Livestock, Disease, Trade and Markets: Policy Choices for Livestock Sector in Africa

Eldis - Pastoralism

This 50-page working paper is somewhat too lengthy for one after a hard day's work.  However, by browsing through it I can still identify some interesting points in the paper:

1. The two narratives of pastoralism in Africa.  One is focusing on improving local pastoralism and addressing diversity; the other is focusing on exporting pastoral products.  This is somewhat similar to the debate on Tibetan pastoralism now.  The authors point out that these two narratives are not mutually exclusive.  But there are some tensions.


2. Disease renders the main obstacle to replicate southern Africa's success story in livestock marketisation.  A package of counter measures was proposed but needs considerable investment.


3. Three strategies are proposed to facilitate pastoral export: bilateral deals, commodity-based trade (is being attempted in Tibet, too), and local trade and markets.


4. In terms of disease control, should limited resource be directed to transboundary diseases, or some more dangerous but local diseases?  This will involve a series of policy choices and trade-offs.

A number of factors will influence the livestock and animal-health policy, including the structure of economy, the political context, the relationship between livelihood and livestock, geography and politics of the markets, the quality and effectiveness of existing infrastructure, the capacity of public veterinary, regulatory and certification services, the capacity of the private sector to invest in R&D or market/delivery infrastructure.

阅读体验 2.0

今天在水木 Philosophy 版上看到一篇文章，写的是后现代的死亡——它正在被伪现代取代，标志就是“人人可编辑”的知识。作者毫不留情地抨击 Wikipedia 上的口水仗，并将其与广播电视上的参与式节目相提并论。伪现代的本质被认为是浅薄的，短暂的，平庸乏味的……后现代宣扬的多元化已经被商业消费模式主导的伪选择所取代，如作者所说：“大学教授们怎么可能宣扬多元化？他们自己的生活就是被事实上的消费狂热所支配。整个世界在过去的10年里在思想不是扩张了，而是狭隘了。”但是，在由一堆看上去完全赚不到钱的 web 2.0 网站组成的伪现代浪潮中，作者是如何得出“消费狂热”的结论的？我觉得，驱动 web 2.0 的，与其说是消费狂热，不如说是自我表现的狂热和虚荣。

但是，不能否认虚荣和攀比在一定程度上也是人类进步的动力，至少今天通过 NullPointer 的推荐，我又发现了一个读书网站，也许可以在攀比之余促使我多读一些书。它有一个非常 web 2.0 的名字：aNobii。架构跟豆瓣有相似之处，不过界面设计更出色一些。不过由于还是 beta 版，有一些小问题，比如与某英文书同名的大陆影印版无法通过搜索书名添加。另外人气大概现在还无法与豆瓣相比，不过好在纯粹（只做书籍）安静。嗯……考虑从此就在这里收藏我的书本，在 imdb 收藏我的电影了。评论本来是豆瓣的强项，无奈我教科书风格又往往晚了一个月的评论一般是没人看的，也懒得再往豆瓣贴了……

另外今天值得一提的一件小事是学校的 DNS 当掉了，这是年内校园网络服务不知第多少次抽风。搬到 private sector 后应该就不至于受这样的气了。在没有 DNS 也不知道任何网站的 IP 地址的两个小时里，我终于下定决心使用 openDNS。诺丁汉的 IT 部门确实有些让人不满意——不明原因的断网，不时的 arp spoof ，还有只允许 Windows 访问的服务……唔。

Week 17: A double life

I would like to cut the money crap and mainly write down what I have done academically in this week (what's remaining? Let's see...).

My supervisors always tell me that I should try to use some RS technologies to get a panorama of the area being studied, while observing with my own eyes the "ground truths" -- not only ground truth in RS terms, but also what cannot be observed from above -- how people actually interact with others and the environment.  This is an attractive idea, I think.  Among all possible sensors and images sources, my supervisor speaks highly of CORONA -- the KH series military satellite B/W photographs taken in 1960s and 1970s, which were declassified only a few years ago.  My personal question about using this image source is that how I can use this to identify vegetation changes, as I cannot validate the result of interpretation (the ground truth only existed 40 years ago) and cannot tell what are grassland on the image.  I have read some articles on the utilisation of CORONA images.  It seems that texture of the image can be used in classification.  Maybe if I can use them along with LANDSAT ETM images and ground observation I can get some high-resolution results.

Bringing an interpreter to the field is not impossible but seems will not bring much benefit to my study, not counting the aid in communication.  It should be considered as a last resort only.  I am trying to learn some Tibetan myself though I cannot tell how much progress I can make before I set off to the field.  But learning it is helpful anyway for anyone studying pastoralism. 

What's my "role" in the field?

Yesterday I had a lengthened training session on qualitative research.  During a casual talk in tea time, a Brazilian(?) girl Leiz told me about her previous fieldwork, which was about "disadvantaged farm workers".  Well, I did not really consider my subjects of research can be labeled "disadvantaged" because I think the are the masters of the grassland in certain terms.  However, her suggestions were useful that I should try everything to blend into the setting.  This includes wearing similar clothes (I was wearing a Nike jumpsuit during the talk with her), do not mention terms like "university" "science(-tific)" "PhD" during the interview or observation, and be genuine about my attitude towards them. 

The last question forced me to muse on what role shall I take if I am not appearing as a research student.  A curious tourist?  A helper?  Perhaps the role of a curious learner is suitable, which is also advocated by some anthropologists in their books.   Hmm.  Perhaps I should tell the government and the herdsmen that I want to learn how to manage herds.  It is not completely a lie, though I need to talk to my supervisors about such ethical issue.

