Changing Perspectives: GoPros and the Homeless

Recently, I read an article about a new organization based in San Francisco fighting to change perspectives of homelessness featured in the SF Gate, a local newspaper in San Francisco. Called Homeless GoPro, the organization's goal is to "build empathy through firsthand experiences." They do so by strapping a GoPro, a small camera that is typically used in extreme sports in order to give viewers the perspective of the person using the camera, onto a homeless person. In this way, people are able to literally see from a homeless person's perspective. The organization makes videos from these viewpoints--as the homeless are panhandling, as they are selling copies of the Street Sheet, as they walk around and talk about their experiences with homelessness.

San Francisco is currently in undergoing gentrification, most often simplified as the fight between the wealthy tech newcomers and the poor/working class. Often, technology is vilified, as seen in several cases where people wearing Google Glass have been harassed or have had their technology stolen (but perhaps it is just unintelligent to plainly wear a two thousand dollar gadget in neighborhoods where people are struggling to stay housed). So in the midst of this, it was very interesting for me to see a collaboration between technology and poverty alleviation through Homeless GoPro, showing that perhaps technology can also help homelessness, that it does not always have to be a bad thing. Interestingly enough, the Homeless GoPro project has not received much negativity. It began in early April, and its video (seen below) has had 40,000 hits on YouTube and very few "dislikes." Also, the co-creative director of the project is a 44 year old homeless man, who has been homeless since he was 14 years old.

However, there are some concerns as to this Homeless GoPro project. I've read a couple of studies about auto-photography, which is a type of participatory research/activism where groups are given cameras (usually disposable) in order to take pictures from their perspectives. The researchers write that participants could endanger themselves by taking such pictures of other homeless people and having a camera-- and this is just a camera. Also, the participants of such projects were not always willing to show their complete day-to-day life, because some were afraid that their public "private" spaces and sleeping spaces would be found (especially now that sleeping/sitting in public has been so criminalized). On the other hand, having an expensive item like a GoPro could really endanger the homeless. However, the organization has taken into account, saying that during filming, volunteers are on-site in order to prevent anything from happening. (But does this somehow detract from the its authenticity?)

The Homeless GoPro project seems like a well-intentioned project with a means of really changing perception of homelessness by virtually allowing people to "walk a mile in someone else's shoes." But, as always, there are critiques. Do the homeless really need to exploit their privacy and share their lives in such a personal manner simply to garner empathy from the rest of society? Yes, it is definitely a way of having people look at homelessness differently--but should it have to be this way?

Can using GoPros build empathy for the homeless?  What do you think?

You can check out their website at www.homelessgopro.org.

The Homeless versus the City of Albany

When I was on Shattuck this week, 4/20-4/26, I got the opportunity to get a hold of a copy of Street Spirit. During that short exchange, the guy told me a bit about himself and of Street Spirit because I had asked. I really appreciated his company and his insights on religion because outside of all the hardships he had something that inspired him and kept him going. The Street Spirit newspaper is a newspaper that addresses issues of homelessness, poverty, human rights, etc. in the Bay Area. The copy I obtained was from March.

The next day, my friend posted a news article from NBC news about the Albany Bulb and the homeless population there. The Albany Bulb is about a 10-15 minute drive from Berkeley and the city officials are in the process of making that area a state park. The only problem is that there is a community of homeless people that utilize that space as refuge and to stay away from the streets. The recent article shows that officials are now paying the residents to leave the space. However, Albany does not have a permanent homeless shelter, so where are these residents to go? In addition, is $3000 really enough?

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Albany-Paying-Homeless-3000-to-Vacate-Area-for-State-Park-256473221.html

Looking back at the copy of Street Spirit, I was able to find some news on this evacuation of the homeless from the Bulb and on the temporary shelter that was created to shelter these residents. And I think it's very interesting to see what happened in March has led to the point where the city is paying these residents to leave.

http://www.thestreetspirit.org/albany-officials-ignore-the-needs-of-disabled-people-at-the-bulb/

http://www.thestreetspirit.org/albanys-shelter-program-is-a-dismal-failure/

In my opinion, if city officials in Albany utilize the resources carefully, both the development of a state park and providing shelter for the current residents can be accomplished. This can be an opportunity to fix a broken system where officials can give these homeless people a place to live or something to satisfy their needs. If the shelter program did not work, they can think of a way to refine it.

