Education at York University in response to a lack of systematic implementation of ESD within school systems. SEdA is a collaborative between the Schulich School of Business and the Faculty of Education at York University with the assistance of Learning for a Sustainable Future. SEdA launched its program with a Symposium on February 18 -20, 2007 at York University, bringing together best-practice leaders in Education for Sustainable Development from Canada, Ireland, Holland, Great Britain, Australia and Sweden, which contributed their expertise to design a seminar for leaders in education. SEdA wishes to inspire education leaders including, senior levels of Ministries of Education, School Boards, University Faculties of Education across Canada, to create a culture of sustainable development, integrated into all aspects of the K-12 education system. While Environmental Canada provided seed funding for SEdA, the main financial partner is now the Suncor Foundation with other partners being actively sought.

SEdA asks its participants important questions about sustainable development, education and leadership, and showcases best practices in the field of governance, teaching and learning, human capacity, facilities and operations. It aims at training teams of members with different roles – e.g. building, policy, budgeting, curriculum, etc. – within the same education organization to facilitate implementation of a social, environmental and economic sustainability plan, which is the main outcome of the Seminar. This team approach is rendered possible through a sliding scale for tuition fees encouraging many participants from the same organization. SEdA’s return on investment includes providing Seminar participants with the vision and strategies to move forward on the integration of ESD into all aspects of their systems or departments.

Pedagogical Approach
SEdA offers Education Leader Seminars designed to motivate and equip senior educators, specifically from school boards, provincial ministries of education, and university faculties of education, to lead the integration of sustainability as a core value in all aspects of formal education including policy, curriculum, teaching, learning, professional development, and the sustainable management of human, physical and financial resources. The Seminars are designed as a 2 ½ day intensive, residential, informative and motivational event for up to 50 senior education leaders. SEdA offers participants a unique combination of insight, vision, models, tools and strategies, leadership and change management techniques, and alumni services.
Attendees learn ways to:

- reorient existing curricula around engaging economic, environmental, and social themes;
- reframe programs, promoting safe and healthy schools, within the social context of education for sustainable development;
- form partnerships between schools, parents and the community to make a meaningful contribution to mutual environmental and social stewardship that translates into better results for students
- help teachers realize their higher purpose through pre-service and in-service training

SEdA accommodates five different learning styles which are listed in Table 1.1.

Table 1.1

Learning Style	Description
Plenary sessions	§ presentations by Faculty members, top international Guest Presenters and Sustainability Leaders will be offered and will address the themes of each day and provide the backbone content of the Seminar § participants will gain new insights, share in advanced thinking and be challenged by compelling information
Leadership development strategies	§ offer strategies on culture change for sustainability § concepts and techniques focus on organizational learning and leadership capacity development, preparing delegates for successful leadership roles in their organizations
Concurrent Workshops	§ offer interactive sessions with expert presenters which focus on the tools, techniques and practices of Education for Sustainable Development that you can take back to your organization
Learning Team Sessions	§ consist of small-group Learning Teams, each coached by a member of the Faculty, working together to apply concepts from other sessions to their organization, to practice leadership strategies, to address particular issues or cases and to share experiences or thoughts on Education for Sustainable Development
Reconnect Time	§ allows the members to participate in an exercise program, meet informally with speakers and other delegates to discuss issues of the day, or simply take a walk and reflect on their experience sessions

Evaluation and Replicability
SEdA’s first seminar was deemed a success by its participants. The Academy’s Report Card, which summarizes participants’ input from the Seminar Evaluation, indicates that the first Seminar has been rated 4.5/5, which is a significant achievement for a pilot. The highlights were how SEdA contributed to strengthening organization’s vision on ESD and further the participants’ commitment to it. 94% of participants assert that this Seminar increased the likelihood that they will personally take strategic actions in the area of ESD. Participants commented on the quality of the ideas put forward in their training and were satisfied with being able to network with other people committed to ESD.

In the future, SEdA hopes to go beyond the provision of Seminars and develop into an active online network of ESD actors committed to making a difference with a capacity for Seminar leaders to provide ongoing support to alumni. There are plans to take SEdA outside of the University and to use the concept to work with participants across Canada and internationally. As a matter of fact, SEdA will be offering a 1st seminar in Winnipeg in November 2008.

Contact Information
SEA
Nancy Sutherland
nsutherl@schulich.yorku.ca
Business & the Sustainability Program, Schulich School of Business
Associate Director
Seymour Schulich Building, N213
(416)736-5268 (Voicemail)
(416)736-2100 x 40478 (Voicemail)
www.SustainableEnterpriseAcademy.org

SEdA Contact
David Leeder
DLeeder@edu.yorku.ca
Coordinator,
Leadership Programs Research and Field Development
Faculty of Education
York University
(416) 736-2100 ext 33209

References
http://www.sustainableenterpriseacademy.com/
(Leeder, Personal communication, 13/02/08)
http://www.lsf-lst.ca/en/academy/index.php

Planet in Focus
Abstract
Planet in Focus (PIF) took a giant step in integrating “greenness” to the arts and entertainment industries, who have historically been associated with wasteful and senseless resource utilization. In fact, PIF promotes the use of film and video to frame and explore environmental issues and stories and serves as a catalyst and springboard for environmental awareness, discussion and action. It strives to screen the most creative, insightful, and inspirational programming available (PIF, 2008). By rehabilitating the old art of storytelling and adapting to fit the needs of a modern, urban and diverse society, it contributes to making sustainability a part of people’s identities and lifestyles. According to Candida Paltiel, Artistic Director/CEO Director, “film is the most powerful tool to reach the public on a visual and emotional level and influence a large number of people rapidly and efficiently, on issues of climate change for example”. This triggers personal identification with the issues, while not giving way to an extremist, fatalist discourse, but rather encouraging people to take concrete actions to diminish their ecological footprint. PIF is more than an international yearly environmental film festival; it provides year-long programming in the form of ongoing movie screening, as well as youth, school and summer opportunities in the GTA. PIF, with its impressive line-up of films and videos of all forms (documentary, drama, animation, experimental, new media) in their exclusive debut, influential supporters and rich content, is something Torontonians can be proud of. Indeed, it reinforces the voice of the City by not being afraid to sustain an engaged and partisan message for a better care of the Earth’s health.

Background
PIF was founded in 1999 by Mark Haslam. Now an incorporated not-for-profit organizations, it started as a neighbourhood event. While it has, since then, grown into a internationally known event with thousands of attendees, it still sticks to its original mission of promoting environmental change and sustainability with a high level of commitment. In fact, PIF promotes the use of film and video to frame and explore social and ecological focal points, and as a catalyst for awareness, discussion and action.

PIF’s goals are the following :
• to encourage the creation and exhibition of a broad spectrum of films and videos exploring environmental and ecological themes that celebrate, question and establish varied ways of viewing the state of our world
• to present to the public, including children and youth audiences, creative, educational, provocative, and entertaining films and videos on social and ecological themes
• to create a forum on the use of films and videos as catalysts for discussion of social and ecological issues and appropriate action.
• to establish an international marketplace for ecological films and videos

Stakeholders and Partnerships
PIF has a team of 5 hired staff members in addition to its 8 members Board of Directors and 3 festival committees, volunteers and interns. It is affiliated with the Planet in Focus Foundation, a registered chariable organization. During the festival, environmental businesses and NGOs as well as Colleges and Universities with related programs are encouraged to promote themselves at the Eco Fair, hence joining the many collaborators of PIF (City of Toronto Culture Office, CBC, the Trillium Foundation, the Toronto Arts Council, Dr. David Suzuki, Vandana Shiva, etc.). PIF consistently works with reputable cultural institutions and small communities, organizations and groups and audiences of all ages who seek enrichment and expanded awareness of the kinds of films and videos available on environmental themes (PIF, 2008). These partnerships help creating a more sustainable organization. The key value added of the partnerships is in terms of reaching out to new audiences while also fostering environmental artistic expression. The wealth of stakeholders renders possible a very professional marketing and branding strategy, which is one of the key assets in enhancing the organizations’ reputation and credibility. The organization indeed has a very extensive coverage in the media, be it in magazines, on the radio, or online. This allows the Festival to innovate in its outreach strategies, for example through distributing 2 for 1 admission flyers. Inspire an audience outside of the traditional environmentalists circles helps the organization fulfil its mission of raising public awareness.

Pedagogical Approach
The main educational vector in PIF is film and video shown in Toronto during the October Festival and its subsequent monthly screenings, “Mixed Greens”, which take place on the last Friday of each month at the Gardiner Museum. However, the uniqueness of PIF is its “Cinema Forum” character: for the organizers, participants are not passive recipient of information, but they are rather incited to discuss the movies and issues in the settings of panels, round tables, workshops and networking events designed to further engage with the films’ subjects, and to foster dialogue and community amongst audiences, filmmakers and broadcasters (PIF, 2008). As Ms Paltiel reminds us, these active mechanisms are the best way to help people process their thoughts, and most people want to stay after the film to express themselves and learn more about the issue at hand.This encourages different degrees of participation as well as critical thinking around the concept of the “environment”. The main focus remains action: if the film has contributed to changing habits to ameliorate the ecological and social health of the planet, if it challenged current human/nature relations in more sustainable ways by triggering meaningful action and informed choices, then it has been a success.

PIF’s dynamic education approach is corroborated through links with formal institutions, through the offering of positions to University students, the supply of curriculum-linked film for Elementary/Junior and High School Students. PIF is indeed the only film festival of its kind to offer the Youth Canada Action program, a 2 weeks summer environmental video production camp to 25 youth in underserved communities of the GTA. It is also active in schools, as demonstrated by the distribution of a study case on renewable energy and energy conservation for elementary and high school students. Beyond the class room, the PIF team also takes the road each year in a Cross Canada tour, which allows them to reach new audiences around the country as well as internationally. To name a few, PIF has extended its action and provided access to high quality environmental films to people in Montreal, Vancouver, Dawson City, Halifax, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Yellowknife, Sudbury, New York City, Salvador de Bahia (Brazil), Iowa, Washington, Rome (Italy), and Sarajevo A new Education Resource Library (ERL) has recently been open in the Toronto Distillery District and provides access to 2000 environmental films for researchers of a wide range of topic areas, ranging from conservation to social responsibility, passing through globalization and religion. These films span 5 continents and 8 years, and contribute to awareness building through the portrayal of a variety of different views from filmmakers around the world. These films and videos, as well as those screened at the PIF International Film Festival – 70 were screened in 5 days during the 2007 edition, with an audience of 5500 people - contribute directly to education for sustainable development through touching such diverse themes as public health, urbanization and sustainable consumption. PIF is also involved in developing a best practice guide for the film industry, the Green Screen Toronto Initiative, along with PanaVision and Film Ontario. By providing an entertaining, discussion focused outlet and market for environmental filmmakers in an unpredictable industry, it also contributes to the social and economic pillars.

Replicability and Future
PIF has gone a long way from its beginning as a neighbourhood event in 1999. It is revitalized each year by choosing a different lens to make its commentary about the Earth; while the theme in 2007 was Polar Regions, in 2008 it will be Food: the Appetizing and Unappetizing. PIF uses many tools for evaluation, including surveys at the festival and an ongoing feed-back system through the Outreach Program Officer.

PIF is dedicated to increase public awareness and action, and it will strive to become a national and international organization that continue to distinguish itself from competing festivals and organizations through the quality of its content and its approach to environmental problems. In addition to consolidating its strong reputation within the niche market, it also seeks to reinforce its commitment to working in underserved communities, given that currently 59% of the audience is female, 94% attended University or College, 96% is an Internet user, 49% is between the ages of 25-44 years with an average income is $74,083 (PIF, 2008).

PIF’s immediate program objectives include:
- Increasing top tier submissions from Canada, Africa, Latin America, Central Europe, Asia and Middle East
- Expanding the participation of filmmakers and film and television industry professionals in the creation and celebration of environmental works
- Expanding Festival audience participation screening venues to accommodate larger audiences
- Expand Tour opportunities and events in Canada and abroad
- Promoting growth and use of the educational resource library
- Providing programming advice to exhibitors, educators, event organizers
- Growing the Youth, Camera, Action program
- Expanding the Schools Program
- Establishing a permanent presence in Vancouver that includes: Monthly Screenings & an Annual Festival

Contact Info
Candida Paltiel
Artistic Director/CEO Director:
416 531 1769

References
(Paltiel, personal communication, 26/03/08)
PIF Background Document 2008
www.planetinfocus.org

Burkina - Take 2

2008-08-05T06:48:00.002-04:00

Though I’d give a little update of my time in Burkina =) Be ready for some out-loud thinking!

Lots of things have changed. The family I was staying with in Ouaga have a laptop with Internet at home, there’s even wireless at one of the associations in Bobo. Many more laptops around. A new juice company, Dafani, was created right after I left and is now distributing in the entire country! I was really impressed – Krystel and I used to complain so much about the lack of healthy drinks in this country! There is also many new water companies – it seems like Burkina is moving away from a monopolistic model. (Obviously something I would pay attention to!)

Being back is really nice, the work has been really rewarding. I am more or less making recommendations for the allocation of a 250 000$ fund for income generating activities for the World Food Program partners. It’s challenging, but it’s really exciting to see that a funder is paying attention to the social enterprise sector as a way to promote self-sufficiency and socio-economic reintegration of people living with HIV. This is what I was dreaming of last year, literally! The projects are really exciting, we’re moving away from the less innovative, low capital stuff into some really interesting business concepts (they’re coming up with cool ideas for employee motivation and benefits, distribution, etc.) that really integrate that whole idea of competitive advantage. I find it so cool that an association would be managing a 10t vehicule doing import-export of foods, one would manage a water fountain, another a gas station, many would go into the high-return pork and beef raising businesses, etc.

Things have changed a bit since last year in terms of work too, it seems like people listen to me more, they’re more efficient (despite the occasional missed appointment of course). There’s also that status thing kicking in (“I’m now a boss”, I’ve been told!). Oh la la. But yeah. Most of the 7 partners we’re working are dedicated in the market study part of this and are running around town to get information for their projects. I’m really proud of the 5 days training I gave too; 40 people were present (including some pretty big shots, i.e. the Queen of Fada N’Gourma, an Eastern town in Burkina) and it went really well. I do feel like I’ve gone a long way in my technical and practical understanding of social enterprise and business since last year, although I still have a long way to go and sometimes I do wonder if that’s the right way to go!

But whatever, lots of good things happening. Robbie and I were able to mobilize some funding for the association in Karangasso-Sambla, a small town dependent on cotton growing (where I shot my film last year). The women are will be training orphans and vulnerable children in cattle herding (small scale of course!), making soap for the local market and opening a small community restaurant in town. I am much looking forwards to seeing the outcomes of this when I return next time. Even in a year, I have noticed a big change in the income level in the village – people don’t eat to 3 times a day anymore, they have coffee and tea (luxuries) for breakfast, and the houses are looking great. It amazes me how things change; babies too have grown up so fast, it’s nuts =)

People around me are doing very well. Vice-pre, where I’m staying, is now the advisor to the Mayor and general inspector of Bobo and he’s really busy. I hardly saw him even though I stay at his house. Abou is doing well, he took a second job with youth groups and is barely at MAS anymore (same for Vice-pre). I think the Management Committee is pissed at him… Aziz moved out of his parents’ house and is now running his own videoclub. He also gained 10 kg! Oh well, I did too ah ah. Everyone else at MAS is good, they have a new accountant, Thiombiano is now in Ouaga (I saw him there, he’s doing well and has a new baby). Jean-Pierre is as dedicated and amazing as always, and everyone else in ASKS is doing fabulous. It was really nice to see Ibrahim again, I missed the boy tons. Isaac is doing well, he’s hosting some family members for the time being. I’m hanging out a lot with Benoit (Corinne – I’ll definitely add a chapter to our forthcoming Book of Love!!), we’re going for food and beer. Yes, I had lots of beer since I came to Bobo. On Sunday I went to the swimming pool with the Bobolese Power House (how I like to call Vice-Pre and his friends), Ti-Ben and Pare, one of the guys I work with with whom I get along well. The previous Sunday we went to Bama with ASKS to eat the famous riz soumbala under mango trees and visit the rice fields. I’m having lots of fun but am also working very long hours. Everybody is asking about Krystel, Catherine, Claude, Christina and Sara (Sara I can’t believe you got to know everybody, that’s making me so happy!) so you guys, if you’re reading, say hello!

I can’t believe it’s almost over… Today is Independence Day and it’s a bit chill, tomorrow is my goodbye party and on Thursday I’m already off for Ouaga to write my report, and on Saturday I’m going to Mali for a few days before taking off for Canada on the 14th. It’s all gone so fast… I can’t believe I didn’t want to come at first. It’s just so strange… I mean, I did want to come back, come back to Bobo. I’ve been even thinking of buying property here, like a time-share or something…=) But yeah, I’m still much caught up in my “development” debate (yessss, still), and I get uneasy when people suggest that I come and settle down here. Well that’s normal I know, but I guess it’s hard for me at the moment to figure out where life is gonna take me, I mean, now that I know it’s possible and realistic to come back and make a living here if I really want to (which is what I did want at some point), it’s making me wonder how I could manage it… Lots of questions!

I’m looking forwards to seeing what’s coming up, and to reflect on this journey some more. So far I can tell it’s been worth every second. Even though it may seem like I’m torturing myself with questions (which I am), I am enjoying the moment.

Looking forwards to seeing everyone again =)

Not Hired » Best of the Worst

2008-06-03T22:24:00.000-04:00

In this time of steep learning curves and hiring stress, I am taking enormous pleasure in browsing this website of the best interview/cover letter/add stories

Not Hired » Best of the Worst

Welcome Émanuèle to the wonderful world of non-profit HR! Enjoy!

Tax savings result in a new Foundation

2008-06-01T11:13:00.000-04:00

In my journey to learn more about taxes, I found this page of particular interest. My thesis supervisor has always been very critical of Corporate Social Responsibility programs, and I must admit I didn't really dig on that hesitation.

Today while looking for grant money for Access Riverdale (looking to hire staff) and Five Minutes to Midnight's partners in Chad and Kenya (whose media activities are greatly jeopardized by conflict), I found something really interesting. The Hudson's Bay Company has made a donation to a Museum and Archives and then used the tax savings to estabilish a History Foundation to provide ongoing support to these initiatives.

Check it out

Hudson's Bay Company - Social Responsibility - Hbc History Foundation

This is also part of my wondering about `grants` and `sustainability`, which I find are often conceived as opposites in the CED world. This is probably explained because about three years ago the funding landscape changed enormously in Canada with HRSBC cutting down enormous funds and all actors becoming obsessed about accountability, which did somehow result in cutting ongoing committments to agencies and organizations that are focused on delivery the work more than dealing with red tape. Through my research though I am finding that some foundations are indeed making that shift back to favoring ongoing support of the same organizations.

Also : great link for those doing similar grant finding work : http://www.law-nonprofit.org/link-fou.htm

Conference - Community Economic Development Network

2008-05-24T18:11:00.002-04:00

I am just about to go back to Toronto after a good 5 days write the newsletter for the Canadian Community Economic Development Network (CCEDNet) National Annual Conference. CCEDNet is one of my favorite organizations, it's a network with a real value to its members, so much that people get really excited and emotional during the AGMs. An amazing crowd of people working on food security, localization, and other types of social economy/services projects with marginalized populations across the country. + a crowd that loves to have fun, genuinely strives to improve in terms of representation and inclusiveness. + a crowd working hard to influence governmental policy to make it more CED-friendly.

The newsletter writing was fun and time-consuming, although I realized how I wasn't so much of a go-getter in terms of information and snippets as I was in terms of actual work. But it reinforced the point that media rules our world, and that there shouldn't be a stop to communications (hence my continuing to write this blog I guess). I like writing.

As days add up to my tally I also realize how my personality seems to fluctuate at times, and how I can sometimes feel more like an observer in a time when really I would want to have as much energy as I generally have. I think on the personal level I need to grow to accept the occasional social awkwardness and just how I am and react to groups given that I inherented part of my dad's agoraphobia.

My own personal highlight of the conference has been the chat resulting of a workshop on business succession which turned out touching on a personal issue of youth exodus from rural areas such as Lac-Etchemin, my own town in Southern Québec. A man I met who lives in the Kootenays in BC was talking to me about rural-urban linkages, and my tour leader for Food and CED, Russ Chartier, has been involved in urban gardening for over 40 years. That gave me the idea of how I could use one of the abundant factor my family has access to in Lac-Etchemin, land, to increase food security... And create a kind of rural Centre for Social Innovation in which youth especially could have access to some activities that are beyond their reach at the moment, such as entrepreneurship training, yoga and cooking courses, etc. A newly articulated dream - looking forwards to talk to my folks and siblings about that. I do admit it is a bit frightening to think of going back to town this early, but I feel committed and ready to go and talk to local actors and see where I can fit in within this community.

Similar to other people I was really pleased with the Aboriginal content, and the Thursday night show, featuring 6 aboriginal performers (poetry and spoken word, dance, comedy theater, storytelling and singing) was amongst the best cultural event I've been to in a long time. I like how unpretentious CCEDNet people are in recognizing their own colonialism and paternalism, and how it doesn't paralyze them at the same time.

Another great thing was to meet the members of the Emerging Leaders group, which I feel might well become key to part of the endeavor previously named. There is definitely a void for me in terms of CED social networks I can really relate to given that my current experience isn't research-based, and I'm really excited to see how I can get involved in this group. Plus maybe they'll help me go beyond my trauma and paranoia on the dance floor? =)

Lastly I must admit my big academic question has taken up a new angle. The whole LSE versus CED debate is now being articulated into 50 000$ for a degree vs 50 000$ into a social entreprise. I'm wondering what is best for me at that point, and how I could potentially use a very orthodox degree to get insights from other groups and how I could make it my own, using my dissertation to do a community economic analysis of my home town. Ideas I need to explore further...

NFB Filmmaker in Residence Program

2008-05-03T06:38:00.002-04:00

Here's a little blurb from the coolest workshop I attended at Doc U, the documentary school of the Hot Docs film festival.

Two things that came up of Kat Cyzech’s workshop were that filmmakers ought to deeply change their relationship with their « subjects », and that they ought to consider “many vs. any” media. Films aren’t to be made “about”, but rather “with” people; that’s the very motto the Filmmaker in Residence program at the NFB has been operating on since its inception. The Filmmaker in Residence manifesto states that the ideas and goals are to come from the partner, not from the filmmaker, whose role is to put it into documentary form through participation, not mere observation. In this worldview, filmmaking has to learn to become interdisciplinary and participatory. This can be done through breaking free of theatrical limitations and the traditional way of distribution docs through conventional broadcasters, by using various new media forms instead and exploring with uploaded user generated content. As Kat, who has a background in photo-journalism, book publishing, newspapers, radio and anthropology and recently wrote a book called Video for Change, mentioned, the “Internet is a big documentary in process”, documenting the world we live in.

Kat went on to describe various projects of the very grassroots Filmmaker in Residence program, which was based on Challenge for Change, an initiative that first bridged documentary making and community development, by publicizing the struggles of a fishing village in Newfoundland and gave the people of Fogo Island access to financing to start a successful fishing cooperative. Kat screened part of the Bicycle movie, a vector used to advocate a grassroots drugs and aid distribution system championed by James Orbinski’s organization, Dignitas. She also spoke of I was here, a documentary using a “photo voice” methodology to carry forwards the voices of the 300 women giving birth with no fix address in Toronto each year. Photos were taken by the group themselves, and were instrumental in shaping Mayor Miller’s new policies on homelessness and poverty in the city. Along the same line of thought, Street Health helped documenting the health status of Toronto’s homeless through training peer-researchers that would capture audio interviews and photo portraits, once again demonstrating the role of documentary as a tool for political change.

Art and documentary work facilitate social change. Kat advised Doc U students to get versed in graphic design, photography and writing, and says : don’t wait, be interactive and give back now!

More information on : www.nfb.ca/filmmakerinresidence (beware: some people spend up to 3h on the interactive site). You can also check Kat out on the delicious social bookmarking site.

Citizen Participation Pros and Cons

2008-04-15T14:05:00.002-04:00

Interesting article on pros and cons of citizen participation...

Irvin, R. A., & Stansbury, J. (2004). Citizen Participation in Decision Making: Is It Worth the Effort? Public Administration Review, 64(1), 55-65.

very timely when talking about community development and citizen empowerement, etc.

p. 8 is especially interesting :
---
following describe several considerations of what may
be described as ideal conditions for implementation of enhanced
citizen participation in agency decision making.

