Does being a prostitute or a dancer damage your character? No. Is stripping an ideal to strive for? I would say no. I was asked - as a "feminist" wouldn't i support women stripping. I assume this concerns the idea of a woman being able to do anything she wants to do rather than looking at how ideal this type of work is. Putting the argument to the test: I think stripping is no better or worse than other degrading types of work. For me, working at Starbucks was degrading. People were rude, extremely disrespectful, and the pay was bad. Work is different from meaningful employment.
Women have entered the workforce in throngs, but have hardly broken into the power circles. ceo's and congress people are still overwhelmingly male. Granted, some dancers as well as some escorts do make quite a bit of money. During my union training someone mentioned that there was a union drive in LA for the prostitutes. I argue though, that is not normal, dancing is degrading, and a show run by males, paid by males, of the exploitation of the female body which does not enhance the freedom of women . just as working at wal-mart for low pay long hours and no health care when you have three kids is not liberating. Yes, women want work. But they want good work. As a feminist I am all for women choosing their type of work on their own terms. However, the idea that stripping is a great part time job designed for the ambitious college student is a far cry from reality. I won't pretend like any of my previous minimum wage part time jobs were great. I won't lie and say as a young woman it was so great to have employment.. and learn that your boss likes to go on power trips and that my time is worth shit. So those defending dancing should put it in the same category. taking off your clothes for pay is also degrading, and women rarely do this because they like it. Yes, people have to make choices in life, and sometimes life forces you into degrading, and demeaning employment - like stripping.
Show me a worker run cooperative owned and run by the dancers, and I'll show you my future child's mentor...
lunes, 8 de marzo de 2010
martes, 23 de febrero de 2010
to be continued- initial thought:
the mistake of Ayn Rand and to a lesser extent milton friedman is that ability honesty and non discrimination pays. however, doesn't starting ahead five spaces on a game board help you win? why wouldn't it be reasonable to assume that people would act in their interests to keep their privilege or advantage. corruption pays.
the mistake of Ayn Rand and to a lesser extent milton friedman is that ability honesty and non discrimination pays. however, doesn't starting ahead five spaces on a game board help you win? why wouldn't it be reasonable to assume that people would act in their interests to keep their privilege or advantage. corruption pays.
jueves, 11 de febrero de 2010
I think Fukuyama had an interesting point about the “radius of trust” which seems to me it can be fostered and destroyed in any community or group, and some of these ties do not translate into trust of others, or may be trust within destructive groups.
I think this applies not only to developing countries but to poor communities within the richer countries as well. I’ve heard argued convincingly that in impoverished areas individualism can be detrimental. A community that already is impoverished will have fewer opportunities, and more obstacles. The success of the group is integral to the success of the individual – as one person cannot magically obtain affordable healthcare if the program does not exist. I don’t believe this takes away emphasis away from individual agency, but rather that an individual is situated within a community, and their successes are integrated. A strong sense of community can positively impact the quality of lives of people. In developing countries practically no safety nets exist for large segments of society, and communities / groups must fill that role. Although it seems that even in areas with strong social cohesion, violence can tear this down. Dictatorships seem to specialize in using terror with the exact intent to sow fear and distrust – which then hinders shared quality of life development.
As a problem this poses to development aid, perhaps this should be taken into account to NGO’s or other international organizations just as much as developing the ‘right program’ is.
Dependency theory vs. culture vs. geography:
I think neither theory can claim a monopoly on explaining economic development. As we discussed in class week, the importance of human agency plays a large role as well as strong leaders. Many factors influence the course a country is taking, and the extent to which each factor plays a role is more important than privileging one over the other. For example, massive foreign intervention has had a far more destabilizing effect in Guatemala than Peru. Rather than claim that foreign aid to dictatorships or corporate ownership of half a country does not hinder economic growth, a better question is to what extent
Some of the authors, particularly Mariono Grondona would use broad generalizations to support a theory that had too many exceptions. As one of the authors Mala Htun – on gender inequality points out that there are drastic differences among Latin American countries as well as within the countries themselves. While culture is important, I think there is not enough correlation to tie values to economic performance as many of the authors would like. The book we read last week discussed the interaction between civil servants and the central government; and the complex relationships between keeping ones job, balancing ties where one works and to whom one reports to. He adds that the incentive for better work performance is strongly tied to belief that the job will allow one to move up in rank, and that the job security will not be influenced by politics. While this is also ‘work culture’ it is quite disconnected from work ethic or ones belief in the value of a hard day’s work.
