Turning Over a New Leaf

My recent health kick has got me out of the house and in to the gym – ironically just above the Superstore, which I chose to look at in a positive light, overlooking all those fruits and veggies as I struggle down the steps following my BodyPump class (a real killer! Beware!) In the past, I had always viewed the gym with hesitation and suspicion, knowing just how hard it will make you work and not always with the rewards hoped for. However, I’ve had a recent change of heart – I initially started going after a friend, day after day expressed how good it made her feel. Knowing my own struggle with the winter blah’s, her ranting and raving got me out of the house and in to the gym – and I think I might be a better person for it! Admittedly, I’m sore. Very sore. But I know it’s a good sore and I definitely can relate to my friend’s jubilation about the benefits of the gym. It’s also motivated me to look at food in a different light – do I really need that slice when I know it’ll take me an hour to burn it off? There’s so many great, colourful and tasty alternatives, why bother? I’m trying things too that I don’t think I ever would have, bored of the same old peas and carrots. Ever tried a celery root? okra? endives? Well, I have! yum yum and off I go hunting for a recipe that teaches me how to make them. Ta da! There’s one exhausting, satisfying and fun filled day all in one! Good bye winter blues and hello healthy, toned and happy me! The only thing that I tend to struggle with is the fact that fresh means no preservatives (not including the fertilizers and pesticides that seem to accompany most imported foods) and spoil far too quickly and I end up having a heap of xyz vegetable for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It absolutely kills me to throw out food, knowing very well how scarce it is in different parts of the world. Today, UNICEF is launching a  social media campaign aimed at raising awareness about food droughts in the Sahel region of Africa. It’s pretty awful and makes my daily gym-healthy routine sort of extravagant. At the same time, from my little town just north of Toronto, the most I can do is spread the word and donate my time and attention (sorry, funds are a little low although the right sentiments are there!) to spreading the word. I think sometimes  realizing what other’s don’t have motivates other’s to take advantage of the resources and opportunities that are right under our noses. With that said, I’m off for another gruelling workout, but I’m sure I’ll be better for it in the long run!

Social Enterprises take on Poverty Reduction

The below articles looks at how social entrepreneurs are modifying their approach to addressing poverty alleviation in developing countries. Although many entrepreneurs focus on one issue at a time, FXB goes beyond single service delivery to holistically lift communities out of poverty, including access to health and education facilities.

NexThought Monday: FXB, Intervening Holistically for Economic Empowerment

By Heather Esper

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Ugandan families are among the recipients of FXB assistance. (All images by Alan Wicht, courtesy of FXB).

 

Whether it’s clean water, access to finance, or sustainable energy, social enterprises and foundations alike often hone in on a specific focus with the goal of reaching a wide scale of impact in the long run. One could argue that FXB takes the opposite approach by examining the big picture causes behind poverty first and tailoring a diverse set of services to help families reach economic independence.

The donor funded FXB utilizes a three-year approach to improve the lives of children by working with their families to provide comprehensive support in a customized way. Their approach focuses on economic empowerment and includes providing families with a subsidized and integrated set of services, while gradually moving families toward financial sustainability by the end of the third year. Within each “FXB-Village” their team consists of a social worker, nurse and logistician.  By focusing on economic empowerment FXB is able to leave communities after three years.

During the first year, FXB looks to strengthen the foundation of the family by improving their access to health care, housing, education and psychological health. In the second year, FXB identifies diverse income generating activities that are a good fit for the family by engaging them in both individual and group income generating activities. For example, FXB might train a family to grow beans on their own, but also link them to a labor cooperative that is raising pigs. During the second year, FXB covers 75 percent of the cost of services, with the majority related to educating the household’s children. The third year begins with families covering 50 percent of expenses and ends with the families paying for 100 percent of costs.

I spoke with FXB CEO Sean Mayberry, who joined the organization in 2011. Previously the chief operating officer of VisionSpring, Mayberry discussed FXB’s approach and direction for the future.

Heather Esper: Besides providing families with income generating activities, FXB also helps families access a number of other services including health care and education. Do you think it would be possible for FXB to intervene in communities by only introducing income generating activities, or do families’ other needs need to be met first?

