IDG Students Speak on Dance, Farming and Elections

On November 9, Vlada Tkach, Gibran Rivera (MALDs '00) and Daniele Riggio (MA '00) spoke to the Fletcher community about their experiences working on democracy and development issues. The event was the International Development Group's first "As I See It" brown bag student speaker series of the semester.

Tkach introduced a research project she recently conducted in Ukraine on the political economy of land reform and this year's presidential elections. She lamented her finding that none of the candidates are addressing land reform. Tkach plans to pursue this topic further in her academic and professional career.

Riggio spoke on his experiences monitoring elections in Bosnia and Croatia as a member of the OSCE Mission in 1996, and later with an Italian government team in Albania. He illustrated the balance he had to strike between his roles as "technical expert and crusader." Not only did he have to ensure that voters met residency and citizenship requirements and that interpreters were well selected, but he also had to reconcile the daily challenges of his job with the more abstract, political implications of his perspective of justice.

On a cultural note, Rivera tried to promote citizenship through the vehicle of "Capoeira," a Brazilian martial art and dance, in his summer job. Rivera and the group he worked with offered intellectual support to Brazilians who were interested in deepening the concept of citizenship and political participation in Brazil in an effort to overcome the political apathy that now reportedly prevails there. Combining sports, politics and dance proved to be a winning concept, Rivera said. To the dismay of the audience, he did not give a live demonstration of Capoeira, but promised to inform the Fletcher community of the next Capoeira event in the Boston area.

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