On relieving the current flow of people in need

In this post, I'm sharing a few articles that provide a more critical reflection on the recent humanitarian crisis and how it is being framed in the media and online. They voice the troubled gut feeling I've had so far when watching the www overflow with emotional cries and impromptu calls for semi-coordinated citizen relief efforts. This is going to be Band Aid all over again and in a few years, practitioner experts and academia alike will be writing on how this huge amount of goodwill achieved so little.

Simply sharing shocking images of a little boy that had drowned, actually reinforces the divide between us, westerners, and our privileges, and them, refugees, and their hard-wrought plights. It won't bring us any nearer to the solution. I hadn't read the article linked into the Vox one about the white-saviour industrial complex but it definitely complements and deepens that line of thought. Also, as Hans Rosling pointed out, it also is another opportunity for media and politicians alike to present Africa and the Middle East as places of pure horror and chaos, whereas tremendous improvements in peoples' lives have been occuring too and there are many positive stories to be told as well. By depicting them as victims you deprive them of their capacity to contribute to society and be part of positive change.

In case you were wondering why refugees pay so much money to risk their lives in shabby rubber boats instead of buying a much cheaper plane ride

Lest we forget, there is much more to all those people fleeing than just war or conflicts. There are often many reasons why that conflict has come about, and most of them involve us, consumers, or our governments, in multiple ways. (Think climate change; arms trade; resource-linked foreign policies; business interest trumping human rights; to name but a few.)

Rather than discussing the height of barbed-wired fences or the pros and cons of a EU-wide quota system, one of the debates to be had is how to implement the Refugee Convention that our nations have subscribed, more in particular, what to do once the countries of origin do no longer pose a threat to the lives of those we have hosted as refugees. Unfortunately, many of those countries of origin are bound to be in upheaval for many years to come. Refugee children will be born here and will grow up in our societies. Do we simply ship them back, as Tanzania did with hundreds of thousands of Burundese families after ten, twenty or in some cases even thirty years, or do we already think of how to integrate them as of today? Is the latter option practically, not to mention politically, feasible?

All this is not to say that we should not help those thousands of refugees marching through in search of a safe haven. Of course we should. But, leave the relief support to professionals. All those citizen-led initiatives inspired by the inaction and incapacity of our governments in hosting this sudden influx of people are no doubt well-intentioned, but good intentions can sometimes have horrible consequences. Already many stories are to be heard of donated clothes that have to be thrown away because they're dirty or wet or too big; that there is not enough space for all the food to be stored; etc. The only effect this will have is that, in two-three months from now, people won't be there anymore to provide warm clothes or other supplies, because they were turned down today for lack of storage capacity. You want to do something now? Ask professional relief organisations (such as the Red Cross or established refugee organisations) what you can do. And beware that most often it will be by simply donating money, even though that may not be as gratifying as feeding a hungry person yourself.

You can't have it all

2012 has been a year filled with new experiences, new friends and lots of new fruits. Applying my last year's wishes, I would like to share with you one of the most valuable lessons I learnt in 2012. I'll never forget the moment: a friend of mine came over for a visit, so I was showing her around the historical centre. We decided to have a beer on the Plaza de San Francisco, which has one of the only outside terraces on which you can enjoy a drink or a bite in the open air.

As we were updating each other on our lives, I was telling her how I was enjoying myself on a personal level in my new habitat, yet felt rather unsatisfied with my professional environment. I had just come up to speed rambling, when my friend interrupted me to say: if there's one lesson I've come to learn over the years, it is that you cannot have it all. No matter how hard you try, there will always be something that is missing from the picture. So you better learn to live with the fact that you cannot have it all: appreciate all the good you have instead of focusing on what you do not have!

It took me a while to absorb the message and, most of all, to accept its ramifications. Not an easy feat, especially when society surrounds you with images of success, glamour and glitter, where the sky is the limit and life seems burdenless. As soon as I accepted my friend's advice, however, I cannot count the times that I saw, read or lived the proof of that valuable lesson. Be it a volcano that didn't let me ascend to her summit, women who still cannot match a high fly job with nurturing their families, or simply a clash of agendas, life abounds with examples that you simply cannot have it all, nor should you try to.

Appreciate all the good things around you, do not abandon ship at the first sight of stormy clouds. Just give the sun some time to break through. Of course, if you still feel you're on the wrong track, you can always change direction. Just don't give up too soon, keep patient and enjoy the good company while it lasts!

