Im not reallsy sure how to explain my silence over the last month or two, when briefing after humanitarian briefing inundated my psyche with a tangled web wherein politics somehow pretends to have jurisdiction over saving lives, myths undermine peoples' willingness to accept treatment, and NGOs with a 50 million dollar budget do governments' work. Nearly every day for some five weeks we were going to briefings from the UN convention on trade and development (UNCTAD), the UN high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) which was a favorite of mine, Medsans du Monde, the UNDP, FOSIT--an association of NGOs alligned towards a certain set of principles, various organizations centered around migration and health, as well as homecare medical treatment. We learned about projects in Africa, designed by UNESCO in Paris, wherein teachers--among the most respected in society-- who contract HIV/AIDS teach towards its prevention, undermining the stigma against it and educating children to value safety and sexual discretion rather than promicuity. It has been projects like these that reall inspire me. We can learn about HIV/AIDS, the stigmas against it, where they come from, and general ideas about what we need to do, but examples of projects which get it done provide true education for me. and hope. I think part of this literary silence has come from some level of disenchantment and disheartenment--the natural consequence of living in the barriers to humanitarian efficacy, the hard realities of what unfolds around the world, and my opportunity to address one of them. But it has been interesting to to watch the reaction to it all by my peers. We began to fall into a rhythm...and a desensitization. Certain students began to ask predictable questions, which meant that others would make fun of him behind his back, and asking questions would become a scary affair. Experts presentations too became highly scrutinized. A briefing by a senior member of the UN Development Program began to be a drag! These briefings needed to be prepared for and processed, especially as yound americans--highly protected from the devestating realities that characterize the lives of the vast majority of the world yet eager to contribute to the alleviation therein. What do you do when youve just been shown pictures of a dog knawing in the street on the flesh of a body seared by the heat of a nearby explosion, its mushroom hovering in the background? Or kids playing football with shrapnel? or Babies heads fed tubes through beer bottles? or Muslims making concrete with potable water? Or ten year old boys holding warriors' rifles to women's heads? What do I do with that? --academically, psychologically, emotionally, and professionally? We can talk about grand "initiatives," "programmes," blueprints for growth. but this stuff continues, this stuff is what so many see and live. its all they know. and we were spared. So my question becomes, how can we make their lives better? How can we make those little girls, born with AIDS in the middle of an African war zone smile?? Am I naieve? Theres a woman, Hope Amman, who has worked with a local man in the Ivory Coast to create a facility for the mentally ill--those who are emotionally disturbed by the violence, the disease and the poverty that ravages their country. She works to rehabilitate them and help them to reenter society, often as farmers or as social workers in the very facility they entered for help. Aside from the rebels who would destroy the place, and the refugees who would often seek refuge there, the St. Camille foundation has become a major factor in the community's increasing acceptance of mental illness, which makes a huge difference when children become encaged for their cerebral palsey or chained to trees with depression.
Naturally I've found myself pulled in every direction, interested for example in the innovative partnerships forged between a humanitarian organization, say UNHCR,and the local people when they are unable to penetrate the zone of conflict because the rebel groups no longer respect their neutral status or the governments dont want them there. Or I entertained the impact of post natural disaster/post conflict reconstruction as a basis for sustainable development. I looked into environmental security and peace parks -- trans-boundary protected areas designed to foster cooperation around consrvation and development and I spoke with an expert at the World Intellectual Property Organization about work with Patents and Traditional Knowledge. There are so many things happening here, my mind was consumed with opportunities and options for my independent study. Everything nudges the trajectory of my imagination, and I try to incorporate it all.
And of course none of this happens within a vaccuum. I missed the train returning from Paris because I was immersed in conversation with a new and dear friend from fellowship. So I exchanged my ticked and was given open seating in first class besides the UN ambassador to Cameroon. Of course the nature of his affairs interested me, and he told me about his life, his education and Cameroon. He became highly flirtatious, holding my hand, asking me to go dancing with him, inviting me to his hotel in Geneva when we arrive. He didnt want to talk about the real issues--how he, as an ambassador, can address poverty among the various needs of his country. He didnt want to share the nature of his business at all aside from the fact that he represents the African Union to the Group of Five at the UN. He wasnt interested in this, at all.
