Author Archives: Matthew Rinkevich

[The following post by Edmore Masendeke originally appeared on the author’s blog The Diary of a Disability Advocate (http://disabilityzimbabwe.blogspot.com/2014/07/its-all-about-abilities-or-is-it-media.html).]

This post was inspired by a recent class on the media framing of political issues. It got me thinking about the media framing of disability issues. How are disability issues framed in the media? What responses have these frames generated among the public and people with disabilities more specifically? These are some of the issues that I grapple with in this post. But, let me start by looking at the definition of framing first.

What is framing? Framing tells us what an issue is all about, what it means, whose responsibility it is, and what should be done. Framing is the act of emphasizing a particular idea through communication.

For a long time now, disability has largely been framed as a personal tragedy. In this instance, the frame focuses on how difficult life is for a person with a disability or/and his/her family due to the person’s impairment. This frame is usually used to seek assistance for the person with a disability or/and his/her family.

The general population has taken this frame to be a reflection of the situation of all people with disabilities and their families— these are the people dealing with this personal tragedy called disability and facing many difficulties. Although this frame reflects the situation of many people with disabilities and their families, it is not a reflection of the situation of all people with disabilities and their families. Because of this, disability activists, including people with disabilities, have challenged this frame in recent years.

This challenge led to the framing of disability issues in a new way, at least to some degree. Instead of framing disability as a personal tragedy, disability is in some instances framed as an everyday reality encouraging people to look at the person’s strengths and abilities instead of their limitations. The underlying message of this frame is it’s all about ABILITIES!

Framing disability issues in this way has not been received well with some disability activities and people with disabilities for a number of reasons. First, there tends to an exaggeration of the strengths and abilities of people with disabilities whenever this type of framing is used. Consequently, some people regard people with disabilities as heroes to be celebrated for everything that they do, even those things that other people do in their day-to-day lives. Not every person with disabilities have been happy with this, as they feel that they have been reduced to objects of inspiration, and this inspiration often stems from the fact that the general public undermines people with disabilities.

Another reason why some disability activities and people with disabilities are not happy with this framing is that it is not representative of the situation of people with disabilities. The frame has also sent the message that people with disabilities are to be accepted in society because they are capable of doing things that everybody else can do. While some people with disabilities have mild or moderate impairments and are able to do many things for themselves and lead normal lives with little or no support, there are also people with disabilities with severe disabilities who cannot do many things for themselves and require a high level of support. Thus, the latter group is excluded in the frame that says that it’s all about ABILITIES!

Be it as objects of pity or as heroes to be celebrated, the media has done a really bad job at creating the image of people with disabilities. Both frames are applicable to only a few people with disabilities. People with disabilities are a diverse group of people, and it takes more than a single story to define them.

After the catastrophic and historical defeat of Brazil in the World Cup semi-final against Germany on Tuesday, we began Wednesday with an interesting session entitled “Human Security and Citizen (In)security” with Prof. Matthew Weinert.

Prof. Weinert kicked off the session by asking whom among the fellows has ever had exposure to or worked in the field of human security. Some of the fellows responded positively as they have considerable experience in the area. Then, we passed through a brief history of human security and citizen (in)security from the first conceptual antecedents of human rights to the report of the Secretary General of the United Nations on human security during the 2012 United Nations General Assembly.

Prof. Weinert stated that the definition of human security is vague. It is incomprehensible and does not have a specific context. Furthermore, we were exposed to the critiques of human security, which were as follows: it is conceptually imprecise, and human security is not a universal solution. A state might be the cause for human security, and it is very difficult for an external institution to get into and handle the situation. Most importantly, human security is not just about giving food and water, but it is about capacity building and empowerment also. Prof. Weinert pointed out that most of human security programs are about military intervention, which is an engine of violence and, thus, a failure.

Prof. Weinert pointed out that we have to bring the human into the concept of human security by opening space for civic activism, by brainstorming ideas, by developing partnerships and collaborations, and last, but surely not least, by transparent leadership!

