Categorie archief: English posts

The Politics and Ethics of keeping things clean: striking insights from South Africa

Posted on 10/03/2012 | 1 reactie


 


Image taken from http://kimmoment.wordpress.com/2011/08/18/mayhem-madness-media-exaggeration/

 By Tarryn Frankish Globally, the question of how to deal with the ‘dirty business’ of keeping things clean remains pertinent. In this blog I look to South Africa for insight into these questions as strikes around the globe by cleaning staff force us to think about the politics and ethics of keeping things clean elsewhere.

As a Desmond Tutu scholar, working at the Vrije University in Amsterdam in the Netherlands and the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa I have the unique opportunity of spending time in two countries as I work towards my doctoral degree. My first trip to Amsterdam coincided with a strike by cleaning services in May 2010. More recently, as I was leaving Amsterdam in February 2012, the working conditions of cleaning staff were again in question. This question resonates with what I have come to know in South Africa.  Striking similarities in the way ‘cleaning’ is organised in the Netherlands and South Africa became apparent to me during my stays despite the contextual differences between the two countries, wherein cleaning work is performed and negotiated. The situation in South Africa (and some of the similarities witnessed in Amsterdam) suggests much for thinking about the politics and ethics of keeping things clean in a global context. Lees verder →

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Geplaatst in Discriminatie & Man/vrouw, English posts, Globalisering & Ontwikkeling, Politiek & Burgerschap, Regio Afrika, Regio Europa

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From ‘youth’ to ‘newly weds’: a Mennonite Wedding

Posted on 01/12/2011 | Een reactie plaatsen

By Karen Smits It was a cold and crispy, sunny Saturday afternoon in a little German town in the province Nordrhein-Westfalen. The family, whom I had not seen for over five years, warmly welcomed me and asked me to sit with them at one of the first rows of the church. From my memory, they wear cowboy boots, jeans, flip-flops and t-shirts. But today, for this occasion, the Mennonite family is dressed in more fancy clothing. This occasion is special to them, and they traveled from Belize to Germany to witness this event. For the past 20 years they have been waiting for this moment: their son and brother, who is 42 years old, is getting married. This is not just a marriage, it is a Mennonite marriage: a ritual in which their son, the eldest ‘youth’ member of their church, will obtain a new status. Lees verder →

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Geplaatst in English posts, Identiteit & Religie, Regio Amerika's, Regio Europa

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Occupational Hazards: experiences of a PhD student

Posted on 11/10/2011 | Een reactie plaatsen

By Martijn Dekker

The following text was presented as a column at the yearly PhD/MSR student conference of the VU Graduate School for Social Sciences, on the 23rd of September 2011.

I would like to use this opportunity to talk to you about the notion of ‘occupational hazards’.  Usually, these two words refer to dangerous situations that might occur at your workplace. Or injuries that can be caused by work-related activities.

 Interestingly enough, ‘Occupational Hazards’ is also the provisional title of my dissertation. But, since my research topic, which deals with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is all over the news every day already, and even more of late, I don’t want to bore you with that right now.  Instead, I want to briefly talk about occupational hazards in the literal sense:  about the pathologies, be they psychological or physical, a PhD or Research Master student may incur while doing his or her job. And I want to make this a personal story by zooming in on three of such pathologies I more or less suffered from and which I think may also sound familiar to some of you. These are: anxiety, guilt, and, what I would like to call, the “go it alone mentality”. Lees verder →

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Geplaatst in Antropologie & Wetenschap, English posts, Regio Midden Oosten & Noord-Afrika, Uncategorized

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Conscripted Realities: Military and Society in Israel

Posted on 06/10/2011 | 1 reactie
 

Rachel Papo: Serial No. 3817131 http://www.serialno3817131.com/index.html

 
By Erella Grassiani The military is everywhere in Israel. We can see it not only through the young uniformed people strolling through the city streets of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, but if we look very carefully we can also find it in the way it influences the education of young children or in  the ways the media portrays the political situation. An example of the first is the way these children are made familiar with the military by making drawings and preparing presents for the soldiers ‘at the front’.
 
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Geplaatst in Antropologie & Wetenschap, English posts, Oorlog & Vrede, Regio Midden Oosten & Noord-Afrika

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South-South connections: Brazilian Pentecostalism in Mozambique and ‘cultural distancing’

Posted on 24/09/2011 | Een reactie plaatsen

By Linda van de Kamp In 2007, Madam Gracelina (45 years old) was going to open a business with her husband in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. She had managed to rent a nice building for their company at a central location in the city centre and had bought all the necessary equipment. There were also some possible future customers Dona Gracelina was in contact with and she was all ready to start. However, after having dealt with the right government department in Maputo for several months, government officials would not hand over the required licence. She suspected that the officials were waiting for her to pay them an additional sum of money to proceed, but she refused. In the Brazilian Pentecostal God is Love Church that she frequented, she handed over the project file with the company plans and copies of all the papers she had to arrange for the licence to a Brazilian pastor. He would take it with him on his travels until he was back in Brazil where the church’s founder was going to pray for her. During the service it was revealed that an evil spirit stood behind Dona Gracelina and this was following her wherever she went. The pastor expelled the spirit and proposed a programme of prayer, offerings and fasting to defeat the demon.

