Cautious Hope

Maybe I've been spending too much time reading and writing about development theory lately but while I enjoyed and appreciated Obama's speech today I couldn't help but be reminded of another inauguration speech 60 years ago, that of Harry S. Truman.

This from Truman:

Our aim should be to help the free peoples of the world, through their own efforts, to produce more food, more clothing, more materials for housing, and more mechanical power to lighten their burdens.

And this from Obama:

To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds.

These are ostensibly noble promises, acknowledging the needs of others and offering to help.  I certainly applaud the sentiment, particularly as am I often one of the first to complain that those who have the resources are not doing enough.

However things are never as simple as they seem.  Truman's speech has been identified as the beginning of the 'development era', the decades following that speech giving rise to an unprecedented level of intervention by the West, particularly the United States, into the affairs of the so-called third world.  This intervention, while purportedly to help the third world to develop, to 'catch up' with the West, was never given out of a pure motivation to help, rather was given strategically as part of the cold war, and more recently the war on terror.  

Not only was the motivation for giving aid questionable, but the results have not been all that was promised.  That Obama should be promising more help to people in poor nations is testament to the fact that 50 years of 'development' around the globe has not lead to any significant lessening of poverty and suffering.  Aid has been appropriated by the powerful in many places, it has propped up dictators, stirred up civil wars and forced open domestic markets to the wolves of international trade.  It has come with all manner of strings attached, strings manipulated by the powerful to their own advantage.  

My fervent hope is that whatever 'help' Obama is promising is different.  I hope that when he says the US will "work alongside you" that he truly means that.  I am encouraged that he acknowledges that the rich can no longer "consume the world's resources without regard to effect". But I am cautious.  As with Truman's speech, Obama's offer comes wrapped in American rhetoric, that certainty that the United States has the answer and that it is their job to lead the rest of us.  Although I am grateful that there was somewhat less of this than there was with Bush, there is still the faint air of US imperialism hanging about. While it would certainly be wonderful to have the resources of the United States to address the problems of poverty in this world, it will not be true help if it comes with strings attached to US interests.

Despite this caution, I stand with my friends, both in the USA and globally, in hope.  Obama may not be the saviour of the world but his election is historic and of immense importance within the US, and is a beacon of possibility for the rest of the world after years of watching US imperialism at work.  I hope there will be change, I hope there will be good change.

Why I can't work on my thesis

What is on my mind

 

Got to find a house.  2 1/2 weeks and we’re homeless

So I really should start packing too

BTW we need furniture…

 

Worry about my husband.  He needs to get his study done.

Needs to find a job.

Can’t find a job.

 

Got to budget budget budget.  I need some wine.

 

Got to earn some money.

Do those interviews. I'll get paid for them.

But that’s work for someone else.

 

I’ve got to do mine.

Confirmation next month. 

7000 words written, 6000 to go.

 

I need some space

I’m tired.

But I need to work

For money

For my PhD

For my family

 

I asked my daughter where my energy had gone.

It’s run away she said.  Let's chase it.

2009- What I'll be doing

It seems unbelievable but I am almost at the end of my first year of PhD study.  It’s been a crazy, busy incredibly interesting first year and I am excited to see what this year will bring, particularly in regards to this research. 

In New Zealand a full-time PhD is done over 3-4 years.  Coursework is completed in the Masters degree so is not usually required at this level, the PhD is therefore purely a research-based degree.  At my university the first year is provisional, with progress to full enrolment in the second year dependent on the completion of work set out in a “Statement of Expectations” drawn up at the beginning of the year by the student and supervisors.  Work completed in the first year is also presented at a research seminar to a selected panel who decide if the student will move on to full candidate status (or need to do more work!).

My first year is up on 31 January, however department schedules mean I have been given a reprieve and won’t be doing the presentation until the end of February.  In the meantime I need to finish the work set out in my statement of expectations: a 3000 word proposal and the second of two 5000 word literature reviews.  

Once this is all done and my full enrolment is confirmed, I will be able to finally start of the bulk of the data collection.  Initially I had intended to travel directly to Latin America but a combination of family and financial issues (my scholarship doesn’t get paid out until April each year!) meant that I won’t be able to travel until at least May or June.  So I will be starting the process online,  particularly looking at the website and forums, and making contact with people over the Internet.  

So, so this is how 2009 looks for me:

Jan-Feb: Writing and preparing for confirmation at end of Feb.

Mar-May: Start online data collection, prepare for ‘fieldwork’

June-Dec: Honduras.  Visits, interviews and a conference.

This seems pretty clear at the moment, although if there is one thing I’ve learned about research is that it can be unpredictable.  Hopefully all will go according to plan and I’ll have the data collection completed by the end of the year.  It’s going to be another busy one, but should, once again, be very interesting.

musings

I've been doing a lot of musing lately.  And lots of reading.  Reading and musing (especially musing about the reading), are essential to the PhD writing process in the Social Sciences, along with copious amounts of writing. It is this writing I am having trouble with.  

Now don't get me wrong.  If you ask me to produce a long and densely worded academic essay I have no problem.  I've even got the referencing down pat.  It's a different sort of writing I need to do.  The kind of writing that is about putting those musings onto paper (ok, screen) as a means of clarifying ideas, and of expressing and sharing those ideas before they become locked into academese.  Most academics in my field keep journals to record their thinking and to develop their writing. I've tried.  I have a journal I kept last year that has a grand total of 44 entries (including notes from a 2-month field trip).  I know I need to develop this practise, and I have so many 'musings' that should be being recorded, but I just haven't been doing it.

Which is where this blog comes in.  It is not a research log, or journal for that matter, but a prompt.  I don't plan to write long boring posts on my research or minute day-by-day accounts of my progress, but I hope the regular discipline (peer pressure?) of having a blog with a 'publish this' button will be a motivator for me to sit down and type.  

I don't plan to write a dry old academic blog. My strong social justice streak, fascination with world events, interest in (and plans for) travel and possibly odd sense of humour should all make regular contributions to this blog.  As will the most important part of my life- my family, husband 'El Maciso' and 3-year old daughter 'Chichi'.

So welcome along for the ride.  There should be plenty to muse about.