The Burnside Blog

Posted By Rachel Ritchie on 02/12/2008

Spaces kicked off its Bright Lights discussion series last night with a bustling crowd at Jimmy Mak’s. In the spotlight was editor Randy Gragg, leading what he called a “curated conversation” with the night’s guest of honor—Portland’s own Neal Keny-Guyer, the animated and articulate CEO of Mercy Corps.

The conversation traversed the globe, but began locally with the big news of Mercy Corps’ new headquarters in Old Town. When asked about the decision to move into a dilapidated building in one of Portland’s most run-down neighborhoods (not to mention navigate the bureaucracy of the Landmarks Commission), Keny-Guyer explained that Mercy Corps “wanted to make a statement with the move—we wanted to be a part of revitalizing a neighborhood…in an area that was a priority for the city.” They found just the spot in Old Town; the so-called “ground zero of Portland.” Their new digs will house a first-floor World Hunger Action Center that will be pretty much the first interactive learning center on global poverty in the world—undoubtedly the first of its caliber. Among other snazzy stations, it will feature a giant interactive map of the world, developed through a partnership with the assiduous folks at Google. Here’s a taste:

Keny-Guyer touched on lessons learned in post-Katrina rebuilding in New Orleans, which were, unsurprisingly, ideas imported from decades of global relief work: normalize the lives of children, connect with local organizations (“those affected are always the best agents of their own recovery”), create local jobs, and salvage as many materials as possible (exporting a homegrown deconstruction model from our own ReBuilding Center).

Before opening up to audience questions, Keny-Guyer eloquently hit all his talking points in the context of Indonesia, Gaza (“The daylight in Gaza is a sincere desire for a resolution on the parts of America, Israel and Palestine; unfortunately, there is a lack of a shared vision.”), Darfur and elsewhere without missing a beat. The most striking idea to emerge was the broad but simple two-pronged Mercy Corps strategy for relief in the face of violence and corruption: Engage people’s economic interests and the interests of their children. A common future, it seems, is the most effective antidote to sectarian violence.

One audience member asked the difficult and often avoided question that I had been wondering (with a tinge of guilt) myself: “Is it really wise to rebuild in low-lying areas that are particularly vulnerable to disaster?” Keny-Guyer artfully dodged the question with a discussion of trust factors in impoverished areas and the importance of establishing good communication processes. But as he had mentioned earlier in the discussion, natural disasters are one of the most powerful enforcers of class biases—and even the most efficient relief and rebuilding effort will be unable to change that.

Join us March 10 at Jimmy Mak’s for a discussion with Rob Bennett, Program Manager of the Clinton Climate Initiative, on the next wave of sustainable development, Vancouver, B.C. envy and his own effort build a sustainable duplex.