In response to an email that someone sent praising an artical here at Fortune.com http://www.fortune.com/fortune/print/0,15935,1024216,00.html
I have this to say.

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Okay, i want to say this up front. I am a college student (20 years..Human Ecologist), who know’s very little about this subject–the Digital Divide. All the following is generally based off of gut feelings. I am of the Net-Generation, and grew up with the privilage of having access to the internet and all of the modern technologies as they grew into what they are today. I am also disposed to want to “help” all those 4ish, 5ish billion people in the world to have the same the opportunity and to have the same privilages as I have including having them not need to work the fruits of their lives until they rot in order for ME to continue and live the way i am used to with all my luxuries. How to make this “utopian” thought a reality is the quest i have just recently begun. And i will say that the following will likely be a very ill-articulated piece, with many misinformed ideas and one that are simply incomplete. What can i say, i know very little. But, that’s okay. In the big picture, so does everyone, even if they act like they don’t, right?

I am very interested in learning more about the worlds economic,
political, scientific and technological, ecological, agrocultural and social systems (and whatever else is out there…call it an
interdisciplinary approach) with respect to how we can make the world a less unequal and destructive place to live. I want to find ways to engender creativity and motivation in the people empower them to live the lives that they want and that they know makes them happy and is sustainable; that might mean that they will adopt these technologies that i am so used to in my life and that i at times, like many including the author of the article think are impossible to live without anymore; or it might mean that they take some of the technologies that help them live better lives and ignore others that are more of a burden to them that a help; or it might mean they continue with their own lines of “development” and do as they see fit without the use of modern technologies, which does not mean in my opinion that they are “resisting change” or “ignorant” or whatever; for everyone is always in a state of change, especially in todays world, it doesn’t have to be forced. Everyone is human and everyone has a right to choose the lives they have in this world, as communities that they exist in and as individuals. So what i have right now is a great interest in learning how modern technologies could be of use as a creative tools to the marginalized and “underdeveloped” in moving everyone closer to the ideas of accomplishing the rediculously HUGE and inhumanly scaled problem we–all the people in the world–are faced with currently; Poverty.

Now, with respect to this article, my heart skipped a few beats. I can say in the least that it is a bad article and i wonder if i could actually write something up for Forune some day soon in the future :-) J/K, and at the most, i hope the author misunderstood some things (or i did) and i really hope that simply “bringing technology to the developing world” isn’t really the approach they are taking. Unfortunately though, I already do know that it is and it’s a strong movement all across the world; however i would imagine it is more often to be found as an initiative in the top of the chain of economic and political power, not at the bottom except where the people have been convinced that it is “better for them” this way. This is one problem, or might i say, doubt, hesitation or sceptisism that i have towards the idea of “bridging the Digital Divide.”

The corporations and politicians might have all the good intentions in the world (they are most important i would believe because they seem to have the biggest “political clout” out of everyone, since they are they ones who are at the top of the latter currently and apparently forever that can truely manipulate everything in this system that is being talked about, right?), but what’s a for-profit company going to intend to do over everything else in the end? Profit. Do people even exist in the pursuit of profits? I think not. Except possibly in a few very rare occasions such as a business here and a business there, or when they are treated as means to an ends (appendages..for profit…labor) or on the opposite end, as investors or consumers (consider taxes included). Perhaps also one can consider that people are considered as human when big money that is left over from the left over profits is put forth for AID projects. To me though, these mostly seem to be lame attempts that try to tackle problems much greater than they could ever be humanly possible and commonly become more destructive in their attempts to repair the social and ecological damages already made by the profitiering that they parttook in to begin with.

David Kirkpatrick say’s clearly that the initiatives that now have great importance in the eyes of some of the top leaders in the world is how they can help the developing countries “truly participate in the global economy.” He says further, to emphasize the greatest reason for the big corporations to participate in this goal, “the world’s 4 billion or so poor are the largest market that has ever existed. This is true not only in terms of their raw human numbers, but in their aggregate buying power…despite average earnings of the equivalent of no more than two dollars a day.”

Full proof of the consideration of these 4 billion or so in poverty not as humans, but as appendages to the current economic system (spend every last cent, it’s for the better). Of which the participants in the WEForum are the top benefactors. The people are not this time as labor but on the other end of things as the consumer. Either of them though are of great benifit to the big companies profits, their bottom lines. So of course this is motivating for them, but i think for the wrong reasons and that is as David Kirkpatrick says, “a business imperitive”. And this isn’t even considering the fact that consumption itself, if increased greatly with all 4 billion or so beginning to consume like the “stardard of living” consumes, the world is going to have an even greater host of ecological problems to face with and the issue that made it to the 3rd spot on the list of the world’s biggest problems, Global warming, will be exacerbated as well.

