Cultural Chameleon

Interacting, engaging, and merging with various communities and their cultures remains one of the most illicit and difficult issues to deal with in our shrinking world. Elaborate or complex schemes and models are proposed 'to do the trick'. I add mine with the Macha Works! Model that depicts how activists can position for worthwhile interactions. With various authors, I keep busy drafting texts and finding homes for various papers with findings on the subject matter. For instance, now we aim to publish research theorized in an International Development Model.

It is not only for travellers to have cross-cultural experiences. Cultures travel too. Especially western culture travels to rural Africa via television, movies, education, and Information and Communication Technologies. Thus, even rural Africa has to come to terms with crossculturality.

Deep down in my heart I know it is all boils down to living it. It is about a genuine interest, an unquenchable passion, and a real desire and interest to know and merge with the other, whether in community or as an individual. Such interest is the prerequisite for learning. Further, it is about allowing oneself to live through constant changes in life's perspectives, disrupting one's thinking in line with Paulo Freire jottings “conversation with people requires a profound rebirth”. Engagement needs participation. Participation results in discovering. Discoveries birth change, inside, and outside.

Especially when living crossculturally, as we do in Africa, one has to rebirth into the culture and live. One has to become part of the community, accepted because of being, not because of having.

Now in our international community, we have a whole range of communities with diverse cultures, all of them getting closer and closer to each other. Will it be one culture remaining, will there be conflict, or will it be possible for us to become cultural chameleons? The latter are persons that can live several cultures at the same time. They live the individual shared values, and expected social behaviour in the different circumstances at appropriate times.

It is this ability for cultural chameleonness that is the real challenge. A challenge for which I have not seen much literature yet. Maybe it is not (yet) about literature, as our thinking still is in the phase of defining formal explicit specifications of a shared conceptualisation for this domain. It is still about discovering the ontologies to represent the needed kind of knowledge.

With the void of models, it is very much Show-and-Tell! Thus living the life, showing clear examples of practice of cross-cultural living, role modelling and exposing the personal and material effects of being a cultural chameleon.

Vibrant Life

This weekend I traveled by ZUPCO bus from Mbare Bus Terminus in Harare to Murambinda, in Zimbabwe. The bus was filled to capacity, as it is a weekend extended with two national holidays. People traveled to their rural home.

It was a lively affair. One of the passengers had a 'boom box', and the music became part of the bus' fabric. There were lively discussions, and all shared stories, emotions, and food.

The conductor climbed over piles of luggage, merchandise, and an occasional chicken. I admired his discipline and hard work. He provided the tickets and facilitated the process of embarkment and disembarkations. When conflict occurred, he defused the situation magisterial.

Wherever I go, I see people busy, hard work, tinkering, innovating, and making do. They are out and about, making and living a living. Most people in Africa, like people everywhere in the world, are hard working and caring people, virtuous and capable individuals. They are ethical with laudable values, understanding of being custodians of the environment, their communities, and individual lives.

Everywhere I communicate with people, framing as per critical ethnography. Actually, it is a never ending interview, an enquiring of my surroundings. I probe narratives to uncover meanings, functions, and the implications of unfolding events. Therefore, it is advantageous to live life within the space of direct communion in events and the actual environment. In my case, my interactions are aided by much travel, exposure and interactions on both sides of divides. I try to discern the meaningful and to classify the total experience of the story of events in theory. Through meeting people of all feathers, triangulating their inputs, I try to gain a measure of understanding.

Not unlike other areas in the world, change in Africa is fast. I notice chance every time I visit familiar places. Obviously there is lots of building going on, infrastructure being expanded, and change in interactions facilitated by cell phones, computers, satellite TV, and the internet. I keep probing on what this could mean for Africa's contribution to the world, as, undoubtedly, there is much to share from the wisdom of traditional philosophy and Africa's emotional honesty.

Observing and interacting with vibrant life as per metal cocoon – bus – is observing vibrant, living African humanity.

Economic Systems Segregation

Yesterday, Tuesday 7 August, I made an online reservation with South African Airways to fly from Port Elizabeth airport. The flight became necessary as train and bus services could be affected by severe weather conditions in South Africa. For flight payment, I redeemed South African Voyager frequent flyer points. Although the flight is free, one must pay significant surcharges that include, among others, airport taxes and fuel levies. During the online reservation, one can choose for payment by credit card, or at South African airways offices within 72 hours. Zambian banks do not provide for credit cards; therefore, I had to opt for the latter.

