Carl S

CAFTA and Sugar Beets - it's complicated

2012-03-11T16:55:00.000-05:00

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away - wait - that's a different story. This piece is about sugar beets and CAFTA - it's economics and fairly complicated, but it does demonstrate one of my basic life principles - "We are all in this together". Thank you, Red Green. It's about how the sugar market works between here and Central America. Or, who is paying whom for what.
(I am going to the Red Green show here in Minnesota in May, thank you very much, my lovely wife.)

I suspect you use some sugar, one way or another. It turns out that you and I and all U.S. consumers are paying about $1 billion more for our sugar each year to help out domestic sugar beet farmers. And by that investment, we are preventing about 140 new jobs in Central America, and potentially many others in other parts of the planet. It's like reverse foreign aid or something. How does that work exactly?

A long time ago, years, literally, I was in Nicaragua, and an economist there was explaining CAFTA, the Central American Free Trade Act. He gave us an inside look at how this would affect Nicaragua. He was agin it! The conservatives here, the classical Free Trade people, were all in favor of this because it lowers barriers to trade. Trade is good. The U.S. sells a bunch of stuff in Central America - appliances, electronics, and food! If you shop in the market in Managua, the rice and corn from the U.S. is cheaper than the local product. Technically, that's a good thing. It lowers the cost of living for anyone that depends on rice and corn to live - which includes most Nicaraguans. However, in this case, it also affects the Nicaraguan farmer, because it depresses the price of their product. And since most farmers there are doing it basically by hand, their productivity is not wonderful, and they are stressed to earn a living with all of this international competition. They also represent about 30% of the population, versus less than 1% here.

My economist friend looked at all of Nicaragua's exports, and the only one that would be significantly benefited by the free trade act was sugar. He figured that Nicaragua could produce and ship more sugar to the United States at a competitive price, and thus create more jobs. He guessed it would generate about 140 new jobs in all of Central America. Of course, the U.S. sugar industry, mostly sugar beets, also realized this. So they lobbied Congress hard to put in place a sugar price support. Whatever happened to free trade? OH, I'm sorry, it's NOT a tariff - that would be illegal. It's a "price support". Oh, and that is basically FREE, that is it does not cost the government of the U.S. anything - just the consumers of the U.S.

You can read about it here in the Star and Trib for March 11, 2012. Star and Trib article

So, to enhance free trade, and benefit all, we don't mind damaging the farmers in Nicaragua, but we will not damage the farmers in the U.S. The consumers in both countries are paying for this directly, without the overhead of government collecting and paying out taxes.

Does not seem fair to me. We have a lot of price support programs exactly like this We, you and I, through our federal taxes, pay some farmers a price floor, which, in effect, drives down world food prices - thus benefiting consumers around the world, and damaging farmers around the world.. See this article on all of that: Wikipedia on Farm Subsidies.

You and I, my friend, are paying $20 Billion a year to subsidize the most productive farmers in the world. We started these payments back during the depression, when the U.S. farmers were seriously hurt by falling prices. That was a LONG time ago, in another galaxy. And most of that money is not going to the small, family farm, but to the large, industrialized operation.

I must be missing something here. Why are we doing all this? Because of the agricultural lobby? Is agriculture a major defense industry now, that we all are paying billions to protect it from foreign competition?

So you see how this works. We are all in this together. You and I are paying both sides of this one. Our taxes hold up the prices which raise the price of our food. I don't think it's a win / win, here or in Nicaragua.

If you have any insight into this, I would appreciate being enlightened about it. Thanks. I've asked our fearless elected leaders about this one. I'll let you know what they respond. My cursory searches on Google failed to turn up any one that would actually defend this policy. There must be someone that can explain this.

Economics Is Way Too Complicated

2012-03-05T15:29:00.004-06:00

Simplified Economics

I am sitting here at my desk reading this talk by Paul Klugman, published today in his blog at the New York Times. http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/05/economics-in-the-crisis/

It is a LONG and complex analysis of the failure of economists to predict and help solve our current financial crisis – which started back in 2008. I would love to understand this – but the article is way too long, way too complex. The thought occurred to me, if I find this too complex, how the heck do our policy makers and decision makers ever deal with this stuff at all? Obviously they do not, thus the mess we are in! Is there any way to help them? They typically will lay their hands on one economist that they like and trust, and do whatever that person espouses. Or, even more likely, they just do what FEELS right. I don’t need no bleeping economist! It’s like going to the doctor. I know what ails me – that highly trained physician is just postulating theories any way.

What FEELS right comes from their gut, their FAST BRAIN, and as I have learned recently from Daniel Kahneman, author of Thinking, Fast and Slow, that is dangerous at best. Our gut, our instant reaction works pretty well for dodging the spear, or sizing up a potential adversary on the path, but it is lousy at complex things. And our SLOW brain, the one where we actually think and process stuff, is really slow, and gets tired.

Laying your hands on ONE economist is fraught with problems as well. What if he is an Austrian, and espouses that the benign good will of human kind, totally unfettered by any controls, will eventually produce all the wealth we can imagine! Or, worse, if he espouses a highly controlled, centralized approach that does what our intelligent leaders think is best, and totally ignores the ignorant rabble who are actually making decisions on the ground– what do they know?! Those are the two extremes, by the way, Libertarianism and Communism. Most folks fall down somewhere in the middle – but they rarely all agree.

I understand a lot of Kruggman’s article, but it is a long piece, and damned complicated. To simplify it GREATLY, it seems that one school of thought on the two coasts (salt water people) split apart from mid-America economists (fresh water people). The folks in the middle of the country, the “freshwater” school, so derided the coastal folks for so many years, that the fresh water ones actually stopped teaching the “other” approach to economics – Keynesian, etc. Instead of a review of the various schools, they just taught the right one – theirs. So, when a crisis appeared that a Keynesian prepared, model in hand person might understand, the middle of the country folk and their heirs – their students – had never even seen that model. He calls it the IS-LM model. It has something to do with high deficits not necessarily leading to high interest rates, because of some boundaries of low interest rates, a lack of full employment, and a liquidity trap. See – that makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it?

I tried to explain this a bit to my lovely wife, and she says, I don’t really have time to listen to all of that, especially since I have very little influence on it. My guess is that our fearless political leaders are likely to respond in the same way.

I think Kruggman is saying something very important, but the audience who should actually hear it, are never going to read it, and if they do, they won’t get it.

A Better Way?
There has to be a better way! In some realms, really complex ideas can be explained by a popularist. Think George Gamow and One, Two Three, Infinity. If you are unfamiliar with the book, look it up at Amazon. George had a way with words, and he basically explained Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity so that a high school kid could grasp it. Thanks, George.

But the problems of Economics are more complex than physics and relativity. It involves dynamic human beings and institutions that are constantly changing. Faced with a crisis, we need to understand something right now in order to make a concrete decision about how to respond to an economic crisis. We can’t really expect our law makers to drop everything and go sit in a room and read a book to figure out how to get our economy running again.

Well, how about this, an “instant poll” of economists. We have this wonderful engine at our finger tips – the internet. What if we had a worldwide forum of noted economists, and our fearless leaders could pose questions to them?. Like, say, “Does lowering taxes on the wealthy generate more wealth and lower deficits” – answer, yes, no, maybe, or “I dunno”. Give the experts a day, and send a report to the requester, showing the percentage of economists that choose which answer. Heck, publish the report so that the world can learn what is being asked and what our best experts are actually thinking!

We need a couple of things to make this work:

A respected institution willing to host it. University of Chicago?
A way of vetting the economists who can take part. All Nobel Prize candidates, noted authors, peer reviewed, etc. I can see a board chaired by Martin Wolf of the FT!
A genius at posing questions properly for multiple choice answers that economists can grasp. The problem is that every economist has at least 3 hands: on the one hand you can say x, on the other hand it is y, and then again it could be z.

What say you? Can you see this applied to other realms? How about a standing poll of what voters actually think about issues. What issue is more important: contraception, gay marriage or unemployment – choose only one, thank you very much.

Klugman's Results
If you are still with me, there are a couple of quotes from the end of the article which are actually quite understandable, and interesting:

“What happened, in fact, was that to a large extent policy makers ended up going for economic doctrines that made them feel comfortable, that corresponded to the prejudices of men not versed in economics. Thus, it’s normal to think of the economy as a whole as being like a family, which must tighten its belt in hard times; it’s also completely wrong. But lacking any clear message from the economists about how and why this is wrong, it became the common standard of discussion in America, where both Republicans and, alas, President Obama became very fond of the statement that the government should tighten its belt because families were tightening theirs.

It’s also normal to think of economics as a morality play, a tale of sin and redemption, in which countries must suffer for their past excesses. Again, this normal reaction is wrong, or at least mostly wrong – mass unemployment does nothing to help pay off debt. But absent clear guidance from the people who are supposed to explain that economics is not, in fact, a morality play, moralizing became the core of economic policy thinking in Germany, and hence played a huge role in European policy more generally.

Finally, government officials who hang out with businessmen – and almost all of them do – naturally tend to be attracted to views that put business confidence at the heart of the economic problem. Sure enough, belief that one should slash spending even in a depressed economy, and that this would actually promote growth because it would have positive effects on confidence, spread like wildfire in 2010. There were some economic studies used to justify the doctrine of expansionary austerity – studies that quickly collapsed under scrutiny. But really, the studies became popular because they suited the prejudices of politicians, prejudices that would have been totally familiar to Herbert Hoover or Heinrich Brüning.”

I hear Fast and Slow at work again.

The Trouble With America

2012-03-03T19:32:00.000-06:00

If you have been reading along here at all, you know that I have been worrying about every country EXCEPT the grand old U S of A. I just came across a really fine article on the United States that I have to share with someone. Why not you!?

I have this little e-magazine thing on my iPod called Zite - it monitors what I actually read, and it offers up things that I might be interested in. It works! This article popped up to the top today.
America: The Best Country in the World at Being Last -- How Can We Change That?
http://www.alternet.org/story/154367/

Generally, I try to read both sides of issues, so it would not bother me if this was conservative or liberal - but it turns out to be NEITHER. I could not find any bias in it, other than being incredibly optimistic. The author correctly describes some of the major things wrong with this country where I live. (Since spending time in Central America, I do NOT refer to our nation as America. We are one part of North America, thank you very much.) After a masterful description of these problems, he then presents an amazingly hopeful forecast of how we can overcome this, and continue to be the greatest nation on the planet. Here's a brief quote to whet your interest:

"In the end it all comes down to the American people and the strong possibility that we still have it in us to use our freedom and our democracy in powerful ways to create something fine, a reborn America, for our children and grandchildren. We can realize a new American Dream if enough of us join together in the fight for it. This new dream envisions an America where the pursuit of happiness is sought not in more getting and spending, but in the growth of human solidarity, real democracy, and devotion to the public good; where the average American is empowered to achieve his or her human potential; where the benefits of economic activity are widely and equitably shared; where the environment is sustained for current and future generations; and where the virtues of simple living, community self-reliance, good fellowship, and respect for nature predominate. These American traditions may not prevail today, but they are not dead. They await us, and indeed they are today being awakened across this great land. New ways of living and working, sharing and caring are emerging across America. They beckon us with a new American Dream, one rebuilt from the best of the old, drawing on the best of who we were and are and can be."

I found that stirring and hopeful. I hope it works out! And I hope it comes soon enough that I can live to see it! How can I help?

This is actually the first of two articles. I await the second one. It is also a preview of a book -
America the Possible: Roadmap to a New Economy, by James Gustave Speth. He seems to be a lawyer, but don't hold that against him. Some of my best friends . . . .

What do you think?

Participatory Development - Problems in Groups

2011-12-28T12:38:00.003-06:00

The first part here is a book review - if you are focused on the Problems in Groups issue, please skip ahead to that heading.

Book Review - Culture and Public Action
I just read this book on culture which was very disappointing, but it had one chapter on participatory development which I found very interesting. The focus is on primitive tribes, but there are similar problems in the communities which we are fostering in Nicaragua.

The basic problem with the book is that it is very "scholarly". It cites numerous published works and studies, but never really shares insights and stories.

Another problem is that it uses a very broad understanding of culture. When we are dealing with development issues, I think the best definition of "culture" is as "world view". It is the set of implicit values and judgments that people make about "how things work". The book includes things like music, stories, dance, costume, etc. Thus, some contributors say there is NO relationship between development and culture. In the broad meaning used, I would certainly agree. I don't think a culture needs to change its music, art, etc., in order to develop. But they would need to change things like the caste system of India - which is a "how things work" view of life that is very limiting.

In this perspective, the authors also undervalue the power of culture. They seem to see it as something that is very malleable, and that people can choose to ignore. They would benefit from exposure to the work of Hofstede, Cultures and Organizations, Software of the Mind. Culture in this sense is not conscious - it guides judgment and thought from within. It is the "software" of how we make judgments.

The book mentions Harrison and the culture and development school, but it casts them as extremists that view culture as fatalistic allowing no hope of change. I think that is a misreading of that school of thought. Harrison does understand the power of a world view, and he is very much working on how one can change that.

One other redeeming thing about the book - damning with faint praise - is the chapter by Amartya Sen. He is a Nobel prize economist, and his book, Development as Freedom, is really excellent. His main contribution is to clarify what "development" should mean in this context. It is not about acquiring things, or wealth, or power. Development should be primarily focused on providing the basic freedoms required for every individual to develop to their full potential - in whatever area they choose. The goal is the full enrichment of human lives, including art and poetry and music, as well as science and engineering. My view is that as long as one human being cannot achieve her or his full potential, we are all deprived of their contributions. And we are all made richer when one small child in Africa or Nicaragua can achieve their full potential. As my friend Red Green would have it, "We are all in this together". Of course, the basic pre-requisites here include adequate food, shelter, education, health care, etc. And that does require a level of wealth, for good or ill.

Book Chapter Available
The one chapter from the book that has good insights is actually available on the WWW. The original PDF is gone, but Google has retained a "PDF view", which can be turned into a Google doc. I really want to encourage you to read the original, as it has a lot of wisdom about how groups work in a social structure that is somewhat foreign to us. You can find it here: Participatory Development.

The Problems in Groups
What follows is an attempt to extract the highlights from this chapter.

After many hours in group discussion in communities in Nicaragua, I think this chapter has finally given me an insight into what exactly is going on. I often see what I would term "childish" or "petty" interactions among individuals in a community. I try to ignore them, but I always wonder just what is going on here. In my world, their actions would be seen as "not mature." In their world, they are the normal survival mechanism when you are dealing with group interactions.

On p. 12, the article points out that the role of elders in these societies is regarded as something akin to natural law - there is no way to change it. This group, the "elite", has the power to ignore or violate decisions made by the group. They can take over or capture the resources which are intended to benefit the whole group. In African tribes, the "elders" is a very formal position. In Nicaragua, it tends to be more a positional or historical thing where the "leaders" are not so formally designated. In one example, a leader decided that he could make better use of the group's computer than the newly elected chair of the group. Since he was a "leader" in their eyes, he could keep the computer without anyone raising a public fuss about it. Everyone knows it is a problem, but no one can raise it publicly.

Group agreement is difficult to achieve in these social structures. The normal mode of operation of groups in this "pre-urban" world, as the authors characterize it, is by group consensus. The authors point out that the "pre-urban" group function is actually a cultural thing, which survives even in an urban setting. In this type of group, majority voting is almost unthinkable. Disagreement is seen as threatening the very social fabric of the group, so it is to be avoided at all costs. Secret ballots would be even worse. Any difference of opinion is seen as dissension and disruption, not as a way to achieve agreement. This is especially true if the "elders" or leaders are not all in agreement. In that case there would be no hope for the group to reach a binding decision.

Any dissension is seen as distrust, not as a normal path to a democratic or majority agreement. The other side is also true - if there are personal animosities or history between individuals, these will be manifest as dissension in other areas. This type of social structure cannot easily separate their "public" self and their "private" views when it comes to making group decisions. The idea of a democratic process with majority rule does not have a strong underpinning in their social rules.

People of lower ranks, be it from age, or gender, or wealth and position, find it very difficult to speak their mind in group discussions. As a result, they may just pay lip service to the discussion, and not support it or actually work against it. The time and energy required to achieve group consensus is also an illuminating discussion. See page 15. When I am in a group discussion in Nicaragua, it always strikes me that it takes an enormous amount of time and energy to gain any agreement and common understanding. The group finds it painful to voice a disagreement, or to consider an opposing view as almost an insult.

The paper describes the difficulty of applying sanctions to group members who do not follow group rules. Exclusion from the group is very difficult and must be avoided at all costs. It is seen as a very serious thing which actually puts the group at risk. . Even serious malfeasance, such as embezzlement, may result in the person being removed from their position, but they will not be excluded from the group.

On page 16, the authors reflect a bit on how this type of group discussion is different in "modern" societies. In these "tribal" or "pre-urban" societies, the group is seen as a closed entity. Harmony is essential and discord is to be avoided at all costs. The "pre-urban" groups tend to place the entire emphasis on the personal relationships that must be maintained within the group in order to keep it alive and functioning. In "modern" societies, the group is open to the larger world, where there are abstract and impartial rules which can be brought to bear. Decisions can be made in these groups that are very difficult and delicate, but which do not threaten the group's very existence.