Sean Mayberry: FXB has developed its FXB-Village model over 20 years of trial and error. Over that time we have learned that poverty is complicated, and families need a strong foundation upon which to integrate economic empowerment.  FXB’s experience has been that simply introducing an IGA (income generating activity) without the rest of our comprehensive approach will not result in the same success that we have seen with the FXB-Village model. Economic empowerment without the rest is like building a house on sand, it won’t last. It has become very clear to me and our team that addressing individual needs does not solve poverty. In order to make a dent in the poverty faced by the poorest of the poor it takes a comprehensive approach.

I used to work in the DR Congo and socially marketed mosquito nets around that country.  I can still see some of our customers, in rural villages, who were so pleased to purchase such a net, but these same people also wanted much more from my team—they needed jobs, they needed more comprehensive health support.  I always left those villages feeling slightly disappointed that my team was not providing the full solution.  Today, with FXB, we are providing the full solution, and I leave after visits with our beneficiaries knowing that these families are succeeding.

Heather Esper: Why did FXB decide to focus mainly on economic empowerment?

Sean Mayberry: As you know poverty is an extraordinarily complicated issue. There is no single, silver bullet solution. You can do a lot of good in many communities by providing just mosquito nets, or solar lights, or clean water, but to get to the root of the issue, to make real progress, it takes much more than that.  FXB strengthens the foundations of families in order to permanently lift parents and children up and out of poverty.  The foundation for us includes areas like strengthening the family’s health and psychosocial stability, ensuring adequate shelter, enrolling their children in local schools and ensuring a quality education, to name just a few areas.  Once the foundation is secure, typically after our first year working with them, we shift our focus to economic empowerment.

One of our best practices is that FXB’s approach to economic empowerment is customized to each family based on their unique circumstances.  For example, a rural household with eight children requires a different economic approach than a smaller household in an urban setting.   We work collaboratively with our families to evaluate potential IGAs.  We look at the options and help families to choose the best possible IGAs to meet their needs and that have the greatest chance of success.

Ultimately, to lift families out of poverty permanently they need the long term ability to create their own revenue streams. That is exactly what economic empowerment does. FXB participants receive grants to start micro-enterprises; they learn how to sell their goods, how to budget and plan their expenses, and how to save funds – things we in the western world take for granted. Economic empowerment is the capstone of what FXB does, because without income families would remain locked in the cycle of poverty.

Esper: FXB’s approach seems similar to Jeffery Sach’s belief that a one-time infusion of assistance can make a large difference in an individual’s life.  Or in other words that ‘poverty traps’ exist as Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo refer to them in their book Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty. In the book Banerjee and Duflo suggest that whether poverty traps exist or not takes a case by case basis, therefore I was curious how FXB decides which villages to work in?

Mayberry: FXB’s mission of lifting people up and out of poverty is accomplished through our selecting the poorest of the poor communities where we work, from Colombia to Uganda to India.  We actively work with local government officials and local leaders or elders to really identify those most in need.  This is very much a collaborative approach, where we spend much time speaking with the entire community, so that everyone in a community ultimately understands and supports those families selected to participate in our FXB-Village program.  This “buy in” from the local community ensures we target those most in need, and it also helps to avoid any feelings of rivalry between those we serve and those who are in better economic condition.  It is really quite amazing, when you look at our results and see that for a total cost of less than $500 per person over three years, these “poorest of the poor” radically improve their lives, and their economic condition.  These families take very significant steps up and out of poverty, and our research shows that this improvement continues for years after our FXB-Villages end.  We at FXB are excited to be publishing next month in April the results of a new study that tracked the progress of families we worked with in Uganda and Rwanda eight years ago, and the findings indicate very strongly that our customers continued to prosper during this interval after our FXB-Villages ended.  While we at FXB cannot and should not take complete credit for these positive findings, we are heartened to find the ongoing success of our beneficiaries, and we are excited to share this story, and our learnings, within the anti-poverty sphere.

Esper: What are some of the most important changes you see in families’ well-being, especially children, as a result of their parents becoming empowered economically?

Mayberry: Each time I meet a family participating in FXB’s programs I ask them how they see their future after the FXB program ends.   I am always struck that the huge majority of families have a positive outlook on the future, are confident that they will succeed, and feel that they can weather any adversity. The really remarkable thing here is that FXB’s beneficiaries have developed confidence – they know they have the tools and skills to live a better life, and they know that they can rely on themselves.

Esper: Do you think we need more BoP enterprises with a focus on economic empowerment as opposed to enterprises focusing mainly on social empowerment? If so, how can more enterprises do so?