Today I went to the airport to pay the surcharges. At this time, the airline representative told I must pay an additional service charge of ZAR 500 (= USD 60.75) as I was not paying online by credit card.

As mentioned, Zambian banks do not provide for credit card services. As to curb personal credit, they cannot be gotten in the country. The same might be valid in Zimbabwe and a number of other African countries. Recently the situation eased when Zambian banks could provide for VISA Electron debit cards, at least. South African Airways explicitly excludes payments by debit cards.

For a person living within Zambian realities, there is no way to avoid the extra SAR 500 'service charge'. The South African Airways representative empathised upon hearing my complaint. She mentioned she was not aware of such a situation. There was no way around. The result: segregation forces to me pay an extra levy of SAR 500.

This situation is not unique. From our Zambian realities, we struggle with most international payments from Africa.

Flight tickets we buy online using US based Expedia, whom accepts VISA debit cards. Their system rejects payments from Africa often. However, after a costly call to their service center in the USA, involving sitting in a queue listening to music, payment goes through most of the times. If this fails, the only other option for me is to buy tickets online in the Netherlands, using a Netherlands based bank account. Such option is not available for Zambians.

For calling normal phones, we rely on Skype-out. This assures we can understand the other person, as phone quality from rural Zambia is mostly poor. Recently Skype stopped accepting payment using our Zambian debit card; subsequently we cannot call standard phones anymore.

Let me not discuss the difficulties of renting of cars or putting down a deposit in hotels.

I conclude, today, I received a SAR 500 fine from South African Airways for living in Zambia. And, Skype does not allow us to call ordinary phones as a consequence of our living in Zambia. When traveling abroad and paying a large amount of cash, for instance in hotels, I feel peculiar.

There is still lots to learn and adapt for seamless service provisioning and fight segregation in a shrinking world.

Relatio Economics

The indigenous traditions, background and values of African peoples are disregarded and often viewed as being behind the times. Colonialism implemented Western systems while disregarding established, functioning systems of African resource allocation. The western systems of interaction are out of touch with cultural priorities in rural Africa, a society much more complex than many assume.

In our paper “Relatio, an examination of the Relational dimension of resource allocation”, through a review of literature augmented by qualitative interviews and observational analysis, we show the evolutionary nature of rationality. Thus, two parallel systems for addressing basic questions of choice and resource management exist; a traditional “rational” Western system, and a “relational” African system.

In the current economic turmoil, these findings on African uniqueness do provide for refreshing inputs. Current views of economic choice can change to involve broader conceptions of its constitution, restraints, and motivations, involving both social and material forms of capital.

In a shrinking world, decisions taken somewhere affect us all. It is time for economic decolonization. I would hope that our publications counter-penetrates Western thinking, from rural Africa.

Reference: K. Sheneberger and G. van Stam, “Relatio: An Examination of the Relational Dimension of Resource Allocation,” Economics and Finance Review, vol.1, no.4, pp. 26–33, 2011.

Belief Precedes Knowledge

The philosophising chemist Michael Polanyi wrote essays in economics, philosophy of science, political theory, and epistemology from the vantage point of an outsider. He wrote: "one must recognize belief as the source of all knowledge". I think that is true.

I believe with Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence (US, 1776) "that all men are created equal" (in the eyes of God). I believe that I am called to love my neighbor as myself. And I believe one must strive for humbleness and consider others better than oneself. I believe I can, and do, learn from my sisters and brothers in Africa's rural areas.

Desmond Tutu declares "I am because we are" to pinpoint the preamble for sub-Saharan Ubuntu culture, with "being together" to be the ultimate goal of our existence. I think that is true.

When rural Africa has no access to Information and Communication Technologies, information cannot flow from that geographical area to any other area in this world. Then we cannot be truly together. Then outsiders cannot believe in, and then learn from, insiders. And knowledge cannot grow. I think that is bad.

I am sure of what I hope for and certain of what I do not see. That believe sourced the knowledge packed in my brains. With it, I try to invite you to believe, so knowledge can grow. I think that is worthy.