Quotes
Here are a few quotes that I thought you might enjoy:
---------------------------------
p. 17
By placing heavy emphasis on the virtues of highly personalized relationships, the economic theory of the community tends not only to overstress the effectiveness of decentralized group-based punishment mechanisms, but also to ignore the potentially perverse effects arising from invidious comparisons among community members. As a matter of fact, when people continuously interact in close proximity to each other, they have a spontaneous inclination to look at the situation of their neighbours or acquaintances to assess their own situation. When social and economic differentiation is low, such as is observed in tribal societies, constant comparisons, by thus arousing jealous and envious feelings, create a highly charged emotional climate that can easily lead to the implosion of the group. To counter this ominous threat, tribal societies have evolved egalitarian norms and standards of values that compel or induce enriched individuals to share their surplus with their brethren. This is done on the ground that solidarity is the cement which ties all the members of the community together and enables them to survive in the long run. As a rule, generosity and hospitality are highly praised behaviours in traditional rural communities and successful individuals therefore gain social prestige and esteem when they redistribute their surplus.

p. 18
Private wealth accumulation is actually perceived as an anti-social behaviour precisely because it is an attempt to break away from traditional solidarity networks. According to Guy Hunter, we are dealing with “levelling societies, in which attempts by equals to gain individual advantage are constantly suspected and bitterly resented”. At the root of this suspicious atmosphere is the “fear that the fundamental security of the village will slowly be lost if one individual after another can reach a platform of prosperity from which he might not need the help of the community and could therefore excuse himself from helping them”.

p. 21.
The picture of traditional lineage-based societies that emerges from the above discussion is bleaker than the one usually found in many popular accounts. Rather than idyllic ‘village democracies’ whose members interact in a free atmosphere of trustful cooperation based on well-accepted social norms, they appear as repressive societies where mutual control is constantly exercised, suspicions are continuously entertained about others’ intentions, inter-personal conflicts are pervasive, and a rigid rank-based hierarchical structure governs people’s life. This is what Bourdieu has called the ‘objective truth’ of these societies, one that is not allowed to come to the surface precisely because it could destabilize the village’s socio-political order.
------------------------------

There are many other insights and stories in the following pages (pp. 22 ff) that seem to me to be more limited to the African tribal mentality. I would encourage my friends with an interest in Africa to read those more closely.

There are also warning words (p. 30) about the rapid development of opportunist NGOs to take advantage of the funds newly available to these efforts, without necessarily engaging in the participatory development that would benefit the society.

Community Based Development - Participatory Development

2011-12-26T21:15:00.002-06:00

I just finished reading this book: Culture and Public Action, edited by Vijayendra Rai and Michael Walton 2004. I was hoping it would give me some more concrete insights into this initiative for community based development in Nicaragua. Unfortunately, the book tends to be very scholarly, so that it is primarily an overview of many other publications. The actual information contained in it is pretty meager.

One chapter did stand out a bit: Chapter 10 talks about "participatory development" or "community based development". It was authored by Anita Abraham and Jean-Phillip Platteau. I managed to find a publication by this pair on the WWW which has about 90% of the same content. But the original PDF to which it refers is no longer available. You can read it if you look here: Google Doc on Participatory.
Google provides its stored view which you can also store as a Google Doc.

It is a similarly dense academic treatise, but it has a couple of very interesting points that I believe relate to our Nicaraguan experience.

Small Communities
On page 5 of the paper, the authors stress that this approach, community based development, almost requires a small community. There is often a strong tendency for some participants to cheat and appropriate resources for themselves. They see a small community as being able to control this problem by means of social pressure, which only works in a relatively small group.

“In the light of the above, the community institution can be defined as a group small enough to allow good circulation of information among its members who interact more or less continuously over infinite or indeterminate periods of time. In a repeated game, however, there exists “a profusion of equilibria” (David Kreps) and cooperation is just one possible outcome. Therefore, for a community to succeed in achieving cooperative outcomes, the expectations of its members must also converge on a cooperative strategy. This implies that they are willing to give cooperation a try in the initial stages of the interaction process, because they believe that fellow members are likely to be similarly predisposed. In short, trust must prevail among them. Then, if everyone is bent on punishing people who behave in a ‘nasty’ manner, and expects others to do likewise, an efficient equilibrium where all members cooperate continuously gets established.”

Tribal Structures Have Particular Problems
The authors glean a lot of information from some community based development projects in Africa. My friends in Africa might gain a lot from reading those sections, but they do not appear to be useful in rural Nicaragua. If anyone needs a copy of the original paper – I can send it. There are a number of stories in there which are very illustrative of the problem.

This Approach Requires Time and Patience
The other interesting thing I found was the judgment of the authors that this process tends to take a fair amount of time. One must build up the capacity of the group to the point where they can function well enough to make decisions. It takes a lot of resources to get these changes in place, and the funding agencies typically must show results in a shorter time frame. I think this is the case with our “initiative”.

I apologize for the long quote which follows – but I think the above is a brief restatement of the problem as the authors intended. I just want to provide this for documentation in case you cannot retrieve the full paper or the book.

“In a sense, that much is reckoned by the designers of the participatory approach: in so far as endogenous processes of rule and norm evolution are bound to be slow, capacity-building programs supported by external agencies have a pivotal role to play. What seems to be harder to admit, however, is that the changes required are of a revolutionary rather than evolutionary nature. Considerable resources must therefore be engaged if significant results are to be achieved and, in a number of important respects, the changes will necessarily be slow. This is because what is at stake is nothing less than a radical transformation of deep-rooted institutions, values, beliefs and practices that have the functioning of traditional rural communities entails increasing costs as economic opportunities expand (with the result that the value of time rises and new risk diversification possibilities become available), land scarcity increases, and education becomes more widespread. Therefore, if one wants to use them as partners in a participatory approach to rural development, it is necessary to ensure that they are duly adapted for the purpose. For example, new rules and practices, such as majority voting, secret balloting, or the use of anonymous inspection or evaluation procedures, must be put into operation so that enlarged and, perhaps, more heterogeneous groups become viable and thereby apt to exploit scale economies and risk diversification opportunities, benefit from skill complementarities between different categories of persons, manage funds in a more effective manner, etc.”

“Institutional support to rural communities and groups therefore appears as an essential condition for a successful participatory development program. The key problem here is that governments and big donor agencies need rapid and visible results to persuade their constituencies or supporters that the approach
works well. To achieve these results, they have sizeable financial resources at their command that they want to disburse within a short time period. The temptation is great to spread them widely so as to reach as large a number of village communities as possible. Yet, the scarce factor is not financial capital but a particular kind of extension personnel, namely institutional organizers (sometimes called human catalysts or facilitators) who are willing and able to assist rural communities and groups without taking initiative and leadership away from them. Unfortunately, capital and institutional organizers are not substitutable factors."

"Confronted with this hard dilemma, donor agencies have the tendency to maintain their ‘diluted’ approach, which implies that they downplay the task, and minimize the cost, of institutional support to target communities. It is revealing, for example, that lack of capacity-building, especially the building of organizational skills at community level, and lack of ‘ownership’ of the projects by the beneficiary groups, are among the main limitations of the World Bank’s social funds program. As a consequence, the program remains too much driven by a supply-led approach rather than being responsive to the needs of rural people as a participatory approach should be (Narayan and Ebbe, 1997). Underlying this situation lies the aforementioned dilemma. As pointed out by Tendler, indeed, enhancing ‘demand orientation’ and community participation in social funds’ programs would require a significant increase of the social funds’ agency presence in the countryside in terms of time, personnel, resources and effort. Such a change would nevertheless compromise some of the social funds’ “most acclaimed strengths their ‘leanness’ and low administrative costs” (Tendler, 2000: 16-17). Note, however, that a heavy presence in the countryside of the separate agency that administers social funds is unlikely to be the right solution to the problem of ‘ownership’ of projects and community participation."

"The method often used by donor agencies to circumvent the problem of scarcity of institutional organizers operating at the level of rural communities actually consists of asking these communities or specific groups within them to ‘elect’ leaders. For a reason well explained by Esman and Uphoff (1984), however, such a solution is bound to produce perverse results and to be self-defeating :

“The most prominent members are invariably selected and then given training and control over resources for the community, without any detailed and extended communication with the other members about objectives, rights, or duties. Creating the groups through these leaders, in effect, establishes a power relationship that is open to abuse. The agency has little or no communication with the community except through these leaders. The more training and resources they are given, the more distance is created between leaders and members. The shortcut of trying to mobilize rural people from outside through leaders, rather than taking the time to gain direct understanding and support from members, is likely to be unproductive or even counterproductive, entrenching a privileged minority and discrediting the idea of group action for self-improvement” (Esman and Uphoff, 1984 : 249).”

AMEN. Sorry about that. It seemed important at the time!

Latest Blog Entry - AND - Nicaraguan Elections

2011-12-23T20:31:00.002-06:00

I started the most recent Blog entry on comparing projects quite some time ago, so when it was finally published - it ended up way down the line, and not here at the top of the queue! If you are trying to read them in order, you should go read this one now: Projects and Projects compared - it compares traditional "projects" and this new, more sustainable approach.

I didn't realize how Google's Blogspot would order these things.

Another Take On The Nicaraguan Election
But, while you are here, my friend Bill sent me a really nice piece on the recent elections in Nicaragua. You can find it here: Nica The Other Side.

Having been there during the election, and having talked to parties on all sides, I still found this article quite enlightening. It is very pro Ortega. It provides a balance I had not heard in the press there. For example, I did not realize that the Costa Rican constitution had a similar clause to the Nicaragua one - which that court also found was unconstitutional, so that the then sitting president of Costa Rica could run again.

I can only say that supporters of Ortega would not mind a bit if he stole the election, and the other side - the majority of the folk I was with - are quite certain that he did.

Everyone on both sides is also pretty well persuaded that Ortega is making a ton of money out of the Venezuelan gifts to Nicaragua. But there is no denying that he is doing a lot of stuff for the poor of the country. And he has been relatively positive for the business climate. He is clearly a populist - he will do almost anything to stay in power.

Both national newspapers treat him as a dictator in waiting. If the article cited above has any flaw, it does not point out any of the potential downside of this approach to government. I would not be so positive. Reader beware!

On the other hand - could I get a third hand here? - this post on the same web site seems to do an admirable job of critiquing El Commandante Ortega: The Many Political Faces of Daniel Ortega. The one cited above appears to be a response to this one.

It is pretty clear to the opposition that Ortega would do anything to hold on to power. And his supporters see nothing wrong with that. It's how things work there, after all.

It is one complicated world there as it is here. I also think that our own Florida and Ohio elections cited in the article were clearly suspect - see this detailed analysis in the Rolling Stone on Ohio: Ohio Election.

If you read all of that and you still want to talk with me - leave a comment here. Thanks.

Remember, "We're all in this together, and I'm pulling for you."

Thanks, Rotary

2011-12-21T15:40:00.001-06:00

Thanks
The Rotarians gave me an award the other day for my contributions - I am a "Paul Harris Fellow". He was the founder of the club. I am truly grateful for the recognition.

But . . . I thoroughly enjoyed what I was doing and I learned a tremendous amount. So we are, at least, even! Thank you, thank you very much.

I'm home, I'm home, I'm home!

2011-12-12T16:03:00.000-06:00

What's that you say, he's easily excited? I'm very glad to be home.

I have this thing about travel - I've been traveling about on planes since 1964, and I still get hyper - really. I am always glad to walk down that last jetway and actually find my bag there! I thought I would fill you in on the return. My lovely wife is well experienced with my craziness, and when we are traveling together, she says as a kind of a mantra: "stay calm, this is not nuclear war", or words to that effect. I actually get the shakes sometimes. I have NO IDEA where that comes from. I get it when things look like they are tight or about to go awry!

NO PASSPORT!
First off, Saturday AM, I am checking in with our fearless leader (this is Elena, by the way), and I wanted to verify that my passport was somewhere within easy reach! She responded that she knew exactly where it was, and she would get it. Well, it wasn't there! She didn't tell me that right away - she proceeded to figure out where it was first - a very good idea. Seems they moved some of the furniture around, and the passport slipped out of a locked drawer, Luis picked it up and secured it elsewhere. But he did not inform Elena of this, the "elsewhere" was locked, and Elena did not have a key! She called Julietta, who had a key, who proceeded in our general direction, with a couple of people who also needed to be transported about. THEN Elena told me the travails of my passport! It did show up, I did get home!

A Rocking Chair
Jude had asked me to buy a rocking chair that we could raffle off to benefit the Sister Parish Community. The driver, a really big guy name of Melvin, and I went off to the market. He helped me pick one out - and the seller had one disassembled, ready to go. He gave me the price: C$1200. I do NOT do numbers. I kind of blanched - my brain was doing dollars or something. I pulled out my iPod and calculated it as about $55. He read that as a bargaining statement on my part, so he reduced it to C$1,100, or about $50. I should have kept fumbling, but instead agreed to the price. They are just beautiful chairs. This is one the "newer" kinds, with just solid wood, and none of the plastic latice work - all hardwood, etc. So, we agreed, and he set about wrapping it in a plastic sack for shipping by plane.

These days, there is only ONE free bag for international flights, and I did have a bag to check - after all, I spent 9 weeks in this place - I did bring along a few sets of underwear and socks! So I would have to pay another $40 for the chair. Elena had the bright idea of putting my modest bag inside of a larger, more sturdy one, and then taping the business together so I could avoid the second bag fee. We proceeded to do that. When we got the airport, at which point I am becoming a tad nervous about this whole business, we approached the ticket counter - and an acquantaince of hers is helping people We hoist this thing on the scale, and it's like 54 pounds - and the limit is 50. He suggests that we separate the two, since the overweight charge is $200, and the separate bag charge is $40! Good thinking. Then we take my bag out of the other bag, and weigh that with the chair - they are like 48 pounds! Home free. Just need to bind the two together. So, of we go to the plastic binding machine. $6.00 later, the two are as one - a bit bulky, but under the weight limit.

Back we go, and I am literally shaking a bit at this point, carrying a 48 pound piece of large stuff to the counter! They took it, slapped the routing code on it, and we are off to security. Piece of cake!

Flight to Houston
No problem on the flight to Houston. A nice lady in the airport made me up a grilled cheese sandwich for about 2 bucks, with an iced tea! I don't even trust bottled water there at this point. I retrieve the somewhat bulky package after I clear customs, and put in on a cart to check in again. And I am wondering what I do if they want to "open" this bound up piece of stuff. But, not to worry, they wave me to "oversize items" check-in, and the whole thing disappears somewhere to be put on the plane.

BUT - somehow my iPod got totally hosed up by the airport security scan. The only thing I can think is that one of the bits got turned off or on by the scanner. The display was on HUGE, or MAGNIFY the whole time, and I couldn't enter anything, or see anything. So I read my Spanish novel without the aid of a dictionary on the flight to MSP. That did work fairly well. I am down to one unknown word per page at this point - and that doesn't affect the story much. I really like the book - by a Brazilian author - same one that is for sale in all of the supermarkets in Managua - more on that later.

HUGS
Jude met me at the stairs as I came out of the secured area, for one HUGE hug. I do love that lady. She leaves to get the car, since I have this 48 lb monster to navigate with. And I go to the luggage carousel. No bag! I am beginning to panic, just a tad - when I remember the "oversize" tag - and see a guy walking out of a room at the back with what looks like a surf board in a bag! Sure enough, there is my bag and chair waiting there. I heft it up, we put it in the car - and it's currently in my basement. Any volunteers out there want to assemble this thing for the raffle? I do not want to do this again, thank you very much. Well, maybe for a modest fee!

TALK, TALK, TALK
So we drive home, we sit at the table, we have a drink, and we talk unti 1:00 AM. We get up early the next morning to go to Church with the grandkids, and we talk for 2 hours while having breakfast. I never got to even open the newspaper! We get two Sunday newspapers, and I have not opened them even as I am sitting here. I love to sit and read the paper. One would think we have not talked almost every day during the trip - but we did. Tom gave Jude an iPad, and I used my iPod, and we have a video chat almost every day, thanks for the wifi at the AKF Center. The speed there was about 1.2 G, more than adequate.

GrandKids
Have I told you yet that I have the MOST beautiful grandchildren on the planet - 5 of them? Well, I do. When I show people the pictures I carry around, they are always in agreement. But then they make comments when they see pictures of my daughters-in-law that now they understand how it is possible - it couldn't be me that these kids take after! We wait by the door at Church, and are greeted by the kids. Annalynn ran up and grabbed me around the knees for a big hug. Marcus and Quinn were a little more sedate. Quinn was his usual affectionate self in church. I do love these kids!

After Mass, we had a concert - Marcus and Annalynn. Here's the clip!
http://youtu.be/oBkX-Fe4hnc

Quiet
I am still waking up at 5:30, just as I did in Managua. It is light there at that time - it is NOT light here! But it is QUIET. In Managua, there are birds, whistles, cars, buses, horses - you name it - on the streets at that time. Here, it is so quiet I can hear the furnace fan when it turns on! It is rare that a car on the street can actually be heard in our bedroom. It is really quiet. Interesting. I never adverted to that before.

ToDo List
My todo list has 44 items on it. I've been ignoring them or adding to them while in Nicaragua! Gotta get busy, I guess. I have an online class in Feb / Mar - first priority to get that ready. Etc.

Newspaper
I love reading the newspaper. Jude and I have been talking so much, I now have 3 of them to work my way through! I read the paper most days in Managua - but it is mostly local news. Which you can read on line, if you want!

LAUNDRY
If I lived in Nicaragua, the very first thing I would get - after a refrigerator and stove - is a washing machine. I hate washing clothes with that soap and scrub board approach. It takes forever. I remember my mom with our first washing machine - and it had a wringer on it - where she regularly got her hand caught! So I came home with a bag full of stinky clothes. The socks are particularly bad - and that's not even on my todo list!

Mail
Jude managed most of the mail - but there was quite a pile to talk through and make decisions about. Not to mention the 400 or so emails that had stacked up. I actually read most of them before - she had nicely deleted the ones offering to enlarge certain body parts. Why do they think I am interested in that particular thing? I can think of lots of other spam I would rather get!

OK - that's about it - I'm home, back at "work" or whatever it is we do all day around here. I'm working on an "impressions" entry, and one about "projects". Stay tuned. This is the end of the travelogue for now.