Having the World's Fastest Elevator at the Cost of the Working Poor

It is interesting to know that so many countries have so many of its citizens living below the poverty line yet instead of investing in the well being of these people they decide to invest in skyscrapers. According to this article from CNN, there as a skyscraper being built in Guangzhou, China that will be having one of the fastest elevators in the world. The elevators speed will be going 45 mph which is super fast compared to a regulator elevator and can be compared to going as fast as a regular car on the street. As the the writer states "[The elevator is] like riding a speeding commuter train--into the sky." The skyscraper will be one of the tallest in the world measuring at 1, 739 ft (530 meters).

What I found very interesting about this article is a comment by one its readers. He states that "Dubai is basically built on slave labor. There have been plenty of documentaries and reports on it. It's appalling." Although this skyscraper will not be opening until 2016, construction has begun and who are the people that will be working with a horrible wage and building this famous skyscraper with the worlds fastest elevator? The poor lower class. Slave labor has allowed various governments throughout the world to invest little in the wages of deserving workers and invested more money in constructions around various cities in various countries. When reading this reader's comment, it reminded me of GPP 115 and how slave labor was a continuous cycle that many could not get out of. Not only did they have horrible wages but they worked many hours during the day and did not have health-care coverage incase they got into an accident.

Overall this article was interesting because it is exciting that there is going to be an elevator that will travel 45mph in  one of the worlds tallest skyscrapers but sadly this will happen with the blood, sweat and tears of the poor working class who are and will continue to do so in order to provide for their families.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/23/world/asia/world-fastest-elevator-guangzhou/index.html?hpt=wo_t3

Anti-Gay Laws and HIV/AIDS in Uganda

For those of you who might remember my welfare brief, I will be working on HIV/AIDS prevention in Uganda with an NGO called the Uganda Development and Health Associates. This post will be a more in-depth brief, or reflection, on how the recent Anti-Homosexuality Bill, signed into law December 2013 by the President of Uganda himself, might be bringing Uganda "backwards."

President Museveni.

Esteemed by many to be charismatic, and a leader worthy of the great nation he leads. Attributed with having led Uganda as a forefront country in the battle against HIV/AIDS, he led the movement that soon enough, led to the "Uganda miracle," namely, the drop in HIV prevalence rate from 31% in the 1980s to 6% in 2012. Although 6% is still a huge percentage of the population living with HIV/AIDS, this sharp decrease marks Uganda one of the few countries in Africa to have achieved such gains.

Today, though, President Museveni no longer emerges as the fearless leader who spoke out against stigma and gender inequity. Rather, today, he speaks out against homosexuality -- the promotion of it, the practice of it, whatever.

Globally, gay men are about 13 times as likely to have HIV. This is huge. How will further indicting homosexuality as a serious crime, punishable by jail time, allow Uganda to continue its emergence as a country successfully fighting AIDS? Exactly, it won't. How will making it illegal for organizations to help and offer its services to LGBTQ individuals, help the AIDS epidemic? Again, it won't. Instead, it is pretty obvious that it will do the exact opposite. The irony in this great man having once spoken out against stigma against the disease, is now perpetuating what should be the outdated stigmas associated with it.

The problem complicates further, when considering how one President's actions can translate into provisions for the citizens of the country. UNAIDS and global funding agencies for development have warned countries like Uganda of the consequences of anti-homosexuality bans. After the bill in Uganda passed, for example, the World Bank withdrew $90 million in funding for health services. Sadly, there are many other countries with similar situations.

Of course, during my practice experience, I will have to exhibit great care when routing conversations regarding the bill, and Museveni's role in it. I fear the disheartenment I might feel if UDHA mandated a rule against LGBTQ individuals from entering its health centers. Still, as a guest to both the NGO and to the nation of Uganda, I will have to respect the rules of both, and take care to seem at most, neutral, on the issue. At least, so I think.

The "Area of Risk" Justification for Favela Removals: The Case of Santa Marta

http://rioonwatch.org/?p=11410

In light of the two international events, the 2014 World  Cup and the 2016 Olympics Games, Rio's favelas have been the target for projects of favela eradication and home demolitions. Rio's Mayor Eduardo Paes announced the plan of 5% reduction of favelas and demolitions of residences in 'environmentally risky area', in which most favelas are located.

