What this is all about?

Grameen means "rural" or "village" in Bangla, so literally this translates to 'Stories from the Village.' I travelled to Bangladesh in 2010 and did an Internship with the Grameen Bank and was amazed by the people there especially in its rural villages. The 'desh' and its people are an inspiration and will always have a special place in my heart.

Since then, I continually see how important villages are, be it in rural Bangladesh, or in urban core neighbourhoods in Canada. A strong village is what brings people together and welcomes newcomers and supports those in need. Villages are what I fight for and this blog is how I do it.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Yes You Can!

It does not matter what others say, the truth is yes you can!

I am going to keep this short and sweet, because you have better and more important things to do than listen to other people telling you what to do. If you have read the title and these first three sentences then you have read enough, the rest is just me explaining myself.

I went to the City Symposium today and that was a slap in the face to re-awaken me. It reminded me of all the things that Graham Smith had been telling me the last two years in his classes. Enough with the pessimism, enough with the fighting between each other. Lets be optimistic, lets work together, lets help each other out.

I know I am just some idealistic kid who is ranting on his blog, but someone somewhere might read this and actually be motivated to do it. So if I give just a tiny push to get them on their way then I will be happy.

In light of some of the battles I heard about today at the Symposium mine seem like minor disturbances however my point still stands. I have fought through different organisations where we were told no we can't and why would you even suggest that. I work in a neighbourhood which has been told that no they can't. But at the end of the day we did get what wanted in a different way, but we got it. And good things are going on where I work.

Its all about the attitude you have. Have an open mind, be innovative, the more we share, the more we have. You can do it!

Cheers,
Mike

Sunday, October 23, 2011

The Occupy Movement, Systems and Arts and Culture

Couple Questions:

I have been busy lately and have not had much time to put together a coherent post. But there are a couple things I am struggling with right now:

The occupy movement: I get it, 99% vs 1%, but what is camping outside of banks going to do? There are more productive ways to get things done. This leads in to my second issue:

Systems: A mentor to me made the point that systems are great at collecting resources to keep the system going, and they are good at protecting themselves from losing those resources. The people who have the resources that the system needs to continue benefit, while those who do not have the resources, are pushed aside.

I know that one person benefiting does not mean that others are being pushed down, but no attempt is being made to help them start to benefit more. We need to create new systems, which represent and collect resources for those who are currently excluded. They need to be able to sustain themselves, while supporting those who need it, and still be able to rival the existing systems. It is a big ask, and I don't know how to do it. the resources of the 1% might be immense, but so are the resources of the 99%. So there needs to be a way to pool all that, and create a significant impact.

Arts and Culture: The Arts and Culture community is, almost by definition, incredibly varied. That is its greatest asset and also its greatest weakness. No one wants bands who all sounds the same, or artists which paint the same picture. However, this differences also mean that every creative person has different ideas, different priorities, different audiences and different needs. This makes it almost impossible for arts and culture to pool their collective influence and importance so that they can have a stronger voice.

I was at a meeting recently where a group from the arts and culture community were talking about what they think needs to be done to grow the arts community. The discussion struggled with how we reach to people who are not currently coming out to our events. Primarily this focussed on the lack of youth at the meeting and at their events.

Tom Borrup discusses here about how people are most engaged when they are respected for who they are, what they believe, and what they bring to the table. I think currently the youth and their artistic interests do not feel respected and therefore they are not going to be engaged with the culture of, as they perceive it, the older generation. There needs to be a shift, as Borrup indicates, towards practicing the idea of cultural equality and not privileging one group or form over another.

Too often it is thought that the youth, or any other group which is not participating in the established culture, needs to be educated about the importance of the arts. Once they are educated then they will come, we just need to tell them why to come.This superiority attitude needs to change, or else that art which people are fighting so hard to keep alive is going to be lost for good. Someone needs to remember the youth when we talk to the community, they may not be the current community leaders, but they are the future leaders.

Instead I think we need to be looking at what these other groups are doing and looking for new creative to combine their different creative interests. Creative ways where all forms of art are treated equally. Globalization and technology are making it easier and easier for different cultures and different ideas to come together, so why don't we embrace that? Have a little respect for each other and together we can do so much more.

Cheers,
Michael

Thursday, August 25, 2011

The Attitude of Development

In every community I have been to which is trying to redevelop itself or get through a hard time there has been one overriding commonality in the way they think, and it is something a lot of people don't get.

They don't need other people to feel sorry for them, or tell them what is wrong and how to fix it, they just need other people to listen to them. They live in their community everyday, they don't need to be reminded what is wrong with it. This is something that everyone has trouble getting over when they go to a new place.

