First things first, this is not a conversation about the difference in salaries between expats and local aid workers. Depending on which side you ask the answer varies from "it's complicated" to "oh there's no point, we need to tolerate…
Now that we know that the effects of the pandemic are going to have large scale effects, I have been thinking on how to get some help. I have been speaking to the people I know and thought it would…
"Food relief will be our top priority.""We will be handing over the following food items that should be enough for a family of 4-5 people for two weeks in rural India." In the aid industry there are supporters of "Cash…
The first rule of technologists working in crisis response is, don't make an app. The rule number two is, go back to rule number one. Now that I have got that out the door, I'd like to make a short…
First things first, India has approximately 70% rural population living in the villages, and yes India is the second largest populous country in the world, next to China. Now China has been able to mitigate the response efforts and apparently…
As with any crisis and emergency situation, those who are directly affected do not have the time to tweet or update their Facebook status. Which means there is a majority of the population who is not directly affected and has…
View this post on Instagram Emotional Playground and Experimental Subject for the First World Kids. So subhuman, so poor, much wow. A post shared by 𝒜𝒿𝒶𝓎 / ॐजय / Ajay (@rural.human) on Nov 23, 2019 at 2:33pm PST It is…
The year is 2020 and people are looking for new jobs and new ways to follow their passion to reality while making it fun. I thought I shall (re)start my writing by sharing some insights I have gathered while being…
Putting everything that is “life” aside I look at my PhD journey, the quest for finding answers. Answers to a burning question, or too many burning questions. That’s probably how every PhD journey is like. Or maybe not. To each their own.
But I am sure we all can agree, everything in life is pretty much scary and confusing and all the other things we cluster into the word complex.
Probably because things go way beyond human comprehension and language.
With all that in mind, I have been thinking a lot on why I have been really scared to dig up into my data and do the needful to push my PhD project forward. One of the answers I found while looking back at all the conversations in person, online in Aid communities and in general is.
People. Emotional. Personal.
(That’s really not an answer but..)
Human dignity is a very simplistic term that appears in almost very often in discussions around humanity or in day-to-day life. However, when we look at the governments and how our nation states endorse it as an important value for our society, we see it appear as “Article 1 – Human dignity” or the well known Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). It is very clear that everyone understands the concept of worth of a human person naturally, however, we also make a very common mistake of assuming that the world revolves around us, and the “I” is very important. Somehow the “I” is so important that we are constantly fighting to keep the “I” very special, unique and most of the times “better” than the “other” person. It is very easy to give in to our emotional state and fall prey to discrimination, alienation and distance from what is different to us, i.e. the other. Emotions, Identity, Collective worth etc. all matter here.
