Uneven Development: Listening to the 'South', Listening to Vancouver

This documentary video starts with a young woman’s narration of a legend through what looks like a shadow puppet show. The video goes on to ask, “How has the spirituality of young women changed?” It features women sharing their thoughts and experiences to do with spirituality and their encounters with traditional indigenous knowledge. The women talk, among other things, about the gap between traditional knowledge of spirituality and language, and their present day access to such knowledge. The video was created by a group of young women who participated in a workshop  through the non-profit organization I am concentrating on – Girls Action Foundation – Fondation filles d’action (based out of Montreal, Quebec) with the organization’s facilitation. According the Kickaction* (part of Girls Action) website, “This inspiring video was created by a group of young women at the Make Some Noise North training that took place in Whitehorse [Yukon] in July” (n.d.)

The production is a representation from the metaphorical ‘Global South’ – while it is located in the ‘Global North,’ it features the Yukon, an area in Canada which has not been as great a focus in the country, and where it is my impression that resources are not always as readily available. It also films people from ‘groups’ which have historically been oppressed – young women and members of indigenous communities. I feel cautious to label the speakers as ‘subaltern’ though – although they may not have not been allowed enough of a voice, I do not want to portray them as victims. (While I do not think Sharp’s (2008) article, “Can the Subaltern Speak” attempts to portray the subaltern purely as victims, the term still carries the danger of the connotation.) Conversely, I like the fact that the video showcases the women’s strengths (for example through their video production skills) and the insights they have to offer on their upbringing and community.

The video also addresses the problem of “epistemic violence” discussed in Sharp’s article, “Can the Subaltern Speak?” (Spivak, cited in Sharp, 2008, p. 111) Sharp writes, “the term ‘epistemic violence‘ … refers to violence done to the ways of knowing and understanding of non-western, indigenous peoples” (Spivak, cited in Sharp, 2008, p. 111). In the video, one of the young women talks about the fact that a lot of the spirituality has been lost for women in today’s society due to intergenerational abuses from the residential school era. According to my own understanding, the residential school system broke the link between indigenous people and various forms of traditional knowledge through a few means: By removing children from their families, imposing a different language (English) and religion (Christianity) on them, and perpetuating such cruelties – physical, sexual and emotional abuse – which created significant trauma in their communities, making it difficult for them to connect to their past. The cited woman may also have been referring to the abuses within their community which resulted from the cruelties perpetuated within the residential school era. Her reference to the point that knowledge has been lost is also illustrated by one of the other young women in the video, when she says that when an elder asks a student in their indigenous language to bring them kleenex, they come back with a pen and a bowl instead of kleenex. As she says, “We are losing it nowadays.”

Girls Action Foundation could be said to allow more than one ‘cross-section’ within the subaltern to ‘speak.’  They encourage girls and young women, who even in the ‘West’ (in this case Canada) have historically been disenfranchised, to share their experiences and views. They also seek to empower the voices of girls and young women who have typically been marginalized, and have not seen themselves represented through role models: for example girls and women of colour, of minority groups, various sexual orientations and gender identities, socioeconomic backgrounds, less enfranchised geographic regions of Canada, and so on. However, watching this video brings to light the question of whether, symbolically, the privileged are ’empowering’ the less powerful: Koopman’s (2008) article, “Imperialism Within” raises the point that women in positions of power (white middle class women) have often historically been in ‘helping’ roles (p. 1). Girls Action has a lot of diversity within their workplace, however I still wonder whether this dynamic takes form: is it the ‘privileged’ people (with education and status) showing others (who may or may not have less privilege) how to create video productions, and share their stories, thereby graciously ‘giving’ them opportunities to express their voice? Through volunteering, I have had the impression that Girls Action is pretty sensitive about issues like this one, and is constantly looking for ways to be more conscientious, however there are always more things to learn, and considerations one is not aware of. In contrast to these concerns, the sharing of the legend in the video seems to be a way for the women to work to reclaim some of their indigenous knowledge, and represent themselves in a way that communicates through the cultural knowledge of their community, rather than contemporary societal (‘Western’) discourse, as well as to preface the topic of spirituality. As a closing note, I like the fact that the young women, as well as the older woman featured, share so many of their insights on their experiences and community in the video.

