AidBlogs

Opportunities and Risk: Enacting Socio-cultural Transformation in Refugee Camps in Uganda, Oxford, 24 April 2013 [info]
- First seminar in new Trinity Term series.

Vacancy: Head of the Policy & Research Department, Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre [info]
- Apply for this Geneva-based position by 29 April 2013.

Center for Forced Migration Studies' Summer Institute: "The Refugee Status Determination Process," Evanston, IL, 2-9 June 2013 [info]
- Schedule is now available; register by 2 May 2013 for reduced rate.

Vacancy: Part-time Communications Assistant, Refugee Studies Centre [info]
- Apply by 9 May 2013 for this job in Oxford.

Summer Short Courses, Cairo, 2-27 June 2013 [info]
- Four courses are being offered - International Refugee Law; From Arab Winter to Arab Spring: Refugee and Migration Movements in the Middle East and North Africa; Addressing Global Trends: Psychosocial and Mental Health Interventions for Refugees Living the Urban Context; and International Migration and the State System - with various application deadlines ranging from 10 May to 22 May 2013.  Follow the link for more details.

CFP: Journal of Internal Displacement [info]
- Special issue on "Forced Migration and Displacement in Somalia and Somali Inhabited Territories"; submission deadline extended to 15 May 2013.

FY 2013 Funding Opportunity Announcement for NGO Programs Benefiting Colombian Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in FY 2013 [info]
- Proposal submission deadline is 16 May 2013.

FY 2013 Funding Opportunity Announcement for NGO Programs Benefiting Burmese Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Thailand and Malaysia [info]
- Proposal submission deadline is 21 May 2013.

Regional Protection Programmes: An Effective Policy Tool?, Brussels, 30 May 2013 [info]
- While an agenda is not yet available, registration is open for this event.

Related posts:
- Even More Events & Opportunities: April 2013
- Events & Opportunities: May 2013

Tagged Events & Opportunities.  

Aid Inside Syria: Too Little, But Not Too Late (Refugees International, April 2013) [text]

Do Not Abandon the People of Syria (Trust.org, April 2013) [text]

Integrated Assessment of Syrian Refugees in Host Communities (Oxfam, March 2013) [text via ReliefWeb]

*Inter-agency Regional Response for Syrian Refugees - Health and Nutrition Bulletin: Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon, January-March 2013 (UNHCR, April 2013) [text via ReliefWeb]
- See also related news story.

Overtaken by Need: The World’s Failure to Meet Syria’s Escalating Humanitarian Crisis (Oxfam, April 2013) [text via ReliefWeb]

Solutions for Syria’s Refugees (NYT Room for Debate, April 2013) [access]

Where the War Still Echoes: A Series on Syrian Refugees (IRIN, April 2013) [access]
- Film series that follows a family over the course of a year in Za'atari camp in Jordan.

*updated

Tagged Publications.  

This joint post with Alex Cobham was first published on Views from the Center.

In January, David Cameron nailed his colours to the mast with a speech in Davos that set out the three Ts agenda for the UK’s chairing of the June G8 meeting: taxes, trade and transparency. Since then, there has been much discussion of how serious the agenda is and what the G8 can actually deliver.

Will Cameron persuade the G-8 to take on tax evasion? 

There have also been some raised eyebrows among the cognoscenti about a fourth T: turf.  Some worry that a Cameron-led G8 effort might step on the toes of the G20 and its existing working groups, perhaps stimulating production of “not invented here” antibodies that would make it hard for the initiative to gain global traction.

We’ve been thinking about this issue, what G8 members should see properly as their collective responsibility, and what could be considered a success. Because the majority of the world’s cross-border financial services are provided by G8 members –even without including their satellite jurisdictions – progress on transparency at the G20 will be much more likely if the G8 members first get their own houses in order. Early action by the G8 should be welcomed by all concerned.

Still, we see two risks. The first is that G8 countries might introduce increased transparency within their home jurisdictions but be unwilling to apply the same higher standards to offshore secrecy jurisdictions (‘tax havens’) that are more or less directly under their influence (think Jersey or Cyprus, perhaps, or Cayman or Monaco). This would not only undermine the effectiveness of the initiative but cause outsiders – especially the non-G8 members of the G20 – to regard the entire effort with skepticism.

The second risk is that G8 countries might introduce arrangements but be unwilling to open these up to developing countries.  This would make it difficult for G8 members to claim that they were acting in a wider interest than their own narrow (and primarily fiscal) concerns. Apart from the lack of development progress entailed, it would likely make it much harder for the G8 to mobilise any subsequent progress from other secrecy jurisdictions such as Singapore to which illicit flows might gravitate.

Here’s a couple of pages outlining our thinking so far. To sharpen our thinking, we have written these as a draft  “Fermanagh Declaration” (in reference to the county of Northern Ireland where the G8 leaders will convene on 17-18 June). We would be delighted to receive comments, either below or directly by email (to europe@cgdev.org).

Since the very first time I met a trafficked child on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City in 2005, Blue Dragon Children's Foundation has rescued 292 children from trafficking.

