BlogHer - corruption - Comments

AAAAAMEN

DCSweetie — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 14:10:49 -0500

DCSweetie (http://dcsweetie.blogspot.com/)

Or should I say, "a-woman"? I especially like #5 here. Does it concern anyone else that Palin returned to work THREE DAYS after giving birth to her 5th kid? That doesn't bode well for her support of extended family leave.

Thanks for your insightful piece.

Palin Gaffe's on her first public question

topsyturvy86 — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 13:01:21 -0500

She's still not allowed to give interveiws but this was when she was with the rest of her team speaking to voters. I guess she still has a lot of schooling to do!

---------------------------------------

Gov. Sarah Palin made her first potentially major gaffe during her time on the national scene while discussing the developments of the perilous housing market this past weekend.

Speaking before voters in Colorado Springs, the Republican vice presidential nominee claimed that lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had "gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers." The companies, as McClatchy reported, "aren't taxpayer funded but operate as private companies. The takeover may result in a taxpayer bailout during reorganization."

Economists and analysts pounced on the misstatement, saying it demonstrated a lack of understanding about one of the key economic issues likely to face the next administration.

You could find the rest of the story here : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/08/palin-makes-her-first-gaf_n_124792.html

Temi

well said

ynnej — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 12:41:13 -0500

I was thinking these things but unable to verablize them enough to blog. Thanks for summarizing so well!

http://ConscientiousConfusion.blogspot.com

That's It!!!

Southerngirl — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 12:35:40 -0500

Reality Chick

I have stayed away from this for the last few days because I needed to figure out why this whole thing pissed me off soo much. You hit it on the head. I was that teenager shuttling the younger ones around and making sure they got off to school in the morning. There are many more pictures of me holding the younger kids than my mom. My family was not well off and my mom worked from 6am to 6pm most days and my dad worked 2 jobs so someone had to step in and it was often me. I see that in the Palin family. I realize now that I feel this poor child's pain and Gov. Palin has choices that my mom never had but wants me to think she is just like me. I really resented being put in that position even though I was smart enough to understand why. I too see a very different picture.

Michelle

Ditto, reality chick. And

miteegirl — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 12:23:58 -0500

Ditto, reality chick. And it took me years to get over the resentment I had at being forced to be "the little mother". I wouldn't have minded if we were all in day care or had a nanny, actually. Anyone who could have let me just be a kid and not a mini-mom at age 10.

In fact, so did my cousin and she went out and got pregnant in high school to try and escape her mother's clutches. That was a serious cry for help.

Thank you Rebecca

reality chick — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 12:19:46 -0500

For getting back to the issues. I'm disheartened by the figure Sarah Palin offers as a feminist role model: a woman who does everything to the point of exhaustion -- badly. "If I can do it, you can too."

I was a teenage daughter who grew up with my mother's youngest offspring on my hip, as Bristol Palin is photographed now. To some this may seem a picture of family togetherness -- but I see a different picture.

Many more than 5

Kelly Wickham — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 13:55:37 -0500

You asked good questions and ones which we have all the rights to know if this is a serious contender. But I'm still skeptical about that. Is she a contender? Mostly, however, I ask, "Is she SERIOUS?"

I've heard her mention that glass celing and every time I wonder if she secretly has the duct tape and super glue with which to patch that sucker up - there's no way she wants another woman to have the rights we've worked so hard to get.

Mocha Momma

Step One

rebellious thinker — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 05:50:54 -0500

Well, she is apparently back in Alaska getting ready to be on the campaign trail. Someone must have realized that she can't answer these questions without nastily attacking Obama and city folk as being less American than those who live in small towns. Maybe now, after this huge ego up-do, she can think about these questions and decide, maybe I'm not up to it, and maybe I'm not really able to put America first, because I've lived my entire life in a tiny town in Alaska and have no idea who Americans are, how diverse they are, how colorful they are, how far-removed from my life they are. Maybe she'll do herself, her family, and us and favor and retire back into the bear den.

Laura, www.RebelliousThoughtsofaWoman.com

The Aid world is so frustrating

Holligurl — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 06:21:10 -0500

Back when I was a volunteer, we did not even consider looking into the issues in our own backyard. The plight of the aboriginal peoples in North America is largely ignored in favour of emphasis on the exotic... Paying attention to the poverty at home would also make us face the brutal history in our won countries which we prefer not to look at.

