'Favela Rising': a Type of Community Activism to Improve Lives in Favelas

If you haven't done it yet, I strongly recommend watching the documentary 'Favela Rising'. Other than depicting the social context and life in favelas, the documentary shows how community activism can be used as a powerful tool to improve lives within a favela. In the movie, in response to the high criminality and drug trafficking in favelas, a group of residents organizes to form social revolutionary in one of Rio's most dangerous slums.

Criminality is one of the main concerns that strongly impact the lives of the residents in favelas. To address this issue, many programs have recently tackle drug trafficking by implementing Pacific Police Units into favelas. By identifying and acting upon the major drug trafficking factions in Rio's favelas, and by promoting social and educational events for the whole community, the UPP aims at restoring pacification into the favelas, eventually improving the lives of the residents and decreasing the stigma placed upon those communities by the rest of the city.

Here's a link to the first part of the documentary:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKSuaPxYU0s

Under-rated of the month: That teacher in high school that was so inspiring and challenging that you still keep your essays and the class readings in your room back home.

     That person for me was my AP World History and Honors Comparative Literature teacher. In comparative literature class, he had us watch the movie "The Mission," which was a big hit when it premiered. I talked to other teachers about the movie and they all loved it, especially since some of them lead mission trips to other countries. They found it inspiring.

     My comp. lit. teacher, on the other hand, had us analyze it more deeply. We all came to a similar analysis: the main character (a Western man) isn't truly helping these indigenous people.
     In the movie, the Christian men were presented in a way that made them seem like they were living in native villages and relating to the native people. The nuances of the movie showed the true discourses that the writers/directors thought of when making the movie. The natives were never fully dressed. They always seemed to laugh, smile and make primate-type sounds. The natives who did speak, spoke perfect english because they were educated at the newly erected mission. The white men ate with silverware and on shiny plates. The natives learned how to play Western music on a flute.
     It seemed to me and my classmates that these missionaries were held up as greater beings. They were the classic saviors-of-a-primitive-culture disguised at good guys. Sure, they suffered in their pasts but did they suffer with the people that they came into contact with? I argue not.
     A justified summary of this message comes in the form of Paulo Freire's Dedication Page from his book "Pedagogy of the Oppressed": To the oppressed, and to those who suffer with them and fight at their side. 
     If we are to truly impact the situation when we work domestically or abroad, I argue that we must step into the situations of the oppressed. We may never feel the true pain of a homeless person seeking health care or a 40 year old Bolivian who never received the proper education to read or write. But we must at least make wholehearted attempts to enter their world and suffer. Nonetheless, I have no idea what this may look like in practice when I travel to Bolivia.
     One thing that always struck me during comp. lit. was the fact that my teacher never stood up in class. He sat down with the rest of us and acted as a facilitator of discussion. Instead of standing on a stage and speaking with power, as most teachers do, he gave that power to us. It was the best class I ever took.

Preparing for College in Kindergarten

          A New York primary school recently canceled an end-of-the-year play for kindergarteners. The reason? The teachers and administration “are responsible for preparing children for college and career with valuable lifelong skills and know that we can best do that by having them become strong readers, writers, coworkers and problem solvers,” according to a signed letter sent out to the parents. Basically, the school felt that the putting on a play was not an effective use of the kindergarteners’ limited studying time.

Although I personally find this premise ridiculous, I assume the parents enrolled their kids in this school with knowledge of just how seriously it took college readiness. If the parents dislike it, they can switch their kids to other schools. But there is a more serious underlying issue here – as the wealthy start preparing their kids for college in kindergarten, students in less intense schools will fall further behind in their competiveness. Students who have been trained to write college application essays from the age of five will undoubtedly be at an advantage. And since a college diploma is one of the biggest determinants of a well-paying career and success in this country, a vicious cycle will be propagated. The rich will get richer as they become even more advantaged in the college admissions process, while low-income students will struggle or be trapped, unable to get acceptance letters from the top universities.

Canceling a kindergarten play may seem like a minor event, but I think it speaks to larger issues of educational inequality in the United States. I don’t know what the best course of action is, but I know that the current trend is unfair and, quite frankly, makes no one happy. Regardless of background or aspirations, kindergarten should be a time of finger painting and picture books, not standardized tests and studying.

The article can be read here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/04/26/kindergarten-show-canceled-so-kids-can-keep-working-to-become-college-and-career-ready-really/?tid=pm_pop

Coaching Corps

For my practice experience I will be working with Coaching Corps, an organization that uses the power of sports and service to improve educational, health and social outcomes for underserved youth. They are partnered up with many organizations across the Bay Area, looking for assistant coaches to help run youth sports teams as well as serve as mentors for these kids. The partner organization Coaching Corps assigned me to was Berkeley Youth Alternatives, a non-profit, community-initiated organization located in Berkeley, CA, that provides a multitude of counseling resources and after school programs for troubled youth, including sports fitness. I am currently an assistant coach for a 5^th grade girls basketball team, where my responsibilities extend not only into the realm of basketball instruction and sports discipline, but also into the role of a mentor and guiding figure. 

