A Long Time Between Blogs

It has been three months since my last post. A lot has happened. We have decided to downsize and late in 2012 bought an apartment in Wollongong planning for the future when we are not working. We have since sold our home and are in temporary accommodation for some weeks awaiting the finalisation of the apartment.

I also changed jobs. Having wanted to get into the aid and development sector full time I was fortunate to obtain a job with Anglican Aid http://anglicanaid.org.au/ which is the overseas aid agency of the Sydney Anglican Diocese. Apart from managing the office I have responsibility for the African projects we support in about 10 African countries.

Life is somewhat unsettled as I settle into a new role and we await our apartment being certified as ready for occupancyAnglican Aid

Our house which we left after 10 years.

Heat the World - Help Norway this Christmas

Heat the World
This Christmas Africa is returning the favour. Norway has helped them out in the past and so as Norwegian children suffer from frostbite, Africa has launched a campaign to send heat to Norway and assist the children of Norway.

Who ever said Norwegians don't have a sense of humor? Just in time for the holidays, a Norwegian group calling itself Radi-Aid has launched an appeal to ship radiators from Africa to Norway. Their cause is the plight of freezing children during Norway's harsh winter months. It's complete with a new music video, and incorporates all the right tropes (see here,here and here) — some people might miss the satire.

These people aren't playing around though. Their effort is a serious critique of misguided development, and of the Western media coverage which often accompanies it. What they want:

1. Fundraising should not be based on exploiting stereotypes.

2. We want better information about what is going on in the world, in schools, in TV and media.

3. Media: Show respect.

4. Aid must be based on real needs, not "good" intentions.

It looks like we're not the only ones to be fed up with poor spokesmenand seriously misguided aid efforts (H/T Rishita Nandagiri). Hallelujah; we here at Africa is a Country couldn't be more thrilled. Also, in preparation for spending this Christmas in Stavanger, I'm curious as to whether I might qualify for a radiator, or at least a new fleece & a bottle of Aquavit?

Just in case you think this is an isolated incidence of Scandinavian brilliance, we were also referred today by Norwegian Magnus Bjørnsen to artist Morten Traaviks' "pimp my aidworker" project, "a mock fundraiser for Western aidworkers."

I trust you take the time to educate yourself on pressing issues in Norway. Because it is really cold there folks, but it's also entirely lovely. And put the song on repeat.

Community Development in the 21 st century

I have had an interest in Anabaptism since 1980 meeting some when working in a refugee camp in Thailand. The Australian Anabaptist Association publishes a newsletter and I have reviewed a book DOWN UNDER - In Depth Community Work. A snippet from the book is published as is my review on page 17.
On the Road 54

As of December 2007, children under 15 accounted for 290,000 deaths worldwide and 420,000 children were newly infected with HIV– the vast majority through mother-to-child transmission of the virus.

http://www.unicef.org/aids/index_youngpeople.html

An anthropologist proposed a game to children of an African Tribe. He put a basket of fruit near a tree and told the kids that the first one to reach the fruit would win them all. When he told them to run they all took each others hands and ran together, then sat together enjoying the fruits. When asked why they ran like that, as one could have taken all the fruit for oneself they said, "Ubuntu, how can one of us be happy if all the others are sad? "Ubuntu is a philosophy of African tribes that can be summed up as "I am because we are".

African AIDS Foundation is proud to partner with African communities who share what little they have to assist the whole community. This in evident as they care for child headed households and assist people with AIDS maintain their medication and look after them when they are sick.

African AIDS foundation was established in response to the AIDS pandemic in Africa. In Australia and other developing countries, depression is a major source of people attending medical practitioners. This video is a light hearted look at the problems faced by us in the developed world and is shared with you to put into perspective the problems we have compared to those in the developing world.

While we in the developed world consider ourselves to be struggling consider the above stats. In Australia most people including those dependant on assiatnce from government and social servie agencies are in the top 10% of the world's richest people by income. If you live in Sydney and own a house you are likely close to the top 1% of the wealthiest people on the planet (that is 70,000,000 people who comprise 1% of the world population).