Happy Thanksgiving weekend to all. It turns out that Friday is just Tabaski Preparation Day, or something. So I have work off but the big holiday isn’t until tomorrow. Anyway:

You’ve heard all these stories before in various forms. And I’ll spoil the somewhat worn conclusion, that life everywhere is complicated and it’s hard enough to understand the issues without even having to think about solutions. Nonetheless, I’m still writing this post because the specifics of the complexities of some facets of life here are pretty interesting and different than their counterparts in all the similar accounts from around the world. (Draw out the sentence tree for that one.)

Given my recent work, the easiest issue to start with is microfinance, and more specifically, microcredit. I got into some of its disparate effects a couple posts ago, and there’s more numerical analysis to come, but I think the stories of a couple particular clients I’ve come across during my internship illustrate as well as any numbers the good and the bad of these loans. The first client lives in a traditional fishing village called Lompoul, about an hour northwest of Mekhe on the Atlantic Ocean. The credit agent Diadji and I make the requisite stop at the village chief’s compound, sitting in chairs on the sand between huts and more modern-style houses and explaining FDEA until he appreciates our presence in his village enough to let us move on. So along with the driver, Pap, we drive on to this old client’s house for me to interview her. (Diadji has a couple clients to see in the village, but the trip has mostly been organized for me to get some interviews in.) We pull up to a house compound enclosed by a white concrete fence, in which is engraved “F.D.E.A.” in a roughshod manner right next to the door. I figure this one will be interesting. They’re finishing up preparing a lunch of ceeb-u jën, which they make us eat before anything else. Then I take a seat on the ledge outside the main building of the compound and start my interview with Codou Diop, a woman who claims an age of 50 but shows more early 60s. A widow with 17 to feed in her house, she begins to tell me in good French how she’s taken out loans with a group of nine other women for more than ten years, using the money to increase the scale of their collective farming operations. This current loan, of about $2700 to be split among the women and be repaid after six months, has proven somewhat problematic, as a couple of the women turned out to be pregnant and have been unable to work. So she thinks they’ll be a couple months late in fully reimbursing. But she hastens to switch the topic, given the opportunity when I ask different questions, to describe how her life has changed since beginning to borrow from FDEA. “That was my entire house,” she begins, pointing at the small building to our right, now joined by three bigger ones surrounding the courtyard we’re in. Back then, she made between $10 and $15 a month doing small-scale farming, and although her husband was still around to help out, they skipped a meal a day and didn’t eat much for the other two. I think you know the rest of the story without me telling it. She now makes upwards of $110 a month by having increased the scale of the farming and the commerce associated with it; she avows having had greater authority in making collective decisions with her husband before his death; she paid for professional school for one of her daughters to learn couture; and, as I could attest to after my lunch, the whole house now eats three full meals a day. She asserts similar success for the rest of her village involved with FDEA, proudly recounting how five of the 17 students graduating high school last year are now at a university. Do you want to take out another loan after this one, I ask, one of the last questions of every interview. She responds emphatically: “I won’t leave it until I die.”

The next day, Diadji and I hop in the truck to go on what he describes as a routine loan recovery trip through Mekhe. We stop at a few houses of women who aren’t home, with Diadji menacing whoever happens to be home with the threat that if the loan isn’t repaid soon, “the American who’s here to help us out in collecting the money we’re owed will come see you personally.” (He seems to get too much of a kick out of this to consider its awkwardness, or the fact that I can’t even really speak these people’s language enough to do anything if I do realize his empty threat.) Then, before heading back to the office, we make one last stop, pulling up under a big “tree of discussion” surrounded by sand and shade in the center of town. Diadji opts for yelling the name of the man owing FDEA money instead of gracing him by getting out of the truck, and the man gets up from whatever discussion the tree was providing, leaving the three other old men looking puzzled in their traditional robes as he approaches the truck to stand outside Diadji’s window. Given that this man is an elder, Diadji and he exchange greetings in the traditional manner done to show respect – by repeating each others’ last names over and over again. “Diop,” “Dieng,” “Diop, Diop,” “Dieng,” they go back and forth for thirty seconds or so, until getting into the normal round of “Where is your family?” and “Have you spent the day with peace?” and the formulated responses of “They are there” and “Thanks to God.” (The only reason I’ve gotten for the name deal is that it’s meant to show you’re acknowledging the other’s presence. Never considered that anyone didn’t think I existed after saying hi to me, but among the things I’ve learned here is that most cultural differences are inexplicable.) Then, as happens with the women in the office, they start the main event, going back and forth quickly in Wolof over some matter. Diadji pauses every minute or so to explain to me, sitting in the back seat, what’s going on. “He’s owed us money since 2002,” he says, 849,000 Francs (about $1900) in total, since he didn’t repay the money he borrowed to raise and sell sheep. (I don’t find out the rest of his story, but it’s likely similar to another man I interviewed who took out a loan with nine others to raise sheep two years ago, and the sheep all got sick and died. This other man now doesn’t work, borrowing money from friends to pay for meals and slowly paying back 5000 Francs a month of the 150,000 he still owes. He never had problems giving his family food before all this but now goes hungry many days. But that’s a different story.) Although interest stops accruing after a year of indebtedness, FDEA’s pestering does not, although I never get a real answer as to why they’ve waited until now to see this man. “He gave his house as collateral for the loan,” Diadji stops to tell me matter-of-factly, “and so we’re going to take him to the police station to start the process of seizing it if he doesn’t bring in at least 100,000 Francs by Tuesday.” (All individual loans require some sort of collateral that usually greatly outweighs the worth of the loan itself, but Diadji later explains to me that this is yet another empty threat; they’ve never, during his time there, actually seized a house or anything of real value.) The man, increasingly panicked and pleading with Diadji, frantically pulls his wallet out of his pocket, taking out the 30,000 Francs that are in there and stuffing it in Diadji’s hand. I figure Diadji will make the man keep it until a more formal repayment, but I’m wrong; “Good,” Diadji says, “now bring the rest soon.” We soon drive off, leaving this man behind to go back to his discussion. He came in this past Tuesday with 10,000 additional Francs, which seems to have placated Diadji for the moment despite the earlier menacing about 100,000. So yeah, it turns out there are people whose lives actually get screwed up by this stuff. In theory, the question of whether microcredit is “good” or “bad” in the aggregate should be empirical, but the few real mathematical analyses that have been done on that question to this point have done nothing but muddy the waters. I’ve been trying to get at that question with my research, but my real answer is that I have no idea.