Everything in this article points to the true motivations of the actors in this forum exactly. Poverty equals a great opportunity to increase profits.

For further examples, the only way the low cost computers will be produced is if the can be “produced in enough volume.” Anytime this type of activty begins, there will be a push rather than a pull for the products to regain the investment costs as profit. I can’t imagine how that could ever benifit those who are “intended” to gain from such products. Especially because things such as these computers and wireless products go out of date so quickly. Think for a minute about the situation where Brazil for example goes ahead and buys a bunch of this patented, contract based, propriatary equipment, then installs it, costing a whole ton of money that they probably don’t have in the first place to spend. They will quickly become dependent on those same companies to upgrade to new products that have become available to them, and will have likely been forced upon them by these same companies that are saying it’s for “their benifit”. The truth is that many companies like Microsoft and Cisco simply STOP supporting old hardware and software after 5-7 years. Simply STOP. Which at that point then the Brazilians will once again be “underdeveloped” because they are not up to our “standard of living” and the cycle will continue on.

Plus David Kirkpatrick claims having such technology, not considering the above, just simply thinking in a “technologicaly deterministic” mindset, will give the “worlds disenfranchised … greater political clout and financial opportunities.” Hmmm….How? I don’t see this in any way necessarily giving the people at the botton of the “trickle” tree political power, except to say the communication technology give the people a chance to organize in great number against those in power and with brute force make policy changes in governments that truely favor them over corporations (see for example the Zapatista movement in Chiapas). But for some reason i would really doubt the corporations would actually be talking about this…why would they?

I think one of the 3 of the worlds problems should have actually been concerning the structure of the current economic system and all those “members [of the WEForum] representing the world’s 1,000 leading companies, along with 200 smaller businesses, many from the developing world, that play a potent role in their industry or region,” and everyone else in the top that is involved at the top. Then they should have gone out of their way to have given those “disenfranchised” a chance to talk too! Why does that happen so often? All these Forums and stuff talking about how they can help the majority of the people live better lives…without having the majority able to have a voice.

(World Economic Forum website:http://www.weforum.org/site/homepublic.nsf/Content/Members+and+Partners)

They all need to consider how they themselves are inherently huge factors in why there even exists a Digital Divide, let alone the idea of poverty.

And we all need to think about how we can truely “reenfranchise” the “disenfranchised”.
I mean, who DISenfranschised them in the first place? That’s the real “moral imperitive” we should have; not to make sure all the poor people continue to play well in the system that WE westerners think is RIGHT for them and everyone.

At least…right now that’s what i think.

Thanks for listening. I would love to hear what you have to say.

-Chris

Posted by drpooville_Admin as General, Peace Works!, Personal Endeveavors at 7:51 PM PST

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Final Project – Initial Proposal

Central Research Theme:
Gastronomy—adapted from a definition found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastronomy:

An interdisciplinary study of the relationships between culture and food using components of many sciences (natural, social, exact, and “beautiful”) with food acting as the central axis of observation.

My interest in this subject is varied. For one I want to have a more concrete starting point for my understanding of Mexican culture and learn new and creative ways to go about getting that initial understanding. As you know, my original research idea was to study the affects of modern technology on social conditions in rural villages and society in general here in different areas of Mexico; this project was way over my head. A project studying gastronomy will be an excellent opportunity to start understanding the cultures from the bottom up rather than the top down as I had originally been trying to do. So for the time being I will be leaving all of the ideas of cultural change in relation to introduction of technology out of the picture for this project and rather, focus on developing a better cultural understanding of Oaxaca and Mexico in general through gastronomy.

Some of the topics/questions I want to explore: what is the significance of la comida; what is the regional makeup of Oaxaqueño food and the ingredients, culturally and physically, and how it is transformed into something uniquely Oaxaqueño; economic class significance of diversity in food; how do certain foods get from the ground to my plate; the importance of using traditional and modern tools for cooking; a heightened understanding and general appreciation for selection, preparation, creation, presentation and consumption of las comidas; how does the incredibly large amount of biodiversity and cultural diversity in Oaxaca relate to the diverse variety of foods available; a general study of other traditional and artistic practices that are based around food production or consumption; and the importance of traditional means of passing on recipes and technique through oral means rather than schools and recipes.

