Hello Professor Chan, Stian & my fellow classmates!

i.

My Name is Chantel and I am in the Co-op International Development Studies specialist program. To give you all an accurate picture of my background and where I come from, I come from a family that looks very akin to a United Nations conference. By this I mean that I come from a very diverse background! However, I was born and raised in Toronto. My Father was born in London, England and immigrated to Canada with his Jamaican parents. My mother was born in Jamaica and immigrated here when she was 27. My parents being from the The Caribbean/West Indies- an area where a lot of history of colonization and foreign settlement occurred- I happen to be quite the mixture. In my bloodline I have Black, Latino (Panamanian), Indian, German-Scottish, and Syrian! Yes... I know that’s a mouthful. I am extremely thankful to have decided to become and IDS student as not only has it shaped my thinking differently and widened my perspective, it has also altered the way in which I live my life. After I graduate I hope to gain experience in the field by working with a number of NGO’s across Latin American and the Caribbean and I hope to later pursue graduate studies in Human Rights focusing on violence against women and children pertaining to modern day slavery and the ever so prevalent sex-trade.

In addition to my life as an IDS student, I have a strong passion for the arts. I have been acting since the age of 10 and dancing since the age of 7. I too plan to utilize my artistic background and passion in favour of development by helping to shed light on development discourses and issues through the heavy influence these art forms hold in our society today.

ii.

I first and foremost chose to enroll in this course due to how intimidated I am because of how technology inept I am therefore this course. Technology has introduced a whole new world of development and has become such a crucial part of it and at this point I know how uncomfortable I am with this simply due to the fact that I am not experienced with the language of technology for development. As someone who wants to pursue development work, I believe it is only beneficial for me to have an understanding of the history ICT’s and what they have done for development as well as the future possibilities they hold for development. All in all, this course is completely and 100% out of my comfort zone and that is the beauty of it. What’s the point of going through my university career without throwing myself a few challenges?

iii.

As an active learner I hope to be able to put the theory of development that I have learned in previous courses into practice. Being in a class so intimate in size, it will give me the chance to share my ideas but also voice my questions and concerns. As this is a development class through the perspective of technology, I hope to learn how to understand it and use it in a more efficient manner- one that places an emphasis on development. Moreover, since technology is so popular (especially within my generation), I will take the lessons I learn in class and use it to influence others around me to get in on the action of efficient technology use! A class of this size with such diversity is a blessing as it gives me the opportunity to engage in discussions with my peers, TA, and professor and learn about their experiences which will allow me to broaden my perspective and learning.  I believe that I bring a lot to this class. For one, I am a very open person, one that is constantly open to new ideas and challenges. Secondly, I enjoy working in groups as I believe I have so much to learn and this excites me as I know I can learn so much from my peers. In general, I am someone who is easy to co-operate with. As an active learner, I want to continue my path to living as a global citizen- one who is aware of both the beauty and injustices of our world. I want to continue strengthening my critical thinking and analysis skills. And lastly, I never want to stop learning.

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Just want to wish everyone good luck this year! :D All the best

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What is the common justification for the argument that strong IPRs are important for innovation? What are the counter-evidence to this claim?

Many argue that IPR’s are important for innovation because they serve to protect the inventions of the mind. This means that the producer will be recognized for their efforts, ultimately reaping the benefits of the production of that product. Without IPR’s, people would be able to freely reproduce replica’s or version’s of the original product and this would then not allow the inventor to profit from potential years of research, experimentation, production and distribution. To put this into a real world context- if innovators in a developing country were to invent and manufacture a natural product that would treat some type of health ailment, they should be able to reap the benefits of its possible success. Without IRP’s other countries (such as powerful industrialized ones) would be able to reproduce it and subsequently be able to distribute and circulate it with more ease therefore profiting of other peoples efforts. IPR’s however would ensure that the original innovators would gain recognition and rightly profit from their product.
However, IPR’s do introduce some problems. The current global IPR system does not sufficiently protect indigenous knowledge. This doesn’t surprise me because patents were made in order to protect industrial inventions (as Ismail and Fakir write). So with the creation IPR's, indigenous knowledge was completely dismissed and not taken into consideration. Because of this, Africa has a strong chance of losing ownership of indigenous resources and the export markets for these products can become increasingly more difficult. Ultimately, IPR protection can serve to impede economic development which subsequently exacerbates poverty. All in all, this shows that TRIPS disregard the value of traditional knowledge and places a much higher value on modern, scientific forms of intellectual property.