March 31, 2008 • 11:47 am
As I was getting ready to leave the house this morning I had a startling revelation. It was Monday morning and I was happy. I never recall in nursing actually looking forward to the work week and not being sad that the weekend/ days off were over. I guess despite all the personal and family dramas, and general cynicism over the state of the world, I am in the right place and doing the right thing. I am enjoying academia, getting my teeth into some really interesting reading and actually making concrete plans to get to Honduras later this year.
My advice to the world for today? If it’s Monday morning and you are not looking forward to the week, perhaps it’s time to re-evaluate. Don’t wait for the world to get better for you. If you would rather be doing something else, try and work out how you can make the change happen. It’s so worth it.
But enough blogging, I really should really actually be doing those readings right now!
Filed under: Honduras, Thoughts, blogging, life, study
Yesterday we spent a happy few hours at the Palmerston North Festival of Cultures, eating curries and fish balls and dutch pancakes, watching dancers and musicians of various cultures and shopping for jewellery and crafts. The festival is “is a celebration of Palmerston North’s richness and diversity of cultures and is a great opportunity for new refugees and migrants to have a sense of place, feel connected and have a sense of belonging“. I’ve been guilty of being somewhat derogatory about this city at times, but events like this make me pround of my ‘adopted’ home. Looking around people from such a variety of cultures enjoying the day together, I wondered why it is that this kind of atmosphere of peace and happiness seems so difficult to achieve on larger regional and global levels.
(pictures shamelessly ‘borrowed’ from the Festival website)
Filed under: Thoughts, life, refugees , Festival of Culture, Palmerston North
March 28, 2008 • 12:31 am
Ten years ago I used to play the No Doubt album Tragic Kingdom over and over. At that time I loved “I’m just a girl” (take this pink ribbon off my eyes…), probably because it suited my post-teen feminist angst. A few days ago I ‘rediscovered’ the album in MP3 format and today was playing it on my walk home from university. This time it was the song “Make the world go ’round’ that caught my attention and it has been going through my head all evening.
You see there’s many many many many
People in the world
And I’m not sure if I like
What I’ve heard
I’m not sure if I like
What I’m doin myself
I’m not sure if I like how the world turns
How the world turns
Oh degradation – great big world (great big world)
I’m in violation – oh
Inexcusable exploitation
It’s the dawning of a new era
People consciously don’t care
How unfair
You find another way
To make the world go ’round
You gotta find another way
To make the world go ’round
We gotta find another way
To make the world go ’round
I’ve been feeling quite disillusioned with the world recently, but a bizarre mix of pop culture and academia made an impact on me today. I’ve been doing a lot of reading over the past few days on types of development (please bear with me as I get theoretical for a minute). One of the key concepts in Development Studies over the past decade has been the idea of immanent vs. intentional development (Cowen and Shenton Doctrines of Development, 1996)- immanent development being development that occurs as the result of undirected, organic change (such as the industrial revolution, or the current information revolution) and intentional development being literally deliberate, planned intervention (ie development projects). Today I was reading an article by Anthony Bebbington, who argues that neither form of change is having an positive impact on the lives of the poorest. This has been the crux of some of my recent disillusionment- that global change seems incredibly destructive yet unstoppable, and development agencies and projects seem to have limited (or only local) sucess. Bebbington argues that development academics and practitioners should be looking for a third way- that development should be “about redistributions and transformations… to recover the meaning of development as social justice” (“NGOs and uneven development: Geographies of development” 2004).
This is encouraging to me. Of course he doesn’t elaborate on how this might be done- maybe I have to look for more recent articles- but I am happy to know that someone with a lot more academic credentials than me is actually thinking this way. It restores my faith in Development Studies somewhat. Perhaps in academia I may get the opportunity to help find another way to make the world go ’round.
Now that just sounds cheesy and way optomistic. But at least I’m feeling a little better about things.
Filed under: Thoughts, development, life, music, phd, social justice , development theory, No Doubt, Tragic Kingdom
59 North Americans get sick so 1500 Hondurans (mostly single Mothers) loose thier jobs? Do North Americans not know how to wash fruit? I wonder how many Honduran children will get sick because thier mothers can no longer afford to feed them properly?
Yes, I’m cynical today. This world just seems upside down to me.
Filed under: Honduras, Thoughts, news, poverty, social justice
Tela Bay and its environs is the center of the Honduran Garifuna world, with some 36 communities dotted along an impressive 80km sandy shore. The largest of them, Triunfo de la Cruz, population 800 families, is a quiet, unassuming village that now finds itself on the front line of the conflict. The first thing the visitor may notice about the Triunfo de la Cruz beachfront is what is lacking. Unusual for a paradise vista like this – a sweeping sun-drenched bay with lush sands and majestic palms. There is no line of beachfront hotels, no bars, no reclining tourists in bikinis sipping margaritas, no uniformed attendants sweeping up the ocean debris. Instead there is a group of hardy fishermen dragging their small old boats from the sea, there are gaggles of raggedy children playing games and and there is an intriguing, languorous feel to the place. It’s a though nothing has changed much here on the beach at Triunfo de la Cruz for a couple of centuries, and people like it that way.
From “The Last Rebels of the Caribbean” by Ramor Ryan
Unfortunately the Garifuna are having to fight to keep it that way. Government, developers and multinational interests are trying very hard to transform this area into economically productive tourism ventures. The means of doing this include the illegal privatisation of communal land, coercion and the murder of local leaders.
I’m hoping the Garifuna succeed. I’ve visited the North Coast and can’t wait to return- but I won’t be staying in a big resort.
edit: I knew I’d read about this before. Check out La Gringa’s blog for more background, and passionate comments from a Garifuna student.
Filed under: Honduras, social justice, travel , caribbean, garifuna, tourism
I’m published again…
on page 23 (note- PDF file)
If you have an opinion on the issue I’d love it if you came back here to let me know what you think!
Filed under: Christianity, social justice , just change, volunteering
“Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity it is an act of justice”
(Nelson Mandela, Trafalgar Square, 2005)
Filed under: poverty, social justice , charity, justuce, Nelson Mandela
