ted talk recommendations

i have spent my morning cleaning, doing laundry, ironing, and listening to ted talks, which is such a wonderful website about 'ideas worth sharing' and if you have not already taken a perusal through their wonderful videoed lectures (there is an iphone application too for when i am at work!), here are a few talks that struck a nerve or a chord with me this morning, take a look if you have some free time.

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i have never been a fan of wwf, but its vp who deals with corporate social responsibility and sustainability makes a number of good connections and conclusions about third party verifications, the challenges of putting the decision on sustainable consumption on the consumer, and highlights some success stories of how changes have been made in industries without our even knowing.

i recently went to a lecture by alan knight of the virgin group (of richard branson fame) around third party verification in the forestry industry and what the oilsands of alberta can learn from that experience.  and this was a really nice compliment to that information and is something, to a very brief degree, contend with in my day job.

jason clay: how big brands can help save biodiversity

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steve jobs gave a commencement address at stanford in 2005 and i absolutely love his message and the story of how he got his start and then kept moving.  i did not realise that he was an adopted child and that he had been publicly fired from apple years ago.  moving and inspiring and a great reminder not to dwell on negative even if it is difficult to suspend judgement in the moment.  (and something i direly need to be reminded of in 2010.)

steve jobs: how to live before you die

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new york senator diane j savino makes the case for the legalisation of same sex marriage and while i don't necessarily agree with her perspective that even same sex couples should have the right to be as miserable as everyone else as i believe that it doesn't matter what the result of a marriage, all consenting adults should have access to the institution (although i do understand that this line of argumentation might be a line that resonates the best with those whose opinions in the senate she was attempting to influence), i completely agree with her take on the role of government in marriage in a democratic state.

diane j savino: the case for same sex marriage

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two people speak about choice and they both have really valuable insight into how western developed countries can be improved and deteriorated by the powers associated with choice.

malcolm gladwell speaks to an audience about how to ask the question of what people want in different ways to get more accurate information with the intent of keeping people happy by offering them more choice.

malcolm gladwell: spaghetti sauce

alternatively, and more to my line of thinking on this concept, is barry schwartz who wrote a book entitled the paradox of choice, which i have been meaning to read for years.  he speaks to the idea that the more choices we have, the less satisfied we are with the selection with ultimately make.  i know that this is true for me - when i go to a restaurant with a huge menu i get overwhelmed and am never happy with my final choice because what could it have been like if i picked something else.  for this reason alone, i like eating at fancier restaurants who dictate the menu and refuse to allow substitutions.

schwartz connects the reduction in satisfaction with higher levels of depression and anxiety and i certainly know this is the case for me.  i feel as though there is so much i could do, but where do i start and how to pick what to do?  he uses the example of young people getting married and the selection of a mate, which also resonated with me for the same reasons as the lengthy menus as how we cherish and respect freedom not for what it gives us or what it can allow us to do for ourselves, but simply because freedom in and of itself is valuable.  and i am not always so sure this is the case.  watch it and see what he says about shifting the blame in the medical community and why we might not always be the best person to make decisions for ourselves.

barry schwartz: the paradox of choice

dirty little secret

here's a dirty little secret - i didn't donate anything to the relief efforts in haiti after the devastating earthquake this past january.  yes, i wanted someone to hire me to go there, but i didn't donate.  call it karma, but i sort of felt as though costs associated with the response would be covered because of the incredible news, pop culture, and celebrity coverage the disaster got.  this is likely not the best way to judge whether or not humanitarian efforts need any additional financial support, but there it is and that is how i made my decision.

in keeping with that same thinking, ever since i heard of the floods in pakistan a few weeks ago, i have thought that it is so interesting that a natural disaster that has displaced an estimated 3 million people has warranted little more than a mention on the nightly national news and have found myself wondering if this is at all correlated with how much money has been donated by private citizens like me.

and it wasn't long before this line of thinking was covered by a popular aid blog, aid watch, and after reading it and thinking 'what the hell am i waiting for?,' i just donated to islamic relief.

i picked islamic relief because (and how is this for good donorship...) i knew a girl who used to work there before i met her when she worked for another international relief ngo.  she didn't even have fantastic things to say about her working experience there, but nonetheless that is how i picked one of the agencies i know are on the ground in pakistan.

