Once more on my way

So there are only three more days to go. Till Wednesday I have to make my loundry, pack my suitcase, buy a lot of stuff (I still need a bra, shoes as always, cosmetics, medicines), meet with few people, because ones are leaving and new are coming back. The list is much longer, I bet I will be preparing myself to go in the last seconds before leaving.

1. My next destination - Alexandria, Egypt

This is really an amazing city on the Mediterranean Sea two hours by train from Cairo. I was already in different places in Egypt, but I have to say that Alex is the only place I can live, I mean I can feel comfortable and not feel like a tourist. This is the only place were I can feel comfortable while walking down the street and even people are not attacking me and forcing to buy something.

I simply love to set in the local place, smoke shisha and chat with people around me. I still remember when I was alone in one of those places. And there was manager coming to me, offering me free drinks to taste (same special kind of sweet tea), then someone wanted to play taula, so I took a challange. Unfortunately I was not able to make any move by myself, because there was 10 people advising me what to do.

2. My work over there

So I am not going there for 3 months to lay on the beach and drink beer. Those who knows me a bit will know that I will be bored after two days. I am going there to make so called internship (but it won't be really). This time I will work with kids. With three more girls I will be organizing birthday parties for kids (mostly between 4 and 12 years old). As far as I know I should have fun with them, take care, suggest plays, play with them.
Te best in this work is that I will be all the time outside. The organization has a special center for kids. It is placed in the gardens next to the beach. They do have a lot of fun stuff for kids. It really looks it might be a lot of fun. Although I have never worked with this target group.

3. Living in Alex

I just realized that I am startin each new thought from "so", and I have to change it;) "So" I will be working and living in el Agamy, that is in the south from Alex, the summer place there rich egyptians have their summer houses, there are beaches and bars. I talked with few people and same of them told me it's really nice place, and same of them said it's awful.
I will share flat with 3 other girls - two from the Netherladns and one from Greece. I just have seen them on facebook, and talk with them a bit, but it looks fun, and I guess it might be really cool. I simply love having roomates. I was missing it since last December.
Right now I have to think what to take to decorate my place to feel good over there. My idea was to make home-warming party and ask all my friends to bring one photo with them, which can be after move to my other "homes". I think I will start this in Alex, developing and collecting cool photos on my walls. This might be something stable in my life:D

European elections - chances for a great turnout?

I shouldn't write this post today, because it is already the voting day in most of the European countries. And it is a common rule that the day before elections nad during the election day it is not allowed to promote any of the candidates. I would like to concentrate on the turnout and the general engagement in the elections then on concrete people, but unfortunately I will have to write down few names.

First, European Elections are always counted as this second category ones. In my textbooks I have found information that only people who had their political careene behind them, and those who don't have enough experience to get to the national parliament are the candidates to EU parliament. It has changed in Poland. I would suggest that the only, or the main reason why the most famous politicians want to get into the EU Parliament is only financial - MEP's are getting much higher salaries and much more money for their offices then the politicians in the country. Therefore today we will see many famous names whila casing a vote.

But I would like to focus rather on the expected turnout. During the last elections in 2004 we had almost the lowest turnout (20,42%), just after Slovakia (16.66%). There were of course countries with tunrout over 80% like Malta (82.37%), Luxemburg (90%) or Belgium (90.81%), where the voting is mandatory, and I want to compare Poland to those countries, but the avarage turnout was 45,5% and unfortunately Poland was very far from this result.

This time the turnout in Poland might be high. Under "high" I understand high for the Polish conditions, it means for sure lower then in the national elections, but not that low as last time. In 2007 in the parliamentary elections we have turnout: 53,88%, in 2005 it was only 40,57%, and in 2001 it was 46,29%. Looking on those numers, taking into the account that the elections to EP are still new and not so many people (especially older generation) doesn't understand that, I would say that the high turnout we can have will be over 35%.

