Sarah DeCamps

Hiring at Walgreens...

The Fail Blog can be pretty hilarious.  But rarely do I say - wow, I need to re-post this.  This picture is worthy.  Really, who was in charge of this?  Shameful.  I know we're living in a bad economy...but wow. 

Oh, the argument to be made against merging condom sales with other items...nothing wrong with selling these items to folks at a fair price.  God knows we want to encourage their use, but @#$?...

I'm not sure I would call it back to school fail as much as employee decision making skills fail. 

Sharing the whole story

This post is written by Marco Caceres of Project Honduras.  I think it points to the importance of timing in journalism.  Journalists try their best to share information. They have a duty to communicate the truth.  Obviously much of what's available in the media is open to interpretation.  The existence of this available information overload forms significant public opinion in world events.  

The story Marco tells below did happen.  But, I have not read more than a handful of articles about this part of the "coup" story.  That's really unfortunate...

*****

Contrary to the popular view that has developed during the past couple of weeks, the "coup" in Honduras did not occur on Sunday, June 28, 2009, but rather on Thursday, June 25. What the world witnessed on Sunday morning in Tegucigalpa was a police action ordered by the Supreme Court of Honduras to put down a coup perpetuated by President Manuel Zelaya three days earlier. 
On Thursday morning, Mr. Zelaya had given a rousing speech to hundreds of his supporters in the Presidential Palace. He then urged them to follow him on a special “mission" and proceeded to check with his staff to see if the buses had arrived. Mr. Zelaya would not specify what the mission was. He simply told people to follow him… as if he were Moses guiding them to the Promised Land. Over the next few hours, Mr. Zelaya led a caravan of buses and other assorted vehicles through the streets of Tegucigalpa headed toward Toncontin airport. The caravan grew into a mob of people. 

That afternoon, the mob, led by Mr. Zelaya wearing his signature white Stetson, arrived at Hernan Acosta Mejia air force base next to Toncontin. Mr. Zelaya and the mob were met at the gate by Gen. Luis L. Prince, the commander of the base. Mr. Zelaya told Gen. Prince that he had come to retrieve the thousands of boxes of ballots for the scheduled poll that Sunday that were being stored in one of the base's warehouses. Faced with a highly charged mob led by a president demanding entry, Gen. Prince opened the gate. Mr. Zelaya and the mob poured in and proceeded to the warehouse. They backed up trucks and began loading up the boxes, with President Zelaya smack dab in the middle of the commotion. It was a surreal environment... something akin to Teddy Roosevelt and his "Roughriders" charging up San Juan hill. 

Unfortunately, because of the John Wayne western-like sheer drama of it all, the importance of the incident at Hernan Acosta Mejia base was lost and quickly overshadowed by the arrest and exile of Mr. Zelaya on June 28. Mr. Zelaya's storming of the base with his mob was in fact the start of a "civil coup". The boxes of ballots at the warehouse had been ordered impounded by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court had ruled that both the poll set for June 28 and the proposed "cuarta urna" referendum for November 29 were constitutionally illegal, and so it had ordered the military to guard the warehouse and block access to the boxes which had been flown in from Venezuela aboard a Venezuelan jet. Mr. Zelaya used his position as commander in chief of the armed forces and his mob to intimidate Gen. Prince into allowing entry onto the base.

As the mission to the base unfolded, Mr. Zelaya explained to TV camera crews that what he was doing was simply carrying out the will of the people and that no mere magistrate from the Supreme Court was going to prevent him from completing his mission. At one point, Mr. Zelaya is filmed standing next to a stunned Gen. Prince, with the mob behind him. Mr. Zelaya is shown trying to convince Gen. Prince that he had done right to allow entry onto the base because he had obeyed the orders of his commander in chief. Mr. Zelaya tries to reassure Gen. Prince that everything will be fine and that beginning in 2010 Honduras would be governed by a National Constituent Assembly made up of Deputies who better represent the will of the people. It was clear that Mr. Zelaya already knew what the results of both the poll and the cuarta urna referendum would be, suggesting that both processes would be rigged. 