Think about it another way.

If there is something you think is really bad, then there must be a ton of things that are really good for the local residents to still want to live there! Those are the important things that should be focused on and built on. They may not be things that you can see right away. You can easily see crumbling buildings, or vandalism, but you can't immediately see a strong supporting community, friendly neighbours, cheap rent or diverse opinions and ideas. It is not until you start talking to people and actually listening to what they say that you can begin to see those things. Too often people come in to a community, take a quick look and do too much talking and not enough listening.

What do you like best about your community? What do you want to see happen?

The reason this is so important is because everyone is taught the Type-A solutions to problems. We are taught the status quo, the prevailing thoughts, the consensus in school and university. Now if a community appears to be struggling it is probably because the prevailing ideas are not working, and a change is needed. Be dynamic! Innovative ideas are needed which you can only discover by talking and listening to what different people have to say. Only then will you broaden your perspective.

Its the difference between "you should do this" and "what can I do for you?" or "what do you think of this?" It is something that everyone struggles with when entering a new community, but I think the faster you can change that mindset the greater the impact you can have and the more help you can provide.

Cheers,
Michael

Monday, August 22, 2011

Creating Culture to Create Development

Right now I am interested in how arts and culture relate to community development. How can it be used to stimulate local economic development, create employment and build a community?

So often the things I have been reading have been about how thriving arts and culture scenes make those cities the need-to-be places. Or how important arts and culture is to a city for attracting businesses and people to want to locate in the city. Recently in my spare time I have been reading Richard Florida's The Rise of the Creative Class. This is his first, widely cited and hugely influential book on the development of many cities. In it he develops a Creativity Index which is based on three indexes: a Bohemian Index, a Gay Index and an Diversity Index. These are used to predict a cities standing in the creative economy. Essentially the cities with the highest concentrations of the super creative bohemians - artists, writers, musicians, designers; strong LGBT communities; and open to new immigrants are the cities that will be the most creative.

It all makes sense that cities and neighbourhoods with more people from different backgrounds with different perspectives will come up with innovative new ideas that wouldn't develop in a more homogeneous environment. I also realise that creative people like local musicians or artists attract people who want to walk past a mural painted by their neighbour be able to go to their local bar and hear the guys down the street play.

I get all that but then so what? What am I supposed to do with that?

It seems that we are too busy talking about the importance of Arts and Culture, rather than looking at how to create, foster, and grow it. There seems to be very little on this. Florida's indexes show where creative cities are, but what came first? The creative economy or their or the gay bohemian immigrant? From my experience so far, politicians and planners and great at saying 'Oh look! We have a cool arts scene. We need to use it to promote our city.' It seems like something that cities stumble upon, rather than consciously build themselves.

Florida an member of the creative class who says that "We want a place that is not done". Creative types don't want something that is already done, they want to be able to create it and shape the area that they live in. That is part of who they are.

To me the conclusion should be that cities need to realise that they can't force a vibrant arts and culture district to happen. It has to be created by the creative people who are in it. If I had the answer I would write a book and travel around giving speeches, but I don't unfortunately.

In the long term I think it starts in schools and with kids. There needs to be more effort to encourage students to be creative and come up with innovative projects, answers and solutions. Right now the focus is on getting "the right" answer. Beyond that I think the most can be done at the community level by community leaders. For example: adaptive uses of schools and other public facilities in off hours to allow arts/ cultural groups access to space.

Monday, August 15, 2011

Population Densities

I just drove the two and a half hour drive from Toronto to London, Canada and a couple weeks ago for the Canada day weekend I drove all the way to Ottawa. These trips reminded me just how vast, and sparsely populated Canada is.

Consider these two trips: A) Toronto to London, Canada and B) Dhaka to Tangail District, Bangladesh.

A) Toronto to London is 200km approximately and it takes about 2 hours 30 minutes.
B) Dhaka to Tangail is about 85km, and it takes between 4 and 5 hours.

Part of the difference here is traffic, part is the state of the road and cars. Traffic is horrendous in Bangladesh, almost all the time, while in Toronto is only bad at certain times. The traffic problems are based purely on the number of people.

A) South-Western Ontario has a population of 2.5 million and an area of 37 thousand km squared.
B) Meanwhile, the Dhaka Division (which both Dhaka and Tangail are located within) is roughly the same size, at 31 thousand km squared but has a massive population of 46.7 million!!

