Communication

• I think some social scientist needs to investigate the way people from different cultures give directions. In Japan, if I asked for directions, most of the time the person would whip out a piece of paper and draw me a detailed map, including irrelevant details, like bakeries and pachinko parlors blocks out of the way of my route – great if you are not in a hurry. Here, if you ask someone for directions, they will invariably respond “that side” and if you’re lucky, you might get a vague hand gesture that might have more to do with shooing a mosquito away than your inquiry. I’ve actually picked it up as a self-preservation tactic: when people ask me where I live now, I just say ‘that side’ and the person is pretty much fine with that;
• If you are using the word empower as a verb describing an action you are doing to someone else, 99% of the time you are being patronizing. No one has any business nosing around in someone else’s empowerment – that’s the whole point;
• “We are suffering.” I hear this phrase often and in cases where I would not use the word suffering. In point of fact, I do not believe I have heard it used in actual cases of suffering. It’s used almost flippantly. The prevalence of the word ‘empowerment’ in social development circles has probably played a role in the evolution of this phrase into the more politically correct version “we are struggling,” which is a little bit more optimistic, little bit more “empowered”; “we’re struggling” says to me we’re suffering, but we’re trying to do something about it. For example, in response to my perfunctory morning “how are you,” one colleague replied with “we are struggling not so much” today. What a relief.

Special props to my biggest South African supporters, Steve and Caz, for theirconstant support and … unspecified assistance this past holiday season.