Vision - In Response to My Last Blog - NYTimes

The New York Times today does exactly the opposite analysis of the trends in pop culture as my last blog - using THIS year's Oscar contenders. :) Very interesting!

www.nytimes.com/2009/01/30/movies/awardsseason/30carr.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Power/Vision - The Dark Knight, Tina, Amy and Raising Awareness on Women's Issues

Sooo the section I am working in at UNHCR is called CDGECS - Community Development, Gender Equality and Children. This section has a mandate to make the culture more inclusive around age, gender, diversity. And I constantly think about gender and change and what brings about enlightenment around rights and culture and journey. So I've been thinking...

Hang with me on this. It's a little round about.

At lunch today I had an intriguing discussion with three other women colleagues. Each of us has a dynamic, interesting mother who does amazing things... takes big risks, pursues advanced degrees late in life, generally engages exuberantly with the world. Each of us had a father who was threatened by our moms in one way or another. The reactions ranged from fathers who undercut the moms verbally... became coincidentally sick themselves during a major household crisis... to those who outright physically abused our moms. All of our parents are divorced.

I've thought so much lately about how engaged and resilient many of the women I know are. There seems to be a realization that the world is exciting, challenging and unfolding. I think of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler - comedians and actresses who bring intelligence, authenticity and real joy to their work. They are so fresh. Honestly, I see so few men who feel that way. There seems to be a dark cloud over many men and I wonder what lies at the core of this.

Does it have to do with the fact women had a big revolution over the past century - but there was no similar, obvious opening for men?

Recently, I spoke with a young male friend of mine who is in crisis. He's talented... smart... charming. He's been battling substance abuse for years. I asked what demons are torturing him. He was embarrassed to tell me, but I was happy he did. He said, "I thought I was going to be a rock star... but it's obvious that I am not."

You could almost laugh at that answer, but he was serious. Could there be a clue in this answer about what is torturing men around us? Is this about huge societal expectations and inevitable failure? Or is it more nuanced than that?

I watched the Batman film "The Dark Knight" last night - and the film was one big indulgence around a brooding, depressed pathology. There was no resolution offered and none expected. The darkness was the point, the precious thing to be engaged. As one of the women at lunch pointed out - a resolution would make the movie happy. A resolution would make the movie a chick flick.



I think about other popular films... "No Country for Old Men", "There Will be Blood" both garnered Oscar nominations... and popular TV shows are "24", "House"... about men, depressed, repressed, dark, unresolved, unresolvable. Heath Ledger, star of "The Dark Knight" was so brooding and depressed that he committed suicide.

How do you reach a population about awareness of diversity issues and bring along a cultural shift when the majority of the population seems to consider their brooding pathology a form of poetry? The brooding pathology seems to be the root of masculinity in a vast part of our culture; the basis for much of our popular arts. To consider other individuals or possibilities out there would be a failure. You could lose your precious darkness.

My friend Amy Sarch teaches women's studies at Shenandoah University and is one person I know who is reaching a male audience around women's issues. One of the football players who took her class now proudly calls himself a feminist. I hope to speak with her soon - and some of her students to gain a little more insight. More then. In the meantime... I would love your feedback!!

Connection/Vision - A Community Film Project in East Africa

Country
Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda
Region
Global, Africa
Programme Summary

Based around the lives of two very different families, the well-to-do Meli family and the some what poorer Karani family. The two families live in close proximity, and are linked by various means, but primarily by Salome Karani, who works as ayah to the Melis.

Initiated in 2002 by the United Nations (UN) in Kenya in collaboration with all 24 UN agencies based in Nairobi, this multimedia communications strategy is centred on a prime-time television and radio soap opera called 'Heart & Soul'. Scripted, directed, acted, and produced by Kenyan talents in the film and television industry, the series explores social and development issues evoked by 5 key themes: HIV/AIDS, environment and natural disaster management, governance and human rights, poverty reduction, and gender issues.

These issues, as well as the ordinary joys and trials of everyday life in Africa, are highlighted through focus on the rich "Meli" family and the poor "Karani" family. Heart & Soul's audience, which is potentially 50 to 75 million people across Africa, are the urban and rural, youth and adult population in Kenya and other Eastern Africa countries.

Communication Strategies
In July/August, 2002, the 6-episode pilot TV series was broadcast in Kenya through the national broadcaster (KBC), and in 11 other Anglophone African countries through the TV Africa Network. The pilot radio series, which used the same storylines as the TV programmes, was broadcast in Kiswahili in Kenya (KBC) and Tanzania (Clouds FM), and in English in Uganda (Super FM). The TV programmes were also distributed through Regional Reach, a network of community TV sets in Kenya, and through the Health Channel, a similar network with sets in hospitals and clinics.

A central component of this production process is capacity building and development of creative and production talent in Kenya. The development of the project's pilot phase followed the staging of a 2-day workshop in early February 2000 attended by Information and Communication officers and representatives of the UN Agencies in Kenya. Other participants included marketing, research, creative and production consultants drawn from Kenya's media industry.

In July 2000, a workshop in Nairobi was held to for 16 Kenyan writers, identified from 55 applicants across Kenya. The purpose of this workshop was to lay the programme's creative foundations and select a story line and scripting team for the pilot series. These materials were then tested on rural and urban audiences in Kenya. Acting and directing capacity building workshops were conducted in August 2001 for 25 Kenyan actors and 6 Kenyan directors.

Production of the pilot series commenced in April 2002 and involved a cast of 31 Kenyan actors and 80 Kenyan-based crew and production management personnel. Students from the Mohammed Amin Foundation, a Kenyan film and television production training school, contributed to the production process. Organisers hope that, by contributing to the development of the local industry, employment opportunities can be created and indigenous cultural creativity and values fostered and maintained.