*Girls Action has a ‘sister’ website called Kickaction, which is a space for girls and young women to share their thoughts and experiences, connect with each other, and share creativity and activism (Kickaction, n.d.). There are a few videos produced by/with girls and young women who participated in Girls Action programs which you can find on the Kickaction website.
Websites: http://www.kickaction.ca / http://www.girlsactionfoundation.ca

You are welcome to keep posting, but please keep it related to the themes of this class.

You are especially encouraged to post brief summaries of your NGO analysis.  Go public with it!

So a few months ago I discovered this plush Hasbro elephant named “Zambi”. I almost used the video “See what inspired project Zambi”  on the the site for my blog post… but couldn’t detach myself from it enough emotionally to be coherent about it (Click Zambi to follow a link to the page). The drawings on the ears were created by kids at a school in Zambia where I volunteered  for six months. Fifty percent of the money from the sales of this elephant will go charities chosen by Hasbro, HIV/AIDS orphans being one  group to benefit. I’d love to have any thoughts you’d like to share about this … just because I’m curious (though I know everyone is likely studying). I can’t figure out how to feel about it… it really upset me, but nobody else i’ve shown it to seems to have had the same response…

The message to the parents is interesting:

http://www.hasbro.com/en_CA/discover/The-Story-of-Project-Zambi.cfm

I can see that there are benefits. Importantly, the toy raises awareness of HIV/AIDS in a young privileged demographic, namely North American childern. There is a “focus on making a difference” and an entire page for parents about how Project Zambi can teach children about empathy, caring and the global community. In technocentric self-indulgent culture, getting children to start caring about others is important. Gettign a gift that also “does something for others,” might begin sending the message that “other people are important.”

However, I know the kids in the video…. and the way they are shown is never the way I would chose to depict them. Through my lens, the video and side shots really make them look like victims, which is rather contrary to my experience. I’m hesitant to give a description, at risk of generalizing or speaking for them, but many of the kids I met in Zambia  were as happy and energetic as any children in Canada. Those who’s parents had died of HIV/AIDS were some of the strongest, smartest and most compassionate at the school,  often looking after brothers and sisters. Also, while they do talk about interdependence (right at the bottom of the parent page), for me, the overwhelming message feels like “We (the lucky ones) should help them (the unlucky ones)”

The above picture is more the image I have of the kids at the school, but feel free to critique this as well… I am certain to have my own biases and welcome your extrapolations on any and all of the above… Thanks! All the best with studying!

This video is a new story titled “Demolition Dissidents.” Reported by Patrick Brown (CBC’s correspondent in Beijing), it tells the story of a group of neighbours who gather together to combat the demolitions that the Chinese government has ordered for their neighbourhood. The story places itself in the broader context of Beijing’s modernizing processes and development, especially in the lead up to the Olympic Games staged in 2008. The video emphasizes elderly individuals and their plight to save their home, or at least receive adequate and fair compensation. The story reaches a climax as a group confronts a government official, who subsequently walks out on them, more than once. The dissidents rue that their voice is not heard as capitalist development takes over.

Commentary

This video is not quite obviously a development-related story, nor are the individuals necessarily subaltern. I chose this video purposefully because I think it shows how both imminent and immanent development works together within countries, putting citizens off against each other. Strikingly, we see David Harvey’s uneven development of capitalism as this community is seen as spatially inferior. The imminent (little ‘d’) process of capitalist development has left the individuals profiled at a disadvantage and without power. The immanent project of the government coming to bulldozing seems merely seems like the next unfolding of the imminent process.

