“The Downside of Diversity?” (Mini-salon on August 25th, 2007)

Date: August 25th, 2007
Time: 5:00 – 7:00pm

Diversity of race, religion and creed is always a touchy political subject, often cherished by liberals and disregarded by conservatives, but a recent study may have thrown its value into question. The data gathered by the Harvard social scientist Robert Putnam, an author famous in the popular press for his study of civic engagement in “Bowling Alone,” has come to the semi-heretical finding that diversity actually hurts civic engagement. Put simply: the more diverse your society, the less the citizens will bother with public life. You can read more details in the Boston Globe: http://tinyurl.com/289bog. Can Putnam be right? What examples do we see around the world that support or refute his findings? If he is right, what would be the implications for liberalism? Come to the mini-salon to discuss these among many other questions that Putnam’s work brings to the surface.

Selected Readings:

• Overview of the subject from the Boston Globe Ideas section
• Appropriation of Putnam’s work by those advocating a dramatic curb in immigration
• Perspective from the British left-leaning paper The Guardian
• An SF Perspective (from 2001) from the San Francisco Chronicle
• Two sections of his published work, first Putnam’s acknowledgment of the benefits of immigration and diversity, second his recommendations prefaced with historical precedent.

“Turkey and Egypt: Powerhouses or Powderkegs?” (Salon on April 21st, 2007)

When: April 21st, 6:00pm
PLEASE RSVP (or send me an estimated timetable for your RSVP) by email or cell phone, 415.690.5293. If you already know whether or not you are coming, a sooner RSVP would be extremely helpful.
Location: TBD

Turkey and Egypt are two countries that typically figure minimally in the American international outlook, but the war in Iraq has put the region’s politics under the spotlight like never before. Each reveals a different side of the aspirations and troubles of the Middle East. What are the internal issues driving these two countries, and what role could they play in the near future? Both are significant players in a regional dynamic that will only become more chaotic as the nation formerly known as Iraq undergoes a wrenching civil conflict, and both are torn by significant internal divisions. The presenter and his colleagues have recently returned from a research trip to Istanbul and Cairo, where they interviewed leaders from business, government, media
and nonprofit organizations. He will reflect on the ideas he heard in each country and provoke a discussion about their potential implications for the region’s stability.

PRESENTER BIO: Noah Flower is co-organizer of the Club of Rome in San Francisco. He holds an A.B. in philosophy from Dartmouth College, where he graduated in 2004. He has since worked at the Global Business Network, a consultancy that uses scenario planning to help organizations think productively about the long-term future. GBN is part of the Monitor Group, one of the top five strategy consulting firms. His work with GBN has been as part of the a public-private partnership with the US government to teach its analysts how to deepen their understanding of international affairs by incorporating the long view and unorthodox perspectives.

PLEASE NOTE:

Please keep in mind that we manage the list to maintain the ideal size for a single group discussion led by the presenter, rather than a party-style constellation of private conversations. HENCE, PLEASE TREAT THE RSVP WITH RESPECT. As always, please remember that this is an invite only event, do not invite any others without letting me know. Rather, let me know if you want to bring a guest and I’ll get back to you if we have space.

Out of courtesy to the presenter and host, we do ask that people at least plan to stay the duration. People naturally leave when the evening feels over to them, but we ask that people not leave early to get to another engagement they’ve planned for the same evening. If you have another engagement that evening or would remain open to making one, please decline this one. As always, sooner RSVPs are very, extremely, extraordinarily much appreciated; they greatly simplify the organizing task.

We look forward to seeing you there!

“From Temple to Strip Tease – The Evolution and Globalization of Belly Dance” (Salon on January 20th, 2007)

We hope you’ll attend our next salon. Invitations have been sent out; please respond quickly, as seats are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Summary:

What comes to mind when you envision a belly dancer? A quick glimpse of the words alone likely conjures up vivid images of exotic women shaking seductively to tribal beats.  But what does this dance form actually mean, and why has it remained one of the most popularized cultural art forms from the East despite its isolated origins as an ancient act of temple worship?

