once you've experienced actual, free-range monkeys, you will never feel the same about them again.
my friend emily, working in shimla, india on energy issues, writes more.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
english as the global language and some implications for development
i am reminded here, pretty much every day, how lucky i am to be an english speaker. both socially and professionally, i have it pretty darn easy being fluent in english and more or less conversational in nepali...and i know plenty of foreigners who get by just fine with no nepali at all (although i think you have a MUCH more fun time here if you learn).
this article [h/t virtual linguist] talks about the rise of english to its current status as the global language. it is, unsurprisingly, a story in which oppressive power structures and pervasive inequalities play a leading role. just a reminder that privilege and power are inherently self-reinforcing.
another things that this article made me consider is the degree to which the professional circles in which i run are highly english-medium. development is an industry that has a lot of rhetoric about decentralization, local ownership and empowerment, capacity building, etc in the global south. but the power and priorities are all too often driven by donors in the global north, for whom english is the lingua franca.
for instance, at my organization, everyone except for the director and myself is nepali, with anywhere from limited to proficient english. what language we use casually and conversationally depends on the speakers and the topic, but we inevitably file much of our nuts-and-bolts work in english...because we're communicating with northern donors or headquarters in DC. we mostly implement through (ie in partnership with/supervising) local, district-level NGOs. there are lots of good arguments for the functionality of this model, and they shouldn't be ignored (more on this later?). however, these reasons talk mostly about the constraints on us implementing directly, rather than why these local groups aren't being directly funded. the arguments don't fully articulate the implicitly symbiotic nature of the relationship. we need them for lots of reasons, and they need us because they (theoretically "as yet") "lack capacity". speaking generally, local-level/grassroots NGOs, especially new ones, often do lack familiarity with the donor standards of accountability, have green personnel, are (in nepal, anyway) affiliated with local political parties etc, but most foundationally they lack the language, both literally (in terms of english skills) and more broadly (in terms of connections and the familiarty with the norms, terminology, and dance specific to the industry) to be able to appeal directly to those with the money.
**let me be totally clear that this is not meant as any criticism of the organization i work for, specifically. i actually think they are pretty darn great at what they do. overwhelmingly, i think we put our (or, i suppose, our donors') money where our collective mouth is and really commit to local planning, priorities, and capacity building. the model used is, under the circumstances, entirely necessary and largely effective. i've worked with some of our local partners and have tremendous respect for their abilities and dedication. one day i'll get around to writing about some of our programming and give you specific examples of this. **
this also isn't one of those "the WHO creates epidemics" conspiracy theories (yes, i have heard that one). however, i am saying, in a broader practical and philosophical sense, that the current structure of the development industry restricts access to resources to those who possess a certain figurative proficiency in the industry's "language" (including the latest trends in jargon and practice), and, by extension, a certain literal fluency in english. this often necessitates a trickle down method of program implementation, which is intuitively at odds with the industry's rhetoric, and can make fulfilling its ostensible aims even more challenging. it is one of the many things that leads one to ask...whose aid is it anyway?
this article [h/t virtual linguist] talks about the rise of english to its current status as the global language. it is, unsurprisingly, a story in which oppressive power structures and pervasive inequalities play a leading role. just a reminder that privilege and power are inherently self-reinforcing.
another things that this article made me consider is the degree to which the professional circles in which i run are highly english-medium. development is an industry that has a lot of rhetoric about decentralization, local ownership and empowerment, capacity building, etc in the global south. but the power and priorities are all too often driven by donors in the global north, for whom english is the lingua franca.
for instance, at my organization, everyone except for the director and myself is nepali, with anywhere from limited to proficient english. what language we use casually and conversationally depends on the speakers and the topic, but we inevitably file much of our nuts-and-bolts work in english...because we're communicating with northern donors or headquarters in DC. we mostly implement through (ie in partnership with/supervising) local, district-level NGOs. there are lots of good arguments for the functionality of this model, and they shouldn't be ignored (more on this later?). however, these reasons talk mostly about the constraints on us implementing directly, rather than why these local groups aren't being directly funded. the arguments don't fully articulate the implicitly symbiotic nature of the relationship. we need them for lots of reasons, and they need us because they (theoretically "as yet") "lack capacity". speaking generally, local-level/grassroots NGOs, especially new ones, often do lack familiarity with the donor standards of accountability, have green personnel, are (in nepal, anyway) affiliated with local political parties etc, but most foundationally they lack the language, both literally (in terms of english skills) and more broadly (in terms of connections and the familiarty with the norms, terminology, and dance specific to the industry) to be able to appeal directly to those with the money.
