Thoughts

2, December 2008
10:30am
Phalodi

Happy December everyone!
I can’t believe that time has flowed so swiftly and we are now in the last month of 2008. I’m wondering if snow has begun to fall in Colorado and Minnesota, if the skies have turned gray, the ground cold and the air biting. I hope that the winter isn’t too harsh and that it isn’t keeping everyone locked up inside. I have to admit that I am quite happy to experience only half of a Minnesota winter this year. The days here have started to turn a bit chilly in the evenings and mornings, but as soon as the sun is out the heat is here! All of the Indians we are with are wearing long sleeves, jackets, hats and shawls, because this is their “winter,” but to me it feels like the best time of fall-when you can wear a few layers, but by mid-afternoon you’re in your t-shirt and pants soaking up the sun. It’s a time when the air is crisp but the sun is still shining full and warm. I think back to when we first got to India and every little movement caused a waterfall of sweat. It’s nice to be beyond that time, especially since we are living out in the desert of Western Rajasthan. Erik and I talk about how hot it must get out here in the desert-we can’t even begin to imagine. After experiencing day after day of cloudless skies, we are started to learn what it must be like to yearn for their rainfall and the time when crops grow and water is plentiful. There is a song in Hindi that we listened to out in Jaisalmer with Vuta-Ram that goes “Mausam bhiga, bhiga hai.” When we asked Vuta-Ram what it means, he told us that it means, “The weather is nice and good.” But, as we learned more Hindi, we discovered that it actually translates, “The weather is wet, wet.” As the world is more and more coming to realize, water rights, accessibility, and distribution is and will become even more one of the biggest issues we face as a world community. Living with the URMUL community in the Thar desert, I am seeing exactly how real this issue is. Some of the examples of water issues we have learned about and observed from our time with URMUL are:
-Part of the reason why URMUL was created was to provide income generation outside of the agriculture sector, because with droughts (like the ones experienced in the late 1980s) agriculture is not a secure source of income for families.
-The massive water pipes that are just outside of Phalodi proper that carry water from Punjab to the city of Jodhpur.
-Water tanks that have been built by URMUL in villages that catch the rainwater and provide drinking water for all of the months without rain.
These are just to name a few.

Two days ago Erik and I had the opportunity to discuss some of these issues with Arivand-ji from URMUL TRUST. URMUL Trust is the parent organization to URMUL Samiti. Arivand-ji had been with URMUL Trust since it’s inception in 1986, and before that he had been working with URMUL Dairy as a government servant, so he has more than 30 years of experience with development work in India. The meeting was extremely helpful and informative. Arivand-ji told us that the role of NGO’s is now shifting as development shifts. In the 1980s and 1990s, NGO’s often had to take the role of delivering services-such as education and health care. But now, as the government has improved these services, the role of NGO’s should be to empower communities to know their rights and demand them. He told us that the goals that were set for URMUL 10-15 years ago are met, and so now it is important to restructure and reanalyze the organization, its strengths, needs, and goals. All of the organizations in the URMUL family believe that change must come from the community. Arivand-ji told us that in the beginning they invited any of the local community to come and talk about what their community needed and wanted-that all voices were heard and valued. This still continues today as a big part of URMUL’s work is empowering local leaders to advocate for their communities.

