On nonprofit vs. for-profit

Penelope Trunk’s Brazen Careerist recently posted a piece on why we overestimate the gap between the gap between nonprofit and for-profit jobs.  It’s a short and interesting read if you’re considering the pros and cons of working in one of these sectors.

In this post, Penelope talks about how both nonprofit and for-profit workplaces are changing and why our age-old typical stereotypes no longer hold true.  Not only are these sectors getting more creative about how to structure themselves internally and “how they give back” externally, their financial structures may be one of the only significant remaining differences between the two. Dan Pallotta, who writes regularly for Harvardbusiness.org, gives similar arguments while dispelling myths about the private sector in a recent piece on how the “Psychic Benefits of Nonprofit Work are Overrated”.

Personally I’ve found the establishment of an entire field around corporate social responsibility (CSR) as one example of the sensible meeting of the for- and nonprofit sector minds. But even that is an oversimplification of the existence of and potential for building bridges between sectors to accomplish positive change in the local communities where they operate to the global world within which they exist.

As a graduate student evaluating the pros and cons of each sector, and the goal of affecting positive local and global change, I find the shifting trends within these sectors as an encouraging and exciting affirmation that nonprofit and for-profit companies alike continue to have to adapt in order to compete in the evolving world.  It’s also a good reminder that it is more about what you want to accomplish, the specific workplace(s) you work at or seek to work with, and perhaps most importantly the individuals you work with that matter the most.

A recent panel I attended discussing work in the field of International Negotiation and Conflict Resolution (INCR), another field that crosses the nonprofit, public, and private sectors, confirmed just that. As one panelist put it, “It really does matter who you work with; you spend a lot of time with them!”

And if you’re looking to shift sectors, or like me, hoping to shift in and out of sectors throughout your career, the continued blurring and overlapping of the various sectors, public, private, nonprofit, for-profit, international, and domestic workplaces signifies an even more essential development: We may not have to choose!

 

On balance: If you were a miniature free market…

“If I hear one more person talking about the importance of maintaining a balanced life while in graduate school I’m going to…”

Balance: We seek it. We work hard now to experience and enjoy it later. We want to live balanced lives. We are enamored with the concept.  So where does one find this thing we call “balance”? Does it really exist?

Lately, the whole “balance” thing has become just one more thing to add to my “To Do” list. And there aint no getting to the bottom of any graduate student’s “To Do” list, so how do we ever get to lead balanced lives while in school?  The answer, my friends, lies in the concept of the free market.

Question: If each of us were our own individual free market, would we self-regulate? Answer: Yes.

If you were looking for “the free market”, would you ever find it?  Isn’t it right there in front of you? Or all around, wherever you go?  This is how I’ve come to see the concept of balance. Would you know where to go or what you were looking for if you wanted to find it? Would you believe it if you saw it?

Maybe we can only see it when we don’t have it; when it isn’t there.

It’s easy to identify an unfree market: government regulations, income taxes, farm subsidies, tariffs on tires, just like we know an unbalanced life when we’re living it: oh the pain and anguish, the stressed, bloodshot eyes, the fast food and coffee consumption, the “just say no to invites” policy.

However, despite the prevalence of unhealthy, unsustainable practices in graduate school, I’ve come to believe that when left to our own (hypothetically) destructive devices, we end up functioning like individual miniature free markets. We may be volatile, spiking up and occasionally crashing down, we are often “all over the place”, but nevertheless self-regulating in the end.

Take last week. In the midst of  juggling a major term paper, three short assignments, four study groups, 27 bajillion pages of reading, 44 bajillion so-called “extra curricular” activities (meet the deputy prime minister of Israel! Business and GREEN club meetings, field trips, band practice, workouts), where might the invisible hand of self-regulation and life balance lead you?

Maybe it will take you to check your twitter, fb, gmail accounts. We all have our vices. Last week I downloaded an entire Stevie Wonder album and that oh-so-awesome and under- or, over-played Mario song feat. Gucci off of Itunes!  Who knows, it could even lead you to leave the whole “To Do” behind for a women’s wine and cheese night, a million mandate mixer in Harvard Square, and a post-party Ihop adventure sipping OJ and eating chocolate-chip pancakes.