**let me be totally clear that this is not meant as any criticism of the organization i work for, specifically. i actually think they are pretty darn great at what they do. overwhelmingly, i think we put our (or, i suppose, our donors') money where our collective mouth is and really commit to local planning, priorities, and capacity building. the model used is, under the circumstances, entirely necessary and largely effective. i've worked with some of our local partners and have tremendous respect for their abilities and dedication. one day i'll get around to writing about some of our programming and give you specific examples of this. **
this also isn't one of those "the WHO creates epidemics" conspiracy theories (yes, i have heard that one). however, i am saying, in a broader practical and philosophical sense, that the current structure of the development industry restricts access to resources to those who possess a certain figurative proficiency in the industry's "language" (including the latest trends in jargon and practice), and, by extension, a certain literal fluency in english. this often necessitates a trickle down method of program implementation, which is intuitively at odds with the industry's rhetoric, and can make fulfilling its ostensible aims even more challenging. it is one of the many things that leads one to ask...whose aid is it anyway?
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
china exerting undue influence? say it ain't so...
two posts in one day? someone has a backlog of possible blogging topics and a report due for work, hm?
right then.
so, i'm not sure why the revelation in the leaked Delhi cables , that China may be directly paying off Nepali police to arrest Tibetans crossing Nepal's northern border, is a particularly newsworthy one (and maybe it isn't...aside from the syndicated news story, there doesn't seem to be much commentary on teh interwebs). China makes no bones about its priorities as concerns its diminutive neighbor to the south. About two years ago, China pledged $2.6million in non-lethal security aid, in the same breath praising Nepal's support for the one-China policy. It doesn't exactly take a career diplomat to decode the expectations associated with that aid money.
what is presumably supposed to be more shocking is the direct incentivization (read: bribes) provided by the government of one country to the security forces of another country to bypass nationally and internationally sanctioned immigration policies to deliver illegal immigrants directly back to their country of origin.
but come on now...the Chinese government's reputation is not exactly one of the highest respect for international norms, and the Nepali security sector is notoriously corrupt and inefficient (in a country where there is a historically instantiated, institutionally incentivized and generally accepted attitude of official impunity in pretty much every sector). surely this can't be that much of a shock.
what's also always interesting for me is the huge disparity between Nepalis' opinions of India (and Indians) and China. there is a LOT of distrust and dislike for India and Indians* (which, to be fair, is reciprocated by the feelings I've heard some Indians express about Nepalis, which are more than a little racist). dislike for the Indian government stems from what Nepalis describe as a long history of gross interference in Nepali politics. now, i'll give you that India likes to keep its hand in, so to speak, and that there has been a history of border disputes going back to the formation of Nepal as a country.
on the other hand, China has just as much interest in influencing Nepali politics, especially as it seeks to maintain regional dominance. Nepali hydropower, for instance, is an area in which China is eager to have a say, and one in which Chinese investment is probably going to be detrimental to India's interest...with no particular stake in promoting Nepal's interest except as a tool for gaining geopolitical leverage. while it's not like that's a zero sum game for Nepal, hydropower is essential both as the main power source for Nepal and as one of the only exploitable natural resources in this small, landlocked country defined by its lack of development and inaccessible terrain....and it's not like the Nepali government or private sectors have the capacity to really compete (let alone cooperate to compete together) against the staggering efficiency and economic power of Chinese state-owned hydropower interests.
i happen to think that China does these things more "quietly", exerting economic influence both openly and discreetly, while India tends to exert more open political pressure on its neighbor. it's for others to decide if one of these is "better" or "worse", but i guess i find it kind of ironic that some individuals rail against India, but have no concerns about China, and especially odd that political parties, mostly certain maoist factions, rally popular sentiment against India to score political points, while still cuddling up to Beijing.