This is the case for the favela Santa Marta, which for several years has been under the threat of eviction. The residents, whose homes are part of their history and identity, have organized to stop this projects, protesting and taking their fights to court.

In 2010, during the first favela removal phase, evictions were abrupt. As in the case of the favela Metro-Mangueira, residents of the favelas were left in their demolished ruins of their homes. Other than the psychological state of frustration and despair, the residents were exposed to increased risk of diseases as dengue.

Beginning in 2008, Police Pacification Units (UPP) have been implemented in many favelas. In order to create a 'safer' environment for the million of tourists estimated for the 2014 World Cup, the policy approach to urban poverty in Rio underwent a switch from 'urban upgrading' to 'pacification'. The main goal of the UPP is not to stop criminality and end drug trafficking, but instead to take back territories controlled by drug factions. Recently, bringing social services and social investments started to take place in a few favelas. As a result of this policy approach, crime rates have been significantly decreasing.

Art and Poverty Action

A few months ago, I read an article in The New Yorker about Theaster Gates, an artist from Chicago who has recently garnered a lot of attention by art critics. Gates has degrees in fine arts, religious studies, and urban studies. He has traveled all over the world but seems to be especially interested in working in—and, as the article puts it, “reshaping”—some of the poorest parts of Chicago. He has become famous for “projects aimed at reviving a part of the city—plagued by unemployment and gang violence, its streets pocked with abandoned buildings—that he says has been ‘left to rot’ since the sixties…he has been buying dilapidated houses and turning them into small cultural centers and meeting spaces: ‘places where moments of beauty can happen.’”

What seems especially interesting is that Gates’ work is not simply art for people to look at—he creates space for people to come together and talk: “he encouraged visitors to talk and argue about race and spirituality, and at times brought them to a West Side shoe-shine stand called the Shine King…Gates shined shoes and pressed gallery patrons to do so, too…He brought all of these new people to the Shine King…and gave them a new way of looking at the neighborhood.”

For me, Gates provides an example of how art can be used as a part of poverty action. His work in Chicago seems especially relevant given the recent economic recession followed by huge numbers of home foreclosures. His art not only creates beauty where it seemed to have been lost, but also encourages discussion among some of the most affluent members of society about how to make the poorest spaces feel different—and better.

Here’s a link to Gates’ website: http://theastergates.com/section/29120.html. There are pictures and descriptions of several of his projects in Chicago. I find his work really inspiring and exciting.

What Can We Do About Child Marriage?

Lauren Farmer’s article “Child Marriage: When does a cultural practice become a global health issue?” appearing in Berkeley’s Public Health Advocate magazine issue of fall 2013, encourages readers to rethink how passively we approach the issue of child marriage in developing countries, as it is protected by the limitations on our cultural prowess due to ideals of reverence and appreciation of societies different from our own that have emerged since the fall of Western imperialism. We understandably fear overstepping our boundaries as it could provoke subdued emotions regarding the era of colonialism in the countries that we—the West—had once oppressed, resulting in numerous political problems that I, as a science major, can only guess at. The only problem here is, what if our regard for another’s culture enables the suffering of millions of young girls around the world every year to take place?

As an individual pursuing the medical and public health track, I don’t look at the photograph in the article of teenage fiancés who are meeting for the first time on their wedding day being wed as an expression of a culture and tradition that are hundreds of years old—I see only the injustice being carried out that results in the numerous medical problems detailed in the article, and this doesn’t even begin to explain the human rights and mental health issues at stake. Chief among these problems are early and frequent childbirths that has been causally linked to seizures, hemorrhaging during labor, chronic incontinence, infections, and even death of the child and the mother.

              The problem tree continues to grow: when a girl is married young and is made to start a family young, she is generally sexually assaulted by her husband—especially as she cannot really consent—she drops out of school, she loses the opportunity for a job, and she ends up minimally contributing to society, the economy, and her country (unless, of course, she produces a number of male offspring).

              When all of these undesirable consequences are occurring with child marriage at the root of the problem, can we really coax ourselves into thinking we have no say in that cultural realm? And if not, how can we reconcile cultural differences into a feasible solution while inviting minimal amount of hostility from those whose culture we are criticizing? I am not naïve and recognize that a glorious solution with which all parties involved will be happy is not going to occur, but the faction of impoverished female children with opportunities being snatched from them before they are even old enough to know what those might have been, has been given the short end of the stick for far too long.

