February 2005 Edition
FOCUS
The issue’s focus will be on Human Rights. With World Human Rights Day on December 10th, this newsletter highlights some of the work done by OIYP Action Partners in the area of Human rights. Following on from January’s focus on the Tsunami this edition looks at some updates from Sri Lanka as well as our ‘Story of the Month’ from O’Neil Simpson about the impact of another disaster, in the Carribean, on his work. If you would like more information on a particular project you see here or are interested in supporting a project, please email the Voice editor at Iypvoice@caa.org.au.
Next month’s focus will be on Microcredit. This is the International Year of Microcredit, a system of alleviating economic inequality which is becoming widely used throughout the developing world. As this initiative is relevant to many Action Partner projects, we would love to hear about the ways you have used microcredit systems, any insight into different models of microcredit, things that work and things that don’t work as well as stories from your use of microcredit or finance and the impact it can have on the lives of people.
See March’s Voice to read more about the great work of OIYP Action Partners in this area!
We hope you enjoy this issue.
The OIYP Voice Team
Editor: Catherine Loy
ACTION PARTNER NEWS
Pocholo Gonzales
OIYP 2004 Action Partner, the Philippines
MABUHAY!! I would like to share great news from VOICE OF THE YOUTH NETWORK.
On November 9, 2004, we organised a night filled with youthful surprises as Voice of the Youth Network hosted the first ever youth talents event dubbed as “KABATAAN NIGHT” or YOUTH NIGHT!
We participated in the INTERNATIONAL VOLUNTEERS DAY at which VOTY NETWORK exhibited at the National Volunteers Fair, at which it was the only youth organization.
VOTY NETWORK also developed the UNITED NATIONS VOLUNTEER PHILIPPINES website www.unv-ph.org
Sasheen Jayaweera
OIYP 2004 Action Partner, Australia.
This is an update on Youth for a Sustainable Future (Sasheen Jayaweera's
IYP project). What started out as an idea that sparked among a group of Pacific Island youth has now become a successful project, leading us to meet many inspiring
people from all corners of the world. The aim of this conference is to provide opportunities for young Pacific islanders - who are normally unable to participate in international conferences due to limited funding and lack of information - to share their knowledge, ideas and skills to collectively achieve the Millennium Development Goals by the year 2015. We invite others to join us in this incredible journey to create a sustainable future for all. Please visit our website www.peacechild.org/ysf and look out for regular updates!We are currently having negotiations with UNDP Samoa and the conference has been postponed to March 2005. We thank all our supporters -
NGOs, community groups, government ministers and young people from all over
the world - for their commitment and dedication over the past 15 months.
Sylvie Ellsmore
OIYP 2004 Action Partner, Australia
February 2005 marks the 40th anniversary of the 1965 Australian 'Freedom Ride', where a busload of Sydney university students led by Charles Perkins went on a journey through the state of New South Wales to bring to public attention the level of discrimination towards Indigenous people.
From 12th until 27th Feb 2005 the ReconciliACTION Network will fill up a bus with young people passionate about reconciliation and retrace the original 1965 'Freedom Ride'. We will be making a documentary about the trip involving interviews with the young people and locals to highlight Australian's views about reconciliation and how they feel race relations have changed since 1965.
For more information please contact Sylvie Ellsmore at sylvie@reconciliaction.org.au or call 02 9219 0719.
For more information about ReconciliACTION visit www.reconciliaction.org.au.
Kumaravadivel Guruparan
OIYP 2004 Action Partner, Sri Lanka
Chinthaka and I are just back from Jaffna, my home town, in the far north of Sri Lanka (a conflict afflicted area) after a visit to the tsunami affected areas in the peninsula. We took with us Rs 60 000 worth of relief items. The money was derived from the small grant provided by OIYP.
Following the visit we are in the process of drafting a concept paper on how the Sri Lankan Youth Parliament proposes to include/accommodate within its mandate and vision the post-tsunami context.”
Editor’s Note:At this point, the members of the Sri Lankan Youth Parliament team are working towards the two objectives of post-tsunami relief and ongoing SLYP organisation. In terms of assisting survivors of the tsunami, work is being done to help young people to return to study. Members of SLYP are also assisting in the reconstruction effort with a range of activities designed to help people recover from the effects of trauma. Planning for the Youth Parliament is continuing, in order to plan for the long-term development of Sri Lanka through collaboration with the youth of Sri Lanka. The SLYP team is meeting regularly in Columbo.