Mayberry: I strongly believe you need both approaches combined in one, holistic model in order to be effective.

It is easier for organizations to focus on fewer issues, such as clean water or reproductive health.  But the results of those interventions are constrained when the bigger picture is ignored.  I think there are many opportunities for BoP enterprises to integrate economic empowerment into their work, and the first step in doing so is to be mindful of identifying the business opportunities in the communities where we all work.  For example, the India FXB program is now starting large scale production of sanitary pads for women, using our beneficiaries as employees, because we recognized the need for women to have access to this important health product.  A social empowerment approach may have resulted in giving out these products for free; but an economic empowerment approach is to produce the product locally and sell them at an affordable price for the BoP population.

Esper: How do you see FXB’s approach evolving over time?

Mayberry: We are continuously learning, refining our model and looking for new services to include. At the moment we are adding an early child development component to our FXB-Villages because we have found it successfully strengthens families. Additionally, we are searching for partners who can help us accomplish our goals more efficiently and reduce our costs. We are also focused on exploring related projects that will generate income for FXB so that we can rely less on external funding.

In the long run our goal is to convince local governments to adopt our holistic model. It is much easier to ‘sell’ programs to governments when they work and you can prove it. I think governments will be drawn to the FXB-Village program because of its proven success, which is being increasingly verified by independent research. Ultimately, governments can scale our model effectively and lift millions out of poverty.

In the Meeting House

I was recently invited to attend a Meeting House discussion at the Public Library. I’ve never been to a Meeting House discussion so I’m not too sure what to expect (is a Meeting House in Canada the same as a Town Hall Meeting in the US?), but nonetheless, I’m curious.  The topic of the night will be the community – how it’s developing, concerns, fears, worries and in general, how we’d like to see it develop.  This is a particularly interesting topic as I”m all for positive change and seeing progress, yet the thought of going to the Meeting House has me strangely anxious. My family has lived in the areas for almost a hundred years; suffice it to say, I know it fairly well. But my anxiety makes me question, do I really? I know buildings, roads, landmarks and friends, but I feel it lacks the same sort of community, the type of place that makes you want to be home and strive toward making it better. This, perhaps may be one of the items on the agenda – how to make a town, a community and a home.

Bringing together different members of the community and the people who can implement change is a great idea and I’m very curious to know what sort of issues will surface. Will it be a safe and open space to express opinions or will biases and intimdation silence voices?

I’ve learned that the tremendous and rapid growth of the region has already caused major problems, especially regarding affordable housing and food security. Knowing this, I became a little alarmed (!) to learn that there really was no social plan in place to deal with the influx of people; no services, infrastructure or preparation to deal with the problems that could surface. What’s worse is there is no data and no research mechanism to provide evidence to support the creation of infrastructure or services. Basically, the strategy is to sit back and wait until problems arise, until they’ve gotten so bad that some money, time and effort need to be thrown at the problem. Really? Is this the way to run a healthy community? It really is maddening to see this type of logic applied to the community where you live.

The Meeting House is a start, but the main actors running it are already swamped with their own (contract) work that takes up much of their day. Let’s face it, this is a full time job of an entire department to create, establish and grow the social infrastructure that’s needed.  However, funding allocations tend to favor activities that will provide a return (ie economic development) without acknowledging the social sector until it’s too late; the down side of politics… Reactions to the Meeting House to come soon….

Importance of Relativity

Success! I’ve finally found employment!!! Wooooo0! I’m very excited and as a result, have rewarded myself with doing absolutely nothing! Well,  that’s not exactly true though either, because here I am blogging away – perhaps I’ll slow down later….anyways, what a great time to stop and let the heat of the sunshine drain out all your energy! Thankfully for me, 8 months in the tropics have adjusted my internal temperature so that this is wonderful Don’t get me wrong, I still feel how heavy the air is and yes, it’s hot, but I think I’m coping much better than others. I’ve always  loved the heat though. Remember a few years ago when Europe was suffering from heat waves and people died because of it? That was when I escaped the chill of Ireland to backpack around Spain – most Spaniards, however, had chosen the cool coasts of Barcelona, and there I was – the dumb tourist wandering around the deserted streets of  Madrid at 40 C degree heat at 7pm. Live and learn, or in my case, sweat! And at the end of my trip, back to my studies in Montreal, with arguably the coldest winters in Canada.