Some of the challenges that URMUL faces are funding, capacity, and technology. First, funding is an issue because URMUL is always reliant on outside donors to provide the funding for their programs to continue and exist. Arivand-ji stated that in the past 10 years or so, development funds to India have slowed because in the global community India is seen as a country on the rise-it even has millionaires. Arivand-ji also stated that in the past 10-5 years, the youth in countries like the Netherlands, which used to be one of the biggest donors, have started to demand their own rights and demand funds for services in their own country. Erik and I have also seen the power dynamic that exists between “richer/developed” countries that have the funds and “poorer/developing” countries that need the funds. (I intentionally put richer/developed and poorer/developing in quotes because I do not think these are accurate or helpful terms. First, the do not accurately describe the current situation. Second, there are “developing” parts of the “developed” countries. Third, the terms richer and poorer only refer to monetary status and not to other indicators of well-being. Fourth, the status of richer and poorer does not necessarily describe the situation for all of a country’s population-it is merely the GDP.) For example, the Save the Girl Child initiative that Erik and I were studying in Jaisalmer ran from January 2006-July 2008, but then finished because funding ended. During this two-year period over 150 villages were organized and worked in by URMUL staff. The relationships were built, the seeds for change were planted, but now the project has stopped. Even though URMUL staff maintains relationships with the villages, they need funding to continue the work. When Erik and I met with Dr. Meeta Singh a couple of weeks ago, she stated that she really thinks that now is the moment when change can take place, but the moment has to be seized. For the project to be sustainable, villages need longer-term contact, but this isn’t possible without more funds. And the people who hold the power to more funds are in other “developed” countries. To me this creates an unfair and unjust model of development. I am not sure exactly how to change it, but I don’t know if as long as the “developing” world has to rely on the “developed” world for funds and support if sustainable development will ever take place. I do believe in international solidarity, but it is my opinion that making “developing” countries ask for money and support from “developed” countries is a continuation of colonization and a perpetuation of a hierarchical world order. There is an unjust power imbalance. I’m not sure if my feelings on this are correct or not, but I do think that their needs to be a new model of development. I’m not sure really what that would consist of, but development has been evolving the last 50 years and I think its time for it to evolve again.

All of these complex tensions were highlighted again for Erik and I yesterday when URMUL was visited by Lord Nigel Crisp and Lady Sian Crisp from London, England. Lord Nigel Crisp is the chairman of the UK based organization, Sight Savers International that works on eye-care around the world. Their slogan is “Saving Sight, Changing Lives.” URMUL Samiti was chosen for the visit out of 42 Sight Savers projects in 5 states of India. So, it was a huge privilege for the URMUL staff, and especially the field workers that work in the area of eye-care that they were chosen as an example of a Sight Savers success story. In preparation for the visit URMUL was cleaned, a “special” breakfast was prepared (and by this, I mean there were things that are presumed to be Westerner breakfast items-some of which are true, some of which are not-like fruit, tea bags with sugar cubes (not masala chai, like we normally drink), potato chips, and biscuits (cookies, but the Brits like to call them biscuits, and so Indians do too)), chair were set up meeting hall (we normally all sit on the floor cross-legged), bottled waters were bought (we normally drink well water), and orange juice was served (We NEVER have fruit juice, because it is too expensive). It was interesting being an “outsider” on the “inside” for this experience. You could feel the nervous and excited energy from all of the URMUL staff upon the arrival of the Lord and Lady. With them were also Elizabeth, the head of Sight Savers India, and 4 gentlemen from the regional Sight Savers office in Jaipur, Rajasthan. After a power-point presentation highlighting the history of URMUL and the progress of the Sight Savers program at URMUL, we had tea and the “breakfast” and then went on some field visits. Erik and I asked to and were allowed to tag along! We first visited a village and were led to a big dirt hole. When we got there a young man was pointed out to us. He was working alongside all the other workers, but the difference with him was that he held a stick to find his way. He is blind and before URMUL started working on eye-care in 2004, this man had just been sitting at home. Now, he is able to participate in work, contribute to the income of his family, and he has been a source of pride for the community and an inspiration to other blind and handicapped people in the community.

The first step of eye-care work in the communities is to set up diagnostic camps at schools and in the community to screen everyone and have their eyes checked. From there, some people are referred to hospitals. Some have eye surgery, some are able to recover without surgery and then those who are totally blind are worked with to increase mobility. This young man had been found during one of the screenings in his villages done by URMUL. Then, he was worked with one-on-one with an URMUL field worker to learn how to walk with a stick and get around independently. It was so amazing to see all of the pride in the fellow villagers as his story was told.

When we left the village one of the cars in the caravan got stuck in the sand, so we had to dig and push it out. Lord and Lady Crisp went to another village to meet a woman who URMUL works with. After that all of us visited Surjan Ram-ji’s village so that the visitors could see the weaving process. Erik and I also visited our friend Teena, who we met the last time we went to Surjan Ram-ji’s village. Teena is an amazing woman, who is tall, confident, hilarious, and full of life. She now calls us sisters and when we were about to leave, she made me stop so she could but makeup on me and give me a packet of bindis.