The rest of the day, we were free, but we had to do important work, such as that of the group who had the conference meeting with the Office of the First Lady discussing the education of African girls. They had their meeting in the afternoon to work on this project, and the amazing thing is that, from thirty-six YALI fellows nationally, twelve are UD fellows. Of course, it was not all work this afternoon. Some fellows gathered in the lounge of Independence Hall to watch the second semi-final between Argentina and the Netherlands. Congratulations, Argentina!

Two interesting things happened for me during Tuesday’s session. One pushed me to question all that we assume to be true, and the other asked me to stand more firmly in the face of what we are constantly told to be true.

The day began with a talk from Prof. Lindsay Hoffman from UD’s Department of Communication. The focus was on US presidential elections and the chronology of how they have changed with technological advancements. Prof. Hoffman showed us that there has been increasing polarization between supporters of the two major political parties in the US, which is reflected in many countries across the world, raises the question about the possible correlation between partisanship and technological advancements, and motivates us to discern what must be done to bridge this gap between citizens. The norm in the internet age is that you will have a tendency to reinforce your own beliefs or ideology in the news sources you choose to access. This creates an ideological echo chamber where all that you already believe is reaffirmed. The danger in this is that you don’t have to engage with anyone who does not agree with your own opinions and, as brought out in yesterday’s discussion, are more inclined to disbelieve it even more when challenged. A flicker of hope lies in research pointing to us as the generation most plugged in and least polarized. The onus falls on us to change this trajectory of polarization by (1) engaging with ideas and opinions that we may not agree with, (2) questioning what we think is true, and (3) emphasizing this message to our peers and within our spheres of influence.

In the afternoon, we paid a visit to a Historically Black College and University (HBCU): Lincoln University near Oxford, PA. The school has an impressive roster of African leaders who called Lincoln their alma mater, including Nnamdi Azikiwe, Kwame Nkurumah, and Patrice Lumumba amongst others. We had a session with Prof. Emmanuel Babatunde from Lincoln University’s Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice on some of the challenges facing the African continent. He called on us to think of the reasons why there has been a continued division incongruent to the unifying aspirations of earlier African leaders. He emphasized that the reasons used to divide us are, in fact, our greatest strengths.

As Prof. Babatunde presented his lived and learned experiences of the continent, I felt that young Africans like us need to be more sanguine about the future of the continent, which is, in my view, not daunting, but actually exciting. There are numerous success stories coming out of the continent, as evidenced by the range of incredibly talented fellows represented in this program. These narratives have shown the nuances and back-stories behind the single (largely negative) story that has become synonymous with Africa for so long. As shown by the work of a group of African photographers here (http://everydayafrica.tumblr.com/), Africa’s story is not singular and, admittedly imperfect, it is one that is continually shifting to reflect the complicated realities of a continent in flux—a continent in which we must continue to believe.

“When brothers fight to the death, a stranger inherits their father’s estate.” ~ Igbo proverb

July 7^th 2014, the first day of the 2^nd half of the academic institute for the Washington fellows!

There have been moments of joy, creation of friendships, establishment of contacts, and sharing of the visions and passions for the development of our nations and continent. It has been an amazing journey so far with a promise of even better days ahead, even if the day of departure is now imminent. We are grateful to the faculty at UD for the great efforts, going out of their way to make our stay comfortable and the academic sessions productive! Our engagement leaders have been remarkable, too, providing us with resident support as needed!

We have discussed political organizing, good governance, and advocacy as they relate to civic leadership. During the academic sessions, the presenters have provided insightful information on the issues and given an opportunity for the fellows to ask and interact to get more information. Processes of learning, relearning, and unlearning have been evident during these sessions. I must admit that not all sessions have been completely relevant to the work that each one of us does, but they have set the pace for a greater urge in us to get interested in issues affecting our continent beyond our working parameters. Change must begin with the acquisition of knowledge. Knowledge will then give us the authority to drive the change that we need and help others drive their change agendas. The availability of the UD Library to us has also provided further resources for our knowledge acquisition processes!