this will be rather interesting to watch play out because perhaps donors are fatigued, perhaps richies like me (and you, most likely) in the developed world don't have such a connection to a country half a world away, or perhaps freedom loving people are afraid that they will be funding terrorism and the like by giving to pakistanis, but i don't feel confident that it will be such the groundswell of donations as haiti was.  i could be completely wrong, however, as many muslim ngos and networks are incredibly well funded using a completely different donor model and they might teach those of us participating in a more western and, dare i say, mainstream response a thing or two.

coincidentally, today is also world humanitarian day.

knowing a thing or two

hello.  and welcome.  to the hundreds of people who have passed by my corner of the internet these past couple days.  i suppose i should have had this message up before, well, now.  but instead all those newcomers to my blog, thanks to a rather kind link from flotsam, see me whining about my life and being in a funk...

but (but!) here i am, trying not to be wah-wah-wahing for once in a bit of a while.

what a day i had.  it started off with a message that my slow cooker had arrived and was ready for pick up. and a day that starts off like that is bound to be a good one.  what is better is that my slow cooker was free (remember that laptop i bought?  i put it on my credit card and earned enough points to order a slow cooker!) and that it matches the rest of my kitchen appliances, which pleases my obsessive sensibilities.

i began my workday at noon (because i can!) and headed to a townhall meeting with some of the executive of our company and was thrilled that some of my work was not only mentioned in the quarterly update, but praised as good company practice.

but that is not all.  i was mildly dreading heading to yet another meeting with an organisation that i volunteer with after my shortened workday, but was again pleasantly surprised to find that i was regarded as an expert and advisor to a locally based international foundation.  this was all well and good, however, until i had a one-on-one conversation about an upcoming initiative that i not-so-affectionately called voluntourism-lite.

the same qualities of voluntourism are apparent: the focus put on the travellers' experience, no lasting impact or clear outputs of the visit, short term stays in communities, and time and energy put out by the host organisation that is likely motivated by a desire to show that they really are a great organisation doing really good work (a sort of self preservation and marketing to the foreign visitors).

i got in quite a heated discussion about this and i just kept coming back to the question of why?  why is this happening?  to try and head off those who would otherwise seek out a true voluntourism experience and offer them something a little less corrupt and possibly more meaningful?  but that is not what a foundation should be doing.  a bad idea remains a bad idea.

and why is it so hard for people to accept my opinion that if you want to go to africa, go on a wicked vacation full of beaches, safaris, museums, and sights?  there is no requirement that you visit a slum, an orphanage, or a hospital to make it worthwhile.  we don't expect tourists to canada to visit our poorest communities or our underdeveloped first nations reserves so why do we expect canadians to do similar things on their holidays abroad?  and doesn't this continue to perpetuate the same stereotypes that africa is nothing but a continent full of dirty, black kids with flies around their eyes?  and (and!) offering such a programme doesn't acknowledge that many middle and upper class residents of africans don't feel compelled to visit those communities in their backyard, so why would canadians?  and, more than anything, what right do they have to go sniffing around in someone else's backyard?  and again, for what purpose?

eesh.  the whole conversation just made me want to bang my head against a wall.  but (but!), it did make me feel good in the sense that i actually know a thing or two about this and i felt strong enough in my opinions to express them and stand by them.  and that i can make some things better, just by being a part of them even if they frustrate me at times.

and that, along with today's positive feedback, has made me feel as though the wobbly moment might almost (dare i say it?!) be coming to a close.

do gooding as gospel

when i was 18, i dated a fellow who was five years my senior and who i thought knew a thing or two about life.  i recall vividly one conversation we had where he told me that of all the people he meets, he only really 'liked' 20% of them enough to want to be friends or see again.  in my youthful naivety, i recall feeling as though that was a very callous statement to make.

and now, at the ripe old age of 29, i feel that 20% was a truly conservative estimate and the proportion of the people i meet who i genuinely want to see again socially is somewhere near 10%. 

i brought this up at a brunch i was with four other ladies this weekend and in our discussions, we agreed that as we become more certain of what we believe and our own values, it makes it easier to make decisions about people and this is completely natural .  and sometimes, you meet people whose activities or comments tip you off to the fact that you likely will not get along.