* i am in no way arguing that a nation's people and its government SHOULD be conflated, i'm just saying that they are here, inevitably for worse.
right then.
so, i'm not sure why the revelation in the leaked Delhi cables , that China may be directly paying off Nepali police to arrest Tibetans crossing Nepal's northern border, is a particularly newsworthy one (and maybe it isn't...aside from the syndicated news story, there doesn't seem to be much commentary on teh interwebs). China makes no bones about its priorities as concerns its diminutive neighbor to the south. About two years ago, China pledged $2.6million in non-lethal security aid, in the same breath praising Nepal's support for the one-China policy. It doesn't exactly take a career diplomat to decode the expectations associated with that aid money.
what is presumably supposed to be more shocking is the direct incentivization (read: bribes) provided by the government of one country to the security forces of another country to bypass nationally and internationally sanctioned immigration policies to deliver illegal immigrants directly back to their country of origin.
but come on now...the Chinese government's reputation is not exactly one of the highest respect for international norms, and the Nepali security sector is notoriously corrupt and inefficient (in a country where there is a historically instantiated, institutionally incentivized and generally accepted attitude of official impunity in pretty much every sector). surely this can't be that much of a shock.
what's also always interesting for me is the huge disparity between Nepalis' opinions of India (and Indians) and China. there is a LOT of distrust and dislike for India and Indians* (which, to be fair, is reciprocated by the feelings I've heard some Indians express about Nepalis, which are more than a little racist). dislike for the Indian government stems from what Nepalis describe as a long history of gross interference in Nepali politics. now, i'll give you that India likes to keep its hand in, so to speak, and that there has been a history of border disputes going back to the formation of Nepal as a country.
on the other hand, China has just as much interest in influencing Nepali politics, especially as it seeks to maintain regional dominance. Nepali hydropower, for instance, is an area in which China is eager to have a say, and one in which Chinese investment is probably going to be detrimental to India's interest...with no particular stake in promoting Nepal's interest except as a tool for gaining geopolitical leverage. while it's not like that's a zero sum game for Nepal, hydropower is essential both as the main power source for Nepal and as one of the only exploitable natural resources in this small, landlocked country defined by its lack of development and inaccessible terrain....and it's not like the Nepali government or private sectors have the capacity to really compete (let alone cooperate to compete together) against the staggering efficiency and economic power of Chinese state-owned hydropower interests.
i happen to think that China does these things more "quietly", exerting economic influence both openly and discreetly, while India tends to exert more open political pressure on its neighbor. it's for others to decide if one of these is "better" or "worse", but i guess i find it kind of ironic that some individuals rail against India, but have no concerns about China, and especially odd that political parties, mostly certain maoist factions, rally popular sentiment against India to score political points, while still cuddling up to Beijing.
* i am in no way arguing that a nation's people and its government SHOULD be conflated, i'm just saying that they are here, inevitably for worse.
tongba time
so i am sick, tired, and, since the gas heater in my office is producing more odor than warmth, increasingly unable to type as my fingers seize up with the cold and i go lightheaded from the fumes.
however, i am warmed by the discovery of this article, "20 iconic and unusual hot drinks from around the world", and the realization that it has become the most magical time of the year in kathmandu. yes, the pollution gets worse every day there's no rain (aka until monsoon starts again in june). yes, we are already facing electricity and water shortages. yes, you have to sleep with two comforters and your sleeping bag, because there's no way to heat the brick and concrete bunkers in which we live.
so what is tongba? you might rightly ask, having read this far. well. tongba is a warm, lightly alcoholic beverage served throughout eastern nepal. it's made of fermented millet grains, which are steeped in hot water in a wooden vessel, and sipped through a perforated metal straw in a process not unlike drinking mate. the wooden vessel (also satisfying to warm your hands on) will be refilled with boiling water until the grains have lost all their flavor (usually about three or four times). it has a sort of sour, grassy, and slightly nutty taste, and is very warming, but even after three hefty refills (or even a second serving of millet), you don't feel unpleasantly drunk, and never wake up with a hangover. basically, it's the ultimate session brew for the long winter nights in nepal, when the lack of electricity makes your best choice sitting around with friends, trying to stay warm, and shooting the breeze. when my brother visited, it was the first time we had lived together, independently from the parents, as (something resembling) adults. it was both really fun and a really interesting time in our relationship, and we did a lot of that interpersonal re-negotiation with tongba in hand.
anyway, i'll spare you (for now) the tongba-inspired, tired, proust-ian reflections on the passage of time and my life in nepal...but i will advise you to try to find a nepali/tibetan grocery or restaurant and try some if you can. i haven't had my first serving this winter, but i'll definitely be going for it this week. it's just that time of year.
