The HumanDHS network would like to extend their deepest sympathy to the victims of the tragedies across Southern Asia and Africa, caused by the Sunday earthquake and tsunamis.

This tragedy reminds us of our joint responsibilities for this One Planet that we inhabit together.
How come that the wealthy of the world use less wealthy countries as cheap holiday destinations, keeping these countries too poor to be able to afford sound warning systems... quite an expensive strategy in the long run...and unmeasurably tragic...

WHAT CAN BE DONE TO HELP:

- Contact humanitarian relief agencies, such as UN World Food Programme, Oxfam, CARE, and World Vision, near you. The following Web sites provide links to some of those organizations:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4131881.stm

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34141-2004Dec29.html

http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3216,36-392320,0.html

People vs. Empire: Only Global Resistance from Below Can Counter Repressive States
By Arundhati Roy

In India, the word public is now a Hindi word. It means people. In Hindi, we have sarkar and public, the government and the people. Inherent in this use is the underlying assumption that the government is quite separate from “the people.” However, as you make your way up India’s complex social ladder, the distinction between sarkar and public gets blurred. The Indian elite, like the elite anywhere in the world, finds it hard to separate itself from the state.

Please read the entire article on http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/1740/

The Common Ground News Service, December 22, 2004

The Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity, brought to you by Search for Common Ground, seeks to build bridges of understanding between the West and the Arab World and countries with predominately Muslim populations.

Please note: The views expressed in the articles and in CGNews-PiH are those of the authors, not of CGNews or its affiliates.

**********

UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED, ALL ARTICLES ARE AVAILABLE FOR RE-PUBLICATION.

Article #1
Title: The Muslim society in Europe
Author: Johann-Volker Peter
Publication: The Daily Star
Date: December 3, 2004
"Surely, only on the basis of a truthful integration can the foreigners stay in Europe and enjoy the right to follow their religion and traditions as guaranteed in the European Constitutions." On this note, Johann-Volker Peter discusses whether Muslims themselves are gradually shutting themselves out of Europe.

Article #2
Title: Political stirrings, in the ancient and modern Arab worlds
Author: Rami G. Khouri
Publication: Jordan Times
Date: December 15, 2004
Rami G. Khouri considers whether the first Egyptian demonstration opposing its president and UAE defence minister and Dubai crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed Ben Rashid Al Maktoum's recent comment that if fellow Arab leaders did not change, they would be changed, are indicative of real reform in the region.

Article #3
Title: The Tension between East and West
Author: Shafeeq N. Ghabra
Publication: ~~Common Ground Series~~ in partnership with Al Hayat
Date: October 24, 2004
In the fifth in a series of articles commissioned by Common Ground News on Western-Islamic relations, Shafeeq N. Ghabra, an Arab who has lived in the West for significant periods of time, worries that "the East and the West seem almost to have accepted a future of endless conflict" and suggests means to overcome this deterministic viewpoint.

~ YOUTH VIEWS ~

Title: A Saudi Arabian Living in the United States
Author: Sara Al-Masshouq
Publication: Partners in Humanity News Service
Date: December 22, 2004
The following article by Sara Al-Maashouq, a student at Dhahran High School in Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia, is the second of a pair of articles that Sara and American classmate Omar Noureldin decided to work together to write about their experiences living in each other's country.

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A Saudi Arabian Living in the United States
By Sara Al-Maashouq
Have you ever lived in a foreign country and felt a cultural gap? I have. Last year I moved to Washington, DC to attend a boarding school. I had been exposed to American culture all my life through movies, books and schools. I spent most of my summer holidays in the United States, so I was quite familiar with the lifestyle. I did not feel the difference between cultures until I actually moved to and settled in the US.

Being a Saudi girl in a post-9/11 world, I was anxious about traveling alone for the first time...especially to the United States. I was naïve to think that people would be suspicious of me: I suffered from extreme paranoia. I had visions of being harassed by security at the airport. Luckily for me, I was proven wrong. As a young female traveler, I was treated with as much kindness as airport staff are capable of giving.

My biggest fear about moving to the US was that I would have to constantly be on the defensive about where I came from. Not too many people have an accurate understanding of Saudi Arabia, and it tends to be portrayed as a country with anti-American sentiments. Sadly, it is the notorious aspects of Saudi Arabia that the media emphasizes. I worried that my new American peers would isolate me because of their negative perceptions of Saudi Arabia. I was not a stranger to American youth. In fact, I spent six years living in the Philippines, attending an International School with many Americans. However, the Americans I grew up with were highly cultured and well-traveled expatriates. This was the first time I would face American youth in America itself. I was determined to prove to my new classmates that Saudi Arabia is not like what they've been led to believe.

Being a well-traveled Saudi girl, I had grown accustomed to what I like to call The Five Most Popular Questions People Ask Me Upon Learning I am from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia:
1. Do you wear that black thing from head to toe? (Referring to the abaya or hijab)
2. Will you have an arranged marriage?
3. How many wives does you father have?
4. Are you allowed to talk to boys?
5. Are there any buildings in 'South' Arabia? (Yes, it has been referred to as South Arabia several times...)

Sure enough, my new American classmates, teachers and most people I came to contact with asked one or all of the above questions. Their questions were never malicious. They only proved how little the world knew about us. I mostly blame ourselves for not making the effort to expose our culture to the world. We have not allowed the foreign media to get very close to our people in order to truly reflect who and what we are. There are many more misconceptions that would be to tedious to include. I was never offended by these questions because people were genuinely curious about Saudi Arabia. I consider myself quite liberal and I disliked how people would associate my liberal mindset with the fact that I studied and traveled in America, or, in their words, I had been "Americanized." In reality the reason I studied in, and traveled to, America was in the first place due to my, and my family's, liberal mindset. Therefore, I was a girl with a mission: to educate the mistaken on the real nature of Saudi Arabia. I did so by being as honest as possible when answering questions. I also tried to be a good model by being tolerant, respectful and open to new and challenging ideas. While practicing this I also held on to and preserved my beliefs, values and traditions.

On one occasion, while doing a unit on the Middle East at school, I became aware of how little my American classmates knew about the Middle East and Islam. It seemed very difficult for them to grasp the radical differences between my culture and their own. I remember thinking how sad this was considering how the American influence is embraced in cultures all over the world. They seemed openly willing to criticize and debate issues regarding the Middle East and Islam when they had very little knowledge about the subjects. This experience taught me the value of exchanging information in a non-aggressive environment. By maintaining my composure and respect I was able to reach my classmates and open their minds, allowing them to learn about and respect other cultures.

Part of what I learned from my experience in America was to live independently. Coming from a culture that is centered on tight-knit families and friends, I was on my own for the first time. I enjoyed the freedoms that I can not experience at home, such as going to the movies, shopping, and even walking around unchaperoned. I also learned that the differences between countries are mostly with governments and not the people. If given the opportunity we would all realize that we are all similar in aspirations and dreams.

** Sara Al-Maashouq is student at Dhahran High School in Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia. She and her American classmate Omar Noureldin decided to work together to write a pair of articles about their experiences living in each other's country.
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity.
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.

*********
Article #1
The Muslim society in Europe
Johann-Volker Peter
Surely, only on the basis of a truthful integration can the foreigners stay in Europe and enjoy the right to follow their religion and traditions as guaranteed in the European Constitutions. If the Muslims in Europe do not take this chance, it is obvious what they choose instead. They close Europe's doors on themselves.

From time to time the apologists of a multi-cultural society in Europe use the buzzword 'Fortress Europe.' This is meant to accuse Europe of adopting a dismissive attitude towards foreigners for social and economic reasons. After the murder of Theo van Gogh the phrase could appear in a different light. Could it be that it is not Europe that closes its doors on the foreigners but the Muslims who gradually shut themselves out?

Consider the case of Germany which has the highest Muslim immigration rate in Europe. Since the end of World War II, the German population has increased from 63 million to 82.51 million. Almost 3.2 million Muslims live in Germany. The nearly 1.9 million Turks are the largest ethnic group in the foreign population, making up 26.6 percent of all foreigners in the country.

Recent surveys indicate three things: First, the German share of the population has declined. A major reason for this is that the proportion of German women wanting to give birth is less than foreign women. Germany therefore needs young immigrants. Else, the society risks having a lopsided demography with too many elderly people. Second, Germany is not the only European country having a low birth rate. The entire West-and Middle-Europe suffers from the problem. In the long run, therefore, people from countries with high birth rates could replace the indigenous populations of Europe. Muslims in Europe, who have the highest demographic increase for cultural and economical reasons, could spearhead the change. Some Muslim leaders claim that there is no doubt that Europe will be 'Islamised' - it is merely a matter of time. From their perspective, Germany - on account of its constantly increasing Muslim population - is the gateway to Europe's 'Islamisation'. Third, the integration of Muslims into the European societies has not been successful. According to a survey, 83 percent of all Germans associate terror with Islam and 82 percent think of Islam as a "fanatic and radical religion" while only 6 percent sympathise with it (Passauer Neue Presse, November 8, 2004).

To find out why Germans have this attitude towards Islam, let's look at Berlin, which - after Ankara and Istanbul - has the third largest population of Turks in the world. Not only about 200,000 Turks live in
Berlin - which comes to the population of a large city in Europe - some districts are actually dominated by Turkish shops and mosques and Muslim culture rules the daily life. Here a number of Muslims live without knowing a single word of German or having any contact with the Germans.

This becomes more of a problem when Muslim families send their daughters to their homelands for a Muslim education and bring them back in the nubile age for marriages which are often forced on the girls. This re-import of the Muslim lifestyle excludes the young from the German society for ages.

The phenomenon is not unique to Germany. In congested suburban areas of France and even in the multi-cultural society of Great Britain, the Muslims live in the same self-imposed ghettos. Worse still, in some districts of European cities and in several mosques 'preachers of hate' appeal for the subversion of Europe by an Islamic culture.

Finally, the 9/11 has revealed that Muslim fundamentalists have established their terrorist cells in Europe for an overthrow of the so-called 'Western societies'. Contrariwise, one must appreciate that in Cologne almost 20,000 Muslims recently participated in a demonstration against terrorism in the name of Islam and highlighted their will to integrate.

The conflicts are bound to increase if the European and Muslim population groups do not open up to each other. In their Constitutions the European states recognise all kinds of religions and cultures. According to Article Four and Article Two of the German Basic Law, everyone in Germany has the right to follow his religion, culture and faith. Similar freedoms can be enjoyed in other European states, too.

Furthermore, Germany supports the integration of foreigners. At the same time it is going to control further immigration. It has, therefore, like some other European states long before, passed an Immigration Act which will become effective on January 1, 2005. Henceforth, Germany offers "integration courses" to foreigners to become acquainted with its legal order, culture, and history and cope with the national language. In certain cases, foreigners are even obliged to join these courses. Political activities can be forbidden in case of immigrants who endanger the constitutional order of the state, affect the "peaceful coexistence of Germans and foreigners" or "use force for religious purposes". Moreover, an eviction order is the rule when some "facts justify the assumption that (the foreigner) is a member of a terrorist organisation... or has supported one", when he "endangers the security of the Federal Republic of Germany" or "appeals in public for assault or threatens with assault".

Surely, only on the basis of a truthful integration can the foreigners stay in Europe and enjoy the right to follow their religion and traditions as guaranteed in the European Constitutions - unlike oftentimes in their home states. If the Muslims in Europe do not take this chance, it is obvious what they choose instead. They close Europe's doors on themselves because every Muslim who rejects the states' integration policy provokes the European states to harden their immigration laws. It is these Muslim thus who contribute bricks to the walls of the 'Fortress Europe' gradually built up only by those who resist the open societies of Europe.

Source: Daily Star
Visit the website at: www.dailystar.com.lb
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity.
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.

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Article #2
Political stirrings, in the ancient and modern Arab worlds
Rami G. Khouri
The debate on the need to reform and modernise the political, economic and social systems of the Arab world has become something of a new growth sector. It includes regular meetings and conferences, occasional declarations, intermittent new initiatives, and a regular flow of threats and pleas from usually sincere friends abroad. The talk of reforming Arab governance and economic systems is always fascinating and informative, but the corresponding action on the ground is always very limited.

Two events in very different parts of the Arab world this week offer a fascinating glimpse into the underlying dynamics of this matter, and should be pondered seriously by those who follow the Arab reform debate. One event took place in Cairo Sunday, where around 1,000 demonstrators gathered in the Egyptian capital to peacefully protest President Hosni Mubarak's plans to run for a fifth consecutive term as president. He has been in power for nearly 24 years in a closed political system dominated by the National Democratic Party to the effective exclusion of any other voice in governance beyond symbolic representation in a feeble parliament.

The demonstrators from Islamist, liberal and nationalist parties held up banners that read "Enough. No more extensions, no hereditary succession," expressing opposition to the likely possibility of Mubarak's son Gamal taking over as president after him. The demonstration was significant because it was the first time that Egyptians explicitly opposed the president in public in this manner, and we are likely to see more of this in the coming months.

In the Arab world, where governance authority is closely protected and preserved over decades and generations by efficient patronage and security systems, it is rare to see such explicit and personal political opposition to incumbent leaders.

The protest in Egypt is a powerful symbol of how ordinary people and political activists have become so fed up with their perpetual rulers that they have taken to the streets - even in small, symbolic numbers - to express their sentiments. This demonstration is fascinating and significant because it represents one of the few examples of ordinary Arabs demanding reform in a key category of their political life: term limits on executive leaderships.

This sort of behaviour in Egypt may well spread to other Arab lands, and if so, it could represent an important new turn in modern Arab politics. Most talk of reform in the Arab world has come from three sources that have been unable to move beyond the realm of talk: civil society and political activists, government officials and leaders, and foreign powers. For citizens to take to the street to express their demands for political reform is a novel political development that should be watched closely.

The second fascinating political development in the expanding Arab reform industry this week was the blunt statement by UAE defence minister and Dubai crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed Ben Rashid Al Maktoum, who hosts a three-day gathering in Dubai called the Arab Strategy Forum. In his comments, opening the meeting Monday, he spoke directly to his "fellow Arab leaders" and warned them that if they did not change, they would be changed. He said: "If you do not initiate radical reforms that restore respect for public duty and uphold principles of transparency, justice and accountability, then your people will resent you and history will judge you harshly."

The very explicit warning was that lousy leaders would be changed, presumably by their own people, but, in view of recent American military moves in Afghanistan and Iraq, perhaps also by well armed, interventionist foreign powers.

This week represents an intriguing milestone of sorts in the very slow process of promoting or achieving Arab reform. Within less than 24 hours, we have witnessed in the oldest and newest parts of the Arab world - Cairo and Dubai - two very different signs of the urgent need for change. These expressions of discontent are signs of pressure building on established leaderships. They are especially noteworthy because they emanate simultaneously from the bottom and the top of Arab political culture - from the streets of Cairo and the ruling emiri palaces of the Gulf.

Dubai and its leadership offer the counterpoint to Cairo and its ancient political managers, custodians of an ancient historical legacy along the banks of the Nile that resists modernisation and power sharing. Dubai and the UAE have not undergone a formal political or economic reform process as such, because they are new, achieving independent statehood just a decade before Mubarak took office as president. They have built a modern economy from scratch, aided by considerable oil income, but in the past decade fuelled more by their human assets and business and marketing creativity.

Dubai and the UAE offer a new model of Arab development, in which the public and private sectors work closely together to promote national development and provide their citizens with opportunities for personal growth and economic well-being. These are apolitical societies, though, focusing on promoting business development and meeting the basic needs of their citizens, with no formal, public political dynamics that examine, for example, foreign policy, security or budgetary decision making in any appreciable manner. To date, the citizens of the UAE have accepted and appreciated this model of nation building, and their country is a magnet that attracts workers, entrepreneurs and investment from many Arab and foreign quarters.

It is a good sign that the Dubai leadership here would now speak out in such forceful and explicitly political terms about the lack of accountability among Arab leaders, at the same time that some Egyptians are saying the same things through peaceful street demonstrations. It is not clear where these twin dynamics may lead, but they are certainly worth watching in the months ahead.

Source: Jordan Times
Website: www.jordantimes.com
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity.
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.

**********
Article #3
The Tension between East and West
Dr. Shafeeq N. Ghabra
I find myself-an Arab citizen of the East who has lived for decades in the West-caught between two worlds. While I acquired my education in the United States and appreciate the western experience, some western approaches to Arab and Muslim issues trouble me. Something terribly wrong has led the East and the West down a road of mistrust and collision, pulling my soul in different directions. At this point, no region, nationality, or group of people has as problematic a relationship with the West as does the Arab Muslim world. The "eastern dilemma" is unique: while the peoples of the East hold great admiration for the West, they remain at the same time deeply suspicious and fearful of its intent. For a positive turn of events to take place, the West must reevaluate its assessment of the causes of eastern anger, protest, terrorism, and conflict with a goal of reformulating its polices. At the same time, easterners must confront the religious and political extremism within their societies. Without honest engagement on both sides, the current nightmare will continue for years to come.

The West's view of Islam is overly simplistic, assuming a natural link between Islam and violence while discounting the consequences of its own involvement or interference in major eastern conflicts from Ottoman times to the present. One of our first steps must be to recognize our collective responsibility for terrorism, for it is the product of a vicious cycle in which no party is wholly innocent. There is a relationship between what the West perceives as blind Islamic violence and the legitimate concerns of Arab and Muslim peoples. When, for example, Israel occupies Arab lands and kills or imprisons Palestinians, Muslims and Arabs beyond those immediately affected experience defeat, insult, and injustice. This situation has persisted for decades and has created in the East the feeling that the score needs to be settled. Terrorism is an expression of this poisoned environment. The West's misunderstanding of the Arab and Muslim worlds informs its policies and, coupled with past wars and western occupation, contribute to this desire for revenge, particularly against the United States.

Since 1967, the United States has played a major role in the Middle East. While aspects of its culture, values, and technology have been received positively there, U.S. political and military involvement in such major conflicts as those in Iraq and Palestine have undermined its credibility and negated the good it did in helping resolve the conflicts in Kuwait, Bosnia, and Kosovo. That the East and the West often define or interpret economics and politics differently exacerbates the divide between the two worlds. The Cold War also played a role in this relationship. During that period, the United States often aided and abetted countries or movements that it is now accusing of being "against freedom." Were not the Americans and some Arabs on the same side as Osama Bin Laden before he found his latest enemy? In the Bush administration's war on terrorism, is the past repeating itself?

All these factors add fuel to the fires of anger and fanaticism and prevent political progress in those very countries where the United States would like to see democracy take hold. Although the Arab world desperately needs democratic political reform, as long as the United States refuses to see the situation as it truly is, the promotion of such an ideal will prove futile. Could the racial anger and strife that wracked the United States in the 1960s have ended without the promotion of civil rights? Could the violence in South Africa have ended without an egalitarian solution? Contemporary terrorism is rooted in injustice and it cannot be eliminated or lessened as long as the West views it merely as blind and vicious lawlessness that can be stopped with brute force.

The injustices perpetuated today do not in themselves justify militarization of the Intifada or the slaughter of innocent children in Russia or the kidnappings, bombings, and beheadings in Iraq. They do, however, offer only chaos and the continuation of the death, maiming, and destruction of the innocent. That such injustices are real does not mean that some supporters of Bin Laden harbor a hatred of the West that is anything but blind. What is important is that these wrongs point to masses of people in the Arab and Islamic world who are struggling to be heard. Failing to listen as Arabs and Muslims suffer yet another defeat and as Palestinians are reduced to prisoners in their own towns and cities amid Israeli settlements prevents us from addressing the real issues and leads only to more victims of terrorism.

The War on Terrorism has eroded the openness and personal freedoms previously enjoyed in the West and has made worse the conflict between East and West. Immigrants and visitors have and continue to bear the brunt of restrictive measures related to fears of another attack. Everyone is a suspect. Meanwhile, dictatorial leaders in the Arab world and elsewhere use the War on Terrorism as an excuse to oppress their citizens even more.

Though tragic, the events of September 11 offer the opportunity to sort through the causes of violence in the Arab and Islamic worlds. These include injustice, ignorance, occupation, repression, and limited rights. In the three years since al-Qaeda's attack on the United States, the West has espoused half-truths as analysis and responded with half-measures. Slogans about democracy ring hollow in the face of the ongoing strengthening of dictatorships in the region, anarchy in Iraq, and war and brutal repression in the Palestinian territories. Today antidemocratic forces in the East and the West have the momentum. The translation of anger into terrorism will not cease as long as the preaching of democracy is contradicted by the prevention of its practice for the majority of Arabs, sometimes with the complicity of the United States. Rather, continuing in the same vein will booster the attraction of Bin Laden and delay the march of globalization and peace indefinitely. It is not inconceivable that the internal and external pressures on Arab states today will lead to their collapse and the creation of a vacuum or anarchy ripe for al-Qaeda to pick.

The East and the West seem almost to have accepted a future of endless conflict. Such a deterministic view makes it easy for people from both sides to put great faith in religious interpretations of Armageddon and nihilistic destruction. What is needed, however, is an East-West cultural exchange. The overlap between their respective ways of life would become more evident through cooperation in administration, science, and education. The East is not the only home of terrorism or religious fanaticism, just as the West is not the only place of sometimes questionable morals and materialism. Extremism is not unique to Islam or to Christianity. Fanatical Christian beliefs are no different from fanatical Islamic beliefs.

Focusing on our common ground increases opportunities and possibilities for both worlds. It is important and necessary that the East and the West reevaluate their assumptions and opinions of each other. Neither western arrogance nor eastern righteousness is productive. Eastern religious values and western logic, economics, and science all have places in the world. It is in our common humanity that we must place our hopes.

**Dr. Shafeeq N. Ghabra is a professor of political science and the founding president of the American University of Kuwait.
Source: This article is part of a series of views on the relationship between the Islamic/Arabic world and the West, published in partnership with the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity.
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.

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About CGNews-PiH
The Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity, brought to you by Search for Common Ground, seeks to build bridges of understanding between the West and the Arab World and countries with predominately Muslim populations. This service is one result of a set of working meetings held in partnership with His Royal Highness Prince El Hassan bin Talal in June 2003.
Every two weeks, CGNews-PiH will distribute 2-5 news articles, op-eds, features, and analyses that aid in developing and analyzing the current and future relationship of the West and Arab/Muslim world. Articles will be chosen based on accuracy, balance, and their ability to improve understanding and communication across borders and regions. They will also reflect the need for constructive dialogue around issues of global importance. Selections will be authored by local and international experts and leaders who will analyze and discuss a broad range of relevant issues. We invite you to submit any articles you feel are compatible with the goals of this news service.

We look forward to hearing from you, and welcome any questions, concerns, or comments you may have about this service. Please forward this message to colleagues and friends who may also wish to subscribe to the service. To subscribe, send an email to subscribe-cgnewspih@sfcg.org with subscribe in the subject line.

If you are a member of the media, please join us in promoting constructive dialogue to improve understanding and perceptions. Unless otherwise noted, all copyright permissions have been obtained and the articles may be reproduced by any news outlet or publication free of charge. If you choose to republish any of the articles, please acknowledge both the original source and CGNews, and notify us at cgnewspih@sfcg.org

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Amman Editor

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Rabat Editor

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& Elyte Baykun
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A Review of Ronald Carter's Language and Creativity by Francisco Gomes de Matos

A Review
by Francisco Gomes de Matos

“Every language user is linguistically creative” is a truism, yet the literature on linguistic creativity is not as extensive as one would expect. Thus, a search for works published in English on the “creative aspect of language use” (to quote Noam Chomsky’s famous phrase from his book Cartesian Linguistics, 1966), would feature David Crystal’s Language Play (Penguin, 1998) and Guy Cook’s Language play, Language learning (Oxford, 2000). Interestingly, 27 years ago Don Nilsen and Alleen Nilsen published a pioneering volume for students of Linguistics: Play. An introduction to linguistics (Newbury House, 1977). In the 70s, creativity and language teaching were brought together in pioneering publications such as the newsletter Creativity. New Ideas in Language Teaching, published by the São Paulo-Brazil-based Centro de Lingüística Aplicada, from 1973 through 1979, and the book Jeu, langage et créativité. Les jeux dans la classe de français, by Jean-Marc Caré and Francis Debyser (Paris: Hachette et Larousse, 1978).
In a still conspicuously absent history of creativity in/and language education: a world view, it would be most revealing to share data on how users of languages exercise their right to be linguistically creative. In that respect, Ronald Carter’s new book is realistically up-to-date in that he relies on selected corpora of spoken English to substantiate his cogent point that “linguistic creativity is not simply a property of exceptional people but an exceptional property of all people” (Carter 2004:13).
Language and Creativity has a List of Illustrations (3 figures and 8 tables), 2 Epigraphs, Acknowledgements (note the author’s reference to the field of language and creativity (ibid.:xii), a Note on CANCODE The Cambridge and Nottingham Corpus of Discourse in English, an 11-page Introduction (featuring sections on The genesis of the book, Questions on a conversational extract, and The organization of the book), and 3 Parts:

I Background and theories (2 chapters),
II Forms and functions (2 chapters),
III Contexts and variations (2 chapters), 3 Appendices, 18-page References, and a 7-page Index.

Members of the FIPLV network will be attracted by the section (alas too brief: 2 pages!) on creativity and the language classroom (note that a book titled Creativity in the language classroom was co-authored by Irene Stanislawczyk and Symond Yavener, Newbury House 1976), in which Carter reminds us that “it is not only in the teaching of literature and culture where research into learner’s exposure to more open-ended and creative aspects of language use is developed” (Carter 2004:213) but also for “expressing their social and cultural Selves” (ibid.:214). A look at the entry for creativity in the book’s Index will give readers an additional convincing reason for delving into this volume. Among topics dealt with are: degrees of creativity, ordinary language and creativity, psychological approaches to creativity, spoken creativity, creativity in writing, play and creativity.
The book’s comprehensive and up-to-date bibliography is enhanced with a 3-page list of CANCODE publications, 1994-2003.
In short, a must for language teachers and for all those who share the fascinating, challenging mission of educating/training teachers creatively for a world so much in need of creative change, especially of communicative peace through the use of languages.

