Category Archives: Voices

Immersed in Harmony – Sylff Chamber Music Seminar Report

March 24, 2010
By null

The Tokyo Foundation has supported three Sylff musical institutions—the Paris Conservatoire, the Juilliard School and the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna—in their collaborative organization of a Sylff Chamber Music Seminar and Concert since 2006. Selected Sylff fellow musicians from the respective institutions meet at a host institution, and after intensive practice with coaches for a week, they perform at a finale concert. This winter, the event was hosted by the Paris Conservatoire.

The following is a report by Ms. Gretchen Amussen, an administrator of the Sylff Program at the Conservatoire, the host of the Seminar.

From January 24th to February 1st 2010, Paris became the theater for a unique three-country chamber music project involving some 21 musicians… The Paris Conservatoire, the fifth institution to be awarded Sylff status in 1988, was hosting its second Sylff chamber music seminar, thanks to generous support from the Tokyo Foundation.

 

Collaboration of Three Music Institutions

The project had evolved through lengthy conversations between the three arts institutions in the Sylff network, the Juilliard School, the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, and the Paris Conservatoire for Music and Dance. Each of the three institutions is renowned world-wide for training musicians at the highest professional level, and our “stock in trade” is performance. Thus, we agreed, the most natural way to engage in a three-way conversation involving musicians would be through chamber music. In this unique blend, each actor has a distinct and essential voice, each must listen to the other, and the end result can only be successful if there is agreement amongst all performers as to the overall artistic vision to be conveyed. The existence of repertoires from different cultures allow us to know each other better whilst also being attentive to the specificities of the musical cultures represent and which we wish to share with our public.

We chose to integrate the Sylff project to a major chamber music project held each year entitled “Quinte et Plus”, or “Five and more” – the idea being that at least five musicians come together to perform, and that within each group at least one professor performs as well.

Wide Range of Participants and Coaches

This year, we had some of the Conservatoire’s most well-known professors sharing center stage with the French, Viennese, and American musicians. Philippe Bernold, flute, had chosen an arrangement of Claude Debussy’s beautiful orchestral work Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune for 9 instrumentalists ; Claude Delangle, the world-renowned saxophonist, had chosen the Mystic Sextet by the Brazilian Heitor Villa-Lobos; and the cellists Marc Coppey and Diana Ligeti were coaching and performing the version for sextet of Arnold Schoenberg’s Transfigured Night. The performance, scheduled for February 1st, was to be held in the magnificent “Grand Salon” of the Army Museum at the Invalides, whose cathedral is home to Napoleon’s Tomb. Each of the participating professors has wide experience performing throughout the world, and each had responded with enormous enthusiasm to the invitation to perform with musicians from Vienna and Juilliard. The cellist Diana Ligeti, who had previously participated in a Sylff Forum project held in Bochum, spoke all the languages represented by the participants (except for Mandarin and Hebrew!), as she speaks fluent Hungarian, Rumanian, German, English and French…. Although to paraphrase Claude Delangle, we say in music that which we cannot say with words!

Activities and Voices of Participating Fellows

Every day lunch was served at the cafeteria — allowing us to meet and make sure that our guests had everything they needed. The flutist Jessica Han, the oboist Gernot Jöbstl, the harpist Veronika Villányi and Sylff scholars Moran Katz, clarinet, and Sally (Yen) Hsin-Chieh, piano were eager to hear classes in their respective disciplines ; Sylff scholar Emily Daggett Smith, violists Megan Griffin and Paul Rabeck had less free time due to a heavier rehearsal schedule. Most of us joined up to attend a concert at the famed impressionist Orsay Museum on Tuesday night; Thursday we had a joint dinner. And in between there was the tour of Paris, and connections each musician made with fellow students at the Conservatoire — including informal outings. Some had dreamed so long of visiting Versailles or the Louvre that simply being able to do so was heaven.

As for the music-making, Jessica Han recounts “Everyone was very friendly during the first rehearsal. Even though there was a language barrier, I was thrilled and relieved to see that everyone, although shy, was curious and interested in getting to know one another. Smiles and jokes were exchanged and laughter was shared. We briefly talked about our respective cities and established relationships as people and as friends before we started to work…
“The rehearsals themselves were as interesting as they were productive. Coming from New York, rehearsals are often intense and pressure filled. In Paris, there was an easiness in the rehearsals that allowed for an easiness in myself as a person and musician. It was eye opening to me to see that this easiness allowed for much of the music to happen on its own. The elements that did not take care of themselves were easily remedied with a bit of extra time and attention.

“When I was not in rehearsal, I had the unique opportunity to visit some classes. As a flutist, I was astounded by the differences in sound and approach to the flute. It was distinctly French to me and reminded me of my Jean-Pierre Rampal recordings. I felt that a huge amount of attention was paid to sound and sound production. Everyone I heard play had a beautiful silvery sound with fantastic clarity that seemed to float and flow effortlessly.”

A Medley of Musicalities Create Perfect Harmony

For the cello coach Diana Ligeti, the theme of the Schoenberg — referring back to the literary text which accompanies the piece — summed up the goal she had set herself for the week: “to go beyond oneself and sublimate difficulties in order to reach perfect harmony. We had with not students, but true artists. Each brought their musicality, their experience, their conception of the work. At times we disagreed, but we always sought to understand each other’s point of view. At the end of the week, we felt we’d known each other for a long time! In a world where discord [often] wreaks havoc, we, musicians are indomitable: concert after concert, we build bridges over and beyond the chasms that separate us.” Enthusiastic, fascinating personalities emerged as the week went on: Megan, the violist who’d created an extraordinary outreach project in Tanzania; Moran, the Israeli clarinetist who’d dreamed of coming to study in Paris but had ended up in New York — she already knew the city well and went to concerts every night!; the Hungarian harpist Veronika, who was so happy to meet the harp teachers at the Conservatoire; Gernot, who had already joined the Viennese Radio Orchestra, sought out fellow oboists…

Akiko Matsunobu and Ayako Hoshino from the Tokyo Foundation, Dorothea Riedel and Gregor Widholm from Vienna, Bärli Nugent from Juilliard — all had made the trip to Paris to share in the joy of the final concert. The Grand Salon is an exquisite 17th century room with marble floors and elegant royal portraits — the large windows look out onto the Esplanade leading to the Invalides, a royal way if ever there was one. The hall, seating some 200 guests, was packed — and in fact the organizers had to even turn some away... The quality of the silence once the musicians started playing was remarkable: everyone was absolutely present to the moment that was to be ours. From the mood-setting Debussy to the intense and extraordinary Schoenberg, each performer and each performance was extraordinary. The applause was warm and long, and when all the musicians stood up to bow together, you could feel the joy of the shared music-making, of everyone coming together.

At the reception following the concert, I heard musicians saying “we’ll stay in touch now on Facebook” and exchanging addresses. Musicians from one country who’d dreamed of studying in one of the partner countries sought out those who could answer their questions, but mostly people were simply happy to savor the moment and the success of the concert. The last word comes from Jessica Han: “How often does anyone, regardless of who you are, perform in a gorgeous private room in a respected museum with huge windows where one can look out over Paris, with crystal chandeliers everywhere, under an original portrait of King Louis XIV? The concert was excellent and the experience, remarkable. I could not have dreamed up a more beautiful conclusion to such an amazing adventure in Paris.”

Gretchen Amussen Deputy Director for External Affairs & Communication Conservatoire de Paris


Message from the Tokyo Foundation:Why don't you write an article too?

“Voices from the Sylff Community” is a space showcasing the activities and opinions of Sylff fellows and faculty members. We have received contributions from fellows and faculty members all over the world.　We are looking forward to sharing YOUR voices with people around the world, including global issues with local perspective, grassroots issues requiring global attention, and your first-hand experience.
For further details, please click here.

A Marriage of Convenience: Filipina Domestic Workers and the Singaporean State

September 1, 2009
By 20886

Last month I flew to South Korea to participate as a paper presenter and panel chair in the World Civic Youth Forum (WCYF) 2009. The WCYF is a programme of the World Civic Forum 2009, organised by Kyung Hee University in cooperation with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. This year the conference was held at the Global Campus of Kyung Hee University from 5-8 May.

WCYF provided an excellent forum for me to present a paper I have prepared for my Masters degree in Gender and Development at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex. My paper considers the case of Filipina migrant domestic workers in Singapore.

I became interested in the subject of women's migration for domestic work long before studying for my Masters degree. I was particularly interested in women's experiences of long distance migration and their treatment in the destination country. I have visited Singapore a number of times to visit family there, and observing the 'maid culture' during my visits has made me keen to research this topic to satisfy my own curiosity.

The subject of domestic workers is a 'hot topic' in many prosperous Asian countries. In Singapore, it is estimated that one in seven households employs a live-in domestic worker, representing a demand for maids which has increased in Singapore since the late 1970s. There are around 150,000 female domestic workers in Singapore, around 63,000 of which are Filipino nationals; however this does not include the large numbers of undocumented workers.

The trend of female labour migration from the Philippines takes place against a backdrop of a changing Asia, a region which is undergoing considerable transformation. Singapore, a small city-state with a population of around 4.84 million, represents an important hub within this region, acting (alongside Hong Kong) as a leader in the economic markets and the global knowledge economy. The country has seen considerable social, political and economic change since the 1960s under the leadership of the People's Action Party, which has been in power since Singapore's achievement of self-government in 1959. Processes of rapid urbanisation, and a shift from light manufacturing to high technology industries, have meant profound changes for most Singaporeans.

With the rapid entry of women into paid employment, demand for domestic help has been significant and sustained, and has ensured the survival of 'dual career partnerships'. The unwillingness of local women to undertake paid domestic work has also contributed to the steady flow of migrant labour entering Singapore. Gendered divisions of labour have not significantly altered with the increase of women in paid work, resulting in middle class women juggling a 'double day' of both productive and reproductive labour.

