Listing to Muhummad Yunus’ Banker to the Poor.
He is pretty amazing.
Also amazing is how well the trust based micro-credit systems can work, and how his Grameen Bank has managed to support women, in a place where that is not so easy.
Some wounds it seems, never fully go away. There is always a raw spot were once they were. I was having dinner with an old friend tonight and some stuff from my past, present and future came up. Family stuff, and it is hard.
I have this irrational feeling that I have failed my family, my sisters and my parents by not being stronger, wiser more clever, more compassionate. For finding someway to make everything better, how though can one bring fundamentally irreconcilable and fiercely held versions of reality together?
I don’t think it can be done, not by humans. Maybe by God, but my soul has long since ceased to have the faith to pray those prayers. Even though other long shot prayers have been answered…
I wonder though if this drive that I have for social justice, and a better world a result of all this. Is it knowing any form of suffering that creates a place of such pain, that we can resonate with the pain of the world? Is it this resonance of the broken people of the world, that make the sometimes haunting, sometimes joyful but always beautiful sounds of the Kingdom of God?
To weep with those who are weeping, do we need our own well of infinite sorrows?
To rejoice with those who are joyful do we need our own places of pure happiness?
I have both of these within me. They both bring immense strength, sorrow for me to want to enact change, and joy to believe that a better life and world is possible. I guess that’s why I am a cynical optimist.
I just had an idea for an act of civil disobedience/advocacy in response to the affordable housing shortages in Australian cities. Why don’t we just set up unofficial settlements/slums around the place? Can it work in Australia? Or would they be torn down before they were built?
I wonder…
I read something last night, that made me think about a few things. One of them was my level of self-containment. When I first moved to Melbourne, I had one friend but now 7 months on I have many acquaintances and a number of friends. During the early days I got into a largely self-contained way of life. I took social events when they came, but didn’t try to hard for them.
It hasn’t just been in terms of socialisation though that I have been self contained. It has also been in my lack of emotional availability and vulnerability. I want to be more open, and there is no good reason not to be. I have found great people to share my life with here in Melbourne. I have been making steps in the right direction, but hadn’t really thought about it as a whole. It is also really important, as I am committed to my life here in Melbourne for at least another two years. That’s the biggest period of time I’ve been since I first left for India in July 2004.
I’m also spending this Christmas in Melbourne, which will be different. I am happy to do so, but am glad that I’ll be spending a chunk of January in Sydney too.
Working at TEAR I am largely given free reign to do my job in whatever way I see fit, unless of course it can be seen to be destructive.
One of the biggest challenge as a result has been working out what an IT Officer should do, and how they should do. Whilst staff to a certain degree dictate this with their support requests these are largely fire fighting based, or reactionary requests. Whilst these will always take a reasonable amount of my time, my struggle has been to move towards being more proactive.
Proactive things that are common and easy for IT Departments to do include the following kinds of things:
These are good things, but largely result in just keeping ones head above water.
The less common and more difficult things that I have identified and am working on at the moment:
I am still trying to work out how to do these things, particularly with the limited human, and physical resources of a not for profit.
So I graduated earlier this month, Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Systems Engineering, and Diploma in Engineering Practice with second class honours.
It’s been a long time since I started it in 2001, and I have changed a lot since I started. Academically it was always the abstract heavily math and theory based electronics subjects I found most difficult. Though it is quite funny that the easy subjects which I could never quite take seriously that I often did more poorly in. I excelled most in any subject that allowed me to create, and design. With the exception of my best subject Professional Service Project, which allowed me to speak about my experience in India and get marks for it.
Whilst studying I never waited to start using the skills, and training I was receiving. Working for my father saw that I was professionally challenged at an advanced stage. The level of trust, and scope of my role(s) working there, and the general technical excellence of my father has probably contributed as much to my training as my course. To be having meetings with clients, and being the lead designer of systems is I believe rare for someone working as a cadet engineer.
Though it was TEAR’s acceptance of me as an associate fieldworker in 2004, and a full fieldworker in 2006 that has had a lasting impact on how I practice my craft. When chatting with Steve Bevis about doing IT work in the developing world context I never quite believed the calling would be as strong as it has been.
Working with EHA in 2004, under Victor I was treated as an “expert” and a friend. I had the privilege of mentoring Malyadri and running workshops. Travelling to India on that trip was a real privilege, and there were so many people I meet in my travels that inspired me.
Back in Australia in 2005 I got back to my studies. The major subjects I studied in this time was two subjects called computer system analysis and computer systems design. Throughout these subjects I acted in a leadership capacity in a group of 12 people, trying to produce documentation, and then an implementation of a mini factory system. These two subjects were the most demanding of any I had studied. In doing them I developed my leadership style, as well as expanded my systems thinking.