update: wikipedia tells me tongba refers to the vessel, not the drink. could be, although i've never heard it distinguished that way.
however, i am warmed by the discovery of this article, "20 iconic and unusual hot drinks from around the world", and the realization that it has become the most magical time of the year in kathmandu. yes, the pollution gets worse every day there's no rain (aka until monsoon starts again in june). yes, we are already facing electricity and water shortages. yes, you have to sleep with two comforters and your sleeping bag, because there's no way to heat the brick and concrete bunkers in which we live.
my own bunker in happier (warmer) times. we had about 6 people living in 3 rooms
during a one-week bandh, not to mention the friends who live nearby and wandered
over for meals, etc. this is when our house got nicknamed "the commune".
i won't pretend for a second that i don't love it.
that said...the onset of winter means that it's TONGBA TIME. the list in the article above includes the two kinds of tea served in nepal, the chiya of the plains and hill folks (like masala chai in india), and the butter tea of the high mountain and tibetan ethnic groups (which tastes like the salted inside of a yak...in a good way). but no tongba, which is a tragedy.
when my brother came to visit last year (almost exactly a year ago, actually) for a month, he and i discovered tongba together. we first had some when we went out to see my friend annie, who lived in boudha, an area of town dominated by the tibetan community (which is unusual, most parts of the city aren't really very ethnically segregated, with maybe a couple of exceptions). dave and i were pretty much instantly addicted, and made a habit of going a few times a week to the hole in the wall joint right near our place (called "separate choice kitchen", which never ceases to please me) to grab some after work.
my brother's first taste of tongba.
so what is tongba? you might rightly ask, having read this far. well. tongba is a warm, lightly alcoholic beverage served throughout eastern nepal. it's made of fermented millet grains, which are steeped in hot water in a wooden vessel, and sipped through a perforated metal straw in a process not unlike drinking mate. the wooden vessel (also satisfying to warm your hands on) will be refilled with boiling water until the grains have lost all their flavor (usually about three or four times). it has a sort of sour, grassy, and slightly nutty taste, and is very warming, but even after three hefty refills (or even a second serving of millet), you don't feel unpleasantly drunk, and never wake up with a hangover. basically, it's the ultimate session brew for the long winter nights in nepal, when the lack of electricity makes your best choice sitting around with friends, trying to stay warm, and shooting the breeze. when my brother visited, it was the first time we had lived together, independently from the parents, as (something resembling) adults. it was both really fun and a really interesting time in our relationship, and we did a lot of that interpersonal re-negotiation with tongba in hand.
anyway, i'll spare you (for now) the tongba-inspired, tired, proust-ian reflections on the passage of time and my life in nepal...but i will advise you to try to find a nepali/tibetan grocery or restaurant and try some if you can. i haven't had my first serving this winter, but i'll definitely be going for it this week. it's just that time of year.
update: wikipedia tells me tongba refers to the vessel, not the drink. could be, although i've never heard it distinguished that way.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
this week in bandhs (and other news)
so probably the biggest new story this week is the arrest of former prince (and international playboy?) paras shah for firing off a gun at a resort in chitwan after a disagreement with the daughter and son-in-law of the current deputy prime minister. although that arrest seems pretty fair to me (history demonstrates it's wise to be nervous about the combination of nepali royals and firearms), the royalist party blocked roads in basantapur, protesting his arrest. classic.
in other news, loadshedding (scheduled power outages) goes up to 56 hours a week due to hrydo shortages. bad news for those of us who like a hot shower in january.
#statingtheobvious: 'Roads in Nepal Substandard'
in other news, loadshedding (scheduled power outages) goes up to 56 hours a week due to hrydo shortages. bad news for those of us who like a hot shower in january.
#statingtheobvious: 'Roads in Nepal Substandard'
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
spot on aid humor
like i said, i've been getting into reading development blogs lately. many of the authors of these fall into the category of practitioner/skeptic, and i've enjoyed expanding my reading list (suggestions welcome!). but i have to say, i particularly love when these skeptical insiders just let. it. rip. about all the absurdities of the industry.
two hilarious blogs featuring self-deprecating commentary on international aid/development work are:
Hand Relief International: it's a submission-based parody blog, and so the post quality is a little uneven, but the "do i work for an HRI affiliate?" post is BRILLIANT.