The difference between those is almost incomprehensible. SW Ontario has a density of 6.7 people per square km, while Dhaka Division has a density 22 times greater at 150 people per square km. This is the problem that I had trying to describe the rural areas of Bangladesh. It is rural in the sense that it is mostly agriculturally based, and it is less dense that the cities. But in terms of people it is not rural by Canadian standards.

The drive to Ottawa really struck home this difference. When you turn off the 401 and head north on Highway 416, you are essentially driving through a forest for the next 75km until you reach Ottawa. Now imagine seeing 100-150 people and their homes, livestock, fields and shops at each km marker along the highway. In addition you have just left Dhaka, a city of approximately 13 million people, and are  going to the small city of Tangail (3 million).

Why does this all matter?

All I am saying is think about this when you are about to complain about not having a highspeed railway network or that it takes too long to get between cities. We simply do not have the density of people required to support all these things. Hopefully as globalization continues there will be fewer and fewer limits on the flow of people. Canada can only benefit from having more people to bolster its economy and life in its cities and towns. People from different parts of the world, with different world views, working and living together bring about new innovative and creative ideas. Which is exactly what Canada needs to be competitive in the global economy.

Cheers,
Michael

Sunday, August 7, 2011

What Recent Grads Do

So I just had a conversation with one of my friends who is going into the second year of his bachelors degree. He was asking me about the life of an upper year student, and about life after university. Which got me thinking....

Over the past couple years I have met so many people who for whatever reason were breaking out of the mould. Some had dreams of bigger places, some just had a travel itch, but all were fed up with doing what they felt they were "supposed" to do.

This is all about doing something different, something you really want, not what everyone else wants or expects. When you are applying for a job you don't want to blend in, when you are working on a project you don't want to submit the same old assignment as everyone else. Think outside the box, be creative, follow your passion and dream, expand your boundaries...

What we are "supposed" to do usually consists of something like:
  1. Graduate Highschool
  2. Get a Bachelor's Degree and then if needed a Master's Degree
  3. Get a Job
  4. Get Married
  5. Get a House
  6. Get a Family
  7. Put the kids through School and University
  8. Watch the kids move out 
  9. AND THEN travel
It is usually imposed on us by cultural ideas or what our parents did. But honestly, what kid wants to be exactly like their parents, or their grandparents? How about lets do the last step first!

We live in an ever more global and interconnected world. It is easier for us to travel around the world that ever before, it is easier for us to communicate with people on the opposite side of the world. Because of this our world is going to become ever more interconnected. It is so much easier it would be a shame to not take advantage of them.

One of my other friends showed me a link to WanderingEarl's blog:. I loved this article, why don't more people know about these other options? There is more than the pre-prescribed way to live your life. My friend is a huge inspiration since she had the guts to move to a new city and try to find a job, and when that didn't work, she looked somewhere else. Now in a couple days she is off to the other side of the world to teach math for a year on Mongolia!

One other thing that I don't understand is why these alternative lifestyles are often viewed as a waste of time, and escape from reality or a young innocent persons dream? As I said before - we live in an increasingly globalised world. Doesn't that imply that we need globalised people?

What happens in one part of the world (take for example the potential defaults of the US and Spain situations) affects all other parts of the world. What we need is people who are global citizens, people who know how different cultures work, and how innovative partnerships can be formed. When we collaborate we will be more successful than trying to do things on our own. Projects where the community collaborate together are the projects that are the most successful. And like it or not we are a global community now, so we need to start collaborating on a global scale. If you have a job, or are looking for a job, then the ability to bring your experience and knowledge of global examples, how to work with other cultures and people, or even your global connections to the table will make you very employable.

I couple months ago I went to a speach by Dr. Uma Nararyan at The University of Western Ontario. She was speaking about the darkside of microfinance, the side that people don't hear about in the news. She presented all the problems and no solutions. So, after her talk, I put up my hand and asked what we should do instead, and suggested things like working to work to get property rights, and the rule of law actually enforced. Why focus on the negative, focus on the positives and on the solutions (that is one of the most important things Dr. Graham Smith taught me)?

In response she proceeded to essentially ridicule me in front of everyone about how I could suggest ways to change microfinance after all the horrible things she has said about it. I pushed further, asking simply - ok, what do we do instead?A couple more wrinkles appeared on her forehead, and she simply told me to stay where I came from. Why did I think I needed to help the developing world?

For someone who has presumably spent a good deal of her life as a professor and guest speaker, travelling and talking to people around the world, I did not understand how her solution could be that I was not allowed to travel to her part of the world. We are becoming more interconnected, not more isolated, embrace it or be left behind.

Now about me. 

