is there any room on the bandwagon?

It seems there has been talk around the blogosphere (is that an okay word to use unironically?) about No Buy February. I'm not sure how much of a thing it is, but what I buy and how I spend my money has been on my mind lately.

And by 'lately' I mean my whole life, but things have been different recently. It seems I've been using buying stuff as a coping mechanism for stress as of late, which is quite out of character. Growing up in a relatively frugal family, when I was a kid if I bought a bag of chips at the corner store I would be plagued with guilt. So rather than adopting a moderate approach with how I spend my money, to deal with the guilt I have just gone to the complete other end of the spectrum. Kind of. I buy things I don't need more often than I would like - but I am not sure how to reintroduce my conscience into my spending without letting it take over and weigh me down.

The main thing that worries me about my thinking is that I keep thinking in terms of needing something - and it's always something I really don't need. I might buy something because I have been stressed, mad, sad, whatever, and then using it will help me get through the day, whether it is a book of poetry or nail polish. At least that's what goes through my head. I have typically prided myself on being something of a minimalist, so this is hard for me to admit.

I'm going to try and not buy anything I don't need (really need) this month. I want to divorce my sense of well-being from what I can buy. My material needs are met on a daily basis - I don't want that excess to get in the way of getting to know God better, or living as He'd want.

In this same vein of consuming responsibly I'm going to be reading this book this month, given to me from a dear friend:

Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture.
(if you don't want to buy it, there is a pdf available here!)

a glass half empty? a look at microfinance.

The first time I encountered the idea of microfinance was at a church conference, and one of the interviewees was a co-founder of Kiva. "This. Is. Amazing," I thought. So simple! So effective! And above all, not paternalistic in the least, pointing toward long-term development that is actually effective. I was definitely smitten.

For the uninitiated: microfinance is the idea of making small loans to people in developing countries (either through community groups or a bank established for this purpose) to help them start a small business or endeavour of a similar sort. This is meant to help people to gain workable skills and establish themselves in a sustainable manner.

Microfinance has made great gains in popularity lately, and certainly seems to have a lot of the answers that people are looking for in terms of addressing poverty in a meaningful and effective way. The idea of mere financial aid is one that is often met with a healthy amount of cynicism; people are disillusioned from seeing money go to developing countries only to be mismanaged, get lost in inefficient government systems, or to go to something that doesn't actually benefit a community in the long run. The more we learn about poverty it seems that the obstacles are that much greater, and it seems like there is not that much that can be significantly accomplished.

Microfinance takes a different approach, and there are a lot of good ideas here: dignity of the poor, cultural sensitivity, the whole "teaching a man to fish," thing, and it inspires a reciprocal relationship between the donor and the receiver, rather than dependence on handouts and encouraging the weird power balance that so often accompanies aid. I think though, that microfinance is more complicated than it initially seems - it is certainly not the messiah of the developing world, as it is so often esteemed. Some of these cracks in the surface are starting to show, such as violence and shame surrounding pressure to repay loans. Impatience with faulty development strategies might hasten someone's dismissal of microfinance, but this should not be the case. By looking critically at the benefits and drawbacks of microfinance we can better assess how to apply it, and how to avoid these pitfalls.

Food for thought and related reading:

"How Microfinance Changes the Lives of Millions," Shweta S. Banerjee. Foreign Policy. October 26, 2009.

"India's Looming Microcredit Crisis." Sanjay Kumar. The Diplomat. October 30, 2011.

Microfinance and its Discontents: Women in Debt in Bangladesh, Lamia Karim

Banker to the Poor, Muhammad Yunus.

mothers.

Where Have All the Mothers Gone? By Dr. Jean Chamberlain Froese

This book is amazing. It kind of ties together my last two posts by telling the stories of women and what they have to deal with in childbirth. The stories are just...staggering. It's written by an obstetrician gynecologist, Dr. Jean Chamberlain Froese who has worked primarily in Uganda and Yemen. This book shows so many different sides of the obstacles that women in developing countries face to have a child. It shows the forces of social pressure to have natural childbirths, when medical help would be available. It also depicts the difficulties of getting to that medical help - hours long crowded bus rides that can barely be afforded; lifelong incontinence due to either negligent or unavailable medical care.

