I arrived on Sunday at about 2pm local time – more or less 24 hours after leaving Dublin.  As journeys go, it was a lot longer than average, and slightly more frustrating than average, but overall, a lot better than it could have been.  We were picked up at the airport by Daudi (CEO of Camara Kenya), Ali (Tech Director of Camara Kenya), Margaret (an Irish woman working for VMM as the M&E Co-ordinator for Camara Africa) and Joshua, who drives the Camara Kenya van, and happens to also be a rather passionate Pentecostal preacher!  A great welcoming committee, and they couldn’t have made us feel more welcome within just a few minutes.

Fast forward two days, and I’m sitting in the Mombasa hub at 7pm – it’s amazing that the hub is still a hive of activity, given that most of the (unpaid) local volunteers who are working here started at about 7am this morning.  The passion and commitment clearly evident within the volunteers is nothing short of inspiring.

In the meantime, there have been meetings with Opus Dei-funded organisations, a stroll past three camels on the street, a couple of beers with a Mombasa man in love with an Irish woman, more monkeys than I could shake a stick at, my first taste of apple mangoes, the scheduling of all of the work to be carried out by our team over the next month, the sight of a Maasai man in traditional dress getting very, very drunk, a visit to a school which has received computers from Camara here in Mombasa, many discussions about the work carried out by Camara, not to mention some of the most exhilarating experiences of public transport one is ever likely to encounter.

This is  a brief post, as much to get me thinking about what has gone on, as to inform others of it.  More quality will follow in the next few days after I get a little more sleep….

I light of that, I thought I should scribble something down about what I’ll be doing, particularly given that so many people donated so very generously to my fundraising efforts.

On Saturday week, I’ll fly (via both London and Addis Ababa) to Mombasa, Kenya.  I’ll be volunteering there with an Irish charity called Camara.  Camara take used computers from companies and individuals in Ireland, refurbish and wipe them in their workshop in the Digital Hub, before shipping them to local social enterprises in several east African countries.  These social enterprises then provide the computers to schools in their catchment area.  The Camara hub in Mombasa has to date provided computers to over 100 schools in Kenya.

The second part of Camara’s work is where I come in.  Each year, a team of Camara volunteers travel to the countries where we have established hubs.  Our role is to provide education to local Camara volunteers and to local teachers, who will in turn pass on this education to other trainers, or indeed use their new-found skills in the classroom.  I’ll be working as a Team Co-ordinator – probably not doing all that much teaching myself, but travelling ahead of the rest of the team to ensure that the set-up is as required in training venues, to ensure that there’s a full teaching schedule for our time in Kenya, and to ensure that we have safe and secure accomodation for all our volunteers.  In addition to that, I’ll be trying to support the members of the team as much as possible, to allow them to provide the education that is in such demand.

We’ll stay in Mombasa for a couple of weeks, before travelling to Lamu and Malindi.  We’ll be providing a range of training courses including: basic IT skills, network administration, Moodle administration, Linux administration and Web design.  We have a great group – 12 of us in all, and I’m beyond excited at this point.

It’ll be slightly weird heading off for such a time – I’ve never actually left home for more than a month before.  And I’ll miss some people terribly.  My terrible twin, my two mid-week sneaky pint buddies, my sensible love, my new boy, family, work buddies, old friends.  Don’t get me wrong – I’m a big boy, and quite like escaping from the world from time to time.  Still, it weighs me down a little to imagine not seeing my favourite people for six weeks or more.

I’m almost ready to go now though – got medical permission to travel today, along with filling my prescription.  Vaccines were sorted a couple of weeks ago, and I’ll get my Kenyan visa sorted on Monday.  Most of the group have their lesson plans done now, and I’ll finally get to chat to our local guys in Kenya on skype next week.  Pen-knife, torch, mosquito repellent, decent sunglasses, sandals, surge protectors and suitable reading materials have all been chosen.  I’ve gotten as far ahead of college work as I can before I leave.  And I’m nailing down the last few bits of work before I leave.  Hopefully, most of next week will be spent finalising details, and spending as much time as possible with my very favourite people.

