An Altruistic Angle: Haiti: An NGO invasion

By Anna

Haiti has long been called “The Republic of NGOs” because more than 3,000 Non-Governmental Organizations operate in Haiti, according to the United States Institute of Peace.

Before (and after) the January earthquake, people criticized the number of NGOs and UN workers involved in Haiti’s well being. One blogger called them the “Neo-imperialists,” and another “invaders.” Three thousand organizations in one country is a lot too, but my critique is not in the number it’s in the activity of the number.

How many of these NGOs are infusing local growth and stability and how many are going so far as to capitalize on Haiti’s poverty? If NGOs are not involved in training local leaders, to provide jobs and economic growth they should rethink their mission.

A friend of mine this week asked me if I thought all these NGOs were exploiting Haitians because of all the excessive advertising for donating to Haiti now. I think it is a possibility, which is why it’s important to know an organization well before donating. Yes, Haiti needs our help and if an NGO has long been established in Haiti (which 3,000 have) they probably do need money right now. But texting 90999 to The Red Cross isn’t making much of a dent in Haiti’s recovery.

The solution for Haiti isn’t more money and more NGOs, the solution should be within Haiti. The United States Government and its NGOs haven’t found a solution for poverty here, so how will they manage to solve Haiti’s problems?

Reporter Marcela Valente said a solution could be found in mutual cooperation between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. If the United States urged more government solutions in Haiti, their long-term future could be more stable, but resources are limited on the island and water is now their greatest need.

The point is Haiti has always needed economic help and photos of post-earthquake kids and bodies is meant to make people aware of the situation they are now in, not to make anyone feel guilty for not texting or not going down to move concrete. So be wary of the point of NGO photos and calls for donations.

This week on the internet: 020510

Compiled by Ryan

The links:

-The Pitchfork Festival is off to a strong start, announcing headliners Pavement, Modest Mouse, and LCD Soundsystem.

-The new album from Yeasayer, Odd Blood, is now streaming on their MySpace page.

-Broken Social Scene will release a new album this year, with a lineup that sounds pretty similar to the ones found on Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning’s solo efforts.

-The creator of MacGyver wants to stop MacGruber from being released, evidently because he wants his own creation in theatres before the SNL parody, which is scheduled for April.

-After a weekend-long battle, Amazon relented to publisher Macmillan’s push for higher prices for digital books, and now some other publishers are pushing back, challenging the $10 ebook model that has been so crucial to the Kindle’s success.

The YouTube highlights:

Sega is releasing Sonic 4!:

The Cigarette Noise: The forgotten canon

By Ryan

In Roman thought, there were five canons of rhetoric: invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery.  Invention dealt with the process of developing thoughts that were worth expressing, arrangement with the organization of said thoughts, style with the form and structure those thoughts would be expressed with, memory with the ability to recall the previous thoughts and their arrangement and style, and delivery concerned actually expressing those thoughts in speech.  Most people are better at certain canons than others: some have excellent ideas but struggle to arrange them, format them, remember them, or express them; some have weak or uninteresting thoughts but are really good at either arranging them coherently or delivering them forcefully.  But what about those who are exceedingly good at remembering their ideas and their arrangement?  What value exists in memory in an instantaneous society that relies heavily on technology for recall?

Let me be more concrete.  I have an excellent memory, the kind that recalls details and nuances of situations that themselves have been forgotten by other folks.  (I’m not bragging, it’s just true, and it’s not even worth bragging about, as I’m attempting to prove.)  Thousands of years ago, this trait would have made me very culturally relevant, as those who could retain loads of information were indispensible in a preliterate age.  But, as time went on, and people started keeping track of things and developing things like maps and guidebooks, memory became less important.  However, being able to recall the way certain thoughts were arranged, structured, and presented in the past remained important, because it allowed people to remember the specifics of how certain events unfolded and the human response to those events.  This was certainly advantageous at one time.

Now though, in what some are calling a postliterate society, where written words are becoming less essential and orality (specifically, Walter Ong’s secondary orality) is reemerging as the go-to form of communication in developed societies, memory may be more useless than ever.  Because we spend so much time projecting our thoughts through various electronic means—Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs—remembering the details and nuance of events is as simple as recalling them electronically.

Let’s consider an example: say that five to ten years from now people begin discussing and reevaluating the life of Michael Jackson, realizing that the outpouring of love for the pop star has largely overshadowed what some people remember to be a pretty deranged and morally questionable life.  When the MJ defenders are confronted with this, they may argue that this is not true, and perhaps they say that much was made of his shortcomings in the media coverage and public response to his death.

Now, fifty years ago, we would have some newspaper and magazine articles to look at, but we couldn’t really settle this debate without the assistance of people with memories of the incident recalling reactions and responses that happened at the time.  Ten years from now, we’ll simply have to search YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and the blogs, and we can easily start to see a definitive picture of what the popular response to MJ’s death was, and this will certainly hold more weight than the collective memory of those involved with the debate.