Leonard Boniface
OIYP 2004 Action Partner, Tanzania
I have been working on establishing Tanzania Youth Parliament in consultation with youth all over Tanzania, with the support of Unicef Tanzania. There will be stake holders’ workshops on 3rd of February 2005 which will involve discussion of youth issues and social development. UNICEF Tanzania will host the workshop and together we have invited many embassies, some UN agencies and other organizations which support youth's initiatives. After the initial workshop with stake holders, the TYP are expecting to have a four day workshop in February 2005, passing the constitution. It will be realized with many youths representing other parties of Tanzania. It is the tool of all youths within Tanzania.
For more information on Leonard’s initiative, contact:
bonnylenny@yahoo.com
+255 744 805226
STORY OF THE MONTH
In our story of the month, O’Neil Simpson shares his experience of the hurricanes which ravaged the Carribean and explains how this series of natural disasters had an impact upon his ability to effectively implement his Action Plan. We have included this as our story of the month to demonstrate, particularly in light of the recent tsunami in Asia, how natural disasters can have an impact upon attempts to implement change and development.
Greetings from the Lands of Many Storms!
O'Neil Simpson: IYP 2004: Jamaica
Allow me to take the opportunity to say hello and trust that you are all well in your respective corners of the globe. I hail the efforts that you have made in your communities and thank you all for the impact that you had in my own sense of purpose and focus. I am thankful for the opportunity to be able to communicate with you, if even only briefly.
You may be aware that the Caribbean region has, for the last month, been experiencing one of its worst hurricane seasons in over five decades. When I first put this article together, I had no idea that as cataclysmic a series of events would have taken place as did in the Indian Ocean in December. I would like to take the opportunity to express my heartfelt empathy (and that of my community) with the many friends and colleagues who may have been affected. It is an unpleasant realization that we have to share such disasters. But I find that there can always be found hope and encouragement in the midst of it all.
During the end of August 2004, the regions of Latin (Central) America, North America and the Caribbean experienced what has come to be called the region’s most active and destructive hurricane season. Jamaica was passed by no less than five systems (two storms, two major hurricanes and one 'super-hurricane'.) The BBC and CNN provided very extensive coverage on all of the hurricanes and much information on the most prominent of them, which were listed as being hurricanes
Charley, Francis, Ivan and Jeanne.
Hurricanes essentially start when strong clusters of thunderstorms drift over warm oceanic waters (which is why most of them come across the Atlantic or up from the Pacific and enter the Caribbean Sea).[1]This warm air from the storm and the ocean surface combine and rise, creating low-pressure on the water surface. Air rises faster to fill the low-pressure area, as it is called, and draws more warm air and moisture of the seas, forming a cyclic area of motion. The now storm moves across the waters, picking up more warm, wet air, and wind speed starts to increase. Soon a spinning vortex is formed around an area of calm with high winds and heavy rainstorms, and thus is formed a very, very big cyclone/typhoon (in most cases, bigger in size that the US state of Texas), that progresses to a hurricane, with categories ranging from 1 (wind speeds up to 95 miles per hour) to 5 (wind speeds of 155 + miles per hour).
Across the region, this hurricane season saw upwards of 3000 people killed and injured, and over 3 million people displaced through evacuations, destruction of homes and loss of income. Particularly badly affected countries were the United States (mainly Florida and Alabama), Grenada, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, the Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and Venezuela.
Jamaicawas affected by each of the systems and as such suffered from immense flooding, mud- and land-slide damage, the destruction of roads and infrastructure and massive tidal surge damage of coastal areas. Communications in some places (such as my village) were out for weeks, as were electricity and water supplies. Mind you, even in spite of the loss of lives and damage suffered in the country, we give thanks for the fact that things were not as bad as in Grenada (an island further south), which was just about completely flattened, and Haiti, which has had severe damage from less direct hits from the hurricanes. Here in Barbados, were I was during hurricane Ivan, there was also substantial damage, although the island was not directly hit, which probably demonstrates how immense the scope of these storms were.
Hurricane Ivan did particular damage, and it proved to be a quite harrowing experience. On returning home over the Christmas break, I remember how shocked I was to see the place (even having experienced bad hurricanes before); it was virtually bare of trees, and as I live in a mountainous region, that tends to be a first line of impact when hurricanes hit islands. It was, quite simply, a nightmare; and made the events of the Tsunami experience even more distressing.
In so far as the Action Plan is concerned, most corporate and other funds island-wide have been directed to national rehabilitation, and support for other CARICOM neighbouring states which fared worse that Jamaica did. This has resulted in the suspension of fundraising efforts for my Action Plan, which has been put on hold for the moment. I'm afraid people simply are not seeing it as a priority alongside road repairs, food distribution, and general clean-up work. By extension, since I am away, it will need my presence to get back off the ground, so I will have to work towards getting home in summer and doing something on it then. I have also been forced to cancel my attendance of at other conferences where I was to have gained project development and implementation skills (such as Youth Day activities during in August, and the Youth Employment Summit in Mexico).