The man who briefed us from the UNHCR, Alphonse, wasnt supposed to do so. The man originally scheduled to illustrate his life for us had to go to an emergency meeting on the human rights abuses in Myanmar. So Alphonse told us about his life in the field working with refugees. Afterwards, I felt inclined to ask him about Music in the refugee camps. Apparantly, hes the producer of the Refugee Allstars,
Im not reallsy sure how to explain my silence over the last month or two, when briefing after humanitarian briefing inundated my psyche with a tangled web wherein politics somehow pretends to have jurisdiction over saving lives, myths undermine peoples' willingness to accept treatment, and NGOs with a 50 million dollar budget do governments' work. Nearly every day for some five weeks we were going to briefings from the UN convention on trade and development (UNCTAD), the UN high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) which was a favorite of mine, Medsans du Monde, the UNDP, FOSIT--an association of NGOs alligned towards a certain set of principles, various organizations centered around migration and health, as well as homecare medical treatment. We learned about projects in Africa, designed by UNESCO in Paris, wherein teachers--among the most respected in society-- who contract HIV/AIDS teach towards its prevention, undermining the stigma against it and educating children to value safety and sexual discretion rather than promicuity. It has been projects like these that reall inspire me. We can learn about HIV/AIDS, the stigmas against it, where they come from, and general ideas about what we need to do, but examples of projects which get it done provide true education for me. and hope. I think part of this literary silence has come from some level of disenchantment and disheartenment--the natural consequence of living in the barriers to humanitarian efficacy, the hard realities of what unfolds around the world, and my opportunity to address one of them. But it has been interesting to to watch the reaction to it all by my peers. We began to fall into a rhythm...and a desensitization. Certain students began to ask predictable questions, which meant that others would make fun of him behind his back, and asking questions would become a scary affair. Experts presentations too became highly scrutinized. A briefing by a senior member of the UN Development Program began to be a drag! These briefings needed to be prepared for and processed, especially as yound americans--highly protected from the devestating realities that characterize the lives of the vast majority of the world yet eager to contribute to the alleviation therein. What do you do when youve just been shown pictures of a dog knawing in the street on the flesh of a body seared by the heat of a nearby explosion, its mushroom hovering in the background? Or kids playing football with shrapnel? or Babies heads fed tubes through beer bottles? or Muslims making concrete with potable water? Or ten year old boys holding warriors' rifles to women's heads? What do I do with that? --academically, psychologically, emotionally, and professionally? We can talk about grand "initiatives," "programmes," blueprints for growth. but this stuff continues, this stuff is what so many see and live. its all they know. and we were spared. So my question becomes, how can we make their lives better? How can we make those little girls, born with AIDS in the middle of an African war zone smile?? Am I naieve? Theres a woman, Hope Amman, who has worked with a local man in the Ivory Coast to create a facility for the mentally ill--those who are emotionally disturbed by the violence, the disease and the poverty that ravages their country. She works to rehabilitate them and help them to reenter society, often as farmers or as social workers in the very facility they entered for help. Aside from the rebels who would destroy the place, and the refugees who would often seek refuge there, the St. Camille foundation has become a major factor in the community's increasing acceptance of mental illness, which makes a huge difference when children become encaged for their cerebral palsey or chained to trees with depression.
Naturally I've found myself pulled in every direction, interested for example in the innovative partnerships forged between a humanitarian organization, say UNHCR,and the local people when they are unable to penetrate the zone of conflict because the rebel groups no longer respect their neutral status or the governments dont want them there. Or I entertained the impact of post natural disaster/post conflict reconstruction as a basis for sustainable development. I looked into environmental security and peace parks -- trans-boundary protected areas designed to foster cooperation around consrvation and development and I spoke with an expert at the World Intellectual Property Organization about work with Patents and Traditional Knowledge. There are so many things happening here, my mind was consumed with opportunities and options for my independent study. Everything nudges the trajectory of my imagination, and I try to incorporate it all.
