GOVERNANCE IS KEY TO DISASTER-CONFLICT INTERFACE

GOVERNANCE IS KEY TO DISASTER-CONFLICT INTERFACE

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

We have been experiencing worldwide the upswings in disaster-conflict interface. In certain areas of the Horn of Africa, for instance, where hunger now stokes millions of refugees, the relief operations are severely hampered by jihadist groups that have undercut the supply lines between aid groups and hungry refugees.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) experts are of the opinion that governance is the key to an appreciable management of the disaster-conflict interface. “Governance is a Key Enabler,” goes the thesis of the UNDP, which this development stakeholder agrees with.

Below is the news report coming from the UNDP about the subject.

[Philippines, 27 September 2011]

Source: http://www.beta.undp.org/undp/en/home/presscenter/articles/2011/09/12/disaster-conflict-interface-one-abets-the-other-but-governance-is-a-key-enabler-.html

Disaster-Conflict Interface: One Abets the Other, but 'Governance is a Key Enabler'

12 September 2011

GENEVA—Disasters and conflicts frequently occur together, often devastating countries that are least able to sustain them, but good governance can speed recovery and lessen the likelihood of recurrence, according to a new UNDP study.

“In most instances, the disaster-conflict interface increased the risk of future crises and hampered crisis recovery efforts,” says Maxx Dilley, Officer in Charge of UNDP’s Bureau for Crisis Prevention & Recovery (BCPR) Disaster Risk Reduction and RecoveryTeam and author of the study “Disaster-Conflict Interface.”

The report examines interactions between conflict and disasters associated with natural hazards. It presents an unprecedented survey of cases in which conflict and disaster coincide—each a complex phenomenon in its own right, as in the worsening Horn of Africa crisis.

In all case studies, conflict was found to have an adverse impact on disasters where both are present,” Dilley says. Taken together, these cases “highlight the importance of governance as a key enabler of both disaster reduction and conflict prevention.”

The study argues for developing an integrated pool of staff with expertise in conflict and disaster risk-management, but also including governance, environment, and poverty practitioners, he says.

The unfolding famine in the Horn of Africa—now facing its worst drought in 60 years—is a case in point. Long-running conflict has increased vulnerability to drought and severely hampered humanitarian access to the worst-affected areas, triggering a flood of famine refugees.

U.N. officials this week said Somalia’s famine has spread to a sixth region and warned at least 750,000 people are at risk of dying in the next four months in the absence of scaled-up aid. Tens of thousands have already died, mostly children.

“This makes the humanitarian response more complex, imposes additional stress on host communities which are themselves affected by the drought, and heightens the risk of conflict over resources,” Dilley says.“Increased inter-communal violence has been reported throughout the drought-affected rural areas due to the scarce availability of water and pastures.”

A comprehensive response must include scaled-up support for more responsive, accountable, and resilient governances, he said.

Following is an interview with Maxx Dilley, Officer in Charge of UNDP’s Bureau for Crisis Prevention & Recovery (BCPR) Disaster Risk Reduction and Recovery Team and author of the study “Disaster-Conflict Interface.”

What prompted this report?

“The Disaster-Conflict Interface study was undertaken as a joint effort to improve the evidence base for pursuing crisis prevention and recovery comprehensively when both disasters and conflicts, or related risks, are present. The study was intended to inform the broader practice of crisis prevention and recovery—in an environment in which disaster losses continue to rise: In 2010, 373 natural events, such as earthquakes, floods, cyclones, volcanic eruptions, and droughts, affected some 208 million people, causing 300,000 deaths, and producing economic losses estimated at US$110 billion.

“More than 80 countries are meanwhile identified as facing violent tensions, and 22 of the 34 countries furthest from reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are in the midst of or emerging from violent conflict. As you can see right now in the Horn of Africa, many of these countries are highly exposed, and vulnerable, to natural hazards as well.

“In cases such as the Horn of Africa, where a major hazard event has occurred in a context of conflict and heightened conflict tensions, BCPR is working with UNDP Country Offices to ensure that their recovery and long-term risk reduction programmes address both conflict and disasters holistically.This includes, for example, addressing hazard-related risks through livelihood programmes that also promote conflict recovery, and addressing conflict risk factors through programmes that provide immediate drought recovery assistance.”

