Monday, June 22, 2009

The Stars Speak Volumes When Traveling

I haven’t seen the night sky this bright, this close up since the time my friend and I rode our bikes 20 km uphill to Nagarkot, a small remote village near Kathmandu, Nepal known for its amazing mountain top views. When we arrived, we were, what felt to me, on top of the world. In the fading daylight, we could see rolling green mountains from every direction. Then at night, the silence and the dark night sky blanketed us like we were the only ones who existed under this brilliant canopy of living night suns. That feeling, however, of being alone before the universe was hardly a lonely feeling at all. Rather than feeling our existence grow diminutive in comparison to the vastness before us, I felt more as if our presence was just as significant in the universe as each and every star in the sky. It was a feeling that every living being, down to a single blade of grass, made up the richness of life here on Earth, and we existed amongst a great universe of pulsating life – equivalent to the pulsating lights in the night sky. We all had a right to be here. We all had a place and purpose in the universe.

The stars are so vibrant, so almost within my reach in Gulu that although I am not on the top of a mountain like in Nepal, I am taken back to that feeling of being swallowed whole by something greater than myself. As I sit out on the back balcony of our apartment amongst the night time cricket noises soaking in the starlight, I realize how thirsty I have been for connection back to Mother Nature. The stars have a timeless quality about them, and I sit here wondering if my African ancestors looked up to the stars and felt the same vastness that blurs of the boundaries separating human from plant, animal, and starlight. I laugh when I think how quick humans are to discern themselves from the rest of the animal kingdom. We may think, build cities, have politics, own land, but we forget we are made up of the same particles as insects, animals, and heavenly orbs. We might be the most biologically complex of all living things, but for that purpose, we then have the greatest responsibility to care for all the others creatures on Earth and the Earth herself. These are the messages that I feel in the presence of Mother Nature, these are the messages that get lost living in big cities, in the 9 to 5 scurry, in the money making flurry of corporations, in the decision making haggle of politicians, in the furrowed brows of scientists determined to advance technology, and in humanity’s desperate efforts to get ahead. How do we temper progress with these very simple and timeless realizations?

It has been interesting to be here in Africa and feel nostalgia for all the other places I have been to. I know that once I leave Uganda, I will ache for Africa as well. Places seem to leave a mark on your heart like old lovers do. There’s always an ache to return, but you know that if you do it won’t ever be as you knew it before. I hope this perception of mine changes because I know that my path in life will consist of much more traveling, and I can’t imagine feeling this ache for so many places. And it’s not so much the country as it is the company that I’ve kept, the different faces of Mother Nature that I’ve seen, and the lessons I have taken with me. When I think about the sun setting over the Western desert in Siwa, Egypt, I still hold my breath at the memory of the beauty of sun reflecting over an ocean of sand and the love and connection I felt in that moment for the company at my side. In Ecuador, it was the churches that held me in awe, and I remember laughing with friends so hard until my sides hurt climbing the tower of a basilica because we didn’t know if we would ever reach the top. In the Philippines, it was the deep, deep connection to the land, people, and history that because here held my roots, here held half of my heritage. And Nepal holds my heart in the Hindu temples, Buddhist stupas, rolling mountains, and intimate connections I made with all whom I met there. I know I may not get back to all those places in my lifetime or the many more I will see in the future. Yet I mourn the company that I kept in many of those places, the love and connection I felt with the people whom I met, traveled with, and guided me along the way.

I know that I am weaving something here with these 3 other individuals that I'm working with. The work we are doing is simple, but I think we are all well aware, on different levels, of the mission and the vision we’re trying to live out. We all come from different backgrounds and grew up in different parts of the world, and already I am fascinated by the differences in experiences and the interesting perspectives we bring to this work. I wonder how we will all part ways and what parts of this journey we will bring back with us to inform the work that we do in the future.