But that word "rescue" is problematic. I've had people tell me it's too emotive; others have said it disempowers the people Blue Dragon claims to be helping simply by portraying them as victims who need us to rescue them.

Meantime, I've been perplexed by the plethora of organisations in Vietnam which claim to "rescue" trafficked people and yet, as far as I could tell, do nothing of the sort. I'm aware of one other organisation in the south of Vietnam which I believe does rescue girls who have been trafficked, but I am constantly hearing of all the amazing "rescues" that different charities here do.

I think I've figured it out. I'm sure someone will tell me if I'm wrong.

The problem, it seems, is in the definition of "rescue." Being a powerful word, and even moreso in the context of human trafficking (which is a highly emotive issue), different groups have adopted the word but also adapted its meaning.

Some use "rescue" to mean "give shelter;" others mean "provide practical assistance." Others use it to mean "offer help during the legal process." In redefining the word like this, "rescue" has become something safe and sanitised. It's something that can be done from a distance, or in an office, or on a timetable.

This concerns me, because there's a real danger in giving an impression that lots of "rescue work" is being done for people who have been trafficked, and therefore implying that no more help is needed: someone is already taking action, so the situation is under control.

For the sake of clarity, I want to explain what I mean, and what Blue Dragon means, when we talk about "rescue."

For us the word means that we find someone who is asking for help to escape a situation which they are otherwise powerless to leave; and we assist them to escape.

In the case of garment factories in Vietnam, this normally means that our staff work alongside government officials or police to find children being exploited as laborers. We search for the children (the location is almost never known), we take the children out against the will of the factory owner but with the consent of the family, and we take the child home. We are physically there, getting the child out of the factory, not sitting in an office far away.

In the case of girls and young women in brothels, so far in every "rescue case" we have responded to a specific call for help. The girl or a family member has made a plea for assistance, and we have traveled to the place where the girl is being kept against her will, and engineered an escape or demanded that the brothel owner releases her. We then bring the girl back across the border into Vietnam, assist her to make a statement to the police, and then offer a full range of services: medical, shelter, education and training, and so on.

In addition the the 292 kids we have rescued, we have given assistance to about 20 more young people who were trafficked and either escaped or were rescued by police; but we don't count them among the people we have rescued. That's not rescue; that's post-rescue assistance.

In light of all this, I don't use "rescue" as an emotive word. I use it as a factual description of getting someone out of an extremely dangerous situation, who otherwise could not escape.

Blue Dragon's "rescue work" is not about bravery and heroism. It's not about combat training and para-military operations. We find the safest way possible to help a child escape. The "safest way possible" isn't particularly safe, but it's about the least confrontation, the least chance of violence, while still guaranteeing a successful rescue.

And I can see that there's a need, a huge need, for lots more rescue work to be done in this part of the world. Post-rescue assistance is of great importance, but there's no real use in expanding it unless there are more enslaved people being rescued from their brothels and factories.

If we want to stop human trafficking, we need to embrace rescues - real rescues - as an essential step of the process.

Today was a full one. After devo's, I had to rush out to see a man at home who was very ill. Possible pneumonia, as it turned out. He was sick enough that I felt he needed to go to hospital  for evaluation and possibly rehydration with IV fluids. His wife told us about his condition, and she did so amid moments of tearfulness. We don't see this everyday. Most people are concerned, or sad, when they share of a loved one in need, but they tend to be quite self controlled. This woman was moved to tears. It was unique, and touching. The man was assessed and treated at home, then referred to hospital with a letter. He has been seen there and further testing will be done (for possible TB).

We took a trip up to Honde to visit  pastor there who received an ox cart. It was an adventure, just the ride itself. We had biting ants galore, cars that quit, and calves that didn't want to be loaded. Children chased us through town and up the hill to pastor Paulo's place, they played on the cow cart, and hammed it up in front of our cameras. Lots of fun, in a different sort of way.




At the end of the day, we were all hot and sweaty but the day was full of beautiful faces and touching times. And pastor Paulo had his new oxcart. Looking forward to similar adventures tomorrow!

Alienation.

I, for one, feel relieved that Tsarnaev the younger is being tried as a US citizen, a civilian.  Because if being photographed near disaster, and being born overseas, are enough to deem due process unnecessary for a citizen, I fear for my own children.  If found guilty, he will not be the only young American man this week that killed people, their neighbors and girlfriends.  They and Tsarnaev should be investigated, and if guilty, they should receive their consequences.  But if we skip the due process and ignore Tsarnaev's citizenship, what have we become?  Where do we draw the "alien" line?  Peculiar that he actually is caucasian, in the original sense of the word.

This past week I flew to Mombasa for meetings of the Kenya Paediatric Association, which I joined this year.  It was the biggest annual scientific meeting for doctors who care for children in East Africa, attracting hundreds of delegates from this country and her neighbors.  We debated surprising data calling into question long-held protocols on fluid administration, recommended policy changes on the treatment of sickle cell disease, called for action on unacceptably high neonatal death. We listened to lectures and case presentations, considered studies, reviewed immunization progress.  It was intellectual and stimulating and inspiring.

