Watching the Inauguration In Ficksburg, South Africa!

I am proud to be an American.  I left Maseru, Lesotho to travel to Durban, South Africa.  My only objective for the day was to get into town to watch the Obama Inauguration.  Since Durban is a large, international town, I figured I could find some Americans to watch the historic speech with.  To commemorate the day, I put on my baby blue Barack Obama shirt.  The shirt was a gift from Kelli Baird, the woman who designed the logo for Singh Around the World.

The trip to Durban would require two taxis vans and about six hours on the road.  The taxi vans usually held 12 passengers and they only leave when they get full.  My first taxi van left from Maseru. It filled up fast and I found myself at the border town of Ficksburg,South Africa at 10 am.  After walking across the border of the two countries, I found the taxi rank for Durban.  There was one person in the van so only ten more to go!  I put my backpack in the van and started the exciting process of waiting.  After a year of travel, I have become very patient.  I needed to be on the road by 2 pm in order to be in Durban in time for the speech.  By noon, we had two more passengers.  Around 1pm, there were no more new passengers and I reluctantly came to terms that I would be watching the speech on youtube.  At 1:30, the taxi driver made the call that there would be no trip to Durban that day.  He needed eight passengers to make it worth his while.  We were only four. I was stuck in Ficksburg, South Africa.

Ficksburg is a sleepy town with one hotel, two pubs and a number of mom and pop shops. I checked into the hotel and the room was only $14 US dollars.  They didn't have a TV so I ventured into town, a thriving five block metropolis!  The pub closest to my hotel was the Bottling Company and the bartender gave me the remote to the TV so I could find the news coverage of the inauguration.  Their CNN and BBC channels were not active so I had to watch the coverage on Al Jezeera News.  I found it to be amusing that I was watching an Arabic news station in South Africa broadcasting the inauguration of the American President.

The pub had about 15 patrons in it.  It was a mixed crowd of black and white South Africans.  After I found the news coverage, a group of the pub's regulars invited me to join them for a beer.  We proceeded to have a lengthy conversation on the election and their support of Barack Obama.  I was amazed at their depth of knowledge about the primaries and the general election.  They wanted my opinion on a number of topics including the global recession, the Iraq War, and Guantanamo Bay.  They talked about the speeches that Obama gave that inspired them such as the speech on race relations and the one in Berlin. 

It was an amazing experience to watch the inauguration with this group of South Africans.  The entire bar and wait-staff watched the speech together.  When the crowd in Washington, DC was asked to stand during the administration of the oath, the people in the pub stood to their feet.  At five different points during the speech, the patrons in the bar clapped about something in the speech.  I was in the front of the room but I could hear the comments being made behind me.  One patron said, "America will be a great nation.  It was always a great nation but it will now be greater."  Near the end of the speech a woman said loudly, " May Obama give the world what it needs."  At a few points it felt like church, as people shouted out amen during the speech.

After the speech, I bought the bar a round of drinks.  An older man black man had tears in his eyes.  He gently asked me if he could have my shirt. I proudly switched shirts with him so he could have my Barack Obama shirt. My friends in Lesotho were watching it at the US Embassy. A number of my friends were in Washington, DC.  I was stuck in Ficksburg.  Though I wished I was in DC, I think I have a better appreciation of being an American by watching it with a group of South Africans.  I am proud to be an American.

Panama - End Poverty 2015 Millennium Campaign

While I was in Panama at the International Association of Voluntary Efforts (IAVE) Conference, I met the director of the End Poverty 2015 Millennium Campaign.  In 2000, 189 world leaders signed  the Millennium Declaration and agreed to meet a set of benchmarks called the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs.)

The overarching goal is to eradicate extreme poverty.  It is a call for governments to reexamine their commitment to human development.  We are at the half point and now that the focus is off the world leaders, it is essential that the grass roots efforts need to be increased.  We need to hold our world leaders accountable to their commitments.

In the US, the campaign is under the banner of the organization ONE-The Campaign to make poverty history. I would ask that you take a look at their website and look at the action steps that we as Americans can take to help us meet the goals of the campaign.  For those international readers of the blog you can get more information at End Poverty 2015 Millennium Campaign.