What are the reasons, why I think that this time there will be bigger interests then last time:

1. a lot of famous candidates - this campaing started already very dynamic with the question who will candidate. And from the very beginning all the political parties in Poland were presenting very famous people, even those who are right now having important functions in the country. There was already a lot of discussions about Zbigniew Ziobro, who was in the last goverment very controversial Minister of Justice, but on the lists you will find a lot of people from the current parliament and the local goverment structures.

2. There was no campaign to European Parliament, it was the national campaign - unfortunately the public discussion about Europem and EP was almost not existing. But I still have in my mind the TV spots of conservative party, who was refering to the national elections of 2007, and saying that till not the liberal party haven't done nothing for Poland, and therefore we should vote on conservative one. Acctually almost all spots was about the current situation in Poland, what the current goverment haven't done and how this party will fight for Polish rights in european parliament. I have to say it - was really disgust with all this campaign

3. The 20th universary of polish freedom - on 4th of June we had 20th universary of the first free elections in the whole Central adn Eastern Europe which tool place in Poland. That time in 1989 the society could organize themselves, go to vote, and thanks to them 99% of seats in Senat and 100% of seats (those which were the subject of the elections) went to the opposition. It was only possible becouse of the huge turnout and peoples involvement. And this year during this universary it was the popular slogan, that we got already rights, and right now we have to use those rights. And how the future will look like depends on us, therefore we should go and vote. Maybe when I am writing this, it sounds obvious and silly, but what I have seen that day was really impressive and this message got to a lot of people

4. People's engagement - I doon't know what is the general involvement in the elections. I suppose it is a bit higher then last time, and people knows already a bit more, what MEPs do, and how does it works. I don't see a lot on streets, but two days ago I was really nicely surprised. There was an old lady in the bus with the small leaflets with the candidate's name and list. And she was giving out them to the people in the bus and talking to her. When we got out I had to say few words, simply get to know for whom is she aggitating. Well obviously she was for the conservative party, and it was hard to talk to her, when we get into the topic of values (because it is all about what is more important for you - I was talking about human rights and development aid and she was talking about subsidies for children and families). What I was amazed about, is that she was doing it. I told her that maybe I have different candidate, but appreciate her work, becuase it is what civic society is all about.

Maybe this story with this lady will be described later on, the contend of our conversation etc.

Right now is time to go and vote:)

20 years of freedom

Exackly 20 years ago there were first free elections in Poland, and in the whole Central and Eastern Europe. 20 years ago we made comunism collapsed. Many people in the world associate end of comunism with the fall of the wall. For me it was the 4th of June 1989. This is a date of the first free elections.

How does it happened? I don't want to go very deep into the history, although it is very interesting. Worth mentioning is that the process of liberalization of the system looked totally different from country to country. Taking the example of hungary this process started after 1956, the similar situation was in Czechoslovakia, where after the Prague Spring in 1968 there was no big crisis. In Poland there were very visible changes in the system in the beginning of 80's, for example the trade unions were legal, as well many other things. In 1980 the Solidarność (trade union) was created. But in December 1981 the home war in Poland started, the goverment attempted to destroy the union and the years of repressions began. This is the main difference between comunism in Poland and other countries (I am not talking about Balkans and countries in Asia).

Then in late 80's there was a huge consolidation and union of people. The very strong movement around Solidarity became once more active. This forced the goverment to start talking with Solidarity-led opposition. The talks tool place on the famous round table, and there was the agreement to organize the first free elections.

Those elections wasn't totally free, in the literature they are called semi-free, but it was already the important step, because for the first time in the history comunists let opposition run to the parliament. The election to the lower chamber (Sejm) were not totally free. During the round table, both sides agreed that 65% of Seats in Sejm will be for Communist Party and its satellite parties. Only 35% of remining seats were a subject of election. For all those seats both communists and the opposition could compete, but there was no competition. Polish society decided that all those 35% of seats will be given to Solidarność. Similar things happened in Senate (higher chamber), where we had totally free elections. 99 out of 100 seats won people from Solidarity. Therefore the first non-communistic goverment in the Central and Eastern Europe was created.

I am really praud of this history. I was watching news all the day. First when the president of my city with few people involved in the elections in 1989 announced that they want to establish the day of 4th of June the Day of Freedom.

