Danish and remote - random thoughts

It is interesting how one can be away from something and yet feel part of it. Recently there was an election in Denmark – turned out to be quite a landslide similar of what was witnessed in 1973… basically same party too, except even more radical now. Anyway, I am digressing. There was an election, I could not vote and I am something like 6000 KM away from Denmark. Yet the results had me being very emotional for days – My colleague asked me about it the following day and I actually cried.  So remote, yet so very close.

Yesterday I was watching a movie and somehow - on my bed here in comfortable AC temperature - I emerged myself so much in it that when it finished and I went to the bathroom, I had to actively remember where I was. Something that once happened to me while staying in a refugee camp in Ghana – I watched Sex and the City, I promise you it was very odd to regain reality on a 2 inch mattress on a concrete floor, with mice running on the bars under the iron sheet roof.  The point is that this life of being away but still so vividly identifying with life in another part of the world is very odd.

I love my country, I love being Danish (though in some countries I have felt it was a little inconvenient), I think we as Danes are remarkable people, we are a nation with less people than the capital of Ethiopia, yet we are everywhere in the world and most people know something of Denmark, even if it just – footballer… eeeehhh, Bentner – it is still something.

Now comes my contradiction, we are, for some parts, an adventures country, but we expect everywhere else in the world not to share this trait. My boyfriend is Ghanaian, and we just filled in an application for a Shengen visa. In this application I had to, amongst other things, explain when I last saw him. Rather easy, “this morning when I left the house”. Now I have never applied for a visa in Ghana where he had to explain when he last saw me, so that I could be given entrance permission.

Considering the above mentioned recent election, I have a suspicion that the next time we apply for visa, I will have to list many more elements to explain why I and my boyfriend should be let into MY country to visit my family during our holidays.

So remote – yet so very close.  I live so far away from Denmark, yet the choices that the Danes have made in their recent election affects my life beyond most peoples imagination. My partner is from Ghana, am I even allowed to move back home next year then. Someone recently told me – well Malmø is close. Yes it is – it is also in ANOTHER country.  

Is it too much to hope that Løkke will not succeed and we will have another election in the next, say, 3 to 6 months??? I would really like to be able to enter my country of birth sometime soon again – for more than 3 weeks at the time.

The irony of wars and humanity

Humanitarian heroes

Today is World Humanitarian Day - a day where the humanitarian sector celebrates itself by celebrating the people who has lost their lives in their effort to render support in some of the worst crisis in the world.

Today is also the day where a friend of mine has told me, that one of her colleagues is threatened with being fired for refusing to go back to a conflict zone until the organisation has proper security measures in place (the same conflict zone where she was recently caught in a cross fire...).

Somehow the irony is overwhelming.

I do recognise the fact that the people who accept to work in some of the world’s most dangerous contexts like Somalia, Iraq, Syria etc (very time contextual – in 6 months these might have been very different examples), are taking immense risk and giving up on a number of ‘comforts’ that most people who enjoy them daily don’t even think about.

But this is only recognised, because they have the choice. If I was a Somali woman born in Baidoa – my life would have been war. I would not have had a choice; I would be in a context where the comforts of other parts of the world are unknown.

So what makes a humanitarian hero – the choice? If I chose to go and work in Somalia I potentially become a humanitarian hero, as I chose to risk my life on a daily basis… Yes I would do so in an effort to right some of the many wrongs that is otherwise taking place in that and many other countries.

The wars of the world

The wars of the world, is contrary to what is often reported in mainstream media, not secluded to a confined geographical area. The wars of the world are global. They might physically be taking place in CAR, Somalia, Afghanistan or a fourth country, but that is the least part of it. Wars are an instrument of money and power, and the tools to gain the two are human beings.

So in my thinking - Humanitarian heroes are, in fact, people who have made an active choice to partake in trying to correct some of the wrongs we are doing – all simultaneously. It is even highly likely that we are using the same money we made of this conflict, in trying to ‘help’ the people who have fallen victim to it.

Again the Irony is profound.

Cynicism and principle

I do not mean to be cynical about this. I do really respect the work of so many people on the ground fighting, to improve the lives of those with less fortune, on a daily basis. But it is a choice and it is the right thing to do. Even if I am not actively handing out guns or mines to the fights of the conflict, I am possibly investing in the manufacturing of these through my bank, or my governments investment policies. That makes me a stakeholder, and thereby I have to take responsibility. This doesn’t mean however I should throw myself in front of a bullet any given day  - how can I help anybody if I am dead?! But it does mean I have to take a stand and take part in righting the wrong I am partaking in (possibly without knowing, because I have decided that ignorance makes me happy and content).