I think this applies not only to developing countries but to poor communities within the richer countries as well. I’ve heard argued convincingly that in impoverished areas individualism can be detrimental. A community that already is impoverished will have fewer opportunities, and more obstacles. The success of the group is integral to the success of the individual – as one person cannot magically obtain affordable healthcare if the program does not exist. I don’t believe this takes away emphasis away from individual agency, but rather that an individual is situated within a community, and their successes are integrated. A strong sense of community can positively impact the quality of lives of people. In developing countries practically no safety nets exist for large segments of society, and communities / groups must fill that role. Although it seems that even in areas with strong social cohesion, violence can tear this down. Dictatorships seem to specialize in using terror with the exact intent to sow fear and distrust – which then hinders shared quality of life development.
As a problem this poses to development aid, perhaps this should be taken into account to NGO’s or other international organizations just as much as developing the ‘right program’ is.
Dependency theory vs. culture vs. geography:
I think neither theory can claim a monopoly on explaining economic development. As we discussed in class week, the importance of human agency plays a large role as well as strong leaders. Many factors influence the course a country is taking, and the extent to which each factor plays a role is more important than privileging one over the other. For example, massive foreign intervention has had a far more destabilizing effect in Guatemala than Peru. Rather than claim that foreign aid to dictatorships or corporate ownership of half a country does not hinder economic growth, a better question is to what extent
Some of the authors, particularly Mariono Grondona would use broad generalizations to support a theory that had too many exceptions. As one of the authors Mala Htun – on gender inequality points out that there are drastic differences among Latin American countries as well as within the countries themselves. While culture is important, I think there is not enough correlation to tie values to economic performance as many of the authors would like. The book we read last week discussed the interaction between civil servants and the central government; and the complex relationships between keeping ones job, balancing ties where one works and to whom one reports to. He adds that the incentive for better work performance is strongly tied to belief that the job will allow one to move up in rank, and that the job security will not be influenced by politics. While this is also ‘work culture’ it is quite disconnected from work ethic or ones belief in the value of a hard day’s work.
jueves, 4 de febrero de 2010
atheist vs. me
who gave you morality?
one of the ten pillars of conflict resolution skills is communication. assertiveness, not aggression. non violence has nothing to do with being passive. Honest communication prevents you from holding grudges, and just keeping yourself honest with what you need in your life, and if you are giving yourself what you need.
I get to do a research project for one of my classes. have trouble narrowing it down though. Thinking about doing interviews for a restorative justice program if it exists. I wonder if it works as well for victims of vicious attacks in these types of programs or if it is mostly tailored to less violent crimes. It seems to work very well in juvenile small crime.. what about adults? vamos a ver.
got distracted by a pumpkin curry recipe. yum
who gave you morality?
one of the ten pillars of conflict resolution skills is communication. assertiveness, not aggression. non violence has nothing to do with being passive. Honest communication prevents you from holding grudges, and just keeping yourself honest with what you need in your life, and if you are giving yourself what you need.
I get to do a research project for one of my classes. have trouble narrowing it down though. Thinking about doing interviews for a restorative justice program if it exists. I wonder if it works as well for victims of vicious attacks in these types of programs or if it is mostly tailored to less violent crimes. It seems to work very well in juvenile small crime.. what about adults? vamos a ver.
got distracted by a pumpkin curry recipe. yum
martes, 17 de noviembre de 2009
my product
Product: developing workplace processes and code to address various forms of conflict
Training - 3 hours (two evening of 1.5 hours, or 3 sessions during the lunch break)
Goal: institutionalizing workplace code to address the issues
What issues: sexism, racism, homosexuality, x,y,x.. addressing conflict in the workplace
Who: NGO’s (build the contact base, and most likely to want to improve in these areas)
Numbers: small groups.