We have also visited organizations, such as AIDS Delaware, TeenSHARP, and Easter Seals Disability Services. During those visits, we had real life experiences of how organizations work in the US and how they offer their services. All the organizations visited, despite operating in different thematic areas, have shown that it is possible to make changes in our communities if we are visionaries and professional. The organizations have challenges like our organizations and are trying as hard as we are to address them. The only difference is clearly that the US federal government has invested heavily in ensuring that it supports organizations providing social services to its citizens. The partnerships and linkages with the government and its departments and institutions are one clear distinction of the work here from that in Africa and one that must be emulated. The strong spirit of volunteerism here must be replicated in Africa to improve our service delivery capacities, too. These visits, like the lectures, laid the foundation for future collaboration with these organizations on common themes with the fellows.

Other milestones in the fellowship are the meetings with Senator Coons and Governor Markell. These meetings accentuate the commitment of the US government at different levels to the program. The commitment of these leaders to driving social change in their communities and in Africa must be emulated.

Cultural activities have also been part of our journey with visits to museums, Philadelphia, and New York among others, indulging in life’s pleasures and treasures.

Today, was one of the busy days with five sessions!

First we had a session on media framing of political issues that discussed the influence that media has on people and how people form opinions around issues. In the middle of this session, ten fellows left the room to be part of a conference call with the office of First Lady Michelle Obama to discuss adolescent girls’ education and empowerment. The call was to set the pace for a virtual discussion in the coming weeks that will culminate with a meeting with President and Mrs. Obama during the Washington Summit.

During lunch, fellows had an opportunity to discuss with Professor Maloba issues that affect Africa and how young people can increase their effectiveness in the social change processes among other issues. The group then planned the presentation requisition by the Washington team on challenges facing Africa and recommendations for tackling them at different levels. The group concluded to present lack of transparency and accountability as a challenge and a draft presentation was done. Further refinements will be done before submission. The last session of the day was on the historic preservation of photos in Africa and beyond.

A day almost like no other for the UD Washington Fellows—an action-packed and sunny day filled with events. This is how I describe this Thursday, 3 July 2014. The day began normally: some of the Washington Fellows had conversations with Professor Gretchen Bauer about guidelines for their essential questions. Yet, it soon became extraordinary.

First of all, two of our friends, Velaphi and Caterine, had an interview with a local radio station, WDDE.FM, that asked them about the Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders program, what they are learning, and how they intend to implement the skills they are learning here once back in their countries.

The UD Washington Fellows also received for the first time two visitors from IREX, the international non-profit organization partially sponsoring the Fellowship, who came to get our impression about the program, while answering our precise questions. These visitors were also interested in learning about areas requiring improvement and action for the next years.

The most eagerly awaited moment of the day was the Lecture with US Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, with whom the fellows discussed many issues. The Senator discoursed on “Relationships between Civic Leadership and the Federal Government” with a free public talk that included a question-and-answer session.

Passionate about Africa, where he travelled a lot and even studied, Senator Coons talked about the continent and the African people that he seems to love dearly. He’s been working to promote partnerships between the USA and sub-Saharan Africa. As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Subcommittee on African Affairs, Senator Coons is focused on building mutually beneficial partnerships with countries in sub-Saharan Africa, especially in governance, security, trade, and investment. For him, a strong U.S. foreign policy in Africa must be rooted in American values and aim to promote democracy and freedom, protect human rights, defend U.S. interests, and forge sustainable and mutually beneficial economic partnerships.

Working to engage and re-energize his country to recognize and to embrace the many opportunities in Africa, Coons appears to be a staunch defender of the continent. In his free public talk, he encouraged civil society organizations to work hard to promote democracy, accountability, and transparency and to help end up with a culture of impunity in African countries.

Coons is also one of the persons who worked hard to make the Washington Fellowship for Young African Fellows to be prominent and funded. We can but thank him.

In the afternoon, Professors Attoh-Okine and Awokuse discussed with the UD Washington Fellows the “Challenges facing Africa.” Part of the African diaspora in the US for a long time, they focused on the prominent role that diaspora Africans must play to bring about positive change on the continent. The fellows were encouraged to make a difference and to ensure that their organizations are sustainable and impactful.  The presenters considered that changing our culture and mindset about how we deal with issues like democracy, good governance, human rights, etc. are among the biggest challenges Africa is facing, and a lively discussion ensued. Although there was much disagreement and debate, a common ground was found. All committed to work together to help Africa take maximum advantage of its resources and attain sustainable development  by bringing as many people as possible on board to have great, strong, and powerful civil society organizations that will effectively contribute to the development of Africa.

