It is an oft overlooked fact, but in today's world it can be so easy to forget about the importance of eating well.
Our generation has inherited a highly disfunctional food system, and along with it, poor diet and a global epidemic of diet-related diseases which has led to 43 million children under the age of 5 being overweight, while millions of others around the world go hungry. There is more than enough food to feed our entire global population, but inequal distrobution in our food systems results in a great divide between those who have enough to eat and those who do not.
We have the opportunity to change this system; creating sustained change is not easy, we need a revolution in the way we think about food in order to empower individuals to understand how food contributes to global challenges like obesity, povery, sustainability and human rights.
Starting with Education to better understand all of the ways food has an impact on us and our world is an important first step towards unleashing the change we wish to see.
It is an oft overlooked fact, but in today's world it can be so easy to forget about the importance of eating well.
Our generation has inherited a highly disfunctional food system, and along with it, poor diet and a global epidemic of diet-related diseases which has led to 43 million children under the age of 5 being overweight, while millions of other around the world go hungry. There is more than enough food to feed our entire global population, but inequal distrobution in our food systems results in a great divide between those who have enough to eat and those who do not.
We have the opportunity to change this system; creating sustained change is not easy, we need a revolution in the way we think about food in order to empower individuals to understand how food contributes to global challenges like obesity, povery, sustainability and human rights.
Starting with Education to better understand all of the ways food has an impact on us and our world is an important first step towards unleashing the change we wish to see.
Just after launching YouthMovements.org at Times Square in New York, Francisco and myself journeyed to Miami, Florida for The 2012 Knight Media and Learning Seminar.
This event enabled us to meet and learn from other Knight grantees and to engage with a network of community foundations from across the USA. In addition, we had the opportunity to connect with innovative projects such as Code for America, YouthMovements.org partners like DoSomething.org, cutting edge social technology projects, and mobilization projects like Turbovoteto better understand how new media technologies are transforming the media landscape and our society.
The hashtag to follow the action is #infoneeds which speaks to the Knight Foundations goals of creating democratic, informed and engaged societies. Without access to up to date and relevant information about our social and physical environments, our communities will not flourish.
Three of the take away talks for me were from Eli Perisser – who spoke about the filter bubble and how the internet is becoming an increasingly personalized place, where our search results and friend feeds are tailored (without our implicit knowledge or consent) to display results which are more likely to be clicked on.
Amy web detailed big data, mobile data and how new technologies such as facial recognition, social networking and massive databases of information can be combined to discover potentially way more information about our communities than we would have thought possible. Amy demonstrated how apps like Banjo allow us to glimpse into the shared lives of those around us and gave a few tips about how gamification can be used to incentivise and reinforce processes, education and behaviour change.
I was also very interested in enabling communities to evaluate and map their own information environment through the Community Information Toolkit – a tool which helps community leaders harness the power of information to advance their goals for a better community.
Finally, the event was rounded out by an address by Ethan Zuckerman, Director of the MIT Center for Civic Media. He advanced the proposition that the Internet is the most powerful tool humans have to understand our differences. But we’ve yet to tap this potential, partially due to homophily — the tendency to gravitate toward people with similar traits to our own— which also governs our Web habits and online conversations.
His work with the Center for Civic Media centers on how to map, contextualize and amplify global voices with tools that, he says, can be applied to any community through Zuckerman’s four-step approach :
His four step approach to map, contextualize and amplify global voices are:
1.) Assess your audience.
Figure out who you're hearing from and who you're not hearing.
2.) Learn where people are communicating and what tools they are using.
Use the tools which work for the group you are trying to engage.
3.) Use curation, translation and context to effectively compile what people are saying.
4.) Love makes it go.
People who are successful at engaging their communities using love do it because they love three things: The communities they’re representing, the online medium, and their ability to say, “I can tell you what's going on in my community and I can get heard all over the world.”
It was a super exciting series of meetings and chats, which left us with loads of ideas about how to connect YouthMovements.org to the overall community it serves.
Recently, YouthMovements.org launched to more efficiently amplify the role of young people in creating positive social change.
“The new site will aggregate and coalesce youth-led movements around the world to share data and to collaborate more effectively. But it will also inspire new youth to become more involved in what matters to them,” Jeff Coates, strategic initiatives associate at Knight Foundation, said.