What do you want policy advisers to take away from this study?

“The case studies highlight the importance of governance as a key enabler of both disaster reduction and conflict prevention. Conflict-ridden countries have difficulty attaining the necessary level of social cohesion needed to address the root causes of disasters. Conflict inhibits development broadly, including increasing disaster risks and losses due to increased vulnerability to natural hazards. Conversely, reduction of disaster losses contributes to sustainable development and therefore—at least indirectly—to reduced conflict risk.

“The case studies suggest that potential exists for addressing the disaster-conflict interface more systematically. For example, the research for this study identified a significant variation in the capacities, approaches, and prioritization of these issues across the nine UNDP Country Offices. In most cases, staff were in the initial stages of learning about these issues and related programming approaches. Awareness-raising, advocacy, and capacity development must all be scaled up.”

What did you aim to achieve with this study? Has this nexus been studied at UNDP in the past?

“This bureau, BCPR, launched the study to explore the interface between conflicts and disasters through an empirical approach based on actual country cases—it’s the very first study on this topic undertaken in UNDP. BCPR is working in many developing countries that experience both disasters and conflict at the same time.

“Contexts in which conflicts and disasters overlap are daily realities for people who are affected, as well as for many humanitarian and development practitioners. Effective programmes to manage crisis interventions need to reflect conflict-disaster complexities and respond to them in a holistic and integrative manner. Experience has also shown that development interventions that fail to recognize the link between disasters and conflict in at-risk countries can worsen tensions and increase risk. While intuitively it makes sense to assume that the geographical overlap of both disaster and conflict worsens the impact of crises, evidence for this is limited. Analyses of concrete case study observations are also limited, and those that do exist come from different unconnected disciplines. In an effort to share the experience in operating in conflict-disaster interface settings, BCPR undertook this analysis in 2007.

“The study aims to achieve a comparative analysis of tendencies and experiences that stem from the relationship between disasters and conflict. It also analyses the relative success of existing relevant programming approaches adopted in-country. This will help identify practical approaches and disseminate good practice, helping to better equip UNDP Country Office staff who operate in complex environments in which disaster and conflict overlap.”

You focused on examples from nine countries. Which disaster-conflict interactions struck you most vividly? What did they have incommon?

“The study is based on experiences from nine selected case-study countries: Bolivia, Haiti, Indonesia (Aceh), Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, Sudan, and Zimbabwe. Each case study analyses the dynamics of the interface, as well as strategies and interventions across agencies, and particularly focuses on UNDP approaches and good practices.

“A disaster-conflict interface happens when disasters (risks, events, and recovery) have a relationship with conflicts (risks, events, and recovery) and/or vice versa, beyond simple geographic/demographic co-location. Each interface is a complex phenomenon in its own right. But commonalities recur. In all case studies, conflict had a harmful impact on disasters. In most instances, the disaster-conflict interface increased the risk of future crises and hampered crisis recovery efforts. This was particularly obvious at the local level, with widespread examples of problematic interactions between disasters and conflict.

In most case studies examined, the interface of disasters and conflicts was overwhelmingly harmful, worsening the risk of future crises and hampering crisis recovery efforts. In all case studies, conflict was found to have an adverse impact on disasters.”

Related Links

• UNDP's work in Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Risk Management
• Somalia: The Epicentre of a Crisis
• Drought in Kenya: Current Crisis Calls for Long-term Solutions

Related documents

• Disaster-Conflict Interface

More publications

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UPDATE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, PH AT MEDIUM SCORE

UPDATE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, PH AT MEDIUM SCORE

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

In the latest UNDP report on human development, 169 countries were evaluated and scored accordingly. Four general ranking scales were employed and countries properly fit based on their scores, to note: Very High Human Development, High Human Development, Medium Human Development, and Low Human Development.

My country the Philippines was ranked No. 99, and was classed among the Medium Human Development countries. After two (2) decades or so of UNDP, PH remains at the medium HD level, and so the message is clear here: work harder to graduate to High HD level.