And it was lonely.

I delayed making hotel reservations hoping to stay with two young doctor friends, who are moms with young kids and had suggested a cheaper place, better on missionary and Kenyan budgets.  Only after I booked there, they both decided to spring for the elitely fancy and expensive official venue.  And they booked plane tickets on an alternate airline, leaving a couple hours earlier.  So I found myself alone, wandering into the swanky lobby buzzing with consultants and professors and residents, and pondering the possibility that every doctor there (except the residents) made more money than I did. Which I didn't mind, except for the barrier it put up in choosing such an expensive location to meet.  At the end of the day I walked down the beach to my better-budget hotel, and ate dinner alone.

Amongst the hundreds of Kenyans, Ugandans, Tanzanians, Sudanese . . .  there were a few white faces, but all were presenters, leaders, lecturers  important people. No ordinary learners like me. I took every opportunity to introduce myself to those Kenyan paediatricians I sat by in each session, or to try and shake hands with people in the halls.  Once I sat near my hero Dr. Ruth Nduati, who did the most important study of the last decade showing that in spite of what makes sense, breast feeding by HIV positive moms is safer than bottle feeding.  I even spoke to her.

But in three days, NOT ONE PERSON initiated speaking to me.

OK, my two friends from Kijabe were friendly as always when we bumped into each other.  But I don't think I've ever been immersed in a sea of Africans who so pointedly made me feel my alien status.  It may be because of the way the US treated Kenya leading up to elections.  It may be the nature of those meetings.  It may be the different colonial baggage of Kenya versus Uganda (once I approached a vaccine rep at her display table, and as I picked up a brochure she turned to greet me, at which point the Kenyan doctor she had been talking to bitterly accused the rep of ignoring him because he was only African.  Ouch).  It may be that I haven't lived here long enough.  Or that I'm spoiled by the camaraderie of Kijabe.

Or it may have been a good reminder from God that we are aliens and strangers, walking a path of humility and willing to be ignored.  But trying to cross the divide, establish community, live by love.

Alienation and home; a life-long paradox. Two opposite things that are true at the same time, and very tiring as humans to grasp in the right proportions.

I called one of my Paeds colleagues today and when I said "how's your day" he said "Can't complain". . . upon which I thought, wow, I can ALWAYS complain.  I was checking in with him because I had some desperation texts from the outpatient clinic asking for help, as I was finishing up an admission of a kid that kind of punched my own heart, pushing my new interns in nursery to step up and get some labs and xrays done, all while trying to get home to say goodbye to the Massos who were about to leave for a month of sabbatical, and trying to not even THINK of the hundred loose end emails, people, plans, work that I should be attending do.  His day was just as bad, starting with a bloody death of a neurosurgical baby I'd watched gasp and dwindle on Saturday who took a turn for the worse on Sunday and died in a messy final hemorrhage and shock this morning.  But his reflex reflection was "can't complain."

Which, in some ways, is true.  Because every time I'm ready to throw up my hands and give up, I don't, because there is ALWAYS someone who is a little worse off than I, someone whom I could help if I just hold on another hour.

Last week as I came back from the US, I immediately got involved in the ICU care of a child who died.  A little boy who had been healthy, normal, running, and active the week before, who contracted an unknown infection of his brain, and though we thought we were making some progress, I was paged for a code and we could not get him back.  The brain, when pushed too hard, does not recover.  His parents were devastated.  After I told them, as we walked towards the bed, the chaplain in her Kenyan wisdom told the mother that Satan wanted to get hold of her but that she needed to be strong.  She would not let the mother flail or collapse, she told her to stand up.  So even I, who was teary and about to lose it myself, had to buck up too.  Since then I've wondered about the chaplain's approach.

I thought of it again on Saturday as I went to casualty for a very sick and dehydrated 9 month old girl, Ivy.  It wasn't until I was praying for her with her parents that the detail came out that she was a twin, but her brother Ian had died 4 days earlier on the way to another hospital of the same gastrointestinal disaster.  I could barely keep my voice from quavering too much.  These parents named their babies Ian and Ivy, so sweet, and now they had no time to grieve one as they struggled for the other.  But I thought of our chaplain, and my job, and their needs, and pressed on.

So tonight as the rain pours down, the tears stay mostly suppressed.  This culture is more stoic than our Ugandan atmosphere.  And who's to say they don't have a point.  Can't complain, it could be worse, let's move on, and work for the ones that are left, that we might help.  I've learned from my son that you can always do one more.  One more pushup perhaps for him, one more admission or treatment for me.

And lastly, complaining could be replaced by a bit of thanks:  five at the table, Julia, Jack, Acacia, Scott and me, with pasta and candlelight.  OK it was almost 8 and drizzly and there was a tarantula on the door jamb and we had all had long days, but it feels like a tiny seismic shift of RIGHTNESS to be together again.

So the week will march on, with threatening tears.  A veteran missionary our age, whose family we know, died today.  Veteran African friends, whose ministry we respect, face illness in a child.  My problems suddenly seem trivial.  Can't complain.