my friend, an animal lover and vegetarian, said that she couldn't be friends with someone who hunted.  there was a general mmm-hmmm-ing about this.  i followed up with the statement, 'i don't think i could be friends with someone who told me they wanted to volunteer in an orphanage in africa.'

the response?

blink.  blink.  blink, blink.

and then i had to defend my comment and give a brief explanation of why volunteering in orphanages in africa is more often than not, a bad idea. 

the blog world that i am haphazardly a part of has done a great job recently, and perhaps due to the overwhelming response and criticism of aid to haiti, of describing why voluntourism and orphanages as industry is not a terribly great idea and i won't go into the details here.*  but what was really apparent through this exchange was how i felt i needed to justify my statement and opinion to people who had relatively low levels of knowledge on international development and aid because i felt as though i sounded so cold hearted and heartless.

i spent the better part of the rest of the brunch trying to convince them that a) i knew what i was talking about and b) that i am not a horrible, awful person who thinks that the poor, black babies of africa do not deserve our good intentions.  and to be honest, i am really not sure that i was that effective.

it was one of those situations where worlds collide and i was going through the rolodex of posts i have read over the past months in shaping my argument about why holding the value against volunteering at orphanages in africa is not so different that holding a value that includes believing that hunting is wrong.

i like what Tales From the Hood has to say about why we believe that we have the 'right' to help others and the intentions behind doing it.  and Good Intentions Are Not Enough often has posts that support the name of the blog.  and these are written by professionals in the aid and development community so i know i am not alone in my judgements and opinions.  and this also doesn't mean they are necessarily the gospel for all to live by, but it was a tough situation to be in and i wish i had a better arsenal of metaphorical weapons to use when confronted to defend why i believe what i do.

* if you are really interested in my thoughts on this, leave me a comment and i will try and string them together into something articulate in the future.

my secret love for stats revealed

here i go again.  insisting that you read a book that i loved.  and this time, it is called Wisdom of Whores.  don't let the title put you off, nor the fact that Elizabeth Pisani is an epidemiologist who wrote a book about statistics and preventing the spread of disease.  it really is fascinating and part of that is due to Pisani's ability to call it like it is, humbly take credit for good work, but also to admit when she (and the development world, in many cases) was wrong.

the book talks about how our hiv prevention strategies as donor governments, un agencies, and ngos has typically been ass backwards.  instead of putting money toward the greatest transmitters of the disease, commercial sex workers and injecting drug users (especially those in prison), the enormous amounts of money that have been donated/lent by the american government, the canadian government, unaids, and the bill and melinda gates foundation, among so many others, has largely gone to useless programmes targetting women, children, and the general public, who are not the hotspots of transmission.

hiv is not really that infectious, if you look at the science.  we know how it is most easily transmitted (and it is not heterosexual sex) and who is transmitting it (with minor variations between countries and cultures), but we continue to spend money on saving the poor women and children.  oh, the women and children.  the poor, poor women and children.  who don't spread hiv nearly as often as others...

another fun fact that book came out with is that timor leste (where a good friend of mine lives and works, no doubt spending money given by the americans) had a grand total of 7 people who tested positive for hiv at the time of their independence (they were the first new state to be formed in this century), but the americans threw money at the country to deal with their 'hiv problem.'  7 people does not a problem make.  but oh my god, the poor women and children, what will they do if we do not address the impending epidemic hanging above their heads!

we have been force fed the idea that poverty will equal hiv transmission rates going through the roof and Pisani shatters that nonsense as well, demonstrating that being poor does not necessarily make you any more likely of contracting the virus, but it is how we fail to address the most common ways it is passed from one person to another (man to man, man to woman, woman to child, woman to woman...) in our programming that is failing millions of people.

for example (and there are many), the us will not allow any of its money to be spent on needle exchanges for drug users, the us claims to be a saviour of those living with aids by providing drugs (shipped from the states when other generics are avilable and do not need to refrigerated) but won't fund any programmes that keep sex workers safe rather than forcing them to leave the trade.