Point of the story? People adapt, everything is relative. The other day, we saw South Asians in full out cricket gear playing the under the afternoon sun. This heat must be nothing for South Asians, but for a place that is known for its snow fall, it is out of the ordinary. And so, hot topic of the day is, ironically the heat! And not just in Canada, but in the US as well.

The other day, the national news broadcasted a piece on the suffering of farmers who, with shortages of fresh water, were facing an ailing crop and having to sell cattle before their prime. While droughts are indeed awful, I reminded myself that 1) This is the US and 2) Farmers are not just farmers, but businessmen who control farms the size of small towns and who control the price of corn, much like the way that OPEC controls the price of oil. Silos are stocked to the brim full of supplies in order to control the price, instead of its former use to be dipped in to when supplies were low.  Knowing this, I was disgusted with the news piece to have neglected that point.

I’d like to think that people are good  people and  care about others when a crop dies or business is bad, especially in this economy. I suspect that’s why this news piece aired in the first place – to pull on the heart strings of the average Joe and to highlight the out of the ordinary heat waves.  But believing that Joe is inevitably good, he is not always educated to know that farming has joined the ranks with the rest of corporate America and so will pull up his socks, stop complaining and get back to work. What I find even more disheartening is that this made national news, but the droughts that the rest of the world experiences rarely makes the headlines.

I typed in ‘Somalia Droughts Heat’ in to the google search bar and the first news source, behind research studies, weather reports and alarms was a piece posted by ABC 5 days ago title, “Somalia Drought ‘One of the Largest Humanitarian Crises in Decades.’  Further on down the page, I found the CBC had declared, ‘Somalia drought aid hindered by armed groups.’ This to me, was more a more news worthy subject than farmers in the US.

Admittedly, my knowledge of Somalia and its history is little and I’m very humbled by an Eritrean friend who attempted the topic in her PhD thesis because it’s incredibly complicated and starts dozens of years ago. What I do know is that Somalia hasn’t really had a formal government for 20-30 years and are divided by half that wants independence. More North Americans are more likely to recognize the ‘We are the World’ song in the 80′s that brought Bono, Boy George and many other artists together to raise money for the droughts Somalia was suffering from then. Oddly enough, a remake is in the works!

Mobilizing international food aid is not as easy as it looks – think the forms, red tape and bureaucracy that you have to suffer through when renewing your license and then multiply it by 1000 and throw in a few more countries and disgruntled farmers’ unions that don’t like to part with their stocks. Furthermore, with no formal government, getting food and supplies to people that need them becomes very dangerous and difficult. How to reach the most vulnerable? is likely what is on the minds of most international relief agencies.

As a result, people leave and leave en masse; traveling by (mostly) on foot to neighbouring Ethiopia or Kenya where refugee camps provide an alternative to the already cramped streets of Nairobi or Addis Ababa. Knowing how precarious living standards and conditions can be in a refugee camp, my sympathies are with them. During my grad studies, I was fascinated by environmental changes and what it meant for societies and had written a paper on Environmental Refugees, much like the ones escaping Somalia, only to discover that International Law had yet to include them; to be a refugee, according to the Refugee Convention, doesn’t include the escape of environmental degradation and therefore claimants cannot obtain asylum status or rights in their new country. As a Canadian, I’ll never have to experience this and few Canadians even think of it, but really, what do you do when there is no food or water in your homeland (and therefore no jobs) and  have to migrate to a land that won’t allow you to stay or give you any rights?

Knowing the reality of many Somalis and East Africans, makes me think how stupid we are to complain about the heat, when water is in abundance and air conditioners blazing. Agreed, the plight of farmers is an obstacle, but really it’s a small obstacle that will likely vanish in a couple weeks or when stocks are let out and the weather changes. Is it something that we really need to focus our energy on, complain about or generate sympathy? It’s all relative, I suppose.

 

The Migrating Melting Pot

For many a New World-er, questions about heritage, history and origin are enormously important, perhaps more so in any other part of the world, because in a sea of multi-cultural and multi-nationals, knowing who you are and where you came from keeps you grounded. Some may even say that old-world mentalities and traditions hold true more strongly in North America than in the home country because it’s so easy to forget. In Canada, the melting pot is truly unique and one of the only places in the world where being an outsider is normal. True that communities with common heritage and backgrounds form, after all we all gravitate to what is familiar and comfortable, but in Canada such communities are never exclusive and learning from each other is part of the fun.

