Trials and Tribulations (Rantings) of a Community Development Worker... and for the record, I am NOT a social worker

So here we go...maybe only the CDW of you will really understand these descriptions of expasperated dialogues with those unversed in the jargon...and before you exclaim "But Wing, aren't you meant to be the bridge between the 'top-down' and the 'bottom-up', the 'haves' and the 'have-nots', the 'elite' and the 'marginalised'"? you know the answers are "Yes, Yes and Yes!" ...but when people just don't get it, I can't help but get EXASPERATED!

Community Development is about empowering groups to take control of theirs lives and the world around them through critical refelection with the aim of social action. It is counter hegemonic, it is decentralisation of power, it is empowerment, it is dialogue based on mutual respect and faith in human beings as creators. It values social justice, self-determination, working and learning together, reflective practice, sustainability and participation. It is organic. It embraces change. It turns conflict into opportunity.

I have been trying since I got here to get people thinking about Popular Education. I'm not here to observe. I'm not here to 'fix problems', do a job and leave, or find the answers. I take action to support groups to work themselves through the never-ending process of change to find better ways to achieve the better things only they can define. I never had the answers. I never claimed to. And people have to get out of that individualistic mentality that traps them into thinking as such. No-one has all the answers.

Rant over... and now I think about it, this happens all the time in the UK... only difference is I don't have only 7 weeks to change it...