Organisers planned to introduce complementary support media such as rural theatre road shows, billboards, newspapers, and youth education packs over the project's timeframe. Additional planned activities include a re-edit of the TV pilot series as a mini series (3 1-hour episodes), a dubbed/sub-titled version of the pilot TV series, 26 *-hour English TV programmes, 26 *-hour dubbed/sub-titled TV programmes (French), 52 *-hour English radio programmes, and 52 *-hour Swahili radio programmes.

Development Issues
HIV/AIDS, Environment, Rights, Economic Development, Gender.

Key Points
Editor's note: In 2003, organisers put the project on hold; they were unable to continue beyond the pilot phase of Heart & Soul's first 6 episodes. In their words, "While we received a great deal of praise both for the high production standards of the pilot series as well as the nature of the programming, we
were simply unable to raise the necessary funds."

Partners
The pilot series was financed by a number of UN agencies, as well as donors including the Norwegian government, DFID-UK government, the Ford Foundation, the British Council, Beiersdorf EV (Nivea), Coca-Cola Africa Foundation, and Western Union (Helping Hands). In-kind production support was provided by Kenya Airways, Africa Air Rescue, Somak Travel, EARS Security Group, and Kergeles Restaurants. The TVAfricaNetwork was a partner in the World AIDS Day/Heart and Soul launch.

Contact
Steve Jackson
Head of Audio Visual
Division of Communications and Public Information (DCPI)
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
P.O. Box 30552
Nairobi, Kenya
Tel.: 254 (0)20 623332
Mobile tel.: 254 (0)733 617087
Fax: 254 (0)20 623927
steve.jackson@unep.org
OR
Eric Falt
UNEP Spokesperson/Director of DCPI
Eric.Falt@unep.org
Heart & Soul website


The pilot series was financed by a number of UN agencies, as well as donors including the Norwegian government, DFID-UK governme

Power - UNHCR; a Community Based Approach to People of Concern

Here is a link outlining UNHCR's change of approach to the people that they serve. The change looks at people of concern not as dependent beneficiaries who are to be saved and assisted, but rather as equal partners who have an active role in protecting themselves and organizing for their own basic needs. The document states the need for an attitudinal change within the organization. My section - Gender Equality, Community Development and Children, is key to driving that change. More about how that is being implemented in future posts.

www.unhcr.org/publ/PUBL/47f0a5a92.pdf

Vision - New Yorker Article about UNHCR in Chad

Bredjing, a refugee camp in eastern Chad, close to the border with the Darfur region of Sudan. Twelve camps in the region house a quarter of a million Sudanese who have fled to the area and are now caught between warring armies. Photograph by Christoph Bangert.

www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/01/05/090105fa_fact_harr

This is an excellent article from Chad on how UNHCR camps are set up, how they are run and how they evolve. A few quotes:

"Some refugees had been there for months, and more came every day. Every so often, they saw in the distance a column of black smoke rising from another burning village. In the month before Sturm’s arrival, thirty thousand new refugees had crossed into Chad. The total number gathered along the four-hundred-mile border with Darfur, by rough estimates, came to seventy-seven thousand.

Sturm had a pragmatic cast of mind. The scene evoked in him a sense of urgency, but it neither shocked him nor caused him great distress. “I had been involved in other situations that were just as bad, even worse,” Sturm told me. Years earlier, in Goma, eastern Zaire, he’d been part of a team trying to cope with a million refugees and an outbreak of cholera that, at its peak, had killed seven thousand people a week."

"The task of assisting some thirty-three million refugees, asylum seekers, and internally displaced people in more than a hundred and ten countries around the world costs the U.N.H.C.R. about $1.2 billion a year. The bulk of that sum comes from voluntary contributions made by wealthy nations. The top ten donors account for eighty-five per cent of the agency’s budget. The United States is the largest contributor, followed by the European Commission, Japan, Sweden, and the Netherlands."

"Managing this money, accounting to donors for its expenditure, and overseeing the agency’s far-flung operations requires a bureaucracy. Like most bureaucracies, the one created by the U.N.H.C.R. has evolved into a cumbersome apparatus."

Vision - FilmAid Partners with UNHCR

"Films are powerful and evocative tool for fostering understanding and tolerance in the world." - Nelson Mandela, Nobel Laureate

From FilmAid's website:

FilmAid International uses the power of film and video to reach the world’s most vulnerable communities with messages that inspire them, address their critical shared needs, and effect social change.

Principles:
FilmAid has been embraced by many leading humanitarian organizations due to unwavering commitment to its core principles:

FilmAid works with local advisory committees to ensure that the content used in its programs is appropriate and relevant for the intended audience. These Advisory Committees represent a cross-section of the local population and engage the rarely heard voices of women and youth.

FilmAid collaborates with local communities in program design, implementation and evaluation.

FilmAid partners with humanitarian experts, physicians and nongovernmental organizations in the field.

FilmAid performs ongoing evaluations to measure results and identify possible program improvements.

Vision/Connection - Howard Zehr on Contemplative Photography

Professor, advisor, and restorative justice pioneer Howard Zehr talks about contemplative photography, its meditative approach to life and subject and how that approach can change our predatory relationship to the greater world.

"When I have the camera, I see things in the world that I would miss otherwise." - Howard Zehr

Howard wrote the book The Little Book of Contemplative Photography.

Listen to his interview at:

http://cdn1.libsyn.com/paulgiguere/TOP-0046.mp3?nvb=20090117112406&nva=20090118113406&t=0d3a5831251d2d1a3ad21

Howard's book on people serving life sentences called Doing Life is a beautiful example of seeing subjects in relationship and in a new way.