Week 7: NGOs (thats foreign-talk for nonprofits)

Optimism is really key when attending a university.  I’ve learn over this course, that being optimistic really does make things go by much easier.

Unfortunately, somethings are harder to digest than others.  We in the PPPM280 class found out that one of our classmates, Susanne Gabay, Passed away.  Not quite sure of the causation, but regardless our professors talked highly about her, and after looking over some of her blogs, I understand why.

I hope things are well for her family.  Now more than every (somehow — in the best sense possible) I think that optimism is a mantra that we can all share.

NGOs (also known as nonprofits in the states) are some of the most optimistic groups in the world!

They leave everything they have behind and go to places that need help the most to DO something about it.  NGOs are very close to my heart — the first time I ever traveled abroad was by the will of a NGO.

Today, in particle, we had a guy (sorry I don’t remember his name nor can I find his card he gave me) from the NGO (called Peace Players Int’l) come and tell us the inspirational story about how his friend started up the organization from scratch.  MY GOD. greatest story ever.  the man had more passion in his finger about this organization than I have about the UO foundation (which is saying A LOT).  I was so excited to hear him speak — and the organization he worked for is also REALLY great.  check out the link — I pretty sure there is a picture of the Dali Lama playing basketball.

I was also really excited to hear him speak because, as you may know, I am about to write a paper about NGOs and the controversy they must endure in order to be successful.

I don’t want to elaborate too much on this topic (especially because I will write a 10 page paper about it soon) but basically I feel that if one has the passion (and resources) you can win over the community’s trust.

We also learned that NGOs that deal with Human Services are the most successful.  In my opinion (but probably just not mine alone) it’s because, this way, there is the LEAST amount of interference the organization can have with the government.  Renee Irvine also came into talk to us about her experience with china and what she learned about their newly emerging nonprofit sector.

It was really interesting to find out that the government has to approve your cause before you can even get it off the ground.  But being as dictator-y as china is, what more do you expect?

Also, she said (and I found this very interesting) that the Chinese government frowns upon certain types of nonprofits coming in and deal with certain situations that need to be addressed.  In particular, Environmental advocates are not welcomed into china (maybe because some country is becoming US-consumer 2.0?).

It’s very interesting.  I like how the need for nonprofits grew in the United States, when our nation’s economy dwindled into nothing, but now that states world-wide are also carrying the burden, the road to NGOs are being paved –but not very well. (sorry for that ‘pun’ attempt)

this should make it up:

The more it think about NGOs, the more I want to become involved.  I would LOVE to travel and live abroad.  I honestly plan on living pay-check-to-pay-check with my college degree, and what better way to do it while helping people.

I’m very excited to now write this nightmare of a paper because I want to examine and understand the controversy around NGOs and the influence of Cultural Imperialism.  Having the guest speakers really inspired me to write this paper and put some effort into the research….

…………good thing I’m in the University of Oregon’s Knight Library.  Thanks, Nike!

My Final Paper

As the term comes to a close, so does the Nonprofit Portion of this blog (maybe).  One of our final projects for the class is to write a 10-12 page paper about nonprofits.

The nonprofit that I have been analyzing for class is the Rotary International Foundation.

Im interested about Rotary’s role in international sectors.  Not only do they help people suffering from polio, but they also send thousands of people from all ages to foreign countries to learn and help spread awareness.

when I was in high school, I was fortunate enough to be selected as a member of the Youth Exchange Program for rotary and was able to experience this spread of internationalism frist hand.

However, in one of my international studies classes, we discussed things along the lines of how strange lands do not like American influence or do not like having foreign organizations push their ideas onto them.

For my year end paper I would like to examine just HOW foreign countries feel about rotay’s influence, by analyzing their initial reaction to the program, and seeing just how effective the organization is at spreading internationalism.

wish me luck! first 10 page paper — ever. :X

Week 6: Art and Culture

the past few weeks have been crazy, sorry all for the conjoined weeks

Honestly, I was really confused about what we were supposed to blog about…. :/

I would like to announce that I found out that my younger brother is going to have a kid! its really wierd, because its the first grandbaby….I’m not sure how i feel about the situation, but either case, this might actually change my opinion about how I view nonprofits roles in society somehow…. (if it comes up, I’ll be sure to let you know )

Anyways, this week we talked about art and the role art plays with nonprofits.

I was actually really intreged about this subject, because i have NO artistic backround what-so-ever. (I did take art in the 6th grade in which I drew things like this:)

but seriously, I thing that art is a huge part of our greater human existence.  Im a linguist and I would agree that art has lasted longer than the written language.

Yes, art is improtant, but who do nonprofits have to do with art? well, in my opinon, A lot.