Also, there are never south - north volunteer placements. It is a parent -child set up between the developed and developing in terms of Aid orgs... And you are right that they never conceive tha the locals may know far more what is needed than incoming inexperienced volunteers!!

However, my other point in the aricle above was about the culture here which feeds on the little volunteer girls and their naivete ... and the sad truth that all the well intentioned seminars promoted by Aid orgs are only attended for the per diems...

There is resentment of foreigners working here as well.

I've been writing some more about what goes on in Ghana at least, on my blog:

www.hollisramblings.blogspot.com

don't blame the volunteers

priyanthi — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 01:20:40 -0500

LIke Jayne, I think this is a very honest blog. It seems to be part of a trend of self-consciousness of Europeans/Americans abroad - a Canadian friend sent me something not dissimilar recently (it wasn't about volunteers though).

I am Sri Lankan by the way, and have been working in development for much too long, mostly in Sri Lanka, with Sri Lankan and international organisations, and for ten years in London, coordinating an international network, which is how, like Jayne I became a participant in the Aid Workers Network. I see what is being described as a problem of inexperienced eager volunteers as symptomatic of a much deeper problem in the architecture of the aid system, mainly the non-governmental side.

Historically the non-governmental aid system had a hugely missionary/charity focus which supposedly gave place to a more 'developmental' one. I don't think it has ever quite able to shake off that mantle, witness the white woman's burden! The importance that continues to be attached to the role that money plays in the partnership between northern (European/American) agencies and their southern (African/Asian/Latin American) organisations often results in less than equal relationships between the people working for both. It is not only inexperienced volunteers that are a problem, have we not seen aid workers in the formal aid organisations, UN, IFIs included, who tend to display many of the characteristics this blog describes, with scant respect for local officials/workers whose knowledge and experience is far superior? There is a Jazz afternoon every first Sunday of the month in Colombo, and if you came to one of those, you would think you were in GHana! Even the disparities of remuneration of those deemed to be "local" as opposed to "international" reflect this much more than the alleged differences in "costs of living". And the sad thing is, that governments like mine are beginning to address these issues by trying to make it difficult for foreign aid workers to work in Sri Lanka, period, which is not the solution at all.

I know this is probably too serious a response to the original blog that spawned it - I am happy that there is increasing awareness of these disparities,but having straddled the hemispheres I also feel like we really need to address the root causes of these problems so that we can have a more equal partnership between the different worlds we inhabit. Would be interesting to know if there are any volunteer programmes for instance, that bring southern expertise into dealing with poverty in the north?

ah, the jaded...

jcravens — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 04:22:54 -0500

I have only been to Northern Africa (Egypt). I worked in Afghanistan for six months last year, and while there were no unskilled volunteers there (very skilled volunteers through UNV and other organizations, however -- great folks), there were some "adventure" tourists there who were every bit as naive as what you've described.

Would love to converse offlist:

jc@coyotecommunications.com

I'm always looking to add more women aid/development workers to my network, as we are so incredibly under represented. And I'd love to hear more about your work.

<><><><><><><>

Jayne Cravens

http://www.coyotecommunications.com

Only because I was one...

Holligurl — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 04:11:49 -0500

Hi Jayne

Thanks for the reply. I guess I can only be so critical as I was once one of them... I arrived in Ghana 12 years ago just about as naive as you can get. All these years later I am still in Ghana - have moved far away from aid work though... living here really makes you jaded! I still love the mess and vibrancy of Africa most of the time - however you'd never know it in my writing as usually that is where I vent when the ironies and frustrations get too intense!

Do you work in Africa much?

very honest

jcravens — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 04:06:03 -0500

I'm a participant in the Aid Workers Network (http://www.aidworkers.net), which is for professionals working in aid and development, and I think a lot of the people on that forum feel the same way you do about these kinds of young, inexperienced volunteers abroad, but would never be so honest, so blunt about it. I think it's telling that VSO in the UK has come out so strongly against these kind of volunteer "vacations."

<><><><><><><>

Jayne Cravens

http://www.coyotecommunications.com