"We are facing a global food crisis, a global economic crisis and a global security crisis with war and political hostilities spreading throughout the globe. In spite of efforts to reduce the divisions between the rich and the poor, the progress we have made so far on the MDGS has fallen short of the targets we established [...] These global crisis are threatening to push the MDGS into the margins of our agenda. If we allowed this to happen, it would be a major mistake..."
he says that the crises need to be resolved and merited a concerted urgent effort from all but adds:
"What I do not understand, however, is that these challenges sometimes offer reasons for countries to abdicate on their promises of doubled aid for education, health and infrastructure"
Benin, Gabon and Namibia officials also urged the assembly to not lose focus on the MDGs.
I have mixed feelings about this issue and MDGs in general. I understand the will to have a global strategy to tackle specific critical issues but reminding donors of their prior commitment in the midst of the greatest economic crisis in decades seems..odd. Additionally, I am of the opinion that massive international aid is definitely not a sustainable way to reduce global poverty.
Let me veer on a tangent rant here for a moment: If one can summoned such a massive amount of money in a short period of time, this begs two questions: 1) you as a taxpayer surely want to be able to trace and have a say about how that money will be used and recovered. That is the "best-practice" guidelines for all NGOs, I think it should certainly apply to banking institutions in need. 2) Is there really a believable rationale for saying that we could not do more and act more rapidly for the victims of hurricane because of lack of funds ? Were those less urgent crises or funding was really not the issue ? ( rant over).
I am not just re-spitting the populist discourse here. Heck, my dream is that one day, a financial institution giant will also rise from the corner of Analakely. But if it is agreed that some sort of regulation is necessary to stabilize markets and that government should intervene when the sh***t hits the fan for wall street, then I think it is reasonable to ask Wall street to do its part and provide global social stability when they get their acts together. It's called responsible capitalism. Maybe that was what Marc Ravalomanana was getting at in his speech. He probably could start that in his own backyard.
It's been a bit quiet here so I figure it's time for an update.
Apologies in advance if I will throw in a bunch of unrelated topics but as Joe Strummer would say, sometimes" such is life..."
Let's discuss Rising Voices projects first. For those of you who don't know, Rising Voices is the outreach program of Global Voices. It means that they "aims to extend the benefits and reach of citizen media by connecting online media activists around the world and supporting their best ideas." Foko (and its blogging outreach project ) is one of the many projects that is supported by Rising Voices. Our fearless leader, as Christina Quisbert from Voces Bolivianas likes to call him, is David. He is currently trekking the hills of Madagascar with Georgia, where they are both traveling between Tana, Toamasina and who knows where else :). I know there are some lemurs photo snapping in the works :).
One of the Foko blogger, Patricia, was invited to Brussels to discuss Youth involvement in social change. Now, if you are familiar with Cornell West, you know how he is all about social change. To see the distinguished Harvard professor laughing it up with Patricia as if she was Mos Def is ubercool ( at least to me).
Now thanks to the dynamic activity of the bloggers back home, a few people came forth and asks us how they could help.
Their offers mean the world to a small scale project like ours( hugs to GVer Romina and Nabuur) and Kristina in Jackson, MS generously offered to part with some of the proceedings of her products for the benefit of bloggers back home. Read her post about how she plans to help Foko. Kristina makes amazing handmade Malagasy handbags and more, so if you like her work, know that some your purchase will go towards paying for bloggers' internet connection in Madagascar.
With respect to my latest post on possible bias on news TV station in Indiana towards Obama, I wanted to make sure that photo would appear again. It has not so far, so I am holding the open letter until another instance of bias comes about. Given that Obama is now ahead of McCain in Indiana in the polls, making Indiana a definite battle state, I am betting on more of those doctored photos to come.
