Poverty and Power

The basic tenant of poverty is a lack of power.  A lack of power, of control, over the external circumstances of one's life. This lack of power is systemic, not individual, in nature. To gain power
is to lose poverty; to lose power is to become deeper entrenched into the physical and mental depravities that plague so many in the world. First, we need to define "depravity;" in this context, I refer
to a simple lack of comfort. Comfort as human development, if you will. This simple definition can be extended to all walks of life, and forms the cornerstone for greed and lust for power and control. We, as human beings, simply want comfort, and wish to avoid pain and unpleasantness. This is the human condition. This is also the situation that plagues so many of the systems designed to help alleviate the powerless conditions in the developing world. Once people get comfort, they are loath to give it up; our thirst for comfort becomes paramount, and clouds our judgements, our duties, and our capabilities to truly perform altruistic work. Only those few, who have done the near-impossible, and have overcome the addiction to comfort, have had the power to lead-by-example and truly influence change for the powerless. The list of these people is extremely short; the normal suspects, Mahatma Gandi, Mother Theresa, His Holiness The Dalai Lama; those who have transformed their own addiction to comfort, and have succeeded in breaking down the walls that the comfort divide builds between the powerful and the powerless. So much of our thirst for comfort, which controls out motivations and actions, also depletes the resources intended for the powerless. Again, this can be seen in the macro-level, through environmental resource depletion and trade barriers, down to the micro, individual level, as NGO workers power around town in air conditioned, new SUV's, basking in comfort that the powerless can not even imagine.
Power and comfort are intoxicating; this is the drug of inequality.


“Attempting to liberate the oppressed without their reflective participation in the act of liberation is to treat them as objects which must be saved from a burning building; it is to lead them into the populist pitfall and transform them into masses which can be manipulated.”"
-Paolo Freire

A Break and Some Reflections from Senegal

I have been away from this space for quite some time, moving, traveling, exploring, experiencing, but being unable to consolidate these experiences with the written word. There are certain times in life where experiences lend themselves to sharing, and certain times in life when a more nuanced, introspective tone dominates. It is not that thoughts, tribulations, pleasantries and discontent are not stirring the soul; but rather, that these movements are meant to only be contained within.

Some thoughts on current ideas and projects here in Senegal, Saint-Louis, where I will be posted for some time as an educational fellow.....


The Power and Dominance of Language

We commonly cite language as a developmental tool, a forger of opportunity, a bridger of wealth divides. For so many in the developing world, the great impetus for English language development is the chance, the opportunity for self-betterment, an individualized incentive that is perhaps the most powerful of all. 
However, we must be aware of the power of language as a tool for domination, as well. 

Bell Hooks notes, "Standard English is not the speech of exile. It is the language of conquest and dominance...it is the mask that hides the loss of so many tongues, all those sounds of diverse, native communities we will never hear."    -Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom

Wade Davis further notes, "Language is not just vocabulary and grammar. It’s the flash of human spirit, it’s the vehicle by which the soul of a culture comes into the world. Every language is an old growth forest of the mind, a sort of watershed of thought, an ecosystem of possibilities.”

How can we measure progress from a stance of inherent domination? How can we assure that our efforts for development are not masked attempts at cultural colonization? How can we assure that language and education is, in fact, a liberating tool of self-actualization, a tool of freedom, and not a binding contraint, a cultural prison cell?