Price: I see this as a product that we can begin as pro-bono conducted by students. Later on this could be a situation where new students could be the second facilitator and gain experience and be involved in the consulting group project. Eventually, I think this product could then charge on a pre-determined price. 3 hours = how much?
What is needed: create a framework of practice that will be used in all of these trainings. This will be the ICAR brand.Here is my idea about the framework that would need some professional input, using the example of a gender workshop:
Goal: awareness of gender stereotypes, establish processes and code that address sexism, and practices to confront and handle it in the workplace. Creation of a more productive and positive work environment
session 1: 1.5 hours
20 minutes: large group, general discussion of what sexism is, provide definitions,
- 10 min: small group discussion of stereotypes for males and females
- 10 min: share in large group what each small group discussed – collaboration of ideas
20 minutes: What kinds of issues / concerns does this create in the workplace? (eg promotions, childcare..)
- 10 Small group activity
- 10 Large group presentations
15 minutes: vision – what would the ideal workplace look like
Session 2: What are the workplace procedures that most appropriately prevent and address gender issues in the workplace
My idea behind this is the language learning model: that there is a general framework that has been developed – what needs to be learned first, etc. but for each topic, the teacher / consultant can modify the small group activity, or how people interact to best demonstrate the theory. The working groups could help come up with what theories should be presented in what order, and what could be covered in a few hours. I believe the part with the least amount of creativity involved would be the workplace code that would be most effective. This should be pre-developed. We could also offer advanced training to go more in depth in handling these issues.
Thoughts anyone?
Training - 3 hours (two evening of 1.5 hours, or 3 sessions during the lunch break)
Goal: institutionalizing workplace code to address the issues
What issues: sexism, racism, homosexuality, x,y,x.. addressing conflict in the workplace
Who: NGO’s (build the contact base, and most likely to want to improve in these areas)
Numbers: small groups.
Price: I see this as a product that we can begin as pro-bono conducted by students. Later on this could be a situation where new students could be the second facilitator and gain experience and be involved in the consulting group project. Eventually, I think this product could then charge on a pre-determined price. 3 hours = how much?
What is needed: create a framework of practice that will be used in all of these trainings. This will be the ICAR brand.Here is my idea about the framework that would need some professional input, using the example of a gender workshop:
Goal: awareness of gender stereotypes, establish processes and code that address sexism, and practices to confront and handle it in the workplace. Creation of a more productive and positive work environment
session 1: 1.5 hours
20 minutes: large group, general discussion of what sexism is, provide definitions,
- 10 min: small group discussion of stereotypes for males and females
- 10 min: share in large group what each small group discussed – collaboration of ideas
20 minutes: What kinds of issues / concerns does this create in the workplace? (eg promotions, childcare..)
- 10 Small group activity
- 10 Large group presentations
15 minutes: vision – what would the ideal workplace look like
Session 2: What are the workplace procedures that most appropriately prevent and address gender issues in the workplace
My idea behind this is the language learning model: that there is a general framework that has been developed – what needs to be learned first, etc. but for each topic, the teacher / consultant can modify the small group activity, or how people interact to best demonstrate the theory. The working groups could help come up with what theories should be presented in what order, and what could be covered in a few hours. I believe the part with the least amount of creativity involved would be the workplace code that would be most effective. This should be pre-developed. We could also offer advanced training to go more in depth in handling these issues.
Thoughts anyone?
martes, 10 de noviembre de 2009
consulting group
How do a group of people with little business experience start one up? The beginning of the unfinished process began a few months ago.
Goals of the group: first, brainstorm. What are our ideas, what would a consulting group require? the goal is to have deliverables every two weeks so that we can move this process along. One of the people had experience with business plans, so for the next week, we used a template to get us going.
Concept:
Goals
product:
marketing analysis - who you are selling to, is there a market for it, who is your competition - what makes you different.
