tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24543051923527772052024-03-12T18:58:07.291-07:00A Recovering IdealistAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14294572017563557781noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454305192352777205.post-48424063744630671372016-11-09T06:08:00.003-08:002016-11-09T06:08:49.578-08:00Another Post-election Reflection
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As we sit back in our echo chambers this morning, plotting
resistance and obstructionism to a Trump Presidency, I urge us all to also
reflect on what brought us here. On what brought us a populist leader who
extols the virtues of economic isolationism and American superiority, while
simultaneously engaging in Twitter arguments unbecoming of a teenager. I offer
one narrative:</div>
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The quest for progress without empathy has alienated the
working class.</div>
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I understand that when we are fighting for the rights of the
persecuted, there might not be much room for empathy, but this isn’t about
those times. This about when new regulation to protect the<a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1995-04-21/business/fi-57281_1_timber-harvest"> Spotted Owl puts anend to a way of life in small Oregon towns</a>. This is about when an Executive
Order leads to the <a href="http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=21532">closing of hundreds of coal-fired power plants,</a> and with it,
the jobs that kept their communities on the map. This is about the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lori-wallach/nafta-at-20-one-million-u_b_4550207.html">free-trade agreements</a> that enabled easy off shoring of manufacturing jobs and the countless
<a href="http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2014/02/03/Time-Fix-Failed-18-Billion-Job-Training-Programs">retraining programs that have never delivered on their promises</a>.</div>
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In the coming four years, the left needs to do better. Some
of that must come in the form of confronting the increasingly warped tools of
democracy (See voter ID laws, the electoral college and gerrymandering), but
the rest needs to come in the form of truly reaching out to the right to
understand how progressive policies can be molded to deal with their concerns
and needs too. </div>
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Without this bridge and the difficult compromises that come
with it, I fear that we just might deserve the political reality we are now
living in. </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14294572017563557781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454305192352777205.post-82868749979776905022016-06-05T20:07:00.002-07:002016-06-06T06:45:38.269-07:00What will it cost to retire coal early in Alberta?<style>
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<img alt="TransAlta's Sundance power plant. The Alberta Utilities Commission says TransAlta deliberately timed outages at power plants in Alberta at peak times in order to drive up electricity prices." class="attachment-single-post-thumbnail size-single-post-thumbnail wp-post-image" src="http://wpmedia.business.financialpost.com/2015/07/07285transalta.jpg?quality=60&strip=all&w=620" height="480" width="640" /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">TransAlta's Sundance Power Plant</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Source: Financial Post c/o TransAlta</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What will it cost to
retire coal early in Alberta?</b></div>
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There seems to be no shortage of opinion pieces seeking to address
this question in papers ranging from the Calgary Herald to the Financial Post.
One such article, “<a href="http://business.financialpost.com/fp-comment/get-ready-albertans-youre-about-to-pay-a-steep-bill-to-kill-coal">Get ready Albertans, you’re about to pay a steep bill to kill coal</a>,”
echoes the concerns of many Albertans I know and I want to explore these
concerns more fully and quantitatively than most of the articles I have seen to
date. For those just looking for the answer to how much I estimate it will cost
to retire coal early in Alberta, feel free to skip to the conclusion below. </div>
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<i>Caveat/Fine print: </i>my analysis does not model the complex realities of the deregulated, multi-actor bidding system that is the Alberta electricity system. Instead, it relies on a simpler analysis involving levelized costs of energy over the lifetime of power plants, which should, in theory be recovered in the long-run. That being said, it has its limitations. Also, I also do not weigh in on the potential lawsuits from coal-fired power plant owners which may result from the early retirement of their facilities. These lawsuits could have a large impact on the final cost of coal retirement.</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iM11VRUOotI/V1TdWFmmZFI/AAAAAAAAAZY/vfEvMgGJQVQs8Uf0UgbB3aPx32crMiXsQCK4B/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-06-05%2Bat%2B10.17.14%2BPM.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="346" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iM11VRUOotI/V1TdWFmmZFI/AAAAAAAAAZY/vfEvMgGJQVQs8Uf0UgbB3aPx32crMiXsQCK4B/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-06-05%2Bat%2B10.17.14%2BPM.png" width="640" /></a><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"></span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Iw_-LbjDnpE/V1TdpTR107I/AAAAAAAAAZg/yka2FhV42fsmPzDHMUrdfN3R_bBSIhqVwCK4B/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-06-05%2Bat%2B10.19.07%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Iw_-LbjDnpE/V1TdpTR107I/AAAAAAAAAZg/yka2FhV42fsmPzDHMUrdfN3R_bBSIhqVwCK4B/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-06-05%2Bat%2B10.19.07%2BPM.png" /></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Alberta’s grid was not necessarily on track to be just 10% coal by 2034</b><br />
Many
authors have been claiming that Alberta's grid will be 10% coal-fired
by 2034, and while this claim has some merit, it is also misleading. The
authors use what is referred to as power plant capacity when deriving
their
numbers. This means the maximum potential of a particular power plant to
produce
energy in a given time-period. The problem with this is that it doesn’t
show
how often the different power plants are being used. For example, in
2014, coal
made up 41% of the power capacity in the province, but produced 55% of
our
energy. Wind on the other hand, made up 10% of the capacity, but
produced 4% of
our total energy (Source: Alberta Utilities Commission). As you can see
in the graph below, capacity doesn’t
show how much each fuel is contributing to energy production in the
province.<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><br />
<br />
Coal-fired power plants also make up an overwhelming
percentage of carbon and other air emissions (mercury, sulfur dioxide, etc.)
from electricity production. In 2011, coal made up 55% of the MWh produced, but
accounted for 91% of the carbon emissions from the electricity sector (Source:
Alberta Utilities Commission and the Federal National Pollutant Release Inventory). <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Ontario’s electricity prices have not increased by 80% due to coal being retired in the
province </b></div>
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It is unwise to compare the Alberta and Ontario electricity
markets for a number of reasons. To understand why, we need to look at how each
of these provinces deregulated their energy sectors.</div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">What the hell is
deregulation?</i></div>
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Deregulation refers to how a province changes from the
government signing individual contracts with power plants for electricity to a
centralized market where power plants bid their production every half-hour or
hour.</div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Why does it matter how
you go from one to the other?</i></div>
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Regulated markets are managed by the government or central
utility, which pays a set price for electricity over the life of the power
plants. In order for the market mentioned above to function properly, these
contracts must be “transitioned” to the market. That is, these power plants
must be paid out for the value of the contracts, or that value must be
accounted for in the new system.</div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">So how did Alberta
deal with these contracts?</i></div>
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Alberta managed these contracts by auctioning off the rights
of the power to another party through a government agency called the Balancing Pool. For example, TransCanada bought the Power Purchase Agreement for the Sheerness Power Station for 20 years for $585 million. Through this, the government was
able to cover the cost of the pre-existing contracts, and the company that
bought the rights to the power plant could bid the plant into the market as it
saw fit. Many of the corporations who owned these contracts have stepped away
from them since NDP passed their new carbon regulations and the impact of this
is a major uncertainty. For more information on Alberta's deregulation, see the <a href="http://www.aeso.ca/downloads/Path_to_Transformation_email.pdf">AESO's Deregulation Report</a>)<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fiCVAe75D2U/V1TmdtPv3LI/AAAAAAAAAaM/owN39w-AnicF88NeBsxbSEuKpBd9nDuWwCK4B/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-06-05%2Bat%2B10.56.24%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="444" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fiCVAe75D2U/V1TmdtPv3LI/AAAAAAAAAaM/owN39w-AnicF88NeBsxbSEuKpBd9nDuWwCK4B/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-06-05%2Bat%2B10.56.24%2BPM.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">According to the Auditor General's report in December 2015, Ontario overpaid for much of its renewable energy capacity.</td></tr>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">How did Ontario do it?</i></div>
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Ontario developed something called the <a href="http://www.ieso.ca/Pages/Ontario's-Power-System/Electricity-Pricing-in-Ontario/Global-Adjustment.aspx">Global
Adjustment</a>, a cost that fluctuates based on the average price of the market
to make sure that power plants recovered the revenue that they were guaranteed
through the existing contracts. This eliminates the ability for the market to
drive cost-savings as any decrease in the market price for electricity is later
accounted for by an increase in the global adjustment.</div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Why have Ontario’s
power prices increased so much in the past decade?</i></div>
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Ontario’s power prices have increased due to a number of
policies introduced in the past decade. This includes a Feed-in Tariff program,
which has been widely criticized for inefficiently and artificially
establishing rates paid to renewable generators. </div>
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According to the Ontario auditor general, the renewable
energy contracts signed through this and other programs is responsible for $9.2
billion or about 33% of the increase in Ontario’s power prices. Alternatively,
early coal retirement is more difficult to obtain numbers for. However, based
on 2010 filing with the Ontario government, OPG had liabilities relating to
Power Purchase Agreements of around $2.2 billion, some of which would have been
regarding the Nanticoke and Lambton coal-fired power plants, the two largest by far
of the four coal plants that were retired in Ontario. We could conclude from this that coal
retirement is therefore not the main culprit in the rise of Ontario’s power
prices.</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The unanswered question: What will happen to Alberta energy costs because of
coal?</i></b></div>
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To understand the cost of retiring coal early, you can’t
simply look at the cost of building new power plants, because consumers in
Alberta are not charged based on this capital cost. Instead, you have to
compare the marginal cost of each power plant type with the inclusion of the
increased carbon tax. In addition, you also have to factor in when those power
plants would have been built anyway and then count only the additional cost for
the additional years. Coal power plants in the province will be retired on the
schedule below as a result of rules established by the Harper administration:</div>
<br />
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PBdPLKFlNt0/V1TePlUVigI/AAAAAAAAAZs/tFPlplYOIVAnMIldIJF6ZS5j2Eat--HcgCK4B/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-06-05%2Bat%2B10.20.50%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PBdPLKFlNt0/V1TePlUVigI/AAAAAAAAAZs/tFPlplYOIVAnMIldIJF6ZS5j2Eat--HcgCK4B/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-06-05%2Bat%2B10.20.50%2BPM.png" /></a><br />
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The bulk of the coal-fired power plants will be
offline by 2034. This means that the increase to our power bills is the
increase in cost to the dispatched energy from the 2.5 GW of coal that would
have remained online. </div>
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<u>The cost to retire coal early</u></div>
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With this in mind we can use the average Alberta grid price,
the cost per MWh of new natural gas generation, and the differences in carbon
content of the coal-fired and natural gas-fired generation to build a model
estimating the increased costs to the energy system in Alberta because of early
coal retirements. </div>
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The increase in costs would be around $7.5 Billion on 80TWh of energy per year, or
