Monday, October 31, 2011

Clases y Trabajo

                                    

Hey all,

            Been, awhile since my last post. With the semester really getting underway and homework, projects, and my non-profit really getting in front of me, its definitely been hard to set time aside to write here; ya tú sabes. Anyway, I thought that in this post I might divert from the more Dominican-centric direction this blog has been going lately and talk a little bit about my academic and work related experience so far.
            Initially, my most time consuming class was Metódos de Investigación (Research Methods), which, like all the classes I am taking this semester, was conducted in Spanish.  Metódos was particularly difficult not only because I took most of it at time, earlier in the semester, when I was struggling to get my Spanish up to par with the demands class and life placed on it, but also because the course was “front loaded” or conducted in such a way so that the bulk of the course was taught earlier in the semester and then began to drop off both in class time and work load. To put things in perspective, in the fist several weeks we had Metódos 2 hours a day 4 days a week (one week 5 days a week) and now we no longer have a regularly scheduled lecture. Our teachers decided to do this because, in mid to late October, we all began to plan, and now execute, our own investigations into the community, and thanks to the front loaded Metódos course, we now have all the skills necessary to do this. You can check out similar classes offered at Clark to see how it compares and contrasts with my experience. http://www.clarku.edu/departments/idce/docs/syllabi/ID%20132%20Syllabus.pdf

Another class that I am taking is titled Pobreza y Desarollo (poverty and development). Our Pobreza class was initially hard to follow since the lesson plans seemed, at the beginning, erratic and devoid of focus (and of course because it was all in Spanish). However, in recent weeks, the course has seemed to come full circle and our teacher’s seemingly aimless jump from the health care structure in the D.R. to the monetary policies of the IMF is actually starting to make sense: maybe there is a method to his madness. So far, the class has consisted of readings, papers, and presentations; we have not had a test or quiz so far. To compare this layout to similar classes at Clark check out http://www.clarku.edu/departments/idce/id/ba/
Despite the fact that I am using Spanish every day, at my job, in classes, and even at home, the program still decided (wisely) to sign us all up for Spanish class. There are two options for Spanish class: Español II Intermedio and Español III Avanzado. Given my (as I thought at the time) impressive command of the Spanish language, I thought that surely I would be in Español III Avanzado. Actually, I placed into Español II and, having had time to see just how far my Spanish still has to come before I’ll really be proficient, I think I’m a lot better off where I am. Español II is a lot like any run of the mill Spanish Class you could take at a college level, although much of it is improvised to suit our specific needs which we have the luxury of doing in a class of only 4 students which is probably smaller than most of the classes you could get at Clark. But to make sure and look at other aspects of the Clark foreign language program, take a look at http://www.clarku.edu/departments/foreign/faculty.cfm
Finally, each of us is required to take a capstone course. This largely centers on an independent investigation relating to the non-profit that we are required to work with. Personally, I’m working with the organization Oné Respe (Haitian Creole for "Honor" and "Respect"), a group that works to integrate Haitians and low-income groups generally into Dominican society. My specific function in Oné Respe is as both a sports coordinator for the Grupo de Jóvenes (young people group), a 7-hour/week commitment, and as the English teacher in the local school, a 4-hour/week commitment. Given the focus of my work, I decided to direct my investigation in the direction of finding the root causes of, and therefore eventually preventing, chronic student absences from class and Grupo de Jóvenes activities. Ill post more about my project as it comes together.
            Anyway, that’s my academic and work life so far. Keep checking for more (hopefully more frequent) updates.      


Sunday, October 2, 2011

Community Development: Decentralized or Streamlined?

    
   In the conception of most communitarians, community development, that is the economic and societal growth of a community, and community activism, the active participation of those within a community to facilitate this growth, are one and the same. In my opinion, this is both a logical and beneficial view. Working in the Dominican Republic with the abroad program CIEE service learning this semester, one thing that has become clear to me is that the most successful community projects are those that are organized specifically to suit the environment in which they take place. The key to any project is sustainability, and this is only possible if the apparatus’ for the continuation of the project are established down to the local level.

However, the fact is that some areas will have more human and material resources than others, which inevitably leads to unequal growth between communities. The eventual result of this sort of development is chronic wealth inequality from region to region within a nation. Therefore, while some communities will become empowered in the manner described above, others will simply remain underdeveloped if they must rely only upon domestic recourses.
I have noticed this trend in my own volunteer work, with the organization Oné Respé, located in Santiago Dominican Republic. In this organization, I help to coordinate youth groups in two communities; Los Platanitos and Los Peres. As a manager of the youth groups, part of my job is to organize sports events in Los Peres on Mondays and Los Platanitos on Tuesdays. To my understanding, the community Los Peres has markedly superior recourses to those of Los Platanitos. For example, Los Peres has a fully functional and well maintained baseball field where we are able to hold sports events while los Platanitos has only a poorly kept grassy area up in the hills. Predictably, sports events so far have been well attended and very successful in Los Peres while we have struggled to get the sports program off the ground in Los Platanitos.    
This phenomenon can be seen in the national development of the entire country as well, albeit on a grander scale. Over the past 20 years, the Dominican Republic has seen some of the most dynamic economic growth in Latin America and therefore some of the most extensive opportunities for community development. In addition, the Dominican Republic has, a relatively inactive federal government  (Pobreza y Desarollo) meaning that most community development is kept decentralized. The results are telling. While the poverty rate has dropped a full 10% over the past 10 years, all of the economic growth has been in the urban regions of the nation leaving a gaping 25% income inequality between the urban and rural regions. Attempts have been made by such organizations as the US Peace Corps to develop the campo, or rural regions, of the nation, but local recourses have so far proved insufficient to jumpstart development in these areas. 
            If development is to be pursued in areas with inadequate recourses to develop themselves, it must be catalyzed by an outside force with the power to harness and redistribute the resources of other regions; i.e. the federal government. To the communitarian, putting any aspects of development in the hands of the federal government (aside from funding) seems horrifying. After all, how can a distant central authority possibly be capable of meeting the specific needs of a community? Such worries however, are misplaced. It is easily feasible that any government programs for community development could work side by side with indigenous organizations and therefore combine a detailed knowledge of the local area with adequate recourses from the capitol to bring about sustainable development.
I am not saying that it is advisable to hand over the reigns of every aspect development from the communities themselves to the central government. Often, there may be uniquely local obstacles to advancement that can only be met at the ground level. However, to avoid intolerable inequalities, whether they be between the economic growth of Puerta Plata and Santa Lucia or between the quality of the sports programs in Los Platanitos and Los Peres, broad based development programs that harness outside recourses may sometimes be preferable to locally grown decentralized ones.