we continue to try and fit people into boxes of 'female sex worker,' 'positive man married to uninfected woman,' and 'sex buyer,' to name a few.  but in reality, people do not fit into these, or other, boxes very nicely and Pisani makes a great case for the changing of research and reporting to better reflect this, which could result in better prevention programmes that might actually work.

there are many problems as to why hiv has taken off in some regions of the world.  african governments refuse to acknowledge that there are men who have sex with men in their countries (ahem... kenya, nigeria, uganda) and their politicans speak out against proven science that hiv leads to aids and that you can cure aids with thorough washing and herbal supplements (yes, south africa and the gambia, i am looking at you...).  so while we are pouring money down the drain, and there is certainly a lot of money in the aids business thanks to bono, pepfar, and do gooders like myself, in providing education and voluntary testing to wives, mothers, and children, we have lost the plot on what really needs to be done.

and did you know that canada is among the worst offenders for tying our aid? it means that when we give money to other countries or organisations, we have an expectation that a certain percentage of it is spent on canadian goods, canadian services, and canadians themselves in the form of hiring our nationals.  i knew we were no aid angels, but i was surprised to see that we were behind only the us, the international pariah of untying aid activists.

i take no credit for these ideas.  i have thought them in varying shades of clarity and articulation, but Pisani really deserves credit for writing a book about statistics and science that is fascinating, infuriating, and inspiring in equal measure.  go out and read it (and her blog, now listed here), you will certainly be smarter for it.  or you can go out and buy a red ipod or a cup of starbucks red coffee...

do you...?

do you want to learn more about human trafficking?

do you need something to do on the evening of november 20th that is free?

do you want to support a local film festival that features films with meaning?

come out to the marda loop justice film festival on november 20th at 7:00pm when they will be screening the film call + response, which promises to be entertaining and informative.

ask for what you want

if you are my friend on the facebook (and if you aren't, feel free to add me, i like friends!) you would notice that my status right now is Lara thinks you need to ask for what you want.  and because you are my privileged blog readers, you get the whole story.

you might recall that i was hopeful that i would get to go to an event where stephen lewis is the keynote speaker.  i was even willing be the bathroom attendant to listen to him and for the chance to meet jian ghomeshi, of cbc fame.  well, last week i sent a little email to my company's community investment manager and asked if we would be sponsoring a table and if we were, was it at all possible that i could have one of those seats?

lo and behold, she wrote me back and said that no, they hadn't sponsored a table, but if i could find 10 people to fill the seats, they would buy the tickets.  i wrote her back in my most eloquent email speak without being pretentious and said i was confident i could find 10 people to fill those seats and she immediately replied saying she would purchase the table and forward me all 10 of the tickets as soon as they arrived!  this not only saves me from having to pay $200 for my own seat, but it gives me the opportunity to invite 9 people to fill the $2000 table!

now you will be able to find me learning and laughing and networking at the aspen full circle event!

additionally, this morning i called visa to inquire about the $100+ interest charge on my bill and when they looked into it the simple response, 'you moron, you paid your bill late last month and therefore we charged you interest and that is why that charge is on your account!'  but they said it a little more nicely than that.  so i asked if they could reverse the charges.  and they said yes.  just like that.

a few weeks ago i took a two day training course on conducting social impact assessments.  it cost a lot of dollars as well.  i found the course, thought it was interesting, found a policy at my company that said we commit to doing these things, then sent an email to my boss that explained the training, why i thought it would be beneficial for me to take it, then asked if the company could pay.

my boss talked to some corporate bigwigs on my behalf and a few days later, provided me with a budget line to charge the course to and a few weeks later, i found myself learning all about how you can do research into the socioeconomic impacts of a industrial development or an international development project as well as meeting people in the industry and being asked to join a board of a local ngo.

i am hoping that this strategy continues to work because this morning i made a phone call to confirm that i do indeed have a dinner date tonight.  i left the breeziest message (which is not normally my strong suit, so this is quite something) and asked this fellow to call me back to let me know if we were still on for dinner.  because i want to know.  and i want to go out for dinner.  and i want to wear my new dress!

bon courage!

i was honoured to be asked to represent the u of c alumni as a distinguished graduate at yesterday's convocation ceremony and did not realise that it would be quite the task to speak into a microphone in front of hundreds of people (that jack simpson gymnasium is big!) to recite the oath of the graduates until i got to the venue.

