Beautiful winter

Reflection of the conference, last part

This is the last post about the conference "Nature, poverty and power: assessing challenges to sustainable development" organised by the Swedish research network Devnet.

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It is still one more speaker that I would like to tell about and it is Ms. Baviskar which was a very engaging and wise spokeswoman. Her subject was "connecting struggles over nature and citizenship in India". She was the very first to speak on the conference and it was according to me, the most interesting one and best speaker. The reason why I believe so, was probably (because she was... ;) ) because her talk was summing up every aspect of what I have been studied for the last years. She spoke about refugee studies, urban movements, cultural riots and the struggles over natural resources. She stated that planners need to recognise the experience of displacement to be solved, they need to plan also for the people that migrates from the rural areas to the urban. Someone (a major somewhere?) had apparently said something about that you can't spend more money on the ones who steals from you. She continued to (very wisely) say that if you say like that, then you have not understood and acknowledged the problem. People needs somewhere to live, they need something to do (work, hobbies) - earn a living for themselves and their families. It is important to calculate and target these issues when planning the urban landscapes. Because the lack of access to secure employment and legal housings will create displacements of the newcomers. The consequence will be settlements on the outskirts (shanty towns) with bad housings, poverty, starvation, bad health and sanitation which will result into diseases and vermin. Few religions/faiths would improve of letting this happen...

In Delhi you need to have all legal papers else you are evicted and moved. Not many people has all the necessary documents. The city plans in Delhi has focused more on middle class and not to everyone dwelling and coming to the city, but it is important to plan the urban growth for everyone.

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 Read more about her book here.

More about this book here.

Conference reflections, second part

As I started to tell, I took part of a very rewarding two-days conference called "Nature, poverty and power: assessing challenges to sustainable development" organised by the Swedish research network Devnet.

To end my reflections of this participation, I need to bring up two other key note speakers (wrote about the third before) that I had much joy to listen at. Lets start with Ms Asher. Her topic was "wither nature or culture - imaginaries of ethnic movements in Latin America". She started by talking of a conference in Lima earlier this year, which addressed how deeply connected humans are to nature. She showed pictures of offerings and small rites of honouring the nature spirits while opening the conference.

She said that we need to understand the romantic ethnicity of culture while still it is important to be critical when studying this things. Furthermore we (the audience) learned about organisations like "matamba y guasa", black woman that works with food and medical plants to ensure the subsistence and health needs of the community as well as the biodiversity growing in the area. Much of her study was conducted in Colombia. 

The lecture continued into an enriched discussion, where we among other things brought up rhetoric questions as what exactly is the significance of an ethnic group and when do we become one? As well as what happens when we start labelling ourselves into a certain folder? When is it good with categorisation and to place everything in a certain pile of information?

In the break I talked with a women that had done a lot of studies about mines in Peru and Ecuador. She told me that in Ecuador it was more acknowledged to refer to "indigenous" groups than in Peru, where people more referred to themselves as "farmers". 

Ms Asher brought up the difference in referring to "eachselves"  (my word) to "afro displecados" and "afros decendos", which directly translated means displaced Africans and descendant from Africa. The first one can be noticed in Afrodes, an association for displaced afro-Colombians.

Another important note I did from her lecture was that of subsidies, that even if a country in the world decides to subsidies some other country, it may not in the end become as much as it sounds like. The money does seldom come as papernotes and coins (or figures in the bank), but as helicopters and more material things... 

I think this is what I would like to say about this certain lecture. I found it most interesting and it was a pleasure to listen to the subject. Thank you.

Pics of today

Julstök

 

Today have been such a beautiful day. I have been on Yule fayres in town and then been home baking typical cookies and buns. Friends came and went to help do a little bit; both to make 'em and to eat 'em. Still it was lots left....

 ...and here is a Swedish winter song which I used to sing
or play on flute every yule time - it's so beautiful...

...and here is a favourite English carol,
something to practice (notes) on my harp. :)

Uppsala Castle

It starts to get darker and darker now. But municipalities and companies do their best to light up the city.... Here is a very creative, beautiful, funny and cool way to use the dark of the night.... It will be there between end of October 2010 to end of November 2010.