[sustran] Re: Regional focus for sustran-discuss: Asia or the global South?

[Jonathan E. D. Richmond]

I do not think the issue is fear of lack of knowledge but fear of 
punishment.

In many Asian countries there is a taboo about expressing opinions, an 
activity often felt to be reserved for politicians and the most senior 
officers --Jonathan!





On Sat, 6 Jun 2009, Carlosfelipe Pardo wrote:

> Paul and everyone,
>
> The discussions on geographical focus and participation are very useful
> for Sustran. I'll comment briefly on both:
>
> - Regarding participation, I think it's lacking due to a bit of shyness
> from members of the group. I've met with many people when we did various
> training courses in Asia that would have great ideas and examples on
> these topics that would be extremely useful for places such as sustran.
> However, many of these people say they are "silent readers" of sustran.
> I guess what some people feel is that they aren't knowledgeable enough
> to give some input here, but everyone should take part! I invite all
> participants to think about a topic that they've always wondered about
> regarding sustainable transport and post it on sustran to see what other
> people think. It doesn't matter if we've discussed it already or if it's
> obvious, because many people will be reading about it for the first
> time. Also, I think the essence of sustran and these discussion groups
> is that you can be as informal as you want (though respectful), as long
> as you're making a contribution! Go ahead, everyone, tell us what you're
> thinking.
>
> - Regarding geographical focus, I think it's very useful to have
> broadened it to "the Global South". Problems in Asia, Latin America and
> Africa are pretty similar (they differ mostly in degree, but not in
> nature). So I'd say we should keep it global, also because many of us
> have interesting news to give from any of these regions and feel that
> they are relevant for people in other regions. Otherwise, why would we
> promote stuff from Bogotá in Jakarta, and it works? I would even go as
> far as to say that information from "the North" would also be useful
> here, either as contrast or good or bad example.
>
> Actually, one true obstacle between geographical regions is language.
> Asia is relatively "fluent" in English, while Latin America is mostly a
> Spanish-speaking country and many people don't speak or understand
> English. This is why we've also promoted the use of some discussion
> groups in Spanish (predominantly, sustranlac , sutp-lac and
> cities-for-mobility , all in yahoogroups) and they seem to work. Many
> non-English speaking professionals from those regions are most thankful
> for having developed these discussion spaces.
>
> Finally, thanks to Paul for moderating the group and for being part of
> its creation and development.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Carlos.
>
>
> Paul Barter wrote:
>>
>> Dear sustran-discussers
>>
>> There is a suggestion to rethink the geographical focus of this forum,
>> sustran-discuss.
>>
>> *I want your views on which regional focus would be best for
>> sustran-discuss:*
>>
>> A. Should we be clearer about our regional focus in order to keep the
>> discussions more focused and consistently “on topic”?
>>
>> B. If you said yes to A above, then which of the following do you prefer?
>>
>> 1. Keep things as they are: we say in our blurb that our focus is on
>> developing countries
>>
>> 2. Revert to the original focus on “Asia” (rich and poor alike)
>>
>> 3. Other ways to define our regional focus? (I am open to suggestions)
>>
>> *WHY BOTHER THINKING ABOUT A CHANGE?*
>>
>> * We started with an Asia focus, which we mostly still have, even
>> though the list description says we focus on the ‘global South’
>> (developing countries).
>>
>> So, in practice, 2 probably reflects the discussions here more
>> accurately than 1. So maybe switching to “Asia” would be clearer?
>> High-income Asian cities (Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese, HK and
>> Singapore) often come up and they certainly feel relevant enough even
>> if they are not in developing countries.
>>
>> * In practice, we don’t really get much material here on Africa, Latin
>> America, south-western Asia or Eastern Europe anyway.
>>
>> * Also in practice, we get a bit TOO much discussion on issues in the
>> West (Europe, North America, Australia/NZ) and we often need to remind
>> everyone that there are various other forums better suited to such
>> material.
>>
>> Your views?
>>
>> Paul
>>
>> Paul A. Barter | Assistant Professor | LKY School of Public Policy
>> National University of Singapore | 469C Bukit Timah Road | Singapore
>> 259772 | Tel: +65-6516 3324 | Fax: +65-6778 1020 |
>> paulbarter at nus.edu.sg <mailto:paulbarter at nus.edu.sg> |
>> http://www.spp.nus.edu.sg/Faculty_Paul_Barter.aspx
>> http://reinventingtransport.blogspot.com/
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> --------------------------------------------------------
>> To search the archives of sustran-discuss visit
>> http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=014715651517519735401:ijjtzwbu_ss
>>
>> --------------------------------------------------------
>> If you get sustran-discuss via YAHOOGROUPS, please go to http://list.jca.apc.org/manage/listinfo/sustran-discuss to join the real sustran-discuss and get full membership rights.
>>
>> ================================================================
>> SUSTRAN-DISCUSS is a forum devoted to discussion of people-centred, equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on developing countries (the 'Global South').
> --------------------------------------------------------
> To search the archives of sustran-discuss visit
> http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=014715651517519735401:ijjtzwbu_ss
>
> --------------------------------------------------------
> If you get sustran-discuss via YAHOOGROUPS, please go to http://list.jca.apc.org/manage/listinfo/sustran-discuss to join the real sustran-discuss and get full membership rights.
>
> ================================================================
> SUSTRAN-DISCUSS is a forum devoted to discussion of people-centred, equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on developing countries (the 'Global South').
>

-----
Jonathan Richmond
+230 707-1134 (Mauritius mobile: most reliable way to reach me)

+1 (617) 395-4360 (US phone number rings at home -- call me in
Mauritius for the price of a call to the US).

e-mail: richmond at alum.mit.edu
http://the-tech.mit.edu/~richmond/