Low-Cost Indicators
• Citizens readily volunteer for projects that benefit the
entire community.
• Key stakeholders are not too geographically dispersed;
participants can easily reach meetings.
• Citizens have enough income to attend meetings without
harming their ability to provide for their families.
• The community is homogenous, so the group requires
fewer representatives of interest groups; smaller groups
speed decision making.
• The topic does not require representatives to master
complex technical information quickly.

High-Benefit Indicators
• The issue is gridlocked and a citizen mandate is needed
to break the gridlock.
• Hostility toward government entities is high, and the
agency seeks validation from community members to
successfully implement policy.
• Community representatives with particularly strong
influence are willing to serve as representatives.
• The group facilitator has credibility with all representatives.
• The issue is of high interest to stakeholders and may
even be considered at “crisis stage” if actions are not
changed.
Non-Ideal Conditions for Citizen
Participation
Conversely, citizen participation may be ineffective and
wasteful compared to traditional, top-down decision making
under certain conditions.

High-Cost Indicators
• An acquiescent public is reluctant to get involved in what
is considered the job of government employees.
• The region is geographically large or presents other
obstacles (such as heavy traffic) that make regular faceto-
face meetings difficult.
• Many competing factions and socioeconomic groups
require a very large participatory group.
• Low-income residents are key stakeholders for the issue
at hand and should be included, yet they cannot because
of work and family priorities.
• Complex technical knowledge is required before participants
can make decisions.
• The public does not recognize the issue under consideration
as a problem, nor are potential competing policy
alternatives familiar to the public.

Low-Benefit Indicators
• The public is generally not hostile toward government
entities.
• The agency has had prior success in implementing policy
without citizen participation (that is, the voting process
is sufficient to guide policy-making behavior).
• The population is large, making it difficult for involved
stakeholders to influence a significant portion of the
population.
• The decisions of the group are likely to be ignored, no
matter how much effort goes into their formation (the
group does not have authority to make policy decisions).
• The decisions of the group are likely to be the same
decisions produced by the government entity.

Veg. Style Film Classics - Meatrix and Storewars

2008-03-22T20:50:00.001-04:00

1st class entertainment for veg-friendly peeps :

http://www.themeatrix.com/
http://www.terre.tv/indexvod.php?case=1&ref=00151

Summer Sublet right by U of T, Chinatown & Kensington

2008-03-13T10:56:00.000-04:00

Small fully furnished room available in a half-duplex with shared kitchen and bathroom, friendly roomates, quiet street, split second walk to TTC, U of T, Chinatown and Kensington Market. Cozy front porch with couches. Backyard parking available. Rent is 400$/month including utilities and high speed wireless and wired Internet. Summer sublet: May 1st-August 31st.

Contact Joanna or Émanuèle at 416.595.0761. Thanks =)

What does community mean? community development?

2008-02-15T13:31:00.005-05:00

I have been struggling over the issues of community for a while, especially after undertaking a reflection around the "communities" I thought I belonged to due to place of birth and residence, school, work, etc. Wrapping one's head around this is challenging but crucial because, according to me, it guides one's behaviour and attitude (two different things!) towards places or spaces one feels belonging or membership too...

Here's a paper I have written for a class at OISE called : Community Development : Innovative Models, a very inspiring one. The questions hard were though, comments are welcome and I would love to see discussion happen around the issues - particularly IDS and Facebook.

---------------------
The day before classes started this semester, I went to my friends’ house and came across a board game called “Community: Apprentice Game about Love and Peace” (Deacove ,1994). While my first impression of it was that is was slightly old-fashioned and idealistic, with its town hall at the core and solely cooperative businesses, it did ask important questions – e.g. are we our brother’s and sister’s keepers? – while getting players to try to develop a happy and complete village. People voted their dollars democratically and there was a strong emphasis on maintaining positive feelings – the game stops if anyone has more than 10 points of bad feelings, uncompensated by Love and Forgiveness – and on conflict resolution. Another thing that surprised me was that it was necessary to undertake a spiritual journey and hence grow personally through experimenting spaces of wonder. That was just the beginning of my surprises revolving around these themes. This class has challenged how I define and experience concepts of community and community development (CD). In this essay, I will explore issues in the field of CD, while focusing on definitions, virtual communities (VC), ICTs and external assistance in the discussion. My argument is that an emphasis should be on people and not on links or space in CD, and it is important to be critical about definitions and ensure the sub-definitions are also represented, because CD is an inherently political process, although this aspect has been downplayed by most authors.

To start with, let me introduce a working definition of community, suggested by (Christenson, 1994), that relates the key features of people, space, social interaction and identification: “people that live within a geographically bound area who are involved in social interaction and have one or more psychological ties with each other and with the place in which they live”. While this is a good effort, for the purpose of this essay, I shall modify it to embody what I personally understand as a community. This entails replacing “common space” with “common characteristics and interests”, an evolution pointed by Wellman (1999:336) and adding the semantic field of “security”, “identity” and “agglomeration benefits” (Logan & Molotch, 1987, c.f. Stoecker, 2005:17). While this definition captures the essential elements of “community”, it fails to describe how that translates into a lived meaning and how members relate to one another at the individual level, or to give any information about the diversity and intensity of members and ties. A good example of an active definition would that of the Unitarian Universalists: “Our community is a source of commitment and inspiration, which helps us live rich lives of dedication, compassion, and contribution to one another and to the larger world” (UU, 2007). I believe any definition should allow a variety of ties as well as degrees and types of participation in the community while guaranteeing a fixed set of social norms. This in turn translates into general reciprocity system not unlike that of Local Exchange Trading Systems (LETS) and other services exchange groups.

Scope is as much an issue in CD than definitions, and often the questions comes up as to what is the difference between a community and a social network (SN). When I think about a social network, I see nodes and variable ties, and I see people connected into a complex statistical map similar to the mathematical models Granovetter (1973:1361) points at. The same author says that weak ties help getting ahead (Granovetter, 1973), and it is suggested that they also provide tangible assistance, reinforce healthy norms and contribute to happiness (Putnam, 2000:327-332). Noting that the emphasis in SN is on the link, not on the person, I propose that they are narrower than communities, and involve less direct identification. They reduce it to its back-bone while disregarding how personality, work style, identity, power, etc. influence the structural holes and the politics of networking. It would be timely to point out here how obsessive can social networking sites like Facebook become, as people literally compete for being the one with the largest network, and then engage in a simple cost-benefit analysis to decide on which “friends” their time and energy is going to be devoted. That would not happen in a community. As such, “networks involve (almost by definition) mutual obligations; they are not interesting as mere “contacts” ” (Putnam, 2000:20), and it seems as though SN focus more on outcomes than process. For example, through my work at the Toronto Environment Office, I often hear how putting efforts into being active in a UN research network on Education for Sustainable Development doesn’t really “serve” our interests as a municipal government. Clearly the ideas of utility and return dominate that of capacity building and human relations development, which in my view is an important distinction between a community and a SN.

A discussion of issues in CD would not be complete without transcending the traditional question of scope and addressing which type of SN are communities. In other words, it is asked whether virtual communities (VC) – communities which “emerge from the Net”, creating “long enough” “sufficient human feeling” (Sem. 03, Slide 15) - can be included in the definition. My opinion is that the definition of community has to be inclusive and renewed to fit the current context, for “one’s “village” [can] span the globe” (McLuhan, 1965, c.f. Wellman, 1999:333). After all, VC replicate some characteristics of face-to-face communities: there are “lerkers”, people with different personalities and learning styles and different levels or types of participation. I agree with the statement that “communities do not have to be solidary groups of densely knit neighbours, but could also exist as social networks of kin, friends, and workmates who do not necessarily live in the same neighbourhoods” (Wellman, 1999:333), adding that they can live in the same virtual space. However, I think there are certain conditions for a VC to be included as a sub-division of community. It has to be people-centered, and its members have to identify with it. As such and like the broader definition of community, it is for each individual to operate in a case-by-case fashion. While there are drawbacks to VC - it can encourage cocooning, etc. – I think they can work if they start from the community’s needs and use technology as one tool amongst other adapted strategies of localization. A decentralized structure, resource pooling, knowledge sharing, and respect for local autonomy, couple with face-to-face contact (Fiser, Clement, and Walmark, 2006:3) can be key to the success of a VC like K-Net. In addition, Internet can help social marketing, because a strong cause, vision and engaged activism are still a crucial lens for mobilizing communities and even creating social movements, as shown by the Free Burma Movement (Zarni, 2000). We live in an increasingly globalized world, where ICTs dominate and participatory web is a new reality that allows more people to become emitters - not merely receivers - of information, which has a potential for democratizing and allowing for more efficient community organizing. But that is not to be taken for granted: technology needs to add value and to serve the purpose of the community, not the other way around. In any case, being part of a VC is not mutually exclusive with living an active face-to-face community life: they often complement each other. Nevertheless, there remains a need for ongoing follow-up or else communities can be transient or illusory. I experienced that after going to the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre in 2005: hundreds of thousands like-minded activists get together, there is this amazing feeling of bonding and the creation of a parallel universe… Then: nothing. No VC. In my view, time is more important than space when deciding whether a VC is a community: there needs to be genuine relationships for something to be deemed community.

Community, as defined above, is not a static concept but an evolving one. Key words for this process to be deemed community development are “involvement” and “change”. A definition of CD ought to be put forwards at this point, and once again for it to encompass my idea, this definition has to be a quilt of others. A good start is: “CD is positive change in the social, economic, organizational, or physical structures of a community that improves both the welfare of community members and the community’s ability to control its future. It entails a variety of citizen-led efforts, carried out within or on behalf of a community, to define problems, develop solutions, and attract the resources necessary to implement activities that address the identified problems.” (Centre for Urban and Community Studies, U of T, Sem. 01, Slide 23). It should be coupled with the definition of (Dunbar, 1972:43, c.f. Christenson, 1994): “a series of community improvements which take place over time as a result of the common efforts of various groups of people. Each successive improvement is a discrete unit of community development. It meets a human want or need.” In my view, it is easier to describe CD with the semantic field of “democracy”, “common problems”, “capacity building”, “empowerment”, “internal decision-making”, “common goals”. I would suggest that CD doesn’t have to be “local” per se, because of the blurry boundaries of place and space, as mentioned in the discussion on VC and as iterated by the following statement: “global connectivity de-emphasizes the importance of locality for community” (Wellman & Gulia, 1999:354). I would say “internal” instead. I chose this mix of definitions because I believe CD is limited if it only addresses the current wounds and acts like a Band-Aid rather than addressing the wider political and economic trends that made “development” necessary. CD as a collective social action process has to address public policy and aim to change paradigms; it is more like a “movement”/crusade in Christenson’s four-part framework (Christenson, 1994:13), but it has to struggle to remain true to itself and its principles in the process of achieving “development”. Need is also an important, but problematic, basis of CD. Everybody “needs” something. Which needs are priorities? Those at the bottom of the Maslow pyramid? Deciding this is fundamentally subjective. My stand is that an emphasis on fundamental needs should be put forwards to lead to a sufficiency for all rather than an excess for a few (EcoTrust, 2007).

It is crucial for CD to not merely stop at the individual need level, but to recognize the structural patterns in which these needs arose, e.g. diminishing government support, trends in capitalism, etc. A recurrent issue in this class has been the lack of politicization of CD, which in my view has to be broken down in different constituencies, who are often diametrically opposed ideologically. When speaking about CD, are we speaking about liberal, progressive or sustainable CD? This makes a huge difference in the approach, objectives and processes (Hamstead, 2005). What is the place for the public sector in CD? The private sector? Are communities to favour There-Is-No-Alternative (TINA) big businesses or endogenous growth through Local-Ownership-Import-Substitution (LOIS) businesses (Shuman, 2006)? It is becoming increasingly clear that there can be uneconomic growth, and that development for some can mean regression for others. CD has to acknowledge the issue that the notion of progress is problematic and ask “what is development”? Is it just “unfolding and unraveling through time”? Skocpol and Putnam would be the first to agree that evolution does not equate positive change, and I agree with them in that the civic life of the past ought to be revitalized if we are ever to live in a real democracy. There is a problematic gap in their analysis though. Putnam doesn’t address the real causes of community undevelopment; he says it is due to pressures of time and money, suburbanization, electronic entertainment and generational change (Putnam, 2000:283) without linking it to the broader context. Such a “box-thinking” approach can not work for CD. Relations ought to be made between the rise in consumer society and increased obsolescence of consumer goods designed by President Eisenhower siding with corporate power after World War II to revamp the economy and the decline of community life. Clearly people have less time on their hands, but that’s also because they need to work harder to have the living standards publicized on television. In that light, it is no wonder that both community and happiness went down in the 1950s…

One last issue that is salient to CD is that of leadership and sufficiency. In my academic circle of International Development Studies (IDS), CD is often associated with grassroots, bottom-up work, which amongst younger students is often given a sort of sanction protecting it from negative criticism. Those who prone CD actually have expectations on the lifestyle of others, and they make the assumption that a CD-oriented IDS student should own a plastic water bottle, be vegetarian and patronize thrift stores. There clearly are untold rules, and grassroots CD came become exclusionary. Taken to an extreme, this is own Nazism developed in Germany, that is, based on identification of people with similar characteristics brought under a strong leader proposing a clear message and set of behavioral rules (see The Wave, 1969). On another hand, IDS students going on overseas placements are taught to identify the gatekeepers – customary, religious or administrative authorities, local respected person, etc. - that will lead them in the community in which they want to do research. This idea of the “outsider” with a different culture brings about questions of positionality in doing CD work, be it locally or internationally. In my view, identity becomes political in the realm of CD and as an external agent, one has to be very critical and aware of their biases and the power differential often associated with being privileged compared to one’s clients/patrons. It is difficult for me to place a verdict on whether external assistance ought to happen, or if grassroots processes should be the norm, because they are both problematic in their own ways, as noted above. To me, self-help and technical assistance, that is, work “for” and work “with” people, are not mutually exclusive; it all depends on one’s leadership style, which is justly a popular topic nowadays for community workers of all ages. However, according to me, the biggest and most toxic issue in this question is one of ownership: if we are to accept the neoliberal system of property rights, then communities are not necessarily seen by the most powerful actors as owning the resources or the land where they are located, regardless of how long they have lived there. Situations in which a private developer comes in and build a Wal-Mart in an area not-zoned as commercial by city planners because they gained support from the Ontario Municipal Board follow. Thus, depending on the situation, power issues shape the debate over leadership and sufficiency.

In conclusion, while definitions of terms in CD are controversial and it is for each person to interpret them for themselves, it is my opinion that the field should remain people-centered, and focus on their needs in terms of development, instead of tending towards technological-determinism and exclusion. This requires a tremendous effort towards democratization of decision-making and inclusion. In order for this change to be significant, a shift in paradigms is necessary. The collection of assumptions, concepts, beliefs and values that communities increasingly cultivate to describe reality is increasingly focused on consumer goods. This results in thinking that economic development and growth in GPD is the epitome of the “good life”, at the expense of civil society, justice, health, and community. Putnam and Skocpol are right to denounce what I would call community misdevelopment, but they ought also to point out that sustainability of life style was a dominant paradigm created and then changed by people. Communities have the power to reclaim that vision so that CD can become meaningful to the majority again.

Bibliography
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Granovetter, Mark. (1973). The strength of weak ties. American Jounal of Sociology, 78(6), 1360-1380.
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Unitarian Universalists. (2007). Vision Committee: Working Paper, 11 p.
Wellman, B., & Gulia, M. (1999). Net surfers don’t ride alone. In B. Wellman (Ed.) Networks in the global village. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 331-336.
Zarni. (2000). Resistance and cybercommunities: The Internet and the Free Burma Movement. In A. De Vaney, S. Gance & Y. Ma (Eds.), Technology and resistance: Digital communications and new coalitions around the world. New York: Peter Lang, 71-89.

Story of Stuff

2008-02-02T15:02:00.001-05:00

After months of silence, I though I would be back =)After all, people do read blogs, and until recently and for some obscure reasons, I felt like I didn't have anything to share unless I'm away. Some people even have RSS - I'm experiencing it right now, yeah Google Reader. So I'll be trying to switch this blog around to become more of a "good finds" locus.

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Last good find is from my roomie Jo : http://www.storyofstuff.com/
Made me rethink my idea of upgrading my tech gear. Excellent discussion of the consumer identity and how it arose in the 1950s under Eisenhower. I like its bite. Totally worth watching for the followers of societal change.

The Threads of Wrath

2007-07-21T15:41:00.000-04:00

Cotton is the world’s most famous plant, more than sugar, cocoa or tobacco. It has became even more so since the Hong Kong WTO Round of Negotiations in which Brazil challenged the US government for subsidizing their farmers - known to be a lobby even more powerful than the French wheat growers’. If the cotton transformation chain has always been a great source of controversy, as proven by numerous anti-sweatshop advocacy campaigns, the field realities of cotton farmers remain virtually unknown to consumers. This photo essay, based on field research in the village of Karangasso-Sambla in Burkina Faso, West-Africa, is meant to shed light on some of these issues.

Cotton was introduced to the village of Karangasso-Sambla in the beginning of the 1980s, after droughts compromised the growing of vegetables and cereals. The farmers were enticed by the «loto winner» phenomenon, cotton being the only cash crop available and the money being given in a single installment. Cotton has soon become the country’s primary export - if excluding labor exports to plantations in neighboring Ivory Coast. This year several farmers who have not yet ran away from the cotton company (SOFITEX) or swallowed toxic chemicals as a ultimate escape from indebtedness, chose not to grow anymore cotton. With the price dropping since 2003 and the inputs bought on credit with solidarity guarantee, cotton growing is disrupting social and even familial relations in the village.

Cotton cropping takes up to 25% of the world’s chemicals and is the plant causing the most pollution on Earth. For example, the Cold War’s geostrategic game pushed Stalin to turn Central Asia into a major cotton producer, to avoid imports from the first world. The result : the drying of the Aral Sea, one of the worst ecological disasters the world has known. Yet another example, the insecticides used in controlling the variety of pests attacking the cotton plant are a cause of skin rashes, chronic headaches, blindness and cancer. Men in Burkina Faso go out in the fields without safety equipment, with their barrel on their back; according to one farmer, the cotton company staff would only do this with «astronaut gear». What’s more: the empty containers are often barely rinsed before being used to serve the local millet beer.

For every bag a farmer sells to the SOFITEX, the latter retains the equivalent of 2 kilos’ worth to account for «transportation losses». In addition, farmers’ groups are responsible for filling the truck whenever it comes - that is, an endeavor of 8-10 hours, often at night, with a penalty of 5000 FCFA (about 11$) per absent person and with the threat of leaving the remaining of their production laying there, vulnerable to fire. In the event of a road accident, they also have to refill the trucks, adding to the list of unremunerated and strenuous tasks. The interaction between farmers and SOFITEX is consistently said to be oppressive and disrespectful, with the company changing rules and deadlines at will and doing propaganda on the radio.

Burkina Faso has a unique system of quality classification; at the moment of commercialization, SOFITEX employees called conditioners divide the cotton between 1st, 2nd and 3rd choice quality (1st being the highest). There is a difference of 15 FCFA (about 0.03$) per kilo between the qualities, which can account for tens of thousands of FCFA over a large production. This process is portrayed as the most unfair of the trade : there are consistent occurrences of bribing and incoherent decision-making. For example, cotton from the same field can be half 1st choice and half 2nd choice. Farmers also say the conditioners will only have their contract renewed if they turn in a minimum of 2nd choice. However, SOFITEX, with the most advanced quality control labs of West Africa, performs tests on several criteria (color, brightness, elasticity, etc.) on every cotton fiber sample and then distributes it to its highly quality-conscious clients. It denies this accusation of bias in the quality control process.

Cotton is an extremely labor intensive crop and its cycle, from seeding to picking, takes the whole year and more physical efforts than all traditional crops combined. Children are taught to help their family in the fields from a very young age. A secondary school teacher says his pupils come to school exhausted on Mondays, have no time to review their lessons and are often removed from school early to fulfill the needs in the field and thus the desire of their father to buy a motorcycle or beasts of burden for the family. Without the kids, who are said to be the best pickers because of their small hands, parents would have to hire workers at a rate of 500 FCFA (about 1.10$) per day to pick their cotton, a wage that would compromise the returns of an already unprofitable crop.

SOFITEX is the biggest employer in Burkina Faso, and is responsible for selling field inputs on credit and transporting cotton to factories in towns to finally export it through ports in Abidjan, Lomé or Accra. Less than 3% of the cotton produced in Burkina Faso (Africa’s largest producer) is transformed locally. SOFITEX is known for the abusive behavior of its employees; from CEO capital retention to drivers illegally selling their trucks’ gas, fraud is calculated as a cost to the company and contributes to lowering the price the farmer receives per kilogram. This is notwidstanding the fact that this year SOFITEX was more than 6 months late in paying the farmers and failed to provide them with next year’s fixed buying price before they had to start seeding, which resulted in them not being able to calculate profitability with tangible numbers.

For the third year now, the Swiss organization Helvetas is helping Burkinabè cotton growers to get organic and fair trade certifications. While guaranteeing an environment free from hazardous chemical inputs and a higher income for the farmer (235 FCFA per kilo in contrast to 165 FCFA for conventional cotton for 1st choice + 35 FCFA per kilo for local development projects), this initiative is striving to serve the growing markets and entitle cotton croppers to their right of making a decent living with their principal income-generating activity.

Tease for Peace :How a Joking Institution keeps checks in Burkina Faso

2007-05-02T07:51:00.000-04:00

When a driver in Burkina Faso stops his vehicle to lower its windows and start insulting a kid on his bicycle for no apparent reason, when two coworkers constantly insult each other over meaningless habits, or when you overhear a debate between these two on who is the other’s slave, especially in a culture known for the importance of “saving face”, one is tempted to expect an incessant civil war outbreak. Wrong.

There exists an institution in Burkina Faso called “parenté à plaisanterie”, (joking extended family), and it is stronger at maintaining peace than virtually any diplomatic effort. It is manifested by pacts of mutual non-agression, participation in each other’s sacred rite, moderation in conflictual situations and teasing on caracteristic. Every citizen is part of this system through its ethnic group, clan, city of residence or family name and engages this game many times a day with its two or three allies. Joking parents can be determined in many ways, although it is mostly determined by legends or historical events that tied or antagonised two ancestors, such as given favors or conflict.

In practice, certain taboos are associated between joking parents, such as the interdiction of intermarriage, and to insult over physical features or to make the other bleed. It also creates stereotypes, for example the Sambla as peanut and potatoe eaters, the Dioula as thieves, the Bobo as catterpillar roaster, the Lobi as rude millet-beer drinkers and dog eaters. Some groups, such as the Peuls (nomad group engaged in cattle herding) are systematically rendered ridiculous and stigmatised.

The “parenté à plaisanterie”, is a catharcic alliance; whenever a tension arise, all that is needed is for one of the involved actor or for a precise mediator to start teasing, thus using humor to evacuate frustration, and the problem is gone. Those who violate the unspoken rules of alliance by refusing to pardon a parent’s mistake is potentially vulnerable for maledictions. In such a diverse country (Burkina Faso counts 61 sociolinguistic groups) in which the political power is concentrated in the hands of the Mossi, the military power in the hands of the Lobi and in which the living conditions in the former vibrant capital, Bobo-Dioulasso, is deteriorating as a result of centralisation and the conflict in the neighbouring Ivory Coast, this institution prevents the worst from happening. According to the ethnograph Alain Joseph Sissao, the practice of “parenté à plaisanterie” in a country like Burkina Faso allows the society to deal with several issues such as clientelism, nepotisme, clanism, tribalism, regionalism, and all others that are contrary to profound values of friendship and fraternity between families (Sissao, 2002).

As many aspects from tradition, “parenté à plaisanterié” risks a gradual decline in popularity with the advance of modernity, although events are created to promote its revival, for the very reason that, in maintaining such a system, the country inhabitants prefer to see difference as something enriching rather than letting it trigger intolerance and exclusion.

REFERENCES

Sissao, Alain Joseph (2002). Alliances et parentés à plaisanterie au Burkina Faso : Mécanisme de fonctionnement et avenir, Sankofa & Gurly Editions, Ouagadougou, 186 p.

Shake it up

2007-04-11T09:15:00.000-04:00

Un aperçu du désert

2007-02-07T04:49:00.000-05:00

Ga Ema sur la go!