In the meantime, I wrote a post about how the world's view each candidate's stance on the economic crisis on voices without votes. Foreign bloggers explain how McCain is really in a bit of a pickle in the current crisis. His stance so far is something along the lines of: "I am for change but I don't want to change anything about the way the economy currently works. I will create a commission instead and probably drill somewhere" ugh... the lack of ideas on that side is just ap-(Sarah)-palling ( Rant over).
I'd much rather hang out with the guys over there.
I might be looking too much into this photo I and would be perfectly happy if someone told that it's another nonsensical conspiracy theory.
But bare with me here for a second. The McCain campaign is clearly more interested into framing this election into an identity politics battle instead of a debatie on issues and ideas. How else would one explain the "lipstick" scandal, the ad courting Hillary's supporters, The revival of the Culture Wars in Palin's speech ?
So on sept 10th, I turn to the local CBS news here in Lafayette (WLFI) , indiana for the coverage of the alleged "lipstick"outrage.
Check out the photos of McCain and Obama behind the news anchor in the evening news broadcast:
Granted this is not the clearest photo of my tv screen, but the photo of Obama was so "off" that I had to squint my eyelids to make sure that it was actually him. If you look closer, the photo of choice for Obama here is one that makes him appear to have ungroomed facial hair, emaciated cheeks, darken eye pockets and unkept hair. I don't know about you but I have never seen a public photo of Obama resembling anything close to that one above. Now compare it to an actual photo: Is it even close ? I think not.
I don't know anything about forensic imagery nor do I claim that my tv has a perfect image rendition. But it is a HD set and given the clarity of the news anchor's face and McCain's profile, I think it is reasonable to assume that my tv settings were just just fine. I remember clearly thinking: "that cannot possibly be Obama, unless he was stranded on a desert island without food or water for a few days. "
It surely looks to me like the photo shown on that tv broadcast has been modified to make Obama look a little more..."different".
On the eve of sept 11th anniversary, it would fit right into the identity politics rethorics. It would certainly be unethical and crass but not too surprising.
This bothers me enough that I am considering writing to the the local tv station to express my disappointment about their journalistic practice.
If you think that my suspiscion has no merit or that this is a non-story, I would really appreciate to hear your reasons.
Maybe there is a good technical explanation here that I am not aware of.
I surely hope I am dead wrong here. The debate portion of this election cannot come early enough. Enough is enough indeed.
If you are feeling a bit down on monday morning, the footage of the athletes at the parlympics games that opened yesterday should set you right back on track. The sheer joy on display and the once again spectacular show makes me wonder why the tv network did not deem the ceremony worthy of coverage on basic cable. If anything embodies the olympic spirit, I would vote for the sight of the flame being carried by this athlete with a seeing-eye dog at her side. Watch the last 3 minutes before the lighting of the flame. If you are not a bit moved by the moment, it might be time to ask your friends to check your wrist for a pulse. The flagbearer for Madagascar was swimmer Josefa Harijaona Randrianony. and although Malagasy might get a chuckle at the name (it sounds like Malagasy cursing a bit) isn't the mascott, Fu niu lele, just perfect ?
Whenever I am driving long-distance, one of my favorite thing to do is to listen to "This American Life" podcast. Most people in North America are familiar with Ira Glass' weekly installments. To a newcomer eager to understand the American society, I would recommend him/her to that Chicago Public Radio production first.
Today I'd like to discuss one of the episode called "by proxy". This episode strikes me as a compelling illustration of the importance of proper channel of communication between different cultures, a recurring theme around here.
The act II of the episode is called "Kill The Messengers". It's about Glass' conversation with Bassim, an Iraqi interpreter for the US army. Bassim believes he is a regular guy except for two things: he speaks English well and that he believes that the American presence in Iraq does not have to be detrimental to his country. He speaks in a very matter-of-fact manner with a gentle tone. He is aware that interpreting for the US army is a situation that could potentially become complicated but worth the effort.
