Hi All,
I hope you can get this posting. Yesterday was an interesting day. My colleagues and I prepared a design plan that is basically an outline of what we are going to accomplish, why we are going to accomplish it, and gaps in knowledge we have to fill. We also prioritized research designs that will guide our individual work projects. As a priority, we identified the Dutch police training mission. We have been asked to help evaluate the effectiveness of the Dutch police training. The Dutch embassy is here to work on it with us. We have met with them and they want us to start shortly. Getting an effectively trained police force and rule of law system in place in the country is important for long-term stability.
Just a couple of hours after we had finished our meeting, two social scientists came to visit us from the Dutch camp. They are both social scientists. One who will be leaving and his colleague who will be taking his place. They are very interesting. They brought over a well-thought out collaboration plan so that we can complement each others' work. They also engaged in a very interesting conversation. One of the social scientists is also a psychotherapist. It is fascinating how they are able to take a perspective that would probably be laughed out in our system. He said that they look at society through a Jungian approach--with a feminine and masculine side. Anima an animus, I believe. They have done studies on American society--we are very masculine 70% and they are very feminine (14% masculine), they estimate the Afghans to be 90% masculine. One of the qualifies of a masculine society is short-term gain. This makes sense in war-torn places. I have seen similar studies on Palestinian children and investment strategies. They take short-term benefits over long-term strategies because long-term is so tenuous. There are other qualifies that are different between the masculine and feminine--such as a focus on family and community. We see how the Dutch (and they mention Norwegians a lot) make time for frequent breaks from here to visit their families, how their social system makes time for parents to earn livings and take time off to raise babies, etc. etc. Anyway, they were talking about it in terms of outcomes and approaches.
I had a lovely time talking to them, just listening to something so completely alien, I would never ever hear political or military strategists talk about this. They also are very keen on working on encouraging women to be part of the police force and how important that is. They will be mentoring the police chiefs and other leaders on gender issues as well. I look forward to working and learning from them.
It is sunny. Last night was clear and beautiful. I could see all the stars. It is pitch black at night and I often worry about walking into others. I do use my flashlight (mom), but sometimes I forget.
I am very busy now working on getting these research designs set up. My Dutch colleagues will be back in a day or two for follow-up and I am going out on my first trip on Thursday. Hopefully, I can load up some pictures then and send them to you.
Love you all. Don't forget to email me at assasnik@yahoo.com
Sandra
I hope you can get this posting. Yesterday was an interesting day. My colleagues and I prepared a design plan that is basically an outline of what we are going to accomplish, why we are going to accomplish it, and gaps in knowledge we have to fill. We also prioritized research designs that will guide our individual work projects. As a priority, we identified the Dutch police training mission. We have been asked to help evaluate the effectiveness of the Dutch police training. The Dutch embassy is here to work on it with us. We have met with them and they want us to start shortly. Getting an effectively trained police force and rule of law system in place in the country is important for long-term stability.
Just a couple of hours after we had finished our meeting, two social scientists came to visit us from the Dutch camp. They are both social scientists. One who will be leaving and his colleague who will be taking his place. They are very interesting. They brought over a well-thought out collaboration plan so that we can complement each others' work. They also engaged in a very interesting conversation. One of the social scientists is also a psychotherapist. It is fascinating how they are able to take a perspective that would probably be laughed out in our system. He said that they look at society through a Jungian approach--with a feminine and masculine side. Anima an animus, I believe. They have done studies on American society--we are very masculine 70% and they are very feminine (14% masculine), they estimate the Afghans to be 90% masculine. One of the qualifies of a masculine society is short-term gain. This makes sense in war-torn places. I have seen similar studies on Palestinian children and investment strategies. They take short-term benefits over long-term strategies because long-term is so tenuous. There are other qualifies that are different between the masculine and feminine--such as a focus on family and community. We see how the Dutch (and they mention Norwegians a lot) make time for frequent breaks from here to visit their families, how their social system makes time for parents to earn livings and take time off to raise babies, etc. etc. Anyway, they were talking about it in terms of outcomes and approaches.
I had a lovely time talking to them, just listening to something so completely alien, I would never ever hear political or military strategists talk about this. They also are very keen on working on encouraging women to be part of the police force and how important that is. They will be mentoring the police chiefs and other leaders on gender issues as well. I look forward to working and learning from them.
It is sunny. Last night was clear and beautiful. I could see all the stars. It is pitch black at night and I often worry about walking into others. I do use my flashlight (mom), but sometimes I forget.
I am very busy now working on getting these research designs set up. My Dutch colleagues will be back in a day or two for follow-up and I am going out on my first trip on Thursday. Hopefully, I can load up some pictures then and send them to you.
Love you all. Don't forget to email me at assasnik@yahoo.com
Sandra
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