The failure of the state and the private sector to provide adequate child and elder care has meant that large numbers of working women have sought live-in maids to provide a substitute caregiver for their children or elderly relatives. This demand for reproductive labour results in the 'commoditisation of caring', and more specifically, a commoditisation of motherhood. Both kin work and domestic duties are transferred to the market to deal with this 'crisis of care'. Accompanying the increase of women in professional employment during the 1990s were a number of demographic changes including declining birth rates, later marriages and increased life expectancies. These changes have caused considerable anxiety to the Singapore government.

The demand for domestic workers has been met by the state through open door immigration policies for domestic migrant workers; however, in recent years there has been reluctance on the part of the government to encourage dependence on foreign workers. This ambiguity around the role of domestic workers is reflected in contradictory policy. The government has introduced a number of measures to regulate the inflow of migrant workers, in an attempt to curb dependency on maids by those who do not really 'need' them, namely non-professional, less educated women who the state would prefer to be in engaged in waged employment rather than childbearing. Regulatory measures in Singapore include restrictions on number of maids per household, short term work permits for domestic workers, and extra costs payable to the government by employers.

Government discourse has represented the 'invasion' of other cultures and races as a threat to economic success and state authority, with the Philippines in particular being represented in a negative light. Foreign workers in Singapore in some ways embody the possibility of this invasion of difference. In this sense, state-constructed hegemonic forms of masculinity are associated with hegemonic forms of racism, enacted by feminising and pacifying those dominated.

The consequences of this internalised orientalism for female migrant workers are significant. Female foreign workers in particular are seen as a threat to national security by virtue of their 'foreignness', as well as a threat to Singaporean society itself, by virtue of their sexuality. The potential of maids to unravel the moral fibre of society is a point of considerable anxiety, and is reflected in the state-owned press, and by employment agencies.

Violations of domestic workers' privacy and personal freedom are officialised in immigration policies which contravene international human rights standards. Government policies such as compulsory regular medical checks for domestic workers (including pregnancy and HIV tests), and restrictions on domestic workers' rights to marry freely are framed in the familiar rhetoric of the danger of moral collapse. In this sense, the sexuality of both local women and foreign women has become a 'target of state discipline', through pro-natalist policies for the former and restrictive labour policies for the latter.

The government has taken on minimal responsibility for the welfare of its foreign workers, for example by refusing to regulate maids' wages and instead leaving them to be determined by market forces. Domestic workers (unlike other foreign workers) are excluded from Singapore's main labour laws, the Employment Act and the Workmen's Compensation Act, which guarantee workers 'a minimum of one rest day per week, a maximum of forty-four work hours per week, limits on salary deductions, and fourteen days of paid sick leave'. Whilst the working conditions of domestic workers have been improved by some recent changes to legislation, there remains a disturbing lack of legal protection for privately employed live-in maids.

In Singapore, we therefore see that gender, nationality and class intersect to justify a persons' involvement in domestic work. The international transfer of care giving therefore creates a 'two-tier hierarchy' established through a racial division of reproductive labour. Privileged female citizens of rich nations such as Singapore are therefore able to 'have it all' through the exploitation of lower status women as cheap labourers. The 'foreignness' of migrant workers, combined with the feminising and 'Othering' of the Philippines absolves the state of its responsibilities and legitimises the exploitation of migrant workers. However, interventions to protect the rights of domestic workers must involve both sending and receiving countries, as well as the international community.

Some actions which could be taken by the Singaporean government to improve the situation of foreign domestic workers include:

  • Ensure domestic workers can access equal and complete legal protection
  • Enforce policies which help to prevent abuses of workers, and create mechanisms to monitor abuses, with strong penalties for those who offend
  • Improve foreign workers' access to the justice system
  • Ensure domestic workers' freedom of movement, including access to new job opportunities
  • Sign and commit to international human rights agreements which protect the rights of migrants
  • Support NGOs in their role providing additional services to migrant workers

The WCYF gave me a great opportunity to discuss with other delegates the situation of migrant domestic workers in their own contexts. The participants contributed by sharing their experiences and knowledge of the rights of domestic workers in their own countries. During the session we discussed female migrants' ability to exercise agency, even within the most constricting of circumstances. In studying women's labour migration, one must never assume women's passive acceptance of conditions, but instead seek to understand how they engage in daily renegotiation of their roles, freedoms and status.

I enjoyed attending the WCYF conference very much. It was especially interesting to experience a taste of Korean culture and hospitality, as I had never visited South Korea before. It was also interesting to hear many other students' presentations on a wide range of topics.

In the future I hope to work for an organisation which promotes gender equality in all areas of women's and men's lives, including paid labour. Women's access to, and control of, income is an important element of their empowerment. I am currently working on the dissertation paper for my Masters degree, which explores how women might benefit through other income streams such as cash transfers. I hope to finish my programme in September 2009 and graduate in January 2010.

The full paper can be found at http://www.wcyf2009.org/callforpaper/sub02.html?key=singapore

 

Message from the Tokyo Foundation:Why don't you write an article too?

“Voices from the Sylff Community” is a space showcasing the activities and opinions of Sylff fellows and faculty members. We have received contributions from fellows and faculty members all over the world.　We are looking forward to sharing YOUR voices with people around the world, including global issues with local perspective, grassroots issues requiring global attention, and your first-hand experience. For further details, please click here.

Journey of the Soul to Nurture Future Leaders

April 24, 2009
By 19644

Future leaders of Asia gathered in Orissa, India, to share experiences and ideas on problems facing Asia. Muhammad Ilham from the University of Indonesia participated in “Building a Better Asia,” which is a biannual retreat for recipients of Sylff and other scholarships from the Nippon Foundation. The purpose of the dialogue was to nurture the leaders of Asia and to build a brighter future for Asia.

Lessons Learned from the BABA Retreat in Orissa, India

The purpose of this article is to express my feelings and thoughts about the BABA V Retreat. Conducted in Orissa, India, from February 8 to 14, 2009, this event brought together representatives from various countries in Asia and descendants of Asians around the world who felt it was their concern to build a better Asia and a safer world. The Nippon Foundation, as the initiator/organizer, selected former and current scholarship fellows to sit down together to share experiences and ideas on problems facing Asia these days. Present at the event were 20 participants and two facilitators, of whom at least eight were Sylff fellows. Several resource persons also contributed to this event. This initiative is a pinpoint effort given the current situation in which Asia is still full of problems. As the world economy declines, countries in Asia are the focus of greater attention with all of the potentials this region has.

Entering the event, I had several questions in my mind: What are likely to be the common problems we have to deal with in the future? What kind of leadership and efforts do we need to address them? And most importantly, what can I learn from this event that will benefit the people of my country, Indonesia, and the world?

Coping with Problems Concerning Collaboration

As the BABA V Retreat was conducted right at the time the world economic crisis was spreading at an extremely rapid pace, the participants were also very concerned about this. Triggered by the economic meltdown of the United States, Asia also felt the impact of the economic crisis with exports slumping due to the decline in purchasing power of the US domestic market. This, in turn, led to companies in Asian countries falling into bankruptcy, with increasing unemployment and poverty. This dealt a heavy blow on developing countries in Asia, where, even without this current crisis, there are already so many classic problems such as deforestation, terrorism, trafficking, poverty, corruption, conflict, human rights violations, and poor health care. Good cooperation and regional collaboration are the keys to overcome these problems.

The BABA V Retreat could be an example of an initiative to start a simple model of cooperation and collaboration to address the problems in question. The diversity of background and expertise of the participants are a great blend. It is also important for them as the young generation of leaders to work without political restraint and narrow-minded nationalism in order to make greater contributions to a better Asia.

The intimacy of the participants during the event and the ideas that emerge are good starting points for this collaboration. Of worthy mention here is that we successfully formulated a map of a practical vision for Asia in five to ten years to come (such as a Green Asia, Asia without conflict, and a corruption-free environment) and formed working groups to carry on the post-BABA Retreat outcomes. However many things still need to be sharpened in order to implement them in a more concrete manner.

The current challenge is how we can shape and continue coordination and communication among us who live so many miles apart. This is not only because we face, on our return to our respective countries, work that has piled up during our absence. There are also many things formulated during the BABA V Retreat that are still too raw to proceed with in a proper manner. Individual initiatives and strong leadership of each working group are keys to continuously connect and move on together. At this point I would like to suggest to the next BABA Retreat that it would be better to have more time than what we had in Orissa to develop a collaborative action plan since it is necessary to have everything set up and ready before the conclusion of the event. <

Leadership for the Future

Let me start with a simple notion that the main contributors to the recurring problems in many countries in Asia are, in the first place, their leaders. At least until now, governmental, political, and social leaders have too often become part of the problem. Some of them do not have good leadership vision; some do not have any concerns about peoples’ interests; some are corrupt; some do not do anything other than maintain their power; and some are also very weak or totalitarian. We do not celebrate their traits. But we want them as part of the solution.

The BABA V Retreat taught us important lessons on leadership. One of the lessons was that future leaders must act promptly and start from problems in surrounding areas. Visiting artisan communities in poor villages in Orissa, we visited the Darbar Sahitya Sansat (DSS), a local NGO that has a long story of success in economic empowerment. The DSS’s organizers started this initiative from a very young age when some of them were still in universities or were fresh graduates. They first stood up to help survivors of a massive flood in their village and after that, they have never looked back.

They went on a relentless effort to improve the livelihood of the poor in Orissa. This is very tricky since poverty in many cultures and societies is often considered a matter of laziness, fate, and even a curse. In addition, many also think that it is solely the responsibility of the governments or generous and wealthy people to help the poor. Those ideas never appear in the DSS dictionary. Poverty for them is always structural and alleviating it is part of their life struggle. They speak out loudly on how would it be possible for the poor to increase their income if they had never received support from others, especially when the capitalist state systematically shuts their windows of opportunity. Poor people in India very often have difficulties in gaining access to conventional credit banks because of their poverty, illiteracy, absence of collateral, and other factors.

