J-Doc » overdevelopment

State-sponsored racism, Canadian style

Jorge — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:32:29 +0000

Six or seven years ago, when I arrived for the first time in Canada, I was appalled by the shameless and abusive way in which other Mexicans would try to bend the Canadian refugee system in their favour. Most of the people I knew that were claiming refugee status weren’t actually facing persecution back in Mexico; their lives were not in danger either. Furthermore, many were working illegally in construction, as movers, as banquet hall waiters and other similar jobs while at the same time cashing their refugee status check. I particularly remember a pair of twins claiming their lives were in danger back in Mexico because they were homosexual, but every Wednesday night, like clockwork, they would meet their girlfriends to spend the night with them partying and drinking through their refugee compensation.

“Sooner or later” -I thought- “the Canadian government will have to do something about this”, and so they did… I just never imagined they would make me and my family and the families of all other thousands of hard-working Mexican immigrants, pay for the failure of the refugee system.

The decision by Citizenship and Immigration Canada to require a Visa from Mexican visitors does not even come close to justify referring to the Canadian government as racist. As many Canadians would shamefully admit, this mere annoyance pales in comparison to the county’s treatment of aboriginals, the gold-standard for racism in the country. But when the CIC minister Mr. Jason Kenney decides to skip bilateral talks already underway to solve this problem, announcing the decision overnight and giving a 48-hour ultimatum to ALL Mexicans travelling into Canada, well… that is not exactly what I would call respectful, so I am forced to acknowledge Mr. Kenney’s efforts to drag the CIC into my top racist Canadian policy makers list.

In the meanwhile, my family, who have happily spent their earnings in Canada for the past 5 summers and a couple of winters, will be coming at least $450 short and a lot more annoyed than ever before. But we are some of “those people” who can pay their way in, so congratulations Mr. Kenney! you have achieved your goal of keeping “the poor ones” out. After all, we wouldn’t want the Leamington workers to get distracted with family visits; that would probably add a few cents to the cost of our tomatoes and nobody would want to pay for that, right?

I hope my government in Mexico reacts at least as strongly as the Czech Republic’s, if anything, just to show some self respect. In the meanwhile, I encourage any Canadian reading this to share it with their MPs and MPPs (can’t wait to become a citizen). Who knows… maybe we can get the Queen to start paying my family five dollars a year in reparations.

One Child per Laptop

Jorge — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 08:20:00 +0000

Say you are a very eager professor with a lot of time and money in your hands. Say you work in a random university (uh.. MIT?). Say your fame and fortune has tricked you into thinking you know more about the world than you do in reality. Say you understand computers like no other human being and, “just ‘cuz”, you build your dream machine: a ~~$100~~ $188 dollar laptop that takes your breath away. Say you get the brilliant idea to make one billion of those babies just so, like you, a billion children around the world can be blessed and enlightened with your magnificent creation. There is just one problem: where do you get the children from? I know! from developing countries! of course! why didn’t I think of that? They just love having overdeveloped countries tell them how they should live their lives so they too can waste their resources!… heck! they’ll take anything we give them!

Approaches to working with people in need

Jorge — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 16:44:35 +0000

This table was presented by Anamed at the ECHO Annual Agricultural Conference in November, 2006. There are many ways to engage with people in need, but the know-it-all, pitiful approach of the overdeveloped world often ignores important contextual constraints, disrespects local communities and ultimately recycles the processes of exploitation that maintain people ‘poor’ and ‘needy’. Ultimately, recipients of ‘aid’ are politically constrained to accept what is given to them without criticism. As a result, ‘aid’ organizations grow distant from the communities they claim to support and ignorant of their real needs. So, are you really committed to help, or do you just want to feel good about yourself?

	to take advantage of people in need	to work for people in need	to work on behalf of people in need	to work with people in need	to work one step behind people in need
People in need	are a market.	are ill.	suffer illness, are under-developed.	have been made poor and ill.	are good people. They have a different culture.
The problem is a result of	people not participating in the global market.	fate.	under-development.	the same unjust political and economic structures that are also causing poverty in our countries.	being born into a situation and culture that is different.
The feeling of the helper is one of	delight.	superiority. They are less fortunate, less well educated, less intelligent.	sympathy.	solidarity.	empathy and friendship, and being in a position to learn a lot.
The way to give help is to	sell products.	give money.	support development.	tacke the causes of injustice.	respect their way of life and to learn from them.
The practical action of the helper is to	set up a local company to market products.	provide (to feed or to heal).	teach people how to be teachers, doctors, engineers.	campaign together. To share available resources so that, together, we achieve something better.	share the available material and human resources to help them do what they want to do.
Helpers look at people in need from	behind the sales desk.	above.	in front.	their side, we stand together.	a little behind them, waiting for them to take the initiative.
As a result of what we do, we expect	to take money.	gratitude.	gratitude, an enthusiastic response.	to give and receive mutual support.	nothing.
Our relationship is	business.	benevolent.	teacher / pupil.	partner.	friend, learner, enabler.
Example from the world of health:	Companies sell toxic mercury soaps, cigarrettes, breast milk substitutes, vitamin pills, etc.	We provide doctors, medicines and hospitals. We meet their basic health needs.	We teach people how to be good nurses and doctors.	Together we challenge the rules of the WTO, we campaign against patents on plants.	We work together to learn more about medicinal plants and natural medicine.

Taken from Anamed. See also Approaches to working with Disabled people.

The Overdeveloped World

Jorge — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 17:03:06 +0000

A couple of years ago, I read in the IEEE Spectrum magazine that Dave Irvine-Halliday, a University of Calgary Physics professor, had come up with a clever and sustainable idea to provide artificial light to communities that do not have access to this resource. Given my interest in the discourses of development and sustainability, and my background in engineering, I was immediately drawn to the piece. The article went on explaining the evolution process of Dave’s ideas from design to implementation, but what really struck me was the use of the term “overdeveloped world”. This was the first time I had heard that term, but it made so much sense that from that point on, I declared myself Dave’s admirer.

The are a couple of reasons why the use of the term overdeveloped world is important. In order to find solutions to particular social issues we first must be able to identify them. This may seem like an obvious step but, actually, it may be the hardest, and coming up with a term that summarizes the concept already goes a long way. On the other hand, for many years, we have focused on problematizing poverty and underdevelopment as issues that only concern those who have too little. Thus, from the perspective of western capitalism, it is only in the interest of the poor and underdeveloped to overcome their own fateful condition. This type of discourse also places us, the developed and “not-poor”, at a safe distance from the problem by trivializing our politically charged role in the management of poverty. Thus, by using the term overdeveloped world, we shift some of that focus back to us by problematizing affluence as yet another symptom of the same problem. In other words, by using this term, poverty and affluence are defined as two sides of the same coin

J-Doc » overdevelopment

State-sponsored racism, Canadian style

One Child per Laptop

Approaches to working with people in need

The Overdeveloped World

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