Oh, and I have a week of holidays at the end of the trip during which I’m thinking about travelling to Ethiopia.  I should also investigate that a little more…

I’ll be trying to post from Kenya, but I’m unsure as of yet as to what the internet situation will be.  If I do get access though, do feel free to say hello to me at neilpward on skype – I might need chats from home to cheer me up from time to time!

The below is an essay I completed last week as part of the module ‘A world of whose making?’ I’m studying with the Open University.  Amazingly, I thought it was shite, but I got very nice marks for it

In constructing an analysis of the impact of economic liberalisation on economic growth in developing countries, there are three key areas which must be explored.  Firstly, we must analyse the sources of growth in developing countries, in order to clearly define how economic growth occurs.  Secondly, we must explore how economic liberalisation has taken place in a developing economy.  And finally, we must compare these two in order to arrive at conclusions on how the process of liberalisation impacts on economic growth in developing nations.

This essay seeks to explore these two areas by examining the economic growth and liberalisation of Mexico.  I will argue that economic liberalisation has had a negative impact on the growth if the Mexican economy.

In the period between 1940 and 1965, the Mexican economy was based on a protectionist model.  By imposing high tariffs on certain classes of imports, the Mexican government sought to achieve two goals.  Firstly, by imposing high tariffs on the import of food sources such as corn, the Mexican government sought to preserve the high levels of employment which existed in the agricultural sector.  Secondly, by imposing high tariffs on the import of consumables, but not on the import of equipment used in the manufacturing of consumables, the government sought to stimulate the manufacturing industry in Mexico, and increase the value of national exports.

During this 25 year period, the protectionist model proved very successful basis for economic growth in the Mexican economy, as an average growth rate of 6.3% in real terms was achieved during this period.

In addition to the protectionist system operated by government policy, the other significant policy which assisted with Mexican economic growth during this time was the corporatist relationship which existed between government and the trade union movement.  By co-ordinating and agreeing responses on Labour issues with the trade union movement, workers were able to secure reasonable minimum wages, 8-hour working days and a number of other labour market controls.

In the early 1980s, the Mexican government quickly began to liberalise the economy, seeking to increase the economic growth of the nation.  In 1984, the Government lifted the restrictions on Foreign Direct Investment, allowing mostly US companies to began to expand into Mexico.  This would test the corporatist relationship between the state and the trade union movement, as companies sought to reduce the minimum wages which were in operation in Mexico.

The process of liberalisation was rapidly expanded in 1986 and 1987, through the reduction on tariffs imposed on the import of certain categories of goods.  In 1986, the maximum tariff stood at 100%, but this was quickly reduced to 20% by the following year.  The impact of these changes were to have a startling impact on the Mexican economy.  The lifting of prohibitive tariffs on agricultural goods, for example, would lead to an enormous reduction in the numbers of people employed in the agricultural sector.  Examining corn as one example of this change, the reduced tariffs allowed US corn-growers (who were in receipt of subsidies from the US state) to export corn to the Mexican market at lower prices than local corn, decimating the market for local corn.  The damage to the Mexican agricultural sector was exacerbated by the failure of the Mexican government to take advantage of the 15-year transitional agreements contained within NAFTA.

In 1990, 8.2 million people were employed in the Mexican agriculture sector.  However, after the implementation of NAFTA, this figure fell rapidly, reaching a low of 7.1 million people by 2000.

As the liberalisation of the Mexican economy continued, pressure mounted on the corporatist relationship which existed between the state and the trade union movement.  As Foreign Direct Investment grew, the interests of the companies investing in the Mexican economy quickly came into conflict with the interests of the members represented by trade unions.  In the face of this, the trade union movement continued to negotiate for security of employment with the state, allowing in return the reduction of wages in swathes of the country.  However, in the malaquidoras, even this was beyond the reach of the trade union movement, and wages have consistently fallen, while employment has become more and more precarious.  In the face of this, trade union membership rates have fallen to 10% of the population by 2000.