AKF Communities Reunion - MORE

2011-12-06T09:37:00.001-06:00

Well, the party was the last two days. I wish you had been here.

Overnight Guests
We (I helped run plates and clean up) served breakfast for 100 folk. I still can't believe about 100 people slept around here. A few from Dulce Nombre went with their friends from Catorze on the bus to spend the night in their homes, but the vast majority of folk bedded down here for the night. I asked some of them in the morning how that was, and they all seemed pleased! There were people in beds - as many as we have - people in hammocks in several spots, people on mats on the floor, and people in cots. Of course, having stayed with many of these folk, all of the above arrangements are fairly normal in their homes. And we have a working bathroom available, while most of them do not.

We had music and dancing until about 9:30 - not too late. But some of these folk had gotten up at 3:00 AM to travel here, and they are normally early to bed folks!

Breakfast was rice and beans and eggs and tortilla. coffee and juice. The tortilla is an essential part of breakfast. You can substitute bread for the other meals, but not breakfast. And coffee ALWAYS has an abundance of sugar in it.

Community Presentations
In the morning, another 120 or so showed up for the day's festivities. AKF arranged for or helped with all of the transportation. Each Community is asked to help arrange or pay for a portion of their transportation - whatever they think is fair. And they all do, in one manner or other. In the morning, every community made a brief presentation - notes on the flip chart paper, and explanations - followed by comments and questions. They each covered the following areas:
1. Accomplishments of the past year.
2. Problems facing the community.
3. Their plans for next year.

The presentations ran the gamut. I'll just give a list here. I am sure that the contents of the flip charts can be retrieved, but everything was in Spanish!

Topics presented included:

Loan Programs. There are a number of different loan programs, some charging up to 2% interest in order to keep pace with the value of the money. I did not exactly catch all of the numbers, but I know at least one of them has $10,000 in circulation in the community. If you know anything about small loan programs, these interest rates are very low. The reason is that they have structured their programs very well, and they have an extraordinarily high repayment rate. The key is membership in the group, with significant peer pressure to keep the program alive..
School. One community is running a private school, which receives state funding.
Relationships. One community has a very strong, long standing relationship with another community. They talked about expanding that type of relationship between the other communities. It provides them mutual aid and support.
Key To The City. One community present a "key to city" to each of the other communities - assuring them that they will always be welcome in their homes.
Civic Engagement. Many communities are involved in local civic organizations in their communities.
Punctuality. One community has begun a program to improve punctuality at community meetings! That's a first.
Youth. A 15 year old from one community presented their plans to engage more of their youth.
Jobs. Another 15 year old presented a new program to help with employment. I am continually amazed by how many young people are involved here, and how capable they are. I sat next to another 15 year old young man when we were discussing what we learned. He was very vocal and very engaged. They are an absolute treasure.

El Ojoche

The potters group if El Ojoche is a bit unusual, as it is not a faith community. This is the community with the anti-litter campaign! They are always introduced as "the women with the magical hands". They built a new kiln this year for their work on a piece of land which they purchased as a legal city organization. They want to buy a house so that they can store their tools and common property. They talked about expanding their market and starting a common fund for emergency loans. Many times, a small emergency, such as a medical problem, can totally destroy a family's finances. If they all save a small fund, it can be loaned in those types of cases and paid back at modest interest.

They brought some of their work for the meeting, and it was for sale on the second day. Here's a picture. I purchased one - how could I not! Julieta is helping them put prices on the items.

Another community offered to help them set up sales in their location. That is exactly how this stuff works - they all have relationships through the other communities to resources and ideas they would not have otherwise.

One of the men from a neighboring community commented on their organization, and how these women have worked so hard at building up their business. He was upbraiding the men of the communities for being lazy! Of course, most of them work in the fields and agriculture - but he is right. They have a lot of spare time between things.

Treasure Chests
Last year, at this reunion, AKF distributed "treasure chests" to each of the communities. The community was asked to establish a fund raising goal and a date. The chest is like a savings box, with a slot in the top, and a lock and key. The key was held by the AKF administrator, Helen. If they achieved their goal, AKF promised to match their funds, up to 3,000 cordoba (C$). Dulce Nombre's dream is a new church. They have the plans and the labor committed - they just need the funds to proceed. They set a goal of C$ 3,000 and they collected over C$4,000! (That's about $175 at 22.5 to 1.)

Teustepe
Teustepe had set a goal of C$2,000, and they collected C$2,300. Their goal is a new community center. The other communities had established different time frames for their savings. This "treasure chest" is an ingenious "small step". It is done in a public forum, and creates an incentive to save, to change the normal mode of operation. They realize now that they have some funds themselves which they can invest in their own dreams and plans.

Part of Teustepe's plan for next year is to become a legal entity that can purchase the land they need for their center. They also talked about the worm project, and their loan program. Teustepe also described their "magic sack" which they circulate at each meeting and which is accumulating some funds. Several other communities commented on that idea.

Problems
Every community has some problems. Dulce Nombre lost virtually all of their corn crop because of the unusually heavy and prolonged rains. Other communities are having some organizational issues, etc. AKF promised to prepare an assessment of the difficulties of Dulce Nombre, and promised to suggest to them a way that they might get some assistance.

Summary of the Morning
At the end of the morning, we were asked to talk among ourselves, and summarize the most important things we learned. All of the communities commented on what they learned, and how much they appreciated knowing the other communities, and learning from them. The two new communities made very formal speeches about their potential involvement in the work of the AKF communities. Of course, as Elena pointed out to me, this is only a few of the key families in the larger community - but it does look very positive. They could not have set up a better marketing plan than this, although that was not the primary focus.

Entertainment
The afternoon was dedicated to entertainment. Each community had prepared something to share with the other communities. We had young people doing a variety of dances, from folkloric to a kind of French disco thing. But the hit of the afternoon was Teustepe. Rosario did her usual shtick of lip syncing with an outlandish costume. Here's one photo.

And another:

But the surprise was CORA! When she was visiting with us at Guardian Angels, she commented on how pleased she was to be able to perform the folkloric dance for an audience. For those of you who do not know her, Cora is a very quiet, capable, serious older woman! She has another side to her:

She specifically asked if I had gotten some pictures of her - and if I would send them to her. I assured her that I would do that. I did NOT tell her that she would be all over the WWW! So don't let her know, OK?

Conclusion

Well, that was fun - a lot of work, mind you, but a lot of fun. The preparation is incredible. AKF has to locate chairs and tables, cots, mattresses, places to stay, vehicles, public transport, food, cooks, etc. And then to make it all happen - serving 200 people dinner was a sight to behold. They were at tables and chairs all over the place. And then the clean up! Elena managed to "persuade" (she had them signing up for a game") two groups of young people to do the dishes for dinner and breakfast. But then the team did the rest of the clean up on Monday evening. They even rented some glasses and plates! We could have used a bit more silverware - some folks ate with spoons. The dinner was a chicken stew with a bread stuffing, rice, the beet salad, and bread. First class!

Recommendation

I would highly recommend that Rotary and the Northern Communities consider sending representatives to this each year. They will enjoy it, and they can present what they are doing as parts of this Family. It is a great learning experience, and I think their participation could potentially change the dynamic a bit! The challenge will be how to accommodate their translation needs during the event, and how to coordinate their schedules. Most people would not travel all the way here just for a 2 day event! We could possibly do a "joint" international encounter the week before somehow, and then conclude with this celebration. But that will impose some serious work on AKF. We should be ready to contribute funds and help to make that possible.

How about if we put this on our next agenda for Sister Parish? John?

AKF Communities Reunion

2011-12-05T06:59:00.001-06:00

Good morning. It is morning here again - the light starts up at 5:20 or so, and it is now almost 7:00.

We had a party here at the AKF center last night - with dinner and dancing! Here's a small video of the events:

And here is another of one of our team members participating energetically!

The band in this group has one of the team members as the lead guitarist and singer.

I have longer and better ones in my camera which I am keeping for blackmail! Actually, they are all good dancers. There was one of the community members, though, that looked like he was made of rubber. His hips could and did go anywhere! I have to edit that a bit, but I'll post it on YouTube when I get a chance, and send a pointer to it.

Every year, AKF invites ALL of the members of ALL of the communities here to the Center for a reunion. The intent is to let them meet the other communities, to share experiences, and to, generally, have a good time. About 100 people were here yesterday, and spent the night - sleeping everywhere! There are beds, cots, mattresses, hammocks - you name it! A few went with community members from another community. Another 100 or more people will arrive this morning.

The logistics of this are considerable. These folks come from 6 different places, via a variety of transport - most arranged by AKF. They get 3 meals - dinner and breakfast for the overnight guests, and then a splendid noon meal for everyone. I have had a chance to help shop, chop, wash, cut, peel and serve things to this point. I watched with awe as Elena figured out where to have people sleep - the 100 overnight guests included a few children, etc. She has them all in her brain, and she figures out the best accommodation for the person and the community. I have a private room - very cool.

But then I am special! I still have problems understanding them when they speak "normally", but I spent time talking to a variety of folk.

More on this later. I have to go see how breakfast is done!

Preparation is 90% of the Effort - the travelogue continues

2011-11-23T17:05:00.001-06:00

When I teach a class, I know that a new subject will take me 4 hours of work for each hour of class. You have to read the text, prepare class discussions, learning exercises, assignments. You have to grade and return the assignments. Well, I just learned that doing an "encuentro" - a meeting - takes about an hour for every hour of the meeting!

I have spent virtually all of the last 2 days with the team preparing for the Rotarian encounter next week - and this has nothing to do with the logistics. That is all done by someone else in some other place! This is just what we want to accomplish, and why, and how. We actually started the topics a few weeks ago, so it takes just a tad longer than one hour for every hour.

I like the product so far - I am anxious to see how it all works out in practice. There will be about 30 people running around here for the biggest day of this - that should be interesting! The very next day after this one, there will be over 200 people here for the annual gathering of all of the communities!

The logistics are another small nightmare. I have been exposed to just a bit of that. Some of the participants are coming from Minnesota, some from Masaya, some from towns near Somitillo - 4 hours north - some from Teustepe, some from the new communities, etc. Just the process of inviting people is pretty amazing when it is done primarily by face to face meetings and follow up contacts. Expecially in the new communities. They do not have a real community yet, with an established meeting - it is all done by walking around, sitting and talking with people and inviting them, one by one!

Then there is getting agreement from participants on where to meet, where to stay, what to eat and when - and then all of the buses and trucks, etc, to get them all there on time - more or less - it is just amazing. One small example, there is going to be a crowd of 30 or so in a small town south of here - near the new communities. Where do we eat? What do we eat? What can we eat! We northerners are a little sensitive to the water, etc. When I am walking around in the community with Luis, he only lets me take something where he knows they are using purified water. For the others, he tells them that this poor chele can't have anything because of his health. And he's right! But I have not had a single problem on this trip as yet.

With the travelogue, we are going to Esteli this weekend for a retreat with two of the communities. Should be interesting. AKF is leading the retreat, and they have spent a few hours working on that as well. I am curious to see the schedule, because a few people have asked me to talk to people in town. I'll have to see where we are situated and what the schedule is like.

Well, the novelty has certainly worn off. I could go home tomorrow. I am hearing Spanish much better - my brain doesn't freeze up quite as much. But the other night, coming back from Teustepe, the driver and one of the passengers talked for an hour or so and I could not catch more than a few words. I figured out they were talking about motorcycles, and that was it. I am sure I know all the words they are using. They just do not pronounce them the way I am used to hearing them - it's a regional thing, I guess. I don't know how to work up to it either!

I'm not speaking it much better - I am still thinking in English (or Italian) and fishing for words. Instead of just saying something, I am still translating. And I think my accent has gone to heck. They keep catching me using the Z sound, and actually pronouncing a V sound. Bad form. I help one of the guards here at night night with his English assignment. He has a heck of a time getting the V sound out. It's worse that an English speaker trying to learn to trill the R. You say "little ladder" a few times - that's where the tongue should be. What do I do with his V?

OK - I'm going to quit for now and look for something to eat here! Take care.

Travelogue - Dulce Nombre de Jesus and El Ojoche

2011-11-17T21:08:00.002-06:00

Back to the travelogue. I had the opportunity to travel with the team to the far Northern part of Nicaragua to visit these two towns: Dulce Nombre de Jesus and El Ojoche. Since many of you may not have had the opportunity to spend a night in a small town in Nicaragua, this may give you a feel for it.

Roads in Nicaragua
I figure every day I learn something new is a day well spent. Well, this one was a good one. To see where these places are, go to Leon, and keep on going to Somitillo, and hang a right for another 45 minutes or so. The border with Honduras is a few miles further north. It took 4 and one half hours to drive from Managua, so the trips are always overnight. The good thing is that the road to Leon is almost brand new, and one can drive along without worrying about potholes. The Spanish for pothole is "pothole". Actually it is "hoyo" hole, or "bache" bump, rut, etc. Neither of which I can ever remember - but the paper this week used the word "pothole". After Leon, there are some potholes, so there is considerable weaving and swerving about. The gravel road out of Somotillo is actually quite nice. The communities up there persuaded the local government to repair it. It only has a few spots where you need to go a bit more slowly.

The road to some of the other communities is unbelievably bad. I posted a video to YouTube on the one to El Corozo - you can find it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rh9n5Qxq6a4&feature=feedu. It's about 15 kilometers of bumping and jostling along at 5 mph. The curious thing is that as you are going along on this wretched track, all of a sudden, there's a paved section. I'm thinking - yes - they fixed the road. But it only lasts for 100 feet or so, and back to the ruts. Then another paved section, and so on. Turns out, that section of the road was so bad that no one could get through, so they paved it with the standard paving blocks! Bit by bit, I guess.

I am pretty sure that they could save millions of dollars in gasoline here if they really fixed all the roads. Even anywhere in Managua, people are always swerving, or stopping, or crawling along because of the holes in the road. Woodbury even times its traffic lights just to save gas and air pollution.

El Ojoche
We drove over to El Ojoche to hold a brief meeting with the women's pottery group. There were two amazing things about this little town: 1 - there was NO LITTER. None, none whatsoever. You would have thought someone swept the central square and every piece of road, and the yards. I couldn't believe it. Every developing country I have been in, and some areas of developed ones, have lots of litter - plastic bags, trash, etc. It always bothers me, but I figure it takes a certain level of development before you start to worry about trash like that, or turn it into an industry! Our "fearless leader" explained that they had a couple of deaths in the community, and all of a sudden all those words about health and cleaning things up hit home. The disease was Leptosprisosos, spread by the urine of animals like rats, which humans come in contact with through an open wound. I had an ear of corn there, and I could not find a place to put the cob. Our host suggested I feed it to her pig - who obligingly took care of it! Wayne - this is NOT sweet corn, but it tasted pretty good - bit chewy by your standards.

The other thing was that there was a crew of men and boys working on the road! They were putting in rocks and covering them with dirt to take care of a rough downhill section. That's the first time I've seen anyone working on their own road! You pass crews every once in a while - but to have the neighbors pitch in and fix it, that was new. Elena says that this community is really well put together. They do not accompany the community any more - they have reduced the group to just the women's pottery group. That group has raised funds and constructed their own kiln, and seem to be doing pretty well.

What came to me during this visit is that our "project", if you will, is actually about building up the community, helping them establish relationships, build a network, and work together to accomplish whatever they want. If that turns out to be a road or a school or something tangible - that is clearly secondary. That they become a community capable of doing that is the whole goal!

Dulce Nombre de Jesús
I stayed overnight in this community, primarily because they have a well, and most homes have an outhouse. An outhouse I can handle. No outhouse - I am not quite sure what one does. I sat and talked with my host mother and the two children. She made me dinner, and they left me alone with it! That is the culture - they do not eat together - I have never seen it, except on special occasions. I persuaded the 11 year old daughter to visit with me a bit, and the three year old thought my iPod was interesting. I showed them a picture of the other 3 year old in my life - Annalynn. They agreed that I had the most beautiful grandchildren in the whole world! But I had to take their pictures as well. I'll put them here when I get my pictures on the PC.

Dinner was a delightful warm hard boiled egg, some rice and beans. I think the chickens running around there had something to do with it. I had the same dish for breakfast, except the rice and beans were put together to make gallo pinto - the national dish, I swear.

They showed me to the latrine, and my bed. I got the oldest daughter's room - and I thanked her profusely. They also gave me a small fan - it helps with the heat and the mosquitoes! I greatly appreciated that. Of course, there was actually no outlet in my room to charge my iPod, but that's not a big deal. The fan ran in from the other room, and it was just fine.

Housing
I had commented on the house earlier to my host, and she assured me that her husband had constructed it about 6 years ago. It is very solid - masonry, etc. The windows are small - easier to be secured, etc. The roof is mostly tin - there are a few tiles up there. The tiles are much better in the heat. The tin tends to radiate the heat of the sun inside, while the red tiles absorb it a bit. Of course, the floor is a dirt floor - which takes a bit for me to get used to.

Housing all over the developing world is frequently a work in progress. There is no real way to put money aside, other than through informal mechanisms. There are no banks in most towns, and it costs a significant amount to get an account, which comes with withdrawal fees. Most people build their own houses, and they do it brick by brick, board by board, as they have funds available. There is a new one going up right next to where I stayed, which looks a bit unusual. It is cement blocks, it has huge windows and the roof supports are metal framing! I've never seen one with metal frames. The guy welding the metal together had climbed up and tapped two wires directly into the overhead feed and he was using that juice for arc welding!

Beds
Beds here are interesting. Here at the center I have a mattress and a box spring. When I got up in the middle of the night to use the outhouse, I saw that the man of the house was sleeping on a kind of cot in the living room. His daughter was probably in with mom. I have slept on those in the past - in the living room. That is where I would put a guest like me. The cot has a thin piece of canvas or plastic stretched over a wooden frame - no mattress. And, on investigation, my bed was the same construction - a woven piece of material stretched from end to end, with a blanket on top. It's a bit stiff, but it works.