By breaking into Hernan Acosta Mejia base and retrieving the boxes of ballots from the warehouse, Mr. Zelaya intentionally disobeyed the Supreme Court. But his action more than broke the law… It demonstrated Mr. Zelaya's blatant disregard for the authority of Judicial branch of government. It was as if he were saying that Judicial branch had no authority over him. It was at the point that Mr. Zelaya officially embarked on his journey to become a dictator. It was at that moment that Mr. Zelaya began his civil coup. The Judicial branch would be the first victim of the coup. With the Supreme Court pushed aside, Mr. Zelaya would then have moved to take on the Legislative branch by dissolving the Congress (as has been done in Venezuela and Bolivia) and setting up a National Constituent Assembly which he would control. Mr. Zelaya's comments on TV about the National Constituent Assembly in 2010 indicated that, at least in his mind, this new governing body that would replace the Congress was a done deal. 

In hindsight, Mr. Zelaya should have been arrested and jailed on the evening of June 25, charged with deliberately disobeying the Supreme Court after his stunt at Hernan Acosta Mejia base. Mr. Zelaya stole materials that had been impounded. The reason that he was not arrested that day is that Mr. Zelaya had surrounded himself with a mob of hundreds of people... a strategy that in-and-of-itself can only be viewed as cowardly at best, and criminal at worst. Mr. Zelaya used his supporters as a human shield to prevent security forces from getting close to him. Honduras' military had to wait until a more opportune time to arrest Mr. Zelaya when his guard would be down and the risk of a violent confrontation with the mob would be low. 

When Honduran soldiers arrested Mr. Zelaya in the early hours of June 28, it was in response to an ongoing three-day old civil coup perpetuated by Mr. Zelaya against the existing constitutional order. The coup was about to be refueled by an illegal poll later that day that would be used to consolidate Mr. Zelaya's control over the Judicial and Legislative branches. Few people in Honduras were fooled by Mr. Zelaya's intentions because everyone was closely monitoring the events that led up to Mr. Zelaya's arrest. Unfortunately, the international community tuned in late as the coup was ending and instead assumed that it was viewing the start of the show. This late arrival by world governments and media has led to a tragic misperception of the truth. 

Food for thought

It seems like everytime I look at new studies that investigate protective factors for at-risk youth to determine levels of resilience, they all say the same thing.

1. 2/3 of "at-risk" youth (or those that have experience risk factors, such as abuse, neglect) are able to overcome these issues and move on to be productive, socially competent adults if they have 3 main protective factors in place.

2. Three main protective factos are: caring relationships, opportunities for meaningful participation and communication (voice) and high expectations. 

So if this seems so obvious, why is it that so many schools, service-providers, NGOs and other organizations don't put these three pieces at the forefront of their mission and training? 

It seems easy to focus on the caring relationships part.  If that's missing at home for a child, it needs to be made up for in some other capacity.  But the voice piece - that seems really hard for caregivers to support.  As adults, I guess we always feel like we know best. 

Yes, Virginia

A Richmond Times-Dispatch article from Sunday made me happy. In support of Charters in Virginia. 

Yes, I know Virginia has a stellar record for Education.  Fairfax County alone is one of the best school districts in the nation in terms of quality.  And counties surrounding Richmond and other NoVa towns are similar.  But there's still the gap.  There's still the lower to middle class families that can't choose because their options are still limited to overcrowded, underfunded inner-city options. 

Virginia has only 4 charter schools in the whole state.  There are more than 4,000 throughout the country.  Areas of our state like Petersburg, inner-city Richmond and much of the western part of the state deserve to give options to the kids that fall through the cracks. 

Even in Alexandria city, the English-language learners that attend premier programs like Child & Family Network Center and receive wonderful early childhood education move on to area middle and high schools and fall down.  This is because even middle of the road high schools in decently funded areas of Virginia cannot wholly serve the English-language learners well.  They are missing the supports, the funding. 