In the evening there were plenty of concerts from different cities - Gdansk, where of the shipyard everything happened and Warsaw. Listening to those concert I realized that I know what is my culture. I have always had this problem - what to do during international evenings (during different international events). I was having problem to define in what kind of country I live, what is typical. Right now I have a hint. That are all those bands and songs created in the 80's and beginning of 90's. All of them political, all of them went through cenzorship, all of them amazing and so meaningfull. I love this polish rock with the deep meaning of lirics.

In the end of one concert there was Scorpions playing the song "Wind of change". I am not sure how many people is aware that this song was created in 1990, after what have happened in Poland and the other countries. And this change in the title, it is the end of communism, the new era in our lives, the end of repression, end of cold war, and FREEDOM and PEACE.

Here are the few songs, which are very important for me, and are ery connected with this day.

Wind of Change - the Scorpions


Po co ta wolnosc - KULT


W życiu piękne są tylko chwile - DZEM

Only five months left in Poland

It looks like that very soon I will be moving once again. Let's call it advanced plans. This is not 100% sure, but I have a big possibility that this plan will be realizes. So how does it look like:

1. May and June - I have to finish with my studies - 6th, 7th and 8th semester has to be done, and first chapter of my master thesis

2. July, August and September - I will be somewhere in the world doing internship. Till now I can say it will be Brussels or somewhere in the Middle East, but I prefere the second option. If I want to work as a youth worker in the international environment, it will look very good in my CV, if I will live there, learn a bit of arabic and work for the whole summer in NGO

3. October, November, December, January - In this four months I have to be done with studies (the last 9th semester is easy) and I have to finish my master thesis. It is hard but realistic... and

4. February - I am leaving for my EVS to Italy! of course this part is not confirmed yet, but we are going to apply for the 1st of June deadline, so it looks like it should be fine.

I am really happy about my plan. For a long time I was waiting for something to happen. I stopped being afraid what to do with my life. I feel so secure. I feel that no matter what, I will be happy and once again I want to take a risk.

Just I have to remember to finish studies as soon as possible.

How to teach development education?

One of my biggest dilemma is how to teach development education, when I am not able to give any solution. Is really raising awareness enough? Should we make propaganda?

All those questions appeared in my head on one training, when we had guest speaker talking about global problems. It looked a bit like this, that she used all the shocking data, added same pictures and put it all on her 1,5h speach.

The outcome was amazing, all the participants were very happy to see that, were very happy that finally we are talking about concrates, but what next? After this presentation I talked to her a bit. We entered the topic of the economic development, and the role of people and politicians in the development. And this was this kind of person who was critisizing - Millennium Development Goals as not realistic, J. Sachs for everything (including transformation in Eastern Europe and South America).

I started wondering - what are we doing. How we can be honest while teaching development education, if we as activist are only critisizing. And is there the solution?

____________________________
I have writen once paper which reflect about the conflict between to development economists - Sachs and Esterly

