Seneca Dance, Letchworth State Park, NY

A new National Native American National Heritage day is being celebrated in the United States on November 27, the day after most people there celebrated Thanksgiving. The new national holiday is the culmination of an annual National Native American Heritage Month in November that was passed into law in June.

The Friends of Leonard Peltier blog shared part of US President Obama's statement:

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim November 2009 as National Native American Heritage Month. I call upon all Americans to commemorate this month with appropriate programs and activities, and to celebrate November 27, 2009, as Native American Heritage Day.

Leonard Peltier is an American Indian Movement activist sentenced in 1977 to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment for the murder of two FBI agents killed during a 1975 shootout on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, following what is known as the Wounded Knee incident. In 1992 the US actor-director Robert Redford produced the documentary Incident at Oglala: The Leonard Peltier Story, and his case has been largely covered on international media - with various government entities around the world calling for Peltier's release and an on-going pouring of online activism.

In a post entitled A Day To Honor Native Americans on the Huffington Post, California Democratic congressman Joe Baca (a primary sponsor of the bill establishing Native American Heritage Month) wrote:

American families gather together on the fourth Thursday of every November to celebrate Thanksgiving in remembrance of a feast hosted by the Wampanoag Native Americans for the Pilgrims at Plymouth in 1621. While we always remember the feast of Thanksgiving, we seldom pay homage to the Wampanoag hosts or recount what happened to them afterward.

By the time the Jamestown colony was founded in Virginia in 1607, the most accurate estimates are there were substantially more than 30 million Native Americans thriving in numerous tribes and cultures from the North American shores of Alaska to the tip of Cape Horn in South America. Unfortunately, the treatment of Native Americans over the next 300 years is one of the darkest chapters in American history.

Several celebrations and Pow-Wow gatherings took place throughout the country, following a variety of educational and artistic activities throughout the month of November. A large collection of photos and slide shows related to Native Americans events is also available on Flickr.

The Friday Native America Calling show addressed the issue: “As First Americans, what is our existing heritage? What are the things we will pass on to the next generations for them to celebrate?” - with several people calling in to share thoughts on the air. The program aires daily on 52 stations (and on the web) in United States and Canada, reaching about 500,000 listeners weekly.

On Friday morning, November 27, a public ceremony – “Healing Turtle Island” (#turtleisland) – took place in front of the National Museum of the American Indian in New York City:

The event site has historical significance, as it is near where the first Collegiate Church was raised in Fort Amsterdam. And, just across State Street The Netherlands Monument stands as a reminder of the greatest misunderstanding by the Dutch of Native Americans: Peter Minuit’s so-called “purchase” of Manhattan in 1626 for 60 guilders’ worth of dry goods. The Lenape, having no concept of private ownership of land, likely believed that Minuit was not purchasing the island but instead thanking them for the aid they had given the Dutch settlers when they first started arriving here.

Under the phrase, “Pride in our heritage, honor our ancestors”, the First Nations Urban Survival blog shares a great collection of YouTube videos by Native American people and artists, including the following “Turtle Song” performed by the Spirit of the Dawn, a Wabanaki singers/drumming group from Maine:

On Native American Netroots, “A Forum for Native American Issues”, StuartH shares one of his youth diary entries about a Navajo Nation meeting “by many medicine men, tribal college leaders, tribal government and legal experts and others concerned about the issue of spreading water from sewage treatment onto the slopes of a sacred mountain”:

…on deep reflection, I believe that if the core of indigenous experience is ever lost, all mankind will suffer from that in ways we may never grasp. I prefer to take what opportunities there might be, to honor what wisdom I might be able to comprehend. That isn't an easy process, and yes, it is full of contradictions.

What I am saying is that the differences between perspectives have in the past led to killing and huge conflict. We should contemplate, instead, the ways that we can learn to open our minds to new dimensions of understanding and gain new ground in the process. That is something to consider and give thanks over - for the future.

Hozho Nahastle (May there be Beauty).

The article has identified five lessons from China’s success stories. Meanwhile, Xu Ben (徐贲) and Tan Mintao (谭敏涛), a Chinese scholar and lawyer respectively, has each written comments on these lessons in their blogs:

#1 Be ambitious

The Time magazine highlights the ineffectiveness of the US in developing and executing ambitious projects. Quoting one business consultant:

One key thing we can learn from China is setting goals, making plans and focusing on moving the country ahead as a nation. These guys have taken the old five-year plans and stood them on their head. Instead of deciding which factory gets which raw materials, which products are made, how they are priced and where they are sold, their planning now consists of ‘How do we build a world-class silicon-chip industry in five years? How do we become a global player in car-manufacturing?’