Things were fine for a while, Bassim said. He understood quickly that it was in everyone's best interests that he did not translate everything words for words because the context would not allow it. For instance, one the military officer would be adamant about cigarettes not being discarded in the streets and would follow his co-workers, the Iraqi policemen, and ask them to pick up after themselves when they threw cigarettes away. Bassim would translate the order but he would say to the policemen instead: have pride in your country, don't litter. Not as a direct order but as a a suggestion. Bassim agreed with the content of that order, he wish people would use ashtray more often but he also thought that maybe cigarettes butts were less important than creating a real bond between soldiers and policemen. Bassim would also choose to not translate jokes made at the expenses of the soldiers by local policemen. No point in getting people aggravated.
In many ways, Bassim was one of the reason things were OK to a certain point, putting out one potential fire after the other, literally. He thought of explaining to the officer that if he were more lenient on the cigarette issue, he would be perceived as less of an occupant and more as a coworker. He thought of telling Iraqi police that the US soldiers are here to help. Then the Abu Ghraib photos went public and his life slowly turned into hell.
He was seen as in his own words: "as worse than the enemy", a traitor to his people. After receiving threats to his life, Bassim asked the army for advice. They listened to him carefully and offered that he stayed on the base during the day and that at might, they would send him back home with protection. That's when Bassim realized that he reached a dead-end. To be seen with the army at night would be a death sentence not only to him but also to his whole family.
Failure to establish proper communication channel is partially what led to this impossible situation for Bassim. He and his family eventually had to leave Iraq for Europe, taking with him the hope for a positive American outcome in Iraq.
The bridge that was Bassim's work in that region went up in flames. Those bridges are fragile but I think they are important and they need more support. A knee-jerk reaction to cigarette butts or not knowing when to be strong and when to let go is not a trivial matter. When most current events are now public, scrutinized to death and instantly polarizing, it is, in my humble opinion, the essence of a functional world.
it seems to me that whoever becomes the next president of the US of A needs to have a full grasp of that concept and re-establish those bridges. It is yet to be seen which one will come through but it is the base of Obama's appeal overseas. So far, Iraqi bloggers are skeptical, at best.
In 2005, my cousin wrote to me and asked how I liked living in a country where phone conversations are taped and where the Geneva Convention is all but an afterthought. How could you, he asked. In a way, my cousin's question pushed me to blog. To me, his opinion was the common narrow view of the whole picture, the usual rehashing of opinions heard in the media abroad.
What I saw here on 9/11 were upset people but I also witnessed a professor's call for tolerance and wisdom at a spontaneous gathering with students and staff, one hour after the twin towers went down.
What I see today is a website that strives to reach out to the globe, a forum to explain one's identity to the many others in their own words, an effort to build bridges.
What I see as well is the understanding that it's difficult to fully grasp a culture if you are not physically there yourself. My opinionated cousin has yet to come visit. He is the proverbial "Will Hunting describing the Sixtine Chapelle through art books":
A few weeks ago, I was discussing with a fellow Malagasy the political landscape in Madagascar and the introduction of English as an official language. He told me: "Well, since you are in the US now, you've got to be a strong supporter of Ravalomanana and his pro-US policy". I then realized that building bridges is a complicated process that everyone may not agree with, and that's quite alright.
I guess what I tried to illustrate in this never-ending post are four things:
1) Explain why I mostly blog in English when I write about Madagascar and vice-versa. 2) Explain why I care enough to lit my 1st cigar in 8 years if Obama wins ( McCain has become too temperamental and trigger-happy ( Georgia/Ossetia) to build any semblance of bridges). 3) Remind myself to never assume that people in the same vicinity or similar line of work would think along the same lines. 4) Last but not least, express my gratitude tothebagpackers of theworld for going places to places (see links) and solidify those virtual bridges ( and also hopefully attenuate the future damage caused by "Madagascar 2: Escape to Africa"...ugh...).
[The title of the post, "bridge to nowhere" is only time I will acknowledge that McCain picked a VP from Alaska this week. I really have nothing to say about that except...huh ?! ]
(Taken from video of webcast here.)