To overcome this problem, community organizers of DSS provide micro credit for the poor and manage it in small self-help groups of women. The groups themselves are their collateral and choosing women as members is important here since they are more trusty and careful to their families than men usually are. By doing so, DSS gives assistance to the poor without making them dependant. On the contrary, the poor women are able to increase their income as well as manage to empower themselves to contribute to their livelihood. This is not charity as casual observers may think. This is the basic concept of community empowerment.

How BABA Retreat Affects Me

There is no doubt that The BABA V Retreat impressed me very much. This was not only because I was able to meet such great people, but also due to the lessons I learned in relation to my work and worldview.

My encounter with NGO activists in Orissa truly reaffirms my belief. It is true that there are many ways to change the world, but it always begins with your choice. After graduating from a university, there are many options available. To choose working in an NGO is not popular enough in Indonesia although many NGOs operate here. For many of us, especially in the past, being an activist is full of repression and depression. Also, there is always uncertainty about the future. It takes courage and much fortitude to walk the path. Nevertheless, representing the voice of civil society is the highest of honors. As long as I am able to maintain my passion, I will not fade away.

Furthermore, we are not alone. It is very clear that there are still many never-ending problems in Asia. However, the BABA V Retreat made a bold statement of togetherness. In every place, time, and level there are people who have already put all their strengths into this. So it is now time for us to transform this togetherness into a strategic collaboration for the future.

Discussions and other activities with all the participants and resource persons during the event also pointed out that no matter how understanding a big mind is, it is the soul that is the true guide. What is amazing about the BABA V is that, to me, the people there just showed so much passion and courage stemming from their huge hearts. This was enlightening for me as I had been lost in despair seeing hard facts when working in humanitarian projects. For a long time I have criticized what happened in Aceh, the area most affected by the tsunami that hit Indonesia in December 2004. Although 8 billion US dollars poured into the area, the number of poor people before and after the tsunami remains the same. Where is the impact of this huge influx of money on the grassroots?

So much money intended to mitigate the post-tsunami disaster and rebuild a better Aceh is being misallocated or corrupted. The utmost mandate for post-tsunami reconstruction is to rebuild the homes and livelihoods of the survivors along with related infrastructures, but only a very small portion of the funds goes to livelihood projects, and even much less for monitoring efforts. The shift in priority toward building mega projects is not in the best interest of most of the people. Could we say this reconstruction is successful when the most benefits are for the rich and the ruler on one hand, and the projects negate transparency, accountability, and community participation on the other hand? Since the post-tsunami projects are led and managed by educated people, they are responsible for this distressed condition. They have the power, money, expertise, and everything else to prevent all this misery from happening. But they did not do anything. Bottom line: you may teach someone to have brilliant knowledge, but that smartness can be used to fool people. A true, beautiful mind is one that is guided by the soul.

During the BABA V Retreat, my encounter with those great people with enormous talent, life trajectory, skill, courage, and experience convinced me about my true self and what I should do in the future. I have learned so many things from them that I am now more than confident that we will see a better future for Asia as long as we can go hand in hand to overcome the problems and passionately maintain our life goals.

 

Message from the Tokyo Foundation:Why don't you write an article too?

“Voices from the Sylff Community” is a space showcasing the activities and opinions of Sylff fellows and faculty members. We have received contributions from fellows and faculty members all over the world.　We are looking forward to sharing YOUR voices with people around the world, including global issues with local perspective, grassroots issues requiring global attention, and your first-hand experience. For further details, please click here.

Fellows Volunteer to Help China Earthquake Victims

November 25, 2008
By 20888

The Tokyo Foundation had called out to the Sylff fellows in China for activities to provide relief to the victims of China’s Great Sichuan Earthquake. 2 volunteer teams centering on Sylff fellows were given financial support to carry out their activities. A report entitled “Sylff Fellows in China Support Great Sichuan Earthquake Victims,” which was written by a staff member of the Tokyo Foundation who observed their activities, had been uploaded to this site a short while ago. As the Foundation has now received reports from the Lanzhou University and Chongqing University volunteer teams, the following is a translated and edited version of their reports.

The Tokyo Foundation project to support prospective college students in Wen County

Zeng Xianghong / Project Leader Sylff Fellow, Lanzhou University

Project contents

Responding to the calls by the Tokyo Foundation, team leader Zeng Xianghong, a Sylff Fellow in the PhD program of the School of Politics and Administration, Lanzhou University, planned and made an application to conduct a project to support prospective college students in the No. 1 Middle School of Wen County, Longnan, Gansu Province (middle school also includes grades up to high school). This project was accepted for funding by the Tokyo Foundation. Activities were carried out at the school by a volunteer team made up of eight graduate students of Lanzhou University’s School of Politics and Administration.

The goal of this project was to give materialistic and mental support to students of Wen No. 1 Middle School who were scheduled to enter four-year universities. The team departed Lanzhou by long-distance bus on the evening of August 20, and arrived in Wen in the afternoon of the following day. We immediately met with the school’s Vice Principal, Mr. Ma Meian, to discuss how to proceed with activities on the following day. We were initially scheduled to conduct activities for about three to four days, but after discussions with the school, it was decided to concentrate activities into one day due to fears of aftershocks, among others.

Participants in the relief activities conducted on August 22 were the eight volunteers of the team, Vice Principal Ma, General Secretary Mr. Yuan Xiaobin of the administrative department, five of the school’s homeroom teachers for third-year high school students, and the prospective college students numbering about 180. Not only did we distribute supplies needed immediately for school including schoolbags, notebooks, and pens, but a presentation was also made on university life. Guidance was given to provide understanding and to prepare the students mentally for university life. Explanations included tips on how to study, how to apply for scholarships, communication skills, and participation in social activities.

The students showed particular interest in how to mentally prepare for university life, stories of how the speaker matured while at college, as well as how to apply for scholarships. They listened very earnestly while taking notes. The students responded well, and it could be said that this time’s activity had the effects we had anticipated.

The students of Wen No. 1 Middle School came from areas all around Wen county, and some lived very far from school. About 20 students were not able to get to school until after the end of the day’s activities. We waited until they came and were able to directly hand over the supplies to them.

Response

Prior preparations—the team leader went to the school in the beginning of August for pre-inspection and detailed discussions on the activities—and carefully planned arrangements led to this project fulfilling its expectations.

We also fortunately received the positive support and cooperation of the school for the activities. Arrangements for the room and notification to the students were done efficiently, and the scheduling was done in a very thorough manner. The attention to detail in talks between the volunteers and the school in the preparation stage led to its success.

This time’s relief to the prospective college students differed from many relief activities in which main support comes in the form of supplies given to the beneficiary, which in most cases is a school. One of the key features of our project was to provide mental support, and the beneficiaries in this case were each individual student. This method was highly appraised by the teachers and students. In addition, we believe that this activity helped enhance our planning and organization capabilities. The Sylff fellows of Lanzhou University were able to communicate the spirit of helping people through this activity, and were able to realize in concrete form the empathy and support of the Tokyo Foundation to the Chinese people.

In retrospect

Impact of the earthquake

The lasting and most striking impression left on us was none other than the devastating impact of the Great Sichuan Earthquake. The earthquake hit on May 12, and over three months had passed when I went to Wen county at the beginning of August to prepare for our activities. Although partial restorations had been made for the direct damages of the earthquake, tents serving as temporary homes were present everywhere, from the roadsides to fields, mountains, and riversides.

Moreover, the destructive force of the earthquake not only took away many precious lives and assets, but continued to impact the lives of the people in the disaster-stricken region in the form of trauma and fears of aftershocks.

Wen No. 1 Middle School has three classroom buildings, but they need to be rebuilt due to extensive damage. Currently, the students are studying in temporary classrooms available through outside cooperation, but the learning environment is inadequate. The building that used to house the school’s administration has also been severely damaged, and is off-limits. The school’s staff members are working in the library where damages were comparatively light.

Our activities to aid Wen No. 1 Middle School were very limited in view of how much is needed to cope with the enormous destruction wrought by the Great Earthquake. However, we feel that it was very meaningful in that we were able to do something, however small, for the people of this disaster-stricken area.

Experience as the leader

I would like to take this opportunity to touch upon what I was able to experience by leading this activity. I had, up to now, participated in many hands-on social activities held by the university or my professors, but this was the first time for me to be a leader, organizing and putting a volunteer team to work. This experience helped me to better understand the purpose of the Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund (Sylff), which aims to nurture leaders with a global vision. This time’s activity required many elements—proposing and planning the project, contacting Wen No. 1 Middle School, calling for volunteers, communicating with the Tokyo Foundation, coordinating implementation of the project, and precise action-taking and decision-making as the team leader. And during the conduction of activities, my skills of communication, foresight, and decision-making were tested. Luckily, my planned project went smoothly with very good results. I was able to secure the safety of the volunteers, and all the team members participated very willingly. I would like to thank the Tokyo Foundation for providing us with this precious opportunity.

The students of Wen No. 1 Middle School

In closing, I wish to relate my impressions of the prospective college students at Wen No. 1 Middle School. Within the various hardships and inconveniences brought on by the earthquake, this school was able to have a record-breaking number of its students pass the national college entrance exams: over 240 students passed the exams compared to last year’s figure of 165. Of course, this was partially due to the policy of the Chinese government to aid those students who were preparing for the exams in the disaster-stricken areas, but one of the major factors for this was, no doubt, the strong courage and spirit of the students who continued studying for their exams even after the earthquake.

On the day of the relief activities, we met with over 180 of these students. We were very moved by their deep yearning to go to college and their positive attitude toward university life. Over 90 percent of these students come from rural villages. Although we do not have any specific data regarding their household income, from what we have heard, we foresee difficulties arising in their households and life at the university. When we gave our presentation on university life, the greatest interest was shown toward scholarship systems and student loans. However, no matter what difficulties these students may encounter, I am certain that they will address these challenges with courage and perseverance.