2007-01-16T06:13:00.000-05:00

Comme je le craignais, malgré mes bonnes résolutions de 2007, je prend décidément des faux plis de communications! Deux mois sans nouvelles, aille, c'est pas l'idéal, j'espère qu'il y a en encore d'aucun qui n'ont pas relégué ce site au cimetière du Web!

Les choses vont à un rythme effréné pour moi ici (je m’essouffle quasiment à écrire tout ça ah ah); on est loin des caricatures de l'Afrique comme étant un genre d'escargot aveugle. Je me retrouve un peu comme toujours avec un conflit de priorités (tout m'apparaît comme des priorités) et je ne sais plus où donner de la tête. Mais j'ai la conviction que peu importe mes choix, cela sera enrichissant. Et «ça va aller» comme dirait mon copain Benoît.

Depuis la dernière fois que j'ai écrit, il y a eu une réorientation dans ma philosophie d'être ici; ces temps-ci, je prends les choses moins relaxes et je fonce beaucoup plus. Je réalise que la job doit avancer, qu'il y a des projets qui me tiennent à cœur (vidéo, visites, voyages, activités sociales), et des choses que je ne veux pas compromettre (sport, méditation, cours de dioula) et que si je ne les fais pas maintenant, je ne les ferai jamais. J’ai quelques projets vidéos que je tiens à faire ; j’ai vraiment besoin d’amélioration ah ah. Les voici : 1) finir capture édition et sous-titrage du vidéo promotionnel d’ASKS, 2) filmer une discussion informelle d’amis Canadiens et Burkinabé sous forme d’un jeu sur les différences culturelles pour faire tomber des préjugés des deux bords 3) recueillir les légendes et mythes d’ici au Burkina pour faire un beau souvenir et 4) faire un documentaire sur mon sujet de thèse pour l’uni. OUF ! Merci papa pour la caméra lol

Y'a Krystel qui repart au Canada dans moins de deux mois, alors on n'a pas le choix d'accélérer le rythme de nos sorties de «tourrriisssssmee »! À date on a visité un peu Ouaga, Bobo, Koro (un village bâti sur un tas de pierre pour résister à l'envahisseur islamique), Banfora, et... C'est pas mal ça. Alors là on veut aller à Gaoua, la capitale du pays Lobi, une ethnie de guerrier dont est issu le chum de Catherine, ensuite moi j'ai deux fins de semaine de bloquées, une pour travailler à K-Sambla et l'autre pour visiter les productrices de karité à Léo et en profiter en même temps pour faire un saut dans le sud du pays. Puis on se prend quelques jours de congé pour aller se tapper un trip dans le Nord, faire du chameau dans le Sahara à Gorom-Gorom, en prenant le thé avec un Touareg avant de dormir dans le désert. Ouf, quelle aventure! Et après peut-être on va faire les deux parcs nationaux dans l'Est (voir des zéléphants, héhé), mais on va voir si c'est possible logistiquement (faut un 4 par 4), financièrement...

Sans compter la contrainte de temps. En fait, ces temps-si, je vois que mes objectifs professionnels peuvent être quelque peu compromis par tout ce qu'il y a autour de mon mandat proprement dit, soit la thèse, et le travail hors-mandat (comme la formation en logiciels libres avec Rafigui et les trucs multimédias en général). Pour tout dire, j'ai recommencé à me ronger les ongles en pensant à comment je vais faire pour avoir fini mon manuel de gestion des AGR et ma formation en entreprenariat/marketing/microfinance avant la fin du mois de mars (putain d’année fiscale Canadienne qui rend les choses difficiles).

L'autre problème, c'est qu'ensuite il faut que je fasse ma recherche! Je suis maintenant presque sûre de ne pas le faire avec les productrices de karité vu que je les connais pas encore, en plus c’est un gros 7-10 heures de Bobo, bref, y’a plein de contraintes majeures qui m’en empêchent. Ca me fait quand même un petit pincement au cœur car le commerce équitable m’intéresse vraiment comme domaine, et j’aimerais peut-être me pogner une job là-dedans dans le futur, genre avec Alternatives ou Oxfam. Mais bon, je vais essayer de mettre ma recherche sur le sujet à contribution en écrivant un article et tentant de le faire publier à quelques endroits. (Et oui, voici pour mon obsession de «produire du contenu » ! Merci les NTICs et le Web 2.0 – ah ouin, aussi faudrait que je commence à être plus sérieuse pour être une réceptrice aussi, prendre connaissance du contenu que les autres émetteurs fournissent, de focuser un peu sur les « inputs » plutôt que juste les « outputs ». Genre en écoutant les nouvelles et lisant plus de trucs à part de la fiction, pis arrêter ma manie de me tapper la revue de l’année passée en janvier pis après déconnecter carrément du monde ah ah.) Mais tout ça est un autre débat. Pour la thèse, je me suis dit que ça serait plus cool de faire ça avec les femmes à K-Sambla, vu qu’on a déjà une belle relation de confiance, je suis déjà allée là-bas quelques fois, et avec les conseillers on travaille super bien. Je vais leur en parler bientôt, pour l’instant je regarde les possibilités de rechercher sur la filière coton du Burkina, sur ses institutions corrompues et exploratrices. Ca m’avait beaucoup affecté d’apprendre toutes les crosses de la SOFITEX sur les cultivateurs de coton, et j’aimerais approfondir ça. En tout cas, ce serait plus investigateur comme recherche, ça c’est sûr.

Plus ça va, plus je me découvre un intérêt croissant pour les communications, et je vis une seconde lune de miel avec l'informatique. En observant les différents postes de coopérants offerts autour de moi, je réalise néanmoins que je n'ai pas vraiment envie de m'orienter vers la gestion de projets; j'aimerais avoir une expérience/expertise technique et professionnelle (ambitieuse la fille!) tout en gardant l'esprit communautaire et solidaire très vivant. En ce moment je suis pas sûre à 100% que ce domaine sera l'économie sociale ou politique. J'hésite de plus en plus à savoir si je veux faire ma maîtrise directement après le bac; y'a quelque chose qui me dit que côté études je suis sur une bonne lancée, mais si je passe à côté de certaines opportunités maintenant (comme aller vivre en Chine, faire mon voyage de cyclo, faire un autre contrat), je devrai les oublier pour de bon. Je me sens de plus en plus attirée vers l'Europe pour ma maîtrise, ça m'apparaît comme un continent magnifique, avec une culture différente de la mienne, soit qui vaut la peine d'être découverte. Peut-être qu'on retour je ferai les vandages de raisin en France pour me gagner un peu de sous et tâter le terrain.

Pour ceux qui se rendent à ce paragraphe, je me suis dit que pour vous féliciter de votre patience à m’écouter chialer, je vais parler de d’autres choses que mes angoisses ! Mes amis du Tchad sont venus passer deux semaines et demi avec moi, et c’était vraiment vraiment cool. Ca m’a confirmé que ces jeunes-là, ce n’est pas un hasard qu’on se soit rencontrés. Aussi, j’ai réalisé que j’avais peu d’amis comme eux ici, genre éduqués, cultivés, trippants. Je connais du monde motivés et trippants, mais franchement les Rafiguiens ont vraiment de quoi à dire dans la vie. Un peu comme Benoît. Peut-être pour ça que lui et moi on se lâche pus lol. Checkez le site et le blog de l’IA13 si ça vous tente d’en lire plus sur mes Tchadiens ah ah J

Côté culturel, je commence à me sentir moins aliénée des 500 000 personnes de la ville. La dernière fois au village, c’était vraiment le fun, on a fait le tour des familles, ils nous ont donné des poules vivantes (qui vivent maintenant dans le bac à compost !), on a mangé de l’antilope, j’ai porté du bois sur ma tête, j’ai eu un cours de balafon, on a fait de l’aquarelle avec les enfants, j’ai super gros parlé dioula, on a bien dansé, j’ai cuisiné, tk c’était vraiment hot. C’était évident, mais quand les autres volontaires ne sont pas autour, c’est vraiment plus facile de s’intégrer. Et la ville et le village, c’est vraiment 2 mondes. Ca ne se compare même pas. Avec 80% de la population du Burkina vivant en campagne, je trouverais ça con de pas en profiter pour faire le plus de temps possible en village.

Et pis je trouve ça vraiment le fun de travailler en VIH SIDA, de jaser avec les jeunes. L’autre jour on a participé à un thé-débat et c’était vraiment le fun et enrichissant de parler avec du monde de mon âge mais d’une autre culture sur la sexualité, le mariage, l’infidélité, tout ça. Ces temps-ci je suis plus attentive aux manifestations des valeurs que la société transmet sur le comportement/le discours des gens, et parfois je m’étonne. C’est rushant de voir des amis parler comme de quoi une femme battue doit rester avec son mari pour les enfants, par exemple. De se faire demander « va chercher de l’eau » par son copain. D’entendre un ami parler de ses 3 copines qui ignorent l’existence des 2 autres. C’est un peu une confrontation, mais j’ai l’impression de comprendre plus la logique derrière le mode de pensée Burkinabé, et j’essaie de ne pas juger.

Bon ben that’s it that’s all pour tout suite. Je vous quitte sur ce, les Québécois, lisez des livres Patrick Sénécal sont vraiment hots! (Drôle de chute direz-vous !)

Power Dynamics in the Human Rights Movements - Universalism or Relativism

2006-12-05T22:31:00.000-05:00

In a world where identity has becomed a political tool for public mobilization, it takes great facilitation skills to navigate across the universalism and cultural relativism debate without hurting anybody's feelings. Ideas of global citizenship and international solidarity have been introduced to Western popular culture by musicians, politicians and opinion leaders alike, and in the mist of the dream for peace and social justice, one can easily be diverted into the troubled waters of cultural imperialism or post-modernist free-for-all. In this paper, I will focus on how such a debate relates to the idea of international human rights, which is in itself very contentious. Starting by examining terminology issues, false assumptions of the debate and how problematic it is to adopt either extreme point of view, I will then expose the themes of legitimacy and enforcement of ''universal human rights'', cultural imperialism and resistance to universalism, as well as issues of intepretation and power gradients of the universal human rights paradigm. I will also link the debate to some of my recent experiences and expose how my opinion changed when I became more exposed to the debate. I am conscious to be ignoring a range of issues, especially those of secularism and spirituality, which unfortunately go beyond the scope of this paper.

First of all, there are terminology issues underlying the debate that are worth looking at more closely before going any further. The authors who mention the French Revolution and the Enlightenment as the focal point of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) do not define ''equality'' in a satisfactory manner (Coomaraswamy, 2001) (Gatens, 2004). Whereas ''gender equality'' has sometimes been intepreted as the idea that women should become more like men, generating common stereotypes of feminists as women with shaved heads and hairy legs, I would argue that even the term ''mankind'' implies that women are inferior to men. However, although a strict dichotomy between men and women does not exist in certain cultures – for example, the Nepali who see the flesh as female and the bones as male (NEW368, Lec. 03) - it remains dangerous to deny such differences because it has been prooved that men and women do have different fundamental characteristics. To further complicate the matter, not all females identify with the label ''women'' as it is primarily understood, and different cultures do not associate the same understanding with the concept of womanhood; it is thus impossible to use only one category to describe all women.

The word ''rights'' is another polemic term, and the relation between rights, their enforcement and their associated responsibilities is blurred. As phrased in the context of the universalism versus cultural relativism (CR) debate, ''it is this dynamic relation between an abstract right and its implementation in a particular context that presents a challenge to those who conceive of the relation between human rights and particular norms as a 'clash' or 'contradiction''' (Gatens, 2004 ). I think a right per se is a policy rather than a law; the positive side of that is it is possible to adapt laws to the local context. However, the right is then subject to more interpretation, which can be, in many cases, detrimential to women. Moreover, from my experience, the colloquialisation of the term ''right'' engenders certain rhetorical clashes which I find easier to position towards after reading the articles. For example, in discussion arising in the context of meetings for an Anti-Oppression Committee, I realized that a number of White men, without necessarily feeling historically entitled to their privilege, were complaining about being discriminated against because of hiring proceedures in the public sector aiming at attaining a gender balance; they were clinging at the human rights (HR) framework to bulkward against their loss of privilege, which indicates a different notion of the term ''right'' depending on one's position in the social hierarchy.

Moreover, I believe there are some false underlying assumptions in the universalism versus CR debate. First, feminism and cultural relativism are seen as antagonists (Coomaraswamy, 2001). I disagree with this idea because there are so many types of feminists; the movement has a complex history filled with internal contradictions and proponents adhere to certain parts while criticizing other. Also, being a feminist is only one part of somebody's identity, and someone may have a more radical, liberal or global approach for advocating gender equality. HR are a mainstream tool of analysis and are not necessarily the basis of argumentation for all feminists. Second, one can not separate women's rights from human rights, because women are humans, but also because ''women'' are not isolated, as we saw in class (NEW368, Lec. 09) in Sembene Ousmane's movie Moolade, the structures oppressing them are part of a greater system of social interactions. One ought to keep the intersectionality of such transcient but significant ''identities' as' race, class, gender, religion, ethnicity, in looking at which women are in fact denied otherwise ''universal'' HR and why.

One last point before I start looking at the actual debate: I think there are problems in adopting either of the two extremes in this debate. On one hand, CR can be as arrogant as universalism, for its proponents seem to be telling to a ''morally inferior'' legislative system that they are not advanced enough to be judged with the same criterion as them. Also, cultures are dynamic and contested entities, and thousands of years of intercultural interaction, be it through trade, colonialism or other, make it impossible to isolate a culture that exist on its own. As discussed in previous readings, it is not infrequent to see powerful members of society selecting and manipulating aspects of both their own and foreign cultures to better suit their interests. On the other hand, I disagree with the claim that CR is the easy way out of the debate (Nagengast, 1997). This exercise made me see through an approach to development – the rights-based approach - that I used to adhere to in the past. As an enthusiast of Paulo Freire's teachings of political rights, I was thrilled to see that such a paradigm allowed for more public mobilization and more pressure for accountability by development organizations onto governments, corporations and others. Now, I realize that the apparently fundamental and immutable character of HR makes it easy to justify development activities, and that the HR framework itself is not questionned as a unifying set of standards and common language.

What I now turn to examine is the legitimacy of HR as a universally appropriate paradigm. The fact that the UDHR has originated from the theory of the social contract is interesting in itself, because when it was first written by John Locke, the exit from the state of nature was justified to preserve one's property (property meaning theproduct of one's labor). No author pointed out the difficulties in interpretation emerging from the fact that, in some cultures, women are considered to be private property and that John Locke himself reserved a Right to Rebellion if the leaders of the state emerging from the social contract were not adequately preserving property (Locke, 1982). Furthermore, no author indicates that the very idea of HR as a tool for international relations is indeed an official and bourgeois concept that values stability and the rule of law without addressing structural discriminations. Consequently, can the HR framework actually respect abused Third World women, considering that these ''victims'' can not even participate to the debate sometimes because it occurs in the public space (Gatens, 2004)? I think that is unfair since they should be consulted since it is their plight that is at stake. In addition, one has to ask whose priority HR are? Should the entitlement to social values such as Confucianism, a moral privileging family over individuals, be relegated to the second plan (Coomaraswamy, 2001), or should ''the right to development in which peoples have the right to choose the kind, direction, and rate of development, in the view of some, takes precendence over the liberal emphasis on the rights of individuals'' (Nagengast, 1997)? After looking at such legitimacy question, I feel more critical on the politics of rescue, and I realize that I as a Western feminist may not always be welcomed as an Ally by other women who might understand my emphaty as the imposition of my own value system upon theirs.

Another important point of disagreement in the universalism versus CR debate relates to the limits for enforcement the international human rights (IHR) legislation. One big question is : Should the United Nations (UN) continue to operate according to their non-interference principle or should they breach national sovereignty in order for IHR to prevail everywhere? I think it is hypocritical for a proponent of universal HR to believe the UN should become an intransigeant world police and forcively enforce HR legislation on ''criminals'', because the UN as it presently constituted is non-democratic and faces serious issues of representation of the minorities or groups that usually suffer HR abuses. Along the same line of thought, IHR have been designed to deal with states, not indviduals, acknowledging that states can be predatory and commit abuses of civil and political rights (Nagengast, 1997). However, a government has its own agenda (for example, staying in office by pleasing the – principally male – electorate) and hence it can be as discriminatory towards women by its inaction in reforming systems that marginalizes women. In that situation where the government is unsupportive of Third-World women's rights, adopting a human-rights perspective and choosing no to comply with tradition or social norms can result in stigma, rejection and alienation leading to further marginalization and represents a huge sacrifice when there are no other alternatives possible. I agree with Elster when she stresses the importance of the emotional aspect in discussing women's HR (Gatens, 2004); what's the purpose of having institutionalized women's HR if there are no structure to support them? What safety net do victims of domestic violence have if there are no women shelters?

In addition, it is essential to look at the phenomenom of resistance to universalism by cultural relativists. It has been argued that ''women and girls are visible and vulnerable embodiments of practices that designate them as the repositories and guardians of cultural meanings that ironically also imply second-class status'' (Nagengast, 1997). From that perspective, dominant groups appear to be the ones who have the most to loose when current gender norms are challenged, and they may try to justify the institutionalized violations of women's HR by saying it is for their protection. I reject this argument. I have been trained, as a women traveller and karateka, to believe that men try to control women's sexuality because they can not control their own instincts towards the women's body, which they picture as beautiful but passive. I also have learned in Wendo that women are thus socializeed to beg, scream or freeze when their human rights are violated, because showing attitude will result in them being called a 'bitch'. I think it is a myth that women can not be empowered to defend themselves.

Through time and by taking this class I was brought to try harder to become more self-reflective and conscious of the ways in which I can be culturally imperialist, a behavior that seem to be taken by some authors and neglected by others. For instance, Howland's principled approach suggest that consentment to UN HR treaties automatically implies that states are responsible for changing their national laws (C., 2001). Partington adopts the same universalist point of view, which implies that a women either does what is expected of her or she exits her culture. Gatens goes on to explain that it is likely that one will want to reject only certain parts of one's culture and focus on reforming these. (Gatens, 2004). My critic of these arguments is that, to me, a universal standpoint is very Eurocentric because it seems to take for granted the idea that anybody would want to ''convert'' or ''assimiliate'' to Western culture if they had the chance. Gunning, by point out at the limitations of the legal approach, suggests a World-traveller approach in which one is advised to first know oneself to understand one's own standpoint before making judgements about harmful traditional practices (HTP) elsewhere (Coomaraswamy, 2001). This advice would have been useful to me while in Chad, where I had an argument with my guy friends since they said the way in which a girl dressed excited men, which resulted in the spread of HIV/AIDS and unwanted pregnancies. They were saying it was the woman's fault if she was raped, while I was saying that a women has to be free from rape and free to maintain physical inegrity. Now I realize I was being imperialist by trying to impose my IHR framework onto cultural practices with which I was not so familiar since I did not know much about youth gender relations at that time. However, the cultural imperialist accusion is not always well-founded. For example, I disagree with the idea that ''activists misunderstand, undervalue, or disparage cultural and traditional practices that reinforce community solidarity at the expense of individual liberty'' (Nagengast, 1997), because, although Westerners often admire ''communitary'' values, they would be wrong to understand the community as a homogeneous set; it is in fact an aggregate of political actors with their own agendas who were sometimes united in the first place principally because of a common geographic location. In that case, criticism of the ''community'' is not cultural imperialism, but political analysis.

It would be dishonest to deny the power issues existing in the CR position. An absolute CR stance based in a post-modernist vision risks seeing the universe as a chaotic system in which unvalid claims can be accepted because no universal Truth is said to exist. This is very dangerous, since it can suggest that all viewpoints, be them racist, sexist, heterosexist or fundamentalist, can be justified. Hence, I would argue for partial universalism, which also brings in the problem of which HR have priority over others. In fact, there seem to be an hierarchy of rights in the UDHR; often cultural relativists contest only certain rights as being human rights and they may question the interpretation that attaches to certain human rights (Coomaraswamy, 2001). Also, different types of rights are interpreted differently; economic, social and cultural rights are seen as more relative or subjective than civil and political rights (Nagengast, 1997). A potential solution to that problem is phrased by Sullivan, when she suggests balancing various rights by horizontalizing them and putting them into perspective rather than assume all rights are independent from one another (Coomaraswamy, 2001). This last argument struck me in its usefulness to analyse HTP, because it stresses the importance of context in judging them. I am nevertheless slightly ill-at-ease with the notion of ''universalism''; it has always been a very difficult philosophical challenge to find something that is common to all humankind, a task that may even be impossible since even themes explored in all major religions (i.e. The Golden Rule – Treat others as you want to be treated) are never intepreted literally and out-of-time by anyone.

All in all, there are several aspects of the universalism versus cultural relativism debate that I find lying on rather unstable grounds. Although both extremes present significant intellectual problems, it is still difficult to position oneself in the middle since it implies one has to make choices as to what practices are acceptable and which are not. Hopefully, certain authors encourage self-reflexivity and encourage their readers to track back how their stance is informed by their positionality. By looking at part of twentieth-century history, one realizes that most advances in women's human rights have occured after times of serious conflict, turmoil or disturbance such as World War II. My last question is thus : can or should a legal framework impede these contradictory forces of change, would be more effective to let change happen from within? Who knows...

Bibliography

Coomaraswamy, Radhika (2001). ''Different but Free : Cultural Relativism and Women's Rights as Human Rights'', in Religious Fundamentalisms and the Human Rights of Women, ed. Howland.

Gatens, Moira (2004). ''Can Human Rights Accomodate Women's Rights? Towards an Embodied Account of Social Norms, Social Meaning and Cultural Change'', Comtemporary Political Theory, Vol. 3, pp. 275-299.

Locke, John (1982). ''Second Treatise of Government'', ed. by H. Davidson, Arlingon Heights, 3rd ed.,. 150 p.

Manicom, Linzi. NEW368 : Gender and Cultural Difference in Transnational Perspectives. Lectures 03 (24/01/06) and 09 (14/03/06)

Nagengast, Carole (1997). ''Women, Minorities, and Indigenous Peoples: Universalism and Cultural Relativity'', Journal of Anthropological Research, Vol 53 (3).

La vida es un carnaval

2006-11-14T06:33:00.000-05:00

Y’a quelqu’un qui vient de me faire remarquer que ça fait un mois que je n’ai rien mis sur mon blog (la résolution tombe à l’eau ah ah) et là, je me suis dit, UN MOIS, c’est pas possible… Hé oui, incroyable mais vrai.

Alors je pense qu’une des nouveautés depuis la dernière fois c’est que je commence à me faire une vie ici, arrêter de surfer et passer au travers de l’étape où je viens tout juste d’arriver (étape à laquelle habituellement quand je suis en voyage je m’apprête déjà à partir) pour que les choses se stabilisent un peu. En fait, stabiliser, c’est un grand mot, surtout considérant le caractère mouvementé de chaque journée.

J’ai finalement déménagé, il y a à peu près trois semaines, dans ma nouvelle maison rose bonbon (ah ah, moi qui a toujours ri des maisons roses) avec les beaux arbres dans la cour et Bundao le chien malcommode. Depuis ce temps-là, on a été dans les processus d’installation, ce qui veut dire : 1) repeinturer, 2) réparer la plomberie dans les salles de bains, 3) faire construire un bac à compost, 4) poser les crochets pour le hamac, 5) adopter le p’tit chat –maintenant du nom de Fitini – qui squattait la cour, 6) faire venir le vet pour qu’ils détique, dépucent et vaccinent les animaux. Ca c’est tout sans compter qu’il faut réapprendre comment tout marche (comment payer les factures, comment disposer les ordures, etc.) et où il faut aller pour trouver tout tout, la bouffe, les matériaux, le gas, les meubles, les trucs de jardins, etc. Et tout ça sans compter qu’on a aussi à dealer avec deux employés de maison, Awa qui s’occupe du ménage et de la cuisine, et Issa qui fait le gardien devant la maison la nuit. Ceci implique plein de choses auxquelles je n’avais pas vraiment réfléchi avant, comme genre, comment être un bon employeur sans perpétuer des relations de pouvoir inégales mais en même temps sans donner trop de lousse à ton employé pour qu’il en abuse ? Deux mots seulement sur comment ça va à date. Awa a été malade pendant les 10 derniers jours avec la malaria (elle vient de rentrer hier), ce qui veut dire qu’on a dû se débrouiller toutes seules, Krystel et moi, pour tout faire, et en plus en période d’harmattan où il y a plein de poussière. Ca a l’air de rien comme ça, en fait les Africains se sont un peu demandé pourquoi on avait de la misère à y arriver, mais une journée typique sans Awa ressemble à cela : 7h, réveil. 8h15, travail, 12h, aller au marché, 13h30, préparer à manger, 14h, lavage à la main, la vaisselle, s’occuper des animaux, 14h40, se reposer 10 min, 15h, retourner au boulot, 18h, aller à la petite épicerie acheter à manger, 18h30, préparer, 19h, manger, 19h30, ménage/vaisselle/animaux, 20h, cours de dioula, 21h30, enfin tu reviens chez toi et tu es morte de fatigue, et tu es contente d’avoir un bon roman à lire ! En tout cas, peut-être qu’avec le temps on s’y serait fait, mais disons que ça a été très lourd. Et puis avec Issa c’est pas évident, car il parle pas français. C’est le frère de l’ancien gardien à Nathalie, qui était super violent donc qui a été mis dehors, et avec Krystel on ne voulait pas lui faire perdre son emploi, car on croyait qu’il parlait dioula et qu’on pourrait donc communiquer, mais non ! Il parle moré ! Aiya, c’est pas facile. Une fois on lui demande de couper une branche d’un arbre qui acottait sur la maison, ben y’a coupé toute l’arbre ! Pas possible ! En tout cas, l’expérience de gestion d’une maison africaine est une chose qui responsabiliserait le pire bum de la terre, croyez-moi ! On a la chance d’avoir de très bons voisins qui répondent patiemment à nos questions.