You never know where the invisible hand will lead you, but trust that after a 12-hour marathon library stint, a combination of one’s physical demands and mental capacity, the limits of the market kick in and that ever-mysterious, ubiquitous and constantly moving hand will pull you to self-regulate towards some semblance of sanity – and – that thing we call balance.

Oh, how we shall savior those moments!  Because after that, it’ll pull you right back to the stacks!

 

Establishing a (blogging) purpose

Melon Vine Farm

I have finally decided what I intend this blog to focus on!  (Audible applause)

After reading blog after blog posting about why it is important to have a blogging strategy and, even better, why blogs without a purpose are a waste of time, I decided it was time to buck up, stop being casual, inconsistent, perfectionist, and journal-esque about my blogging and establish a purpose.

I started this blog as a pseudo experiment while living/working in Buenos Aires in order to talk about how life was in BA.  I also wanted to try “the whole blogging thing” out, take my facebook and twitter commentary and link sharing to a (slightly) more analytic platform, and work-on and practice my writing skills.

The blog is called Asi es la vida, which means, “like this is life” or, “that’s life”.  I prefer the first translation. It’s not, “that’s just the way it goes” it’s more “this is how it is”.  So, like many bloggers, I’m going to tell you how it is.  But now that I’m back in the States at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, it will be all about how life is as a graduate student.

It’s natural, it’ll flow, and it follows the simple and sure writing advice of my first (and one of my favorite) creative writing teachers, Barabara Grengs, “write about what you know”.

So, strap on your britches, get ready for the fun, and welcome to the next phase of Asi es la vida: Asi es la vida de una estudiante de Fletcher School!

 

Running, running, running… to a stronger future

It was another one of those gorgeous, late summer-reminiscent days today and I was laying in the grass in the Blakely Fields in front of The Fletcher School chatting on the phone, trying to get some reading done, and taking in some sun when I got stung by a bee! I had been lying there watching them get in and out of the hundreds of grassy weed flowers around me and must have accidentally swiped one with my hand as I turned to switch sun sides.  I felt that poke/sting and rapid swell spreading, tried to pull the lil stinger out but failed, so I trekked across the field to Health Services to see what they could do for me.

The last time I got stung by a bee I was at the annual boomerang tournament at the Ruhe-Ruhf farm exploring the train tracks with Luna Babes when I stepped into a beehive. And Yikes! Two or three buggers got me on my leg which immediately swelled-up balloon style, and stayed that way, itching and hurting for days, and leaving big red bumps for several weeks!  With an important tennis match tomorrow morning (I have a reigning title to defend) I was determined not to have a swollen hand for the next several days.

Which brings me to running. As one of the sweet doctors at Tufts Health Services took my pulse she asked me, “Are you a runner?”  I immediately blurted out, “Yes!” Surprised to hear myself say that I went on, “Well…” “An Athlete?” she asked? “Yeah…” I said smiling. “Nice and slow and steady,” she said referring to my pulse.

I confess I have never considered myself a runner. In fact I’ve mostly hated running.  I’d throw it into a weekly workout here or there just to change it up a bit, almost always on a treadmill and struggling to pump out more than 20 or 30 minutes at a slow pace. I only started to really like running when I was up at my cabin in August. I wanted to get back in shape and the weather was awesome, our dog Abby would come with me, and we’d run in the sun, the north woods and marshlands of Wisconsin making a great scenic trail, and sounding board, as I tried to sing at the top of my lungs while huffing and a puffing along the dirt road. When we’d get back we’d end at the dock and jump in the lake to cool off and the whole thing just made life feel good.  Here in the Medford-Somerville-Cambridge-Arlington area of Massachusetts we’re lucky to have miles of running-walking-biking trails, and I’ve grown to love the one that starts just behind our house.

