•Monday, May 25, 2009
Ian, why is our city so stellar - and WB´s copyright laws so stinky...
Anyway, I was supposed to get back to Philly this morning but I managed to miss my flight in an embarassing episode of dawdling in suburban Buenos Aires. On the subway ride back to Juana's, I was at least entertained by a guy breakdancing to Little Bow-Wow (on a moving, crowded train - imagine it!). So, I am at the airport now after arriving incredibly early, and to pass the time I decided to splurge on $5 internet. My time in BA ended up passing very quickly - while I am exhausted, it was nice to get away and have to worry about navigating a new culture and language rather than worry about classes and gbm agendas.
While I was here, I looked at two really interesting local development models. The first one was a banco communal - known in English as a "village bank". They are pretty widespread in South America. Essentially, a group of community members (generally women) come together and receive loans from a not-for-profit organization. The not-for-profit gets money in the form of loans from a conventional bank, which they then lend out to the women at a higher interest rate to cover their administrative expenses (the justification for this is that the women wouldn't be able to receive a loan from a conventional bank). The women can in turn lend the money out to people in their community (often to men) at an even higher interest rate. On the one hand, this creates what is called a "grupo solidario", a communtiy where everyone trusts each other and keeps each other in check. It also empowers women and allows for more money to flow in the community to fund entrepreneurial activities. On the other hand, however, it is recreating the problems of conventional economy on a community-level (interest, indebtedness, etc.). One rather idealistic person I interviewed said that it is turning the women into "little capitalists". However, it was neat to talk to the women and hear about how paricipating had made a big impact on their economic situation and personal relationships - it was also cool to see a lot of younger women, daughters, etc. getting interested and participating.
The other model I looked at is trying to recreate the economic system. Before and during the economic crisis in Argentina in 2000, provinces started issuing their own currencies to try to curb inflation. In addition, at one point over 6 million people were participating in informal barter clubs where they used local currencies (wootwoot!) to exchange goods and services. At the time, many people participated out of desparation, and after the economy improved, the movement died down. Some of the founders of the barter clubs, though, still see the movement as a way to make economy more social (the weekly or biweekly meetings of the groups that still exist are pretty neat - everyone knows everyone else and absolutely loves participating). One flaw, though, is that initially the clubs were meant to encourage production (i.e. someone who bakes could exchange cookies for a sweater made by a knitter), but the clubs have now become sort of a flea market where people bring assorted goods they have bought or that they had lying around the house (I guess this is still a form of recycling, though). Some production does still take place - I exchanged a package of yerba mate for some delicious homemade pastries, and the clubs do seem to have really helped people who are out of work. Actually, it sounds like with the current financial crisis more people are participating than have been in the past few years.
I had some major takeaways in terms of analyzing not-for-profits, too, which you guys might find interesting - when they were starting up, a lot of these different barter clubs had arguments over philosophy, and while the fact that they largely fell apart can be attributed to the improvement of the economy, it also sounds like there was some corruption in a few groups, rising distrust over the fact that there was no oversight, and competing personalities in leadership that prevented progress from being made. The clubs that have survived are in the hands now of some really incredible female leaders - they operate independently in the communities, and most of the participants don´t know about the hierarchical movements that lead to their creation. I guess this speaks to the benefits of having decentralized projects. Also, there was formerly some connection between the person running the village bank that I visited and one of the founders of the local barter clubs. There is now a "riff" between them where they practically don't talk because there were arguments over their differing philosophies. One of the people who was involved in the barter clubs I think rightly pointed out that there needs to be more collaboration between groups and movements. Every development project is going to have pros and cons, and it would be ideal if people could take aspects of different ideas and apply them to different communities. There is no recipe that is going to work for everyone, and it is a shame that people get so engaged in certain development philosophies and creating the "perfect model" that they lose their willingness to change. I guess this makes me think of CHAC in some ways - a) because we are dealing with administrative elements that are to some extent comfortable with an old model (to their credit, they want to make sure the new one will work) and b) it would be great if in our new constitution, we could develop a structure that will allow us to be as flexible as possible with different group's needs and work - a structure that is less rigid, I guess.
It was great hearing about the impact that both groups have made, but I continue to be disillusioned in that it seems like sweeping government changes could do a lot, too (as in the U.S.). Argentina is a very disparate country - the downtown areas are very posh, but there is incredible poverty in a lot of the outer neighborhoods where these groups are working. There is a great deal of corruption and lobbying that takes place (as in other parts of the world, too :)). A lot of Argentines are fed up, too - I went to the University of Buenos Aires and saw a huge gathering of communist students - who later took to the streets calling for a communist vote in the upcoming elections. On the other hand, the village bank I looked at is staying low-key and is trying to work with the government. Argentina has had such an interesting, volatile history, and there is so much going on, that I am definitely going to keep it on my radar :).
Anywho, that was a whopper of an e-mail, but hopefully it was semi-interesting, and it was nice for me to reflect before I watch movies and pass out on the plane.