Bon, ben ça c’est sur la vie à la maison ! Au boulot c’est aussi pas reposant, car je me promène à gauche et à droite pour appuyer différentes associations. Mais c’est bon, il y a des gens avec qui ça va bien, ils sont motivés, ils font du bon travail, et c’est encourageant. Y’en a d’autres où c’est moins facile, et moi je me demande toujours si je dois leur courir après (puisque ce sont eux qui auraient le plus besoin d’appui) ou bien les laisser prendre l’initiative. En tout cas, quelle dilemme. Un défi de travailler dans les activités génératrices de revenus, c’est que tu touches beaucoup à l’argent et à l’organisation des gens, qui sont deux sujets pas évident à aborder. J’essaie de ne pas trop me mouiller car je crains qu’un jour on me prenne comme bouc-émissaire car j’aurai mal indiqué comment faire un truc de gestion, où quelque chose comme ça. Au point où j’en suis présentement, je tente de faire deux choses, soit 1) d’utiliser les ressources humaines existantes pour se renforcer entre elles (comme le comptable de la MAS, par exemple, dont j’ai fait mon allié) et 2) amener les associations à collaborer entre elles en partageant leurs expériences et leurs outils. Je trouve que ça donne un côté plus humain à cette collaboration. Aussi, parfois j’ai de la difficulté à voir l’utilité de ce que je fais ; c’est sûr que je répond à un besoin qui a été identifié par les associations elles-mêmes, mais en même temps, c’est un peu abstrait, du renforcement de capacités pour des gestionnaires, hummm. Dans quel but tout ça ? Hummmm… Dans le but que les choses soient mieux organisées pour que ça soit plus rentable pour que les bailleurs s’impliquent plus pour que les sidéens aient des emplois pour qu’ils puissent s’occuper de leur famille pour qu’ils retrouvent leur dignité. Ouf, ça montre qu’il faut vraiment penser les choses à un autre niveau. Disons que ça va un peu à l’encontre de l’idée que le développement, c’est ‘clear-cut’ et ‘straighforward’. C’est en comparant avec le travail de Catherine et Krystel que je trouve des différences ; les deux semblent avoir plus de concret que moi, genre Cath distribue des livres et des crayons à des orphelins, elle fait des listes d’enfants, elle anime des débats, et Kry travaille avec les gens pour faire des dépliants, des stratégies de publicité, pour organiser des présentations de promotion, etc. En tout cas, moi je me retrouve pas trop là-dedans. En même temps, je sais que chez moi ça prend plus de temps car j’ai 5 partenaires alors que les autres en ont 1, ce qui fait que ça étire le temps que ça prend pour avancer. Je vois tout de même que les choses s’améliorent et je comprends mieux ce qui est attendu de moi. Dernièrement aussi j’ai beaucoup réfléchi sur ce que ça voulait dire, d’être ‘sur le terrain’ ; je me suis rappelé avoir été super enthousiaste en visitant Stian au bureau de CARE Indonésie et il m’a dit ; ‘don’t worry, you’ll soon be on the field too’. Maintenant que j’y suis, wow, c’est étrange. Je me dis que quelque part c’est bien que ça ne soit pas moi qui fasse les interventions directes auprès des gens, c’est plus efficace et plus durable si les initiatives viennent des Burkinabé, et que moi je les appuie. C’est en ce sens que c’est bien de faire de l’appui conseil, autrement c’est sûr que les résultats de ton action sont bien plus durs à voir.

Bon, assez parlé du boulot encore une fois. Je commence finalement à me faire des amis, y’était à peu près temps ! Y’a Abou, un jeune homme avec qui je m’entend trop bien et avec qui j’ai passé une bonne parties de mes derniers week-end, il est super, souvent il entre dans mon bureau à la MAS pour n’en ressortir que 2h après, et on a passé tout ce temps à parler du Burkina, sa culture, son histoire, sa société. Il est très impliqué dans la lutte contre le VIH SIDA et on a franchement des conversations à cœur ouverts sur plusieurs sujets, ça m’étonne et m’enchante en même temps. A REVS+ il y a mes collègues Isaac et Mahama avec qui je blague souvent et que tranquillement on commence à se dégêner et sortir un peu. J’ai aussi appris à conduire la mobylette, alors je vais me promener et je vois un peu plus comment la ville est organisée, genre je suis capable de me rendre du point A au point B sans trop de détours lol. Avec Krystel, on s’est achetés des super beaux casques qui font rire tout le monde, c’est bien drôle, mais selon moi c’est mieux ça que de contempler ta propre cervelle s’étendre sur le goudron (désolée c’est un peu dégueu). Je commence à me fidéliser des commerçants (j’ai ma vendeuse de bananes par exemple !), j’ai même un resto préféré. Les week-ends sont plaisants, on sort dans les environs de Bobo, on va se baigner, on va danser, se promener, voir des trucs touristiques des fois, c’est ben l’fun. J’ai trois sorties en village de planifiées d’ici les vacances de Noël, et je suis bien contente de ça car ça va me permettre de mieux connaître le Burkina.

Bon, deux pages sur Word, je pense que c’est assez J A la prochaine fois !

Genre et VIH

2006-10-17T13:54:00.000-04:00

Une de mes collègues à REVS+, Nathalie, une véritable perle et une coopérante exemplaire, vient de terminer un mandat de 14 mois en recherche-action. Elle a examiné l’impact de l’association à la veille de son 10e anniversaire de création et, peut-être encore plus significatif, a tenté de répondre à une des questions qui chauffe le plus dans le milieu de la prise en charge des personnes vivant avec le VIH, soit : Pourquoi les hommes ne s’impliquent pas, et comment faire pour les impliquer ?

J’ai cru bon copier ici certaines parties du rapport écrit après avoir animé une série de focus-groupes. On y parle de l’aspect genre et VIH d’une manière très intéressante. Bonne lecture !

Sugar Daddies
Un phénomène fréquent en Afrique, créée des effets sur les relations hommes/femmes plus souvent négatives que positives. Les relations hommes matures et jeunes filles forment la règle et non l’exception. C’est en majorité parce que les moyens financiers manquent que certaines jeunes filles s’adonnent aux hommes matures en échange de quelques billets. De nos jours, ce que les jeunes filles cherchent, ce n’est plus un mari, mais c’est un moyen d’avancer dans la vie qui se durcit. Un moyen de continuer les études, de voyager, de s’habiller et même de ramener les sommes d’argent à la famille en besoin. « Les filles ne veulent pas vivre sous leurs parents, elle voit sa copine bien habillée elle veut aussi suivre le rythme, papa est là, papa aussi n’a pas les mêmes moyens et lorsque nous faisons une rétrospective, c’est les enfants des pauvres qui s’adonnent plus à ça. »

La famille africaine est large et très étendue. Dans une cour, on retrouve plusieurs bouches à nourrir et il peut être difficile parfois d’y trouver son compte. Face au grand taux d’analphabétisme, aux revenus familiaux maigres et à l’emploi rare, les filles n’ont eu d’autres choix que de créer leurs propres revenus. « Si vous voyez qu’un vieux drague une fille de 18 ans et elle accepte, c’est pour l’argent. Sinon ce n’est pas pour l’amour. Mais elle sait que le vieux est très riche c’est pourquoi elle accepte. » Les hommes de leurs côtés, travailleurs et économes, savent attirer les jeunes filles avec les billets (ou des motos). « Les hommes âgés ont honte, ils cherchent la solution facile. » Et ainsi la jeune fille accepte ces offres ou se proposent même parfois dans certains cas. « Alors la fillette se dit que si aujourd’hui c’est 5000 Fr. qui sait demain il donnera peut être 25 000 Fr. et ainsi elle est prête à repartir. »

Insuffisance des moyens financiers.
Ces relations sont très loin de l’objectif de ces jeunes filles qui désirent tous un jour se marier. « Par contre les jeunes eux n’ont pas d’argent à offrir. Ils diront « je n’ai pas d’argent si tu veux on y va dans le cas contraire tu peux t’en aller ». Il a été constaté dans la ville que bien souvent ces filles entretiendront des relations avec les hommes plus matures purement pour le lien économique engendré tout en conservant cet espoir avec un jeune homme, qui lui plait et où l’amour est au rendez-vous. Autrefois, on définissait le concept de « deux bureaux » en parlant de l’homme africain, ce qui faisait référence au premier bureau qui est la femme à la maison et le second, la jeune fille. Actuellement, les jeunes filles se sont appropriées ce concept, le premier bureau est leur amoureux et le second bureau est l’homme inconnu qu’elles vont entretenir à l’extérieur. Certains s’amusent à dire que l’homme devient le bailleur de fonds du jeune couple.

L’infidélité
Lors de nos focus-groupes, nous avons essayé de savoir qu’est-ce qui poussait l’homme à aller chercher une autre femme ailleurs, ce comportement d’infidélité. A notre grand étonnement, les hommes se sont penchés très ouvertement sur la question. « Les personnes âgées recherchent les jeunes filles parce que là le sexe n’est pas aussi dilaté. » Certains hommes croient qu’en ayant des rapports sexuels avec les jeunes filles, il pourra «…se faire jeune, son sang change. » On rejette également la faute sur la femme en disant que « … la femme ne s’occupe pas de son mari comme il se doit, la femme n’a plus le temps de s’occuper de lui. Quand ça ne va pas dans le couple, si la femme n’arrive pas à satisfaire le mari dans le couple, cela peut pousser l’homme à sortir ou encore avec les mariage qui limite à une seule femme, il va chercher ailleurs» ou que par le passé, les évènements du mariage ne se soient pas déroulés comme souhaités et que « …parmi les trois femmes, elles m’ont été donné, par coutume, je peux pas m’opposer, c’est la décision de mes parents, j’ai pris. Je cherche maintenant ailleurs pour trouver ce que je veux. » On remarque par ces quelques lignes que le rôle de la femme devient limité à un seul objectif : servir l’homme et que la famille a une part de responsabilité en imposant les mariages forcés ou mariage de même famille, précocement ou sans l’accord des intéressés.

Le port du préservatif
Lorsqu’on parle du port de préservatif, inévitablement, on entre dans une discussion à savoir « à qui la responsabilité ». De longues discussions ont eu lieu dans les focus-groupes sur la question. Et comme c’est souvent le cas, les hommes sont mis sur la sellette. Ils portent le problème sur leurs dos. Un homme s’est exprimé « Disons-nous la vérité, l’homme autant que la femme déteste les capotes. Ce ne sont pas les hommes seuls qui ne sont pas d’accord avec les capotes, certaines femmes refusent aussi la capote et dès que tu en utilises, elles ne reviennent plus avec toi. Elles se plaignent ». Le port du préservatif est une difficulté que vivent les couples mariés au quotidien, plus spécialement lorsqu’il n’y a pas eu partage de sérologie. L’homme et la femme se réunissent ensemble dans les liens du mariage pour concevoir une famille. Après quelques années de mariage, il est difficile de venir imposer le port du préservatif. « Tu peux lui suggérer le port du préservatif, il va te demander pourquoi cela, est-ce que tu as une maladie. La femme peut l’exiger mais si l’homme n’est pas informé de ta sérologie, tu ne peux lui dire de porter le préservatif. Sinon, il va te demander les motifs de cette proposition de port de préservatif.» La venue de cette nouvelle composante dans le couple, suscite des questionnements et remet en doute les fondements. Il se peut que ce soit la femme qui ne soit pas sûre des relations de son mari et elle veut protéger sa santé, il se peut qu’elle soit informée de sa sérologie et elle met en pratique les conseils donnés à l’association. « Je suis venue inscrire ma femme, après on lui a dit que il faut dire à ton mari que il faut mettre préservatif pour avoir des rapports maintenant. Des fois, j’essaie, elle dit que « Non, sans préservatif, ça ne passe pas. » Je vois qu’avec le préservatif ce n’est pas pareil. Si moi j’avais su que j’étais infecté, je ne me serais pas marié. » Les hommes sont très réservés par rapport au port du préservatif et trouvent une multitude de raisons pour contourner cet aspect des relations sexuelles. Même lorsqu’ils sont sensibilisés sur le sujet, ils évitent de mettre en pratique les conseils. « Normalement, il doit se protéger mais s’il refuse de se protéger, et il veut le faire avec force, alors qu’il est plus fort que moi, s’il insiste et s’infecte, il l’aura cherché. »

La femme et le port du préservatif
Dans l’approche de la prévention, il a été préconisé de renforcer les compétences de la femme pour qu’elle soit en mesure d’imposer le port du préservatif dans le couple. « Selon moi ce sont les femmes, quand la femme décide, et elle dit à l’homme que tant que tu ne portes pas on fait pas. » Et ce, jusqu’à ce que l’homme accepte de porter. Certaines disent que c’est à cause de ces attitudes que les hommes sortent du foyer pour trouver d’autres femmes ailleurs.
« Si je suis fatiguée, je le laisse faire les rapports sans préservatif. C’est ainsi que j’ai été contaminé. Il ne faut pas accepter les relations sexuelles non protégées. C’est nous les malades, nous distribuons la maladie aux jeunes filles et aux jeunes garçons. Si nous les femmes âgées réussissons à nous abstenir ou de respecter le port du préservatif, je suis convaincue que les jeunes filles ne seront pas contaminées. Ce sont les femmes âgées qui infectent leur mari qui à leur tour infectent aussi les jeunes filles dehors. »
Dans de nombreuses histoires racontées par les femmes, le doute sur la fidélité de leurs maris était fréquent. Les personnes invitées aux focus-groupes ont exprimé comme raisonnement que les femmes sont plus encouragées à faire le test de dépistage pour protéger leur santé mais également celle de leurs futurs enfants. « Moi je me dis que pour un couple, si à un certain moment il y a eu infection, ça veut dire avant ou après le mariage il y a eu infidélité, il y a toujours le risque d’autres maladies, les IST. Qu’est-ce qui prouve qu’on ne triche toujours pas? Et si on triche toujours, … » Et ce, sans parler du système polygame des familles africaines. Lorsque dans un mariage, il y a deux ou trois co-épouses, et que une d’entre elles est contaminée ou que le mari est contaminé, il le transmettra à l’une ou l’autre. On dit que dans le mariage polygame, la première épouse est celle qui est préservée des maladies puisqu’elle est plus âgée par rapport aux autres, donc elle reste plus ou moins inactive. En ce moment, elle peut être épargnée de l’infection. Beaucoup de femmes disent que c’est « [l]e jour où j’ai douté de mon mari, j’ai perdu ma coépouse, suite aux symptômes du VIH et j’ai tenté de convaincre mon mari pour le test. » Bien souvent, la femme va vouloir convaincre son mari pour faire le test conjointement et ainsi éviter d’être accusée d’avoir amené le VIH au sein de la famille.

Réticences à faire le test du dépistage
Nous nous sommes interrogés à savoir pourquoi les hommes sont plus réticents à faire le test de dépistage ou pourquoi les femmes sont plus portées à faire le test rapidement. Un homme de nos focus-groupes a très bien expliqué la situation des hommes en général. « Beaucoup ne supporteront pas l’annonce. Premièrement, si le chef se trouve infecté par une maladie mortelle, il se culpabilise d’avoir lui-même détruit la famille. Deuxièmement, il est très difficile à un homme de parler de maladies reliées au sexe. Les hommes réagissent différemment de la femme face à l’infection. « Le premier jour que j’ai senti que j’étais infecté, d’abord j’ai refusé le premier jour parce que j’ai pensé à mes faits du passé, parce que moi je peux pas avoir ça. » Certains disent que « … je n’ai pas fait le test, parce que j’ai peur. Et je ne sais pas si je pourrais me contrôler. … si je suis positif, comme ça sincèrement, je ne pourrais pas me contrôler, ça joue sur mon moral. C’est la peur. » C’est ainsi que plusieurs hommes préfèrent rester dans l’ignorance, ils disent que si ils sont dépistés, il ne sauront pas quoi faire du résultat et leur vie changera. Un des femmes a remarqué que « Si un homme sait qu’il est infecté, il peut être soucieux, cela va l’amener à rester sur place. Mais si il n’est pas informé de sa sérologie, il est libre de faire ce qu’il veut.

Contaminer les autres
Toutefois, le danger auquel ils ne sont pas sensibilisés, c’est la contamination d’autres personnes. « Quelque fois en causant avec certains ils te disent que s’ils savent leur statut et s’il est positif, ils contamineraient le maximum de personnes. » En ne faisant pas le test de dépistage, il y aura toujours l’ignorance du statut sérologique, donc cette personne continuera à entretenir des rapports avec les femmes sans pour autant se protéger ou se dévoiler. « Jusqu’à présent, les hommes refusent de faire leur test. Ils disent que s’ils sont infecté ils préfèrent se tuer ou de contaminer d’autres personnes »

Le test de dépistage chez la femme
Suite à ces propos, durant les focus-groupes de femmes nous avons posé le même type de question et les femmes ont réagi rapidement en disant que « Si les femmes font plus les tests que les hommes c’est parce que beaucoup d’hommes ne croient pas en cette maladie. Dans les lieux de causeries et de jeux de damier les hommes entre eux discutent et disent que la maladie n’est pas réelle. Nous les femmes nous croyons à la maladie c’est pourquoi, nous sommes encouragées à faire le test de dépistage du VIH. » De ce fait, les hommes ne sont pas suffisamment sensibilisés, on croit toujours que la maladie n’existe pas, certainement parce qu’on ne voit des personnes malades ou des personnes infectées mais actives et en forme. « C’est la peur. Les hommes ne veulent pas savoir car le VIH, c’est la mort. Certains préfèrent mourir de VIH sans savoir de quoi ils sont morts car selon eux, c’est mieux ainsi. »

Les femmes, en plus de prendre au sérieux cette infection du VIH, elles disent avoir une capacité à supporter l’annonce plus facilement que l’homme. « Les femmes sont plus sensibles que les hommes. Les femmes sont plus responsables que les hommes. Les femmes réfléchissent plus que les hommes. Les femmes sont plus courageuses que les hommes. » « Peut-être parce que les femmes ont plus de courage et sont plus informées que les hommes. L’homme est difficile à manipuler. Même s’il voit que c’est la réalité. » « Les femmes sont plus réalistes que les hommes et les femmes comprennent beaucoup mieux que les hommes. »

Les femmes font le test plus rapidement
Une de principales raisons pour laquelle les femmes sont plus promptes à faire le test de dépistage c’est parce qu’elles sont également responsables de la santé de leurs familles et par ricochet de leur nouveau-né. « Pour moi, ce sont les femmes qui font rapidement le test. Parce que c’est en lien avec leur grossesse, elles font des examens qui donnent leur statut. C’est après quoi que l’homme lui aussi va se faire dépister.» La femme subira plusieurs contrôles dus à la maternité, et ainsi elle fera tout pour éviter cela à son enfant. C’est ce qui explique son courage. Ainsi elles ont accès directement à un service de dépistage, mais avant tout, à des sensibilisations axés sur la prévention de la transmission mère-enfant.

Bien que les chiffres le démontrent, plus de femmes que d’hommes sont dans les centres de dépistage (92% sont des femmes et 86% sont des hommes), toutefois certains hommes se font dépister et le cachent à leurs femmes. « Bien avant ça, il se peut que son mari ait déjà fait le test, et il n’a pas voulu le dire à sa femme. » Un des hommes affirment que « L’homme change de comportement quand il est malade. Un homme peut aller se faire dépister, arrivé il ne va pas dire à sa femme, il va déchirer même le résultat et il va continuer ces activités. La femme elle ne pourra pas continuer sans rien dire.» Contrairement à la femme, l’homme pourra vivre un certain moment sans être forcé de se dévoiler à son entourage. « Ils se cachent. Ils ont les moyens, c’est pourquoi ils se cachent » disent les femmes avec un peu d’amertume. La femme, elle, doit recourir aux associations de prise en charge puisqu’elle n’est pas en position pour assumer tous ces frais.

Les hommes dépistés positifs risquent de contaminer leurs femmes lorsqu’ils reçoivent leurs résultats et qu’ils prennent la décision de ne pas leur en parler.. « Il pense que la femme va l’abandonner», c’est pourquoi ils cachent leurs résultats. C’est par la suite, que la santé s’aggrave et que des cas comme celui de cette femme se produisent : « Moi aussi mon mari est décédé suite au Sida. Mais nous ne savions pas que c’était la maladie. Ils ont dit que c’était un envoûtement. Moi aussi j’ai commencé à ne pas bien le porter. Tout le temps je suis malade. Un jour j’ai décidé après le décès de mon mari, comme on en parle tout le temps du test de dépistage, c’est là que je su que mon mari était informé de sa sérologie et se soignait en cachette. Lorsqu’on se « soigne en cachette » comme l’a fait cet homme, il est difficile de pouvoir s’adhérer à une association de PVVIH. C’est dans un climat d’anonymat que la personne vit avec son statut positif.

Les hommes ont peur des conséquences d’un résultat positif
Les hommes ont peur de se faire abandonner par leurs femmes, ils ont peur de se faire rejeter par leur entourage pourtant ce sont eux qui n’ont pas de compassion lorsque les femmes annoncent leurs résultats. « Si une femme fait le test et elle a le Sida, si elle informe son mari, il dira premièrement que c’est la femme qui a amené le Sida. C’est pourquoi les femmes se méfient, elles ont peur. » Certains hommes répondent à la question en disant « je vais la garder dans la cour mais ça ne peut pas être comme avant, je n’aurais plus de rapport avec elle. Je vais devoir me remarier» et d’autres disent que « Si c’est ma femme, je vais rester avec elle mais ce qui est triste c’est que nous n’aurons pas d’enfant. […] Je songe à prendre une deuxième femme, pour avoir des enfants. » Les hommes avec qui nous avons discuté étaient déjà sensibilisés sur la question sinon déjà infectés, mais incontestablement plusieurs hommes ont le réflexe de chasser la femme de la maison ou même de l’abandonner. C’est par manque de sensibilisation qu’ils réagissent ainsi. Une femme du groupe a suggérée de «sensibiliser [les hommes] pour le dépistage et les amener à adhérer aux associations de lutte comme font les femmes en participant aux activités de l’association de ce fait toute femme infectée ne sera plus abandonnée par leurs maris. »

Poulette Bicyclette

2006-10-09T06:38:00.000-04:00

Ainsi soit-il! Je suis partie pour une super année ici au Burkina et malgré toutes mes tentatives de problématiser ce qui se passe autour de moi, j'en ressors tout de même avec la conclusion que je suis très chanceuse du déroulement des événements. J'ai un ensemble de gens et de ressources inestimables qui gravitent dans mon entourage; des étudiants de maîtrise et des coopérants en fin de mandat, qui sont prêts à partager conseils et perspectives et à nous inviter dans leurs cercles d'amis.Et il y a ma chère Krystel qui est toujours là pour me remonter le moral quand il y a des moments moins roses ou pour dédramatiser certains aspects plus troublants de l'interface interculturelle. Pour élaborer un peu sur le dernier message que j'ai affiché sur le blog, je dois dire qu'en ce jour la situation d'intensité a quelque peu évolué. Je crois avoir appris mieux à composer avec l'attention constante dont je suis l'objet dans la rue, en modifiant mon attitude entre autres. Il faut dire que beaucoup d'hommes inventent vraiment du n'importe quoi pour t'approcher ou bien te vendre des trucs, et ils se permettent des choses audacieuses et impolies qu'ils n'oseraient jamais faire avec des femmes africaines (comme te coller comme une sangsue ou cogner à ta porte pour te draguer quand ils t'ont jamais rencontrée!). Maintenant je m'amuse un peu avec tout ça, je recours souvent à la technique de la ''poseuse de questions insistante'' et je m'invente des vies et des accents vraiment drôles – par exemple, je suis Vénézuelienne ayant vécu en Chine pour 10 ans et mariée à un Tchadien. En tout cas, autant il y a des gens incroyables ici, autant il y en a qui veulent profiter de toi, alors il faut apprendre à gager. Mais ça va déjà mieux, Bobo a beau être une ville, il reste que les gens commencent à nous reconnaître et réaliser qu'on est des vagabondes qui vont durer ici lol.