I went to the Ladipo spare parts market in Mushin today. It had path after path after path of second-hand steering pumps, engines, and things I don’t know the names of.

Chairs made of spare parts!

The Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2012 are now available on the U.S. Department of State web site.  As with last year, visitors can either go directly to a country overview of interest or build a customized report by selecting specific thematic sections to display from individual country chapters.  For example, Section 2D is "Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of Refugees, and Stateless Persons," while Section 6 includes "Trafficking in Persons."

Reports from previous years can be found here.

Tagged Publications.  

Opportunity:

CFP: Refugee Law Initiative Working Paper Series [info]
- Submissions are considered on a rolling basis.

Publications:

Coping with Contemporary Conflicts: "Conflict Refugees" and the 1951 Convention Protection Regime, Open Lecture at 70th Course on International Refugee Law, Sanremo, Italy, 23-27 April 2013 [text]

Culture of Disbelief Works against Asylum Seekers (IRIN, April 2013) [text]

"Helping the Helpless: The Foreign Policy Strategies Underlying Humanitarian Rhetoric in American Refugee Law and Policy," Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary, vol. 32, no. 1 (2012) [full-text]

International Criminal Justice, the Gotovina Judgment and the Making of Refugees (Lund University, 2013) [text via bepress]

"Judicial Review of Refugee Determinations: The Luck of the Draw?," Queen's Law Journal, vol. 38, no. 1 (Fall 2012) [full-text]

"My Name is Khan" and I Am Not a Terrorist: Intersections of Counter Terrorism Measures and the International Framework for Refugee Protection (SSRN, April 2013) [text]

Tagged Publications and Events & Opportunities. 

Asylum Access Ecuador and the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) have released a new report entitled Refugee Status Determination in Latin America: Regional Challenges and Opportunities - The National Systems in Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Mexico.  Here is part of the description:
The report "provides a review of national frameworks centering attention on due process, access to information, appeals mechanisms and abbreviated RSD procedures. The study of experiences and national legislations in these countries creates an opportunity to discuss best practices and challenges in national systems that could benefit a regional dialogue. The recommendations included in the report focus on guaranteeing protection for refugees and due process, while encouraging discussions over regional standards and including regional and international commitments in national legal instruments and practices."
A Spanish-language version is also available.

Tagged Publications.  

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Twenty years ago we had no internet. Today, we can hardly live without it and we wonder, how on earth did we used to communicate anyway?
Even though we have internet now, which out in the bush is nothing short of a miracle, it is quite the effort to get and keep. For years we depended on a satellite dish that was hard-wired to a modem that was plugged into several other machines with a ridiculous number of cords that are wound and twisted around each other. No one really wants to risk unplugging and detangling the mess because it's such a mission to get hooked up and receiving signal properly again. 
Actually, this doesn't look bad. This was awhile ago. Now it's worse. Maybe I can get an updated photo...One time during a thunderstorm, lightning struck the office and burnt out a few machines. It took us a month to replace the machines and get things reprogrammed and hooked up and in working order again. Like I said, when it's working, no one wants to mess with it.
Capturing signal. This took an entire day. :/Recently though, we've been using more of Movitel's service. This is a company that uses fibre-optic cable and they've taken internet into regions of Mozambique no one would have dreamed would have internet a year ago.
Our movitel signal is ok from here, but not great which means that we get internet, but it's slow and comes in bursts. It doesn't take anyone out here long to figure out where the signal is best and we've discovered ours is no place less convenient that outside on the edge of the veranda. So when I really need to get something done and signal fades in and out and in again, I lug my computer, modem, and extension wire out onto the veranda. If it still isn't cooperative, I've found that standing on your tippy toes at the very edge gives a distinct advantage and ups transmission speeds. Or maybe I just think it's faster. Either way, it's not a strange sight to find me standing on the veranda at night holding a wired modem above my head.
One solution to this is to get Movitel to bring a line straight here to us rather than the closest tower which is down the river, around the bend, and across the valley from us. So Dwight has been settling contract details with a Mr. T. who sort of runs Movitel in this area. It's been interesting because Mr. T. is fluent in Vietnamese but not so much in English, and Dwight is fluent in English but speaks no Vietnamese. Let's just say there's a lot of repetition in their conversations, kind of like mine with Mr. B. (see previous post). So it's become a bit of a joke around here when we know Dwight is on the phone with Mr. T. and they're trying to understand each other. We hear lots of "Sorry, say again?" and "Sorry, I didn't understand." The other day apparently Dwight spent 2 hours at the Movitel office trying to finalize paperwork for our new system. When we wondered why it had taken so long there, he said, "Well, first, it took Mr. T. and I quite awhile trying to understand each other..." He didn't have to say another word. He couldn't anyway, we were all so busy laughing we couldn't hear him anymore.
Despite the difficulties though, it seems things got settled and signed. The line is cleared and the posts are in and ready for the cable to be strung. Hopefully, soon enough, my days of teetering on the edge of the veranda to get internet will be over.