Equally confusing is the debate about language and language policy, which I gestured at in my last post. Over a lunch of mafe (white rice with heavy peanut sauce) one day, I asked Pa Diop what he thought of the fact that the language used in all his children’s classes is French. He had seemed to me to be pretty utilitarian about stuff like this, never engaging with me in Wolof like his wife does for reasons, I suspected, having to do with his rationalization of his use of the language of colonialism so that he could succeed professionally. But he had a much more interesting response than this rationalization of French that I expected was coming. “As much as people recognize French’s presence as a product of colonialism,” he said, “it’s sort of the neutral alternative to fighting between ethnic groups.” Turns out that back in the day, the national assembly used Wolof for all its affairs, since 90% of citizens speak the language despite the Wolof group’s plurality of only 35%. (I haven’t yet actually figured out how this came to be, since despite being the biggest group 35% is still pretty small.) At some point, though, the members of the assembly who weren’t from the Wolof tribe grew restless of essentially acquiescing to the Wolofs in the room every time they opened their mouths. So the Peuls started speaking Pulaar on the floor, the Diolas started speaking Diola, and so on, until no one could understand any other group and the assembly turned as dysfunctional as the current U.S. Senate. (It was probably more civil, actually, since as far as I know there was no Joe Lieberman to posture about moderacy every time a cloture vote came up, and if there was then most would have had the good fortune of not understanding his language.) So they switched to French as the “neutral alternative” in the late 80s, and although this created somewhat of a bias toward better-educated candidates to win elections (God forbid), the legislature was at least able to function. (So to keep up the analogy with the U.S. Congress, it became more like the House.) “People are much happier speaking French than they are speaking the language of someone else’s tribe,” attested Pa Diop. And the same situation plays out at the level of schools; unless every school were to create separate classes for each tribe in their own language (separate but equal, anyone?) all teaching would occur in Wolof, which the 65% wouldn’t be so happy about. All this is a reminder that as horrible as the colonial past is in every country like Senegal, reducing matters to black vs. white or West vs. Third World is usually ridiculously simplistic. (Further evidence, you could contend, that the “things were soo much better in the past” argument is baseless.) So how to get rid of a vestige of colonialism without alienating all the minority ethnic groups? No idea.

The last impossible issue I’ll go over is one bound by a self-perpetuating mix of politics and religion whose effects are visible every day in most cities and towns throughout Senegal. First, I should explain that the practice of Islam here is quite different than in your typical Muslim country in the Middle East. The largest brotherhood of Muslims, called the Mourides, are run by religious leaders and teachers called marabouts. These marabouts carry huge influence; people take their word as truth, and the names of famous marabouts throughout history are plastered on buses and storefronts throughout the country. (Cheikh Tidiane, one of my host brothers, is named after a marabout, and many of the women’s groups taking out loans at FDEA give themselves names like “Sope Serigne Fallou” or “Ababacar Sy.”) And the 99.99999999% rate of religiousness allows no room for religious questioning; “There’s no need to reflect about God, you should just know He exists,” in the words of Demba, my otherwise very smart 19-year old host brother. So since people tend to vote for the candidate recommended by their marabout, politicians bow down to the marabouts to get votes more so than any U.S. presidential candidate could every get away with bowing down to big business. (And that’s saying a lot.) So the marabouts can do whatever the hell they want, and religious freedom is all fine and well until it starts impinging on other people’s freedom. Most of these people, in the case of Senegal, happen to be children. These children, called Talibe, are sent by their parents for reasons of poverty or (more frequently) ideology to daaras, religious “schools” where the children are to learn Arabic and the Koran from a marabout in lieu of learning French. But despite the riches of many of these marabouts, they don’t give the kids any food or provide them with more than one set of dirty clothes. Half the kids’ time is spent in squalid conditions copying text from old Korans to wood panels, and the other half is spent begging for food and money. They get to eat the food, but the money goes to the marabout, and if they don’t bring in enough every day then they’re subject to corporal punishment (i.e., beating). They’re instantly recognizable by their dirty clothes and small metal pots they carry around to collect alms, and one or two of them show up at my house here twice a day, at breakfast and lunch, to ask for food. (This asking actually consists of standing outside the main room and grunting from time to time to make their presence known until Pa Diop summons them over to dump some rice into their bowl of various other crap given to them by other people. Then they move off wordlessly.) Pa Diop actually spent some of his childhood years as a Talibe, splitting his time between French school and the daara, and he’s of the majority opinion that it’s good for the kids since it makes them “figure things out for themselves” and learn humility. Perhaps having to beg for food is stretching the definition of “figuring things out,” but I decided this wasn’t a good point to argue. He does think that the daaras in cities are closer to exploitation, but I don’t honestly see any difference between the practices here and in Dakar. In Dakar, I got in the habit of buying 20 cent packs of cookies to give to the kids whenever they asked for money, but even small gestures like that beg certain questions. Every time I give them cookies, or Pa Diop gives them rice, it’s quietly keeping the wheels of the whole operation turning even if we’re not giving money directly to the marabout (which plenty of people do anyway given Islam’s requirement to give a certain amount to others per year). But if politicians have no power to change things given their acquiescence to all things marabout, and the only way to throw a wrench into the way things run would be to mount a campaign to make kids starve, which seems more than a tad inappropriate given the end goal to improve these kids’ lives (and also would never happen given that people think the daaras are a good thing), then how will this ever stop? No idea.