Le mode de vie est plutôt chargé mais c'est agréable. Y'a le boulot la semaine de 8h-12h30, ensuite y'a le dîner et la sieste (parce qu'il fait trop chaud!) jusqu'à 15h où on recommence à bosser jusqu'à vers 18h. Au bureau, on se fait souvent interrompre – surtout car notre ''bureau'' est un peu dans les jambes – pour des discussions ou pour ''sauver la vie de tout le monde'' avec leurs tâches. Il faut faire preuve d'imagination pour faire ce qu'il y a à faire! Mais y'a pas un jour qui passe sans une leçon de vie importante ou un apprentissage considérable. On a la chance d'avoir des ordinateurs et Internet au bureau, ce qui est vraiment un luxe que j'apprécie. À REVS+, ça bouge beaucoup beaucoup, il y a au-dessus de 5000 bénéficiaires et 10 cellules d'intervention (ex: anti-rétroviraux, pharmacie, plaidoyer, groupes de paroles, conseils psychologique, dépistage SIDA et MTS, réinsertion socio-économique, etc.), ce qui est vraiment une chance pour une personne avec un brin de curiosité. À la MAS, c'est plus relax, mais ça me permet de travailler tranquillement sur l'ordi. Je crois voir que mes collègues de travail commencent à me faire confiance, ce qui est une étape cruciale ici dans un milieu ou les relations humaines sont plus importantes que toutes les compétences du monde. Je sens que je vais travailler beaucoup en équipe mais que j'aurai beaucoup de mobilité et de flexibilité pour accomplir mes tâches (surtout que je viens d'apprendre que je bénéficie d'un budget pour faire mes activités!). Je dois partir en brousse pour appuyer certaines organisations membres de la MAS pour leurs activités génératrices de revenus (AGRs), ce qui va me donner l'occasion de vivre quelques expériences en village! J'ai eu l'occasion d'échanger avec des gens qui m'ont donné plein d'idées de microentreprises qu'on pourrait faire. Pour l'instant, je souhaiterais redémarrer un peu le système de visites à domicile des clientes des microcrédits, et peut-être partir un nouveau groupe de production pour les Orphelins et Enfants Vulnérables (OEVs) sous forme d'une coopérative de travail versatile. Je dois dire que d'habiter chez Catherine et de travailler à REVS+ m'a beaucoup sensibilisé sur le problème des OEVs en milieu affecté par le VIH SIDA, et c'est enfin une grande chance que la question commence à susciter l'intérêt des bailleurs internationaux. Aussi, on a un moulin à céréales qui va ouvrir dans quelques semaines, et je vais travailler beaucoup sur l'élaboration des outils de gestion pour celui-ci. Il y a d'autres choses qui s'en viennent, soit des formations, du consulting, et j'en passe. Je dois avouer qu'après avoir bien clarifié mon mandat avec mes employeurs, je trouve celui-ci encore plus motivant! Je crois que je dois encore en apprendre énormément sur la culture du travail ici au Burkina, car il y a plusieurs défis auxquels je ne m'attends pas nécessairement, comme le fait que l'initiative n'a jamais vraiment été encouragée ici (contexte post-colonial typique...) et que les structures hiérarchiques traditionnelles entrent en conflit avec des descriptions de poste plus adaptées. Par exemple. Mais on verra bien.

Sinon à part le boulot, y'a la vie! En fait, le lundi et le mercredi, on fait des cours de dioula, la langue locale, ce qui est essentiel à mes yeux si on est pour briser les stéréotypes du blanc aseptisé-xénophobe-cloîtré, chose que je pense aussi faire en me promenant à vélo, une action qui étonne tous les Burkinabé à qui je parle! Aussi, avec Krystel, on se fait des ''quêtes'', comme par exemple, on se donne un dimanche et on se dit qu'il faut trouver des goyaves à tout prix! Alors ça nous permet d'explorer le marché et de commencer à se situer et se faire des points de repère. Pour nous deux, c'est important de faire attention à notre santé, alors on va aussi à la piscine et au gym dans un hôtel de façon régulière. J'ai aussi sympatisé avec le Centre Culturel Français (CCF) de Bobo, quoique je sois un peu déçue qu'il soit presque entièrement fréquenté par des Européens, contrairement au CCF de N'Djaména. Mais bon, on va y voir des films (en attendant que le cinéma rouvre ses portes) et des contes, c'est bien, et il y a aussi une grande bibliothèque. On investi aussi dans la gastronomie, soit la recherche de bons petits endroits pour manger ou acheter des provisions. De ce côté, on est choyées, car la cuisinière de chez Nathalie est très outillée en matière de cuisines sénégalaises et ivoiriennes, ce qui change un peu de la motonie de la bouffe burkinabé. Mais ici à Bobo, on est chanceux car on a le climat le plus clément du pays, ce qui permet de manger beaucoup plus varié qu'ailleurs. Ainsi, il y a beaucoup de fruits et légumes disponibles sur lesquels je croyais devoir faire une croix pour l'année! Aussi, depuis qu'on est arrivées, on est quand même sorties beaucoup pour ''maquiser'' dans les ''dancing'' (en coordonnant nos soirées en s'envoyant des SMS sur nos portables!). On a Édouard, le beau frère de Catherine, qui est notre garde du corps assigné qui nous accompagne pour éviter qu'on se fasse trop emmerder par le p'tits cons et les rastamans ''artistes''. Je dois dire que les femmes blanches ici ont des réputations de femmes faciles car l'industrie de la prostitution masculine orientée vers les touristes françaises marche très bien! Mais avec Édouard avec nous, on déconne comme des folles sous les airs de la danse d'Hélène ou bien des chansons burkinabé en vogue (''Burkina Faso yaaaa, saya sita, c'est doux'') dans l'empire mossi ou bien des chansons embarassantes à l'Afrique (''mets-lui doucement!'') ou bien du très côté coupé-décallé ou du plus nouveau taki borossé avant de rentrer à la maison en mobylette aux petites heures du matin. C'est drôle, on se paie du bon temps, ça coûte pas cher, ça nous remonte le moral.

La semaine passée, la routine s'est un peu boulversée car c'était la rencontre trimestrielle du secteur VIH SIDA du programme Uniterra, organisée à Ouagadougou par nos employeurs Canadiens, le CECI et l'EUMC. On est partis pour la capitale mardi matin et le soir on a enfin rencontré Marie-Élaine, une coopérante super cool qui est basée à Yako, un village une heure au nord de Ouaga. On est sorties manger dans un resto vraiment bon (pour commencer la série de méga-indulgences gastronomiques qui a marqué le séjour!). Et le lendemain on a commencé les deux premiers jours, qui avaient pour but de faire le point sur les activités de tous les partenaires nationaux et de faire des suggestions pour des améliorations et des futures programmes, etc. C'était vraiment bien, j'ai rencontré plein de monde super intéressants, dont Angèle, notre big boss, qui est une perle, littéralement! Le mercredi soir on est allés au Godwana, un restaurant incroyable avec des expositions de peintures et sculptures mauritanienne et un bar à tapas fanstasmagorique. Le jeudi soir on est enfin allées au Verdoyant, le resto préféré de Jeff, pour se payer une pizza aubergine-chorizo délicieuse. Le vendredi fût à mes yeux la meilleure journée, car on a rencontré tous les partenaires du secteur agriculture d'Uniterra, ce qui m'a donné la chance de rencontrer des gens qui travaillent dans l'industrie du karité biologique et équitable!!!! J'étais tellement contente, j'ai pu visiter des bureaux, me faire des contacts, discutter des problématiques, et puis commencer à me faire une tête sur mon sujet de recherche! Ce qui n'est pas rien tout de même! Bon sinon le soir on est allés manger chez Angèle, un buffet élaboré avec mets asiatiques (imaginez!! moi qui mange juste du riz et de la salade à Bobo lol) et tout. Ensuite le samedi, y'a eu le match d'élimination en soccer, le Sénégal contre le Burkina au stade! On est allés le voir live, ce qui fût une expérience de bain de foule des plus intéressantes! On est allées du côté des Sénégalais car sinon y'avait pas de place lol! Tk y'a presque eu une émeute, et surtout car le Burkina a gagné (contre toutes espérances), alors tout le monde (nous y compris) nous sommes retrouvés dans les ''kundés'' (pubs) pour célébrer le tout. Une belle fin de séjour!

Première journée au travail

2006-09-19T08:14:00.000-04:00

Après une semaine ici, il mouille pas... Mais! Seigneur, sinon les jours ici sont extrêmement intenses au niveaux émotif , physique et psychologique… Les rencontres, les réunions, woah. Donnons aujourd’hui, ma première journée au travail, comme exemple typique…

Alors pour commencer, Cath vient me chercher en mobylette pour m’apprendre les potins et les gamics de la job (choses qu’autrement je n’aurais pas appris avant quelques mois alors déjà…) Ensuite on passe à la MAS (l’employeur chez qui je suis basée, on rencontre l'homme à tout faire, prends rendez-vous avec le Dr Traoré, le coordinateur de l'association, à 15h. Ensuite on part et faire les présentations à REVS+ , mon deuxième employeur. Je rencontre la présidente – je fais déjà une gaffe en parlant d’une volontaire passée avec qui elle ne s’entendait pas, en tout cas, c’est bizarre. Finalement pendant la journée je jase d'informatique avec Sami, j’échange des logiciels, je fais un peu de recherche, et je scanne d'un livre de recettes sénégalaises pour Nathalie. Pas trop mal, mais je suis souvent seule, mon homologue (la femme qui veille à mon intégration et qui supervise mon travail), Mme Salouka, est bien occupée cette semaine. Je retourne pour dîner vers 12h15, je revois Krystel et on niaise et on vient pour faire la sieste, mais il est déjà 14h25! Il faut partir pour notre rendez-vous avec le Dr.

Là la saga des habitations commençaient à nous peser. On a le choix entre deux maisons, et le propriétaire de la deuxième nous attendait pour discutter à 18h, mais nous on est plus intéressées par la première, mais on sait pas encore si le proprio veut nous la louer. Mme Salouka devait l'appeler durant la journée pour lui fixer un rendez-vous. Finalement pas de nouvelles de Mme Salouka. J'essaie de la rejoindre sur le numéro de sa carte de visite qu'elle m'avait laissée lors de notre première rencontre à Montréal, mais une autre femme répond. Alors je sais pas le numéro de portable de Mme Salouka, alors j'appelle Catherine (une autre coopérante canadienne de REVS+), je la réveille dans sa sieste! Aiya!

On part pour la MAS, là je commence à lire un roman photo à l'eau de rose sur le SIDA vraiment drôle, quand l'homme à tout faire commence à s'approcher et il à me cruiser au fond (plus tard j'apprend que Krystel avait eu la bonne idée de lui dire qu'elle avait un chum, mais pas moi! Ah ah merci Kry!)

Finalement à 15h20 juste avant que le Dr Traoré ne nous reçoive, y'a Mme Salouka qui nous appelle pour dire de s'amener à REVS+ pour 16h pour s'occuper de la maison. Alors on entre dans le bureau du Dr et on lui dit qu'on pas presque pas le temps, mais lui prend son temps au boute, finalement on réussit à s'échapper, marcher en vitesse jusqu'à REVS+ pour se mettre à attendre le retour de Mme Salouka qui est partie faire des courses. Une heure passe. Patience! Elle arrive enfin, on appelle le proprio et il ne peut pas nous recevoir le jour même mais promets de rappeler plus tard. Alors nous on annule le rendez-vous avec l'autre proprio, pis vers 17h15 on en a plein notre casque et on part.

On passe à l'hôtel, jase avec les employés puis on décide d'aller au centre (à pied!) pour acheter le portable à Krystel. On se fait plein d'''amis'' en chemin, la plupart polis et gentils, certains qui nous laissent leurs cartes et là on rencontre deux achalants qui se mettent à nous suivre partout malgré qu'on leur dit qu'on est pressées avant que Celtel ferme. J'essaie de démotiver le gars avec qui je parle en appelant Édouard – le beau frère de Catherine avec qui on est sorties danser samedi soir, qui est super fin et qui avait magasiné les deals pour un vélo pour moi – mais il ne se lasse pas, finalement je recours à la stratégie de poser plein de questions alors c'est drôle, on jase, les gars nous amènent à destination, mais celui qui était avec Krystel est vraiment insistant et il est vraiment trop direct/pas subtil et elle commence à être tannée. Ils nous laissent aller en-dedans, on trouver un cellulaire pour 29,000 CFA, une bargain, quand le type de Krystel rentre dans le magasin, là on était tannées, mais ça nous a permis de sympatiser avec les jeunes de Celtel. Finalement Kry réussit à virer l'achalant, moi je demander au garçon de Celtel s'il connaît un bon maquis dans le coin. Il finissait son chiffre alors lui et sa collègue Flore nous amènent à une super place sur leurs mobylettes, là on entre, on s'assoient, on était toutes pleines des émotions de la journée (job, rythme, rendez-vous manqués, problèmes de communication, toujours pas de nouvelles des proprios, etc.), quand on se rend compte qu'on aurait dû inviter les amis de Celtel à venir manger avec nous, pour les remercier

Alors on repart dans la rue les chercher, on revoit le gars mais là il est occupé, alors moi j'avais un bon feeling avec lui, y'a l'air chill alors je lui donne mon numéro (eeee… quelle réaction spontanée mesdames et messieurs !) et il dit qu'il va m'appeler demain. C'est cool, c'est bizarre mais c'est cool.

On retourne au resto, ensuite on doit annuler notre cours de dioula (le langage local) prévu pour 20h. On se met à la recherche d'un guichet automatique après avoir mangé; pas évident comme ça dans le noir! Finalement on trouve, là on se cherche un taxi quand on marche – en entendant Natasha St-Pierre! - devant une terasse sous un superbe arbre vert glacé où ils jouent nul autre que Buena Vista Social Club! Du beat cubain au Burkina Faso! Wow, alors pas le choix, on se prend une bière, histoire de bien finir cette journée.

Ça a pris un bon 20 minutes avant de se trouver un taxi, mais on rencontre un sauveur jeune et cool qui nous remet sur la bonne voie et on réussi à retourner à l'hôtel... Histoire de se coucher de bonne heure pour affronter la journée au travail #2!

(note : ceci a été publié au jour de travail #2 en question, où j’ai beaucoup appris en travaillant avec Nathalie sur ses données pour sa propre recherche-action. La journée a commencé raide lorsque je suis sortie de l’hôtel à 8h00 pour réaliser qu’il avait un gars que je n’ai pas reconnu sur le coup qui m’attendait à la porte ! Le gars en question était notre sauveur d’hier… Ah là là…

Live, Love, Laugh and Learn

2006-09-13T10:52:00.000-04:00

Alors ca y est c'est fait, je suis en stage!! Mis a part ce satané clavier AZERTY, je ne vois pas trop ce qui pourrait gâcher mon bonheur... Je suis encore un peu fatiguée quoique ça ne m'empêche pas de faire des jokes avec Krystel et Issa, notre chauffeur, qui nous aide beaucoup à nous orienter à Ouaga et à naviguer les services Burkinabè comme la poste, les banques, etc. C'est comme réapprendre à vivre dans un nouveau système, un projet que j'entreprends avec enthousiasme. Déjà on est plongées dans les médias locaux et on rencontre des profs de philosophie dans les maquis (resto pubs). Ca commence bien!

Hier donc avec Krystel et Mathieu, un coopérant ressortissant, on a passé beaucoup de temps à traiter avec des détails administratifs (visas, permis de travail, etc) à l'heure africaine, sinon bonne nouvelle, le comptable m'a appris que l'organisme allait couvrir mes frais de logement! Un véritable soulage,ent; puisque je ne roule pas sur l'or... Après nous sommes sorties prendre une bouchée des brochettes et une bière avec un coopérant d'Ingénieurs Sans Frontières. Trois blancs au centreville, on était dur a manquer! Mais mis à part ce perpétuel harcèlement commercial (j'imagine que c'est comme ça chez nous aussi mais dans une autre forme...) on a passé un bon moment. Mais il y a eu une de ces pluies! Et avec le vent, wow, c'était puissant! Les gens ont bien développé un système d'Alerte Rouge pour les jours de pluie, c'est spécial de voir ça.

J'ai découvert avec plaisir aujourd'hui comment les Burkinabè sont patenteux! On est arrivés au bureau de Celtel, une grande compagnie de cellulaires en Afrique, et ils nous ont appelé un ''décodeur'' (qui d'ailleurs avait un très joli sourire!) qui en un tournemain a fait fonctionné mon portable canadien sur le réseau ici. Quelles prouesses; je me demande ou ils peuvent bien apprendre à faire des trucs comme ca! En fait je me pose pleins de questions sur les microentreprises locales; j'espère y répondre un peu lors de mon stage.

Aujourd'hui on a passé la matinée à se faire briefer sur la programmation VIH SIDA qui nous a permis de mieux réaliser ou notre rôle '"fit" dans les programmes. Cet aprèm on est libres alors on prend ça relaxe (décalage horaire oblige!!), on marche dans les rues avoisinnantes en essayant de se trouver des points de repère. Demain matin on pars pour Bobo, ca devrait prendre au moins 7h à cause des détours à cause de la saison des pluies. Mais avec les casettes de Yeleen, ca sera très bien! J'ai hâte...

Hong Kong Summer Music Video!

2006-09-09T00:17:00.000-04:00

Allô!
So as promised, I did make a video about the summer spent in Hong Kong dubbed with some Anthony Wong music and another Yunnan song (courtesy of Butterfly!).

I only got a hold of all the software/external devices/cables in order to start editing the day before I left my home, so I had only 2h (between 2h30 - 4h30 AM!) to do this video. I also lost a tape during the trip with some very nice photos + footage from Yunnan, but I'm overall quite proud :) I hope you will like it - Holly you'll get to see Stu! - and for those who are featured on it, I hope you won't kill me for putting this up here ah ah... The file is quite big, the video lasts 20 min. To access, click here.

By the way, this is the last post before I'm in Burkina and before I switch to writing in French...

Health là

2006-09-04T22:58:00.000-04:00

Tonight I had a really nice conversation with my housemate Joanna, which I love lots lots lots. We were talking about being young adults and making choices, experimenting, and so on, and we were wondering about contradictions in what we choose to do our not, and trying to find ways to evaluate what's best or not, while acknowledging that the typical ''pattern'' of a ''successful'' life (i.e. big house, big car, 2 kids, dog, suburb) was not it. I was expressing how sometimes I get angry at the very ''science'' that try to tell us what's healthy or not.

Incidently, later tonight I was rereading some class notes from International Health and bumped into some very cool facts that I though I should share :) For you Jo :)

Classical Tips for Better Health	Alternative Tips
Don't smoke	Don't be poor
Balance diet	Don't have poor parents
Physically active	Have a car
Manage stress	Don't work in stressful place
Cut down alcool	Don't live in low-quality housing
Cover from the sun	Go on a holiday
Practice safe sex	Practice not loosing your job

Also, did you know that there are 700 out of 100,000 people are incarcerated in the US, contraty to 235 in Iran, 125 in the UK, 110 in China, 105 in Canada, 95 in Germany and 45 in Japan?

The Idea

2006-09-04T16:34:00.000-04:00

This morning I woke up at 2:30 PM... But it was to congratulate myself for the brilliant idea I just had :)

Yesterday, as there was only a week left before my departure to Burkina Faso, I took my first anti-malarial pill; #1 out of 56! There is a huge controversy on anti-malarial, with a big clash between North-America and Europe, and these drugs may probably be associated with more myths than malaria itself. I myself do not become psychotic while on Lariam, although sometimes it's hard to know what the source of one's anxiety/tiredness/irritability can be once in a different environment. One thing for sure though : I make funny dreams of the craziest kinds! Which was verified last night :)

So the great idea is to keep a dream log of each Sunday night, to have a good time and see if I can get anything out of it. I will write this in French on my personal web page, and I'll try to update it as much as I can from Burkina...

I am very very excited, as this is the first large non-academic writing project I engage in since I wrote a short novel revolving around snowboard lifestyle at age 13. This one will biographic in another way, but I'm sure it will be very entertaining... Who knows maybe I'll publish one day lol Welcome ''56 semaines de méfloquine'' :)

Reverse culture shock

2006-08-28T00:50:00.000-04:00

After crossing over the North Pole in this Boing 777, I greatly fulfilled my never-ending thurst for big contrasts by going from a cosmopolitan and definitely urban experience into a week at the small organic vegetable farm where my sister Alex works.

It was a chance for me to be there, for I've been interested in gardening for a long time and now finally had the opportunity to ask all kinds of questions about food-growing and fertilizers and greenhouse and everything. It was also very nice to be again around people who value the environment and act upon their principles, as it feels like since I left CÉGEP I meet fewer and fewer of these people. I guess environmentalism is more preponderant theme in Québec than anywhere else I've been so far, probably because of the many people living in the countryside and wanting to preserve their quality of life. I think it was also very timely, as it feels like, how important the issues of food safety, GMOs and vegetarianism are, I am sometimes neglecting them in my mental wanderings around other things. So that was nice! But after taking a day to go to Montréal, visit CECI's headquarters to meet with a Burkinabè delegation and with future co-workers and supervisors, I realized that that was where I belonged, however frustrating the paperwork can sometimes be...

Alex and I were sleeping in our sleeping bags in a large tippies, which was not without reminding me of good memories the summer 2004, spent in my tent in the Rockies. We took some time off from working at the farm to go hand-picking berries, canoeing with the dog and hicking the region's biggest peak, Mont Pinnacle, and barefeet that is, as in my recent quality of ''city girl'' (as put by Alex), I was only carrying heels and flip flops in my suitcase... But good times, overall!

I spent a lot of the time readjusting to the time difference at first, and a bit of time socializing with the family owning the farm and especially with their 2 year old son, Forest. I realized it was not only time I needed to adjust to... The more it went, the more I can say I realized the impact of certain Hong Kong values upon my behavior and my way of seeing things and that, in a varieties of situations. It is always special to realize how one is changed by one's trips, for the better and for the worst! On the bad end, I must admit I'll have to redo some work on my patience and make conscious efforts to stop acting snobbily or in a superficial manner. I am told one is always the worst judge upon oneself though, hey...

On another note, I must say that the more it goes the more I buy into these psychological models of the ''steps'' of a cultural adaptation; after realizing that I really didn't do too well at the ''Leaving'' component of my journey in Asia (with not doing proper goodbyes to important people), I unfortunately saw myself in a situation of ''Debriefing'' which was not optimal either; in fact, it didn't happen yet. I sometimes feel like few people in my family or my town can relate to what I'm living in a way that is emphatetic enough to permit me to say all I have to say about the summer. It seems like my CÉGEP and IDS support networks are so far away now. But oh well, it will be allright... Courage Éma...

I feel like I am a tourist in my own province. For example, I was totally taken by surprise by the granola friend of the farm's owner when she was talking about eating her placenta after giving birth to get herself some nutrients! Oh la la... But I guess the period of feeling horrible or inadequate will soon be over so I can move onto the next challenge (Burkina that is), which is very exciting as well.

''Say Hi to Mahatir Mohammed for Me!''

