February 2012
7 posts
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7 things you probably don't know about Ethiopia
I just spent eight days in Ethiopia and confess to not knowing what to expect. I was born in the 80’s and remember the famine then, and I work in development now, and know that drought and food security are frequent challenges for the country.
So I wasn’t really expecting to be blown away, but I was. And here’s why:
1. The lakes in the Rift Valley are incredible. Just...
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“A continent ages quicly once we come. The natives live in harmony with it. But...”
– Ernest Hemingway, Green Hills of Africa (in which he writes of his awful hunting exploits)
WatchNot too shabby a way to start the day
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Thoughts on my time in Tanzania
A typical family home in a village - Lindi, Tanzania
I’m waking up this morning to the beautiful sounds of chanting in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopa. It’s hard to believe I was sweating it up in Tanzania just yesterday - such is this crazy world of airflights and modern transport.
So, Tanzania. The land of Mt Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest peak, and the Serengeti....
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I talk about overseas volunteering on the radio
I recently took part in an Triple J Radio ‘Hack’ program where they were looking into volunteering overseas.
You can download a podcast of the episode and hear just what I have to say about volunteering in orphanages and the problems with some short term volunteering posts.
The radio interview came about from a blog post I wrote - So you want to volunteer overseas? Read this first
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Dude, have you like, seen what's happening in...
Given I knew I was going to Africa for work this month (specifically Tanzania and Ethiopia, because we know Africa is not a country), I decided to load up my kindle with some Africa reading. This is how Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s book This Child Will Be Great made it into my head.
For those who don’t know, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the President of Liberia. She was also the first female...
January 2012
8 posts
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“I don’t know what a family is, how to define it, other than as a...”
– Eddie Perfect in his Letter to the Woman Who Changed My Life in Women of Letters.
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“Feminism, in my view at least, should not use the power of institutions,...”
– Eva Cox speaks out with her ever-intelligent mind on who gets to use the ‘f’ word. This is in response to the Melinda Tankard-Reist storm started by Rachel Hills which is leading to some nasty in-fighting among the ‘f’ crew of Australia.
For the record, I don’t think...
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The poverty puzzle - again
Yesterday I posted about an incredible book I just read called “I Shall Not Hate” by Izzulden Abuelaish. It’s incredible because it was written by an incredible man who, despite everything, still manages not to hate. But this post isn’t about the book, except to say go read it. What I want to talk about is what the book motivated me to do. After reading the book, and gaining a much greater insight...
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The one book we should all be reading
As I (figuratively, of course) turned the last page of the book ‘I Shall Not Hate,’ I felt an instant urge to to shout to the whole world the importance of reading it.
I wanted to buy copies for my friends. Have talked about it to my boss, my boyfriend and my sister.
And I’ve made a kiva loan today to a Palestinian business woman.
All thanks to the eloquence and sheer...
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My very first
It has (finally?) happened - I am now the owner of my very own e-reader, thanks to a very well chosen birthday gift.
To see if we like each other, I’ve been testing it out while on holidays. Jasper Jones (which I paid just $3.63 for!) is my very first kindle touch book, and it’s beginning to look a lot like true love.
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2011 - the recap
So 2011 was a big year, yeah? The Arab Spring. The death of notorious dictators. The East Africa Famine. More natural disasters. The continued evolution of social media. Climate Change. It seems like it’s all happening.
Back in my own little corner of the globe, I’ve experienced a seismic shift too:
I fell in love, am in love, and am loving it
I stayed in one city
I found a job...
December 2011
6 posts
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My latest link love - get your links here!
BREAKING: Kim Jong II, the North Korean Dictator, has died.
HIV/AIDS impacts women and girls differently to men (and boys) - the ways in which the impacts differ are organised into neat little row of easy to read dot points
Hillary Clinton has addressed the UN about defending the rights of Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender (LGBT) people around the world. It’s an amazing moment in history and...
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“Four years out from the deadline set for the Millennium Development Goals, not a...”
– Dereck Rooken-Smith is the Assistant Director-General for the Office of Development Effectiveness.
