20th Anniversary of 1992 Civil Unrest (Saigu)

With the 20th anniversary of the 1992 Civil Unrest (Saigu among Korean Americans) coming upon us, lots of pieces are being written about what we remember, what has changed, and where we’re headed.

Here’s some sites/articles reflecting on the 20 years:

USC’s From the Ashes Conference: The 1992 Civil Unrest and the Rise of Social Movement Organizing  - conference brought together leaders of the social organizing movement in LA to talk about 1992, the 20 years in between, and the future ahead for organizing in LA.

USC CRCC’s Forging a New Moral and Political Agenda: The Civic Role of Religion in Los Angeles, 1992-2010 Report  - I worked on the project as a PhD student at USC and had a great time interviewing and learning from many great religious/civic leaders in LA.

LAANE’S Rage and Reflection – 2 reports from the organization born out of the civil unrest.

LA Times Op-Ed Article – Lessons from LA from 1992 by Manuel Pastor and Kafi Blumenfield - some may argue with their reflections but an important read nonetheless.

LA Times’ Korean American community coalesces – Written by Edward T. Chang is director of the Young Oak Kim Center for Korean American Studies and a professor of ethnic studies at UC Riverside.

LA Riots: Rev. Cecil Murray Sees Progress in Inclusive Society - http://www.neontommy.com/news/2012/04/la-riots-rev-cecil-murray-sees-progress-inclusive-society#.T5hjRRx8KIM.twitter - Rev. Murray also has a autobiography out.

Impact of the Rodney King Riot on the Built Environment - http://www.kcrw.com/news/programs/ww/ww120425impact_of_the_rodney

20 Years Later, LA’s Divisions Fade - http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303990604577370231727848006.html

KCCD Holds Commemorative Service for Sa-i-gu - http://www.saigu429.com/ - Sa-i-gu means 4-29 in Korean and is term the Korean community calls the 1992 Civil Unrest.

KoreAm’s LA Riots, in Our Own Words - KoreAm is a publication dedicated to culture and issues of the Korean American and Asian American community.

Operation Hope Bus Tour Showcases Post-Riots Rebirth – http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/operation-hope-opportunity-bus-tour-highlights-the-power-of-community-partnerships-for-rebuilding-and-revitalizing-underserved-communities-148689695.html?.

 

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Prevention: Years to Build, Hours to Destroy

Last week, we had a chance to watch The Garden (2008) in preparation for an action research project we are participating in this Friday for our community development class.  If you have never seen it, the documentary tells the story of South Central Farmers’ plight to keep their 14-acre urban garden alive.  The garden had so much meaning to the community of urban farmers that toiled on the land.  It is heartbreaking to see it being destroyed on film but definitely a worthy watch and an important story to be told.

Watching the farmers put in their hard work, sweat, and tears as they cultivate the soil and nurture their plants reminds us of how much work it takes to build something, especially when that something is a community and life.  But even more, watching how the whole 14-acre garden was completely destroyed in just a few hours reminds us of how easy and permanent it is to destroy.  Of course, life can come from death (making the 2nd life even sweeter than the 1st), it is just so tragic how easy it is to destroy.

This underscores the importance of prevention and the cost of vulnerability.  The project our class is participating in on Friday aims to do this exact thing: prevent the destruction of a symbol within a local community with similar importance to the community garden that is portrayed in documentary.  Worthwhile work indeed!

WB Nominee: Dr. Jim Yong Kim

As a Korean American, there was obviously a huge part of me that was happy to hear that Dr. Jim Yong Kim, president of Dartmouth College, was nominated by President Obama to be the next World Bank’s president.

Two controversies surround the nomination. First, Dr. Kim is an American. Second, Dr. Kim is not an economist. The first controversy is not isolated to this nomination. Every semester, we discuss in class the nomination process in the WB and IMF and every semester we talk about the lack of representation and influence in decision-making that countries from the Global South have in both institutions. Based on tradition, the head of the WB is selected by the US and the head of the IMF is selected by Europeans. This seems terribly unfair when considered the impact that the policies of the WB have on the Global South.

