Buffalo Expatriate

This Saturday has two competing events on my agenda. One of which I will definitely be at, which is the Amherst Museum’s 23rd Annual Scottish Festival & Highland Games at 3755 Tonawanda Creek Road from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. The list of activities includes

Pipers, Highland games, Celtic bands, clan societies, Scottish merchants, dance demonstrations, children’s games, authentic Scottish food, sheep herding and much more!

I’m just going for the sheep herding, I don’t know about you. There’s going to be a crazy amount of music and pipe bands as well as food, dancing, and shopping to your heart’s content. It’s $8.00 for adults and children 12 & under are free.

Also, because I get a kick out of packing my schedule two weeks before I’m supposed to leave the country, I think I’m going to try to get to an event at UB hosted by the India Association of Buffalo. I just found out about it today from a flyer at the International Institute.

They’re celebrating India’s 60th Independence Day with the India Day Mela from 2:00 pm to 10:00 pm at the UB Center for the Arts at UB North, also in Amherst. This event is FREE and open to the public. You can enjoy Indian food and dance as well as a fireworks display at sundown. There will be children’s games and activities as well as jewelry, artifact, and clothes shopping. I finally have an opportunity to wear my fabulous (and expensive) sari that I bought in India earlier this summer!

Both of these events are well worthwhile to go to. It’s going to be two amazing celebrations so get out there and enjoy WNY’s vibrant cultural life!

Hey everybody,

A good friend of mine, Abda Wone, is in the process of looking for a job, and he would be ecstatic to be able to work in Buffalo, his American hometown as he still fondly calls it.

Abda is originally from Mauritania, and came to Buffalo in 2000 and lived in the B-lo until his acceptance to Columbia (that’s right, Columbia) University in New York City. He now has permanent residence in the United States. Through dedicated ambition and hard work, he graduated with a Masters of International Affairs in Human Rights and African Studies from Columbia University in New York, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies from UB, a DESJ from the Institut Superieur Des Sciences De L’Information Et Des Communications in Dakar, Senegal, and a Certificate in Film Design from the Audiovisual PBS Project.

Abda also has quite a bit of professional experience. He currently serves as a Member of the Speakers Bureau of the American Anti-Slavery Group, and his work has contributed to the campaign against racism and slavery in Sudan and Mauritania. He is also the former President of the Communication Department of the Human Rights Pan African Youth Organization. Overall, Abda has worked on issues of sustainable development in Africa for more than ten years. His journalistic work began in Senegal as a correspondent for the French-language newspaper Sud Quotidien and has continued throughout his education in the U.S.

His work, experience, and skills are centered around communicating messages, which he is adept at doing in several languages- English, French, Wolof, Pulaar, Fulani. He also has an intermediate comprehension of Arabic.

My connection with Abda began when he traveled from Columbia to be the keynote speaker at the 2006 Human Rights Student Conference which is sponsored by a Canisius student group that I formerly presided over, the International Affairs Society. He is dynamic, engaging, and knowledgeable. Public speaking seems to come as second nature to Abda. It was by far, one of the most well-attended events of the conference and one that people stopped me about for weeks afterward. Now, he’s ready to put his education, activism, and experience to work. Abda can be reached at aw2244@columbia.edu or by cell phone at (831) 869-8003.

Just in case you weren’t convinced, you can find Abda on the web-
http://www.iabolish.org/speakers_bureau/bio_abda.html
http://south.ecc.edu/pr/ecctoday/archivenews/2003newsletters/newsletter08-07-03.html
http://spectrum.buffalo.edu/article.php?id=16841

I wanted to add this to my last post, but it can take up another post in and of itself. (Product) Red is the product and service line started by Bono that works with companies like Gap, Nike, Motorola, Apple, and Armani to offer goods that give back a part of the profit to fight AIDS in Africa.

The companies use their own marketing funds to advertise the products and so far, it has generated about $25 million for the Global Fund. Definitely a good thing.

This line from the (Red) Manifesto is an extension of Bono’s philosophy to bring in people from, especially, the developed world in order to combat life-threatening international issues.

“As first-world consumers, we have tremendous power. What we collectively choose to buy or not buy, can change the course of life and history on the planet.”

Although this line may seem overused, and is a mantra for fair-trade consumers, you can’t deny the logic behind it. Consumer demands are what have brought companies to the developing world in the first place— cheap labor to bring down the prices of goods to stay competitive in the marketplace. So if consumers are saying, “Hey, I’d rather buy something that will help bring ARVs to AIDS patients in Africa than your regular goods,” it is likely to have an effect on where and how these companies invest, not to mention encourage other companies to jump on the band wagon.

There is always the cautious side of me. Recently, for my baby cousin’s birthday, I decided to go to the Gap and buy her a little outfit from the (Red) line. It’s the first I ever bought, and I even decided to buy an Inspi(red) shirt for myself. The shirts were both made in South Africa from South African materials. However, as I went to buy a matching red bracelet for myself, I looked at the tag and saw the leather bracelet was actually made in China. So now what to do? Odds are pretty good the person who made that bracelet isn’t getting fantastic wages. In fact, I can remember being back in El Salvador when we met with the only unionized garment factory in San Salvador who said that Gap was frequently a problem when it came to subcontracting. Their own website has a section on how Gap choses the factories to produce their clothing in, which provides a little too much wiggle-room on compliance, if you ask me.

BUT! Part of the profits from the bracelet are still going to fight AIDS in Africa. This is what I meant by talking out of two sides of their mouth in my last post. Yes, this bracelet is going towards a very noble cause, and it allows consumers a chance to be more responsible global citizens. But it is very likely it was made by workers operating in substandard conditions so the company could save a buck. So I bought the shirt and spared the bracelet. Why? I think encouraging international corporate responsibility and the involvement of the average citizen in global affairs is a great thing. And I want Gap to know that. I will always encourage people to buy from fair-trade markets, but this is also reaching out to a broader audience, which can only lead to greater awareness. And awareness is something I feel the average consumer can use more of.