Hola todo! It seems like it has been a while since i have written, no? Well you are certainly right. And there is a lot that i have done that i am still going to wait for longer to write up for my blog…or possibly i might just end up being to lazy to doing so at all. Probably that will be the case. Sorry! You’ll just have to talk to me to figure out what went missing during my time not here.

So what am i doing then right now? Well, i will tell you.

In just over 2 weeks, i will be starting my final project. It is an idependent project that will last 2 weeks, and it can be done over just abou anything i want it to be as long as i can apply the things i have been studying here in all my classes. And…i really don’t have a clue still what i will be doing. I mean, i do have a clue, but i am can not focus my ideas onto anything that i think would be feasible to accomplish in the 2 weeks of time and walk away with having felt as being a success.

The classes i have been taking here are spanish of course, agroecology, and anthropology. The general theme of the program is Applying Human Ecology in Cross Culture Contexts.

I would like to take a few minutes now to just free write of what i am thinking about. I hope that i can at least organize my thoughts. Perhaps then i can take it a step further and make a move towards having a better idea of what i want to do.

So, let’s being. My first IDEA is to look at “modern” technology and culture. I am very interested in knowing how “modern” technology affects culture, both negatively and positively. I will start by saying why i have an interest in this.

My life has been one where “modern” technology like computers and information technology has been at my fingertips. I don’t really understand life without having access to the internet, credit cards, televisions, cellphones, microwaves, and even just electricity and the potential to access potable water from the tap. All these things that i have taken for granted all of my life, and really never thought critically about how they affected my life personally. Although recently i did begin to wonder about this specifically very recently. ANd i have come to realize that I am who i am today, i am struggling with certain things, and i have potentials that many don’t have all because of my familiarity with these “modern” technologies and my ability to make use of them as tools and have a dependence on them in my daily life.

One of the things i realized was the social aspects of how technology has affected my life…negatively. I have spent morte time in front of a computer than i have probably spent in the past 10 years being with other people. It’s sad actually, realizing that you have not developed some of the simplest social skills after having been in the life for over 20 years. I realize that i am more comfortable pulling myself away from groups and communities or people, social situations, and getting all involved in my own grand virtual space–that exists, but doesn’t really even. That¿s the short story…and there are many controversial aspects about this realization that i still am dealing with….mostly because as i think about it, and when i begin to critique the lifestyle that people like me have, i realize that i am contradicting the person i am…i am realizing that everything that i thought was the good and perfect isn’t so. Once i stepped outside of my little box, which i have really come to realize was a very closed little box, i realize all the things that i have missed in my life because of my affinity for living in virtual spaces rather than down on the ground where i could have been interacting with people face to face. When did i start noticing this? Well after i went to COA and pretty much stopped programming…and came to the realization that i didn’t want to be stuck working on the computer for the rest of my life. Once i began to push away from the computer (and having lost my other half…katie…and my other third…pot) i was left with only the small percentage of ‘me’ that is who i will always be and can never leave. But i had to start from scratch, and have only had about 7 months now to myself where i have been rebuilding those parts of myself that i lost, and finding new parts to water within that i had repressed and so had previously never a chance to grow. In other words, i am now sitting outside of my box…and i am able to see myself in a different light. I can partially see how my very static and narrowly focused life has made me who i am today, and why.

So, basiclly, having this new perspective in life, having all these great opportunities to grow into a new and dynamic person, learning all sorts of things from my classes at COA and esspecailly in this program in MExico, and having the personal insight into life now that is exclusively involved in accessing and exploiting modern technology for making life “good” and to “progress”, i have begun to develop a sceptism that “modern technology” is really the answer to many great social ills in the world today. In general i have started to question the idea of “progress” for the third world countries and all the other stuff that goes along with that. That is to big of a topic to talk about right now though and i have a lot more to learn….and i imagine whoever is reading this is probably like…uhhh…what the fuck are you talking about chris….i understand your question. Pretty much it is just that all the world is being judged by the standards of modern urban America and other western states…but in reality, that is like comparing apples to oranges…or whatever. Development towards the monocultured western “civilization” just isn’t possible, and to a lot of cutlures and communities who had been previously living for hundreds of years autonomously and selfsufficiently with their own types of “technology” and knowledge systems just fine and would prefer to keep it that way. Just because a group of people isn’t up to par with the US’s standards doesn’t necessarily make them impoverished. They are only impoverished when they rely on (by absolute force or by pressure from nationstates or corporations…or other reasons) the western world’s economic and other “progress” ideologies and give up their own autonomy and mechanizisms for selfsufficiency. That especially concerns their ability to get access to food! The people in this world (a good majority) become impoverished, i think more definately, when they give up producing their own food and begin to rely on the international market systems of importation and exportation, and more generally when they are being exploited while doing so by the government or other entities rather than doing so by their own choice or for their own communities. The reason we westerners have food on our table is, and this is a difficult thing to deal with, is because someone, somewhere is exploiting peasants in this way…and in effect, as we eat happily, we are defining poverty for others because we want ‘choice’ and cheap prices. This is such a general and arguable view…and i even argue with myself about it…and i have a lot more to learn and understand before i can even begin to say i understand this stuff on a basic level. But…that’s what i am doing now.

Okay…so…that’s some background….now back to the technology stuff. A lot of countries are embracing this idea that if only these peasants could get access to “modern” technology, then they could free themselves from poverty somehow. They could be educated, get better jobs, and in general make “progress”. There are huge initiatives being undertaken here in Mexico specially right now by the governemtn because of this type of thinking. I would imagine it is more complicated than that…and i have a great interest in learning more about this type of stuff. But…there is no way i can really start a two week project with learning about it as my ultimate goal. As you’ve noticed, i also have an interest in understanding just what this word “progress” really means in the context of the Mexican governements initiatives to bring access to all! Where they having pretty much pushed for the development of an internet cafe in every single village with more than say 500 people in it. Which means…seriously….thousands and thousands of villages now have access. It´s their effort to close the “Digital Divide”. But it’s just that “digital divide” issue that i am having the doubts about. I am sure that there is a digital divide, that it obvious, but i am not so sure that it needs to be closed. Or…well…i really don’t know what i think at this point. Again, just by thinking about this i find myself contradicting everything i grew up thinking (or just having in my thougts unconsciously) about how tecvhnology was all positive and a way of life.

I want to know what type of benifits “modern technology” really does bring to the “impoverished” people in the world. I want to know also what negative affects the ideas that we should close the digital divide have on the cultures, communities and people involved as well. But! How can i do this? (and unfortunately i don’t even think i am going to have enough time to do what i wanted to tonight and explore my ideas of what i could do because i have spent so much time exploring my background thoughts and now the internet cafe i am at is about to close…)

One idea that i have, which is not very developed, is to find a village that i can live in for the 2 weeks and just start exploring these ideas. Hmm…how? That is the question that i am trying to figure out and i keep finding myself going in circles around nothing…Everything i think about is still so general and
unfocused….like i am right now. arg.

Damnit….what a coincidence. I don’t even have the time to explore the issue right now…and anyway i don’t know if i could anyway. I have to go….i will be back though.

Quickly…before i go! Oaxaca is amazing!

Chris

Posted by drpooville_Admin as General at 9:32 PM PST

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