I could keep going. The state encourages scholarship, giving all of its university students a small stipend, so that they can graduate into an empty job market. Cultural conservatism breeds cultural conservatism, trapping many women in a cycle of housework and childbearing. And so on. These are all issues of development but clearly extend much farther than pocketbook problems. I think it’s naïve to act as if we don’t have similar problems even in supposedly “developed” countries, but the ones here particularly stand out given that they haven’t been dulled to me by their perpetual presence in my life. So if you’re looking for a conclusion, a lesson to take away from all this, then see above.

(Special prize for anyone who can identify where my title comes from, aside obviously from the Heller book.)

With internship choices coming up fast, I have to consider how to keep shooting when I’m away from home.  Places I may travel include Australia, Israel, United Kingdom and the Western U.S.  Check out this article if you’re leaving the creature comforts of home for your photography adventure.  TTFN SDG

As many of you may know by now, CIGS stands for The Community Involvement Growth Strategy.  The CIGS strategy is a business plan development and special events management model I have been using since my days in the military and entertainment industry.

The CIGS strategic organizational growth model (as it is officially called) is a fusion of all of the logistics based functions I served in my jobs as a logistics supply and maintenance clerk for my transportation terminal unit in the US Army and my role as an A&R Business Administration Assistant at LaFace Records.  Over the years, I continued adding and perfecting the model as my career blossomed through experiences with the production pools at Coca-Cola USA, the C-Level General Management team at Burrell Communications Group, and the award winning Atlanta Multi-Housing Team at CB Richard Ellis.  Top that off with a one year detail with the Planning and Environmental Accountability Branch at The Environmental Protection Agency, one could easily see how my passion for logistics, marketing, community/economic development and environmental activism has developed and strengthened.

Right now, I am currently working on several key projects that allow me to fold all of my talents under one umbrella.  Thanks to the philanthropic interests and goals of ProFast Development Group, I will be spearheading several marketing initiatives over the next two to five years.  They are:

• ProFast TRENDS Golf Tournament
• Adamsville, GA Master Plan Development Project
• 2010 TRENDS R&D Forum (based on the ITEST Grant)
• NEXT Steps Youth Entrepreneur Program Initiatives
• 2010 TRENDS Summer Internship/Jobs Program

All of our initiatives and programs will have a common thread tying each program’s goals and objectives into the other.  Through ProFast Development Group and ProFast Marine Group, our goals are to support students, teachers and community groups that have expressed significant interests, created innovative projects and/or inventions, and have discovered unique trends or occurrences that could benefit or further advance their participation and contributions to the science, technology, engineering and mathematics industries.

Through funding, collaborative partnership efforts, and the CIGS strategic organizational growth model, ProFast can help these groups utilize and maximize the resources  available to them “in their own backyards”.  In return, each partner walks away with the ability to create and complete measurable results,  future development projects , and potential avenues to extend community, workforce and economic development opportunities that benefit their groups and communities overall.

Over the past two weeks five members of Radio Dialogue in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe have been interning at Bush Radio’s studios.

This training is a continuation Bush Radio and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung’s (FES) attempt to assist in the development of the community radio sector in Southern Africa.

Rosie Chauke and Thandazani Nkomo checking the local papers

The visit comes after we conducted station based training in Bulawayo. (see story here) The five interns have been placed in different departments in order to enhance the skills they already have.

Radio Dialogue is a community radio station which aims to give people of Bulawayo a voice. At the moment it does not have a broadcasting licence but has managed to engage the people of Bulawayo in its activities.

Bush Radio's Denisia Adams with Radio Dialogue's Munya Gova in studio

The radio station is in touch with the community through recorded broadcasts, road shows and focus group meetings which all aim to give people a platform to air their views on issues affecting them.

Rosie Chauke, a youth coordinator from Radio Dialogue says her duties include working on various projects. “We have activities such as debate camps, drama competitions, talk shows and public speaking competitions for those youth that are still at school,” said Chauke.

Sakhisizwe's Busisiwe Mtabane (front) with Sanele Njini from Bulawayo

Chauke, who was based in the Bush Radio Newsroom, says through this training she expecting to get a better feel for broadcasting.

“It has been my greatest wish to do this and now I have finally got a chance to do this and I’m so excited, though at first I had cold feet and was very nervous,” added Chauke.

She concluded that being in the newsroom is an experience, because at their station she only read the news, whereas at Bush Radio she got to do compiling and conduct interviews.