The video above explores Knight’s support for the site and shares what kinds of information it makes available to users. The interview also provides tips on how young people can draw inspiration from successful projects and provides resources that helps them replicate these projects in their own communities.
The video features key members of the team behind the site, including Jennifer Corriero,co-founder and executive director of TakingITGlobal, which hosts the site. Corriero describes how it allows young people to discover more about opportunities to get involved in issues that matter to them, both in their own communities and globally.
You’ll also hear insights into the role that technology plays in facilitating youth organized coalitions: “It provides opportunities for information to be synthesized faster and shared more quickly. The real value of this technology is the capacity to share inspiration and to connect it to more efficient models to do more with less,” says Sean Keith, operations manager TakingITGlobal.
YouthMovements.org features a map to display events, organizations and projects across global issues areas allowing young people to discover more about the opportunities to get involved in their own communities or about global developments across the issues that matter to them.
The knowledge hub collects information tool kits and best practices to allow new projects to benefit from the successes and lessons learned from previous efforts of youth organizers.
The new site will also help organizations effectively share information about their projects, to promote projects and initiatives collaboratively, and to help track and celebrate the collective progress being made worldwide to tackle the world's most challenging issues.
Supported by Knight Foundation, YouthMovements.org is a project of TakingITGlobal, the largest online community of young people interested in global issues and creating positive change. TakingITGlobal uses the power of online community to facilitate global education, social entrepreneurship and civic engagement for millions of youth worldwide.
The launch of the site coincides with a YouthMovements Summit in New York City, exploring the past, present and future of the youth engagement sector to find ways to amplify its impact.
During the two days, youth engagement leaders will share, learn and gain insight as they work together to shape the future of the sector as part of a learning community and collaborative network.
Ever wonder what the world would be like if everyone was willing to share - information, expertise, and even failures? How would the processes of international development change if this were possible? Well, over the past few weeks working on the YouthMovements program at TIG, I’ve come to understand that the barrier to this ideal picture isn’t necessarily a willingness to share, but simply the ability to do so.
So far, we’ve had an overwhelmingly positive response from organizations and individuals whom we’ve approached to partner with us - and I bet you’re interested in hearing more about who we’ve been talking to...
But first, allow me to introduce myself. I’m Daphne, the new YouthMovements program assistant here at TIG. A recent university graduate, I’m very excited to be able to work in a diverse and internationally-engaged workplace - I love that I have to check which time zone our meetings are scheduled in!
This morning, Liam and I started the day with a call to Louisville, Kentucky to speak with Njideka from the Youth for Technology Foundation (YTF). Founded in Nigeria nearly 12 years ago, YTF works to sustainably integrate the use of technology into disadvantaged communities throughout Africa. In addition to providing programming for youths, YTF has responded to the desires and wishes of their participants’ mothers and friends by establishing an economic empowerment program for women. It was great to see such a significant overlap in the values and approaches of TIG and YTF, particularly on the nascent power of technology in social engagement amongst youth.
We then said ‘good evening’ to Philip in Accra, Ghana at 11am EST. Representing the Alliance For African Women Initiative (AFAWI), Philip explained the range of issues and ages that their programming addresses. In addition to women’s empowerment, AFAWI is heavily involved in HIV/AIDS awareness and youth development initiatives across Ghana. He mentioned that securing financial support was something that AFAWI sometimes struggles with - By mapping their various projects on YouthMovements.org, AFAWI will be able to increase their profile amongst international sponsors and establish new, financially sustainable partnerships.
Later this week, we’ll be meeting with Jacque from the Pacific Youth Council to find out more about the projects they operate in the South Pacific, as well as Judith from Leaders of Tomorrow in Lebanon. Its great to see so many organizations from all over the world willing to get on board, and be able to work together towards our common goals. Imagine how much more effective our sector could be if sharing became the normal way we operate...
How are young people engaging with COP 17 (the 17th Conference of the Parties) Conference, as world leaders and environment ministers meet to discuss Climate Change and the future of our planet?
In many ways: young people an important role to play because we have the most at stake in these negotiations, it is our future which is being decided, and we who will inherit the decisions made or the terribly implications of the decisions not made at these conferences.
There is also a wide variety of young people here and we all have different ideas about how to be most effective in the process itself.
Firstly, there is YOUNGO, the official group for youth which has the ability to make interventions (deliver speeches) in the plenary sessions. This youth group meets every morning in a spokes council to share information, decide how to effectively engage and plot strategy for the day to come.
