Ideology

Obviously, non-profits come with the presumption of being ideologically driven.  Unfortunately, this scenario we are setting out upon is driven by an ideology.  But I suppose this can be said about anything.  Everyone and everything has an underlying meaning or purpose, a reason for doing.

The basic principle that I (not we) are moving into this with is completely altruistic.  I have some very divergent views from the mainstream.  Yet this does not absolve me from living and working in the real world as it exists today.  There is ideology and reality - life is about balancing the two, as is this project.

The ideology that I, and hopefully a soon to be incorporated non-profit, will be approaching development and redevelopment work is to try to minimize ideology, especially our own.  I view this as one of the biggest detractors and obstacles towards sustainable global development.  When most organizations, companies, governments, individuals, whatever, go into an area with an aim to make something 'better' they are starting from a point of judgment.  For most people in the West it is about making the lives of people 'better'.  This is obviously a very subjective terminology.  I would prefer to think of lives on a linear level, they are equally different, not hierarchically ranked.  All these 'things' we have in the 'developed' West, yet happiness still seems to elude most of us.

The goal of this specific endeavor is to try not to go into any event or project driven by a specific ideology or template.  Every place in the world is different, every person different, every culture wanting different things and motivated by different things.  Agendas.  The world is full of them, yet the only one that should matter is those of the people that will most directly be affected by whatever scenario is to happen.

What this means is that this prospective organization will not be pushing any specific ideologies as the 'solution' to someone's or some place's 'issues'.  Capitalism, Socialism, Democracy, Civil Liberties, whatever, the specific pathway is, they do not always solve issues on their own.  Unregulated free markets can truly hinder an overarching community's development, just as a planned economic system can allow for much less initiative and reward than may truly stimulate advances.  Dictatorships throughout humanity have been mostly rigid and oppressive, and while democracy gives everyone their say it is slow, inefficient, and inherently compromising.  On there own and as we understand them they bring about presumptions and judgments, but these judgments are of peoples interpretaitons of the past, not the future or even the present.

We need new thinking that is not afraid to work outside existing ideology and presumption.  Would the world really be such a terrible place if it was run by Gandhi in a dictatorial position?  A communist Soviet Union was the fastest country ever to industrialize, what can we learn from this?  Free Markets and industrial incetive have made the US the worlds superpower, and a strong social safety net has lead Europe's people to high levels of statistical 'happiness' and security.

What can we learn from all of this?  That there is no one way, no one best, but that different things work in different places.  The ultimate aim of any scenario is to try to make local people happy.  Try to empower both local communities and local individuals without empowerment of one coming at the expense of the other.  Thus, our project will be about each individual situation and trying to use knowledge and human experience to empower localities and individuals within them alike.

All projects will be looked at in terms of a balance of both individual and community good.  If you bring in a factory and there are rich owners but poor workers, have you helped the community?  If you set up a fully equal communal work scenario, how is the individual rewarded for greater effort?  Balances must be found.  Balances with humanity, with the environment, with ourselves, with our communities, etc.  Localized solutions for localized cultures.

This is the main ideological premise that I'd like our organization to be based upon - ideology without ideology.  We want to make a difference for the people where we do work, not for ourselves or our own goals and principles in life.

Introduction Part II

So how does a dream then become reality?  Well for me, at least intrinsically, that means just getting up and making it happen - just going.  But luckily cooler motherly heads prevailed.  I believe that if you really want to learn something you should go into it without much presumption, with an open mind and an open heart.  I.e. just get up and go, figure it out as you make it happen.  But I come back to the initial two desired outcomes: to blog and write about it, and to identify future endeavors.  Ultimately, if we wanted to do these two things properly some planning needed to happen (it also doesn't hurt that the summer time is the rainy season in Sierra Leone and not ideal for backpacking!!)

