New Voice
Hey world. I am alive... mUAHHAHAHAHAH
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October 28, 2009
October 21, 2009
The clever man knows...
that though having to do a second round of voting isn't good, if the system can resolve the issues and provide for the people to vote again, that system should be rewarded and we should use this moment, not the completion of an election as the time to demonstrate our committment to the people of Afghanistan and their nascent democracy.
October 03, 2009
Imbalancing act
I've spent most of the past six months reading about counter-insurgency (COIN) and international development. Basically different stories of how some folks show up to help/save/assist/modernize/develop some other folks. My buddy sent out a link to the story of the founding of Kiana and as I was reading the elders description of events and regrets about how the old ways had been lost, I came across the section about how girls were sent to live alone for a year and pregnant women were sent off to give birth on their own and I realized what had been bugging me for so long.
I am reading "Founding Brothers". Great book about all the dudes you usually think about when talk turns to the American Revolution and the end of the 18th century. But what has struck me is the story of the struggle to find a balance: individual v. group, agriculture v. commerce, progress v. tradition, state v. federal.
Jumping ahead, we, the west, the developed world, we have never gotten "it" right. We lost so much, destroyed so much along the way, that one would be a bit out of it to stand up and say, what ho good souls, follow in my footsteps. And that's what bothers me about development aid, COIN and everything that goes into and comes out of the developed v. developing nation dialogue (or whatever you want to call it). There is no humility about what we've lost and about our failure to truly maintain balance (though one could argue we have indeed achieved balance, just can't seem to sustain it).
Developed nations assume that where they are today is where everyone should be. But they miss two keys facts of history. 1) We did a bad job getting here (war, genocide, discrimination, extermination, subjugation, rape, pillage, etc), so that even if here is better in many ways than where we were, we should have some real questions about the process so that perhaps others can avoid those mistakes (and the endless ripple effects) and perhaps end up somewhere else. 2) historical progress is always about the periphary combining its traditions/ideas w/ the cores to make a better solution/status quo, which becomes the new core which feeds new frontiers, making new ideas, solidifying into the next core (perhaps layers of an onion are better), but thats the trajectory of human history, if you are in the current hardened (developed) area, chances are the other folks who aren't constrained by your historical baggage will be able to pick and choose from your current solutions to make the next best thing since pre sliced toast.
Even as we go around spreading education, human rights, commerce, light, sanitation, medicine, democracy etc, we absolutely need to engage people on the impact those ideas/changes had in our society. Peoples lives changed and it was tough, people had the chance to change and saw dissatisfaction, they changed then were dissatified again. Progress is inherently about dissatisfaction, but if you don't know that before you head off down the road of making your children's live better, you won't take the time to a) come to terms with that, but also b) take steps to keep hold of the important parts of what you're leaving behind, so that separation is less painful.
Or not, obviously things are going great as they are. Time for a jog...