And of course none of this happens within a vaccuum. I missed the train returning from Paris because I was immersed in conversation with a new and dear friend from fellowship. So I exchanged my ticked and was given open seating in first class besides the UN ambassador to Cameroon. Of course the nature of his affairs interested me, and he told me about his life, his education and Cameroon. He became highly flirtatious, holding my hand, asking me to go dancing with him, inviting me to his hotel in Geneva when we arrive. He didnt want to talk about the real issues--how he, as an ambassador, can address poverty among the various needs of his country. He didnt want to share the nature of his business at all aside from the fact that he represents the African Union to the Group of Five at the UN. He wasnt interested in this, at all.
The man who briefed us from the UNHCR, Alphonse, wasnt supposed to do so. The man originally scheduled to illustrate his life for us had to go to an emergency meeting on the human rights abuses in Myanmar. So Alphonse told us about his life in the field working with refugees. Afterwards, I felt inclined to ask him about Music in the refugee camps. Apparantly, hes the producer of the Refugee Allstars,
Im not reallsy sure how to explain my silence over the last month or two, when briefing after humanitarian briefing inundated my psyche with a tangled web wherein politics somehow pretends to have jurisdiction over saving lives, myths undermine peoples' willingness to accept treatment, and NGOs with a 50 million dollar budget do governments' work. Nearly every day for some five weeks we were going to briefings from the UN convention on trade and development (UNCTAD), the UN high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) which was a favorite of mine, Medsans du Monde, the UNDP, FOSIT--an association of NGOs alligned towards a certain set of principles, various organizations centered around migration and health, as well as homecare medical treatment. We learned about projects in Africa, designed by UNESCO in Paris, wherein teachers--among the most respected in society-- who contract HIV/AIDS teach towards its prevention, undermining the stigma against it and educating children to value safety and sexual discretion rather than promicuity. It has been projects like these that reall inspire me. We can learn about HIV/AIDS, the stigmas against it, where they come from, and general ideas about what we need to do, but examples of projects which get it done provide true education for me. and hope. I think part of this literary silence has come from some level of disenchantment and disheartenment--the natural consequence of living in the barriers to humanitarian efficacy, the hard realities of what unfolds around the world, and my opportunity to address one of them. But it has been interesting to to watch the reaction to it all by my peers. We began to fall into a rhythm...and a desensitization. Certain students began to ask predictable questions, which meant that others would make fun of him behind his back, and asking questions would become a scary affair. Experts presentations too became highly scrutinized. A briefing by a senior member of the UN Development Program began to be a drag! These briefings needed to be prepared for and processed, especially as yound americans--highly protected from the devestating realities that characterize the lives of the vast majority of the world yet eager to contribute to the alleviation therein. What do you do when youve just been shown pictures of a dog knawing in the street on the flesh of a body seared by the heat of a nearby explosion, its mushroom hovering in the background? Or kids playing football with shrapnel? or Babies heads fed tubes through beer bottles? or Muslims making concrete with potable water? Or ten year old boys holding warriors' rifles to women's heads? What do I do with that? --academically, psychologically, emotionally, and professionally? We can talk about grand "initiatives," "programmes," blueprints for growth. but this stuff continues, this stuff is what so many see and live. its all they know. and we were spared. So my question becomes, how can we make their lives better? How can we make those little girls, born with AIDS in the middle of an African war zone smile?? Am I naieve? Theres a woman, Hope Amman, who has worked with a local man in the Ivory Coast to create a facility for the mentally ill--those who are emotionally disturbed by the violence, the disease and the poverty that ravages their country. She works to rehabilitate them and help them to reenter society, often as farmers or as social workers in the very facility they entered for help. Aside from the rebels who would destroy the place, and the refugees who would often seek refuge there, the St. Camille foundation has become a major factor in the community's increasing acceptance of mental illness, which makes a huge difference when children become encaged for their cerebral palsey or chained to trees with depression.