Emmanuel Nkomo from Radio Dialogue selecting music with the help of Victor J

Thandazani Nkomo who is also based in the Bush Radio Newsroom added; “It’s been a nice experience for me being at Bush Radio. We had an opportunity of going on air. It is a dream we hope to realise in Zimbabwe soon.”

Bush Radio will be conducting follow-up training again in Zimbabwe to see the progress of the interns and to see what they have implemented from their stay at our little station.

Emmanuel (centre) hosted a staff development session on drumming

*The Radio Dialogue interns can be heard on Bush Radio 89.5 FM or online between 09h00 – 16h00 and will conduct a special on-air programme on Friday the 27 November between 14h00 – 16h00.

Graduates deserve payment for work placements

Desperate times call for desperate measures…but is it really fair for students and/or graduates to pay for internships which they won’t be paid for?

The recession has affected us all in one way or another- redundancy, companies collapsing, estate agents freezing their businesses and of course, the struggle to find a job.

Many students partake in short-term work experience while studying at university, in order to put a few notches on their CVs. Unpaid placements normally suit students down to the ground because there is the eagerness to gain experience and of course, they don’t have to start paying off their debts until after their degree.

However for graduates who are wanting to step into the world of work as soon as they’ve thrown their mortar boards up into the air, it is a different matter. For those who cannot find paid work with a definite salary are forced to look for internships instead.

The BBC revealed this week that companies are promising graduates work placements in exchange for a fee. The majority of these internships are unpaid/voluntary, even if they last a whole six months. Graduates are therefore struggling to pay off their loans, struggling to pay their rents and probably struggling to eat a decent meal every night.

In fact many of them are now working in part-time paid jobs which have nothing in common with their degrees, in order to earn some money.

For example, a comment posted by Polly from London on the BBC’s report says: ” Finally, an article about internships that tells it like it is. I have a 1st degree from Oxford, am not from a typical upper middle class professional background yet I have ended up temporarily working part-time in a local deli as I absolutely reject on moral grounds the idea of working for free and, moreover, I am not in a position to afford it; neither do I entertain the idea of asking my parents for money (I already live at home rent-free and that is more than enough to ask of them). The whole idea of going to uni was to be able to support myself financially in a good job with a good salary when I graduated.”

True, this internships do lead to better and bigger things and of course, graduates gain contacts out of them. For graduates who move from pillar to post with all kinds of placements and without receiving a small wage, it is simply not good enough.

One option to try to trigger a job in the area or get an international experience  is through internship programs. Having one year of graduation of a bachelor degree or technical college you can renew the visa with a Special Program Visa.

This program allows the applicant 40 hours of work visa per week in his/her graduation field and to achieve it is necessary that an Australian company must agree participating in the program. Companies such as Australia Internship helps applicants to go through this process and the values vary according the lenght of the program.

This type of program is very attractive to those interested in getting experience in another country, however, it is a non-paid program and does not allow the applicant to work in another sector, ie for the duration of your stay you will not receive and therefore still have to pay the application fee for the program.

Moreover, we must be alert to the learning that the company chosen is able to pass the intern. Some companies just enters the program to get  unpaid labor. Also, if your level of English is not good enough to enable yourself to perform more complex tasks, you may receive only very basic functions. Knowing the time to choose the stage is essential.

Advantages : 

• Faster development of the English language
• International experience on the field of training
• Development of your network within the country

Disadvantages:

• Program unpaid and not allowance to work in another job
• The program is expensive – around $ 3000 for 3 months internship + visa fees

If it were not for QQ’s presentation, I would not have known Skype has changed tremendously since my last use two years ago. The interface and texture look more professional and the new functions like the ‘Share Screen’ are very interesting. I still have the exclusive video of her laughable parody to Skype’s call-in music. I’m sorry – I can’t post it up here – NSFW.

Great moves she had there but let’s not perish her image especially when internship commences next week. And we all know most likely, employers get curious sometimes. (:

Pat Law’s lecture let us in on a lot of exclusive websites. I have taken note of them – feel free to browse through:

Tweetica: http://tweetica.com

Twitalyzer: http://twitalyzer.com

Twitter Grader: http://twitter.grader.com

Alexa: http://www.alexa.com

URLfan: http://urlfan.com

Compete: http://compete.com

Popuri: http://www.popuri.us/

Wefollow: http://wefollow.com/

Tweetizen: http://tweetizen.com

MrTweet: http://mrtweet.net/

Twellow: http://www.twellow.com/

Muck Rack: http://muckrack.com/

Media on Twitter:  http://www.mediaontwitter.com/

Twitterfall: http://twitterfall.com/

Monitter: http://monitter.com/

Hashtag: http://search.twitter.com/

Daymix: http://daymix.com/

Whostalkin: http://whostalkin.com

SocialMention: http://socialmention.com/

MonitorThis: http://monitorthis.info/

BoardTracker: http://v2.boardtracker.com/

Omgili: http://omgili.com/

Technorati: http://technorati.com/

Google Blogsearch: http://blogsearch.google.com

Icerocket: http://icerocket.com/

Ping.sg: http://ping.sg

Blogarama: http://www.blogarama.com

PBWIKI: http://pbworks.com

Netivities: http://www.thedailyinfluence.com/

Google Reader: http://www.google.com/reader

Google Alexis: http://www.google.com/alerts

Alltop: http://www.alltop.com

Delicious: http://www.delicious.com

–

Now, that’s A LOT of links. Credits to Pat Law (and to me for painstakingly stressing my eyes over the two-megapixels pictures to figure out them).