Throughout history, belly dancers have danced for and with other women, for and with men and for themselves. They have danced at home, in temples, at weddings, in nightclubs and on the streets. They have danced for spiritual connection, for fertility, for God, for pleasure and for money.  Sometimes, they dance for some combination of all of these things.

In this discussion, we will explore a theory on the threefold image of the belly dancer – the lover, the prostitute, and the mother– and discuss how these images relate to alternative views of femininity and the role of sexuality in society, with thought provoking implications for current discourse on women in the Middle East. We will also explore how these conflicting images mirror our perceptions of other traditional arts, rituals and symbols whose meanings have changed as prevailing value systems have changed over time. One such example revolves around ways in which monotheistic religions have both shaped and been shaped by traditional symbols and rituals whose specific origins have been obscured.  And finally, what does this ongoing phenomenon mean for the concept of cultural preservation in a globalized world?

Speaker:

Avril holds a B.A. in political science with a minor in African Studies from Princeton University, where she wrote her senior thesis on Mineral Resource Management and Corruption in Sub-Saharan Africa.  She currently works as a practice associate with the leading scenario planning firm, The Global Business Network, a member of The Monitor Group. Avril has studied martial arts, hip-hop, belly-dance and south-African gumboot dance and is an avid learner of foreign languages. She has a passion for community development, the arts and international affairs.

“Doing Development ‘Right’” (Salon on November 4th, 2006)

We hope you’ll attend our next salon. Invitations have been sent out; please respond quickly, as seats are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Summary:

There is currently a burgeoning and genuine interest in the non-profit development sector. People are willing to spend more resources than ever (both financial contributions, and their personal time) to stimulate progress in foreign communities. As a product of the attention being lavished on this sector, there is now a significant debate about how to do development “right.”

We will discuss the approach of some of the organizations that work in this sector in India to see what we can learn from their experiences, and discuss what makes for strong and weak approaches to development. We will use examples of both local and international non-profit agencies to discuss questions such as:
* What is the place of change agents within the community?
* What are the inherent tensions between the demands of development, and the demands of running a development organization?
* Is development best done at a grassroots or institutional level?
* When should development workers trust their own judgment versus that of the people who live in the communities they’re trying to help?

We will discuss examples including earthquake relief projects in Bhuj, local NGO’s such as Manav Sadhna, Aravind Eye Hospital, EkalVidyalay; and, international NGOs such as Indicorps, CharityFocus, BeTheCause, Kiva and others. Given time, we will also dig into the details of a project the speaker was personally involved with — handicraft marketing — and solicit input from the group regarding what alternative approaches that might have been taken.

Speaker

Rish Sangvhi has a degree in engineering from UC Berkeley and an MBA from Tuck at Dartmouth. Rish currently consults for the biotech and energy industry. He has spent some years examining and participating in the development sector – first as a fellow for Indicorps, where for a year he looked at developing a market for handicrafts to support low income urban communities. Currently as a board member, he is involved in shaping the vision of Indicorps to be a model of sustainable development.

“Women’s Rights in Sub-Saharan Africa” (Salon on August 12th, 2006)

We hope you’ll attend our next salon. Invitations have been sent out; please respond quickly, as seats are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Summary:

While working with women as a volunteer in Mali, Kirsten came face to face with polygamy and female circumcision, both of which are practiced as part of sub-Saharan African Muslim culture. As an American, she struggled with how to respond to what she saw. What is an outsider’s responsibility? Are these cultural practices that deserved to be respected, or a violation of fundamental human rights that ought to stopped? Should aid workers be involved in addressing these issues the way they are involved in AIDS education? Or is it the responsibility of local peoples to make and live with these decisions? Who has the power, and the legitimate authority, to decide?

While Kirsten is not an expert on the subject, she will share her first-hand experiences with Malian family and friends, on the Women in Development Committee, and her reflections on local films that discuss the issue. She will discuss the Malian government’s position on these issues, and the attitudes held by various parts of Malian society.