The unexpected controversy comes with Dr. Kim not being an economist. Many in the development world welcome this change of direction while many see the choice as foolishness and Dr. Kim as unqualified. Perhaps, many an economist seem to be almost insulted that a doctor/anthropologist/university administrator could be the head of the WB. It’s like when teachers hate being managed by principals who don’t have any teaching experience.

While I appreciate the criticism from many for not having a WB leader from the Global South, it would just mean a little bit more in many cases if it came before Obama had nominated a non-economist. Either way, be it Kim or Ocampo or Okonjo-Iweala, it would sure be a welcome change from a series of white male economists in an institution that has a less than perfect tract record.

Some excerpts from Dr. Kim’s profile on BBC:

“Dr Kim is a Korean-American physician, university administrator and a leading figure in global health. The 52-year-old is married to a fellow doctor, and they have two young sons. Born in Seoul, he moved with his family to the US at the age of five and grew up in Muscatine, Iowa.

He attended Brown University before going on to Harvard where he earned his medical doctorate in 1991 and a PhD in anthropology in 1993.

He also co-founded the health charity Partners in Health in 1987. Kim is former director of the HIV/Aids department at the World Health Organization. He is currently president of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, one of America’s top-tier Ivy League Schools, where he was appointed in 2009.”

Some more posts on Jim Yong Kim:

• Nancy Birdsall writes more on the three candidates – http://blogs.cgdev.org/globaldevelopment/2012/03/three-questions-to-ask-the-three-candidates-to-lead-the-world-bank.php
• Dr. Kim and Growth – http://nyudri.org/2012/03/25/some-not-entirely-typical-remarks-by-a-world-bank-president/
• Dr. Kim’s Fit at the World Bank – http://blogs.cgdev.org/globaldevelopment/2012/03/the-time-of-his-life-why-kim-and-the-bank-could-be-good-for-each-other.php

Update: More links on the controversy

• The New Yorker’s Dr. Kim and the Future of the World Bank – http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/johncassidy/2012/03/jim-yong-kim-world-bank.html?mbid=social_retweet (via @viewfromthecave)
• Lant Pritchett’s Why Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala Should Be the Next Head of the World Bank – http://blogs.cgdev.org/globaldevelopment/2012/03/why-ngozi-okonjo-iweala-should-be-the-next-head-of-the-world-bank.php
• FP’s Hunger Games – http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/03/26/hunger_games (via @nancybirdsall)
• Mr. Kim vs. the World Bank – http://whynationsfail.com/blog/2012/3/27/mr-kim-vs-the-world-bank.html (via @viewfromthecave)
• Why Obama Rejected Okonjo-Iweala – http://pointblanknews.com/new/exclusive/3904-world-bank-presidency-why-obama-rejected-okonjo-iweala.html (via @clblatts)
• EAC leaders caught in global diplomatic dance over top World Bank job – http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/Race+for+World+Bank+top+job++What+Obama+told+Kagame/-/2558/1377176/-/1cwc7ez/-/ (via @Calestous)

More links at http://www.worldbankpresident.org/…

Second Chances

Taken in the urban garden in Homeboy's parking lot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our class had a chance to hear from one of the homegirls at Homegirl Cafe yesterday.  Lots of people talking about second chances these days.  Well, we need more organizations who offer real paths towards a second chance to our urban youth – a population often ignored and forgotten by our budgets and actions.

Take a listen and hear an amazing work in the talk she gave at the recent TED Women conference.

Thoughts on Kony 2012

Lots of thoughts being shared on the Kony 2012 campaign and I’m writing this in response to questions my students have shared about the issue.  Plus, I thought I’d share some thoughts as an educator trying to teach young people about effective aid.

Is the criticism justified?

If I was giving this film a grade, it would not get a very high one.  In fact, it breaks many of the major principles that I try to advocate to my students.  For one, from a policy analysis perspective, the analysis has many holes (as has been critiqued in countless blog postings).  Not only is the problem analysis way too simplified, but the recommendation is not well thought out (again many blog posts on this as well).