I’ve been re-investigating photoserve.com and have come across a photographer in Australia with whom I would love to intern.  His name is Ken Duncan; his work is amazing and very much along the lines of photography I would love to be able to produce.  It will be interesting to see where I end up next spring.  TTFN SDG

Happy Thanksgiving Eve everyone. As some of you know, I went to UCLA (oh those long years ago) to pursue a career in clinical psychology, and got my first job out of university doing social work for the state of California. (I’ll save the how I got into branding/advertising industry for another day.)

Times (and the economy) were very different. Fast forward to today; we have some really talented students finishing up their degrees and looking for a place to spread their creative wings.

I receive a lot of emails from students and those that have recently graduated. “What is the best way to get an internship?”, “How do I get my portfolio seen & noticed?”, “How do I find the right agency to work for?” Until now, I’ve not really had many ways to redirect talent.

After some advice and discussion with a few trusted colleagues, I’ve decided to host a student portfolio gallery as a regular feature to the blog. The goal is provide young creative talent an opportunity to get noticed by decision makers in our industry, which include our regular readership of creative executives from top design agencies and television networks.

Click keeping reading to get the details-

The Details

Eligibility

*Open to students/recent graduates in the United States and United Kingdom
*Must either be in their senior year of university or within 2 years post graduation
*Specialized in motion graphics, broadcast design, or creative advertising
*Must have an online design portfolio, with strong examples of your creative philosophy

To Be Considered

*Email abmsubmit [at] gmail [dot] com the following information:

a) A link to your online portfolio
b) A short paragraph describing your educational background, (the city you live in/college you attended) and any applicable existing work experience
c) 3 of your favorite design companies (who would you kill to work for?)
d) Your favorite rebrand or campaign of the year
e) Anything else you want to tell me

*Please note I will not be able to reply to each and every submission. Once you submit your information, make sure you’ve joined Art & Business of Motion’s newsletter here.

Those selected will be posted in the new student/portfolio gallery section of the blog, which will be a permanent feature. If you have a blog, please feel free to link to this post. Twitterers please retweet to your friends and colleagues who might be interested.

Looking forward to seeing some fresh new talent.

Denny

Hi guys!

I haven’t done a straight up “So here’s what is going on” blog in a while. I’ve only been inclined to blog when I want to flip my shit on someone or talk about Muppets so here goes nothin.

California, so far, is beyond incredible. I can’t believe this is my life. Apart from the fact that I miss my family and friends, I have to say that this is the best thing I’ve ever done for myself. I feel so light-hearted and happy all the time. I’ve had a few moments of angst since I’ve been here but I think it’s BECAUSE I’m happy. Like the fact that someone would try to piss on this makes it that much more “Aaah!”.

And what’s so funny is that even though me and Kristyn have been loosely planning this move for-like-ever, we still didn’t even know if it was even going to really happen until July, about a month before we left. I mean I gave my job a month’s notice and left in the end of August. We only JUST decided to take this lounge for real right before I gave my official notice. I can’t imagine if we hadn’t made that decision, so many good things have happened since then because we chose to do it. About a month and a half before we left, I told my boss Jessica that I’d been thinking of leaving and that odds were I was. I’d come to her unsure bc I wanted to ask if I could work from home if I left and keep my job. It didn’t work out (large in part bc of the economy and why keep someone on if the company can save $$, sucks but is reality). But I took a chance and she was excited for me. She said, “Sometimes you have to leap and the net appears.” Honestly, that was what kind of sealed it for me. (Jessica please do NOT feel guilty if this takes a nasty left turn haha.). I mean truth be told, I was looking for the confidence to go through with it and that made me decide to just take a leap of faith and it’s paying off! I still don’t have a job but Kristyn does. Money is tight and so we can’t go out and do much but it’s okay…we always have a fully stocked fridge, the animals are happy and (over) fed, I got an internship with Lionsgate films (!) and Kristyn might get an internship too! Plus, we are in LA!!! What is not to love?! I can’t get over that we LIVE in a place that sparks people’s imaginations the of the entire world. It’s so bright and colorful here. The buildings are painted in bright colors. There are murals painted everywhere. The palm trees, the wide streets, the nice cars, the blue sky, it’s always sunny, people are friendly, everyone rides bikes, the architechture, the store are CLEAN, BIG, MANY…

Also, I was going through our pictures from the road trip this whole past week and neither of us can even believe we did that. We drive cross-country! Well Kristyn did. I offered to drive all the time but at some point she decided that as a personal goal she wanted to drive it all herself which was so impressive. As goals go, that’s a pretty big one haha. We just stopped whenever it struck our fancy and had lots of snacks and bevs. But going through the pictures, it’s hard to imagine that we actually were IN some of these places, they’re so dreamlike and pretty. I’m going to post blogs about them and links to my flickr so you can peep’m if you wanna see what the middle of America looks like from a nutbag’s perspective (that would be me).

Anyway, enough self-congratulations. I am on my way to Lionsgate. Guys, I am so glad to be there! Everyone is so nice and is really making me feel welcome! And so far, I get to sit down all day and read scripts and write synopsis and analysis. I’m a script analrapist like Tobias, well not quite the same. Either way, I’m glad to be there.