The industrialized countries happen to comprise the core of the Very High HD. That is indicative enough of their greatest formula for achieving developed country status before the 2^nd world war yet: their successes in capacity-building. A well-capacitated work force redounds to high productivity, high value-added indices, and high incomes.

The ranking is shown in the table below.

[Philippines, 10 July 2011]

Source: http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/

Human Development Index (HDI) - 2010 Rankings

Very High Human Development Norway Australia New Zealand United States Ireland Liechtenstein Netherlands Canada Sweden Germany Japan Korea (Republic of) Switzerland France Israel Finland Iceland Belgium Denmark Spain Hong Kong, China (SAR) Greece Italy Luxembourg Austria United Kingdom Singapore Czech Republic Slovenia Andorra Slovakia United Arab Emirates Malta Estonia Cyprus Hungary Brunei Darussalam Qatar Bahrain Portugal Poland Barbados

High Human Development Bahamas Lithuania Chile Argentina Kuwait Latvia Montenegro Romania Croatia Uruguay Cuba* Palau* Libya Panama Saudi Arabia Mexico Malaysia Bulgaria Trinidad and Tobago Serbia Belarus Costa Rica Peru Albania Russian Federation Kazakhstan Azerbaijan Bosnia and Herzegovina Ukraine Iran (Islamic Republic of) The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia Mauritius Brazil Georgia Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) Armenia Ecuador Belize Colombia Jamaica Tunisia Jordan Turkey Algeria Tonga

Medium Human Development Fiji Turkmenistan Dominican Republic China El Salvador Sri Lanka Thailand Gabon Suriname Occupied Palestinian Territory* Bolivia (Plurinational State of) Paraguay Philippines Botswana Moldova (Republic of) Mongolia Egypt Uzbekistan Micronesia (Federated States of) Guyana Namibia Honduras Maldives Indonesia Kyrgyzstan South Africa Syrian Arab Republic Tajikistan Viet Nam Morocco Nicaragua Guatemala Equatorial Guinea Cape Verde India Timor-Leste Swaziland Lao People's Democratic Republic Solomon Islands Cambodia Pakistan Congo São Tomé and Príncipe

Low Human Development Kenya Bangladesh Ghana Cameroon Myanmar Yemen Benin Madagascar Mauritania Papua New Guinea Nepal Togo Comoros Lesotho Nigeria Uganda Senegal Haiti Angola Djibouti Tanzania (United Republic of) Côte d'Ivoire Zambia Gambia Rwanda Malawi Sudan Afghanistan Guinea Ethiopia Sierra Leone Central African Republic Mali Burkina Faso Liberia Chad Guinea-Bissau Mozambique Burundi Niger Congo (Democratic Republic of the) Zimbabwe

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BRING THE FEMININE PRINCIPLE BACK IN!

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Happy Women’s Day to all the women of the planet!

Rulership over the past historic epochs in our planet has been markedly a one-sided thing: an overstress on the Masculine principle as underlying precept. In all the major sectors of society thereof, governance, inclusive of management principles, were largely dominated by the masculine principle. Let me share some notes about the matter.

This analyst has been an avid supporter of feminist movements for some decades now, and so I write about women & gender today as a re-dedication to that flame of support for women advocacies. Albeit, my paradigm on gender is largely founded on Eastern principles, more so from those writ by spiritual masters, and so I re-echo the ‘bringing the feminine back in’ from such a paradigm.

I find the western paradigms of gender as intoxicatingly dualistic and/or polarized, which is in stark contrast to those from the East. The Western Mind views gender as one of constant clash between the sexes, where one gender eventually ends up as dominant and victorious. The Eastern Mind, founded largely on universal spirituality and high-level synthesis, regards the Masculine and Feminine as two aspects of an indivisible reality, being emanations from the Universal Mind or Prime Cause (God Almighty).

After studying the social sciences for so long a time now (I’m among the sociologists and political economists in the Philippines), I’d verily say that I have become nauseated with western precepts of all sorts. Western thought had reached a dead end, and western theories of gender are circuitous discourses of intellectualism bereft of recondite elements of spirituality. I have honestly grown tired of Western shallowness in the philosophical plane, and I challenge those steeped in Western thought to catch up and solve theoretical gaps.

