Gender and ICED

I've spent the last two days in an intensive elective I'm taking this semester called Gender and International Community Economic Development. And intense would definitely be the word to describe it! We covered the world in topics, did group exercises, watched a documentary, chatted with one of our distance classmates from Ecuador over Adobe Pro, debated quite a lot, and even had time to visit a women's empowerment project for Burundian refugees right here in Manchester!

One of our required readings for the course was Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. The book is heavy on blaming culture for gender inequality (when really the issue is much more multidimensional than that). They are good story tellers, but the reader must remember that the authors are journalists, not researchers.

Picture from the front of Half the Sky

Our visit to "Sewing Confidence," the project for Burundian refugee women in Manchester, was inspiring. They have very recently started, but the change we saw in them compared to the initial community assessment we read of the group was amazing. Many of them came to the U.S. and became clinically depressed because the horrible conditions of their situation, as well their isolation from the community. The initial objective of the project was to get them out of their houses a few times a week, get together with other women who spoke their language, and do something productive with their time. Their sewing skills are getting better and they are now at a turning point in their project. They want more than just to "get out of the house" and are contemplating starting a business or a cooperative to market and sell their products. They have a long way to go, but by the end of the visit, one of the students from our class had agreed to help them work on their marketing skills and business model!

In the end, there were five major themes that came out of our two-day class:

1. Gradualism/Moderation: we must pace the change for women's empowerment - by pushing too hard, or opting for radicalism, many will push right back and nothing will be accomplished;
2. Men's and boy's involvement: men must be involved in gender empowerment, they must be included in questioning their own and women's expectations, roles, and norms;
3. Stories: recognising the value of learning from comparative experience;
4. Difference between situations: cultural norms differ from place to place, so the response to gender inequality must differ from place to place;
5. Leadership and Mentoring: importance of role models, woman-to-woman mentoring, and fostering internal national leadership (e.g. through more women elected officials).

I am tired and a little cranky this evening, so I'm taking the evening off and trying to prepare for three more days of class (and three different courses) before getting back on a bus to come home. My Gender course is not done, I still have a couple small assignments and a final project to do, which is to design a Gender Awareness Training for Men!!! Have any ideas?!

Book Club Starting Soon

Hi everyone.

Long time no see. I'd like to invite anyone who's interested to join my bookclub. We're going to be reading a selection of literature about human trafficking. We'll be meeting once a month at the start, and will be reading a half a book or so per meeting if we can manage it.

We're going to be starting with Not For Sale by David Batstone.



Our first meeting will be at our place, on March 13 at 5:00. Want to come, or read along, send me a note!

A BIT ABOUT THE BOOK:

Award-winning journalist David Batstone reveals the story of a new generation of 21st century abolitionists and their heroic campaign to put an end to human bondage. In his accessible and inspiring book, Batstone carefully weaves the narratives of activists and those in bondage in a way that not only raises awareness of the modern-day slave trade, but also serves as a call to action.

With 2007 bringing the 200th anniversary of the climax of the 19th century abolitionist movement, the world pays tribute to great visionary figures such as William Wilberforce of the United Kingdom and American Frederick Douglass for their remarkable strides toward framing slavery as a moral issue that people of good conscience could not tolerate. This anniversary serves not only as a commemorative date for battles won against slavery, but also as a reminder that slavery and bondage still persist in the 21st century. An estimated 27 million people around the globe suffer in situations of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation from which they cannot free themselves. Trafficking in people has become increasingly transnational in scope and highly lucrative. After illegal drug sales and arms trafficking, human trafficking is today the third most profitable criminal activity in the world, generating $31 billion annually. As many as half of all those trafficked worldwide for sex and domestic slavery are children under 18 years of age.

What I am reading this week...

For one of my courses, Principles, Practices and Policy of International Community Economic Development (or PPP for short, because who ever wants to say that mouthful?), we are studying corruption as a hindrance to development. Our main reading is "Economic Gangsters: Corruption, Violence, and the Poverty of Nations" by Ray Fisman and Ted Miguel. Based on in-depth and long-term research, it is written in everyday vernacular and reads in a couple days - or a couple more, if you're taking detailed notes ;)

The basic idea behind the book is that while most of us are textbook economic entities - rational beings who make choices based on logical decisions, not rash impulses - economic gangsters are those people who are unconstrained by scruples of conscience. Although all people are reduced to the rational calculus of survival when they are in desperate circumstances, wherein conscience is a "forgone luxury", economic gangsters are those who abuse of public office for private gain.

It's a great read if you're at all interested in the subject. It's quite entertaining, too, like when the authors measure corruption by the number of unpaid parking tickets by UN diplomats in New York City. Even though diplomats are not obligated to pay the tickets, tickets are still issued on their cars if they are parked illegally. Funny enough, although a lot of parking tickets are issued close to UN headquarters, there are also a vast number of tickets issued outside very high end restaurants and boutiques... hmm, interesting. Rest assured: although Canada did incur two or three tickets over the period studied (compared to hundreds and thousands from some other countries' diplomats) the tickets were paid with the utmost speed. Based on this measure, Canada is not a very corrupt nation :)

Here's one for the road, for lack of a better one. Apparently people find how I sleep in hotel beds funny, because this is the second time someone's taken a picture of the occurence. This one is from January in New Hampshire, taken by Charlie. What can I say, I love down pillows!