Also, tomorrow it’s Thanksgiving! We are celebrating on Friday bc Kristyn works tomorrow. We’re going to loom in on our families’ parties though via Skype. We did it with Christine last night and here are the results:

Our stupid computer kept shutting down for some reason though, boo! Okay gotta go, I’m almost there. Time to pay attention haha…

Edit: I wrote this this morning and my WordPress app would NOT deliver the goods. So *here goes nothing, I hope it posts*

“Sorry Billy, Happy Pony is on. And I am NOT missing Happy Pony.”

I finally finished my blanket!

Me walking around in Santa Monica

Christmas in Glendale!

Kristyn attacking Monster and Elvira

This is the Target in Glendale! Three floors!

I changed the name of my blog today. I liked “the PR emcee,” but I felt I wasn’t worthy of being considered an actual PR “emcee” yet… Plus it was just a play off of my initials, M.C.

Form & Style is actually the title of one of school textbooks. I think it is a much better fit though, because it is simple and can apply to many different aspects of my life. As I continue to develop my blog’s identity, I realize I may not want to just talk about things related to PR and design. Maybe I just want to talk about me!

After I blogged about needing to find an internship that would be a good fit, I checked my school e-mail account to find a message from one of my professors about an opportunity that sounds perfect! I couldn’t believe it. They want at least five writing samples, and that always makes me nervous. I wrote my teacher back and asked if she’d go over some of my work with me; the deadline is quickly approaching and I need as much of an edge as I can get. I definitely want to mention that I’m venturing into the blogging world, but I am not sure if I’ve developed enough content here yet to show it off. F&S is still a wee baby.

I’ll figure it out and keep you posted. Until then, Happy Thanksgiving readers!

One of the more worrying American imports in recent years is the so-called ‘internship’.  The trend was recently highlighted by the BBC in relation to MPs use/misuse of them.   The beeb have now followed up with a timely article explaining how the trend is spreading across numerous industries in the UK.
For anyone with no idea what a internship is – basically employers offer a program that gives students, new graduates or ‘gap-year kids’ the opportunity to get ‘work-experience’ for the company, unpaid, often for a University summer, sometimes for much longer.   The argument goes that that the company is doing the kid a favour – these aren’t real jobs, really just admin – but it gives the interns a ‘foot-in-the-door’, a ‘network of contacts in the industry’, the chance to check it is really the right industry for them and most importantly the magic ‘experience’ to add to their CV.  This helps escape the job-seeker’s paradox that you can’t get a job without experience and you can’t get experience without a job.  The employers are often so impressed with interns that at the end job offers may be made. When presented like that it sounds like the company is doing a great social good.  ‘Helping job-seekers!’.  Very worthy.  The reality isn’t quite so straightforward nor is it the win-win for all it first appeared. 
I am a huge advocate of the importance of both meritocracy and competition (see my philosophy page).  Meritocracy is key to social mobility, which in turn is key to attaining social justice.  As we drift to internships becoming a ‘cultural norm’ in the UK we’re creating a blocker to meritocracy.  In the long run this will harm our economy and society.  
When you listen to the work that interns really do they are typically not ‘work-experience’ in the sense of shadowing someone doing their day-job or having a go while the incumbent looks on.  No, more normally they have interns doing ‘real jobs’.  They’re expected to arrive and work set hours, and often kicked out of the program if they do not.  They have set administrative duties to perform which keep the business going.  To me this crosses the line from ‘work experience’ to outright exploitation.  If the interns weren’t doing this work then somebody in paid employment would be.  That person would then be off the unemployment register and paying tax and NI and pumping those earnings back into the economy.  Instead we have them still on the dole whilst the student extends their debt and works for free with no guarantee of any reward at the end.   I can only spot one real winner in the arrangement.
We need to consider who has the means to take internships:  Who can offer three months of their lives working without pay, living in a big city?  Only people with alternative financial support.  Straight away that excludes a whole chunk of society.  The kids from the estates to who we’ve been preaching  if they work hard they can achieve anything; who then put their heads-down, ignored the peer-pressure, worked hard, got the GCSEs and A-Levels, went to Uni and got the 2-1  or first degree’s now find themselves stuck in the old job-seeker’s paradox and flipping burgers,   angry and disenchanted with society and saddled with university debt.   Meanwhile, the well-to-do kid who scraped through their GCSEs and A-Levels thanks to the kind of one-on-one educational attention you only get at the best independent schools, who drank their way through uni but pulled their socks up just enough to get an OK 2:2 sails into the intern post because they can stay with Mum and Dad and have an allowance.  They get the magic experience on the CV, they get the contacts and the reference, they get the end job.  Now,  they may well be ‘able’ enough to do the job, but the ‘better’ candidate has missed out.  That stinks to me every bit as much as those well meaning, misguided affirmative action plans companies have in place.   Both spit in the face of the idea of meritocracy.
The trend is embedding.  In some industries it is almost becoming a pre-requisite to entry that you have done an internship.  We must level this playing field.  It pains me to say it, because by nature I’m against regulation but  to get proper meritocracy and competition working we should legistlate that if the internship has the characteristics of real employment then legally it must be treated as such with a formal contract, fair selection process, and at least a minimum wage salary.  In the long run this will be a real win-win for every player in the economy. 

Rather than wait for such regulation I hope the companies realise now that they are being short-sighted by saving pennies here which could cost them pounds later.  The barrier to entry means they’re potentially missing out the very best, hungriest talent.  The outlay of paying minimum wage for administrative support is minimal.  The return on genuinely recruiting the best people into your firm for the long-run will pay back that tenfold.    Meritocracy is not just good for society – it is good for business too.