As a final example of the liberalisation of the Mexican economy, we can examine the number of state-owned firms which existed in Mexico during this period of liberalisation.  In 1982, this number stood at 1,155, as huge areas of the Mexican economy remained under state control.  However, by 1992, this number had been reduced to 232.  While no figures are available on employment in these companies during this time, it can certainly be concluded that this move, combined with the lifting of restrictions on Foreign Direct Investment, led to the export of profits from many of these industries, depriving the Mexican economy of further stimulus.

Having examined the growth of the Mexican economy, and the steps taken to liberalise the economy, we must finally look at the impact of this liberalisation on the economic growth of this developing country.

Firstly, the liberalisation of the Mexican economy has seen an enormous migration of the population, both from rural areas towards major urban areas and also out of the state.  As the agricultural sector has rapidly fallen, the employment available in rural areas has dwindled, as referenced above.  In response to this, much of the population has been forced to move towards urban areas in search of employment.  Alternatively, people have chosen to emigrate in search of higher-paid employment.  While this has resulted in significant remittances back into the Mexican economy, it is an outcome that could hardly be classified as either sustainable or desirable.

Secondly, the liberalisation of the economy has seen a substantial reduction in the number of salaried employees in total employment within the state.  What is meant by this is the number of people in receipt of a daily wage.  In 1992, 73.9% of salaried employees were categorised as being in total employment.  However, by 1998, this figure had dropped dramatically to 61.2%.  This shows us, that despite the continuing corporatist relationship between trade unions and the state, the amount of secure, full-time employment has actually dropped.  It is emblematic of falling employment which has seen more and more workers move towards self-employment or into either low-pay or no-pay employment.

The liberalisation of the labour market achieved under NAFTA had a significant impact on employment in Mexico, which has not risen since the accession in 1994.  While employment has risen in some sectors (such as manufacturing), this has been offset by falling employment in agriculture and other industries.  Due to a failure to record employment in rural areas, the exact extent of this is difficult to ascertain.

Finally, and most startlingly, the wages in Mexico have actually fallen in real terms since the liberalisation of the economy began.  During the period between 1990 and 1999, the purchasing power of the minimum wages in Mexico fell by 50%.  This was caused by three factors.  Firstly, the devaluation of the Mexican peso in 1994 dramatically increased the price of imported goods.  Secondly, inflation after the accession to NAFTA rose dramatically.  And finally, due to the control exerted by the Government over the trade union movement, and their willingness to allow wage moderation, wages failed to respond to rising inflation during this period.  The combination of these three factors served to significantly reduce the real wages of Mexican workers.

As outlined above, the protectionist model of governance adopted by the Mexican government prior to liberalisation were largely successful.  While there may have been some difficulties with this model, economic growth was consistently strong, while labour conditions for the Mexican people were solid as a result of the corporatist relationship between the state and the trade union movement.

The move towards liberalisation of the Mexican economy (and most notably the accession to NAFTA) lifted the protectionist restrictions and tariffs which had been in operation during this successful period of growth.  The move towards liberalisation also exposed the difficulties with the corporatist relationship between unions and the government, as this relationship was used to reduce wages and weaken working conditions for the Mexican people.

The impacts of this liberalisation on the economic growth have been surprisingly damaging.  Liberalisation has fatally damaged rural life and employment in Mexico with many rural Mexicans forced to emigrate northwards in search of employment.  It has failed to increase employment rates, has led directly to reductions in the wages of Mexican people, and has led to a reduction in the security of employment of many workers.

It is clear from all of the above that the impact of liberalisation on the economic growth of Mexico as a developing nation has been significantly negative.