Which brings me to today and why I love running.  I set off this evening just before sunset in need of clearing my head and determined to get in a good run. I started fast and with my music LOUD.  It felt so good to get out of my head and into the music and run that I decided to see which would slow me down first: my legs or my lungs.

In the beginning when I ran I’d think about running, or think about not thinking about running.  I run because I like to get a good workout. I feel strong and that feels good. I run because it’s part of my personal mental health plan, because running outdoors takes you places, because, second only to skydiving and bicycling, you really feel like you are flying.  And that’s a pretty amazing feeling.

When I passed the high school where the football and cheerleading practice is usually taking place the woods part and the sky opens up. I caught a glimpse of the sun setting magenta but kept running.  When I got to the end of my loop I had to stop to watch a few pitches of the Somerville little leaguers.  These kids were young, maybe only 8 or 9, but they could throw!

As I turned to make my loop back I started thinking about how my dad used to run track when he was younger (he also used to look a lot like Elivs Presley, but I digress..).  And though I started running to get back in shape, I don’t think I’ll ever stop (well, save for the knees) because “getting in shape” doesn’t have an end.  As my dad would attest, like most things, it’s really a life-long process.

And so it goes, Asi es mi vida corriendo.

 

Back on the Map!

Hello!

It’s been a while since I’ve posted, but I’m alive and well and back on the map after spending a week of moving - from Buenos Aires back to DC to  Somerville, Massachusetts – with the “fox force four” a best of friends moving crew

You Haul Team

Juliana, Melanie, Moi, Zoe

into a beautiful new apartment in a cute neighborhood just two blocks from the heart of Davis Square!

Kitchen

View into my new bedroom

The great migration was followed by 10 glorious days of hometown Minnesota

Born in the land 'o lakes

mostly up in the north woods at our family’s cabin Wisconsin where I spent some of my time getting a good dose of “hard labor therapy camp” working with the family cabin crew to build a new path from the cabin to a new dock location.

The A-frame

Marshland with petrified wood behind the cabin

"The year of the path"

View from the foot of the path

The week was filled with great food, running in the woods, jumping in the lake, soaking up some summer sun, and having an awesome time hanging-out and catching-up with each of my parents, my sister, cousins Ryan and Mel, and of course Abby, the center of attention.

Abby letting it all hang loose

Endless energy abounds

Tomorrow is a big day for me as I start the Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy (MALD) program at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University.  I have been eagerly anticipating the start of this wonderful and challenging new adventure in my life and am very excited to meet my fellow incoming class!

Stay tuned for some final thoughts on my summer in Buenos Aires including “Why Buenos Aires is a Livable City”, como es la vida and why I already love Somerville, MA, and more about what I hope to accomplish over the next two years!

With love while settling in, Althea

Back on the map!

 

A Monumental Tour of Buenos Aires, Argentina

After two short months and four visitors later, I have managed to make the rounds to most (if not all) of the monumental meccas and touristical fancies of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

El Flor de Buenos Aires

I won’t rewrite the travel guidebook, but after landing in BA after 8 wonderful years in Washington, DC, I felt it necessary to share with you at least one monumental tour of this nation’s capital, starting with the one that made me (miss and) feel most at home – El Obelisco!

Long street view in BA with Obelisco

The obelisco was designed by Alberto Prebisch and built in1936 for the 400th anniversary of the founding of the city of Buenos Aires.  This 220 feet tall  is located at the center of la Plaza de la Republica, where Avenida Corrientes and Avenida 9 de Julio intersect.

Obelisco close up

They say that Avenida 9 de Julio is the widest street in the world, stretching 16 lanes across, 8 on each side, and squeezing even a few more depending on the hour of the day.

Avenida 9 de Julio

While Buenos Aires is a great walking city, it would probably take an entire week to see this monumental tour by foot.  If you prefer to avoid driving or taking a taxi in the craziness that is BA traffic, you will want to get to know the BA Subte, or subway, and numerous bus lines flowing through the city.