These stories broke my heart. Among them, there are stories of hope, of overcoming adversity. What is most striking of each of these accounts is how very avoidable they are, from our perspective. For more information, see Save the Mothers.

voices.

Typically when we think of poverty we think the greatest misfortune of those affected is the lack of material possessions. Although this is crippling in its own way, one of the greatest needs of the poor that is often overlooked is their need for a voice. This is in part a driving force behind this blog - to shed light on the stories of those that cannot speak for themselves.

At the turn of the century the World Bank put together an initiative called Voices of the Poor. This collection gathers quotes from the poor on their views on what poverty means to them. They address issues from gender equality to evaluations of NGOs. So far I've only read the excerpts available on the website, but I am looking forward to making these books a part of my collection. Here is a taste of what is there:

•  "For a poor person everything is terrible - illness, humiliation, shame. We are cripples; we are         afraid of everything; we depend on everyone. No one needs us. We are like garbage that everyone wants to get rid of." — a blind woman from Tiraspol, Moldova
• "Everyday I am afraid of the next" — Russia
• "Nobody is able to communicate our problems. Who represents us? Nobody." — discussion group in Foua, Egypt
• "We keep hearing about monies that the government allocates for projects, and nothing happens on the ground." — South Africa
• "No one helps, not anyone. I would gladly help someone, but how when I am in need of help myself. This is misery (jad). Our souls, our psyches are dead." — Vares, Bosnia and Herzegovina   (source)

By seeing things from their eyes we treating the poor with dignity. We can understand where they are coming from. By taking the time to know those who we are trying to help and to know their needs and specific situations there is a greater chance we can help, rather than simply waste time and resources.

A glass half empty?

Unfortunately, one of the things that I am best at is seeing the negative side of a situation. I used to chalk it up to 'critical thinking' but I do have a certain bent toward defeatism. This has been something that I have struggled with in learning more about development and poverty alleviation. The more I read, and especially when I traveled to East Africa, I was bombarded with hopeless sentiments - does anything we do actually make a difference? What say do I even have to try and change the way someone lives? Thoughts of cultural barriers, language barriers, corruption in policy and government swirled around my head. How could anyone do anything to make a real change, much less me? My first instinct was to throw up my hands - it is easy enough to numb oneself to the realities of the world in middle class North America - but as I interacted more with people and saw more of what was being done in the few organizations we visited, hope stirred in me. I still feel cripplingly helpless in the face of certain obstacles and defeatist thoughts creep into my mind often enough...but I stubbornly hold onto the idea that we can't not do something...so now what?

There seems to be a lot of cynicism surrounding poverty alleviation, much of it well-earned. Television commercials are saturated with commercials asking for donations, depicting the poorest of the poor, their dignity forgotten. The United Nations is known for its thick red tape, and perceived as largely ineffectual. We hear rumours of inefficient or unaccountable relief organizations. There is even skepticism surrounding the effectiveness and intentions of the previously untouchable Mother Teresa. It seems that no matter what avenue is taken that the causes of poverty run so deep than any effort is thwarted, or at least a staggering step forward.

The problem with addressing poverty is that since it is often very complex and requires a great deal of long-term investment, without a holistic approach the efforts that fall short of this are often more harmful than if nothing had been done. This idea is fleshed out in When Helping Hurts, a book that emphasizes the importance of long-term development, enabling communities with good stewardship skills, and most importantly the dignity of the poor and mutual respect and cooperation. The model that is laid out in this book reveals poverty alleviation to be a long and arduous process. The goal here is not material results (improving crop outputs, building x number of schools) but restoring relationships. This takes personal investment and involving the poor with the work. This of course is an incredibly arduous task. Even for myself, thinking of what actually has to be done to work effectively with communities fills me with dread.

I am going to endeavor to explore different ways in which poverty is wrongly addressed, why harm is done, and if there is anything worth redeeming from these ideas. Just because a task is daunting, seemingly insurmountable, and those defeatist thoughts seem to be all there is, just means we're going to be that much more creative, that much more understanding of where people are coming from, and learn that much more about our abilities. Not to mention all that is to be learned from those in the majority world. In taking time to learn from those we are trying to help we also greatly enrich our own lives. Once we realize the richness of the mutual benefits that are possible, why would we want to go about it any other way?