Chab Dai News!

We are excited to announce that we now have a bank account in Chab Dai Canada's name!! Although we can't issue tax receipts until our charitable status has gone through at Revenue Canada, we can now at least receive funds in Chab Dai's name! We've decided for the time being that everything we receive (unless specifically otherwise indicated by the donor) will be divided 50/50 between Chab Dai Canada and Chab Dai Cambodia. When we start more fundraising and plan projects that will require specific funding, we may review this, but for now we feel sending the money to Cambodia is a good use of our office here.

In other Chab Dai news, yesterday we attended the premiere of a new Canadian documentary called Avenue Zéro, about human trafficking in Canada. The viewing was followed by a Q&A session with six experts, from police officers to community activists, as well as the documentary director. Both the movie and discussion afterward were excellent. I would definitely recommend seeing the movie, it gives quite a good overview of the phenomenon here in Canada from a human rights perspective.

It's playing at Ciné-Robotique (the ONF) on the corner of St. Denis and de Maisonneuve, every day at 19h00 from today until January 31. The address is 1564 rue St. Denis.

The documenary website is: http://avenuezero.ca/

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, friends!

A new year and we're back up on our blog. We took a short break, due to the end-of-semester and December craziness, but we're back to feeling completely motivated and organised, as so many Januaries have before!

We had a wonderful Christmas in Winnipeg, saw lots of family and friends, and found the trip very relaxing overall.

This past weekend we both went down to the States for my first class weekend of the semester and spent a day in Vermont on our way down. Montpelier is a very cute little town with many bookstores and craft shops and some good restaurants to choose from. We chose McGillicuddy's Irish Pub, where I had the most delicious veggie burger I've ever tasted, but also happened to be where the Senate candidate was having a shin-dig, so it was pretty crowded.

Here we are in front of Montpelier's court house... for lack of another "notable" landmark.

We also stopped in Waterbury to visit the Ben & Jerry's ice cream factory and got a factory tour.

It was delicious.

It was a busy first weekend, but I am so excited about this semester. In Project Planning, we're moving forward from research to design, and enter the wonderful world of logframes!! They can be pretty tough, but I've done them before, so here's hoping it isn't too difficult. I'm also taking a Gender in CED elective with my fabulous academic advisor. This week, a main focus will be on passing a waiver exam to get out of taking Economics in CED, which looks like a repeat of the Economics courses I took in undergrad, so I'm really hoping I can pass the test.

Charlie spent the weekend driving me to and from campus, meeting me for lunch, napping, reading, and watching much basketball. He was also very happy when I introduced him to Hart's Turkey Farm Restaurant, which is attached to the hotel I stay at every month.

I hope to write more about Chab Dai Canada's progress more in the coming weeks. Charlie plans to make a guest appearance very soon as well. Keep in touch!

Amartya Sen is awesome!

My aha! moment this month was this (and I hope this makes sense, because it's like an explosion in my head):

I can link my specific CED project in Montreal (very concrete) with Amartya Sen's capability approach to economic development (VERY theoretical)!!

This may seem banal and very simple, and my explanation of it is very boiled down and summarised, I admit, but actually being able to take what I learn in the academic setting directly into the real world is pretty amazing (and those of you have done an undergraduate degree know where I'm coming from!)

Don't get me wrong, I think my B.A. prepared me for starting to work in my field and I value my education up to this point very much. But actually seeing how I can put into practice such a theoretical philosophy - read some Sen and you'll see just how theoretical it seems - is one of the most exciting things to happen since I started my Masters.

Ok, back to my literature review ;)
See you later!

After autumn comes...

It's November already? I have been really excited about winter this year because we bipassed it completely last year, but now that I'm cold all the time and only two of our heaters work, I'm not so sure anymore. Hopefully the skating and snow-shoeing will make up in fun what I'm lacking in warmth.

November also means I'm halfway through my first semester of my Masters program! My three courses this semester have definitely kept me busy, and I'm wondering how I'll fit in two more next semester, but overall I'm having a blast. My biggest time swallower is the first of a four-seesmter course called CED Project. This fall I'm doing all the preliminary research for this project, which will take place in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. Having done all the statistical research in my first month, this month I concentrated on primary research - interviews, focus group discussions, surveys - so that I am actually getting advice and feedback from people directly in the community. My project idea is beginning to take shape and I'm so excited/nervous/terrified to actually get it started next summer.

In October, Charlie and Alix and I went to the Botanical Gardens for their annual Chinese lantern festival. It was actually the first time I'ven ever been and it is so stunning. The Montreal Botanical Gardens have a really close relationship with the Chinese Botanical Gardens, and so alot of our expositions and gardens have Asian themes and styles. This lantern exposition takes a year to complete: around this time of year, the Montreal team draws the designs for next year, then they send the designs to China, where each piece is hand-made, which takes a few month, and then they have to ship them to Montreal to arrive around July, and its taks almost two months to put them all up!