Some government delegations have young people participating in the delegations themselves. These young people wear pink badges in the conference center and are involved in tracking the negotiations, help to shape national policy, and represent the voice of youth in the delegations.
Next up there are nationally organized youth delegations such as the SustainUS, the Indian Youth Climate Coalition, the United Kingdom Youth Climate Coalition and the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition, These groups work to raise the profile of their countries policy stances, amplify the voices of communities which are not being heard in the negotiations and harness the power of traditional and social media to communicate the events at the conference to the world.
As a young person witnessing the process and the sometimes painful inaction on the part of those who hold power in the negotiations, each day is an incredibly fast paced and very very long roller-coaster. Each hour can bring new highs and lows and sometimes it is difficult to say exactly how effective our actions are at moving the negotiations themselves.
When I meet with other youth from around the world and learn about how climate change is effecting front line communitiies along with what they are doing to confront this immense challenge, I can’t help but be motivated to rise to the occasion, push through the exhaustion and fight with all I’ve got for a better, sustainable future.
Youthmovements.org held our first inquiry group meeting earlier this week. This collaborative online session brought representatives together from across the youth development sector to discuss, share and investigate the issues and challenges facing our movements.
"There is a positive feedback loop happening. As students and young people see others creating change, they try becoming involved, even in small bits at a time, and as they realize they have a voice, the voice gets louder." Nikos Theodasakis - OliveUS Education Network
In attendance were diverse representatives from leading youth focused organizations around the world:
Ali Perrotto, National Sexual Violence Resource Center
Hassanatu Blake, Focal Point Global
Danielle Miranda, Youth Service America
Larry Mah, Youth in Motion
Julie Caldwell, Emerging Futures Youth Network
Nikos Theodosakis OliveUS Education Network
Nicolo Wojewoda, Peace Child International, Road to Rio+20
Razwan Nabin, Bangladesh Youth Movement for Climate
Rini Banerjee, Overbrook
Monique Leger, Canadian Heritage
Sabrina Veser, Servicestelle Jugendbeteiligung
As a group we discussed traditional and non traditional spaces for creating change, the role that governments can play in supporting young people's efforts and the importance of project based experiential learning. We also presented some organizing theory from the recently released toolkit, Organizing Cools the Planet as well as some models of change, the #Occupywallstreet movement and the global grassroots mobilization against corruption and greed held on October 15th. Here is a recording of the session.
We also provided some updates to our partners about the progress for the YouthMovements.org program so far:
On the Tech side of things
We have hired a new web developer to add more technical capacity to our team.
We have also completed scopping data requirements for the database structure for our Open Access Map.
We have explored our TIGed classroom infrastructure and begun updating for our project pages revamp.
Partner Cultivation & Promotion
We have almost finalized promotional materials for partner outreach, MOU documents are being reviewed by legal experts and our Community Partnerships Coordinator has been developing partner relationships with representatives from over 30 leading youth organizations and networks including:
AIESEC
Learn 360
Freedom house
Our American Generation
Center for International Virtual schooling
World Association of Girl guides, Girl Scouts
Canada World Youth
YouthService America
Youth in Motion
We have also set a date for the Future of YouthMovements.org meeting, planned for Feb 15-17th. Save the date!
Finally, we added a summary of the places and events where Youthmovements.org has been presented and promoted:
UN High Level meeting on Youth, July 25th - 28th, New York City
Nexus Youth Summit July 26th - 29th New York City
One Young World, September 1st - 4th in Zurich, Switzerland
International Summit on Youth Social Entrepreneurship hosted by Ashoka Sept 1st-2nd, Mexico City
UNDPINGO conference September 3rd - 5th in Bonn, Germany
The Civicus World Assembly, September 9th-12th in Montreal, Canada
We have also presented YouthMovements at the Tread lightly Youth Environment and Education Forums held:
Oct 4th, Oslo, Norway
Oct 5th, London, England
Oct 13th, Milan, Italy
Oct 18th, Paris, France
Oct 21st, Amsterdam Netherlands
Our next Inquiry Group is going to explore the Digital Divide and is scheduled for September 17th @ 11am EST and we hope you will join us!
Kees Biekart – International institute of social studies, Erasmus University
4 reasons we need to rethink the role and discourse around Civil soc
1) We have exported the idea of civsoc from a western ( European )pov which denies regional context.