The Well
Now comes the embarrassing part. When I got up in the morning, everyone else was already out and about. I brought my towel out and asked where I should wash. The young lady took me three doors down to the well! It's a rope well, and there was a kind of pond structure with a stopper in it, and a 4 sided bit of fabric where you stand to wash with some privacy! She showed me how to pull the stopper out, so I had a bit of running water - but then the thing ran out - meaning I would have to go back out, run the pump to fill up the reservoir, and go back inside, etc. I was trying to figure out how I could shave and wash the rest of me in that arrangement, finding a place to mount my mirror, put my soup, rest my glasses and my shorts, etc. Normally there is a container of some kind that you actually use to wash, so you don't contaminate the source of the water with soap, etc. None was in evidence. And I couldn't figure out even how to get the stopper back in the pipe in my discreet enclosure. I quickly decided this was just not going to work! So I am sitting back here in Managua, unshaven, and stinky - with the exception of the bit of water I splashed on my head and face! Next time, I'll have to be better trained!!

Spear Fishing
As I was eating my breakfast, the young man of the house - 14 or 15 I would guess, was assembling a spear fishing weapon! This was carved out of wood, with a bit of the shape of a gun. The end was round with a hole in it, and there was a place to mount two tightly wound pieces of elastic hose. The whole thing was maybe 12 inches long. He fussed with this thing for over an hour. He had a long piece of metal as the spear, with a string tied to it. He had an old piece of plastic in the rear to hold the spear straight. He had filed or cut notches in the spear so that a trigger mechanism would hold it. And the twin pieces of elastic were connected to a metal gadget that slipped into another slot carved into the spear. After many failed attempts, and new refinements, he had it working. Then he proceeded to put additional elastic stuff around a swimming visor so he could go into the water and see the fish!

By the time he was done, he must have used 8 different tools - a hammer, knife, pliers, file, scissors, etc. In my world, a bit of epoxy would have solved a lot of his problems. More likely, I would have found one on the Internet somewhere!

He said he was going down to the river this morning to get some fish. I wonder what the local game warden thinks about that?! I hope he was successful! When I have been swimming in a lake, it is pretty rare that you actually see a fish!

Well Project
Here is a bit on the "project" which installed the well which I was having problems with:
Well project: http://blueplanetnetwork.org/projects/nicaragua05.

This is clearly appropriate technology, but I am not sure who owns it and maintains it. I note that they have had some maintenance problems. But I am thankful these folks came by and put this thing in. One that is drilled, with a pump would be nice next time!!

Meeting
We spent virtually the entire morning in a community gathering. This group and an urban one are doing a joint retreat next week, up in Esteli - one of my favorite towns. They had to work on the details of that. And this community has had some dissension recently. Some of the community funds were loaned out, without consulting the entire community. There is always tension around funds, and this was a particularly egregious thing to do. They are working on how to resolve that, without destroying the community. Funds in general are a tough subject in this culture, and any kind of direct "confrontation" is almost impossible. One of the team members described a process that his group uses. The rules are that you first have to complement the person positively on something they do well, and then you can state your perception of something that is bugging you. It's not an accusation - it is YOUR perception, your feeling about it. That's a kind of simple minded Covey thing. First you build up a bit of a positive bank account, putting some trust in the relationship. And then you describe your feelings, not the other person's failure or issue, but how it strikes you. Pretty good for a 1 minute 7 Habits Exercise.

Conclusion
OH - this community did not get any corn this year. The rains were so frequent that the corn never got a chance to fertilize - they have virtually nothing in their crop. They are currently harvesting sesame - but the rain has continued. They need it to be dry, or the sesame will literally rot. We have had 3 days of unusual rain - AFTER the rainy season is supposed to be over.

There is also some kind of virus killing off their hens! If it isn't one thing, it's another. When things are this close to the bone, it doesn't take much to upset the whole program.

OK, Jude - how did I do? Does that work? Until next time!

Bean Production - Popular Education

2011-11-15T15:59:00.000-06:00

Judy says, "Enough with the development stuff - get back to the stories and travelogue!" Well, maybe next time, Love.

Bean Production
I saw a piece in today's paper - El Nuevo Diario - that peaked my interest. If you want to read it in the original, it is here: Bean Production Nicaragua. (If your Spanish isn't that good, Google will translate it for you, or I can send you a Word document with both versions.) This caught my attention because the new communities we are working with are basically agricultural. On our last visit, we spent quite a bit of time walking through some bean and coffee fields with the owners of these plots. I am not sure how they determine where theirs starts and another stops, but it does seem to work. AKF has a lot of ideas about how to help farmers, and we have, in the past, visited two "farm schools" that use organic, sustainable technologies to assist farmers.

This article also describes a coordinated effort between a whole bunch of different funding and education and technical resources. I am sitting here in the middle of things, and it is very clear to me that there are lots of people here working on lots of things in very effective ways. There is great energy and hope in all of this. So I thought I would explore this one a bit to see what we can learn.

Participants
Here are the major players in this bean harvest improvement:

CRS - seems to have had the lead role, since it says that AID was working under their coordination. They appear to be all over the place. A very good friend of mine worked in their headquarters for many years as their strategic planning resource.
US AID - seems to have provided the funding and some oversight. US tax dollars at work - creatively. This one was a modest investment of $30,000, and it increased the local farm production of beans 100% - not bad. I guess I should not be surprised that this entity appears so frequently - the author of Culture Matters ran this enterprise for 15 years - he seems to have given it a good long term focus.
TehcnoServe - an organization focused on economic development through business methods. They have a web site, and a small collection of success stories in Nicaragua. See: http://www.technoserve.org/. They seem to be the glue, and the facilitators of this whole thing.
Escuelas de Campo de Agricultores, ECA - no website that I can find, and I am not sure if it is an organization or a methodology. But there are lots of publications out there that cite this group or method with success stories. The methodology is a way of teaching farmers how to use local technology to increase yields. They seem to do it in a very communitarian manner. The school is the field, there is no teacher, but rather a facilitator, the goal is to achieve consensus in the community about how to proceed, etc. They use words like: "This philosophy is carried out according to the following principles: utility, reality, ownership, equity, respectful solidarity, and environmental sustainability." Works for me!
The Farmers. In this case, 38 farmers worked with the school on their farming methods. Now, with the help of TechnoServe, they are going to build a processing plant, and sell their services on how to do this to the other 200 farmers in town. This certainly sounds like sustainable development.

So, some coordination, a bit of funding, a farming techniques school, and a technical organization to put together the business plan and construction of a plant, etc. Some 200 farmers will be much better off for many years, with the investment of $30,000. Not a bad result. If you just gave each of them a share of the money, it would amount to $150 each - or about enough to provide a very basic level of food for a month!

Who Did the Hard Work?
But how on earth did this actually come to be? Who engaged the farmers, and got them working together and interested in this kind of thing? Who found the funding, got the trainers there, coordinated the technical assistance, the business vision, etc.?

Here is another TechnoServe project with coffee and cocoa production: TechnoServe cocoa in Nicaragua. I like the way these things work - but how do they ever get off the ground? They seem to already have a cooperating group of farmers - a collective or cooperative of some kind. But that very work is the genius of this whole thing. Coops are relatively recent here - and the whole idea of cooperatively owning things is a very scary proposition for this culture. Trust with communal funds is one of those cultural factors that typically impedes development. There are other good examples of coops here that are doing very well. How did they actually get started? I really need to see a study of that process.

Maybe some of my readers (all 4 of you!) can point me to more details on how this works. At the moment, I have to assume that they all began in some way with the process that AKF is using for these communities. First you establish a relationship of trust, get to know the leaders, help them identify their problems, help them organize to solve them. There is a whole body of literature on this to which I am not privy. Ah, more reading. It's really about building up social capital - see Robert Putnam - Bowling Alone. http://www.infed.org/thinkers/putnam.htm.

Here are a couple of other resources I intend to pursue:

Popular Education and Social Change in Latin America by Liam Kane - looks like one I will be reading.
Development in Practice, a journal on the topic. Development in Practice. It looks like it provides free access to faculty - I should qualify.
http://www.infed.org/community/b-comdv.htm - A nice overview of the topic, with an extensive bibliography, but it seems to be mostly focused on North America and Europe.
http://www.infed.org/community/b-compar.htm This one talks a bit about Saul Alinsky - an old friend in this literature. Many other sources cited here, such as this one:
Burkey, S. (1993) People First. A guide to self-reliant, participatory rural development, London: Zed Books. 243 + xix pages. Just what the sub-title says - a compilation of practice wisdom plus some framing. Chapters on understanding poverty; development; self-reliant participatory development; agents of change; the training and support of change agents; getting started; working with people; external relationships; savings, credits and inputs; objectives and principles.

An "Ideal" Sustainable? Project
In looking for more "community development" sources, I found this one that looks like an "ideal" project that our Rotarians would just love to be part of. It is a video of a "sustainable project" in Nicaragua:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y0AvDmLCH0. Expand the text on the bottom to read a bit more about it.

Doesn't that just make you want to get down there and join in? There is a bit more here on the history of this: http://www.soltranslators.com/lacd.html.

It looks like a wonderful undertaking, but, and I almost hesitate to say this - this is NOT a sustainable development. This clinic they built depends heavily on North American aid and resources and likely will be that way forever. It will do really good work, and help a lot of people - but the people are not doing it themselves. It is saving babies - and it feels good, looks good, etc. But it's not keeping them from being tossed in the river. It is very hard to swim upstream! Everything in us wants to just get in there and help.

The sewing coops the article cites may be an exception - but, long term, textile manufacturing is not a great idea. There is a huge factory right here in Ciudad Sandino that has been sitting idle for years because the company that built it, with an IMF loan, found it was cheaper to move textile manufacturing to China! Everything I read says that textile manufacturing will soon be so automated that it can be done anywhere - independent of the labor costs. Then what? My guess is you make it near where you want to sell it. It is usually chaper to ship the raw materials than the finished product.

Lots of thunder and lightening here. Another "unusual" November rainstorm. It's actually called "global wierding" for the weather patterns.

"Projects" and Sustainable Development and Community Building

2011-11-15T10:44:00.001-06:00

Introduction
If you have been following along here at all, you realize that I went to Nicaragua trying to help a Rotary "initiative". They call it an "initiative" to distinguish it from a "project". And you say, "Who cares what you call it. They are just trying to help out."

Well, yes, but in a very different fashion from the normal "development project". But we have a small problem here. The vision of this in the heads of the participants, on both sides of the coin, is probably ultimately a PROJECT. Both my Rotarian friends, as well as the communities here, want to know when the REAL WORK starts. When do WE or YOU build something, deliver something, make something? And the only answer we can give right now - I dunno - maybe never.

NO PROJECTS
IMHO, I do not think that any flavor of "project" is our goal here. What we are about is building capable communities that are self sustaining, and are able to undertake projects, if they so choose. If there are projects, they are theirs, they own them, they complete them, they fund them, they find the resources to make them work - and they say, at the end, "we did it ourselves". We want to help, but not take the ownership away from them. With that result, we have truly sustainable development - empowered, capable human beings who are full partners in this enterprise we call life.

Why can't they do that without any help? I am sure they would eventually come to that, but it might take a long time. Their history, their climate, the influence of centuries of other ways of thinking, has disabled them, removed some of their sense of power and ability. They have the ability - they just don't see it at the moment. That's another way of saying, "their culture does not support development well". See my prior notes on culture.

Or, they have a "cultural disability". A new phrase! Jude always tells me that I should not say bad things about a people's culture. I always reply, I am just criticizing little parts of it. If I say "differently abled" or "cultural disability" - does that work better? I marvel at the culture of Rome. They conquered the known world, built roads, aqueducts, etc. But their concept of mathematics really sucks! Who would choose that over Arabic numerals? I also like the British concept of government much more than the Roman one. And I like the Enlightenment much more than Feudal society. Who can argue with that? And the dominant U.S. culture is that we are in charge of the world - for good or ill. We can fix anything - even an entire country.

Sustainable Development
Rotary started down this path looking to emulate the UN project to end poverty through "sustainable development" - from Jeffrey Sach's book, The End of Poverty. He is on to something. The wealthier countries have literally poured billions of dollars into developing economies to help them move forward, with very little to show for it. What's the problem? Sachs is of the mind that it is primarily a resource shortage that locks people into a cycle of poverty. He is persuaded that once you help them above the edge of that scarcity cycle, they can develop on their own. Rotary started off in Nicaragua looking for a way to take part in truly "sustainable development".

The UN projects have many millions of dollars behind them, and a 5 year time frame. The first trials are nearing their completion. I would say the UN results so far are pretty mixed. The efforts to date look a lot like projects to me, but they do have sustainable parts to them. There are some decent commentaries on the WWW. The Wikipedia entry on this is pretty good: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_development.
Look especially at the portions that talk abut "sustainability" and "capacity building". For criticisms, see: Criticism Basis and Criticism Results.

I am persuaded that there is a better way - that is to build communities, not buildings, not cooperatives. The goal is to empower the people, build their capacity to run their own lives It is a lot harder to accomplish, but the results are much more permanent and long lasting. And, the people know that the product is theirs.

Concrete Examples
Instead of trying to describe the differences between "projects" and "sustainable development" or "community building initiatives" abstractly, this article presents a list of examples of the two types of undertakings. I am telling stories. People love stories - it is what we did for thousands of years around camp fires.

Bean Production in Nicaragua
This is from the newspaper of mid November, El Nuevo Diario. If you want to read it in the original, it is here: Bean Production Nicaragua. ( If your Spanish isn't that good, Google will translate it for you, or I can send you a Word document with both versions in it.)

This article describes a coordinated effort between a group of different funding and education and technical resources to increase agricultural production. The results were:

100% increased bean production for a small group of farmers.
The start of an enterprise to assist another 200 farmers in this area to do the same thing.

The major players are:

CRS - seems to have had the lead role, since it says that AID was working under their coordination.
US AID - AID provided the funding and some sense of oversight.
TehcnoServe - an organization focused on economic development through business methods. They have a web site, and a small collection of success stories in Nicaragua. See: http://www.technoserve.org/. They seem to be the glue, and the facilitators of this whole thing.
Escuelas de Campo de Agricultores, ECA. There are lots of publications on the web that cite this group or method and their stories. The methodology is a way of teaching farmers how to use local technology to increase yields. They seem to do it in a very communitarian manner. The school is the field, there is no teacher but rather a facilitator, the goal is to achieve consensus in the community about how to proceed, etc. They use words like: "This philosophy is carried out according to the following principles: utility, reality, ownership, equity, respectful solidarity, and environmental sustainability."
The Farmers. In this case, 38 farmers worked with the school on their production, and with the help of TechnoServe, they plan to build a processing plant, and sell their services on how to do this to the other 200 farmers in town.

So, some coordination, a bit of funding, a farming techniques school, and a technical organization to put together the business plan and construction of a plant, etc. Some 200 farmers benefited at the cost of $30,000.

There are some holes in this narrative - just how did this get started? Who engaged the farmers, and got them working together and interested in this kind of thing? Who found the funding, got the trainers there, coordinated the technical assistance, the business vision, etc.?

Is this sustainable? What happens when these agencies go elsewhere?

Cocoa Production Cooperative
This is another TechnoServe project with coffee and cocoa production: TechnoServe cocoa in Nicaragua. This one seems to already have a cooperating group of farmers in place - a collective or cooperative of some kind. But that very work is the genius of this whole thing. It does not describe how they actually got started, but what do you think? Is this sustainable? One of the interesting things here is that these farmers were part of the "contras" during the civil war.

Here is a video describing the work of Technoserve: TehnoServe on YouTube. They listen first, help explore opportunities, etc. They are clearly leaving things behind that will thrive. It may not be perfect, but I like it. What do you think?

Medical Clinic in Nicaragua
Here is a video describing the construction and staffing of a medical clinic in Nicaragua.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y0AvDmLCH0.

The background and history of this is here: http://www.soltranslators.com/lacd.html. They include a long list of accomplishments:

Water tank for clean drinking water in Potrilleros
Computer classes for teachers
Refurbished computers to schools
Swing set for school
Electricity for school
Books/encyclopedias
Medical visits & dental visits
Roofs on homes in Calishuate
School supplies for students and teachers
Medical clinic built in Calishuate
Medical equipment to 2 hospitals and three clinics
Sewing/embroidery machines and supplies to begin co-op
Nursing school for Nicaraguan coordinator
Iron bars around windows and locks on doors for school security

Goals

To supply tin roofs to families with inadequate shelter
To assist the committee in Latin America with their most pressing needs whether it be building medical clinics and cultural centers, supplying school supplies and books, teacher training, fertilizer for crops, sports equipment, computers and software, or assistance in developing sewing co-ops or pottery/art groups.

Programs

Sewing co-ops in Calishuate and Potrilleros Nicaragua
Cultural groups (teaching art and dance)
Mentoring program
Sports clubs in various towns
Scholarships for students interested in community development
Team trips to build unity and learn from each other

Sustainable?
This appears to be a fine result, lots of fine results.. We have a fine, permanent building, a medical clinic which is clearly needed here. It is staffed by volunteer medical professionals from the North, who bring or send supplies on a regular basis. We have new roofs, water, sewing machines, etc. There appears to be a mechanism for continuing contributions from outside to sustain all of this.

Is it sustainable? Is there any word on how the community participated in this, or what they think about it, or their part in it? Does the community think this is the result of their efforts in any way? What is your guess as to the answer to those things?

Could it have been done in a different manner? What would that result look like? My ultimate test - what happens when the givers get tired, and the organizers move on to something else. How much of this will continue to operate? Who thinks they own the result?

