Week Nine

I’ve always had an interest in international nonprofits, mostly because I have an intense desire to travel and doing hands on important work while experiencing another culture seems like a perfect situation. At the same time the saying “think globally act locally” has always made a lot of sense to me and I while international nonprofits seems wonderful for selfish reasons I think we have a lot to work on domestically before we can be putting too much effort and money into isolated issues around the world, many which we lack the cultural know-how to deal with properly.

The interview with William Easterly was fascinating, especially because many of his opinions echoed my own thoughts yet his point of view is based on in depth personal experiences with global aid. I’ve worried before that we weren’t always focusing on the most vital issues of a community but I had no idea that the money leaks were so bad.

I really enjoyed the Aid vs Trade TED talk and let me just say that Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala may possibly be my new hero. She is an amazing and powerful woman. I went on to read her biography after her speech and continued to be impressed. I suggest you check it out yourself.

http://www.ted.com/speakers/ngozi_okonjo_iweala.html

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala brought up some great points and I truly believe that in the end nations that are receiving U.S. aid are not going to reach their goals until they are in the forefront of what is happening and respected as people with important input and knowledge about their communities and nation. I think that often aid recipients are dehumanized. Perhaps not in a way as negative as that word suggests but we definitely like to think that we are helping “less developed” perhaps less intelligent and able people.

I thought the eight millennium goals were important but it seemed to me that the final one, A global partnership for development, could have been written to be more inclusive of the developing countries wants. Globalization is a two edged sword and not every country may want to trade as freely as the UN is suggesting. 

I perused Mercy Corps webpage for a while and kept going back and forwards about whether I like the way they are handling their global work or not. They seem to use the word ‘expert’ freely and possibly become over involved in international political events. I think that we can improve individual’s lives around the globe through empowering them rather than just telling them what is right or wrong. With my information at this time I’m unsure whether Mercy Corps is more involved in the first ideology or the latter. I did however really appreciate how they worked to make sure the Sudanese people in Southern Sudan were well informed about their own voting process. This put the power in their hands and led to an important national event