Xu Ben agreed:

在美国，所有公共开支和建设项目是不可能由中央（联邦）政府统一确定目标，制定计划的。一切拨款都必须通过国会或地方议会的批准，不是由某个领导或首长一拍板就能决定的。

In America, all public infrastructure spending cannot be coordinated by the central (federal) government. They have to be passed by the Congress or local assemblies, and cannot be controlled by the local chief.

Tan Mintao highlighted some possible reasons behind China’s efficiency in implementing ambitious projects:

中国强制拆迁的事件层出不穷，而且多是以行政权压制公民个人私权取胜，这种视公民权利于不顾的举动和做法，我想美国人恐怕想得到，但做不到，因为，你们有法律为公民撑腰。

Forced demolitions are common in China. Citizens’ rights are sacrificed in face of administrative pressures. I am afraid this heavy-handedness through the neglect of rights is impracticable for the Americans, because their citizens are protected by the rule of law.

#2 Education Matters

The second lesson is the strong emphasis placed by the Chinese government and families on basic education, crucial for the economic health of the country. Quoting William McCahill, former deputy chief of mission in the US embassy in Beijing:

Fundamentally, they are getting the basics right, particularly in math and science. We need to do the same. Their kids are often ahead of ours.

The article also quotes Nick Reilly, a top executive at General Motors in Shanghai:

It all starts with the emphasis families put on the importance of education. That puts pressure on the government to deliver a decent system.

Xu Ben mentioned some practical difficulties for the US to improve its education system:

教师与学区是有工作合同的，其权利充分受到法律保护，谁也不能命令他们无报酬地加班加点。因此，延长学期就必须增加教师的报酬，而这又必须通过正规的预算和拨款程序，得到全体选民的正式认可才行。

The teacher-school relationship is guided by contracts. With protection by law, no one can order teachers to commit to unpaid overtime. Therefore, lengthening of the school term has to be accompanied by rise in teachers’ compensation, which means a process of budget expansion and approval by all electorates.

Meanwhile, Tan Mintao pointed out the incompleteness of the picture:

中国对教育的投资，我想更多的集中在大城市，名牌大学，农村中小学的投入永远很少，少到农村学生处在教育的最底层…关注中国发展的人多集中在大城市，但中国的大城市却不完全代表中国。

China’s investment in education is focused on big cities and key universities. Rural primary and secondary schools never receive enough investment, pushing them towards the bottom of the education pyramid… Those concerned about China’s development tend to focus their attention on big cities, which is not a complete picture of China.

#3 Look After the Elderly

With soaring elderly population, the trend in the US will be more home care and less expensive nursing homes. Here, the article argues, the US can learn from China:

In China the social contract has been straightforward for centuries: parents raise children; then the children care for the parents as they reach their dotage… For millions of poor Chinese, that's a burden as well as a responsibility… Still, there are benefits that balance the financial hardship: grandparents tutor young children while Mom and Dad work; they acculturate the youngest generation to the values of family and nation; they provide a sense of cultural continuity that helps bind a society.

Xu Ben seems to disagree:

一胎化政策都落实几十年了，哪里还有什么 ‘大家庭’?  报道还说，中国人认为，将老人送入疗养院是一种耻辱…如果真是如此，哪里还会有那么多“啃老族”和无助贫困老人？

The one-child policy has been implemented for decades. Are there still ‘big families’? The article said the Chinese regard sending old parents to nursing homes as a shame… If this is true, why are we still seeing numerous helpless elderly and ‘parasitic children’ relying on their parents’ income?

While Tan Mintao approves of this Chinese tradition, he points out that the weak elderly care system in China is certainly a concern of most Chinese:

当中国人认为把老人送入养老院是一种耻辱的时候，我想，更多折射的是我们的养老体系还很脆弱，经不起风吹雨打，真正需要建立的社会救助制度还没有建立，那谈何让年轻人放心把老人送入养老院呢？

While the Chinese regard sending old people to nursing homes as a shame, I think this is more a reflection of the fragile elderly care system. With an effective social security system yet to be built, nursing home is simply not a reliable option for old people.