One Forbes article states:

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Alexandria City, Va., which sits just six miles outside of our nation’s capital, spent $13,730 ($11,404 adjusted) per pupil, but its high schools registered only a 73% graduation rate, with 65.0% of the seniors participating in the SAT for a mean score of 963.

According to John Porter, assistant superintendent, Administrative Services and Public Relations for the Alexandria City Public Schools, their graduation rate is reflective of a large number of foreign-born students who may take longer than the traditional four years to graduate. He also noted that their performance measures are rising, along with their expenditures. Per-pupil spending in Alexandria City is now over $18,000. Others on the bottom of the list include Glynn, Ga.; Washington, D.C.; Ulster, N.Y.; and Beaufort, S.C.

Check out these rankings for spending...Alexandria at the bottom of the list. 

Seems to me a little competition wouldn't hurt.  I'm only somewhat obsessed and completely enamored by some of the work being done at places like KIPP, CentroNia, Camino Nuevo and Harlem Village.  I want that for our Virginians, regardless of zip code. 

Differing Realities

Andrew Sullivan makes a really great point. There's rarely been a story out there that has varied so drastically on versions of the truth. Everyone has an opinion on no one agrees on what happened. Coup, no coup, was the military intervenion necessary.  He finds this interesting posting online, with even more interesting comments that follow. 

Either way, what should matter is that Hondurans saw Manuel Zelaya as a person taking advantage of his powers. Despite sentiments of political powerlessness, the protection of democracy seemed within reach. If the military had deposed of him and then continued to run the country until a new person could be nominated, it would undoubtedly be a coup. But Honduras jumped to put a democratically appointed person in his place. The miliary just served the warrant.

The majority of demonstators have been participants in peace marches.  If 2 people died yesterday during manifestations outside the Teguc airport, where Zelaya attempted to land, that is the same average amount of people that die daily due to gang violence in Honduras. 

Democracy is still running its course in Honduras. We have to assume citizens of other countries understand its significance as we do.

Support Free Honduras

A Peaceful Revolution

The desire for peace and prosperity is coming to Honduras. Timely or not, it looks like they finally understand what they're missing. Maybe partly inspired by Obama, maybe by the events in Iran, maybe just because their President was not serving his country. 

And this desire has not always translated into action.  Hondurans have not been regular demonstrators. Indifference or a feeling of powerlessness has framed the sentiment of the country for a long time.  

But how long can the status quo be maintained when 2/3 of the country is in poverty? By accident or not, Zelaya has pushed Hondurans rich and poor to fight for what they want - peace and the hope for prosperity. Not someone telling them he is their voice and what they should deserve.  The Chavez politics of ALBA do not seem sustainable in Honduras.  More than anything this week they've demonstrated their desire for a democratic administration.  

Coups are scary but as so many experts have already said - this cannot really be entirely described as a "coup".  

Something worth the read: 

a basic explanation in the Christian Science Monitor

and another opinion from the NY Daily News

and The Economist attempts to explain the debacle...

and a summary of what's going on from Real Clear World

Numbers

I'll start here, as many bloggers do.  And many researchers for that matter... 

The Children's Defense Fund puts forth the following stats...

• An American child is confirmed as abused or neglected every 35 seconds
• An American child is born into poverty every 36 seconds
• An American child is born without health insurance every 42 seconds
• A baby is born at low birth weight every 2 minutes
• A baby is born to a mother who received late or no prenatal care every 4 minutes
• A baby dies before her/his first birthday every 19 minutes
• A child is killed by abuse or neglect every 6 hours

And yet we protect our citizens as an industrialized country on the forefront of technological advances. 

To accomplish this, we are:

• 1st in military technology
• 1st in military exports
• 1st in Gross Domestic Product
• 1st in the number of millionaires and billionaires
• 1st in health technology
• 1st in defense spending
• 12th in living standards among our poorest one-fifth of children
• 13th in the gap between rich and poor
• 14th in efforts to lift children out of poverty
• 16th in low-birth weight rates
• 18th in the percent of children in poverty
• 23rd in infant mortality
• Last in protecting our children against gun violence

And normally I'll end with a question instead of an answer.  How can we connect our priorites towards protection and opportunities for Americans to the reality of many of our American peers?