Francisco Gomes de Matos,
Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil, fcgm@hotlink.com.br,
Author of Criatividade no Ensino de Inglês (Teaching English Creatively), DISAL, São Paulo, Brazil (forthcoming)

Message from the SSRN eLibrary

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admin@ssrn.com to correct this.

New Course Opportunities for NGOs from The Threshold Foundation

Steps Towards Inner Peace

Burn out syndroms and workaholism is unfortunately a growing symptom within NGOs with commitments for Human Rights, Civil Society and Conflict Resolution. Often the time of recreation and reflection is much shorter than the many hours spent with exhaustive activities in the field or office.

Dr Burkhard Luber from The Threshold Foundation (www.dieschwelle.de (http://www.dieschwelle.de/)) offers a new weekend course approach to help NGO workers to find possibilities for making a constructive break within their hard routine work. During such a course participants will explore the potential of reflection and dealing friendly with their soul and body, so that new energy can flow into their commitments afterwards.

Such a course includes elements of:

- Meditation in silence
- Body exercises for relaxation
- Contemplative music and text listening
- Confidence Training in the group

NGOs interested in such a Training for Inner Peace, which will be held on-site at
the location of the NGO, can contact Burkhard Luber with mailto:luber@dieschwelle.de [luber@dieschwelle.de]
for further details. A program will then be communicated and finalized in consent
with the potential participants.

Dr Burkhard Luber has numerous commitments with NGOs worldwide for two decades, especially in capacity training and fundraising. He also got a trainer education in meditation, body relaxation and contemplative music.

Electronic Newsletter of the World Movement for Democracy

CALL FOR ITEMS

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The next deadline for submitting items is ** January 4**  Please send items to: world@ned.org.

You are encouraged to submit items under any area of democracy work. We welcome items announcing publications, upcoming events, reports on research, new Web sites, and other information, and we are most interested in posting requests for partnerships between organizations on collaborative projects, brief descriptions of collaborative projects already underway or completed, and ideas for new initiatives in which others may be interested.  We hope DemocracyNews will be a source not only for information about participants' activities, but also for new ideas about strategies to advance democracy. 

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DemocracyNews is an electronic mailing list moderated by the National Endowment for Democracy as the Secretariat of the World Movement for Democracy. The material presented in DemocracyNews is intended for information purposes only.

Newsletter from the Human Rights House Network, 17th December 2004

1 Colombian peace activists threatened
Thirteen persons from the Colombian peace network Redepaz are under threat. The situation is particularly grave in the Eje Cafetero area.

2 Azerbaijan: Concerned about today's elections
"The situation concerning the municipality elections due on 17 December in Azerbaijan is miserable", says Leyla Yunus, director of the non-governmental Institute of Peace and Democracy (IPD). Observers have reported on several irregularities during the day.

3 Moscow: - Stop the pseudo-democracy!
More than 1,000 liberal activists, politicians and critics of President Vladimir Putin gathered at a congress in Moscow on Sunday to oppose what they called a rollback of democracy.
(See also: Prize-winning jornalist arrested in Russia )

4 EU Guidelines an important tool, says HRH
- EU Guidelines on human rights defenders are an important tool for a stronger protection of and support to activists, says the Human Rights House Foundation (HRH). HRH participated at an EU conference last week about implementation of the Guidelines adopted in June.

5 More Belarusian officials declared personae non-grata
The European Union has decided to deny two more Belarusian officials entrance. The reason is police violence and falsification of the results of the parliamentary election and the referendum on 17 October.

6 Sarajevo: Children's rights neglected
Children's rights are among the most neglected human rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This is one of the conclusions from a project that was finalized this week by the Human Rights House in Sarajevo and the Helsinki Committee.

7 UNHCHR wants universal membership in the Commission on Human Rights
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, recommends universal membership to the Commission on Human Rights. - This will give ownership to the human rights agenda to all states, said Arbour, who visited the Norwegian Human Rights House earlier this month.

8 Oslo: - You ask such unbelievably poor questions, now reprimanded judge said
Carl Hugo Lund, the judge who conducted the proceedings against the police officer accused of involuntary manslaughter of former Norwegian Helsinki Committee employee Tomasz Wazcko (Tomek), has been reprimanded for his arrogance and sarcasms in court, especially against the prosecutor, according to the Norwegian newspaper VG. Lund's behaviour may have affected the jurisdiction in some of his cases.

9 Nobel Peace Prize winner emphasises the need to support civil society-The donor community need to support the civil society movement in Kenya. That is the only way that we can develop a critical mass of well informed people who can act as checks and balances to Government, said Professor Wangari Maathai in her acceptance speech at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony.

10 Presidential election in the grip of scandals?
After numerous public disscusions, the Croatian Government has set January 2nd 2005 as a date for next presidential election. Judging by the quantity of affairs that shake Croatia at the moment, the campaign has already started and seems to be most controversial so far.

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Free of charge news and background service from the Human
Rights House Network, an international forum of cooperation between
independent human rights houses. It works to strengthen cooperation and
improve the security and capacity of the 70 human rights organizations in
the Network. The Human Rights House Foundation in Oslo is the
secretariat.

More news and background on www.humanrightshouse.org
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The Human Rights House Foundation (HRH)
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Tel: (+47) 22 47 92 47, Direct: (+47) 22 47 92 44,
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http://www.menneskerettigheter.no

Winning the War Against Humiliation: Report of the Independent Commission on Africa and the Challenges of the Third Millennium
Tevoedjre, Albert

Africa and the Challenges of the Third Millennium
Presents the work of social leaders and intellectuals who worked over three years to identify the priorities and perspectives for Africa in the 21st century. It raises questions about the viability of NEPAD and its development and economic aims. Foreword by Amartya Sen. Appendices, tables, figs, 185pp, BENIN, 9991946004
2002 Paperback
Our Price: £14.95

Dear peace educators and peacebuilders,

It has taken a bit of time to pull the information together, but it now gives me great pleasure to report to you. Our accomplishments at the conferences certainly exceeded my greatest expectations. You will be pleased to know that our deliberations have given birth to a 'Canadian Culture of Peace Program' - with the mission to advance a Culture of Peace and Non-violence, at home and abroad. You can read more about this in the Summary Statement linked below.

REPORT OF CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS:
On our web site at http://www.peace.ca/CanadianAgenda2004.htm, I am attaching the following Canadian Culture of Peace Program ("CCOPP") Reports for your information:

1. CCOPP Summary Statement (in HTML) (in Microsoft Word)
2. CCOPP Initial Action Plan (in HTML) (in Microsoft Word)
3. CCOPP Leadership & Peace Workshop Report (in HTML) (in Microsoft Word)

and our amazing, 60 page Youth Day Report (in pdf) - [we had 180 students doing an Open Space Technology conference, and they excelled]

In terms of initial priorities for consideration, quoting from Item 3. of the CCOPP Summary Statement http://www.peace.ca/CCOPPstatement2004.htm , a small core group has been given a mandate by participants to get on with the work at hand, including:

a) refinement of a short vision document (we did discuss the proposed vision statement, but the discussion needs more time than we had available), [this discussion could take place in conjunction with Item d below]

b) developing a plan of action, with timelines and key milestones, starting with a super menu of ideas provided by the co-participants (which will be enumerated in the Conference Report/Item 2. attached at http://www.peace.ca/CCOPPaction2004.htm )

c) entering into discussions with University of Alberta representatives to explore a possible relationship between the Canadian Culture of Peace Program and the University of Alberta's new program for peace education,

d) convene a Governance and Canadian Culture Of Peace Program Workshop soon (background reference http://www.peace.ca/CCOPPleadership2004.htm ),

e) identifying potential stakeholders in CCOPP and convening a conference of stakeholders in March 2005, so that the outcome will be available to feed into the Canadian Report on Culture of Peace activities (see following item f);

f) preparing a Canadian Report on Culture of Peace activities for April 2005 deadline for the United Nations General Assembly debate in September 2005, [Don Grayston to follow up]

g) develop a Marketing Strategy and seek funding for CCOPP projects, [I have already done some work in this regard, and could follow up on this item]

h) seek people and organizations to “champion” the key tasks,

i) continue to build on the Canadian Peace Education Strategy, and promote regional peace conferences, (background reference http://www.peace.ca/conference2003summary.htm )

j) support governmental peace and non-violence initiatives.

Please let me know if any corrections are required. Any further input is always appreciated. If you would like to help with the work at hand, please let me know. And please pass this information on to anyone that you think may be interested.

Regards,
Bob Stewart
http://www.peace.ca
ANNUAL PEACE EDUCATION CONFERENCE IN CANADA http://www.peace.ca/CanadianAgenda2004.htm

"The world is dangerous not because of those who do harm, but because of those who look at it without doing anything." - Albert Einstein

WHAT FUTURE WILL YOU CREATE?

Making an Impact: Your gift to the Canadian Peace Education Foundation will do much to reduce the human cost of violence in our communities and world through education about peace and the future in classrooms. Your gift will have a critical impact on future generations. You will enable youngsters to widen their sights by exploring alternate paths to transforming conflicts and building a better world. Gifts of cash, securities, and planned gifts are welcome and may be sent to the Canadian Peace Education Foundation, Box 70, Okotoks, AB, Canada, T1S 1A4. For more information, visit the website at http://www.peace.ca/foundation.htm

Dear friends,
please see further down the announcement of the ONE project that is being developed by Chellie Kew. See www.qfund4aids.org.
Most fondly!
Evelin

ONE: One People ? One Voice ? One Humanity ? One World

“An ancient African theologian, St. Augustine of Hippo, famously defined the essential moral and spiritual problem of all time as our tendency to let our interests curve in upon ourselves. The morbid pursuit of personal advantage is killing us -- on the individual, corporate, and national levels. The ONE summit, however, presents a refreshing and humanizing alternative. Bringing together dedicated young people from around the world to establish genuine international community is nothing less than laying the foundation for a just and humane world order. This is about hope and a new future. It is simply right.”
- William W. Rankin, Ph.D., M.P.P. President, Global AIDS Interfaith Alliance

THE CHALLENGE
Nowhere on earth are living conditions more dire than in AIDS-plagued Africa. For the past four years, the work of The 'Q' Fund has brought to the world an awareness of the plight of the African people. My time there allowed me to witness first-hand a virus without bias. Indiscriminately it afflicts young and old, wealthy and impoverished. My eyes were opened to the devastation caused by a disease that threatens the very existence not only of an entire continent but of mankind itself. Yet despite that stark reality, somehow the extraordinary orphans of Africa have transcended their most basic survival needs to assume responsibility as the new “elders” of their communities, often caring for a multitude of younger siblings. With courage and grace these children confront overwhelming loss and suffering. It touched my heart and awakens a sense of the true meaning of humanity. I no longer view Africa as a continent ravaged by disease, but rather as one which offers tremendous hope for a future. In Africa lies the cradle of mankind, whose seeds are sown into the fabric of each and every one of us, and through the eyes of orphans the message is clear: now is the time for every human to rise to the height of his or her humanity, and see one another – irrespective of race, creed, color, sex, or nationality – as members of one global community.

THE MISSION
Education
Over the next 5 years, The 'Q' Fund will embark on a mission designed to foster a new world vision by selecting senior high school men and women from around the world who will effect social change both in their local communities as well as on a global scale. The challenge to these young leaders will be to learn to collaborate with people from a variety of ethno-cultural, political, religious and social backgrounds. To facilitate this process, beginning in 2005 and continuing through 2010, The 'Q' Fund will sponsor an annual trek to the summit of Tanzania’s Mt. Kilimanjaro for 20 pre-selected participants. These young adults will be challenged to look beyond obvious differences in background, appearance, traditions, and language, and foster a sense of trust, reliance upon, and respect for those with whom they mark their symbolic journey to the heights of their inner humanity.

Logistics
In early 2005, with the backing of The National Coalition of Girls Schools (NCGS) we will begin to accept applications from students currently enrolled in private high schools around the globe. Our inaugural summit will begin with 20 females, alternating with a group of young women one year and young men the next. Participants will be selected based on an essay which details what the applicant believes he/she will bring to the experience, what he/she will gain from the experience, and how he/she will use a new global view to foster their “widened aperture” within his/her local community. Each participant will be required to submit detailed plans for raising the funds ($10,000) necessary to make this journey, with a 25% cap on funds donated by family members. After the initial 2005 summit, all participants who have completed the journey will serve as mentors for those selected to embark on future climbs.

The 5th anniversary trek will be marked by a co-ed climb comprised of leaders from each of the previous summits who have been chosen by their fellow climbers. Summiteers will be asked to select the person who has demonstrated exemplary results in effecting a change in view for their family, community and world. The 20th climber that year will be given to a person from Tanzania whose participation will honor the use of their sacred mountain, but also to recognize and thank the Tanzanian’s Maassi who will perform a nightly ritual on each trek to educate the participants about the importance of land, water, air, cattle and mankind.

The Long-Range Vision
Beginning in 2006, we will sponsor an annual international conference for those who have participated in the Kilimanjaro climb. Our summit will be hosted by those countries who express a deep commitment to fostering the development of a global vision. The week-long meeting will provide a forum for team building exercises, and will also enable these young leaders to have face-to-face planning and strategy sessions with members of the international community who have demonstrated exceptional vision and implementation in their humanitarian efforts. The goal will be for each individual participant to begin to expand his or her vision of “One people, One voice, One humanity, one world” to the international community. By sharing what each has achieved on a local level, these young leaders will engage in brainstorming sessions to forge well-defined collaborative efforts that continue to “widen the aperture” around the world.

The Need
For a detailed proposal regarding our requirements and how you or your organization can assist, please contact us . The first annual international conference gathering will be hosted by Oldfields School in Glencoe, Md. Summer 2006.

On the use of labels for cognitive-linguistic-cultural activities in language/communication textbooks/materials, Francisco Gomes de Matos, in his new book Criatividade: no Ensino no Inglês (A resource book for Brazilian teachers of English, São Paulo: Disal Editora, 2004), discusses the need to create new language.

Professor Gomes de Matos writes (in a personal message to Lindner, 12the December 2004):
"I feel the time is ripe for an in-depth label to be introduced, so as to remind creators of language education materials that language learners/users need to be challenged to engage in TRANSactivities, in creActivities.....which call for deeper intellectual investment and maximize what I call the humanizing force of language use (by upholding values such as dignity, human rights, justice, peace, planetary citizenship, solidarity, to name but a few of the fundamental concepts)."

Earlier, he wrote:
"I have dropped such well-established, traditional labels as chapters, lessons, units and coined CRI atividades instead. I guess in English you´d say CRE(a)CTIVITIES!"

The Common Ground News Service, December 8, 2004

The Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity, brought to you by Search for Common Ground, seeks to build bridges of understanding between the West and the Arab World and countries with predominately Muslim populations.

Please note: The views expressed in the articles and in CGNews-PiH are those of the authors, not of CGNews or its affiliates.

UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED, ALL ARTICLES ARE AVAILABLE FOR RE-PUBLICATION.

Article #1
Title: Van Gogh, European Purity and the "Muslim Problem"
Author: Naeem Mohaiemen
Publication: AlterNet
Date: November 23, 2004

Bringing some of the harsh verbal assaults againsts Muslims and other religious groups in Europe to light, Naeem Mohaiemen advices Muslims to "work vigorously to root out the tiny band of extremists in their midst who are distorting the message of Islam" and Europe to "look inward, and heal itself, in order to integrate its Muslim peoples."

Article #2
Title: Living proof of an emerging Euro-Mediterranean house
Author: Chris Patten
Publication: The Daily Star
Date: November 20, 2004

As the outgoing European commissioner for external relations, Chris Patten, passes the torch to his successor, he reminds readers of the Muslim contributions to European civilization both in the past and in the present. Speaking on behalf of Europeans, he worries about the hatred and fear caused by terrorist acts and argues that "we are not willing to contemplate a future where new dividing lines are created by the hatred of a minority of extremists."

Article #3
Title: The Lack of Understanding between Arabs and the West
Author: Tawfiq Abu Bakr
Publication: ~~Common Ground Series~~ in partnership with Al Hayat
Date: October 22, 2004

Tawfiq Abu Bakr's article is the fourth in a series on Arab/Muslim - Western Relations commissioned by Search for Common Ground that has been running in Middle Eastern publications over the last month. He advocates that intellectuals from the West and the Arab world plan for the future, rather than focusing on the past, and enage in face-to-face dialogue that occurs "away from text assaults, and focuses on life experiences and lessons."

~ YOUTH SERIES ~

Title: An American Living in Saudi Arabia
Author: Omar Noureldin
Publication: Partners in Humanity News Service
Date: December 7, 2004

Omar Noureldin is an American student at Dhahran High School in Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia. He and Saudi classmate Sara Al-Maashouq decided to work together to write a pair of articles about their experiences living in each other's country. Sara's article will be published in the next edition of CGNews - Partners in Humanity.

*********

An American Living in Saudi Arabia
Omar Noureldin

The day that changed my life started like any other. I was in 9th grade and it was a perfectly normal day. I woke up to go to school, went to school, came home, and next on the routine was dinner. When my dad came home from work he was very quiet, which is extremely unlike him. I found out the reason for his silence at the dinner table. Out of the blue my dad asked our family how we felt about moving to Saudi Arabia.

SAUDI ARABIA! That was halfway around the world. He wanted to take me from Los Angeles, California to a country with radically different customs and beliefs. Before then I did not know much about Saudi Arabia, it could have been on the moon for all I knew. I was overwhelmed with apprehension about what to expect; would I be able to adjust? My dad showed me a video about Saudi, which was put together by the company that hired him. The video portrayed Saudi as heaven on earth, much the same way hotels try to attract costumers by showing them only the pros and not the whole picture.

My friends also added to my anxieties; when I told one of them that I was moving to Saudi Arabia, she asked me, "Isn't that where Osama Bin Laden is from? Why are you moving there? They hate Americans in Saudi." In the western world, Saudi has always been portrayed in a negative light: a backwards nation where human rights are unheard of. As an American, this stereotype was hardwired in my subconscious, which did not help make the move easy.

"Do they have schools in Saudi Arabia? Are you going to learn in a tent? Will the teachers speak English?" were common question people asked when I told them that I was moving to Saudi. To be honest I did not know how to answer them; was I going to get a good education? I am a motivated person with high goals, I thought by moving to Saudi I would be sacrificing my education.

Despite my initial hesitation and anxieties about moving to Saudi Arabia, I left California with an open-mind. I knew that living in a foreign country would give me a new perspective, to better understand the world around me. Not many people get the chance to live in another country. I knew people who had never been out of Southern California. I was going to Saudi Arabia; Europe and North Africa were just a short flight away. I was being given a chance to see the world and I was determined to make the best of it, even if I had to make a few sacrifices along the way.

When I moved to Saudi Arabia, there were many things that I had to become accustomed to. The government of Saudi Arabia claims to run the country based on the teachings of Islam. For instance, in Islam, a person must pray five times a day at certain times of the day. When it is prayer time, everything closes, from banks to barber shops. This makes it very difficult to shop; I have to plan my schedule around the prayers. For me this was not a major issue because I understood the reasoning behind the law. The law was made to respect the prayer time and the sanctity of God. However there is a law I do not understand and causes me major distress: women are not allowed to drive in Saudi. Although this law did not apply to me, it was a constraint on my mom. It was very difficult to see my mom's way of life alter so drastically; she went from being a fiercely independent woman of the 20th century, to a woman who was subservient to the wishes of someone or something else.

Another restriction that is not necessarily imposed on me but more on my mom and sisters is the "abaya." An abaya is a long black gown that women are expected to wear when they go out in public. Although wearing the abaya is not required by law, women who choose not to wear one are often times stared at and sometimes harassed. The idea of the abaya is to promote modesty, a teaching of Islam, however Islam does not preach imposing one's religion on others. A teaching which is not Islamic is censored. Certain types of literature are not allowed in the country and someone who enters must be careful of what they try to bring in. The US State Department warns Americans traveling to Saudi: "Saudi customs and postal officials broadly define what is contrary to Islam, and therefore prohibited. Christmas decorations, fashion magazines, and 'suggestive' videos may be confiscated and the owner subject to penalties and fines."

While all these constraints seem to be daunting, they are not as bad as they seem, though they take getting used to. If you are able to respect the host country you live in and its culture, living there becomes a lot easier. I also want to point out that I was mistaken when I thought that I would be compromising my education by living in Saudi. To clear a few things up, I do go to school, an American school, with qualified teachers and a rigorous academic program. I have been to two Model United Nations conferences, one in Cairo and the other in Beijing. I would have never been given this excellent opportunity to learn about the world situation if I had stayed in the States. Even though my school is an American school, kids from 36 different countries are enrolled. This diverse atmosphere has made me become a more open-minded person, with respect for other cultures. I feel that I have been given a keen insight into the world around me that not many people have the privilege of seeing.

It may seem that the Saudi people have anti-American sentiments from watching American news channels,but this is not the case. Just because Saudis do not agree with American foreign policy does not mean that they hate Americans. They are sophisticated people who are able to make a distinction between the American government and the American people. Our family has been invited to Saudi homes and we have invited Saudis to our home.

I feel that I am privileged to be able to see the world, particularly Saudi Arabia, in a new light. I have erased all previous prejudices and stereotypes from my mind and am able to look through my eyes with a clearer, more pristine view of the world around me.

**Omar Noureldin is an American student at Dhahran High School in Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia. He and Saudi classmate Sara Al-Maashouq decided to work together to write a pair of articles about their experiences living in each other's country. Sara's article will be published in the next edition of CGNews - Partners in Humanity.

Distributed by the Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity.
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.

*********

Article #1
Van Gogh, European Purity and the "Muslim Problem"
Naeem Mohaiemen

The death of controversial Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh has unleashed a brutal cycle of hatred, familiar from Europe's past, bringing the simmering xenophobia that lurks beneath Europe's genteel surface to boiling point. Through his brutal murder - he was shot and stabbed repeatedly by a Dutch Moroccan man on Nov. 2 - Theo Van Gogh has become the catalyst for the demonization of Europe's Muslim population and for a striking re-evaluation of the meaning of tolerance.

Van Gogh, who wrote fierce diatribes against European Muslims, recently created controversy with the short film "Submission." The film's images of Quranic verses, plastered over a naked woman, inflamed Muslim passions in Holland.

"Submission" was positioned as a film championing Muslim women. Women's rights within Islam are, of course, a long-debated topic. There are myriad crises in the way that Muslim peoples and countries treat women. But many of these issues are linked to culture, misogyny, poverty, and above all, male fear of female advancement - not religion. In fact there is very little in Islamic texts that condones such behavior. But Theo Van Gogh had little patience for such nuanced discussions. Instead, "Submission" is a jumbled attack on abuse of Muslim women, which makes no distinction between distortion of religion and actual theology.

Longtime readers of Van Gogh's weekly column in the Dutch newspaper "Metro" know very well that his intention was not to reform male chauvinism, but rather to express crude bigotry. In his columns and interviews, Van Gogh called Muslims "goat fuckers" and "the Prophet's Pimps." His latest book, which lampooned Muslims as backward obscurantists, was defiantly titled "Allah Knows Best." His collaborator on "Submission," Ayaan Hirsi Ali, was equally florid, calling the Prophet Mohammed a "pervert" and a "tyrant." Theo Van Gogh's attacks were not limited only to Muslims. He blithely attacked Christian and Jewish symbols, once saying, "It smells like caramels - they must be burning Jewish diabetics."

All of these prejudices found full expression in "Submission." The film came about through Van Gogh's collaboration with right-wing Dutch-Somali MP Aymaan Hirsi Ali, an "ex-Muslim" who now denounces her former religion. Telling the story of a Muslim woman who is pushed into a forced marriage and then raped by her uncle, the 9-minute film intersperses a voice-over with images of Quranic verses on a praying woman. The woman is completely naked, only her face is covered with a veil. Across her breasts, navel, and thighs is a thin diaphanous cloth, through which text from the Quran is clearly visible on her body. Nude to the camera, she repeatedly bows down to pray. The camera lingers with a fetishist's eye over her nakedness, at one point zooming in on her raised finger (used during prayer to indicate the one-ness of God).

European fascination with the veiled (and unveiled) Muslim woman is nothing new. During the colonization of North Africa, the eroticization of the "harem woman" was a trope of European art and literature. Van Gogh's film is a modern version of the same colonial male fantasy - a vision where the European male is the only liberator of Muslim women. The nudity in the film adds nothing to a critique of Islam, but it applies a calculated slap to the face of Muslim piety. There are many valid critiques of women's status in different Muslim societies, with their own specific colonial histories. Such work is already being spearheaded by Muslim theorists, activists and academics such as Fatima Mernissi, Asma Jahangir, Asma Barlas, Sachiko Murata, Leila Ahmed, Amina Wadud and Kecia Ali.

Though Van Gogh's work was irresponsible, damaging and filmed with contempt, nothing can justify his murder. Just as Van Gogh was intolerant of Muslims, his murderer was intolerant of free speech. By pushing society into chaos, Van Gogh's killer also hoped to spark a conflagration between the Netherlands and its Muslim immigrants. In the weeks following the murder, there were fire-bombings and attacks against 20 mosques and two Muslim schools. During the Bosnian conflict, Shabil Aktar wrote, "The next time they build gas chambers in Europe, it will be for Muslims." While that comparison may be excessive, anti-Muslim hysteria, eerily similar to the judeophobia of the 1930s, is steadily rising in Europe. Already, there is talk of developing a national database that will track the 'risk profile' of immigrants in the Netherlands. The Dutch government has also said it will close all mosques teaching "non-Dutch" values. What exactly those "Dutch values" are is left unclear.