Volunteer activities in the disaster-stricken region of Mianyang

Tang Songlin / Project Leader Sylff Fellow, Chongqing University

Introduction

My volunteer activity during the seven days in Mianyang city of Sichuan Province, a region suffering from damage by the Great Earthquake, was short but left a deep and lasting impression on me.

Through the assistance of the Tokyo Foundation, friends who shared my aspirations gathered to conduct volunteer activities aiming to provide mental support to the middle school students of Mianyang. The members of the team were, other than myself, He Guolian, a teacher from New Idea Training, Chen Yan, the General Manger of Chongqing Shanshui Travel Agency and lecturer, Li Lihui, a lecturer from Southwest University, Wu Meibao and An Xiaopeng, both graduate students of psychology at Southwest University, and Zhou Youlan, a designer.

Project Contents

Interviews

We arrived in Mianyang on August 20. On the following day, we visited an evacuation center in the suburbs of Mianyang and interviewed the people there, especially middle school students, to gain an understanding of their emotional state. At first, many of the students looked extremely calm and already recovered from their anguish over the earthquake, but while speaking to them, we came to understand that their minds were still in a dark shadow as they suffered from the deep scars of the earthquake. They were very confused and anxious about the future. We understood that what they desperately needed is not just concrete aid in the form of daily supplies, but aid that could provide them with strong belief and hope for the future.

This situation made us realize how valuable our volunteer activity was in its aim to provide mental support, and gave us a solid sense of confidence and determination.

Beichuan Middle School

August 22. We went to Beichuan Middle School, the school that suffered one of the most serious damages from the earthquake. The earthquake had totally destroyed the original school building. The entire school, with its teachers and students, had moved to the training center of a major firm, Changhong, located in the suburbs of Mianyang. And this was where we went to meet and speak with the Beichuan Middle School students. When we began talking about the earthquake, many of the students were unable to hide their fear. The students also spoke tearfully of teachers who gave up their lives to save the students. It was a very emotional and moving experience. Counseling sessions were conducted by the experts on psychology in our team to help these children come out from the dark shadows cast by memories of the disaster.

Because the damages at Beichuan Middle School were widely reported over the media, and since it was listed as one of the priority sites for reconstruction, it was receiving a great deal of domestic and foreign relief. Due to such reasons, after completing our work here, we decided to move our activities to another school that was more in need of aid.

Xiushui Middle School

August 23. We went to Xiushui Middle School in An county, which was under the jurisdiction of Mianyang city, to prepare for counseling work at the school. We also spoke with students in all grades on this day to hear about changes in their emotional state after the earthquake and problems they were facing in studying and daily life. A survey using a questionnaire was conducted on about 200 students. This survey was conducted to gain a deeper and broader understanding of their mental state.

August 24. We analyzed and sorted the data obtained from the questionnaires completed by the students, and based on the results, formulated specific plans for the counseling sessions. After this, we purchased what materials were necessary for the sessions, and conducted a mock counseling session.

August 25–26. Counseling was conducted for two days at Xiushui Middle School. Because the earthquake had damaged lodging facilities in the area around the school, we were unable to stay overnight there, and had to spend the nights in Mianyang. We made the two-hour trip to the school every day by bus.

Based on personal experience, the professional counselor on our team planned and conducted four counseling sessions tailored to the middle school students. These were “Adjusting your mental state and recovering your dreams,” “Communication and cooperation,” “Trust and responsibility,” and “Being thankful.” The volunteers joined the students to participate in the sessions.

Through the “Adjusting your mental state and recovering your dreams” session, the students were able to reduce their fear of the earthquake and gained more hope and receptiveness for the future. There was also more enthusiasm to participate in this activity. In the following two sessions, “Communication and cooperation,” and “Trust and responsibility,” group activities were conducted to raise teamwork and increase the students’ sense of responsibility and mission. In the final session, “Being thankful,” the students relaxed to soft music while listening to a reading by the instructor.

We sensed that the sessions helped the students release their long hidden emotions. Many of the students had a good cry. Teachers and parents who were watching the activities also cried as they hugged the students. Watching this scene unfolding before us, we couldn’t hold back our tears either.

Even after the end of the two-day session of activities, the students would not leave us and spoke eagerly about a lot of things. We were very moved by this. We also told the students about our impressions of the activity. We exchanged information on how to contact each other and bid our farewells. It was already past 10 o’clock when we returned to Mianyang, hungry and tired but still very excited and moved by our experience with the students.

Response from the students

With the completion of our activities, we returned to our universities and companies, but many emails still arrived from the students. They wrote about their studies, dreams for the future, and expressed their appreciation to us. We were relieved and very happy to hear from them. Of course, this was not because we expected to be rewarded. It was with a deep sense of relief that we were able to see that the seeds of love had been firmly implanted in their hearts and had flowered into new hopes for the future.

Where there is love, there is hope. We believe that a better and brighter future is in store for those in the disaster-stricken areas, and for the world as well.

 

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A Small Seed that Yielded Fruitful Results: A Successful JIP Project in Indonesia

October 8, 2008
By null

Our Joint Initiative Program (JIP) project, conducted February 2006–April 2008, started with a small question in 2005: After all that we have learned and all the discussions that we have had, what can we do to help solve the world’s problems? That simple but deeply meaningful question arose in a gathering of Sylff fellows at the University of Indonesia (UI), after a series of discussions of various topics by members of the Association of Sylff-UI.

The Waste Management Situation in Indonesia

The large amount of waste thrown into the rivers in Jakarta has been clogging the artery of city life for years. This problem, which worsens every year, has many negative consequences for Jakarta’s inhabitants, including flooding that causes much discomfort in people’s daily lives and results in millions of dollars in damage each year. The waste that is accumulating in the rivers is causing them to get shallower, and at some places people can cross a river by walking on the waste. And because the riverbanks have in effect become waste-disposal areas, people cannot leisurely walk there and enjoy nature.

Jakarta is also facing problems concerning final disposal sites. In many localities, accidents on such sites have cost the lives of scavengers working there. In addition, Jakarta is also facing a lack of such sites, and in many instances plans to create final disposal sites have been opposed by local communities.

But the real problem is deeper than that. The situation regarding the waste problem in Indonesia is analogous to dirt being swept under a carpet. One cannot see the dirt until one examines the conditions closely, a problem that is compounded by some people saying that the problem of waste in Jakarta is not very bad. This failure of people to acknowledge the problem is what drove us to plan the JIP project. Thus, part of the problem is people’s attitude towards waste.

Manggarai residents discuss their waste problems

Manggarai residents discuss their waste problems

People think that once their waste has been collected, the problem is solved. People do not want to see what happens to their waste. All that matters for them is that their waste is removed on time and that they don’t need to see it again. But those are only superficial considerations. People rarely examine their behavior or consider that they are just paying somebody to take their waste away and that the trash collector then pays poor people who agree to let the waste be dumped in their yards because they need the money. This is in effect a NIMBY (“Not in my back yard”) attitude, because Jakarta dumps its waste in neighboring cities.
To help deal with the above problems, we started by forming a team consisting of Sylff fellows from the University of Indonesia and Gadjah Mada University. Our first step was to collect preliminary data by creating a simple questionnaire that we used when interviewing and talking with people in Manggarai, South Jakarta. When we learned of the Tokyo Foundation’s call for JIP proposals, we presented the results of our research in a proposal to the Foundation.

The first part of the project was designed to raise people’s awareness of waste management through environmental education in the Manggarai community of South Jakarta. All the people there are members of one neighborhood association, RW 10 (RW stands for rukun warga, “neighborhood association”). That neighborhood association consists of 18 smaller neighborhood groups totaling 3,200 people. Our team’s preliminary research indicated that 39 percent of the people throw their waste into a nearby river. The other 61 percent dump their waste in vacant areas or pay a small amount of money to have someone pick up their waste and dispose of it somewhere else.

Together With Local Communities

Our team designed a social intervention program (hereinafter “SIP”) based on a literature review done prior to and during the program. The SIP emphasized the role of block leaders, high public participation, and frequent visits by the team. The team often met after dark following meetings with about 25 community members. The SIP provided training and workshops in waste management for the people, and this was warmly received by the community. About 40 people actively participated in the entire program we initiated and also started their own initiatives. One reason why citizen participation was very high and progress was so fast was explained by one of the community members, a 50-year-old male: “We are happy and grateful because you work with us, talk with us, and continuously visit us. We had many people come from universities before. But they just collected data and left us once they got what they were seeking. We never saw them again.

A participant in the second workshop presents her group's proposal

A participant in the second workshop presents her group's proposal

The program also brought the local residents into more contact with the local government. Our two-year JIP project has had several positive results. Neighborhoods in the community became cleaner and greener by people creating both home gardens and community gardens. Our JIP project also made some community members aware of income-generating opportunities, such as producing and marketing homemade biofertilizer, collecting and selling recyclable materials, making products from recycled materials, and selling decorative plants.

We realized during the first year of our JIP project (April 2006–March 2007) that raising people’s awareness of waste management is not enough. More effort is needed to have an impact not only at the community level but also at the governmental decision-making level.

Moving Forward With Stakeholders

A meeting of community residents and local-government

A meeting of community residents and local-government

We also realized that without cooperation from all stakeholders, integrated waste management is not sustainable in the long run. Waste management problems cannot be solved only at the community level; they must involve a broad range of stakeholders. For this reason, our team met again and planned further steps for the second year of our JIP project: “The Institutionalization of Sustainable Waste Management: An Extension Program of Environmental Awareness in Jakarta and West Java.”
The second year of our JIP project (March 2007—April 2008) was designed to facilitate meetings involving all stakeholders in waste management in Jakarta and West Java: representatives of local and provincial governments, NGOs, and the business sector; local residents; academicians and other experts; and informal sectors and legislators. Our initial plan was to establish contact with all stakeholders, then to hold regional waste-management forums with them in Jakarta, Depok, and Bandung. The plan sounds simple, but the results were beyond what was expected.