$3.34/MWh. This would result in an increase of about 10% to Alberta wholesale
energy prices. For consumers, wholesale energy prices make up around 37% of
your energy bill. So the cost to the average household is about <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">$1.10 per month. </b>This will result in a reduction of carbon emissions by almost 95 million tonnes, almost the annual emissions of the entire Albertan oil sands and it will dramatically lower the mercury and sulfur dioxide emissions in the province (<a href="https://archive.epa.gov/clearskies/web/pdf/overview.pdf">human impacts of Mercury and Sulfur Dioxide in the Atmosphere</a>).</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"></b><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/Coal_mine_Wyoming.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">According to Energy Alberta, more than 10,000 people are employed by the coal industry in Alberta</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Thirteen dollars per year per Albertan household hardly seems to be the economic doomsday that many project, but some people are saying that the slow addition of small expenses such as this may eventually break the back of the Albertan economy, and this must be part of the analysis. What is the impact of all additional costs associated with NDP programs and how do we make sure that not only are these costs worthwhile, but also affordable? Last, when the coal plants close, the communities that have benefited from these jobs for decades will face economic difficulties. <b>The NDP must put forward a plan for the economic transition of these communities and the entire province should push them for it.</b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">For those interested
in a much more in-depth analysis, take a look at Genalta’s <a href="http://static1.squarespace.com/static/54217ac0e4b0450bd7d80203/t/54e77bf3e4b0a3ebc2ba903d/1424456691998/Genalta_Alberta_Power_Market_Report_2015.pdf">paper</a>. Note: this paper was written before the fall of oil prices and as a result, reflects the power prices of that time.</b></div>
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<u>More information: Consumer Energy cost breakdown (June 2016)</u><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SyvbNYCsRQg/V1TfDSjFZPI/AAAAAAAAAZ4/lVgrpATRulAq94ypDkc5daXjGhn5I5lswCK4B/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-06-05%2Bat%2B10.24.45%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="190" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SyvbNYCsRQg/V1TfDSjFZPI/AAAAAAAAAZ4/lVgrpATRulAq94ypDkc5daXjGhn5I5lswCK4B/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-06-05%2Bat%2B10.24.45%2BPM.png" width="400" /></a> </span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">Source: <a href="https://www.enmax.com/ForYourHomeSite/Documents/2015-10-01-DT-Rate-Schedule.pdf"><span style="text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">https://www.enmax.com/ForYourHomeSite/Documents/2015-10-01-DT-Rate-Schedule.pdf</span></a>
</span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u>Sources</u></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="https://ece.uwaterloo.ca/~ccanizar/papers/HamidOntario.pdf">https://ece.uwaterloo.ca/~ccanizar/papers/HamidOntario.pdf</a>
</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="http://www.aeso.ca/downloads/Path_to_Transformation_email.pdf">http://www.aeso.ca/downloads/Path_to_Transformation_email.pdf</a>
</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="https://www.eia.gov/forecasts/aeo/electricity_generation.cfm">https://www.eia.gov/forecasts/aeo/electricity_generation.cfm</a>
</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="http://static1.squarespace.com/static/54217ac0e4b0450bd7d80203/t/54e77bf3e4b0a3ebc2ba903d/1424456691998/Genalta_Alberta_Power_Market_Report_2015.pdf">http://static1.squarespace.com/static/54217ac0e4b0450bd7d80203/t/54e77bf3e4b0a3ebc2ba903d/1424456691998/Genalta_Alberta_Power_Market_Report_2015.pdf</a>
</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="http://www.aeso.ca/downloads/2014_Annual_Market_Stats_WEB.pdf">http://www.aeso.ca/downloads/2014_Annual_Market_Stats_WEB.pdf</a>
</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="http://www.oefc.on.ca/pdf/oefc_ar_2010_e.pdf">http://www.oefc.on.ca/pdf/oefc_ar_2010_e.pdf</a>
</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="http://business.financialpost.com/fp-comment/the-ontario-power-systems-broken-auditor-general">http://business.financialpost.com/fp-comment/the-ontario-power-systems-broken-auditor-general</a>
</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="http://www.auc.ab.ca/market-oversight/Annual-Electricity-Data-Collection/Pages/default.aspx">http://www.auc.ab.ca/market-oversight/Annual-Electricity-Data-Collection/Pages/default.aspx</a>
</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">National Pollutant Release
Inventory: </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="http://ec.gc.ca/inrp-npri/donnees-data/index.cfm?lang=En">http://ec.gc.ca/inrp-npri/donnees-data/index.cfm?lang=En </a></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://www.energy.alberta.ca/minerals/1084.asp">http://www.energy.alberta.ca/minerals/1084.asp </a></span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14294572017563557781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454305192352777205.post-45361777457223598822015-11-03T19:55:00.002-08:002015-11-03T19:55:44.264-08:00The Economics of Squirrels! or What is GDP and how does it grow?<b style="text-align: left;">The economic
world of squirrels</b>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
After reading my last post on minimum wage policy, a friend
of mine asked: “does <span style="color: #10131a; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">increasing
the minimum wage actually increase the overall supply of goods, or does it
simply redistribute that existing fixed quantity?” This is a very cool
question, and to answer it, we first have to understand what makes up gross
domestic product (GDP).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<b>What is
GDP?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
GDP is the total amount of value produced by a
country in a calendar year. It is the sum of what everyone spends, what
everyone invests, what the government spends and what the country sends to and
receives from other countries. The equation looks like this:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
GDP =</div>
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cYndRqZAIrw/VjfmoTzgWeI/AAAAAAAAAWU/ifcn2Cgxn24/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-10-13%2Bat%2B8.31.09%2BAM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="118" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cYndRqZAIrw/VjfmoTzgWeI/AAAAAAAAAWU/ifcn2Cgxn24/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-10-13%2Bat%2B8.31.09%2BAM.png" width="400" /></a><br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
So, let’s say that six squirrels live in the same
tree and each squirrel can gather 100 nuts in a year. The government then taxes
each squirrel 10 nuts, and spends those 60 nuts fixing up the tree. A
squirrel-preneur, whom we will call Richard spends 50 of his nuts building a
store to sell peanut butter, and Jim (the really excited guy on the right) exports
10 nuts to a neighboring tree and all other nuts are consumed. The GDP here is:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
Consumer: Production: (100 x 6) – Taxes: (10 x 6)
– Savings: (50 + 10) = 480<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
Government: 60<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
Investment: 50<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
Exports: 10<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
Imports: 0<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
GDP = 600.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<b>What makes
GDP grow?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
Because GDP is the main measure of prosperity in
our world, we are often obsessed with making it grow. So how could we increase
the GDP of this tree?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
The first way of increasing the output of the tree
would be to <b>add more squirrels</b>. As
population grows, so does GDP, because each additional squirrel can harvest 100
more nuts per year. <o:p></o:p></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hQtqmulZsuI/Vjfm3z_RDrI/AAAAAAAAAWc/PCWW5oxGR9c/s1600/2011032406543679e14cbcb95ccc226b1b4d9f3b26373f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="230" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hQtqmulZsuI/Vjfm3z_RDrI/AAAAAAAAAWc/PCWW5oxGR9c/s320/2011032406543679e14cbcb95ccc226b1b4d9f3b26373f.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Squirrel Babies!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
The second major influence on GDP is <b>technology</b>. If the squirrels are given
reacher-grabbers, they can gather more nuts, increasing their production and
the tree’s GDP.<o:p></o:p></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eep4biAntdc/Vjl_9fJcZmI/AAAAAAAAAXo/Ytv-NIbf8VY/s1600/a04.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eep4biAntdc/Vjl_9fJcZmI/AAAAAAAAAXo/Ytv-NIbf8VY/s320/a04.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
The internet does not yet have a picture of squirrels using reacher-grabbers, </div>
it’s never let me down like this before. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The last major influence is <b>capital</b>. This is the investment in factories, machines, buildings,
etc. that can be used to produce additional goods. In this example, the peanut
butter store built by Peter is an investment in capital. Technology and capital
both add to GDP because they increase the productivity of workers, or replace
workers and allow them to labour elsewhere without decreasing the tree’s productivity.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YTksAtkSGNw/Vjfm64nRULI/AAAAAAAAAWs/1yaa6Qq1YB0/s1600/ImagesCAK5GKQO.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YTksAtkSGNw/Vjfm64nRULI/AAAAAAAAAWs/1yaa6Qq1YB0/s1600/ImagesCAK5GKQO.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
These three things: population growth, technology
and capital are the only methods of increasing total economic output in the
long run. If the population doesn’t grow, and investment and technology remains
the same, GDP does not grow.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<b>But GDP
changes all the time!<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
Yes, GDP changes all the time for a variety of
reasons: first, the human population continues to grow.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ox2kQbL8_LM/Vjfnsc0EUbI/AAAAAAAAAXQ/fwLh6ZJUH-A/s1600/populationgrowthhistory2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="203" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ox2kQbL8_LM/Vjfnsc0EUbI/AAAAAAAAAXQ/fwLh6ZJUH-A/s320/populationgrowthhistory2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
Second, technology is making us more productive:<o:p></o:p></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-e6RYwq0odDc/Vjfn3Y2Ka3I/AAAAAAAAAXY/41xzkJbV6ZE/s1600/Untitled.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="193" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-e6RYwq0odDc/Vjfn3Y2Ka3I/AAAAAAAAAXY/41xzkJbV6ZE/s320/Untitled.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is okay, but my dream is to be an automatic teller.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
Third, since 2006, <a href="http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NE.GDI.FTOT.ZS">Canada has invested
an average of 23.5% of its GDP</a> into fixed capital (stores, factories, oil
rigs, etc.). This money continues to improve the efficiency of works and
develop new products like the iPhone 6S. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
Last, there are many methods of adjusting when
certain transactions are realized. For example, if you raise interest rates,
people are more likely to save their money, deferring the production and
purchase of things like cars and houses. This means GDP this year will decrease, but the total economic output of the system is not necessarily impacted, as that money might be spent next year instead. This gets at the concept of long-run equilibrium, which you can read about <a href="https://www.economics.utoronto.ca/osborne/2x3/tutorial/LRCE.HTM">here</a>.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<b>So back to
the original question: would increasing minimum wage raise total economic
output?</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
The answer is: not necessarily. This is because
when you raise minimum wage, you are mostly diverting money that would have
otherwise been saved or spent elsewhere into increased labour costs. Thus, you are not changing the total economic value of the system, but just adjusting when that value is realized. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
For example, McDonald’s will be required to pay its employees
more money, meaning they will charge more for cheeseburgers, so families dining
there will have less disposable income to save or spend elsewhere. Therefore,
money that would have been spent later (perhaps after retirement?) is being spent now on a more
expensive Big Mac.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
However, the additional money that is being earned by
minimum wage employees is then spent, and spent again, and again (according to
the multiplier effect – see my <a href="http://mrpohlod.blogspot.ca/2015/09/what-happens-when-you-raise-minimum-wage.html">last blog post</a>), which
could produce more economic value this year than would have been created if
that money had been saved or spent elsewhere. This additional economic value
might then be invested (in technology or factories), or used to afford more
children, increasing long-run economic output.<br />
<br />
<b>Thanks for reading</b><br />
Let me know if you have any questions about minimum wage policy, or if you would like me to cover a particular economic topic in the future. For my next post, I am going to look at murder rates and gun policy.