Solar energy is the right and the only solution for the Congo. The grid is a long, long, LONG, way in the future.
Electricity is so essential development. It's lighting, refrigeration for vaccines, communication, powering devices, and much much more.
Here's the story.
Solar engineers, Barefoot style
Barefoot College: Geetanjali Krishna | Apr 19 , 2013
Last Update at 22:38 IST
It was a dusty stone building, not unlike many that one sees in the desert. Outside, all was quiet in the heat of the day. From within, however, strains of a Colombian folk song redolent of the rain forest wafted through. I followed the music to the building. In a hall that looked like a classroom-cum-factory floor, I was greeted by the sight of five groups of women - black, white and all shades in between, sitting together in perfect harmony, assembling complicated-looking circuits. I was in Tilonia's Barefoot College, and this was my first glimpse of its 10th batch of solar engineers - all illiterate grandmothers from the poorest villages of Colombia, Nicaragua, Madagascar and Panama. They were learning how to assemble, maintain and operate solar lighting equipment; so that when they returned, they could bring light to their own communities.

I watched them at work - thinking if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I might not have believed it was possible. "It's actually not that hard," said Ghuman Singh, their short, bespectacled teacher who has been associated with Barefoot College since 1998. "People who've had formal education often don't understand that you don't need to have a degree to be an engineer or a scientist. These ladies are living proof that anyone can be given technical training!" He showed me around the room, dominated by a large blackboard. All the components used in the circuit were clearly colour-coded. "Our training modules are all practice-based. This, coupled with the fact that every component is colour-coded, ensures that we don't have to rely on language at all," he said. So whether the trainee is from Barmer or Burundi, Madagascar or Jharkhand - "the same teacher and training module works for all".

In keeping with the Barefoot approach that has no reverence for formal degrees, Singh, too, has studied only up to class-VII. Yet, today, he is one of the most competent teachers of solar technology in Tilonia. "It fills me with wonder that the little work we do in Tilonia improves the lives of poor people halfway across the world," he said. "We live like a big family here. Every time a batch arrives, it has people who have neither stepped out of their homes, nor interacted with other cultures. I reassure them as I'd do with my own younger siblings. And every time a batch leaves, it's like seeing my own sisters leave home! They also cry and cry..." I asked him what he taught them, and he said, "It's a two-way learning process. I teach them to assemble solar equipment, and they teach me their language, culture and more."

Singh and fellow trainers have helped train about 100 grandmothers from India and 80 grandmothers from some of the least developed countries of the world. The idea behind training older women is that unlike younger women, they are rooted in their communities and, therefore, can best extend the benefits of their training.

I said - only half in jest - what these unlettered ladies had learnt about complex solar assemblies in six months, was more than what I could hope to learn in six years. Laughingly, Singh said, "Come to me for six months and I'll turn you also into a Barefoot solar engineer!" As I left the workshop, I wondered how our formal systems of education have turned technology into this mysterious entity that only an elite few can understand. It had taken the ladies in Singh's workshop to show me that making usable technology doesn't necessarily need a degree in engineering - all it takes is the willingness to forge ahead barefoot, and a teacher to lead you there.

Original Facebook Status: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/profile.php?id=175537760902&v=wall&story_fbid=10151624195620903

Sent via TweetDeck (www.tweetdeck.com)

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This morning turned into ENT day-- staff member with swimmer's ear and infection further inside, another one with welding induced conjunctivitis (pink-eye). It's become a joke now because when he comes to have eye salve put in, he has to go sit for 5 minutes until his vision clears. The joke is that this is his "time-out". It's always good to find humor in things :)  A young mom came to seek help for her 3 kids at home who have "asthma". She had the baby with her and when I examined the baby I discovered she in fact had pneumonia. Baby's now on treatment and I did some asthma teaching with the mom.
A different kind of challenge came awhile later when I was trying to communicate with an older staff member. He had mentioned the previous day that he had 10 children, so I was curious to know their ages. But his command of English and Portuguese is limited (his home language is an African dialect).  My home language is English and I speak Portuguese, but don't speak his dialect. So having a discussion gets interesting...
"Mr. B., I would like to know more about your family. You have 10 children?"
"Yes, 10. The oldest one is about 40 years old. They're all big."
"How old is the youngest?" This draws a puzzled look. So I clarify, "How old is the smallest one? Your baby?"
"No, I have no babies. They're all big."
So I make a height-measuring motion with my hands, "Your first-born is about 40. How big is the last-born?" Another quizzical look so I resort to, "Do you still have children at home?"
"Yes, four. And two wives."
He mentioned his kids were "big" so I'm assuming maybe these 4 kids at home are grandchildren in his care, so I ask, "These four, are they grandchildren?" Another puzzled look, so I try again to clarify, "Are they YOUR children? Or grandchildren?"
He shakes his head and laughs, "I'm not understand."
I hold up 4 fingers, and ask, "These 4 at your home, are they your children's children?"
He clicks his tongue, shakes his head more emphatically, and laughs again, "Ahhh, I'm not understand."
This was getting us nowhere, so I grabbed a pen and some paper to draw a family diagram. I'm no artist, so we're going with stick people. I got as far as 1 stick man and 2 stick women side by side, and 4 stick children on the bottom line when we both started laughing. I could tell from the look on his face that my picture was as clear as mud. I decided it was time to call Raimundo to come translate.
In short order I learned that the four children at home still were his own, one in grade 4 and three in Grade 5. He has also lost 5 children. Not uncommon for these parts.
Communication is much quicker and smoother when there's good understanding! :) 