Of course, not all the trends are negative. A proposal to require mosque imams to give sermons in European languages, instead of Arabic, has been supported by local Muslim leaders. In another positive development, Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende urged the European Union to work harder on integrating ethnic minorities. Citing the frenzy of reprisal attacks, he said, "The strong reactions and counter-reactions after the death of Van Gogh shows there is tension in our society. In Europe, we have to learn from one another in the area of integration of minorities." While Balkenende is a rational voice, there are equal numbers of voices that are pushing for extreme measures. In a Dutch government with prominent right-wing demagogues like cabinet ministers Rita Verdonk and Gerrit Zalm, and Members of Parliament Gert Wilders and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, there is a strong possibility of excessively zealous legislation being pushed through. The American experience, where decades of civil
liberties gains where jettisoned in the post 9/11 hysteria, can serve as a blueprint for European right-wingers.

Beyond the controversy and the senseless murder, the bigger issue for Europe is to confront anti-Muslim racism. Dr. Tariq Ramadan has argued that European Muslims are simultaneously a distinct entity and part of the European fabric. But Europe continues to treat Muslims as permanent outsiders - inassimilable and hostile to "European values."

Talking about Europe's continued marginalization of its Muslim citizens, Abu Rishe Al-Mawali wrote, "Muslims are not the Borg. There is no central hive mind where all Muslims are controlled. I tire of Muslims always having to apologize for their very existence." Unlike America, which is an immigrant nation at its core, the European psyche is still obsessed with notions of purity. Muslims are seen as foreign bodies that are contaminating Europe. The most strident voices against "foreigners" come from Europe's best-known cultural figures, who have made this ugly racism fashionable. Best-selling French author Michel Houllebecq has made a career out of literary complaints about "French women who only sleep with Algerians and Moroccans." Former sex symbol Brigitte Bardot has been fined four times by French courts for inciting racial hatred, including her statements about France being over-run by "sheep-slaughtering Muslims" and opposing interracial marriage. In England, former Labor MP and BBC presenter Robert Kilroy-Silk caused an outrage after he called Arabs "suicide bombers, limb-amputators, women repressors."

The most piercing voice comes from Italian legend Oriana Fallaci, who came out of a 10-year exile to write the post 9/11 diatribe, "The Rage and the Pride." Calling Muslims "vile creatures, who urinate in baptistries" and "multiply like rats," Fallaci mourned how they were invading and violating her native Florence ("Terrorists, thieves, rapists. Ex-convicts, prostitutes, beggars. Drug-dealers, contagiously ill"). After the book became a runaway bestseller in Italy, she expanded her critique to encompass all of Europe, and its "kindness" towards Muslim immigrants: "Europe is no longer Europe. It is a province of Islam, as Spain and Portugal were at the time of the Moors. It hosts almost 16 million Muslim immigrants and teems with mullahs, imams, mosques, burqas, chadors."

These cultural commentators have helped to create an environment in which far-right and neo-Nazi politicians like Jean Marie Le Pen, Jorg Haider, Pia Kiaersgaard, and the late Pim Fortuyn have entered the mainstream of European politics.

The key factor that drives fears of Muslim immigrants is the plummeting birth rate among white Europeans. Similar to Israel, it is the "demographic time bomb" that is today the specter haunting Europe. The Dutch government estimates that, by 2010, at present rates of immigration, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, The Hague and Utrecht would have Muslim majorities. Recent opinion polls have shown Islam, immigration and integration to be the top three concerns for the Dutch voter. In addition, Turkey's entry into the EU accelerated the fear that Europe's borders, which kept it white and Christian for centuries, were finally crumbling. Each far-right politician has made paranoia about "Muslim hordes" a central platform of their appeal.

Writers, filmmakers, and politicians are only the most naked expressions of Europe's simmering xenophobia. Much more prejudice hides below the surface, waiting to explode. The frenzy of violence after the Holland tragedy revealed the monsters lurking in Europe's backyard. Theo Van Gogh's tragic death should be mourned, and his killers apprehended. Muslims must work vigorously to root out the tiny band of extremists in their midst who are distorting the message of Islam. But Europe must also look inward, and heal itself, in order to integrate its Muslim peoples. There can be no better reply to those who want to throw up the walls of Fortress Europe.

**Naeem Mohaiemen is editor of Shobak.Org and director of the documentary "Muslims or Heretics?".

Source: Alternet
Visit the website at: www.alternet.org
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity.
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.

**********

Article #2
Living proof of an emerging
Euro-Mediterranean house
Chris Patten

An architect working to restore the Medina of Tunis, a Moroccan farmer developing new ways to make best use of his land, an academic from Jordan attending a seminar in Europe, an Algerian NGO promoting civil rights, an Egyptian official learning how to enter the EU internal market: All these people are living proof of the cooperation that now exists between Europe and the Mediterranean, and the wide scope of our work together.

As I end my term as European commissioner, I am satisfied that the Barcelona Process has come a long way over the past five years, but there is still much to be done.

The Mediterranean is for Europe much more than a geopolitical concept; it is the origin of three basic components of our culture: the monotheistic religions; Greek philosophy, with its anthropocentric ideas of human freedom; and Roman law. Our Arab and Jewish neighbors made a significant contribution to the expansion of these ideas in Western Europe. In the most obscure decades of the Middle Ages, Avicenna, Averroes or Maimonides enriched and transmitted Greek philosophy to Western Europe, and their work on algebra and medicine deeply influenced Europe's development and identity.

It is important not to lose sight of this historical perspective in the face of recent events: the stalled Middle East peace process, the war in Iraq, and the terrible terrorist attacks that, since September 2001 in New York, Istanbul, Casablanca or Madrid, have seen terrorists try to drive a wedge of fear and mistrust between Europe and the Arab world. They must not succeed. We are not willing to contemplate a future where new dividing lines are created by the hatred of a minority of extremists. The determination of our governments and, more importantly, of our civil societies on both sides of the Mediterranean, must prevent it. These years have shown how crucial is our cooperation across the Mediterranean, how essential our engagement with our southern neighbors.

While newspapers have speculated about a clash between our civilizations, the Euro-Mediterranean partnership has made quiet, but concrete progress, with realistic steps toward the Euro-Mediterranean house envisaged by the original Barcelona declaration.

Take free trade: All countries of the region but one have agreed on a schedule of tariff reductions that will result in the setting up of a free-trade area with the EU, and an agreement with Syria has been completed but not yet signed. Alongside this progress on North-South trade, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan have signed in 2004 a free-trade agreement among themselves, an important step to free up South-South commerce. A great free-trade area from Rabat to Ankara and from Helsinki to Amman is gradually taking shape.

But our policies are not just about trade. The partnership developed through the Barcelona Process, and more recently and deeply, by the European Neighborhood Policy, is about reform, encouraging gradual change and stable transition in countries willing to engage with the European Union. With this partnership comes aid: Since 2000, the European Commission has deployed over $3.9 billion in the region, and we are ever more efficient at getting the money where it is needed. Over the past five years we have offered cooperation to help partners in the Mediterranean weather the challenges of globalization, modernize their legislation, adapt their social protection systems, improve their transport and their telecommunications, reform their judiciary or promote and preserve their cultural heritage. The new Euro-Mediterranean Foundation for the Dialogue between Cultures will be a further demonstration of our determination to promote the principles of tolerance and mutual understanding.

All this has been possible because across the Mediterranean our partners feel the same need to build bridges with us. There is a new sense of urgency to deal with the challenges of the region from demographics to education, from unemployment to environment. A clear sign that reform is not a taboo issue for the Arab world are the declarations issued by civil society organizations in Alexandria and Sanaa, and more significantly, by Arab governments at May's Arab League summit in Tunis. Some measures still prove hard to take, including increased democracy and participation of the people in government. The process of democratic reforms in Mediterranean countries has been too slow and too modest, but reforms have to be driven by the people of the Mediterranean, and it is not for Europe to decide the pace and the sequence of change.

Democracy is not a luxury commodity for rich countries; it is the basic raw material with which developed and developing countries alike shape their future, tackle the demands of their societies, and avoid conflict by respecting the rights of minorities.

Democracy is one of the principles of European integration, and one which we hope will bring prosperity and peace to the Middle East and the Mediterranean. Of course, to secure peace we need concrete measures, too. We want our children to inherit a Mediterranean free of weapons of mass destruction, and we are involved in a process of intense dialogue with our partners in the region, with the aim of building a region where all the countries fully respect their international obligations in this regard.

These are some of the building blocks of the Euro-Mediterranean house under construction: peace, prosperity and democracy. I am sure that in the skillful hands of my successor, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the commission will continue to do its building work with patience and determination.

**Chris Patten is the outgoing European commissioner for external relations.
He made these remarks on the Barcelona Process at the end of his term in office.

Source: The Daily Star
Website: www.dailystar.com.lb
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity.
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.

**********

Article #3
The Lack of Understanding between Arabs and the West
Tawfiq Abu Bakr

The relationship between Arab and Western intellectual elites is distorted, representing a major obstacle on the path to reaching a mutual understanding, where both sides would benefit. Many "revolutionist" intellectuals in our countries retreat from facing this obstacle, instead waging a daily war of words on Arab satellite TV stations, against American policy in the Middle East. This only expands the prevailing valley of misunderstanding. Bridging this gap requires even more extensive efforts and more intensive understanding and quiet strategic contemplation after the events of September 11, 2001, which were carried out by extremist groups hiding behind the cloak of Islam and holding distorted interpretations of its scriptures. Arab elites need to identify points of distorted understanding between us and the West, without the influence of what we call "Arab street extremism."

The League of Arab Nations had called for a special forum, attended by prominent Arab intellectuals, to study the misunderstanding between Arabs and the West. It was to open channels of dialogue with Western intellectuals and research centers that work to understand us through abstract research, where concepts are derived from concepts, without any interaction with humans. The Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) held a similar seminar in Frankfurt, and another in Paris, in cooperation with the Arab World Institute (L'Institut du Monde Arabe). The main problem with these conferences is the practice of "text assaults," where each party throws what texts it has at the other, thus turning the conversation into a disputation, with each party rebutting the other party's accusations, and with participants addressing their Arab or Islamic audiences. Many Western intellectuals do the same. Dialogue should take place face-to-face, away from text assaults, and focused on life experiences and lessons. We should not debate Western intellectuals as if we were angels without sins; we should confess our sins and admit our shortcomings in their presence.

There is no truth to the allegation that there exists an animosity against the West in the Arab and Islamic world for which there is no cure, and whose roots are religious and historical in nature. This is what a limited number of extreme forces on both sides, not all of which are fundamentalist, incidentally, wish to spread around. But Amir Tahiri, the Iranian journalist living abroad, writes that after American troops entered Afghanistan, a mere seventeen small demonstrations took place among the one billion Muslims throughout the world. There exists a distorted relationship with the West, but it is not one of deep animosity. Otherwise, we would not have eagerly received their scientific and technological products in our countries, with profound awe, in most cases.

Yes, we do have a problem with "modernism," for some extremists and some fundamentalists in our countries (not all of them) oppose "modernism" in general, and therefore oppose openness to the West. This is a major crisis from which we suffer, and which is not sufficiently challenged by advocates of enlightenment. But there are also opponents to modernism in the West, including those who deny that the earth is spherical, until this day. We have a problem with "culture relativism," because those who oppose openness to "the Other" in our Arab world hide behind the Arab and Islamic particularism, exaggerating it in order to prevent application of international values that harm their limited interests. I have myself seen representatives of the most oppressive and backward Arab regimes take turns at the podium at the International Conference for Human Rights held in Vienna in 1993, when I was Executive Director of the Amnesty International chapter in Jordan. They talked with great vigor about "culture relativism" in order to repulse attempts to universalize human rights and openness to "the Other," because that would put an end to their monopoly on control over their peoples. Arab people of enlightenment have a duty to confront this phenomenon.

We incessantly say that those who are extremists in our countries are limited in number and influence, and that the West generalizes the behavior of this strayed minority as representing Arabs and Muslims. Yes, this does happen. But in order for it not to happen again in the future, and in order for channels of communication and dialogue to open up, the Arab intellectual elite, which takes upon itself the mission of enlightenment, must assume its role and condemn, clearly and without a trace of ambiguity, the actions of those extremists and terrorists, without hesitation or bashfulness, and without connecting this to any other issue, along the policy of "yes, but." When a true dialogue with Western elites commences, the issue must be addressed openly and squarely: That the search for the roots of extremism and terror in our countries will lead to pro-Israeli Western policies, as well as socio-economic reasons, including poverty, depression, despair, and isolation.

Those in our nations who understand the West are very few. Our isolation started in the fifteenth century, with the delay of openness: a prerequisite for eliminating misunderstanding, and a condition for development, as well. The West cannot be understood from translated articles, sometimes in poor style, or through academic studies. Direct, fertile, and continued interaction is essential. Similarly, the West cannot understand us through partial readings of Sayyed Qutub's last writings, in which he deletes the role of the intellect in the making of civilization. Extremism in our countries has an educational side, and we should not be bashful to admit this openly. Some educational curricula in our nations promote isolationism, extremism, and animosity towards "the Other." Things will never get better unless we initiate, within Arab circles, a deep dialogue without "red lines." Europe did not enter the era of renaissance and enlightenment until it cancelled its "red lines," shaking the very foundations of what was taken for granted, and bringing down what was considered obvious. Things will never get any better, until we consider "the Other" inside the Arab house as an extension and not an antagonist.

It is true that considering "the Other" an "opposite" does exist in the Arab heritage. But excavating our heritage also reveals the presence of democratic calls for realizing "the Other" in a luminous manner. Nations do not prosper unless they look forward and plan for the future, taking an occasional peek backwards, in order to connect the past with the present. It is a method that includes openness, freedom, and the elimination of misunderstanding with "the Other," especially with the "West," if it is to be a process that will lead to a prosperous and promising future.

**Tawfiq Abu Bakr is a veteran political analyst, the director of Jenin Center for Strategic Studies and a member of Palestinian National Council. This article is part of a series of views on the relationship between the Islamic/Arabic world and the West, published in partnership with the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).

Source: This article is part of a series of views on the relationship between the Islamic/Arabic world and the West, published in partnership with the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity.
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.

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About CGNews-PiH
The Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity, brought to you by Search for Common Ground, seeks to build bridges of understanding between the West and the Arab World and countries with predominately Muslim populations. This service is one result of a set of working meetings held in partnership with His Royal Highness Prince El Hassan bin Talal in June 2003.

Every two weeks, CGNews-PiH will distribute 2-5 news articles, op-eds, features, and analyses that aid in developing and analyzing the current and future relationship of the West and Arab/Muslim world. Articles will be chosen based on accuracy, balance, and their ability to improve understanding and communication across borders and regions. They will also reflect the need for constructive dialogue around issues of global importance. Selections will be authored by local and international experts and leaders who will analyze and discuss a broad range of relevant issues. We invite you to submit any articles you feel are compatible with the goals of this news service.

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& Elyte Baykun
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Dear Participants of our 2004 Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict in New York, November 18-19!

Thanks!

May I express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to all of you who joined our Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict in New York in 2004! You ALL made our meeting a unique and extremely exiting experience! As after our Paris meeting in September, I felt as if I went through a hurricane, so many creative contributions "swirled" through our workshop! Please see here some pictures!

Our workshop was a closed meeting. We could have had many more participants and unfortunately had to say "no" to many of you who wrote to us and wished to participate. We would like to express our regret to all of you who did not have the chance to participate. We will try to broaden our activities (and resources!) in the future! Please bear with us and give us your support so that we can grow in a constructive way!

I would like to thank our host, the Columbia University's Conflict Resolution Network (CU-CRN), with special help from SIPA – Center for International Conflict Resolution, Columbia University (CICR) and the International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution (ICCCR).

Please let me express special thanks to Alba Taveras, Melissa Sweeney, Judit Révész, and Andrea Bartoli, Peter Coleman and Morton Deutsch! Warm thanks also to Rebecca Klein for diligently taking notes during the entire meeting, to Linda Hartling and Donald Klein for setting the frame of appreciative inquiry, Beth Fisher-Yoshida, Linda Hartling, Carlos E. Sluzki, and Donald Klein for being moderators, to Alan Klein for leading our Open Space Session, and to Steve Perry Flythe and Craig Dorsi for filming.

The Research Workshop was made possible by a generous contribution from the Slifka Foundation, and we wish to express our warm gratitude.

...

Please read the entire newsletter on http://www.humiliationstudies.org/publications/newsletter3.php.

Please see the site of the workshop at www.humiliationstudies.org/whoweare/annualmeeting03.php.

And please see also the first two newsletters:

Newsletter Nr. 2 - Subsequent to our Paris meeting, September 2004

Newsletter Nr. 1 - Founding Issue, September 2004

Most warmly!

Evelin

On Apology
by Aaron Lazare
Hardback, 320 pages Sep 2004,
http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/?view=usa&ci=0195173430

Description
One of the most profound interactions that can occur between people, apologies have the power to heal humiliations, free the mind from deep-seated guilt, remove the desire for vengeance, and ultimately restore broken relationships. In On Apology, Aaron Lazare offers an eye-opening analysis of this vital interaction, illuminating an often hidden corner of the human heart. Why do people apologize? Why is it so difficult to apologize? Why do some apologies heal while others fail--and even offend? Is it ever too late to apologize? Is the ability to apologize a sign of strength or weakness? In what ways are public apologies different from private ones? What is the relationship of apology to forgiveness? Lazare answers all these questions in this fascinating volume. Indeed, the author offers a wide-ranging dissection of the apology. He discusses the importance of shame, guilt, and humiliation, the timelessness of emotional pain, the initial reluctance to apologize, the simplicity of the act of apologizing, the spontaneous generosity and forgiveness on the part of the offended, the transfer of power and respect between two parties, and much more. Throughout, the author looks not only at individuals but also at groups and nations--for instance, Abraham Lincoln's apology for slavery, the German government's apology to the victims of World War II, and the U.S. government's apology to Japanese-Americans interned during World War II. Readers will thus find not only a wealth of insight that they can apply to their own lives, but also a deeper understanding of national and international conflicts and how we might resolve them. Everyone has the opportunity to apologize now and then. On Apology opens a window onto this common occurrence to reveal the feelings and actions at the heart of this profound interaction. Reviews
"This jewel of a book reveals the many facets of the seemingly simple act of apology.... Drawing on a vast array of literary and real-life examples, from Agamemnon to George Patton to Arnold Schwarzenegger, from the current pope to the machinist who approached him after a lecture, Lazare lucidly dissects the process of apology.... Everybody on earth could benefit from this small but essential book."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"At a time in our history when there seems to be so much to apologize for--Lazare's book is a wise reminder of how much depends on the sincerity and openheartedness with which we acknowledge that a wrong has been done and begin to work together toward forgiveness."--Francine Prose, Oprah Magazine

"Lazare, a gifted psychiatrist, distinguishes between genuine apologies and statements of sympathy ('I'm sorry for your loss') and pseudo-apologies of the kind often favored by politicians ('I'm sorry if you were offended by anything that was said').... The strength of this book rests in the stories of apologies that Lazare has collected from people, politics, literature and history."--Washington Post Book World

"Traces the history of the world's most humbling act, exploring everything from Lincoln's apology for slavery to Arnold Schwarzenegger's mea culpa after allegations of breast-groping."--Wall Street Journal

"This unique book is sure to set a reader thinking on many levels, but its ultimate message is the meaning and the magically transformative power of what would seem on the surface to be a simple apology. No one who becomes familiar with Dr. Lazare's perceptive interpretations will forget his sensitivity and wisdom."--Sherwin B. Nuland, MD, author of Lost in America and How We Die

"The culmination of the prestigious career of a man who has dedicated his entire professional life to improving relations between people."--The Forward

"Moving, enlightening, and potentially profoundly healing, On Apology is a timely gift for our era. Aaron Lazare sheds light on one of the most basic of human interactions, and on why people, and even nations, can feel so bad and then so good, on both sides of a true apology. His skillful storytelling and analysis touchingly reveal our common humanity, how we might nurture it, and how it is also sometimes ignored or betrayed. You may find yourself more than once in tears of empathy and uplift."--Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, author of Wherever You Go, There You Are and Coming to Our Senses

"A splendid treatment of a fascinating set of topics that touch all of our lives."--Sissela Bok, PhD, author of Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life and Secrets: On the Ethics of Concealment and Revelation

"Intimacy is healing, and apology is a powerful doorway to intimacy and healing. This is the most important book ever written on the value of apology. Highly recommended." --Dean Ornish, MD, author of Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease and Love and Survival
Product Details
320 pages; 5 x 7; 0-19-517343-0

About the Author
Aaron Lazare, M.D., is Chancellor and Dean, and Professor of Psychiatry, at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, in Worcester, Massachusetts and Senior Psychiatrist at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He was formerly Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He is a leading authority on the psychology of shame and humiliation, and wrote a highly regarded article on apology in Psychology Today that led to appearances on "Oprah," "Talk of the Nation," and many other TV and radio shows.

Dear Friends,

December 10 was an important day to reflect upon the normative standards granted to us by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Please take a moment out of your day to contemplate the following articles pertaining to the UDHR and consider how we, as educators, might work to more fully realize these rights throughout our teaching and how we can work to achieve these rights for others around the world.

December 10
International Human Rights Day

Article 26
1. Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.

2. Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.

3. Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

-Universal Declaration of Human Rights
December 10, 1948

With hopes for peace and justice for the future,
The Peace Education Center
Tony Jenkins
Coordinator
Peace Education Center
Teachers College - Box 171
Columbia University
New York, New York 10027
tel: (212) 678-8116 fax: (212) 678-8237
web: www.tc.edu/PeaceEd

Hommage to Albert Tévoedjrè, an exceptional African, in the "Centre de Cas" ["Case Center"], which aims at describing the biographies of influencial leaders.

VIENT DE PARAITRE:
«Albert TEVOEDJRE, un Africain d’exception»

L’Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC) de l’Université de Montréal anime un «Centre de Cas» couvrant plusieurs domaines dont celui du Leadership.

Des études sur la carrière de certaines personnalités sont proposées, analysées et acceptées par un comité scientifique. Elles sont ensuite codifiées et mises sur Internet avec des notes pédagogiques pour les étudiants et chercheurs du monde entier qui travaillent sur les méthodes et les divers types de leadership.

Le cas Albert TEVOEDJRE vient d’être retenu sous le titre: «Albert TEVOEDJRE, un Africain d’exception». Il a été rédigé par le Professeur Laurent LAPIERRE, Titulaire de la Chaire de Leadership Pierre Péladeau à HEC Montréal, assisté de Roch Sosthène NEPO, chercheur béninois, actuel Directeur Général de l’Agence Nationale pour l’Emploi à Cotonou (Bénin).

Dans la liste des cas de leadership ou de créateurs, recensés par HEC Montréal, on relèveles cas suivants:

André Caillé et Hydro-Québec
Le cardinal Léger: la superbe et le dépouillement
Le leadership selon Marguerite Yourcenar écrivant Mémoires d’Hadrien
Getúlio Vargas: un mythe brésilien
René Lévesque: l’homme qui voulait bâtir un pays
Winston Churchill. Écrivain et homme d’État
Albert Camus: le difficile pari de la lucidité

On peut accéder au Centre de Cas et au document concernant Albert TEVOEDJRE, en se connectant à l’adresse suivante: www.hec.ca/centredecas et consulter la liste des cas par domaine (Management) ou par auteur (Laurent Lapierre). - (Cas: No. 9 40 2004 038)

Albert Tévodejrè, un Africain d'exception
Roch Sosthène Nepo, Laurent Lapierre

En décembre 2004, Albert Tévoedjrè, celui que ses compatriotes ont affectueusement surnommé «le renard de Djrègbé» est âgé de 75 ans. Il a à son actif près d'un demi- siècle d'une carrière bien remplie et entièrement dédiée à la promotion collective des hommes, en tant que dirigeant de mouvements estudiantins, chef syndicaliste, responsable fondateur de partis politiques, universitaire émérite, écrivain engagé et particulièrement prolofique, haut fonctionnaire des Nations un[...]
Mots clés : leadership, afrique, international, spiritualité

Dignity is the new format of the previous Fourth World Journal. It is published quarterly to cover some of the wider aspects of poverty and present the views of policy makers, as well as giving news of our own activities. You will find here the past issues in full (Adobe Acrobat format):

Autumn 2001
Summer 2001
Spring 2001
Autumn 2000

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The full version of Dignity (Autumn 2001) is available in Adobe Acrobat format here (630 KB).

October 17: The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

Sharing the Human Experience

Background
Policy and Participation

Towards an Inclusive Europe:
Contributing to European Policies

News
Family Fun Day - 21st July 2001

Breandam Splendour Art Exhibition

A Fond Farewell to Mrs Gadd

Fundraising in Cambridge

It's a Rap for South London Youth

News from Jersey

Artspeaks in Hull

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The full version of Dignity (Summer 2001) is available in Adobe Acrobat format here (650 KB).

10 Years looking back to look forward...

Looking ahead: Matt Davies and Beatriz Monje

Looking back: Putting all the Pieces of the Jigsaw Together

Interview with John and Helen Penet

A 10 year retrospective

Policy and Participation

The Right to Live as a Family

Monitoring Policy and Consulting with Government

Participation and involvment in traing

Building Partnerships with Professionals

News

Building the Big Picture Together

Sputnik

Artspeak Aldershot

Cambridge

Goodbye Arnold

Frimhurst

Me, you and us

Farewell to Elaine Downie

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The full version of All Together for Dignity (Spring 2001) is available in Adobe Acrobat format here (571 KB).

