Phase 2, Post 7: Yvonne Muthoni, Lander Bosch, & Joshua Ogure

Yvonne talked about open for business, which she described as a coalition of companies that believe in inclusive and diverse communities, and that these communities are good for business. The main goal is to advance the communities of diversity in sexual orientation, gender identity and expression. She noted that South Africa was most progressive as they legally protect the queer community. However, they are not perfect, as there are still several issues, including misguided "correction." Yvonne also mentioned genderless pronouns in Swahili. My parents speak a dialect known as Cebuano, which also has genderless pronouns. My mom used to say this made it easier for her to use the correct pronouns with non binary people or people who are comfortable with the use of they/them pronouns. While there is some truth and benign intent to that sentiment, gender identity isn't about ease, it is about expression. I think that looking away from a problem isn't solving it. It is good that open for business offers training surrounding some of these concepts. Pinkwashing is derived from whitewashing and was coined due to the breast cancer awareness campaigns many companies participated in. They used to rebrand products with pink colors and claim to support breast cancer research with the money, but none of these funds could accurately be tracked. It was almost as though these companies were using a tragic illness to boost sales. While it was good to spread awareness about the disease, awareness was all that was spread, with little momentum in actually helping. This feels like a non committal "I did it too!" It feels like companies are patting themselves on the back and giving themselves a participation medal.
Lander's talk about child well beings also very interesting. I think that a child's environment is heavily affected by their access to technology and education. I also think that that child's well being is affected by what happens when they're receiving their education at school. It was interesting that obesity and childhood obesity is considered an epidemic, and that only one in five children are active. I also thought it was really shocking to find out that London was the country with the highest childhood obesity.
Joshua's presentation I felt was really tied into the concepts that we talk about in diversity and technology. Mapping technology we often consider it to be so ubiquitous, and yet there are plenty of places that are ignored, including but not limited to slums. However, these places that are in maps are no less valid than other locations and are equally deserving in mapping. However, it falls to the community members of these locations to take the lead, because they may be the ones most well versed in the geography of the area. 


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