If through traveling, the universe continues to offer me life in such fullness of diverse people and experiences, then I pray to the Divine to keep them coming despite the ache I will feel at the end of each journey. For I know that only through expansion and connection with others from different cultures and vantage points am I able to expand and transcend my own limitations – my personal biases, my value judgments, and my own narrow thinking. Only through dialogue with others can we understand the variety and vastness of the human experience. Only through dialogue are we able to confront our own privilege as we attempt to empathize with the situations of others who experience suffering to degrees we will never be able to relate to. Only through dialogue and connection are we humbled. We are humbled before the infinite number of stars in the sky, but more importantly, before each other.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

We Must Lift as We Climb

There are people who identify with being a minority, but do not identify with being from an “impacted community.” It is amongst many of us who possess higher education where this feeling of “us versus them” arises. When we speak of racism, we have to speak about classism, sexism, and all the other “isms.” Being a minority of privilege does allow one to maneuver in society with greater freedom. But what does that mean? That one cannot identify as being black if one isn’t poor? Or one cannot identify as being Filipino if one isn’t living and working in another country to send remittances home? How much have we formulated our cultural or ethnic identities to revolve around socio-economic status?

What is interesting is that we encounter privileged minorities (at least those who are American born or Western-raised) who have dis-indentified with their ethnic group. The type of high standard lifestyles that professionals are able to attain: Prada bags, BMWs, dinner parties… etc. essentially mimic rich Western lifestyles. Money and education provide people of color with access to the upper echelons of society, which have usually consisted of white people. Which brings me to the question: Does this access and privilege lead to cultural denial? A bleaching of one’s ethnic identity?

In some cases, perhaps. In others, perhaps not. For example, there are minorities (usually, once again, 2nd generation, American born) who go the opposite way, and over-identify with their culture – living out all the good and the bad. Then there are others who straddle the line between the culture(s) of their parents and Western culture. This often times proves to be problematic, for example, with regards to the family-centric values of the parents’ country of origin and Western individualism. Or, in another example, there exists a clash between cultures regarding traditional roles for men and women in the family and in society. Negotiating our identity to balance the values of our parents with the values of the society in which we have been raised is difficult for all. It’s difficult to know which values are healthiest for us for the life we want to live. We often discover that our values and choices go against what our parents had wanted for us, say if we were living in the country they immigrated from. There is always some type of rebellion against parental cultural values (like in the movie the Namesake), and then there is also (for some of us) the fierce longing to return back to our roots and to the culture of our parents that we have for so long denied within us. I see a lot of us trying to reestablish our ethnic identities because although we were raised amongst other Americans, our family lives were very different than our white middle class suburban school companions – different languages were spoken at home, different foods were eaten, and different histories were recounted. Yet, while we reconstruct and renegotiate our identities to incorporate all these things, I think we have to be critical of what values and ways of thinking we have adopted from our parents (consciously and unconsciously) regarding important matters like women roles (what does women’s equality really mean?), health and well-being (traditional food dishes have created physical problems like heart disease and diabetes and, in addition, excessive smoking and drinking are considered cultural norms and the only social activity for men in most cultures), and communication (for example, seeking counseling services is considered taboo in most other cultures). We must look critically at our ethnic identities. We must honor certain traditions, but we must challenge others. Our position as educated, 2nd generation children give us the perfect opportunity to challenge the unhealthy views and traditions from both our parents’ countries of origin and the dominant culture we live in. We are at a strategic intersection of multiple cultures and vantage points that we have the ability (and power) to take the healthiest values from each to create a future that links timeless traditional values (such as respect for the family unit) with modern perspectives of social justice. This is how we create a new paradigm and way of thinking about the world, each other, and development.

With this in mind, I think one of the key missions in this line of work is to organize all minorities, especially those of us with privilege because we have the most resources. (And then to ally with socially conscious white people -- but I will expound on this in other blog). Historically, people of color have not been able to exercise any type of power. Now, primarily due to the struggle of our parents to provide us with a better life in the US, our generation is not only educated, we hold rank in a variety of careers. Despite this, we do not want to come into developing countries with a similar mentality that white people have come to developing countries with: dispensing charity. The idea is to recognize the commonality of experiences of oppression in our personal lives and throughout history in order to empower each other with ideas of lifting up ourselves and creating productive alliances to gain access to resources. Again, we need to subvert the hierarchy of charity regardless of what type of privilege it’s coming from: white or people of color. Like Paulo Freire says in Pedagogy of the Oppressed, “This, then, is the great humanistic and historical task of the oppressed: to liberate themselves and their oppressors as well. The oppressors, who oppress, exploit, and rape by virtue of their power cannot find in this power the strength to liberate either the oppressed or themselves. Only power that springs from the weakness of the oppressed will be sufficiently strong to free both… In order for this struggle to have meaning, the oppressed must not, in seeking to regain their humanity (which is a way to create it), become in turn oppressors of the oppressors, but rather restorers of the humanity of both.”