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14294572017563557781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454305192352777205.post-29301100469021626492015-09-06T09:41:00.000-07:002015-09-06T14:45:36.833-07:00What happens when you raise minimum wage?<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What happens when you
raise minimum wage?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Since the NDP was elected in May, a fierce debate has raged
in Alberta. On one side, proponents herald a “living wage” for all Albertans,
and on the other, opponents predict economic destruction.<br />
<br />
This post discusses who
makes minimum wage, what has happened in the past when minimum wage was
increased, and what could happen to Alberta when the minimum wage is raised over the next few years. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Who makes
minimum wage in Alberta?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
According to Labour Alberta, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">about
370,000 workers </b>(or 22% of the working population) in Alberta make less
than $15/hour. With 38,000 people making the current minimum wage of
$10.20/hour ($9.20 if you’re serving alcohol).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u>Aren’t teenagers the only ones making minimum wage?<o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
65% of minimum wage earners are over 20, and 50% are 25 and
over.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OCwHbl_uDXE/Vexnj8CZl9I/AAAAAAAAAU0/cfLue2NywuQ/s1600/Ages.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OCwHbl_uDXE/Vexnj8CZl9I/AAAAAAAAAU0/cfLue2NywuQ/s200/Ages.png" width="188" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u>Aren’t minimum wage jobs temporary?<o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
67% of people in Alberta work a minimum wage job as
permanent, year-round employment.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Economic theory:
raising minimum wage<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Economic theory separates minimum wage impacts into three
key categories: <o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1) Increased inefficiency (or unemployment) in the labour
market, <o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NEl3Ggk1k08/VexnsVGy6gI/AAAAAAAAAVI/dgJUGHjJdMk/s1600/Keaanu.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NEl3Ggk1k08/VexnsVGy6gI/AAAAAAAAAVI/dgJUGHjJdMk/s320/Keaanu.png" width="312" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</div>
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<i>Jerry the Giraffe pays
Terry the Turtle to repair his kitchen </i><i>sink </i></div>
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<i>and then buys carrots off this very
entrepreneurial rabbit.</i></div>
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<br />
<br />
3) Increased spending by those receiving the increased
spending by those making a higher wage (what economists call the <b>multiplier
effect</b>).<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fnYWOn2mvn4/VexnsiV5uZI/AAAAAAAAAVM/c8pHmwTrPRs/s1600/Multiplier.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fnYWOn2mvn4/VexnsiV5uZI/AAAAAAAAAVM/c8pHmwTrPRs/s400/Multiplier.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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<i>Terry the turtle goes drinking with a bear in lederhosen and then pays a monkey cab driver to drive him home (don't drink and drive), and that entrepreneurial rabbit pays a hamster to do his taxes, and a dog to build an extension to his home. </i></div>
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<b>So theory says it could go either way, but what actually
happens when you raise the minimum wage?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives analyzed every
instance of raising minimum wage in Canada between 1982 and 2012 (70 times in
total), and tried to isolate the impact that the increase in wages had. They
found the unclear impact that theory suggests. Out of 70 times minimum wage was
increased, 63 instances (90%) saw no connection between the increase in wages and higher or lower employment. In the remaining 10% of the times, an increase in
employment was found 3 times, and a decrease was found 4 times.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>Given how unclear the
impacts are, what should we do?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<a href="http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/75-006-x/2014001/article/14035-eng.htm">Stats
Canada’s recent report</a> on minimum wage shows that it has remained largely
unchanged in real terms (adjusted for inflation) since the 1970s. This means
that in an average Canadian city, people making minimum wage today have roughly
the same buying power as people who were making the minimum wage in 1973.
However, in the province of Alberta, prices have increased faster than any
other province (since 2002, inflation has been 32.4%), meaning that buying
power of those making minimum wage has decreased substantially. Minimum wage is
one way of making sure that all Albertans can afford to live.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>But isn’t this
increase to minimum wage bigger than others and won’t that cause prices to go
sky-high?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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To see what a shift from the current minimum wage of $10.20
an hour to $15.00 an hour looks from a
business perspective, let’s imagine a made-up burger restaurant that sells 4,000 burgers
each month in 2015:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Costs<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Dollars per burger <o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Labour (4 employees at $10.20 per hour)<o:p></o:p></div>
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$1.64<o:p></o:p></div>
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Buns/meat, etc. <o:p></o:p></div>
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$2.50<o:p></o:p></div>
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Rent ($1800 per month/4000 burgers)<o:p></o:p></div>
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$0.45<o:p></o:p></div>
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<u>So how would the increase in labour costs affect the cost
of this burger?<o:p></o:p></u></div>
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If Inflation over the three years is 2% per year, and minimum
wage rises to $13 in 2016 and $15 in 2018, we can see the following impacts:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LBlERyIfGNQ/VexuW8u0-eI/AAAAAAAAAVY/szPs5_MW1rU/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-09-06%2Bat%2B10.58.33%2BAM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="138" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LBlERyIfGNQ/VexuW8u0-eI/AAAAAAAAAVY/szPs5_MW1rU/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-09-06%2Bat%2B10.58.33%2BAM.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br />
Over the course of three years, the cost of a burger for
this business rose by less than $1, and 20% of this increase was from inflation! This example is fairly simple, but it does show that the impact to costs
are likely quite modest and as a result, could be passed to consumers without causing
them to buy less of it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>What is the potential
impact to Alberta’s economy?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So if 370,000 people currently make below $15/hour, what is
the economic impact of raising their wages to $15/hour? <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Well we know that 38,600 employees make the minimum wage and
the average wage in Alberta for the food and accommodation sector is $12.76, so those making less than $15/hour combine to make about $6.9 billion per year (or
$18,740 per person before taxes). <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At $15/hour, their wages combine for a little over $8.3
billion (or $22,500 per person before taxes). This additional $1.4 billion then
gets spent and spent in the economy (multiplier effect). If minimum wage earners save 20% of their
wages and spend the rest, then the impact to the Albertan
economy could be almost <b>$7 billion per
year</b>, or an increase of about 2%.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<b>Thanks for reading</b><br />
Let me know if you have any questions about minimum wage policy, or if you would like me to cover a particular economic topic in the future.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u>Sources<o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://alis.alberta.ca/pdf/wageinfo/2013_AWSS_Wages_By_Industry_and_Region.pdf">http://alis.alberta.ca/pdf/wageinfo/2013_AWSS_Wages_By_Industry_and_Region.pdf</a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/econ15-eng.htm">http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/econ15-eng.htm</a>
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://work.alberta.ca/documents/minimum-wage-faqs.pdf">https://work.alberta.ca/documents/minimum-wage-faqs.pdf</a>
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://work.alberta.ca/documents/alberta-minimim-wage-profile.pdf">https://work.alberta.ca/documents/alberta-minimim-wage-profile.pdf</a>
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/National%20Office/2014/10/Dispelling_Minimum_Wage_Mythology.pdf">https://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/National%20Office/2014/10/Dispelling_Minimum_Wage_Mythology.pdf</a>
<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14294572017563557781noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454305192352777205.post-20711061665297472042014-12-04T09:58:00.002-08:002015-10-02T09:10:58.992-07:00The Medieval Moral Bar<span style="font-size: 12pt;">I returned from a Ghanaian hospital to my parents' basement in Calgary, Alberta. It was there I spent the better part of the month of October slowly putting my stomach and intestinal linings back together. By the end of October, I was finally back in the world of the living and able to venture back crowded population centres without being a vector for disease. There remained just one big friction point: <b>I was living in my parents' basement. </b>I was effectively reliving my High School social life.</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GzcoPdAo6F8/VH91DhztzaI/AAAAAAAAARk/M-c5zegETxs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2014-12-03%2Bat%2B3.44.13%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GzcoPdAo6F8/VH91DhztzaI/AAAAAAAAARk/M-c5zegETxs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2014-12-03%2Bat%2B3.44.13%2BPM.png" width="295" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Almost high school me...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">
Now my mother reads this blog on occasion so I am both unable to either embellish the ridiculousness of the situation nor find any humour at her expense. She birthed me, raised me, and refused what I'm sure was a strong urge to euthanize me during my teenage years (I was a brat), and I am thankful for all 27 years of support she has provided to date.<br />
<br />
I have since graduated from high school and am now in Toronto working with Engineers Without Borders. The problem this time: I am now living in what amounts to dorm room.</span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-QnejPOAsjSA/VICIRcYp0pI/AAAAAAAAAR0/G9dmy8nlXqo/s640/blogger-image-1660692224.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-QnejPOAsjSA/VICIRcYp0pI/AAAAAAAAAR0/G9dmy8nlXqo/s640/blogger-image-1660692224.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Toronto-based dorm room</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">
The good news is: I have an eight-bed (4 bunk beds) room to myself and three incredibly intelligent and hilarious roommates. On one particular evening, the four of us were talking about one of the woman's employment as an unpaid intern at two separate organizations. It was brought up that unpaid internships would have been viewed as immoral in Medieval times as apprentices were at the very least provided room and board in exchange for their labours. I believe we now have a new moral bar:</span>
<br />
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>If someone in 1399 would look at what you are doing and think, "how you're treating people is awful," you should rethink what you are doing.</b></span><br />
<u><br /></u>I bring you the first episode of: <b><span style="font-family: "Apple Chancery"; font-size: 16pt;">"What
would your Medieval Ancestors think?"</span></b><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Apple Chancery"; font-size: 16pt;"> <u>Unpaid
Internships</u><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Apple Chancery"; font-size: 12pt;">The
U.S. Supreme Court recently found that <span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2013/04/19/6-legal-requirements-for-unpaid-internship-programs/"><span style="color: blue;">six legal requirements</span></a> </span></span>had to be met in order
for an unpaid internship to be lawful. These requirements can be summed up as:
interns must be a burden to the company. In other words, an unpaid internship
must be a training program. However, as many of us have experienced, this can
be pretty far from reality. In the past year, hundreds of companies have had
cases brought forward against them for illegal unpaid internships (I.E.