2) Civil society is always seen as positive and good – but there are darker elements which cannot be ignored
3) Civil society is not a singular entity but is often refered to as having a position on things. Disagreement and conflict is essesntial
4) Political action is changing very rapidly. New forms of virtual collective action which contribute to new social fabrics.
The relevant and interesting things are often where civil society and other elements of society overlap. The potential for change is present everywhere, not particularly in civil soc. Why would individual citizens take the risk? Civic means persuing common interest.
We assume that this change is driven by civic energy, but we aren’t sure where it is, but it is present in all areas, not just civic society. What is driving this civic energy?
A lense at looking at the same process with a different viewpoint. Civic agency is not only located within civil society, but is likely to be more active in the “overflow” areas between sectors.
Rose de Lima Ramanakavana – International Associations of Charities (AIC Madagascar)
Rose detailed lessons learned her local work as well as the international network of AIC, a network of 42 associations, with more than 250,000 members, all committed to carry out, in a way adapted to our times, the fundamental plan of St. Vincent de Paul, their Founder "Against all forms of poverty, acting together".
Causes of poverty:
Poor infrastructure, lack of reliable and transparent structures
Lack of social security, public awareness and education for env concerns, overcoming traditions, greed and lack of values in leading class.
committed to fight against poverty by the empowerment of vulnerable groups
Promoting communitarian and social development
Providing access to healthcare for women and girls
International and legal frameworks can foster participation – Jeremy Wates European Environmental Bureau
For the public to fufill its role there needs to be a supportive legal framework
Right to access to information, to participation and to justice
Speaks to Principle 10 of Rio 92 declaration – progress has been uneven at best. Some countries ignore them completely.
Bali guidelines – nonbinding, but negotiation process open to UN memberstates
The effectiveness of legally binding vs non-legally binding. Harder to negotiate but more valuable.
Options for rio : 1 accession to Orbis Convention especially around principle 10 – advantage is that there is a working convention already in place. Disadvantage – convention seen as European convention
Another option is to build a brand new declaration from the ground up, but this presents significant challenges and may be opposed from the get go or subverted.
Maria Angelica Ikeda - Brazil
When we got everyone together the first thing they did was start to talk about a document, but perhaps paper doesn’t have the most power. YOU have the power to mobilize and inspire your own society to change for the better. Very important to keep in mind the ties to social and environmental – come from a place of hope and positive energy. Being negative divides and radicalizes people, so stay hopeful.
Question Session:
Civic energy as the driver. Perhaps this energy comes from the recognition that we are all –all humans who are alive on the planet today are in the same boat. If we are living in an unsustainable way we will not continue to live in this way – we need new ways of doing things and working together to
Ultimately we will be in a sustainable world, the kind of human society it contains is in question and we are on the edge on the brink where our decisions matter.
Why are there no youth on the round table? If we are connecting the dots young people deserve to be at the table.
Our goal was to make a big splash at the High Level Meeting on youth, connecting with leaders in the youth development space to launch Youthmovements.org , a platform which seeks to increase the overall strength of young people to create change.
The backdrop for this mission was the High Level Meeting on Youth (HLM) at the United Nations, where International NGOs, UN agencies and National delegations were meeting. The purpose of the meeting was to take stock of the state of youth development, to discuss how young people can be supported in creating a sustainable future and to review progress on the World Youth Program of Action on Youth.
One of our major areas of focus was the launch of The Youth Effect, a brand new handbook for decision makers developed by young global leaders as part of the World Economic Forum about how to effectively involve young people in decision making.
The launch of youthmovements.org falls at the end of the international year of youth during which the UN turned its focus to the themes of Dialogue and Mutual Understanding. The Year also coincided with the 25th anniversary of the first International Youth Year in 1985. I, along with most of the youth delegates I met at the UN were not around to see the original year, and with the challenges we are facing as a global community, we do not have another twenty five years for our desire for a better world to be realized.
My generation has a great advantage over all previous cohorts: the access to information afforded to us by technology has the potential to empower us, allowing us to connect faster and wider than ever before. We also have access huge amounts of information to assist us in the decisions that we must make. There are so many possibilities available, so many directions that we can take, that it can be difficult to decide where to direct our energies.