Presenter: Kirsten Krohn

Kirsten Krohn graduated from Yale University with honors in 1995. Her
major was Psychology. She then joined the Peace Corps and was assigned
to be a volunteer in Mali, West Africa for two years. She served in
the Small Business development sector working with village banks on
development and education and also with women’s groups on business
plans and savings and loans.

After her two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Mali, Kirsten taught
English in South Korea, lived briefly in Hawaii and then moved to Los
Angeles where she got her MA in clinical Psychology. After studying
Spanish in Costa Rica for 3 months she relocated to San Francisco where
she started private practice as a Marriage and Family Therapist.

The Club of Rome Retreat

Our bi-coastal retreat will be happening from the 23rd to the 26th of June. Here is the program introduction, short bios of the participants, and summaries of the discussions that we'll be holding.

“Asia’s Missing Daughters: Where Have All the Young Girls Gone?” (Salon on June 10th, 2006)

Invitations will be sent out shortly for this upcoming salon, which will be held on June 10th, 2006. To keep our discussions to a manageable size, we cannot invite all of our members to every salon, but if you have a special interest in this topic then please contact Ann Evans and she'll take that into consideration. The summary is below:

__________________

 

Girls are getting a lot of attention these days. At the same time as college girls are making headlines in the US for outnumbering college boys, there has also been an increasing level of concern around the severe shortage of girls in many Asian countries. Academic demographers have been documenting “sex ratios” in certain places that are heavily skewed, and the popular media has perked up its ears. Sex ratios refer to the number of males per 100 females. Under normal circumstances, the sex ratio should be just above or just below 100. For the world as a whole, for example, there are approximately 102 males per 100 females. However, some regions, such as Tamilnadu, India, have sex ratios that are so skewed that there are 160 boys for every 100 girls. With statistics like these, demography suddenly becomes a terribly interesting science.

Why is this happening, and what does it mean? One factor to consider is that the sex ratio imbalances are not evenly distributed across geography, culture and class. In India, they tend to be focused in particular castes situated in certain regions. Another factor is daughter discrimination, an issue that has been highlighted recently in India and China but has been documented historically across many cultures. Families who prefer male children will sometimes practice selective female abortion, female infanticide, or simply neglect their female children. The reasons why people carry out these practices are deeply nuanced; while some are common to all of human society, others are the result of a long, unique local cultural history. Governments have tried to legislate away the problem, but their efforts have not been very successful.

In this upcoming Club of Rome, we will address this pressing issue of “missing girls,” focusing primarily on the situation in India, with some additional information on China and other Asian and non-Asian countries. The presentation will begin with historic background on the issue of attitudes towards daughters around the world, including both Asia and Europe. We will then focus on some of the current evidence of the problem in India and China today, including regional and caste-specific sex ratios, records from death certificates, and demographic research in villages and communities. We will also discuss some of the major theories regarding causes of these imbalanced sex ratios, their social and political consequences, and some of the leading intervention efforts aimed at eliminating disparities in sex ratios and life opportunities for girls and boys. Through this discussion, we aim to explain the complexities involved in the issue and consider what strategies are possible for raising awareness and addressing the problem.

 

Pre-reading:

We recommend you read the following articles in preparation for the discussion:

• “More Than 100 Million Women are Missing” by Amartya Sen
• The State of World Population 2005 report, The Promise of Equality: Gender Equity, Reproductive Health and the Millennium Development Goals, published by the United Nations Population Fund (http://www.unfpa.org/swp/2005/presskit/docs/india.doc)

 

Further information:

• Endangered Daughters: Discrimination and development in Asia (2000) by Elizabeth Croll
• Bare Branches: The security implications of Asia’s surplus male population (2004) by Hudson & den Boer
• "Missing" – United Nations Population Fund
• The Times of India article
• Prabhat Jha's study (University of Toronto, Canada) described in the New Scientist
• MSNBC story on China
• Guardian article on China
• Shanghai news story on China
• Sex ratios as described in the Wikipedia, including a graph of sex ratios around the world