Stuff Expat Aid Workers Like : really funny spin on the ever popular stuff white people like trend, by a couple of talented aid/development bloggers, including j. from tales from the hood, which is another new favorite. i totally want to submit one of these.
two hilarious blogs featuring self-deprecating commentary on international aid/development work are:
Hand Relief International: it's a submission-based parody blog, and so the post quality is a little uneven, but the "do i work for an HRI affiliate?" post is BRILLIANT.
Stuff Expat Aid Workers Like : really funny spin on the ever popular stuff white people like trend, by a couple of talented aid/development bloggers, including j. from tales from the hood, which is another new favorite. i totally want to submit one of these.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
yay my roomie
aside from the joy of promoting a good friend's work (my own roomie's in this case), there is a lots to be learned from reading articles like this, which are entirely typical of research that (rightly) focus on the local benefits (or lack thereof) to international schemes for carbon offset.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Can Technology End Poverty?
...this is the title of an ongoing boston review forum debating just that. i've only gotten through a few of them, but i particularly like this installment by kentaro toyama. after five years working on ICT4D (information and communications technologies for development) research for microsoft in india, he comes to a conclusion that really should strike us as common sense (but then, i'm often struck by how little common sense sometimes plays a role in development)....
This myth of scale is the religion of telecenter proponents, who believe that bringing the Internet into villages is enough to transform them. Most recently, there is the cult of the mobile phone: one New York Times Magazine headline ran, “Can the Cellphone Help End Global Poverty?” The article went on to assert, “the possibilities afforded by a proliferation of cellphones are potentially revolutionary.”
“Revolutionary.” The myth of scale is seductive because it is easier to spread technology than to effect extensive change in social attitudes and human capacity. In other words, it is much less painful to purchase a hundred thousand PCs than to provide a real education for a hundred thousand children; it is easier to run a text-messaging health hotline than to convince people to boil water before ingesting it; it is easier to write an app that helps people find out where they can buy medicine than it is to persuade them that medicine is good for their health.
This myth of scale is the religion of telecenter proponents, who believe that bringing the Internet into villages is enough to transform them. Most recently, there is the cult of the mobile phone: one New York Times Magazine headline ran, “Can the Cellphone Help End Global Poverty?” The article went on to assert, “the possibilities afforded by a proliferation of cellphones are potentially revolutionary.”
“Revolutionary.” The myth of scale is seductive because it is easier to spread technology than to effect extensive change in social attitudes and human capacity. In other words, it is much less painful to purchase a hundred thousand PCs than to provide a real education for a hundred thousand children; it is easier to run a text-messaging health hotline than to convince people to boil water before ingesting it; it is easier to write an app that helps people find out where they can buy medicine than it is to persuade them that medicine is good for their health.
Friday, December 10, 2010
my (fun) humla reading list...
right, so, understandably, i didn't just pickle my brain in the brine of academic lit while i was out there. i also read trashy (and not so trashy) escapist fiction! there is an odd mathematics to my field visits so far, almost a rule of physics, that no matter how many novels i bring, i will read each of them twice. this time i brought three and owe a hat tip to rae and tim for the first two, and to eli for the third.
Motorcycle Diaries: read pretty much all of this on my layover day in nepalgunj on the way there (the first time). this may or may not have influenced my decision to keep a journal (which i will post, emo queen that i am). don't make fun of me; it's a good book. if you ARE going to make fun of me, make fun of me for seeing the movie when it first came out, getting to the end, reading the subtitles and going "wait a second...that was about CHE guevara?!"
The 19th Wife: oh my god. polygamy, cults, murder, historical fiction/period stuff. WHAT IS NOT TO LOVE??? (oh, that's right, they made a lifetime movie and made the main character not gay. way to be awesome, lifetime network.)
Cloud Atlas: man, i can not recommend this book enough. it is six resonating narratives, nested like russian dolls and stretching from the 19th century sea voyage and commentary on colonialism through a post-apocalyptic narrative set on hawaii which has plenty to say, unintentionally or not, about the role of the anthropologist. exactly what i needed to be reading, and exactly what i would write if i were that smart and creative and wanted to write a dystopian fantasy. there's ALSO a movie in the works for this one, and i can't wait to see how they do it.
Motorcycle Diaries: read pretty much all of this on my layover day in nepalgunj on the way there (the first time). this may or may not have influenced my decision to keep a journal (which i will post, emo queen that i am). don't make fun of me; it's a good book. if you ARE going to make fun of me, make fun of me for seeing the movie when it first came out, getting to the end, reading the subtitles and going "wait a second...that was about CHE guevara?!"