I am a fresh graduate from the University of Western Ontario's Urban Development Program. I was lucky enough to get a one year contract job in my field in community development. I took that opportunity when it came, but I am always looking towards my goal of travelling and seeing the world. I am saving up money and also learning to build a bike, so that I can travel by bike, or work in a bike shop while I travel. I am not writing this from experience, far from it, this is a statement of how I want to become experienced, and the types of experiences I want to have.

I haven't taken the leap of getting on a one way flight to somewhere on the other side of the world, but I know I want to, and I am inspired by my friends who have. Slowly I am working towards it, doing it my way, the way I want to. It is something which I think more people need to look at as a legitimate option and as a way to build valuable experience.

Cheers,
Michael

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Trade vs Aid

This past week I had the pleasure of attending the Social Innovation @ Ivey forum. One of the speakers was Oliberte's founder, Tal Dehtiar. He spoke very passionately how development driven by the middle class. This is done by generating jobs which does not happen with aid but instead by trade and specifically manufacturing. His company produces high quality leather shoes which are made, in the truest definition of the word, in Africa.

Currently he indirectly employs 300 people, approximately half of which are women in the factories which source him in Africa. The gender split is 50-50 all the was up from manufacturing to junior management and office jobs. In his long term plan the goal is to employ a million people, and jointly own all his factories with the employees who work there. Currently he does not own the factories and they are just under contract with him, so he only has limited control over working conditions. As his operations grow he is able to have more and more influence in ensuring better working conditions.

He was one of the keynote speakers at the conference focusing around social business. He objected with the term "social business / enterprise" however. In his opinion, and I agree with him, it is a ridiculous term in the fact that companies who maybe are not employing people in Africa, but have provided good stable jobs to Canadian families are not considered social businesses. In the Walmart, Monsanto, and Lehman Brothers' era perhaps we have stigmatized business as a horrible evil. However, the fact still remains that it is good business sense to treat people well, that includes your: employees, customers, business partners, suppliers, etc.

I took a business law course last year, and when we were talking about contracts he told a story of a company he had been hired by, who came out of a meeting happy that they had got a great deal. They had screwed over their supplier and gotten a very low price for the product. My prof asked his client what would happen to his supplier in a year or two under that contract. His client paused and then said that there was no way he would be able to keep doing business selling at that price and would likely go bankrupt. I think that was a moment of realization for his client. A truly "good" deal builds a long lasting mutual beneficial relationship which ensures the longterm prosperity for everyone involved. It does not help if you supplier goes bankrupt in 6 months and your need to find a new one.

The same way the term social business or fair trade is ridiculous because every business should be treating people with respect and integrity. Unfortunately that is not the case for all businesses. Hopefully through better information sharing and communications customers will be able to determine which companies are truly treating their employees, suppliers and customers with respect and they will be able to vote with their wallets. Currently there are still great people and great companies doing amazing things, and their numbers are only going to grow in the future.

Cheers,
Michael

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Social Media

I have been busy skiing this week and working on my thesis. But I also found time to work on an assignment which was looking at what I think personifies excellence in geography. I settled on the use and application of social media. The ability for anyone with internet access to be able to publish material (like me!)

I made reference to Shawn in my last post - he was my example how how the application of social media can be used to do excellent things! He recently posted a new blog post after which I responded and directed me to one of his older posts.

I have replied to his comments with something I have been thinking about a lot due to this assignment. Whether it is feasible and possible for aid recipients to be able to video log themselves, rather than have someone like Shawn volunteer everything he had to go tell their stories. They could post videos to youtube, someone else in the international community could reply to that video with a translated version. Issues I see would be the availability and affordability of the internet access to upload the videos. Then there is the whole issue of the actual transfer of any donations. Maybe someone is a sort of free agent (not associated with any charity) like Shawn, could control the flow of funds if needed - once the people have posted the videos themselves.

In other news - my good friends from Bangladesh Ross and Melanie have started working on a project to design a mobile based technology allowing microcredit borrowers to compare the microfinance products of different MFIs. Very interesting stuff which might help to dispel some of the initial hesitation to join a bank - it would give some power back to the consumers.

Cheers,
Michael Clark

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Excellence in Geography and International Development

Just a short post for now, working hard on my thesis but for a project for Implementing Sustainability I needed to find something excellent so here it is - I found this great blog by Shawn Ahmed where he connects the rural villagers in Bangladesh with the world via his blog, twitter and youtube. Check it out, it is called The Uncultured Project! Cheers, Mike

Sunday, February 6, 2011

YAO Project

I now have a actual link to the project that the club is supporting. We are supporting their Village of Opportunity, called Arjona in Colombia. Take a look and even better take a look at our page and you can take a look and donate to our campaign (on the right) supporting the Arjona Project!