It boils down to principle. If I do something wrong I should try, to the best of my abilities, to rectify the mistake. Does that make “me” a hero, in the commercial understanding of the word– no it makes me a righteous human being- Which actually in turn might mean ‘hero’ as it seems not to be the way of the world to do what is right.

In most conflicts or disasters help comes first from those who are closest. Several studies (incl the Local to global) have shown that, yes humanitarian agencies provide aid – but they are rarely the first ones to take action. They don’t throw themselves in the middle of a fight to try to end it and protect the innocent victims. What they do is to step in as soon as possible after the damage is done, and make an effort to help those who fell victim. That is very different from how people in the context react, both in terms of action, but also in terms of timeline. How effective is an emergency response if the application process and approval takes 3 months? Just wondering…

I do believe we should honour the Humanitarian heroes – all of them; the refugees, the internally displaced, the children, the elderly and also of course the humanitarian workers. And I must admit – I am proud to know quite a number of people I would qualify as humanitarian heroes.

Happy Humanitarian day. 

Religion vs Self Discipline...

So I just started a new job which is very exiting, and very frightening at the same time.

It is exiting because it is a very cool position, an organisation with a good reputation and because it keeps me employed for a few more years. It is frightening because I have absolutly no idea what I will be doing, and how the organisation work and thereby I don't know if I can do the job as expected. Of course I can, because I have to... But I lack that element of confidence that I normally have. I am not doubting my capacities I am just not sure what my life looks like by this time next week, as I will be in a new country and a nex city - on top of the new job....

Can religion help?

I am not a religious person, but I think this is a time where it would have been nice to put my trust in something beyond myself. I have thought that before, usually when I am hopelessly in lack of selfdiscipline. I have for a long time now tried to cut back on sugar and stop biting my nails - I have succeded at neither. But in the end, the choice is mine and I just have to stop, it is quite simple actually, but also very difficult. I simply don't have the willpower. Which makes me a bit angry actually, I am a fairly disciplinned and strong person in most other ways; I wrote my thesis in 4 months, I usually finished an exam long before the due time (if I had 4 hours, I would usually leave after 2 and if I had a week, I was done after 4 days) in short I buckle up and get tings done - except the nail and sugar thing, oh yeah and the regular exercise...

In this process of getting a new job, I had several interviews, some better than others, but generally 90% went well. In the end it was up to me to get it to work, I could prepare better, I could focus more I could do quite a lot, but still I found that I would want to send out a little 'prayer', kind of, 'please let me do well' or after I would maybe think, 'please let them give me this'. The thing is, I have no idea who I was sending these thoughts to. Maybe the universe in general... But the universe cannot mikro manage like that, and I am, as stated, not religious. So why do I do this?

Order in the chaos.

I think it was Geertz who talked about order and chaos. We can only control our own actions, not those of others and there is so much happening in the world that is difficult to understand and explain so we, as human beings, turn to something tangible to make sense of it all. That makes sense to me, as the idea of everytjing being random and with no further purpose is just too overwhelming. It is nice to think that there is a reason for what happens, for which jobs I get or don't get, for the people I meet and or the things that happen in the world in general.

I think this is where religion gets it's reason d'etre. We need faith to be able to exist. It is less important what we have faith in, but for us to not get lost in depression and chaos, we need to believe in something. I guess some of us are strong enough to just believe in ourselves while others need something more external, and with a greater power.

Down to willpower.

So how do I cut back on my sugar intake, stop biting my nails, start exercising more. Do I need to find faith in something external and ask for strenght, or do I do as I do in my professional life, buckle up and find the will and discipline to do it, by just making up my mind that this is what needs to happen... I think in the end it will have to be the latter and I need to make a choice that this is what I want - REALLY want. But imagine if I could add faith on top of that, and ask an external force for help in achieving this, that would be nice and somehow comforting. As it is now, I am left with only myself to rely on. And honestly, I am not always the most stable person, so I think I need to wish myself good luck in this project. And also realise, that my nails will probably never be nice and long and look very pretty with polish on them... Oh well so be it. At least I have a really cool job... :)

Guys and Girls...

The universal rule of guys beeing unreliable and girls being angry about it...

I love my random playlist - it takes me from Creed to PS12 and Thomas Butenschoen in less than 15 minutes... And Thomas B was kind enough to make me ponder.

When was the agreement made that guys should always somehow be unreliable and girls always be the ones being pissed off about it...?

