Counteracting the Global FInancial Crisis

I just signed a petition and sent an email to the Managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a quick but hopefully valuable attempt at a better world::
http://www.one.org/international/gold/?rc=goldtaf

At the G20 summit in London, the IMF was tasked with coming up for a plan to sell some of their gold reserves to provide emergency funding for developing countries struggling through the financial crisis. I sent a letter to the IMF, because I want them to provide as much funding as they can, and provide it in way that won't create debt for developing countries, which may find their economic recovery cut short if they have to take high interest loans.

The issue of debt is an important one, and we need to let the IMF know that people care about it so they do the right thing. Please join me in taking action to let them know here:
http://www.one.org/international/gold/?rc=goldtaf

A ton of work has been done to try to get the world's rich nations to forgive the debilitating debts from loans 'given' to the worlds poorest nations to supposedly help them rebuild after years of exploitation and often tyrannical rule by the colonial powers. Cynics would say that these loans were just a new form of colonialism because they came with conditionalities which fundamentally undermined the recipient countries' economies and societies (called structural adjustment programs or SAPs). The interest rates on some of these former loans led to the vast majority of government's budgets going towards servicing the debt while the countries citizens went without basic necessities. Some of these debts were forgiven in the last decades, freeing up sorely needed funds for things like providing antiretrovirals to people suffering from aids, and providing primary schooling. To renew the debt burdens when claiming to be helping countries overcome the effects of the financial crisis would be incredibly ironic, unjust, and disappointing. So I emailed my buddy IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, to share my opinion that I think its great that we are providing some capital to help poor countries cope with the financial crisis, but it should not be a loan. It should be stimulus.

Engineers Without Borders (Day)

If you were in a grocery store in a Canadian city today you might have seen something like this:


Engineers Without Borders Chapter members were trying to raise awareness of Fair Trade Certified products - products certified to give producers a guaranteed fair price for their work and promote human development in the communities producing these goods.

The idea is that if consumers have a choice to buy fair products they will do it - activism through shopping. I don't think it solves all the problems with our current trade systems but I do think it is a good step, and potentially leads to people considering the impacts of their actions on the world.

Here in Halifax I would say they are pretty ahead of the curve on Fair Trade awareness and access. We have found fair trade bananas, oranges, grapes, chocolate, tea, coffee and rice so far. Also it didn't really work to have the same kind of event (although one is in the works) yet so instead we had a cool event called "Propelling Change."

We met at the Propellor microbrewery and had a presentor who is an expert on microfinance in Bangladesh - Farzana Naz Shmapa - share some of her research. We raised some money for EWB, learned a lot about microfinance and the Grameen bank (you may have heard of Dr. Muhammad Yunus winning the Nobel Peace prize in 2006), drank some excellent all natural beverages (pop too!) and had a tour of the brewery.

My attempt at a better world was to introduce the event and give a quick into to EWB. Hopefully it contributed to the overall effectiveness of the event and created some interest in EWB. I adlibbed but here is a similar intro for anyone interested.

"Engineers Without Borders (EWB) Canada is a registered Canadian charity working towards human development. There are EWB organization in some other countries but EWB Canada is a stand alone organization.

EWB works simultaneously overseas and in Canada to promote human development.

Overseas EWB works in four countries in SubSaharan Africa, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Malawi, Zambia. They have worked in more countries in the past but have gradually focussed in on these countries to capitalize on great partnership opportunities and allow for more accumulation of locally appropriate knowledge and experience. EWB volunteers are young Canadians who work in (4 month to 2 year ) partnership with existing organizations working to promote human development through improving water and sanitation, impoving rural agriculture production and the associated value chains. Each volunteers 'job description' varies a lot depending on the needs of their partner and the local context of the projects.

In Canada EWB is mainly a student driven organization with 27 chapters at universities across the country, 6 professional chapters, and about 25 staff (some working overseas). These chapters work to promote human development through increasing the development knowledge of their members, promoting public awareness of human development issues and associated behaviour change, advocating for pro poor changes to our systems (like pushing the government to make development aid more effective), and fundraising.

Although EWB does not work on microfinance directly some of our partner organizations do and the 'Propelling Change' event was a chance to learn from an expert on the subject while having some fun and earning some money.