But as an aspiring scholar, researcher and social program/social intervention designer, I am not content with that.  Yes, numbers are telling.  But they are NOT enough.  I need to be able to translate the what of the story into the how and the why.

Now, I believe I've come across the most brilliant of all scholars...who can show us that numbers can be fascinating.  And they can be deceiving.  Hans Rosling...a Swedish scholar who has dedicated his life to African health development and now lectures on the topic all over the world. 

If you're a total nerd like me and can stand to watch a 20 minute lecture (which is, by the way, quite clever), you'll see the grand point here:  that development comes faster when people are healthy first, not wealthy first. 

Ahhhhh...really?  Wouldn't this put a kink in the aid plans of development agencies all over the world? 

As for my aforementioned statistics...doesn't this make the argument for a prioritized health agenda?  Not just spending but access and parallel policies.  

The biggest a ha for me here is that so many aid agencies don't have the proper access to these numbers to even make this connection.  What Hans is trying to do is make data available to the masses.  He has developed a revolutionary organization called Gapminder to help people with this very need. 

One reason I've always been drawn to Good Magazine is becuase they do a great job of animating the data for the lay person.   

Now Google has even jumped on the bandwagon, with this announcement of publicly searchable data with graphing capabilities.  

I highly recommend a few minutes perusing the Gapminder site.  A background is statistics is not necessary, just an interest in the what, how and why.

Where are the Honduran tweets?

If nothing else, Twitter has shown us that a voice is an important tool for change. To be capable of sharing significant information is to be able to inspire action. Mass communication from mass plebes who care in Iran is setting a really fabulous precedent.  Change could happen in Iran. 

Now, let's talk about Honduras.  Because there's something going on there, too that is upsetting the political status quo.  La cuarta urna.  The 4th ballot box.  The place where the current President wants to have Honduran elect to bring in a new constituen assembly. 

Hondurans see through his motivations.  It is believed that he wants Hondurans to elect to keep him in office.  Continiusmo, as it's known in Spanish. This new assembly would have the power to review and change  the Honduran Constitution. 

In theory, only the Supreme Court of Honduras should be able to bring forth such a referendum. Honduras is a new democracy.  Mel Zelaya could upend their 29 years of democratic elections if his proposal materializes. 

Like Iran, the people of Honduras are not pleased.  They are standing up to Zelaya.  Or trying. The are participating in strikes all over the country in historic numbers.  Historic for Honduras, that is. I believe they are looking to June 29th with optimism that their voice matters. 

They see that Zelaya's interest in pushing through this change at the end of his term is sospechoso, at best.  While the media is clearly against the referendum, the most suspicious of all points is how quickly this decision was made, with little clarity and explanation to the public. Decisions carried out in secret are not democratic.

Hondurans are, of course confused.  Historically, they've rarely felt empowered to make political change. Unlike their neighbors, they've often stood by and let corruption flow. The sheer poverty has created a style of living that can only be described as complacent and tired.

In this case, they seem to understand that such a sweeping change is against the ideals of their democracy, even if they aren't exactly sure how democratically run their country is. This change appears to be related to Zelaya's newfound relationship with Chavez.  While Zelaya might not believe in the socialist values of Chavez, he appears to be interested in the power he wields.  And wants it.

In a country where three quarters of the population is poor, the status quo cannot maintain itself forever.   Zelaya has motivated a portion of the Honduran population to take action. By accident, he has probably upset the status quo. It's pretty hard to maintain a pure and peaceful democracy when so many people live in poverty. Anger and resentment will eventually ensue.

An unfortunate story out of San Pedro Sula claims that a very reputable doctor of great integrity was fired 2 weeks ago as Director of the Public Hospital, Catarino Rivas.  He did not agree with Cuarta Urna. 

