Transitionland .

Albany, NY

There are moments when everything comes into sharp focus, and I can see so clearly how history is not a stack of sealed containers, each holding a different era or event, but rather a stream of experiences and people, connected to and inseparable from each other, stretching back beyond the dawn of the written word. (My thoughts after a transcendent summer night in Sarajevo, 2007.)

Fluent in English, sarcasm, LOLspeak and bureaucratese, proficient in Spanish and USAIDian, and survival-level in Bosnian and Dari.

http://transitionland.wordpress.com/

Transitionland commented on the article | over 2 years ago

Heretical Thoughts

I don't know, Michael.

Sometimes, when I drift off into bored daydreams, I imagine a team of Swedish human rights lawyers visits the US for two weeks, surveys our federal and state prisons, and then proposes a total overhaul. And we do it.
Transitionland commented on the article | over 2 years ago

A Not-Boring, Quite Different Aid Worker Reading List

'Kabul in Winter' by Ann Jones has been recommended to me.

'The Key to My Neighbor's House' by Elizabeth Neuffer isn't about aidworkers, it's about civilians caught in the Bosnian and Rwanda conflicts, and their search for answers, peace and justice after surviving the atrocities that claimed their loved ones. I couldn't put this book down once I began reading it, and to describe it as a heart-and-gut-wrenching read would be an understatement. (Side note: Elizabeth Neuffer died in Iraq. This was her last book.)

'The Oath' by Khassan Baiev is about a Chechen doctor's struggle to uphold the Hippocratic Oath while treating injured civilians and combatants during the first and second Russian-Chechen wars, and is a good medical relief/humanitarian ethics/war-and-health book. It's fast-paced and very readable.
Transitionland commented on the article | over 2 years ago

How (Not) To Impress A Playmate in Kabul

Michael, that was possibly your best post ever.
Transitionland commented on the article | over 2 years ago

10 Signs That You've Been Overseas Too Long

That's.....tremendous.
Transitionland commented on the article | over 2 years ago

10 Signs That You've Been Overseas Too Long

"In any debate about copyright infringement, you come down firmly on the pro-piracy side. Unless you're talking about the bastards who simply smuggle a videocamera into a movie theater and then market the resulting product as a clean copy. They can burn in hell."

This gave me a hearty laugh. Indeed. Hardly a day goes by I don't think, "Gee, I wish I could buy the entire last season of this 'Man Men' show everyone is talking about for five bucks from the toothless guy who hawks bootleg DVDs in front of the market" or "Man I wish I could buy designer knockoff leather ankle boots from a surly babushka for the price of socks in the US!"
Transitionland commented on the article | over 2 years ago

Four Reasons Everyone Should Care About Global Health

The normative/realist balance here is interesting. Well put, especially no. 1.
Transitionland signed the petition | over 2 years ago

Ask President Obama to Appoint a Leader for USAID
Transitionland commented on the article | over 2 years ago

Fear Is An Addiction

I have noticed the "I'm such an anti-hero, so morally conflicted and emotionally complicated" trend. I blame the Emergency Sex trio. I think it's equal parts self-loathing and self-aggrandizement.

Aid workers aren't the only ones guilty of this, though. Economists, journalists and social workers also do this.

Life would be better is everyone just used LOLspeak for everything. Like, "OMG teh milisha wuz in r biz yeshterday, lost sum supplyz. O well. Tym 2 reflekt on mi conflictin emoshuns."
Transitionland commented on the article | over 2 years ago

Friday Afternoon; It's Time to Live Your Life (T.I.-style)

I like, "the spirit of a hustler and the swagger of a college kid." Though, I personally try to cultivate the spirit of a college kid and the swagger of a hustler.

Also, "unhappy with the riches 'cuase you're piss poor morally."

Ehehehehehehe
Transitionland commented on the article | over 2 years ago

Aid Worker Careers: Different Organizational Cultures

Something both large and small organizations have in common: field office-head office acrimony. The field office will never do anything properly, and the head office will always be out of touch with reality on the ground.