Buenos Aires Subte

At the end of the D line, and where several subte lines intersect is the famous Plaza de Mayo, the heart of many political moments in Argentina’s history including legendary Peronista political rallies and later weekly demonstrations by the “madres de la plaza de mayo“, mothers of the disappeared.

Plaza del Mayo

The plaza stretches out in front of the Casa Rosada, or pink house, where day to day political business decisions are made and the president and their cabinet offices are located.  Unlike the White House in DC, the Casa Rosada is not where the president and her husband reside; there is a presidential mansion in the province of Buenos Aires that they call home.

La Casa Rosada

Just a short walk from the Plaza de Mayo is a stretch of the city that runs along the Rio Plata known as Puerto Madero.

Rio Plata, Puerto Madero

Puerto means “port” in Spanish.  Buenos Aires being a port city, this area was a crucial commercial focal point in the history of Buenos Aires, and the origin for the name of people from Buenos Aires, “Porteños”.

Old storage along the waterfront promenade

Much like the warehouse district of Minneapolis, the old port buildings and surrounding area of Puerto Madero have been transformed into a hip part of Buenos Aires, home to some of the newest modern BA condos , and a slew of classy, tasty restaurants, all the while keeping that historical ‘feel’.

Puente de la Mujer

About a 1/2 mile through the city grind beyond the peaceful riverbank of Puerto Madero is the biggest, and best plaza in Buenos Aires, Plaza San Martin.

View of English Tower from top of Plaza San Martin

The beginning of the plaza starts at Avenida del Libertador (San Martin was afterall the liberator of Argentina) and runs up along one of the only major hills in city of Buenos Aires.  The top of the plaza boasts a spectacular view, and a spacious plaza lined with lovers on park benches and voluptuous trees year-round.

Following Avenida del Libertador to the north you’ll want to take a slight detour to the Recoletta to see the beautiful cemetery.

Recoletta Cemetery

The cemetery is home to some of the most famous, and infamous,  figures in Argentina’s history, including Eva Peron, and continues to be a place where the highly esteemed hope to bury their kin.

Un angel (con fuerza!)

Where city meets cemetery

Back to Avenida Libertador and following it north leads us to another greenery stop along the monumental tour: El Jardin Botanico.

Glorious!

I don’t really know NYC that well, but everyone likes to compare Buenos Aires to Nueva York so I’m giving it a shot: the botanical garden is to BA what central park is to NYC. (!)

Greenhouse

With over 5,000 varieties of species from all over the world, this Jardin is truly a piece of heaven in the midst of a bustling, elbow-to-elbow, bumper-to-bumper, grime to grim, 24-hour energy and noise producing city that we love.

Peaceful Heaven

Even the kitties know when it’s time to take a break and seek refuge in the garden!

Kitten H(e)aven

The botanical garden is adjacent to the Zoo, near Plaza Italia, on the edge of the Palermo neighborhood.

Plaza Italia

Palermo is home to one of several weekend fair and craft markets, but is better known for its fashion boutiques shopping and as one of the centers of nightlife in Buenos Aires.

Palermo by day

While I don’t have photos of inside the boliches, let’s just say that the night life in BA is vibrant! Porteños are late eaters and night riders with some clubs opening at 3am and another round at 6am with so-called “after hours” locales keeping the party running through midday the next.

Palermo by night!

The dance culture in BA could be divided into club dancing – anything and everything you might see in a club in any major city in the world plus a bunch of salsa – and TANG-GO…

“Real Tango” is almost like a hidden gem in Buenos Aires, you have to be “in the know” before walking into a Milonga, or dance parlor, where the real dancers show their moves.

Tango for Tourists

For those not interested in taking a Tango lesson or just staying in BA on a shorter time frame, a trip to San Telmo and La Boca on a Sunday afternoon will likely satisfy your taste for a view into this sexy and sultry music and dance.

La Boca

You’ll also likely want to checkout the San Telmo Sunday crafts fair and antiques market before heading home to share your favorite photos, facts, and folklore about the great city of Buenos Aires.