Strategy is important to consider, when realigning the global economy within the carrying capacity of the planet is your goal and at the side event How to mobilise Youth Globally for Rio+20 strategies were abundant. The environmental movement has undergone many evolutions throughout the years, but many see the Earth Summit of 1992 as a key date in the global movement’s history, the most successful Global Summit ever hosted by the UN. Twenty years later, (June 2012) leaders will reconvene in Rio to take stock of progress and to look to the future. Peace Child International and TIG co-moderated the side event at the HLM to bring together experts from UNICEF, One Young World, & Avaaz to look at the road to Rio and to share ideas how to ensure that young people’s voices are heard and acted upon. We also displayed the latest Perspectives Magazine, which details artistic works about global challenges which have been compiled from the last round of the Adobe Youth Voices Project. After hearing report backs from those who are leading parts of the engagement, the room broke into smaller inquiry groups to discuss our own ideas on how to remake the global economy to fit within natural limits and suit the needs of 7 billion.
The following day, members of the Global Youth Aids Coalition (GYCA) were out in full force, displaying winning art entries from Aids activists and artists through The Global Creative Contest - while also running two simultaneous side events at UN Plaza. On one hand Lindsay Menard Freeman, spoke on the panel Out Of The Box Advocacy: Influencing change through creative communications and social media with partners from Youth Coalition, IPPF, Y‐PEER, Governess Films, Advocates for Youth, and YouAct.
Meanwhile at UNHQ, other members of GYCA were meeting with decision makers about their role in the AIDS response at the event Crossfire: A dialogue between youth leaders and decision‐makers to answer the tough questions on HIV and young people. Brought together by UNAIDS and the UNFPA, this event was an opportunity to review current policies and practices of youth engagement and to push leaders to do more. As the dialogue continued, it was became apparent that many decisionmakers were making progress in engaging young people to respond to the Aids crisis, but there is still much work to do.
Later that evening, the focus would turn from decision makers to young leaders, who were meeting as part of Nexus the Global Youth Summit. Our founder, Jennifer Corriero adressed the engaged young people attending the summit.
In many ways, this project represents the culmination of the work TIG has been conducting over the last ten years. Now is the time to connect the dots between movements, to weave a more connected global community with youth at the center, to build bridges between the world we want and the future we deserve. Going beyond the traditional barriers and divisions to reveal the linkages, the commonalities and the unity of these diverse issues and challenges is exactly the focus and challenge before us as a global community. time to connect the dots between movements, to weave a more connected global community with youth at the center, to build bridges between the world we want and the future we deserve. Going beyond the traditional barriers and divisions to reveal the linkages, the commonalities and the unity of these diverse issues and challenges is exactly the focus and challenge before us, thankfully we can forge alliances and collaborations to rise to the occassion.
Every month, the Multilingual Community names two of its most outstanding volunteers as Multilingual TIG Stars! This month we want to recognize two awesome volunteers who are working very hard towards the goal of launching their team Language: Nurul Alam from the Bengali Team, and Julia Linn from the German Team! Congratulations Nurul and Julia - your hard work and dedication is really appreciated!
We asked Nurul and Julia to answer a few questions about their volunteer experience with TIG. Read on to hear what they had to say!
1. When did you become involved with TakingITGlobal’s online volunteer team? What motivated you to become an online volunteer?
While browsing the internet, I came across TIG in March 2011. When I enter the site I found that it is an online global networking organization working for positive change in society, involving young people around the world. I felt further interested when I noticed that it is very technology based. It is a social networking too but a special kind. Peoples involved here are working and talking to make a difference. When I saw the opportunity for online volunteering for making a platform in my mother tongue I wished to be a part of TIG.
ইন্টারনেট ব্রাউজ করতে গিয়ে আমি টি.আই.জি. এর দেখা পাই মার্চ ২০১১ তে। সাইটে ঢুকে বুঝতে পারি এটা একটা অনলাইন নেটওয়ার্কিং সংস্থা যা সারা বিশ্বের তরুনদের নিয়ে সমাজের পজিটিভ পরিবর্তনের জন্য কাজ করছে। আমি আরো আগ্রহী হয়ে উঠি যখন দেখি এটা খুবই প্রযুক্তি নির্ভর। এটা একটা সামাজিক নেটওয়ার্কিংও বটে কিন্তু বিশেষ ধরনের। এখানকার মানুষরা কাজ করছে এবং কথা বলছে পরিবর্তনের জন্য। তাই যখন স্বেচ্ছাসেবিতার সূযোগ দেখলাম আমার মায়ের ভাষায় একটি প্লাটফর্ম তৈরীর সংগে সংগে আমি তাতে অংশগ্রহন করতে চাইলাম।
2. What attracts you to your role as a volunteer?
I found TIG to be a source of knowledge and information for social development. I feel happy when I think that I am contributing towards spreading my mother tongue.