So again, I ask, what is the ultimate vision? One of my biracial friends said that there existed only one movie where the two main characters were engaged in a biracial relationship and it wasn’t “a big deal.” In every other movie where there is couple from different races, part of the issue in the movie is the clash of races or cultures through the relationship. I remember my friend saying what we want are the movies to show inter-racial relationships and it’s not a big deal, not talked about, not the focus of the problems between the characters. But is that really what we want? A society that just doesn’t talk about race, gender, ethnicity? Because if we do not talk about things, then they do not exist. How can we forget or ignore the struggles of our ancestors? Or more recently, of course, our parents who immigrated? How many times did my Dad tell me as I was growing up that he walked miles to school with no shoes? Or what about when my best friend’s father tells her that he’s been supporting his family in India since he was 8 years old and he is STILL sending money to India to support them? I am only able to be here – to live amongst others of different races, religions, and cultures because the people before me have struggled. I feel like those who do not have a critical lens ultimately do not know history. If I do not know history, my personal and collective history, how can I go forward into a future that does not repeat the past?

Is ignorance bliss? There are many of us, both white and of color, who walk amongst us with blinders on. Without a critical lens on the power dynamics of race, religion, ethnicity, and gender throughout history and into the present day, then we do not see the historical trauma of people of color and minority communities everywhere. Without a critical lens, we do not have to get angry at injustice. Without a critical lens, we can blame people of color from not being able to “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” because racism doesn’t exist anymore, right? Without a critical lens, we don’t have to ask ourselves why we cross the street when we see a black man walking towards us. Without a critical lens, we can spend our parents’ money freely and without guilt on expensive and unnecessary things because we don’t think about what political or economic mess they fled from in their home countries in order to live a financially secure life. Without a critical lens, we do not have to think about the genocides, colonization, wars, and displacement that affected our parents, grandparents, and ancestors. Because if we look at the issues facing minority and indigenous communities with a critical lens, with an acute awareness, then we cannot deny, cannot turn our eyes away from the physical, mental, and social sicknesses that are dragging communities of color down. If we look instead at the facts, not as the white historians have written about it in our history books, but as our grandparents and parents tell it as they reminisce about their past lives in another country, then we have no excuse in seeing how we have come to be here. We have climbed only because they have sweated and sacrificed to make sure we saw a better life. We have climbed only because they have lifted us. And now, with all our knowledge, education, and privilege, how can we fail not to lift others?

We must fully acknowledge our unique position in history and accept our responsibility in shaping the future of society. As a person of color born in this day in age with some privilege, we are able to access spheres of life that were previously closed to us (Obama is the perfect example). We are on the leading edge of a new paradigm. This new paradigm will only and can only come about through communities of color leading the way. We have the tools, as Paulo Freire says it, to liberate ourselves and the oppressor. Yet let us not fool ourselves into thinking, like I said in the beginning, that if we are of color or identify as minorities that our lives are automatically in line with this vision and cannot hurt the cause. The truth is that we are a detriment to this mission if we are ignorant and estranged from ourselves and our histories. If we cannot look at ourselves, let alone society with a critical lens, then we are indeed lost to the cause. But if we can, then it is our responsibility to lift others not only out of poverty, but also out of despair and hopelessness. By recognizing fully that the liberation of others is wrapped up in ours, we must lift as we climb.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Your Liberation is Bound Up in Mine

“When I go back to that area, I remember those things. I am the only one out of my friends who are left, the rest were killed. I think, why have I survived while the others have perished? God must have a purpose for me to have experienced all that suffering. I must do something with my life.” - Apollo