I will be primarily working with my current host mother Olguita Bohörquez in her house and in her kitchen. You should be able to reach me there anytime throughout the following 2 weeks at 515-16-83 or email me at drpoo@drpooville.org. She is very knowledgeable of gastronomy of Oaxaca and is very excited to be working with me on this project. I will be doing a lot of research through her but also with the internet, books, museums, and I would like to meet with other “informants” such as food vendors in the markets, cooking instructors, miscellaneous people in the industrial food business, and other Oaxacaqueños that understand the relationships between Oaxaqueño food and their culture.

The project will be centered on a planned structure of numerous comidas Oaxaqueñas and other common foods found in Oaxaca that we will be preparing over the 2 week period. For example, I will learn how to make soups, beans, rice, salsas, tortillas, botanitas, drinks, sweets, and also some main dishes such as fish, champulines, and enchiladas, etc. Through simple observation and participant observation, I will learn some techniques and reasoning for planning, economizing, selecting, buying, storing, cleaning, preparing, cooking, presenting and general organizing around the creation of food. All this will be done with the consideration of the local traditional and modern Oaxaqueño context in mind and with a general “modern” kitchen context in mind as well. From there I will do research on specific foods and the ingredients that make them up. And through the research I will then explore the cultural relationships that are formed between people and the food they eat by investigating source materials, conversing with many people in different ways and by exploring places of production and vending. The rest of the details should then develop easily around these three main activities.

Posted by drpooville_Admin as General, College Of The Atlantic, Recipes, Personal Endeveavors at 7:29 PM PST

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I am in Oaxaca right now, in the southern crook of Mex. It is really beautiful here with many mountains and lots of stuff to do. All last week i was in a little village living, exploring, learning, and teaching. The village had only 250 people in it, and over 100 of them were from the same family tree. It was in a valley between a million large beautiful mountains. Life there was so calm and peacefull. It was the first time i had in a long time to be by myself, and withmyself, for myself in a long time. It felt really good. The most amazing exerience i had was when i would hike up the mountains and find a big rock on the edge of the mountain looking out over all the beauty. I would just sit there and just be a part of the earth. I felt like what i know of a stereotyped indian in the plains. Everything i saw was mine. The eagles souring in the sky, the river sounding in the distance, the wind through the trees, and the mountainous terrain that break the silence of the horizan into a million pieces. Then i would close my eyes, and just think, or not think, for 10 to 20 to 30 minutes. My time, for me to be with me. That is really something that i have not done in a very long time, if ever really. Then, without trying to remember where i was, or what i would be looking at when i opened my eyes, i would just open them. The marvalous scene would unfold upon me and it would feel like i was going to fall. Since i was sitting at the edge of the rock, on the edge of the mountain, all i could see was the hundreds of meters of open air in front of me and the mountains that surounded me. Really beautiful stuff.

The family i lived with was pretty cool too. My little sisters were the best! I played with them for hours everyday. We had a lot of fun together. Really, it made me start to think about how i really do want to have kids of my own. Perhaps even soon. But, i am not really so sure about that. Just in the moment, it really started making me think about it.

And i also taught english while i was there everyday for 3 hours. 1 hour to primary grade students, and 2 hours to secondary graders. It turned out to be a lot of fun. A lot more than i had originally thought it would be.

Now i am back to the city life again in Oaxaca City. I really like it here too. Actually i will be staying right here to do my final 2 week project. I am going to be working with this wonderful woman learning the gastronomy of Oaxaca. This means that i am going to be studing the relationship between culture and food, and that i will be learning how to cook a lot of really really really really good food and other goodies.

Today i also had a really amazing expierence. The whole class went to a village about 45 minutes outside of the city, and visted a women’s cooperative weaving group. There was also a women who does these cleansing rituals called La Limpia. It’s a traditional medicine technique to remove the bad feelings and bad energy from your body. She uses all sorts of herbs and and uncooked egg (in the shell) to rub down your body. She massages you with it and some alchohol for like 30 minutes. Then, she breaks the egg and drops the yolk and everything into a glass of water. Then she reads the bad energies that were absorbed from your body into the egg. And that’s were i was seriously amazed. Normally i am very sceptical about these types of readings, but a lot has been changing in my life these days. Today i got really deeply into the ritual, and for example, i actually felt the egg massauging my own body as i watched. The student from our group that she did it to as an example, Virginie, who i know very little about, got her reading and it was dead on. It was so fascinating. The few things that i know about Virginie and the things that are really bothering her right now were read from the egg perfectly. Seriously. Virginie was pretty emotional afterwards too. I don’t even really know what else to say about it. Except that i am going to go to her myself.