Closing of the flor at dusk

 

Statistically Significant: Commentary on the gathering and reporting of statistics about violence against women in Argentina

With only one week left in Buenos Aires I am vigorously blogging away on my Advocacy Project Fellowship blog about working as an AP Fellow for Asociacion Para Politicas Publicas in Argentina, and their involvement in the international Disarming Domestic Violence Campaign.  Below are two posts from the last week regarding the gathering and reporting on statistics related to violence against women, and more specifically armed violence against women in Argentina. These posts originally appeared on my Advocacy Project Fellowship Blog.

“At least 82 women were killed by gender-based violence in the first half of this year in Argentina”

“At least 82 women were killed by gender-based violence in the first half of this year in Argentina.”

This is the title of the news story that came out last week covering the release of a report on the number of women killed by their “husbands, partners, lovers, boyfriends, former partners, neighbors, relatives, or unknown assailant committing an act of sexual violence against them” in Argentina between January 1^st and June 30^th, 2009.  Another nine cases are still under investigation. In 2008 a total of 208 women were murdered in Argentina by their “husbands, partners, lovers, boyfriends, former partners, neighbors, relatives, or unknown assailant committing an act of sexual violence against them” putting Argentina just behind Mexico and Guatemala, although it is noted that no mention of Colombia or Brazil’s standings are included in the report.

The report on femicides in Argentina during the first half of 2009 was conducted by “La Casa del Encuentro“, an Argentine civil society association. It is revealing in many regards. Not only does it bring to light to the magnitude of violence against women in Argentina, it also confirms that the problem is not one of isolated criminal cases, but “a social, political, and human rights” issue. This is a crucial point to make as I’ve mentioned in previous posts, my experience is that there is little awareness about the prevalence of domestic violence in Argentina, and when confronted with the topic, the tendency is to downplay the gravity of the problem, or to push it onto “the other”.  Perhaps this is because there is little news generated on the issue, scarce statistical data to date, and no citywide or countrywide awareness campaign on the issue.

The lack of statistics is noted by Fabiana Tunisia, General Coordinator of La Casa del Encuentro. In several news articles covering the report she is quoted as saying the initial 2008 investigative report came about as a result of the fact that those working in the field of gender-based violence realized that no such report existed in Argentina. After spending time learning about and meeting with some of the numerous governmental and nongovernmental agencies working on women’s issues and gender-based violence in Argentina, it is quite alarming that so few statistics exist.  Those of us working at APP on the Disarming Domestic Violence Campaign in Argentina welcome and applaud the release of a report that include such statistics, and pledge to continue working towards the development of additional statistics, including those that differentiate between methods of violence.  While the articles covering the report refer to several examples of armed domestic violence cases, the report makes no direct links between arms and the deaths of these 82 women.

Having already mentioned some of the real problems associated with statistical collection and analysis in Argentina, it is perhaps less surprising, though no less discouraging, to find that the same articles covering one of the best reports of late are also culpable of perpetuating statistical errors on the topic. No less than four sources in two different languages included the following information:  ”Reality also shows that so far in July there were 21 cases of femicide, which gives an average of two women per day are murdered in Argentina”.  These articles were published on the 19^th of July, 2009.  After a long attempt to understand how this figure could have come about, I determined it must have been an error in reporting.  If there were 21 cases of femicide (female homicide) over a 19-day period in July, there is just no way that you can conclude that an average of 2 women per day are murdered in Argentina.  It is important to mention this because as we recognize the power that statistics can play calling attention to the severity of domestic violence in Argentina, and in turn, the role that they can play in affecting policy and legal changes in the country, we also realize that we must first establish a history of statistical integrity in the field.  This will be difficult to accomplish when careless computations are made, quoted, and then repeated throughout the media.

Despite the statistical error quoted in these news stories, the report itself is free of such errors and contains several positive implications for the Disarming Domestic Violence Campaign.  For one, it calls for the immediate reform of domestic violence laws in Argentina, as a means to “making clear that society does not endorse such behavior”.  It also demands the immediate loss of parental rights for anyone who kills, or attempts the life of the mother of their children, along with the unequivocal protection of women victims of violence under law.