This post follows on from last year’s, which makes for some interesting re-reading (for me at least).  Of the areas I wanted to change in 2009, the single biggest difference is the new job, which has changed my life much more dramatically than I thought possible.  I also managed to get a proper holiday in Bordeaux this year, and my sleeping habits are a little better than in previous years.  Debt levels have also been tackled, and I’m very happy with progress on that front.  Oh, and I got to personally witness the downfall of Declan Ganley (which, given the propensity of his supporters to shout “baby-killer” at me, was something of a pleasure).  Less impressive were my studying (which got discarded half way through the second module), my fitness levels (which weren’t bad until my bike broke down in September, but have gone to shite since), and my personal life (which to some degree has been discarded due to work pressures over the last few months).

All in all, 2009 will be most memorable for the year I drastically changed career, leaving the world of Hedge Funds behind for good.  This alone is enough to cheer me!  The most fantastic thing about my new job is the sheer variety.  Obviously, as Youth & Development Officer, I have a lot of responsibility for Labour Youth, while the Development side of the role has seen me take on responsibility for supporting and developing constituencies in the Mid-West (from Galway down to Kerry, and out as far as Tipp).  But in addition to these, I organised the boss‘ tour around the country during the local and European elections (including logistics, photography and management of interns), started an internship programme within the Labour Party, completed a project to totally revamp the hardware in head office, carried out a survey of all new members of the Labour Party, fed into the development of our website and social media identities, gave several training sessions on political use of social media, generally mucked in around the office a bit, and held more meetings than I could ever hope to remember.  And it has all been fantastic.  Stressful at times, certainly, and very draining on my personal life, but I’m at a point where I really want to throw everything into this experience, and I’m ending 2009 really feeling like I’m doing so.

All of which leads me to the point where I set out some aims for 2010:

• Diploma in Politics and Government.  This course is now being phased out by the Open University, so I only have until Dec 2010 to complete.  Which means I really must sign up to a module beginning in Feb, and fully complete that module.  It would be lovely to have a qualification.  I have no intention of setting any further studying goals – this year I’m going to focus on one target at a time.
• Sleep.  While this is an area that has improved somewhat over the last year, I’m really going to try getting to bed by midnight most nights this year.  My productivity after a full night’s sleep is amazing, and it’d be good to have more amazing days!
• Body stuff.  Right, I know that this is the time of year when people start diets, join gyms, give up smoking etc. only to fail 4 weeks later.  None of which I really intend doing.  However, my weight has ballooned in the last four months of 2009, and it’s simply not healthy.  So, in January, I’m getting my bike fixed (as I know that’s one form of exercise I don’t mind, and just cycling to and from work means cycling 8km a day), giving up chocolate and crisps (again, something I did before with little enough effort), cutting down on the booze a little, drinking more water and not eating after 10pm.  Simple little steps, but ones that I hope will help me lose a stone over the next year.
• Get creative.  My new Nikon D90 has arrived.  While it will often be used for work, it is mine to do with as I please.  I’d like to start taking photos of the many arty and club nights I attend, as well as taking some travel photos, and really try to get decent at photography this year.  I’d also like to get back to a bit of painting, and I’d love to start stencilling.  And I’ve always wanted to do a wee touch of DJing too.  Either way, I want to get more creative so that life isn’t so totally focussed on work.
• Blogging.  I’ve long since realised that I’m never going to be a daily blogger.  Which is fine.  But I would like to get a little more disciplined, and at least post once a fortnight during 2010.
• Travel.  I have a big journey to Africa brewing in my head at the moment.  Details will be revealed at a later point, but I’m hoping to spend 5 weeks in sub-Saharan Africa this year.
• Learn/re-learn a skill.  I haven’t decided which of the following I want to pursue most, but I’d like to get stuck into at least one of these over the next 12 months: Irish language, Singing, Bodhrán playing, German language (if anyone knows of any good teachers in any of these areas, do let me know).
• Meet more online people in person.  I have some really amazing conversations online, and I chat to and follow some really incredible and fascinating people.  I’d like to try and meeting many of these this year, including (but not limited to) McAWilliams, Alan Costello, Adrian + Shane, Tommy, Phil and Mark Coughlan.  I’d also like to try and meet up more regularly with people I’ve only met a few times (and a couple I’ve only met once!): Damien, Darragh, Dena, Alexia, Guy and Declan all fit into this list.  While keeping up the other friendships I’ve built up online, obviously
• Work. 2009 was the year when I got a dream job, and threw myself into it. 2010 will be the year when I really solidify my role, get some new projects underway, and start to make some strong achievements.
• Unplugging my life. Finally, tomorrow morning, I’m unplugging the TV, and won’t plug it in again for 12 months.  If I really need to see a show, I’ll watch it back on a player, but I’m not going to watch any TV.  This is the first step towards unplugging my life, which I might seek to further develop in further years.