El Ojoche, Chinendega, Nicaragua
There is a lot of litter in the developing world. I've seen it in Nicaragua and in Africa. Heck, there is a lot of litter in Rome! They sweep the streets every day because they have to! When you first arrive in El Ojoche, the first thing you notice is that there is NO LITTER. There is not a scrap of paper, not a piece of trash, not a plastic bag anywhere. And this is not the result of any commercial recycling - this is the result of an empowered community. This community has been accompanied by the AKF organization for over 10 years. They started as a church sister parish relationship, and now the formal accompaniment is down to a women's ceramic cooperative. The rest of the town decided they don't need help any more!

The clean streets program started when two members of the community contracted a strange illness and died. It was leptospirosis, a bacterial disease spread through animal urine that contaminates the water supply. The AKF team had been training them on health and wellness issues, and the community one day decided that the trash had to go - and it went. A clean town has other incidental effects. There is something called the "clean windows syndrome". Or the "broken windows syndrome". If you keep the environment looking good, people tend to respond to that. They do the same things in their yards, and in their homes. They take more pride in what they own, and in who they are. The mayor of New York understood that when he set out to eliminate litter in New York City, and to clean up the subways. Others get the message - people here care about this place, and we don't want you messing it up either.

When I first arrived in the community, there was a team of men and boys repairing the road. They were digging in it, positioning rocks for a solid foundation, and bringing in wheelbarrows of dirt and fill. They plan to extend the usable road all the way through town. Some of the roads in Nicaragua are really in bad shape - but I have yet to see a crew of neighbors working on it! That also comes from an empowered community.

The women's ceramic cooperative in this town recently raised money to construct their own kiln. They sell goods through Esperanza in Accion, out of Managua. That group helped them raise the quality of their goods, and taught them how to value the effort they put into their products. See this piece on this group, complete with pictures of their work: Women's Pottery Coop.

This community also administers a small loan program, with AKF as the banking agent. It has been very successful, and they charge 1.5% annual interest on the loans. It is much less than any other source of funds, and it will help ensure that the fund will continue.

There is also a water project in town, funded by the Rotary club of Leon, and the Albina Rotary club, in cooperation with Nuevas Esperanzas and Food for the Hungry. It started with a single storage tank, and has expanded to large tanks to hold rainwater for use during the dry season. They have a local water committee which is responsible for the water system and are very involved in just how this system was installed and is operated. You can read more about it here: http://www.nuevasesperanzas.org/ElOjochespring.html, and here: http://www.matchinggrants.org/pdf/info1414.pdf. Interesting - this last site is a Rotary effort to publicize their matching grants program: http://www.matchinggrants.org/.

So, ten years to get a clean environment, a road repair project, a small loan program managed by the community, a potter's kiln for goods sent to market, and a water storage system - not too bad. Is it sustainable? What do you think? If AKF and the other contributors were to go away tomorrow, what would happen to this community? Who thinks they own these results? Are there more things they can do - I would hope so. I expect that this is only the beginning.

Nueva Esperanza Projects
The El Ojoche water storage is a Nueva Esperanza project. And they have many others on their web site that look very interesting. http://www.nuevasesperanzas.org/index.html This one is a roadworks project undertaken by the communities involved: http://www.nuevasesperanzas.org/Roadworks.html. There is not enough background on these to really understand how they are accomplishing this - but it appears to be a community based effort for the most part. It would be amazing to introduce the people of El Corozo to the people from San Jacinto and El Ojochal del Listón. El Corozo sorely needs a better road.

Sustainable?

Teustepe Worm Fertilizer Project
Teustepe is a little unusual in that the community there is really a small community within a larger urban setting. This group of individuals and families has had a sister relationship with a church from Minnesota for over 25 years. The relationship started with projects. The Northerners sent down funds to buy a herd of cows to provide mik for the children. They sent funds to put a roof on the baseball stadium. You know of course, that baseball is the national sport! They collected used typewriters and sent them down so they could start a commercial school to teach people to type - that was before computers!

The Northerners visited them, and they came to visit up North. Over the years, this relationship moved from projects to accompaniment. Now the two communities are family to each other, and they support each other. AKF became a partner and facilitator in all of this about 15 years ago. They provide community based education to the community - about leadership, organization, women's rights, etc. They also facilitate the community's discussions and decisions A few years ago, AKF pushed his relationship to set off on a new course. From that point on, Teustepe is expected to contribute to each gathering, to each delegation, to each enterprise. They pay some portion of the cost, they provide some portion of the food, etc. They are responsible partners in this enterprise.

The town has always had a water problem. Some of the leaders of this group became participants in a town wide effort to persuade the mayor and the legislature that they should have a new water facility. Thanks to their hard work, it became a reality. It is currently suffering some problems, but they are working on that.

They also set about a year long project to create a dream - what do they really need and want to do. They decided that they need a community center. They have been meeting for years in the old church, but access to it is not guaranteed, and it does not really have any facilities - kitchen or otherwise. Just deciding to develop a center brought a lot of other decisions to the fore - such as forming a legal entity which could own land and construct a building. That whole discussion has caused them to grow and mature. They also started their own fund raising to raise funds for the building. They are slowly gathering funds from their own members.

A year or so ago, one of the Northerners, a Rotarian, pitched the idea of a worm fertilizer project to the community that would be funded by Rotary. He also contacted a local government agency, AMUB, which is funded by the area municipalities to foster development. AMUB put together a plan, which basically had these features:

Construction of a new building to produce fertilizer from waste products with worms.
Staffing of this facility with volunteer workers from the community.
Sale of the product of this facility, with some portion of the proceeds to go to the community.
Management and oversight of the whole thing by AMUB for a fee.

The initial response of the Teustepe Community was mixed. "We like the project, but we don't like a lot of things about it." After a great deal of back and forth discussion - I think 18 months of it - this was the result:

A backyard worm fertilizer program in the yard of any community member who wants to take part.
Training in this type of production by the AKF Farm School.
Use of recycled materials to construct the facilities.
The sale of the fertilizer by the families that produce it, with a small portion going to the Community Fund.
No involvement by the local government entity.

This is just getting under way with the delivery of the first worms. We think this has a lot higher chance of success, and the overall investment by Rotary is less than half of the AMUB proposal.

Sustainable? We should see some organizc farming enhancement, some additional wealth created, and we have a community who understands that this is THEIR program, done their way. I honestly thought this would never get to this point, but it did!

Teustepe Small Loan Program
This same community has a small loan program, with a 93% repayment rate - a phenomenal success in this type of finance. Most of these programs have to charge from 25% to 100% interest to just cover their losses. Why does this one succeed? Here are the characteristics:

You must be a participating member of the community to apply for a loan.
Membership requires a 9 month novitiate program.
Membership requires attendance at 70% of the regular meetings of the community - they meet several times each month.
An underwriting committee review all of the loan applications.
They create a recommended list for the review of the entire community.
The community reviews the list in a meeting, and the committee adjusts the loans according to the input of the larger community.
The list is represented to the community, and forwarded to the "bank".
The loans are given out in November at a meeting of the community.
Each loan recipient signs a loan agreement, specifying the terms of the loan.
Each recipient gets a payment schedule or receipt.
Payments are collected and tallied at each monthly meeting, and a receipt is signed by the underwriting board.
The payments are delivered to the "bank".
There is no interest charged, but there are penalties if payments are late.

There is no bank in Teustepe, and even if there were, it is highly unlikely that this community could obtain an account at this point. And they could likely not afford it - most banks in this world charge a hefty fee for opening an account, as well as withdrawal fees, unless you maintain a large balance. AKF serves as the bank in this case.

This works because this is a responsible community, and they have created the mechanism and the structure to enable this program to succeed. They own this financing agency that they have created.

Sustainable?

El Carmen Matiguas Water Project
See this reference: El Carmen Matiguas Water Project. This outfit does this kind of project all the time. This one provided a water system from mountain streams to a town of 612 people. Their only prior water source before this were some extremely polluted streams.

A major part of the project is the capacity building in the community before any work is started. There has to be a community organization, which is committed to doing the work, and maintaining the system. The municipality has to support the project. The labor contribution of the community amounted to $25,000 or so of the total $100,000 cost. Other funding sources were used, and the city also made a small contribution. Annual maintenance costs are estimated at $800, which the community has committed to do.

The Word document on the page is in Spanish, but it describes the organization of the community, and the fact that they became a legal entity that is responsible for this project and its continued maintenance. The responsible agency here - PWX - seems to understand how to do this. If we have a water project at any point, they would be a good contact.

Sustainable?

Cristo Rey - New Life Nicaragua
This work is by a mission family from the US who first came to Nicaragua to help the people living in the dump of Managua. And they do amazing things. On their home page there is a 10 minute video about their work There is an orphanage, feeding program, housing program, etc.
http://www.newlifenicaragua.org/
There are three other videos on their work here.
http://vimeo.com/newlifenicaragua
Watch the first one about the orphanage and the re-nutrition center. Talk about saving babies in the stream! These people have clearly done it.

If you have watched these videos, you will understand why I do not want to say anything bad about this work. These kids would likely not survive, and would certainly not grow to be healthy, capable adults. The new homes are replacing pieces of wood and plastic - which is a fairly common home in somany me parts of Managua. It is hard to watch this and not want to help.

There is very little information on how they do this, other than these videos. Based on the films, like the one where they are doing a census in Tipitapa, it looks like an external effort, funded by donations from the US, which gives food and homes to poor Nicaraguans. They are running a farm, and they use the food for the children. They have a medical clinic, staffed by a US doctor. They talk about using the facility to train local people in the technology.

There is also a blog, which has some additional information: http://www.newlifenicaragua.org/blog/tag/adoption. They feed 175 kids a day, and have built 43 homes. Kids that are not adopted are in foster care - mostly with US missionary families. They host medical missions which provide the care in the clinic. They have had some personal health problems etc. It is worth reading the blog to get a bit of perspective on how this all works.

Is it sustainable? What happens when the funding stops? Clearly there are some long term benefits - some capable, healthy people will grow to be mature adults. Those adults, however, may be laboring under the impression that all that is good and rich comes from the North, and not from themselves. That's the only negative comment I can manage.

Water Wells
Water wells are a classic type of project. Let's face it, getting water is one of the basic essentials of life. And isntalling a well should be a nobrainer. Once it is in, it works and provides water, right? Well, what about parts and repairs? Even if the parts are available, the knowledge to repair it is essential; and even if that is present, there is the small matter of the cost. In my few trips to Africa, there are many abandoned water works all over the place. It is very hard for a really poor community to maintain a water well. The truly sustainable approach also makes sure that repair and replacement is in place. See this reference for more details on that.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/13/to-maintain-water-pumps-it-takes-more-than-a-village/

Conclusion
This is way too long already. But do you notice any common thread? Are the sustainable efforts any less beneficial? Do they take longer? Is there some way the other ones could be transformed into sustainable ones at this point? Why might that be difficult? And . . . just how are you going to help here?

It is snowing as I write this - good old Minnesota. It is good to be home!

Poor Economics - a book review and a few thoughts

2011-11-13T17:39:00.000-06:00

It's Sunday, and I am here all alone at the AKF Center. Elena was here a bit this morning to talk with David at Rotary about the upcoming Rotary delegation, and visit to the communities. I got my laundry done, and warmed up some left overs for lunch. Dinner? I'll have to think about that later! But I have some time to read.

Poor Economics
I just finished reading Poor Economics by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo. When I started on this book I was not wonderfully impressed, because they seem to have missed the whole "culture and development" idea. But it turns out to be a great book - well worth the time. It is a collection of research studies and experiments, with respect to how poor people make economic decisions. Much of the work comes from parts of India, but they have many other countries in their survey field. It appears that economics is moving from the theoretical to the scientific in this important arena. If nothing else, it is an amazing collection of stories of people who are struggling against great odds to provide a life for their family and a future for their children.

Culture is Important - but There Are Other Ways
The authors do not seem to be aware of the studies which relate cultural differences to development, but that does not seem to be a problem with their ideas and recommendations. They base their work on field studies of poor people who are making economic decisions in a variety of experiments. Any cultural differences are clearly present in the results. I think that having a more express understanding of the implicit impact of the culture of the place being studied, would have helped them to understand the reasons for the behavior observed - but it clearly would not change the behavior observed.

As it turns out, poor people are making the best decisions they can, with the information they have, and the options open to them. They do tend to do things a bit more short term, and are prone to a bit less risk taking - but that makes perfect sense in their environment. Some of the decisions which they find to be difficult are difficult for everyone, but are somewhat managed for those of us who live in wealthier circumstances. I, for example, never had to worry about creating an ingenious way to save for my retirement. Between Social Security and the tax breaks provided my employer for a retirement plan and 401K, that decision was relatively painless. I also have very little difficulty getting a bank account, or a line of credit - but I have more than enough assets to ensure that the bank is taking virtually no risk in these events. For the poor, it is another matter entirely.

I am also not an entrepreneur - the risks involved in that scare me. Most of the poor are entrepreneurs, running their own businesses, simply because that is the only option open to them.

Micro Lending - Finance
The book is full of solid information about how poor people make economic decisions, and why some things work and others fail. For example, after an exhaustive evaluation of financing and micro-lending options, they conclude that micro-lending does in fact help, but it is no silver bullet - it is not THE solution to poverty. But it should be one of the tools because it does help improve the lives of the poor. The authors describe some of the many creative ways that micro-lending associations have invented to make the loan process work better in the economics of poverty.

Just Do It
But the biggest insight for me does relate to the culture thing. I am persuaded that the fundamental, underlying culture of a people is the root cause of their inability to use their own talents and energy to create wealth. Their view of the world, their view of wealth does not support the behavior and decisions that are required for economic development. The authors of the book point to a solution to that problem. We all recognize that changing a culture, a world view, requires a considerable effort, over a long period of time. But there is another alternative - we can adapt the economic systems we have created to better fit the world view of the people with the need. Economics is not a universal law handed down by nature - we have created the beast, and we can adapt it to changing needs. The book recommends using an experimental approach to find a technique that works in the given circumstances.

One example in the book is the problem of agricultural production and the use of fertilizer. Farmers who use fertilizer gain much higher yields, such that it is worth the added expense. They can be taught how to use the fertilizer, they can be shown the economic benefits - but it is still difficult for them to put aside the money required to purchase the fertilizer until it is time to plant again and use the fertilizer. They may try to save the money, but other priorities appear, and the money rarely makes it to the next planting season. You can find this on page 207 of the paper back edition - which I have as a Google Book.

The simple solution was the creation of a voucher system. When the grain is brought for sale, the farmers are offered a voucher which guarantees them the delivery of the fertilizer whenever they want it. That simple process increased the use of fertilizer significantly. People are still faced with unexpected expenses, but they somehow survive, and the fertilizer is available when needed. They can do the same thing for the seed, and other essential parts of the cycle.

So, for my simple minded solution, while it helps to understand how a world view operates, there is little point in spending a lot of time and energy trying to change it, when a simple process can achieve the desired result within that world view. The hard part of this is the effort required to study the details and do the experiments to determine what works and what does not. But it appears to be an effective technique.

The bottom line recommendations are simple:

attend to the details,
understand how people make decisions and
be willing to experiment.

It is clearly a lot of work to study just how people operate, and adapt the system to their needs, but it does work.

Larger Factors at Work
Sometimes when I am in the midst of all of this, I feel overwhelmed by the scale of the problem. For example, here in Nicaragua, there are so many factors working against the poor and against development, that it sometimes seems hopeless. How to reform the democratic system, eliminate corruption and favoritism, clean up the trash, fix the roads, improve the education, etc., etc. Nicaragua ranks 127th out of 187 countries studied by Transparency International with respect to corruption.
See: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/oct/26/corruption-index-2010-transparency-international

The authors make the case that you do not need to completely change the system all at once. If you work within it and take advantage of every opportunity to move it forward, a great deal of progress can be made - which will eventually amount to a great deal of change.

For example, when elections of public figures were put in place in Chinese villages, those elected tended to be more concerned for the issues of the people, even though the party slate was presented by the authorities. In another example, schools in Uganda were receiving less than 30% of the financial aid that was sent to them. A study by a team of economists discovered this, it was published in the paper, and school administrators began demanding their money. The middle level administrators had been pocketing it, until that was no longer seen as an acceptable outcome. Raising the information level, and the sense of civic awareness can help.

In another example, local meetings of the populace to make decisions with regard to funds sent their way are normally dominated by the elite in the community. They make it their business to learn the details, and they show up at the meetings. The simple strategy of sending a mailing inviting everyone to the meeting tends to diffuse the power of the elite and broaden the base of support for the decisions made. I don't know what you do in a community where letters are more problematic than not - but I note that virtually everyone here has a cell phone with text capability. A simple text message setting out the time and place and agenda would likely have a similar effect.

Other Positive Steps
There are other bits of wisdom in the book that do relate to this Nicaraguan "initiative". People with little hope have little energy for making change. When people are given a little bit of hope and some positive reassurance that they can make a change, they tend to respond more positively (p. 217). What we are about with these two small communities is exactly that - raise their sense of empowerment, and ask them to step up to the challenges they are facing with some help to get started, some training and information to open up the options available to them.

Experimental Validation
Warning - what follows is pretty extraneous to this discussion. You can stop now and not lose anything.
As I was finishing this up, I wanted to see if any others had connected the work of Culture Matters and Poor Economics - and there are a few interesting things out there.

