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

[Sujit Patwardhan]

*there is a taboo about expressing opinions, an activity often felt to be
reserved for politicians and the most senior officers
*

Thankfully that is fast changing.
--
Sujit




On Sat, Jun 6, 2009 at 9:21 PM, Jonathan E. D. Richmond <
richmond at alum.mit.edu> wrote:

>
>
> 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/ <http://the-tech.mit.edu/%7Erichmond/>
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------
> 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').
>



-- 
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Munich 1970

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sujitjp at gmail.com
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