Friends Rally Round to Put artspeaks on the Road

Policy and Participation

National Recognition

Adoption Debate

Meeting with the Chancellor

Fundraising

Bike riding in the loot

Wear-jeans-to-work day

Friends aim for a target

European News

Ever closer links

Joint Planning

The Right to Live as a Family

The People's University in Brussels

News in Brief

High Rise, High Hopes

Frimhurst

Breandam

Listen Hear: the Right to be Heard

Jersey

National Plan to Eradicate Poverty

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The full version of All Together for Dignity (Autumn 2000) is available in Adobe Acrobat format here (950 KB).

Art Speaks to Secretary of State

"Living in Poverty is bleak, it makes you feel such a failure. That's why it is so important to be able to create your own beauty, to get a sense of acheiving something. It makes us all richer inside."
Participant in the Empowerment Through Art Project
Participation Works report launched
"We have a lifetime of experience and we understand poverty because we are living it every day, but people don't usually ask our opinions..."
Tricia McConalogue

A politics of recognition and respect: Involving people with experience of poverty in decision-making that affects their lives.
by Ruth Lister
Loughborough University
In Andersen, J. & Siim, B. (Eds.), The politics of inclusion and empowerment. New York, NY: Palgrave, 2004.

Introduction
People living in poverty and their organisations should be empowered by involving them fully in the setting of targets, and in the design, implementation, monitoring and assessment of national strategies and programmes for poverty eradication and community-based development, and ensuring that such programmes reflect their priorities.

Five years ago, over 100 countries signed up to this statement in the Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action at the UN World Summit for Social Development. In the UK, the Summit provided the catalyst for the establishment of the UK Coalition against Poverty (UKCAP), which now has around 160 members. Its mission was the inclusion of people with direct experience of poverty in partnership with local, national and international organisations, working towards ending poverty and campaigning for the national anti-poverty programme to which governments signed up at the Summit.

Towards this end, the Coalition raised money for the Voices for Change project, a key element of which was the establishment of an independent Commission on Poverty, Participation and Power, of which I was a member. The second section of this chapter describes the work of this Commission, together with a number of other initiatives in the UK, which reflect the spirit of the Copenhagen Declaration. It considers the position of the UK Government and points to lessons to be learnt from the experience of the southern hemisphere.

The first section of the paper attempts to put such practical initiatives in a theoretical context. Using the concepts of exclusion, citizenship, democracy, recognition and empowerment, it makes a normative case for the involvement of people in poverty in decision-making that affects their lives. It argues that such involvement should be seen as a central element in a ‘politics of empowerment and inclusion’.

I. Theoretical Perspectives
The politics of poverty is increasingly being couched in a non-materialist discourse of human and citizenship rights, democracy, inclusion and respect. This does not represent a denial of the material conditions that lie at the heart of poverty. What it does do is offer an opportunity to transform the politics of poverty into one that addresses questions of power as well as material resources. At the same time, it integrates the concerns of those in poverty into wider debates about citizenship and democracy, rather than treating them as separate (Lister, 2004). This section represents an initial attempt to develop an analytical framework in which this emergent politics of poverty can be both understood and forged. It does so through the application of a number of, at times overlapping, concepts in social and political theory.

Social exclusion
Social exclusion has become an increasingly fashionable concept in many parts of Europe, including New Labour’s Britain. Graham Room has suggested that, whereas the notion of poverty primarily concerns the distribution of material resources, that of social exclusion focuses ‘primarily on relational issues, in other words, inadequate social participation, lack of social integration and lack of power’ (Room, 1995: 5). The last element points to the political as well as social nature of exclusion.

In the same volume, Jos Berghman identifies as helpful the breadth and dynamic nature of the notion of social exclusion. Breadth, in his exposition, refers to failure in a number of different systems of integration: economic (through the labour market), welfare, interpersonal (through family/community) and civic (through the democratic and legal systems). This approach, he suggests, points to the conceptualisation of social exclusion as ‘the denial – or non-realisation – of citizenship rights’, following the European Observatory on Policies to Combat Social Exclusion (Berghman, 1995: 19). Such a conceptualisation also calls attention to another aspect of social exclusion’s multi-dimensional nature, not addressed by Berghman. This is the ways in which prejudice and discriminatory and oppressive behaviour can, within these four systems, serve to exclude particular groups such as women, racialised groups, disabled people and gays and lesbians.

The dynamic nature of social exclusion encourages a focus on processes and not just outcomes (Wilson, 1995; Byrne, 1999). In doing so, it provides due regard to agency, as well as structure, one or other of which can be lost sight of when attention is fixed, either benevolently or critically, on individual experience and behaviour. Thus, by encouraging the question ‘who is excluding whom and how?’ the concept draws attention to the role played by social and economic institutions and by political decisions in creating and reinforcing poverty and exclusion. A more dynamic approach also opens up space for the agency of those excluded as political and social actors, rather than treating them as simply passive victims. It places greater emphasis on the political dimension of exclusion, which in turn raises questions about the political status and role of excluded groups (Lister, 2000).

Such a conceptualisation of social exclusion is representative of what Ruth Levitas has dubbed RED, a redistributive, egalitarian discourse. As she notes, ‘from the perspective of RED, political inclusion is an aspect of social inclusion’ (Levitas, 1998: 173). However, such a discourse is less prominent in contemporary British and EU politics than those of SID (social integrationist), which focuses mainly on the labour market, and, to a lesser extent, MUD (moral ‘underclass’). The growing demands to involve people in poverty in decision-making that affects their lives represents a challenge to a narrow conceptualisation of social exclusion, limited to labour market participation, and to a derogatory conceptualisation, which labels people in poverty as passive welfare ‘dependants’.

Citizenship
In contrast, such demands draw implicitly on RED, which, alongside its egalitarian stance, simultaneously represents an expansive discourse of citizenship, embracing civil, political, cultural and social rights. Citizenship is, in part, about equality of status and respect (relevant also to recognition politics, see below). As Beresford et al argue, in a study in which ‘poor people speak for themselves’, their inclusion in poverty discussions
is part of the broader issue of addressing the restricted citizenship of people who are poor. It also signifies respect for poor people; an acknowledgement that they have something to offer, that their contribution is important, worthwhile and valued, and recognition of their expertise in their own experience. Much of the social democratic/social administration debate about poverty has focused on equality. Supporting people to speak for themselves is a basic requirement for such equality (Beresford et al, 1999: 27).

In some strands of contemporary citizenship theory, participation in decision-making is put forward as a citizenship right. Thomas Janoski, for instance, makes the case for ‘a right of participation’, suggesting that its addition to the panoply of rights ‘pushes citizenship rights into the center of more recent welfare state controversies and democratic struggles’ (1998: 50). The right to participation can be understood as a bridge between the two main traditions of citizenship: the (social) liberal rights and civic republican traditions, which respectively cast citizenship as a status and a practice. In the latter, the essence of citizenship is active participation in governance and politics for the good of the wider community

The right to participation has also been promoted as a human and not just a citizenship right. Carol Gould (1988), for instance, has argued for an extension of the human right of democratic participation to include the right of participation in social and economic decision-making. Her argument is grounded in the agency of human beings and in the principle of freedom as self-development. It resonates in the distinction made by Doyal and Gough, in their theory of human need, between simple autonomy as expressed through agency and ‘the higher degrees of critical autonomy which are entailed by democratic participation in the political process at whatever level’ (Doyal and Gough, 1991: 68).

In some cases, citizenship and human rights discourses are combined to make the case for the involvement of people in poverty in decisions which affect their lives. In a recent consultation document the British Department for International Development argues that human rights ‘provide a means of empowering all people to make decisions about their own lives rather than being the passive objects of choices made on their behalf’. The document ‘sets out the practical ways in which the human rights framework contributes to the achievement of the objective of enabling all people to be active citizens with rights, expectations and responsibilities’ (DfID, 2000: 1).

A concrete example is provided by ATD Fourth World, in its description of a project in which severely disadvantaged families were able to meet with each other and with professionals in a spirit of partnership. The underlying philosophy of the project was that the creation of a democracy, in which ‘all citizens have the means to enjoy their rights, assume their responsibilities, and make their contribution’, requires us all to ‘be ready to change and to consider the poor as partners with whom we will learn how to respect the human rights of each and every one of us’ (1996: 61).

ATD claims that ‘the project showed us that as people gained self-esteem, self-confidence, and sometimes practical skills as well, they started to see that their views and opinions could be taken seriously’ (1996: 58). As a result, they were able to participate more effectively in partnership relationships with professionals. The importance of such a process to citizenship is underlined in some feminist writings on citizenship. Susan James, for instance, has argued that to speak in one’s own voice and put forward one’s views in the polity, as required of citizens, requires ‘self-esteem – a stable sense of one’s own separate identity and a confidence that one is worthy to participate in political life’ (1992: 60).

The ATD project is an example of how the very process of participation helps to build self-esteem and thus strengthen the agency of people in poverty, thereby enabling them to act more effectively as citizens. As Maud Eduards (1994: 18) has observed, agency embodies ‘a transformative’ capacity, which has been vital in the development of women’s citizenship. It is particularly vital in the development of the citizenship of women in poverty, but also men in poverty. As I have argued elsewhere ‘to act as a citizen requires first a sense of agency, the belief that one can act; acting as a citizen, especially collectively, in turn fosters that sense of agency’ (Lister, 2003: 39). Indeed, agency has been described as ‘the defining quality of citizenship’ as a practice (Barnes, 1999b: 82).

Another example comes from a unique parliamentary initiative in which an All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) of Members of Parliament has involved, on a regular basis, people with experience of poverty in its meetings. In the first report of the APPG on Poverty, participants were quoted as saying:
‘It is good for me to be able to speak out’
‘Taking part in the APPG has helped me to learn what I can do to make differences, to know what I can contribute’.
‘We don’t make the effort if we don’t think that we’ll be listened to, participating in an APPG on Poverty has given me encouragement and it is something that I will take back to my community to encourage them too’ (APPG on Poverty, 1999: 4).

The report observes that for most of the participants ‘the experience of being listened to and taken seriously is unusual….The APPG on Poverty extends democracy beyond the reach of the already powerful and allows the experts to speak for themselves, and often to significant effect’. It also suggests that ‘the humanisation of the democratic process is important for real participation and respectful exchanges to take place’ (ibid.). Dialogues such as these represent the promotion of citizenship through greater democratic accountability (Cornwall and Gaventa, 2000).

Democracy
The invocation of principles of democracy addresses two concerns: the growing exclusion and separation of those in poverty from the democratic process and a dissatisfaction in some quarters with the practice of representative democracy. It also chimes with some of the rhetoric of the ‘third way’.

One of the most prominent critics of the political marginalisation of those in poverty has been J.K. Galbraith. In the US context, he has written of how the contented majority ‘rule under the rich cloak of democracy, a democracy in which the less fortunate do not participate’ (1992: 15), and that in the face of inequality of ‘power and influence, democracy has become an imperfect thing’ (1996: 138). In his vision of ‘the good society voice and influence cannot be confined to one part of the population’. The solution, he suggests, ‘is more active political participation by a coalition of the concerned and the poor’ (1996: 141).

Galbraith is here concerned with electoral politics. His argument is that the non-participation of people in poverty at the ballot box means that their interests and concerns are increasingly ignored by the political parties. The same phenomenon, albeit to a lesser extent, is increasingly true of Britain. Under the British ‘first past the post’ electoral system, voters in safe seats, which include many of the poorest areas, can safely be ignored. Electoral politics are increasingly played out in a small number of marginal seats. Electoral turn-out in the deprived inner city areas is generally lower than average.

This is one of the arguments used in favour of electoral reform to achieve proportional representation. But the political exclusion of those in poverty also raises questions about the very nature of modern democracy. Political theorists, such as Carol Gould, have argued for the democratisation of all the institutions of society – social, economic and cultural as well as political. Gould propounds the following principle of democracy: ‘every person who engages in a common activity with others has an equal right to participate in making decisions concerning such activity. This right to participate applies not only to the domain of politics but to social and economic activities as well’ (Gould, 1988: 84; see also Pateman, 1970).

More recently, in his exposition of the third way, Anthony Giddens has argued for the ‘democratization of democracy’. He contends that ‘the crisis of democracy comes from its not being democratic enough’ in the face of ‘the demand for individual autonomy and the emergence of a more reflexive citizenry’ (1998: 71). One policy implication, he suggests, is ‘“experiments with democratization” such as the use of electronic referenda, revived forms of direct democracy and citizens’ juries’ (Giddens, 2000: 62). Echoing Giddens, Tony Blair has written of the third way’s ‘democratic impulse’ which ‘needs to be strengthened by finding new ways to enable citizens to share in decision-making that affects them’ (1998: 15). Initiatives to ‘listen to’ women and to older people, a ‘race relations forum’, a ‘people’s panel’ to elicit views on public services, as well as citizens juries are among the devices introduced to promote this goal.

A study of two citizens’ juries describes them as ‘just one example of the new approaches to democratic practice which are being developed throughout the public sector’ and ‘as a practical expression of the notion of discursive or deliberative democracy’ (Barnes, 1999a: 1). The increased emphasis on more participatory democratic mechanisms is, though, raising questions about the relationship between participatory and representative democracy, especially at local government level. Some in local government have resisted more participatory forms of democracy on the grounds that they undermine representative democracy. Others have responded that ‘an active conception of representative democracy can be reinforced by participatory democracy’ (Clarke and Stewart, 1998: 3).

Principles of deliberative and participatory democracy are one element in the case made for ‘radical democracy’ (Mouffe, 1992; Trend, 1996). The other key principle is that of radical pluralism. Central to the notion of deliberative democracy is the provision of public space in which the voices of different groups can be heard and can deliberate. Iris Young, for instance, tempers her advocacy of participatory democracy with the warning that ‘only if oppressed groups are able to express their interests and experience in the public on an equal basis with other groups can group domination through formally equal processes of participation be avoided’ (1990: 95). She thus asserts the principle that ‘a democratic public should provide mechanisms for the effective recognition and representation of the distinct voices and perspectives of those of its constituent groups that are oppressed or disadvantaged' (1990: 184).

Nancy Fraser likewise defines radical democracy in terms of opposition to ‘two very different kinds of impediments to democratic participation’, namely social inequality and ‘the misrecognition of difference. Radical democracy, on this interpretation is the view that democracy today requires both social equality and multicultural recognition’ (1996: 198).

Recognition
Fraser is here talking about the recognition and misrecognition of difference. However, the demand for recognition is becoming more vocal in the politics of poverty also, as that politics is increasingly expressed as a politics of ‘voice’ (Yeatman, 1994; Williams, 1999). In her original New Left Review article on the politics of redistribution and of recognition, Fraser (1995/1997) roots the former in the struggle against socio-economic injustice and the latter in the struggle against cultural or symbolic injustice. Poverty is quintessentially the product of socio-economic injustice and anti-poverty campaigns are central to any politics of redistribution. At the same time, though, these campaigns increasingly deploy a discourse of recognition as well as of redistribution. Among the examples of cultural or symbolic injustice cited by Fraser are ‘nonrecognition (being rendered invisible via the authoritative representational, communicative, and interpretative practices of one’s culture); and disrespect (being routinely maligned or disparaged in stereotypic public cultural representations and/or in everyday life interactions)’ (Fraser, 1995, p71/1997a,p14).

In an earlier essay, Charles Taylor identified recognition as a vital human need and underlined the links between recognition and identity:
our identity is partly shaped by recognition or its absence, often by the misrecognition of others, and so a person or group of people can suffer real damage, real distortion, if the people or society around them mirror back to them a confining or demeaning or contemptible picture of themselves. Nonrecognition or misrecognition can inflict harm, can be a form of oppression (Taylor, 1992: 26 & 25; see also Fraser, 2000).

Nonrecognition, misrecognition and disrespect are the typical experience of those in poverty, especially when labelled pejoratively as an ‘underclass’ or as inhabiting a ‘dependency culture’ (for a critique, see Lister, 1996). At a National Poverty Hearing in London, organised by Church Action on Poverty (an ecumenical anti-poverty group), one of the most common refrains among those with experience of poverty was the desire to be treated with greater respect. ‘I just wish people would give us a chance and treat us with some respect’ and ‘I just feel very angry sometimes that people are ignorant to the fact that we are humans as well and we do need to be respected’ were typical of the comments made (Russell, 1996: 7 & 10). David Donnison has suggested that the demand for respect and ‘to be treated as the equal of anyone else’ is indicative of an emergent new paradigm in social policy (2000: 25; see also Donnison, 1998). In an international context, the Human Development Report 2000 identifies ‘a life of respect and value’ as a key aim of human development (UNDP, 2000: 2). The report also emphasises the interrelationship between civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights.

As Fraser acknowledges, economic and cultural forms of injustice tend ‘to reinforce each other dialectically’ so that ‘economic disadvantage impedes equal participation in the making of culture, in public spheres, and in everyday life’ (Fraser, 1995: 72-3/1997: 15). In her critique of Fraser, Iris Young places greater emphasis on the interrelationship between the two forms of injustice and politics. She maintains that ‘we should show how recognition is a means to, or an element in, economic and political equality and that ‘so long as the cultural denigration of groups produces or reinforces structural economic oppressions, the two struggles are continuous’ (Young, 1997: 156 & 159). Drawing on Fraser’s own work on a ‘politics of needs interpretation’, she argues for a ‘materialist culturalist approach [which] understands that needs are contextualised in political struggle over who gets to define whose needs for what purpose’ (Young, 1997: 155).

In a more recent contribution to New Left Review, Fraser herself pays more attention to the interrelationship between the economic and cultural and develops her argument in ways that are potentially more directly applicable to the politics of poverty. She suggests that ‘properly conceived, struggles for recognition can aid the redistribution of power and wealth and can promote interaction and cooperation across gulfs of difference’ (2000: 109). The theoretical move that she makes is to treat misrecognition as a question of social status subordination and injustice, rather than of identity:
From this perspective, what requires recognition is not group-specific identity but the status of individual group members as full partners in social interaction…It means a politics aimed at overcoming subordination by establishing the misrecognized party as a full member of society capable of participating on a par with the rest (2000: 113; see also 2001).

The obstacles to ‘participatory parity’ on this model are not just cultural but lie also in the maldistribution of resources. Although Fraser herself does not make the link, such an approach is highly relevant to the politics of poverty. Here a politics of recognition is not about the assertion of group difference, as in the case of women, racialised groups, lesbians and gays, and disabled people (remembering that we are not, of course, talking about discrete groups). Indeed a successful politics of redistribution could remove the category altogether, as ‘the poor’ are a group who are primarily the product of the maldistribution of resources. A politics of recognition in this context is, instead, about the assertion of recognition in the sense of equality of status and respect, which, as stated above, are critical to the recognition of the full citizenship of those in poverty.

As Diana Coole has observed, discourses of difference have tended to marginalise social class. While elaborating the difficulties in applying such discourses to class, including the ‘underclass’, she asserts that respect for those at the bottom of the economic hierarchy is ‘patronizing’ (Coole, 1996: 22). Coole makes the valid point that ‘poverty robs groups of the economic and cultural capital needed for participation’ (1996: 20). However, she appears to treat this as a given rather than asking how, alongside the struggle to eliminate poverty itself, the cultural and political capital of those in poverty can be strengthened and fostered so as to enable participation. Indeed, as observed earlier, the evidence suggests that the very process of participation and of being treated with respect can itself nourish agency and the ability to participate.

Bob Holman, editor of a book in which seven people in poverty write their own stories, argues that ‘the reluctance to listen to the bottom 30 per cent devalues them. They are treated as specimens to be examined and displayed, not as human beings with the rights and capacities to participate in public debate’ (Holman, 1998: 16 my emphasis). Similarly, ATD Fourth World rejects the construction of people living in poverty as ‘objects of other people’s knowledge, not as authors of their own development – as problems’ for ‘they have something to offer, something to contribute’ (1999: 16). What is at issue here is the value accorded to poor people’s own interpretation of their needs and demands and recognition of and respect for the expertise born of experience (Beresford and Croft, 1995). Moraene Roberts, another participant in the National Poverty Hearing, argued:
No-one asks our views. We are the real experts of our own hopes and aspirations. Service providers should ask the users before deciding on policies, before setting targets that will affect our lives. We can contribute if you are prepared to give up a little power to allow us to participate as partners in our own future, and in the future of our country (Russell, 1996: 4).

Empowerment
Roberts points to a crucial element in the equation: that of power. As Levitas observes, theories of dialogic and deliberative democracy tend to underplay the importance of ‘the structures of power’ within which dialogue and deliberation take place’ (Levitas, 1998: 176). Beresford and Croft suggest that ‘in one sense, it is poor people’s powerlessness which lies at the heart of their exclusion from the poverty debate and helps to explain it’ (1995: 79). If this powerlessness is not addressed, general strategies to promote participatory democracy could exacerbate rather than redress imbalances of power (Bur, Stevens and Young, 1999: 14).

The 1997 United Nations Human Development Report identifies ‘the political empowerment of poor people’ as an essential element in ‘a political strategy for poverty’: ‘Poor people should be politically empowered to organize for themselves for collective action and to influence the circumstances and decisions affecting their lives. For their interests to be advanced, they must be visible on the political map’ (UNDP, 1997: 94 & 10).

Similarly, drawing on the work of Paulo Freire, David Byrne looks to the collective ‘empowerment of the dispossessed’ as part of ‘a popular democratic politics of solidarity’ necessary to combat social exclusion (1999: 133). The process of empowerment concerns two aspects of power. One is what Giddens (1991) calls ‘generative’ power, which is about ‘self-actualisation’ and which is ‘related to energy, capacity and potential’ (Hartsock. 1985: 210). It is this kind of power which is developed through the community development process of ‘capacity-building’ and which can be witnessed in the very process of participation, as confidence and self-esteem grow. However, feminists have also warned against reducing empowerment to an individual social-psychological process, thereby losing sight of the importance of collective empowerment to achieve social change and to alter the distribution of power. Virginia Rinaldo Seitz thus defines empowerment as ‘both a process and an outcome of collective identity and political praxis, resulting in a capacity in thought and action to address the condition and position of marginalization’ (1998: 234). Integrating the two, individual empowerment enables people to come together to work for change (Mayo, 1994).

This brings us to the other aspect of power identified by Giddens as ‘hierarchical’, which describes the ability of a group or individual to exert their will over others. Writing in the Human Development Report 1997, Else Øyen warns that poverty can serve the interests of the economically powerful, so that the redistribution of resources (political as well as economic and social) involved in poverty reduction ‘will sometimes be vigorously opposed’ (UNDP, 1997: 95). Thus, ultimately, individual empowerment of a generative kind will need to lead to some redistribution of hierarchical power, if people in poverty are to achieve genuine empowerment through participation. Moreover, individual empowerment may create or exacerbate divisions among groups in poverty, if some are ‘empowered’ at the expense of others (Taylor et al., 2000).

II. Participatory Initiatives
The first part of this chapter has argued the case for the involvement of people in poverty in decision-making that affects their lives, with reference to the theoretical concepts of social exclusion, citizenship, democracy, recognition and empowerment. The normative ideal for which it has argued stands in contrast to the reality. As a participatory study with people in poverty in Britain observed ‘ one key group has been conspicuous by its absence so far in poverty discussion and policy development – people with experience of poverty themselves’ (Beresford et al, 1999). Britain has a strong ‘poverty lobby’, comprised mainly of middle class professionals, which speaks out effectively on behalf of those in poverty. It emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, in part because of the collective weakness of people in poverty as a political constituency able to influence governments.

However, increasingly, following the example of the disabled people’s movement, demands are emerging for the voices of those in poverty to be heard directly rather than just be filtered through the professional ‘poverty lobby’. A number of initiatives and projects have acted as prefigurative models of what is possible. The paper describes three of them, focusing in particular on the Voices for Change project initiated by the UK Coalition on Poverty.

ATD Fourth World
The longest standing is ATD Fourth World (All Together in Dignity), which operates in a number of countries. It works in partnership with ‘the Fourth World’ (i.e. people who ‘due to their poverty, are unable to make their voices heard or to maximise their potential’) ‘to develop their potential abilities and to enable them to participate fully in the life of their communities’ (ATD, 2000: 56). An important aspect of this work is the facilitation of the involvement of people in poverty in an ‘exchange of ideas and views with representatives of community services and policy-makers – at local, national and European level’ (ibid.: 57).

A recent report describes ATD’s ‘Public Debate Project’. This aimed to promote the involvement and voice of people in long-term poverty in public debate and the valuing by others of their contribution. A total of 70 people were involved in the project, including around 20 core participants. The project was ‘designed to build up the participants’ confidence and to enable them to speak to a wider audience, when they were ready’ (ATD 2000: 11). At its core was a series of policy forums. These provided a space for the sharing of ideas and skills and for the exploration of policy issues arising from their experiences. More intensive residential training seminars were also held. These helped participants to ‘move forward from just speaking about their own lives to learning from their experiences and relating them to how society is run, both locally and nationally’ (ibid.: 13-14). Together, these then provided the basis for participation in a series of policy forums with Ministers and civil servants, as well as in the meetings of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Poverty, referred to earlier. The overall conclusion reached was that:
the project demonstrates that people in poverty have ideas regarding policy improvement and are actively seeking to share this experience. In order for this to be possible, however, the policy-making process must evolve and mechanisms must be created that allow for knowledge and expertise from people at grass-roots level to be taken on board (ibid.: 6).

Church Action on Poverty
Church Action on Poverty (CAP) is an ecumenical group, which established in 1994 a ‘Local People, National Voice’ project. Among the aims were: to provide opportunities for people with direct experience of poverty ‘to speak out for themselves’ and to ‘create an effective dialogue between policy makers, church members and people experiencing poverty’.

The project consisted of a series of local events and hearings, which provided a platform from which people with experience of poverty could speak out about their experiences and views. Over 20 local and regional hearings, each attended by 100 to 200 people, were held. They culminated in a national poverty hearing in March 1996. This provided an opportunity for national policy-makers, church, business and voluntary sector leaders and others to listen to people with experience of poverty not only give witness to their experiences but also talk about their ideas about what should be done and the initiatives in which they were involved. As part of the project, CAP established a small policy group, comprised mainly of people with experience of poverty. This produced a short report in which the group set out its analysis of poverty and policy ideas (Bennett, 1996).