In its conclusion, the report highlights some of the important challenges which the DDV campaign hopes to overcome: a lack of official statistics on femicides in Argentina and a lack of sufficient public policies (and laws) to influence the social and cultural behaviors that cause the death of hundreds of women each year. And most importantly, it reinforces that combating violence against women and children is not something that social organizations or the state government can accomplish alone, it is everyone’s responsibility. We hope that through the implementation of the DDV campaign in Argentina, along with the important work of associations like La Casa del Encuentro, positive and necessary change to end violence against women in Argentina can be acheived.

Statistical Significance: Meeting with the Women’s Directorate of Buenos Aires

Momentum around the Disarming Domestic Violence campaign has really been building here in Argentina and the Asociacion Para Politicas Publicas (APP) office was abuzz this week with new developments.

First a little background. The first two weeks of my fellowship with APP were dedicated to launching the DDV campaign during the Global Week of Action Against Gun Violence. Hitting the ground running never felt so good! But these intense first 10 days were followed by a few weeks of disruptions from office illnesses, pre-election fixation on politics in Argentina (more to come on this topic), and the post-election swine flu mania, and a state of health emergency declared by the government. Having just gotten back from a conference in Rio last week and itching to make the most of my last two weeks in Buenos Aires, I was delighted that the momentum we’ve been building around the campaign is really taking off and that despite the various set-backs, our hard work is coming to fruition in some truly visible ways. The following few posts will focus on some of these new developments, discoveries, and outcomes.

Me, Pia, and Paula in the APP Office

Direccion General de la Mujer del Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires

Earlier this week I accompanied APP staff members Maria Pia Devoto and Maria Paula Cellone to a meeting with the Magdalena Acuña of la Dirección General de la Mujer del Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires or the General Directorate of Women, Government of Buenos Aires. The Direccion General de la Mujer works in two parts: direct assistance to victims of domestic or sexual violence, and programs, which include public policy advocacy and data collection.

The Directorate’s direct assistance activities include: taking formal legal complaints known as denuncias from (mostly) women who want to report abuse, providing a call center for cases of emergency, managing shelters equipped with lawyers, psychologists, and doctors for women and children victims, and providing individual and group therapy and workshops for victims. They have a total of 6 decentralized offices across the city of Buenos Aires offering these services.

Their programmatic division works in the public policy arena strengthening state support for these services and the laws that govern them. They also work to collect and systematize information (including statistical data from the 6 offices) and funds for the directorate. It is within this programmatic division that a new “Observatory” is being created for the sole purpose of focusing on the collection and synthesizing of information and data.

It is difficult to find statistical information on the prevalence of domestic violence, or women’s deaths due to armed violence in Argentina. Although the denuncias are recorded and quantifiable, they only represent the reported incidents or cases of domestic and sexual violence, and it is unknown how many additional cases are out there. In addition, I have been told that it is commonly known that statistics are often invented in Argentina. And not just in the field of disarmament, domestic and armed violence. Maybe it is a way of getting around the fact that there is simply an overall lack of statistics in the country, and an expression of a need for credible ones. Maybe it is due to a lack of statisticians to crunch the numbers. Whatever the reason that reliable statistics are hard to come by in Argentina, this is one of the challenges APP is trying to overcome in order to produce useful information about the incidence of armed domestic violence in the country.

During our meeting, Magdalena mentioned some of these common frustrations shared amongst advocates working for women’s rights in Argentina. The national and city women’s directorates are the main, if not only sources of data collection on domestic and sexual violence in the country. Researchers and public policy officials often call them to request access to the information they have or should be collecting, but due to a lack of proper data collection, and a lack of communication and coordination across the city offices, they are typically unable to hand the information over. Sometimes the information is so dispersed or incoherent that one cannot aggregate and deduce legitimate or statistically significant results.

The Observatory will not only help to systematize this data collection, it will also be a center from which research and analysis will take place and be produced. It is really an exciting development here as hopes are the Observatory will be able to correct what most working in this field (regrettably) already know – these kinds of credible statistics just don’t exist at thsi time.