Let me walk you through a few of them

1) Historical Preservation

I am born and breed in rural oregon.  Historical preservation is something that is actually really close to my heart. In oregon, thus far, we have done, what I think, a great job of preserving the raw ‘n rugged-ness of this land, people, and the uniqueness that is my state. (Oregon) In my town specifically, there are many historical Victorian homes that are in the ‘downtown’ area.  Many of the homes important in oregon history – for example, the original Salem Hospital is located in stayton’s downtown area (The Brown House).  However, the town itself is not a place of wealth and luxury so reconstruction takes years.  For as long as I can remember, the Brown House has been being remodeled for +10 years (only recently has the town put up primer on the outside).  The city cannot afford to restore the town in this economy, so art-related nonprofits (who, better yet, those which specialize in historical preservation) would be of huge benefits to the community. they could either A) raise money so that the house could be restored to its beauty, or B) find other resources needed to execute a plan.

2) Architecture

Ill tell why nonprofits are important later in this post, but architecture is an important part of civilization, the Grecian Architecture still is considered high class, and many people would pay tons of thousands world wide to have some sort of Grecian influences on their homes.  Architecture is also a crucial part, I think, in the art sector (not only with historical preservation). If people could build Safe, yet interesting buildings, it would definitely generate  a lot of extra revenue and higher sense of community.  Recently, I went to Los Angeles to visit a friend.  One of the days that I was there, I ended up renting a bike and biking 30 miles on the beach (WAAAY fun – I would highly recommend it).  Along the way, we rode past a beach knows as Manhattan beach. WOW. those homes were quite impressive, all I wanted to do was visit each individual home and admire the architecture.  Unfortunately, the only way to truely understand this paragraph fully, you have to either live there, or see it in person.  Unless you would like to travel to Manhattan Beach, CA, this is the best I could do for you:

Too many photos to choose from, enjoy the google.com search

3) Art, Music and Fashion

two words: Lady Gaga.  She is C-R-A-Z-Y.  Many other peoples’, opinion, she is more an artist combining many media into a interesting performance (almost like if performance art could take steroids).  This is actually on a lot of people minds becaues Ms. Gaga has appeared on the cover of TIME.  Her music is catchy.  People have been trying to copy her style to keep up, (like Cristina Aguilara, *place Mr. Yuck Sticker Here*) but its interesting. I thought that Lady Gaga was a FREAK. but the more I watch her music videos the more I’m interested in what she’ll do next. (ie Paparazzi) (entire vid.

(WTF??)

regardless, of how you feel about her, but she has single handedly brought back music videos (as many mini-movies, non the less) and is probably one of the most influential artists in pop music (has anyone else noticed an increase of tecnho-influenced music and crazy music videos on TV?)

But as the economy becomes an issue, school (the building blocks of tomorrow’s mind) are slowly cutting art programs out of the system so things (like math, gross) can be saved. both are equally important, and if art is never exposed to children, they will never become inspired. we’ll never have another telephone again.  are we really ready to call it quits??

Nonprofits are very influential and can help make sure that schools are getting the artistic education that we need to have CULTURE. a lot of charter school have excellent alternative artistic education availible for everyone.  and honestly im jealous — which i couldve gone to one of those!

if you’re interested in having nonprofits become more involved check out the link below for more infor. do your part in the preservation of the 21st century.

here

Week 3, 4 & 5 in a Nutshell

Welcome back, oh-faithful-reader,

I would like to tell the world about the wonders of auto-save.  The blog from my last post was actually saved, not deleted, when my browser last crashed.  It is now available for your public viewing

Also, This week (week 4) I will going to Los Angeles to visit a dear friend of mine (one that I’ve known basically for a long time) to a) get away from the stress of school, work idiots , and premenstrual weather and b) understand the craziness that is Southern California before my friend graduates from Loyola Marymount University (however, due to recent dislike of her school + she is the only connection I have with it, I cannot say this school is ‘good’) (although there is a FINE school in Eugene, Oregon, you’re more than welcome to check out) — but more about schools later. trust me. (post date: LA is great! had a blast, check out my facebook for more details)

So far, we’ve conversed about the social service aspect of the nonprofit sector.  This field includes things like abuse prevention, or drug/alcohol counseling.  the main and reoccurring theme of the week was governmental influences.  The government is starting to take more control over things that nonprofits used to implement.

For Example, child services are a large part of what the government regulates as part of their social work — not that it’s a bad thing (the movie example, Precious, often came up in the discussion), it’s just that our government is spending a lot of money for these children, when there are people wanted to help for a much lower cost (not because people within nonprofits don’t make a whole lot of money, but because they [we] are more efficient with funds).  I also think that social services are something that nonprofits should take care of because we are more local and understand the situation a little bit more personally.