Further, I think it is a worthwhile question to ponder whether or not these people are subaltern. In one sense, their voices and concerns are not heard as their priorities are not priorities on the hegemonic grid (their well-being and livelihood). However, in another sense, they are being profiled by a news agency of the Global North. This discursive representation of them does or will produce a material outcome: their voices are being heard by us (although mediated by the reporter). I wonder if the fact that this a news agency affects the story? Further, are these people members of the Global South? What about the Chinese government? In some ways, I think this video represents the threshold between terms such as North and South and subaltern and hegemonic.

Regardless, I think having a more news-type video can be useful as this is such a common form of representation for issues that we have talked about in this class all term. How does this medium affect the outcome? In many ways, the camera and the reporter seem invisible, although it is important to be aware that we are seeing this story through their literal and figurative lens.

November 25th is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and through videos, many people and organizations around the world are expressing their need to end the violence as well as the efforts they are undertaking to ensure that women have a safer world to live in.

UNIFEM, in the Say No to Violence channel on YouTube has already documented some of the actions being taken around the world to end gender violence. This video shows the Ngara Girls High School in Nairobi, Kenya, where young girls are being taught to say No to Violence, to stand up for their rights and also how to deal with rape, assault, harassment and other forms of gender violence:

Also in Kenya, the Kenyatta National Hospital has a Gender Violence Recovery Center, where women and their children can go and receive care in cases of violence against them.

Latin America and the Caribbean is a dangerous place for women. More than 50 per cent of the women in the region have been subject to aggression. In the Dominican Republic, for examples, 1 453 women were murdered between the years 2000 and 2008. In the context of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, UN-INSTRAW launches a new video about the security of Latin and Caribbean women.

The places mentioned in the video are less developed, women tend to have less power in the family. Leaving women unable to speak and end the violence. Educating the women will reduce the amount of women violence happening, but what needs to be done to stop it? There are such high rates of murder that punishments needs to be set up to reduce the illegal activities. Also, as long as gender and race are still seen differently there will always be violence. There needs to be a sense of equality of gender and race to reduce the amount of violence occurring.

The growing movement of Vertical Farming in large cities, this trend is slowly growing and becoming realized as a potential eliminator of dependency on fossil fuels for food transport into world urban centres. By being able to produce viable food growth networks in cities, we lesser the dependency on large use fields that are both environmentally destructive and unsustainable. Vertical farming is still being developed but it many cases has been put into practical usage. A major difficulty for vertical farming is that is has not yet received government/high economy/corporate sponsorship which would give it the capital that would allow a real project to take place.

The future of city growth depends heavily on its abilities to be sustainable, with world prices of food, energy (including gas/oil/electricity) and raw materials rising the elimination of long distance transport is important. For instance many large chain restaurants (especially fast food) get most of their meats from South American cattle ranches. They do this because the low labour costs of SA farmhands and cattle ranchers translates into much lower food prices. However after the cattle is slaughtered it is shipped thousands of miles by truck, boat and train, this draws upon a very large amount of fossil fuels to power the machinery needed for transport. Growing food in cities close to the people eliminates the need for this transport, although obviously cattle cannot be raised and slaughtered in the middle of a contemporary urban settlement, crops can be. Raising the crops in the city in large vertical farms, eliminates the need for vast tracts of farmlands that take up acres upon acres of prime ranching land. With the produce being grown in the city and the cattle closer to home, people would be able to offset the labour cost competitiveness with elimination of expensive transport fees and costs.

This is the wiki definition of it

The website for vertical farming

Ecoworld article on vertical farming

This is a video on what is called the Omega Garden, a very interesting and cool idea on urban food production. Basically his project has allowed him to grow a very high percentage of food per hectare of urban land. The procedures he uses rotates the plants so slowly that even though they are grown upside down for certain time periods, the time they are the bottom allows them to fight gravity. This cylindrical hydroponic way to growing food allows urban farmers to grow without the need for sunlight or soil, most of the water is recycled from previously used waste water furthering the recycling process and reducing the waste a city produces. Although this system is far from perfect, it does require large amounts of electricity and it is very expensive, this innovative step towards eliminating large scale farming to feed cities is very important.