UK Coalition against Poverty
Both ATD and CAP were founder members of what was to become the UK Coalition against Poverty, which now has over 160 member organisations. The Coalition was originally established to advance the aims of the UN International Year for the Eradication of Poverty in the UK. From the outset, the Coalition was committed to the involvement of people with the experience of poverty in all its activities and decision-making processes. As well as establishing the APPG on Poverty, it organised, in 1996, a national participation event at which people with experience of poverty were able to exchange experiences, knowledge and ideas. The report of the meeting acknowledged that those involved ‘were among the more confident and active of the people who suffer from poverty’. Nevertheless, ‘there was a wealth of diverse experiences to share and debate’. The workshop provided ‘a model of participation’ and, as such, was ‘a wonderfully empowering and motivating experience for all who attended’ (UKCAP, 1997: 2).

As a result, those attending felt strongly that it should not just be a one-off event but should lead to a more sustained initiative to promote participation in decision-making. The outcome was the birth of the Voices for Change project, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. Over a two year period, the project worked from the local level, building up to area meetings and a UK wide meeting, through a network of area and national steering groups. Much of the local work involved ‘capacity building’ and training as well as investigation into participation and the barriers to it. It used the technique of ‘participatory appraisal (PA)’, one of a family of participatory methods developed in the southern hemisphere, which has been borrowed as a community development tool to work with disadvantaged communities in the industrialised world. The technique relies heavily on pictorial, non-linear methods, which allow people to share experiences and develop and express their ideas in a non-threatening environment. It involves marginalised people as active participants from the outset and in some cases they are now training others in the techniques and using them in their local communities. As part of Voices for Change, local groups received training in PA techniques and then used them to conduct their own consultations, which fed into area meetings and into what was initially called the Commission of Inquiry into Poverty and Social Exclusion.

The Commission on Poverty, Participation and Power
The participatory origins of the Commission were one of its features that made it unusual, if not unique. Furthermore, the intention was that area steering groups should continue to be involved in the work of the Commission through Commissioners’ visits and in the final stages when they would have the opportunity to discuss and give views on the drafting of the final report. The difficulties in fulfilling this objective underline the difficulties of sustained participation.

The other unusual feature was the Commission’s composition: a mixture of ‘people in public life’ and ‘grassroots’ people with experience of poverty. This meant developing ways of working which are not typical of committees and Commissions. Meetings were often difficult, as people from very different backgrounds had to learn to work together. It was often impossible to keep to agendas, which did not provide the space for ‘grassroots’ Commissioners to express themselves in the ways that they wanted or to deal with issues arising in their lives, such as one Commissioner’s problems with the local social security office threatening her benefit because of her absence at Commission meetings. In the early stages, ‘public life’ Commissioners were sometimes challenged as to what they knew about poverty, a sobering experience for those normally treated as ‘experts’. Ensuring the full and equal participation of all members was a problem, which was not simply reflective of differing backgrounds. As in all committees, some members (both ‘grassroots’ and ‘public life’ and both women and men) were more forceful and talkative than others, but this became more of an issue given the nature of the exercise and the need to balance and respect different kinds of expertise (del Tufo and Gaster, 2002). .

Yet, for all the difficulties, there was always an incredible energy in what were pretty long meetings and much was achieved. The Commission’s Report described it as ‘an extraordinary journey for Commissioners and for the staff supporting their work’ (Commission on Poverty, Participation and Power, 2000: v). The formal Evaluation Report, commissioned by the funding body, observed that
the experiential nature of this extraordinary process (commissioner), the informality, laughter, passion, real honesty and energy were major features that distinguish this from other commissions. This was no ordinary set of meetings but a series of dynamic, unpredictable and often exhausting encounters, with a constant tension between seeking good processes and achieving intended outcomes (del Tufo and Gaster, 2002: 6, emphasis in original).

Referring back to ATD’s observation, cited above, this kind of process ‘requires us all to be ready to change’ (ATD, 1996: 61). Even for a feminist such as myself, it involved a different way of ‘being’ on a committee, a way of being which meant that I had to engage as a ‘whole person’, emotions and all, and not hide behind a bureaucratic committee persona. Yet, one of the most profound lessons I learned was that, even so, I was not engaging at the level of the ‘grassroots’ Commissioners who had to commit so much more to the project and for whom so much more was at stake. As one woman Commissioner said ‘we’ve sold a lot of our souls some of us sitting round this table – it better be worth it’. If it is not ‘worth it’, the costs for ‘public life’ Commissioners will be relatively small, whereas they will be massive for ‘grassroots’ Commissioners, both personally and because of the expectations of people in the communities in which they are based. Thus, the boundaries between ‘public’ and ‘private’, between ‘political’ and ‘personal’ have been much more porous for ‘grassroots’ than ‘public life’ commissioners.

The Commission started work at the end of November, 1999. One of its first actions was to change its name to the Commission on Poverty, Participation and Power, so as better to reflect what were seen as the key issues. In addition to reviewing the evidence collected through the Voices for Change project and from other available sources, Commissioners visited local projects in all countries of the UK. It quickly became clear that ‘participation’ was in danger of becoming a dirty word for people with experience of ‘token’ or ‘window-dressing’ participation or of superficial consultation exercises, limited to impenetrable questionnaires and/or from which they had seen no positive outcomes or even feedback. Anger was expressed at politicians who attended meetings, made speeches and then left before hearing what people had to say and at officials who simply did not listen. Many felt exploited rather than empowered by what went for participation. Nevertheless, the demand for genuine participation was strong among some groups, despite the many barriers they faced.

These barriers, as identified by the Voices for Change project, are multiple and inter-connected. Some derive from poverty itself such as the struggle for day-to-day survival, which can sap people’s energy and health; the inability to meet the financial costs that can be involved; lacking suitable clothes; feelings of stigma. These overlap with personal barriers such as lack of self-esteem and self-confidence, which may derive in part from limited educational opportunities. Additional barriers can be faced by some groups such as young people, disabled people, travellers, Asian women, asylum-seekers.

More institutional barriers include lacking ‘the tools of the trade’ that professionals take for granted such as faxes, computers and internet access; the operation of social security rules that inhibit involvement for fear of affecting benefit entitlement; officials who either resist participation or who engage in it in ways which are exclusionary rather than inclusive. What particularly angers people is the use of jargonistic language, which is experienced as exclusionary.

In addition to barriers to participation, there are problems that can arise for which there is no easy solution. These reflect some of the more theoretical points made in the first part of the paper. Examples are: how to engage the most marginalised people and ensure that minority views are heard and not drowned out by the loudest voices; and how to deal with arguments that, unless people have been elected, they are not ‘representative’ of people in poverty or have no right to speak on behalf of others. One Commission member suggested that instead of ‘representatives’ we should think of ‘connectors’ i.e. people who help to connect marginalised groups to decision-makers and vice versa.

The Commission reported in December 2000 (Commission on Poverty, Participation and Power, 2000). The Evaluation suggests that ‘the report was generally seen as offering different insights in a different tone – it speaks from the heart and “touches” people, avoids “policy speak”, and tries to overcome the deep mistrust felt by people on the receiving end of policies’ (del Tufo and Gaster, 2002: 7). As well as specific recommendations, the report puts forward a set of ‘principles of participation’. Among these are:
• a recognition of ‘participation in the decision-making process of people with experience of living in poverty…as a basic human right’;
• a willingness among all those involved ‘to change how we think and act to make participation genuine and effective’;
• a readiness among people who hold power to ‘learn to listen properly to the voices of people living in poverty, to understand, to communicate in ways that everyone can understand, to respect people’s contributions, and to act on their voices’ (Commission on Poverty, Participation and Power, 2000: 45).

The Government’s position
The final stages of the Commission’s work involved a number of meetings with Ministers and officials in Government Departments to gauge their reactions to the Commission’s findings and line of argument and further meetings were held following publication of the report. There is no single Government position, with some parts of Government more open than others to the Commission’s message. New Labour has accepted and promotes the message of participation at local neighbourhood level. In a Foreword to a consultation document on a National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal, Tony Blair acknowledged that ‘unless the community is fully engaged in shaping and delivering regeneration, even the best plans on paper will fail to deliver in practice’ (Social Exclusion Unit, 2000: 5). The Social Exclusion Unit, who drew up the strategy, attempted to consult people affected by its proposals, although the speed with which it had to work made it difficult to do so effectively. Members of the Unit were very responsive to the Commission’s message, having become increasingly convinced of the case for participation as a result of their experience. Increasingly, a degree of community involvement is required in the plethora of neighbourhood and community initiatives that the Government is promoting.

The case for participation has also been accepted in a development context. A consultation document from the Department for International Development states that ‘a human rights perspective on participation means moving beyond and above local-level processes of consultation through to ensuring poor people’s participation in broader formal and informal systems of decision-making’ (DfID, 2000: 19). What is significant about this statement is not simply the strong endorsement of participation but its explicit acceptance that it should not be confined to the local level.

The Government has, though, been rather slower to accept the case for involvement in decisions taken at national level in the domestic context. Yet, this is the level at which some of the most important decisions affecting people in poverty are taken. Until very recently, Ministers appeared to consider it sufficient to engage in general consultation exercises on their anti-poverty and welfare reform strategies, which usually involve the publication of a document (and summary leaflets) and possibly meetings with key professional voluntary sector organisations, without any attempt specifically to engage with people in poverty. Questions about representativeness and fears about creating bureaucratic structures have typically been raised. There was little or no acknowledgement that the particular expertise of those with experience of poverty could inform and thereby improve policy-making. However, in response to pressure, including from the EU, which requires participation in the drafting of National Action Plans on Social Inclusion (NAPSincl), the Department for Work and Pensions is consulting on how to involve people with experience of poverty in drawing up future UK NAPSincl. It also included some workshops with adults and children with experience of poverty in a consultation exercise on the measurement of child poverty. Elsewhere in government a Community Forum, half of whose members are people from local communities, has been established to advise on neighbourhood renewal policies. Thus, we are seeing gradual progress.

The same cannot be said with regard to the related issue of service user-involvement. There has not yet been acceptance of this principle in the sphere of benefits even though it is now reasonably well established in welfare services. A Green Paper on welfare (social security) reform highlighted ‘the rise of the demanding, sceptical, citizen-consumer’ (DSS, 1998: 16), but did not discuss how the principles of user-involvement, developed elsewhere in the welfare system, might be applied to social security. Yet a review conducted for the Government had concluded that ‘user involvement is a viable option for social security’, and although challenging, ‘it offers a number of benefits’ (Stafford, 1997: iii).

Conclusion
This paper has attempted to chart, both theoretically and empirically, an approach to anti-poverty action, which is part and parcel of the democratic process and both an expression and recognition of the citizenship of those experiencing poverty. Although the paper’s focus has been on the process rather than the substance and outcomes of anti-poverty action, the latter, of course, must not be forgotten. Ultimately, at issue are not just the promotion of genuine participation, but also the eradication of poverty and the redistribution of power.

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Hi Evelin,
Hope all is well.
Not sure if you got the notice below of the conference, but I thought it might appeal to you, as there might be segments focused on humilitation (or related emotions) and human rights, etc.
Best wishes,
Dan Shapiro

THE FIFTH ANNUAL WOMEN AND THE LAW CONFERENCE: THE GLOBAL IMPACT OF FEMINIST LEGAL THEORY
Conference Sponsored by:
Emory University's Feminism and Legal Theory Project and
Thomas Jefferson School of Law's Women and the Law Project
February 18 - 19, 2005
San Diego, CA

For more information including upcoming registration details, visit:
http://www.tjsl.edu/index.cfm?sID_int=59&rID_int=59&xID=188
or:
http://www.tjsl.edu (& click on Fifth Annual Women and the Law Conference).

CONTACT INFORMATION:
The Conference is co-sponsored by Professor Martha Albertson Fineman's Feminism and Legal Theory Project and the Women and the Law Project at Thomas Jefferson School of Law. The Co-Chairs of the Fifth Annual Women and the Law Organizing Committee are:
CONTACT: Professors Susan Bisom-Rapp
Email: susanb@tjsl.edu
and
CONTACT: Linda Keller
Email: lkeller@tjsl.edu

National Multicultural Conference and Summit to be held in Hollywood, California on January 27th and 28th.

DemocracyNews-December 2004
Electronic Newsletter of the World Movement for Democracy - www.wmd.org

POSTING NEWS:
We welcome items to include in DemocracyNews. Please send an email message to world@ned.org with the item you would like to post in the body of the message.

******************************************************************

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT:
THE WORLD MOVEMENT ISSUES THIRD ASSEMBLY REPORT

The World Movement for Democracy issued the final report on the Third Assembly that took place on February 1-4, 2004, in Durban, South Africa. The report was prepared by the Secretariat of the World Movement at the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and is based on the proceedings of the Assembly and workshop reports prepared by rapporteurs. The report includes many of the recommendations and proposed initiatives that resulted from nearly 60 workshops; excerpts from the keynote addresses delivered by Zainab Bangura (Sierra Leone), Lodi Gyari (Tibet), and Ivan Krastev (Bulgaria); summaries of the Democracy Courage Tributes presented at the John B. Hurford Memorial Dinner; and a list of the nearly 600 participants who attended. The report is available to download as PDF on the World Movement Web site (www.wmd.org). An HTML version is coming soon. To request a hard copy of the report, send a message to world@ned.org (/src/compose.php?send_to=world%40ned.org).

******************************************************************

CONTENTS

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND EVENTS

1. The World Movement's Transatlantic Democracy Network Launches its Web Site
2. NGO Preparatory Meeting for Community of Democracies Ministerial Meeting, January
27-28, Santiago, Chile
3. Education for Democracy Foundation (Poland) Receives Award
4. Alliance for Reform and Democracy in Asia (ARDA) Launches a New Web Site
5. Briefing on UN Democracy Caucus
6. Call for Applications: Fellowship for Threatened Scholars
7. Guide to European Union Funding for NGOs
8. New Publication on Constitutional Tools to Preserve Democracy
9. Call for Papers: The Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy 6th Annual
Conference
10. Country Assessments Report Finalized

CONFLICT RESOLUTION
11. New Publication: POST CONFLICT DEVELOPMENT: MEETING NEW CHALLLENGES

ECONOMIC REFORM AND THE BUSINESS SECTOR
12. Call for Applications: UNESCO Small Grants Program on Poverty Eradication

ELECTIONS
13. Report: "The Voting Rights of Internally Displaced Persons: OSCE Region"
14. Making Elections Accessible to the Disabled in Ghana
15. Democratic Initiative Foundation Conducts Exit Poll in Ukraine

HUMAN RIGHTS
16. Call for Applications: International Winter School on Human Rights
17. Directory: Experts on Detention Conditions Worldwide
18. Publication: New Tactics in Human Rights
19. Conference Report: Priorities and Mechanisms of Reform in the Arab World
20. Solidarity Placard Demonstrations at Zimbawean Embassies in SADC Countries on
Human Rights Day
21. Free Software Tool for Human Rights Activists

INTERNET, MEDIA, AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
22. New Media Assistance Organization: Global Forum for Media Development
23. Improving Professional Standards of Journalism in Bulgaria

POLITICAL AND CIVIC PARTICIPATION OF YOUTH
24. Leaders Workshop in Katmandu Nepal

POLITICAL PARTIES AND POLITICAL LEADERSHIP
25. Moroccan NGO Community Consults the Government on a New Party Law

RULE OF LAW
26. Publication: "Lawless Law Enforcement in Bangladesh"
27. PILDAT Annual Report

TRANSPARENCY AND ANTI-CORRUPTION
28. The Global Network for Good Governance (GNGG) Opens a Branch in Nigeria

WOMEN'S ISSUES
29. New Web site: The World Movement's International Women's Democracy Network
30. Training Seminar: "Making Governance Gender Responsive"
31. BAOBAB Announces Activities for the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence
Campaign
32. Maghreb Regional Learning Institute for Women's Leadership and Training of Trainers

33. WORLD MOVEMENT PARTICIPATING NETWORKS, ORGANIZATIONS AND INDIVIDUALS MENTIONED
IN THIS ISSUE

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND EVENTS

1. The World Movement's Transatlantic Democracy Network Launches its Web Site
The World Movement's Transatlantic Democracy Network, a cooperative project bringing together Europeans and North Americans to help strengthen democracy, recently launched its Web site. The Network publishes "Democracy Digest," a free weekly e-newsletter that identifies democracy related issues, provides information, and encourages transatlantic cooperation. The Network's Web site contains the current and archived issues of Democracy Digest, as well as a link to subscribe to the e-newsletter. It also includes the Network's statement of purpose, information about the cooperating organizations on both sides of the Atlantic that support the Network, a calendar of forthcoming democracy-related events, employment opportunities, and a number of valuable Internet links.

Go to: www.demdigest.net/

2. NGO Preparatory Meeting for Community of Democracies Ministerial Meeting, January 27-28, Santiago, Chile The NGO Preparatory Meeting for the Community of Democracies Ministerial Meeting will take place on January 27-28 in Santiago, Chile. To prepare for the meeting, representatives of the nongovernmental communities held regional workshops during which participants developed recommendations on government actions that would
strengthen democracy in their region and throughout the world. Several participants in the World Movement's Africa Democracy Forum (ADF), took an active role in the Africa Regional Workshop that took place on November 22-23 in Johannesburg, South Africa. The January meeting will convene participants in the nongovernmental process to review proposals that resulted from the regional workshops to develop final recommendations to governments, and to define the advocacy strategy leading up to the Ministerial Meeting that will take place on May 4-6, 2005 in Santiago.

Go to: www.santiago2005.org/index.html

3. Education for Democracy Foundation (Poland) Receives Award
The Education for Democracy Foundation, a World Movement for Democracy participating organization based in Poland, received the Pro Publico Bono Institution award on November 11, 2004. The Pro Publico Bono Institution title is awarded by the Honorary Council of Pro Publico Bono to civil society organizations in Eastern Europe and Central Asia as recognition of their work on strengthening civil society.

For information about Education for Democracy Foundation, go to: www.edudemo.org.pl/

4. Alliance for Reform and Democracy in Asia Launches New Web Site
The Alliance for Reform and Democracy (ARDA), a network of individuals and
organizations in Asia dedicated to the advancement of democracy, human rights, good governance, and rule of law across Asia, recently launched its Web site. The Web site contains articles and updates on situation in various countries in the region, ARDA press releases, and information on ARDA activities. ARDA is currently engaged in a campaign to support Burmese political prisoners.

Go to: www.asiademocracy.info/news/index.php

5. Briefing on UN Democracy Caucus
The Council for a Community of Democracies, the United Nations Association-USA, the Democracy Coalition Project, Freedom House, and the Transnational Radical Party will sponsor a luncheon briefing on the United Nations Democracy Caucus at the UN headquarters in New York City on December 16, 2005. At its founding conference in Warsaw in June 2000, the Community of Democracies (CD) endorsed the creation of a caucus of nations sharing common democratic values at the United Nations. On September 22, 2004, the UN Democracy Caucus, composed of member states of the CD, formally met for the first time at the foreign ministers level at the UN General Assembly. The December 16 event will explore how the UN Democracy Caucus can coordinate common positions at the UN to advance the principles of democracy and human rights.

For information, contact Amy Phillips at Freedom House, phillips@freedomhouse.org.

6. Call for Applications: Fellowship for Threatened Scholars
The Institute of International Education's Scholar Rescue Fund provides fellowships for scholars whose lives and work are threatened in their home countries. Through these fellowships, scholars may find temporary refuge at universities and colleges anywhere in the world, which enables them to continue their research and share their knowledge with students, colleagues, and the community at large. Once conditions at home improve, scholars will return to help rebuild universities and societies ravaged by fear, conflict, and repression. Academics, researchers, and independent scholars from any country, field or discipline may qualify as fellows. Universities, colleges and research centers in any country may apply to serve as hosts. Institutions interested in hosting a particular scholar should submit a letter with the scholar's application. Non-emergency applications are reviewed three times per year and must be received by the first of January, April, and September of each year. Emergency applications may be reviewed on a more frequent basis.

Go to:
www.iie.org/Template.cfm?Section=Home&Template=/Activity/ActivityDisplay.cfm&activityid=399

7. Guide to European Union Funding for NGOs
This newly revised and updated guide provides information about opportunities for European Union and other funding sources that are available for nongovernmental organizations. In addition to providing a comprehensive look into European fundraising, the guide offers tips and contacts to help organizations identify funding from the European Union. The guide can be ordered online.

Go to: www.ecas.org/Publications/2374/default.aspx?ID=294

8. New Publication on Constitutional Tools to Preserve Democracy
The Democracy Coalition Project (DCP) released a new publication that examines how democracies should manage a leadership crisis without provoking a crisis of regime. Building on the landmark report "Threats to Democracy: Prevention and Response," issued by the Council on Foreign Relations, DCP explores four categories of legal regime change outside of national elections: recall and votes of no confidence, impeachment, succession, and criminalization of unconstitutional seizures of power. According to the report, to avoid sliding backwards to authoritarian rule, governments should take steps to ensure continuity of democratic governance. The report offers a set of practical recommendations to politicians and their lawyers and advisors for constitutional reforms that would safeguard democracy during emergencies and further consolidate the rule of law.

Go to: www.demcoalition.org/html/whats.html#RegimeChange

9. Call for Papers: The Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy 6th Annual
Conference
The Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID) is calling for paper
proposals for their 6th annual conference, which will be held on April 22-23, 2005, in Washington, DC. The deadline for 400-word proposals is Dec 31, 2004. The conference will focus on the inter-relatedness between democracy and development in the Islamic world. Prospective participants are invited, but not limited, to submitting proposals on the following four broad topics: Internal Resources and their Relevance; Paradigms for Economic Development; The Impact of Globalization on Development; Women and Political-Economic Development; and Barriers to Development.

Go to: www.wmd.org/documents/dec04-CSIDconf1204.doc

10. Country Assessments Report Finalized
On December 1, 2004, the final version of the Country Assessments Report was
presented to the Community of Democracies Convening Group. The purpose of the report is to help the Convening Group make decisions on which governments should be invited to the third Ministerial Meeting of the Community of Democracies to be held May 4-6 in Santiago, Chile. The study compiles and evaluates reporting from a variety of national and international sources, including intergovernmental, civil society and media reports, and reaches conclusions based on the criteria for participation of governments adopted by the Convening Group. The report was prepared by the Democracy Coalition Project in collaboration with Freedom House and circulated among participants in the Non-Governmental Process for the Community of Democracies.

To view the report, go to: www.santiago2005.org/html/issues.html

CONFLICT RESOLUTION

11. New Publication: POST-CONFLICT DEVELOPMENT: MEETING NEW CHALLLENGES
Edited by Gerd Junne and Willemijn Verkoren, this book focuses on the need to
integrate the peacebuilding, security, and development fields to adequately address the problems faced by societies recovering from violent conflict. The book draws on experiences in post-conflict societies and outlines some of the main dilemmas and strategies of post- conflict development. The book addresses development challenges related to security, justice, economic policy, education, the media, agriculture, health, and the environment.

For more information, go to: www.netuni.nl/postconflict/

ECONOMIC REFORM AND THE BUSINESS SECTOR

12. Call for Applications: UNESCO Small Grants Program on Poverty Eradication
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO)
small grants program is calling for applications. The program aims to strengthen
national capacities for research and policy analysis on poverty eradication. The
goal of this program is to encourage mid-career professionals and their institutions
to contribute to poverty eradication strategies and national actions plans based on a human rights framework.

For information, go to:
http://portal.unesco.org/shs/en/file_download.php/319d9663c462133b41645164c003b287small_grants_prog.doc

ELECTIONS

13. Report: "The Voting Rights of Internally Displaced Persons: OSCE Region"
This report, prepared by the Brookings Institution-Johns Hopkins SAIS Project on Internal Displacement, assesses the voting rights of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in 13 member countries of the Organization of Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). While noting the progress that has been made in helping IDPs exercise their right to vote, the study finds that many IDPs continue to face obstacles in exercising this right, which sharply reduces their influence over the political, economic, and social decisions affecting their lives.

For more information, go to: www.brookings.edu/fp/projects/idp/20040716mooney.htm
Or contact bjarrah@brookings.edu

14. Making Elections Accessible to the Disabled in Ghana
The Ghana Federation of the Disabled (GFD) is currently engaged in a nationwide program to ensure that elections are accessible to all disabled people. The GFD is working with the Electoral Commission to ensure that all polling stations and electoral processes are physically and practically accessible to people with different disabilities. For example, the GDF has introduced tactile ballots so that the blind can exercise their right to vote secretly and independently. The GFD educates all its members on their right to vote, how to access the polling stations, and how to cast their vote. The televised national voter education campaigns reach more disabled people by using sign language interpreters. Also, disabled people have been trained as election observers and are to be included on the teams of election observers in all districts in the country.

To learn more, contact: emma.cain@add.org.uk

15. Democratic Initiative Foundations Conducts Exit Poll in Ukraine
The Democratic Initiative Foundation of Ukraine, a World Movement for Democracy participating organization, worked with the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology and the Razumkov Center of Economic and Political Studies to conduct the National Exit Poll 2004 for the second round of the presidential election in Ukraine, which helped to expose the fraudulent elections. According to the final exit poll results, 53 percent of electorate voted for the opposition candidate Victor Yuschenko, 44 percent voted for Victor Yanukovich, and 2.8 percent voted against both candidates. The polling was conducted using an anonymous surveying method closest to the procedure of secret balloting. Experts from Russia and Poland supervised the polling.