Apollo, a relative of Dr. Beatrice (the doctor who runs Kairos clinic), has been our companion/tour guide/translator for the time we’ve been here in Gulu so far. He is 20 years old and studying medical technology at the university. His demeanor seems a little serious at first, but he laughs a lot and his laughs are long and drawn out, which in turn cracks the rest of us up. His English is impeccable and extremely proper. We joke that his English is in fact better than ours! He is patient with our questions and speaks openly about his experience growing up during the war in northern Uganda. He tells us about his near escapes from either kidnapping or death at the hands of the LRA (rebel army), not once, not twice, but dozens of times. Once they came to his house, ordered him to sit and not move, but when they were distracted, he ran. They chased him for many miles. He tells us he had to run in a zig-zagged way, since they chased people in a V formation to surround and overtake them. When they capture people they ask them, “Do you want shorts or pants?” If you respond shorts, they will cut off your legs above the knees. If you respond pants, they will cut off your feet. Apollo has only known war for his entire life. It has only been 3 years since there has been peace in northern Uganda. Apollo’s faith in God, grounded in Christianity, has no doubt carried him through his experiences. His quiet conviction reflects his strong belief that he has survived to fulfill a greater purpose: to serve his people.

Two weeks I have been here in Gulu, Uganda. Two weeks, which have felt like an eternity – yes, time has a definite kairos quality to it. To back track a little bit, we arrived on June 1st and for the first 2 days, Apollo took us around town and introduced us to life in Gulu. The town is small and easily accessible. Like most developing countries I’ve been in, the streets are littered with bicycles, motor bikes, chickens, goats, and the occasional cow. But let me tell you about the market, oh the market! The market here is almost as fun as the wet markets in the Philippines. I love the markets! They’re a world in and of themselves! Rice, beans, meat, vegetables, clothes, soap, hammers… you name it, you can find it in the maze of sights, sounds, and smells. The markets are still my favorite places to be when I am in another country because here is the center of life for a community! Here is where people come to buy sustenance, to sell what they have grown in the fields, to haggle over prices, to come together to exchange goods and conversation.
After we got familiar with the center of town, Apollo took us through the IDP (internally displaced persons) camps close by. These camps were established during the war, when the LRA was terrorizing the people in the countryside. The government ordered the people to relocate and organize in these areas, which resulted in cramped living conditions. Disease, unemployment, and alcoholism run rampant in the camps. Now, the problem is that even though there has been 3 years of peace, people do not want to move back to the country. Not only have they grown accustomed to the camps and NGO handouts, the conditions are so dire that they have to start from scratch upon returning to the rural areas. There seems to be no way to escape poverty.

The poverty here in Africa is different than what I have witnessed in other countries. I dare not say it is any better or worse here than in other places, but it is of a different nature. This trip is reminiscent of my trip to the Philippines, where I saw poverty on a large scale in the city amongst the squatters and in the slums and out in the country amongst the farmers. Here, in Africa, the poverty situation is just as terrible, yet they are coming out of a 20 year long war and the physical, mental, and emotional trauma is fresh, if not, still just beneath the surface. The One World mission is to link minority communities abroad, so we are in Gulu to work with the minority Acholi community, who has been the primary targets of the LRA during the war. The Northern region of Uganda suffers from the highest incidence of poverty at an average of 66% over the past 10 years. This is higher than the national average of 46% or the average of other districts. Gulu district registered 11.9% of highest HIV prevalence among pregnant women in 2002, compared with 10.8% for the western region, 8.5% for central region and 6.3% for the east. And in the Northern region, there is an even greater disparity in education as 69% of men are literate compared to 24% of women.

During the first few days, Akeema (the other facilitator) and I conducted the 3 day workshop on leadership, human rights, and social justice (what we were being trained on in DC) for the other One World US participants and local community leaders here in Gulu. We had initially anticipated 6 young leaders from Gulu to attend, but instead 15 people showed up! It was an intense 3 days, but we had so much fun and learned a lot about the situation of the Acholis here on the ground.
Now that the training is over, my internship here has begun. I am working along with the 3 other One World USA young leaders to team up with Kairos Community Health Center and do community outreach in order to educate communities on HIV/AIDS, malaria, family and community health. The structure of our week is as follows:

- Tuesday and Wednesday: meet with community members from 1 parish (multiple villages make up 1 parish) to engage is dialogue and conduct an assessment regarding the community’s challenges. Talk about HIV/AIDS and malaria prevention and treatment.

- Thursday and Friday: venture out into the community to meet with a few families to discuss more about their challenges and assess their income generating projects (usually communal gardens or beekeeping).