through my nerves, i managed to have a really great time and enjoyed congratulating all the new graduates. being part of the platform and sitting on the stage for graduation is much more interesting and enjoyable than actually being a graduate, in my opinion!

one of the perks of spending my afternoon at the convocation was an invitation to the dinner honouring the honourary degree recipients and i met so many fascinating and inspiring people. and who knew that my volunteer work with the federal liberal party would come in handy when i ran into the candidate yesterday and she introduced me to provincial mla's and offered to help me any way she can.

my new goal is to get an honourary degree so i can continue to attend those dinners. it seems WAY more appealing than going back to uni for years!

this year, u of c gave honourary degrees to Dr James Orbinski, Phil Fontaine, and Johann Koss and it was my goal to meet each of them, but sadly it was not to be and i will not be whisked off to work with msf canada, the ministry for indian affairs, or right to play. but i will not be discouraged.

the casualties of war

i woke up this morning to the news that the sri lankan civil war is over. just like that, over.

you don't hear news like this very often. a conflict that simply ends when the leaders of one side are killed. i am not saying that the effects of the decades old civil war are over, but that the hostile combat will end without anyone to lead the rebel tamil tigers.

this is all the more interesting when considering that outside of sri lanka, the most money was raised for the tamil tigers by the diaspora community here in canada before our government banned them as a terrorist group a few years ago, making it illegal for tamil canadians to support them financially. additionally, the tamil communities in ottawa and toronto recently staged protests that shut down main vehicular arteries as a response to the human rights abuses against the tamil people in sri lanka.

and this is where my education comes to my mind. had the canadian government or any other foreign power decided to take action against the sri lankan government due to its alleged (and surely accurate) mistreatment of civilians who were in the line of fire and had to flee their homes, the sri lankan government would not have been free to corner and capture (or kill, as it were) the leaders of the rebel movement, effectively ending the war.

and this is where my favourite professor mark duffield would say that when aid groups interfere in warzones and concern themselves with the conduct of war, they can effectively prolong conflict.

i am all too familiar with the immense challenges of establishing, building, and maintaining peace after an armed conflict, but none of this can be done until two sides of a war stop shooting at each other and that had not happened in so many years in sri lanka so i am hopeful that this will be the beginning of the country's arrival at peace and reconciliation between two ethnic groups and two religions that share the island country.

international women's day

today is international women's day and to celebrate, i went shopping. well, not exactly (but sort of: purple shoes - check, dress - check, 2 button down shirts - check, skinny black belt - check, fishnet tights - check, 2 pairs of work pants - check, scarf - check, green spring coat - check, bronze woven belt - check), i went to a function at the calgary public library last night with one of the greatest women i know.

we listened to senator pamela wallin and afghani journalist khorsied samad speak on the status of women in afghanistan and canada's involvement in the military and humanitarian efforts in the country. the event was hosted by the calgary based foundation canadian women for women in afghanistan and i was completely and utterly impressed by the speakers themselves and the work that this local ngo does.

the price of our tickets went towards a specific initiative to build libraries in afghanistan and 100% of all the money raised by the organisation goes straight towards the development projects. their focuses are on teacher training and building libraries, did you know that the annual salary of a teacher in afghanistan is $750? i am sure that many of us could afford that if we saved just $14.40/week for 1 year or even $7.20/week for 2 years.

one of the interesting aspects of the speeches included a discussion on the resurgence of the use of the burka for safety and security and that is was originally a fashion trend introduced to afghanistan by the indians (now pakistanis) as clothing worn by the aristocracy and it was only when the taliban used it to force women out of public society that it became a tool of oppression.

pamela wallin brought up many good points about military funding and if the canadian military had more money to spend, it could pave roads or use helicopters to travel in insecure areas to prevent improvised explosive devices from continuing to take canadian soldiers' lives. she also hit the nail on the head, as far as i am concerned, by calling canadians on their anti-americanism, which has come into vogue in the last decade and is completely against all that canadians claim to be - tolerant, accepting, and diverse.