For cogitation, the Feminine Principle has been locked up for so long in the dungeons of the collective psyche. As a result, governance precepts—in all societal sectors—have been one-sided and bent on the authoritarian or Theory X. Coteries of intellectuals, largely gay homosexuals, have built ramparts of discourses across the eons to defend the very one-sided governance, never mind if such governance would be tyrannical, corrupt, war-mongering, and anti-human.

‘Bringing the Feminine back in’ is the most daunting and urgent agenda of the day. A balanced representation of both the Feminine and Masculine in governance would likewise generate balanced governance. Imbalanced governance redounds to tyranny and decay in the long run, while balanced governance would bring forth a flowering of the Creative Principle in the organizational setting.

Take a 2nd look today at the largely Masculine-dominated states of Arab sheikdoms, emirates, and kingdoms. See for yourself the result of epochs of imbalanced Masculine-dominated governance. Such imbalanced governance is being rejected en toto by the Arab youths, and the detractors are in a hurry to search for a way out of the governance dilemmas they face.

‘Bringing the Feminine back in’ the Arab societies will quickly produce the balance so sorely lacking for as far as historical records can cull. The return of the Feminine there will most likely result to a Theory Y cum Theory Z type of democracy: participative, de-centered, respectful of civil society, and necessarily liberating the women gender’s potentials in both public and private spheres.

Democracy, Justice, Liberty are all signified by Female figures, call them goddesses or deities if you wish. They represent the highest virtues, and the values emanating from them will be guidepost precepts of the future. We all better accept that the time has come for recognition of the full import of the goddess principles now rising to the fore, or else face the violent upheavals resulting from a cathartic overthrow of Jurassic governance dispensations.

Those gay homosexual technocrats-politicians-financiers of Luciferan New World Order who are hiding in the shadows, desirous of installing tyrannical regimes in the USA & Europe and obsessing for a World War III, who likewise dominate foreign policy initiatives in the West, better shut up and take stock of the emerging world order. The Jurassic anti-Feminine advocates are being swept off rulership posts and institutions, and will be mere archival materials in the short run.

A blessed, Happy Women’s Day again to all ladies and to Planet Earth!

[Philippines, 07 March 2011]

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SET YOUR ANNUAL GOALS FOR 2011

Erle Frayne D. Argonza


2011 has already started, and it began with an ambience of all-time high optimism across Asian countries. In my beloved country Filipinas, the Hope index measured an incomparable 89%, or that Filipinos are of the predominant hopeful mood that all will be well for their respective lives.

To start the year right, it would be best for each and every one of us to set our goals for the year. On the informal level of the lifeworld, there is this fancy for setting ‘new year’s resolution’ as the old year is about to end and the new year is just minutes away. This ritualistic practice can be improved on if the person sit down and put into writing the goals for the year.

As a professional, I have made it my personal practice to set goals for the year since I began working way back in 1981 yet. Then, at the end of the year, I would assess the level of goal attainment, correct flaws by rectified goal-attainment for the coming year, and then setting all in all the goals for the year in a very organized manner.

It would be best if you scribble your goals in the very diary or appointment book that you are using for the current year. Identify just about a few workable or doable goals, e.g. in my practice I would have just three (3) maximum goals to work on. Scribble each goal thereafter on a distinct or dedicated page in your diary.

After I write down a goal, I would then write some descriptions of the goal, and even identify sub-goals. Then, it would pay that I would also identify the ways to achieve the goal and sub-goals.

You can go ahead and prioritize the goals. Present the goal first which is top priority, then which is moderate priority, and which is least priority. Go ahead and scribble descriptions, sub-goals, and articulations about quantitative and qualitative targets.

After writing down your goals, make sure to check them every week or so. It would be bad practice to log them in, and then forget to check on them later.

The style of goal-setting can be as creative as it can get. For the prepped up young working persons, adding graphic images and jotting down the goals on one’s Blackberry or cellphone would be add fun and excitement to the goal-setting and execution.

For all ye global citizens, please don’t forget to set your goals for the year. If you have no fondness for this kind of exercise, better rethink about your position and begin the practice for your own sake. Moving ahead blindly, without a personal plan for the year, is like straitjacketing yourself.