Of course, there will always be those who claim, “I remember how it was—I was there,” but this sort of response is becoming less relevant and, certainly, less trusted than recorded electronic sources.  This is not to say that human memory is unimportant, but rather to pose that maybe it is less important than ever before.  This sort of change happens all the time in human history, it just usually doesn’t happen so quickly.  That is to say, I can remember a time when memory mattered.

Unhooked & Unsettled: The Truth About Why We’re Still Single

By Nicolle

If I get married, I want to tie the knot with someone who is career-driven, but who will also help out with vacuuming (my absolute least favorite chore – I’d rather clean a toilet), cooking and laundry. Given the fact that we just launched into the second decade of the 21st century, I don’t think that’s too much to ask.

I’d also like someone who’s taller than me, likes animals, wants to travel, can dance and doesn’t mind that I’m occasionally (read: usually) indecisive. Still not that much to ask, right?

According to Jillian Straus, author of Unhooked Generation: The Truth About Why We’re Still Single, such a checklist could be part of the reason Generation X and the Millennial Generation are postponing marriage – and having a harder time finding love.

Straus, who was once a producer for The Oprah Winfrey Show, took it upon herself to tour the nation to interview 25 to 39 year olds in an attempt to get to the bottom of why so many of her friends and acquaintances were unsuccessful at finding long-lasting relationships.

Along the way, Straus uncovered what she calls “The Seven Evil Influences” that effect how Gen X-ers relate to one another in relationships. The influences, which range from our “multiple-choice culture” to the “divorce effect,” have given us unrealistic expectations for what our romantic relationships should look like.

Instead of being willing to put in the time required to build a lasting relationship, we’re more likely to “upgrade” to something easier. If something is “missing” in a relationship, we’re more willing to explore other options because we have an ideal relationship in mind, one that might not actually be attainable.

Straus explores how culture and generations before us have influenced our notorious fear of settling by giving us too many options and convincing us that we should never have to suffer in a relationship. She also dissects how our tendencies towards casual sex have taken a toll our ability to engage in long-term relationships.

The first three-fourths of the book could be depressing; Straus’ findings could lead to a hopeless feeling that any attempts at finding love are futile based on all the influences actively fighting against our desires for relationships. Instead, the book is enlightening, refreshing and mind-boggling. While reading it, I would occasionally yell out loud, “Yes! That’s exactly how I feel!” or “Why doesn’t everyone know this?!”

Unhooked Generation should be required reading for anyone above the age of 18 and below the age of 45. Part of what is killing our relationships is a lack of self-awareness – and this book makes it clear that we have more control in the game of love than we think.

An Altruistic Angle: The blood of a bull is not the blood of a woman

By Anna

The following essay is one I wrote for New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof’s contest: “Win a trip with Nick!”

I do not know if I won, but will let you know if I do. Winning is a long shot, but writing this was an exercise in thought extraction nonetheless.

The 16^th century Hungarian myth, the Battle of Bull’s Blood, is about the near destruction of the Hungarians at the sword of the Turks. However, the Hungarian men slathered a dark red wine in their beards and on their clothes to scare the Turks into thinking they were savage because they drank bull’s blood.

The man who told me this story on the bank of the Danube in Budapest, said it was the Hungarian women who conceived of the feral idea. Since I heard that story last year, I knew it would be the women of this world that would reconcile this age of crisis through dignity, intelligence and grace.

I want to be a part of Nicholas Kristof’s trip to Africa because I am a journalism student at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minn., a cross-cultural studies minor, and a fellow adventurer who believes women do hold up half the sky. I have traveled abroad a half dozen times recording through photographs and a pen what I saw and what I did not see. It is important to me that people’s stories are heard, and I know it is in my power to tell these stories.

After returning from Cambodia three years ago, I started a blog with friends concerning everything relevant in the world. My weekly column focuses on humanity and inhumanity. I wrote about what disturbed me in the streets of Phnom Penh but quickly moved to what excited me about places like New Life Center in the heart of the city where people meet to eat and commune together.

I want to travel with Nicholas so people will see continents as countries, countries as cities, cities as neighborhoods, and neighborhoods as people–people with ideas and emotions shaped by their history yet important no matter their history.

I also want to go on this trip because I have never been to Africa but have always had the goal to see as much of the world as much as possible. Also, there is no better way to travel than with a significant purpose. I want to meet young girls and old women, to know what they know so I can relay to others what connects us, and help reconcile where we are disconnected. I want to be the person to tell about the organization that has girls stay in school during their menstrual cycles and has given women birth control and education so that they might not have to outgrow their means. I am excited to write the truth even if it is difficult and sorrowful.

With or without this trip I will continue to collect stories of empowered women and continue to meet people who inspire and challenge me. Even if it means a little red wine needs to be spilled every once and awhile.