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“The evidence suggests that the truth lies in the in-between: Microfinance works...”
– Leah Stern asks What do we really know about microfinance? The answer - it works for some people, some of the time, and is not the silver bullet it’s made out to be.
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“The collapse of the News of the World is partly the result of a new...”
– Owen Barder on how twitter and new media are impacting politics. Fascinating.
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Living with HIV in PNG
Sylvester Pokona is just 38 years old, but has the life experience of a man much older. A survivor of the Bougainville crisis – the civil war which gripped Bougainville in Papua New Guinea from 1988 to 1990, all the events of his life since then have been impacted by the conflict, including his status as a person living with HIV.
Since finding out his HIV positive status, Sylvester has become...
November 2011
9 posts
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Take a walk through a Dhaka slum with MSF
Take a walk through a Dhaka slum with MSF and explore their incredible Urban Survivors site more. This is communications excellence in action.
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Famine War Drought (FWD)
Take a minute to explore the first ever communications campaign by USAID - FWD - this Horn of Africa thing is serious! So too is the need to garner support for spending precious domestic dollars overseas in our GFC world.
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The latest - International development in 7 links
· What are young chinese thinking about? – I recommend starting from the 3rd one down.
· What did Live Aid do? (Or Ethiopia and drought 1984 vs 2011)
· Visualising Hunger Around the World – takes a little bit to load, but only a few seconds to see what’s going on with people’s tummies in certain regions around the world.
· Mixed messages: communicating the...
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“Unlike national markets, which tend to be supported by domestic regulatory and...”
– Dani Rodrik in his book The Globalization Paradox commenting on the flaws of globalisation. Very pertinent in GFC world.
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“I remember not long ago hearing Picasso and Gertrude Stein talking about various...”
– Gertrude Stein in The Autobiography of Alice B Toklas
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The Autobiography of Alice B Toklas, by Gertrude...
Now reading: The Autobiography of Alice B Toklas by Gertrude Stein, based on the magical inspiration of Woody Allen’s latest, Midnight in Paris. I’m suffering from the very nostalgia Woody warns us of…oops.
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Bringing clean, safe water to remote shores in PNG
You know you’re headed somewhere off the beaten track when you strap on a life vest and jump in a small boat for a four hour journey across the open sea. As a somewhat nervous seafarer, I couldn’t help but look up at the skies, willing the grey clouds away. I was bound for Nissan Island, a remote coral atoll located 110 kilometers off Bougainville Island in Papua New Guinea.
I was visiting...
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My hiatus, explained in pictures
I’ve been gone. Here’s why.
A beach holiday
in a bungalow
with a birthday
and my beautiful sister’s wedding thrown in.
This. Is. Love.
October 2011
5 posts
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Children are not tourist attractions
I know I keep banging on and on about orphanages, but it’s for good reason. Really. And if you don’t believe me, spend a little bit of time with this campaign supported by UNICEF to teach you how to be more child safe on holidays. A good place to start is to not visit an orphanage.
Just in case you don’t make it as far as their website, here is there guide on what not to do...
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5 things I learned in Papua New Guinea
As I sit on my lounge, stereo on, nursing my post food poisoning belly, I’ve decided to capture 5 things I learned about Papua New Guinea
1. Remote takes on a whole new meaning in this country of islands, atolls, and almost inaccessible mountain ranges. Lack of phone and internet access, no roads in or out, and expensive plane and/or boat journeys means much of this country’s...
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Do you have affluenza?
My name is Lyrian and I think I suffer from a mild case of affluenza.
Affluenza, as described by author and psychoanalyst Oliver James, is “the placing of a high value on money, posessions, appearances (physical and social) and fame.” This came as a surprise to me as, on the surface of things, I have rejected the high emphasis we place on money (and taken a $25k pay cut to prove the...
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What is green and blue and full of smiles?
I’m typing this from my hotel room in Port Moresby, the capital city of Papua New Guinea. I’m here for two weeks to visit various projects for CARE, and am really looking forward to getting out in the field again, it’s been too long.