Go to: www.wmd.org/documents/dec04-UkraineExitPoll1204.doc

HUMAN RIGHTS

16. Call for Applications: International Winter School on Human Rights
The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights (HFHR) in Poland is currently accepting
applications for its International Winter School on Human Rights. Human Rights
activists and young lawyers from the New Independent States who have never
previously taken human rights courses from the HFHR are encouraged to apply. The program includes lectures and practical workshops on the historic and philosophical foundations of human rights, international and internal mechanisms of human rights protection, and on particular human rights legislation. Working knowledge of Russian is required. The deadline for applications is December 15.

For further instructions, go to: www.hfhrpol.waw.pl/ru/

17. Directory: Experts on Detention Conditions Worldwide
The Immigration Advisory Service has compiled a "Directory of Experts on Detention Conditions Worldwide" for individuals or organizations that provide legal advice and country information guidance for asylum seekers. This directory is part of a larger effort to compile a comprehensive directory of the actual detention conditions in countries around the world.

Go to: www.iasuk.org or contact detention@iasuk.org

To view the Directory of Experts on Detention Conditions Worldwide, go to:
www.wmd.org/documents/dec04-DetentionDirectory1204.doc

18. Publication: New Tactics in Human Rights
The New tactics in Human Rights Project has published "New Tactics in Human Rights: A Practitioners Guide." The 200-page book includes 100 stories on how practitioners are advancing human rights. The book also includes an introduction to tactical and strategic thinking for human rights practitioners and a series of practical worksheets to help organizations determine which tactics and strategies will work best for them.

Go to:
www.newtactics.org/main.php/ToolsforAction/TheNewTacticsWorkbook/Readordownloadfiles

For more information about the New Tactics in Human Rights project, go to:
www.newtactics.org

19. Conference Report: Priorities and Mechanisms of Reform in the Arab World
The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) has released the final report from the conference on "Priorities and Mechanism of Reform in the Arab World," which was held in Cairo on July 5-7, 2004. The final report illustrates scenarios, requirements, priorities, and mechanisms for reform in the Arab World. Following the conference, a number of public figures and human rights activists from eight Arab countries agreed to establish the "Forum for Democratic Reform in the Arab Region," which aims to contribute actively to the process of reform in Arab countries. The CIHRS will coordinate the process of setting the Forum.

To read the report from the conference, go to:
www.wmd.org/documents/dec04-hrconf1204.doc
To read about the Forum for Democratic Reform in Arab Region and to see their recent press release, go to: www.wmd.org/documents/dec04-reform-forum1204.doc

20. Solidarity Placard Demonstrations at Zimbawean Embassies in SADC Countries on Human Rights Day Civil society organizations from the countries surrounding Zimbabwe will hold peaceful placard demonstrations in front of Zimbabwean embassies on December 10, 2004, to mark International Human Rights Day. The demonstrations, organized by CIVICUS and Amnesty International South Africa, are part of a series of civil society events aimed at putting an end to ongoing human rights violations and the closure of civic space in Zimbabwe. They will provide opportunities for civil society activists, Zimbabweans in the Diaspora, and citizens of Africa to show solidarity towards their Zimbabwean brothers and sisters and to advocate for the repeal and progressive amendment of existing and planned repressive legislation in
Zimbabwe, including the proposed NGO Bill, which would restrict foreign funding.
After the demonstrations, civil society organizations from the region will organize
a Zimbabwe Solidarity Rally (ZSR) on February 14, 2005. Thousands of people and organizations will march to the main border posts of Zimbabwe in the neighboring countries of Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa and Zambia.

For more information, contact Amnesty International South Africa +27 12 320 8155
(campaigns@amnesty.org.za) or CIVICUS on +27 11 833 5959 (cswatch@civicus.org)

21. Free Software Tool for Human Rights Activists
Martus is a free software and open source technology tool that is designed to allow an entry-level computer user in a human rights group to be able to effectively and securely collect, store, and manage testimonies of human rights abuses effectively and securely. To store information about an incident or abuse, the user creates a bulletin that is similar to an e-mail. Martus also allows human rights organizations to share their data on a read-only basis with selected third parties, such as a national headquarters that oversees a regional office or international human rights groups.

For more information, go to: www.martus.org/index.shtml

INTERNET, MEDIA, AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

22. New Assistance Organization: Global Forum for Media Development
At a meeting in Bangkok in October 2004, ten media assistance organizations from four continents agreed to establish a new Global Forum for Media Development, an international association of media assistance NGOs. The association's aim is to help coordinate activities, share best practices, raise the sector's profile, encourage the adoption of standards, and potentially facilitate joint projects among the implementers. The group is setting up several discussion lists, gathering information on the sector via distribution of a questionnaire, and planning a wider meeting tentatively scheduled for October 2005.

Go to: www.gfmd.org or contact Eric Johnson at Johnson@gfmd.org

23. Improving Professional Standards of Journalism in Bulgaria
On November 25, 2004, 50 media outlets and organizations in Bulgaria signed a Code of Journalistic Ethics. The Code unites owners and journalists from both print and electronic media for the first time in South Eastern Europe. The Code of Ethics commits all member organizations to supply the public with accurate information and to distinguish clearly between facts and opinion. Other sections of the Code deal with information gathering, the protection of children, non-discrimination, and the coverage of crimes and brutality. Topics such as "editorial independence," "relations between the media" and the definition of "public interest" are also addressed. The Code of Ethics was developed by a team of Bulgarian and international media experts within the framework of the EU PHARE Project "Technical Assistance for Improving Professional Standards of Journalism in Bulgaria."

Got to: www.i-learn.co.uk/BulgariaEN/News/2004/11/25/News4820/

POLITICAL AND CIVIC PARTICIPATION OF YOUTH

24. Leaders Workshop in Katmandu Nepal
On November 3-6, 2004, the Young Liberals and Democrats of Asia (YLDA) hosted its 3rd annual Leaders Workshop in Katmandu Nepal. Twenty seven young Asian leaders gathered for the meeting to discuss measures to oppose fundamentalism in their respective nations.

For more information, go to: www.yldasia.org

POLITICAL PARTIES AND POLITICAL LEADERSHIP

25. Moroccan NGO Community Consults the Government on a New Party Law
In July 2004, the Center for Democracy, a Moroccan NGO, called for a number of amendments to the preliminary draft report of the Law on Political Parties prepared by the government. Many of the amendments proposed by the Center were incorporated into the revised draft report of the law, which was recently sent to the Center. Some of the incorporated suggestions include: putting greater emphasis on intra-party democracy, developing quotas for women in the party leadership, guaranteeing the right of citizens 18 years and older to hold offices within the parties, withdrawing of an article banning any party that does not participate in elections, and enforcing total transparency. After reviewing the revised version, the Center recommended additional amendments to the law.

For further information, contact: democracy_mo@hotmail.com

RULE OF LAW

26. Publication: "Lawless Law Enforcement in Bangladesh"
The November 17, 2004 issue of the Asia Center for Human Rights (ACHR) Review focuses on state lawlessness in Bangladesh. Between January and September 2004, as many as 111 people were extra-judicially executed by law enforcement personnel. The report traces the killings to the unrestricted powers given to police under Section 54 of the Bangladesh Criminal Procedure Code.

Go to http://www.archweb.org/Review/47-04.htm

27. PILDAT Annual Report
The Pakastani Institute for Legislative Development (PILDAT) released its annual
report. The report details the workshops, roundtable discussions and training
courses that PILDAT has conducted during the last year. The report also describes the participation of Pakistani legislators and staff in capacity-building
activities.

To read the report, go to: http://www.pildat.org/publications/annualreport03-04.pdf

TRANSPARENCY AND ANTI-CORRUPTION

28. The Global Network for Good Governance (GNGG) Opens Branch in Nigeria
The Global Network for Good Governance (GNGG), an anti-corruption and good
governance network that includes organizations and individuals from 21 countries, announces the opening of a new branch in Nigeria. The new branch is tasked with establishing a viable network of the GNGG in Nigeria. To do so, the branch will draw the network members from a range of institutions, such as public, private, and third sector organizations, the media, and individuals who share a vision of good governance and corruption-free society.

For more information, contact: gnggnigeria@yahoo.com

WOMEN'S ISSUES

29. New Web site: The World Movement's International Women's Democracy Network
The World Movement's International Women's Democracy Network now has a basic Web site that identifies the objectives, membership and structure, priority areas of interest, and activity goals of the network. Upon recommendations from the "Networking Activists for Women's Rights" workshop at the World Movement's Third Assembly, the Women's Learning Partnership (WLP) is currently serving as the secretariat of the network. WLP has been actively involved in developing the network that aims to support and enhance women's roles and agency in the development of democratic practices and institutions at community, national, and international levels.

To learn more about the International Women's Democracy Network, go to:
www.wmd.org/women/womensdemocracy.html

30. Training Seminar: "Making Governance Gender Responsive"
The Center for Asia Pacific Women (CAPWIP) will hold a training seminar on "Making Governance Gender Responsive" on January 9-15, 2005, in Manila, Philippines. The course is designed for middle and senior level government executives, women and men in local governments, political parties, research and training institutes, and civil society organizations involved in government reform initiatives. The course intends to help participants gain an appreciation of gender-related and governance issues and acquire skills in identifying and analyzing gender biases and concerns.

For more information, go to: www.capwip.org

31. BAOBAB Announces Activities for the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence Campaign
As part of the international campaign against gender violence, BAOBAB, a women's NGO in Nigeria, planned a variety of events over a period of 16 days between November 25th (International Day Against Violence Against Women) and December 10th (International Human Rights Day). The events included a press briefing, a student debate on "Sexual Education: A Way of Addressing Sexual Abuse?," a one-day gender awareness presentation with the police in Lagos, a dramatic presentation at a bus stop, and other outreach activities.

To learn more, go to: www.baobabwomen.org/upcomingevents.html

32. Maghreb Regional Learning Institute for Women's Leadership and Training of Trainers Women's Learning Partnership (WLP) and the Association Démocratique des Femmes du Maroc (ADFM) are convening the "Maghreb Regional Learning Institute for Women's Leadership and Training of Trainers" on December 11-14, 2004, in Marrakech, Morocco. The Institute is a learning center for empowering women to participate as leaders in decision-making processes in all areas of social, political, and economic life. The goal of the Institute is to train women's rights activists in the Maghreb Region to become better trainers and advocates for women's equal participation in civil society. Institute participants, which include 27 women's rights activists and leaders of women's groups from Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Sudan, and Tunisia, will take part in facilitation, communications, and advocacy skills training. Among the topics to be discussed are how to communicate effectively to influence decision makers and mobilize the public, and how to translate
organizational visions into compelling messages that resonate with various groups and constituencies.

For more information, contact: ajenkins@learningpartners.org

33. WORLD MOVEMENT PARTICIPATING NETWORKS, ORGANIZATIONS AND INDIVIDUALS MENTIONED IN THIS ISSUE

* Africa Democracy Forum -- www.wmd.org/africa/africa_democracy_forum.html
* Alliance for Reform and Democracy -- www.asiademocracy.info/news/index.php
* BAOBAB for Women's Human Rights -- www.baobabwomen.org
* Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies -- www.cihrs.org/HOME/Home.htm
* Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy -- www.islam-democracy.org/
* CIVICUS -- www.civicus.org/new/default.asp
* Council for a Community of Democracies -- www.ccd21.org/
* Democracy Coalition Project -- http://demcoalition.org/html/home.html
* Democratic Initiative Foundation of Ukraine -- www.ukma.kiev.ua/
* Education for Democracy Foundation -- www.edudemo.org.pl/
* Freedom House -- www.freedomhouse.org/
* The Pakastani Institute for Legislative Development (PILDAT) -- www.pildat.org/
* Transatlantic Democracy Network -- www.demdigest.net/
* Transnational Radical Party -- www.radicalparty.org/welcome2.html
* Women's Learning Partnership for Rights, Development, and Peace (WLP) --
www.learningpartnership.org
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Electronic Newsletter of the World Movement for Democracy - www.wmd.org

Eco-Economy Indicator – TEMPERATURE RISING
Copyright Earth Policy Institute 2004
December 9, 2004

Eco-Economy Indicators are the twelve trends to track that measure
progress—or lack thereof—in building an eco-economy. This third updated
Eco-Economy Indicator is on global temperature.

GLOBAL TEMPERATURE RISE ACCELERATING
Lila Buckley

October 2004 was the warmest October since recordkeeping began in 1880.
February was the second hottest and March the third hottest on record. The
average global temperature for the first 10 months of the year—14.57
degrees Celsius (26.22 degrees Fahrenheit)—makes 2004 the fourth warmest
year on record. These record-breaking readings, which come from the global
series maintained by NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, continue
a trend of rising global temperatures.

For entire text see http://www.earth-policy.org/Indicators/Temp/2004.htm
For data see http://www.earth-policy.org/Indicators/Temp/Temp_data.htm

And for more information on the effects of rising temperature, see Chapter
4 of Lester Brown’s book, PLAN B: Rescuing a Planet
Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble, posted at
http://www.earth-policy.org/Books/PlanB_contents.htm

For an index of Earth Policy Institute resources related to Temperature
and Climate see http://www.earth-policy.org/Indicators/Temp/index.htm

Justice Matters: Legacies of the Holocaust and WWII
http://www.weissmark.com

Springing from an unprecedented meeting between the sons and daughters of the Holocaust and the children of the Third Reich, Justice Matters: Legacies of the Holocaust and World War II takes readers on an unparalleled journey of hatred and ethnic resentments.

Although more than half a century has passed, recollections of the Holocaust and WWII still sear the lives of survivors, their children and grandchildren. Weissmark’s book shows how the cycle of ethnic and religious strife is kept alive generation after generation through story-telling, with each side recounting the injustice it suffered and the valor it showed in avenging its own group. holocaust

Describing how these stories or “legacies” transmit moral values, beliefs and emotions and thus preserve the past, Weissmark writes: “Unjust acts that have not been reconciled are stored in legacies as if packed in ice.”

The lessons of Justice Matters speak to a world reeling from unhealed wounds, providing insights into myriad conflicts ranging from centuries old disputes in Northern Ireland and the Middle East, to racial strife in America’s ghettos. wwii, wwii, books.w

Weissmark presents an inspiring recipe for reconciliation, asserting that it is not enough for the antagonist to agree to talk. Each side also must agree to moderate their own emotions and dispense with the notion that they are the most aggrieved.

Justice Matters is about hearing the other side, seeing the other view. The story of how children of the Holocaust and children of the Nazi’s struggled to come to terms with their past has universal applications for any people, and culture, riven with a legacy of resentment. books

Coming this February …
Outgrowing the Earth: The Food Security Challenge in an Age of Falling Water Tables and Rising Temperatures
by Lester R. Brown (W.W. Norton & Co.)
http://www.earth-policy.org/Books/Out/Contents.htm

Order your copy today and get free shipping (U.S. and Canada only) or call
202.496.9290 x 13.

Preface from Outgrowing the Earth:

On hearing his political opponent described as a modest chap, Winston
Churchill reputedly responded that “he has much to be modest about.”
Having just completed a book dealing with the increasingly complex issue
of world food security, I too feel that I have a lot to be modest about.

Assessing the world food prospect was once rather straightforward, largely
a matter of extrapolating, with minor adjustments, historically recent
agricultural supply and demand trends. Now suddenly that is all changing.
It is no longer just a matter of trends slowing or accelerating; in some
cases they are reversing direction.

Grain harvests that were once rising everywhere are now falling in some
countries. Fish catches that were once rising are now falling. Irrigated
area, once expanding almost everywhere, is now shrinking in some key
food-producing regions.

Beyond this, some of the measures that are used to expand food production
today, such as overpumping aquifers, almost guarantee a decline in food
production tomorrow when the aquifers are depleted and the wells go dry.
The same can be said for overplowing and overgrazing. We have entered an
era of discontinuity on the food front, an era where making reliable
projections is ever more difficult.

New research shows that a 1 degree Celsius rise in temperature leads to a
decline in wheat, rice, and corn yields of 10 percent. In a century where
temperatures could rise by several degrees Celsius, harvests could be
devastated.

Although climate change is widely discussed, we are slow to grasp its full
meaning. Everyone knows the earth’s temperature is rising, but commodity
analysts often condition their projections on weather returning to
“normal,” failing to realize that with climate now in flux, there is no
normal to return to.

Falling water tables are also undermining food security. Water tables are
now falling in countries that contain more than half the world’s people.
While there is a broad realization that we are facing a future of water
shortages, not everyone has connected the dots to see that a future of
water shortages will be a future of food shortages.

Perhaps the biggest agricultural reversal in recent times has been the
precipitous decline in China’s grain production since 1998. Ten years ago,
in Who Will Feed China?, I projected that China’s grain production would
soon peak and begin to decline. But I did not anticipate that it would
drop by 50 million tons between 1998 and 2004. Since 1998 China has
covered this decline by drawing down its once massive stocks of grain. Now
stocks are largely depleted and China is turning to the world market. Its
purchase of 8 million tons of wheat to import in 2004 could signal the
beginning of a shift from a world food economy dominated by surpluses to
one dominated by scarcity.

Overnight, China has become the world’s largest wheat importer. Yet it
will almost certainly import even more wheat in the future, not to mention
vast quantities of rice and corn. It is this potential need to import 30,
40, or 50 million tons of grain a year within the next year or two and the
associated emergence of a politics of food scarcity that is likely to put
food security on the front page of newspapers.

At the other end of the spectrum is Brazil, the only country with the
potential to expand world cropland area measurably. But what will the
environmental consequences be of continuing to clear and plow Brazil’s
vast interior? Will the soils sustain cultivation over the longer term?
Will the deforestation in the Amazon disrupt the recycling of rainfall
from the Atlantic Ocean to the country’s interior? And how many plant and
animal species will Brazil sacrifice to expand its exports of soybeans?

Food security, which was once the near-exclusive province of ministries of
agriculture, now directly involves several departments of government. In
the past, ministries of transportation did not need to think about food
security when formulating transport policies. But in densely populated
developing countries today, the idea of having a car in every garage one
day means paving over a large share of their cropland. Many countries
simply do not have enough cropland to pave for cars and to grow food for
their people.

Or consider energy. Energy ministers do not attend international
conferences on food security. But they should. The decisions they make in
deciding which energy sources to develop will directly affect atmospheric
carbon dioxide levels and future changes in temperature. In fact, the
decisions made in ministries of energy may have a greater effect on
long-term food security than those made in ministries of agriculture.

Future food security now depends on the combined efforts of the ministries
of agriculture, energy, transportation, health and family planning, and
water resources. It also depends on strong leadership—leadership that is
far better informed on the complex set of interacting forces affecting
food security than most political leaders are today.

Take a look at the Table of Contents and read Chapter 1, “Pushing Beyond
the Earth’s Limits” (online now in Adobe format).
http://www.earth-policy.org/Books/Out/Contents.htm

Order your copy today and get free shipping (U.S. and Canada only) or call
202.496.9290 x 13.

Earth Policy Institute
1350 Connecticut Ave., NW, Ste 403
Washington, DC 20036
T: (202) 496.9290
F: (202) 496.9325

UN expert decries global shame of rising numbers of hungry people
UN News Centre
October 26, 2004

Although the world has more than enough food to sustain all people, a dozen children under the age of five are dying every minute from hunger-related diseases and the number of malnourished is on the rise, a United Nations experts says in a new report.
Jean Ziegler, the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, says 842 million people were permanently or gravely undernourished last year, an increase of 2 million on the previous figures. Hunger levels have now risen every year since the World Food Summit in 1996 called for global action to stem the trend.
In a report to the General Assembly, Mr. Ziegler says it is indefensible that so many small children are still dying because they do not have enough food to eat.
"How can we continue to live with this shame?" he asks, declaring that the time has come "to enforce the right to food."
Mr. Ziegler says hunger is neither inevitable nor acceptable. "We live in a world that is richer than
ever before and that is entirely capable of eradicating hunger," he writes. "There is no secret as to how to eradicate hunger. There is no need for new technologies. There is simply the need for political commitment to challenge existing policies that make the rich richer and the poor poorer."
The expert expresses doubt that the world can meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) that calls for the halving of the number of hungry people by 2015. While some countries have made gains in the last decade, many others have regressed, including India, Indonesia,
Nigeria, Pakistan and Sudan.
The Rapporteur states he is particularly concerned by the situation in Sudan, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the occupied Palestinian territories and Cuba.
Mr. Ziegler calls for urgent action by Khartoum and Pyongyang to protect the citizens of their countries, and says the Israeli Government must respect its obligations as the occupying Power so that Palestinians enjoy the right to food. He also urges the United States "to refrain from unilateral measures that affect the right to food" of Cubans.
http://southasia.oneworld.net/external/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.un.org%2Fapps%2Fnews%2Fstory.asp%3FNewsID%3D12347%26Cr%3Dright%26Cr1%3Dfood
portside (the left side in nautical parlance) is a news, discussion and debate service of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism. It aims to provide varied material of interest to people on the left.

The Trauma of Terrorism
Sharing Knowledge and Shared Care
An International Handbook

Edited by Yael Danieli, PhD
Director, Group Project for Holocaust Survivors and their Children,
New York, New York, USA
Danny Brom, PhD
Director, Israel Center for the Treatment of Psychotrauma,
Herzog Hospital, Jerusalem, Israel
Joe Sills, MA
United Nations Secretariat (ret.),
Nashville, Tennessee, USA

Please see flyer here.

YAEL DANIELI, Ph.D.
Dr. Yael Danieli is a clinical psychologist in private practice, a victimologist, traumatologist, and the Director of the Group Project for Holocaust Survivors and their Children, which she co-founded in 1975 in the New York City area. She has done extensive psychotherapeutic work with survivors and children of survivors on individual, family, group and community bases. She has studied in depth post-war responses and attitudes toward them, and the impact these and the Holocaust had on their lives. She has lectured and published worldwide in numerous books and journals, translated into at least 11 languages on optimal care and training for this and other victim/survivor populations, and received several awards for her work, the most recent of which is the Lifetime Achievement Award of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS). Most recently she has been appointed consultant to the International Criminal Court on issues related to victims and staff care. She has served as consultant to South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Rwanda government on reparations for victims, and has led an ongoing Project (Promoting a Dialogue: “Democracy Cannot Be Built with the Hands of Broken Souls”) in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Her books are International responses to traumatic stress...; The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Fifty years and beyond; Sharing the front line and the back hills (Baywood) all published for and on behalf of the United Nations; International handbook of multigenerational legacies of trauma (Kluwer/ Plenum); and The trauma of terrorism: An international Handbook of sharing knowledge and shared care (Haworth Press). She is the Director of Psychological Services for the Center for Rehabilitation of Torture Victims, and Adjunct Associate Professor of Medicine at Seton Hall University School of Graduate Medical Education in New Jersey. Dr. Danieli is also Founding President of the International network of Holocaust and Genocide Survivors and their Friends.

A Founding Director of The International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, Dr. Danieli was its (1988-1989) President. The Initial Report of her Presidential Task Force on Curriculum, Education, and Training for professionals working with victim/survivors was adopted by the United Nations E/AC.57/1990/NGO.3). Currently she co-chairs the ISTSS Task Force on International Trauma Training.

Dr. Danieli has been the Senior Representative to the United Nations of the World Federation for Mental Health and of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, serving also as Vice-Chair of the Executive Committee of Non-Governmental Organizations Associated with the UN Department of Public Information and Chair of its Publications Committee. A Founding Member of WFMH’s Scientific Committee on the Mental Health Needs of Victims, and its Chair, she has been active in developing, promoting, adapting and implementing the United Nations Declaration of Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power (A/RES/40/34) and all subsequent UN victims-related work, including their right to reparation (E/CN.4/Sub.2/1996/17) and their role in the International Criminal Court.

She has served as Consultant to the UN Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Branch, on the Board of its International Scientific and Professional Advisory Council and the Executive Committee of the Alliance of NGOs on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice; also, consultant to the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and various governments on trauma and victim/survivor’s rights and care. In the US, she has consulted for the National Institute of Mental Health, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and, among other news organizations, Associated press and CNN.

Concurrent with a variety of clinical training and work, during 1970-1977 she taught Psychology at Brooklyn College and John Jay College for Criminal Justice of the City University of New York, has been faculty member and supervisor at the (U.S.) National Institute for the Psychotherapies.

Before arriving in the United States (for a Doctorate in Psychology at New York University earned in 1981), she served as a Sergeant in the Israeli Armed Forces, earned degrees, taught and wrote in music, philosophy and psychology.

PARTIAL LIST OF PUBLICATIONS

Articles/Chapters

Danieli, Y. (1974). Psychotherapy and related personality concepts. In L. Wheeler, R.A. Goodale & J. Deese, General psychology. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, Inc.

Danieli, Y. (1975). Background and orientation: Behavior Therapy, Gestalt therapy, Psychoanalysis. In C. A. Loew, H. Grayson & G.H. Loew, Three psychotherapies: A clinical comparison. New York: Brunner/Mazel Publishers.

Danieli, Y. (1976). Intentional groups with a specific problem orientation focus [with David Hays]. In M. Rosenbaum & A. Snadovsky (Eds.), The intensive group experience: A guide. New York: The Free Press

Danieli, Y. (1980). Countertransference in the treatment and study of Nazi Holocaust survivors and their children. Victimology: An International Journal, 5(2-4), 355-367.

Danieli, Y. (1981a). Differing adaptational styles in families of survivors of the Nazi Holocaust: Some implications for treatment. Children Today, 10(5), 6-10, 34-35.

Danieli, Y. (1981b). Exploring the factors in Jewish identity formation (in children of survivors). In Consultation on the psycho-dynamics of Jewish identity: Summary of proceedings (pp. 22-25). American Jewish committee and the Central Conference of American Rabbis, March 15-16, 1981.

Danieli, Y. (1981c). Matching interventions to different adaptational styles of survivors. In Massuah: A yearbook on the Holocaust and heroism (Vol. 9). Tel-Aviv: M. Stern Press. (In Hebrew.)

Danieli, Y. (1981d). On the achievement of integration in aging survivors of the Nazi Holocaust. Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 14(2), 191-210.

