meeting in the aisle

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 into the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, I wanted to do something. Of course, one of the most powerful things you can ever do for a cause you care about is to tell people. In our ever-connected world, the telling people part is made about as easy as possible. And I’m telling people, don’t worry about that. But then I decided I wanted to do more.

Coincidentally, I got an e mail yesterday saying that my kiva loan had been paid back. About 6 months ago I lent some money through kiva to a woman’s group in Senegal, and yesterday, they paid me back. “Great,” I thought, I can now lend this money to a Palestinian woman who is looking for a loan.

According to Kiva, since 2005 they have leant $275 million in loans around the world, and there are thousands of people at any one time looking for a loan on kiva. Thousands.

Naively, I thought I’d be able to lend money to any number of Palestinian women. But when it came time to look through all the loans and choose, all I saw was a wall of male faces. In fact, there was not a single woman looking for a loan on her own.

In the end I chose to fund the only female face I saw, who was a woman pictured with her husband. She runs a grocery store, and wants a loan to increase her produce so she can sell more. Apparently, her husband has a stable job, but there is always need for more income.

So I lent money to this woman’s grocery shop, but was left feeling a bit depressed. This only got worse when I looked at the overall kiva loans and saw that there are about 1,500 men looking for loans, versus 500 women.

And yet another piece of the poverty puzzle becomes blatantly obvious once again. We will never be able to eradicate extreme poverty when women are being excluded from education, and earning an income.

I’m Walking in Her Shoes!

Every day millions of girls are kept out of school because they’re too busy collecting water, food and firewood for their families. Millions of women spend the majority of their days doing the same, which severely limits their ability to earn an income, participate in leadership or governance activities, or learn new skills which could help them break free from poverty. And I know this stuff isn’t just spin - I’ve seen it. Too many times.

Which is why I’m joining in CARE’s fundraiser Walk In Her Shoes. From next Monday I will walk 10,000 steps per day for seven days while raising money for women and girls living in poverty. Given we’re heading into the grips of winter, the prospect of strolling Melbourne’s streets all gloved up is not as delightful as it could be…but walk I will!

I’m setting myself the very conservative fundraising target of $300, and I’d love if you could help me reach it.

Sponsor me, or even better, sign up yourself.

p.s. Don’t forget it’s tax time, and all donations over $2 are tax deductible.

Emotionally numb?

Last night I was working at a ‘Youth to Youth’ forum talking about international development, my experiences as a volunteer in Bangladesh, and the work CARE Australia does with poor and vulnerable communities around the world. As far as work goes, it’s not a bad gig. I love that it’s part of my day job to meet new people all the time and talk about poverty, women and the opportunity we have to end extreme poverty in our lifetime. It’s a subject I never tire of – or at least I haven’t yet.

But last night I was asked if, after working in international development for a while, and having lived in and travelled through developing countries, whether I have become emotionally numb towards it all.  My first reaction was to say “Absolutely not!” At the time I went on to talk about the incredible experience of seeing development in action, and the transformations that occur when people emerge from extreme poverty as per the ‘script’. If I’m honest, though, I didn’t actually think about the answer really.

Until this morning when I read this article about maternal health in Afghanistan which tells the story of 35 year old Rogul who lost eight babies prematurely, and her ninth baby boy died within 24 hours of being born, though she carried him full term.

And when I read the story of 14 year old Hena who was whipped to death in Bangladesh after being found guilty of having an affair with the man who actually raped her.

Both stories left me horrified today. Cut to the core. Furious. Upset. Frustrated. Impassioned. And definitely not numb.

What a relief. 

[image: what maternal health can look like, Bangladesh 2009] 

what’s this about the girl effect?

Have you seen the Girl Effect video yet? It’s pretty good. It’s catchy, dynamic, simple, engaging. It’s all bright colours and non-confronting silhouettes and devoid of heavy-handed poverty porn (though there are subtleties…did you notice the flies?).

I loved it the first time I saw it, and I still love it now. But this critique over at Aid Watch makes a few salient points, like:

“What poor countries need to stimulate sustainable growth are not women taking out loans to buy cows, but better governance and better terms of trade with rich countries.”

 and

“In the slideshow, Westerners are invited to “fix this picture,” and told that if they invest in girls they will change the course of history. This message gives more agency to Westerners than to the girls it claims to be empowering.” - Anna Carella, PhD student, Vanderbilt University, USA.

While I agree with Carella that The Girl Effect video is not perfect, I still think it’s a great communications tool. It’s a far cry from ‘the usual’ messages we get about poverty, and I believe the audience-reach it has received (over 268,000 on YouTube alone) means I can live with the nuances that are missed.