Ted Marchildon has now moved into creating home kits for everyday, every person use.The website link is below.

http://www.omegagarden.com/

Finally comes education, educating people who are bound to an agricultural lifestyle is essential in continuing not only the globe’s food supply but also in reducing poverty and malnutrition.Educational centers all over the world train students to go out and volunteer with local native populations of many developing nations. The video below although poorly made and with a somewhat questionable background at least shows the very basics of education on agriculture with a native population in India, focusing on women the teachers show basic semi-arid growing techniques to maximize crop yield.

Participatory Filmmaking YouTube Video

The video above features PV Sateesh, a professional filmmaker and advocate for participatory filmmaking. He describes his journey towards his involvement in this form of participation, and work with the Deccan Development Agency. His acknowledgement of the wide audience base that film can provide in India lead him to become so involved in participatory filmmaking. He sees film as a means of expression, an incredibly valuable tool for rural marginalized groups. He describes the women he works with as being marginalized through different aspects of their identities: through their identity as women, as poor and as illiterate. Being able to communicate visually and audibly is a tremendous tool that represents the power of expression and active participation. Sateesh mentions the ways in the women create their own language and symbolism. Their “slave shot” from above demonstrates a demeaning power structure, and their “eye level shot,” represents equality amongst the women. The women soon branched out from making films exclusively for their own villages, and decided to investigate Bt cotton in the global South through film. Their travels to South Africa, Thailand and Mali allowed the women to share the stories of the farmers they met whose lives are intimately touched by Bt cotton, and investigate the controversy deeply. Sateesh asserts that these women have created a horizontal space of debate and sharing.

The organization that provides these women with the means to express themselves through film is the Deccan Development Agency, a grassroots organization. It operates within seventy-five villages and sanghams for women, or voluntary local associations. The five hundred female members are impoverished, mostly illiterate, and many are also socially stigmatized due to the high population of dalits, whose class is at the bottom of the social hierarchy. The agency provides both technologies so that the women can create and edit their own films, as well technical support by training women in the use of the equipment and media. As of 1998, the women have made over 100 films that range from expressing the local need for childcare to various issues of the environment and biodiversity. The social effect this plan has had on the women has been enormous, as informal leadership positions have been created for them. The women have the power to not only express their own point of view, but those of the community in a straightforward way. The success of the participatory filmmaking has resulted in expansion into other forms of media to open up a dialogue:

“Their compelling statements on why they should have a media of their own are forcing the academic and development world to rethink media policies. The women have also established a Community FM Radio Facility, controlled and operated by themselves. Born from the collective aspiration of the women to own an alternative medium of expression the content and the form of which they can control, the DDS FM Radio is five years old and has canned nearly five hundred hours of programmes.”

A common issue in the participatory expression of priorities in a community is that of how to reach the illiterate in an understandable and meaningful way. The facilitators of survey, who may be leaders of development agencies or NGOs, have a great amount of power in their framing of questions and translation of results. When compared to the ranking of images representing needs of communities, or using maps chosen and fully understood by the facilitators, the ability to tell one’s own story through any number of narrative or artistic strategies is quite amazing and innovative. The women own and produce their stories, their strategies for expression, and have the ability to expand the audience from village to region, to even the world through the Internet. Through this, the women gain a sense of capability, confidence and ultimately the tools to participate in the foreground as opposed to a passive or instructed participation in their global communities. However, we should ask ourselves if viewers from the West posses the tools to understand what a subaltern expresses, even through an unorthodox medium. Do we need more cultural context? Can we escape our own cultural lenses? Are we still translating?

***NOTE: this is posted on behalf of Lucinda Yeung since she’s been having problems with UBC Blogs

At the risk of infringing copyright laws, here is the full video to the documentary.  Interestingly enough I was only able to find the full feature in English as opposed to short segments.  You do not need to watch the entire film—I think that the first 20-30 minutes will give you a genderal idea of how the narrative progresses.