A gaming experiment in Peru and in Los Angeles seems to indicate that economic decision making is influenced by the cultural differences. See: Study on Peru and LA Bargaining Game. The authors conclude that humans everywhere do NOT use the same kind of economic reasoning. One of the more amazing things from this paper is that this type of experimental economics study has been replicated in many parts of the industrialized world with very similar results. Those results tended to make researches believe that all humans have an innate sense of fairness. The game has high stakes - $160 - and the goal is to make an offer that the other side will accept. If the offer is accepted, then both parties get to keep the money. If the offer is declined, then neither side gets any funds. In industrialized countries the offers tend to be around 40 to 45%, more or less. For the Peruvian tribe, the offers were distinctly lower - 15 to 26%! In industrialized societies, offers below 20% are rare, and they are always rejected. In the case of the tribe from Peru, they are low and are accepted. Interviews with the tribe members indicated that they would accept ANY offer of money, always. Participants from industrialized countries had a higher sense of "fairness" so that they would refuse shares that were considered unfair.
Here is a paper from 2007 that argues just the opposite - culture has NO impact on economics.
Walton - Culture Matters. IMHO the author does not grasp the concept of "culture" as world view, but rather sees it as a collection of relationships. He is thinking primarily of caste differences in India - not about mental view of how things work.

Another Book?
Until next time, I need another one in the genre - anyone have a recommendation?

The New Communities

2011-11-09T20:34:00.001-06:00

INTRODUCTION
Well, I have been to both new communities which AKF is working with, and I have some thoughts on this whole process. In retrospect, as I told Elena, I am kind of amazed that I did not quite understand what was going on here until I was actually in the middle of it. I've been to the meetings, and read all the documents - but I didn't get a real feel for it and how it works until just this week. Maybe you just have to walk through it, but I am going to try to share it here. Slides and a video would probably work better. Here are some of the kids:

Kids and Staff - Good grins all

I have been reluctant to take any pictures of the houses - although people have been very willing to have me take photos of themselves. I didn't want to offend them in any way. But here's one.

NOT A PROJECT
The Rotary Fast For Hope Presentation makes this point - many times. This is NOT about projects. And we had a good example of it today. We were visiting with one of the community families, and the man of the house was talking about some of the others that have come into town to help them out. Note - AKF has not said anything about helping them out. More on that later. But he described this gringo couple that appeared one day, and spent time in the town. They had some connection with some church in town, and they wanted to help. They were worried about childhood nutrition, so they decided to start a feeding program for children. They also wanted to start a preschool program connected with that. These are clearly "projects". They had money, and they were going to raise other money to sustain these things. They bought a bunch of food, they set up to serve meals to the kids - and kids showed up. And there is a clear need here - there is no question about that. When young kids do not get proper nutrition, their brains do not develop fully, and they suffer many more health problems later in life. I am almost always the tallest person in the room here - and I have shrunk to about 5'10".

But, the way they prepared the food was not wonderful as far as the kids were concerned. And the parents voiced some concerns about how the school was working. Net, bottom line, after some indeterminate period (my Spanish is not that good yet), the food was spoiled, the couple felt unappreciated and left, and the whole thing stopped. The guy said, that's your typical project. Somehow, he said, our community does not measure up so that the help continues.

I have several other, similar stories which I have encountered. Some are heart rendering. Their is one project that is feeding people and building homes for people here that just did a really nice fund raising video. The work they are doing is adminrable. People are fed, houses are constructed - but it all depends on a sustained outside contribution. When that stops - as it must eventually stop - the people will have a few more homes, but that is about the extent of the permanent change.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
The problem is, of course, that the whole thing creates a dependency on outside help, not only to get started, but to continue in operation. What the Rotary Initiative is about is sustainable development. The root idea is that people are capable of helping themselves. They may need some initial help, some education, some ideas, but they have the potential to improve their own lot in life. When and if the outside help does stop, they are better off, and they will continue to improve their community.

HOW DOES ONE DO THIS?
OK, now, think about this a minute. How does one do sustainable development, without creating an entire dependency relationship. AKF has been working at this for years, and I think they have a way to do it. But I didn't see all of the pieces until this week. Here are the major tasks that I think one would undertake, somewhat in order.

You identify a community that has some basic community sense, so that your first efforts do not take forever to get off the ground.
You visit with the people in the community - using a wide variety of techniques.
You build up the trust relationship between the team and the community.
You identify the potential leaders in the community.
You get to know and talk with as many families as possible.
You identify all of the family relationships.
You suggest ways that the families in the community might get to know each other better, create relationships and fellowship that would benefit all of them.
You talk with the people frequently - several times a week - asking them how things are going, how is their health, their crops, the weather, their families. You keep your ears and eyes open to what kinds of things they are worried about.
You play games with the kids in the street.
You help people plant, or harvest, or fix their homes.
You talk about your school, and how you accompany other communities.
You describe other types of work you have done for other communities.
You suggest that families meet with other families in informal settings, which you help to facilitate, so that they get to know each other.
You gather people together in informal meetings and celebrations.
You ask the community if they want to participate in the work of the farm school.
You invite them to meet with representatives of other communities you are working with.
You provide community building education.
You visit with them other communities that are in the process of building their dreams, of improving their communities. You give them ideas as to what they can accomplish.
You help them determine what their community needs - what their dream would be.
You help them identify strengths and weaknesses in their community toward creating that dream - what resources do they have, what resources can they obtain elsewhere.
You help them understand that they have the power in themselves to achieve their dream.
You introduce them to some outside resources that could help with that dream - legal groups, farm schools, people with the skills they might need to accomplish their dream.

Conclusion

That's as far as I've gotten. I trust it helps a bit. We are building a community, improving their relationships, their social capital, and empowering them to do things. Not a project. Comments?

Morning in Managua - And Development - just a bit

2011-11-07T11:04:00.000-06:00

Good morning all. It is another beautiful day her in Managua. I am sitting on the porch with my second cup of tea. I had a couple of eggs and a bagel. The no see ums are somewhat at bay - between the breeze and my DEET!

Why You Do Not Want A Palm Tree in your yard
A coconut just fell off a tree here with a huge thud. That would be interesting if you were walking around under there. A palm branch fell the other morning - it wouldn't hurt as much, but it's a huge thing as well. The oranges that fall would not do as much damage! The maintenance guy was trying to knock some down yesterday with a long pole. He missed this one.

Election Results
With only partial results, Ortega seems to have won handily - 63% and the nearest contender 29%. That was on only 15% of the vote, so the opposition is not giving in just yet. As I read the paper, there were some allegations of irregularities, but nothing major: someone could not get approved to vote, the polls closed early, and some of the secured boxes took a different route through the stadium. The observers were not all happy with the access provided, etc.

But the streets seem to be calm. Another peaceful Latin election - we just had one in Argentina and Guatemala. I hope it's a trend. It's like the one between Bush and Gore. After the fact, it would appear that Gore actually won that - but we did not bring down the country over it. Maybe we should have, given the ultimate outcome. Naw - my insides want peaceful continuity above all else. Once we lose that, it's damned hard to get it back. It's like lying - one lie and your credibility is dead.

This started as a reflection on a falling coconut - but ended up being an economic treatise. Sorry about that. If you are just in the travelogue mode, stop reading right about here!!

Development and the Economy and Rotary
There is a long "editorial" in the paper on development, and the education required to support development. The economy here is primarily agriculture, textile manufacturing and tourism. So what do we develop? I have been trying to think down the road a bit, to help Rotary get a better vision of the future for the two communities where they have undertaken this "initiative". It's hard to stay engaged when all you are doing is talking and building a trusting relationship. I need to see a picture of where this MIGHT end up - and I assume they do as well. What MIGHT these communities undertake to improve their lives?

The shape of the economy in general is an important part of that.

Economics Facts - Infrastructure
One of the Rotarians is putting together an economic picture for us. I would recommend that we invite a local economist to talk with the next delegation. My informal observation is that the infrastructure appears to be fairly well in place. Venezuela has been pouring in a lot of money for electricity - hydro and geothermal are good opportunities. Roads definitely need some help in the more rural areas. Water seems generally available. Education is decent, and improving. Property rights, the courts and contract enforcement are very problematic and corrupt - which will negatively affect any substantial foreign investment. The whole legal and financial infrastructure needs a lot of improvement, but that is a bit beyond our scope.

Most exports are to the US - 65%. Since CAFTA trade TO the US has grown by 70%. The overall trade balance is negative - $3.2 B exports, $4.7 B imports. That is not terrible - it just means that the currency will continue to devalue relative to the dollar. The US would have the same problem with China, if China were not propping up their currency by buying a trillion dollars worth of US bonds! $823 M comes each year from foreign remittances - workers in the US and elsewhere.

Textiles
Textiles are half of the exports to the US. But textiles are not as competitive since Ortega raised the minimum wage. Textile manufacturing is a "race to the bottom". It keeps moving after the cheapest labor. We won't solve that problem until the poorest place in Africa has a t-shirt factory and they demand higher wages! But, then, the US textile industry is busily automating clothing manufacturing to the point that they can compete with places like Nicaragua even now! See "The End of Work", by Rifkin. There is a local t-shirt coop here that is struggling right now - with a serious debt burden because of a failed acquisition of equipment from a US supplier. Given the long term future of textiles, I don't know that the coop will survive. Clearly, in the more rural areas, this is not an area of interest - unless it means growing cotton. I have no idea what that requires.

Transportation
As I have noted elsewhere, some of the roads are horrendous. The buses are problematic as well. They are generally crowded, no place for luggage, etc. I just learned the other day that there are no trains. The gentleman we were talking with said that one of the governments sold all of the equipment at one point. I wonder what happened to the right of way. That might be a tremendous boon - but the current government seems bent on building roads - which is fine. Probably not one of our initiatives.

Tourism
Tourism is a good idea - and there will be more as this part of the world becomes settled and accessible. There are beautiful spots that are accessible today- could be more in the future. I have friends visiting Granada as I write this. And $115 a day for an all inclusive resort on the beach is pretty attractive. But it is clear that a rural area is not likely the best place for a tourism initiative. (I keep finding myself saying WE are doing things - it's my North American view of life - but I am working on it.)

Agriculture
Agriculture has considerable potential, and it fits well with the rural communities - AND the role of AKF as a Farm School. It is 18% of the economy and 30% of the workforce. There is a substantial export of agriculture, mostly coffee, bananas, sugar and cotton. The farming is nearly 100% manual, labor intensive. There seems to be tremendous opportunity - I see lots of fields that are basically untouched as yet. And virtually all of the people in the "new" Rotary communities are agrarian.

There are substantial efforts here to promote organic farming, and more sustainable ways to increase production. There is a definite geographic advantage in those crops which cannot be produced in northern climates - coffee and fruit. So there, based on my simplistic, amateurish analysis of the situation, these farming families should be about increasing their production of exportable commodities - assuming they can get them to a market somewhere. It's clearly up to them, but this is one idea I would run past them. Nota Bene - this is not a push for machinery, not a coop, just better farming techniques. The training for that is readily available here.

I have yet to see a tractor on a farm - but I did see a Bobcat running around in a supply yard. Do you have any idea how much that little device revolutionized poultry and dairy farming? And it was invented in Minnesota!! http://www.rothsay.org/famouspeople.html. It has been compared to the cotton gin and the McCormick reaper for its impact on farming. I would love to run one down that road we traveled on the other day and fill in all the holes! What does one of those things cost? Wayne, my farmer friend - are you there?

Similar Efforts
To confirm this a bit, there was an Millennium Challenge Corporation 5 year grant of $175 M in 2006 which "sought to reduce poverty and spur economic growth by funding projects in the regions of Leon and Chinandega aimed at reducing transportation costs and improving access to markets for rural communities; increasing wages and profits from farming and related enterprises in the region; and attracting investment by strengthening property rights." This ended in 2009 because of allegations of widespread fraud in municipal elections. I don't know that there was any actual fraudulent use of the funds, but rather open government was one of the stipulations of the grant. At least one other group thinks this is a good tactic. See the reference cited below, and http://www.mcc.gov/pages/countries/overview/nicaragua.

For a much more detailed understanding of this project, how it worked and what it actually did, see: http://www.mcc.gov/pages/press/release/mcc-successfully-completes-projects-to-reduce-poverty-and-promote-economic-. There is another link there - and I have copies of the PDF files if anyone is interested and can't get them.

Most of the facts in here came from here: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/1850.htm. It's as good as any I have found and it is fairly current.

Conclusion
Well, amazing - a US Government initiative in Nicaragua that has a modicum of real success. And all that from a coconut falling!

I would almost pay someone for the opportunity to sit and read and write in a warm climate in November. Thank you, Rotary!

Elections In Nicaragua - 2011

2011-11-06T11:08:00.000-06:00

It’s Election Day here in Nicaragua. I thought I would share a bit of the background and goings on from a “travelogue” perspective – I trust that will work, ok Jude?

Situation Normal – Despair has set in.
I wake up early every morning here. About 5:30, the light starts appearing and the birds singing. I was busy yesterday, but today I have NOTHING to do. Elena had some errands to run so I tagged along. These ran from 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM. We went to the market, to the auto repair, to a bakery, to another REAL bakery with bagels and donuts, to the supermarket, to a 'buffet' for lunch (fried chicken), to a cheese place, to the FARM, to the hair salon, and back here to the Center. Along the way Elena quizzed me on the various sites, and I was trying to teach this Italian child some of her native tongue! It messes with my brain to do both Spanish and Italian. I hope the Italian hangs around in there! What IS the word for traffic light again? I had to look it up because it is the SAME WORD! No wonder I couldn’t find it in my brain. Semáforo – the pronunciation is the same, but it has an accent in Spanish to get there!

When I woke this morning, I was thinking about this whole adventure. I’ve been reading a lot of stuff – Economics, The End of Work by Jeremy Rifkin, The Economics of Poverty, and stuff from the Economist and New York Times. I have other blog entries in progress on those ideas – but it gets depressing! And today is election day! The problems are so immense, and our understanding of them is miniscule – and the general public knows NADA! It appears hopeless at 5:00 in the morning. Now I am sitting here on the porch, trying to ward off the no-see-ums with a little breeze, to read and think, and have a cup of tea.

I asked Elena yesterday in the course of our adventures what she loves about this country. I said: “Is it the heat, the bugs, the poverty, the corruption, the politics, the rain, the litter – why exactly do you live here?” And she said, as I knew she would, “It’s the people”. They are frustrating at times, they are crooked at times, they are crazy at times – but they are also wonderful. And the children are well loved – you can see it in their eyes. And the country is beautiful for the most part. It is green, green, green. Of course that changes a bit in the “summer”, the dry season, which, hopefully, has just started. We have had enough rain, thank you, thank you very much.

The good thing about all of this – there has to be a GOOD THING, right – is that almost none of these things I am reading have hit on the culture thing, the ‘way of thinking’ as part of the problem. They understand some of the mechanics, they are saving babies, and trying to push up stream, but they haven’t found this key idea yet. A few have seen it, and don’t agree with it – like Jeffrey Sachs. As my wife would say, we need more stories. By the way, Ned is collecting Masaai stories. I think that will be an invaluable resource some day. I have another blog started on that!

Elections
Back to the elections. This is from the local Sunday paper (I miss the comics!):
• 4,341,935 Registered voters – about 20% live outside the country, or are deceased.
• 3,500,000 Actual voters.
• 4,296 Polling places – that works out to 815 voters per location!
• 12,960 Poll helpers – about 3 per spot.
• 50%?? Expected turnout! .

Mechanics of the Election
All of the ballots are paper, and each voter MUST have a cedula – an identity card. There have been a lot of reports in the press about problems with this card. Any area that appears to be unfavorable to the government has had great difficulty getting cards. When you vote, your thumb is marked with indelible ink so you cannot vote a second time. All of the ballots are counted by hand, at the polling place. Then they are sealed up and transported under guard to the central coliseum here in Managua, where they are guarded by the police until matters are settled. The distribution of the ballots is also a police affair.

An oddity of the ballot is that all of the representatives for the National Assembly are also selected by the one vote for the party. The candidates are selected by the party and lined up under the presidential candidate, in a priority order. The seats are then distributed across the country based on the percentage of the vote the party gets, from the top down on the candidate list. Interesting approach. One would say that this is barely a democracy – more a party driven process. Of course, one could say the same for every democracy on the planet. In the US one can generally vote across party lines, but the public has little impact on selecting the candidates. There is a movement about to directly nominate the US president. If you have not heard of it, check it out: http://www.americanselect.org/. An interesting part of this approach is a nationwide poll to determine what the entire US public thinks about the key issues. Take the poll – it’s a real learning experience. I was in the majority when I took it, much to my utter amazement.

Voter Participation
In 1984, Ortega won with 50% of the vote, immediately after the revolution. I don’t know what the voter turnout was, or the other candidates, but it was the first real election after the 70 years of Somoza’s dictatorship. Voter participation has been falling since: 86% in 1990, 76% in 1996, 73% in 2001 and 67% in 2006. Ortega won the last election with 38% of the vote. To avoid a runoff election, Ortega needs 40% of the vote, or 35% and at least a 5 point lead over the nearest opponent. This law was changed from the percentage only rule just prior to the last election – which is why Ortega won that one. The latest polls have him winning this one with just over 40% of the vote. As the paper says, one way or another.

Divided Opposition
If the opposition were to get together, he would probably lose. The people I talk with are simply not voting. One protest group asked people to mark ALL of the candidates, to indicate they want “none of the above”. It is uncertain whether those ballots would even be counted. The issue is that people do not feel there really is any choice. Ortega controls the courts and the electoral commission. He had the Supreme Court declare unconstitutional the clause in the constitution that said the president could not hold two successive terms. He also had the Court declare invalid the conviction of his leading opponent, Alleman. This past president was convicted of stealing millions from the country. The next candidate is a media personality. The final 2 of the 5 have polled less than 1 percent of the vote to this point. If the opposition were not split by the formerly convicted felon, Ortega would likely not win. So your choice is an illegal candidate who is manipulating the courts, a convicted felon who promises to create a million jobs, or an 80 year old news guy who was exiled during Ortega’s very first term for opposing the government.

Electoral Silence
The law here bans ANY electoral activity from Thursday before the election. Isn't that a good idea! I would vote for a month of it, given that the US elections seem to last for 2 years. The day after the election is a National Holiday as well, with no alcohol served all weekend. They are trying to avoid problems. The police are prepared for considerable protests, given the state of affairs.