#4 Save More

Following the financial crisis, it is a consensus that the US needs to save more. Here again, China, a society that has practised personal financial prudence for centuries, is a model for the US.

Xu Ben points out what the Americans fail to recognize:

美国人似乎并不知道一般中国人为什么那么怕花钱。与其他消费相比，他们不能不面对更基本的生存需要：买房子、交学费、医疗费。美国人看来也不知道，也有不节俭的中国人，他们能花几十万，上百万买一条藏獒，并由奔驰、宝马、奥迪等几十辆名车组成的豪华车队接近家门。

Seems the Americans don’t know why the Chinese are so afraid to spend money. Compared with other consumptions, they cannot but worry about more basic needs: housing, education and health care. Americans also are unaware that there are lavish Chinese, spending a million to buy a Tibetan Mastiff, or a fleet of Mercedes, BMW and Audi for their own travel.

This echoes a point made by Tan Mintao:

这些喜欢储蓄的群众多是对未来生活保障缺乏信心的广大群众。

For the general public, saving much is due to a lack of confidence in future livelihood.

#5 Look over the Horizon

The energy that foreigners feel in China comes from a sense that it's harnessed to something bigger, the article reckons. That confidence has been lacking in America following the deep recession. As an American who has lived in China puts it:

China is striving to become what it has not yet become. It is upwardly mobile, consciously, avowedly and — as its track record continues to strengthen — proudly so.

Citing the Time’s article example of the child of a poor rural family rising to become a successful software engineer in Shenzhen, Xu Bin said:

希望千千万万其他贫困的中国农民家庭子弟也有同样的机会，到那时候，美国人向往的就真的不再是“美国梦”，而该是“中国梦”了。

I hope that millions of poor rural children will have the same chance. By that time, Americans will no longer admire the ‘American Dream’, but instead the ‘Chinese Dream’.

With so many local, regional and international development organizations working with farmers, the possibilities for information and communication technologies (ICTs), are great. Still, the question remains: Can these technologies live up to the hype and actually help raise human development levels?

One point of optimism lies at the heart of Web 2.0 technologies or “the participatory web” according to a 2008 report by Annemarie Matthess and Christian Kreutz for the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, called “Participatory Web - New Potentials of ICT in Rural Areas” [PDF]. They write:

The participatory web offers new ways to translate and bridge language domains. Users publish themselves and can engage in a dialogue. One such result is that knowledge becomes more explicit – bridges are built between the local and global knowledge. Worldwide agriculture research cooperation has a long experience in this field and results show how difficult it is to translate global scientific knowledge to the local context.

For all the great potential of ICTs in rural areas, Tanzanian-based journalist Emmanuel Onyangoin in his blog Knowledge Matters warns the challenges facing technologies in rural areas remain high:

Studies shows that, rural farmers do not have direct access to the internet in rural areas pending on a number of factors. The basic ones being the increased computer illiteracy among users and an unreliable infrastructure such as electricity.

Wikis and scientific information

One popular method to increase farmer productivity is through wikis, the often plain-vanilla collaborative websites that provide easy editing features, made popular by sites like Wikipedia.

Wikis are an easy way to exchange ideas over the web, allowing people in different locations to write, edit and disseminate documents on low-bandwidth sites. Wikis can be used with other platforms, such as maps or photographs, not only to collect data but also enabling users to participate in vetting the information.

One such wiki is the Knowledge Sharing Toolkit of the Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research (CGIAR) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, which allows people in laboratories and those working in the field to disseminate a wide-range of information that can be constantly updated, amended and assessed.

The Communication Initiative Network explains that the Knowledge Sharing toolkit has three main pieces:

1. A library of tools, meaning web-based software (e.g., blogs, wikis, instant messengers, podcasting) and offline physical tools that can be used with a variety of methods.
2. A library of methods, meaning group processes that people can use to interact with each other, online or offline (e.g., appreciative inquiry, storytelling, knowledge fairs).
3. A set of perspectives and guidance that can help users choose tools and methods for their needs and contexts. Some examples: How can I organise meetings differently? How can I plan, monitor, and evaluate my activities/projects? How can I improve relationships and collaboration between regional offices and the headquarters?

The Knowledge Sharing Toolkit began as a means to keep up with the explosion in scientific knowledge, which has been facilitated by the expansion of the internet and peoples’ increasing access to information. The libraries are not written for scientists, however. Rather, generalists can update their basic skills so they can better communicate with scientists, funders, partners in the field or immediately leverage new ideas in their communities.