The 19th Wife: oh my god. polygamy, cults, murder, historical fiction/period stuff. WHAT IS NOT TO LOVE??? (oh, that's right, they made a lifetime movie and made the main character not gay. way to be awesome, lifetime network.)
Cloud Atlas: man, i can not recommend this book enough. it is six resonating narratives, nested like russian dolls and stretching from the 19th century sea voyage and commentary on colonialism through a post-apocalyptic narrative set on hawaii which has plenty to say, unintentionally or not, about the role of the anthropologist. exactly what i needed to be reading, and exactly what i would write if i were that smart and creative and wanted to write a dystopian fantasy. there's ALSO a movie in the works for this one, and i can't wait to see how they do it.
my humla reading list, and a couple extrapolations based thereon...
i'll be getting a post-trip update on my research and my experiences up over the weekend/early next week, but i thought i'd throw in a couple of additions to the bibliography for those of you who are into those things (you know who you are...all two of you).
far and away the two most important books i've read for this project are Barry Bishop's Karnali Under Stress: Livelihood Strategies and Seasonal Rhythms in a Changing Nepal Himalaya, and Jagannath Adhikari's Food Crisis in Karnali: A Historical and Politico-economic Perspective.
Bishop was a geographer who spent 1969/1970 doing GOD's work (ethnographically speaking), collecting some incredibly detailed data on the land and people of the karnali region. specifically, he looks at people's livelihood strategies, or how they make their living, and the way that had changed over time up to 1970. basically he did what i was/am intending to do (more on this later) in an inevitably more superficial way. it's daunting as hell looking at what he did (seriously, i lack words for the quality of the appendices), but it's also GREAT because it basically gives me baseline data for a pre-civil war, pre-major aid intervention period. one of the things that's unbelievably striking is how little has changed, at least superficially. with the addition of massive deforestation and cell phones, pictures bishop took 40 years ago look almost exactly like the ones i took two weeks ago. i'll try to scan a page in and do a side-by-side example.
Adhikari does a much broader sweep of an update through 2006 (the conclusion of the civil conflict, and basically where i sort of pick my research up), including a chapter on the effects of government and foreign aid. unfortunately, he doesn't go to humla, where i'm working, but at least i don't feel geographically redundant. his thesis is that "much of the problems in Karnali relates to the hegemonic and exploitative relationship imposed by Kathmandu (the power center) over Karnali (a peripheral region treated as colony) since its unification in Nepal", and i'd say that's pretty accurate. it's not the whole story, and especially in combination with the Bishop, you can see how much is attributed to other factors as well....
aw hell, i was going to wait to put up a more complete research update, but i'll start with this one set of thoughts and how it's sort of refined my thinking...
basically, i finished the Bishop while i was in humla, it struck me (literally, at the top of a mountain), that you could conceptualize pretty much all of the observable, substantive livelihood changes that have happened there since 1970 as a function of one of these variables:
1) population growth
2) climate change and environmental degredation (not unrelated to 1)
3) externally driven political/economic developments (most importantly: the closure/restrictions on the northern border with tibet, and the penetration of roads, and access to india, from the south and west)
4) political upheaval, most recently, the maoist conflict
5) direct aid intervention by the government and NGOs (with most of it being from NGOs)
please don't be TOO harsh with this, those of you more knowledgeable than i (although kind, critical feedback more than welcome). since it's just sort of a rough rubric to consolidate my thoughts and refine my future research. ideally, now, what i'm doing is trying to understand the changes that have been wrought by factor 5, bearing in mind that it's probably impossible to fully isolate these causes from each other, as they're all part of a complicated system. going forward, i'm trying to understand those changes both, to some degree, etic-ly (that is, through the collection of "hard data" on livelihood adaptations from the field and secondary sources), and, in my mind more importantly, emic-ly (that is, locally situated understandings of those changes as informed by participants' narratives), and to try and start to get at the way those changes have affected people's understandings of themselves and their relationships to larger institutions, specifically, the government and (vs) non-governmental organizations.
well. if you're still reading, you'll probably find the following list interesting. it's what i'm sort of continuing to pick my way through as background reading. these are the books anyway, and pretty much just the tip of the iceberg of the canon. at some point maybe i'll do a list of the articles as well, although it's a LOT of sort of dry, methodological stuff....