Danieli, Y. (1981e). The group project for Holocaust survivors and their children. Children Today, 10(5), 11, 33.

Danieli, Y. (1982a). Therapists' difficulties in treating survivors of the Nazi Holocaust and their children. Dissertation Abstracts International, 42(12-B, Pt 1), 4927. (UMI No. 949-904).

Danieli, Y. (1982b). Group project for Holocaust survivors and their children. Prepared for the National Institute of Mental Health, Mental Health Services Branch. Contract #092424762. Washington, DC.

Danieli, Y. (1982c). Families of survivors of the Nazi Holocaust: Some short- and long-term effects. In C. D. Spielberger, I. G. Sarason, & N. Milgram (Eds.), Stress and anxiety (Vol. 8)(pp. 405-421). New York: McGraw-Hill/Hemisphere.

Danieli, Y. (1984a). Psychotherapists' participation in the conspiracy of silence about the Holocaust. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 1(1), 23-42.

Danieli, Y. (1984b). The impact of Holocaust experience on families of survivors living in the United States. In The Nazi concentration camps: Proceedings of the fourth Yad Vashem international historical conference (pp. 603-619). Jerusalem: Yad Vashem.

Danieli, Y. (1985a). Separation and loss in families of survivors of the Nazi Holocaust. Academy Forum, 29(2), 7-10.

Danieli, Y. (1985b). The treatment and prevention of long-term effects and intergenerational transmission of victimization: A lesson from Holocaust survivors and their children. In C. R. Figley (Ed.), Trauma and its wake (pp. 295-313). New York: Brunner/Mazel.

Danieli, Y. (1988a). Confronting the unimaginable: Psychotherapists' reactions to victims of the Nazi Holocaust. In J. P. Wilson, Z. Harel, & B. Kahana (Eds.), Human adaptation to extreme stress (pp. 219-238). New York: Plenum.

Danieli, Y. (1988b). The heterogeneity of postwar adaptation in families of Holocaust survivors. In R. L. Braham (Ed.), The psychological perspectives of the holocaust and of its aftermath (pp. 109-128). New York: Columbia University Press.

Danieli, Y. (1988c). Treating survivors and children of survivors of the Nazi Holocaust. In F. M. Ochberg (Ed.), Post-traumatic therapy and victims of violence (pp. 278-294). New York: Brunner/Mazel.

Danieli, Y. (1988d). The use of mutual support approaches in the treatment of victims. In E. Chigier (Ed.), Grief and bereavement in contemporary society: Vol. 3. Support Systems (pp. 116-123). London: Freund Publishing House.

Danieli, Y. (1988e). On not confronting the Holocaust: Psychological reactions to victim/survivors and their children. In Remembering for the future, Theme II: The impact of the Holocaust on the contemporary world (pp. 1257-1271). Oxford: Pergamon Press.

Danieli, Y. (1989). Mourning in survivors and children of survivors of the Nazi Holocaust: The role of group and community modalities. In D. R. Dietrich, & P. C. Shabad (Eds.), The problem of loss and mourning: Psychoanalytic perspectives (pp. 427-460). Madison: International Universities Press.

Danieli, Y. (1992). Preliminary reflections from a psychological perspective. In T.C. van Boven C. Flinterman, F. Grunfeld & I. Westendorp (Eds.) The Right to Restitution, Compensation and Rehabilitation for Victims of Gross Violations of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Netherlands Institute of Human Rights [Studieen Informatiecentrum Mensenrechten], Special issue No. 12 (pp. 196-213). Also published in N.J. Kritz (Ed.)(1995). Transitional justice: How emerging democracies reckon with former regimes. 1 (pp. 572-582). Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace.

Danieli, Y. (1993). The diagnostic and therapeutic use of the multi-generational family tree in working with survivors and children of survivors of the Nazi Holocaust. In J. P. Wilson & B. Raphael (Eds.) International handbook of traumatic stress syndromes. [Stress and Coping Series, Donald Meichenbaum, Series Editor]. (pp. 889-898). New York: Plenum Publishing.

Danieli, Y. (1994a). Countertransference, trauma and training. In J.P. Wilson and J. Lindy (Eds.) Countertransference in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (pp. 368-388). New York: Guilford Press.

Danieli, Y. (1994b). As survivors age - Part I. National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Clinical Quarterly, 4(1), 1-7.

Danieli, Y. (1994c). As survivors age - Part II. National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Clinical Quarterly, 4(2), 20-24.

Danieli, Y. (1994d). Silence no longer. Generation: A Journal of Australian Jewish Life, Thought and Community, 4(1), 35-37.

Danieli, Y. (1994e). Countertransference and trauma: Self healing and training issues. In M.B. Williams and J.F. Sommer, Jr. (Eds.) Handbook of post-traumatic therapy (pp. 540-550). Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood/Praeger Publishing Co.

Danieli, Y. (1994f). Trauma to the family: Intergenerational sources of vulnerability and resilience. In J.T. Reese and E. Scrivner (Eds.) The law enforcement families: issues and answers (pp. 163-175). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Danieli, Y. (1994g). Resilience and hope. Children Worldwide (pp. 47-49). Geneva: International Catholic Child Bureau.

Danieli, Y. (1994h). A global response to crisis. In M.A. Young (Ed.) 2001: The next generation in victim assistance (pp. 83-89). Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall-Hunt Publishers.

Krystal, H. & Danieli, Y. (1994i). Holocaust survivor studies in the context of PTSD. National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder PTSD Research Quarterly, 5(4), 1-5.

Danieli, Y. (1995a). Foreword. In R.J. Kleber, C.R. Figley and B P.R. Gersons (Eds.), Beyond trauma: cultural and societal dynamics. New York: Plenum Publishing Corporation. In press.

Danieli, Y. (1995b). Collaborative organizational involvements the role of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. In A.S. Kalayjian (Ed.), Disaster and mass trauma: Global perspectives on post disaster mental health management (pp. 215-217). Long Branch, NJ: Vista Publishing, Inc.

Danieli, Y. (1995c). Countertransference and training. In A.S. Kalayjian (Ed.), Disaster and mass trauma: Global perspectives on post disaster mental health management (pp. 165-173). Long Branch, NJ: Vista Publishing, Inc.

Smith, B., Agger, I., Danieli, Y. and Weisaeth, L. (1996a). Emotional responses of international humanitarian aid workers. In Danieli, Y., Rodley, N. & Weisaeth, L. (Eds.) (1996). International responses to traumatic stress: Humanitarian, Human rights, justice, peace and development contributions, collaborative actions and future initiatives (pp. 397-423). Published for and on behalf of the United Nations by Baywood Publishing Company, Inc., Amityville, New York.

Danieli, Y. (1996b). Who takes care of the caretakers? The emotional life of those working with children in situations of violence. In R.J. Appel and B. Simon (Eds.) Minefields in their hearts: The mental health of children in war and communal violence (pp. 189-205). New Haven: Yale University Press.

Danieli, Y. (1997). As survivors age: an overview. Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 30(1), (9- 26).

Danieli, Y. (1998). Justice and reparation: steps in the process of healing, in Christopher C. Joyner (ed.), Reining in impunity for international crimes and serious violations of fundamental human rights: Proceedings of the Siracusa conference 17-21 September 1998. International Review of Penal Law, 14, pp. 303-312.

Danieli, Y. (1999a). Intergenerational legacies of trauma in police families. In J.M. Violanti & D. Paton (Eds.) (1998). Police trauma: Psychological aftermath of civilian combat. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas Publisher.

Engdahl, B., Kastrup, M., Jaranson, J., and Danieli, Y. (1999b). The impact of traumatic human rights violations on victims and the mental health profession's response. In Y. Danieli, E. Stamatopoulou, & C. J. Dias (Eds.) The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Fifty years and beyond (pp. 337-335). Published for and on behalf of the United Nations by Baywood Publishing Company, Inc., Amityville, New York.

Sirkin, S., Iacopino, V., Grodin, M. and Danieli, Y. (1999c). The role of health professionals in protecting and promoting human rights: a paradigm for professional responsibility. In Y. Danieli, E. Stamatopoulou, & C. J. Dias (Eds.), The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Fifty years and beyond (pp. 357-369). Published for and on behalf of the United Nations by Baywood Publishing Company, Inc., Amityville, New York.

Danieli, Y. (1999d). Healing components: The right to reparation for victims of gross violations of human rights and humanitarian law. In M. Hayse, D. Pollefeyt, G.J.Colijn, & M. Sachs Littell (Eds.) Hearing the voices: Teaching the Holocaust to future generations (pp. 219-233). Merion Station, Pennsylvania: Merion Westfield Press International

Danieli, Y. (2001). International Responses to Traumatic Stress. In Roth, J.K. Maxwell, E. (Eds.) Remembering for the future: The Holocaust in an age of genocide 3(pp. 63-77). Basingstoke: Palgrave.

Danieli, Y. (2001). ISTSS members participate in recovery efforts in New York and Washington, DC. Traumatic Stress Points, 15(4), 4.

Weine, S., Danieli, Y., Silove, D., Van Ommeren, M., Fairbank J.A. & Saul, J. (2002). Guidelines for international training in mental health and psychosocial interventions for trauma exposed populations in clinical and community settings. Psychiatry, 65(2),156-164.

Danieli, Y., Engdahl, B. & Schlenger, W.E. (2003). The psychological aftermath of terrorism. In F.M. Moghaddam & Marsella, A.J. (Eds.), Understanding terrorism: Psychological roots, consequences, and interventions (pp. 223-246). Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.

Danieli, Y. (2004). Victims: Essential Voices at the Court. The bulletin of the Victims' Rights Working Group. 1, Sept. 2004, (p. 6). London: The Redress Trust

Danieli, Y. (2005). On rehabilitation. In D. Shelton (ed.), Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity, Vol. 2 (pp. 278-880). Detroit, MI: Macmillan Reference USA.

Books

Danieli, Y., & Krystal, J. H. (1989). The initial report of the presidential task force on curriculum, education and training of the Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. Chicago: The Society for Traumatic Stress Studies.

Danieli, Y., Rodley, N.S., & Weisaeth, L. (Eds.)(1996). International responses to traumatic stress: Humanitarian, human rights, justice, peace and development contributions, collaborative actions and future initiatives. Published for and on behalf of the United Nations by Baywood Publishing Company, Inc., Amityville, New York.

Danieli, Y. (Ed.) (1998). International handbook of multigenerational legacies of trauma. New York: Kluwer Academic/ Plenum Publishing Corporation.

Danieli, Y., Stamatopoulou, E., & Clarence J. Dias (Eds.)(1999). The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Fifty years and beyond. Published for and on behalf of the United Nations by Baywood Publishing Company, Inc., Amityville, New York.

Danieli, Y. (Ed.).(2002). Sharing the front line and the back hills: International protectors and providers, peacekeepers, humanitarian aid workers and the media in the midst of crisis. Amityville, New York: Baywood Publishing Company, Inc.

[Some of the articles/books have been/are translated and published also in Arabic, Bosnian, Croatian, Dutch, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Russian, Serb, and Spanish].

Articles/chapters in press:

Danieli, Y. & Nader, K. (intended, 2005) Respecting cultural, religious and ethnic differences in the prevention and treatment of psychological sequelae. In Schein, L., Spitz, G., Burlingame, H. & Muskin, P. (Eds.) Group approaches for the psychological effects of terrorist events (pp. XXX-XXX). Binghamton, NY: The Haworth Press

Danieli, Y. (intended, 2005). Groups for Mental health professionals to limit secondary exposure, countertransference, and vicarious traumatization. In Schein, L., Spitz, G., Burlingame, H., & Muskin, P.(Eds.) Group approaches for the psychological effects of terrorist events. (pp. XXX-XXX). Binghamton, NY: The Haworth Press

Danieli, Y. (intended 2005). It was always there. In C. Figley (Ed.), Mapping Trauma and Its Wake: Autobiographic Essays by Pioneer Trauma Scholars (pp. XXX-XXX). New York: Brunner-Rutledge Psychosocial Stress Book Series.

Books in print:

Danieli, Y., Brom, D. & Sills, J.B.(Eds.).(2004). The trauma of terrorism: sharing knowledge and shared care, An international handbook. Binghamton, NY: The Haworth Press Inc.

[To be published also as a Special Issues: Volume 10, Number 1, 2, 3, 4, (2004) of the Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment and Trauma]

Danieli, Y., Dingman, R. & (Eds.). (2005). On the ground after September 11: Mental health responses and practical knowledge gained. Binghamton, NY: The Haworth Press Inc.

Books in preparation:

Danieli, Y. , Ngarambe, F. & Fowler, J. (Eds.) Life after death: Rebuilding genocide survivors’ lives: Challenges and opportunities. Proceedings of the Kigali Conference 25-30 November 2001. Binghamton, NY: The Haworth Press Inc.

Danieli, Y. & Pasagic, I. Promoting a dialogue: Democracy cannot be built with the hands of broken souls: The case of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Dignity Beyond the Human World…
by Arran Stibbe, 2004,
Please see www.humiliationstudies.org/intervention/animals.php

An elephant is made to stand on one leg in front of hundreds of laughing and applauding circus goers. A dachshund is made to wear a frilly red coat over her over-bred, distorted body. A mother pig is placed in a farrowing crate so she cannot move or interact with her piglets. Do these animals have a sense of dignity? Do they feel humiliated? Undoubtedly there are situations where animals feel emotions similar to humans feelings of humiliation, but it seems anthropomorphic to assume that other animals experience dignity and its loss in the same way that humans do. Perhaps, in many cases, the animal in question is feeling pain and distress rather than a loss of dignity.

However, looking at the other side, the human side, it is clear that strategic attempts to humiliate another party differ little whether that party is human or not. It is the same cultural script found throughout the human world: words and actions are used to systematically lower the social status of one party in order to feed the other party's desire for superiority. The mastery and control of animals, demonstrated through confining them, distorting their bodies, or making them perform unnatural feats, delivers at best a very fragile sense of self worth. The fragility occurs because the very act of having to humiliate another in order to gain a sense of self-worth simultaneously reveals deep insecurity.

Why consider dignity and humiliation beyond the human world? Not because the same emotional responses to humiliation are necessarily shared by other life-forms, but because the mentality behind denying the dignity of others is the same whoever is being humiliated, and the physical and emotional consequences for the humiliated party are very real. The reason for using the framework of humiliation in exploring relationships between humans and other beings rather than simply one of abuse , is because of the detrimental psychological effects of basing a sense of self worth on the humiliation of other species. The humilator is also in need of a compassionate response. If humilators realise that they could get a far more solid sense of self worth by affirming the lives of others rather than humiliating them, they could find healing, while their victims could find relief.

The elephant in the circus is a highly visible and obvious case, but the psychology of humiliating other species to gain a feeling of self worth goes far deeper than this, and may be a root cause of human alienation and the destruction of the planet. Why genetically modify organisms, confine animals in high intensity farms, cut down forests, monoculture vast expanses of land? It is all too easy to blame money or the quest for efficiency, but these may not be the only reasons or even the most important ones. The ultimate cause may be deeper - the continuous quest to conquer and humiliate in order to gain a fragile sense of self-worth.

An important question arises as to the scope within which the framework of dignity and humiliation could be usefully applied. Is the concept useful only in considering relationships between humans and other mammals, or between humans and all animals including mosquitoes, or between humans and all life-forms including plants, or even to humans and rivers, or forests? Drawing a neat dividing line between those who it is meaningful to consider as having dignity and those who do not deserve it could be considered arbitrary or presumptuous. It is also unnecessary to draw lines if focus is placed on the humans who are engaged in acts of humiliation rather than on questions of whether the other party feels emotionally humiliated or only physically damaged.

In the end, the framework of dignity and humiliation could be usefully applied to any situation where humans are basing their self-worth on subjugating another, whoever or whatever that other may be. Moving away from humiliation towards affirmation of dignity, in ever wider spheres, may provide the wellspring of healing for all concerned.

Arran Stibbe
Centre for Language and Ecology
http://www.ecoling.net

We invite you to a Brown Bag Lunch on 15 December 2004 at 12:30 PM
at 2 UN Plaza, 17th floor conference room

Humiliation, Conflict Management and Policy-Making
with Dr. Evelin Lindner

(This invitation is open to interested people from outside the UN, however,
only if everybody can be in the lobby at the same time and there are no latecomers.)

Why do poverty, deprivation, marginalization, ethnic incompatibilities, or
even conflict of interest and struggles over scarce resources sometimes
lead to cooperation and innovation and only sometimes to violence? When
there is too little bread, we may share and not fight. Thus, all so-called
"hard" explanations for violence and war may falter, because at times the
very same conditions lead to innovative peaceful solutions instead of
violent confrontation. Humiliation may be the "missing link" that explains
why conditions at times are perceived as illegitimate violations justifying
counter-violence, and at other times not, and why wealthy people may
organize and perpetrate terror. It is perhaps possible to claim that
humiliated hearts and minds are the only "real" weapons of mass
destruction, particularly in a globalized and interdependent world. It
seems timely and urgent to focus on the phenomenon of humiliation, its
prevention and the alleviation of its destructive consequences.

Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies (HumanDHS), is a network of concerned
academics and practitioners (see www.humiliationstudies.org). The network
is committed to studying and mitigating the phenomenon of humiliation in
the context of globalization and human rights, culture differences and
inter-group conflict, cooperation and violence, competition and
negotiation, and power and trust. We aim to reduce - and ultimately help
eliminate - destructive disrespect and humiliating practices all over the
world.

Evelin Gerda Lindner is a social scientist with an interdisciplinary
orientation. She holds two PhDs, one in social medicine and another in
social psychology. In 1996, she designed a research project on the concept
of humiliation and its role in genocide and war. Lindner is currently
concentrating on writing books and articles on humiliation, as well as
establishing Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies as an international
platform for further work on humiliation.

Please share this invitation with interested colleagues. Do bring your
lunch. Please RSVP to Aurora Deuss at deuss@un.org so that we can prepare
the room for the number of attendees. Those without a UN pass, please
alert us so that we can make arrangements for your entry to the building.

Social Science Research Network (SSRN) Celebrates 10th Anniversary

SSRN was incorporated 10 years ago in October, 1994. It was 11-1/2
years ago that Wayne Marr invited me to join him in starting SSRN. We
have come a long way since then. Our vision was to create a way for
scholars to share and distribute their research worldwide long before
their papers worked their way through the journal refereeing and
publication process. We vowed to do so at the lowest cost possible
for authors and readers. Since then over 44,000 authors have uploaded
more than 82,000 papers to SSRN's six research networks (ARN, ERN,
FEN, LSN, MRN and SIRN), and our users have downloaded over 7 million
full text documents (currently running at the rate of 275,000
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We founded SSRN as a corporate entity because we believed it to be
the most efficient form. SSRN is a collaborative of over 800 scholars
worldwide who contribute their services as Advisory Editors, Editors
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SSRN's OBJECTIVE
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SSRN reinvests all of the cash it receives (principally from
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to enhance our services to authors and users. We currently spend in
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None of SSRN's academic principals have ever been paid for the time
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SSRN's COMMITMENTS
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44,000 authors who have contributed their research to SSRN have
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We are continuing to expand and improve our services. We have
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University Business School to serve Asia. You will be receiving a
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we roll them out.

We have invested substantially in providing a high powered search
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SSRN are now completed in less than 2 seconds. We have cooperated
with Google's request to allow them to index all of SSRN's content so
they now provide an additional window into the SSRN eLibrary. We will
continue to work with Google and Google Scholar to provide the best
services possible for SSRN authors and readers.

I invite all users of SSRN's services to write me at any time
(michael_jensen@ssrn.com) to let me know what you like about our
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research in the social sciences, worldwide and to do it now.

Sincerely,
Michael C. Jensen
Chairman
Social Science Research Network
michael_jensen@ssrn.com

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Winter 2004-2005 Message from Search for Common Ground

Dear Friend of Search for Common Ground,
During this holiday season, we send you and your family our message of warm feelings and good cheer. As we complete our 23rd year, we continue to believe that, despite the setbacks - and there have been many during 2004 - history is evolving in positive ways. Ours is an optimistic view, and optimism is an integral part of our organization and worldview.

JERUSALEM TO WASHINGTON.
On a personal note, Susan Collin Marks and I have now returned to Washington after two years in Jerusalem. Despite the appalling conflict, we loved our life in that wonderful city, where we lived on the seam between Israelis and Palestinians. We are convinced that our work made - and continues to make - a difference, both on its own terms and in keeping hope alive. In the middle of a seemingly intractable struggle, we believe that we were successful in reducing and transforming conflict. Specifically, we worked with staff and partners to produce several TV and radio series, operate the Common Ground News Service, hold a Common Ground Film Festival at the Jerusalem YMCA, and sponsor the Middle East Consortium on Infectious Disease Surveillance.

New Leaders.
We are pleased to announce that Dr. Pamela Pelletreau and Ambassador Robert Pelletreau have replaced Susan and me as SFCG's Co-Directors in Jerusalem. Bob was an Assistant Secretary of State and US envoy to Egypt, Tunisia, and Bahrain. Pam taught at American University in Washington and held several positions with USAID. We consider ourselves very fortunate to have them join us.

Acting on Commonalities.
With violence raging in the Middle East, it has become difficult to convene people across ethnic and national lines. Still, it can be done, particularly when there is a shared threat that provides compelling reasons for people to come together. We have found that the superordinate goal of preventing infectious diseases - whether occurring naturally or due to terrorism - can spark cooperation. Thus, in 2002, we launched the Middle East Consortium on Infectious Disease Surveillance (MECIDS), with funding from the Nuclear Threat Initiative. The Consortium includes the Israeli, Jordanian, and Palestinian Ministries of Health. Its unofficial slogan is: "Bacteria do not stop at checkpoints."

Acting on Commonalities.
With violence raging in the Middle East, it has become difficult to convene people across ethnic and national lines. Still, it can be done, particularly when there is a shared threat that provides compelling reasons for people to come together. We have found that the superordinate goal of preventing infectious diseases - whether occurring naturally or due to terrorism - can spark cooperation. Thus, in 2002, we launched the Middle East Consortium on Infectious Disease Surveillance (MECIDS), with funding from the Nuclear Threat Initiative. The Consortium includes the Israeli, Jordanian, and Palestinian Ministries of Health. Its unofficial slogan is: "Bacteria do not stop at checkpoints."

Training.
In September in Istanbul, we convened a week-long course on interventional epidemiology that was attended by 35 Jordanian, Israeli, and Palestinian senior public health officials and younger researchers. On the agenda were topics of detection, data sharing, and collaborative problem-solving. Here are some comments from participants:
There was wonderful, unexpected interaction between the three peoples. We wish for more collaboration to make life easier for all our people. - Palestinian Ministry of Health official
I enjoyed very much meeting people from the other side who enjoyed so much the subject that I love: epidemiology. Things change in small steps. - Israeli Ministry of Health official
I think that we professionals can do more than politicians can do. I hope the politicians can learn from us. - Jordanian Ministry of Health official

AMERICAN ELECTIONS.
We Searchers work in conflict transformation around the world, and we are committed, not to a particular outcome, but to the process of finding common ground. Obviously, in any conflict, all of us have our own views and preferences. We usually believe that one side is mostly right and the other wrong. When the conflict is in a faraway place, most of us feel that, of course, combatants should work out their differences and find common ground. However, when the conflict is our own, we tend to become advocates and to engage in stereotyping and dehumanizing those with whom we disagree. While such behavior is understandable and widespread, it can lead to major breakdowns and to violence.

Transformational Leap.
We have a key operating principle: Understand the differences and act on the commonalities. We try to recognize the common humanity of all people and to focus on that which unites them, rather than that which divides them. This does not require giving up strongly held positions or compromising principles. It does mean trying to reach agreements that are to the mutual benefit of the parties. For example, while it is probably not possible to reach a compromise on a divisive social issue like abortion, it certainly is feasible for large numbers of pro-choice and pro-life supporters to work together to prevent unwanted pregnancies. Not only does joint action of this kind have an important impact in its own right, but it also serves to drain poison from the political system. Indeed, it represents a transformational leap and creates a huge opening for positive action. And all of us can start on the personal level. We can choose to be vigilant about not stereotyping and dehumanizing our political foes. We can opt for compassion. We can reach out to people who are different from us, and try to understand where they come from. In short, we can actively engage in uniting our communities - and the world.

UKRAINIAN ELECTIONS.
As this letter is written, Ukraine is in turmoil. There are charges of massive election fraud. Huge demonstrations are taking place, and the country seems on the verge of civil war. Without getting into the facts, it can be safely said that both sides are actively demonizing the other, and that the dispute over the election results has become an all-or-nothing, zero-sum game. Consider the words of Yulia Tishchenko, of the Ukrainian Center for Independent Political Research, quoted in the Washington Post: "The dangerous consequences are now becoming apparent. Everyone thinks that, if they lose, they lose everything."

Appeal.
In this polarized atmosphere, Roman Koval, the Director of Search for Common Ground in Ukraine, has strived to remain an active voice of moderation. He has appeared regularly in the Ukrainian media with messages of mutual respect, tolerance, and peace. On November 24, Roman called on us, his co-workers and colleagues, to provide advice and assistance. He wrote:

I would never have thought that I would find myself in a situation, where I would need to make choices, as I must today. The situation is getting tense. Many of our staff truly believe that now is probably the time to make their choice, support the values they stand for, and go to the streets, rather then stay inside and do nothing to prevent corruption, cynicism, lies, and a potentially totalitarian regime. It is hard to maintain neutrality (and sometimes even common sense), sitting in the center of this situation. I know some of you have had such experience before and have drawn your own conclusions.

Good Counsel.
Many of us, in fact, have faced the same question: What to do when you perceive that there is overwhelming injustice on one side of a conflict? Our collective response to Roman's appeal for advice was extraordinary, and excerpts follow. (I must say that I am proud to be part of an organization which could communicate so much wisdom.)