Current rationality restricts forms of communication, forces its content to conform as to align for vogue rational judgement. I regard our current forms of communication and thought processes restrictive, as real knowledge necessitates social interaction, and aspects with an ethical/moral form. We deal with forms of life.

I am allowed to be an apprentice to a rewarding form of life, to live it, in rural Africa. I learned that is a privilege.

Value-Loaded Technology

Today, The Washington Post counts more then 25,000 people convened in the US capital in tune with the AIDS 2012 conference. The theme is 'Turning the Tide Together'.

As a technologist I walk the AIDS 2012 conference's Global Village in awe, admiring the mix of research, activists, civil society, and the obviously massive investments for the public good. I listen carefully to rousing speeches of dignitaries like the president of the World Bank Group, all calling for an end to the pandemic, and linking the fight against AIDS with the others, like the fight against absolute poverty. They echo the sentiments I discussed with Vint Cerf last week.

However, I feel quite lonely, no exhibition of technology on display at AIDS 2012 at all, it seems. Are we turning the tide together?

Nobody denies that the fights against AIDS and absolute poverty are important, and supersede politics and, maybe, even economics. These fights are justified by basic human values, like loving care. Values are operationalised by human intentions, and if technology amplifies human intent, where are the technologists to turn the tide, together?

Technology and values are closely related. The creation and/or availability of technology is a value-laden enterprise. Technology is a material part of culture and society and therefore its availability, or even its creation, is a moral, and possibly even political, act. Of course, technology itself is neither smart nor dumb, moral nor immoral. It is in the targeting of its utilization where the values, and morals, play out.

Thus, the discussion of appropriate use of technology, for instance in HIV-AIDS care and systems, must be put on the agenda of any major event, especially during these times in which technologies do let the world shrink.

Interdependentness

Traveling provides perspectives. On places, on people, on environments, on communities. This morning, as an unintended surprise, I attended a wedding in the center of Washington DC, USA. It realigned me again on global virtues that involve, among others, healthy measures of love, joy, peace, kindness, and self-control.

In Africa I do encounter dependence often, in both its healthy and unhealthy expressions. Healthy through Ubuntu – a culture expressing that I am because we are – and unhealthy, for instance, in the form of demands for others to take care, and blame when such provision does not emerge.

In America I do encounter independence often, in both its healthy and unhealthy expressions. Healthy through innovation – blisful energy to enhance reality - and unhealthy, for instance, in self-serving use of natural resource forsaking the responsibilities of its use in a global, social setting of capacity, and disregard when others request for account.

Here and there on the globe I find interdependence. Where interdependence reigns, a bold kind of humbleness exists. While opinions exist, they are not the measure. And circumstances are reviewed as per alignment with inspired and shared vision. Ultimately goals are reached as a collective; A "We, the Community of People", where worth exists from the outset.

The world is shrinking fast. Unfortunately, exaltation of dependence, or independence, can withhold similar advancement of society to be together. Let us strive towards interdependentness, a state of character where we do figure out harmonious sharing of our collective resources, and our collective potential as, and with, any place, people, environment, and community.

Mastering a Master's

I am in the process of writing a Master's. It took me a while to understand what actually the purpose of the exercise is. Now I start to comprehend that this work exists to provide evidence of one's ability to define a (/one) problem, describe a (/single) methodology, and present the (/one) outcome, all embedded in extant literature. This process then certifies the individual to address the (creation of the) body of knowledge.

The struggle to understand this is fuelled by the obvious paradoxes and oxymorons involved in the process. As if one could be able to understand and define problems, as if methodologies are like clockwork, and as if outcomes do inform, and if literature does contain it all. If one could, then only for an instant..

It took a while before I yielded to this process. It helped to think it not to be about the production of wisdom, but solely about the production of knowledge. Of course, this was explained from the outset, but never really landed with me. I guess one needs much wisdom to guide oneself through the obvious dilemma’s and structural flaws, and ethically stay in one piece.

In my view, in the world of big-data, this process is pretty useless actually. It should be the other way around; All the outcomes are already known, like in the Zambian Smart Care Electronic Health Record system all health profiles are already computed using all possible methods. Thus the most important issue one must focus on is: what are good questions?