A Focus-group Discussion in Jakarta

A working group at a regional workshop in Depok City

A working group at a regional workshop in Depok City

The change of the program proved to be very useful for us by providing a good base and data for use in preparing the forums. Later on, we decided that we should take the form of workshops, one of which was organized as a national, as opposed to just a regional, event. The workshops were attended by more than 103 representatives in Jakarta and over 84 in Depok. Waste-management stakeholders, including local governments and important national government agencies, as well as representatives from the House of Representatives of the Republic of Indonesia were in attendance.
What the team felt was special was the trust placed in us by all the stakeholders. The team is small, and an informal group at that. We felt honored to be trusted by all the important stakeholders who responded to our invitation to work together. Some participants voiced their appreciation for our initiative, which provided a forum for all stakeholders to voice their opinions concerning the problem, saying, “Never before was there an initiative to allow us to meet decision makers and be given the opportunity to be heard. We thank you for that.”

The Waste Management Act

At the end of the program, the team was greatly pleased at witnessing the passage of the long-awaited Waste Management Act by the government of the Republic of Indonesia on May 7, 2008. Thus, one important recommendation made by many working groups in the workshops to encourage Indonesia to adopt waste management, that is, to have regulations at the national level, has been realized.

The Waste Management Act, which is applied nationwide, is divided into 18 chapters, including general prescription, the government’s authority and obligations, people’s rights and obligations, waste management implementation, cost and compensations, cooperation and partnership, restriction, monitoring, administrative sanction, dispute settlement, investigation, and transitional rules. This act is expected to make a major change in waste management in Indonesia. The regulation states that government regulation and ministerial decree should be finalized within a year after this regulation is enacted, while local government regulation (by the provincial and municipal government) should be finalized within three years. During the transition, local government should close any open dumping sites within five years and start making plans to close these sites within a year of enactment of the act.

The second year project focused on the capacity building of waste management in Indonesia. This approach is different compared to the previous efforts. This project was helping various stakeholders to work together in solving waste problems in Indonesia. The issue of waste regulation, among other things that were deemed important, was discussed widely, not only by stakeholders who previously worked exclusively on the drafting through enactment stages but also by other stakeholders who never gave any attention to the regulation. At the end of the workshop, each stakeholder committed themselves to applying their efforts anyway they can to realize the recommendations made by the working groups. Soon after that, some stakeholders—who were also the facilitators in the working groups and were cooperating with the JIP team to hold the workshop, and who have been working for years on the regulation—came to the House of Representatives with new materials. The draft of the waste management act was then agreed to be enacted without much time and difficulty. This act marked the shifting of the waste management paradigm in Indonesia from collect-transfer-disposal to one that incorporates the concept of waste management hierarchy, more popularly known as the concept of 3R (reduce, reuse, and recycle).

One fruit of the project: a cleaner and greener

One fruit of the project: a cleaner and greener

If we are asked how, with limited funds and time, we were able to attain high participation from local people and the cooperation of stakeholders, we might not be able to give you a definite answer. What we can say is that we gave people opportunities to act on their ideas and to contribute in anyway that they saw fit. We acted as participating facilitators, not as outsiders higher than the people. Also, the Tokyo Foundation, which funded the project, trusted us and gave us room to maneuver and to make changes to the initial JIP proposal. That trust means a lot to us. In addition, our hard work and devoting our time to the project were of course very important. We feel very much rewarded by the outcomes of the project.

Even though our JIP project has ended, our journey continues. The team is still receiving requests from local people, government bodies, and other stakeholders to become involved in further meetings and discussions, to present the results of the project in seminars and articles, and to give our “expert” support. We believe that the adage “A journey of a thousand miles starts with one step” applies well in this case, and that our project was such a first step. Indeed, it was a step whose good results will give rise to the next steps. We hope the fact that a small and simple initiative such as our JIP project can produce such a big change will inspire many similar works in the future.

 

Wardhani, Citra

Sylff Fellow Earned her M.A. in Environmental Studies in 2002 and her M.A. in Social Psychology in 2008 from the University of Indonesia. Is currently conducting research on urban mobility culture, poverty, and migration.

Imran, Sarojini

Sylff Fellow Earned her M.A. in Anthropology in 2002 from the University of Indonesia. Has been a lecturer at Pancasila University, Jakarta, Faculty Architecture Engineering since 1993 and is coordinating research programs for the faculty.

 

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“Voices from the Sylff Community” is a space showcasing the activities and opinions of Sylff fellows and faculty members. We have received contributions from fellows and faculty members all over the world.　We are looking forward to sharing YOUR voices with people around the world, including global issues with local perspective, grassroots issues requiring global attention, and your first-hand experience. For further details, please click here.

Supporting Victims of the Great Sichuan Earthquake

September 4, 2008
By null

On May 12, 2008 an extremely strong earthquake struck China, centering on Wenchuan county, Sichuan province. News of this major disaster and the extensive damages it wrought—over 80,000 people confirmed dead or listed as missing, and more than 370,000 people injured—were widely reported throughout the world. Continue reading →

Sylff Acceptance Speech

September 3, 2008
By 20889

Mr. YOHEI SASAKAWA, chairman of The Nippon Foundation,

Mr. HIDEKI KATO, chairman of the Tokyo Foundation,

Dear Guests,

Before saying a few words, I would like to thank The Nippon Foundation and the Tokyo foundation for all efforts they have made to make this ceremony possible, in spite of busy agenda of the chairmen and many of their members.

Mr. Chairmen,

The visit of Mr. Yohei Sasakawa in my country RDC, in last November as WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination, was for me an opportunity to recall to my mind the philosophy of SYLFF saying that "the world is one family, and all mankind are brothers and sisters".

I would let myself be inspired by this philosophy and the testimony and the personal commitment of the leaders of the foundation. I am convinced, that to be worthy of the SYLFF Prize, all former students must put in the heart of their preoccupations (research or activities), a commitment for all men and women, and for the whole human being, in collaboration with others in order to make our world a better place for humankind.

It is the sense that I wish to give today to the SYLFF Prize that you’ve given to me. I wish it is the recognition and the expression of my engagement to participate with others in the construction of an interdependent world, worthy of the human dignity.

I, therefore, take today's ceremony as an opportunity , to thank the selection committee to for choosing me as the laureate of 2007. I would like to assure you that this will be for me an engagement to make again better in the future.

Mr. Chairmen,

Receiving this Prize, I do not consider this honor being only mine. I would suggest that you become aware, while giving me this prize, that it is given to thousands of people, that beyond the geographical borders, political opinions, religious and ethnic groups and cultural backgrounds, are engaged with myself in facing economic, social, political, religious and cultural challenges of my country, of a society where people long for peace, solidarity and development, but still confront with multiform crises. It is in their name, that I humbly accept this prize.

Mr. Chairmen, Dear guests,

I am proud of having had the privilege to study in my post university degree with the support of the Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund.

Since then, I learned that this privilege was a call for more commitment. I learned that I was called to exercise in my milieu a strong sense of responsibility, leadership and passion for addressing problems that handicap a full and peaceful life in society.

I learned that the grant I was receiving should enable me, not only to get a degree, but in priority to promote Peace, reconciliation, peaceful coexistence, friendship and solidarity between people and nations. I learned that this work which is carried on locally should be open to the whole world.

I finally learned that the real peace goes beyond the end of the war. It can only be reached when all human beings associate with each other, when our civilization solves the problem of access to the all fundamental needs, such as food, house, health and education.

Today I am again convinced that this is only possible if we, human beings, realize that we are interdependent and we keep an interest in what is going on on our planet. It is in that spirit that everyday I try to mobilize people, means, and energies to work for the advent of the peace in my country DRC.

Mr. Chairmen,

These last 10 years, my country DRC faces two wars, which destroyed more than 5,000,000 of lives. During all this time we’ve been very active in the efforts to bring peace in DRC, but especially we have worked in promoting and protecting human rights as the way to peace.

In DRC, peace means very concrete things: such as political agreement, end of the war, demobilization of the militias, elections, security, protection of children, end of abuse of women, humanitarian challenge and development.

Our manner to contribute to this fragile process was to invest in protecting human rights, civic education, education to citizenship, and popular participation. And finally to give a chance to the first free election in DRC in more than 40 years, I had the chance to coordinate, more than 100,000 Congolese observers and 200 from Africa, Europe and America for the last elections.

But as it is known, elections do not always mean democracy. The way forward remains a challenge. After 32 years of dictatorship and 10 years of war, my country is to be rebuilt.

The prize that I receive today is therefore another call for me to commit in this new field. I wish that this recognition is also a promise from your foundations to come with us in this area.

We ask precisely that you can help our Center of study to reinforce its capacities of research and actions in order to train people who will carry the vision to build an interdependent world where men and women are brothers and sisters and are committed for the good of all the humanity.

Finally, following the last visit of Mr. YOHEI SASAKAWA in DRC, the organizations that I coordinate, wish to locally sustain the campaign on leprosy in order to make grow the awareness of our people on this question and provoke a political will in this sector.

I wish therefore that receiving this prize becomes a beginning of a strong collaboration and a multiform engagement of your foundations and DRC.

To conclude, I want to inform that the entire amount of this prize will be dedicated to pay school fees of 50 orphan children. Parents of 33 of them died of AIDS and parents of the other 17 have been murdered during the conflict.

Thank you very much.

 

The Overseas Chinese in Tonga

August 1, 2008
By 21136

Tonga will hail a new king in August 2008. A Sylff fellow from New Zealand, who conducted field research in the country, suggests that Tonga must improve cultural relations following November 2006 riots caused by ethnic tension between Tongans and Overseas Chinese and political rivalry between the state and opposition pro-democracy factions.