The reason i want to go is because i have a lot of negative energy right now in my system at all times it feels. While i am always positive and i know that there is a bright future for me and that nearly everything i am feeling right now is just a “phase”, I find myself feeling depressed at times, lonely, confused, very insecure and lacking confidence in myself, untalkative and uncomfortable, and things of this sort. I have quite a dark cloud in my head, and i feel my “young” energy is drained. I am really curious to see what the cleaning can do for me and what the women can pick up from the ritual. Plus my shoulder has been hurting like hell for a few months and i need a massage. I am really tense…and it just won’t go away on it’s own. I need some help, and some guidence, some inspiration of some sort. I think this is a great opportunity for me to open myself up a little too, to things that normally i would reflect only negative energy towards. This i think would be a great step forward. So, i am going to do it soon. Very soon.

That’s that.

Chris

Posted by drpooville_Admin as General at 7:13 PM PST

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So…i am about as far away from the mess i was in in my last post….and i’m really happy about it.

Here’s my initial project proposal…i will be updating it in the next few days with the final version.

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Final Project — Initial Proposal

Central Research Theme:
Gastronomy—adapted from a definition found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastronomy:

An interdisciplinary study of the relationships between culture and food using components of many sciences (natural, social, exact, and “beautiful”) with food acting as the central axis of observation.

My interest in this subject is varied. For one I want to have a more concrete starting point for my understanding of Mexican culture. As you know, my initial research idea was to study the affects of modern technology on social conditions in rural villages and society in general here in different areas of Mexico. A project studying gastronomy will be an excellent opportunity to start understanding the cultures from the bottom up, rather than the top down as I had originally been trying to do. I can use this project to learn more about some of the most fundamental cultural aspects that exist in the current social conditions that I ultimately would like to study at a later point in time with relation to how they are changing with the introduction of modern technology. This means that I will be leaving all of the ideas of cultural change out of the picture in relation to technology for this project and my focus will rather be on developing for myself a better cultural understanding of Oaxaca (and Mexico in general) through gastronomy.

In addition to having this be a starting point for further research in Mexico, I will use the skills and all the very practical knowledge that I gain to develop my levels of creativity and basic understanding of choosing, processing, cooking, presenting, appreciating and understanding food and food culture. It will give me a very structured and solid 2 to 3 weeks to continue to develop my general communication skills and my Spanish speaking and comprehension levels. I will have a valuable opportunity to directly apply all of my elementary Cultural Anthropological research skills and I can continue to develop my understanding of the importance of Agroecology. It goes without saying, it’s also a very great opportunity to do some really fun, exciting and self-fulfilling Human Ecological research in cross cultured context.

I will make use of at least the following skill sets learned this term: direct observation, dialog, multiple session interview’s, journal and food observation writing, and triangulation. I will both observe and perform cooking practices and techniques, as well as organization, preparation, processing, cooking, presentation and sampling techniques. I will be scribing recipes as I learn how to cook them, first in Spanish and secondly in English. I will research history of different types of Oaxacan food and traditional and modern cultural practices that surround it.

I will be primarily working with my current host mother Olguita Bohörquez in her house and her kitchen. She is very knowledgeable of Gastronomy of Oaxaca and is very excited to be working with me on this project. I will also be doing a lot of research through her, but also with the internet, books, and I would like to meet with other “informants” such as food venders in the markets, restaurant chefs, and other Oaxacans that understand the relationships between food and culture (nearly every Oaxaqueño is a candidate).

The project will be centered around a planned structure of numerous comidas Oaxaqueñas that we will be preparing over the 2 week period. I will also learn how to prepare many miscellaneous things such as drinks and sweets. Everything else, as I see I right now, will then stem off from that.

One final thought, It is possible, depending on the time constraints I find myself under, I might want to travel back Yauhuiche or another village to spend a couple days with a family that is knowledgeable of the Gastronomic’s of Oaxaca. I will contact Fernando as soon as possible to get more information about what is possible and what might be the best idea.

Thanks!

Posted by drpooville_Admin as General, College Of The Atlantic, Recipes, Personal Endeveavors at 7:43 PM PST

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