That’s it for me.  Wishing you all a happy, peaceful and prosperous 2010, with all my love.

Now, I have virtually no experience of photography, bar grabbing the odd snap from time to time, so the learning curve has been fairly steep.  Along the way, I got some useable photos, some absolute shite, and (normally semi-accidentally) the odd nice photo.  Without any photo-shopping experience or knowledge, all my photos need to be spot on to begin with to make them worth publishing, which has substantially limited my useable output!

Anyway, now that things are calming down somewhat, I’m still taking a reasonable number of work photos, but also starting to take snaps for pleasure – below are some photos I’ve taken over the last six months – any comments, criticisms or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Bordeaux August 2009:

Some of the adorable kids I’ve encountered in the Labour Party:

A few campaign snaps (including the photo of Susan O’Keeffe in the red dress, which is my favourite shot of the campaign):

A few shots of my mates (apologies for the quality of the middle one – it’s the pose I like rather than the quality of the shot):

PS – for anyone wondering, the new blog title was taken from the title of the Edmund White novel: ‘The Beautiful Room is Empty”, which in turn was taken from a letter from Franz Kafka to Milena Jesenská.

1. Got out of bed slightly hungover
2. Got posters printed for the Labour Youth education protest
3. Had lunch with Yvonne, and talked about the Lisbon campaign
4. Went to the aforementioned Labour Youth protest to take photos, which happened while the Roses of Tralee walked into Leinster House!
5. Got the Labour Youth twitter account up and running
6. Tidied the office (not fully done, but a load of clutter cleared)
7. Began the process of examining the Labour Youth archive from the last decade
8. Sent out calls to interview for the Labour Party internships
9. RSVPed to a random invite I got from the US embassy
10. Uploaded the photos from the aforementioned protest
11. Attended a meeting of the National Youth Executive
12. Emailed the Labour Youth membership about some communications stuff that needs doing
13. Sorted some personal financial nonsense
14. Got the Labour Youth finances updated
15. Made a list for tomorrow
16. Clarified some issues with our European Election SIPO returns
17. Spammed a few people to become fans of Labour Youth on facebook!
18. A load of other emails and administrative crap
19. Wrote this blog post

Which I think is quite enough for one day – I’m off home while there’s still a touch of daylight!

Anyway, as mentioned previously, I have a new job, which I’m now settling into.  I am the Youth & Development Officer for the Labour Party.  The Youth side of that is probably fairly self-explanatory – I support the activities of Labour Youth, as well as helping encourage young people within the party.  The Development side is a little less tangible, but it leads to a terrific variety in my daily activities, so it’s terrific fun!

Ireland needs Labour!

As a result of my new job, I was asked by Newstalk to go on the Saturday Edition show this morning, alongside Michael Gowing of Macra na Feirme, and Cllr. Claire Byrne of FG, with Dara Calleary (Minister of State for Labour Affairs) on the phone from Mayo.  It was supposed to be a bit of a reflection on the stories of the week, with a focus on how young people would change politics.

Except it sucked a bit.  I though Michael did well, while the Minister waffled without really saying anything, Claire Byrne expressed some interesting opinions while saying she had no interest in national politics, while I made a bit of a hames of things really.

And so I figured I’d use the revival of the blog to say some of the things I didn’t manage to get in on the radio this morning.