আমি টি.আই.জি. কে দেখি সামাজিক উন্নয়ন সম্পর্কিত ঞ্জান এবং তথ্যের ভান্ডার হিসেবে। আমি আনন্দিত এই ভেবে যে আমি আমার মায়ের ভাষাকে ছড়িয়ে দিচ্ছি।
3. What have you learned from the experience so far?
TIG’s knowledgebase is very wide. It is not limited to any particular program like education or health or micro-finance. I am learning various aspects of human and social development. Besides, it is helping to improve my translation skills.
টি.আই.জি. এর তথ্যভান্ডার খুবই ব্যাপক। এটা কোন বিশেষ কর্মষূচী যেমন শিক্ষা বা স্বাস্থ্য বা ক্ষুদ্র ঋন এর মধ্যে সীমাবদ্ধ নয়। তাই মানব এবং সমাজ উন্নয়নের বিবিধ দিক সম্পর্কে আমি শিখতে পারছি। পাশাপাশি এটা আমার অনুবাদ দক্ষতা বৃদ্ধিতে সহায়তা করছে।
4. What advice would you give other young people out there interested in becoming online volunteers?
I would say it is a good opportunity for learning about various development programs and techniques.
আমি বলবো বিবিধ উন্নয়ন কর্মষূচী এবং কৌশল জানার জন্য এটা একটা ভালো সূযোগ।
5. What are your overall thoughts on the experience?
1. When did you become involved with TakingITGlobal’s online volunteer team? What motivated you to become an online volunteer?
Since January 2011, I’ve been involved with TakingITGlobal to translate the German website. Before that I even did not know about TakingITGlobal. But when I saw the open volunteer position, I was immediately interested and wrote an application. My studies in Cultural Anthropology, Gender Studies and Geography sparked my interest in the difficulties and complexities of intercultural exchange. Together with my affection to IT and Computer Science – which is not only met by using the internet – and my interests in languages and writing in general, I was even more attracted to join and support a platform for young people to get informed and engaged for peace, sustainable development and global learning.
Seit Januar 2011, bin ich bei TakingITGlobal involviert die deutsche Webseite zu übersetzen. Davor kannte ich TakingITGlobal überhaupt nicht. Aber als ich die offene Stelle für Freiwillige gesehen habe, war ich direkt daran interessiert und habe eine Bewerbung abgeschickt. Mein Studium Ethnologie, Geschlechterforschung und Geographie haben mein Interesse an den Schwierigkeiten und Komplexitäten interkulturellen Austauschs beflügelt. Zusammen mit meiner Vorliebe an IT und Computern – damit ist nicht nur die Verwendung des Internets gemeint – und meinem Interesse an Sprachen und am Schreiben im Allgemeinen war ich noch mehr gefesselt sich einer Plattform anzuschließen und diese Medium dabei zu unterstützen, wo junge Menschen sich über Themen wie Frieden, nachhaltige Entwicklung und Globales Lernen zu informieren und sich dort engagieren.
2. What attracts you to your role as a volunteer?
It’s working for free. You do in your free time. Though you give, it can give a lot back.
Die Arbeit ist freiwillig. Man geht sie in der Freizeit nach. Obwohl du gibst, bekommst du auch viel zurück.
3. What have you learned from the experience so far?
Good work depends not only on your language skills in translation. A stable and fast internet connection pushes the envelope. Trying not to get unmotivated when all your translations are lost because of internet break-ups which is really common here in Indonesia.
Gute Arbeit hängt nicht nur von den Sprachfähigkeiten bei Übersetzungsarbeit ab. Eine stabile und schnelle Internetverbindung ist dabei ein ebensolcher Katalysator. Versuchen motiviert zu bleiben, wenn deine Übersetzungen abermals verloren sind, weil die Internetverbindung unterbrochen wurde – Alltag hier in Indonesien.