Tonga is an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean. The earliest ethnic Chinese arrived there as Anglican priests in the 1920s. It was not until 1974 that the first Taiwanese businessman settled there, and thereupon began a gradual increase in the Overseas Chinese (OC) population--mainly from Taiwan, with some from Hong Kong and some students from the People's Republic of China after the 1989 Tiananmen Incident1. Thousands of Tongan passports were sold in the 1990s to raise revenue for government coffers. The majority of these were purchased by PRC nationals who quickly established businesses and dominated Tongan commercial interests. By 2001, there were reportedly over 120 Chinese-run shops in Nuku'alofa--mostly small roadside stalls selling convenience items and snacks. Larger businesses include wholesale and retail shops. The number of standard shipping containers imported into Tonga indicates that Chinese businesspeople control a significant share of goods brought into the country. One businessman estimates that he alone imports 40 containers of foodstuffs and general use items per year. Another successful businessman imports about five containers per month.

A typical roadside stall owned by ethnic Chinese.

A typical roadside stall owned by ethnic Chinese.

Today, there are approximately 600-700 ethnic Chinese residents on the main island of Tongatapu--less than 1% of the country's total population. However, the relatively sudden influx of Chinese migrants, the illegal selling of passports, and the subsequent government decision to make this legal have aggravated ethnic tensions. Resentment of OC immigrants has been manifested in various ways. Graffiti is scrawled across the outer walls of the PRC embassy; there are numerous cases of harassment and assaults against Chinese businessmen;2 Tu'ivakano, chieftain of Nukunuku, banned Chinese stores in his district; and in late 2001, 600 ethnic Chinese were asked by the government to leave once their work permits expired in order to curb violence and anger against Chinese.

These tensions are tied to conflict within the royal family and its links with China. Princess Pilolevu has many business interests with the PRC and, along with her late father, was a strong supporter of Chinese immigration as a means to stimulate the economy. Further links with China are illustrated by bilateral deals involving fisheries, manufacturing and agriculture, and most importantly, the severing of diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Prince 'Ulakalala had another view, deciding that the economy should not be open to foreigners, and used ethnic Chinese as the scapegoat for the island nation's continuing economic malaise.3

Former New Zealand High Commissioner to Tonga Brian Smythe noted upon his retirement in 2003 that "public resentment at the rapid intrusion of Chinese immigrants into the retail sector seems to have diminished somewhat but could always resurface.4 His words would ring true. On November 16, 2006, entire blocks of Nuku'alofa's central business district were left in smoldering ruins following pro-democracy demonstrations. Out of 155 businesses damaged, 33 shops owned by Chinese nationals or naturalized Tongans of Chinese descent were systematically targeted for looting and then torched.5 Several OC businesses along the shoreline (about 10 minutes away on foot) were first cased by scouts, who then advised looters and arsonists by mobile telephone. It is important to note that only property was targeted, and not the people themselves. This all pointed to coordinated planning, preparation, and careful execution.6

art of downtown Nuku'alofa after the riots - all burnt down.

art of downtown Nuku'alofa after the riots - all burnt down.

One report suggested the Chinese were attacked because of their support for the government.7 However, Chinese keep mostly to themselves and their businesses, with little interest in politics. Rather, it was a small minority of Tongans, such as whose in the pro-democratic Pangai Sii movement and the xenophobic Tonga National Business Association, who had focused negatively on Chinese and urged targeting of their businesses.8 Thugs were hired by Tongan business owners to attack rival operators.910 Police intelligence confirmed these allegations. Commissioner Sinilau Kolokihakaufisi commented, "There was a struggle against the Chinese presence. They were not wanted and that's not democracy. Our investigations will include claims that there were other motives other than democracy behind the riot."11

Violence in Nuku'alofa was quickly contained the same night the riots began.12 However, hundreds of Chinese were left homeless. The PRC embassy made great efforts to provide assistance. It managed to feed, clothe, and house about 300 Chinese in its compound over five days, assisted by large donations from the OC community and sympathetic Tongans. An Air China Boeing 747 was sent to Nadi (Fiji) with food and necessities, to investigate the situation, and to rescue those requiring evacuation.13 The plane arrived back in Xiamen, China, on November 23, 2006.14 Jeremy Chan, an OC community member with Tongan citizenship who opted to remain, said those leaving "will probably never return."15 But this would not be the case.

Traditional Tongan architecture using natural materials.

Traditional Tongan architecture using natural materials.

The OC population controls a large proportion of businesses and services in the Pacific region. There would be significant repercussions for the local economy if this population were to be displaced or removed--investment would fall, unemployment would rise, and there would be fewer choices for and less access to supplies. The Pacific remains an economically attractive OC market and destination, and there is no indication they would voluntary leave permanently en masse. While the evacuation was necessary for those genuinely escaping the turmoil, the majority declined the offer. Some chose to stay and look after their businesses; some could not return to China because of the circumstances in which they left the country in the first place;16 and others were not even in Nuku'alofa at the time of the riots, given their transnational nature.

Of the 193 OC community members who left Tonga after the riots, most returned within a couple of months to rebuild their businesses or start new ones--mostly outside the central business district, which remains empty blocks of land. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the number of new Chinese arrivals may have even increased, with migrants believing more business opportunities have surfaced since the rioting. The only group not to return were young children, whose parents preferred to leave them behind in China for schooling.

The 2006 incident shows that dealing with OC affairs will become an important aspect of maintaining bilateral relations with Beijing. China expects and demands that countries protect its nationals (and by implication, all other members of the OC population) in trouble. How countries respond may either be praised or attacked. For example, Beijing thanked Tonga and other regional governments for their role in "active cooperation and assistance" in the return effort.17 A similar OC evacuation in April 2006 from Honiara in the Solomon Islands resulted in praise for Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, and Australia for their roles. In contrast, Solomon Islands officials were criticized for their lack of effort--the Chinese ambassador to Papua New Guinea, Wei Ruixing, noted, "We are very sorry that the SI government did nothing to help Chinese nationals when they were suffering."18

A typical family residential household in Nuku'alofa, Tonga.

A typical family residential household in Nuku'alofa, Tonga.

To improve bilateral relationships with Pacific nations, China provides generous aid packages. Following the riots, Beijing approved an estimated TG$100 million soft loan to the Tongan government for rebuilding central Nukua'lofa. This contribution places Beijing as a significant player in Tonga's future, but has so far received limited acceptance--all applications call only for Chinese-sourced labor and materials for reconstruction. Local businesses are wary to draw on this facility, due to unclear valuations, hidden long-term costs (such as interest), and concerns about low building quality.19 Furthermore, it could serve only to draw more Chinese to Tonga as construction workers and contractors.

The Chinese in Tonga all have different plans for the future--some intend to re-migrate to Australia or New Zealand, and others to return home to China. Their children's education and the genuine fear of repeated ethnic tension are both major considerations for moving on. Others cite the poverty and hard life faced in Tonga compared to the improving economic situation in China. Most, however, maintain that they can profit more there than elsewhere, and even if they migrate would still keep their Tongan businesses. In short, Chinese will remain as long as there is a safe living to be made. As for Tonga's future, there must be efforts to improve understanding and promote positive interaction between cultures. While there are friendly intentions to increase cooperation between the Tonga Chinese Business Association and the Tongan Chamber of Commerce, nothing has yet come to fruition. Time will tell if these cultural differences can be resolved.

This paper is the result of collection and analysis of media articles and meeting with diplomats, community and business leaders, journalists and various local Overseas Chinese in Tonga in August 2007.
1.Bill Willmott, "The Chinese Communities in the Smaller Countries of the South Pacific: Kiribati, Nauru, Tonga, Cook Islands." Working Paper 10, MacMillan Brown Library, University of Canterbury, 2007.
2."Tonga's Prince Takes a Swipe at Racism at Home and Abroad," Matangi Tonga, June 29, 2000.
3."Chinese Shopkeepers Told: Pack Up and Leave Country," Agence France-Presse, November 27, 2001.
4.Brian Smythe, "Tonga Report Talks of Royal Instability, Fears of Conflict." Report sent to Foreign Minister Phil Goff, June 11, 2003.
5.From a survey carried out by the Tongan Ministry of Labour, Commerce, and Industries, "Assessment Report of Damages in Tonga from 16/11," Tonga Now, November 20, 2006. See also "Calm Begins to Return to Tonga," Newstalk ZB, November 17, 2006, <http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/488120/894685>.
6.Eight Tongan rioters were killed by fire when they could not escape a building they were trapped in while looting.
7."Tonga Riots," Reuters, November 19, 2006.
8."More Time Was Needed for Reforms, Govt Says," Tonga Now, November 19, 2006.
9.According to eye-witness Mike Jones (a New Zealand businessman) rioters were paid to cause trouble. "It wasn't a riot as such. It was an organised attempt to cut out all of the Chinese, and whatever businesses were in opposition." Quoted by Pesi Fonua, "Rebuilding Tongan Capital to Take 5 Years," China Post, November 22, 2006.
10."Tongan Business Owners Blame Riots on Rivals," Taipei Times, November 22, 2006, <http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2006/11/22/2003337434>.
11."Chinese Specifically Targeted: Tonga Police Commissioner," Fiji Times, November 19, 2006, <http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=51924>.
12.The deployment of Tonga Defense personnel on November 16 was followed by New Zealand and Australian troops on November 18. By then, little was needed to be done in terms of containment, leaving them only to assist with investigations, maintain security, and make low-key neighborhood patrols to calm Chinese communities.
13."Chinese Evacuated from Riot-Stricken Tonga," China Daily, November 23, 2006.
14."Chartered Plane to Fetch Chinese Nationals from Tonga Islands Arrives in E. China," Xinhua, November 23, 2006, <http://english.people.com.cn/200611/23/eng20061123_324557.html>.
15."Chinese Community in Tonga Still Reeling from Riots," Radio New Zealand, November 24, 2006.
16.One witness suspects certain OC immigrants had left China with money procured under illegal means and would face retribution if they returned.
17."Chinese Government Helped Its Citizens in Tonga Return to China with a Chartered Plane," PRC Ministry of Foreign Affairs Website, November 22, 2006, <http://www.china-embassy.org/eng/fyrth/t281398.htm>; "Hundreds of Chinese Demand Repatriation from Troubled Tonga," Xinhua, November 22, 2006.
18.Issac Nicholas, "China Condemns Inaction," Solomon Star, May 2, 2006.
19.Interview with Tapu Panuve, Tonga Chamber of Commerce, Nuku'alofa, August 28, 2007.