I have little good news to share on the progress of my Action Plan, which may be the only one of the entire conference that has actually had to stop. Furthermore, I have not had any word from my IYP colleagues in Trinidad and other regional territories, as to how they coped with the season.
I have been trying to work alongside a similar project to mine here in Barbados. This one is working on the improvement of reading among children in this island. However, there have been multiple distractions, the most recent one being protests on the Jamaican campus of my university. Students have been threatened with deregistration for the late or non payment of school fees, and blocked the roads and barred entrance to the campus there. Albeit an illegal act, the security forces came down with questionable force and tear-gas was used to disperse protesters. I found the entire event very worrying; particularly in light of the following factors that have exacerbated the situation:
1) Many students who depend of their families for support have had their lives financial disrupted due to the hurricanes, and it should be reasonable to expect that people would not be able to afford all their fees on time.
2) The security forces have been able to carry out such actions with impunity more times that should be accommodated; reflected in very similar situations in 1998 and 2002, where students were again targeted in protests actions.
Thus, there has been much disquiet in the region due to this matter. Everything from silent protests to press releases and other possibilities have been undertaken, and have been the source of major dramas for us.
All the same, I give thanks for the fact that there is still life, health and happiness in all of this. Much of the northern territories of the Guyana is being submerged by water from abnormally heavy rain this season. Yet island states, only recently requesting aid, have been undertaking efforts to raise aid for that country. I dare say that I am falling in love all over again with the defiant nature of the human spirit. I have to take the opportunity to thank all of you have been sending emails and asking about my safety and that of my friends and family members. All parties related to me are safe and I am thankful for that, (bearing in mind the fact that people died as close to 10 miles from my home). Your interest and concern, thus expressed has been both appreciated and inspiring beyond your possible scope of imagination.
So, that's the scoop on the boy from Jamaica, and I once again thank you all for the wonderful experience that you made Australia. I wish for you all every blessing and success in 2005, and that our paths will cross again in the near future.
Be safe in all you do
May Peace go with you
And all the best until we meet again.
FEBRUARY FEATURE
A Month After: Opportunities and Dangers
By Sanjana Hattotuwa*25th January 2005
“.. so that long afterwards we would be tempted to wonder if we did not hurry forth too fast straight
into the morass that is now our malformed freedom.”
The In-Between World of Vikram Lall, M.G. Vassanji
One month after the tragic events of 26th December 2004, there is a palpable sense of hopelessness. The continued puerile rhetoric bandied by politicians not only mocks the deaths of over 40,000, but also toys with the continued trauma of those who have lost everything: families, parents, children, livelihoods, income, community and support structures. Many have lost the one thing that makes us human - hope.
In Sri Lanka and in many other regions severely affected by it, the weakest segments of society, the most impoverished and economically disadvantaged communities suffered the brunt of the Tsunami’s force.
The tsunami has dismembered lives in a country with did not need more trauma. In its wake the tsunami has engineered a more reconciliatory tone from the key stakeholders in the peace process. Yet, murmurings of cooperation and collaboration aside, the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelan) and the Government do not seem to be able to agree on a mutually acceptable framework to disburse aid and more importantly, embark on activities that address the needs of the ravaged communities in the North-East.
Wire reports on the situation in Sri Lanka paints a schizophrenic attitude of key actors towards the immediate, medium and long term needs. On the one hand, there is the seeming inability of the incumbent government to create inclusive, participatory and accountable structures to address the long term needs of relief and the longer term needs of reconstruction.
On the other hand, the LTTE must realize that the same principles of accountability and transparency apply to their operations. Relief organizations in foreign countries identified as fronts for the collection of funds to arm the LTTE and the continuing concerns of child recruitment (which some reports alarmingly state has continued unabated even after the tsunami) must not be brushed aside in efforts to mainstream the participation of the LTTE in the long-term relief efforts.
Unfortunately, grandiose projects to ostensibly address the destruction of the tsunami have taken a life of their own. Whilst communities on the ground in certain parts of the country still await concrete measures to restore a semblance of normalcy, the reconstruction agenda overflows with hurriedly assembled blueprints for building cities, highways and electric railways. Such parasitic behaviour, which feeds on the plaintive voices of those on the ground, will inevitably result in a failure to create sustainable developmental processes and may further entrench ethnic distrust and sow the seeds of future violence.
If, on the one hand, the LTTE states that the relief efforts take precedence over political differences that existed prior to the tsunami, it is up to the political forces in the South to take up this position and lock the LTTE into a national dialogue that uses long term relief efforts as a springboard to re-energise a dormant peace process and lock them into frameworks that are democratic, accountable and transparent. Clearly, the LTTE has demonstrated an ability, in the immediate aftermath of the tsunami, to rapidly mobilise rescue efforts.