Maps and food security

It’s been argued that one of the major components of food security is getting produce to market. Bad roads and poor transportation infrastructure are often the culprits. To solve some of these issues at the local level is iMMAP, which began using GIS technology more than a decade ago to locate landmines. They’ve moved on to help guide crisis responders in a number of different countries.

From the ICT-KM blog at Cgiar, a new project is explained.

Throughout most of the developing world, there is a real and urgent need for roads data. Road location and attribute information can play a vital role in long term development applications and also help humanitarian agencies with short term emergency and logistical planning. Despite this dire need, though, popular web mapping service applications have not explored the roads less travelled in much of the developing world. No tourists, no maps!

From that blog post, a question and answer session took place with Olivier Cottray, who spoke about gRoads, an Ethiopian-based project mapping roads with GPS-enabled PDA devices and how it will support local farmers.

The rationale of the project in the context of farming is that the better roads data will help agencies and organizations that are supporting farmers to look at accessibility to markets. Location information is also being collected for infrastructure of importance to small holder farmers such as irrigation equipment; water reservoirs; community grain storage or fertilizer warehouses; and agricultural extension offices.

Video and overcoming low literacy

Some practitioners argue that video blogging is one way to overcome a few of the hurdles facing ICT technologies in rural areas. By posting video or audio files, bloggers immediately overcome literacy issues. Also, they can speak directly by using local languages that may not be common on the internet.

Brenda Zulu, in her blog, ICT Journalist, investigates how video blogging works in Ghana with an interview with Prince Deh, the Assistant Country Director of Ghana Information Network for Knowledge Sharing (GINKS).

Vlogging major challenges were listed as connectivity or access and getting people to share Information and Knowledge and cost of equipment.
From my his own view, Deh said Web 2.0 tools were important and even more important because of the deeper impact the tools would have on marginalized societies, even if these impact are not immediately felt.
He observed that many more rural communities have stories to share with the larger public and voices to amplify and saw Web 2.0 tools as perfect applications to project the voices of the rural poor in the future.

“How do we solve the problem of rural connectivity in order to extend the benefits of Web2.0 tools much wider beyond the scope of the cities?” he asked.
He pointed out that it was important to have knowledge of video editing and innovativeness in order to create story telling videos.

Deh says the images increase the popularity of video blogs because they make them engaging. After filming a video, they can be embedded into a blog, so people can comment on them.

Development groups like them because they are cheap to make and disseminate. One popular video from GINKS explained to farmers (in a local language) how to use their mobile phone to get market information.

Lessons Learned

Throughout much of this Future of ICT for Development series on Global Voices, I have strived to put forth a well rounded debate on the positives and negatives of these technologies. Mostly I have tried to answer whether ICTs can raise human development.

One drawback has been that it is hard for me to find those who are skeptical or cynical regarding the potential of ICTs. I'd like to include these next three comments solely for the purpose of debate. They happen to be a response to a 2007 Web2forDev blog post regarding the participatory web and development. What makes them interesting is that these comments provide healthy skepticism (if not criticism) of ICTs affecting development levels in rural areas. I add these comments not as a critique on the above projects; rather, I think ICTs as tools of development need to be debated in the open.

The commenters pose a few questions: Are the stories presented in these blog posts or series like this the norm or just an aberrations? What role, if any, will ICTs play in raising living standards?

From Pankaj Gupta:

I think a lot is made of how ICTs can help in development and poverty reduction. I live in India, have worked extensively in participatory digital video and sustainability research, and travel a lot to the ‘poorest’ districts of the country (that makes up nearly most of the country!) and can say with the confidence that comes from first hand observation that the poor are far far away from using the web. The examples are merely examples: rare exceptions that voluble techno-freaks amplify, only to mislead a lot of us into thinking that information technologies can do any good to the poor. If probed deeply, any of these examples would not pass the test of affordability or sustainability once the artificial support on which an experiment is flaunted is removed. People caught up in day-to-day survival have no inclination or energy or access to link up with the web and profit from it.

From Andrea:

I have been working extensively in Africa and I quite agree with you. I have seen very few villages with electricity, less with PCs and even less or none with internet connection but I think that this is also one of the thing we should still work on it.
On the other hand I still see a huge potential for web 2.0 in Aid. Web 2.0 has a strong potential for collaborative work and I think that international organisation should start using it as soon as possible.