              We need policy change, we need action. We need to make a better world for the children who are being veiled not only in a wedding outfit but by the notion of cultural boundaries and the inability of those with power to take a risk to reach out behind the veil and help them.

Save the Children #FirstWorldProblems

After leaving our discussion spurred on by the readings on visual documentation I become interested if there has been any shifts in the documentation of Ethiopia and poverty, as well as whether it has coincided with any actual economic or policy changes within the country. Growing up in southern California, many people were less than knowledgable about Ethiopia in any capacity, with the exception of the Feed the Children commercials that launched at the onset of the drought and famine of 1983-1985. I believe a majority of our class is not old enough to remember this actual timeframe in history, however many of the commercials launched in response to this natural disaster were heavily in rotation for a number of years after an extent of the disaster had been contained and in still play to this day to some extent.

Just for background development, in the case some people did not run into such commercials growing up I decided to try to search one of the archaic commercials. Personally, I still remember the extremely underweight children almost too frail to move being paraded on late night television all too well, as well as their distended bellies that are still the bud of many jokes once people do find out I am from there.

 I stumbled across across a few videos reminiscent of the many videos I had seen. All of the following videos in my opinion manipulate images to a great degree. In fact, one of the images that was included in one of the videos was the Kevin Carter's iconic images from his trip to Northern Sudan depicting the vulture preying over a famine stricken Sudanese toddler from the village of Ayod, Sudan.

In efforts to capture the perfect image whether it is for the purpose to represent the raw moment or to serve as call to action for the viewing public there is to an extent a degree of staging that occurs, which ultimately also equates manipulating the subject. In this instance the subject is the marginalized, the have-nots, the hungry, the sickly, and youth this leads to the question whether this equates to exploitation. When this images are captured we need to also weight out what we are able to live with in terms of at what cost does the image warrant the exploitation. Is the after affect or the desired call to attention worth it?

Another interesting aspect of the videos posted below is the lack of a call to action. We mentioned this in class earlier. The stirring up of all these emotions and sense of accomplishment felt by some for just engaging with the images and feeling like a better person for seeing the depths of poverty that exist. Yes, many of us need to be more grateful for what we have and it does become quiet simpler when you see the less fortunate shoved in your face on your big screen television. However, displaying such images whether they are staged, manipulated, and utter examples of exploitation are even WORSE to me when there is no option or suggestion to viewers to help fix the problem they are feeling sorry for and emotional over.  When we joke about things like #FirstWorldProblems I think we become cognizant of a problem, which is the goal, but are missing the latter half of the goal: the change we are hoping for.

Not too surprisingly, the images today asking for donations for Ethiopia are quite similar. The only representation of poverty that I felt was a stray away from these all too paralleling videos was a film shaped to feel like a documentary. The title, Zewdi The Street Kid, in my opinion does much more justice to the target group(marginalized street children in Ethiopia). http://vimeo.com/27882235

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.    

A friend of mine just posted this article, titled "What's the Difference Between Cultural Exchange and Cultural Appropriation"( see link Cultural Exchange and Cultural Appropriation) which first caught my eye because of the image: two girls dressed up as "native americans", presumably at some kind of party (given the red cups), with text reading: "No, it's cool, it's not like your ancestors killed them all or anything". Though I thought this was a bit overly dramatic, I read the article, which actually reminded me of our 'visual representation' conversations from today's section and last week's classes (on the relationship between the photographer and the person being photographed, and the ethical conflicts that come along with it).
The author explains that "there needs to be some element of mutual understanding, equality and respect for it to be a true [cultural] exchange". She first discusses several different views on the meaning behind the term "cultural appropriation", but then states her view that there probably is no correct clear-cut definition. Instead, she talks about the underlying need for respect for any type of cultural exchange. This seems like a good starting point for photo-documenting for us in GPP too - with both respect and some sort of mutual exchange and understanding.
While the author recognizes that there are a lot of blurry lines in defining these two terms, she stresses overall the importance of recognizing that one's actions have both historical and social implications to other cultures, and blames cultural appropriation (unintentional or not) on power imbalances between groups - in her example, the colonized and the colonizers, for GPP maybe the global north and south.
I think this last point is the strength of her article, and that while there may be no clear answer on the best way to take a photo 'ethically' without any form of cultural appropriation, the best place to start is with an open mind to think and try to understand, within a social and historical context, how to engage with another culture.