- Following Monday: write up our findings in reports.

So far the problems have been the same across the board: people are too poor for mosquito nets to prevent malaria, they do not have access to condoms, water and sanitation create poor health, they need fertilizer for crops and a more accessible water supply, people are too poor to go to the clinic, etc. The goal is for Kairos to use the data we collect to get the resources that the community needs.
In essence, we are attempting to assist these communities in developing. However, in reference to what I wrote about in my previous blog, the vision is to empower communities so that they can subsist on their own without charity. The people suffer from dependency now, since they have been so accustomed to hand-outs from NGOs and non-profits from the time during the war. Now, the NGOs have left since the war is over and the people are left disempowered, unmotivated, and waiting around for help. After assessing the state of these impoverished communities, the real question, first and foremost becomes: How do you empower people to help themselves when they have absolutely nothing to work from??

I will expound on that question in another blog, but currently, I am confronting some fundamental issues on the structure of our work here. Although we are from impacted community ourselves, we (us folks from the US) still come from privilege being from America. Being of color does not, by any means, put us on the same playing field as the people here. We are all very aware that our 1st world status gives us economic and educational privilege. Yet, we are unique in that, for example, both Nadia and Jon, who are both African Americans from the South can claim that black southerners experience poverty and neglect that resembles the discrepancy between the Acholis and the rest of Uganda. I feel a strong connection to this work through my connection to my roots, the struggles of my father’s family, my experience being bi-racial and the daughter of an immigrant, and my previous traveling experiences. I connect the experience of my father’s family growing up in the Philippines, the struggles of Filipinos in the Philippines and in other countries (discrimination, marginalization, domestic violence.. etc), the struggles I’ve witnessed amongst the peoples in other developing communities to my work here. Therefore, this work becomes personal, and as I have travelled and made connections with people living in the Ukraine, Thailand, Nepal, Egypt, and Ecuador – the urgent need to transcend race, ethnicity, religion, nationality to unite on a global front to work for social justice becomes even more pressing. My identity is no longer limited to my family, friends, ethnicity, or nationality – it transcends and includes all those I have connected with in all those places. I am no longer just obligated to care for people in my immediate community, city, or country – I am obligated to work for change that includes all whom I have met along the way and all those whom I have yet to meet and those whom I will never meet. Their struggles are bound up in mine and my liberation can only be found through theirs.
Anyhow, I am feeling highly sensitive to how we are going out our work educating the communities considering our privilege. Basically, our work feels hierarchical. While we emphasize from the beginning One World’s mission to connect minority communities across the globe in order to exchange experiences and empower from the ground up, our job for Kairos is to educate (which I realize naturally is hierarchical in structure to begin with). At first, I felt that, wow, what we are doing, we could just be some random white people from some random NGO doing this work. But we’ve tried to incorporate more community dialogue and emphasize the need for the community to have these meetings on their own in order to brainstorm ways in which they can work together to get the resources they need, instead of waiting around for western NGOs to come and save them.

Basically, what has become problematic for me is that we are telling the communities what they need to do. It is still reminiscent of a top-down process. However, we are aware this is the first time Kairos and the community are doing this type of community outreach and organizing. With that in mind, I know this is going to be a learning process not only for us from the US (since we will need to continuously be aware and sensitive to our own privilege and try to do what we can to NOT reinforce the hierarchy of 1st world “helping” 3rd world paradigm), but also for the community leaders here in Gulu. Although we are only into our first week of work, I am already coming to the conclusion that what is needed is for us to engage in more dialogue with the young leaders in Gulu (who were involved in the training and represent the community), instead of directly with the community themselves. I think that if we can bring in officials to educate the community leaders in micro-credit opportunities, agriculture techniques, community health, etc., then they can disperse that information out to the people.

Although I am feeling that there will be a hierarchy nevertheless and no matter how hard we try, I feel certain that when people come together with genuine selfless intention and a common vision that is grounded in the well-being of everyone, then the hierarchy can be transcended. When the hierarchy is transcended, then all that exists in people is an undeniable and overwhelming feeling that I am not separate from others. And when I am not separate from others then their fate is bound up in mine, not only by the decisions that I make, but by the values that govern my actions and how I choose to use my life.

