immigrants simultaneously live in the past,present and future
immigration depends greatly on the imaginary future
…if you are not imaging a better future how can you endure the indignities of the present and the separation from your past
Mulheres Mil Methodology Training
Last Friday wrapped up the training of new managers on the Mulheres Mil program. New campuses from the northeast and central north regions of Brazil gathered in Brasilia for a week full of project start up, implementation and permanence training.
I’m incredibly thankful to Stela Rosa, the Mulheres Mil national coordinator, who extended an invitation to me for this wonderful week.
I was moved by this training session;
-the emphasis on life experience as oppose to academic knowledge
-the inclusion of women in planning their own curriculums
-the acknowledgement that women are a powerful source of dissemination and empowerment for their communities
One particular session hit me quiet hard. Once women are recruited to the Mulheres Mil program, each campus is required to hold a “Life Map/Mapa do Vida” exercise with them. This exercise more then anything is for the women to reinforce to themselves that they have knowledge already within. It illustrates that they have come a long way and most importantly that those long difficult paths count. Those are strong starting points.
During the training session for new managers we were all asked to create our own life maps. Chronologically each person documented their story by what they felt impacted them most personally and professionally.
Brazil has never been economically rich. This means most of the current Mulhers Mil managers have had serious hardships in their own lives. This all came out during the Life Map/Mapa do Vida session. Person after person stood up and traced for all of us who they were, who they are and who they wish to become.
Mulhers Mil is much more then a social inclusion program.
This past weekend marked Brasilia’s “Slut Walk” protest.
What started in Toronto as a response to a police officer making the comment that “women should avoid dressing like sluts” if they wish to not be assaulted has turned into a global movement.
It is important to keep in mind that there has been a lot of strong and smart commentary against “Slut Walks” as well.
Once I woke up all alone, really early in a foreign city to try to capture that perfect moment of sunrise over all this fabled scenery. But I miscalculated sunrise and I didn’t speak the language and it was January. And my camera and I huddled along the edge of the port and waited in that endless bruised light of Almost Morning. And there were so many birds.. Traveling is like flirting with life. It’s like saying, “I would stay and love you, but I have to go; this is my station.”
Here is a short video I took yesterday of the Ministry of Human Rights Patricia Barcelos’ opening speech for the Mulheres Mil Methodology and Training Conference.
Inspiring day at the Mulheres Mil Methodology overview session. Paul Singer, professor,economist, and heavily published writer gave a great speech which I will post tonight or tomorrow.
Patricia Barcelos of the Ministry of Human Rights gave an equally moving opening talk to the day, reflecting on the passion required to run a program like this and emphasizing the importance of women as catalysts of social change.
treat yourself: good food & good music
Brazil As An Emerging Donor: Overview
The majority of my blogging about Brazil has focused on reforms in the education system. This change is of course indicative of greater strides the country has been making in repositioning itself as an emerging global leader.
I have a particular interest in sustainable development so I thought I would take a step back from education in order to examine Brazil´s new position as donor rather then recipient.
There has been a recent shift in Brazilian thinking from viewing itself as a recipient of expertise and aid to one of offering support to other national efforts. Brazil has a broad history of creative problem solving in difficult situations which makes it well positioned to understand development work. Social inclusion with a focus on the environment seem to be the underlining themes of Brazil´s approach to development work.
To get a good sense of Brazil´s recent growth let´s take a look at Brazil´s contributions to international and regional development.
International Relations ( South-South relations)
2005 Brazil contributed US $ 158 million
2009 Brazil contributed US $362 million
The growth seen from 2005 to 2009 is largely an influence of Lula´s administration and his focus on improving South-South relations. Brazil seems to see itself more as a partnership builder rather then a donor. Brazilian aid in the early 2000´s was southern oriented and based on demand. Another distinguishing feature of Brazil´s emerging donor status is its approach to development;it has preferred to disseminate knowledge and training in order to build human resources in recipient countries rather then give cash.
In 2009 Brazil was ahead of China, Russia and Mexico in it´s contributions to international organizations, regional banks, peacekeepers ( Haiti), funds to the World Bank, International Development of America Bank and African Development Bank.
Brazil has had rapid growth in bilateral humanitarian aid for emergency assistance, especially food and medicine.
The majority of this aid went to Cuba, Haiti and Honduras.
The Brazilian National Development Bank offers financing to governments who contract Brazilian companies for large scale infrastructure programs.
Interestingly enough aside from multilateral contributions, humanitarian aid, and some foreign student assistance, only 5.5 %-13.5% of the annual Brazilian development assistance actually represents technical cooperation projects. These projects best highlight Brazil’s unique `solidarity diplomacy`.
More then 100 federal organizations have been involved in lending expertise for technical cooperation projects with most of the costs being absorbed by the agencies.
Brazil is focused on passing on its innovation and expertise to other countries as seen by the 300 + on-going or recently finished projects, examples include replications of Brazil´s AIDS programs and agricultural knowledge dissemination.
Overall Brazil has had two main phases to it´s technical cooperation projects with the first set focusing on Africa. Guinea, Mozambique, Zambia and 8 West African countries of The Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS). Most of Brazil´s support has focused on supporting national efforts for the introduction of biofuels.
The second cluster of projects are with the Americas and focus on the exchange of research and information for environmental protection and biofuels.
In the last 10 years Brazil has greatly expanded its development assistance for other countries. Technical cooperation projects use to form the bulk of Brazil´s assistance projects and served to introduce Brazil´s solidarity diplomacy to the world. More and more we will see the importance of Brazil as a contributor to the global common good, such a achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.
Brazil Approves Racial Quotas for Higher Education
As you may have gathered from past posts I have thus far spent the majority of the few months before arriving to Brazil and now in Brazil working on social development through education. The `college`system is still fairly new to Brazil and has had and continues to have impressive growth.
I recently read about a Supreme Court of Brazil plenary session where a decision was made for the adoption of racial quota policies in higher education institutions across the country. It will not be mandatory, instead it will allow educational institutions the legal right to devote a specific percentage of places for students of African and/or Indigenous origin.
The measure is a reflection of affirmative action policies being constitutional in the country since democratization in 1988. These policies basically state that Brazil acknowledges that people are not treated equally and as a result do not have the same opportunities which prevents them from producing knowledge and engaging in the power of negotiation.
The University of Brasilia (UNB) was the first educational institution to adopt the measure when, in 2004, it started reserving 20% of its university places exclusively for students of African decent, and a smaller percentage for those of Indigenous background, without the entry requirement of taking the regular university exam.
According to Minister Joaquim Barbosa, “these measures are intended not only to combat manifestations of blatant discrimination, but discrimination in fact, that is absolutely rooted in society, and so ingrained, people do not perceive it”,
However, not everyone agrees with the decision of the Supreme Court. Videoblogger Daniel Fraga argues that in a country such as Brazil, where racial mixing is very high, it would be difficult to correctly define who really is black or white. This decision would be made based on a “visual criteria,” and mentions UNB’s case of two twin brothers, one considered white and the other black, the latter gaining a quota place at the university.
The discussion will continue in the coming weeks since, besides this action, the Supreme Court is yet to decide the constitutionality of racial quotas when applied to a student who attended public school.
This blog is about the little things. It's the crumbs of daily life. People, food, streets, etc.
Another side of me: http://touchofinspiration.tumblr.com/
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