Over <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-22120467"><span style="color: blue;">100 companies</span></a> in the U.K., and <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bell-accused-of-breaking-labour-law-with-unpaid-interns-1.1356277"><span style="color: blue;">Bell Canada</span></a>). Proponents of serfdom and 1400s
public opinion are very disappointed in us.<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="border: currentColor; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 400pt;" width="400"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-c-mewrcVRkc/VICbNZbrQKI/AAAAAAAAASQ/Jmyc40ZvvVs/s1600/Reeve_and_Serfs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="368" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-c-mewrcVRkc/VICbNZbrQKI/AAAAAAAAASQ/Jmyc40ZvvVs/s1600/Reeve_and_Serfs.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Apple Chancery'; font-size: small;">When I managed my Lord's Twitter account, I At least got room and board!</span></td></tr>
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</div>
</td></tr>
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<u><span style="font-family: 'Apple Chancery';"><br /></span></u>
<u><span style="font-family: "Apple Chancery"; font-size: 16pt;">Money
Lending</span></u><span style="font-family: "Apple Chancery"; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Apple Chancery"; font-size: 12pt;">Usury
is defined as the practice of lending money at unreasonably high interest
rates. The moral bar on this practice dates back to at least the Old Testament
(1,500 BC). Now John Oliver had a great segment on the awful state of <span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDylgzybWAw"><span style="color: blue;">Predatory
Lending in the United States</span></a> </span>back in August, but that's the U.S.
Most of us Canadians look at the U.S. regulatory regime with a sense of
smug superiority, because we couldn't possibly be that douch-y. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Apple Chancery"; font-size: 12pt;"> It
is with a heavy heart that I must report that we are no better than our
neighbours to the South. As <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/75-001-x/10407/9617-eng.pdf"><span style="color: blue;">this report from Stats Canada</span></a> </span>shows:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Apple Chancery"; font-size: 12pt;">-
"There are 15 return customers or rollover loans for every new payday loan
customer."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Apple Chancery"; font-size: 12pt;">-
These loans disproportionately target people and families who make less than
$30,000 per year.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Apple Chancery"; font-size: 12pt;">-
Rates vary from province to province, from an annual interest rate of between
60% and 700%.</span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Apple Chancery';"><br /></span></div>
</div>
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<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="border: currentColor; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 350pt;" width="350"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xXczcNtFrdQ/VICYUbboVQI/AAAAAAAAASE/m9lOGCGZ5MU/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2014-12-03%2Bat%2B5.07.15%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xXczcNtFrdQ/VICYUbboVQI/AAAAAAAAASE/m9lOGCGZ5MU/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2014-12-03%2Bat%2B5.07.15%2BPM.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Apple Chancery'; font-size: small;">"I find your lack of respect for your fellow human most disturbing"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Apple Chancery'; font-size: small;">-Friar Thomas Aquinas, Italy 1265</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Apple Chancery'; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: 'Apple Chancery'; font-size: 12pt;">Photos from: </span><span style="text-align: center;">http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/Reeve_and_Serfs.jpg </span><span style="text-align: center;">http://www.biography.com/people/st-thomas-aquinas-9187231</span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<!--EndFragment--><br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14294572017563557781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454305192352777205.post-59635344673806116722014-11-19T09:51:00.001-08:002015-11-07T10:36:15.838-08:00A not so graceful returnEvery trip I've taken that involves the words "culture shock," has been more difficult to return from than it was to take. This seems to happen for a few reasons:<br />
<br />
<b>1) You</b><b>'ve seen some shit</b><br />
Pardon my being crass, but until you've watched an old woman beat back a charging ram on a dusty African road with no more than a stick you won't necessarily know what I'm talking about (this actually happened, that ram lived on my street and he was a complete asshole). The fact is, that when you travel, you see and experience things that change you. This change may not be obvious or easy to put a finger on, but it becomes pronounced as you try to slip back into your old routine.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Axyie2-OBIo/VGy-s8XphvI/AAAAAAAAAPc/NaUh9jDA5vM/s1600/big-horned-sheep-coloring-page.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Axyie2-OBIo/VGy-s8XphvI/AAAAAAAAAPc/NaUh9jDA5vM/s1600/big-horned-sheep-coloring-page.png" height="175" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Artist's rendering of the assailant</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-cU3iexliCRU/VGzJlxEICXI/AAAAAAAAAQY/FksbZMkzrNo/s640/blogger-image-526944915.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-cU3iexliCRU/VGzJlxEICXI/AAAAAAAAAQY/FksbZMkzrNo/s400/blogger-image-526944915.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The prime suspect. Also, remember the gazebo for bullet number 4.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
</div>
<b>2) Life is a little bit boring when you return</b><br />
Moving to a new country is a difficult experience, moving to a new developing country doubly so. From your morning commute, to finding a reputable food source, every mundane task becomes an adventure. On top of that, you lack the language skills, body language, and cultural understanding necessary to navigate social and commercial interactions. This meant, that successfully navigating your morning commute had the ability to feel like a real accomplishment. Upon returning, the senses of adventure and achievement from everyday tasks are noticeably absent.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-q6SxUmNaXLM/VGzJiOO1GBI/AAAAAAAAAP4/mYV5ZnPau_Y/s640/blogger-image-1689326739.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-q6SxUmNaXLM/VGzJiOO1GBI/AAAAAAAAAP4/mYV5ZnPau_Y/s320/blogger-image-1689326739.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Boring Alberta Commute</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-HXHiTtR6IZM/VGzJkxmCX-I/AAAAAAAAAQQ/ghJ3ORfeubI/s640/blogger-image-1522412205.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-HXHiTtR6IZM/VGzJkxmCX-I/AAAAAAAAAQQ/ghJ3ORfeubI/s400/blogger-image-1522412205.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Exciting Ghanian Commute</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>3) You're not famous anymore</b><br />
My roommate will likely attest to how much I disliked being labeled "White Man" on every block while walking down the street, but at least it was an accurate label. Nevertheless, there are some distinct benefits to being a foreigner. You are able to circumvent some social conventions, able to meet people more easily, and generally viewed as interesting simply because you are from somewhere else. I am sure this is not the reality for all foreigners and there are elements of white-male extrovert privilege attributable to the positive nature of the experiences I have. As a result, I was wondering if others might share their perspectives and experiences on being a foreigner.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-7-Ii0G5gTHA/VGzJj3Z85sI/AAAAAAAAAQI/ryXecdIWgZo/s640/blogger-image--806734053.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-7-Ii0G5gTHA/VGzJj3Z85sI/AAAAAAAAAQI/ryXecdIWgZo/s400/blogger-image--806734053.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">If I changed my name to "Obruni (Twi for 'White Man;)," <br />
they would all know my name.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>4) People's priorities seem a little off</b><br />
When you return from living in less pampered conditions, you appreciate things that are taken for granted by most people. A hot shower? Divine! Pooping shapes again? Made my day yesterday. No ants in my cereal? Slightly disappointed by the reduced protein content of my breakfast, but still very exciting.<br />
<b><br /></b>
This elation is then quickly contrasted with the everyday annoyances that face the people around you. For me, the moment that stands out from recent weeks, was when my friend's aunt began to complain about how the snow had dented the roof of their gazebo. At this point, I had been back in Canada for a week, and was just gaining back my ability to not be asleep on a couch, so the only thought I had on the subject was: "WHY CAN'T YOU JUST BE HAPPY YOU HAVE A GAZEBO!" I know, I know, I lack empathy, it's something I'm working on. The first few weeks are the hardest, but I assure you, I will slip back into being annoyed by everyday things soon enough.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xpwpAUoeAUc/VGzGFBAPCKI/AAAAAAAAAPs/slomXHVKgbA/s1600/10x13_oval_gazebo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xpwpAUoeAUc/VGzGFBAPCKI/AAAAAAAAAPs/slomXHVKgbA/s1600/10x13_oval_gazebo.jpg" height="277" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I'm assuming this is the gazebo in question</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-7Ptk9DAaQok/VGzJmjeszsI/AAAAAAAAAQg/JhHGzlcbgZ4/s640/blogger-image-886378302.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-7Ptk9DAaQok/VGzJmjeszsI/AAAAAAAAAQg/JhHGzlcbgZ4/s400/blogger-image-886378302.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A terrific place for a gazebo</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>5) It's unbelievably cold</b><br />
I'm not sure when I became a warm weather person. I have distinct memories as a child of waiting for the bus in -15 Celsius in a leather jacket. Now, I'm walking in downtown Toronto bundled up in three parkas and I'm still miserable. Is this an age thing or a me a being a wuss thing? Ghana's weather and I got along swimmingly. The heat, the humidity, the beach, ice cold Fan Ice, typhoid. Yup, those were the days. I was rudely plucked from my tropical paradise and dropped in the middle of an Albertan snowstorm...<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-yqw-Q_YVGzg/VGzJjHJiWHI/AAAAAAAAAQA/AKaWGv2PQaU/s640/blogger-image--1049462705.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-yqw-Q_YVGzg/VGzJjHJiWHI/AAAAAAAAAQA/AKaWGv2PQaU/s400/blogger-image--1049462705.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My location on October 2nd, 2014</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-shjoL-nEIYA/VGzJnvSvcjI/AAAAAAAAAQo/7lHGBFwBcfU/s640/blogger-image--736051255.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-shjoL-nEIYA/VGzJnvSvcjI/AAAAAAAAAQo/7lHGBFwBcfU/s400/blogger-image--736051255.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My location on October 4, 2014</td></tr>
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</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14294572017563557781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454305192352777205.post-79613585393814906712014-10-05T08:24:00.002-07:002015-11-07T10:36:15.846-08:00Typhoid Part II: Electric BoogalooSo the funny thing about typhoid is that it tends to come back after being treated. About two weeks after recovering from my first bout of typhoid, I came down with it again. It's an unpleasant affliction: dehydration, dizziness, extreme fatigue, and all kinds of intestinal discomfort. A lot of people also get fever, but I was thankfully spared that bit.<br />
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I went to my doctor, and another round of Cipro was prescribed. For those of you who have never had the pleasure of taking Ciprofloxacin, their tagline of "If you the disease doesn't kill you, our drugs will" should serve as a good summary. Seriously, the symptoms I mentioned above are all included on the list of side effects caused by Cipro. Don't believe me? Have a <a href="http://www.webmd.com/drugs/2/drug-1124-93/cipro-oral/ciprofloxacin-oral/details/list-sideeffects">look</a>.<br />
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This however, turned out to be the least of my problems, because most of the way through my second week of nuking every bacteria in my body, I woke up with a high fever, joint pain, headache, and a very sore throat. Now some of you will notice that these are also the symptoms of Ebola, that's because you are paranoid. They are actually the symptoms of nearly every disease you can contract in West Africa. The doctor prescribed another antibiotic to ward off what was becoming an increasingly severe throat infection. At this point, I was losing faith in modern medicine and was thinking of heading to my local witch doctor.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-D_-zDFKmVU8/VDBROAOvnqI/AAAAAAAAAOo/Ufu8fLJ__Bs/s640/blogger-image--1989359604.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-D_-zDFKmVU8/VDBROAOvnqI/AAAAAAAAAOo/Ufu8fLJ__Bs/s1600/blogger-image--1989359604.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is literally the sign for the witch doctor.</td></tr>