Born into Brothels chronicles the project that photographer, Zana Briski, created while doing photographic work on the women working in brothels of Calcutta.  Responding to the childrens’ curiosity for her place in the brothel and for her camera, she began to host classes in photography.  I find the implications of the film’s narrative particularly interesting, considering its genre as a documentary (which I assume can make authoritative claims to ‘objective knowledge’); the success with which the film was received (the most prestigious of which is the 77^th Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature); and its circulation in the ‘Global North’ as a result of its success.

The documentary, alongside with the photographs that the children take, are valuable for representing the spatial patterns of the childrens’ daily life.  How do the children move through the spaces of the city, and in what positions do they do so? How are the children marginalized, socially and spatially?  As a social grouping, children are marginalized from adult society and often excluded from social and spatial environs due to their status as minors.  Personally, I find myself paying more attention to the categories of class, race and gender in a critique of mainstream development, as opposed to age.

The film portrays a particular space of illicit exchange, based on an informal sector of the economy that is not accounted for by the indicators (and, accordingly, by the policies prescribed) in mainstream development. Many features of Calcutta’s Red Light District may be excluded and erased in official maps because it is dominated by a main mode of market exchange that is illegal.  Thus, the social and economic relations that constitute the space of the district are accordingly silenced.   For example, how Avijit’s family earns its livelihood from selling alcohol to customers of the brothel; and how the childrens’ relationship to their family is negotiated around their mothers’ profession (relate how the children speak of the customers who frequent the brothel and who seems to intrude upon the private space of their home) would not be accounted for.  Thus, children occupy a space that is at the margins of society, both socially and legally.  In a way the film is able to make that space visible.

The children move through the district, and perhaps through the brothel in particular, as part of a family, as members of a household, and as labour.  Children like Kochi find work in the brothel, and I get the sense that their income will go towards the family’s livelihood.  In one sense, their status is in one sense marked as providers to the household.  Furthermore, their social status as the children of prostitutes denies them access to parts of the educational system.  This is clear as Zana explains how their social positions hinder them from being accepted into good schools.

What struck me about how children are represented is how the characters in the narrative seem to be fixed in both temporal and spatial terms fixed both temporally and spatially.  This reminded me of Lawson’s critique of how WID have constructed a homogenous ‘Third World woman’ that was associated with a series of ‘technical’ problems.  Lawson problematizes the practice of framing the problems as technical ones rather than gendered and political ones, as it assumes that ‘right development policies’ can be applied as the ‘solution’. Furthermore, the figure of the ‘Third World woman’ was constructed as an altruistic agent of development who will invest in her family and community.  She is entrusted as someone who can realize development’s full potential and thus is the ideal subject of development.  Contending that this approach to development is based on assumptions that equate development with notions of Western modernity, Lawson argues that this about development remain to be situated within mainstream thinking.

Returning to my discussion on how the children are represented in the narrative, does the film engage in creating a homogenous ‘Third World child’?  How are the lives of the children portrayed?  The prints that are available for purchase on the Kids for Cameras website remain the same, many of which are taken at the time documentary was filmed.  The biographies of children on the website portray them to be the same age as when the documentary was made in 2001, accompanied by a picture taken of them at the time when the documentary was made in 2001.  Information on how old the children are now, and what they are doing now is included in a separate page on the side bar, titled “Updated On the Kids of Calcutta”.  Despite the fact that eight years have passed since the film was produced, and the children seem to have been frozen temporally (at the time when they were ten to fourteen-year-olds) and spatially (within the confining space of the brothel, although some of them have moved out of the district to continue their studies in boarding schools and the United States).