The University of Delaware Washington Fellows: One Big Happy Family (Drawing courtesy of Katelyn Hosey)

The day kicked off with a return visit to the disability services center Easter Seals for a site visit and to learn more about the effectiveness and challenges of volunteerism within civic organisations.

Twenty-five dynamic youths from nineteen African countries walking the leadership journey together, ready to learn, re-learn, and unlearn with an open mind whilst building on each other’s abilities. President Obama has provided this priceless opportunity to us. This is only our third week of stay at the University of Delaware, and yet there has so far been overwhelming interaction over civic leadership, aimed at spurring growth and prosperity, strengthening democratic governance, and enhancing peace and security across Africa. The knowledge and information we have gathered might be a privilege to many, so we are obliged to pay it forward upon our return to Africa. Only through enriching others can we claim that the program is beneficial.

Today is our fourteenth day of class and we learned about organizational capacity building for non-profits and community-based organizations in the U.S.A, making comparisons to our different contexts and realities in Africa. Professor Jabbar-Bey engaged the class in a rigorous critical thinking exercise that involved pondering on the definition of civil society, non-profit organizations, and community-based organizations in the different countries we hail from. We discerned variances and similarities in the setup of all these organizations with emphasis on their accountability structures. What wasn’t arguable in our dialogue was the fact that civil society and not-for-profit and community-based organizations are cause-driven and people-centered; we are trying to hold government and the corporate market accountable.

We also learned that there is a difference between being involved and being effective in an organization. Exercising civic leadership is not a walk in the park; otherwise, everyone would be walking this journey. From an article we read, authored by the Kansas Leadership Centre, it is apparent that there is a difference between leadership in civic life versus business or organizational life. It’s argued that the ideal competences in civic leadership include the following: diagnosing a situation, managing oneself, intervening skillfully, and energizing others. Therefore, problem identification is key! If you don’t identify the right problems, then you are working on the wrong issue. This is a lesson that our civil society should reflect upon. Identify the root causes and desist from fighting the symptoms. It may take a while, but again, leadership is risky business and requires tremendous courage because we have to risk our personal stakes for the common good.

I earlier mentioned that the University of Delaware is exceptional, and indeed, this fact manifested itself again today. We had our morning session on campus, and in the afternoon, we drove to New Jersey for the afternoon session held at Rutgers University with TeenSHARP, a leadership program for youth development. Here, we discussed the American education system. We were exposed to the reality that as much as America is full of roses, it is not devoid of challenges, and to be successful, your mind must be in the right place. TeenSHARP, founded in 2009, builds a community of givers, strivers, connectors, starters, and appliers through providing opportunities to less privileged but talented young students to obtain higher education. We experienced some of the hurdles students face in getting college education through participating in a game designed by the organization. This exposed us to similar challenges in our own African education system, but also gave us hope that, no matter how many times you fall, if you are determined, you will excel. 

We are now two weeks into the Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders, and as I reflect on the array of academic and cultural sessions we’ve had to date, I am reminded of my initial appreciation for the significant level of diversity of the program. My first observation on all the fellowship had in store for us was influenced by the diversity of the program support staff, the varying activities in the curriculum prepared for us by the University, and the multiplicity of my peers.

Because Africa is so diverse and the people who inhabit the continent give it the character and soul it has, I found it so refreshing to be a part of a program with fellow young African leaders from all walks of life. I knew I would learn a lot from my peers and from the professors at my host university, but I had no idea that there would be such revelations about my own limitations, or that I would experience such enticement to return home and better my organization SO QUICKLY. I have been inspired every day. But with the understanding that my twenty-four peers and I were selected very competitively for the Washington Fellowship on the basis of our demonstrated leadership, I wondered how exactly the University of Delaware intended to teach a group of leaders how to lead.