[Philippines, 14 January 2011]

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WEST MARKETS SHRINK, ASIANS’ RISE AND OVERTAKE WEST SOON

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Good evening from the Pearl of the Orient!

The International Monetary Fund or IMF has been quite bullish lately about Asian growth. It had forecast East Asia’s average growth at past 7% for this year, and shares an equally positive growth trend for RP at 5.5%-6%. Just what could be the implications of the growth trends on the global economy and the West?

As Asia expands, the West (Europe, USA, Canada, Japan) contracts. The trend will not change much over the next five (5) years, so let’s see where the East and West are headed for in the foreseeable future.

In early 2008 yet, the economists and financial analysts of the West (or North) were of the opinion that the technological cutting edge of the West was already breached by Asia by the end of 2007 yet. Remember that 2007 was the beginning of a new cycle of recession for the West which began in the USA with the implosion of the realty bubble.

Given that the Western economies are flat on their back growth-wise, and their toxic bubble economies have given them only virtual economy results (read: inflated values not based on real production but on speculation), there is ample reason to forecast that they will be mired in problems of saving their ailing banks, financial-monetary systems, and providing sovereign guarantees to their capitalists at the expense of taxpayers and infusing investments in the physical economy. This is now matter of fact, as we can clearly see.

Western economies have suffered from the ill effects of continuous de-industrialization for decades, of being remiss in their own infrastructures (USA seems to be the worst in infrastructure decay), and deteriorating investments in science & technology. From being a producer economy, Western economy generally has become a parasitical ‘eater economy’ that stands on no clear foundation other than financial quicksand.

In contrast, the Eastern economies have steadily built their strategic industries across the decades, reinforced their infrastructure expenditures and projects, and invested in science & technology. The Eastern economy generally has therefore been role-playing as ‘producer economy’ worth the emulation of other developing economies worldwide.

Result: by 2007, at the downspin year of a recessionary West, the East overtook the West in terms of cutting-edge technologies. To qualify, the technologies we refer to are those life-inducing technologies, not those death & destruction technologies that the West has clear edge till these days.

I still remember what my nationalist colleagues in the Sunday Kapihan that we then held every Sunday at the Sulo Hotel in Manila: the West knows nothing but perfect its Armaments. Dr. Emmanuel Yap, an economist who finished his PhD at Harvard University, was the most vocal about that emphasis on the death & destruction focus of Western innovations.

To continue, the added forecast that I’d share at this moment is this: from the years 2007 through 2015, Western markets will contract by at least 30%. That means their own consuming public will spend less and less across a 9-year stretch, until the consumption pattern will settle down by 2016 or so. Real GDP (gross domestic product) will radically decline during the period, shrinking by as much as 30%-40% contrasted to their 2006 levels (the last of the best years of the West).

In contrast, the Eastern markets will expand by at least 100% during the period. The giants China and India will go farther than that, with China expanding by as much as 200% during the same period. That means the middle income earners in the East will continue to rise by the year and consume more products by the year, even travel more overseas year by year.

Result: China will clearly overtake the shrunken economies of EU and USA by end of 2015. India may follow suit, at around the years 2020-2025. The last would be ASEAN, which will overtake the West by 2025-2030 period.

Once a region overtakes others technology-wise, it will just be a matter of time before the same innovator region will overtake the rest wealth-wise. Technologies—physical technologies, biotechnologies, social technologies, medical technologies—are precisely the cutting edge practices that will enable one region to overtake others across the globe.

The bad news for the West is this: if their own states and markets will fail to solve their ailing problems in infrastructures and reverse de-industrialization, they will pathetically go down as 3rd world or ‘developing economies’ past 2020. No less than their own economists warned of this possibility in the early 1990s yet, and sadly no one paid attention to them in their own backyards. City after city in the USA and EU will immerse in urban decay, becoming 3rd world cities in the process.

My mother just retired from New York where she migrated since the 80s yet. She decided to come home back to the Philippines, and visited the Libis & Cubao areas of Quezon City/Manila suburb pronto upon her arrival. She was so deeply enchanted by the esthetic beauty of the architectures and planning in those mixed land use zones, while she complained of the dilapidated buildings and nauseating smells of cinema theatres in downtown Manhattan.