When I was younger I worked in a bar and more time than once did wifes and girlfriends call to please speak to their partner who had not come home as agreed. At one point a girlfriend even came in the door, all dressed up asking her boyfriend -still in workattire- 'did we not have a date?' all he answered was yes, gulped down the rest of his beer in about 3 seconds, and out the door they went...

Now about 15 years after this insident I am living on another continent and while cooking I listen to music and here comes Thomas B singing about how he is on his way to see his girlfriend, but he is stalling on his way as he knows she is pissed off... It is possible to think that it is for Danish guys to not turn up as agreed or in other ways break promises.

But then I think about my dating life - sampled from 3 continents - and some of the other songs that come up on the playlist... And I can conclude that it is not for Danish guys alone, or for Danish girls for that matter. Most of the songs by female singers are about broken promises, while the ones from guys don't mention anything to the sort - except if it is to say 'sorry I messed up, I know you are angry' in one way or another...

Don't get e wrong, my boyfriend is amazing but none the less he has developed the sentence - and used it to me- 'I just didn't want your wrath'. Autch... So I am the horrid angry girlfriend - and here I was thinking i was quite flexible...

But I have desided not to despair because with the pondering I have done this evening. I am thinking maybe this is the one context where 'universalism' has a place and a conclusion can be drawn. Guys are bound to not keep agreements - and forget to inform about not keeping it - and girls are bound to be mad about it - because the least you can do is inform, preferably in good time...

Retailer strategies – Who is responsible?

Where does my T-shirt come from?

In a recent conversation with a friend the following statement was made by her: until we realize that it is not right that we go into a shop in Denmark and get 3 t-shirts for DKK 100 (less than USD 20), no one in the production line of clothes will get better working conditions.

This I could only agree with, and I was somehow stunned that I had never really given that price any consideration before – an easy estimation of the production will tell me that this is ridiculous. For example; most t-shirts are produced from cotton – this is most likely grown either in the US (heavily subsidised) or on the African continent. Then it is transported from here to Asia for further production (if it is produced in Africa the raw cotton will have been transported somewhere else for processing before heading to Asia). In Asia, it will be treated, coloured, printed, sown and packed. After this it will be shipped across the world again for retail in Europe... Most retailers put a sales value of 250% on top of their cost price per item – now with this in mind; how is it possible to sell 3 t-shirts in Denmark for Dkk100? This amount equals the hourly minimum wage for anyone over the age of 18, so roughly an 18 year old will only have to work 2 hours to have the net payment (Denmark has an average of 50% tax on incomes) worth the same as the entire production line of 3 t-shirts. Logically this should not be possible. But it is.

The (recent) disaster in Bangladesh

Recently the concept of clothes production came to the surface again when the Rana Plaza factory in Bangladesh collapsed. The world should have been outraged – and granted there were some demonstrations in front of retailers in Britain (http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/27/us-bangladesh-building-retailers-idUSBRE93Q04H20130427) and articles around the disaster and the responsibility of the Bangladesh Government and the international companies with production in the Rana Plaza (http://www.forbes.com/sites/howardhusock/2013/05/02/the-bangladesh-fire-and-corporate-social-responsibility/ ; http://business.time.com/2013/05/02/bangladesh-factory-collapse-is-there-blood-on-your-shirt/), but has anything changed, will anything change - Most likely not. Bangladesh is the world’s second largest exporter of garments (China is the largest) and according to Reuters this is a business of “about $15.6 billion of ready-made garments each year - about 80 percent of its total exports. Sixty percent of Bangladesh's garment exports go to Europe; the United States takes 23 percent, and Canada takes 5 percent” (http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/27/us-bangladesh-building-retailers-idUSBRE93Q04H20130427).

If I was a government and 80% of my income depended on exports of clothes, how picky would I be about the safety of my workers, especially if 87% of my ‘customers’ didn’t care?  Would I tell these customers, ‘yes I know I depend entirely upon you, but I will not let you exploit this country and its people just so you can sell t-shirts for less than 5 USD each’. I hope I would, but if I have to be honest, I probably would not.

To blame or to take responsibility…?

Based on the above, the responsibility for disasters like the Rana Plaza lies with the companies, they should check their production line, and they should know what is going on from raw material to retail sale. Granted some do make an effort, but they then also easily claim that their production contractors sub contract, and how are they supposed to follow up on this? It is clear that they cannot if they do not set aside resources, but why should they do that when the consumers are no demanding that they do, and they have investors that demand a profit?