Partnership with Pinball Clemons and BetheGame!

It is an exciting time for the club. I met with Michael Pinball Clemons two weeks, and he loved what we were doing. So I am now working with him and his great friend Joe Drexler at BetheGame to help raise money for both microfinance projects and sponsoring and supporting kids in local sports!

The energy that the two of them give off is incredible. I am now trying to see if Western will let us have a big media day on Wednesday / Thursday where we can sell BetheGame apparel to support our causes. Michael Clemons and some of the Argos might be able to make it out to promote it as well! It is inspiring to work with them, and to think that they want to work with me!

Cheers

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

January Activities!

January has been a busy month and it is not over yet! I just got a great lesson on time management in one of my classes though, so I should get more organised! I'm trying to set aside time each week for this (although right now I am in my "Thesis Time").

Couple things: I have found microcredit even in London, Ontario!! The farmers' market where I am doing my thesis (on the economic impact that the market has on the surrounding community) is trying to set up, with the local Business Improvement Association, a economic development corporation which can be used to help provide vendors at the market with a loan to open full blown stores / expand their businesses!

I am now the President of the Western Microcredit Society (WMS), since our wonderful president for the last year and a half left us to go on exchange to Hong Kong! However the club is still moving forward I think under my leadership. =) We will soon have a page about us on Opportunity International's (OI) website under YAO (Young Ambassadors for Opportunity), and OIConnect site will be set up in a week or two to promote our events.

The WMS also has 5-6 interested students in the internship that I did last year to the Grameen Bank, our problem has been that the trip is very expensive, ~$3,500! However, Jannalee from Opportunity came into talk to us yesterday and gave us her great presentation about what OI does and how microfinance works. She had the great idea to look for companies to donate aeroplane points to pay for the flights! Soooo my charge for everyone is to ask if anyone wants to donate aeroplan points, or knows of good businesses to approach. It takes 130,000 points to get to Bangladesh and back x 5-6 people!

Cheers,
Mike

Sunday, January 2, 2011

New Year's Resolution #2!

In the last week of every year and TV hosts and Radio broadcasters make their ridiculously vague new years resolutions: I want to be healthier, I want to have more fun, be nicer, etc. If you make a vague goal, you will have a vague response - nothing! So I always make a resolution not to make any resolutions. Which is usually easy to keep, but this year i have already broken it - for good reason I hope!I have now decided to have 2 resolutions for the new year, neither of them are really "New Year's" resolutions - they both just made sense to start in the new year, and they both are a lot more specific than "be healthier".

The first was to run the 30k Around the Bay running race in Hamilton this year. And the second, is to actually keep this blog updated. I was very busy last semester, and I did not keep up with a lot of things, this blog being one of them. I am not any less busy this semester - probably more busy actually, but I think I am getting a better grip on how to handle it.

This past semester I have started looking into possible international internships in developing countries (preferably back in Asia) in either Urban Development and Planning, Impact Assessment of Development Projects, and microfinance. I would really like to do a longterm internship, 6-12 months, or possibly two half-year ones. I found it was very interesting to be in Dhaka for 6 weeks, just in those few weeks you got such a better sense of the city than if you only stay for a couple days it takes to see all the tourist sites.If you are interested in longterm paid international development internships check out: CIDA Youth Internships or AIESEC Canada.

This resolution is turning a new leaf for the blog, the future of the blog will be updates from things I read related to international development. *Hopefully* it will also be where I can reflect on my travels to different parts of the world, fingers crossed that I get that chance again. I took a couple courses last semester on Globalization and International Development which were easily two of the most enjoyable parts of my week. I had to do many readings for those courses and  I am always reading new articles on my own believe it or not!, especially about microfinance, which I will direct you to and comment on!

Might as well start now with When Indian Elephants Fight which is an interesting article since it is one of the better insights into the India microfinace crisis. The author, David Roodman, is writing an open book on microfinance - where he publishes drafts of chapters in his blog for critic and review - and he visited Andhra Pradesh (AP) province in India to learn more about the crisis. The article talks about the need for regulation of the microfinance industry, however the regulation must be by a third party - not a competitor to microfinance (as in the case of the Government in AP). If it is regulated properly by consulting all inpacted groups; the rural poor, local government agencies, local non profits AND local microfinance institutions, then the industry can be allowed to grow to reach more people in a way which protects the poor and prevents exploitation.

Thanks for reading!

Cheers,
Mike