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There are signs everywhere for the witch doctor near my work. The sign above being my personal favourite. The giant wolf attacking the woman in the bottom left corner being the most bizarre thing I have seen on a sign in Ghana. However, the sign does fail to mention that he can also cure night witches. These are women who are able to practice black magic without the aid of potions and can cause everything from tuberculosis, paralysis, infertility, and death. So, if you are suffering from a night witch making your life a living hell, I know a guy.<br />
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<a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-TRugt1yUyxU/VDBRTeyhBxI/AAAAAAAAAO4/hykBD9fM0vg/s640/blogger-image-1493514963.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-TRugt1yUyxU/VDBRTeyhBxI/AAAAAAAAAO4/hykBD9fM0vg/s320/blogger-image-1493514963.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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A few more days passed and I wasn't getting better. At this point, my throat was about four different colours and I was entering my second week of feeling like the 6 steps to my kitchen were the equivalent of walking through the desert for 40 days. As a result, it was time to go back to the hospital, where I was given a bed, an IV, and a very loud television for 3 days.<br />
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My roommate and others stopped by (my thanks to them for keeping me sane and bringing me food and water) to keep me company when I was in the hospital, but as the Ghanaians are as liberal as the Americans with their overuse of narcotics as pain killers, I mostly just slept. The one thing I remember distinctly was a soap opera that was on one afternoon that had "Three Blind Mice" as the only song that played in the background. It was just as irritating as it sounds.</div>
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At this point in time, it was determined that once I was stable, I should return home to seek additional medical treatment in Canada. I had been on antibiotics for 22 days in the last month and my weight had dropped from 175 lbs to 158 lbs. So if you are looking to lose weight, skip the tape worms and Jenny Craig and go straight for the typhoid and tonsilitis.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-JpRXF7QP67Q/VDBRQTPwSSI/AAAAAAAAAOw/g6tFWaozUKw/s640/blogger-image-1587272629.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-JpRXF7QP67Q/VDBRQTPwSSI/AAAAAAAAAOw/g6tFWaozUKw/s400/blogger-image-1587272629.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It is very important that things be properly labeled!</td></tr>
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The journey home went well, no ebola checkpoints and I got a marriage proposal! Seriously, a woman checking my passport actually asked to be my wife. It was mostly a joke, I think.<br />
<br />
Returning through London Heathrow was a little overwhelming. I always find it difficult going from a developing world context back to the West. Things tend to shift from being simple and straightforward to opulent and confusing.<br />
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Nevertheless, it is good to be back home resting and working with Canadian physicians. I know that I am extremely lucky to both have had the opportunity to work in Ghana and the ability to leave when my health was in question. These privileges illustrate the extreme inequalities that persist in the world and I will talk more about this in my next post. </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14294572017563557781noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454305192352777205.post-73370019722611909702014-09-25T09:37:00.000-07:002014-09-25T09:37:55.374-07:00Ribbon Cutting is Sexy, Monitoring & Evaluation is not<div style="text-align: center;">
"If you have come to help me, you are wasting our time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together"</div>
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- Aboriginal Activists Group, Queensland, 1970s<br />
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Since I began with Engineers Without Borders in December, people have remarked to me about how proud they are of my selflessness and my taking time to help in Ghana. While I appreciate the compliment, it is not the view I have on my efforts. To me, the idea of "helping" assumes that I know more than Ghanaians. It places me in a position of power and strips others of their agency. More than that, it simplifies the complex issues that see some countries, people, and cultures flourish, while others stagnate. This post contains a series of anecdotes I have observed about the troubles with international development and aid work. It concludes with my current thoughts on how we might all be able to contribute to more effective development in our own countries and around the world.<br />
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<b>I) Ribbon Cutting is Sexy (Ego)</b><br />
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In my experience, the desire to work in development is generally rooted in a mixture of adventure, curiousity, compassion, and ego. The first three elements I will leave as self-explanatory, and will instead focus on the narcissism (it appreciates the attention). Part of what drives people to move to other countries to work in development is a fundamental belief that they have something to teach or give to others that will improve their lives. It is sometimes rooted in a sense of cultural superiority, that presumes that the lives of others need to be more like ours.</div>
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The website <a href="http://humanitariansoftinder.com/">Humanitarians of Tinder</a> illuminates this for us in a way only pictures and a hook-up phone application truly can. Let me be clear: I am all for traveling, meeting new people, and doing our best to work with communities to tackle problems they want tackled, but something just doesn't feel right when pictures of Westerners in African villages are used on a dating application.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EZQcSb8xX9c/VCQTkkxewpI/AAAAAAAAAOY/I_QOgCJhbrk/s1600/Humanitarians%2Bof%2BTinder.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EZQcSb8xX9c/VCQTkkxewpI/AAAAAAAAAOY/I_QOgCJhbrk/s1600/Humanitarians%2Bof%2BTinder.jpg" height="320" width="228" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Source: <a href="http://humanitariansoftinder.com/">http://humanitariansoftinder.com</a></td></tr>
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I met someone when I first arrived in Ghana that was a Western elitist in pure form. She was here to help and save others out of compassion and religious duty. However, she did not often associate with those she was claiming to help, and professed a strong distrust of Ghanaians. She remarked to me one afternoon: "Ghanaians don't think like you and I, they will be nice to your face and then betray you." While this individual is very much an outlier, a more subtle sense of superiority and xenophobia that we all might carry within ourselves can be just as damaging. Here is how it can manifest:<br />
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<u>The Play Pump</u></div>
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Roundabout Water Solutions released the Play Pump in 2006 to great fanfare. The idea is simple: attach a merry go round to a pump so that when children play, water is pumped and stored in a tower.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tVDr0c0Voxc/VCE69PSZbEI/AAAAAAAAAMA/VIsKq2XBqho/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2014-09-16%2Bat%2B10.28.06%2BAM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tVDr0c0Voxc/VCE69PSZbEI/AAAAAAAAAMA/VIsKq2XBqho/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2014-09-16%2Bat%2B10.28.06%2BAM.png" height="207" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It's child's play really...</td></tr>
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Conceptually, this sounds all well and good. Children get something to play on and provide the kinetic input for a pump that would otherwise have to be pumped by the individual in need of water.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1CkYtayvukc/VCE7HU1D-bI/AAAAAAAAAMI/EA5lojF-VL8/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2014-09-16%2Bat%2B10.27.57%2BAM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1CkYtayvukc/VCE7HU1D-bI/AAAAAAAAAMI/EA5lojF-VL8/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2014-09-16%2Bat%2B10.27.57%2BAM.png" height="190" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Come on kids, play like your access to clean water depends on it!</td></tr>
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So what is the problem? <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRiNYmlA1Ic">This lengthy video by AfriDev</a> truly captures the absurdity of the Play Pump. The video is a little long, so let me provide you with the synopsis: Children do not play on the Play Pump all day, everyday (or in some cases, at all), meaning that inevitably, someone who is not playing on the Play Pump has to spin the merry go round by hand until they get enough water. In the video, this took a man three minutes and seven seconds of spinning to get a 5 gallon bucket of water.<br />
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In some villages, people have reported paying children to play on the merry go round so they don't have to suffer the embarrassment of spinning the Play Pump. On the other hand, the pump pictured below takes just thirty seconds of pumping to get the same bucket of water, and you don't have to look ridiculous while doing it. A comprehensive report of everything wrong with the Play Pump Project was released by Unicef in 2007 and is available <a href="http://www-tc.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/southernafrica904/flash/pdf/unicef_pp_report.pdf">here</a>.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-G7EjCFglRig/VCE9jbYPAJI/AAAAAAAAAMc/4SL728srDbc/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2014-09-23%2Bat%2B9.29.36%2BAM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-G7EjCFglRig/VCE9jbYPAJI/AAAAAAAAAMc/4SL728srDbc/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2014-09-23%2Bat%2B9.29.36%2BAM.png" height="292" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Play Pump: 3:07 + Loss of Dignity</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">AfriDev Hand Pump: 0:28</span></div>
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<u>Why does this happen?</u><br />
In most cases, communities are not really engaged before projects like this are put into place (in some cases, existing working pumps are replaced by Play Pumps). People won't say no to a free lunch, but in general, the projects are much less effective than they would have been with community engagement and often fall into disrepair quite quickly.<br />
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In addition, a lot of deference is often given to white people and NGOs. This is driven by the fact that a great deal of funding comes from these sources, and there is the view that Western education, products, and solutions are superior. As Westerners, we forget we are no longer in Kansas. We try and implement our solutions as if we were in our context, instead of allowing the communities we are working in to lead the way. We can help foster the development of projects, but if we want the solutions to be effective and sustainable, we cannot drive them.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x9WVr7S7MDo/VCFDpeZDU4I/AAAAAAAAAMs/UMlR0W4csQc/s1600/NotKansas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x9WVr7S7MDo/VCFDpeZDU4I/AAAAAAAAAMs/UMlR0W4csQc/s1600/NotKansas.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Note: This is not Kansas</td></tr>
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<b>II) If I throw money at the problem, it will surely go away (Mismanagement)</b><br />
Over the past 60 years, more than $1 trillion has been spent on development in Africa. At its best, this money has saved lives, improved the efficiency of governments, and worked to unlock the human potential in and around the globe. However, at its worst, it has granted power to oppressive militia groups in destabilized areas, sustained and even furthered corruption in institutions, and destroyed the sustainability of local businesses. It is a complicated issue, so in the spirit of this post, I will continue to focus on issues associated with a few well-meaning projects.<br />
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<u>Projects for the sake of projects</u><br />
Many non-profit organizations raise money to do projects. This makes some good sense: if you want to provide universal access to water, it is likely that you will have to build a well or two. The issue that arises with this mentality is that the measure of success for these organizations becomes, "how many ______ they have built." As a result, little to no thought goes into how well the systems will be maintained, nor who will operate the systems.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cPmWaJOS_ok/VCE65aTCjcI/AAAAAAAAAL4/Z_TZE0h5yFE/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2014-09-16%2Bat%2B10.31.54%2BAM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cPmWaJOS_ok/VCE65aTCjcI/AAAAAAAAAL4/Z_TZE0h5yFE/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2014-09-16%2Bat%2B10.31.54%2BAM.png" height="266" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A report from NGO Water for the People estimates that 60% of wells<br />
may be in disrepair.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tDNdTBfMzZA/VCE7Incv7TI/AAAAAAAAAMQ/BGnVonS4qJI/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2014-09-16%2Bat%2B10.32.44%2BAM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tDNdTBfMzZA/VCE7Incv7TI/AAAAAAAAAMQ/BGnVonS4qJI/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2014-09-16%2Bat%2B10.32.44%2BAM.png" height="210" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A brand new biogas digester built by a Chinese NGO. The farmer<br />
