by Matt Whiteman
A brilliant 4-minute video that was produced by students at the University of British Columbia. It was made for a student-directed seminar supervised by Dr. Shafik Dharamsi on the Ethics of International Development by: Angela Paley, Alice Huang, Stephanie Ngo, and Lucinda Yeung.
A great TED talk by Chimamanda Adiche (Nigerian Novelist) that addresses the theme of cultural competence. Adiche talks about how forming our perceptions on one dominant story or world view can lead to misunderstandings and negative sterotypes. I think we’ve all fallen into the trap of “the single story” at some point or another (she admits to having done it herself).
I wonder if most people think of ISL (international service learning) as a single story too- either as being helpful to the receiving population and a great opportunity, or (as we sometimes talk about in our dialogue series) unsustainable, patriarchal, and with great knowledge gaps.
Maybe we need to stop thinking of ISL as one story, and think of it as a combination of different aspects. Can ISL be both helpful and ethical?
Anyways, the video…
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg[/youtube]