One of the aspects of my organization I love the most is Coaching Corps strives to utilize their students volunteers beyond the couple weekly practices they attend and carry out larger events to directly address other areas of these children's lives like the importance of education. One of those events will be occurring this Sunday, April 13. Coaching Corps will be hosting Take Your Team to College Day. This event will bring the kids we serve to the Berkeley college campus and will give them an opportunity to explore the possibilities of higher education. At this year's event, we have kids coming from Bears Youth Basketball, Willard Middle School, and MLK Jr. Middle School. This is the agenda they provided us:

10:30AM-11:45AM Volunteers Meet Up & Introductions

Help with any set ups/preparations and receive a tour guide map with talking points to review; participate in an ice breaker and form a buddy system when the kids arrive; interact with the kids!

11:45AM-12:45PM Campus Tour

Give a tour of the UC Berkeley campus! You will not give a tour alone; you will work with a buddy of your choice as well as a student-athlete. All tour maps, stops, and talking points will be given to you so no prior knowledge is necessary at all.

12:45PM-1:15PM Scavenger Hunt

Help out with a Scavenger Hunt that includes Sather Gate, Campanile, and more! 

1:15PM-2:10PM College Student Panels

Be a part of a panel with student athletes and discuss college life, give advice and info about staying active. 

2:10PM-2:45PM Activity & Pick Up Game

Participate in a quick activity and a soccer pick up game with the kids!

2:45PM–3PM Closing

Closing remarks, hand out goodie bags, answer any questions, and take photos.

As you can see it's a packed schedule filled with many positive experiences and provide these children with opportunities to learn about higher education as well as do the things they love, like sports. Juxtaposing the two in an event like this is a great way of teaching these underserved children to associate the fun they have with sports with school.

The reason why I bring this up is not only because this event is quickly approaching, but because of our discussion of visual documentation both in class and discussion. Many of the photos on Coaching Corps's website display exactly these sort of events of youth empowerment and support. That is how they market their cause and receive funding. In our discussion when we were looking and analyzing each other's photos (from our respective organizations), we discussed what our organizations were trying to get across. It's nice to see those pictures come to life and witness what they were trying to get across first hand through this event.    

Work Colleges and Student Loan Debt

Rising tuition and high interest rates on loans are frequent topics of discussion nowadays, but universities have done little to change the status quo on their own volition. Many students are left with crippling debt after graduation – nationally, almost $1 trillion is owed. All of us UC students have experienced huge tuition increases, and maybe even participated in protests against them. And Cal’s fees pale in comparison to the $50K often charged by private schools. Basically, the current system is unsustainable, and with the current political climate makes policy change seem unlikely. However, seven small private vocational colleges have found a possible solution on their own: reducing or eliminating tuition in exchange for working a required number of hours.

             At these colleges, all students – regardless of their financial situation – are required to work on tasks ranging from gardening to handling phone calls, usually around 100 hours a semester, and then evaluated on their performance. (Cal, of course, has work study, but it is quite different: it’s voluntary, targets financially needy students, and is a federal program.) The results are promising: average student debt is $12,121 as opposed to the national average for private nonprofit colleges of $27,710 and public colleges of $21,740. The vast majority of students find the program helpful, saying it helped prepare them for their first job, manage time, work with people with different views, etc. And the schools have benefitted from reduced staff costs and have seen large increases in applications and enrollment. Three of the schools, Alice Lloyd, Berea College, and College of the Ozarks, have used grants, donations, and the work program to completely cover tuition costs.

            Despite these positive outcomes, this program brings up a lot of questions. Should every student be required to participate? The colleges claim it evens the playing field, since everyone is working the same amount, but students with disabilities or other part-time jobs might really struggle to fulfill the additional time commitments. And the program’s demands might detract from students’ ability to find well-paying jobs they could otherwise squeeze in. The colleges admit that a lot of fundraising is needed to keep the program running – requiring everyone to participate might not be economically sustainable. Letting students choose to opt out and pay full tuition could help cover the program’s costs. On the whole, though, I think that the benefits of giving everyone job experience and the same time commitments outweigh the costs.

            Given that, could it work on a larger scale? All the colleges currently doing this work program are small, private schools with vocational emphases, and it is a little difficult to imagine huge universities like Cal managing 30,000 students’ work hours. And replacing staff with students would be unfair to the employees, many of who have families or more financial demands than college kids with access to their parents’ bank account. It seems as though the work college program is well suited to the seven institutions currently using it, but that the program’s limitations would be exacerbated on a larger scale.