Week 16: Methodology and method

The first two days of the week I tried to find out what are the missing details in my methodology review, so I borrowed books on anthropology from the library and read them through.  I must admit this is awkward.  I could hardly find large useful trunks from these books because I had written them in the review already.  The more intriguing detail were also hard to grasp in my speedy reading.  Anyway, it is not very useful to make a too detailed plan for anthropology research as much of it would be rendered useless in the field.  A recon study may help me better find out suitable methods.

The rest of the week is for funding again.  I rewrote my proposal, which was not specified and attractive enough.  I also tried to fill in a range of forms required by those grant-making agencies.  Yes it is a especially useful skill either for a scholar or for a NGO staff.

从后殖民主义视点看《Babel》

Spoiler warning: 正文基本没有剧透，但评论中可能有剧透。

目前为止我看过两个南美导演的四部影片：《上帝之城》《the Constant Gardener》《21克》和这部《Babel》，感觉他们都有共同的特点——绚丽的色彩，集中的冲突，以及从各个角度解读的可能性。对我而言，《Babel》是 一部拍给第一世界，或者“北方”的观众看的影片。但对于他们而言，这部电影也可以仅仅解读为对互相理解的呼唤，而对我这个来自第三世界（请允许我继续把中国看作一个第三世界国家）或者说“南方”的观众而言，这部电影是从一个后殖民主义，或者说萨义德式的视点，所看到的西方和全球化的世界。

影片的故事发生在三个地区：摩洛哥，美国／墨西哥边境，以及日本的大城市，这三个地点通过一条体现了南北方人和物的流动的线索串在一起，而分别体现了后殖民主义话语的三个主题。

摩洛哥的故事体现的是“西方”对“东方”的脸谱化理解（profiling）和“西方”一直以来从他们的价值观出发，而对东方产生的印象——不开化的，奇异 神秘的，带有猎奇的兴趣的，以及危险的。一开始美国使馆将事件定义为“恐怖袭击”，在今天看来自然是有一种滑稽的意味，但更值得注意的是那些被迫驻留在摩洛哥山村中的美国游客的反应。他们在模仿西方的餐馆中还可以用西方的方式用餐，说笑，同时在安全的距离内观赏这个陌生的国度，而当他们处于真正的摩洛哥国民的凝视之下时，他们更多地感觉到被侵犯，不安，同时在内部产生了不信任和急切的离开这种环境的愿望。而主人公夫妇在被迫地接受创痛体验之余，终于可以以 一种不是那样居高临下的视角来看待这个国家和她的人民，同时获得一种非殖民主义的观感。

美国的故事则反映了“北方”对“南方”的文化疏离。美墨边境在这里成为一种如此有效的文化隔离手段，以致于两个美国孩子在离家仅仅几百公里的地方看到的就与他们平常的生活有着天渊之别。而“北方”与 “南方”文化上的交流也正如美国的边境检查一样，是单向的。从这个意义上说，我们真正地实现了全球化吗？这样的全球化仍然是一种殖民主义的全球化，仍然是“北方”的文化向“南方”的单向传播，而“南方”色彩鲜活的一面，却是很难被“北方”的人们发现的。这个故事的女主人公的遭遇，也成了“北方”对“南方”的疏远的注脚——外来者永远是外来者，哪怕她倾注了那么多的爱和建立了那么强烈的感情纽带。

日本的故事在时间线上发生最晚，也是整个故事的收尾。虽然日本并不是一个严格意义上的后殖民国家，但聋哑女高中生的故事仍然是一个后殖民主义诉求的载体，同时也带有女性主义（Feminism，注意 不是女权主义）的色彩。聋哑暗喻了“东方”在二十世纪中期及之前的失语状态，在这之后，“东方”的后殖民国家及它们代表的文化希望反抗“西方”的主流文化，但女性主义的诉求并不包括“东方”文化对西方的反征服，而是希望“西方”的，男性的殖民文化能够在当今以平等的态度注意、认同和理解“东方”的非侵略性的，女性的文化。最后的镜头是温暖的，也是片中出现多次的主题的又一次强调（数一数有多少拥抱的镜头）。作为观众的我们，自然也希望人们在经历了那样多的创痛之后，能够实现理解和接纳，从而让人类作为一个整体走向新的未来。

在电影院里，借着撩人的音乐和画面，这部影片把人类的欢乐和创伤都刻画得如此的生动，我们满可以就把它看作一个美国家庭在世界的遥远角落经历孤独和伤痛的 故事，也可以把它看作一个有关话语和理解的寓言，但是作为一个来自后殖民国家，在一个老牌殖民帝国本土观看这部影片的观众，我想我有必要借着它提出我的质询：是什么首先建造了巴别塔——变乱之塔？我们是否可能在这么多互相误解和忽视造成的创伤之后，拥抱对方，再携手前进？而走近到可以拥抱的距离，又要再付出多少代价？

Idea Retailer

Today I had a meeting with my supervisors concerning my research proposal for funding applications.  I should say it is the first time I write a proposal for *real* funding application.  And what I learned back in China is quite different from the conventions here.  The comments given by my supervisors include:

• Put research aim at first, then a little saucy background, then objectives, then methodology;


• Emphasise interdisciplinary research and justification on the reason to use them;


• Put site selection in a separate section instead of in methodology;


• Use precise figures in budget estimations, and be prepared to spend a lot in the field even if the price level is low there;


• Use Gantt Chart-like figures in the schedule part, illustrating fieldwork only;


• Be more specified;


• State that I will follow the School's health and safety guidelines (with URL).

In a word, what I am trying to do is selling my idea.  So I need to make a good packaging.