Internet Changes Everything...

We seemed to be expected to update our daily lives during Spring "Study" Break... The thing has not gone as we had expected :-(

The issue has been the Internet, here.  Yes, we have an access.  The hotel we stays has a Wi-Fi access; my PC catches the WiFi signal in my room...it cannot establish a connection when I am in that room.  The only place I can use the Internet is the lobby (and other restaurant or shopping centers which offer a Free WiFi access).

It looks so strange that one same hotel guest sit in the lobby for a very long time just looking PC screen, not looking at such a beautiful blue sky and lovely wind as well as amazing beach... But, I need to do so to pick up various materials from a cloud storage and doing follow-up studies for preparation.

We have gotten a ton of insights and inspirations (+ motivation) from speakers.  They have pursued their mission, struggled with various obstacles, and maintained hope to achieve their mission, as those who work in the US do.  It would be an overgeneralization, but some discipline that Ford School taught has some sort of applicability in Grenada.  It is important to separate path dependency or cultural/historical context to analyze the issue.  In this context, the US (or other industrialized country) is not special as Grenada is not special.

So, that's the same in the US; we cannot do well without the Internet as well.

Final Meeting Before Trip

We had the final meeting before the spring break (i.e. the trip to Grenada) on Wednesday.  Prior to the meeting, each policy group had been assigned to submit a preliminary analysis paper.  The Wednesday meeting was not only for the guidance of the trip but also feedbacks to the paper.  The main focuses of the paper were a kind of political environment analysis (power center analysis) and a series of questions that we want to explore during the trip.

Our trip aims at find these missing piece to complement and evaluate (prove or reject) our hypothesis through a series of interviews of various stakeholders.   Thanks to the Internet and multilateral cooperations across the region, we had tremendous amounts of information on each of policy issues in Grenada.  These articles helped us to assess issues that we would like to focus on in each of policy group.  Doing survey was  a tough job; we did have lots of information to write down a series of policy recommendations.  Meanwhile, there were lots of missing peace, that we could not find.  There might be a kind of "trend" among the Government, International Governmental Organizations and Non-profit organizations; articles focused on similar phenomena or aspect.  Moreover, limited data availability in Grenada makes quantitative analyses absolutely difficult.  After Hurricane Ivan and Emily, the Government, working with some of the International Governmental Organizations, conducted collecting data to do some preliminary analysis based on number.  It was still difficult to run a study based on a time series data-set to identify impacts.

So, you should be aware that to find out people who are generous and willing to meet us + make sure that we are in the meeting place on time.  That would be another dimension of  the difficulty of a student-run study trip.

Members (especially, the Documentation Committee) appreciate the amazing jobs made by the Contact and Logistics Committee (and their organized pre-trip presentation).

We would also like to express our sincere appreciation to those who has generously accepted our requests of meetings and helped us to find other officials in Grenada, who would give us very valuable insights for our research.

Thank you very much!!

Mid-Term and Spring Break

The Ford School Community as well as the U of M Community are now in the midst of the chaos of Mid-Term.  That is the part of our exciting school life; nobody question the statement that the most important mission of students is studying.  Meanwhile, Mid-Term has a special meaning for the IEDP team.  

The time to visit Grenada is approaching.  

We have broken up into two groups, based on our availability and schedule; the first group will depart from Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport this Friday.  The following group will join them on Sunday.  I personally have two papers due on Thursday and need to finish two paper works by Friday (and packing). 

It is a quite exciting moment to think about what would happen in St. George's.  That is a very moment to escape from approaching deadline...

The IEDP team has already concluded group presentations and preliminary assessments; these are the pre-trip preparations.  That gave us an interesting insight to look at international development; the unique challenges that each of the small island developing states has faced.  When confronting each of multidisciplinary and multi-stakeholder issues, disaster management, Millennium Development Goals, tourism, and waste management, some of recipes, best practices, rules of thumb, or whatever, can not be applied because of stricter constraints. 

Our final outcome does need to overcome this aspect; the trip to Grenada during the spring break aims to confirm to what extent our understanding and tentative analyses fit the reality and deepen our problem-solving thinking toward a possible (and feasible) solution.

So, we are thrilled to "study" and "research" during the Spring Break, apart from our paperworks for a while.