Looking forward to seeing those of you that are in Philly soon!!
Julia
Anyway, I was supposed to get back to Philly this morning but I managed to miss my flight in an embarassing episode of dawdling in suburban Buenos Aires. On the subway ride back to Juana's, I was at least entertained by a guy breakdancing to Little Bow-Wow (on a moving, crowded train - imagine it!). So, I am at the airport now after arriving incredibly early, and to pass the time I decided to splurge on $5 internet. My time in BA ended up passing very quickly - while I am exhausted, it was nice to get away and have to worry about navigating a new culture and language rather than worry about classes and gbm agendas.
While I was here, I looked at two really interesting local development models. The first one was a banco communal - known in English as a "village bank". They are pretty widespread in South America. Essentially, a group of community members (generally women) come together and receive loans from a not-for-profit organization. The not-for-profit gets money in the form of loans from a conventional bank, which they then lend out to the women at a higher interest rate to cover their administrative expenses (the justification for this is that the women wouldn't be able to receive a loan from a conventional bank). The women can in turn lend the money out to people in their community (often to men) at an even higher interest rate. On the one hand, this creates what is called a "grupo solidario", a communtiy where everyone trusts each other and keeps each other in check. It also empowers women and allows for more money to flow in the community to fund entrepreneurial activities. On the other hand, however, it is recreating the problems of conventional economy on a community-level (interest, indebtedness, etc.). One rather idealistic person I interviewed said that it is turning the women into "little capitalists". However, it was neat to talk to the women and hear about how paricipating had made a big impact on their economic situation and personal relationships - it was also cool to see a lot of younger women, daughters, etc. getting interested and participating.
The other model I looked at is trying to recreate the economic system. Before and during the economic crisis in Argentina in 2000, provinces started issuing their own currencies to try to curb inflation. In addition, at one point over 6 million people were participating in informal barter clubs where they used local currencies (wootwoot!) to exchange goods and services. At the time, many people participated out of desparation, and after the economy improved, the movement died down. Some of the founders of the barter clubs, though, still see the movement as a way to make economy more social (the weekly or biweekly meetings of the groups that still exist are pretty neat - everyone knows everyone else and absolutely loves participating). One flaw, though, is that initially the clubs were meant to encourage production (i.e. someone who bakes could exchange cookies for a sweater made by a knitter), but the clubs have now become sort of a flea market where people bring assorted goods they have bought or that they had lying around the house (I guess this is still a form of recycling, though). Some production does still take place - I exchanged a package of yerba mate for some delicious homemade pastries, and the clubs do seem to have really helped people who are out of work. Actually, it sounds like with the current financial crisis more people are participating than have been in the past few years.
I had some major takeaways in terms of analyzing not-for-profits, too, which you guys might find interesting - when they were starting up, a lot of these different barter clubs had arguments over philosophy, and while the fact that they largely fell apart can be attributed to the improvement of the economy, it also sounds like there was some corruption in a few groups, rising distrust over the fact that there was no oversight, and competing personalities in leadership that prevented progress from being made. The clubs that have survived are in the hands now of some really incredible female leaders - they operate independently in the communities, and most of the participants don´t know about the hierarchical movements that lead to their creation. I guess this speaks to the benefits of having decentralized projects. Also, there was formerly some connection between the person running the village bank that I visited and one of the founders of the local barter clubs. There is now a "riff" between them where they practically don't talk because there were arguments over their differing philosophies. One of the people who was involved in the barter clubs I think rightly pointed out that there needs to be more collaboration between groups and movements. Every development project is going to have pros and cons, and it would be ideal if people could take aspects of different ideas and apply them to different communities. There is no recipe that is going to work for everyone, and it is a shame that people get so engaged in certain development philosophies and creating the "perfect model" that they lose their willingness to change. I guess this makes me think of CHAC in some ways - a) because we are dealing with administrative elements that are to some extent comfortable with an old model (to their credit, they want to make sure the new one will work) and b) it would be great if in our new constitution, we could develop a structure that will allow us to be as flexible as possible with different group's needs and work - a structure that is less rigid, I guess.
It was great hearing about the impact that both groups have made, but I continue to be disillusioned in that it seems like sweeping government changes could do a lot, too (as in the U.S.). Argentina is a very disparate country - the downtown areas are very posh, but there is incredible poverty in a lot of the outer neighborhoods where these groups are working. There is a great deal of corruption and lobbying that takes place (as in other parts of the world, too :)). A lot of Argentines are fed up, too - I went to the University of Buenos Aires and saw a huge gathering of communist students - who later took to the streets calling for a communist vote in the upcoming elections. On the other hand, the village bank I looked at is staying low-key and is trying to work with the government. Argentina has had such an interesting, volatile history, and there is so much going on, that I am definitely going to keep it on my radar :).
Anywho, that was a whopper of an e-mail, but hopefully it was semi-interesting, and it was nice for me to reflect before I watch movies and pass out on the plane.
Looking forward to seeing those of you that are in Philly soon!!
Julia
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