Concept: improving processes. Instead of an ngo or business having to hire a fulltime person they can hire a consultant. what we can offer is a variety of expertise from addressing conflict in the workplace to expertise in a specific area - like the effect of water on conflict.
Each time we meet - twice a month - the group gets bigger. last time we met with six MBA students from GW who were interested in partnering up. They read our concept and other documents we had put together on the wiki site. We had some nice input from a professor to start the ball rolling. It also helps that people in the conflict resolution program have a variety of life experiences. They recommended we really hammer out "who are we" what is it that we are offering - study other groups to see what they are doing. And come up with a product - one girl recommended a training program. I thought this would be interesting. after all, after teaching english i could come up with my own lesson plans based on a template. a professor could help create the framework, and students could do the training. one of my interests in this group is to be able to participate before i am a certified "expert" with a PhD. the more practice you get - you become good at it. like giving trainings even if i didn't have the theoretical background to develop the blueprint. but hey, that's ok! other people didn't like the training idea saying that it should be the last thing we develop. We decided to go ahead.
There are now three teams working on different things: analyzing the competition, etc. our next meeting we want to have
"1. Identify 5 products : details, hours, deliverables, feasibility and revenue prospect
2. Draft a list of main competitors: name, location, contact info
3. Draft a value proposition: What can we do better than anyone else?
4. Participant Expertise: Years, industry, experience
5. Develop a guiding framework for our work: simple and applicable.
6. Compile a list of all of our own contacts within the industry that we are willing to share
7. Organizational Structure: Leadership, consulting teams, responsibility and team building"
The part that i am working on is product that we can offer relatively soon like trainings. We want five. I posted my training idea up on the site and they suggested that i go forward with it. which i am excited about.
"I also would suggest that you go forward with your idea as well. Put together some sort of deliverable, perhaps an HR best practices manual? Or perhaps a training seminar, where the deliverables would be a power point presentation and some sort of training binder complete learning modules and tests. What do you think?"
Done.
Goals of the group: first, brainstorm. What are our ideas, what would a consulting group require? the goal is to have deliverables every two weeks so that we can move this process along. One of the people had experience with business plans, so for the next week, we used a template to get us going.
Concept:
Goals
product:
marketing analysis - who you are selling to, is there a market for it, who is your competition - what makes you different.
Concept: improving processes. Instead of an ngo or business having to hire a fulltime person they can hire a consultant. what we can offer is a variety of expertise from addressing conflict in the workplace to expertise in a specific area - like the effect of water on conflict.
Each time we meet - twice a month - the group gets bigger. last time we met with six MBA students from GW who were interested in partnering up. They read our concept and other documents we had put together on the wiki site. We had some nice input from a professor to start the ball rolling. It also helps that people in the conflict resolution program have a variety of life experiences. They recommended we really hammer out "who are we" what is it that we are offering - study other groups to see what they are doing. And come up with a product - one girl recommended a training program. I thought this would be interesting. after all, after teaching english i could come up with my own lesson plans based on a template. a professor could help create the framework, and students could do the training. one of my interests in this group is to be able to participate before i am a certified "expert" with a PhD. the more practice you get - you become good at it. like giving trainings even if i didn't have the theoretical background to develop the blueprint. but hey, that's ok! other people didn't like the training idea saying that it should be the last thing we develop. We decided to go ahead.
There are now three teams working on different things: analyzing the competition, etc. our next meeting we want to have
"1. Identify 5 products : details, hours, deliverables, feasibility and revenue prospect
2. Draft a list of main competitors: name, location, contact info
3. Draft a value proposition: What can we do better than anyone else?
4. Participant Expertise: Years, industry, experience
5. Develop a guiding framework for our work: simple and applicable.
6. Compile a list of all of our own contacts within the industry that we are willing to share
7. Organizational Structure: Leadership, consulting teams, responsibility and team building"
The part that i am working on is product that we can offer relatively soon like trainings. We want five. I posted my training idea up on the site and they suggested that i go forward with it. which i am excited about.