Private companies are exactly that - private companies. For many multinational companies the figure on the bottom line might matter more than the living conditions of those partaking in creating those figures – especially if they live in a such faraway place (from Europe and the US) as Bangladesh, China, Pakistan or Vietnam.  

Bryan Walsh of Time states that "International retailers can do more to advocate safer standards at textile factories that manufacture their wares, in Bangladesh and elsewhere. Customers can do their part by putting a little pressure on their favorite brands, though that would require placing as much value on the cost of a life as you might on the cost of a T-shirt (http://science.time.com/2013/04/29/fast-cheap-dead-shopping-and-the-bangladesh-factory-collapse/).

So the question is, is a life worth more than the cost of 3 t-shirts for DKK 100? I would think so, and yet does that stop me from buying clothes in a cheap store where I might suspect that the close are produced under similar conditions as in Rana Plaza? No, not always! And I will excuse myself with something like this; I don’t know for sure that these clothes are produced under such conditions, I have many expenses and a high cost of living in general so I do not have money for expensive clothes, and finally, just because a piece of clothe is expensive it is not necessarily produced under better conditions.

According to Reuters I am not alone in this – Mohini Raichura is also making decisions like that “Raichura, a 30-year-old London charity worker, was shopping Friday at Primark, a discount retailer owned by Associated British Foods, even though she knew that some of its products were made at the factory that collapsed earlier in the week.

"I go there because it's cheap. That's awful. It really makes me a bad person," Raichura said. "But you know, I work for a charity, I'm on a limited income, and I pay rent in London —that's how I justify it."” (http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/27/us-bangladesh-building-retailers-idUSBRE93Q04H20130427).

Mine and Mohinis excuses are all true, but do they actually excuse our consumer behavior? And where does that leave us? I know that being able to buy 3 t-shirts for 100 DKK should not be possible. Yet, when I am looking at them, I am not thinking, of this, I am thinking of how I need exactly 3 t-shirts, and how great it is that I can get them for such a low price, and then I might also be able to get something else...

So who is responsible for the repeated ‘Rana Plaza disasters’ that has happened and will continue to happen? The Governments overlooking regulations to increase their GDP, the multinationals that are looking out for their profits, or is it me and you?

In the end you and I are the ones putting on these clothes every day, we know, or at least we should know that our purchases affect peoples’ lives all over the world. So why is it not (also) our responsibility to make demands of the multinationals, who will then be forced to make demands from the Governments where they have their clothes produced? – The same clothes you and I put on every day. 

ranting - just because I can.

So the downside to an electronic soap dispenser is that when it is not working then there is not obvious manual way to access the soap... NOT smart in a non high class Ghanaian guest house – I am just saying... Anyway, that is actually not the topic for today’s ranting. Neither is the persistent mosquitoes who consequently ignore my several forms of repellent or the on again off again internet – even my modem!!! ARGH.  No today’s ranting is about something completly different...

To learn

Last week I was in a training to learn something, or at least test my knowledge, so that when I train someone else, I have a basis for what I am trying to convince others of (aside from just being right, because I am me)... 

This week I am in a training to be sure I have an understanding of the knowledge our partners will obtain during this training. Now, in theory that sounds like a great idea. In practise, not so much.

The facilitator is as such capable enough, has lots of practical knowledge etc. I just disagree with his methodology, his perception of certain concepts and their use - and he sounds more like a preacher than a facilitator. This latter element was actually commented on by a participant today: “if this was a congregation, you would be a very successful preacher” to which the answer was “that is just how I talk”...

anyway, back to the point, which is: I came here with an objective of gathering a learning - Which I am getting. So I should be content, but I am not. All day I have been fighting anger fits. Why? - because the facilitator is countering what I have been telling and will tell the partners in the future. He is using a different format to explain concepts and he uses examples that are not logical. When I address it he tells me “I have to cater for everyone, some are more advanced, but I have to include those less advanced also”.  -Yes you do, so for that exact reason you should be giving examples that are not controversial... I don't get it. Why give an example that will spare a debate when you are trying to teach someone about a concept and how to use it, especially if this is the first time they hear about it???

Problem

The real problem now arises within me. Instead of paying attention to the process of the day, I have been cross armed and sulky faced. Which, unfortunately, says quite a lot about me. when did I get so arrogant that I refused to believe that someone that has a different perception than me is just wrong?

I am not sure I like this me. Confident, yes, fine... but, I think I might have gone a bit over the top - and I think I might have let on (with a particulat tone of voice and the words - I completely disagree) that I did not entirely see eye to eye with him today... 