Studies on religious transnationalism have addressed the role of religion for migrants in maintaining the link between the home and host society. A central question is how transnational religion plays a role in preserving a sense of cultural continuity or in encouraging cultural change in contact between migrants and the new society in which migrants are subjected to a forceful public agenda that usually emphasizes integration. In this context, it has been argued that transnational Pentecostalism encourages stability in situations of mobility and provides for cultural continuity by offering migrants a ‘home away from home’.   Lees verder →

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Geplaatst in English posts, Globalisering & Ontwikkeling, Identiteit & Religie, Ondernemerschap & Organisaties, Regio Afrika

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An encore for the weakest performer

Posted on 22/09/2011 | Een reactie plaatsen

by Gea Wijers While the European Union is under scrutiny because of the euro-crisis, at the other side of the planet countries are getting ready to intensify their regional cooperation. Next to ASEAN, Cambodia is now involved in the Great Mekong Subregion (GMS) program. As in the case of our European crisis, the resulting greater connectivity here can also be said to have mixed results. Let’s evaluate some opportunities and challenges of cooperation for a developing country.

The GMS cooperation is characterized as based on the increase of connectivity, competitiveness and community. Please note, not necessarily on the cooperation  or even integration that our European Union is based on. Lees verder →

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Geplaatst in Economie, English posts, Globalisering & Ontwikkeling, Ondernemerschap & Organisaties, Regio Azie, Regio Europa

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“China seeks tips on how to boost Christianity,” or Wang Zuoan meets Max Weber in Kenya

Posted on 22/07/2011 | Een reactie plaatsen

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mplemmon/1314495959/sizes/o/in/photostream/

By Pal Nyiri Kenya’s Sunday Nation reports that a Chinese government delegation “led by State [Administration] for Religious Affairs minister Wang Zuoan is in Kenya to ‘copy good practices’ that could help it grow Christianity.”

“Religion is good for development,” the minister reportedly said at Bishop’s Gardens in Nairobi, at a meeting with Kenya’s Anglican archbishop. He also said that “he was happy with the localisation of Anglican Church in Kenya after independence, so that all its bishops are locals.”

Well. Where to begin? Lees verder →

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Geplaatst in Antropologie & Wetenschap, English posts, Globalisering & Ontwikkeling, Identiteit & Religie, Politiek & Burgerschap, Regio Azie

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Chinese workers in Libya

Posted on 16/06/2011 | Een reactie plaatsen

By Pal Nyiri Acccording to a feature in Nandu Zhoukan, 36 thousand Chinese workers have been evacuated from Libya with an efficiency that, the paper claims, astounded the world. The largest operation belonged to China State Construction Engineering (CSCE, 中国建筑工程总公司）, which alone employed 10 thousand Chinese workers. The paper interviewed an engineer working at a smaller operation, China Transport Construction Group (中国交通建设集团), which employed a total of 5,000 workers in Libya. This engineer, from Henan Province, worked on the real estate project near Benghazi that comprised the construction of 5,000 houses.

At the end of February, armed Libyan rebels assembled in front of the work site and commandeered two trucks. The Chinese workers assembled into units armed with crowbars and bricks; they barricaded the entrance with more trucks and threw stones over the wall. The attackers retreated, but the offices at another, unguarded work site were looted. The article refers to these Libyans as thugs and provides no political context, but the engineer is quoted as saying that Chinese workers have encountered hostility and have even been thrown stones at before. He attributes this to causing a rise in the price of consumer goods such as cigarettes: the price of Rothmans has doubled since Chinese visitors have been buying them up. The article quotes a Chinese researcher, Liu Zhirong, as saying that the Chinese media’s portrayal of African friendliness towards Chinese is skewed. The reality, it suggests, is more mixed, just as Chinese see Africa in a mixed light (they like that cars let pedestrians cross the road). Lees verder →

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Geplaatst in Economie, English posts, Globalisering & Ontwikkeling, Multicultureel & Migratie, Oorlog & Vrede, Regio Afrika, Regio Azie

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60 kilometers from bin Laden

Posted on 06/06/2011 | 1 reactie

Obama on the news (by JoshMcConnell)

By Mohammed Amer The immediate reactions of Pakistanis on hearing of the murder of Osama bin Laden were divided – between those showing disbelief and condemning the Americans, and those condemning bin Laden for causing calamity for Pakistan. However as the news emerged, I did not find any emotional outburst in the neighborhood where I stayed.

On the 1st of May, it was late in the evening when me and my family returned back to our apartment after attending the wedding reception of a relative. Lees verder →

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