was not trained to use the digester before the NGO left.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
The solution to this issue is easy in concept, but very difficult in practice. Monitoring & Evaluation is not sexy, in fact, studies show that 55% of audiences fall asleep at the merest mention of the term. Nevertheless, without the ability to keep track of what the impact of the project is long-term, it is possible that the project falls into disrepair, or fails to create the desired impact. Moreover, organizations need to have long-term plans for how to transition the maintenance of the projects into local hands. This requires more staff, more training, more time, and more money. The end result could be less ____ being built and less funding in the future.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nZ5lLakkdBM/VCFLH-R3F3I/AAAAAAAAAM8/DdS090ZzaI0/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2014-09-23%2Bat%2B10.27.35%2BAM.png" imageanchor="1" style="display: inline !important; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nZ5lLakkdBM/VCFLH-R3F3I/AAAAAAAAAM8/DdS090ZzaI0/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2014-09-23%2Bat%2B10.27.35%2BAM.png" height="283" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ribbon-cutting is sexy</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-V5W2vjgseMg/VCFLJ0Kq_hI/AAAAAAAAANE/144kzQIQF_0/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2014-09-23%2Bat%2B10.27.40%2BAM.png" imageanchor="1" style="display: inline !important; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-V5W2vjgseMg/VCFLJ0Kq_hI/AAAAAAAAANE/144kzQIQF_0/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2014-09-23%2Bat%2B10.27.40%2BAM.png" height="265" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Monitoring & Evaluation is not sexy</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
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<b>III) Destroying some industries and building others (Externalities)</b><br />
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It is often said that "the road to hell is paid with donated t-shirts and volunteerism at orphanages." Good intentions, and notions of charity have created some terrible side-effects over the years. Here are two:<br />
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<u>The Clothing Industry</u></div>
I will admit, nothing makes me happier than seeing a man riding a bicycle in a busy market in Accra wearing a "Yankees Suck" T-shirt. I am elated to see that Ghana did not fall victim to Derek Jeter's charms. That being said, the issues that arise out of donating our unwanted clothing to other countries are no laughing matter.<br />
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First, people were buying and wearing clothing prior to your donation, which means that your free goods displaced existing production. You may actually have put someone out of business.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-48FR_rnBJUQ/VCPbyKmo2HI/AAAAAAAAAOA/jcV32DYgS5o/s1600/IMG_1215.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-48FR_rnBJUQ/VCPbyKmo2HI/AAAAAAAAAOA/jcV32DYgS5o/s1600/IMG_1215.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is Kwame, he wants you to know that your dumping <br />
of goods is a violation of Article VI of GATT 1994.</td></tr>
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Second, your clothes are then sold to traders, who sell them to other middle men, who then sell them to consumers. They are often not given out by the organization you donate them to. Shannon Whitehead has <a href="http://shannonwhitehead.com/what-really-happens-to-your-donated-clothing/">a great post</a> summarizing this issue.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ARrqYqtepX8/VCPbzDAxmcI/AAAAAAAAAOI/YPrBR-pPcN8/s1600/IMG_1210.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ARrqYqtepX8/VCPbzDAxmcI/AAAAAAAAAOI/YPrBR-pPcN8/s1600/IMG_1210.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I bought a pair Georgio Armani trousers for $8 yesterday!</td></tr>
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Lastly, we all know that American culture is fairly dominant across the globe, and that many American brands are in demand everywhere. The erosion of local cultures is taking place everywhere, but there is something particularly disturbing about seeing old campaign t-shirts in a crowded market in Ghana.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-etYpLpDdxVw/VCFTEhw4HOI/AAAAAAAAANg/eMI3nrS_M44/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2014-09-23%2Bat%2B11.02.22%2BAM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-etYpLpDdxVw/VCFTEhw4HOI/AAAAAAAAANg/eMI3nrS_M44/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2014-09-23%2Bat%2B11.02.22%2BAM.png" height="219" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Source: <a href="http://twitchy.com/2013/07/10/why-does-buzzfeeds-ben-smith-think-donating-romney-t-shirts-to-african-kids-is-the-strangest-thing/">Link</a></span></div>
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<u>Orphans</u><br />
I wanted to end this post with something uplifting, so I apparently settled on orphans. Voluntourism has grown in popularity over the years and volunteering at orphanages has been a large portion of this effort. In 2010, Projects Abroad alone sent 8,000 volunteers to orphanages in 26 countries. For its effort, the organization raised $24 million in revenue, and $3 million in profit. Now to be fair, Projects Abroad is not a non-profit organization, so there is nothing illegal about it making profit from supplying volunteers to orphanages. Nevertheless, we all might be able to agree that there is something just a little immoral about this arrangement. That's right, it creates the economic incentive to enter into the "business of orphans."<br />
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<a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/peopleandpower/2012/05/201252243030438171.html">Al Jazeera</a> and others have reported on some of the many issues that have been created by private orphanages in Cambodia. To summarize: 1) it's estimated that nearly 70% of orphans in Cambodia have at least one living parent, and 2) <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/expatlife/9055213/Orphanage-tourism-help-or-hindrance.html">some orphanages paid parents to give their children up or have even "rented" children for the day</a>. In case this needs further elaboration, "renting an orphan," is where the orphanage compensates the parents of the child for the day or week during which volunteers are visiting.<br />
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<b>In Closing: let's all do better</b><br />
It is not my intent to dishearten anyone looking to make a positive change in the world. Instead, we have to put just a little more effort in to make sure that the impact of our donations and volunteer hours is done in collaboration with the communities we want to work with. This means:<br />
<ol>
<li>Let the community drive what projects will be scoped and implemented,</li>
<li>Use local partners and suppliers,</li>
<li>Work with the community to put a long-term maintenance plan in place,</li>
<li>Monitor and evaluate the impact of the project,</li>
<li>Work with local governments and partners to transition the responsibility of these projects away from foreign organizations.</li>
</ol>
Beyond improving the projects and organizations we work for, the single most important thing we can do is to push for changes in our own countries and governments on issues that perpetuate cycles of poverty abroad. Of note:<br />
<ol>
<li>End the dumping of no cost or ultra-low cost excess goods into foreign markets</li>
<li>Hold companies accountable for their health, safety, environmental, and social actions abroad. At this time, EWB is currently raising awareness on the <a href="http://data.gc.ca/eng/Mandatory_Reporting_on_Extractives">"Mandatory Reporting on Extractives."</a> This initiative will require extractive companies to report on their payments to governments around the world. This type of transparency is necessary in holding companies accountable.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.hhs.se/site/staff/documents/emanuelpdf/deadaid.pdf">Read</a> and talk about how our governments currently approach aid and then push for meaningful reform. It is a long and unglamorous path, but if we succeed, the impact may be much larger and systematic than our individual efforts.</li>
<li>Work to alleviate poverty and inequity of opportunity in our own communities. </li>
</ol>
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</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14294572017563557781noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454305192352777205.post-36802315732427880322014-09-17T11:45:00.000-07:002015-11-07T10:36:09.013-08:00Adapting to Ghana: Proverbs and Lessons for VisitorsAdapting to life in Ghana has not come overnight. Here are some of the lessons I have learned in my first six weeks here:<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">1) Don't walk and text.</span></b></div>
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This may seem like a pretty simple lesson. I can hear a few of you muttering, "people get hurt and worse for doing this in North America Michael, of course it will be more dangerous in Ghana." You're right, it is more dangerous, insanely so. Here are a few examples:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-qIMrL-VxUHQ/VBK3r5ffU9I/AAAAAAAAAJ4/j-7cLOfSJ6Q/s640/blogger-image-828154315.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-qIMrL-VxUHQ/VBK3r5ffU9I/AAAAAAAAAJ4/j-7cLOfSJ6Q/s400/blogger-image-828154315.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;"> Those bridges don't look sturdy...</span></i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-MAWnceDKWSw/VBSwMXp8DII/AAAAAAAAAKQ/-MysVepqDf0/s640/blogger-image-797183091.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-MAWnceDKWSw/VBSwMXp8DII/AAAAAAAAAKQ/-MysVepqDf0/s400/blogger-image-797183091.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: small;">Why yes, my shop is guarded by a moat.</span></i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-0xCDlc4t7sQ/VBSwJWLphRI/AAAAAAAAAKI/02svWhz1uB8/s640/blogger-image-8202321.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-0xCDlc4t7sQ/VBSwJWLphRI/AAAAAAAAAKI/02svWhz1uB8/s400/blogger-image-8202321.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: small;">There's an open manhole up ahead. </span></i><br />
<i style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: small;">Can't see it? Exactly my point.</span></i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-dEpzmOkjD_g/VBk4p_icbwI/AAAAAAAAALo/KBaJAFCisVU/s640/blogger-image-944767759.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-dEpzmOkjD_g/VBk4p_icbwI/AAAAAAAAALo/KBaJAFCisVU/s400/blogger-image-944767759.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>It was this manhole.</i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-_kkEsNpawOc/VBk4mL-a2HI/AAAAAAAAALg/DPjtc-aCB_o/s640/blogger-image--1739660687.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-_kkEsNpawOc/VBk4mL-a2HI/AAAAAAAAALg/DPjtc-aCB_o/s400/blogger-image--1739660687.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Or this one.</i></span></td></tr>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">2) "You are never alone in Ghana" - Ghanaian Proverb</span></b></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">The kitchen is my battleground.</span></i></td></tr>
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While this may sound either like a reassuring statement about how your friends and neighbors are always here to help, or some paranoid babble about stalkers and the CIA, it's actually about bugs. No, not the CIA... that's just your malaria meds talking. I meant insects. There's lots of them, they are everywhere, and they are persistent.<br />
<span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span>
<span style="text-align: center;">My roommate and I have been at war with an ant colony all week. They attack at the slightest sign of food. Everything is sealed in plastic bags or locked up in the fridge, and yet here they come... Marching in. The Ziploc on cereal was open by a sliver and the next time I grabbed for a nutritious breakfast, I almost got a double helping of pincers and protein. </span></div>
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Could be worse I guess, Tamale has spiders the size of your fist and my co-worker (Alexis) has a door full of termites.</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">3) You do not speak like nor hear like a Ghanaian.</span></b></div>
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This may also seem obvious. However, the degree to which you can be wrong with words and names you do in fact know is astonishing. I can't tell you how many times people have told me their names only to be greeted by a look of utter perplexion on my face as I try and decipher what on earth it could be. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-vQ_znOX3UIg/VBKwwvfPznI/AAAAAAAAAJo/KBEe8veDdyQ/s640/blogger-image--45930107.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-vQ_znOX3UIg/VBKwwvfPznI/AAAAAAAAAJo/KBEe8veDdyQ/s400/blogger-image--45930107.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">This is Joe, I got his name on the second try.</span></i></td></tr>
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"My name is Donothone." </div>
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"Daniel?" </div>
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"No, J, O, N.."</div>
