As my time here at the Karenni Social Development Center has come to a close, I've taken some time to critically reflect on the concepts of privilege and positionality. From the outset of this program, that being the CAPI internship program, disucssions surrounding both of these key ideas have permeated the gamut of work completed. However, for me, it was not until I was abroad and settled into my new home along the Thai-Burma border did I realize the true significance of these two seemingly simple words. Privilege and positionality have really shaped the entirety of my experiences over the past 6 months, influencing the way I have approached my work, and governing (although often subconciously) the genuinely personal relationships I have developed with other members of the SDC community. Over everything else, a deeper understanding of these concepts has brought with it a heightened degree of critical reflection and, naturally, an array of accompanying struggles. I hope to outline but a few of these in this blog, primarily in the form of a few questions I have asked myself.
Perhaps the central struggle I've had that relates to the ideas of privilege and positionality comes in…show more content… Yes, a hundred times over. In fact, I believe this is much more constructive avenue than using English, as the problems here are not "Western" problems (although, the region and culture is now heavily influenced by the west) but Karenni/Myanmar issues and thus should be addressed from a bottom-up, community based approach in a language that the majority can understand (ie. Karenni or Burmese). Everyone should have their say, and English can really function as an exclusionary marker in this regard. Thus, I hope that our students are able to take some of the really important concepts we've talked about and translate the knowledge into their own language and into practice in their own