Finally, we would like to express our sincere appreciation for the supports given to the IEDP projects; this time let us thank especially Zana of the International Policy Center, for your mindful support to the final-minute preparation to make our trip safe.  

Of course, the members of the Documentation Committee also appreciated from the bottom of our heart the final minutes efforts made by other committees, along with your Mid-Term assignments and exams !!

We also hope that we can update periodically during the trip.

Art in Grenada

One of the exciting activities of travels is enjoying arts: music, performance arts, drawings, pictures, sculptures...etc. Arts is a major element of tourism as well as a channel to publicize and distribute cultural images. Especially, I appreciate drawings and sculptures- traditional formats of arts. In the pre-picture era,  drawings were the only visual mean to record historical events as well as daily lives. It incorporated emotions of painters and intellectual influence from the art scene within the country and outside.

Yellow Poui Art Gallery (Grenada Explorer Website)
NY-based Grenadian Artist, Eric M John's Website (Grenada Art)

Grenadian Media

As we get used to acquire information directly from websites of stakeholders, we often denigrate the value of newspapers as well as other traditional media. However, those traditional media are still useful and convenient resources to know what is going on where the Internet is not necessarily the major mean to disseminate information. Media agencies collect, edit, and distribute information via the Internet instead of those individuals, companies, or agencies which do not disseminate.

Here's a list of links to major media agencies of Grenada.

Newspapers
The Barnacle
Grenada Informer
Grenada Today (not updated since 2008)

Radio
Grenada Broadcasting Network

Internet News
Spice Islander
Grenada Broadcast
Grenadian Connection

Cheers to the Internet !!

February 7, 1974 - Grenada's Independence Day

This day, February 7, marks the 37^th Anniversary of Grenada’s independence from the United Kingdom. Premier, Sir Eric Matthew Gairy, Grenada’s first Prime Minister, led the country into independence. Prior to independence, Grenada became an “Associated State of the United Kingdom” in 1967, which enabled Grenada to be responsible for her own internal affairs, while the UK still remained responsible for Grenada’s defense and foreign affairs.

Every independence day, it is customary for the current Prime Minister and Governor Generals to offer independence messages. Past messages have updated the Grenadian public on increased government social spending, as well as progress related to new policies such as the working Draft of Grenada’s National Strategic Development Plan introduced in 2007 by Prime Minister Keith Mitchell to promote investments in agriculture, health, education, and youth. This year’s independence message by Prime Minister Tillman Thomas focuses on the theme of “Celebrating 37 years through challenging times, with optimism and resilience.” In his message, Prime Minister Thomas calls for Grenadians to unite and tolerate differences among one another in an effort to move forward in the years to come.

Mr. Anthony C. George designed Grenada’s national flag.

The star at the very center of the flag represents the capital of St. George, symbolizing Grenada’s sovereignty and a guiding light for the country. The diagonal lines which divide the flag into three colors radiating from the star symbolize “maximum expansion” to indicate progress and how far Grenadians have come from their colonial past. Red is the most prominent color on the flag signifying national fervor, pride, and aspirations. Yellow symbolizes warmth and Grenada’s beautiful sunshine, while green represents Grenada’s fertile soil and lush vegetation. The left green triangle showcases the Isle of Spice with nutmeg, Grenada’s highly valued export. The gold outer stars convey Grenada’s six parishes which are: St. Andrew, St. George, St. David, St. John, St. Mark, and St. Patrick.

Locals look forward to celebrating Grenada’s independence each year. Calypso and soca music also fill neighborhoods and bars. Grenadian folk dancers express their national pride by wearing green, red, and yellow. Locals decorate the streets for the annual military parade.

Bananagrams Tournament - IEDP fundraiser

Do you like board games? Do you like to crush your opponents? Do you like helping out a good cause?

We'll be holding a Ford School Board Game Tournament on Friday, February 18th at 4pm in the Betty Ford Classroom to fundraise for our IEDP trip to Grenada.  We'll be playing Bananagrams tournament-style, but will have a few other board games (Scrabble, Settlers of Catan, etc) on hand for those who just want to come and hang out.

For those of you who haven't played Bananagrams before, it's a hyper version of Scrabble--you compete with other people to see who can arrange words from tiles the quickest.  There are more details here (http://www.bananagrams-intl.com/instructions.asp).  It's takes no more than a few minutes to learn and is incredibly fun!