As Lila Watson said, “If you have come to help me you are wasting my time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us struggle together.”

Friday, June 12, 2009

We are the Silent Movement

Where do I even start?

I have been in Gulu, Uganda for over one week now, but I have to start by recounting my 4 day stay in Washington, D.C., which consisted of an intense training of the Group Leaders for our trips abroad through the One World Foundation.
(You can check out their website too if you’d like: www.theoneworldfoundation.org)
A little background on the One World Foundation (OW). OW was created by Tiffany and Dana, two African American women, who decided to collaborate their efforts to start an organization that facilitated creating alliances amongst young leaders of minority and indigenous communities internationally. Tiffany and Dana met while studying abroad and observed that people from minority communities were under represented in these types of international programs. Acknowledging that this was due to the lack of opportunities for people of color to get involved in international experiences and the world of international development, Tiffany and Dana began the One World Foundation. Their mission statement is driven by the idea that people from minority or directly-impacted communities are their best problem solvers. Throughout history, aid to these marginalized and oppressed communities (which usually have had little resources, suffer from poverty, racism, poor health, etc.) has come in the form of charity from the dominant, privileged group of people, which have usually been people NOT of color – who are removed from the issues on the ground. The mission of One World is to link young leaders from directly-impacted communities in the USA with young leaders from minority and indigenous communities abroad. We should have a voice and be the forefront on issues regarding international and sustainable development because we know the issues facing our communities the best from personal and historical experience. As of today, there are very few people of color in this field. Historically and currently, aid from NGO’s and other non-profit organizations has come in the form of charity that has not only created a dependency syndrome between those giving out the aid (usually privileged white people from the West) to those receiving the aid (minority communities of color both domestically in the US and in developing countries). Why not have leaders in international development be the people who know the issues from the inside? Why not link minorities from all over the world together in order to empower each other to solve the problems in our own communities? In this way, we will be able to create alliances, collaborate resources, and exchange experiences and empower each other to take the lead in the field of international development and challenge and restructure the definition of development away from the Western model. Why not subvert the hierarchy of oppression and charity? All these are new ideas. Thus, this is a new movement. A new type of grassroots global revolution.
While speaking with Tiffany, the co-founder of One World, she referred to us as a “silent movement.” We are a silent movement because these are new ideas, we are coming from the ground up, and communities of color have never had a voice in these matters. We might have been silent in the past, but I doubt we will be silent for very long.

The training of the Group Leaders was off the hook. So basically, more background, One World planned to send 4 groups of young leaders to 4 different countries: India, Cambodia, Senegal, and Uganda. Thus, there were 4 Group Leaders (including myself), and then 4 co-facilitators (who were either Group Leaders or participants from last year). The co-facilitators and Group Leaders are to work together abroad to lead the 3 day leadership, social justice, and human rights training for the other OW participants and young leaders from the host country’s local community.
So the D.C. training was off the hook (and the in country training was awesome too – more on that later) because the information we were to be presenting on human rights, leadership, social justice and advocacy (there was even a section on evidence-based research – oh yes, for my social worker friends – that research class came in handy!) was thorough and inspiring, but mostly because we were all united under this mission to look critically at the definition of international development, empower from the ground up, and look at all social justice issues from a critical lens. In the 4 days I was there amongst the other trainers and then the other participants who arrived later, I was blown away by the energy, talent, and passion of all the people I met. Almost everyone gelled together like we were old friends and we spent almost every day (and into every night) discussing and exchanging our experiences, our ideas, our dedication and passion to all that I mentioned above.

A huge topic of discussion was and is the definition of international development. My own ideas about development are “developing,” but this trip is already transforming my ideas about what the dominant framework on development should be. It is so very critical that we are clear about our intentions when we enter a third world country with altruistic ideas to help them “develop.” We have to be careful not to discount the indigenous culture and ways of living that has worked for a group of people before the community was introduced to Western ideas. Previous efforts of Western nations to develop other countries have proven to be disastrous. Colonization has destroyed communities – physically, mentally, economically, politically, and spiritually. Indigenous communities and people of the third world are suffering from historical trauma. American values of materialism and consumption has become our measures of success. This is not development!