Professor Tony Middlebrooks, who directed our first Monday academic session, answered that question for me when he shared with us the proven core traits of a leader. He went on to list intelligence, self-confidence, determination, sociability, integrity, and credibility to be the main characteristics of a leader. But I was particularly drawn to Middlebrook’s emphasis on the importance of one being able to reflect on their own short comings. That ability of self-awareness is, indeed, what distinguishes leaders from followers.

Leadership, as Professor Middlebrooks confirmed, is the process of influencing others towards a common goal. I learned today that leadership is not a linear journey, and a leadership course will not and cannot teach me how to lead. But what it will do, and has already done for me, is serve as a reminder to never become complacent, to always evaluate my own effectiveness as a leader, and by aspiring to continuously improve myself, I can better guide others to self-improve by my example. Because I aspire to motivate, uplift, and ensure personal as well as professional success and growth for my followers, my ambition is to cultivate their leadership potential—a process of influence Middlebrooks described as transformative leadership.

I was really impressed by my visit to New York City for the very first time this weekend. My desire to visit New York City was huge! The first ten seconds after I entered the city, I could not believe that I was in New York, the city that I saw in popular American movies since I was too small to remember and that I always dreamed of visiting. In fact, since I saw on our Washington Fellowship schedule that we were to visit New York, I was very impatient! I was counting the days until I finally got to see New York City! This weekend, my dream came true; I was in New York City! I was very curious to see what New York looks like. At my entrance into New York City, I was very impressed by the height and size of most of the buildings. They were huge, especially compared to all of the buildings that I’ve ever seen before (except, of course, in the movies).

The tallest building I saw was the One World Trade Center, which was built on the ground where the Twin Towers once stood. Thinking about the approximately 3,000 people killed at Ground Zero, I was torn. I was conflicted between emotions of joy and sadness: joy at being in New York City and sadness due to reflecting upon how many people died during the attacks. After several minutes, I told myself that it was time to enjoy this experience and understand American culture rather than be overcome by sadness.

Despite the sadness inside me, the fact that we were in Manhattan allowed me to enjoy myself. In New York, we visited many sites, such as the Statue of Liberty, Time Square, and Central Park. Manhattan is like a small paradise. The beautiful streets, the colors of the television screens in Time Square, and cabs, limousines, buses, and trains really impressed me, and I noticed the great differences between the city and Delaware. There are so many people in New York! The streets are crowded with people from different parts! In Manhattan, the streets are so busy that, at times, I asked myself whether I would find the place where my group had to meet with our other friends.

In Manhattan, you can do whatever you want to do, so I decided to go shopping in some shops for small souvenirs of New York. I bought a few postcards for my friends, shirts, and clothes. We had a lot of fun in New York. We ate ice creams and chocolates, and after shopping, we took a short break and tasted the best pizza in the city.

In New York, time flies, and we had to return to our dear University of Delaware in Newark. Our driver put on some music, and there was spirited dance! Everybody was happy to visit New York for the first time. It was an unforgettable experience—the best weekend in the United States of America!

On June 29, 2014, twenty-five Young African Leaders, myself included, and the WFYAL staff of the University of Delaware visited the city of New York. This trip to New York City was unforgettable! I have dreamed all my life of getting closer to the Statute of Liberty in New York Harbor. Despite my desire to see the Statue, it was Ground Zero, where the Twin Towers fell on September 11, 2001, and its Memorial Pool that drew most of my attention during our visit.

In front of this pool, I read the names of those American heroes who passed away because of the terrorist air attacks that day. Then, I thought about the Americans who have been united by this tragedy and have committed themselves to overcome terrorist threats and rebuild this place.  It was a very moving visit.

Later, as I got the opportunity to have a view of the Statue of Liberty as we rode on the Staten Island Ferry across New York Harbor, I was amazed! It was like I was dreaming! It was simply awesome!

Finally, the visit to Central Park and Times Square in the afternoon confirmed my earlier thoughts about the city. I am comfortable in saying that New York City is one of the most beautiful cities in the world! I would advise friends to visit this incredible city.