So we sat down to map out the best way forward.  This of course is a continually fluid scenario, and still being worked on...  ;)  But what we have come up with is that no matter what, if it is a sponsorship scenario or a non-profit entity doing exploratory project research, there has to be a non-profit organization to help facilitate it all.  Donars need their contributions to be tax deductible, and any future endeavor would benefit from a name with a track record.  Unfortunately in our world, the head of a non-profit organization carries more weight than any random backpacker walking through town.  So setting up a non-profit became a priority.  

There are of course a litany of other things that must be done.  Logistics need to be sorted out.  Visas, doing business in SL, length of stay, etc.  What kind of network of cooperation could be achieved both there and in the US?  Are there sympathetic entities on the ground there that would help the project?  How do I contact them, and can they help provide guidance for my trek?  Equipment; everything from communications to a light backpacking stove needed to be researched and decided upon.  A budget, a web presence, a method for connecting and blogging, a group of well intentioned people to delegate to, a board of directors...  People and information...  Funny how the world revolves around those two 'simple' things.  The list continues, language, the Sierra Leone diaspora here in the US, tropical backpacking, security...  Complication after complication...  It certainly would be easier just to pick up and go!! 

But its ok, we'll take the time and plan it out.  Set up a legitimate non-profit organization that can grow over years, map out an agenda and trekking route, obtain the right equipment, wait for the proper time of year, and then go and figure it out...    :)

Introduction Part I

Over the last week a lot of progress has been made.  But it is better probably to start with a brief introduction and what needs to be done.  I will not get too detailed about the country's issues in this post, as there will be links to sites that can help with this, but I would like to talk about the project itself.

This idea started during time doing graduate work that involved the country, and then a long period of unemployment that subsequently followed.  I have spent many years living abroad and studying the transitioning and developing world (I'm originally American).  However, I do not have specific experience living and/or working in the developing world for any extended time period.  I believe this to be the main reason why I have not been able to get far with job hunting in the non-profit world that works in developing areas.  I also have come to the point where I am no longer interested in sitting around 'waiting' for someone else to 'give' me a job - to recognize my value through their eyes.  I know my worth, and I'm wasting time.  I'm going to go make things happen, create my own livelihood doing what I have always been driven to do - make a difference.

For over a year I have been looking into going to Sierra Leone under whatever pretense I could manage.  I have however not gotten very far via traditional means.  On numerous occasions I considered just picking up and moving, sorting it out when I get there as I did when I moved to Prague.  That experience changed my life, so to I think would this.  Turns out some things in my life made making a move more easy right now and as I was sitting on my parents couch reading The Places in Between by Rory Stewart (about his walk across Afghanistan), and I said, hey why not?!?   

I do a great deal of running and hiking, and thought "what better way to get to know people than to simply walk through their country and see all of its corners?"  I thought of biking, as whenever I walk I usually just end up running and thought it would be difficult to do to much running with a back pack on.  But it is specifically this slowing down that I really think I need to do.  Break free of 'modernity' and simply experience life and hardship as they happen, in the time they happen.

From there it became about how.  I have been running almost exclusively in the Vibram Five Fingers of late and immediately thought that I could approach them about sponsorship and do the whole trip in them.  Two to Three months hiking through a post-conflict country in Africa with nothing but the "barefooting alternative".  My mother thought of doing things like they do with marathons, getting individual sponsorships on a per mile basis or the such, and giving all I could to local charities in Sierra Leone.  The key to it all was always two-fold, to keep a blog and then write about the trip, and second to identify areas of need/want for future humanitarian effort.  Ideas ideas, I've always got them, but funding always remains the key.

But one morning my mother came to me and said, "Tim, I have just graduated with a masters degree at 60, and its made me think.  I don't want my gravestone to say 'she lived a good life', I want it to say 'she made a difference'.  You have been trying to make a difference for years, yet couldn't find the opportunities as readily as you'd have liked.  Well what say we try to do something together, what say we start our own non-profit and work to empower people?"  My eyes brightened like you don't usually see first thing in most mornings.

I had looked into several different business options over the last year, but something always stood in the way: partners, financing, ideology, whatever.  But here we were, first thing in the morning, with a few years of unused "cookie jar" money and a dream...