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Here are the details from one of the performances that I saw over this past weekend’s Interactive Futures conference here at Emily Carr. Click critical_review_john_deveaux for a PDF download.
– FlashAddict

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t2:Echo – by Henry Daniel

Due to the fact that my schedule was quite full this past weekend along with the fact that I get quite severe motion sickness from watching 3D movies, ride films and IMAX movies, I was not able to see most of the presentations that were shown at this year’s Interactive Futures conference at Emily Carr. That being said, the one performance that I was able to see in at least some form was t2:Echo by Henry Daniel.

While I was not able to see the entire performance, due to the fact that the concourse gallery walls that were blocking my seeing most of the actual dancers’ performances. On top of this, I was also helping direct the audience members to their respective locations, facilitating their viewpoints and actively going to get benches for more vertically challenged people to stand on.

By positioning the dancers in two separate yet interlinked locations, the director was able to create a bridge between the performances. This was further articulated by the video coding and processing for telepresence technology that was used to create the concurrent ghosting effect that was seen on the wall of the ECUAD concourse gallery and the main display screen in the IDS Motion Capture studio.

The ghosting effect that was projected onto the concourse gallery wall showed the dual performances and interlaid them onto one another and provided a somewhat random video playback quality as each dancer took centre stage in front of the crowd. They also entered the stage from multiple entry points and once their rotation in each location was complete, they then ran either to or from the concourse gallery and IDS MoCap studio in order to continue their respective performances there.

I have never seen a live dance performance like this before and it was quite the sight to see, as the dancers themselves were able to glide through the space with the greatest of ease and truly encompass it. From what I could see, it was a beautiful and creative bridging of technology and human performance into a multi-faceted co-locative art piece and would enjoy seeing more performances by Henry Daniel and his accompanying dance troupe.

Carrie Rheingans

Michigan got its chance to give feedback to the White House Office of National AIDS Policy on Wednesday, 18 November 2009. From across the state, providers, people living with HIV, and people affected by HIV came and gave their recommendations, suggestions, and demands on video tape and in writing.

I was the statewide organizer for this event as part of my social work internship at the HIV/AIDS Resource Center (HARC). This experience was the perfect combination of public health and social work that I hope to gain from my dual degree program (MPH/MSW). When the nationwide community conversations were announced, many people across Michigan wondered why we didn’t have one scheduled near us, especially considering the fact that some zip codes in Detroit have higher HIV prevalence than some countries that receive emergency money form the United States government. The Campaign to End AIDS contacted me after hearing from a few outspoken Michiganders and we did a lot of grassroots organizing in a few short weeks to pull off this successful event.

The conversation was only two hours long, and the majority of the time was occupied by community members speaking about what they wanted in a National AIDS Strategy. The night started with welcomes from Craig Covey, Ferndale mayor (Ferndale is the city where the event was held) and longtime staff member of the Michigan AIDS Coalition, Christine Campbell and Larry Bryant of the Campaign to End AIDS, and Charles Pugh, President-elect of the Detroit City Council. Charles also moderated the event.

Below are some of the things people told the White House:

“When is the last time we got together as a community of loving, living people when funders weren’t making us?”

“We need quality healthcare for LGBT people living with HIV and AIDS – we need to strengthen doctor-patient relationships because people are not comfortable coming out to their doctors”

“Viagra and Cialis have aided in the resurgence of sexually transmitted infections in senior housing complexes. We need more education and prevention in these locations”

“The church, rid of stigma, denial and fear, becomes a change agent”

“my barrier [to being an AIDS advocate] is childcare”

“I wanted post-exposure prophylaxis and the nurse didn’t even know what it was!”

“We need the same laws coast to coast – enough with a patchwork of different laws about HIV”

“I missed class tonight to be here on my birthday to tell you that we need rec centers for our kids to have something safe to do after school”

“Michigan prisons don’t hand out condoms or test for HIV when people are released – but we know that people are still having sex and they need to get tested because they might need to get right into care”

It was great to hear people from as far away as Kalamazoo, Flint and Lansing gathering to speak out about such an important issue.

Larry Bryant from the Campaign to End AIDS introduces the event as moderator and President-elect of the Detroit City Council Charles Pugh looks on

The mind at work is volatile and complex. Much of the time, as Malcolm Gladwell, the hairy (in all senses of the word) and brilliant author of The Tipping Point, Blink and Outliers said, we can’t even say what we want or realize what we like until we are actually trying it.

I am type who never tries the specials off the menus, and orders the same delicious dish almost compulsively once I find it. Had the menu at Babbo in NYC been traditional when I ate there this past weekend, I would have never ordered the black spaghetti with rock shrimp (safest-sounding dish.) And I would have never realized I could practically lick clean a dish swathed in bruise-colored squid ink and prepared to slither around my fork with oily residue. Yum!

It’s the possibility of finding happiness from the unknown that makes life, and henceforth, internships, exciting. As thoughts of the future cross your path this season, test your taste buds creatively.

Watch this video as Malcolm Gladwell discusses none other than…spaghetti sauce.

Mass Appeal Entertainment’s
Intern of the Week:

Al Vargas

Al Vargas graduated from Chester College of New England with a BA in Graphic Design and Illustration. When he isn’t designing fun avatars, buddy icons, wallpapers, and banners for Mass Appeal, you can find Al playing with animation, discussing philosophy, listening to any Classic music, watching a variety of sitcoms, or reading something totally interesting. Long story short, Al loves to be busy and it seems impossible for him to be bored! Al shares all kinds of information with us here at MAE- both useful and useless, which we all love!

