clico.org

25 April 2010

Just hearing the word Cyprus, your ears kind of perk. Your first thoughts may include buffer zone, beaches, Greek food or the word “hot”. To be honest, I was intimidated. Not by entering a new culture, but by the amount of work that had to be done.As the plane approached its landing on Saturday afternoon, the drought problems were prominent. It was April; the end of the rainy season, the land looked like a collage of brown paint swatches. It reminded me of Texas in August.

To the contrary, however, flowers lined the highways on the drive from the airport in Larnaka to Nicosia. P and I exchanged jokes about the mal use of water. It’s different to arrive in a place with a mission, especially when that mission is entirely visible. You feel like you know something extra about that place, despite your actual knowledge.  Arriving in Nicosia was another story, however. Although I had my preconceived ideas of the city from what I was taught in 8^th grade social studies class, what filled my eyes was something of a different story, initially.  

The house keeper Muhammad was waiting for us as the taxi driver found his way through the winding narrow streets that lead to our final destination. Upon our arrival, we understood our luck. Our hostel was actually an old masque type building that had been turned into a small but spacious living quarters for academics. There were trees growing out of the small quart yard in the center, flowers taking over its corners and a small well was in one corner inhabited by a statue. There were small birds flying in and out of the arches that defined the rooms of open-air living spaces and the winding staircases and tall ceilings only added to the awe.

Its impressive when you come upon places like this. Or perhaps better said, being an American and despite my travel experience, finding something at happenstance that isn’t touristy, but provides everything that a tourist wishes to fall upon is something of a jaw dropper. It was ancient, it was safe, it was natural, it held a comfort and it was entirely beautiful. This is where we were to spend long hours going through notes and excels while in Cyprus. We were lucky.

On day two, understanding what Sunday means in Europe concluded that capitalism was outweighed and nothing would be open. After a tea and coffee P and I decided to wander the city to get a feel for it. This is where my preconceived notions were partially realized. The town was dead. The “old town” had absolutely nothing going on. No cars, no walkers, no movement, there were only feral cats. We walked around and looked at graffiti and tried to avoid the sun. The number of empty buildings was strikingly strange and confirmed some of my preconceptions.

“At one time, the Greeks and the Turks lived amongst each other within the city walls of Nicosia. When the division became concrete, the Greeks agreed that they would not move into Turkish homes, in so, making a point that it was not right to do so on the other side of the buffer zone,” P explained.

Not here to make a political statement but instead one about water, I wonder what it would take to build a community that would work side by side. Yes, there is much that can be done in the Greek side of Cyprus alone, but the island is what is suffering from drought, not just the Greek side.

Our walk was leading to stranger and stranger areas.  Suddenly we came upon what P had described to me about the Cypriot culture some time ago. Shopping. As if suddenly stepping into Miami, we turned one corner and the streets were no longer dead and Iyves Roche, Guess, Deisel, McDonalds Starbucks and Nescafe were saturated with the people from the missing streets and we fought the tides as we searched for a quieter spot for a beer.

This was the contradiction that was so hardily visible upon our walk. Our understanding of the place was at first very romantic, then a bit haunted and dilapidated, and then so fashion forward that it was hard to find any thoughts.

Cypriot culture appeared to have many contrasts. The people here understand the contrast between their culture and the Turkish culture. Just like everyone understands the difference between themselves and the person next to them. However, the more interesting and probably most important question to my understanding is what it would take for these communities to work together. The answer lies in a project that is something like CLICO. A hopeful motivation through the poignant delineation of details that is properly explained to the public as well as policy makers alike. 

Despite this hopeful motivation, it is only honest to admit that it can be intimidating, and perhaps partially defeating. Looking at the mobs of shoppers when having just seen so many dilapidating buildings prompts many thoughts. The old town is left to grow older and the part of town that is sought includes large houses, big blooming lawns and pools. Its only natural to question the amount of effort it will take to address the problems of such lifestyles, when the alternatives seem so out of fashion. 

30 May 2010

There is a division between the scientific community and the greater public, and it is the type of division that leaves so many people skeptical about scientific findings. Of course, science is carried out on the boarder of what can be explained and what cannot and unfortunately this makes science intimidating to many who haven’t had the education or time to learn about various subjects in greater detail. Many people aren’t ready to agree with findings that explain the boarder of the unexplainable.

I am not alone in thinking that education is one of the most important contributors to quality of life and understanding. However, I am now significantly more experienced about the amount of hard science that can be lost when trying to simplify information in order to make it communicable to educate larger masses of people.

This simplification is one of the greatest contributors to skepticism. The simplifications can easily be questioned and proven incomplete. This is intrinsic to the simplification. I have struggled a great deal with my own work to decide upon where simplifications can be made and what simplifications have to be made. It is during these periods that supervisors can be such an asset in reemphasizing the greater purpose of the work and what is possible for the scale of the project.

I am in the process of creating a vulnerability assessment of the rural communities in Cyprus to climate change. Unfortunately, describing what makes a community vulnerable does not necessarily have to do with what makes a community sustainable. Understandably, politics, economics and human demands play a great roll in the difference between the two. For example, I will use the case of water subsidies. The farmers demand it, the politicians need the farmers support for reelection and as a result they allot water subsidies that the farmers come to depend upon to grow water intensive crops such as mangos. Ultimately the farmers are economically rewarded by the demand in the market for this exotic fruit; however, by the end of this process the value of the water is essentially lost in the exchange.

It isn’t surprising that sowing water intensive crops in a drought ridden country isn’t the most sustainable practice and further, it leaves farmers more vulnerable in the long term due to the uncertain water provisions that will be allowed in the future. However, displaying such information in a limited number of indicators is where the challenge lies.

I am nearing the end of my excel experience and am approaching the application of indicators as proxies for qualitative information. I am both excited about the process and eager to see the results. Most of all, I am anxious to go into the communities to see what the data looks like in the flesh and determine whether or not the simplifications can still represent the ultimate values that we are aiming for: understanding what it is that affects the livelihood of the people and their quality of life and quality of the environment.

I imagine that no matter what I find, the portrayal of such circumstances will be complex and contradictory. I imagine there will be bright green fields amongst a backdrop of brown. I am sure that the quality of life in the rural communities will not match the number of BMWs and stylish high heals I see in Nicosia.

The few people that remain farmers in the rural communities of Cyprus imaginably do so out of a connection they feel towards their work or because of a lack of further experience that would entice them to a life in the city. I imagine I will feel a great sense of respect when I speak with these people while at the same time a great amount of concern.