Living Together. Ibrahim Mehmeti, our Media Program Manager in Macedonia, commented thusly:

I understand that there are days when you think that no one else shares your view and it is "now or never" to take action. We all are human beings and can't be completely neutral. I remember that in 2001, when no one could say if my country would survive, I had one clear guideline: We - Macedonians and Albanians - will have to live together in the same country, even after the war. All my efforts were oriented toward this belief. Deeply believing in common ground values, I tried to provide a personal example by traveling all over the country and visiting friends and project partners from both the Albanian and Macedonian communities. At the same time, I tried to convince media outlets and individual journalists to transmit this kind of message.

Reframing.
This next reply came from Shamil Idriss, formerly our Chief Operating Officer, who now directs our initiative to build bridges between Islamic countries and the West:
First, I think a key to any creative, positive, pro-active approach is to try to reframe how the dispute is talked about and considered. As long as the Ukrainian conflict is seen as being between a corrupt candidate who stole an election and a popular opposition politician who was wronged, the possibility of reaching across the lines is remote. I am not suggesting that we should assume the role of standing between two equally legitimate forces to keep them from fighting. However, might a reframing be possible that shakes up the current polarities and provides a big enough tent to welcome moderates on both sides, while still speaking to the frustrations of the population? One reframing might be to favor elections that all Ukrainians feel are fair, even if their candidate loses. A second step might be to identify potential flashpoints for violence, as well as potential breakthrough points that could help calm the situation. Third might be to assess our resources and connections as they relate to those flashpoints and opportunities. Fourth, once flashpoints and potential breakthroughs are identified and matched with resources and contacts, we might deploy our resources with clear rules of engagement (i.e. non-violence at all times, respectful interaction with all, etc.).

The Choice.
Here is the reaction from Marko Lovrekovic, our Country Director in Macedonia and a Croatian citizen:
I would never have thought that Croatia would find itself on the brink of a civil war, let alone enter an era of killing, genocide, and destruction. I could not make a choice because my family was split between the two opposite sides. So I did not take any side. The only decision I could make was: What to do to make things better? In Ukraine, the choice does not need to be between Yushchenko and Yanukovych. The choice should be between peace and violence.
Voice of Reason. John Good, a highly skilled private mediator who for many years has contributed his services to work with us in Ukraine and the Middle East, wrote:
It is critical, in my opinion, that there are voices of reason in the midst of the chaos. From what I see on TV and read in the newspapers, there are plenty of adversaries, so the way that we Searchers can make a difference is to provide a safe space for trying to resolve the conflict. There is a time to speak out and a time to fight. Now would seem to be a time to use our training and skills to move the dialogue to a different place.

US-IRAN.
In September, as part of our continuing effort to build better relations between the US and Iran, we sponsored a conference at the Harvard Club in New York with the International Society for Iranian Culture. The conference revisited a possible Dialogue of Civilizations between the two countries. Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi gave the keynote address. Speakers included former US Undersecretary of State Thomas Pickering, Iranian Ambassador to the UN Javad Zarif, and Ambassador (ret.) William Miller of Search for Common Ground.

INVESTORS' TRIP.
In October, Jane Shaw, Co-Director of our Individual Giving Division, led a group of our investors on a visit to Sierra Leone. The idea was for them to get a first-hand sense of the amazing work that our staff is doing on the ground and to see the huge impact that their contributions make. By all accounts, the investors came home inspired and moved. We have scheduled another investor trip to Sierra Leone on February 7-14. If you are interested in joining us, please contact Philip Hellmich at phellmich@sfcg.org.

SFCG is a tremendous force for good in Sierra Leone. There aren't many programs about which you can say that, but about SFCG, I can. I can't think of another program that gets a bigger bang for the buck. - Larry Andre, Deputy Director, Office of West African Affairs, US Department of State
THANK YOU. All of us here are incredibly grateful for the support and funding we receive that makes our work possible. Please keep investing in us.

With best wishes,
John Marks
President

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Message from Human Rights Quarterly

Dear Colleague,

For over 25 years, Human Rights Quarterly has been the premier source for coverage of human rights developments and activities. Each issue contains contemporary research, articles on international human rights law and policy, hard-hitting critiques, and insightful theoretical analyses.

The November 2004 issue features Len Rubinstein's criticism of the May article by Ken Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, on the role of ngos in promoting economic and social rights generated interest, and the debate is taken up by Len Rubinstein, Executive Director of Physicians for Human Rights, in the November issue that presents Roths response, and observations by Mary Robinson, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

In addition to these dynamic articles, The November issue also contains the speech that the Bush Administration did not want the world to hear On the state of human rights after 9/11 and the War on Terror. Paul Hoffman, Chair of the Executive Committee of Amnesty International, was invited to deliver the keynote address at a UNESCO Conference in Nantes but the United States objected to its criticism of U.S. policies. This issue features additional articles on topics ranging from the contributions of muslim states to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, human rights in the African Union, Northern Ireland, South Africa, two articles dealing with empirical studies, and a look at the work of Amnesty International.

I invite you to join the Human Rights Quarterly community and experience these groundbreaking articles and more! Order now and receive a special 20% discount on your subscription. Visit http://www.press.jhu.edu/journals/human_rights_quarterly/promotion.html to
subscribe.

Bert Lockwood
Editor, Human Rights Quarterly

FINAL CALL FOR APPLICATIONS FOR DISTANCE EDUCATION COURSES

HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCACY
21 February-15 May 2005

THE UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS SYSTEM
23 February-18 May 2005

PROJECT DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT IN THE NGO SECTOR
7 March-29 May 2005

Distance Learning Programme, HREA
HREA Distance Learning Course 2E05:
HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCACY
21 February-15 May 2005
Instructor: Dr. Valerie Miller
This distance learning course provides human rights activists with a range of proven human rights advocacy methods and critical concepts as a means for them to reflect on and deepen their own work. The course will look at the theoretical foundations and critical issues of human rights advocacy, elements of advocacy planning, and strategies for action.
In this course, participants should deepen their knowledge about advocacy and its relationship to: Politics and Democracy; Citizenship and Rights; Power, Empowerment and Citizen Education and Action. Participants will
gain basic skills and knowledge in: visioning; contextual analysis; problem/issue identification; analysis and prioritisation; power mapping; goal/objective setting; analysis of advocacy arenas and strategies; message development, reports and media; public outreach and mobilization; lobbying and negotiation; advocacy leadership and coalition building; and assessment of success.

The course involves approximately 60 hours of reading, on-line working groups, interaction with students and instructors/facilitators and assignments, and is offered over a 12-week period, beginning on 21 February 2005. E-mail will be the main medium for the course, although participants will need to have periodic access to the Web (part of the readings/assignments will be distributed via CD-ROM). The course is based on a participatory, active learning approach, with an emphasis on peer-to-peer learning. Participants will do the required readings, prepare interim and final assignments and participate in group discussions. The main course text will be "A New Weave of Power, People, and Politics: An Action Guide for Advocacy and Citizen Participation" (World Neighbors, 2002) by Lisa VeneKlaasen and Valerie Miller.

The maximum number of course participants is 25. It is also possible to be an auditor of the course. Students who successfully complete the course will receive a Certificate of Participation.

A more detailed course description, further logistical information, and application forms can be found at: http://www.hrea.org/courses/2E.html

HREA Distance Learning Course 10E05:
THE UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS SYSTEM
23 February-18 May 2005
Instructor: Dr. Gerd Oberleitner

This! will be the first-ever "real-time" distance learning course on the United Nations (UN) human rights system. The aim of the course is to provide information on the UN human rights system by looking at the work and outcome of the UN Commission on Human Rights. The course is scheduled parallel to the 61st session of the Commission in March-April 2005. By making extensive use of the Commission's website -- which contains legal documents, press releases, and audio and video files on the session, and is updated daily -- course participants will be able to learn about the UN's human rights activities as they present themselves to the world: in real-time, with immediate access to the original material, live and uncut, and with all the dramatic twists and turns a session of the Commission offers. The course will expose students to the real world of humanrights in the maki! ng and offer them a glimpse into the world of human rights diplomacy on the highest possible level. An experienced course instructor will guide the participants through the Commission's session so as to ensure a learning experience on a high academic level.

The course will provide a brief introduction to the UN human rights system, the core UN human rights standards and supervisory machineries, the charter- and treaty-based system of human rights protection, the role of the UN Commission on Human Rights, the Subcommission on the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights, ECOSOC, General Assembly and Security Council. Special focus will be put on the history, mandate and composition of the Commission, its legal and political characteristics, and the role of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. This will enable students to follow the deli! berations of the Commission and understand the events as they unfold. Relevant on-line teaching material to this end will be provided.

During the six weeks of the Commission's session, participants will be asked to follow the meetings of the Commission, focus on specific issues, read the relevant materials as they appear on the website and as recommended by the course facilitator (press releases, reports of Special Rapporteurs, resolutions, statements by dignitaries, etc.), analyse the performance of the actors and stakeholders in the session, evaluate the voting procedure, and form their own opinion on the work of the Commission. The course is intended to provide participants with the necessary skills to understand in-depth how multi-lateral human rights bodies function in their manifold capacity as law-making institutions, fora for discussions and reflecti! on, and adjucators of states' human rights performance. Participants will learn how law, policy and diplomacy come together and interact in the field of human rights. The maximum number of course participants is 25. It is also possible to be an auditor of the course. Students who successfully complete the course will receive a Certificate of Participation. A more detailed course description, further logistical information, and application forms can be found at: http://www.hrea.org/courses/10E.html

HREA Distance Learning Course 6E05:
PROJECT DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT IN THE NGO SECTOR
7 March-29 May 2005
Instructor: Felisa Tibbitts

This course will introduce the basic elements of project development and management. Step-by-step processes and techniques will be introduced for the variou! s phases of a project life cycle. The course is intended for staff of non-governmental organisations who have responsibility for designing and carrying out a project, but with relatively little experience. Participants will be assisted in the development of a project plan that could be submitted to senior management or a funding agency. The course involves approximately 60 hours of reading, on-line working groups, interaction with students and instructor/facilitator and assignments, and is offered over a 12-week period, beginning on 7 March 2004. E-mail will be the main medium for the course, although participants will need to have periodic access to the Web. The course is based on a participatory, active learning approach, with an emphasis on peer-to-peer learning. Participants will do the required readings, prepare interim and
final assignments and participate in group discussions. The maximum number of course participants is 25. Students who successfully complete the course will receive a Certificate of Participation. It is also possible to audit the course. A more detailed course description, further logistical information, and application forms can be found at: http://www.hrea.org/courses/6E.html

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The Human Rights Learning Centre List (HRLC-L) provides regular updates on HREA's on-line learning centre at: http://www.hrea.org/learn/
To subscribe to HRLC-L send an e-mail to: Majordomo@hrea.org with the following message: subscribe hrlc-l.

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Newsletter from the Human Rights House Network, December 2. 2004

1 New elections in Ukraine
Ukraine appears to be heading for a new election to resolve the dispute over last month's run-off presidential poll. Last week, activists from the Human Rights Houses in Warsaw and Oslo expressed their solidarity with demonstrators in Kiev.
Other stories about Ukraine on humanrightshouse.org:
Seminar in Oslo today on the consequences of the Ukraine elections
Covering Ukraine's elections: confronting censorship, bias and intimidation
Demonstration outside the Ukrainian Embassy in Oslo
Kiev - Warsaw Common Matter

2 Urgent: Colombian defender threatened
The Colombian human rights defender and journalist Claudia Duque has been the victim of various acts of harassment and intimidation during recent months. The latest phone call threatened to burn her daughter alive. Urgent actions have been issued by Front Line and by the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders.

3 Russia: Peace initiative by Soldiers' Mothers stopped
The peace talks initiated by the Russian Soldier´s Mothers Committee have been halted. The Chechen separatist envoy was denied a visa. The parties were to meet in Brussels last week.

4 Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest 'extended'
Burma´s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has had her house arrest extended, her party said on Monday. According to the BBC, the reported extension comes after Burma´s ruling junta pledged to release 9,000 prisoners and appointed a new Prime Minister, Soe Win.
See also Burmese student leader freed

5 European Civic Commission to monitor Turkish compliance with EU accession criteria
A European Civic Commission will be established in order to monitor Turkish compliance with the EU accession criteria. This is a concrete result from the European Parliament Conference on The EU, Turkey and the Kurds, hosted by Rafto Foundation (Norway), Kurdish Human Rights Project (UK) and Medico International (Germany).

6 China Sentences 50 to Death in 'War on Terror'
According to RFA Uyghur service, Authorities in China´s northwestern Muslim region of Xinjiang have sentenced more than 50 people to death this year in what government officials say is a war on terrorism.

7 Belarusian court rejects complaint from missing cameraman's mother
On 25 November the demand from the mother of Zmitser Zavadski, a Belarusian cameraman who disappeared in July 2000, to renew the investigation of the case, was rejected by the College Board of Minsk City Court.

8 Women's group accuses Ugandan army of war crimes
The international NGO The Women's Initiatives for Gender Justice (WIGJ) has accused both the Ugandan People's Defence Forces (UPDF) and Karimojong warriors of committing crimes in the war-ravaged north.

9 Croatian journalist seeks court protection from the Secret Service
The «Puljiz» affair, which has been under the public scrutiny for more than a month now, is still without resolution. The freelance journalist Helena Puljiz accused Croatian Counter – Intelligence Services (CIS) for unauthorized and illegal questioning. Puljiz has decided to seek court protection.

10 UNHCHR Louise Arbour visits Oslo
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, will visit the Norwegian Human Rights House in Oslo tomorrow, where she will talk about transitional justice and protection of human rights.

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At long last another newsletter, just to let you know that African Review of Books is still kicking. We are updating our site constantly and have just published review on the Maputo Development Corridor and a monograph of the artist Magdalene Odundo, who works with clay. There is also Archbishop Desmond Tutu's lecture for the Nelson Mandela Foundation and news of prizes from Francophone Africa and a call for stories on animal welfare.

This newsletter is not so much about what's new on the site, but as with much other mail at this time of year, an unashamed marketing exercise. African Review of Books is a labour of love and depends on you buying books through our site so we can keep this project alive. With this in mind we have drawn up a list of some of the best titles this year from, and about, Africa. More information on all the books mentioned below appears on the website www.africanreviewofbooks.com and click on the ARoB Bookshop link on the left. If you have concerns about security of online shopping, we can take telephone orders. Simply send us an email at mail@africanreviewofbooks.com with your phone number and when it is best to call you (anywhere in the world at anytime) and we will do the rest.

Top of the list is Telling Tales, a collection of some of the world¹s best writers who have selected their own work for inclusion in an anthology edited by Nadine Gordimer, the South African Nobel laureate.

From another Nobel laureate comes The Green Belt Movement by Wangari Mathaai. This Kenyan won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize and the book tells of her environmental work in the East African country which led to her accolade.

Another of this year¹s top prize winner¹s was Brian Chikwava of Zimbabwe. He took the prestigious Caine Prize for African Writing with his tale of Harare¹s underbelly in ŒSeventh Street Alchemy¹. The story is part of an anthology, Writing Still, which brings together many well-known Zimbabwean writers and gives fresh views on the country.

Africa featured in the Man Booker prize again this year. Two titles made it through to the longlist and Achmat Dangor¹s Bitter Fruit made the shortlist of the prestigious UK prize. It tells of South Africa¹s search for reconciliation, its striving for Œordinariness¹ in the aftermath of apartheid. It is a powerful story that does not attempt to smooth over the cracks.

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, apart from being in the Booker longlist, was also a finalist for the Orange prize for fiction. It is a powerful and unsettling novel, at times emotionally demanding. It tells of a girl growing up in a strict Catholic household in Nigeria.

From Mozambique comes a tale of magical absurdity, of humour mixed with optimisim. The Last Flight of the Flamingo by Mia Couto tells of environmental tragedy at the same time as highlighting the plight of a people being subjected to the vagaries of United Nations peacekeepers, who happen to be inexplicably exploding.

From West Africa comes a classic of oral literature an epic of West Africa, and a retelling of one of Africa¹s 100 Best Books. Sunjata is an epic which traces the adventures and achievements of the Mande hero who liberates his people from the sorcerer king of Soso and established the medieval empire of Mali. Not fiction, not history, not poetry, it is oral tradition turned into literature.

For something more luxurious, something to display as well as absorb, consider one of these three coffee-table books ­ WS: A life in full, Magdalene Odundo, Malangatana.
The first is a celebration in pictures and essays of one of Africa¹s greatest writers, Wole Soyinka, who celebrated his 70th birthday this year. Magdalene Odundo is a Kenyan artist whose pottery is a statement of elegance. Malangatana is a Mozambican painter and this study of his work brings it to life in full colour.

If it is something more lighthearted you want, then consider The Official Wife, a tale of a woman finding ways of coping in a world of skinny ladies. In non-fiction there are the republished works by one of the most well-known Africa scholars, Basil Davidson. His well known works, The African Slave Trade, The Lost Cities of Africa and The African Genius have just been republished. Most deserving.

In the Christmas list section there are also a number of children's books to choose from.

And if you are still not satisfied, consider one of Africa¹s 100 Best Books, and begin to unwrap a continent.

Thanks for your support

Raks and Richard
African Review of Books

Conceptualising Poverty
Smith Institute Seminar. 13 October 2004
A presentation made by Ruth Lister at a Smith Institute Seminar to mark the publication of Poverty.
A full record of the seminar will be published by the Smith Institute, www.smith-institute.org.uk.

• Thanks. Your invitations said I would be drawing out some policy implications from one of the central arguments of my book. I will do that but I hope you won’t feel you were brought here under false pretences if I first set out part of the argument itself.

• I plan to make three main, related, points:
1. It’s important to think about poverty at the conceptual level and also to make a clear distinction between concepts, definitions & measurements.
2. We need to listen to what people with experience of poverty themselves have to say. Why? Because it helps us understand better the meaning of poverty, in particular how it is experienced as a shameful and corrosive social relation as well as a material condition.
3. This then has implications for politics and policy, which I sum up under the rubric of a politics of social justice that combines redistribution and ‘recognition&respect’.

1. Conceptualisation, definition & measurement
• When I was asked to write a book on the concept of poverty, before agreeing, I asked myself what it might add to the poverty literature. I decided that it allowed me to focus on the meaning of poverty in a way that texts that are preoccupied with definition, measurement and material impact do not.

• My first step was to make a clear distinction for myself between concept, definition and measurement. And though it may seem rather obvious, people seem to have found it really helpful because in practice the three are all too often conflated and thus confused.

• How often have you heard someone say that the government defines poverty as 60% of median income? This is not a definition, it’s a measure. Measures attempt to operationalise definitions within the constraints of methodology and available data. The function of a definition should be to distinguish the state of poverty from non-poverty. The literature points to a number of key elements: inadequate material resources and living standards and consequent inability to participate fully in society.

• People working in the international development field would probably respond that that is too narrow. UN definitions, for instance, include elements such as ‘lack of participation in decision-making’, ‘violation of human dignity’, ‘powerlessness’. These are vitally important. But I would argue they are better understood at the level of conceptualisation rather than definition because they are not unique to the condition of poverty.

• And because they are so important to understanding the meaning of poverty, the starting point of my book is that we must not lose sight of the conceptual level in the understandable preoccupation with measurement of trends and material impact.

• Concepts of poverty operate at the more general level of meanings and understandings and also discourses, as articulated through language and images. Traditionally, it has been the understandings held by more powerful groups – politicians, journalists, academics [though we may not feel very powerful!] – that have been reflected in dominant conceptualisations. This is beginning to change thanks, in part, to the work of organisations (like Oxfam and ATD Fourth World) that call on us to listen to the ‘voices of the poor’ (a phrase used as the title of a series of World Bank reports). Important too has been the growing acknowledgement of the value of participatory approaches to poverty research. As explained in the recent JRF report by Fran Bennett with Moraene Roberts, this means enabling people with experience of poverty to have greater authority, influence and control throughout the process of researching poverty.

2. Poverty as a social relation as well as a material condition
• Accounts by people in poverty of the contempt and disrespect with which they are treated and the sense of shame and worthlessness this can engender have helped me to understand better how poverty is experienced as a destructive social relation as well as a material lack. The two aspects are, of course, inter-related, most acutely perhaps for children. Tess Ridge’s research shows how children in poverty can be bullied and generally excluded from the social activities of their peers if they don’t ‘fit in’ because of the ‘wrong’ clothing. The children spoke of ‘their fears of social difference and stigma’. Mothers, as the main managers of poverty, feel their children’s exclusion particularly keenly.

• And the stigma and humiliation of poverty are painfully injurious to the identity and self-respect of adults also. Two quotes illustrate this: ‘The worst blow of all is the contempt of your fellow citizens. I and many families live in that contempt’ and ‘You’re like an onion and gradually every skin is peeled off you and there’s nothing left. All your self-esteem and how you feel about yourself is gone – you’re left feeling like nothing and then your family feels like that’.

• What people in poverty are reacting to is a process that I call Othering i.e. they are treated and talked about as people who are ‘other’ to the rest of us. It is a process of differentiation and demarcation by which social distance is established and maintained.

• Language is an important part of the process. As a parent living on benefit, participating in a meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Poverty put it ‘We hear how the media and some politicians speak about us and it hurts’. Labels like 'underclass' and ‘welfare dependant’ are applied without thinking of the consequences for their recipients. Even ‘poor’ is an adjective that many people in poverty experience as stigmatising. Typically they are not asked how they want to be described.

• This reflects a more general unwillingness to listen to what people in poverty have to say and to treat them as subjects of their own lives, who possess the expertise borne of experience, rather than as the objects of professional judgement, research and policy. As I said earlier, this is beginning to change and that brings me, at last, to some political and policy implications.

3. Politics and policy
• We can identify two principles at the heart of an alternative approach pursued by organisations that promote the participation of people with experience of poverty. One is respect for the dignity of all human beings, which represents the core of the human rights conceptualisation of poverty articulated by the UN. The other is the notion of ‘voice with influence’, which encapsulates the desire not just to be heard but to have one’s ideas taken seriously by those with power. In the language of social justice theory they reflect a politics of ‘recognition’ (or ‘recognition&respect’ as I call it because of the emphasis placed on respect by people in poverty themselves).

• As such it is intertwined with a politics of redistribution – be it of material resources or opportunities – which is the traditional stuff of poverty politics. I think you’d fall off your chairs if I said a politics of redistribution was no longer important! Of course, it’s still absolutely central to any anti-poverty strategy. Indeed, the notion of human dignity is a touchstone for judging the adequacy of benefits and also of low wages (as Polly brought out so well in her book and Smith Institute pamphlet). Back in 1992, the EU recommended that member states ‘recognise the basic right of a person to sufficient resources and social assistance to live in a manner compatible with human dignity’.

• But linking in a politics of ‘recognition&respect’ encourages us to think also about the ‘how’ of policy – how we can develop mechanisms that enable people in poverty to participate in decision-making that affects their lives, if they wish to do so; how we can ensure that the professionals and officials who staff our public services respect the dignity of people in poverty.

• To end on a positive note, we can learn from initiatives that point the way. A project at Royal Holloway, in conjunction with ATD Fourth World and Family Rights Group, is involving parents with experience of poverty in the training of social workers. The aim is to enable social workers better to understand the implications of poverty and to reflect self-critically on how they treat their clients. As one participant put it, ‘it is about how we are treated, we just want them to treat us the same way they want us to treat them – with respect’. Research into parenting in poor environments highlights how necessary this is. It is a lesson that could have wider implications for the training of professionals and officials. And perhaps there is something to be learned from the attitudinal campaign the government has launched to tackle the stigma associated with mental health?

• With regard to ‘voice with influence’, a participation working group, established by the DWP, has produced a toolkit to facilitate the participation of people with experience of poverty in the drawing up of the next EU National Action Plan on Social Inclusion. The goal was ‘a real partnership between people living in poverty…and government at all levels in order to improve anti-poverty policy and practice’. This represents a real step forward but I’m sure all would acknowledge there is a long way to go in achieving a genuine ‘partnership at all levels’.

• Such a partnership would help strengthen social inclusion and citizenship. Moreover, if those people with experience of poverty, who wanted to be, were themselves engaged in the development and promotion of anti-poverty strategies, it might help reinvigorate the government’s anti-poverty crusade and, as the Chancellor put it to the Labour Party conference, ‘win more people to this cause’.

Message from Eileen R. Borris, President APA Division 48:

A National Multicultural Conference and Summit, 2005, is to be held
at the Renaissance Hotel in Hollywood, California on January 27-28th.
The conference theme is "The Psychology of Race/Ethnicity, Gender,
Sexual Orientation, and Disability: What works, with whom and Under what
Circumstances."

The conference has been designed to address issues
related to research, education and training, practice and public
interest. The conference/summit brings together outstanding
psychologists who have worked in the areas of race relations and
ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and disability. For more
information ant to register you can go to www.multiculturalsummit.org.

Our division along with the other divisions for social justice have been involved in the planning of this conference and we want to show our support. Please consider attending. The theme is much in keeping with what division 48 is about. This is a wonderful way to meet people from other like minded divisions and to share what we as peace psychologists can offer especially with the divisions for social justice.

Also another reminder. Because of circumstances out of our control the
fall newsletter and fall mailing is getting out late. There is some
timely information to be aware of. This Friday is the deadline to submit
proposals for the 2005 convention in Washington DC. I hope that you will
submit proposals. We want to hear from as many people as possible. Don't
forget to give as many votes as you can for division 48 for the
apportionment ballot. The outcome of this Apportionment Ballot will
determine the composition of the Council of Representatives. Our
division needs your vote. You have a total of 10 votes to cast.

Since the division listserv unfortunately does not include all of our
members, please feel free to forward this message to those you think
have not received it or to post this on relevant listservs. We want to
get the message out.

Thank-you!
Warmly,
Eileen R. Borris
President - Division 48