Maybe fortunately, my subject matter is not yet embedded in the big-data cloud. It is about people in Africa's rural areas whom are not (yet) fully linked to global communication networks. I study the 'how' of access to information and communication technology. Although the value seem obvious and important, only a small amount of persons embark on such journey. Now, with little to build upon, what is the right question?

Technology, which was developed by the rich and powerful, is, of course, created to served their agenda. An agenda to save cost on (and dehumanizing) labour, and to maximize their profits. Although knowledge tells me I study technology, wisdom thus tells me that I deal with power. Power to know, power to be known. Power to connect, power to be connected. Power to control, power to be controlled. About what, for what, to what? When dealing with the 'how' of enabling communications network access through technology, what is the real question?

If the 'how' of ICT is solved, and access is ubiquitous, what happens to the balance of power? What is the best question?

The answers are already known: inequalities will continue to grow. Copiousness will lead to waste, shortage to war. However, lack of information leads to ignorance, and ignorance fuels opposition, which is not really helpful either. Undoubtedly, access to ICT will raise costs, while the digital divide continues to grow, and the affluent will segregate. So, what is the question here?

How to balance, how to partner, how to socially contract - for morality, and systemic change? That is the real question.

As you can see, I am getting through with the first phase of writing my Master's. Now, let's dive in the data!

Technological Servanthood

When affects are ascribed to technology people might deem it the cause. This instills false dogma. Although technology is valuable, it remains an inorganic artifact.

Life's focal point is people. They are the dazzling subjects, the centre of earthly existence. Here morally-unable submit to the morally-able, and thus technology submits to people.

Living people's interactions are fruitful when empathy and compassion are facilitated in an ethical setting, while serving other's well discerned needs in peace. Within their context and culture, people do experience joy, discern wisdom, and recognize knowledge. Technology never does. Everywhere not-living technology can assist in absolute wonderful and stunning ways, or it can obstruct and even destroy.

Through distinct phases of bewilderment and amazement we reach out to expert and use technology. When technology is constructed to be appropriate - that is: to converge upon people's needs – it can be helpful. Mastered and controlled by people, technology's utilization can be purposeful and innovative.

Technology facilitates, it cannot not drive. Technology amplifies, it cannot initiate. Technology assists, it cannot lead. Technology does not determine, nor dictates: it serves.  

Social Innovation Links Engineers Worldwide

An integral view of engineering is desirable, so all engineer from everywhere can be included to the world wide body of knowledge and share the joy of practice and progress. Current status leads to dull expectations on how engineers can relate, with most discussions echoing lopsided reports, e.g. on technological determination or how one size should fit all. Acquisition of a global view of engineering is not yet possible, as such necessitate practical understanding and recognition of (still) foreign ways to represent data and information. Current, dominant and singular definitions lead to reduced analyses of achievement, in turn further narrowing definitions and thus leading to (international) research unaligned with the multifaceted local realities and needs. Contextual issues like orality and relationality are not yet recognized as informing understanding. Especially the almost exclusive discursive way of communicating within the engineering professions and the hegemony of western thinking seem to be huge barriers for inclusion of all engineers, worldwide.

Social Innovation involves the engendering of innovative activities and services that are motivated by the goal of meeting a social need and that are predominantly developed and diffused through organisations whose primary purposes are social (Mulgan, Tucker, Ali, & Sanders, 2007). The essence of social innovation is the creation of new, innovative solutions for social good. The term social innovation signifies a relative new approach for solving major problems while ensuring that stakeholders are equal partners and that wheels are not reinvented.

Social innovation allows transformation of the positivist, technical, western dominated sciences to encapsulate the important information of culture and context, and thus to include deemed intangible and unquantifiable results of interventions, like social capital. Engineering is an engine of progress for humanity, as it methodologically devised a world-of-things to interact with the world-of-humans. Social innovation augments engineering to address issues affecting us all.

Social Innovation provides an inclusive and intrinsic multidisciplinary approach for sustainable progress for all engineers. It invokes innovations in engineering sensitive of human relationships, and has effects in education, management, development cooperation, and co-creation in general. As such social innovation is instrumental to lead the way, enhance and facilitate local capacity development, and thus opens new venues for innovations and growth of knowledge, and mutual beneficial collaboration.