As for me, the sky has cleared: not long after my friend left, work has become a lot more interesting up to the point that I am more than happy to extend my stay here. And, besides professional reasons, there are still some mountains left to climb... But for now, I wish you all the best for the new year, and don't forget to smile!

Merry Christmas

A Merry Christmas to you all!

Music credit: Alt-J, Something good

And you thought you were off for a nice morning of bargain-hunting...

Two weeks ago, I was out on the streets of Leuven, raising funds for Vredeseilanden. Although it is a non-governmental organisation, 68% of its budget comes from the government. (That's quite a lot, considering that most - if not all - NGOs in the South get nothing from their governments.) However, to justify that this civil society organisation is worthy of these tax Euros, it should demonstrate that it actually has a support base in society. That is why, every year, thousands of volunteers seek the financial contributions of the people on the street as a tangible evidence of them conferring legitimacy on Vredeseilanden's mission in our society.

Who could say no to such cute faces freezing in the cold? (source)

As my fingers were getting numb from the cold, I didn't even get to explaining in most cases what we were raising money for. People either pretended not hear me, ditching me with a cold 'no, no' while staring into the shop displays with the newest sales on offer, or happily pulled out their wallets with their minds torn between which gadget to get in return for their contribution. Fortunately, the mix of people's reactions was balanced enough to keep me going through the cold. One guy, however, made my day.

Asked to support Vredeseilanden, he replied in a somewhat offended manner - 'Don't you know how expensive life's become these days? I have to buy a new car, that's taking more than enough out of my wallet!'. Well, then. I reckoned that if he was going to buy a new car, 5 Euro more wouldn't really make that much of a difference in the face of so big an expenditure. Yet, that really seems to have pulled his strings - 'Haven't you got any idea how much a Mercedes costs? You must think I've got money to spare!' Mightily offended, he then strode off to the car salon and left me wondering whether to rip the hair off my head or burst out in laughter.

This anecdote came to my mind as I was thinking back on the seminar I gave yesterday at a development course. During the last part of that session, we were reflecting with the group on solutions for the structural inequality and unfairness of the international trade system, especially when it comes to agriculture. One of the students asked me why it is that policy makers and politicians persistently neglect the evidence that free trade is hurting instead of benefiting the 1.3 billion small scale farmers who - oh gruesome irony - do not have enough to feed their families. 'Because a lot of them honestly believe that free trade is the real solution to this problem,' I said to her. At which point, then,
several other students joined that girl's outrage at willingly turning a blind eye at three decades of failed agricultural free trade policies.

It struck me that the indignation with which the girls at the seminar fumed against those 'blind and ignorant' policy makers, was not too different from the way that man on the street reacted to me for even daring to suggest that he could pinch off a few bucks from his car budget. As this only hit me several hours after that class, I couldn't share these last thoughts anymore, so I do it here. All too often we are so convinced of other people's wrong, that we erupt like a volcano with lava streams of arguments proving our right. Self-gratifying as this may be, it won't bring us any closer to a solution. For this, we should seek to understand why that other person holds these views and figure out a way - if possible - to create common ground, a level playing field from which to reach a better outcome than the status quo; an outcome to which both parties agree and which they honestly support. After all, there is often little point in being right when you're on your own at the right side of the table.

Stay hungry, keep shopping!

A few weeks ago, Vredeseilanden held a workshop on 'The Farmer Effect', how different actors driving sustainability in agricultural value chains lead to improved livelihoods for small-scale farmers. Put simple, a bigger income allows farmers to invest in their land, education, health and whatnot. As reporter of the event, I wanted to record the talks to facilitate writing the report afterwards. This set me on a quest for tape recorders, which turned out easier than expected. Seems like bosses still like to tape themselves…

I ended up buying two simple devices - basically the two most basic recorders they had, due to budgetary constraints and the limited use they would serve. As there were no devices on the shelve, I ended up buying the recorders on display. When unpacking the boxes, I noticed that one recorder was missing the USB-cable to connect it to a computer. So I went back to Media Markt, the multi-media supermarket where I'd bought the devices, to fix this problem or get my money back so I could buy another basic recorder elsewhere.