Being a history guru, I’m always fascinated about how people come together, govern together and form communities and nations of people that have shaped our world today. Globalization truly began when explorers began discovering each other and what each other had to offer – find a new trading route, find a new land, find a new culture and voila! we are no longer isolated!

We’ve been experiencing globalization for so long, so why should only a handful of nations boast about their mulit-national/cultural character? Why are small migrant communities still out of the ordinary? Today, I surprisingly read about Irish descendants  in Jamaica, Jewish migrants in Haiti, and  Lebanese migrants in West Africa – who knew? It shouldn’t be surprising, but it is. Economic prospects, family ties and historical circumstances are all push factors, but for some reason it was stronger for some than others. If that’s so, I’m curious how much of an impact the migrant communities made on their new societies, did they integrate well? Did they contribute to growth or stagnation? How did they contribute to their national makeup today? If migration trends had continued, could they have experienced the same sort of melting pot that is so characteristic of Canada today?

Looking to the past doesn’t hold all the answers. Much like our heritage, it can provide understanding and build tolerance which influences the way our future will unfold. Melting pots are tough to achieve, but with an open mind, it’s possible.

It’s a Sustainable Life

Sus-TAIN-able!! Whoa, I hear it everywhere – from Oprah to Obama, on the news, in the papers, around town, in the grocery stores and I’m sure it’s one of those words that will be on next year’s Spelling Bee List. So what the heck does it mean? Seriously, it’s only within the last months, maybe a year that it’s been rolling off the tongue of everyone and it’s been evolving into, sustainable development, sustainable living, sustainable business…just throw a sustainable in front of it and all of a sudden my sentence has drama!

I like it because it has speaks to continuity and maintaining that whatever we have right now will last into the future. Maybe that’s why it pairs so nicely with the Green Movement – ensuring that businesses are responsible to the environment where they work, that our household products are friendly to our ecosystem and that economic and international development projects consider conservation, health and environmental concerns.  It’s a great concept and I happily embrace it. But I also think sustainability can go beyond our concern for the earth and can also be applied to our relationships with each other and among communities.

If I’ve learned anything over the last few decades is that things change, priorities change, people change. That’s why circles of friends are always changing and why the value of old friends and family increases over time. I think if you were to ask anyone, family and friends would be at the top of the list of ‘Most Important Things in Life’. But, it’s not easy to keep such a close network of relationships and it takes work, much more than simply switching laundry detergents or getting a hybrid. Adaptation and prioritizing are key and we’ve clearly done it regarding the environment, but for ourselves and those closest to us, I think many of us have fallen short. Do you think that sustainable relationships and communities are giving way to sustainable growth, innovation and paychecks? If our relationships really are the most important aspects of our lives, then the same fervor, passion and energy that many of us felt for green products, living and  technology, should be – if not more – applied to maintaining our network of relationships. If we did, perhaps we’d have more cordial and sustainable communities – after all, it’s the people that build them, not the other way around.

Ideas, Perceptions and Realities

I found an interesting article in the BBC summarizing a study by the PEW Research Center in Washington, DC, which looked at common stereotypes often associated with many African nations.

The results are as follows…

“1. 75% of South Africans think polygamy is “morally wrong” – bad news for their president, as Jacob Zuma took his third wife earlier this year and is engaged to a fourth. However, the survey also revealed some possible double-standards. While only 7% of Rwandans approved of polygamy (although this did include women), a rather higher number – 17% – of men said they had more than one wife.”

Interesting. You would have thought that a President’s actions would be reflective of the people that elected him and his example is far from that. Makes me wonder what happened on election day?

2. An overwhelming majority of respondents disapproved of homosexual behaviour. In three countries – Zambia, Kenya and Cameroon – this was a massive 98%. Interestingly, one of the countries with the highest numbers of people – 11% – accepting homosexuals is Uganda, where an MP is trying to get legislation passed which would punish homosexual acts with life in prison and even death in some cases. The former Portuguese colonies of Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique were also relatively tolerant of homosexuality.

Ironic, no?