In terms of tools available to help educate people who live a life like mine about the realities of living a life in poverty, this is right up the top in my bag of tricks.

But it does make sense to be aware of what is being traded off to get the messages across.

Update 14 Jan 11: A rebuttal to Carella’s critique has now been published, making a few salient points of its own - It takes more than a cow…but girls still count by Amanda Glassman, Director of Global Health Policy at the Center for Global Development, and Miriam Temin, co-author of Start With A Girl

Is ‘The Amazing Race’ really better than poverty porn?

There is quite a debate raging at the moment about poverty porn and the negative imagery and stereotypes many charities use to raise money.

Over at Wronging Rights there is a discussion about the positive portrayal of “the real Ghana” in the American reality TV show The Amazing Race (TAM) acting as an ‘antidote to poverty porn.’

I recently saw the episode where contestants go to Dhaka, Bangladesh, and I was also impressed with the depiction of one of the most populous cities in the world where poverty is visible on every street.

Wronging Rights praises TAM for showing Americans struggling to do things Ghanains do every day, showing a positive and cheerful side of Ghana, and showing realities like traffic jams and homes with TVs.

In Ghana, TAR confounds expectations by doing the exact opposite. It (a) shows bumbling Americans; (b) highlights the lives of Ghanaians in Ghana; (c) rejects poverty porn. - Wronging Rights

There is an acknowledgment that the comments coming out of the mouths of some of the contestants are pretty awful:

“I hope I get to hold little African babies” - a female contestant.

But there is much support for the depiction of a different side of Ghana than one portrayed by fundraising charities (I use ‘different’ as opposed to ‘real’ because there are many versions of the ‘real’ sides of places - but that’s a whole other blog post on its own).

My problem with this argument is that this TV show does a better job at portraying people living in Africa than charities who use poverty porn because it is like comparing apples to oranges - we’re talking about completely different things.

The purpose of The Amazing Race is to entertain. It is not a documentary, it is a competition, and it most certainly not reality.

How can this be compared to a fundraising appeal which seeks to raise the money needed to fund aid projects? While it is wonderful to think that portraying entertaining, happy, funny images of developing countries and that being enough to inspire people to dig into their pockets - fundraising departments are often skeptical at how effective this would really be.

I want to be clear here that I am just as disappointed at poverty porn myself, (and have said so here and here), but I think this comparison between an entertainment show and fundraising appeals is unfair and unrealistic.

What would be more helpful in progressing the charity world on from relying on poverty porn would be more examples of charities raising substantial amounts of money and support using positive imagery.

To start, I suggest looking at the way Charity:water fundraises. Right now their landing page doesn’t have a single image of sad looking people living in poverty. It’s the same story with their christmas appeal and even when they are informing you about the problems of dirty water, they manage to do it without a single heart-wrenching image.

Kudos to you (yet again), Charity:water…

Weekend reader - links I loved

Let’s start with a letter to Santa by Saul Williams:

And who says I understand how to fight disingenuous governance, poverty or hate? I’m just saying I understand the importance of counterculture, of those who prefer boom over pop. Hardcore. Underground. The ones who dare to question and expose, who put their lives at risk… Those who stand up and speak out even when the masses seem apathetically addicted to the status quo, which is probably good for business. And I’m not anti-good business. I’m just for new business models. And new fashion models, while you’re at it. They don’t have to be so skinny!
             - (via Champagne Candy)

Just because she isn’t saying no…doesn’t mean she is saying yes is a Canadian anti-rape campaign discussed here by Rachel Hills:

There’s a big difference between sharing a couple of glasses of wine on a date - or flirting with someone who’s had a few vodka mixers at a club - and deliberately pursuing someone who is stumbling around wasted or passed out on the couch…

Have you heard about the new Oscar-buzz movie Black Swan starring one of my favourite actresses Natalie Portman? Here’s why I’m not going to see it (Jezebel).

Here’s what the average American thinks is spent on foreign aid (or if you prefer to watch over reading, here is Peter Singer talking about this issue).

There’s a new bottom billion, according to Andy Sumner from the Institute for Development Studies, and they live in middle-income countries, not low-income countries. Look out  for the implications for aid budgets.

What makes countries corrupt? Richard Florida, The Atlantic:

If we really want to combat corruption we must deal with the broader and much harder challenges of economic development. When less developed nations begin to leverage their knowledge, skills, and human capital to raise their levels of economic output, then the battle is already won.

When is a movement a movement?

Getting 50,000 people to join a Facebook group is impressive…but it’s not a movement. - Samba

The Cancun climate talks are in danger of collapsing, reports The Guardian.