Searchers versus Planners, Easterly versus Sachs

Is there a solution to solving global problems? What can we do to combat extreme poverty? Is it our responsibility to do something? The question is not only how to help “Africa”, but also a question how to help the developing world; it is an important point on the agenda of politicians, scientists, and many activists. There are a lot of people who are concerned about this topic and there is no one answer as to what should be done.
In my paper I will focus on the work of two economists, Jeffrey Sachs who is an American economist and Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and William Easterly, as well as economist, specializing in economic growth and foreign aid. Both of them started the argument on how should we go about ending poverty. Easterly criticizes the Sachs’ theory in his book “End of poverty” and his work in general, in his response book “The White Man’s Burden”, where he has presented the theory of planners and searchers. But looking closer at the work of those two we can find many similar approaches, and a lot of the Easterly’s criticisms are not necessary.
Sachs’ main idea is that investments in Africa were weak and not sufficient and because of that development couldn’t occur. He claimed that by increasing foreign aid and changing the way of its redistribution it is possible to fight extreme poverty. Easterly says that the international community has already put a lot of money into Africa’s development ($2.3 trillion) and there are no visible results, so he is against to the idea of continuing the work in the some way and suggests that developing countries should free their markets . Easterly writes: “(…) the most obvious thing the West could do to transform the Rest was to introduce free markets”. Similarly, it is important to note here that Sachs is as well a big supporter of free markets. He is the architect of the Polish transformation into the market economy, but he argues to enter the global markets countries need to be prepared for that. He says “Free-market forces are vital. But they are limited when you have people so poor that they are essentially isolated from markets. People that don't even grow enough food to bring to market, don't have electricity or access to roads, clinics, or schools, find themselves isolated from the world economy”. Both of these economists are in favour of free markets, with a small difference in their ideology in which Sachs claims that at first developing countries need to get prepared how to compete. The most questionable argument is how the agricultural products which developing countries most likely would produce can compete with EU markets that have very high supplies and protection. Already in the shops in Morocco we can find only Spanish chicken, because it is cheaper to import it from EU than to self produce it. It is reasonable to create regional free trade areas where countries with the same status of development can compete with each other, but the idea of implementing free markets without the previous preparation for this is questionable.
Easterly mainly criticizes Sachs in terms of his idea being focused on only money. He writes, “it’s all about the money (…) It’s just, you know, spend more money and that will solve the problem”. This is actually not true. Yes, Jeffrey Sachs believes that money is important in order to let countries develop, but as well he focuses on the solutions. The best example is his Millennium Villages Project. This project provides the full support for villages including “interventions in food production, nutrition, education, health services, roads, energy, communications, water, sanitation, enterprise diversification and environmental management” . All the investments were consulted with the local communities, and they were involved in the decision making process. There was no one simple solution for all the villages. At first the needs were recognized, based on specific situation, climate, local problems, and then the necessary help was provided. It is actually what Easterly is suggesting, bottom-up work together with local people. In his book he underlines a lot of times that it is better to provide the bed-nets, what is an example for bottom-up work, rather than starting the huge projects. A part of the Millennium Villages Project is to provide vitamin and mineral supplements, access to anti-retroviral medicines, insecticide-treated bed nets, improved access to water and fuel wood. He wants to help people with their problems to let them focus on more important things like where to get clean water. He helps kids like Amaretch from Ethiopia mentioned in Easterly book. Projects like Millennium Villages would help her to go to school instead of bringing the wood and selling it in for the whole day on the market.
What is important and what Easterly doesn’t recognize is that all the problems of developing world are interconnected and only the complex treatment can help overcome it. Let’s take the example of Amaretch. Let say her father will get a job, and the amount of money she earns by collecting and selling wood. Would it solve a problem? Would she be able to go to school? The answer to these questions is most probably not, because she wouldn’t have books. If she would have books, most probably she wouldn’t perform well enough at school, because of lack of energy. Most likely she wouldn’t get proper food to get enough energy. Also, the other questions that may arise are; what about the health? What would happen if she gets sick? What Amaretch needs is not only the possibility to go to school, she needs access to sanitation, health care, nutrition, communication to be able to get to school. Therefore I think that the complex solutions provided by Millennium Villages Project are worth consideration.