3. Africa is probably the world’s most religious continent, with more than 80% saying they believed in God in most countries. At least half of the Christians questioned expect Jesus Christ to return to earth during their lifetimes. In Ethiopia, 74% of Christians say they have experienced or witnessed the devil or evil spirits being driven out of a person and in Ghana, 40% of Christians say they have had a direct revelation from God. About half of all Muslims expect to see the reunification of the Islamic world under a single ruler, or caliph, in their lifetimes.

Think of all the effort Christian and foreign missionaries spent in trying to spread the word of God throughout Africa – it obviously worked!  Interestingly, it seems as though Muslims have just the same conviction to their faiths.

4. Zimbabwe, where the Lemba people say they are the lost tribe of Israel, was not one of the countries surveyed. But 26% of Nigerian Christians said they traced their origins back to Israel or Palestine.

5. Belief in witchcraft is also common – about 40%; a similar percentage also visit traditional healers to cure sickness. Belief in witchcraft is highest in Tanzania with 93% – this is the country where witchdoctors say that magic potions are more effective if they contain body parts of people with albinism. Ethiopia had the lowest levels of belief in witchcraft – at just 17%. Belief that juju or sacred objects can prevent bad things happening was generally lower – between 20 and 30%. In Senegal, however, 75% thought such things worked – far higher than in Tanzania (49%). It may come as a surprise to learn that South Africa had the highest number of people – 52% – saying they took part in ceremonies of traditional religions, or honoured or celebrated their ancestors.

I wonder if witchcraft is like a religion to the people polled? Can witchcraft and Christianity or Islam overlap? I had once written a paper on the Haitian use of witchcraft as a means to maintain their identities during the slave trade and how they disguised it by using the names of Catholic saints and terminology. Historically, it was fascinating; socially, it was remarkable and I’m really not all that surprised that it still exists.

6. Predictably, there was also a religious split concerning alcohol, banned by Islam. Surprisingly, however, more Muslims in Chad (23%) approved of booze, than Ethiopian Christians (5%). This comes as a huge surprise to Ethiopia experts, however, who point out that it is traditional to welcome Orthodox Christian clergy with traditional honey beer when they visit your house. Maybe “alcohol” was only taken to mean spirits by some of the respondents?

This was surprising – isn’t alcohol extremely strict for practicing Muslims?

7. Attitudes to divorce showed a strong divide along religious lines in Nigeria. A massive 79% of Christians thought it was “morally wrong”, while among Muslims, a narrow majority (46-41%) accepted divorce.

Really? I wonder why?

8. In recent years, Islamist hardliners in Somalia and Nigeria have introduced strict punishment based on Sharia law, such as amputating the hands of thieves and even stoning to death for adultery. The majority of people disapproved of such Sharia punishments. In Nigeria, they were backed by about 40% of Muslims and less than 10% of Christians. However, a majority did approve of whippings and amputations in Senegal and Mali. In nearby Guinea-Bissau, even 50% of Christians backed them. This was double the rate among Muslims in Ethiopia (25%) – maybe it feels like a more realistic prospect to them, as they share a border with Somalia and most Muslim Ethiopians are ethnic Somalis.

I wrote about this a few posts ago and I am strongly against the practice.  I think the fact that people, Christians and Muslims, support it, the closer they are in proximity to Somalia and its people is certainly characteristic of the lawlessness of the country. But I’d have to question just how closely the people polled were following their faiths  when they supported such a policy.

9. The survey also asked about material well-being in the world’s poorest continent. Not so long ago, Cameroon regularly topped surveys of champagne consumption per head. However, a shocking 71% of Cameroonians surveyed said there were times in the past year when they did not have enough money to buy food. In Ethiopia, which is commonly seen as a country struggling to feed itself, the rate was far lower – at 30% – the lowest of all countries surveyed.

Remember the famine in Ethiopia during the ’80′s. The media really had a field day with that one; the photo-journalists documenting starving children, Band-Aid released a song, raising funds and OECD countries suddenly woke up and delivered badly needed food aid. I don’t think the world ever forgot. It’s not surprising then to hear that Ethiopia‘s access to food being more than double that than Cameroon. It’s also shocking to hear that Cameroon‘s consumption of champagne!?!?! Is it a french legacy Is champagne more important than food or is there just a handful of Cameroonian’s who are buying up the lion’s share of its imports? Interesting indeed.