How are the adults represented?  What role do the adults seem to play in the children’s lives?  It seems that the film also contributes to a construction of a ‘Third World adult’, or a Third World parent’.  To me, the adults represented in the narrative demonstrate an incapacity and/or an unwillingness to take care of and protect the children.  For example, in one scene viewers become witness to the verbal abuse that Tapasi endures from a woman in the brothel; in another she describes how her father tried to sell her to prostitution; and Avijit speaks of how his father had become incapacitated by his addiction.  Aside from what is being expressed in words, the silences in the film, that is, the moments that are left unexplained and unmediated are equally pronounced in conveying the image of the ‘Third World adult’.  What I find worth mentioning is the scene in which the camera lingers on the image of a young boy chained to a wooden plank.  I was struck by that particular image because the motifs that animate it seem to be burdened with symbolic resonance.  However, no explanations were provided for the viewer to interpret the scene with, and I find myself left to negotiate the charged motifs presented the scene.  Thus, the adults appear to be negligent and indifferent to the children’s condition, and those who do want to make a change in the childrens’ lives appear powerless to do so.  How may the viewers negotiate this homogenized figure of adults of the ‘Third World’ or ‘Global South’ in relation to the photographer, Zana Briski ?  As a character in the narrative, she is depicted in scenes of the film, which I think will inevitably encourage viewers to draw comparisons between the figure of Zana and the adults of the ‘Third World’.  Indeed, in one scene Zana talks about how the children ask her for help.

Finally, I want to consider the film in relation to how it is consumed.  Geographers such as Alison Blunt and Jane Wills In the words of Trinh Minh-ha, how can we ‘speak nearby’ rather than ‘speak for’  the subaltern, so that one can engage in a looking that does not objectify?  Are we looking ‘at’ the subjects, or looking ‘alongside’  them?  On one hand, the photographs that the children take privileges the viewer with access to spatial and social patterns of their lives as they represent it, thus presenting an opportunity to ‘look alongside’ the subaltern.  On the other hand, the film is a production, as mediated by the directors, producers, and editors for a Western audience.  In this sense, the film appears to reinforce the relationships that create unevenness rather than destabilize it.

However, does it use these unequal relations in ways that work towards more equality?  The subtext of the film is obvious: as the children speak of the lack of opportunities, the audience is acutely aware of their power to make education accessible to the children in the context of the not-for-profit organization, Kids With Cameras.  The film embodies a marketing function for the organization and its cause.   The childrens’ photographs are displayed and sold in exhibitions as well as online, and the proceeds from the sale of the prints go towards the education and ‘well-being’.  However, what are the implications of bringing the children into and embedding them in the centre of market exchange?  Does the practice fall into the trap of commodifying the childrens’ personal stories, as described by David Harvey?  This seems to complicate any answer to the question.

Information on Wael Abbas:

The speaker in the video is Wael Abbas. He is an Egyptian blogger who actively promotes human rights in Egypt by exposing citizen media from around the world in the form of blogs, facebook sites, youtube videos, etc. He gained international acclaim when his online videos exposed the torture of prisoners and demonstrators, inflicted by Egyptian police officers. Abbas has also chosen to use his real name when blogging as opposed to an anonymous name, regardless of the risks involved. He claims that he does this as a way to inspire others to speak out as well. He received the “Egyptian Against Corruption Award” in 2005/2006; BBC named him the “Most Influential Person” in 2006; he received the “ICFJ /knight International Journalism Award” in 2007; CNN named him the “Middle East Person” of the year 2007; and he was awarded the Human Rights Watch’s “Hellman/Hammett Award” in 2008. Abbas has received worldwide recognition by working towards freedom of speech and press and he has participated in dialogues about media diversity in places, such as Canada, Germany, and London, etc.. His blog is Misr Digital, meaning “Egyptian Awareness” and it is found at: http://misrdigital.blogspirit.com/.

Wael Abbas says:  “The bloggers in Egypt are the last independent voice. If we are silenced, no protests will be heard in Egypt, not only now, but for the coming quarter- or even half-century. And so the choice to blog is not only serious, but necessary.”