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"Oh, Jonas!"</div>
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(Look of exasperation).</div>
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My favourite example of this so far was when my roommate was trying to figure out what junction to get off the tro-tro at to get to our new house. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-SQ-lrfsLHEQ/VBKwsBgsexI/AAAAAAAAAJY/o6m6zEqAg10/s640/blogger-image-495329720.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-SQ-lrfsLHEQ/VBKwsBgsexI/AAAAAAAAAJY/o6m6zEqAg10/s640/blogger-image-495329720.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">For those of you just joining us, a tro-tro is a mini-bus crammed full of half your community and their assorted wares, and is served with delicious refreshments at every intersection. It is the public transportation of your dreams. </span></i></td></tr>
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She asked the mate (the guy in the bus who takes your money and destination), who said she should get off a "Pane Gwain" junction. I'll let you try and work out what that might be in English. And yes, it is English.<br />
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<a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-NW61-fMpHew/VBKwkhwLleI/AAAAAAAAAIw/4KVbHmSL5pw/s640/blogger-image--304600515.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-NW61-fMpHew/VBKwkhwLleI/AAAAAAAAAIw/4KVbHmSL5pw/s1600/blogger-image--304600515.jpg" /></a></div>
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<i>"Pane Gwain" Junction</i></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">4) Your delicious roadside Jollof may come with a side of typhoid.</span></b></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-FHJx-sIikaw/VBKwqF2nS0I/AAAAAAAAAJQ/HFo3AwabUM4/s640/blogger-image--1161904183.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-FHJx-sIikaw/VBKwqF2nS0I/AAAAAAAAAJQ/HFo3AwabUM4/s400/blogger-image--1161904183.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">Doesn't look so bad right?</span></i></td></tr>
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My Mother's last words to me before I left for Ghana were: "Remember, cook it or peel it." In hindsight, it should have also included something about bringing a sweater. It's cold here sometimes. But I digress, Ghanaian food is good, Ghanaian street food, doubly so. Now I came in thinking: "I ate through the streets of Delhi, how much worse could it be?" The answer... Much worse.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-0A6_41ueYa8/VBKwmz6FBCI/AAAAAAAAAJA/_v-APc7NzuU/s640/blogger-image--95143428.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-0A6_41ueYa8/VBKwmz6FBCI/AAAAAAAAAJA/_v-APc7NzuU/s400/blogger-image--95143428.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"> <i>"I will have the ground nut stew, and please, hold the cholera."</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span>
<span style="text-align: center;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span><span style="text-align: center;">North America is currently panicking about the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa. Accra on the other hand is trying to reign in a rapidly spreading cholera. Sanitation is difficult because of the open sewers. Typhoid, and hepatitis are also major issues for Ghana. Many Ghanaians I meet do not eat at roadside stalls for fear of getting sick. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-W6EefGYaEUo/VBKwgv-sCMI/AAAAAAAAAIo/X-eAB22rlkk/s640/blogger-image--1532698121.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-W6EefGYaEUo/VBKwgv-sCMI/AAAAAAAAAIo/X-eAB22rlkk/s1600/blogger-image--1532698121.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;">Since the typhoid, I have restrained my usual sense of adventure. Opting for places that instill confidence in my bowels. Like Ghana's first microbrewery, H-Street Grill!</span></i></td></tr>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">5) I guess it rains down in Africa - Toto</span></b></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-3U1hqsQGAtE/VBKwuRlJAVI/AAAAAAAAAJg/uFzsyAoMmpk/s640/blogger-image-58667248.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-3U1hqsQGAtE/VBKwuRlJAVI/AAAAAAAAAJg/uFzsyAoMmpk/s400/blogger-image-58667248.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: small;">The view from my deck in Accra.</span></i></td></tr>
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I have mentioned the rain here before. It is downright wet. As a result many Ghanaians don't go outside when it's raining (Let the record show: Portland, OR just rolled its eyes). This means that people don't really walk in the rain, or even go to work in the rain.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-jhYwk0_uer4/VBKwoDlguhI/AAAAAAAAAJI/HS9s6kSvHu8/s640/blogger-image--1720880327.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-jhYwk0_uer4/VBKwoDlguhI/AAAAAAAAAJI/HS9s6kSvHu8/s400/blogger-image--1720880327.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;"><i>I am writing this post on just such a Rainday.</i></span></td></tr>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14294572017563557781noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454305192352777205.post-79254401870529853342014-09-10T04:02:00.000-07:002015-11-07T10:36:15.842-08:00Sorry I can't come to work today, I got typhoid.It has been a very eventful couple of weeks. My work with AfriLEAD in Tamale kept me very busy as we worked to select 16 fellows from a group of 70 talented young professionals for the Young Managers Program. I was then informed that I had been evicted from my house in Accra because my roommate came home late. The next week I worked hard to put together a monitoring and evaluation strategy for YMP before I had to return to Accra this week. Everything was going according to plan (minus the eviction-but more on that later) until I got typhoid.<br>
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Despite what people may tell you, the typhoid vaccine is not very effective (only about 50%), and typhoid is not fun. Fever, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and in my case malnutrition and severe dehydration. Nevertheless, the clinics I have gone to so far are professional, clean, and well run. At one point, I wasn't sure if the antibiotic (cipro) that they gave me was any better than the typhoid, but here I am, slowly returning to life.</div>
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<u>Tamale!</u></div>
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It's a very different city, one that feels almost rural. The people are very friendly, and less intrusive than in Accra (where everyone wants to be your good friend). I had a great place for egg and bread (a fancy name for an omelette on butter bread) in the mornings and a nice hotel room near the city center. The hotel fan had one speed: hurricane. The background wind storm complimented the late rains that have come to Tamale. When I say rain, I mean torrential downpour. </div>
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AfriLEAD volunteer Mariette showing her skills as a Ghanaian electrician (or in this case using a plastic spoon to by-pass a plug's safeguard so she could plug a kettle in for coffee. She has her priorities straight if you ask me.)<br>
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<u>Returning to Accra</u><br>
Halfway through my stay in Tamale, I was notified by my roommate, Amanda, that both of us had been forced to leave the house we were renting in Accra. The reason: she had come home late on a Saturday night. Now in Ghana, you pay your rent upfront (by law this is capped at 6 months of prepayment, but that is not often followed). As a result, the land lady who had thrown Amanda out and packed up the things I had left when traveling in Tamale had 2.5 months worth of rent for the two of us. I spoke with her briefly about the incident and was informed that she would likely not return any of the money. Any further attempts to contact her were unsuccessful.<br>
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<u>The chase</u><br>
After being entirely ignored by Denise for weeks, Amanda and I went to the police. The service, professionalism, welcome and understanding of the officers we spoke with was impressive. We went to visit our land lady with police officers in tow and found the place empty. We were then told to return to the police station the following week.<br>
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This time when we returned, the police had had word of where our land lady was hiding (she had been staying at her other house in the same community). When we arrived we were shown the way, and the police crept quietly through the small community, slowly pushing open the gate and opening the front door of the house. "Excuse me Madam," said the inspector, "we would like you to come with us to the station." The whole ordeal would have made a boring episode of Cops!, but I was never much for crime dramas anyway.<br>
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The following few hours were spent in front of a Crime Officer, in which both sides told their story and our land lady was charged with two counts of "Inducing a Tenant to Quit," and informed that she had one month to return to each of us 1.5 months of the rent. Case closed.<br>
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A work trip to the town of Somenya. We visited a Mango Growers Association to speak with them about Mobile Business Clinic's upcoming training in the Eastern Region. The countryside is beautiful and Mango farmers were interested in the training; however, they were hoping we might hold it in their facility and not in a different town.<br>
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My first Ghanaian wedding: Mobile Business Clinic was invited to a wedding by the landlord of our office building. It was an interesting ceremony, very traditional. Nevertheless, about half of the ceremony occurred before the bride and groom arrived. Are you allowed to be late to your own wedding?<br>
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I now live in a different community in more central Accra. It is nice, busy and centrally located. The morning this picture was taken, Nelly Furtado was blaring from my neighbour's home on the left. In addition, there is a garbage truck that drive around the community playing the same music as an ice cream truck. When I figured that it wasn't ice cream, I was sorely disappointed. </div>
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In addition to garbage instead of ice cream, the apartment was also devoid of electricity for many days. A substation was undergoing major maintenance in the region. This meant romantic candlelight dinners! Also, very warm, very stale air to sleep in. At least it's not snowing!<br>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14294572017563557781noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454305192352777205.post-25401427714311329432014-08-21T02:29:00.001-07:002015-11-07T10:36:15.825-08:00Week 2: Tamale and the bus ride of Doom<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
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Week one of work passed in a blur as most first weeks do. There seems to be 5 steps:</div>
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<b>1) Excitement</b></div>
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You have a vague understanding of the work you will likely be doing and a vague goal and plan in mind. All these things combine into an optimism that tells you that you can change the world. Your spreadsheets will be the best, your presentations will be flawless, and the organization you work with will shine brighter than ever before.</div>
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<b>2) Reading</b></div>
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You now realize how little you know of the organization, topic area, and work you will be doing, which means that you get to spend the bulk of the next couple of days reading everything you can get your hands on. Sometimes you understand it, sometimes you don't, but you consume all of the information you can and begin to try making sense of it.</div>
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<b>3) Confusion</b></div>
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The documents you read and the people you speak to all begin to point to one particular problem: the organization you are stepping into is a chaotic mass. There are few processes, information is not stored logically, and the format of documents, reports, etc vary widely based on the individual who created them. You no longer understand what your goal is, or how you fit into your role.</div>
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<b>4) Tantrum</b></div>
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This is ridiculous. The organization may or may not know what they are doing, and you certainly don't. The existing bureaucracy makes things at best inefficient and at worst impossible. Screw it, it's time for a drink.</div>
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<b>5) Acceptance</b></div>
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Maybe this won't be so bad after all. The people around you seem well-intentioned and are fun to be around. Plus, with all the inefficiency and lack of standardization, you can't help but meet or exceed expectations. It's time to settle in and enjoy the ride.</div>
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Both my co-worker (http://amandacoxdesign.wordpress.com) and I have arrived at the Acceptance stage of our first week of work. My tasks with the Mobile Business Clinic will be to: I) assist in revising the course curriculum prior to the Clinic in Korfidua in October, II) work on developing a business model for Mobile Business Clinic to become sustainable, and III) assist in the set up of a seed fund to be added to the Clinic. This fund could be accessed by clinic participants to enable them to pursue investment ideas.</div>