The National Archbishop celebrated Mass for the Ortegas just before the election, blessing them and praising their work on behalf of the poor. This Mass also ran all yesterday evening on the news channel. Another interesting approach. I suspect he will not get into any trouble with the authorities for that!

Ortega also supports a total ban on abortion – even therapeutic abortion where the mother’s life is at risk – a position he adopted just before the 2006 election. The clergy have been preaching about qualified candidates for months, emphasizing honesty, and support for the abortion ban.

Venezuelan Connection
Ortega has about $700 million a year coming into the country from his friend in Venezuela, who also appears to be headed toward “president for life”, assuming he lives a few more years. Ortega is also a rich man these days. Lots of convenient properties came his way and to his supporters and family during the last few years. The Venezuelan money comes via ALBA, which has no transparent reporting as to ownership and beneficiaries. But it is well known that faithful supporters are reaping the major benefits.

The local paper this morning reports “small disturbances” in parts of the country over the election. Apparently, the ballot is not sufficient. Some of the parties are trying to settle the matter with fists. It feels more like a sporting event than an election. There were caravans of supporters, banners, songs, etc. It is very much a win / lose competition. My team, right or wrong. It's about team membership, not decision making.

There are international observers here, but the two national papers predict that Ortega, the Sandinista Front, will win by a landslide – whatever it takes, legal or otherwise.

Power Corrupts
The scary thing is that democracy of this model - a strong leader - is the norm in most of the world. Once installed, people want that strong leader to stay. They HAVE to be the leader, to save the country, to move forward, to get rid of the problems, and the opposition. I was here when Chavez won his mandate. Everyone here was supportive and excited. And then the assembly gave him 18 months of unlimited power. I was thinking, that's a really dumb idea. But my friend, an educated MD, was of the opinion that this was quite normal - almost a necessity in order to bring about radical change. I think the whole Arab Spring is likely to end up in the same model. We are genetically tuned to love strong leaders. Our ancestors who liked the committee approach and weak leaders tended to not survive the wars!!

So you see why I am a bit disheartened. What would it take to change this? What would give rise to the kind of national empowerment that led to the revolution against Somoza? Well, we do what we can, one step at a time. Qui va piano, va lontano. (Italian) Another 50 to 100 years? What do you think?

Enough about that. The breeze is good, the bugs are just a bit annoying. Time for another cup of tea. Take care. Give everyone a hug for me!

Travelogue - Visit to the New Communities

2011-11-04T21:15:00.000-05:00

My wife says enough with the development stuff - tell us what you are doing - more travelogue! More stories.

Today, I was privileged to go with the team to the new communities that Rotary has selected. They are in the same general area, but separated a bit, so the team split up. Luis and Pedro and I went to the one that is a bit further - and Elena, Oscar, Mayqueling and Aura Lila went to the other community.

The first thing that one notices on the way to 'our' community is that the road definitely SUCKS! It is 15 K from the highway, and it took us about an hour. That is about 6 miles an hour! Literally every street and road in Nicaragua has potholes and huge holes in it. I think the country could save a fortune in gas if they fixed the roads. But this one was INCREDIBLE. We were bumping and grinding along for quite a while, when we came to a paved section. Very cool, I think, they are just taking some time building out the road from the other end. That section lasted about 100 feet, and we were back to bumping and grinding and plowing through mud. Then we hit another paved section. And then another. So I pipe up - what's with the intermittent paving? "Oh, those sections were so bad that no one could get through, so they paved them." They are working on it!!

Well, we finally got there - and we stopped to visit with the household where we park the car. We could go a bit further, but there was no guarantee we could ever get back up that hill. All of the traffic we saw consisted of horse carts, people on bicycles, and a few tuk-tuks - 3 wheeled taxis that are slightly expanded motorcycles. I don't actually know what they call them here - the name I used is from Cambodia. And they were generally jammed with people, as always.

We parked, and Luis headed off in one direction, and Pedro and I in another. We stopped to talk to the first neighbor - who was sitting and watching his charcoal factory! I asked him what he was making - he said "black gold". They sell it in the towns. How they get it there is a mystery, but they do sell it. The next neighbor, Pedro told me, is 105 years old! We also talked with another gentleman on the street, who looked like he was 105 - but Pedro assured me he was probably younger than myself. Pedro says he lives alone in that little shack there - and has no family. I asked if he was often hungry, and Pedro assured me that the neighbors try to see that he has something to eat. That is the only safety net here - I've seen it in Teustepe as well.

We talked with quite a few people. They all asked about Luis - and Pedro indicated that he was in another part of the community. One of the older members of the community was ill, and he was off in search of that family. Luis is really good with these folk - it's clear he loves them and they know it. Pedro is excellent as well. He chit chats, talks about their crops, the rain, the family, etc. He also explained to them a bit that he is part of a school - AKF. He explained my presence by telling them that this "chele" is retired, and is volunteering at the school - trying to learn Spanish and about Nicaragua. Virtually all of them dubbed me Don Carlos, or Don Carlito! Someone must have spread the word!

Pedro talked with each one about the school, and the other communities that they accompany. He was very clear that we are not about projects, but just trying to help the community in any way we can. He has a better spiel than that - I am not doing him justice.

At one of the last houses, he and the head of family were exploring all of the family relationships - the family names and who is related to whom. Pedro had this all down in his head. I have no idea how people do that. A kid in the back was chopping firewood. I could hear a chain saw off in the distance, but not where we were. It's all machetes and axes. And people carry machetes everywhere - it's like a weapon, and they use it to cut everything. It's how they weed, trim the grass, etc.

The houses are made of whatever is at hand - old boards, bamboo, a few thatch roofs, but mostly tin sheets for roofs. As always the kids are beautiful. Pedro says, kids everywhere are beautiful. Well, yes - but these kids seem special. They look pretty well put together - they are loved, and they are not a problem. They sit on their dad's lap, or their grandma's while we are talking. They greet strangers with folded hands - as in prayer. The older kids play with the younger ones - they look really good. I am definitely a softy for the kids. I can't look at one of them without thinking what they might do with their lives.

So, that's how it is done! The team started back in March, just going out and visiting with people. They have suggested family gatherings, and networking things. The goal is to establish a relationship of trust with the people,and help them establish a network or community in their village. When they have that in hand, the school will introduce the idea that the community could work together on some things that would benefit them. They will get some help in learning how to "dream", as they say. And they will get some help identifying their own resources that go toward making that dream happen.

The plan is to invite these two new communities to join with the others that AKF accompanies in an annual celebration at the center. It will start the last day of my visit!

If I get a vote on a project for this community, it would be to build up the bleeping road - at least to the next town, if not the 15 K. They have no way to get their goods to any market, and no way to get themselves anywhere - especially in the rainy season. Honest, you would not believe this road. It was not frightening - just maddeningly bumpy, muddy, full of ruts and holes. The other challenge of that is that virtually all of the road projects I have seen are done by hand - picks and shovels and little cement mixers. There do not appear to be any bulldozers, or cement trucks.

The genius of this will be to see how AKF can help them identify the resources that they have to do something about it - if it is one of the things they identify as a need. I never thought about how to do this kind of thing. I guess I would start by approaching the city fathers in an organized way to ask for some repairs. Pedro tells me that they have done that in the past, with no results. There might be a way for them to do it again, perhaps with the idea of a matching grant, or a contribution from the community. I have no idea how one does this in such a way that they feel it is their work, and they own the results. But that is the goal. This is a quote from Lao Tsu that Elena used the other day to start a reflection:

“A leader is best when people barely know he exists, not so good when people obey and acclaim him, worse when they despise him. But of a good leader who talks little when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: We did it ourselves.” http://www.stevenredhead.com/quotes/ancient/Lau-Tzu.html.

That is the ultimate goal here - that they did it themselves! And they can do the next one, and the next one.

Sweatshops around the World - paying $5 an hour! How cool is that?

2011-11-04T09:01:00.001-05:00

There is a nice piece today from the New York Times Opinionator pages on a creative use of the Internet to provide jobs in developing countries. (Have you noticed that some dictionaries accept that word WITHOUT the capital I. I was always wondering where we were going with that - like German where you capitalize all Nouns, or what.)

That article would be here: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/workers-of-the-world-employed/?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=thab1

The article cites two firms that are hiring high school graduates in developing countries to do small tasks on the Internet. Wonderful programs both - from $3 to $5 an hour. One includes college education.

Pat - here's your sweatshop opportunity!!

This would be Pat Patten, a Spiritan in Tanzania - and an old friend. I think it was the first time I met him at Bethel. He runs a school for handicapped, or "differently abled" in Arusha, Tanzania. He also has a flying medical service. He came up to me this day and asked me if I knew anyone that was looking to build a sweatshop! He figured a buck a day - back then - would be a tremendous boost to his students! Now, I would guess he would settle for a buck an hour. That works out to be $2,000 a year, quite a bit above the median in Tanzania - or most parts of the world.

These two firms are doing it well - one even includes a college education and tutoring program for its employees. I have to see if these are public companies!

The idea is that you put in a high speed internet connection, and then outsource small tasks that require human intervention, but not too much training and education. The firm provides training on computers and the internet - no really difficult skills. They also provide the computers and internet access -- and that is the key. One of them uses some sophisticated techniques to break the tasks down into smaller pieces - but it all works out. Think Henry Ford and constructing an automobile.

There is, of course, the high probability that this will eventually become the same race to the bottom as manufacturing. Computerized sweatshops around the world. And easily movable as well. Mostly too you need to know some English - but that will gradually change.

I am persuaded that poverty will end finally when the last outpost in Africa, the last place where people are working for peanuts, decides that they need more dollars per hour! And, given this Internet thing, that day may not be far off. Of course, all of us, and I mean ALL of us, will be paying for that. The end of the $5 T shirt, and the $35 phone - or NOT. We'll come up with something.

Trust you are doing well - all of you.

I hope Ned got back there to California. Have not heard a word from him.

We had an adventure getting back here to Managua.

Hope Pat Patten reads this one!!

I am off to visit one of the new communities for the first time. The team decided that I am not too dangerous and they would let me come along. I understand their Spanish well enough, but odds are I won't know what the community members are saying. And if I talk at all, they can help me out!!

I'll let you all know tomorrow how that came out. Gotta go! Stopped raining here - not sure about the rest of Central America. My clothes dried in record time.

Development Once More PLUS Business Ethics

2011-11-01T15:52:00.000-05:00

How cool is this. Yesterday, I got to spend the entire day with a team of young people who are trying to change the world. They were speaking entirely in Spanish, of course, which meant that by 4:00 PM my brain was fried. It takes considerable effort for me to pay attention that long, and even more so when I am fishing for words in a sea of sounds. It’s getting better – but not easier. I was puzzled yesterday when they kept talking about an “eraser”. When I asked, they told me it also means “draft document”. AH! Now I get it. Thank you, thank you very much.

Then, today, I have nothing better to do than to sit and think and write about what I am learning. I would pay someone for this privilege – thank you Rotarians! And I may actually do something that helps out here.

Old Friends
I just had an exchange with an old classmate of mine living in Bolivia – I think you are in Bolivia, right, Ed? He is married there, raising children. He is pushing me to bring the Catholic Church’s teaching on social justice into the fray. I am resisting – for multiple reasons. We exchange ideas in a Google Group called “Other Spiritans”. The members of this group are current or ex members of the religious congregation which we were part of for many years. They are priests, ex priests, ex seminarians - a well educated bunch, and many with a lot of experience in many parts of the world.

I thought it might be helpful to share a bit of our latest exchange– just in case some of you are also suffering under the mistaken idea that I actually know what I am doing here! Ed is pretty clear that I am on the wrong path, and he keeps pushing me. I think this last exchange led me to a clearer statement of the problem! See what you think. I have not literally copied the text of the exchange – rather adapted it a bit. He can speak up if I have distorted his ideas – there are comments allowed on this blog the last time I checked.

The Problem IS The Culture
I pointed Ed and the group to my research about cultural values being the lynch pin on why some countries are developed and others are still under way. I came onto this after visiting Africa a couple of times, and reading a bunch of books. I have described the books and ideas elsewhere in this blog. Ed lives in a developing country, and, to my view, has become “part of the problem”. That is to say that he is acculturated there, more or less. I don’t think you ever lose your childhood view of things, but you can learn – which is the real hope of all of this. I think that is positive for Ed – he is trying to make a life and raise his children, just like the rest of us. But he has the disadvantage of being closely wedded to our Holy Mother the Church. The Church’s view of life is that God is in charge, top down, through and through. One of the reasons I came out of the closet on my religious beliefs is to avoid sending any message that I think this is true. I like this Jesus guy, but as a Jewish teacher – before any of this Christianity stuff got in the way. If you want more on that, see Jesus Before Christianity, by Albert Nolan. Nolan is a Dominican scripture scholar from South Africa. The book is as good a study of the Gospels as any I have ever read. I highly recommend it – and thank you very much John Becker, who put me on to it.

The Vatican on Development
Ed has read my comments, and he sent me a note the other day that he had found a very valuable resource for ideas on development: the “Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. Its aim is to promote justice and peace in the world in the light of the Gospel and of the social teachings of the Catholic Church.”

And he continued: “In this spirit, an international team of thinkers analyze causes and seek solutions to problems affecting justice and peace and the human rights of the person. Recently they urged businesses to not only employ ethical policies within their companies, but to become dedicated to bringing economic justice to the wider world. Businesses cannot remain ethically neutral. They are either serving the common good or they are not. That is to say, if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.”

I teach a class in business ethics. I am familiar with the literature. Here in Nicaragua we are more worried about blatant corruption than ethics.

Ed seems to be under the impression that the powers that be are motivated by ideas like "justice" or "fairness". I think those words require a very sophisticated level of social maturity. It is possible that a few people have attained that, but most folks running businesses are still at the two year old level – I gotta get mine. I think a better approach is to talk about "long term profits", global reach, including ALL stakeholders, etc.” If we can move their heads beyond the next quarter, beyond the next year, and have them think of employees, customers, communities, the planet, the gaia – we have a shot at this.
(See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_hypothesis.)

Creating Shared Value
The best thinking on business ethics that I have found is by Michael Porter at Harvard. He says companies should focus on creating “shared value” in order to support the Long term interests of both the company and society to get the maximum gain in the long run. You can find a video interview with Michael Porter’s here: http://hbr.org/2011/01/the-big-idea-creating-shared-value. Or a PDF version from HBR is here: http://www.waterhealth.com/sites/default/files/Harvard_Buiness_Review_Shared_Value.pdf.

You get your choice – video or written. Am I a pedagogue or what!?

The Single Bottom Line
There is another view of this, of course, which I like as well. It’s called “The Single Bottom Line”, by Daniel Altman and Jonathan Berman. This view is that it is distracting to focus on multiple goals as Porter would suggest. Rather, if you focus entirely on your bottom line – your profit – but include the true long term vision of all of the stakeholders and contributors to that profit, you will also maximize that bottom line in the long run. They are basically saying the same thing in different ways – but both are trying to appeal to business types to include the rest of the planet in their view of their bottom line. Works for me!
That paper is here:
http://web-docs.stern.nyu.edu/old_web/economics/docs/workingpapers/2011/Altman%206-13-11.pdf.

Plan B Corporation
You will find considerable discussion about both of these approaches on the WWW, if you are of a mind to pursue this further. An even further extension of this idea is the “Plan B Corporation”. One of the problems with this larger perspective is that US corporate law gives considerable power to shareholders to leverage their investment toward short term results – with negative consequences for the long term good of the corporation. This alternative legal incorporation statute expands the defined objectives, so that a company really can work for the good of the planet, as well as their bottom line, without threat of lawsuits or takeovers to make a quick buck. You can find information on that here: http://www.bcorporation.net/.

Culture AGAIN
OK, now that you have had an instant course in business ethics, what about this cultural thing? Ed responded to me with this: “From my point of view, the cultural aspects of development are secondary. When we speak of development in relation to the person, we speak of human development. If we take the act of walking as an example, we can say that cultural differences exist between a Chaga child and a European child. As interesting as it may be to note these differences, our focus should never divert from the principle objective, that of walking.”

My response: You do not understand the cultural thing. Obviously, I am not doing a very good job explaining it. It's not HOW you walk, or dance or talk. It's how you THINK THE WORLD WORKS. To simplify things greatly, for good or ill the "developed" countries are populated with people who think they are in charge of their lives. The rest of the planet does not. Things happen TO them. I am trying to persuade them that it is their problem to change their lives and the world, AND that they can do it, one step at a time! I am persuaded the Nicaraguan people can do anything - they organized one of the best revolutions against a brutal dictator that this world has ever seen. They can do it!

Cultural learning works like this:

You watch your mom wash dishes - you watch you dad sit and do nothing!
OR you see your Dad has a part of all of the household chores.
You watch your neighbors complain about the water, and then do nothing about it.
OR - you go with your parents to a rally where the crowd demands clean water.
You watch people get excited because the Governor is coming or the Mayor, or the Pope. They want to see them, to ask them a favor, etc. They have fear and respect for this exalted person.
OR - you hear your parents saying that the governor, or the mayor, or the pope is not doing what he or she should about our problems, and they are going to do something about it.
You see trash everywhere in your world. You see that NO ONE cares what things look like.
OR - your parents tell you to pick up that candy wrapper you just threw out, and to pick up the other two lying there as well.
You eat a meal with your family every night. And you know that your elderly neighbor is hungry.
OR your neighbor is in your home every night to share your meal, because she has nothing to eat.
And your parents are working to set up a program to protect the income of seniors like your neighbor.
Food appears, the house stands, the water comes and goes, people get a job, or lose a job - they don't seem to be in charge of it. They are things that “just happen”.
OR you are asked to contribute, to prepare the food, to get a job, to fix the pipe, repair the roof, to wash the windows, to change your life. You are held responsible for it.