Presenter: Jana Haritatos

The presenter, Jana Haritatos, is a research psychologist with interdisciplinary training in social and health psychology, psychological anthropology and public health. Her commitment to issues of social inequalities and health disparities has crystallized over several years of experience both within and outside of academia. Growing up in rural Kansas in an area of diminishing economic investment, she witnessed the cumulative effects of geographic and economic marginality on health. As an undergraduate, Jana became interested in the role of inequalities in shaping life opportunities from a global perspective. In response, she undertook a semester of study in Hong Kong at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where she took courses in comparative Asia-U.S. social issues, local politics, and post-colonial reform. Through the university’s “Teaching in China” program, Jana spent time in rural China developing educational programs with elementary and high school students. She then went on to receive her PhD in Psychology from the University of Michigan in August of 2005. Although not her main area of research, while at Michigan, Jana’s interests in health inequalities and international human rights led her to join the research team led by Dr. Ramaswami Mahalingam, researching issues of daughter discrimination, female neglect and “missing girls” in India. During this time, she also spent a year working on a project documenting women’s lives and histories cross-culturally in India, China, Poland and the U.S. These experiences deeply shaped Jana’s on-going research interests, and continue to play a role in her commitment to issues of inequalities in health. Currently, Jana is a postdoctoral research fellow in Psychology and Medicine at UCSF, where her research centers on social status (e.g., race/ethnicity, SES, gender) and health, and how sociocultural and economic conditions influence stress processes to shape chronic disease development and population health disparities.

“Civil Unrest in France: What Lit the Fire?” (Salon on April 4th, 2006)

An audio recording of this salon is now available. To request the file, please email Noah Flower: noah dot flower at alum dot dartmouth dot org.

—————

 

 

On October 25th of last year, the French police arrested two teenagers, one 15-year-old from Mali the other a 17-year-old from Tunisia. Both were French citizens. When they teens tried to escape an identity check, they were accidentally electrocuted in a substation. As the rest of the country found out about their deaths, a sudden outburst of violent civil unrest was triggered in several cities at once. Disaffected youths set cars on fire, destroyed local institutions, vandalized community shops and kept the police at bay. The mayhem went on for over two weeks.

How could this happen in France? They’re a pillar of the European Union and an exemplar of social services with free education, unemployment assistance, welfare for large families, wealth redistribution for the poor and free health coverage for all. Speculation ran rampant among the international community. Was it religious influence? Media sensationalism? Political clashes and humiliation of the youth living in the poorest and relegated territories in the suburbs? All played a part, but none could explain the whole situation.

It is a challenge to pinpoint the true origins of the complex rising tensions that led us to the riots. A long history has set the tone: urban development in the ‘50s, economic downturn in the ‘70s, social development of the suburbs in the ‘80s and the recent liberal/republican politics related to safety and repression of crimes.

At this Club of Rome, we will hold an open forum to discuss the social and political roots of this upheaval. Over the course of the evening we will examine the population involved in those riots, their living conditions, their potential agenda, their perspectives and the recent political action aimed at decreasing the tension of the French suburbs.

 

 

Biography:

 

Our speaker for the evening is Chiraz Zapf, a French citizen and native Tunisian. She grew up in the projects of a neglected urban area in the North of Paris. While attending public school, she donated time to her community and worked in northern France as an educator, interacting in a daily basis with low income families and youth who were primarily from immigrant families. Working with these communities involved after-school programs, helping youth with their own work development, supporting families in their social needs, encouraging youth led projects, and sometimes offering the simple support of being present and willing to listen. Chiraz worked for 10 years with these communities, struggling with them to achieve their projects, helping them become successful in their school and family life, avoiding stigmatization and labeling, offering her best guidance on how to avoid jail and gangs. Sometimes she experienced success, and other times there was little opportunity for change. Building on that experience, she carried out research and a course of study to gain a masters of education and social work with a specialty in youth development. After graduating, she moved to America with her husband to America. Chiraz’ professional, educational and personal experience gives her a uniquely informed perspective on the perspectives of the low-income immigrant youths in France. Their violence may not be excusable, but with her help we can understand the reasons for their discontent.