And APP could not have met with the Buenos Aires Women’s Directorate at a better time. Within the Observatory, they are still in the process of shaping the protocols and questionnaires involved in making a formal complaint, a denuncia, and for registering women and their children at shelters across the country. As a result of our meeting with the BA Women’s Directorate APP plans to work with the observatory on incorporating important questions about the presence or use of arms in incidences of sexual and domestic violence. The observatory will be a natural place for APP to concentrate DDV campaign efforts and collect solid data over time about the use of arms in cases of domestic violence.

Before public policies can be shaped and women’s advocates can do their work to improve women’s security in Argentina, they must first know more about the problem and the women affected by it. The establishment of an observatory dedicated to proper information and data collection gathering is a promising step in the right direction for producing valuable statistics on the incidence gender-based violence in Argentina. As a result of meeting with Magdalena, APP has not only established a great connection and partnership that will help produce this essential information, we may have even recruited another member of the IANSA International Women’s Network in the process!

 

Soccer-Volleyball on Praia Ipanema, Brazil

While chilling on Ipanema Joah and I spent a lot of time watching these guys and others (including a few women!) play a game combining soccer and volleyball.  At first we thought these four had made the game up, but then stopped to watch several groups of 2v2 and 4v4 up and down the beach., and realized it is practically a national sport.

The soccer moves most frequently employed include heading, “chesting”, and using one’s thigh or foot, and volleyball “side” rules apply – that is the same player cannot touch the ball twice in a row, and the ball can only be touched a total of three times on one side before it has to cross the net.

Their soccer skills were remarkable to watch, and although you might not be able to tell from this minute-long clip, this game is not easy.

Next time I meet up with the girls from my Women of Mass Destruction soccer team in DC I’m going to suggest we try a session along the Potomac!  DESTROOOYYYY! He he.

 

Rio de Janeiro

I spent last week in Rio de Janeiro to help staff the ICNC booth and talking with folks about nonviolent struggle at the ISA-ABRI conference. The conference was filled with young Brazilians  interested and excited to share their experiences and learn more about civil resistance.  What luck to have the Latin American based conference in such a beautiful city.

After the conference I spent a few days  musing around Rio, basking along the beach (albeit under somewhat gray skies), and sipping caipirinhas with my good friend Joah.

Ipanema before the clouds break

Spending time in Rio after coming off of 6 weeks of winter in Buenos Aires was like a vacation within a vacation.  Even though I am working in BA (and was a bit in Rio), it was a perfect combination of  work, sites, relaxation, and fun.

In (Cristo) we trust, heart of the nation

Rio rivals other cities I’ve been to like Quito and Capetown as one of the most beautiful urban epicenters in the world for the gorgeous natural landscape that surrounds the city.  No matter where you are in the city you can see great vistas of the surrounding mountains and hills or hear sounds of the ocean and ENORMOUS waves crashing on the beach.

Early morning mountains

Praia Ipanema Corn Stand YUM

In just a few days we managed to meet and talk with loads of Brazilians and other foreigners enjoying one of the Southern Hemesphere’s winter break weeks,

Surfer on the edge

experience the flare of Brazilian soccer watching endless pick-up games on the beach and an official match at their famous Maracana stadium,

Practice makes perfect - this boy plays better than me!

Inside Maracana

eat loads of great food off the street stands and in great Rio restaurants,

Fried bananas and Ice Cream (!)

and see a live jazz fest and later dance to a 14-piece live samba group at a club in lapa.

Under the arches in Lapa

After 7 days I felt rejuvinated and ready to get back to my routine.  As the plane touched down in BA I even felt a sense of “I’m home”.

(though not without a lingering thought of this warmth and beauty)

Unfortunately BA will not be my home for long, as I woke the next morning to face the last 10 days here as an Advocacy Project Fellow with the Asociacion Para Politicas Publicas (APP).  My last week here will be a whirlwind of completing as much as possible with APP, spending time with new lifelong friends, and enjoying the city in all of its 24 hour glory.  All with a charge of energy from a beautiful time in Rio de Janeiro.