 

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Globalization Strategies at Universities in Scandinavia

July 18, 2008
By null

Akiko Matsunobu takes the opportunity of a recent trip to the University of Oslo and Uppsala University to discuss developments in higher education and the role of the Tokyo Foundation in a globalizing world.

One of the programs administered by the Scholarship Division of the Tokyo Foundation is the Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund, commonly known as Sylff. Established in 1987, this fellowship program aims at fostering future leaders capable of tackling various challenges with global viewpoints that transcend cultural, national, and other "boundaries" at a time when the world is experiencing ever-faster globalization. Sylff is currently offered at 68 universities in 44 countries. Its overall scheme is unique: the Nippon Foundation contributes US$1 million to each recipient university, and each university manages the fund according to its needs and priorities, disbursing the proceeds of the contribution to graduate students in the form of fellowships.

While every region in the world has its own cultural and social background, the concept of "leader" also differs from place to place. That is the very idea behind the Sylff Program: We believe that local universities are most capable of fostering leaders that can address the situations in the countries in which they are based. Thus we entrust the management of the funds and selection of fellowship students to the discretion of each university. More than 10,000 students have been selected as Sylff fellows (recipients of fellowships) since the first fund was set up at Tufts University in the United States 21 years ago. A significant number of the fellows are now playing key roles in their respective societies and fields of expertise.

I recently had the opportunity to visit Uppsala University in Sweden and the University of Oslo in Norway, two Scandinavian universities receiving Sylff. I would like to share with our readers my observations in the context of the situation of higher education in that region.

The Oldest University in Scandinavia

Botanist Carl von Linné named humankind Homo sapiens and is known as the father of taxonomy. Physician Carl Peter Thunberg visited Japan in the eighteenth century when it was a closed country, collected local plants, and built the foundation for the study of the flora of Japan. Dag Hammarskjöld, the second secretary-general of the United Nations, devoted himself to the cause of world peace, tirelessly working around the globe until his untimely death in a plane crash in Africa during a mission.

All of these people are deeply linked to Sweden's Uppsala University. Linné and Thunberg served as its vice-chancellor, while Hammarskjöld, who received the Nobel Peace Prize posthumously, obtained a bachelor of law and a master's degree in political economy from the university. Established in 1477 in the city of Uppsala, located about 70 kilometers north of Stockholm, it is the oldest university in Scandinavia. Including Hammarskjöld, to date the university has produced eight Nobel Prize laureates and has many eminent graduates in the fields of natural science, humanities, and social science, which speak to its high academic standards.

The Sylff endowment for Uppsala University is the second oldest (set up in 1988) out of the 68 institutions that have received the fund. A commemorative ceremony was held on April 11, 2008 to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Sylff's establishment at the university. This event was attended by the vice-chancellor, department deans, members of the Sylff Steering Committee and Sylff fellows, as well as a large number of teaching faculty and students from the university. All gathered in the convivial atmosphere at the Museum Gustavianum, one of the university's main historical buildings.

Over the past 20 years Sylff fellowships have been provided to 56 people studying international issues at the university, including doctoral students and young post-doctoral researchers. Of these, 10 have become professors and another 10 associate professors. It allows young scholars to devote themselves to research as an alternative to undergoing a period of economic uncertainty at a time when they need to build up their academic achievements.

Norway's Oldest and Largest University

In 1989 the University of Oslo became the twelfth institution to receive Sylff funding. Located in central Oslo, the university was founded in 1811 by King Frederick VI, the Danish monarch who ruled Norway at that time. As the oldest and largest university in Norway, it has played a great role in fostering national identity and establishing modern statehood, in keeping with its mission of fostering leaders. To date it has produced four Nobel Prize laureates in the fields of economics, chemistry, and peace.

As Norway's leading institute of higher learning, the University of Oslo was designated a domestic Center of Excellence (COE)* in nine fields and as a Nordic COE in two fields, including medicine, natural sciences, as well as humanities and social sciences. As such, the university boasts many excellent researchers and high research standards. The University of Oslo also makes substantial contributions to culture with its three cultural museums. The university's library assets, moreover, include one of the greatest collections of Tibetan mandalas in the world, with vigorous exchange programs underway with Tibet University. To date, 146 graduate students have been provided with Sylff fellowships at the University of Oslo.

* A COE refers to a core institute where top researchers carry out world-class studies in a cutting-edge research environment. Specifically, a COE is required to assign leading researchers to the fields or themes concerned, employ cutting-edge technology to conduct the research and deliver groundbreaking research results. In Japan, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) initiated the Twenty-first Century COE Program in 2002 as a policy aimed at establishing a COE program.

University Initiatives for Globalization

Uppsala University has concluded more than 3,000 joint research agreements with over 1,000 universities throughout the world and has worked out arrangements regarding exchange students with more than 500 universities worldwide. By carrying out proactive joint research, the university intends to further strengthen its five main fields, namely: research on peace, security, and democracy; genomes; drug development; brain, cognitive, and behavioral studies; and energy supply and renewable energy.

In 2006 and 2007 the institution conducted a large-scale review of its university-wide research activities to identify those fields that have the potential to become more competitive in the future and incorporate them into future strategies and draft plans. This project was called Quality and Renewal 2007. Under this project, panels of experts—consisting of prominent scholars at home and abroad—carried out evaluations in their respective fields. The results of the evaluation were compiled in voluminous English reports, identifying the names of all of the researchers involved, and were disclosed to the public. These efforts reflect Uppsala University's enthusiasm for raising its level of research.

Internationalization is acting as a major impetus for the University of Oslo as well. Courses taught in English number 800, student mobility has doubled since 2001, and foreign students constitute 11% of the student body. Furthermore, partners in joint research have become more international, with research themes being set up from a more international and interdisciplinary perspective. The University of Oslo is also expanding overseas, opening research centers in Russia, France, Italy, Greece, Germany, and the U.K. in Europe; as well as three in Asia: in Beijing and Shanghai in China, and Delhi in India.

China and East Asia as Academic Markets

The University of Oslo is currently directing its energies inter alia toward China. The second highest number of foreign PhD students comes from China, after Germany. In terms of research interest and academic exchange, China's presence is rising remarkably. Immediately prior to our visit to the university, the University of Oslo sent a large delegation to China in order to further develop existing partnerships with Peking University, Fudan University,, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and others. There are reasons for this orientation toward China. One of them, according to Rector Geir Ellingsrud, reflects the university's desire to secure a firm footing at an early stage of China's emergence as a fully-fledged research power. Another is the wish to offer faculty members and students at the university greater opportunities for research with and on China. Rector Ellingsrud further mentioned his university is convinced that China will become a major partner in the international community. To create ties of shared values, he said joint studies and projects as well as researcher exchange can be beneficial. Through all these talks, I sensed a strong passion for China.

The University of Oslo also has strong ties with eight leading Japanese universities (e.g. Tokyo, Waseda, Keio, Hokkaido, Tokai Universities, and others), and an increasing volume of research with and on Japan in disciplines ranging from dentistry, biology , nanotechnology and astrophysics to Japanese language and culture, theology, democracy, criminology, education and more. There is also both student and researcher exchange between the University of Oslo and its Japanese partners, and a substantial volume of co-authorship. There is thus a good basis for further developing joint research activity through a research scheme under the Tokyo Foundation umbrella.

Uppsala University, for its part, has appointed an associate professor who has been residing in Tokyo since April 2008 as an academic exchange delegate. This is a research professional working as a direct contact for Japan-Sweden academic exchange. Through this initiative, the university's enthusiasm for creating a substantial joint research scheme was strongly felt.

The Role of the Tokyo Foundation

Both universities seemed to have a keen desire to ride the wave of globalization and further expand and raise the quality of the education and research they conduct as institutes of higher learning. This can be attributed to the concept of the Bologna Declaration on the European Space for Higher Education, which was signed by 29 European countries in 1999. This is an attempt to raise the quality of education and improve the appeal of European universities by increasing compatibility and fluidity among institutes of higher learning in Europe and through competition among regional universities. The fierce competition unfolding globally has not bypassed the world of higher education, the future of which will depend to a good extent on how each institution can develop its characteristics and appeal.

The Tokyo Foundation conducted a questionnaire survey on globalization at the Sylff Program Administrators Meeting (at the University of Copenhagen) in January 2007. The responses from the 61 universities (from 42 countries) that participated in the meeting were of great interest in that they vividly portrayed their thinking and attitudes toward globalization. All of the universities responded that they are being affected by globalization. Many of their responses referred to positive effects, including the increased mobility of students and teachers and the greater diversity this engenders, higher academic standards, and the possibility of transnational alliances. On the other hand, increasingly fierce transnational competition and brain drain were among the negative impacts mentioned.

It does not seem easy to bring joint research with overseas partners to fruition. Common ways to attract research partners include: taking note of researchers whose works draw attention in academic journals and contacting them at international academic conferences and relying on them as liaisons in their countries to expand mutual partnership. This process often moves slowly due to difficulties in financing research and continuing joint research off-line. Cases are on the rise among young researchers in which experiments are conducted many times with colleagues whom they have actually never met, using IP telephones and the like. The process is a continuous trial and error among experts within their own fields.