2006-08-15T15:56:00.000-04:00

Going to Malaysia this summer is probably amongts the most irrational things - considering time and budget - that I've ever done, and, for those who know me, that's quite a big statement :) But I don't regret. Mark and I had fun (most of the time :P), actually for me it felt like 5 days that were totally out of space and time. This is where we totally reached the paroxysm of contradictions and contrasts with eating for 100$ worth of tapas and staying a whole afternoon on a tapas patio in Bangsar (the expats neighbourhood) reading novels AND after that looking avidly for the cheapeast, most basic accommodation possible (featured above!). Aiyaya... Then I had the best shisha of my life in a real Middle-Eastern place where I was the only white person, and they were heating up the coal by quickly spinning the metal container it was lit in over their shouldrs, yes, yes, yes! And Malacca is a cute city, and Kuala Lumpur is so unlike Jakarta, it has very nice Moorish architecture, I was impressed. I was so happy to speak Chinese again! (Yishin I can't wait to see you again by the way!) There seems to be so much happening in this society that's so split along racial lines, and looking at the papers and going to the musem was very instructive, I wish I knew more about this place. My first and only days surprised me with learning how discriminatory power is here, with the everybody stuck in their category, minding their own business and disliking each other... But I don't understand any of it and I'm quite disappointed about my own lack of awareness... But anyhow. I loved the kites! Kites and tops! Kites have this whole ceremonial aspect and it maintains gender balance and things like that, it's neat! And I clearly don't know what else to say :) Mark rocks!

Bali

2006-08-08T14:10:00.000-04:00

When I heard about Bali before I thought about Kuta, which is a huge beach resort that is to Australians about what Varadero, Cuba, is to Canadians. Browsing through the Lonely Planet did not help; it was talking about the 2003 bombings (for which a Islamic priest is now on trial) that killed some 200 people, and how Bali might because some kind of lost paradise. Not very helpful. I still had 6 days in Indonesia and figured I would go there and continue on to other more remote islands if I didn’t like it. Flexible plan, like it, let’s go.

It ended up that I would have never left Bali. This is the prettiest place I have even seen in my entire life. For sure there are palm trees everywhere, a fact which could get on my nerves if it wasn’t of the surroundings of this luxurious vegetation. Walking around in Bali is a pleasure for the eyes; many of the houses and buildings are decorated and ornamented with stone statues, wood carvings, plants, etc. The Hindu religion has developed into a very lively strain here (with no Intouchables, a more flexible caste system and a different pantheon of gods), and many people visit the temple everyday to pray and make offerings in the form of fruits and flowers in the streets. There are countless festivals, and when ceremonies happen, people dress with very colourful garnments, and the music is just enchanting. Kids are thought about their culture in community centres, and most of them are introduced to traditional dance, music and arts and crafts at a very young age. It is beautiful to see this. It is beautiful to jalan jalan (wander around).

I was based in Ubud, a town in the middle of the island, who is famous for being a nice place to learn about Balinese culture. Since I had limited time and knew there were obvious limits to what I could do, learn and figure out in such time, I thought it was probably the best place to be, rather than going beach bumming or trekking around. I found a nice and cheap homestay with a very nice owner, who prepared an awesome breakfast (in contrast to most of the places I’ve been to in Indonesia where breakfast is usually just toast or fried noodles). My neighbour, Eric, was a 42 year old French homosexual man working in the show-biz industry, and he was really nice to talk to. We would converse over a cup of tea at night, exchanging on our days, we mostly relaxing and taking short courses in dancing, painting and cooking, him on waking up early to take stunning pictures and going around on the motorcycle. We shared a common idea of going to Tulambem (in the North-East of Bali) to dive in the wreck of the Liberty, a military ship sunk during World War II who has evolved in a coral forest populated by all kinds of tropical fish. So one afternoon we left on the motorbike and drove around for about 3 hours, on some really nice roads, some neighbouring the sea with their black beaches, some in the rain forest, with pretty rice paddies, lagoons, mountains, volcanoes, etc. Very nice! We arrived at the diving studio in Tulambem to be greated by a very hot man who also happened to be young and cool and who took lots of fun in making me blush. He also coincidently happened to be the one to be our diving instructor for the next day, aiya! Anyways, we had a good night sitting with our host while listening to Punjabi music, although I got a bit pissed when Eric went to bed and he started being a bit too insisting. But anyways. The next day we had a diving lesson in the swimming pool and learned how to operate the equipment, and then first thing we knew we were in the Bali Sea surrounded by wicked marine sceneries, touching blue, orange and yellow fish (Nemo) and anemones and seeing a fish that made 1m X 1m easy (with 5 cm long teeth!)!! It was such a magic moment. Lucky me, I got the whole package, including marriage proposal. But oh well.

So that was a highlight of the Bali trip. I had some other great times; I visited a meditation centre in Ubud and met a very nice man with whom I could have talked for hours about life and philosophy. My older sister Alexandra meditates 2h per day and often goes for meditation courses, and by talking to her and seeing how hectic my lifestyle gets sometimes, I was very happy to first try meditation in such a lovely setting. However, even though, more so after taking the course in Chinese philosophy, I have been hoping to take more time to sit back, reflect and, basically, make a place for spirituality in my life, I still can not seem to ban all these ‘unhealthy’ things from my life. For example, after meditation I was looking at the menu in one café, when two girls invited me in for a beer. We hung out there for a very long time. They both earn a living dancing in clubs in Australia (but clean clubs only, I am told), and make a lot of money to finance their trips around the world. So crazy! This time they were on a two-weeks vacation just out of Ubud, they had their private swimming pool and an assigned driver and they were doing lots of shopping and partying in Kuta. Ah, crazy! That night we had of ajax, the local spirit, and talked about some crazy stuff regarding to drugs and sexuality in South-East Asia, it was really cool! I guess I have to become at peace with living such contrasts in juxtaposition, and eventually after taking and leaving some I should reach some kind of healthy compromise between all the things I enjoy.

I also have to come to terms with the fact of being a ‘tourist’, which was not easy on my ego. In the past couple of years, Bali has now switched to appeal more and more to middle-aged European families, so that was very strange for me whose used to be either anonymous, either among the few foreigners, or either with other young backpackers. But it was interesting, I met some nice Swiss and French women in a cooking class (in which we were took to the market and were explained many things about Balinese spices and ingredients, and then we cooked some 6 very yummy dishes which I shall try to emulate once I get home – wish me luck!). This experience made me realize how fragile an economy based on tourism is; even if Bali attracts the bulk of the tourists to Indonesia (in my view, and unfortunately, because it’s not Muslim…), it has greatly suffered from market forces and it is a common view to see decrepit hotels or pushy shopkeepers in towns that are now neglected by tourists. It was also a good test to realize how I feel about being a lone female traveller. The only time I actually travelled alone was in the Canadian Rockies, the Yukon and Alaska, which really doesn’t compare… But I think it was a good time to do it, before spending a year in Burkina in which I’ll probably have to deal with similar issues again on a more frequent basis. I think the main issue here is that I really don’t know what I want so I’m not prepared to face, say, marriage proposals, in a decent satisfying honourable respectful way. I’ve got some work to do there. It may be childish and immature but even as time goes by and I meet people and experience a number of things, I still don't know how I feel about dating or having one night stands while travelling. I must admit sometimes I have to hold back to not judging people I know who do it each time they travel, although I don't have anything against it per se. I guess I'm pushing the whole race-class-gender analysis too far sometimes, but I must admit that really make me struggle. One last thing: this trip reconfirmed how important culture is to me. It seems like each time I get busy, sport and culture are the first things to be put aside, unfortunately. But by being completely spoiled in Ubud with watching dance performances (resembling those in Baraka!), chilling in museums and strolling around markets and arts boutiques, I was changed. It made me realize that, although this is probably a very selfish act of pure leisure, and even how hard I would try to be focused on one thing (i.e. development), I need arts in my life.

Where the Earth is moving

2006-08-05T11:46:00.000-04:00

Indonesia is part of the Pacific ‘Ring of Fire’, whom for those who have been there mean much more than a strange coincidence with the Johnny Cash song. People in Yogyakarta would tell you. In fact, last May 27th, a strong earthquake shook the city, followed a month later by a tsunami.

Stian had been working on earthquake relief as the personal assistant of Aly-Khan Rajani, our senior IDSer (and superstar) who is now an expert in emergency response. He had a mandate to bring a printer’s piece to the CARE office locally in Jogia, and he had been offered a two-weeks intensive course in Bahasa Indonesia (the national language) in a reputed language school there), so on Sunday we went to Jakarta’s train station to embark on a very cold journey (pushing the air con to the limit of freezing seem to be a symbol of status here!) that we almost missed as two people told us the wrong platform for our train. During the eight hours ride, I kept on wondering what it would be like, considering the recent catastrophes that hit Java’s cultural capital. Would the city be destroyed? Would people have reengaged in their normal daily lives? Would we be the only foreigners to not be affiliated with NGOs?

We arrived in Jogia at night and then the next morning went to meet Stian’s professors. He was in class all day, and I was restless and could not wait to learn more about the city’s arts and craft and scene so I hoped on a local bus (30 cents for the ride). For me who was expecting some kind of Ground Zero, I was strucked to realize that, for an unaware observer, it could have seemed like nothing happened there at all (at least in most of the areas I visited in the 3 days I was there). I did some people watching, which was well reciprocated by the other women on the bus . I love how local transportation provide an insight into people’s daily lives; the baskets, the food, the clothing, the social life, the hierarchy, the male-female relationships, etc. To the moment I go to Malioboro St, which is the main street, I met some ‘instant friends’, people who engage into conversations easily and then advise you that the batik (Javanese craft in which fabric or canvas is covered in wax and is dyed several types to produce an avalanche of colors) on Molioboro St is of bad quality and then they get you a becak (small cart pulled by a bicycle, this means of transportation had been banned in Jakarta for reminding of colonial oppression) to a professional gallery, and if you buy something, they get a high commission. Typical scene. But the batik, traditional or modern, is stunning.

The kraton (palace) of Jogia is the thing to see, besides the amazing, inspiring Borobudur temple’s (like Cambodia’s Ankor Wat). The kraton is where Jogia’s sultan lives. Jogia, along with Jakarta and Banda Aceh, are Indonesia’s special administrative regions. In fact, Jogia, along with Solo (Surakarta), its neighbours, have been famous throughout history for anti-colonial strifes and political activism, and to this day still maintain a certain autonomy from the central government. So they still have their sultan, sultan number 10, who has only one wife (!) and who has five daughters, one in California who just got married, two in Australia and two who live with him in the palace (my instant friend told me!). You can see the carriages of the royal families in this enclave, and you can also visit the remnants of the Water Castle, which is comprised of many swimming pools, in which sultan number 4’s wives, concubines and children used to bathe under the supervision of his majesty. There’s some really neat area around the Katron, along with a couple places to climb around (although some parts have been destroyed by the earthquake) and a very lively bird market.

Later that day I met up with Stian and we went to deliver the printer’s part (which we had dropped and could not really put back into place!) to the CARE temporary office, which they had rented from a local organization. I felt very privileged to see from where the NGO operated their relief activities (which were mostly in the form of distribution of clean water, I believe); a small office with friendly, smiley, mostly Indonesian staff, all working on spreadsheets on their laptops. For sure it was now in the aftermath of the emergency, and the crazy busy intense intervention phase was over, but it was still surprising to see that the place did not look any different than any other office. But oh well. Then later I went to a museum downtown where there was a wayang kulit performance. Wayang kulit means ‘shadow puppet’, and it’s a traditional Javanese show that most often relates the tales of the Ramayana, an ancient Hindu story. (It must be said that Javanese religion is an active blend of Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and indigenous animist beliefs). The performance I watched lasted two hours, but some of them can last a whole night! It was very very cool. On the one side of the stage, there’s a gamelan orchestra playing, which is a ensemble of percussions and strings playing beautiful music, and the puppet master, who is extremely impressive, as he makes the voices of all the puppets while manipulating them and giving the beat for the gamelan by hitting a bell with his feet! A genuine Jack-of-all-trades! The show was very impressive, although I didn’t get most of it (it was in Javanese; although I picked up maybe 20 words of Bahasa Indonesia, I don’t know any Javanese whatsoever…), I was explained the meaning behind, for example, the shape of the nose of the puppets (which determines if they’re bad or good characters), and things like that…And then the puppets where fighting, and there was the music and wow, it was great!

The next day, I felt a bit weary, for some unknown reasons (could be many things), and felt like I should move on to somewhere else promptly. I went to the bus terminal and then was reading my book and some guys standing there, I could have sworn they were talking about me and taking pictures with me on their mobile phones, so I got very annoyed and took a bus to Bali. I still enjoyed Java, although I wish I had more time to give it an extra chance…

Dude, where's my sidewalk?

2006-08-01T10:42:00.000-04:00

The first sense of Jakarta I ever had was when I was about 10 and my aunt’s friend, who was very well-travelled, told me : ‘Jakarta is the city in which you get lost when you’re biking’. It’s strange how little details like that struck you, but it was only 11 years later that I could verify this stranger’s statement.

I flied to Jakarta the day after my last final exam at CUHK, without even having had time to put myself together and to say proper good-byes to my classmates. Everything indeed seemed to be going wrong as I had trouble with moneychangers, customs, immigration, everything, before leaving Hong Kong (a trend that I found out would continue each time I go to this airport), so in a sense my first trip to South-East Asia started on the wrong foot. I got to the Big Durian at night and was glad to meet up with Stian, a good friend from Toronto, who is currently undertaking his co-op placement with CARE Indonesia (whose office I visited with him, not without a thought of how different my own placement will be from his).

I did not immediately ‘feel ostracized as a white person’, as I’ve been warned (locals actually seemed to care that I didn’t get ran over by a bus!) but I rather had a quick sense that the rules of the game where quite different here than any other place I’ve been. Upon entering Indonesia, in contrast to Cuba’s ‘Welcome to the only free land in the Americas’, stand ‘Welcome to Indonesia. Death to drug traffickers’. Impressive. Jakarta was the most chaotic place my brain could conceive; lots of ink has been devoted to urban planning in the megapolis of the world’s fourth highest population. As a summary: the city has no clear centre but rather many points of convergence, the streets are too narrow to accommodate the flow of a) cabs and big SUVs in Kemang, the expat area, b) the tons of motorcycles and ojex (motorcycle taxis) that circulate around a) and c) all the other types of transportation. There is no such thing as a sidewalk or even street side, which makes going around quite hazardous, as it is usually wrecked, with numerous holes, unevenness and in close proximity to deep open air sewers. Vehicles often park where you would expect to be walking, and when by pure coincidence there seems to be a lane devoted to slower traffic, it gets crowded by impatient drivers. There is not really a system of mass transit adapted to the population density, but rather an abundance of mini-buses, which are often overpacked with people hanging off the door and provide live entertainment (musicians often hop on them to get some money), and which most outsiders would deem ‘extremely unsafe’, to the least.

So that was my first impression of the Big Durian, which was possibly influenced by everybody’s negative comments. In spite all of this, it was special to be in Batavia alias Betawi, especially while being impregnated by such anti- and post-colonial literature such as the Letters of a Javanese Princess and the Buru Quartet, a series by Toer, a most prominent Indonesian writer exposing the complexities and intersectionality of race, gender and language in the Dutch East Indies at the turn of the twentieth century. It was great to collect new sights (veiled young women with their helmet on the motorbike), smells and tastes. I must admit Indonesian food did not please my stomach as much as Chinese food, but we had some fun dining experiences in small warungs (restaurants), in which I always crossed my fingers so I wouldn’t get sick (a fear which was justified, considering Stian got typhoid right after I got there!). In the couple of days I was there, I had the chance to experience Jakarta’s contrasts, by visiting some very posh cafes and malls and by having a night out drinking Barung (the national ale) with other foreigners, while also strolling across parallel streets and discovering a whole new world at the proximity of the urban jungle. My best memories are those of a little kampung (village encroached in the city) in which it was easier to interact with locals and where it was good to just hang out, drink some fresh juice and play with kids. Stian will soon move out of his cozy apartment to possibly move into a house in one of these small streets. Good luck with that dude!

Can India play a balancing role for the US in the Asia Pacific Region?

2006-07-24T22:22:00.000-04:00

Facing the prospect of a multipolar world, the US is now facing more than ever the urge to consolidate alliances to fulfill its self-proclaimed mandate of ensuring global stability. While some analysts argue that India, like Japan, will become an instrument of American foreign policy in the Asia-Pacific region (APR), others think India will rather drag down the US influence. I believe that India is likely to emerge as a balancing power for both the US and China, while keeping relatively independent from both powers while seeking not to antagonize them in the pursuit of its national interests. In this paper, I will reflect India's current position and motivations in the Asia Pacific region to see how they differ from that of other key players, focusing on such countries as the United States and China as well as members of key multilateral bodies.

To start with, it is only recently did the international community start looking at India as a potential balancing factor for the US or China in the APR. This is not unrelated to its tremendous economic performance reflected by GDP growth rates approaching 10% per year in the past 10 years. In fact, the well-discussed BRIC Report estimates that Indian GDP will surpass that of Japan by 2040 (Jain, 2006), a miracle which can be explained by referring to English speaking India's specialisation in the information-technology business, which makes it a primary destination for outsourcing. (Friedman, 2006). However, just like China always claims to still be a developing country, one can not ignore the harsh reality for most Indians; the absolute number of people living below the poverty line in populous India is increasing and that its PPP-GDP only accounts for half that of China (Kueh, 2006). In this context, it is safe to assert that India still has a long way to go before it can catch up to the US or China, let alone supplant them.

Similarly, India faces significant internal problems that might jeopardize its efforts to get involved in world affairs. The most salient is the conflict with Pakistan over Kashmir. Although most analysts doubt this will prevent India from becoming a major power in the region and although peace negotiations are in progress since 2004 (Ganguly, 2006), it remains that, especially after last week's bombings in Mumbai, these tensions could well degenerate into a nuclear war, which could certainly weaken India and slow its economic growth. The global political situation resulting would depend on whether the United States sides with its long-term ally, Pakistan, or with one it increasingly considers as a strategic partner, India. In fact, being the world largest's democracy, being located between China and the Middle East and being the home to the world's second largest Muslim population, India is now playing a prominent role in the ongoing War On Terror instigated by the United States. This event had the ironic effect of bringing together the world leader with a country that it marginalized since its 1998 nuclear tests. In the light of this process, one could argue that India is aligning itself with the US and will thus not push to affect change in an opposite direction in the APR.

However, one has to pay attention to the history of the US-India relations to make predictions about their future. At the onset of the Cold War, India positioned itself in the Non-Aligned Movement before siding with the USSR, after the normalization of sino-American relations in 1972. Hence, India and the US do not have a lasting record of cooperation and friendship. But nor do India and China, especially due to intimidation and border conflicts. However, there are reasons to believe that India may grow closer to China than to the US, although it will not overtly alienate or antagonize the latter, whose prevalent influence might however diminish. Recent years have seen an intensification of Sino-India two-way trade (from USD 1 billlion in late 1990s to USD 13 billion in 2004-05 (IMF Direction of Trade Statistics Year Book, 2003-4, c.f. Jain and Mayer, N.A.), which is likely to increase even more due to the re-opening of the Silk Route at Nathu La pass. While examining these developments, some may think that China is simply seeking more allies in response to its isolation in the Post-Tianamen Square period and turned towards India because of its persisting dislike of Japan, but some may also think - especially after they undertook their first joint naval exercise in 2003 (Saint-Mézard and Chin, 2006) - that China and India are plotting to get the Americans out of Asia. Conscious of the implications that would have for their overall hegemony in the region and being opposed to India's project of building a pipeline to Iran, a country of the ''Axis of Evil'', the Bush administration has pledged to assist India in key dual-use technologies (such as civil nuclear power, space programmes and high technology) (Saint-Mézard and Chin, 2006). This is definitely a good deal for India, which they can not ignore in eventual political decisions relating to the US in the APR.

This does not mean that India will become a foreign policy instrument for the United States, although it is in the latter's interest to prevent Asia from being dominated by any single power that has the capacity to crowd out others (The Economist, 2006). In fact, India has its very own agenda and vision for the world and, ever since its hardly won independence from Britain, it will refuse to put itself in Japan's current security position. Neither does it want to loose its reputation of an independent power, for it would compromise its good relations with Russia, Iran and other Middle-Eastern countries. This desire not to depend on a Western power to dictate its foreign policy does not mean India will be an isolated entity in the 21st century. To the contrary, India has increased its presence internationally, concluding many bilateral deals – with such a diverse set of countries as Sri Lanka, Chile, Singapore, South Africa and Egypt (Bilateral.org : India, 2006 ). It recently improved its relations with Japan, as the US ally now sees India as a positive force balancing out China, at the same time as it seeks to gain from trade with the booming Indian economy (Chung, 2005). On the other hand, India is choosing partners that the US disapproves; for example, it is consolidating dialogue with the dictatorship in Myanmar to gain access to their gas, minerals and military bases (Batabyal, 2006). It also was amongst the first country to establish relations with the Republics of Central Asia (Chaturvedi, N.A.), a strategic move which can now be seen as a way to counterbalance China and Russia's actions through the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), of which India is simply an observer. All in all, there is no overt, one-sided policy that is either pro or against the Americans.

Most importantly, India appears at the negotiation table of many regional and sub-regional groups, whose careful analysis go beyond the scope of this paper. Rivalry with China is a persistent cross-cutting theme of India's Look East Policy. At the same time as India's increased dialogue with the Association of South-East-Asian Nations (ASEAN) is welcomed by many small countries who distrust Japan and are scared of China, its ascension to the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in 1996 and the East Asia Summit (EAS) in 2005 was seen negatively by China, who considers India is too remote to become involved in these groupings. Although India failed to join the Asia Pacific Economic Forum (APEC), it has pursued its own interests on the South-Asian subcontinent through strengthening ties with its neighbours, partly through the establishment of the BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for MultiSectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation), the Mekong-Ganga Cooperation Forum and the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation), all of which exclude China. There are good reasons to think that the current US administration welcomes India's ''expansionism'', as it switched from seeing its rival, China, as a ''strategic partner'' but rather as a ''competitive rival''. There is nevertheless no consensus within India as whether India should want to become part of the Big Three Alliance as suggested by Russia (Chaturvedi, N.A.); there is in fact a lot of controversy with regards to modernization, liberalization and adoption of Western values from many factions in India.

In conclusion, I do not believe that India will become a puppet of the United States in the near future, although I do not think that it will antagonize it either, in its efforts to catch up to China. Its rise as a regional power is likely to mitigate the US influence by consolidating ties between countries in the APR; truthful to its reputation of a lone actor, it is likely that India will adopt some policies in line with the Americans', and some others that do not, depending on its own national interests and those of the countries it has the strongest ties with. Although it is hard to predict future internal or external events that will impact on their position, it would not be surprising that the Indian foreign affairs and diplomatic trends will be subject to periodic modifications, as it was the case during the Cold War, which is argued to have never ended in the APR.

Me and the Oatmeal Guy in the Chinese Kelowna

2006-07-24T12:09:00.000-04:00

I can't really remember exactly how Chris and I met, but when the two of us (with Vris) started arguing about some graphs the econ profs put on the board during class, I knew we'd be pals! Along with Roland, the three of us would often go for dinner in wet markets or fancy restaurants, and then we had some ''very productive'' study groups at dessert places while drinking chinese coffee (which is made with hemp, hum hum!). One of the highlights of our friendship was that time we went jungle... oh ... sorry... city trekking! There was this hike on Hong Kong Island that was going through reliques of WWII which we were wanting to go to, then we realized that we had very different ways of orienting oneself (he's more rational, using maps and stuff whereas I'm more instinctual), but even together we ended up walking in some very densely vegetated areas on a cliff where we had to put our umbrella open in front of us in order to walk forwards! That's nonwidstanding that it was litterally pouring and we saw two really lovely speciment of tera multicolor spiders. But after finding out that we were able to laugh about this adventure, I think we realized we were ready (and willing to miss the farewell dinner for the occasion) for a bigger adventure: going to Yunnan.

Going to Yunnan was ''the'' thing I wanted to do in China, at least for now and until I come back for a longer time. It's been recommanded to me as a very nice place, and the remnants of the anthropologist in me was very interested in the particular demographics, for Yunnan is the province with the most ethnic minorities in China. It's very close to Laos and Vietnam, so it also has a touch of continental South-East Asia.