1. On my iPod you will find: Led Zeppelin, Mos Def, Muddy Waters, Tool, Pantera, Al Green, NWA, Aretha Franklin, Sepultura, Liquid Tension Experiment, Stevie Ray Vaughn, N.E.R.D
2. My first concert ever was: Silver Chair
3. The best part of interning at MAE is: The freedom to jump in and create some really cool graphics
4. My dream job would be:Director/Producer for an adult prime time cartoon
5. One song I will never get sick of is: Anything Al Green
6. My ringtone is currently: Generic Drums and bass
7. 3 artists I would like to have drinks with:Maynard James Keenan, Les Claypool, Mos Def. – That would also be a great album.
8. If I could follow one tour it would be: Primus
9. The song that describes my life in 2009 is: Bill Withers “Lean on Me”
10. 3 words that describe me are:Friendly, Creative and Content
]]> http://anotherdamblog.com/2009/11/25/dam-internship-mentorship/ Wed, 25 Nov 2009 06:00:32 +0000 Henrik de Gyor http://anotherdamblog.com/2009/11/25/dam-internship-mentorship/

During one of my presentations at a recent DAM conference, the audience made a request for a DAM internship or mentorship program. This poll is meant to find out how many people are interested in an internship program and/or mentorship program, specifically about Digital Asset Management. This program would be led by DAM professionals who use DAM and are willing to mentor. Please vote so we can publicly gauge the need for such a program. You may also email me directly if you are interested in this type of opportunity.

]]> http://bupublichealth.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/maximus-internship/ Thu, 19 Nov 2009 04:19:55 +0000 bupublichealth http://bupublichealth.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/maximus-internship/

Special information session on Friday, December 4th, 2009!
A presentation will be made by Richard Montoni, a BU Alum and CEO of Maximus. Mr. Montoni is offering at least one internship to qualified BU students for the summer.

Location: Boston University School of Managment (595 Commonwealth Ave.)
Feld Career Center Conference Room (Rm. 114)
Time: 12:00 pm (Lunch will be available)

*We request that you RSVP in order to attend the information session.
Please email Deborah Halliday at dlhallid@bu.edu if you plan on attending

About the internship:
MAXIMUS is an extremely dynamic and complex organization that offers government and industry a range of unique services, products, and solutions. Please join BU Alum Richard Montoni, CEO of MAXIMUS, for this presentation. He will talk about the MAXIMUS internship program.

The diverse services and products that MAXIMUS offers may be categorized into two groups: Government Operations and Government Consulting. Government Operations focuses on having a measurable impact on the lives of the citizens we help government serve. The insights of MAXIMUS Consulting and our technological innovations help government gain program efficiencies and pursue improvements that in turn benefit citizens.

MAXIMUS Internships are now listed on BU CareerLink, and open for your application. Please log on, read the descriptions, and apply. As a BU Alum, Mr. Montoni is very interested in seeing BU students take advantage of all that MAXIMUS has to offer.

Requirements:
Must be a US Citizen
Student status: undergraduate – either Class of 2011 or 2012.

Education Preferred: MAXIMUS seeks current undergraduate students of any major, but will but will give preference to the following:
• Accounting
• Economics
• Finance
• Marketing
• Public Policy

Technical Skills / Knowledge Required: Advanced level expertise in MS Excel applications

Personal/Soft Skills: Excellent organizational skills, exceptional interpersonal, written, verbal communications skills, demonstrated multi-tasking abilities, ability to work effectively within project teams and independently, ability to perform comfortably in a fast-paced, deadline-oriented work environment, and extensive leadership experience in either work or extracurricular activities.

Corporate Finance: Possible duties may include:
• Provide functional support to MAXIMUS external auditors.
• Test for Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.
• Process day-to-day general ledger transactions to gain exposure to standard accounting principles.
• Provide support to segment finance teams for billing and contract information.

Corporate Marketing/Proposals: Possible duties may include:
• Perform research of best in class materials from MAXIMUS document repository in response to proposal requests from potential clients.
• Perform quality checks on facts, figures and data through interaction with consultants and managers.
• Write summaries on this data for use in current and future proposals.

Human Capital: Possible duties may include:
• Perform analysis functions such as compensation, benefits, new hire on-boarding, recruitment, employee retention and training.
• Contribute to annual budget planning cycle through forecasting and financial modeling.
• Contribute to the development of collateral marketing materials for recruitment purposes.

About Richard A. Montoni:
Chief Executive Officer, President and Director of MAXIMUS

Richard Montoni has served as Chief Executive Officer, President and board member since 2006. Mr. Montoni is responsible for the transformation of MAXIMUS into the leading pure-play provider in the administration of government health and human services. As CEO and President, Mr. Montoni is charged with driving the MAXIMUS mission of Helping Government Serve the People®, while leading the strategic vision of the Company. Prior to his appointment as CEO, Mr. Montoni spent four years as Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer of MAXIMUS.

Mr. Montoni has served as Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President for CIBER, where he also served as a director. Before joining CIBER, he was an audit partner with KPMG, where he worked for nearly 20 years.

Mr. Montoni holds a B.S. in economics from Boston University and an M.A. in accounting from Northeastern University.

]]> http://mitchellklein.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/sick/ Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:37:02 +0000 Mitchell Klein http://mitchellklein.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/sick/

I didn’t go to my internship today. I woke up feeling like shit. I think I’m coming down with a cold.

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