CARE White Paper Issue 4: March 2020

COVID-19 Wage Subsidy Package

by Christine Elers (Ngā Hau), Junior Research Officer, Center for Culture-centered Approach to Research & Evaluation (CARE)

We are writing about the government’s covid-19 wage subsidy package, in particular:

  • the sick leave payment due to be folded into the modified covid-19 wage subsidy package; and
  • the online publication outlining the names of all employers who have received the covid-19 wage subsidy package.

CARE Expresses Its Solidarity with our Activist-In-Residence Jolovan Wham

CARE’s Activist-in-Residence Jolovan Wham has surrendered himself to serve a 1 week jail sentence today, March 31 2020, for criticising Singapore’s judiciary.

In his statement posted on Facebook, Jolovan voiced:

“I’m doing this in lieu of a 5k fine because I do not recognise the legitimacy of the judgment and the law, both of which are unjust.

It should never be an offence to speak your truth. Decades of oppression and persecution have resulted in the normalisation of fear. It is so normalised that we have become indifferent to injustice, especially political injustice and threats to our civil rights. We have shrugged it off so much that over time, we’ve become numb to it, instead of feeling outraged.

If we can’t speak up, assemble freely, and campaign without looking over our shoulders, the reforms we want can only be done on the terms of those in power. We will have to wait for when they are ready. All this could take years, decades, or never at all. Or we can only pick issues which are considered ‘low hanging fruit.

All the levers of change are controlled and those who don’t follow the script are persecuted. We are so muted, we can only plead, but never make our demands as equals.

Acts of non-violent resistance and disobedience has to be one of the tools we use to open up our already shrinking civil and political space and to empower ourselves. It often starts with one person, or a small group of people, but over time, with persistence and repetition of action, the space will enlarge and we will progress, one step at a time.

We need to speak our truths, and to do so, we should refuse to fear. I refuse to be complicit in the diminishment of my spirit: resistance is no longer a choice in a system determined to de-humanise you.

There should be a role for those who not only negotiate the boundaries but transgress them. Not everyone can take this position and I understand those who can’t because the costs may be high; my privilege, on the other hand, allows me to take greater risks, and for that I am grateful.”

Sharing below an interview conducted by Professor Mohan Dutta with Jolovan on the topic of authoritarian repression and strategies for social change. Also sharing Jolovan’s public talk as activist-in-residence at CARE. CARE stands with you in solidarity, because as you say so eloquently, “Those of us who can risk it, should. Those who can’t, should show their support, because solidarity is the first step to change.”

A Conversation with Jolovan Wham, CARE Activist-in-Residence

Professor Mohan J Dutta sits down with CARE Activist-in-Residence Jolovan Wham about his work in Singapore

Posted by CARE: Center for Culture-Centered Approach to Research and Evaluation on Monday, 25 November 2019
Public Talk with Jolovan Wham

First World Authoritarianism: Lessons from SingaporeTune in for this exciting public talk with CARE Activist-in-Residence Jolovan Wham!

Posted by CARE: Center for Culture-Centered Approach to Research and Evaluation on Tuesday, 26 November 2019

CARE OPED: COVID19 – India’s Underclasses and the Depravity of Our Unequal Societies

What COVID19 makes visible


Article: COVID19 – India’s Underclasses and the Depravity of Our Unequal Societies

“It takes a pandemic to render visible the deep inequalities that make up the highly unequal societies we inhabit. As pandemics go, the power of COVID19 lies in its mobility, along the circuits of global capital, picked up and carried by the upwardly mobile classes feeding the financial and technology hubs of capital.

The irony of neoliberal globalization lies in the disproportionate burden of accelerated mobilities borne by the bodies of the poor at the global margins. The poor, whose bodies are the sites of neoliberal extraction, are also the bodies to be easily discarded when crises hit.

The images of throngs of people, the poor, now expelled from their spaces of precarious work at the metropolitan centers of financial and technology capital, spaces that are projected as the poster-models of mobility in development propaganda, walking on the long walk home, are circulating across our mobile screens.

Images of a migrant worker dead after the gruelling walk home, a mother pulling her daughter as they try to make their way home, a young man bursting into tears at the sight of food, a father walking as he carries his sleeping daughter on his shoulders, crowds of workers waiting in long lines to board buses, these are the faces of the unequal India made visible by COVID19.

These images of emaciated men and women, with little children, carrying pots, torn down bags and dilapidated beddings on their heads, walking on the roads and highways that form the infrastructures of the new India are haunting reminders of the masses of displaced people expelled by wars, riots, genocides, and famines.”