Video Summary:

In this video, Abbas addresses the new emerging blogosphere in Egypt and how this is affecting social movements, creating digital media diversity, and raising awareness about suppression in authoritarian regimes. In Egypt, oppression is evident because the “emergency law” makes demonstrations and strikes illegal and the Egyptian press is censored and completely controlled by the government. Blogs have been used to provide an alternative media source and another view to social issues. Egypt has the best developed blogosphere in the Arab world because since 2005, there have been no censorship of blogs. However, this is not to say that bloggers have freedom of expression because instead the government goes after the bloggers themselves by arresting or harassing them as opposed to trying to shut down the internet sites. Blogs are able to provide a more unbiased coverage of events, such as parliamentary elections, and police brutality. This is a way that people are using blogs as a tool or technology to give themselves a voice as well as to give others a voice who are not able to speak out against the government. Blogs in Egypt have been able to cover stories that do not receive enough coverage by traditional media, such as political rigging in Egyptian elections as well as police brutality against prisoners and protesters.   He also covers stories in other countries, such as the video of corruption in Morocco, which is referred to in the video. This was the image of the policemen collecting money from passing cars. Wael Abbas talks about how he is fighting against these injustices by providing an alternative media source and digital evidence of these actions.

Video Commentary:

Wael Abbas uses his blog to speak for the subaltern who are those that are marginalized and oppressed in his videos. These vary from prisoners, demonstrators, or anyone that is being oppressed by authoritative regimes. His blog enables people to speak and be heard because they are able to send him their video footage for him to post without fear of being arrested by the government. At the same time, it can be argued that Abbas is subaltern himself because although the videos do not show an image of him being marginalized, he too is being persecuted and harassed by the Egyptian government because of his blog, which is critical of the government. The government tapped his phones, harassed his family, and tried to tarnish his reputation with lies. Authorities regularly detain bloggers and most report being maltreated or tortured. In 2008, local press freedom groups documented that there were more than 100 bloggers detained. An example is Abdel Kareem Suleiman who was sentenced to four years in jail because he insulted the president and Islam on his blog. Abbas has never been arrested; however, a reason for this could be that the government is hesitant to arrest Abbas because of his international recognition, which may create a worldwide response. This is a way that he is using priviledge to help others. Through the use of his blog, Abbas uses strategic essentialism to speak for other people in the world that are in the same situation that he is, who are trying to establish a voice, and are being harassed by authoritarian governments.  

Egyptian bloggers are also affecting social movements. An example of how blogs were used was during the Workers General Strike in 2008. Blogs and digital sources first played a role in encouraging and organizing the resistance. There were facebook pages dedicated to the event called the ‘April 6 Day of Anger in Egypt,’ which was to protest rising food prices and low wages. During this time, bloggers documented and updating people about what was going on and were capturing footage of people being detained and abused for demonstrating and striking. The web pages served to inform the public and persuade them to demonstrate. As a result of this, authorities began arresting bloggers as well. This is a movement that continued in 2009 and shows how digital activism is working in solidarity with physical movements.

The virtual, digital space is replacing the physical space of people mobilizing because it is a safer way to express voices in states with restrictive authoritarian governments. However, by using real names this shows that they are not just talking and that they are not scared but instead they want to include actions. The more courage they have and present means that they will inspire more awareness. By creating a virtual space for voices to be heard, bloggers such as Wael Abbas are showing footage and stories that traditional media do not cover. This can help the media get involved in the debate about these issues, which might result in Egypt’s Interior Ministry assessing the problem seriously.

Blogging has also been effective in giving a voice to those that are not normally heard, such as women. Approximately sixty percent of bloggers in Egypt are women. It is not only women but people of different sexual orientation, different races and religions that are being empowered by creating blogs. Wael Abbas posted two videos that were effective in involving legal actions. One of his videos in 2007 showed police officers attacking a bus driver, which led to their conviction. Another incident was shown with a video of police officers torturing a prisoner, Imad Kavear, which led them to be sentenced to jail. Blogging is not only having an effect in Egypt but it is becoming a part of a larger movement to create spaces to be heard, in the form of an alternative media source. 