Those observations are signs of the times indeed. In just a year from now, the Pagcor City will rise in Manila, housing the world’s tallest tower. Burj Dubai, Petronas Twin Towers, and Taipei 101 are already similar hallmarks in other Asian cities, signifying the power shift from East to West.

The message is hereby brought to the West’s peoples: shift back from virtual reality to physical reality, from the virtual economy to the real economy. We Asians will help you along the way, as we’ve already been doing through our colossal treasuries investments, direct foreign investments, and quality Asian expatriates in your backyards that have been saving your collapsing economies from rapid decay.


[Philippines, 13 July 2012]

[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]

OLYMPIC PLAYERS ARE MADE BY SPORTS SCIENCE

Bro. Erle Frayne Argonza

Magandang hapon! Good afternoon!

The term ‘Olympic player’ is synonymous with the term ‘world-class player’. No agency, institution or country today can ever make claims to being world-class without passing through the baptizing fires of the Olympics games and winning medals in them, and any claim to the contrary will be laughed off with guffaws as mere delusional braggadocio. Play the games, be among Top 10 at least, and the team can be considered ‘world class’.

As a development expert, I was asked no more than once to express my opinion about what is the formula to make good athletes. I am very firm on this formula till these days, a formula that I learned since the late 80s yet (when I began my weight training), which I will sum up in a semi-aphorism below:

· SPORTS SCIENCE makes Olympic athletes, while
PHYSICAL EDUCATION makes athletes.

In my own country, which has a very long tradition of physical education or PE institutionalized by the Americans more than a century back yet, we have never been lacking in good PE trainers. I am very certain about this, being an athlete myself (Powerlifter, middleweight division, competed 91-92). However, to my mind, the PE track is not the best pathway to optimize the conversion of ‘raw warm bodies’ into world-class athletes. The formula lies more in Sports Science or Sportsci which is the raging fire in the sports world of the North today.

The main difference between PE and Sportsci is this: while PE can improve one’s ‘kinetic intelligence’, Sportsci improves emotional, social, and mental intelligence as well. During the dinosaur years of the Victorian Era, athletics was looked down upon as mere physical talent thing, and that ancient era (ancient relative to today’s Information Age) gave rise to PE. Unfortunately, that ancient toolery of PE was the one planted by Americans in the Philippines, which is taught as a subsidiary of pedagogy (education), and we got stuck up into it. Bad, too bad, very bad! America had already moved to Sportsci a long time back, while the former colony is stuck up in the mud.

We development experts know our lessons very well concerning our field, and development includes sports & leisure among its facets. The most important aspect of development is the institutional-‘social capital’ side (the stuff of ‘social technologies’), which comprises of over 77% of the success stories of prosperity. Raw materials constitute a measly 5% (the stuff of biotech), while infrastructures-physical intervention comprises 18% (the stuff of physical technology). Among all intervention measures for development, 77% comes from ‘social technologies’—from methods, tools, strategies, tactics of intervening in social capital, capacity-building, human resources and the likes. Build your people well and you’ll build your prosperity well.

Take the case of Japan and Singapore. These countries do not even have a natural resource base to embark on ambitious development pursuits, but hey! look at where they are now. That’s because they knew the development formula well. Natural resources, to repeat, do not constitute the decisive factor in development, which the World Bank & international agencies proclaimed as forming only 5% of development prosperity’s yardsticks. A country such as Burma is so wealthy in natural resources, yet so poor economically and likewise a poor performer in international sports, see?

In today’s context, the moron reasons of ‘lack of money’ and ‘lack of information’ to explicate weak institutions (eg. weak sports capabilities) are simply that: MORON. Those ‘problems’ were the problems of the ancient past. What we have today is a global situation of (a) exceedingly huge money stocks (which in economics is termed as ‘excess liquidity’) and (b) excessive information. Let me stress that: only MORONS keep on saying outmoded lines that do not cohere with reality. And incidentally there are too many of them in society, though I’d prefer not to pinpoint anybody out there lest I be accused of slandering.