So we brought our backpacks to class last Wednesday and then hopped onto the KCR to cross the border to Shenzhen, as it was less expansive (but much more of a challenge) to fly from there. After having the brilliant idea to ask around (p.s. this trip was clearly unplanned), Chris and I found out last minute about the only minibus that would get us to the airport. We somehow managed to get there on time, and then had a night flight into Kunming. I felt very engaging from the beginning of the trip and didn't spare my efforts in trying to communicate around me in mandarin, given that this time Mark was not there to save my ass! The first night in Kunming was very, say, in-our-face. This trip was a big step into our respective backpacker's experiences, and, even if it was all about the regular stuff (bargaining, finding a decent place to stay, trying to take the right cabs), it was agremented by such bewildering things as seeing two men in ties playing badminton on the sidewalk at midnight! And things like that :)

The next day was fheavy in terms of communications, for it took us a while to decide what to do, and how to do it, and when and how we should move on to the next place, and so forth. We finally hopped on a bus to the Minority Villages in Kunming, where we had some quite extensive discussions about the representation of culture, tourism and the like. One thing I like about Chris is that he challenges me, and although we don't always agree and sometimes get frustrated with each other, we're always clear, direct and respectful. An example : While I had a strong feeling that ''something was wrong'' in the way ''traditions'' are put forwards in this place that reminded me of a human zoo, Chris reminded me how little factual information I knew about the topic, then I thought that the process of going through places like that is partly to raise questions, but then he said that I couldn't say anything serious unless I did some research, etc. In the end I think we both grew from these arguments, but we were also smart enough to realize that we should split up and do our things on our own sometimes in order to stay sain, which was an essential initiative indeed!

We found ourselves quite innovative in using transportation; we took a sleeper bus (the ones in which you're 95% sure of having your bags stolen once at destination) , that had three rows of very narrow beds and minuscule alleys, and ended up at the very back, on a bunk with tiny windows, sharing with two men who spent the night coughing and smoking. We got to Dali City in a ''so-so'' shape, at 3 AM, and then made it to a very nice hostel for breakfast. This was a very nice place to walk around in - it reminded me of Québec city in a way! - especially outside of the walls. The best thing we did was renting bikes and then going riding in the ride paddies and corn fields and neighbouring villages, where I met some very adorable kids! We lost our way on the way back and had to keep our balance on a 10-cm wide irrigation wall for about 200 meters, which give us the necessary rush of adrenaline to resist an otherwise inevitable heat stroke!

Then not too long after that we started being involved in a series of badlucks with both Chris and I getting money stolen and him forgetting his camera in a nice pub - an evening which would have otherwise been lovely... But good lessons learned, I get we deserved it in a sense. Watch out next time!

The next day we went to a magical place, Lijiang, a bit north, very close to Tibet. It's a place where time seems to loose it's course. The architecture is soothing, harmonious, and reflects all the influences received by this town who was a cross-roads for trade between Tibet, Sichuan, Yunnan and Guangxi. The roofs are amazing, and there's lots of opportunities for good photo. I climbed up to the top of the villages in order to see them from above, and then I met with a really nice Slovenian girl who was studying inter-EU law and together, we went up the Lijiang tower, in which I was surprised to see the exact same Chinese painting that I hung in my room in Toronto (purchased in Chinatown!)... !! But it was a pleasure for the eyes.

Overall it was a very pleasant trip, and an excellent way of making use of my second entry on my visa, and we got back about 30 min before our econ class on the Tuesday, and I'm glad we did it. I was happy to notice a difference in my spoken Chinese between now and the last trip, it's encouraging, I was even able to book the right bus tickets for us to go back to Kunming. But now I'm in a crazy rush in school with mid-terms and papers, and in four days everything is over and I'm flying to Jakarta again... Ah la la, everything is so fast... (Story of my life)

Meet the locals!

2006-07-10T08:52:00.000-04:00

I have been pondering on this post for a bit now; trying to give out an impression of the cultural differences as I have interpreted it so far, but I find it very tricky as I do not want to make any generalizations or to 'Otherize' people... I'll give it a try, and Jenika, Steph, Yishin, Holly, Stian and others, feel free to object!

The clearest souvenir I have of the training at the Centre for Intercultural Learning is when we played a card game in which nobody was allowed to talk, but we were brought to switch from a table to another, without being able to communicate the rules of the game we were supposed to play (it ended up that everybody got different guidelines!). Applied to the African context, it was easy for me to relate to work-type differences - just think of the need to ''contextualize'' anything for 10 minutes before getting to the point... But here in Hong Kong it's a bit more subtle.

I have been working with two very nice local students on a presentation for a class and I was shocked to see how hard-working they both were. They did a lot of (book) research on our topic, to the extent where we had to cut down whole sections all together because the presentation was going to be 45 min instead of the required 15! I am not sure how that occurs or what was the best way of preventing this, but I guess due to lack of communications the presentation did end up being 45 min... With a 5 pages hand-out rather than 1 page. And with each of my partners presenting ove10 slides per sub-section, all filled with text (I had one slide per section with three bullets!). I think at first it was a little bit frustrating, but after a while I realized it was the point of an exchange; to get to know other ways of doing things. It was definitely a learning experience! And probably the first symptom of culture shock that I got!

There are other things that surprised me in the Land of the Cute! The first thing I found intriguing was the segregation in the dormitories. In addition to having all the international students in the best spots (the local students staying in the basement!!), there is very strict control of inter-gender movement in residence, which is unlike what I have gotten used to in Canada. Girls are allowed in the boys' dorm until midnight, whereas guys can only visit (after signing up) on the week-end, as long as they leave the door of the room open. It took me a little while to understand where that came from and accept it might not be an insensitive sexist treatment, but as Yishin pointed out it is certainly a means of protecting women's privacy in a society in which a girl's chastity and prudity before marriage is very valued (marriage is very valued too, more than I expected!). It could be other things too.

I also noticed that many Hongkies, but especially Singaporians, stick together in large groups of 15-20 people and are very hygiene conscious! Paper masks are for sell at the reception desk of our dorm, and one is expected to wear it if it has a vulgar cold! There is a lot of ''prevention'' advertising in public venues and transportation, advising against anything from the infantile break of intellectual property laws to the dangers associated with not holding the handrail in an escalator! Interesting! Mmmm! (That's another thing; people don't nod or make a guttural sound like in Chad to agree with someone, they just say, ''hum!'')

Even though most local students don't seem to listen to the Smiths (like all my best travel buddies, ironically), a lot of them are fully involved in the institution of karaoké! Entering one is like entering another world, where a group of 4-5 friends can gather around a set of mikes and sushi to sing Janis Joplin or the Backstreet Boys or other Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese, Thai or Korean singers without anybody disturbing! I am told a lot of University students spend their afternoons doing that; a good stress relief I am told, in a city where pressure is high (check that out if you're not convinced!).

My last point for this post is going to be the cultural games! Horse racing is huge here, but I (somehow!) happen to be more familiar with less-gambling-type, more social-type games! I learned how to play Chinese chess, and I have yet to understand Ma Jong, the most popular game here - it was actually the main plot of a 4h movie that was played on a bus I was in! I was also lucky enough to mingle with some locals at a bar in City One Plaza, a typical residential area in the New Territories (suburbs) with tall apartment buildings, car parks, grocery stores and the like. Besides realizing that the Chinese way of counting with the fingers is different, I found out nobody knows the 'rock-paper-scissor' game or the 'tumb-fight' or the '25 cent' drinking game (that's probably just a saddic Québec thing!), but they had the ''even-odd'' fingers clue game as well as a drinking game called Liars' Dice (which they also have in Pirats of the Carribean II so it's probably not from Hong Kong after all!) in which all players shake up deas secretly, and then everybody has to try to guess what digits showed up globally. Very interesting!

I can't really think of anything else, but this post may be updated from time to time as it unfolds...

Healthy, corrupt and sane

2006-07-02T11:23:00.000-04:00

I have just returned from my first trip to mainland China. It will for sure stay entrenched in my memories, although I still need to sink it in. The trip being only 5 days long, I have just explored the surface and spend most of my energy focusing on having fun and enjoying it, but I still came up with some questions...

I went there with Mark and Mita, whom I already referred to. My friend Vris from Hong Kong crossed the border from HK to Shenzhen with us and helped with the communications, and once again, picked all the right items on the menu for lunch! Oh I trust this girl on food! Going to China was a very spontaneous decision, as we received our double-entry visas on the Wednesday and left on the Thursday! The original plan was to go to the province of Yunnan, which is famous for its diversity of landscape and peoples, but since the train ride was a bit long, we opted for Guangxi instead (which is closer to Hong Kong; just 16h on the train one-way!). The province being promoted as a ''backpackers' paradise'' with ''typical'' Chinese sights, it looked good for a first trip.

The train ride was of the most fun! Even though lots of people in and outside of Hong Kong warn people about the train being dangerous (lots of thieves, incidents, it's slow, etc. etc.), we had the best time. We were in the hard sleepers cabin, which had 6 bunks (3 high!) and no door, but we spent most of our time in the restaurant wagon eating, drinking and smoking, and talking about love, revolution, globalisation, and trying to incarnate our ideal of being ''healthy, corrupt and sane''... I felt in a song by La Rue Kétanou (Et on se refait le monde sans que le monde ne s'en aperçoive!

We got to Guilin the morning after leaving Shenzhen. The moment we got down the train did we start getting singled out as tourists. Knew it would happen. Still trying to figure out how to approach being harassed for buying stuff and going places and stuff. I could relate my experience with that of Valérie in Thailand, where she had been sold random tour packages that didn't happen, and was ripped off by random people. I guess we were lucky not to end up in a random place :) After hesitating greatly facing these men that were offering us a ride to Yangshuo, we finally got there.

At that time did I start realize how the language barrier was affecting me. It is the first time that I can not communicate; Latin languages are easy to learn since I know French, but even after taking Mandarin for two months I could not pick up most of what was happening around me. I realized I didn't even know how to say ''toilets'' or ''how much is it''. Big shot in the ego. I guess that has to do with the clearly antiphatic feeling I had towards all the other White people I saw in the streets.

Speaking of White people, the trip to China was yet another event in the unfolding of my thinking on the issue of ''race'', which has kept on escalating since December (strangely coinciding with my trip to Chad and the starting of the Anti-Oppression Committee). It also exacerbated my anger at myself and my incredibly bad habit of being totally, utterly, continuously lost in my thoughts and my own little imaginary world. The reason I'm saying is that there were things going on live under my eyes that I could not notice. Mark and I were talking about how things like race and gender influence one's travel experience, but right in front of my eyes he was getting yelled at by a woman and laughted at by a waitress, without me noticing. I felt stupid. It makes me mad to be White and to have free privileges that I don't deserve more than anybody else. I hate being treated differently because I am seen as a walking cash machine.

There was another incident in the trip; on the second day, Mita got a thing in her eye which wouldn't go away. We decided to go to the hospital. Unforgettable, yet puzzling decision. It was so strange to enter this place; far from tourists' eyes, it was like a blast to remind us that we were in a Communist Country. Slow, inefficient public services are the reality, and a ''first come, first serves'' system prevails. Which meant a baby that was bleeding on the head was not seen as more of a priority than my friend... who had a small thing in her eye. I got so angry, and the fact that I could barely communicate with the doctor (which was smoking his cigarette alone in his second floor office with his uniform full of God knows what) really made me realize I need to learn more Chinese.

On the other hand, we did have lots of fun in China and enjoyed doing some touristy things(actually, ''travelling'' things --- ''the tourist sees what he has come to see, the traveller sees what he sees''). There were very pretty scenery, items and phenomena to observe (why do I always feel like a student of life lol?)- mountains, caves, rice paddies, lanterns, architecture, temples, etc. Swimming in the Li river was good, so was the bike ride, going to a bar with live music and experiencing the nightlife. Obviously the World Cup was still there. We did some shopping and some bargainning, got nice silk and cashmere stuff for my family and got a chinese stamp graved with my name on it (so egocentric lol). But overall I guess I will never be able to distinguish most of what was going on there.

It was good to stare at the window in the train, sketching in my book, see some new stuff, some recurring things. At the same time as I was thrilled about being in China and experiencing it fully, I feel strange about looking for comforting things such as records store when I'm in China. Lots of pirated DVDs there, even ones that were banned such as Memoirs of a Geisha. To your deception maybe, I did not get to try dog meat! I had a terrible back pain for the whole trip for some unknown reason, and I went for a massage with Mita in Shenzhen on the way back, and it made me feel like I was like anybody else going there. Which is bad; lots of guys in our program go to Shenzhen for massages... And cheap prostitutes. The downturn of the Yellow Fever I guess.

A couple other thoughts. When I was in China, I felt like I could sense its growth under my eyes. Just like Shenzhen used to be a small fishing village twenty years ago, I had the feeling like the economic boom was awaiting places like Yangshuo when we were sitting and having some beer fish at Minnie Mao's Restaurant (!!) and there was construction live right two meters from us. Hum... Then I must say I have been working a lot on tolerance and the sense of compromise necessary while travelling with other people. I must admit not knowing myself enough yet to assert what's my favorite way of travelling. Still figuring that out.

On the way back in the train, I woke up early as our cabin mates were having a loud conversation. Then I met this nice Chinese policeman in the restaurant wagon. It felt so strange when he was reading my IR stuff on Japan-China relations. It got me wondering about whether people here understand that China is the ''hot topic'' outside of it. I'm trying to imagine being in Québec and meeting a foreign student who came half-way across the world to study my place of birth. Hawkward.

In conclusion, this episode of the trip made me feel like another La Rue Kétanou song (Je ne sais pas ou je vais, mais ça je ne l'ai jamais bien su, mais si jamais je le savais, je crois bien que je n'irais plus!)

On Exchange

2006-06-28T22:24:00.000-04:00

Today I am two weeks in starting my exchange! This is my first summer semester ever and I must admit I am struggling with balancing out fun and study. But let's start from the beginning...

We had an orientation at the beginning of the CUHK International Summer School (International Asian Studies Programme) - long name! There are about 150 students from around the world, the majority being Singaporian or Chinese Canadian. We got to know one another on the first day by enjoying some ostentatious meals and walking around the city. I finally went to the Peak, the highest point in Hong Kong from which you can see the whole city. Breathtaking! I met my ''to-date'' best friend, Mark, in Stanley Market (a touristy shopping area nearby a beach), when I was heading towards the military cemetary to check it out. Hong Kong has a very interesting history, and here are burried many Chinese who died to prevent the British to take possession of the Island during the Opium Wars, and yet many more who died fighting for the Union Jack during World War II.

After the official orientation, a large group of us went to Lai Kwai Fong, which is the clubbing district par excellence here in Hong Kong. It is a crazy crazy place, with so many people in the streets (lots of foreigners!) and many venues to enjoy some TsingTao beer (including the street itself - it's legal!). We had a good time, came back at 4 a.m. and got in trouble our first night. Congrats!

The first week of school I spent mostly with Yishin and Steph, as the former was gonna go back to Toronto soon. I will keep good memories of our visit to the Li Po Chun United World College, which is right on the other side of the harbor from my university, and which is where Yishin went to school for I.B. Such a great place; after having a chat with her tutor, it really gave me the taste for becoming a UWC teacher in India! So inspiring! It's good though, we've been goig around, and I am very grateful for my friends to take me around with their friends and family, I feel like I am not too secluded, which is an impression that I get when I look at most foreigners here, unfortunately.

The campus here is very very very pretty. Nothing Oxfordish like U of T, but rather the campus is located on a mountain! Literally! The best way to go from one point to another is to use series of staircases or elevators throughout buildings! The road is so steep and the campus so large that CUHK actually has a shuttle bus running throughout it! Isn't that nuts? But it's good, the panorama from the roof of the residence is stunning, with the Tolo Harbor and the mountains! I can't wait to go for a hike or a bike ride. Soon! So far I have been taking full advantage of the outdoors Olympic swimming pool and the yummy canteen next to it. I'm getting to tennis next week, I'm going to try to verify the hypothesis that states I'm really bad at tennis is Canada but rock at it elsewhere lol

My roomate on residence, Zhao Xin, is very very sweet! She did not come until 4 days into the program, and I was sincerely worrying I would not have a roomate! But she came! She's from Beijing (Pékin), she studies finance and she's very pretty and generous. She helps me with my Mandarin homework - which are killing me! - and I in turn help her with her English! ... I love languages

I have met some really nice people down here. I am convinced more than ever that the people make the trip, not the places! I have met some nice Honkies (no offense!) in my courses, and they have been super helpful in showing me the real student life here at CUHK (= instant noodles, lemon pie, and horlicks (a malted nutritional drink!)). This girl I met in Econ class is coming to Shenzhen (at the border of mainland China) with us later today, it's so good to have someone who can speak Cantonese! Thanks Vris! There is another guy in Econ class from Northern China, he is insanely smart, his name is Alex and he's very nice and helps me with my putonghua and introduced me to ''bamboo forest fighting music''. Xiexie Alex! I'll never forget them.

I met two really nice foreign students in the programme, their names are Mita and Mark. Mita is from Madagascar and she now lives in Paris, and we've been hanging out for bit. Mark is from Malaysia and we can talk about absolutely everything, it's lots of good time! Also, I met Maria, who's another girl from U of T, and she's also very nice. I seem to get along with people whose names start by M ah ah. Mita and I went to Macau together last week-end; Macau is a former Portuguese colony that has the same status as Hong Kong, that is, a ''Special Administrative Region'' of China. It was interesting, there are lots of casinos there and the government is getting over 50% of its revenues from gambling.

A word or two about courses now! I am officially taking three couses (the limit) and I am auditing another one. I am taking Economy of China, International Relations of the Asia-Pacific Region and Mainstream Chinese Philosophical Thoughts. And I sit in the Intermediary Mandarin class (which is everyday). I have put much more efforts in learning mandarin than in any other course (I have nightwares of complicated characters!), although they are, in general, very interesting. I learn a lot here, although I have really long days and when I'm all done, all I feel like is some good noodles and good conversations. But homework is starting to kick in and there are assignments and exams nearby, so I will get myself together soonish :0 Hopefully!

The University is bringing us on field trips in the week-ends when we want to. Last week-end, on the St-Jean-Baptiste day (Québec national day woooohoooo! I celebrated at the tea house rather than around the fire this year!), we went to a really cool contemporary art museum and to a temple, where we enjoyed some good vegetarian food! It was good, although this week-end, Mita, Mark and I are skipping the Ocean Park trip to go to Guilin, a city in the Guangxi province of China which is known throughout the country for its beautiful sceneries. I am told it's a backpackers' paradise. I just hope we can get the train ticket for the ride! 15 hours aiya!

So I am still not clear with any future plans (for when school ends as I still have 2 and a half weeks here in Asia), but I will write as soon as it gets together! Allright, that's it for today!

Une image vaut mille mots

2006-06-28T22:15:00.000-04:00

Here are some pictures that I hope some of you will enjoy! I'm working on an official photo essay at the moment with Mark, and something creative shall come out of that joint venture!

As a side note, I've been increasingly interested in multimedia recently. The reasons why there are few pictures on the blog at this point are because 1) I'm slightly lazy and 2) my camera plays me tricks of not accepting the batteries I buy for her! On the other hands I've been fooling around with my video quite a bit recently and I am hoping to get some stills out of there once I get back to Canada (my computer here isn't good enough, sorry...). My goal is to make a short music-video dubbing a Chinese song onto the footage I took during this memorable summer in Asia. It probably won't be of the caliber of my inspirations in photo and film, but it will be first step to get more familiar with filming, with will sure help in my project of shooting a documentary on placement next year...

P.S. More photos on my Flickr if any of you are interested.

Gweilo

2006-06-15T05:08:00.000-04:00

So this is going to be a very long post; I actually needed to write up an outline so I won't forget any of the crunchy details! I'm at the library now so I can't put any pictures up yet, but shall put them shortly.

Things are still good here, it's quite rainy, there is lots of smog. Apparently the only days with clear sky in HK are when mainlanders get their annual week-of; they close all the factories...

I have been spending some time with Steph and her parents (which were all very helpful to help me translate pictograms and drew me maps!) On Monday we went to the Ladies' Market in Mong Kok (a prime shopping place for young people!) then we had dinner at her grand-parents', which was very nice! Usually families get together on Sunday for dinner, but then this was an exception. I was thrilled to see buddist offerings; oranges put under the shrine of gods.

So I moved to Wan Chai for a bit, to stay with Chris. I like it there; it was originally pretty much all under water, before people start demolishing mountains to create more lands with the rocks! It has a lot of really nice, colorful and charming buildings, which make HK a less cold urban landscape than I first imagined. Unfortunately the government is demolishing many of these buildings in its ''urban renewal'' policy; they want to construct more modern (i.e. smaller) appartment blocks to accomodate all the immigration. The population here is expected to grow far past carrying capacity soon because of the hand-over. It's quite puzzling.

The other night we went to the Temple st night market with Min, a friend who works for Armani and really likes fashion. There was lots of cools stuff, but the highlight were the many fortune tellers, some who take a bird to pick up a piece of paper to tell you what your future looks like! Strange! You can find anything there, from fans (you know the foldable ones are for men only? duh!), incent, perfumes that you sniff, masks to electric plugs, video games, etc.

The other day I walked around Hollywood rd, which is a place famous for its antiques and arts. It looks like the Old Quebec city! And it is located where the central to mid-level escalators are; they're the world's largest escalators and they dominate small streets with really nice staircases. Pretty!

Besides that I have seen a lot of ''wet markets'' ( open-air markets) with lots of interesting vegetables and live animals waiting to be sold or slaughtered. People are scared avian flu will come from there; it's weird here you see people with masks all the time because they don't want to contaminate the air with their sneezing! In these markets there's also lots of dry fish, chinese medicine, and herbal tea to rebalance your yin and your yan when you feel too hot (but it's so bitter pouah!).

In the past days I have been riding countless ferries and visited 2 islands. I first had sea food with Chris on Cheng Chau island, which is famous for its bun festival, in which people climb some really tall structure to get to a bun on top! But my favorite favorite one is Lamma island, a place with no cars, only bicycles and a apparently very closely knit community of hippies that enjoy African drumming! The beaches are great, the streets are pretty and the Bookworm Cafe restaurant is very friendly; the ideal place to read the Count of Monte Cristo or a Nietzsche dialog!

I have been to a couple parks and museums too. In general I am a bit disappointed by these official tourist spots; the zoological garden, for instance, just had a jaguar, which spends its time sleeping. But bah, it's okay... One exception though is the History Museum, which has some really cool ethnography of the people here and how they got there (a lot escaped persecution from barbarians tribe to the north or came here after being expelled by the Communist Party because of their assets) throughout the years. I have yet to see the exhibits on the Opium Wars and British colonization, which I surely won't miss at it is so crucial to understand how things are here.It's strange to think that Asia's World City was first financed by drugs. Ah la la.

Around the place where I'm staying (more particularly, in Central), there are some quite cool buildings (thanks to Chris for the info). There's an office that has tons of circular windows that people call the ''100 assholes'' building :) Then the HSBC bank has the coolest building that can be taken apart and moved block by block (like Lego!). It has a system of mirrors inside so that during the day it does not require electricity for lighting! In front of the building, there are two lion statues that have little holes in them; a souvenir from the Japanese occupation. Everybody seems to hate the Japanese but the youth like their fashion and music. And then the Bank of China. People say the building looks like a knife and the two antennas resemble the chopsticks people plant in encent when someone dies. Everybody also seems to hate mainland China. I wonder how much real change happened in Hong Kong since the 1997 hand-over (from which it stopped being administered by Britain and went back to China). I heard that freedom of press went down and that red tape starts to appear, although visible signs of protest are hard to identify. It's seems to be a temporary situation before the 2050s, in which HK is supposed to be more fully assimilated to the rest of China.

Besides that, I heard some really interesting folklore and superstitions. I can't remember some of the ones I was told, but one cool one was that when you cook fish, you're not supposed to turn it or else it is believed that all the fishing boats will turn over and sink! Woah hey. Actually, I have yet to get the story straight about the Monkey King story; it is one of the most well-known stories here, and after watching yet another Stephen Chow movie I can't wait to find out what it's really about!

One thing that surprised me was the institution of the Filipino maids. Many women from South-East Asia come to work here as domestic helpers, and they form the most important diaspora here in HK. I am told their hiring conditions vary; sometimes they are really well treated and sometimes their employers fire them just before they're supposed to give them a bonus in order to help them return home. Sunday is their day off, and you can see Filipinos having picnics all over the streets, it's quite special to see that!

Also, hummmmmm, the food here is the best I've ever had! Lots of dumplings, yummy instant noodles, pork chops, baked rice, great dessert. It is paradise here with the coriander, ginger, coco milk and curry, ahhhh, I just won't get over it!