10. Ethiopia did, however, have the lowest numbers of people – 7% – who said they regularly used the internet. Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame is striving to turn his country into Africa’s answer to Silicon Valley and is being helped by the arrival of several new fibre optic cables off the east coast of Africa. He will be encouraged by the finding that 30% of his countrymen – the highest number – regularly browsed the web. Mobile phones, were far more common – with 81% of respondents in Botswana owning one. Many countries reported more than 50% having phones but here, Rwanda lagged behind at just 35%.

Wait a minute…Rwanda – the one that suffered from a genocide a while back? I’ve been told that since then, Kigali has become a major international hotspot for non-profit’s, international organizations and the like, who obviously necessitate a need for broadband! I’m shocked that Ethiopia isn’t taking advantage of those fibre optic cables – they could definitely assist in wider communication tools. Mobile phones, on the other hand, signify developing economies and perhaps micro-finance schemes that provide small scale funding for communities to fuel entrepreneurship. I’d want to know those figures, comparing Botswana and Rwanda.

I know it’s geeky to find stats interesting, but they are! How else would we know what is working, what isn’t, what needs work and how the media has manipulated perceptions? I just read a fellow blogger, who was doing just that – using blogosphere to debate North American perceptions of development and through its interaction with theory and reality. Granted it is a bit academic, though good for some brain aerobics.

I’m surprisingly enlightened by this study and appreciate its publishing. I guess it’s more frustrating to realize that stereotypes still exist and its refreshing to get a little dose of reality every now and again.

Choosing a Democracy

I’ve never been in Canada during an election, but for the last one I wanted to be sure that I was a part of it. So I stopped by the embassy, picked up a ballot and made sure that it was delivered on time. It felt good to be a part of the process. My electing party didn’t win, but it was satisfying nonetheless and it’s that sentiment that I think Canadians often forget or take for granted. It’s the best indicator we have of good governance and provides a little sneak peak into what’s to come. So when I read of the tension surrounding previous and upcoming elections, I’m thankful that the tension surrounding Canada’s last election was hushed to a disgruntled murmur post-election that complained of wasted money and time after the election did absolutely nothing in changing the makeup of our democracy.

Thailand today is declaring a state of emergency in Bangkok after protester’s stormed the parliament, angry of a corrupt government who obtained power illegally. “The Red Shirt movement — known formally as the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship — contends Mr. Abhisit came to power illegitimately in the years after ex-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was removed in a 2006 coup on corruption allegations. The group is made up largely of Thaksin supporters and pro-democracy activists who opposed the putsch.”

Meanwhile, an election is especially significant and perhaps more so in Sudan where ethnic differences and memories of Darfur haunt the election campaign. The National Electoral Commission seems assured that the election will be held on time and as fair as possible. The ruling parties, though, disagree. The major rival to Sudanese President Bashir’s ruling (yep – that’s the one that was indited for crimes against humanity by the Hague) has pulled out of the race because “the poll in Darfur is being rigged in favour of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP). Supporters of other parties, he says, are being disenfranchised through difficulties in registering and having to walk long distances to reach a polling booth.” Yasser Arman, of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), goes on to “[accuse] the NCP of using the state’s resources in its campaign, of exploiting the state of emergency in Darfur to give the NCP and Mr Bashir an unfair electoral advantage. Mr Arman claims that his party and others contesting the elections are not allowed to venture out of the three major cities of Darfur, Neale, Geneina and al-Fasher.” If this is the case, perhaps it is better that he pull out of the elections – no sense in running them if they’re doomed to be fraudulent anyways – but if they don’t happen now, will they ever?

On Thursday, legislative elections in Sri Lanka could not only reinforce his coalition party, but also welcome the rest of his family in to the political sphere, which includes his 23-yr old son and 3 brothers. I’m not sure how I feel about this – it doesn’t sound right and highly doubtful that all members of The Rajapaksas would merit a spot in government. As the BBC wonders, I’d also like to know how the varying communities are represented and if the first family is legitimate.

I could  go on and on and on; elections in Afghanistan were suspected to have been ridden with holes, the Iraqi elections have given way to coalition building, Egyptian courts have just released opposition party members on bail. So many issues surrounding the conduct and results of elections and I’m not sure if this is what the founding fathers of democratic theory had in mind? It was all so cut and dry back then, wasn’t it? Didn’t exactly give us a guidebook to instruct us how to put dictator here and put corruption and violence there. Britain’s upcoming election, hopefully, will set a standard and show ‘em how it’s done! Otherwise, it’s back to the drawing board of leadership and hope that whatever we come up with will have a more lasting affect on the state of our democracies.