In the Philippines for instance, in order to re-engineer our athletics well, all of our trainers have to be re-tooled in the ‘social technologies’ of Sportsci. All new professionals from the university who will handle athletics should get degrees in Sportsci as well, and they should better sustain this with enormous self-studies and a PhD at the maximum. Not only the trainer, but the TRAINING TEAM should be constituted to take charge of the formal training of athletes who should better begin training even as grade schoolers. The TEAM comprises of the Trainer, Nutritionist, Psychologist, Sociologist, Physiologist/Doctor, and not just the old-fogey Trainer of dinosaur days. The TEAM should then be backed up by sufficient provisions at the input level (backward linkage) and output level (forward linkage), the inputs & outputs thus depending on the sport concerned.

This is surely a tall order for the Philippines. Indeed, it is very tall an order, very challenging. It amounts to waging a ‘sports Revolution’, which it is. But what choice do Filipinos have, and likewise those underperforming athletes of powerhouses of emerging markets such as India, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, South Africa, than to go the way of a ‘sports Revolution’, a total innovation or re-engineering of the sports & leisure field.

Even without examining or evaluating the sports successes of Korea, China and Japan, I believe that these countries performed well precisely because they seriously undertook a ‘sports Revolution’ via the technologies of Sportsci. Rather than wallow in cesspools of indecision and mediocrity (eg. MORON reasoning of ‘lack of money’ and ‘lack of knowledge/ information’), the experts of these countries took the challenges head on, first by Japan, then followed by Korea (Seoul), and lastly by China. Look at how their athletes perform today, they lead Asia’s players by many folds!

If one were to ask me today what to do with the dinosaurs, I’d honestly and strongly cogitate to “KILL ALL DINOSAURS BEFORE THE DINOSAURS WILL KILL US.” And yes, we underperformers in sports are dying of SHAME each year, and each time an Olympics comes, precisely because we refuse to kill the ‘dinosaurs of our minds’ concerning our reality modalities such as sports & leisure. Let’s all ‘sustain’ our being dinosaurs, and all the more shall we heap up shame and guffaws from the world community.

As for the peoples of developed countries, better be vigilant about your advances in Sportsci. Don’t ever loosen on your cutting edge, never be lackadaisical in your attitudes, but never be arrogant and condescending too. By being otherwise, you too will become dinosaurs of the morrows, and will see your country slide from Olympic fame to the Hades of shame every time the games are held.

So much for those reflections. Have a nice day again!

[27 August 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]

DEVELOPMENT KITS: INNOVATION & DEVELOPMENT

Bro. Erle Frayne Argonza

Good day!

As I’ve been stressing in various articles and lectures of mine, development efforts can only take substance in any community in the presence of innovation interventions. No effort can be regarded as ‘development’ without intervention.

Development theory had already clarified the central import of innovation in any change undertaking. Without which, any such effort to help people move in life would be ‘social work’ or ‘humanitarian work’ rather than development.

Here is a report from the United Nations that deals with the subject, with case studies done in Africa.

[09 August 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila. Thanks to eldis.org database news.]

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Innovation for sustainable development: local case studies from AfricaAuthors: United Nations PublicationsProduced by: Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations (2008)

This report aims to shed light on the way innovative solutions have arisen to address local sustainable development challenges, examining the determinants of success and the scope for replication. The report focuses on the African experience, and contributes to the documentation for the 16th and 17th sessions of the Commission on Sustainable Development.

The volume is composed of ten case studies, selected for their truly innovative nature, effective implementation, significant outputs and generation of real social welfare improvements.

Examples include sustainable community-based beekeeping, community water supply initiatives and innovative water governance. They are grouped under five headings: enhancement of agriculture and fisheries, protection of ecosystems, water management, health improvement and sustainable tourism. Practical conclusions drawn from the case studies include:

sustainable projects need to link environmental goals to income generation, draw upon local knowledge and ideas, ensure effective buy-in from stakeholders through local community involvement in project design and implementation, and employ financially self-sustaining business models
external forces which impact on a project and affect conditions for success include international markets and national legislation. In some cases though, local success can provide arguments for more accommodating national policies to facilitate replication and scaling up simplicity in project design, committed seed capital and integration of local traditions and cultural heritage appear to be important success factors for innovative local initiatives

Available online at: http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/?doc=38653&em=310708&sub=enviro