4. What advice would you give other young people out there interested in becoming online volunteers?
Beside the online work, enjoy the TakingITGlobal-network and learn to know all the other facilities of the platform.
Neben der Online-Arbeit auch das Netzwerk von TakingITGlobal und dessen Vielfalt kennen zu lernen.
5. What are your overall thoughts on the experience?
Language translation can turn out to sometimes be really easy-peasy, and sometimes a hard bite. One problem is definitely the unstable and quite slow internet connection I have here. I would like to spend more time exploring the platform.
Übersetzungen können manchmal aus dem Handgelenk geschüttelt werden, aber auch ein harter Bissen sein. Ein Problem ist definitiv die instabile und recht langsame Internetverbindung hier. Würde gerne mehr Zeit damit verbringen, die Plattform kennen zu lernen.
I’ve seen my mother on the brink of death. It was my first and only visit to El Salvador. I was nine years old.
We’d gone out to dinner at a restaurant that specialized in fruits from the sea. My mother ate a stew of mariscos. Seafood medley in a bowl, essentially. She’d been told she was allergic to shellfish in the past, but one little rash and slightly laboured breathing wasn’t enough to stop her. Shrimp is just that good.
My last memories of that night involve myself and my two younger brothers, then five and three, dumped at the home of the next-door neighbours, watching as my parents hopped into a cab with my mother clutching at her throat, gasping, “No puedo respirar,” turning pale. My brothers were crying. I was the dutiful big sister, singing REM songs and reassuring them that everything was going to be alright.
I didn’t actually think everything was going to be alright.
For some reason, I think of this event as epitomizing the difference between white people and the rest of the world. At least, when it comes to food.
I suppose I should preface the rest of what I’m about to say by announcing that I am pretty much white. Phenotypically, yes, but also culturally. While I was raised on rice, black beans, tortillas, yet-to-be-hip avocados and ripe plantains, I grew up preferring blander offerings. Birthdays were reserved for mock chicken legs and mac ‘n’ cheese. And the same continues, in sheep’s clothing:
Yoga. Organic produce. Wheat substitutes. White rice, rarely.
Which tangentially makes me wonder: are food sensitivities a gringothing?
My mother has denounced many Western occurrences as “gringo things.” My favourite of these designations is women calling out in pain during childbirth, which my mother (blessed to have had quick labours with tiny babies, my five-pound self included) insists is reserved for the gringo variety of humankind. While I enjoy calling her out on these, and which she usually accepts with good humour, my mother’s led me to question whether some experiences really are just inventions of the warped gringo mind. The most significant of these being the omnipresent avoidance of gluten.
From a cross-cultural standpoint, abstaining of wheat things is probably the most mind-boggling dietary decision one can possibly make. Vegetarianism is weird enough (and having witnessed one of my brothers venture in that direction for a few years, I can verify that Salvadoran family members found it pretty incomprehensible), but not eating bread? Seriously? No one is too good to eat bread.
Food insensitivities are sufficiently difficult to explain to people removed from certain generations (e.g., X and Y), but the lingo barrier is only compounded when you factor in immigrant sensibilities and non-Western viewpoints. What is a food sensitivity, anyway? It’s not an allergy; it won’t kill you. So, is it a reaction that makes you feel less than neutral? Well, shit. No moretres leches cake for me.
I know that celiac is a real thing, and something that gets under-diagnosed in modern medicine. But I also know that everyone I’ve ever met who has been diagnosed with this thing has been white and (at least) middle-class, with the same cultural predilections as myself. Does this mean that the disorder has an eye out for former humanities students with natural toothpaste? Or is there some kind of trend happening under my nose, here?
I don’t mean to offend. I know wheat makes some of you feel shitty, and I’m not aiming to downplay your bloatage. But, I do wonder whether bloat awareness is a thing of gringodom. All of us gals grow up to become our mothers, and Conchy’s voice is calling bullshit in my head. It also doesn’t help that I’ve had girlfriends make light of their brief flirtations with wheat “allergies,” which we agreed via Facebook was a coming-of-age requirement for white liberal arts grads.
But in all truth, I’m not making fun. My pantry’s stocked with jars full of quinoa and oats that I’ve ground up for flour. I’m drinking the same Kool-Aid as the rest of y’all. Except I’m just a poseur, because wheat makes me feel fine.
This post is a part of Ethnic Aisle, the coolest multicultural blog party in Toronto!