Overall, I think the seven work colleges have designed a really interesting way to combat student loan debt while simultaneously preparing their students for the workforce after graduation. It works well at those schools, but it does little to change the outrageous student debt situation nationally.  

Read more at: http://www.sfgate.com/news/us/article/Students-jobs-pay-off-tuition-at-7-work-colleges-5361112.php#photo-6095445

Is Education a Resource Problem?

     In the last month or so, the class had spent a good amount of time on the article “What Kind of a Problem is Poverty?” by Michael B. Katz. The article goes into depth about 6 types of problems —persons, places, resources, political economy, power, and market. From our discussion, an interesting question arose as to whether education was a resource problem.  I was one of those that ardently believed that education was a resource problem.  However, I did understand the debate surrounding the topic, because it may not fall within the Katz definition of what a resource problem is.  Katz largely emphasized that a resource problem was a lack in money.  Further, Katz stated that a resource problem is the absence of also “key resources,” which he brings up as food and basic needs. 

     Although Katz doesn’t bring education up under “key resources,” I think in today’s society education is valuable key resource that largely influences the amount of money that you can possibly make (salary) and other opportunities.  In the article that I found with the New York Times titled “Class Matters. Why won’t we admit it?”, the author describes the undeniable relationship between education and class. The article even describes how certain schools and education policies like “No Child Left Behind” are currently addressing how important it has become to provide a good education, especially for the lower income classes. An interesting fact provided by the article was that students of lower income and social status had lower test scores. The author even believes that it’s the fact that it’s the large inequality and high poverty rate in America that contributes to America’s education system being ranked very low in comparison to other countries.  Given this, it seems that education is an essential resource for those who seek to get out of the lower classes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/12/opinion/the-unaddressed-link-between-poverty-and-education.html?pagewanted=all&action=click&module=Search&region=searchResults%230&version=&url=http%3A%2F%2Fquery.nytimes.com%2Fsearch%2Fsitesearch%2F%3Faction%3Dclick%26region%3DMasthead%26pgtype%3DSectionFront%26module%3DSearchSubmit%26contentCollection%3Deducation%26t%3Dqry904%23%2Fpoor+and+education

Anonymous Approach to Homelessness, Justified?

We are Anonymous.

We are legion.

We will not forgive governments forcing people to become homelessness.

We will not forget that we can be next.

To the corrupt government holding our future from us.

You will expect us soon enough!

     -“Anonymous – The Homelessness Update 2014” by “OfficialAnonymousTV1”

            Anonymous is “a loosely international network of activist and hacktivist entities,” started in 2003. And, “the group became known for a series of well-publicized publicity stunts and distributed denial-of service (DDoS) attacks on government, religious, and corporate websites.”

Thanks Wiki.

Anonymous is good in what they do: hacking, educating the public of the injustice, and giving a big headache to the FBI. In their YouTube channel, the Anonymous has released the Homelessness 2014 update. Here, they also succeeded in implementing fear to their enemies, or the “corrupted government.”

But, here is the thing. As writing this article, I am, to be honest, a little afraid to mention anything that might provoke the Anonymous, or FBI in a space that is so “public.” How is this fear I am feeling different from the one I feel due to the government censorship? My lack of knowledge in the interests of Anonymous might be the cause. Still, this fear of mine has its reasons.

As a college student who is interning at an anti-homelessness organization in Oakland called WEAP, Women’s Economic Agenda Project, I cannot help but to compare the approaches taken by my organization to the one of Anonymous. The “Anonymous approach” to homelessness in the U.S. is much more sensational and informative that the work the WEAP has done. However, it seems that WEAP has provided a more intimate cure to the homelessness, by launching anti-eviction campaigns, and discussing homelessness in a non-virtual space or by face-to-face. Fascinatingly, WEAP and Anonymous have been around for about the same years. But, they have vastly different history when in working with homelessness. Is there a better approach? Does the better approach necessarily cancel out the unique benefits that another provides?

Anyways, Anonymous is fabulous in their hacking skills. I wish I had them.

            Lucky you. And, thanks to them for their videos. They do help in spreading the facts of poverty and inequality to the larger audience. And, they do help in raising questions that should be answered by all activists who are involved in reducing inequality, poverty, and injustice. What does justice mean to you? What is equality, in a world that we live in now?  I am assuming I did have my ideas unrefined as I began my work. However, it would’ve have been more helpful to have these terms defined explicitly as my first step. I then could’ve tracked my progress in my work and possible modifications to my ideas of poverty, inequality, and justice.

           My most agreeable form of understanding justice comes from John Rawls, an American philosopher of politics. By Rawlsian terms, Justice as fairness is achieved by minimizing inequality, and having the better-off contribute for the worst-off. When studying inequality and poverty, I find justice, as a concept that must go noticed.

Does justice matter? I think so.