Solution

So I have made a decision - I need to learn to be more receptive, and put myself back in a 'learning' mode, as opposed to my current, 'I know better than you mode'. Now I just need to figure out how I do that... but how hard can it be...??? :/

Philosophical

Sometimes it takes the smallest thing to turn me in to a philosopher (or a wannabe one).

Since Sunday I have been, with a group of programme staff, retreating to the Savannah of Ghana. We are staying at a guest house just about in the middle of nowhere, with appx 5 minutes drive to a village that is the district capital of this nowhere. But it is a village worth noting though, as it is the home town of the current President of Ghana.

We are here because they did not have room for us at the spot where we are having our retreat conference. So we drive 30 minutes there in the morning and 30 minutes back in the evening. On the way to the conference spot (which by the way is in the Mole National Park – and has treated us with the sight of Elephants both Sunday and Monday) we pass through two larger villages (one being the above mentioned). The latter of these villages is the home of the oldest mosque in Ghana (this is just bonus info), it is also the village where you turn right to go towards the national park, where we are having our meeting (if you go straight you will pass the mystic stone, and eventually end in Sawla, where you can turn left and go towards Kumasi or right and go towards Wa (and yes those are your actual two options).

This village, home of the oldest mosque in Ghana, is called Larabanga. Now Larabanga has not much to offer, except room for thought, at least when you pass it in a 4x4. The village has appx a 1 km radius, and if it wasn’t for the fact that the road is quite bad, you would have gone through it in something like 2 minutes in a car. But the road is bad, so it takes you somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes to pass through.

When we pass here, and turn right, in the morning, we meet a large number of children – I am happy to say that the majority are in school uniform - and these children along with comments are what have spurred my philosophical tendency today. Actually it started yesterday where I thought, “well, at least here the things I go on about don’t really matter”. Today my colleague stated the following; “these people, they don’t care about these hectic Accra things. Fuel Prices, LPG (local produced gas (I think)) – the politicians can raise the prices all they want, it won’t affect them. Life stays the same”. A few moments later my other colleague was drawing our attention to the children walking without shoes, and the first colleague said “well it is priority”. Now this might sound strange, why wouldn’t someone spend 1 Ghana Cedi (50 cent) on slippers if you had the money – I would think that a priority. But apparently here it is not. My colleague explained that most people can afford it, except maybe that one old woman taking care of orphans (grandmother who is caring for grandkids, due to parents not around, or dead) they just don’t see the need.

This got me wondering. What does it matter? Who am I to project my priority on to people living in this village? My colleague emphasised this by stating, “these people don’t have fancy Accra ideas about fried rice, for them you shouldn’t go and bring that here” (potentially it should be explained that fried rice in this context is a foreign element, and thereby somewhat costly. Also this is usually made with some level of vegetable – which is not really in existence here).

My question to myself and you is – are the people living here poor? Or is life just that much more simple because the needs I (we) have created in life, don’t exist. What constitutes poverty? Granted monetary economy is not in abundance here. If you pay somewhere with a 20 Gh Cedi note (appx 10 USD), then it is difficult to get change unless you have been a big spender and used almost all. But is money the only value – and is it necessarily a value here?

If I had grown up here, and never left – would I think that my life here was not rich? Granted, I would potentially see all these fancy cars, and plenty white people, go to the National Park, and I would know there was a very different world where they came from. But would I imagine what it was like – and then translate that into me being poor?

With globalisation and mass communication media of course it is not possible to live in this simple equation, there will always be information reaching even the most remote areas about what life is like in another place. But until you have been, it is difficult to fathom (that I know for a fact, as I have gone through a recognition process like that several times).

Leaving the meeting today, my colleague got into the car and said “I could never take my family and live in the forest”. Which made me think – I could. Question is for how long? How long can you give up what you know, to be in a world so different, without access to things you find basic (like chocolate), when would the limit be reached?

Are we as humans not able to adapt to almost everything the minute we can make it our own? I think so, and I am basing it on something a friend said when we were staying in a bat infested Banda, in the middle of nowhere (another nowhere than the one I am in now) in a national park in Uganda. I asked her – how long do you think it would take someone from outside to get used to staying here like this. She answered: well if it was this specific person, she might never adapt fully, but you and I – 1 week!

One week - that is the time it will take me to get used. This brings me back to the question of; how long till I have had enough? Could I (or you), as a human being, leave a life behind to adapt to a new one on its terms and conditions, without trying to change it? And without the comfort of knowing – it is only for a limited period of time?