Oh and just to add additional insult, Simon Jenkins thinks we should be prioritising habitat for 180 nightingales over houses for around 15,000 people, valuing each nightingale at nearly 100 people. I've got nothing against nightingales, but do they each really get priority over a hundred people?

Apologies for being such a bore, but it drives me nuts that we aren't building enough houses in this country. Every year there are twice as many new households as there are new houses built. Every year. This is the first lesson of economics - prices are set by supply and demand - if demand continues to outstrip supply twofold every year then prices will continue to increase and houses will continue to be split into ever smaller fragments. I rented a beautiful apartment last month from a young married couple, both Oxford graduates, one of them a doctor. It was beautiful, except it was also quite symbolically the converted basement of a much more beautiful house above it. Even the most successful people of my generation are doomed to living in the basements of our parent's generation.

And yet simply building more houses, in the places that people want to live, and yes occasionally on some muddy field in a part of the greenbelt, would create jobs, reduce prices, reduce the housing benefit bill, and create all sorts of new positive dynamic externalities as places like Oxford are allowed to follow their natural economic geography and increase in density of smart people. But when the university does try to build more housing, on brownfield land next to the railway in the centre of town, campaigners complain about ruining the skyline. Not even building on "greenbelt," not destroying animal habitat or some beautiful piece of land itself, but obscuring the view of a church spire. Why aren't young people angry about the miserable hovels we are forced to live in? Most of us have been lucky enough to escape Britain at some point in our lives - we've seen the possibilities of better cheaper housing that exists in almost any other country in the world. Where is the angry youth pro-building lobby?

And now in addition to already having the smallest and most expensive houses in Europe to choose from, my  search in Oxford is thwarted by "Housing in Multiple Occupation" rules. Any rented house with more than one "household" in it needs to be registered, with increased legal obligations on the landlord, which means lots of landlords just don't want to bother registering, and so can't or won't rent to a group of young professionals instead of a family. So after being priced out of getting our own houses and basically forced to share because of government planning regulation, we're now thwarted in attempts to find a house which the government will allow us to share because of yet more well-meaning but utterly self-defeating regulation. Here's a better way to take power from landlords and give it to renters: Build. More. Houses.

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One of the first things I do each morning, time permitting, is check facebook and my email inbox. I like to know what's happening with my family and friends. Several days ago, I read snippets about the Boston terror bombings while getting ready to head up to organize my day after devotions. There weren't a lot of details at the time, and my daughter and I were trying to chat. We don't get to connect very often, so when we do other things get put on hold. Just about the time we got chatting, our internet line "dropped" but it was also time to head out the door.
While the health workers and I were organizing our day, a woman approached us. She had a malnourished child slung to her back. An older daughter (about 10 years old) accompanied her and had a baby slung around her back as well. The child on the girl's back was about a year old and both were healthy. The child slung to the mom was 3 years old and only weighed 6 kg. She said it was the surviving child of a set of twins. Here, where twins are involved, survival is always dicey. There is too much hunger and struggle, so the odds are against survival of both, sadly. In this mom's case, the twins were already competing for adequate food supply when she got pregnant with the child on the little girl's back. This is just a bit of background info though, her real concern for the malnourished child was that it was struggling with a thrush infection as well as an eye infection. Thankfully we had something for the thrush infection at the health post. Unfortunately, our antibiotic eye salve is gone as all health posts are experiencing a serious cut back in govt supplied meds. We have helped this mom with infant formula to improve the child's nutrition, but we've encouraged her to have the child further evaluated at Vanduzi Hospital.  And we will help her get there however we can. She is currently participating in our work-for-food program to help provide for her family.


This afternoon, Ernesto (one of the health workers) popped in since we had a few matters to discuss. When we were done, I asked how his family was. Kids? Wife? Everyone was fine, and his wife just had a baby. For him, this is #9. That's quite a few kids to keep track of since I feel I barely managed with 2 myself! We got talking about numbers of children when Mr. B., who was working nearby, said, "Well, white people generally have fewer children. One, two, maybe three. We have more. I have ten children myself." Of course, much more than race factors in to how many children people have so I couldn't help but share that my own grandmother had 15 children. And she was white. I smiled smugly as that information sank in. Both guys seemed duly impressed. We then went on to discuss how life is changing everywhere. Kids are going further in school and have higher expectations to earn an income. How there were many years of war here, not long ago, and how at the time it was really hard to focus on anything more than just survival during those years. Now things are different.
Things need to continue to be different in order to not see malnourished children here, but I'm thankful that things have changed as much as they have for us all. I feel for this mom who lives on the edge of survival, and I hope to see less of this as Mozambique changes. 
My thoughts are also for those grieving in Boston right now.

