Back to School

Ok, so I'm using my blog as an excuse to avoid working ... I've always been like this. When I was a teenager, instead of writing an essay on the betrayal of Julius Caesar or memorizing quotes from Coriolanus, I wrote poetry and short stories. When I was at college, I started a journal where I opined about the state of England while avoiding writing my thesis on why women are funnier than men. And in every case, when I eventually knuckled down to work, when I had hoovered every inch of the floor, scoured the baths, rearranged my bedroom and DVD collection and made the necessary drinks and snacks needed to work, I found that I actually enjoyed it and wished I had more time.  

 

But I have been meaning to update this blog for some time – so much has happened – and I need a bit of practice writing again, so here goes.

I left Afghanistan in July after spending my final three months there setting up a training and community media centre in Herat, -which was amazing, and needs a whole entry of its own. And, after 11 years on the road -- almost to the day --  I moved back to the UK, as ever to start something new.

This time, I've embarked on a Masters programme, something I had been thinking of for a while.  I'm at the Institute of Development Studies, in Brighton, on their Governance and Development programme.

Yesterday was the first real day and it started with a four-hour "participation" workshop with Robert Chambers, who if you don't know (and why would you) is THE rock star of the development world. He has been at IDS since the 60s, as an undergraduate, then later as a professor and researcher, and revolutionsed the way in which development was "done". He advocated for a “bottom up” approach to development, in which the marginalised; women, poor, disabled, excluded, were asked to participate when it came to policies that affected them. It's startling really to think that it took until the 1980s for this to be taken seriously … now it's de rigour in development work, with varying degrees of success.

So, yesterday, there he was, Robert Chambers, turning 70 next year, tall, wiry, with a shock of white, untamed hair and a megaphone, encouraging us to ride our bikes to uni no matter the weather. I had had a bit of a heads up that he would want us to be doing some touchy feely type of bonding with fellow classmates, so was not really looking forward to it. Like most Brits, there is only so much bonding I can do outside of the pub.

But, Chambers had a surprise for us, well me:

"I want everyone to walk around the room, weave in and out of people, but keep your eyes on the ground, don't look at anyone."

Oh phew, I thought … I can do this!

Of course we weren't allowed to stay in our own private bubbles for ever; he then had us greeting each other with smiles, elbows, knees and then bums (the bottom up approach?); but it broke the ice and when you've gone bum to bum with a woman from the Congo, you've got nothing left to hide.

So the rest of the time he had us running around, forming groups identified by our MAs:

Governance

Globalisation

Gender

Participation and Social Change

Science, Technology and Development

Vulnerability and Poverty

Knowledge and Power

Human Rights

Climate Change and Development

Anthropology and Social Transformation

And into our previous occupation. Surprisingly, there were a few journalists, but also doctors, engineers, local and international NGO workers, social workers, government officials, think tank analysts, consultants, a sports therapist and those who had come straight from undergraduate degrees.

And then it was outside, where we split into our countries; India, the largest contingent occupying the much of the bottom end of the grassy hill. Snuggled up alongside them; Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Afghanistan. 

The African continent. Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Gambia, Congo, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, Central African Republic and South Africa. 

From the Middle East it was only Iran and Egypt; from Asia, Japan dominated followed by South Korea, then China, Indonesia and Thailand.

From the West, or the Global North in development speak; a smattering of Brits, Americans, Canadians, Italians, Spanish, an Estonian, Germans, Swedes and French.

Brazil was the sole representation from the central and South Americas.And from Mexico (which although is in North America geograhically, it is considered the global south here).

I admit, I did have fun; people have the most amazing stories. I met an English woman with an American accent, who like me turned chameleon to adapt to different school environments, an American journalist my age with a friend in common, an Indonesia woman who I knew in Afghanistan, a Pakistan government official who I spent hours with talking about Haqqani and the ISI, a Canadian guy who spent the last four years working for the UN in Bangkok, an Egyptian who has been working to get youth involved in the reforms there ... and there are so many more to meet. At least I found out  am not the oldest person on the course, in fact, the average age is about mid to late 30s.

I will try to keep my blog updated as it'll be a great reminder of what it's all been about. Let's see what happens.