But somehow the ideas of Sachs and Easterly are very similar. Both of them are in favour of market economy, both of them are giving the same solutions for the problems. Let’s take their approaches. In one article we can read, “According to Sachs, donors should invest in specific inputs, allowing for "practical solutions to practical problems" related to the issues of poor health, rural isolation, lack of energy resources and crop production vulnerability in rural villages. ” Isn’t it exactly what Easterly is presenting? This is definitely not a top-down approach, where the West tells what the Rest has to do; nobody is building the big programs, which are very complicated which have no sense. Both of the economists knows where to start and it the bottom-up work with locals is; helping them to survive and improve their life quality.
Both of the economists have the similar approach to the idea of micro-credits, that they might be useful. Although Easterly is not a huge fan of them, he recognizes that they are useful. “Microcredit didn’t solve everything; it just solved one particular problem under one particular set of circumstances” . Similarly Sachs suggests that micro-financing might be one of the good tools, but not the sufficient one. Sachs says: "Microfinance is one of the institutions that can play a really nice role, along side health and agriculture [initiatives], once we get the basic infrastructure [in place]. "
Besides the similarities, Easterly points out one very important thing, why despite big funding given to the developing countries there is still a big problem with for example malaria: “Gordon Brown was silent about the other tragedy of the world’s poor. This is the tragedy in which the West spent $2.3 trillion on foreign aid over the last five decades and still had not managed to get twelve-cent medicines to children to prevent half of all malaria deaths. The West spent $2.3 trillion and still had not managed to get four-dollar bed nets to poor families”. But medicines and bed-nets are not the only expenses. There is still a control campaign going on. The blood tests can easily diagnose malaria when it is not too late, and taking into the consideration the big amount of cases per year (300-500 million cases ) it costs a lot.
This leads us to the Easterly’s main concern about the foreign aid – high costs of bureaucracy. He says “Tanzania produces more then 2,400 reports for its aid donors” and “I myself wasted government officials’ time on five continents during my bureaucratic career. Foreign aid did not supply something the poor wanted (roads), while it did supply a lot of something the poor probably had little use for (me and my fellow bureaucrats)” . That is what everybody agrees on – administration is expensive. It would be much better if that money will be spent on direct help. My question is whether it is possible. Easterly is criticizing the methods how administration works. But he is just criticizing. Sachs claims as well that the structure of aid funds should be changed. He thinks as well that the current aid was too small and badly administrated.
Both of the economists have the some solutions. I have already presented Sachs’s Millennium Villages. Easterly presents something very similar: “get the poorest people in the world such obvious goods as the vaccinations, the antibiotics, the food supplements, the improved seeds, the fertilizer, the roads, the boreholes, the water pipes, the text books, and the nurses” . They have just different tools. Easterly pays attention on criticizing the administration, and UN in general. He criticizes Millennium Development Goals. He claims that he wants to see results, not just intentions, but he doesn’t take any action. He obviously doesn’t agree with any top-down actions, but what he doesn’t realize is that only behind this top-down actions there are money. He is presenting solutions but without the follow up, without information where the money should come from.
Jeffrey Sachs works for the UN, invites a lot of celebrities to support his work, together with Bono he raised awareness about global poverty and he became a celebrity as well, what is that he is also criticized for. But there is one thing what he makes and Easterly doesn’t, he succeeds in fundraising. Because he invests in visibility, he educates about the importance of eradicating poverty and he says he knows how to do it, and he proves how to do it. Therefore, countries and private donors are more likely to support his mission. He makes many of the governments promise to fulfil their commitments to pay 0,7% of their GDP for development aid.
Although I don’t think that the argument which is going on between Easterly and Sachs is not necessary, Easterly points out some crucial problems, and direct the attention of international community on things which are not working well (although they are not working that bad as Easterly presents it). From the other side it is good that international community has someone like Jeffrey Sachs, who really works to “make poverty history”.