World Bank President Jim Kim joins the list of  leaders who have declared that ours is the generation which can end global poverty:

The world is at an auspicious moment. For the first time ever, we have a real opportunity to end extreme poverty within a generation. But achieving this goal won’t be easy.

Jim Kim, President of the World Bank, 17 April 2013

 

Here are some previous such declarations

This amazing story of human progress shows what’s possible.
We can be the generation that eradicates absolute poverty in our world.

David Cameron, Speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, 24 January 2013

 

For the first time in history, global economic prosperity, brought on by continuing scientific and technological progress and the self-reinforcing accumulation of wealth, has placed the world within reach of eliminating extreme poverty altogether.

Jeff Sachs, Can Extreme Poverty Be Eliminated?, Scientific American September 2005

 

You are right. We do have an historic opportunity this year to Make Poverty History.

Tony Blair, 16 April 2005, Campaign Diary

 

But in this new century, millions of people in the world’s poorest countries remain imprisoned, enslaved, and in chains. They are trapped in the prison of poverty. It is time to set them free.

… Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that great generation. Let your greatness blossom.

Nelson Mandela, Trafalgar Square, February 2005

 

It’s an amazing thing to think that ours is the first generation in history that really can end extreme poverty, the kind that means a child dies for lack of food in its belly. This should be seen as the most incredible, historic opportunity but instead it’s become a millstone around our necks. We let our own pathetic excuses about how it’s ‘difficult’ justify our own inaction. Let’s be honest. We have the science, the technology, and the wealth. What we don’t have is the will, and that’s not a reason that history will accept.

Bono in an interview to the World Association of Newspapers for World Press Freedom Day on May 3, 2004.

 

For the first time in human history, society has the capacity, the knowledge and the resources to eradicate poverty

Thabo Mbeki, President South Africa opening World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg, August 2002

 

in the new global economy we are, all of us, the richest countries and the poorest countries – inextricably bound to one another by common interests, shared needs and linked destinies; that what happens to the poorest citizen in the poorest country can directly affect the richest citizen in the richest country; and that not only do we have inescapable obligations beyond our front doors and garden gates, responsibilities beyond the city wall and duties beyond our national boundaries, but that this generation has it in our power - if it so chooses - to abolish all forms of human poverty.

Gordon Brown, speech to the Federal Reserve Bank, New York, 16 November 2001

 

The challenge is a huge one. But the prize is very great. We are the first generation in the whole of human history that has the chance to eradicate basic illiteracy from the human condition. And we can do this within fifteen years. Let’s resolve today – together – that we will do what needs to be done to make this happen.

Clare Short, UK Secretary of State for International Development, Speech to World Education Forum, Dakar, April 27, 2000

 

Hunger is man’s oldest enemy. There is now the scientific knowledge and the institutional arrangement that makes it possible to overcome hunger, not only within the United States but throughout the world. This can be done within the lifetime of people now living, if there is the political will to do so.

The Heritage Foundation, 1984

 

Mankind has never before had such ample technical and financial resources for coping with hunger and poverty. The immense task can be tackled once the necessary collective will is mobilized. What is necessary can be done, and must be done.

The Brandt Commission, North: South A Programme for Survival 1980

 

No child will go to bed hungry within ten years.

Henry Kissinger, First World Food Summit, Rome, 1974 

 

Because it is right, because it is wise, and because, for the first time in our history, it is possible to conquer poverty,

Lyndon B. Johnson’s Special Message to Congress, March 16, 1964

 

The world has been greatly changed, especially during the last century, by the discoveries of scientists. Our increased knowledge now provides the possibility of eliminating poverty and starvation, of decreasing significantly the suffering caused by disease, of using the resources of the world effectively for the benefit of humanity.

Linus Pauling – Nobel Lecture, December 11, 1963

 

Never before has man had such capacity to control his own environment, to end thirst and hunger, to conquer poverty and disease, to banish illiteracy and massive human misery. We have the power to make this the best generation of mankind in the history of the world–or to make it the last.

President John F. Kennedy, Address Before the 18th General Assembly of the United Nations, September 20, 1963

 

I have sworn before you and Almighty God the same solemn oath our forbears prescribed nearly a century and three-quarters ago. The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. … To those people in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required–not because the communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

President John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, Washington, D.C., January 20, 1961.

 

More than half the people of the world are living in conditions approaching misery. …For the first time in history, humanity possesses the knowledge and the skill to relieve the suffering of these people.

Harry S Truman, Inaugural Address Given at Capitol Building, Washington, DC, Thursday, January 20, 1949

 

For the first time in history the counsels of mankind are to be drawn together and concerted for the purpose of defending the rights and improving the conditions of working people - men, women, and children – all over the world. Such a thing as that was never dreamed of before, and what you are asked to discuss in discussing the League of Nations is the matter of seeing that this thing is not interfered with.