Working again with EHA and CIHSR in 2006 was far more challenging. More then challenging though it was hard, with limited if any immediate result. The hospital that I was working on didn’t open until a year ago tomorrow. I learnt a lot from my friend and co-worker Wesley, and from Victor again. Also I had the honour of getting to spend some time with some really funky and influential people like Greg, Katie, Benjy and Melissa. It is interesting only now working with TEAR am I seeing the research and learnings that I gained from this project come into there own.
After India I took the first 6 months of 2007 off University and worked. I had only one thing left to graduate, my thesis. I had so much trouble trying to pick a topic. eventually I decided that my thesis would be all about working out if and how I could continue to work in the developing world context. I was pretty pleased with this idea, and worked with some people at TEAR in coming up with the details of my thesis which ended up being “An Evaluation of the use of Information and Communications Technology by TEAR Partners in Uganda.”
As I guess is the way of life, the central question of the thesis was answered, when I heard of the job ICT officer at TEAR. When I applied and got the job, I was a few weeks of leaving for Uganda to conduct my field research. Strange how life works. I managed to conduct some decent research, and more importantly help some TEAR Partners, but my focus had been distracted.
So after my trip to Uganda, I moved to Melbourne. The fourth place outside of Sydney I lived in whilst I was enrolled in engineering. The work at TEAR has been full on. I had a lot of difficulty finding the time to complete my thesis, but thankfully I did. Working at TEAR, I have had to use a surprising amount of engineering for a role that was largely understood to be a technical support role. From day one I was treated with great respect, love and trust by TEAR’s staff. Which ain’t bad for someone who had not finished university, and had very limited experience doing many of the roles my job entailed.
Anyway I have digressed further then I meant. I think that graduation is a strange thing, for those who don’t follow a standard university pattern. After graduation, nothing much has changed. I am still treated very well at TEAR, am still in a job with sometimes overwhelming responsibilities.
Actually one things has changed, I have letters to put after my name. I am getting business cards with some letters after my name!
I can remember clearly my main thoughts both times I started out in India.
On arriving in New Delhi, India July 2004 on noticing how dilapidated, and dodgy the airport was I thought to myself finally I’ve come somewhere DIFFERENT. I remember my initial excitement. There is so much to observe in a city like Delhi, the sensory overload of it for the first few days is so intense.
On arriving back again to Delhi in March 2006 I was so happy. I had come back to a place that I loved, and I wanted to kiss the ground. In true Indian organisational skill, I didn’t have the phone number for the person who I was meeting. It was Wes who met me. We had that wonderfully awkward standing around at the Arrivals area trying to work out if that white guy is Wes. I ended up calling someone to get a description of Wes. Eventually he worked out I was David, and I worked out he was Wes. We caught the cab back to the guest room we were staying in. A little room on top of a house in Greater Kalish One. I told Wes about how excited I was about being back in India. On the less then stellar days that I sometimes had, he took great glee in reminding me of my original joy on arrival in India.
There are so many stories from my time in Uganda and in India. There are some good ones amoungst them. I think I might start writting a few. Maybe even here on this blog.
Grace -to do honour to relationship, courteous goodwill, the free and unmerited favour of God
Violence – strength of emotion or unpleasant or destructive natural force.
Often in relationships we have the opportunity to deliberately inflict pain on another, and maybe even make us feel better after we have been wronged. Sometimes by our friends and the world’s standards it would even be entirely valid. I have been thinking though that it is important to let some of these things go. Most of the time when people have “wronged” me I know that they feel bad, and didn’t mean too. Sometimes it’s even an imagined slight. These thoughts has got me deliberately try to make the life of another easier though I have been “wronged” letting it go graciously. Not in a holier then thou way, and I am doing this because I am such a wonderful person way, but more in a somewhat unprompted act of forgiveness. Who really needs to suffer any more then necessary in this world anyway??
There are some things though that should not be included in this “letting go” things. The critical parts of the big relationship stuff, the accountability stuff, and the conflict that is necessary for transformation and healing. These too do can be dealt with, without causing undue pain. Respect, and putting yourself in another’s place is helpful to do this right.
Vague disclaimer, I often fall back to the old retribution parterns, but I like the idea of this approach. The few times when I have even partly done this have been pretty nice. Also I know most of this stuff is derived from other practices, and has been said before.
There are a number of subjects I would like to explore but I won’t have time to do them all for a while.
Encourage me to blog the one that interests you by leaving a comment.
Graduation and what it means to me
Non-violence and grace in relationships
Busyness
My community and house in Footscray
Global Financial Meltdown
Being 5 steps removed from actual poverty reduction work
The affects of having poor home internet conectivity on my home computer use
Aging grandparents
Pro-active IT