Ferguson, James The Anti-politics Machine: Development, Depoliticization and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho
Fisher, Julie Nongovernments: NGOs and the Political Development of the Third World
Scott, James Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed
Emerson, Fretz, and Shaw Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes
i've also started reading a LOT of development blogs, thanks to my google reader, so i think i'm going to start trying to link to some of those and comment on the debates, insofar as i can follow them.
far and away the two most important books i've read for this project are Barry Bishop's Karnali Under Stress: Livelihood Strategies and Seasonal Rhythms in a Changing Nepal Himalaya, and Jagannath Adhikari's Food Crisis in Karnali: A Historical and Politico-economic Perspective.
Bishop was a geographer who spent 1969/1970 doing GOD's work (ethnographically speaking), collecting some incredibly detailed data on the land and people of the karnali region. specifically, he looks at people's livelihood strategies, or how they make their living, and the way that had changed over time up to 1970. basically he did what i was/am intending to do (more on this later) in an inevitably more superficial way. it's daunting as hell looking at what he did (seriously, i lack words for the quality of the appendices), but it's also GREAT because it basically gives me baseline data for a pre-civil war, pre-major aid intervention period. one of the things that's unbelievably striking is how little has changed, at least superficially. with the addition of massive deforestation and cell phones, pictures bishop took 40 years ago look almost exactly like the ones i took two weeks ago. i'll try to scan a page in and do a side-by-side example.
Adhikari does a much broader sweep of an update through 2006 (the conclusion of the civil conflict, and basically where i sort of pick my research up), including a chapter on the effects of government and foreign aid. unfortunately, he doesn't go to humla, where i'm working, but at least i don't feel geographically redundant. his thesis is that "much of the problems in Karnali relates to the hegemonic and exploitative relationship imposed by Kathmandu (the power center) over Karnali (a peripheral region treated as colony) since its unification in Nepal", and i'd say that's pretty accurate. it's not the whole story, and especially in combination with the Bishop, you can see how much is attributed to other factors as well....
aw hell, i was going to wait to put up a more complete research update, but i'll start with this one set of thoughts and how it's sort of refined my thinking...
basically, i finished the Bishop while i was in humla, it struck me (literally, at the top of a mountain), that you could conceptualize pretty much all of the observable, substantive livelihood changes that have happened there since 1970 as a function of one of these variables:
1) population growth
2) climate change and environmental degredation (not unrelated to 1)
3) externally driven political/economic developments (most importantly: the closure/restrictions on the northern border with tibet, and the penetration of roads, and access to india, from the south and west)
4) political upheaval, most recently, the maoist conflict
5) direct aid intervention by the government and NGOs (with most of it being from NGOs)
please don't be TOO harsh with this, those of you more knowledgeable than i (although kind, critical feedback more than welcome). since it's just sort of a rough rubric to consolidate my thoughts and refine my future research. ideally, now, what i'm doing is trying to understand the changes that have been wrought by factor 5, bearing in mind that it's probably impossible to fully isolate these causes from each other, as they're all part of a complicated system. going forward, i'm trying to understand those changes both, to some degree, etic-ly (that is, through the collection of "hard data" on livelihood adaptations from the field and secondary sources), and, in my mind more importantly, emic-ly (that is, locally situated understandings of those changes as informed by participants' narratives), and to try and start to get at the way those changes have affected people's understandings of themselves and their relationships to larger institutions, specifically, the government and (vs) non-governmental organizations.
well. if you're still reading, you'll probably find the following list interesting. it's what i'm sort of continuing to pick my way through as background reading. these are the books anyway, and pretty much just the tip of the iceberg of the canon. at some point maybe i'll do a list of the articles as well, although it's a LOT of sort of dry, methodological stuff....
Ferguson, James The Anti-politics Machine: Development, Depoliticization and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho
Fisher, Julie Nongovernments: NGOs and the Political Development of the Third World
Scott, James Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed
Emerson, Fretz, and Shaw Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes
i've also started reading a LOT of development blogs, thanks to my google reader, so i think i'm going to start trying to link to some of those and comment on the debates, insofar as i can follow them.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
the prodigal returns
i got back to ktm on sunday evening after a pretty grueling trip. it was...in many ways not as bad as i feared, and in certain moments worse than i could have imagined. after i get life/work straightened i'll come back with more details, but for now, enjoy these photos of the trip.
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