Naturally I've found myself pulled in every direction, interested for example in the innovative partnerships forged between a humanitarian organization, say UNHCR,and the local people when they are unable to penetrate the zone of conflict because the rebel groups no longer respect their neutral status or the governments dont want them there. Or I entertained the impact of post natural disaster/post conflict reconstruction as a basis for sustainable development. I looked into environmental security and peace parks -- trans-boundary protected areas designed to foster cooperation around consrvation and development and I spoke with an expert at the World Intellectual Property Organization about work with Patents and Traditional Knowledge. There are so many things happening here, my mind was consumed with opportunities and options for my independent study. Everything nudges the trajectory of my imagination, and I try to incorporate it all.
And of course none of this happens within a vaccuum. I missed the train returning from Paris because I was immersed in conversation with a new and dear friend from fellowship. So I exchanged my ticked and was given open seating in first class besides the UN ambassador to Cameroon. Of course the nature of his affairs interested me, and he told me about his life, his education and Cameroon. He became highly flirtatious, holding my hand, asking me to go dancing with him, inviting me to his hotel in Geneva when we arrive. He didnt want to talk about the real issues--how he, as an ambassador, can address poverty among the various needs of his country. He didnt want to share the nature of his business at all aside from the fact that he represents the African Union to the Group of Five at the UN. He wasnt interested in this, at all.
The man who briefed us from the UNHCR, Alphonse, wasnt supposed to do so. The man originally scheduled to illustrate his life for us had to go to an emergency meeting on the human rights abuses in Myanmar. So Alphonse told us about his life in the field working with refugees. Afterwards, I felt inclined to ask him about Music in the refugee camps. Apparantly, hes the producer of the Refugee Allstars, http://www.refugeeallstars.org/ This group of unbelievably inspiring refugee musicians tours the world educating people about their lives, through music and film. We went out dancing.
And so the cultural of power became my "Cultural Drop Off," this project we had to do to engage in interviews with individuals within a certain culture. Naturally, given the interactions id had, and the sphere of power in which we've been living and studying, I chose this culture to explore. I asked people about global power dynamics--what they thought about the endless examples of promises to save the world that go unrealized. We can help Africa, we know how, and we dont. Why? Is this ok with you? Apparanty, Yes. Apparantly there is a dgree of learned helplessness that characterizes the international political world, and its observers, or perhaps just an acceptance of the way it works. I find it rather outrageous--the lies that are told of change and help. Many said, "at least they are doing something." Mediocrity is better than nothing at all. And many said "they,"--the ones in/with "Power" "couldnt care less" about those oevr whom they have power. They live in a world of "Illusion" characterized by ideology which obscures their perception of reality. Who knows. But in this context, meeting the UN ambassador to Cameroon, Dr. Toko, whos spent more of his adult life in a classroom than in Cameroon, versus meeting Alphonse, the field guy and producer redefined my personal perception of power's locus. And it raises many questions: What are the characteristics o leadership most effective when power arises rather than descends. Because this is what I see happening.
So I met some Doctoral Students who are designing what they call global demos, which is really trying to be many things...but underscoring their project design in an intention to leverage civil society to influence Corporate Social Responsibility, by trailing industrial supply chains online and generating conversation around it. I have generall been moving into the private sector as it has become clear that so many social and environmental responsibilities have shifted to their jurisdiction. So then it becomes a question of how they govern environmental issues? What do their words mean, if anything, as in Greenwashing. And as carbon markets drive companies to outsource, supply chain valuation brings together suppliers, producers and consumers, and companies become social and environmental stewards, inverting the environmental paradigm of just 5 years ago, what does this mean dor sustainable development and democracy--of environmental governance?
I miss you all! I love Switzerland, and Jurgen continues to ride his bike to work before I get up in the morning. It is a magnificent country, and a perfect time to be here--before the glacers recede entirely and it becomes part of the EU. The culture is pure. its a landlocked island! you can feel the difference as you enter and exit its borders. Theres a feeling of safety, predictability and a wholesome calm which I think alienates as many people as it comforts.
...And philly is my home.