“The International Dimension of the Open Source Software Debate” (Salon on February 4th, 2006)

Would you pay $43,000 for a copy of Microsoft Office and Windows XP?  The equivalent effective cost if the average Indian wants a copy, is around $43,000 – that is, it would take the amount of time it takes an American to earn $43,000 (14.5 months) for the average Indian to earn the rupees to pay for a copy of Office & XP.  However, Indians need to use prevailing software standards to best integrate themselves in the global economy.  Hence, the question of whether proprietary products or free/open source alternatives gain more widespread acceptance becomes an Indian national political interest.  Given the increasing integration of the global economy, decisions between these alternatives made in San Francisco, Rio, Shanghai and St Petersburg interact.  A war for world domination is raging between allies of free/open source software and supporters of proprietary software.  Battlegrounds in different nations include restrictions enforcement (copyright, patent, monopoly), subsidies, fines, critical mass. Microsoft's owners and customers are largely here in the United States, so US Government positions have a big impact.

 

The main idea of Free Software is that producers of software provide the recipients of this software with the freedom to dissect, understand, customize, and improve and build upon this software and, in turn, distribute their product.  Open Source evangelists emphasize that such abilities result in better software.  In contrast, traditional copyright protections are designed to maximize proprietary rights over wisdom and source code based on the theory that maximum control leads to maximum profit.

While open source underpins most computer activity around the world, this software lacks and does not need the marketing muscle that backs proprietary software.  In consequence, most people using open source don't even realize they are doing so.  Examples include free replacements for such popular applications as Windows, Office, Internet Explorer, Encarta, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Instant Messaging programs, video games and Oracle.

 

What are the political, cultural and economic goals and impacts of open source, in areas including freedom, privacy, and happiness?  How are poorer nations struggling to support open source software?  What have been the dynamics of open source migrations?  For instance, why has Linux been adopted as the operating system standard or even the development strategy in cities and nations, including Venezuela, Brazil, Extremadura and other regions of Spain, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Bhutan, and China?  How have open source applications been internationalized?  Will open source or proprietary software-based ecosystems dominate as political and economic interests in this debate clash all over the world?  We will explore these issues.

PRESENTER BIO: Matthew studied at Yale and currently works as a computer consultant, in confronting SPAM and developing open standards.  A potpourri of his professional and some outside interests can be found at http://wiki.fastmail.fm/index.php/MrElvey

“Women and Islam” (Salon on December 5th, 2005)

I. Stereotypes

II. Women's rights in the Arabian Peninsula before Islam

III. Women rights under Islam

A. Women’s relationship to God

    – Creation

    – Nature & humanity

    – Role & responsibilities

B. Women’s role and relationship to men in the domestic sphere

    – Marriage

    – Motherhood

C. Women’s role and relationship to men in the public sphere

    – Social

    – Economic

    – Political/Military

IV. Muslim women today

PRESENTER BIO

Maha is the founder & president of the Islamic Networks Group (ING). Maha is also a commissioner on Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante's "Commission for One California"; commissioner on Santa Clara County Human Relations Commission (appointed by Supervisor Jim Beall); Advisor to California's Commission on Police Officers Standards & Training (POST) for hate crimes and cultural diversity training; and former Co-chair and Vice-chair of the Bay Area Hate Crimes Investigators Association (BAHCIA). Maha is recipient of numerous civil rights awards which include the 1999 Civil Rights Leadership Award from the California Association of Human Relations Organizations, the 2000 Human Relations Award from the Santa Clara County Human Relations office, and the 2002 "Citizen of the Year" Award from the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. Maha has spoken to hundreds of schools, churches, police departments, corporations and other public institutions; has appeared on numerous television and radio programs, and is author of seven training handbooks on outreach for American Muslims as well as eight training modules for public institutions on "developing cultural competency with the American Muslim community". Maha is currently ING's CEO. She is married and lives in Santa Clara.