There are a million examples in every child's life of how the world works. Some of us think we are in charge! Some of us think someone else is, or no one is. For them, things just happen. No one is responsible.

Cultural ATTACKS
Ed also said: “Development studies from all aspects are good, provided we do not fixate ourselves on something peripheral, and lose sight of our objective; worse still, we stay in the theoretical, consoling ourselves with the thought that it is only the poor who must change.”

To which I responded: “You seem to want to FIX the view of the northerners that they are superior in some way. I really don't have time for that. It is hard enough encouraging the people to do what is in their power to do.” I get a sense of defensiveness with this all the time – you people could learn something from these people. Of course, we could. But that is a peripheral issue – don’t make it a central one. It’s distracting, defensive. Yes, Northerners in general think they are in charge of things – they do not think they are part of the problem – but some do. I think we have more leverage working with those few than trying to fix all of the world at once.

For my money, the UN Millenium Village project is off in the wrong direction, because Jeffrey Sachs thinks he has the answer to the problems. I think that is the wrong approach, but I really cannot do much with that.. They are saving some babies in the stream but I don’t think there are many up stream returns there. (If that reference is a mystery, here’s one example: http://www.fasarizona.com/riverbabies.htm. )

When I point out that there are things that could CHANGE in the culture of developing nations, I almost always get back these responses:

You are criticizing people’s culture. We don’t do that. It is not politically correct. All cultures have value. My wife is particularly fond of this one. I am not criticizing the entire culture, just a few pieces of it! And I think the Roman numeral system sucks! The Arabic one is MUCH better.
Your culture is part of the problem – if you fixed your problems, we wouldn’t have any. That is another example of “it is not my problem”. Sure we have problems – who doesn’t. But you want what we have without changing anything about yours – it won’t work that way.
You are so superior – you could learn something from this culture too. Well, of course we could. And the simple fact that we acknowledge that will, in fact, help you gain a sense of empowerment, so I’m all for it.
You have all of the money – that is why we have none. We might have most of the money, but not all of the wealth. Wealth is something you create, it is unlimited. It does not depend on natural resources, or on currency. It is something every one of us can create, wherever we are. That’s called a “different world view”.

So – what do you think? Anything in there worth anything? Does it move your brain around a little bit? Or should I go back to the travelogue! It’s not like you are paying to read this or anything!! The price is right!

Now That Was Interesting! OR - how NOT to get to Esteli and back!

2011-10-30T13:15:00.000-05:00

Learning Spanish
If you have been reading any of these, you will realize that this is part travelogue, and part idea exploration from this trip to Nicaragua. I came here in early Oct., and I won't be home until Dec. 10. Part of the purpose was to improve my Spanish - thank you very much Ms. Nubia Rodriguez of Esteli and the Escuela Horizantal run by Ms. Egdelena Lanuza of Esteli. Excellent job, always warm and gracious - thank you very much. If you are interested in an intensive course in Spanish for a very reasonable price - check them out: http://www.escuelahorizonte.edu.ni/

My old friend Ned - in both senses of "old" - was there for two weeks, and I joined him for the last one. We stayed with Mama Licha as always. It actually does feel like coming home! Mama Licha, Nora, Manuel, Fernando, Norman - good greetings as always! I know you and your children are all on Facebook - and you have become quite the expert at the Internet!

I can actually carry on a conversation in Spanish at this point - assuming it is about some area I know!! I make some dumb mistakes - some of them all the time - and I ask my Spanish speaking friends to help me out on that - thank you, thank you very much.

Ned is on his way home to California as we chat here, and then back to Africa to a new settlement - new for him. He has been in Africa for 47 years! We both had an interesting time getting to Esteli - and an interesting time getting back to Managua. So this entry is primarily a travelogue! If that excites you - super. If not, turn to the next one, which will be a bit more reflective on the travelogue - or we'll see what happens here!! I AM making this up as I go, you know.

The Bus To Esteli
Ned was accompanied on the express bus from Managua to Esteli by one of the staff here. And it was a good thing, too. I was accompanied to the bus station, and I got on the express bus that goes through Esteli to some other town! My ticket said so! Of course, I didn't look at the ticket. Three hours later, we are pulling into Esteli. I am assuming that we will stop at the bus station or something, and most people will get off. Well, I start looking for familiar things, and the bus stops a couple of times, and suddenly I realize we are back in the countryside! I ask the guy near me if that was Esteli - he says, SI! So I get up and accost the conductor. They stop the bus about 3 miles out of town, and I get off! NOW WHAT?!

I walk across the road, and there are a couple of young girls there - I ask them if they are waiting for a bus - they reply, SI! I ask them how much - I think they said 5 or 7 Cordoba - something like that. A cab pulls up - virtually EVERY cab that passes will honk their horn at a chele - a white face - hoping for a fare. So I lean in his window, and in my BEST Spanish, ask if he knows Mama Licha. I had not written down the directions - which are basically "two and a half blocks east of Briomol" - that last word is a tad hard to get out with R and B and all that in there. There is no one else in the cab, by the way. He doesn't know her, but I think I know the way - so I say - "how much to the center of Esteli." He says "quinze" (15). My brain does not do numbers very well - I think $15 dollars! I think this came from some remnant memory of a cab driver in Tanzania once asking for $60 for a fare that should have cost $3. I say - "impossible" as a reaction - and he drives off. And I am standing there thinking - you idiot - that's like 75 cents! What were you thinking?

So I stand there in the sun a bit longer, and another taxi - this one with the driver and 3 other people in it - stops. I ask how much, he says "quinze". I say - super, and get in with my two bags, apologizing to the two women in the back seat. I ask about Mama Licha - he does not know her. I manage a few words about "casa maderna", which he does know - which is in fact a totally different place! And off we go. As he turns onto the street for his first fare - I recognize Mama Licha's house - and say STOP - in English, no less! So, I made it. Warm embraces, food on the stove, and they had just been calling Elena to make sure I was not lost on the way!!

The Taxi to Managua or thereabouts
Fast forward a week - lots of things in that week, by the way - and Ned and I are debating how to get back to Managua. We can take the bus - I think the fare is 70 - or like $3.50. I mention to Ned that Bob Walz and I had once taken a cab from AKF to Esteli - for $100! - he says - let's go for it, I'll pay half. He found the 3 hour bus ride in an old school bus with his bag on his lap pretty confining - and damned near disabling. Elena had also alerted us to make sure we get off the bus at the airport, and not at the bus station - too many unsavory characters there that might try to take advantage of a couple of cheles. So I go talk to Egdelena at the school - her son runs a taxi service. She calls him on the phone - he agrees to $85 - and I am thinking - heck of a deal! She calls again on Saturday morning, just before we leave, announcing that he now realizes that he has to go a lot further to get to AKF - and he probably also remembers that we paid $100 last time - so he raises the fare to $100. FINE! My other option was to go out in the street and negotiate with someone else at this point - not a likely outcome. Pretty clever, I am thinking.

Well, Ned and I and our bags get into the taxi - with a couple of bananas, cakes, and good-by presents from Mama Licha and Nora - and a bunch of hugs and kisses. I like this part of life here for sure!! It's a little Chevy, 2007 - pretty nice. Sounds good, runs good. I couldn't get the seat belt on because the buckle part appears to be underneath the rear seat. The owner assures me that we don't need them in Nicaragua. We always drive safely and slowly. I assume him that I am more worried about the other drivers than his driver - we does seem to be wearing his seat belt. Then we go gliding down the mountain from Esteli, exceeding the speed limit, generally in neutral, cruising along.

The Party Campaign Caravan
We pass through some towns where everyone is waiting for THE caravan! Elections here are preceded by long caravans of supporters who come into Managua from everywhere - all the way from the border - to cheer for their candidate. The election is next Sunday- I'll do some more on that later - and you think WE have political problems!! Mamma Mia! (I also teach a bit of Italian to everyone as I go - I seem to think in it here! Va Bene!)

A Minor Problem - 10 minutes max
Well, we are 2 and one half hours into this or so, when we quietly coast to the side of the road. The driver and owner are checking the gas - did I mention that taxis frequently have 2 people running them? They don't seem to trust each other or the passengers! We have plenty of gas, it seems. The hood comes up - he assures us, it will just take a minute. They fiddle with this and that, look at the battery connections and the fuses, etc. And I am thinking - it was JUST running fine - there is NO WAY the battery or the fuses could have caused this. They try to start it again - it won't turn over. The solenoid clicks, then nothing. We decide to push it to start - nothing. Backward, forward - zip. BUT now the starter does crank the engine! There appears to be a bad spot on the starter cog! So they crank away at it, flood it, and it starts with a roaring and belching of smoke - flooded of course - and then it dies with a wierd clicking noise! Nothing after that.

A bit more poking around, and the owner flags down a little pickup - gets out a rope (he HAS done this before) and ties it to the back of the pickup and front of the car. A family of four walking to the next town comes by, and they also get in the pickup - and off we go. The pickup driver is making a few Cordoba here. A couple of miles to the next place, where I see a large gas station! AMEN. Salvation. It is pretty hot out there in the sun! This is actually the turn to go to Teustepe - which I recognize.

Well, we do not go the gas station, but to a little abandoned house on the side of the road, and into the back yard, where there is actually a fairly well equipped tool box! There is also a small squadron of people who descend on this vehicle to determine what exactly is wrong! The oldest guy - about 50 - seems to own the tools, and seems to have some idea of what to do - but the repairs are definitely a committee affair. I had called Elena from the stop on the road, but the owner did NOT want to disturb her, and wanted to assure her it would be fixed in a minute, etc., etc. Ned tells me that he has lots of experience being stranded in the bush when his car broke down in Africa. And WHY don't we train all missionaries on basic auto mechanics? Or all taxi owners in Nicaragua?!

After 20 minutes or so of repair discussions, and miles of caravan going by us on the road to Managua - I call Elena and tell her that we will likely be here quite a while. So she heads out to pick us up! Meanwhile the repair committee gets a new fuel filter - a somewhat rational approach - except that the car was totally flooded the last time it ran - but, then there are problems connecting it, etc., etc. We left the owner there quite disappointed with our lack of patience and understanding. I truly hope he got home that night.

We finally head into town, but now we are literally in the middle of several thousand trucks, cars, buses, and every other conceivable vehicle flying flags of the 13th party. And they happen to run into or across the path of a similar caravan from the 1st party! That little traffic jam - sometimes called "gridlock" - lasts about two hours!! The numbers of the parties come from their positions on the ballot The FLSN, or Sandinistas secured #2, because you make the sign 2 with a V for victory They explained to me how the other party got fixed in position #13 -but it's a long story!! But you CAN make a sign for 13 with one hand! In Italy, it could be mistaken for a slightly different gesture!

Mamma Mia! But we survived. More later on the conversation between the African missionary and the Nicaraguan activist, or community educator, or revolutionary, or . . . It generated a lot of ideas.

Rotary, Rotary, wherefore art thou, Rotary

2011-10-23T23:04:00.000-05:00

Sorry I have not been keeping all of you up to date on the goings on here in Nicaragua. The Rotary delegation has had me jumping around for the last week - but joyfully so. I met a small band of wonderful people and some of their children and grandchildren, and we traipsed about Nicaragua.

We did some of the same things I have done before - visited the silhouette of Sandino on the hill overlooking Managua, visited the old cathedral, heard the story of the earthquake aid that Somoza stole which tripped the balance on what people would put up with, listened to Ayn Setwrite's history lesson, and description of the current crop of election craziness, and drove about in the rain!

We had planned a trip up a mountain, but the constant rain had closed many places, and damaged roads all over. The rain let up a bit here in the center of the nation over the weekend. On the way back from the beach, we passed many clotheslines strung out for the sun! But now a tropical storm is forming just above Nicaragua - but it looks like it may move to the north - leaving just some residual rain down here. The lake here in Managua is a few centimeters below its historic high.

I have now been to 4 "real" Rotary meetings, 2 of a new club being born, and one fund raising dance and dinner here! I have to confess that I like the Nicaraguan version of Rotary meetings a bit better. They have more fun and music. Although the music here last night was just a LITTLE LOUD! We were in a pretty small place, with an amplified marimba, keyboard, drums - and something that the drummer kept wacking that sounded just like a cowbell!! If you haven't seen the Christopher Walken piece on Saturday Night Live - you can find it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRzds1HHkas&feature=related

But we all danced, and we had nacatamales, and especially the young people had a great time. I took a few videos, etc.

Our reflection period was stellar - what a fine bunch of human beings these folks are. I am typing up the notes from it. I don't think I can share those with the world - so I'll just give you a bit of my own - I think that is legitimate. I had two insights - they are both recurring ones.

When I had just finished graduate school, and I was wandering the streets looking for full time work. I thought that with 12 years of college under my belt, SOMEONE would want to hire me. To hold my finances together, I got a job one month as a Good Humor man. It was without a doubt, the toughest job I ever had. It was 10 hours a day. I was an independent contractor. I bought the ice cream in the morning, rented the company's truck, and rented their uniform, and headed out on my assigned route to sell ice cream. Needless to say, you have to sell quite a bit to pay for the gas, truck, uniform and investment in the ice cream, before you start to show a profit! I would come back every night beat to death, pulling the bell, starting and stopping the truck, jumping out and serving 500 or more pieces of ice cream to kids. I was tired and filthy by the time I got home.

Here on the streets of Managua, there are hundreds of guys pushing these little carts of Eskimo ice cream. I am sure they are not the owners, and I am sure they are all just trying to get by. The other day, I was just struck by one young man - tan, intent, creased lines on his forehead, working hard, pushing his cart on the side of the road, looking for a sale. When I did it, I knew I had something better waiting for me - but this guy, and the other hundreds like him, may be doing this forever. Just getting by. Needless to say, I buy some whenever I can.

The other insight I have every time I come here goes like this. I see the run down infrastructure, bad roads, poorly maintained fields, tin and plastic housing, litter and trash everywhere. I learn about the corruption, the broken political system, the courts and police that do not work, the difficulty in getting a loan to do anything, etc., etc. And I think, man, this is a disaster. Who can anything here? I would be better off just going home and forgetting about it. I asked Luis once how he handled that after all these years. He said, he goes and talks with the people. They have hope. They are raising their kids, doing their jobs, trying to make a better world for their families, trying to fix the problems, grow the crops, make a buck - anything to get ahead. And when you meet the people, they are so welcoming, they are working so hard, they are so filled with hope. As Luis says, if THEY have hope, given where they are, then I HAVE to have hope. So I do - and I hope you do too.

Don't give up on Nicaragua- or any of these lovely places with economic distress. When they get it figured out and working right, the hope is that they will teach us something about how to do it! It's not like we have it perfected or anything.

Remember, we're all in the together - and I'm pulling for you. (Red Green)

Rain and More Rain - and Rotary

2011-10-19T10:07:00.000-05:00

I am sorry that I have not been updating this - we have been busy. And you are probably saying - thank heavens he is not writing a long epistle again.

Long and short of it - it continues to rain, and the forecast as far out as it exists is for more rain. Not good. The main lake here continues to rise past historic levels. The rivers are all swollen. Many towns are cut off because of flooding or bridges that were washed out. At least one part of the Pan-American highway has been destroyed. I do not know if I am going to get out of Managua next week even, to go to Esteli to join Ned. We'll see.

The Rotary delegation has been doing things, and I am tagging along. Because of the rain, the places we were going to visit in the mountains have been closed, so we are staying in Managua. Yesterday we went to see some artisan products - very nice stuff - and hear about how this outfit is organized, how they train and provide incentives - etc. I'll do more on that later. But when we tried to drive to visit one of the women's pottry workshops - the road was completed blocked by some form of student protest at the University. Several hours later, we finally turned around and headed back.

But, the good side of that, being here gave us an opportunity to visit the Masaya Rotary Club last night. They had a wonderful presentation on the cultural heritage of the town, and some dancing - by a couple of young people, and by two of our hosts! There is a video - you will get to see it eventually.

And today, after a visit to a honey farm - in the rain - we are going to attend the second meeting of an incipient Rotary club. Should be another amazing event.

I have lots of thoughts about all of this - but no time now. We are heading out in a few minutes. But french toast for breakfast - with honey. Works for me!!

To my lovely wife - I am fine - no problems. To Rotary - team is good - lots of good things even in the midst of this downpour.

And Now For Something Completely Different

2011-10-15T16:42:00.000-05:00

You do remember Monty Python, don't you. This note will be a tad different. It's the weekend, and I'm sitting here catching up on my reading - it is still raining, by the way. Some time ago I subscribed to a blog about society and economics. And the post today is stellar - just stellar. So I am anxious to share it with the 4 people who seem to be reading this!!

If you are unhappy with the current economic system, and with the left and right handed criticism of it - read this. Outside of a little bit of polemic against the selfishness and greed of human kind, it is really good. It is full of an understanding of the current problems of our economic system, and a raft of really brilliant ideas. I like almost everything in here - and that is hard for me to find these days. It has none of the simplistic criticisms of either the right or the left.

For example, I am working on a piece to explain the futility of "make work" jobs as a means of contributing to the economy, or sharing the wealth. He sees the same problem I do, and he has a VERY creative solution. I am certain that all of these ideas are being discussed elsewhere, but this is one of the nicest, shortest collections I have found. Read it, please. It isn't that long. It IS about economics, but nothing esoteric. And then tell me what you think - or better, tell the author.

And it does relate to Nicaragua. One of the criticisms I have gotten to my "culture" approach is that I am just trying to make people wealthy - well, yes! Because of the human benefits that flow from that. This author has a full understanding of those benefits. See if you do not agree. Yes, this is not about the developing world - there are other problems there - but it would be a running start to fix the real problems in the so-called "developed" world.

http://www.oftwominds.com/blogoct11/making-a-living-Zeus-pt1.html