We had a guest speaker (Sarai Johnson; AE: /sʌɹɑi ʒɔnsɪn/) from a local [Springfield, OR] based nonprofit come called NEDCO.  The organization’s main goal is kind of complicated to explain.  It a nonprofit for community development, and I think its a GREAT idea — so if this sounds like something you like, check out the NEDCO link — and basically it wants to teach people intensely about “fiscal responsibility” – direct quote from a good friend I heard all summer to help us save up for the dreaded school year.  The government’s response to this is support programs like WIC or food stamps so that people can get some aid.

yes, I agree that these programs help people get to where they need, but I’m from a small town where I see, daily, people taking advantage of the system.  It makes me not want to pay my taxes. However, nonprofits like NEDCO teach people how to use the money responsibly so that they can not only get up out of whatever economic problem they have, but keep them away.  Honestly, I would rather give all my tax money (and them some) to NEDCO so they can implement the food stamp program as they see fit. c’mon! Fiscal responsibility

[After google searching 'Fiscal Responsiblity' this is what showed up first, haha]

At least scroll over it, because this is a great segue (which is pronounced /segway/ in American English, but /seg/ in British English, by the way) to my next point.

The standards in the United States have significantly been lowered than they were years ago.  Parts of week 4 and all of week 5, we have been talking about the education system and governments role in it.  Officially, there is nothing to do about education in the Constitution (or the Bill of Rights, I can’t remember what the exact document is…just citing our GTF).   However, there is a clause that says something along the lines of anything not mentioned above will be taken care of by the state. hmmm

Ironically enough, there is a U.S. Department of Education which regulates the education system, funding for schools, and even start acts like the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001.  I find this interesting because federal agencies are becoming increasingly involved with an education of a single child.

One of our classmates, somewhat, went off the deep end when passionately expressing his views on the governments influence on education.  Arguing that the the NCLB Act is the underlying cause of falling standards in the US, he said that he was more than prepared for college when he came to the University of Oregon, but because other people in the class room were not, he he could not exploit his full potential as an academic.  (yes, I know ¬_¬).  To some extent, I agree that it maybe the reasoning why education is failing us. (I know that I wasn’t prepared for college, both socially and academically).  However, I don’t think that we should necessarily let them fall behind. Again, This is why I think I had a great education in Stayton (something I NEVER thought I would say).

There were a vast array of people who attended Stayton [Union] High School.  The school district itself was made up 5-6 cities itself (but we still only had about 800 kids in the ENTIRE school, dream big) but we had a College Prep program at our school that not only let us take the more advanced version of a class, but we also had a much MUCH smaller class size.  for the majority of my high school career, I went to school with the same 100 kids (remember, out of 800). My senior year, it was just me and the same 10 kids all day long because we had similar schedules.

it was great.  The lowest denominator in the class was still ranked 10 out of 200 student (GPA-wise) and there for we were all able to ‘thrive’ in school.  I think that the idea of NCLB was, and still is, intended to help the community.  however, back in 2001, the average class size was MUCH smaller for secondary education than they are today so teaching to the lowest denominator was actually a good thing (not to mention all the one-on-one time a student gets with teacher).

now the average class size is 40 kids.

hmm. I also notice that I’ve been rambling on.

the governments continual influence in education seems to have significant impacts on the people.  The size of our country doesnt allow for such mediation on to this degree for it to be effective.  it might seem like a good thing. but its not.

Week 2: pt. 2. I FOUND THE MISSING LINK!

WOW. IM very excited to tell you all that there is, in fact, some sort of magical fairy in my computer.

the blog that was mysteriously gone from last week, came up in a draft that was saved. I do not know how that happened, but I’m glad that it did.

go ahead and read it if you wish

ORIGINAL BLOG POST:

Herro again!

Week 2 is finally complete! I PLANNED on staying in this weekend and completing some of my homework, however that did not last.  After going out and stimulating the economy, as oppose to my grades, I still believe that im doing well in class:

Optimism.

This last week’s reading had to do with Religion and its relationship with the government…

“but, Evan, religion and state are separate!”

LIES: the chapter gave a lot of background information about specifically what the constitution says (also, I’m including what the author wrote as a ‘simplified English’ for the I-am-not-that-smart-but-I-am-reading-a-book-about-nonprofits cround):

1) Congress shall make no las respecting an establishment of religion’
- No National Church

2) No law phohibiting the free exercise of religion’
- Pray for whoever you want

3) No religion test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the US
- No one can be barred from federal office on the basis of his/her religious affililation

This is interesting because religious practices are not required to a) pay taxes on donations and b) file claims with the state/federal government — which I’m completely against.

I feel as though the just because it is a religion does not exempt them from things. On average, or so the book tells us, churches account for about 12.43 billion dollars.  That number, itself, is negotiable because that is only what is reported.

Does anyone else find this awkward? especially with the economy the way it is, shouldn’t we know where all our money is? is anyone else bothered about the fact that there could be millions of dollars floating around the south and we wouldn’t even know? I’m not an economics major, but I feel like we should know how much money is in circulation — does that affect our economy?