Challenges of Development

Would the thought of losing your left hand be enough of a deterrent to not commit a crime? It certainly would be for me! Heck, the thought of a fine or public scrutiny would be enough to keep me at the speed limit! These are the thoughts going through my head when I read about a Nigerian Islamic Court baring a Twitter feed discussing dismemberment for criminal punishment. So not only are the sentences harsh, but the Islamic Court also ruled that discussion of it via Twitter should be silenced – just another sign of a blossoming theocracy!

Sharia law. I think the Iranian’s were the first to instill it during the ’79 Revolution and its institutionalization in several Islamic nations has since been adopted. The intermingling of Islamic tenets and the law dictate the conduct of the citizens. Yet I don’t think Islam and democracy are or should be ever contradictory.  Rather a bizarre interpretation of Islamic preachings are used as a political tool to instill fear, squash dissent and ensure that the ruling elite are never challenged. I’m not an expert, but in my ignorant eyes today, I see Sharia law as a cop out to real leadership and equate it with a police state.

On the other hand, harsh punishments for criminal offenders also take place in other areas of the world – drug traffickers in Thailand, kidnappers in China- though none that I can think of had ever enforced bodily dismemberment as a tool for justice. It reminds me of something out of the Middle Ages, one where human rights, international law and political retribution were obsolete.  These deterrents may be strong deterrents for criminal activity, but one that isn’t humane and life sentences or losing a hand for petty crime is not a solution. Economic development, social services and education may have lead these vagrants on another path away from criminality and a life sentence and towards prosperity and opportunity. Money put towards these goals would be money well worth it in the long run, yet the long run is rarely in the best interests of political leaders in nations such as these. Therein lies the challenges of development.

Artistic Reflection

I’ve been thinking a lot about how art imitates life. Who could forget the music that characterized much of the 60′s? Buffalo Springfield, Joan Baez, Jefferson Airplane to name a few. That was protest and self expression all at once. And it’s not just in western culture either; I read yesterday how Sufi poetry in India speaks out against the caste system in India and listened to a report on art that was destroyed in the Haitian earthquake a few weeks ago and what a great tragedy it was for the nation. How to replace historic pieces? It’s seems parallel to losing all your belongings in a fire, except instead of one lifetime’s possessions, it was many century’s worth for the entire population.

The arts are a way of telling history (who could forget the wall paintings by the ancient Egyptians?); an establishment of a nation’s identity.  Why else would Israeli’s have looted the Palestinian Research Center upon its invasion into South Lebanon in 1982?  But when we go to the world’s most established and renowned art center’s, they’re full of artworks from abroad; Greece, Rome, China, Persia, India. Relics of a colonial past? The net worth of the artifacts alone would be astounding, and I’m therefore not surprised about the growing number of lawyers involved in the art trade and recovery.

When I first arrived in Austria, there was a case that surfaced surrounding Gustav Klimt’s work – perhaps the most famous Austrian painter – who’s works were left behind by the fleeing family during WW2. I arrived in Vienna, just in time to see the paintings before the US Supreme Court ordered them to be returned to the family, which now resides in the US. This is one of a very small number of cases, validating the return of property to its rightful owner. It’s debatable whether or not these artworks were national treasures or whether the expulsion of the artist himself invalidated that claim.

I enjoy the arts and am always eager to hear what’s new on the radio or wander the galleries. I’ve got to say though, I haven’t been too impressed with modern thoughts and ideas being reflected in music or in art. Of course, there’s been some bands, who have had personal experiences or strong sentiments toward a given issue – U2′s ‘Sunday, Bloody Sunday,” Midnight Oil’s “Beds are Burning,” Neil Young’s “Rocking in the Free World,” but in general, the type of work that is crowding the airwaves is not nearly as reflective of reality as it used to be… or is it? Do people just not have the same feelings toward Iraq and Afghanistan as the did toward Vietnam? And do visual artists feel more compelled to be abstract or modern in their paint strokes than the impressionists or renaissance painters? Are they torn between making a profit or making a statement?

It’s truly amazing what the arts can do for a pysche and a society. It can up-lift, invigorate, motivate, tell history all at once and be treasured for years to come – definitely something to be treasured!