The winner will receive a gift certificate--I'll email out details on the gift certificate soon.

We're asking for a minimum of a $5 donation to enter (and if you want to give more, that'd be fantastic).

The tournament is open to everyone--students, staff, faculty, friends, significant others, precocious children, etc--so pass the word along!

If you're interested, please sign up here: http://bit.ly/gdpJCP

Thanks!
Kate Saetang

This American Life - Students Decide whether to Invade Grenada

Listen to the first part of this episode from This American Life!
A class of elementary school students visits the Reagan Presidential Library and is part of a simulation deciding whether or not the US should invade Grenada. (... guaranteed to incite ironic chuckles)

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/424/kid-politics

Houses of Parliament in Grenada

STRUCTURE

Parliamentary democracy as we understand it today is based upon the consent of the governed.  Sovereignty resides in the people and it is they who decide who shall occupy the seats of power.

Parliament consists of the Queen, represented by the Governor General, the Senate and the House of Representatives.  The Governor-General summons Parliament, brings its session to an end by prorogation, and formally assents to every bill before it can become law.  In practice, he exercises all these powers on the advice of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet.

The passage of legislation depends on the participation of all three component parts of Parliament.  A bill must be agreed to by both Houses and receive the Royal Assent before it can become an Act of Parliament.  The powers of the Senate and the House of Representatives are constitutionally equal except that financial legislation may not be introduced in the Senate.

All Senators are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition.

The House of Representatives is directly elected by the people, and although by tradition the Senate is the Upper House and the House of Representatives is the Lower House, it is the House of Representatives which plays the predominant part in the parliamentary system.

The Parliament of Grenada came into being in 1974 when Grenada became an independent country.

THE SENATE

The Senate consists of thirteen (13) non-elected Members. The members come from different sources.  They are:

• Seven are appointed on the advice of the Prime Minister;
• Three are appointed on the advice of the Leader of the Opposition; and
• Three are appointed on the advice of the Prime Minister after he has consulted the organizations or interests which he considers the Senators should be selected to represent.

FUNCTIONS OF THE SENATE

• To act as a House of review with responsibility for expressing second opinion in relation to legislative and other proposals initiated in the House of Representatives;
• To ensure proper consideration of all legislation;
• To provide adequate scrutiny of financial measures;
• To initiate non-financial legislation as the Senate sees fit: the Senate’s capacity to initiate proposed legislation effectively means that Parliament is not confined in its opportunities for considering public issues in a legislative context to those matters covered by bills brought forward by the executive;
• To probe and check the administration of laws and to keep itself informed and to insist on ministerial accountability for the administration of the Government;
• To provide effective scrutiny of Government and enable adequate expression of debate about policy and government programmes.  As a parliamentary forum, the Senate is one place where a Government can be, of right, questioned and obliged to answer.

All bills must be passed by the Senate before they can become law and it has the constitutional right to reject any bill, and keep on rejecting it as long as it sees fit.  It can also amend any bill, although it cannot initiate or increase the amount of any bill dealing with taxation or expenditure.

THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
The House of Representatives was modelled on the British, and even now, in any matter of procedure not provided for by its own rules and practices, the rules and practices of the British House of Commons are followed.

The House of Representatives is the focal point of parliamentary activity and public attention, the grand forum of the nation, where major national and international issues are debated; where the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition may be seen in regular confrontation; where Cabinet Ministers defend the policies and conduct of their departments; where the nation’s business in freely and openly transacted, all that is said and done being faithfully recorded.

Parliament makes the laws and the House of Representatives plays the predominant part in making them.  Any member can introduce bills, except bills involving expenditure or taxation, which can only be introduced by the government.  Since the responsibilities of government now extend into almost every sphere of activity, and since most government action involves spending money (and raising it by taxes, fees, loans, and so forth), most of the time of the House is spent on Government Bills.

Every bill must pass both Houses and receive the Royal Assent before it becomes law.  Assent is signified by the Governor General.

By law a general election must be held at least once every five years.  However, Parliament may be dissolved and an election called before the statutory period has elapsed, and this is what normally happens.  The power to dissolve Parliament is a royal prerogative exercised by the Governor General, normally on the advice of the Prime Minister.

IEDP 2011 Group Picture