Critique:

A critique of this video may be that Wael controls what goes on his blog and how it is framed; therefore, he acts as an intermediary player. This is different from people actually posting their stories themselves because he can manipulate the stories or show only one point of view. Also, blogs are not necessarily accurate. Regardless of these critiques, I believe that he is having a significant impact on freedom of expression and he is allowing people to speak who would otherwise not be heard. There are many who would not post up their story on the internet for fear of negative ramifications so they allow Wael or other bloggers to give them a voice. 

It is interesting to analyze the role of blogs because we in our class have the ability to talk about many controversial issues without fear of negative ramifications. However, it is unfortunate that other people in different countries do not have this right and are facing arrests, or torture as a result. This shows us how a simple blog can have a significant impact not only in raising awareness but it can actively promote large-scale civil disobedience so that democratic changes can be made and people are heard.

Summary:

This video introduces what Excellent Development aims to do. It’s still a newer organization that believes in aiding the people in Kenya with the knowledge not just helping them to ensure long term sustainability methods and growth.

Here is a short blurb from their website on what they do:

“Excellent Development supports farmers in Africa to gain access to clean water and grow enough food to eat and sell, enabling them to pay their children’s school fees and buy other necessities.

Farmers achieve this by organising themselves into self-help groups and improving soil and water conservation and farming techniques.  Soil and water conservation is achieved through the terracing of land, planting of trees and building innovative sand dams that hold between 2-10 million litres of clean water available all year round.

In addition, Excellent Development works with development organisations at local, national and international level to apply the development model and technologies we use to enable our 2020 vision of 3 million farmers a year gaining access to clean water and growing enough food to eat and sell.”

It starts with a tourist perception of Kenya then switches to rural Kenya and what it really is for the people that live there. As the narrator, Allison Bell says, “basic needs are a daily struggle,” for the people of rural Kenya.

One of Excellent Development ways is featured  in this video, where they create springs through sand dams which collects water from the river which is built by the members of the community.  Joshua, a local explains where the water is coming from and how much of the sand dam is composed of water (60% sand, 40% water).  The video then goes through various interviews with locals (Charles Muendo Mdambuki, , Charles Mwanzia Mutie, Professor Jesse Mugambj) and they compare the way of life before and after Excellent Development has come and how it has better their lives.

What this organization does is great because it really believes in not just giving the people help or money but giving the people skills they need to sustain for future generations. As Charles Mwanzia Mutie says in the video it is “better train a child to catch a fish than give him the fish.” However, when I watched this video I could see a very Western viewpoint of Kenya and the people. Throughout the whole video, I see images of how helpful the Westerners are for coming to this place and education the locals but at the same time the impression is very strong and almost a little forceful.

For example, the scene where Allison Bell is walking with the little girl and this gives the image of how (2:01)  the Westerner is very caring and having this special connection with the little girl, but near the end of that scene, Allison asks the girl “this makes you very happy doesn’t it?” and says “yes” and nods. I can’t help but think that the little girl has no idea what is happening and was told to hold this foreigner’s hand and walk with her. In addition, throughout the whole clip whenever either Charles’ talked…although they were very educated in the processes of sand dams and how it is helping their town, the words seem very forced and put into their mouth to regurgitate back out.

For me, this video is an attempt at bridging a way to help the subaltern speak, however it is in a very forceful way. I feel it is very scripted to please our Western views – to feel like our ways are really helping them but in reality we may just be telling them what to do and although it is beneficial…do they really understand the processes and the goals behind them? So my question is: even with the attempt to bridge the gap between the subaltern and us, are we hearing from the right outlets?

Here is the link to the organization’s website and Youtube channel

http://www.excellentdevelopment.com/

https://www.youtube.com/user/thisisexcellent

Here is a news article covering the founder, Simon Maddrell’s life and how he started this organization.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/telegraphchristmasappeal/6607041/Lifting-Kenyans-out-of-poverty—one-dam-at-a-time.html