These cartoons depicting the relationship of Belgium and The Congo are …arresting. That might not even be the right word, so take a look and come up with a better one - Africa is a country.

p.s. I know it’s not cool, but I love Christmas

Anyone for a game of human blackjack?

I read a lot about communication and persuasion and about the never-ending challenge of informing people about complex issues. I know I’m definitely not alone. A look at the debate over climate change communications is a perfect example of how we get it wrong so often.

Generally, entertaining people is considered to be one of the most effective ways of getting a message across. This isn’t a revelation - we have known this for centuries. That’s why children’s education is so focused on games. I know I learned more about geography from Where in the world is Carmen Sandiago? than I did from the atlas that collected dust on my bookshelf.

Communicating the complex, multifaceted and interrelated issues surrounding poverty, and the global financial crisis, and then how the global financial crisis is impacting poverty is no easy task - I understand this.

But creating a game called “Human Blackjack” misses the mark dramatically for me. That’s how the World Development Movement have chosen to try and get their ‘complex campaign message’ across:

In answer to this question, WDM is trying out a pioneering idea – an online flash game of ‘Human Blackjack’. In the game players can take on the role of the President of the United States, a City banker or a Kenyan laundrywoman and play against George Osborne for the future of food. Along the way, they’ll get to see how each of these people fit into the story of the hunger lottery and have the opportunity to join the campaign to stop bankers from betting on food prices in financial markets.

The aim is for people to have fun, while at the same time finding out about the serious message behind it. - Political Dynamite

Call me a killjoy, but I don’t think pretending for a second that I am flippantly playing with human life is fun.

Am I too naive in thinking you don’t have to join them to beat them?

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Villages in action - or TEDxpoor

Ever since I made the decision to focus on international development both personally and professionally, I have been very aware of the “White man’s burden,” or “white man in shinig armour” element. Like little else in this world, there is no clear answer, and the world continues to be coloured in shades of grey - and that goes for development issues too. Generally though, I prefer not to be paralysed by uncertainty.

So when I read about Villages in action, which is happening on November 27, 2010, I was very pleased. The more things like this that happen, the more open the debates, wide range of opinions and experiences are aired, and varied solutions proposed, the better.

I am beyond excited about the chance to hear what people who’ve never heard of the MDG’s think about community development. Villages in Action will feature speakers, panels, music, and all the other sorts of activities that one sees at a fancy summit. The only difference here is that the voices will be those of people who actually live in poverty, who know what it is like to live on $1-2/day, and who some how figure out how to raise children and get by in the most difficult of circumstances. In other words, the experts. - Texas in Africa

There’s also a backgrounder in the Huffington Post - A Voice of the voiceless: villages in action

Weekend reader - links I loved

Another week closer to summer, and today, I can almost tell. Sunshine is on my shoulders, I’m almost warm, and I’m definitely ready for the weekend. Are you?

Links I loved this week:

Yes, I’m just another Mad Men tragic, but it’s with good reason: The Mad Men guide to changing the world with words is one of them - Copyblogger

Transparency is something I am hyper-aware of in my communications-adviser/NGO world, so my ears pricked up when I read Paul Wallbank’s thoughts on the illusion of transparency:

Transparency is one of the great excuses of our era; the belief that something is correct as long as it is disclosed has been used to justify unethical or downright deceptive behaviour by groups ranging from financial advisors to gadget bloggers - Paul Wallbank

I also surprisingly enjoyed this look at the arguments behind providing Afghanistan with more reliable electricity, mobile phones and other technologies as a way to ‘win the war.’

In my quest to learn more about where good ideas come from, I found Alain de Botton’s words interesting about workplaces (or better yet, work spaces):

Objectively good places to work rarely end up being so; in their faultlessness, quiet and well-equipped studies have a habit of rendering the fear of failure overwhelming. Original thoughts are like shy animals. We sometimes have to look the other way – towards a busy street or terminal – before they run out of their burrows. - Alain de Botton

What’s this? Another reason for me to dislike Tony Abbott? - Grogs Gamut

Thank you, Meanjin, for bringing together two of the things in my (and possibly your) life this week: Mad Men and Freedom - On liking the unlikeable: the case of Betty Draper

Are you a womanist? (Alice Walker, PDF file, via my ever-insightful friend Jo)

7 talks to help you change (the world) in one place - handy! My personal favourite is The Secret Powers of Time.

Radiohead front man Thom Yorke (one half of the voice in This Mess We’re In, perhaps my favourite song of the decade) has a new project, predictably odd: 2 minutes silence. I am not convinced enough to hand over my hard earned, but maybe you will be?

And finally, did you know 1000 people from America’s underlclass live underground in Las Vegas?

p.s. I’ve written you a letter

p.p.s. What do you think of freedom?
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