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<u>On to Tamale</u></div>
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After the first week, I had a somewhat relaxing Saturday in which I played a few hours of soccer with a co-worker of mine and his friends, and then went to see Guardians of the Galaxy. The sense of humour in Ghana is definitely different and I did not laugh with the rest of the audience. Awkward...</div>
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This is the view of the valley on the drive to my place just outside of
Accra. You will notice the wonderful layer of smog that blankets it and the
lungs of its inhabitants. My thanks to the very large garbage burning pile of
garbage for the enhanced sunsets that it provides. For more information on the garbage dump: http://www.local.com.gh/pantang-dump-site-mountain-garbage-sprawling-residential-area-148559.html.</div>
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Where I play football on Saturdays. I now regret quitting soccer when I was 8.</div>
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This is Fan Ice, it tastes like soft serve ice cream in a
bag. It is now my reason for being. I am eating as much as possible to prevent weight
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The bus to Tamale</u></div>
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My venture (MBC) is loaning me to another venture, the Young Managers
Project, for two weeks to assist in the set up of their monitoring and
evaluation effort. As a result, I woke up at 5AM on Sunday to travel 12 hours
North to the city of Tamale. When I arrived at the bus station at 6AM, I was
informed that the 8AM Imperial Express bus was sold out. In response, I grabbed
a cab to the STC (government-owned) bus station to attempt to get on one of their
three buses on Sunday. These were also sold out. An employee saw this, and promptly told me to sit down and wait, he would help me shortly. </div>
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This is one of the more uncomfortable things
that happens regularly. The situation goes like this: the Obruni
(foreigner/white person) comes in and is given preferential treatment/is able to
by-pass the line/have an exception provided for them. The employees who provide
this sometimes expect additional compensation. Sometimes it is difficult to
recognize when this is happening, other times, it is blatantly obvious and
uncomfortable. In this particular situation it became clear to me pretty
quickly and I told the employee I was going to one of the other bus stations to
see what I could find. He insisted on accompanying me back to Imperial Express
Station to help. When we got back to the station, he
spoke to a man, who then walked up to the counter and enabled me to buy a
ticket on the bus that I was denied entry to an hour prior. I’m still not
entirely sure what happened or why. Was the bus not actually full? Did somebody get bumped? Situations like this seem to be fairly common and I am still figuring out how to handle them.</div>
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The drive up to Tamale was beautiful and bumpy. The road has big speed bumps every kilometre or so, which makes sleeping very difficult. In addition, the speakers blare Ghanaian movies for most of the trip. Further exacerbating this issue is the fact that Ghanaian movies have no shortage of screaming, yelling, and fighting in them. After twelve sleepless hours, I arrived in Tamale!</div>
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A picture from outside the Afri-lead (YMP) office in Tamale.<br />
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Part of my breakfast this morning. To answer your question, yes, that is hot coffee in a plastic bag. A water fight with me right now would be very unwise.<br />
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A brother and sister fight over a basket of candy their mother got for them. The brother is clearly picking on the sister. I can relate to the plight of the boy, I remember being forced to share with my little sister. So unfair.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14294572017563557781noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454305192352777205.post-24255927767498228372014-08-13T01:01:00.000-07:002015-11-07T10:36:15.820-08:00Week 1: The flight was hard, I should probably take vacation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
After landing from any flight, we all seem to politely ask, “How was the flight?” As if spending 25 hours in a steel tube beside individuals as unkempt, underfed, sleep-deprived, and under-oxygenated as I am could be a pleasant experience. This particular intercontinental journey did meet expectations and Egypt Air provides actual meals! My apologies to Air Canada, but lunch on your flight consisted of the loneliest roast beef sandwich I have ever met. It did not count as a meal, and if you could introduce him to a vegetable or a condiment, then he and I would both be so much happier. But enough about the flight, let’s get to the good stuff!</div>
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I arrived in Accra in the midst of the workweek and as a result, my Western brain assumed that first thing Wednesday morning, I would be trudging into an office in my then VERY wrinkled pants and dress shirt (it’s hard to keep things looking good when they are crammed in the bottom of a 75L pack). However, my boss was away on business in Northern Ghana, which left me with two options: 1) stay in Accra and get settled, or 2) tag along with a few EWB fellows on a trip to Ghana’s second largest city: Kumasi. Naturally, I chose Kumasi, and departed the morning after my arrival for a 5-hour bus journey to a new city. We spent the night at an EWB venture house. The venture was Votomobile, they do mobile polling for governments, NGOs, etc. Very cool organization, very talented people. I met several new friends pictured below:</div>
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The following morning we visited the largest market in West Africa. It was truly impressive and no picture will ever do it justice. So here are two pictures that combined, do not adequately capture the experience.</div>
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After shopping, we did what anyone would do: left Kumasi for an amazing freshwater lake in the middle of crater created by a meteor! The hotel that my fellow Professional Fellow (FPF), Amanda, and I stayed at had some of the most vocal goats I have ever met in my life (they are usually chatty, but this was something else). It was upon remarking this to a fellow Junior Fellow (FJF) that I learned of a fellow Previous Fellow (FPrF)’s radio show that included a segment entitled: “Goat or Child.” Sadly, I cannot find the actual thing, so here’s an approximation: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlYlNF30bVg" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?<wbr></wbr>v=nlYlNF30bVg</a>. The point is, goats are everywhere, they sometimes sound human, and they make me giggle.</div>
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Alas, vacation could not last forever and my fellow Jolly Fellows (FJoF) – please ensure you have all of these acronyms down – and I returned to Accra for work on Monday. My first day of work was as a panelist with the Young Fellowship Program (YFP), which was conducting a group interview of candidates applying for fellowship positions. The interview consisted of a group case study on the Maize Industry, a group presentation, and an individual interview/debrief. My role was to be a facilitator for one of the groups and then an interviewer. The candidates were truly impressive and it was a privilege to be apart of this event. YFP will be conducting similar interviews in two more cities. They will then conduct follow-up phone interviews with the candidates and then be left with the difficult task of selecting 16 fellows for this year’s program. The fellowship provides one-month of training and then a five-month work placement in an agribusiness in Ghana. If you wish to find out more about this program, visit: http://www.afrileadinstitute.org/programs/ymp/. I will have another opportunity to work more with YFP in Tamale for a few weeks starting next Monday.</div>
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Tuesday was my first day at the Mobile Business Clinic (MBC) office in Accra. The office is near one of the businesses junctions in the city (Zongo Junction). I will cover more about the MBC in later posts.</div>
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My intention was to take a picture of my dinner prior to eating it, but alas, hunger got the best of me. Displayed below is the remnants of my groundnut soup with chicken (it was very spicy), Banku on the right (fermented cassava and corn dough - it takes some getting used to, but is quite nice), and my bag of water on the left.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14294572017563557781noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454305192352777205.post-39736705193142812732014-08-04T13:51:00.001-07:002015-11-07T10:36:15.833-08:00In which I disobey signs and attend a beautiful wedding.<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The past week and a half has been a blur. I was in Toronto for pre-departure training for Ghana. Much of this centered on difficult conversations on power, privilege, gender, and development. Incredibly powerful topics in any context, and vital for the work EWB does.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">For those who don't know, my work assignment has changed dramatically since I was first accepted to the Fellowship program. I will now be working with the Mobile Business Clinic. An endeavor that seeks to build management skills, leadership skills and business acumen in the middle management of agricultural businesses. My specific tasks will likely focus on monitoring and evaluation, but may include a variety of other tasks. I am excited and nervous. I will likely have a lot of self-management to do in order to be effective. Humility, patience, active listening, coaching, and shutting my mouth are just a few of the items on that list.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">I should probably also learn to obey all street signs:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ATbmYPDkYKg/U9_yXEETn-I/AAAAAAAAAE4/c7yyGJEdFps/s640/blogger-image--950767205.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ATbmYPDkYKg/U9_yXEETn-I/AAAAAAAAAE4/c7yyGJEdFps/s640/blogger-image--950767205.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">(I'm pretty sure the fashion police will investigate me for the myriad of faux-pas' committed by this outfit. My sincerest apologies)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">After Toronto, I trained back to Montreal for a couple of days. This was a poorly timed voyage as I was on a train full of those bound for Osheaga. These individuals were wasting no time. The train sold out of alcohol within the first two hours, music was blaring, and someone even brought out a vaporizer. The party-ville destined train got me to Montreal safely and while I didn't join them at Osheaga, I did find myself in a crowd of rowdy Torontonians at a soccer match. Now my Montreal-based family will likely be mortified here, but I may have spent the match singing and dancing with the TFC supporters. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-wWxoVaeBsyM/U9_yRyBMeHI/AAAAAAAAAEo/j8w6_sAkufE/s640/blogger-image-1458208851.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-wWxoVaeBsyM/U9_yRyBMeHI/AAAAAAAAAEo/j8w6_sAkufE/s640/blogger-image-1458208851.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">My last stop in my North American travels was Ottawa, for the wedding of Alex Podiluk and Stephanie Kenny. It was an incredible ceremony that I am so happy I was able to attend. I have no doubt they will make good on their promise to kick ass at life together.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-JWqags-yoT8/U9_yT2oDY3I/AAAAAAAAAEw/-i7BLqvxLNc/s640/blogger-image-146967883.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-JWqags-yoT8/U9_yT2oDY3I/AAAAAAAAAEw/-i7BLqvxLNc/s640/blogger-image-146967883.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Next stop: Ghana</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><br></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14294572017563557781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454305192352777205.post-91884503841938378902014-07-27T14:41:00.001-07:002014-07-27T16:43:55.870-07:00Why traveling with a 75L pack reminds me of a poorly assembled burrito<b>I have now arrived in Toronto for pre-departure training and have re packed my large bag for the 4th time since I left Calgary on July 2nd. You see, while there are advantages to traveling with a 75L backpack, there is one significant disadvantage: trying to get the clothes you need out of it is a little bit like trying to find the guacamole you want in a poorly made burrito.</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><b>You know your shirt is in their somewhere, but is it under that pair of sandels or my extra toothpaste? The end result is an explosion of clothes across my hostel room that even my teenaged-self would consider a little extreme.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><b>The good news is, after I thought of this analogy, I found a delicious burrito in downtown Toronto.</b></span></div>
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<b>Alls well that ends well I guess. Time to repack!</b></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14294572017563557781noreply@blogger.com1