Historically and in the present day we have to face the reality that the people making the decisions and calling the shots when it comes to international development are white people of privilege from the middle and upper classes. While often times their intentions are good for the most part (and sometimes they are not –under the guise of “helping,” they are in fact just looking after their own self-interest. For example, the US intervention in the Middle East is largely to acquire oil), they do not come with a critical analysis of their own privilege regarding race and economics dynamics and what it means to “help.” They are looking at third world countries with the lens that what they have (Western knowledge, education, medicine) is superior to what the developing country has presently. No doubt Western medicine is saving lives. No doubt clean water and the eradication of malaria are goals to be met. But there needs to be a way in which resources are shared that does not dis-empower a people, create dependency, or reinforce the hierarchy of who controls the power and resources in this world. Indigenous communities offer knowledge (like herbal, holistic medicine or respect for the environment) that can be valuable tools for progress. What we fail to acknowledge is that what we are in the first world, what we consider “development” isn’t completely better or healthy. The USA has tons of examples of where development went haywire: pollution, global warming, poor mental health (depression, anxiety), poor physical health (obesity, diabetes, heart disease, anorexia.. the list goes on). One key component to the vision of One World is to acknowledge the fact that although the US is considered developed, it has not, by all means solved the issues listed above including poverty or racism. Although we are a privileged nation, who is enjoying that privilege? It is certainly not people of color or minority communities. In fact, it is the minority communities that suffer from lack of resources, poverty, poor health, and lack of access to quality education. We are a nation of disparities and inequalities not only between races, but between classes and gender. We might be a wealthy nation, but the wealth is not distributed, and in fact, favors the dominant race.
Sadly, people in developing countries look to the US and other European countries as models for development. This is a huge issue here in Uganda (more on this later) and looking back at all my travels, this has been an issue in all the countries I’ve been to. This is what we must guard against. This is why we must challenge the dominant framework of what is development, since this perspective measures development by GDP, material wealth, and HDI (human development index). Yet, how many people do you and I know in America who have not only all their basic needs met, but central AC, the latest IPOD, 3 cars in the driveway (you get the point) and are not happy?? We might be able to extend our lives to past 100 years, but what is a life that is not lived to the fullest with meaningful relationships and experiences? Our ideas of development are skewed to value the accumulation of things over the values of compassion, interdependence, balance, responsibility, integrity, accountability… etc. We do not want another consumer driven America. We do not want quantity over quality. So then what is the vision????

Currently, my ideas of development consist of empowering people to create sustainable communities that do not rely on outside charity. This means that the community can provide its members with the basic needs without much need for importing or exporting (products or people). (However, I’m not sure if this is possible – at least have a balanced import/export exchange and only import/export what cannot be produced in community. Like for example, eating and buying locally grown food rather than importing food that can farmed locally.) Development also means using technology that is available (and appropriate) to assist in creating this sustainable community – like tools for farming or accessing clean water. People are empowered when they know their human rights and the proper steps they can take in leading their communities to document human rights violations and organize around getting their rights, establishing income generating activities, or other programs that will assist in developing their community. While I also think that modern Western medicine has provided us with a lot of advantages, I think Western medical missions fail to utilize and give credit to already established natural and indigenous healing practices. I believe a key in collaborating (not *helping*) with communities in order to develop is to assist them in utilizing their established strengths and local environment. Development is about empowering communities to use what they can, so they are NOT dependent on foreign aid or intervention. Development means that we do not inject ideas within communities that anything Western is better, but that we cultivate ideas around bridging local resources with foreign ones in a way that supports the health and well-being of everyone. It’s about creating a global community that recognizes the value of diversity – we do not want a homogeneous society. We do not want all nations to look like America. Why is the human experience such a rich and vibrant experience? Because we have diverse cultures, languages, religions, ways we experience and interpret the world, etc. We want to recognize the value in different cultural values that support human rights. We want to live in a global community that shares and exchanges it resources in equal and interdependent ways looking out for the benefit of the collective before the individual. We want a society that has a deep appreciation for life itself – no matter if it’s in the form of a plant, animal, or human. We want a society where all people live deeply rich lives, not in terms of material wealth, but in terms of meaningful connections with each other, the world we live in, and whatever we define to be a higher power. We want a society that is grounded on taking care of each other, our planet, and our future based upon the most fundamental and basic of all values: love.