From Ignatia/Inge de Waard

I agree with both Andrea, Pankaj and [post writer]Holly that only a minority of people are connected in developing areas. But just like Andrea I believe in web2.0 as a strengthening evolution. Because of the participatory strength of web2.0, I believe that even if only a minority will use the participatory web, this will make a huge difference on developing areas. If any change can be done, change must be stimulated by those target people. Only by their knowledge essential changes will take effect.

As they mention on their site:

We want to send you on a five-day, expenses paid trip to the South By Southwest Interactive 2010 festival. Tell us your story and you could be headed to Austin on us. Plus, we're giving away three Flip Mino video cameras and a bunch of sweet T-shirts.

It's simple to enter: just make a video. In 60 seconds or less, make a case for open video. Then upload it anywhere and tell us the URL. You can make any case you like, in any form you like.

It can be in any language, any form, and any topic related to open video issues, to be posted before January 31, 2010. All videos must be licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) or other applicable license. For ideas of what to make the video about, they have a page with a list of topics or issues you can check before making or posting the video. Don't forget to check the FAQ as well.
So what is South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive. It is a series of events and conferences which take place in Austin, Texas:

SXSW Interactive features five days of compelling presentations from the brightest minds in emerging technology, scores of exciting networking events hosted by industry leaders and an unbeatable line up of special programs showcasing the best new websites, video games and startup ideas the community has to offer.

Some of the issues relevant to the contest are Art & Remix Culture and Fair Use; Citizen Journalism, Activism and Human rights; Collaborative video; Commons & Licensing; Device Freedom; Digital Divide; Education and video; Royalty-free Codecs; Media Consolidation; Net Neutrality; Privacy & Censorship and Universal Accessibility.
Some of the videos that have been uploaded already on the site are:

Be smart, support open video from Adi

On 3 November it was announced that USAID would not be extending the work of the local branch of the International Republican Institute (IRI). Officially, the reason given was that IRI had not submitted an application, but many have since cast doubts on this explanation as one comment on In Mutatione Fortitudo explains.

After an initial covering up by the Embassy (claiming IRI didn’t even submit a proposal to stay) more information came out in the press. It seems the US (more specifically USAID, a branch of the State Department that oversees development projects) is not cutting its budget for democracy programs, rather they are devoting all of them to the National Democratic Institute. It seems it is not a change in US foreign policy, but it has major foreign policy consequences, it seems they are not unhappy with IRI’s work, but they are destroying the very projects they have spent millions on to build.

The blog post itself speaks highly of the IRI's Country Director, Jake Jones.

[…] Jake was for Azerbaijani blogosphere what Columbus was for Americas - something like he was the first discoverer of it. And this discovery happened at those times, when I was almost the sole English-language blogger out there on the ground and was writing under a pseudonym of “a political scientist from Azerbaijan.” I now hear that a lot of foreign organizations in Azerbaijan are thinking of pumping support into blogging, bloggers, et cetera, but it was Jake and IRI who first noticed the potential of new media field in Azerbaijan, and are still careful enough not to overestimate it as other organizations and individuals do.

Flying Carpets and Broken Pipelines, set up with the encouragement of Jones, also comments on the main force behind the organization's work in Azerbaijan.

About a little over a year ago, I was skyping a friend living and working in Baku. The topic of our discussion that day was finding a name for my blog you are currently reading. It took us a while but at the end, “flying carpets and broken pipelines” was created.

[…]

I have never met a person so interested in the region. He learned the language, traveled the country and gets on well with everyone. When Emin and Adnan were arrested, he was there to support and help in any way he could. […] All of this is only a small portion of what Jake and IRI has done in Azerbaijan, which also involves endless trainings and seminars held all over the country.

[…] IRI presented itself as an institution investing in the country and hoping to have made an impact (among other international institutions working in the country). It would be a loss for Azerbaijan to see IRI leave so please USAID (if anyone there is reading this blog) let them stay and do their job because they are worth it!

There seems to be a general misunderstanding that IRI didn't make any proposals for its next year activities in the country. It is NOT true, IRI DID propose. In fact there are local partners who can SUPPORT and JUSTIFY for this.

Both blog posts also report that a Facebook group, Keep IRI in Azerbaijan!!!, has been set up. At time of writing it has 830 members.