Then we made a stop at another village to meet a young boy of 14, Mahesh. Mahesh is totally blind and three years ago was diagnosed at one of the URMUL camps. After that he was assigned an URMUL teacher who started teaching him mobility as well as reading and writing Braille. He also helped get Mahesh enrolled in school, which until that time had been very hard since the school didn’t have the resources to teach a blind student. The URMUL field worker then started going to school with Mahesh to help the teacher, teaching Mahesh Braille, and also teach one family member and one peer group member to read and write some Braille. Two people in Mahesh’s life are being taught Braille so that he will have continued support when URMUL staff no longer works with him. This is in order to ensure the sustainability of the eye-care efforts. Mahesh also presented Lord and Lady Crisp with letters of welcome that he had prepared on his Braille maker. In just three years of working with URMUL, Mahesh has started going to school, has learned to read and write Hindi Braille, has started learning English Braille, has become the top student in his class, and has been able to read books for the first time in his life. Many members of the community gathered for the visit and I could see how much pride all of them had for Mahesh’s accomplishments. Mahesh said that this time with URMUL has taught him self-confidence. He also said that once he finishes school, he hopes to work with and teach other sight-impaired children how to read and write Braille.

After all these visits we headed back to URMUL, had some lunch (Indian style-the others went back to their hotel), and then said goodbye to the visitors. It was a really interesting visit-Erik and I were extremely impressed to see all the work that URMUL has done in the area of eye care and rehabilitation. But, we also felt conflicted about the power dynamic that existed between this Englishman and his organization holding the funds, and the URMUL staff hoping to receive them in order to continue their work.

Last night Avinash shared with us the photos from the day, the power-point presentation, and of course some Punjabi songs. This, of course, led to some Punjabi dancing!

Erik and I have also made the decision to extend our time with URMUL a couple of days to attend the annual URMUL meeting which will include staff from URMUL Trust and all the URMUL family organizations. We will travel to Bikaner with URMUL staff on December 6th attend the meeting and night time culture event and then head to Jaipur on December 7th for our semester wrap-up sessions.

Also, Erik and I are currently working on a proposal for Surjan Ram-ji, the chief executive of URMUL Samiti, to travel to the United States for a cross-cultural exchange. We are hoping to hold interactive discussions as well as exhibitions of the URMUL products. So far we have contacted our universities in Minnesota and California, as well as my home in Colorado. Everyone has expressed interest and enthusiasm. Now, we are just working on the funding side of things. If anyone is interested in helping plan/host an event/attend an event/be involved in the planning of this exciting opportunity, let me know.

Well, that’s all for now. As always, feel free to ask any questions or be in contact. Sending you and all of yours lots of love, happiness, and warmth from India.
Much love,
Hannah

Ps. I just realized that I didn’t answer the questions that some of you have asked about the bombings in Bombay. I really don’t know too much about everything, so yesterday I talked to some of the staff from the Sight Savers office in Jaipur. I asked them if they think the terrorists were from Pakistan or an internal group in India, or what they think the bombings were all about. George, the director of the Jaipur office, told me that what he believes has happened is that terrorism has shifted from being someone of militant groups with a purpose to becoming an industry. He says that terrorism is now an industry and that since nothing really seems to make sense and there are continuous, and somewhat small attacks, it seems to be driven by something else. He thinks that arms dealers are probably behind most of it, because if a war or armed conflict were to break out as a result of these bombings-like along the Pakistan-India border, then those who would benefit would be the arms producers and dealers. He also agreed with my opinion that the only reason that British and American passports were being checked was to arouse attention in those and other Western countries. Immediately after I heard that Westerners were being targeted, I looked at the numbers of those killed and found that out of 183 killed, 23 were foreigners. While this is extremely tragic-as any death is-for their families as well as all communities, I do not think that foreigners were targeted for any reason other than to get media coverage in those countries. As George mentioned, and I agree with this, we have to look at these bombings from deeper perspectives and not just on the surface. We have to ask the questions like, why was only one of the terrorists kept alive, and why as soon as he was caught did he start reveling information?; How did all of the anti-terrorists officials happen to arrive at the same time together?; Why was it at the Taj?; Why was it at the scale it was at?; Where did the weapons come from?, etc.
As I have said, I really don’t have very much information on the bombings, and so I am of course open to hearing other opinions and standpoints. However, I do think George is correct to say that we need to think critically about these attacks and not just respond out of rash emotions or racial and religious stereotypes and scapegoating.
Whatever the case may be, these are serious and important issues for all of us as a world community to look at, study, and deeply and compassionately analyze.