From a media perspective, obviously the creators are skilled at communicating the emotional message.  Whether it is appropriately used, bordering on manipulation, etc that’s another question.  But these things are fairly common in documentaries and probably accomplishes what creators hoped in many ways.  Lot of style not much substance.

In terms of perspective, esp. as a woman of color, it’s just tiring to continuously see problems defined from one perspective: the white man’s.  Even more, it’s disheartening to see how quickly this White Man’s Burden legacy is being passed and accepted by the young generation.

As a viewer, it’s a bit underwhelming to hear the analysis of the problem begin with a conversation to a toddler.  I know we have low expectations for Americans and their youth, but surely this audience can handle a bit more complexity and depth.

Isn’t awareness a good thing?

It depends on what your objective is.  If your goal is to mobilize funds, perhaps people becoming aware if even superficially and mixed with some bad information is enough.  If your goal is to build trust with your donors, setting up false expectations on the power of their actions can likely come back and bite you in the behind.  If the expectation is that by the end of one year, Kony would be caught and justice reign because young Americans became aware and involved – what happens to those young Americans when the end of the year comes and goes and the issue hasn’t been resolved?  How will this young generation feel then?  Will there be compassion fatigue, cynicism, disillusionment?

Lastly, if your objective is to educate the public/contribute to more informed and effective citizenship/reduce paternalistic attitudes or expectations of easy answers to difficult problems, then I would say this sort of awareness is indeed harmful.

The encouraging thing to see, in the midst of the harsh criticism and sarcasm, is that perhaps it is becoming more difficult to get away with this sort of superficial, misinformed advocacy.  This means perhaps we are growing in our ability to keep organizations accountable.  Whether you agree with the way the message has been delivered or not, more than one side is now being heard.  And hopefully, other groups doing this sort of work will think twice about the quality and substance they produce.

Why has the tone of the criticism been so harsh?

I think the outrage is matching the popularity and acceptance of the film.  Are aid blogs snarky?  It wouldn’t be an aid blog if it didn’t have some snark, no?  But imagine committing years of work fighting against bad assumptions and knowledge among donors and low expectations of what the public can understand by marketing departments who love to simplify messages because they believe that’s what people want.

I know it frustrates me as an educator to see many of the practices that I work hard to try and convince students are bad principles of aid/advocacy becoming so popularly accepted by the next generation. More work created…

Combine that with the expectation that IC would produce something a bit more substantial given the size of their annual budget and the actual anger and frustration of just being tired of the notion that the White Man will save us, I imagine that some snarkiness/outrage/etc. should be tolerated though probably not to the degree of vilifying an organization undeservingly.  We are after all on the same side of this issue and need to work together.

So now what?

Again the solution won’t be easy or even ours to implement but so that I’m not repeating what many have already written about even more, here’s just one post with some suggestions.

Interestingly enough, this may be what I consider bad advocacy, but it’s a great teaching opportunity!

Kony 2012 Articles

Some posts on video put out by Invisible Children’s new advocacy campaign Kony 2012:

• Foreign Policy – Josephy Kony is not in Uganda (and other complicated things)
• Project Diaspora – A Peace of my mind: Respect my agency 2012!
• afriPOP – 5 African Reactions to the Kony 2012 Campaign
• Wanderings – Invisible Children and Joseph Kony
• How Matters – Bad guys, good guys, and the people in between and Searching for Closure: A Kony 2012 Postscript
• Find What Works – Kony 2012: history, nuance, and advoacy’s Golden Rule
• Invisible Children’s response to criticism
• Chris Blattman – My thoughts on KONY 2012 (and a defence of Invisible Children?
• Project Diaspora – Contributing Our Voices to the Kony 2012 Debate
• The Atlantic – White Savior Industrial Complex
• Foreign Policy – No Longer Invisible 

Many more links here at whydev.org…