Article 2, by Kim.
This article describes the impact of social capital on household welfare and poverty in the case of Indonesia.
It’s yet another studie, but I think that it’s also important to read about some facts and measurments, before
I’m starting to write the essay.
http://www.profluming.com/Article/UploadFiles/200507/20050710231950605.pdf
The week started with a lecture about what we can expect during this minor. At the end there was time to get to know each other. What I liked about it was that I got a clear image of what I can expect the next weeks. I was surprised how little people choose this minor. But I am happy with that because you can get to know you classmates better. Also I like it to follow lectures with a small group because there is more room for questions.
The main subject in this minor is child poverty. I really like this subject because I think it is a big international problem. When I heard I could chose a country of my own interest to write a case it was clear to me it had to be Indonesia. I chose Indonesia because next year I’m going to do half of my internship over there.
For me the most interesting this week was the lecture from Guido van Luitgaarden about welfare states. I was really surprised how different welfare states work in Europe. What also surprised me was the different kinds of poverty within Europe. He gave an example about how poverty in Sweden en poverty in Romania that really made an impression on me. Guido only spoke about welfare states within Europe. I’m really looking forward to learn more about welfare states in the rest of the world and if Indonesia is a welfare state or not. And how it works over there.
I’m looking forward to next week to find more information about my own case!
This article is in dutch and it is about the universal rights of children. The last two chapters spend special attentions on the rights of children who are sexually abused and child soldiers.
Unicef (2009). Verdrag inzake de Rechten van het Kind. Geraadpleegd op 11 mei 2012 op http://www.unicef.nl/media/44520/20091116_kinderrechtenverdrag.pdf
This article is about changes after Soharto not being president anymore, the civil war during Suhartoe, how traditions still have their influence in Indonesia, the differences between some parts of the country, civil society not being able to make changes and citizenship in general.
Schulte Nordholt, H. (2008). Identity Politics, Citizenship and the Soft State in
Indonesia: an Essay. Geraadpleegd op 3 mei op http://kitlv.library.uu.nl/index.php/jissh/article/viewArticle/3631
Daya is a seven year old girl. The first six years of her life, she lived with her parents and little sister on the countryside of Lombok. She belongs the Sasak. Her mother died a year and a half ago after a long period of sickness. Short after that her father died in an accident. Daya and her sister had to move to the Mataram to live with her uncle and aunt. Her uncle and aunt have three children, two sons (13 an 11 years old) and one daughter (8 years old). Her uncle is unemployed and hasn’t the intention to work. When he has a job he gives up easily. Her aunt sells food of a little booth before their house. Daya goes to school but the quality of the education is bad. When she comes back home from school she has to help her aunt. Daya and her sister are Muslim but also stick to the wektu tello belief.
Learninggoals:
Last week was a pretty busy week. We had a lot of lectures and gatherings. During these lectures
we learned about the differences between cultures, the TOPOI-model and communications between different cultures.
I found the lectures really interesting, because I can never stop learning about cultures. Normally I find it hard to pay
attention to lectures, but I never had this problem since I started this minor.
During the group gatherings we had to read different articles about international social work, differents types of poverty around the world,
the definition of a child etc. I think these articles help me to get more insight for the essay about the Indonesian culture and to realise that there
are more aspects to a culture than just the obvious things like religion, language and habits.
On wednesday we had our first excursion to the foodbank in Landgraaf. It was in interesting experience, I learned a lot form it.
I never realised there were so many people who can’t afford their own meals. And, I know it’s a prejudgement, I always thought that
organizations like a foodbank only work for money and are only interesting in money. But the owner of the foodbank told us that he
and his wive are volunteers and don’t earn anything, that he keeps the foodbank running by donations from sponsors and companies.
It also made me realise that I have to waste less food and perhaps donate my old clothing, instead of dumping it at the attic.
The week ended with a guestlecture from the author of the TOPOI-model. Even though I thought the model was quite obvious, hearing the author
talk about it was refreshing. It gave me some new ways of using the model.
So, even though it was a busy week, I had a lot of fun.
Searching for more articles on poverty in Kenya, I found this one. This article sketches more dimensions and analyses of child poverty in Kenya, with help of models and also discussing policy. Not every bit of this article then you read is evenly interesting, but the necessary information is very useful.
You will have to click on the blue ‘Download this paper’ button to get access to this article.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1086369
Continuing to search for articles I want to look more for ones about policy and Social Work in Kenya.
Extra:
Touching and beautiful!
Child Poverty Pictures from a photo journalist: http://www.zoriah.net/blog/2009/04/kenya_child_poverty.html
Week reflection Part 2 of 10
Minor Internationalisation 2012
By Laura Selvi
This week we started with lectures about intercultural communication and culture, By Hilde van Schaeren, Chantal van Lieshout and guest speaker Edwin Hoffman. We also had Pie van Weersch as a guest speaker about poverty in The Netherlands and Limburg, which gave insight in the poverty situation in our own country. Now I even know that the city I live in, is in the Top10 of the poverty list in The Netherlands witch I didn’t know before.
Guest speaker Edwin Hofmann introduced us to the TOPOI model. Its a way to help you analyse situations when it comes to interaction between people from a different culture, and how to understand them better.
This week I also chose the novel I want to read, so sais the next assignment. ‘The White Massai’ from Corinne Hofmann about the life of an western woman in the Samburu tribe in Kenya. Hopefully next week I will get the chance to start reading.
We also had an excursion to the food bank in Landgraaf, a place where people can get a food package if they don’t have the means so. We got a very interesting tour and he told us how it works, what they do and why, the difference with other countries, finance etc!! Very interesting to know is that it entirely runs on volunteers. Next week we will go to the food bank in Hasselt, Belgium. I’m curious to see the similarities and differences.
The second week started with two lectures about cultural diversity and the question ‚What is a child?‘
I found out that every country has another definition and imagination of a child. In some cultures children are seen as incomplete and they are on a very low level and in other countries children are seen as very important and they are on a higher level. There are also countries which make adifference between boys and girls. In some countries girls have to behave on a other way than boys and they have other tasks. In comparison to my case you can also see that boys and girls in Turkey are treated different.
We also had an excursion to the ‚voedselbank Zuyd Limburg‘ in Landgraaf.
Weg et many information about how they work there and how they finance it. It is a private organisation and only volunteers work there. People who are not able to buy enough food for themselves and their falilies have to register and if they conform to all conditions they get box of food one day in a week.
The food is a gift from different organisations, like supermarkets or bakeries.
Homeless people and people who use drugs can not get food there.
We also had a workshop on Friday by Edwin Hoffman.
It was very interesting because we learned a lot about living in a multi-cultural system.
I could compare the theory with my own situation when I came to Netherland. Suddenly it was me who was the Stranger from another country.
We also learned about the TOPOI method. It is a method how you can understand people of another country better but also how you can analyse situations where people from different cultures took part.
At least I found an article about the relation between suicide and poverty and gender in Batman in Turkey. I found out that the women in southeastern Turkey are still cotrolled by their men and fathers and that the rate of women who are committing suicide is higher than the rate of man who are committing suicide.
internationalisation 2012 