after our educational saturday night, we went to divino and enjoyed a cheese plate of 5 of the most amazing cheeses i have ever had (seriously) followed by a crume brulee that ties the one that i had in paris for sweet, sweet decadence. i am not ashamed to say that it was so good it almost made me cry.
and at the end of an evening celebrating women and our achievements and challenges throughout the world, a nice gentleman offered to carry me through a snow storm to my car. and i didn't take him up on the offer! he was cute and charming and i am still kicking myself that i did not say yes and allow him to throw me over his shoulder and save my tootsies and their hot pink flats from the cold and wet.

as gloria says, the fact that i had a choice to be carried to my car, or not, is proof that women in this country have come a long way.

happy international women's day!

extra, extra! read all about it

some interesting stuff in the news today:

after sudanese president omar al bashir was indictied on war crimes charges by the international criminal court, he expelled aid agencies from darfur, including staunchly apolitical organisations like medecins sans frontieres. it is incredibly troublesome as these organisations not only provide some of the only sources of aid in a country that tightly controls the un's access to populations it has systemically starved, killed, and forced from their homes, but they also act as the world's eyes and ears to a genocide.

i have a good friend working in darfur, and for some reason her organisation was not kicked out of the country (war child canada) and i am curious to hear how she has fared these past few days and what the prospects for her youth projects continuing.

story at the globe and mail.
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i always knew that diet coke would give you cancer! if it is not the aspartame (which i am seriously convinced, with no scientific evidence to back me up) is giving us cancer (for the record, i am also convinced that splenda, margarine, cosmetics, chemical based cleaning products, and hydrogenated anything are also to blame), now it is the cans that diet coke comes in! and baby bottles, water bottles, soup cans, energy drink cans...

that dastardly bisphenol a is showing up again, this time in cans. apparently, the cans are coated so that the metal doesn't come into direct contact with the liquid inside. i've said it here before, it concerns the crap out of me that this estrogen-mimicing compound is finding its way into our bodies and doing god know's what in there. causing cancer, i am sure.

i have never really liked pop so i am home free on that front, but i do like soup and some vegetables that come out of cans, which i am now going to think twice before eating. and again, those with lower incomes, poorer diets, and lower education are probably ingesting the most bisphenol a of us all.

story at cbc.

chaos! at the airport

i am so glad that i had not planned to travel today. even on the trains, i would imagine they might have been a bit congested. i understand why they are being extremely vigilant about carry-on bags but i hope by the time i am taking my transatlatic flight they allow laptops, ipods, and water bottles or i will have a very long trip. the two facts about the people arrested that the news talked about here was that they were 'of pakistani origin' and 'british born.' big deals in a country fearful of asylum seekers and homegrown terrorism. i have got to say that the way the british politicians handled it seemed quite respectable. then bush said something like 'we'd like to thank the u-nited kingdom for busting this' or something equally as inarticulate.


things i have learned from the reading i have been doing these past few days...

if the us wanted to stop the crisis in the sudan it easily could, as it is supporting the rebels in the south against the islamic government that once harboured terrorists. but it cannot support the rebels enough to end the conflict because it would upset their other allies in the middle east (like egypt) so instead it contains the conflict as it is and hundreds of thousands of people die. and oxfam is trying to convince you that if you just care enough you can change this.

the make poverty history bracelets are not going to move the world any further away from poverty. i always had a sneaking suspicion but i read a recent journal article that really spelled it out for me and explained it clearly why it is a useless cause. the campaign made people believe that by doing something small and easy like wear a white bracelet they were helping a greater cause. but they weren't. they were supporting a fashion statement, clever marketing, but did not raise enough revenue to actually implement change. and besides, you cannot implement change significant enough to make poverty history without uprooting the entire neoliberal system on which the world economy depends. and for that you need the us government, but you can be sure that the number of white bracelets worn had no influence on what bush did or did not do since the programme's inception. vanessa pupavac (the author of the study) calls it a 'trivial fashion statement masquerading as commitment.' when it is out of fashion to wear a white wristband, there will be very little lasting commitment.

sometimes relief workers in crises purposely damage aid supplies, but this is a good thing. it decreases the market value of an item so as to render it less attractive to thieves. so when the red cross tears a blanket in two and a refugee has to sew it back together, it actually leaves them better off because they might actually get to keep it.