Brazblogger:

Iris Breeman (24), pre-master student at University of Utrecht, hopes to start the master International Development Studies in September 2010.
 

Spoiled

Friday afternoon, the sun is warming my face behind the train window, I just purchased the biggest reader ever about a not too pleasant subject: migration and mobility within Africa with a special link with conflict. I weighs about two kilos and must be over 500 pages. It promises to be a heavy but interesting course: many different lecturers (mostly researchers) and two very broad essay assignments about theories and concepts of conflict and one descriptive paper on one conflict area.
 
I’m glad the sun is shining, even though it’s freezing cold outside. I just returned from a 10 day trip to Suriname which was a warm and pleasant hide out after 2 months of ‘hard work’. Because studying, jee, that’s hard work. I’m a spoiled brat complaining. Studying Human Geography, with a special notion to developing countries (aka ‘The Global South’ or ‘The Third World’) makes me realize how lucky I am just to be able to study. So many people around the world my age don’t have that chance and the contrast becomes all the more clear when you study them, so far away. There’s irony in it too! Me and my fellow students closely examining the billions in need. ‘Let’s just sit back and take a closer look. Hm, yes, so and so many people are dying. Well isn’t that terrible! Let’s look some more!’. That’s exactly what I miss in my studies: actually doing something about it! And that’s where BRAZ completes my view on the developing world: the theories and concepts from lectures and literature in practice and it’s hands-on business. More about my studies and the implementation at BRAZ in next week’s blog!
 
Next week: the trends in development cooperation.