As I find I always do when visiting a new place, I try and take notice of my first impressions. Today I felt that familiar feeling take over me as...
September 2011
8 posts
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Reading list - you'll be sorry when I'm dead
In keeping with the theme of plenty on my plate, I’ve been reading an eclectic mix of autobiographies, travel books, Time and Frankie magazines, Rainer Maria Rilke poetry, and am about to start a book of short stories.
My favourite read so far this month is Marieke Hardy’s You’ll be sorry when I’m dead. At times cringeworthy with her honesty, Hardy captures the...
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A step in the right direction in Saudia Arabia?
I woke up this morning to the news that Saudi Arabia intends to finally give women the right to vote. And then I heard the catch - that these reforms won’t come into effect until 2015. 2015. Yes, the year 2015.
While it’s a step in the right direction, the cynic in me wonders if this is more a token effort to keep Saudi out of the ‘Arab Spring’ uprisings, and once things...
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"Get on the spouse bus" Julia!
I wish this article didn’t exist. I wish this hadn’t happened. But since it does exist, and it did happen, why don’t you pop on over to The Age and read about our Prime Minister being ordered onto the bus for wives in New Zealand last week.
Can I get three cheers for gender stereotyping?
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What ten blogs do I read most?
A question I often get asked by people when they know I’m a blogger is “What blogs do you follow?” And what better way to answer that than with a little blog roll of my top ten that will come without a long blurb about each. Discovery is half the fun, right?
BTW, I follow all my blogs via Google Reader, and check it a few times a week.
The ten blogs I read most:
Musings of...
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“Everyone wants developing countries to escape aid dependency, and most people...”
– Owen Barder on the importance of being clear about the realistic objectives of aid
“It puzzles me how many people still believe ‘friendship’ or at least bonhomie...”
– Grace Dent, How to Leave Twitter (via colporteur)
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“…We can so easily
slip back from what we have struggled to attain,...”
– excerpt from Rainer Maria Rilke’s poem ‘Requiem for a friend’
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Time to throw away the office?
In the past few years I have read much which argues for the end of the office. The Seth Godin’s and Leo Babauta’s and Tim Ferriss’ of the world are all the kind of smart and successful and free people I thought I wanted to be like as I dipped my toes into the world of freelancing from home (and cafes in exotic places like Paris).
After all, who doesn’t love the idea of...
August 2011
8 posts
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“The asylum seeker issue is another area where Australia continues to incur...”
– the insightful Nick Bryant, former BBC Sydney Correspondent, on his final days covering Australian news.
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On grief (and the year of magical thinking)
So yesterday I found myself stuck in an airport for more hours than is strictly healthy. This whole week has been a bit ridiculous for me. I’ve left my work laptop behind twice (once in a bar, rescued).
I missed a flight yesterday for no apparent reason, somehow tuning out the calls over the loud speaker throughout the entire airport with my very unusual and normally hard to miss name.
...
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“Industry best-practices related to orphan care overwhelmingly focus on keeping...”
– Tales from the Hood reiterating my comments about orphanages and why you should avoid volunteering for one
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So you want to volunteer overseas? Read this first
It sounds great, doesn’t it? Give up all your wealthy trimmings, put on your sensible outdoorsy clothes and become one with “the locals” in an exotic location like Cambodia, Papua New Guinea or Uganda.
You want to give back, right? Atone for the accident of your birth which saw you born into a wealthy, democratic country like Australia, the Lucky Country no less....
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“But the sense that the aid agencies are employers not helpers, who probably do...”
– A comprehensive article on the negative impacts of aid by Diana Jeater, writing from Harare, Zimbabwe ‘Parasites of the Poor? International NGOs and Aid agencies in Zimbabwe.
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August reading list - (it's back!)
As August kicks off I’m bringing back my monthly reading list post, and given the heavy-hearted content of this space recently, I would like to lighten the tone with the exciting delivery waiting on my desk today:
Zoe Foster’s new book Amazing Face (which I purchased from Australian online book retailer Booktopia).
It promises to teach ignorant me the tips and tricks one should...