The Paradox of Development

I seriously love my classes. I have always loved school so that isn't new for me, but there is something unique about going to grad school in that I ACTIVELY chose to return to school. For most privileged Americans undergraduate is a given- the actual university and degree is the element of choice. I don't know many people that didn't go to college immediately after high school (with the exception of those that did gap year in Israel). So graduate school is different in that you realize that there is some opportunity cost in not doing something else but you still find school to be the best move at that moment. For me it was a very active decision- I had a great job with Teach For All and a wonderful life in Israel. Most people wouldn't leave that comfort and security. But I also knew that I wouldn't have the type of career or impact I wanted unless I got a second degree in my field.

But I digress- so my classes have been very engaging. My program, Development Studies, gives us a lot of flexibility with our courses as long as we can prove they are relevant. After much vacillation and even a last minute class switch I decided on the following for this term:

• Development: Theory, History, and Policy (our required course)
• Complex Emergencies
• Global Civil Society
• Social Research Methods in Developing Countries
• Business Model Innovation at the Base of the Pyramid- a really interesting pilot class that will be official in 2010-2011

My professors are incredible. Beyond being leading thinkers in their field, they are very warm and responsive. That may be partly because our department only serves graduate students so all of their attention is focused on us. They constantly encourage us to see them before/after classes or discuss dissertation ideas with them. And because our seminars are only 15 students, they know all of our names.

However, the content has become increasingly more complex over the last 7 weeks. We began with historical perspectives of 'development' and have moved into more modern-day issues. And I often find myself sitting at the end of class thinking, "Wow, that is heavy" or "Where do we even begin in order to solve that issue?" Just this week I wrote a paper about the role that social/economic grievances play in causing complex emergencies and another one about the impact of colonialism on Africa today. I find that the more I learn, the more I realize how complex and interwoven these issues are. Where does one start 'development' work when everything needs to be transformed?

Yesterday I had a very cool opportunity to see a play sponsored by Save the Children and EveryChild. The play, titled Listen to Me, follows the stories of marginalized children from Bangladesh, India, Columbia, Malawi, Guyana, Wales, Cambodia and more. The two organizations interviewed over 400 children whose basic needs are not being met to create this performance in honor of the 20th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The play was unbelievably powerful- we heard the story of an innocent 16-year old Cambodian who was accused of rape and sentenced to 15 years in jail, and of a Bangladeshi girl sent to bonded labor in order to support her family, and of an Indian girl who said, "Because of my caste, my fellow classmates ignore me and won't mingle with me or sit with me. Even teachers won't touch me after knowing that I am from an Arunthathiyar community. In some situations I cry and ask- why has God made me born in this region?" I had goosebumps throughout the performance as I was thinking of the millions of children around the world who are born into a life of poverty and inaccessibility. Just heartbreaking...

Tonight I went to see the movie 'The Last King of Scotland' about the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin who killed more than 300,000 people during his regime in the 1970s. I walked away once again realizing that the challenges that many African countries are facing are so deeply rooted it is hard to know how development workers can really create any systemic change. How does the 'developed' world help poorer nations provide for their citizens in a way that is not-patronizing and culturally-sensitive? Where do you start- with deadly epidemics such as HIV/AIDS or education? Governance or infrastructure? These Sisyphean issues are so daunting. I am sure that as we dive deeper into our coursework and learn of the successes that have been achieved, my optimism will rise again and my faith restored in our ability to make small differences that together amount to big changes... that is preciously why I joined Teach For America after all. But right now, the task before me seems colossal.

(I can't end a blog entry on such a pessimistic note, so am including this link to an inspiring story in CNN about Plan International's work to register the 'invisible children' of the world who, because of their lack of proper identification, can't access basic things like education, health care or government offices.)