I asked the lady at the service counter to whom I should direct myself with my problem of the missing USB-cable. 'The guy from the store section where you got the stuff from', she said. 'No no, I can't help you with this,' the guy from the store section said, 'go to the repair desk.' I already feared that answer, as this usually is the place where you spend hours waiting before you get attended. I was lucky, only half an hour was my share of waiting and witnessing how many products cannot be repaired because fixing that small problem would cost almost the same as getting a newer version of that product. 'Ok,' the repair desk guy said, 'we'll just have to send it back. Here's a receipt to get a voucher at the service counter.'

It's been now almost 40 minutes of being told to go from one place to another, waiting and not being helped that much. I was eager to get it all over with and get my money back - they couldn't fix the problem and, being the last models of that series, the shop couldn't offer me another recorder of the same series, nor did it have any alternative within the same price range. 'I'm sorry,' the twenty-year old lady said to me at the service counter, 'it's not our policy to give you a refund; we only give vouchers.' I tried to explain to her that I didn't want any voucher; as the shop couldn't satisfy my need, I had to be able to get my money back to do so elsewhere. To no avail - along the process I had somewhat run out of patience, and my grumpiness was easily passed on to her. She was clearly in no mood or capacity to accommodate my sense of customer dissatisfaction. 'Take it or leave it,' was the snappy verdict.

As I left the store with the 'gift card' - almost thrown at me, because I had dared to object to the no-money refund policy and, as a consequence, complicate her life behind the counter - I could not help but wonder how symptomatic this experience had been of the consumption-driven society we live in. Goods are produced not to last, but to be sold. They often brake down, sometimes far too easily. It's not producers' or retailers' policy to repair your good, but to stimulate you buying the newest version of it (you know, to keep labour going). To reduce your resistance to this vicious cycle of consumption, they cook your brains while you wait in endless lines of understaffed customer service desks and are attended by unexperienced assistants who are hired according to their ability to parrot the shop's policy - otherwise they might even sympathise with complaining customers and help them finding a solution, oh horror (and wast of time)! The message is clear: keep shopping and don't bother about the complete irresponsibility of this unsustainable waste-generating consumption industry.

Fortunately Luxembourg is big enough to fit us all

I guess by now most of the 6.999 million people will have heard the news: we've hit the 7 million mark! But should we congratulate ourselves, or rather feel sorry for overcrowding our planet? Well, the thing is not that we're too many to fit - it would take an area smaller than Luxembourg to fit us all, shoulder to shoulder. Nor is the problem how to feed the whole population - there's plenty of scope to increase yield per ha in vast parts of the globe. Just consider, for example, that many farms in sub-Saharan Africa yield only 10% of their north-American peers.

Part of the problem, as I see it, is that our patterns of production and consumption are simply not sustainable. Period. This is all because of the technological advances we have made over the past centuries, which made man redundant in many aspects of what is supposed to be his productive life. And let's face it: why pay someone who's prone to failure and fatigue, when a machine can perform the same job at a fraction of the cost and without nasty labour unions nagging about physical and psychological well-being?

The demand for educated labour is being reconfigured by technology, in much the same way that the demand for agricultural labour was reconfigured in the 19th century and that for factory labour in the 20th. Computers can not only perform repetitive mental tasks much faster than human beings. They can also empower amateurs to do what professionals once did: why hire a flesh-and-blood accountant to complete your tax return when Turbotax (a software package) will do the job at a fraction of the cost? And the variety of jobs that computers can do is multiplying as programmers teach them to deal with tone and linguistic ambiguity.

Now, you cannot simply have 6 million bums while the remaining 1 million are working, can you? So we simply had to come up with unsustainable patterns of production and consumption, which would require people to staff repair offices, call centres and other customer services, while keeping factory workers happy with supplying the ever-continuing demand of unsustainable products, invented by engineers to last as long as not to upset customers (too much), but as short as to keep them buying the gimmicks they invent every other year or two.

Because of this problematic situation - a growing (skilled) workforce and a general lack of labour demand for basic products and services - jobs have always been a sword of Damocles hanging over politicians' heads, especially in periods of economic downturn. Heck, even the weapons industry, to name but one, gets away with crying foul when governments dare not to approve a murky deal with a semi-friendly autocrat - while in reality they only employ a few hundred people and represent (in most cases) less than one percent of GDP. I don't know the solution to this problem, but maybe it's time for more ideas to have sex?