By: MOHAN J.DUTTA | 29 MARCH, 2020

Source:https://www.thecitizen.in/

CARE’S COVID-19 RESPONSE

CARE has been responding to COVID19 through our community advisory groups, community workshops, and community researchers. The communities we have been working in have been creatively developing a wide range of interventions, advocacy, and activist solutions. Please click the link below to explore our policy briefs, white papers, and interventions addressing COVID-19 based on the key tenets of the CCA

EVENT UPDATE: Upcoming CARE Anti-Racism Week events online- 21-23 March 2020

Kia Ora,

Message sent on behalf of Prof Mohan Dutta (Director, Center for Culture-Centered Approach to Research and Evaluation (CARE)) following up on the earlier email, below are the updated event posters and the online livestream links to CARE’s Anti-Racism Events between 21-23 March 2020

21 March @ 2 pm – #EndTheHate Campaign Launch – ONLINE

Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/218154419241534/

Livestream link: @CAREMassey

22 March  @ 4 pm – ONLINE

#ENDTHEHATE: Strategies for dismantiling hate

Guest speaker: Anjum Rahman

Event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/2715896505203833

Facebook livestream Link: https://www.facebook.com/CAREMassey/videos/1380049082185971/

23 March @ 5 pm – ONLINE

CARE Event: Connecting Anti-Racist Struggles: From Indigenous Resistance To Refugee Rights

Guest speaker: Marise Lant

Event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1041743546196044/

Facebook livestream Link: https://www.facebook.com/CAREMassey/videos/2757140504340482/   

CARE Event: Pizza and conversation about racism

Have YOU experienced racism at @MasseyUni? Share your stories over
FREE pizza with us at CARE: Center for Culture-Centered Approach to Research and Evaluation

Come & join us at CARE: Center for Culture-Centered Approach to Research and Evaluation
Time: 4:00PM
Place: BUSINESS STUDIES CENTRAL GROUND FLOOR ROOM 1.06
If you get lost ring!
0800MASSEY extn 85662
#AntiRacismWeek2020#TeTiriBasedFutures2020#CAREMassey#MasseyUni

CARE Visiting Lecture -Public Talk – Dr. Laura Miller -University of Tennessee

Communicating about cancer: Considerations for identity and uncertainty management

Date: Thursday, 20 Feb 2020 Time: 12pm – 1pm
Location: BSC 1.06 CARE Lab, Manawatu campus. Massey University
RSVP: https://www.facebook.com/events/1526896230798430/

Talk Abstract:
Communicating about cancer presents many challenges for patients and their families. Uncertainty is prevalent across the survivorship trajectory; specifically, questions regarding recurrence, unexplained symptoms, and renegotiating relational roles all may persist after cancer treatment is completed. This talk will consider the communication processes and uncertainty management strategies patients and families engage in throughout a cancer experience and beyond.

Short Bio:
Laura Miller received her PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is currently an Associate Professor in the School of Communication Studies at the University of Tennessee in the USA. Her works explores how individuals communicate about health, how families communicate support amid health stressors, and how illness-related uncertainty is managed. She is passionate about global education and has taught in Beijing, Dublin, and Sydney.

CARE WHITE PAPER SERIES Exploring challenges: A Culture-Centred Approach (CCA) project in Glen Innes

Dr Phoebe Elers, Dr Steve Elers and Professor Mohan Dutta

This study explores the challenges experienced by residents in Glen Innes, Auckland. The findings have assisted in the identification of local problems and corresponding solutions, including the ‘Poverty is Not Our Future’ campaign, which has served as anchor for residents to challenge dominant structures and, at the same time, communicate their everyday realities of poverty. While this study is focused on Glen Innes, material hardship continues to be a significant issue in Aotearoa New Zealand, with research determining that 13 percent of children lived in households that experienced material hardship in the 2017/18 financial year (Statistics New Zealand, 2019) and that children born into disadvantage in Aotearoa New Zealand have a significant likelihood of remaining disadvantaged (New Zealand Treasury, 2016a, 2016b; Templeton, 2016).

Link to the White Paper :http://sites.massey.ac.nz/wp-content/uploads/sites/68/2020/02/Poverty-is-Not-Our-Future-White-Paper-1.pdf

Auckland Mayor Phil Goff responds to CARE: Center for Culture-Centered Approach to Research and Evaluation research in Glen Innes, New Zealand

https://www.facebook.com/povertyisnotourfuture/videos/520701765530638/UzpfSTg2MTcxODAzNzE3NzkzNjozNDc2MDkwNTcyNDA3MzIz/

Mayor Phil Goff is interviewed and directly addresses CARE research findings in Glen Innes being done by Dr. Phoebe Elers & Dr. Steve Elers
#PovertyIsNotOurFuture #Auckland #GlenInnes #CAREMassey #MasseyUni #MasseyCJM #CAREResearch #NewZealand
#waateanews #NZPol
Link to article: https://www.waateanews.com/…/GI-rebuild-on-right-track—Go… #

Mayor Phil Goff is interviewed and directly addresses CARE research findings in Glen Innes being done by Dr. Phoebe Elers & Dr. Steve Elers
#PovertyIsNotOurFuture #Auckland #GlenInnes #CAREMassey #MasseyUni #MasseyCJM #CAREResearch #NewZealand
#waateanews #NZPol
Link to article: https://www.waateanews.com/…/GI-rebuild-on-right-track—Go…