So now my friend Yishin is in town for a week (having immigration visa problems, so we'll spend more time hanging out...!), and with Steph and Chris we're going to the famous Chung King Mansion, which is at the origin of a even more famous movie, Chung King Express. More than just a restaurant with all possible kinds of curries, it is a place where apparently lots of ''magouille'' goes on with drug dealers or ''business'' visitors that come to buy second-hand junk and resell it in developing countries to make an aweful lot of profit. I'm very excited to visit :)

Finally, things are good, tomorrow I'm moving to the University to start my courses on Monday... I think i'm starting to see beyond the first impressions and to realize what's behind the apparent shopping ( 2-3 times a week for the average HKer!) and eating. I can't wait to find out more. :)

First impressions

2006-06-09T04:22:00.000-04:00

Here is a brief account of my first days in Hong Kong Beach, written as I am stuck inside on this day because of a typhoon! The flight, although 16h long, didn't feel like so long. Flying over Hong Kong was great; there are over 200 islands with nice hills, and many different kinds of boats (like in Battleship lol).

One thing that surprised me is the variety of transportation options! There are I think, 6 or 7 MTR (subway) lines, a fast train going to the New Territories (suburbs), minibuses, tramways, double-deckers buses, three colors of taxis, alouette! And most of the system works with a smart card, the Octopus Card, which charges you on transportation depending on the distance you travel. This is great! The subway is super clean (interdiction of eating and drinking in it!) and the platform has double doors to prevent people from jumping before the train - high suicide rates here I heard!

We spent most of my first day going around the city, on Hong Kong Island next to Causeway Bay, a very vibrant shopping district (one thing : there are as may shopping malls as residential buildings here, I swear!). We went to Holly's favorite shop, GOD, which is the coolest shop ever, it has tons of furniture with really cool designs. After that we took the minibus to Stanley Market, a touristy place with plenty of nice clothing and jewelry which falls out of my budget unfortunately... Oh well, then we spent most of the afternoon sun bathing and swimming in the ocean at Repulse Bay. It was very nice! Then even a yummy curry-coconut dish (my favorite) could not spare me from my jet lag, so it was it! A little bit of Cantonese soap opera and I was fast asleep.

I was very surprised at how efficient everything is here. The service in restaurants is very fast, and the roads are a human masterpiece; it takes plently engineering skills to design a road system for a 7 million people community surrounded by water and mountains! Everything is built vertically; there are layers and layers of stuff to look at (especially advertising, a thing at which Hong Kongers ace!). I have never seen so many air conditioning devices at once in my entire life. Although living in relatively small flats, people really know how to make the most out of the space they have, a lesson from which many of us could learn...

The second day was a bit different, as both Steph and her mom were off to work. From my part, I roamed around the Asian's New York (did you know Hong Kong had a ''Time Square'' and a ''World Trade Centre''?), mostly in Tsim Sha Tsui (TST), a neighbourhood located next to the main harbor. I feel in love with the Kowloon Park, with it's huge, colorful birds, fish and trees. It is very relaxing, and there is always a noise or a smell to stimulate one' senses! I walked around next to the sea where the most famous ferry is (the Star Ferry), and along the Star Avenue, a place where you can see the hand prints of such people as Jet Li and Jackie Chan! It was pretty enjoyable! I got some nice shots on the camera, and I was wanting to visit some museums but they were closed (on a Thursday! hummm).

At dinner time I met up with Chris, my friend's Holly's friend, with which I will be living starting tomorrow. He's super nice, and he has the nicest British accent (although we can't really understand each other too well lol) and he has the coolest job ever; teaching English to little babies! Anyways, he showed me around Wan Chai, a downtown area were lots of the foreigners live and hang out at night (it's closed to Central, the renowned club / pub place). After dinner we went to meet up two of his friends, Shaun and ?Raymond? for one of the most bizarre evenings I had in a long time. We were in this Italian bar with all male expats gathered to prepare the World Cup first day by, I swear, taking 10 rounds of a... Football Quiz! In a pub! If that's not culture shock, then I wonder what it is lol But is was fun.

All in all, things are good, I have yet to be enrolled in the Triads (local criminalized group) ah ah. :)

Pre-Departure Training and Al.

2006-06-02T22:21:00.000-04:00

This week I spent travelling around Central Canada in a quest to figuring out more about my upcoming internship. It started in Montréal from monday-wednesday, where the Canadian Institute of Foreign Service provided a group of development workers of all ages with applied, hands-on examples of intercultural communications. Our group was very nice, it was facilitated by Jocelyne, the Director of the Centre for Intercultural Learning herself, I met a quatuor of interesting men off for a project with Développement International Desjardins (a great potential employer for all interested in microcredit!) in Haiti, as well a girl that took the International Baccalaureate at Garneau CÉGEP a year before me. World is small! I enjoyed most of the training sessions, and they honestly were useful to provide a framework for analyzing cross-cultural encounter. We were brought to experience a life exerience of the Boal Theater of the Oppressed, which I heard about so much in Brazil. I was nevertheless bewildered at the luxery of the whole training; three nights in an executive suite, with generous daily allowances and a 35$ reiumbursement for dinner! Food for thought... Besides that I took my nights off to have an excellent evening with my aunt Jozée and to see my good friend Greg, which took me out to witness in person the official ending of the smoking era in restaurants and bars in the province of Québec! We went bar hopping in the Village, on larger-than-life outdoors patio at the Saint-Sulpice, on a rooftop with an amazing view and spas at the Sky Bar and then to enjoy a great show at Mado's drag queen house!

After the CIL training ended, I grabbed a ride with a Guinean colleague and his very funny Québecer counterpart; they have been working on contracts together for 13 years, and their down-to-earth, pragmatic and sociable mentality gave me some hope for the future in such a career. I was dropped off in Ottawa to continue with a WUSC-specific training. I was surprised to see that many staff from the CECI came all the way from Montréal to meet and chat with their new interns. Their warmth and welcoming will be remembered. Even if the time was getting lenghtly, the training was useful and to-the-point. I can now say that I understand more about how things are going to happen next year while on placement with Uniterra – what seemed at first like a bureaucratic puzzle now appears more intelligible. We were given a very dynamic session on public engagement, which really gave me the taste for getting involved with my home community when I get back. The highlight of the two days : we watch a short video realized by the U.S. Peace Corps, and it was talking about how 5 of them contracted HIV AIDS during their overseas assignment. None of them got it in a careless one-night stand; they all were in a long term relationship with someone they got to trust, then their guards went down, and now, they're dead. Food for thought...

On Thursday night I was lucky enough to catch my busy friend Sara. We went for dinner, and a walk around downtown Ottawa (or, sorry, at least twice throughout it). She was off to Cuba for a semester (see her blog) and I feared I would not see her again for years. It was great to reconnect with each other's projects and thoughts. Speaking thereof, I also saw MEG, Zoé and Nathalie during this past week-end in Montréal. It was honestly so strange because everything seemed all natural; walking around in this beautiful, vibrant city I will one day for sure make my own, going out for a movie, smoking shisha, attending to the tam-tam jam on the Mont-Royal, having ice cream in the Jean-Talon market, ... to then come back to MEG's place to finish packing, shower and take a 4 hours sleep to catch the airport shuttle. Here I am now in Neward, New Jersey, after having gone through the nightmare of U.S. customs, waiting for my next connection which will lift me up in the sky for a fair 16 hours before I meet with Stephanie and Chris in Hong Kong!

Sustainable Manure

2006-05-28T22:17:00.000-04:00

When I go to Québec city I'm so happy to see my science friends! Be it for the annual Spring Break reunion or for taking lenghtly walks at night, they're so cool! Just one example : Doom Leclerc! Doom surprises me enough by letting me know about a homeless friend he has that once was a show case journalist on national TV, before showing me this huge aquarium he keeps in his room. This last innovation of his is an example of aqua-culture; on top of the water lays alleys of plants, which can be lettuce, carrots, whatever, and in the water, there are fish. From my understanding, the big fish feed from smaller fish, whereas the plants grow from the nutrient-rich ''fish manure'' which is produced. It is done in a large scale in certain parts of the world, and it is almost what one could call a close system.

Another example of Doom's passion for sustainable science is his project of reuniting some of Beauce's most polluting farmers and convince them to become more independent energy-wise. What inspired him on that one is the case of a German Village who is totally autarcic by using bio-gas. The process is simple : the manure of cattle is recuperated and it is placed in a big opening with an overlaying dôme. In the absence of oxygen, the manure ferments, producing methane, a fossil fuel that can then be gathered and used instead of petroleum to operate farm machinery. The idea would also be applicable to individual households, which would then recycle their sewage to drag down their electricity bill! How cool is that?

Even coolest is that Oxfam Hong Kong (one of the biggest NGO in Hong Kong) already uses bio-gas as a way of curing a disease named fluorosis in South-Western China. The disease is caused by a certain type of coal, which is the most widely form of energy used by people to cook and heat their houses. With biogas, the population can become more healthy, a first step for getting out of poverty...

What the Bleep do we Know?

2006-05-26T14:39:00.000-04:00

Is the uncomfortable feeling one gets when thinking emotions are in fact due to chemical releases of our brains into the blood stream comparable to the uneasiness of the human being to accept any new scientific break of the status quo? Could it be possible that the faculty of the human being to control his or her own addiction to certain emotions be related to its capacity of exercising his or her power of decision upon the likely position of an negative electric field around a positive kernel? What the Bleep do we Know is an enlightening movie showing how one's internal state of being impacts on, literally, the way one sees the world. I would recommend this movie for any long bus ride... I say long so you can watch it twice.

The Art of Conversation

2006-05-24T00:02:00.000-04:00

When one thinks about the ''Art of Conversation'', there seems to have a cliché of a young woman with her umbrella entertaining her gentleman callers with the newest gossips of the neighbourhood. But what if it was more about asking challenging questions?

The idea of the World Cafe emerged in order to canalize human creativity through the elaboration of an open space for businesses, NGOs or friends to collectively brainstorm in an efficient way. For people that sometimes loose their focus in group discussions (i.e. yours truly), this is a resource which is, without being completly revolutionary, kind of pleasant!

Good books

2006-05-22T23:44:00.000-04:00

I’m just thinking considering I might be bored at some point during my year-and-a-half abroad, has anybody read a good book lately? :) Fiction if possible, as I think we’ll all be head over feet with administrative and academic literature!

My family is pretty proud, and they understand why I spend 300$ in books and not a penny on clothes. :)

I’ve been watching way more movies than reading books recently, but I still try to make a top 5.

1) The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
2) The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran
3) Anything by Eduardo Galeano and George Sand (Chopin's mistress! wow!)
4) The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
5) Cien Anos de Soledad, Gabriel Garcia Marquez

There are three books I'm extremely looking forwards to read:

1) Vers le Sud, Daniel Lafferière
(On sex tourism. The other way around. Not rich executives going to South-East Asia, but on rich women going to Haiti to sleep with Black guys.

2) Jacques le Fataliste, Denis Diderot
(I read part of it in CÉGEP, the author is great at interpelling the reader. He is said to have invented a new type of narration).

3) Un dimanche à la Piscine de Kigali, Gil Courtemanche
(No explanation for that one. Apperently it's just divine)

Education as human rights?

2006-05-20T12:31:00.000-04:00

My friend Corinne made a statement the other day that came across to me a little bit strangely. She said she didn't necessarily agree with the idea that Education is a Human Rights.

After a little bit of thought, it makes sense. It seems like as in many Human Rights issues, the answer given as to what is one's right depends on one's standpoint. People make their own hierarchy of rights; some people clearly would not identify with my thinking that the right to agency should be placed higher than than other rights.

In the realm of social economics, there is controversy around the elaboration of income-generating activities for children. Some people would prefer to see them in school. But what if the child's parents are bed-ridden and they are the only one to be healthy enough to gain money to pay for rent, food, medicine? But what if they themselves engage in unsafe trades and become sick at their turn? What do they want?

My friend Gilles-Philippe was doing research in El Salvador about child work in the sugar cane industry. He came up with the same sort of idea. There was a ban against Coca-Cola's use of child labor. Without their paid labor, the parents still did not have enough savings to send their kids to school, and the government promised series of technical training series to ''recycle'' the youth into productive activities, but they never occured. The problem here is that there is not always a viable alternative to child labor. Then... What's next?

Ni hao ma

2006-05-19T23:44:00.000-04:00

I've been learning putonghua (mandarin Chinese) for three weeks today. Before I started learning it, I thought languages were easy to speak, ok to read and hard to write. Now I changed my mind! Mandarin is hard to speak, read and write! But it surprised me to also see that it was not as eccletic as I thought.

One character in mandarin corresponds to one syllab. Its writing is structured with a finite amount of type of strikes, and works with three alphabets. One is conceptual (for example, a roof on top of a woman is used to mean ''peacefulness''), one is hieroglyph-like (what you see if what you get) and one that is based on system of keys that come back in each word of a given category (for example, all insects will have a certain key in front of the character).

The prononciation is the funniest part. For me who's learning with a book, it's very hard to know if I do it right. Fortunately, there is the pinyin, the phonetic alphabet that translates the pictograms into latin letters. Even then though, there are four types of intonations. One in which your voice stays still, one in which it goes down on a letter, one in which it goes up, and another one on which it goes down and then up on the same letter. And making mistakes can bring up funny stuff! For example, saying ''ni'' with the wrong tone can make people think one said ''fat'' instead of ''you'' !!! Ah, ah :)

For good tricks on learning chinese online, check out Stian's blog.

NGO Support

2006-05-17T22:26:00.000-04:00

Writing an Logical Framework Analysis (LFA) for a Project Management class was for me as much an opportunity to master my spreadsheet skills (in order to squeeze everything into one page!) than to actually do something relevant to my profession. I was told monitoring and evaluation is one of the core sector of NGO work in which economists are useful. Instead of being thought of as a mere administrative requirement, good M&E cements donor relationships and ensures a project doesn't screw up all along without anybody noticing it. I think that's a pretty noble task.

Now... How do I do this? I found a good website that, after eldis.org, is probably the most useful site in development field work I've ever seen. It comprises a toolkit of actual practical stuff people have to do in such a position. In three languages.

Cooperation....

2006-05-15T21:37:00.000-04:00

I heard the Lonely Planet now has a book about people's blogs to help you travel! If anybody has it, you let me know how it is hey... I myself found the most valuable information about my work placement in Bobo-Dioulasso by looking at people's personal pages. Check out this one : Emmanuel's page.

I also found someone really cool, who's in the same town working with the same partner organization than I will! Her insights put me back into track. Thanks Nathalie if you ever read this.

Hear, Speak, See and Screw no Evil?

2006-05-12T12:01:00.000-04:00

It is often said that AIDS is a disease of poverty, and that poverty is a situation in which people do not have options. An illustration of the dilemma of HIV positive mothers as to wheter they should breastfeed or not. The disease being transmissible between mother and child by breastfeeding, choosing not to breasfeed stands as a forced disclosure of women's status. Whereas there still is the debate whereas a widespread openess about the AIDS situation could be good by contributing to break myths about it, it seems to me that mothers choosing not to breastfeed may not always realize the consequences of using infant formulas, which are costly, not as nutritive and entails several other health risks. One just has to remember the Nestlé's Baby Bottle Scandal, an instance where women were manipulated and misinformed to generate profits for a multinational company.

This is yet another example of how, even if consumption patterns are relocated towards basic needs, the AIDS pandemic does increase the dependence of developing nations upon industrial goods produced outside their boundaries.

Brazilian movie

2006-05-10T11:58:00.000-04:00

The other day I was looking to polish up my Portuguese (I still haven't ordered Harry Potter 6 in that language, oh my!) when I bumped into the movie Carandiru at Queen's Video.

The story takes place in Sao Paulo and relates the past life of prisoners in what used to be Latin-America's biggest jail. Based on a real story, the final scene tells about the 1992 massacre, in which the Brazilian police (which, I witness, is scary and beats up homeless kids in the streets of Sampa) killed over 100 prisonners over a riot that explosed over a banal disagreement. Interestingly enough, prisonners were trying to literally use their HIV positive status as a biological weapon to try to save their lives. Basically, it tells the story of a double, even a triple, a quadruple stigma : that of HIV AIDS, Injectable Drug Users, Prisonners and Homosexuality.

It also made me think of another movie my mother and I watched the other day, Brokeback Mountain. I wonder how the story would have changed if the AIDS pandemic was going on in the 1960s; would the protagonist still have been killed or would people have been too scared to even approach gay men from the fear of becoming infected? It seems like the whole cowboy, and usually conservative mentality in Texas would have been more likely to suggest total abstinence than anything else to prevent the spread of HIV AIDS... There would probably be so much more cases here in North America if the outbreak started earlier in time, when the then stronger religious ''tradition'' resulted in people not wanting to be tested because of the resulting stigma...

AIDS was now by the U.S. declared an issue of National Security. I wonder if that's all it takes for them to start taking action to curb it...

Appropriate Technology

2006-05-07T23:28:00.000-04:00

The idea of Appropriate Technology (AT) is strange. It comes in handy when making a case for open-source software in developing nations! My prof of political economy was saying that since labor is the abundant factor in developing countries (in opposition to capital), then AT should be labor-intensive. I never really questioned this assertion before now. What if the population is affected by a high HIV prevalence rate? Then... Shouldn't it be labor-saving? This is yet another instance in which I found myself using academic words that I don't fully understand.

Thanks to ECMB06 - Intermediate MacroEconomics, now I recognize the HIV AIDS pandemic is silimar to an adverse IS curve shock in the Mundell-Fleming model. Which means : it is the exact same kind of phenomenom as the Great Depression. The dire fall in global ouput has (and probably will again because of the structural adjustement programs) been aggravated by a cut in government spending. This is disturbing; economists want to let people think that there will not be anything like the Great Depression again. I think it's just taking another form.

If you're interested in the economics of HIV AIDS, there is an amazing scholar named Joan Parker (thanks to Al for letting me know about her!) that writes about it. You can find two pieces of her work here : the overall issues paper and a paper on microfinance and HIV.

Elections in Chad - The future is in your Hands?

2006-05-05T00:02:00.000-04:00

May 3rd was the official date of the presidential elections in Chad, Central Africa. Still carrying the lingers of April 13th rebel attacks on the capital city and enduring the bitterness of the boycot of all major opposition parties in the country, Idriss Déby is likely to continue is 16 year reign over the cradle of humanity. Earlier this week, the UN was building refugee camps in neighbouring Cameroon to prepare for what it thought would be an inflow of refugees from N'Djemena as the rebels (or mercenaries, depending on one's view point) were thought to invade the city. So far, so good, though... My friends in N'Djamena went out for a beer after the April 13th rebel attacks, and many expats in Canada decided not to cast a ballot, for the results of the election is known in advance.

While the results of the elections are not expected until May 14th, it seems like the polling itself went quite smootly, which can of course be associated with the high presence of French troops in the country. Even after having seen half the military fly to Darfur to plot a coup against his government last December, Déby is convinced in his own and his kinsmen's capacities of setting the rules of the game in Chad. He has indeed recently settled a dispute with the World Bank about the way oil revenues are used; he seem to have won his case in arguing the big money should serve for paying weapons to defend the country against Sudan, with which the civil war clearly is not as ''over'' as the Tripoli Agreements would like us to believe. One thing is that for sure the descendents of the Sao, a tribe famous for the exceptional height of its members, will need all their courage to go through this.

Second Life

2006-05-04T00:00:00.000-04:00

I will be working on an independent research contract for the beginning of the summer, looking into developing a live CD for teaching the use of open-source software to non-for-profit assocations for their media project.

I was reading the Economist Survey last week, which happened to be on New Media (April 22nd, Vol.379, Iss. 8474). The Survey was telling about an network named Second Life, whose members literally create their online avatar and start socializing, working, buying ventures and living in this frontier environment. People actually pay big money to buy pieces of land so they can create their virtual empire.

That day, I was thinking about how a Chadian friend was telling me about superstitions in his country, about how people gathered around a dead rebel to steal part of his clothing so that it would protect them against fire arms. And I was thinking that here in Canada we're not much better; how far can people really go when they want to ''start all over again''?

Visa Enveloppe

2006-05-03T23:58:00.000-04:00

I just spend a whole week running around town (and canoeing across the lake!) to try to get a student visa for taking summer courses on the huge campus of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. I must admit I hardly ever had to do such a complicated administrative undertaking! I had to go dig all the way into my high school transcripts and ask the Caisse Desjardins in my home town for a bank draft in Hong Kong Dollars, which was an operation that is slightly less common over there than on Spadina street in Toronto where I usually do banking! The worst part is that before I got my offer of admission I was relaxing in the idea that I only needed a passport to enter the island (the Canadian government's website says students do not need a visa for studies under three months - I'm going 2 1/2 months).

Apparently Germany is more demanding than Hong Kong even and it is asking for applicants to furnish a proof of solvancy for 3000 CDN. I wonder how could Cuba be? Or mainland China?

Moral of the story : always double check with the partner institution before going on thinking you don't need a VISA :)

Fuelwood crisis

2006-04-28T00:00:00.000-04:00

I just came home to Lac-Etchemin, Québec, yesterday, and knew it as I was leaving Toronto's streets, which are saturated with cell phones ads. I must say I was shocked to see how these differed from Montréal's streets, who are filled with posters about the National Library, the African Drumming Festival and the Week for International Solidarity... How different is that from culture shock? :)

Speaking thereof, coming home means coming back to good old wood heating. This form of energy seems to have went down in popularity, maybe because it just takes two week-ends to split and cord all the firewood. And it makes a mess. And your back aches. (This is a post for those who aren't from the countryside by the way!)

I always wondered why my parents never switched to fossil fuels for heating. I don't think it really is because of neither environmental or sustainability reasons. It also made me think that some people need to walk several miles to get their fuelwood, and here we just have a range of options for house heating with price tags.

My grand-father is 84 years old and he still goes in the forest every day. I don't think I inherited his passion, but despite my despicable mark in forestry, the other day I had a reflexion about plantations. The guy next door has a pine plantation, which is probably especially great during Christmas time. I was thinking since it does not produce leaves of any sort, then it's branches can not really be used for fodder, and clearly I could not see any other benefits to this establishment than the socio-economic ones. No agroforestry in sight, no protected areas either.

Then I realized that my dad put pine branches on the grass just over where the water pipe lays. It seems like this creates an isolation that keeps the cold from freezing our water supply during the winter... All in all, wood here is much more used for climatic reasons than for cooking, but it is still liked to well-being and survival, hey?

Graphics

2006-04-23T00:01:00.000-04:00

While I was in CÉGEP I used to get together with my friends from the astrophysics committee and then design fractals on the computer and watch psychedelic movies that exploited a camera's magnetic field (as well as Pink Floyd's groove) to make amazing light effects.
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I thought these days were gone... Before I downloaded Inkscape. Inkscape is the open source version of Adobe Illustrator, and it is used for making vectorial graphics, which in turn are widely used to make logos, patterns, etc.

If one day you want to have fun. Download Inkscape. Draw a star. Then pull it inside out, drag it around with your mouse. Click on the nodes button and play around with them. Rarely had such a fun time with computer software...

Karité

2006-04-20T23:59:00.000-04:00

Everybody knows shea from being the favorite commodity at the centre of the Body Shop's socially counscious discourse. I was reading about the shea global market and realized there was much more to it than, one the one end, the domestic use by families in West-Africa (oil, butter, soap) and, on the other end, the ''exotic'' cosmetics used by cosmopolitan Western consumers.

It occurs than most of the time it is written something like vegetable oil on the back of a mass-produced chocolate bar, it most likely refers to shea oil! How strange?

Another thing I notice is that shea is a trade that empowers and bound women together. It takes the strenght of the youth, the capital of the middle-aged and the experience of the elderly to produce shea butter, which is a tremendously labor-intensive activity. Women in Ghana are said to keep the income from the sales of shea butter to themselves, and young women learning how to set up their own shea business become more independent on their husbands later in life, which in turn, by increasing their ''bargaining power'', might have the effect of their vulnerability to domestic violence. In addition, many women of the same neighbourhood contribute to each other's efforts in a rotating basis, which garantees a supply of labor and thus diminishes the need for taking loans and hiring employees. Neat, hey?

Horizontal Integration

2006-04-15T19:40:00.000-04:00

I have recently gotten news about going to work in Burkina Faso with WUSC-Uniterra, as part of the twelve-months co-op placement for my university degree. I'll be (most likely) working on monitoring and evaluation of income-generating activities with people with HIV AIDS, focusing on women cooperatives in the shea butter industry. This is a chance for me to explore emerging sectors in economics that are somehow more related to my interests than, say, price theory. With so many people living from AIDS, and with the all the social stigma surrounding being HIV positive, I can hardly think of better way to regain one's dignity than being capable of staying independent. With AIDS being so often dismissed as being a ''women's disease'', and female patients' lifestyles being pointed out as the cause of its evils, it is interesting to see how the idea of fair trade (and the business and marketing side it involves) can contribute to alienate this bias. More on this later.