Tip of Praia

Blissful drive view

 

Disarming Domestic Violence Campaign: The enormity of the issue

This post first appeared on my Advocacy Project Blog

Asociación Para Políticas Publicas (the Association for Public Politics or APP) is an organization that focuses on working through public policy channels to affect positive change in the realm of disarmament and ending gun violence in Argentina and in the region. By signing onto the Disarming Domestic Violence (DDV) campaign, they have expressed their commitment to working towards raising awareness about the ways in which gun violence negatively (and disproportionately) affects women (especially within their homes) and to reducing the number of women affected by gun violence within the home.

Over the past six weeks of working with APP on the DDV Campaign in Argentina, I have been struck by the enormity of the task that IANSA and their partner organizations have set out to accomplish: ending gender-based gun-violence within the home in their countries and worldwide. How necessary and yet how enormous.  With a goal so large I have begun to ask myself and others, what are the causes of gender-based gun violence?  And with causes so numerous and complex, how do we know where to begin? How do we decide where to focus our energies and work? Surely they can’t possibly be tackled through just one or two single angles. Which are the angles that are necessary to tackle such a vast issue?  Which will have the highest impact on reducing domestic armed violence?

Two of the primary focuses of my work as an Advocacy Project Fellow on the DDV campaign include working towards harmonizing gun laws with domestic violence laws in Argentina, and the collection of statistics on the link between gun violence and domestic violence. Because APP is an organization that has tended towards working within the public policy realm, they have a strategic, comparative advantage in accomplishing the legal aims of the campaign.  APP maintains strong relationships with members of the Argentine government and continues to build on and leverage those relationships to improve domestic gun laws and disarmament.

Although the expertise amongst the small, hard-working staff at APP is not in the area of social work or data collection, they recognize that working solely on the level of public policy (changing national gun and domestic violence laws through talking with members of parliament and government) is not enough.  While working to prevent arms from getting in the hands of someone with a history of domestic violence, we cannot forget to address the socio-political, cultural, economic, and historical factors, amongst others, that contribute to a home, neighborhood, city, province, country, and world in which domestic armed violence continues to occur. That is why one of the first steps APP has taken in launching the DDV campaign in Argentina has been to develop a network of individuals, organizations, women’s groups, civil society members, government officials, academics, journalists, and others who are committed to ending gender-based gun violence.

Over the past couple of weeks I have been focused on helping APP develop this network, in an effort to build a bridge and foster collaboration between the individuals and groups already working on issues related to the campaign.  Oftentimes these members are working in isolation from one another, making their work more difficult, less efficient, and therefore sometimes also low impact.  Building a network will hopefully improve efficiency, help to expand the campaign’s support base, and expand the locations (family homes, community, nations) and angles from which this enormous problem can be tackled.

One of the many principles of strategic nonviolent movements and campaigns is the importance of building a broad base of support. The phase of building support for a movement or campaign can be seen as both a strategic and tactical move as doing so upfront will benefit future campaign actions. This is certainly the case for APP, who launched the DDV campaign in Argentina back in of June prior to developing an extensive network.  Future DDV campaign actions will greatly benefit from the strength of a diverse base of supporters that can put collective pressure on the media to cover these issues and draw attention to the campaign, pressure on the government to change domestic violence and gun laws, and apply forms of social pressure to begin changing behaviors. While building this base of support may not be easy, it does indeed seem necessary.

As the quote by Gloria Macapagal Arroyo goes, “The power of one, if fearless and focused, is formidable, but the power of many working together is better”.  I look forward to seeing the impact of the work we are doing to build this “power of many” for the Disarming Domestic Violence Campaign in Argentina.

Additional resource related to nonviolent conflict can be found on the following websites:

International Center on Nonviolent Conflict

Albert Einstein Institution

Center for Victims of Torture’s New Tactics in Human Rights – Nonviolent Action

War Resisters International

Center for Applied Nonviolent Actions and Strategies

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