References:
Easterly, William “The White Man’s Burden” (2006),
http://www.oecdobserver.org/news/fullstory.php/aid/1251/False_economies:_A_global_health_crisis.html
http://www.uncdf.org/english/microfinance/pubs/newsletter/pages/2005_04/news_sachs.php
http://www.uncdf.org/english/microfinance/pubs/newsletter/pages/2005_04/news_sachs.php
http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/mv/mv_faq.htm
“Jeffrey Sachs on Beating Global Poverty”, U.S.News, April 11, 2008 http://www.usnews.com/articles/business/economy/2008/04/11/jeffery-sachs-on-beating-global-poverty.html
http://www.bigthink.com/business-economics/646/responses/all/by-popular/1

Problems with internship

It is already more then month, since I have started looking for the internship. And my first impression is that I don't like this system. There are of course people who seems to be professional and are answering e-mails quite often and are able to provide the information. Unfortunately there are more problems, and the whole system is rather not working.

1. The biggest problems - acceptance notes

Acceptance note - it is kind of declaration, that if you will be choosen, you will for sure come to this place. I know it is needed, but I think it is overused. When you write to someone, you are immediately asked for AN (acceptance note). First, I thought, it means they like me and it is serious. NOT AT ALL!!! It looks like that everyone is asked for the acceptance note, and then after 10 days (becuase they have to answer you within 10 days) you get to know that the selection process didn't even started.

The rule is that after sending one acceptance note, you cannot send another one for 10 days. It means as well that you cannot look for the internship during this time, because all other people ask you for the acceptance note.

2. MY experience with project in Jordan
project: TN-In-JO-AM-2009-1012

It was very interesting project. I wrote to them and they said, everyting is fine, send us AN. So I ahve done it and I was waiting 10 days. After this time, I got to know they they still didn't started interviewing candidates, and they have more then 20 of them. After another week I got to know that there was a holiday, so still there was no interviews. Next week the main coordinator was on the training abroad and could't give me any details. It was already this time when the coordinator was suggesting me looking for something different. I was doing it, but as well keeping eye on the internship in Jordan. And the last week I got to know that there are problems with the company and maybe this project won't happen at all.

Right now I have checked, and the project status is on hold

3. My adventure with Mexico

I have found amazing place, and I decided that I can wait 2-3 weeks until they will finish recruitment process. To do that I had to withdraw my interests in the internship in Indonesia, where I was already accepted.
But I have found the coordinator online, and we were talking a lot, everything looked good, and I had big chances. The deadline for application was 25th, before that date I was informed that maybe the results will be even earlier. It was the last info I got. It is almost two weeks since I was in touch with people from this organization. Last week I was writing to them everyday. The coordinator was not online at all (on msn or skype).

Today I have checked the status of those internships and it is once more on-hold.

4. Egypt is the same

I don't understand the situation with Egypt either. I had very interesting internship, where they didn't have a lot of condidates. Even the girl I was taling to was very happy they I appeared. The last e-mail from her was that she will organize interview as soon as possible. Since then I didn't get any e-mail from her. Some time later I wrote once more and sked what happened, but there was no respond either.



Right now I am not sure what I supposed to do. I am not afraid that I might go to place where I can not depend on people. I used to manage by myself, and this time it will be the same, but I want to go somewhere, and it is already anoying that nothing the people are not responsible.

development of internship looking process

Last few days I had a huge dilemma - I coulnd't decided what to do. There was this TN manager from Indonesia pushing me to give him an answer, but there was also another places I wanted to give a chance.

How the situation with Indinesia looks like - so there are two projects, both cool, both interesting (help with teaching English) and I always wanted to go there. But there was something wrong. All the time I was thinking that maybe it is not a good idea, although I was convinced from all sides that I should go there.

Yesterday I made decission. There is this proverb - better bird in hand, then pigeon on the roof, what means better are things which you have, then maybe more atractive but far away. So there was nothing wrong with Indonesia - I just didn't have this strong feeling that I really should go there.

But today I did manage to catch a coordinator from Mexico, where they do have amazing internships in Ethos Foundation - NGO dealing with different social issues! This was something perfect for me, things I was doing since I remember, things I loved to do. And it was a second that I had this very strong feeling - yes that's this place (especially that maybe finally I would improve my spanish). I had a problem with this intenrship, because I was not sure if the dates I am available are fine for thie employee, if they do have a lot of candidates and so one. But today after the short chat with the coordinator I know I should give a chance to this project. Maybe they do have same candidates (and most probably in 2 weeks they will have more), but I know that I would be a perfect match, I have enough skills, I can apply for more then one intern... and I have to wait only till 25th of March!

So where I am now...

I decided that I will cancel all these places where they want my decission right now. I will apply for this 2 additional project in Mexican foundation to improve my chances. Still I am in the application process in Jordan, where I was informed it will take ages to decide. Moreover I have contacts to other MEDA countries, where I can even go for development internship (don't get salary, only accommodation, but have much cheaper travel), and looking on my performance till now I am sure that if those places won't work for me as I wish, I can easly find nice DT somewhere closer to home and as well fine. But if I won't give a chance to those all better project I know I will regreat.