The hospitals and schools have a very contentious relationship with the elected officials in Honduras.  Budgeted money never seems to land where it should. And Monday El Heraldo reported that visitors to a hospital in Tela are now not being served unless they agree to sign off on La Cuarta Urna. 

The political landscape of Honduras is changing fast.  I wonder how a few communication devices and a little empowerment could assist people in finding their voice. 

No hand-outs to the kids, please

  Poverty tours are becoming quite popular.  Maybe it's the next threshold before people really start devoting time to serve without having to see the museum of poverty first.  I will say I hate them - poverty tours, that is.

But that doesn't mean I don't grasp their importance.  As humans, we are sensitive to foreign sights, sounds and smells.  We see reality and we understand.  Words cannot always do justice. A five senses experience rarely does not move someone to action, in some small way.  

So when we have these experiences, is it fair to frame them with rules to contextualize the experience and influence someone's thinking? 

"Please do not give anything to the villagers" - that is rule #1 on the brochure for Jeffrey Sach's Millenium Village Project in Rwanda. 

In today's Huffington Post article, Wade argues that this demonstrates the pure arrogance of such economic development projects by the likes of well-educated academics across the country.  

Wade continues to argue that academics have no appreciation for the "art of selling".  That because these were Columbia people, their reputation would sell the purpose of their project and they would not need to go through the motions of selling each African entrepreneur's project to viable investors.  

For starters, I think academics do know the art of selling.  They sell their concepts and theories and research, largely backed by existing evidence to students and peers every day.  They are part of a critical learning community - one that, in theory, is constantly asking rhetorical questions.  

The projects under the Millenium Development title are reliant on "aid".  Yes - aid, the great development controversy.  If we are trying to encourage sustainability and entrepreneurship, how can we do this through aid?  Hands outs.  Should we really tell people not to give hand outs? 

In Honduras, we discourage it.  Does this make me arrogant, too?  That I know better what litle Carmen from the bordo needs than she does?  Maybe, unfortunately.  But when I've gone to make site visits to NGOs in the mountains of Honduras, they've also told our groups to discourage hand outs.  And these are Hondurans saying this.  And not wealthy Hondurans but Hondurans that have lived difficult, impoverished lives, as well.  Their point - if tourists continue to give out handfuls of change, the problems of education (measured by attendance, for one) will never be addressed.  We need to encourage kids to believe they can rise up out of poverty, without a dependence on an undependable source. 

But how is this fair, if we depend on foreign aid to fund our projects? Hurricane Mitch devastated Honduras in 1998.  Aid came, sure, but not for those that needed it.  How is it fair to ask tourists not to give aid but to support projects that are sustainable only through large aid funds?

I can only surmise that we have to assume these projects are being run free of corruption and with diligence towards the goals of empowerment and sustainability.  These projects are managed by trained professionals who know how to address the concerns of their clients.  To give money directly to the client instead of to the service provider is to miscalculate the system.  Could I teach myself geometry better than my middle school teachers if someone had just handed me the right resources?  Case in point is probably not.  We need trust the people who have dedicated their life's work to these causes. 

Long time, no blog

Sorry friends. Since my last post I did buy a new bike...

 

and go to an early William & Mary graduation in a downpour after a very late night...and visit LA, San Francisco, Philadelphia & Austin, Texas for work and visit a friend in State College, Pennsylvania and attend a beautiful wedding reception at the Mayflower in DC and make an appearance at a rowdy 8th grade graduation party in Baltimore and visit NYC for a whiplash-filled trip to Coney Island accompanied by beers at a table next to the Russian Mafia at Brighton Beach and consume a few too many drinks for a friend's 30th birthday prior to an ill-timed 3AM apartment lock-out in Brooklyn and finally buy a new tennis racquet (after 2 years of holding on a gift-certificate) and watch Federer rock the French Open and plan our California Service-Learning Institute with 3 weeks notice and attend a Spanish-speaking Episcopal service in Arlington and patronize the Dairy Godmother for icecream not 2 hours after Barack Obama's good father take-my-kids-to-eat-sweets appearance. 

I'm back online again now. More to follow.