"I also would suggest that you go forward with your idea as well. Put together some sort of deliverable, perhaps an HR best practices manual? Or perhaps a training seminar, where the deliverables would be a power point presentation and some sort of training binder complete learning modules and tests. What do you think?"
Done.
domingo, 11 de octubre de 2009
Galtung
What is structural violence, according to Galtung: "violence is here defined as the cause of the difference between the potential and the actual". while personal violence is direct - from person to person, - even even direct mental violence in some cases, structural entails indirect violence - meaning there is no actor who is committing the violence. It is violence by other means. Structural violence can be both latent and manifest, as expressed though cause and effect. Structural violence uses the vehicle of monopoly over decision making powers. This fans out into decisions over allocation of resources, of the laws - and other systems of governance, and especially the power over access to decision making powers. The effects from an inherently violence structure can be latent or manifest, manifest being more easily observable through poverty, inadequate resources, and inequality in all its manifestations - whether it is intended or not.
Identity based violence, as defined by Celia Cook- Huffman is a special case of structural violence as defined by Galtung. Access to decision making powers can be denied by identification with a specific group. Collective identities are used to justify social inequality. "In many post-colonial societies the structures of the state are dominated by and benefit one communal group or a coalition of groups and are unresposive to the needs of other groups. This inequality feeds frustration, fragmentation, a lack of system legitimacy, and ultimately, conflict" (HCAR Cook-Huffman,pg. 21) Cook-Huffman notes that identities are social constructs, rooted in history but lived out on a daily basic. Identities can also be salient, with the meaning as well as level of identification changinf over time. Identity as understood through structural violence is manifested usually through collective identities,and the exclusion or privileging of groups based upon their collective identity. Collective identites can be willfully chosen in a salient social structure, but in cases of exclusion are often imposed by those with decision making power.
The Rwandan genocide had many structural underpinnings that helped lead to the genocide of 1994. This took on two major components. Colonial domination aimed to solidify ethnic divisions and ingrain them into the social and political structures of society. Tutsi's were given decision making power Such things as identity cards, tutsi’s as the ruling class, superiority, inequality of resources on the basis of belonging to a defined category. Social and political relations were designed around these categories. These definitions were helped out by previous hierarchies of Tutsis as the ruling class, and domination over Hutus even before the Rwandan territory was colonized. However, as was pointed out in the article, tutsi was often used to describe a social class – referring to the amount of cattle one owned in contrast to differing histories, language, or physical features. The lived reality of social injustice helped and violence helped make genocide possible.
Identity based violence, as defined by Celia Cook- Huffman is a special case of structural violence as defined by Galtung. Access to decision making powers can be denied by identification with a specific group. Collective identities are used to justify social inequality. "In many post-colonial societies the structures of the state are dominated by and benefit one communal group or a coalition of groups and are unresposive to the needs of other groups. This inequality feeds frustration, fragmentation, a lack of system legitimacy, and ultimately, conflict" (HCAR Cook-Huffman,pg. 21) Cook-Huffman notes that identities are social constructs, rooted in history but lived out on a daily basic. Identities can also be salient, with the meaning as well as level of identification changinf over time. Identity as understood through structural violence is manifested usually through collective identities,and the exclusion or privileging of groups based upon their collective identity. Collective identites can be willfully chosen in a salient social structure, but in cases of exclusion are often imposed by those with decision making power.
The Rwandan genocide had many structural underpinnings that helped lead to the genocide of 1994. This took on two major components. Colonial domination aimed to solidify ethnic divisions and ingrain them into the social and political structures of society. Tutsi's were given decision making power Such things as identity cards, tutsi’s as the ruling class, superiority, inequality of resources on the basis of belonging to a defined category. Social and political relations were designed around these categories. These definitions were helped out by previous hierarchies of Tutsis as the ruling class, and domination over Hutus even before the Rwandan territory was colonized. However, as was pointed out in the article, tutsi was often used to describe a social class – referring to the amount of cattle one owned in contrast to differing histories, language, or physical features. The lived reality of social injustice helped and violence helped make genocide possible.
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