Firstly, I passionately believe that young people are already changing politics in Ireland drastically.  Be it through community involvement, or actual participation in party politics, I think the political establishment has been drastically altered by young people in recent years.  Within the campaigns for the second Lisbon referendum, several young people are really starting to come to the fore.  Looking at the gay community, young people have founded groups such as Equals and LGBT Noise that have dramatically shifted the discourse within the community.  And Macra’s ‘Know Your Neighbour‘ campaign is a great example of young people campaigning against social isolation.

But mostly, young people have dramatically altered the face of Irish electoral politics in recent years.  In 2007, it was Fine Gael who elected a whole raft of young candidates to Dáil Éireann, who brought their own ideology to the fore of the party (though it’s an ideology I fundamentally disagree with).  And in 2009, Labour managed to elect a whole raft of young councillors around the country, who are beginning to have a similar impact.  In Fingal County Council, where two bright young councillors were elected, Labour have control of the council, with only other left-wing votes required to give them the mayoralty and deputy-mayoralty for all five years.  Similarly on Dublin City Council, the election of several great young councillors put Labour in a position of strength we have never experienced before.  And that’s without mentioning the councillors under 30 who were elected in Cork, Waterford, Galway, Tipperary, etc, etc.  Just wait until these people get elected to Dáil Éireann, and then you’ll see the impact electing young people can have on national politics!

The second area I didn’t get to talk about today is Labour Youth.  Labour Youth are an incredible organisation – they provided my training ground over the years, and that is also true for most of the young councillors recently elected.  But they also act as an autonomous campaigning organisation in their own right.  Whether opposing the twinning of Dublin and Beijing, calling for youth unemployment to be tackled by the Government, or running one of the most interesting summer schools of the year, they are a fantastic organisation who really attract huge numbers of people to the Labour movement.

The other area I had hoped we’d get to talk about today was the decision of the President not to refer the Criminal Justice Bill to the Supreme Court.  Indeed, Anastasia Crickley (a member of the Council of State), was supposed to participate in the debate by phone, but mysteriously never joined the conversation.  In many ways I’m glad the President signed the bill, because now it can be properly challenged in parts.  But I think the Bill is appallingly reactionary, and one of the worst pieces of legislation I’ve seen since the last Criminal Justice Bill (the one that introduced ASBOs!).

Anyway, they’re some of the things I should have spoken about.  Instead, I had a few digs at Calleary about the lack of a stimulus package, the proposed cuts in the minimum wage, and the failure of Government to get any semblance of control over the banks.  Oh, and I proposed abolishing the Seanad, which didn’t particularly amuse Ivana!

For the record, the Saturday Edition is a really good show, and they’re also on twitter….

Despite all that nonsense going on however, I have a wonderful piece of news.  I have finally (after 9 years!), found my escape from the private sector.  9 years of financial services have taught me many skills – accounting, management, techie skills, project management, technical writing and a whole host of other skills.  But now it’s time for me to move on.

As of 6th April, I will be the new Youth and Development Officer for the Labour Party.  It’ll be a great way for me to combine my professional and voluntary experiences and skills, and I can’t wait!

Bizarrely (especially for a book with such graphic sexual content), it was given to me by my mother, and yet again, she has chosen a book that absolutely blew me away.  Now, it does have one significant flaw in my eyes – it was originally written in three sections in Japanese, before being translated to English as one long-form novel by Jay Rubin.  Which is fine, except the lines between the three sections still remain a little visible for my liking.  In particular, I found the third section a little weak, which was disappointing from a book which had gripped me so utterly to that point.

It centres on a male protagonist by the name of Toru Okada, who is unemployed and loses his cat.  The sequence of events thereafter is surprising to say the least.  Mundane events such as cooking are interwoven with spells at the bottom of a well, encounters with two psychic sisters, a truly disturbing politician, a teenage wastrel, and a faceless man.  It’s almost impossible to describe with any degree of accuracy, but I cannot recommend it highly enough!