What is unclear is whether they are receptive to enter mechanisms that lock them into aid that then cannot be used, for instance, for the procurement of weapons. Given that the LTTE has expressed a desire to work collaboratively with the government on the long term tsunami response, it is up to the powers in the South to come up with structures that include them in transformative processes that will seamlessly dovetail with efforts at peacebuilding as well.
Donors are placed in a precarious position, but one that is ripe with opportunity. They command the authority to instruct frameworks that disburse money to do so in a manner that is equitable and resonant with needs on the ground.
The tsunami must be seen to be the turning-point. The publics of the world have shown their desperate concern for the human condition: how long will it take for government to do the same?.1 An acute awareness of the continued suffering of people in equally if not more desperate circumstances in other parts of the world must sensitise us to how lucky we are to be faced with the financial and human resources to build a better future.
As civil society organizations have also pointed out2, one needs to address the complex dynamics of sustainable development in a holistic manner. With accountable and transparent frameworks, aid should also go to legitimate, proven civil society organizations that have a demonstrable capacity to address the ripple effects of the tsunami on a number of levels . from grassroots to the levels of policy making. The trust relationships created in this exercise would be invaluable in the larger processes of peacebuilding. Conflict sensitive approaches must be mainstreamed into every aspect of long term relief.
Relief efforts must always be open to the rigour of public scrutiny. All communities in Sri Lanka, especially the Muslim and Tamil communities in the North-East, must be equal partners in the long term relief efforts to ensure that partisan bias does not creep and undermine the sustainability of relief efforts. Long term relief also needs to be looked at holistically by the media.
It is unfortunate that even today, the State is openly eschewing a participatory approach to the myriad of tasks that lie ahead, instead taking a position that all aid and operations should be funnelled though its failed (or failing) apparatus. The incomprehensibility of this stance is more acute when we realise that it was on account of the inability of the State to meet the aspirations of communities and identity groups in Sri Lanka that gave rise to the ethnic conflict in the first place.
The imperatives of a holistic and conflict sensitive development process make it imperative that Southern politics realises the acute need to reach out to communities in the North-East.
It is imperative that we do not let the events of 26th December 2004 derail our nation’s progress. It is our response to the tsunami that will forge our mettle. To use the tsunami as a watershed to create a more just social order- one recalls the emotive words of John Hume:“All of us are asked to respect the views and rights of others as equal of our own and, together, to forge a covenant of shared ideals based on commitment to the rights of all allied to a new generosity of purpose” 3
The danger of not doing so is to turn our country into a sarcophagus of hopelessness from which we may never escape.
The world is watching us.
* The author is a Rotary World Peace Scholar at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. The views expressed here are his own.
1 Notes for Press Briefing by Stephen Lewis on his recent trips to Malawi and Tanzania. United Nations, New York: 12.30PM,
Tuesday, January 18th, 2005.
2 See memorandum submitted by the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) to the Task Force on Rebuilding the Nation (TAFREN) -
http://www.cpalanka.org/research_papers/Memo_to_TAFREN.pdf
3 John Hume, Nobel Lecture, Oslo, 10th December 1998.
RESOURCES
HURISEARCH: A search engine provided by Human Rights Information and Documentation Systems at: www.hurisearch.org/. This search engine directly searches 1500 human rights NGO sites in 58 different languages.
www.unhchr.ch– the UN’s Human Rights website.
www.hrw.org– Human Rights Watch
www.amnesty.org– Amnesty International
LETTERS TO THE VOICE
Letters to OIYP Voice Newsletter.
Editor’s note: This edition includes letters which were to be published in the previous Human Rights Voice about Human Rights Day on 10th December 2004.
Yousuf Said Kalib - Somaliland
I am now busy preparing for the Commemoration of Human Rights Day on 10th December 2004. I am one of the key organizers of this celeberation. We are preparing for the event in all regions of Somaliland and I would like to share with you how the event to hold as well this year, accordingly
the participation of youth, so I would like to implement the coming year
Human rights Education Programe that I would soon share with your
experience how implement as well. So contribute your idea of Human rights
especially this event of 10th December as soon as possible.
Let me say thank you to all my group.
E-mail: yuusuf2005@yahoo.com
Peter Waqavonovono - Fiji
We are also organizing something similar here in Fiji. They are having a
youth concert that will include the live broadcasting of all the events and
all the debates and speeches all over Fiji. Fiji consists of more than
800 islands. So naturally the radio is the best way to communicate. I am
excited also because I will be making a speech and I will touch on the
challenges Fiji has in addressing its human rights problems.
I pray that all of you who have programs organized that it is successful in
fulfilling the very intricate parts of our individual action plans.
Take care,
Peter Waqavonovono
Youth for Change
Suva
FijiIslands