"The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the world's time-bound and quantified targets for addressing extreme poverty in its many dimensions-income poverty, hunger, disease, lack of adequate shelter, and exclusion-while promoting gender equality, education, and environmental sustainability. They are also basic human rights-the rights of each person on the planet to health, education, shelter, and security."

	Goal 1 Eradicate Extreme Hunger and Poverty
	Goal 2 Achieve Universal Primary Education
	Goal 3 Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
	Goal 4 Reduce Child Mortality
	Goal 5 Improve Maternal Health
	Goal 6 Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases
	Goal 7 Ensure Environmental Sustainability
	Goal 8 Develop a Global Partnership for Development

IAVE International Confernce-United Way of America

April 3, 2008-International Association of Voluntary Efforts International Conference

One of the people I saw yesterday from my past nonprofit life was Mei Cobb, who now works for United Way of America.  We worked together for a number of years on volunteer center development through Volunteer Centers of Michigan and the Points of Light Foundation.  She was very excited about her new position and the global changes that were happening at United Way of America.  They are calling their global repositioning “Live United.”

My first thought was great-- another slick United Way campaign without any substance.  I had seen that a number of times from the national office.

I was surprised when Mei mentioned that the fundamental framework for the network would be three equal divisions focused on giving, advocating and volunteering.  It made sense and was the first compelling thing I have seen from that network in years.

Of course, the real challenge will be in the implementation on the local level.  Local United Ways have been phenomenal fundraisers.  They have a strong grasp on their corporate audience.  But in Michigan, I was always disappointed by the lack of funding United Way gave to the volunteer infrastructure in the community.  I won’t even get started about their irrational fear of rocking the boat by taking a stand on important public policy issues.

I have supported United Way and tried to help reposition the statewide chapter in Michigan.  They have great potential in achieving their rhetoric.  The framework makes sense.  It can be powerful.  The question will be-- can they move beyond fundraising to be effective advocates for the sector and will they invest in the volunteerism infrastructure?  Only time will tell.

Best of luck to them and their chapters as they move in this exciting, new direction.   

IAVE International Confernce-Panama City, Panama

In order to provide a more real time update on the conference for my nonprofit friends, I will post the blogs about my hiking in Patagonia next week.

April 3, 2008-International Association of Voluntary Efforts International Conference

First full day

Last summer, I began to let my national network of nonprofit colleagues know my plans for my international journey.  Kathleen Dennis, a friend and work colleague from my first job out of college, immediately asked if I wanted to speak at an International conference she was helping plan in Panama.  I immediately accepted and now 10 months later I find myself in Panama City.  I will be part of a panel on International Youth Volunteerism tomorrow morning.

 

I attended the morning session on ethics and values in international volunteer movements.  The session was presented by speakers both in Spanish and English.  I was surprised how much my Spanish has improved because I did understand much more than I thought I would.  The speakers were passionate about the issue.  One speaker highlighted IAVE´s Universal Declaration on Volunteerism and the other on professional ethics and certification of volunteer administrators. 

I wanted to share one paragraph from the Declaration. The full declaration can be found at http://www.volunteernow.org.nz/article/3.

 

“In this era of globalization and continuous change, the world is becoming smaller, more interdependent, and more complex. Volunteering - either through individual or group action - is a way in which:

 

• Human values of community, caring, and serving can be sustained and strengthened;
• Individuals can exercise their rights and responsibilities as members of communities, while learning and growing throughout their lives, realizing their full human potential; and
• Connections can be made across differences that push us apart so that we can live together in healthy, sustainable communities, working together to provide innovative solutions to our shared challenges and to shape our collective destinies.”

 

Just as it did when I presented my workshop in Nigeria, it felt good to be back in a work environment. The discussion of issues and the presentation of solutions were rich. It was why I enjoyed working in the sector. There are at least ten people here who I know well from my time serving on a few national boards. Though the cost was a little higher than I anticipated to get here, I am now excited about the next few days of learning and networking. More updates soon.