Woodrow Wilson, League of Nations (8th September, 1919)

On Wednesday and Thursday this week, Blue Dragon staff worked with the Vietnamese police to raid 4 garment factories, all of which are now closed; release 14 children aged 10-16 who were enslaved there; and arrest the 3 factory owners, whose businesses are now closed for good.

Nine of those children are already home with their families. The other 5 begin their journey today and will arrive on Saturday morning. 

People often ask me about the families of the trafficked children. Did they sell their kids to make a quick dollar? Do they care what happens to their children?

So far Blue Dragon has rescued 292 children. In only one case has there been a parent who 'sold' a child knowing the dangers her son would face. In the other 290 cases, the parents honestly thought that their children were being taken for training or schooling; or, in some situations, the parents had no idea where the kids had gone and were desperate to find them.

Yesterday one small detail emerged of a 16 year old girl from northern Dien Bien province who had been trafficked to Ho Chi Minh City. Before leaving home, the girl's family made sure she had a mobile phone so they could stay in contact; but as soon as the girl was away from her family, the trafficker took it away. She was in the factory for some months, and not allowed to ring or speak to her family at all.

When Blue Dragon found her, the first thing the girl wanted to do was talk to her mother. The police ordered the factory owner to return her telephone, and turning it on a message came up on the screen:

100 missed calls

That's how worried her family was. They called 100 times; and I suspect that they called even more, but the phone's memory only allowed for it to recall the last 100.

100 missed calls. This is one family that will be very happy to get back together.


... Just a note to say that I originally published this stating that we had found and released 13 children; the actual number was 14. The last child was a girl who had been hidden by the trafficker when he knew we were coming, but the police forced him to 'hand her over'. 

It’s one of those things that you remember as happening more frequently than it actually does. You’re alone in some foreign country, doing laptop work at a bar. You start chatting with a group of people who turn out to be extremely interesting. They invite you to join them for dinner. Hours of fascinating conversation ensues.

This happened the other night. The people were 3 pediatricians who were infectious disease specialists, 2 of whom were also medical professors. I learned so much. For example: this stuff you read in the Times about the benefits of a diverse biodome–it’s for real!

The doctors told me about a study (which is widely praised for its solid research design, though there are critics), which they summarized as follows: providing very sick children in Africa with ICU-like emergency treatment increases mortality at 48 hours post-admission. Here’s part of the abstract:

Methods
We randomly assigned children with severe febrile illness and impaired perfusion to receive boluses of 20 to 40 ml of 5% albumin solution (albumin-bolus group) or 0.9% saline solution (saline-bolus group) per kilogram of body weight or no bolus (control group) at the time of admission to a hospital in Uganda, Kenya, or Tanzania (stratum A); children with severe hypotension were randomly assigned to one of the bolus groups only (stratum B). All children received appropriate antimicrobial treatment, intravenous maintenance fluids, and supportive care, according to guidelines. Children with malnutrition or gastroenteritis were excluded. The primary end point was 48-hour mortality; secondary end points included pulmonary edema, increased intracranial pressure, and mortality or neurologic sequelae at 4 weeks.

Results
The data and safety monitoring committee recommended halting recruitment after 3141 of the projected 3600 children in stratum A were enrolled. Malaria status (57% overall) and clinical severity were similar across groups. The 48-hour mortality was 10.6% (111 of 1050 children), 10.5% (110 of 1047 children), and 7.3% (76 of 1044 children) in the albumin-bolus, saline-bolus, and control groups, respectively (relative risk for saline bolus vs. control, 1.44; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.09 to 1.90; P=0.01; relative risk for albumin bolus vs. saline bolus, 1.01; 95% CI, 0.78 to 1.29; P=0.96; and relative risk for any bolus vs. control, 1.45; 95% CI, 1.13 to 1.86; P=0.003). The 4-week mortality was 12.2%, 12.0%, and 8.7% in the three groups, respectively (P=0.004 for the comparison of bolus with control). Neurologic sequelae occurred in 2.2%, 1.9%, and 2.0% of the children in the respective groups (P=0.92), and pulmonary edema or increased intracranial pressure occurred in 2.6%, 2.2%, and 1.7% (P=0.17), respectively. In stratum B, 69% of the children (9 of 13) in the albumin-bolus group and 56% (9 of 16) in the saline-bolus group died (P=0.45). The results were consistent across centers and across subgroups according to the severity of shock and status with respect to malaria, coma, sepsis, acidosis, and severe anemia.

Conclusions
Fluid boluses significantly increased 48-hour mortality in critically ill children with impaired perfusion in these resource-limited settings in Africa.

Why would this be? This is one possible explanation offered: “One could speculate that the vasoconstrictor response in shock confers protection by reducing perfusion to nonvital tissues and that rapid reversal with fluid resuscitation is deleterious.” I think what this means is that the body’s natural response to shock is protective, and the treatment is bad. As far as I can tell the authors don’t explore explanations for why things might be different in resource-constrained settings, though it’s not completely clear that the authors believe there should be differences.