I’ll have to google this later. but for now, I’ll just keep you wondering.

There is, however,  a benefit of having an un-god-ly amount of money in your possession — even if none know about it: you are able to do more with it.

The book also mentioned of all the churches in the US, about 90 percent of all congregations do something to give back to the community.  which is definatly good/encouraged.

Overall, I believe that churches should be ran more like a nonprofit.  just because it is a church, doesnt mean that they get special attention from the government (especially because they are ‘separate’)(I guess one may argue that the church can have special treatment if the state wanted to give it to them because they can regulate it…but if we continue to run in circles, we’ll never arrive at our destination.)

All I’m saying it that it is unfair for sector to be treated much differently than the rest.  They should at least produce or file a tax-thing for, if  anything, statistical purposes.  Also, I feel as though they should include a fine print within their contract that includes: ‘must give back to the community’ as part of a definition of what a church is — at least, then, it would be more like a nonprofit.

Week 2: Religion

For some reason this did not save/post, before the browser ultimately crashed. so after writing this for 2 hours, it was a waste. very very angry.

so much for optimism: it was even a great blog!

(also, I didn’t even present the information as looking down upon the church! Why god, why?)

Unfortunately, I wanted to continue my streak of great posts, as my fans have been raving about (never thought I’d write that) but I do not have time to do so:

my argument was this, I do not think that the church should be exempt from supplying donation information. I feel like the information would be useful, if even for statistical purposes, for us to know how much money is in circulation.

I also said that there should be some underlying clause that said something to the effect that the churches should be required to do something that would benefit the community. (since about 90% of all churches already do this, I feel as though it wouldn’t be a controversial issue)

Also talked about how the constitution allows for some leeway with the church and regulation.  All that is stated in the book, as to what the constitution says, is that we cannot have a national church, cannot force people to practice something, or someone cannot be barred on the basis of religion.  There IS some room for the government to implement some sort of regulation.

I promise that next week will be much more vivid and colorful.

but for now, I have mundane spanish homework to do. el blah.

(at least this pic was saved)

Week 1 Reactions

TO WHOM THIS MAY CONCERN:

We have successfully finished week 1 of the term. After checking my everything (which is still intact) I would say that all is well that ends well.

again –> optimistic!

In class, we discussed more about the creation of  the Non-Profit Sector and the legistics of how that works within the government.  A huge part of that was, basically, how the government defines the organizations – for taxes, none the less.

in particular there is one thing that jumped out:

I liked the discussion seemed to follow the idea that because of philanthropy and for-the-good-of-ones-brother-n America was able to be successful and unite to create what we have today (for better or worse).  In the Book we are reading called A Non-Profit Nation by Michael O’Neil (which is actually cheaper when bought through the University of Oregon’s Bookstore as oppose to Amazon.com, suprisingly enough) it gives many theories for how this emerged from the sands of time:

One theory was anthropological based that gave reason as to how community help came into existence.  He said that as we moved from being hunter-gathers (like when dinosaurs existed) to a more stationary, crop growing society, we depended on help from those in the community in order to get what we needed.  We often relied on trade, as well.  For example, if i was the best farmer in the town, but the worst cook, if i was to share it with him, I would think it smart to let the best baker make bread from my wheat – so that we both can have pleanty of good bread bread. (I know. that’s a stretch. but please, just bear with me).

I liked this idea a lot because it makes me think about how we help each other today — an even through out history.  we went from a point in human history from relying on ourselves for survival, then to a community based society (as stated above).  Then we some how became what Europe inevitably became and has social classes (and wealth) which could not help each other with social/health/education etc.  Then people left everything they had for more opportunities, and the came to some strange foreign, evergreen covered continent which had NOTHING but random critters and savages, savages, barely even human.  We, again, relied  on each other to success and survive — and we did.  As we gained more resources wealth, the less we needed each other to succeed.  We eventually reach a point (for whatever reason completely unrelated) where our necessities (like food) become not as accessible as they were before (like, in our case, more expensive).  We again need each other’s help.  I just found this interesting.

Working in popular non-profit, I see this trend every day, the worse off the economy, the better we do.  I think we should just rely on non-profits and help each other all the time.  We will also need some people to run them –> might I suggest college kids from the North West who have experience in the Non-Profit world? they would love to do it at a high pay.

which brings me to my next point:

there are a lot of Non-Profits in the world who do good.

WHY THEN DO PEOPLE IN NON-PROFITS GET PAID SO BAD. I understood, before I took this journey into the Non-Profit sector that I would never amount to the salary of my forefathers, but not this much!

after doing some sort of research, it looks like the average non-profit employee can ear about 50,000 a year.
I realize that this is much more that some people make, however, when I graduated from high school and moved on to a university, I expected that most people who graduated earned a little more money than that. oh,well

fight for the cause

optimistic!