These trends can be linked to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's publication in 2005 of the Guidelines for Quality Provision in Cross-border Higher Education. This can be seen as a step in the long-due standardization of the rapidly globalizing field of education.

The Tokyo Foundation has two pillar activities: policy research and scholarship programs. As such, we are seeking to be a bridge between overseas institutes of higher learning and research and Japanese counterparts in the field of the social sciences. Global issues are now closely interlinked with domestic policy. In this light, it is conceivable that the research reports and proposals that the Tokyo Foundation conducts for domestic policy may provide significant hints for overseas policies, with the reverse of this often being true as well.

If global competition among various policy research institutes contributes to making the world a better place, we are eager to help. Thus we are trying to assist overseas institutions that are seeking partnership with Japanese counterparts. It is in this spirit that we will continue our support for high-quality research and scholarship activities.

 

Message from the Tokyo Foundation:Why don't you write an article too?

“Voices from the Sylff Community” is a space showcasing the activities and opinions of Sylff fellows and faculty members. We have received contributions from fellows and faculty members all over the world.　We are looking forward to sharing YOUR voices with people around the world, including global issues with local perspective, grassroots issues requiring global attention, and your first-hand experience.
For further details, please click here

 

Rethinking Human Rights in a World of Increased Inequalities

July 15, 2008
By 21137

It is my great and humble honour to have this opportunity to share with all of you some reflections that come from my research, teaching and social life experiences inspired by the urgent need to not forget those who are forced to live in abject poverty, deprivation, persecution, global racism and patriarchy as well as imperial interventions and other forms of organized violence. I express my deep thanks to the organizing committee of the SYLFF Asia/Pacific Regional Forum. It feels very good to be amongst many people with different accents for after all, all accents are beautiful. They reflect a tiny part of the great human, social, cultural and ecological heterogeneity of humanity and the planet.

Let me begin my address today by saying that one of the greatest ironies of our times is that human rights have become very much the language of progressive politics around the globe as well as a powerful tool to justify increased weaponization, militarization, global racial profiling and war amidst unprecedented levels of poverty and social inequality, and unprecedented levels of the accumulation of wealth in fewer hands, both locally and globally. This is happening at times when patriarchal ideological practices are being transformed but not disappearing. Nowadays, global patriarchy under the excuse of protecting women, children and national securities is becoming a mask to invade other countries and to curtail fundamental social justice gains in the global north as well as in the global south. As the late Iris Young, a feminist political philosopher from the United States, convincingly demonstrated, patriarchy is being renovated as part and parcel of the logic of masculinist protection that helps account for the rationale leaders give for deepening a security state and its acceptance by those living under their rule (2007: 133). Young’s analysis, however, is not incorporated in the vast field of human rights mainstreaming discursive practice. This regime has established, as a hegemonic truth, the idea that formal legal equality means concrete equality when in fact the ideology of formal equality has co-existed with colonialism, slavery, patriarchy and heterosexism, and with a globally skewed distribution of wealth and income. The recognition of the co-existence of power and wealth in fewer hands, fiercely protected by the rule of law—including through the use of sanctioned organized violence alongside abject poverty—is an urgent call to rethink human rights in a world of increased inequalities together with the proliferation of different forms of violence. Scholar Shelley Wright has offered some important reflections on the paradoxes of power inequality and its main beneficiaries. It is appropriate, therefore, to quote her at length for she points out that, "Economic and social redistribution through industrialization and globalization can also create conditions conducive to violence. The globalization of a Euro-American economic model may have created conditions for peace and prosperity for Western Europe and its former white settler colonies such as the United States, Canada and Australia, but it has not necessarily resulted in such benefits for the rest of the world" (Chowdhury 1995; Cowen and Shelton 1996; Escobar 1995; Rajagopal 2000; Seabrook 1993; Wright 2000).

The effects of unrestrained trade liberalization have given rise to serious levels of violence from the wars over resource industries in Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Congo and Angola (diamonds, gold, copper) to the infliction of intolerable working conditions on people in factories throughout the developing world. The fragmentation and civil war in Yugoslavia can be directly traced to severe economic policies imposed by the IMF and other international economic institutions in the 1980s (Orford 1997). Expropriation of land for the development of cash-crop agriculture has increased the flow of people into urban centres, disrupting traditional economic patterns, community life and political stability, leading to high levels of state-sanctioned violence, workplace harassment, assaults and killings (Waring 1996) [2005: 161].

The imperial logic of masculinist protection, supported by many women, as Iris Young notes (2007), is fundamental in understanding the today’s world-wide increased inequalities for it positions leaders, along with some other officials such as soldiers and firefighters, as protectors, and the rest of us in the subordinated position of dependent, protected people (2007:133).

Patriarchal militarism however, is not new. It was part of direct colonial ruling since the end of the 15th century through the conquest of the Americas. Along with race as a powerful tool of social classification and the appropriation of labour and material resources (Quijano 2000), military patriarchy is part of what legal scholar Anthony Anghie calls the civilizing mission, the grand project that has justified colonialism as a means of redeeming the backward, aberrant, violent, oppressed, undeveloped people of the non-European world by incorporating them into the universal civilization of Europe (2005).

This civilizing mission, Anghie adds, was based on the idea that fundamental cultural difference divided the European and non-European worlds in a number of ways. For example, the characterization of non-European societies as backward and primitive legitimized European conquest of these societies and justified the measures colonial powers used to control and transform them (2005:3).

Sociologist Anibal Quijano notes that the civilizing mission, although officially closed, has endured the life of direct colonial ruling. It informs the current global modern colonial system of power (2000). The civilizing mission mentality feeds today’s common idea that the global north is the inventor of human rights and of their respect and promotion, and the global south is the prototype of a human violator because it still is trapped in pre-modernity. This mentality means, in other words, that “Third World” peoples are incapable of creating liberating knowledge that can serve the entire humanity, especially women, indigenous people and those forced to live in poverty. Under this mentality, “First World” people are inherently invested with “superior qualities,” a binary that only helps the already privileged both in the global north and the global south. This binary culturalizes fundamental demands for social justice. Culturalization is a process that describes “an exclusive focus on culture, understood as frozen in time and separate from systems of domination” (Razack 2004:131).

Challenging this mentality in the field of human rights is extremely important to counteract the all too easy assumption that the global south is the receptor of human rights knowledge whose epicenter is the global north. The term “human rights” may have been coined in non-western spaces but the knowledge and practice of what is just and unjust, individually and collectively is not the private property of certain people or geography. Indeed, knowledge on social and cultural justice has existed both as philosophies and practices in many ancient and heterogeneous civilizations, including, of course, those that flourish in Europe.

Rethinking human rights would mean being able to recognize that in the name of human rights, democracy, prosperity and freedom, terrible crimes and inequities have been perpetuated. As Singer points out, “When we ask ourselves whether a social or legal practice works, we must ask ourselves, ‘works for whom?’ Who benefits and who loses from existing political, economic, and legal structures?” (1990:1841 quoted in Nyamu Musembi, 2005: 32). Such an approach acknowledges the concreteness of unequal power relations within and between nations as well as the existence of hierarchical relationships between the global South and the North. Consequently, we cannot bypass these asymmetries in order to paint a conveniently nice picture of abstract inclusivity. Nevertheless, conventional theories and policies dealing with transnational issues locate these asymmetries as part of the so-called “clash of civilizations,” which is another way of saying that socio-economic and political exclusions do not have anything to do with the shape of our world today for it is the “culture of the other” and his/her “inherent violent un-civilization” that are the problems.

Canadian feminist scholar Sherene Razack notes that there is a revival of the logic that there is an irreconcilable clash between the West and the rest of the world (2004), under which the West is a defender and promoter of human rights and the rest of the world is a violator of human rights. Because “the rest” is overtly patriarchal and uncivilized, therefore unfit to democracy and to the creation of innovative knowledge (Ibid).

Why are these insights not influencing the mainstream world of human rights expertise? It would be extremely difficult to pinpoint a correct response. However, one of the reasons for this purposeful oblivion may be the human rights regime as it helps maintain the illusion that it is possible to escape the general consequences of social inequalities locally and globally by immersing ourselves in the world of abstract equality and the rule of law even when there is countless information that says otherwise. For instance, the United Nations reported in 2003 that there were more than a billion people living in poverty. Numbers alone do not say much but if for an instant we try to imagine ourselves with no food, no shelter and being harassed and persecuted, we then may change our approach to cold numbers about poverty and empty discourse on the rule of law and formal equality as representing human rights. While many do not have to think about the availability of food for their next meal or of a roof over their heads alongside their entitlement to their cultural identities and the inherent respect because they are women, disabled, etc., the majority in the world still demand the foundational right to have rights. And this, dear audience, is a fundamental difference between human rights as theory and human rights as practice.

Legal formal equality, as important as it is, is simply insufficient to reduce poverty, unemployment, racism, and violence because whether human rights experts like it or not systemic oppressions are interconnected and they are lived by millions on this planet. We have sufficient research that demonstrates this fact but we also have research that demonstrates the opposite. Therefore to say that we are defending and promoting human rights is not implicitly just. We need to ask unpopular questions to come up with new and more honest ways to bring about social and cultural justice. We need to ask whose human rights are more protected and whose human rights are ignored and denied. Moreover, these are poignant issues about leadership understood broadly and not as the property of politicians and privileged people.

Long ago diverse grass roots social movements in the global south and many in the global north demonstrated the incongruities of an abstract and universalistic doctrine of human rights in the face of gruesome economic exclusion, political persecution under state terror and the spreading of violence against women. Critical scholars, such as Frantz Fanon also observed long ago that forcing people to live in poverty, to lack education and to daily encounter humiliation based on race, ethnicity, culture, language, and religion are intertwined realities, which at the end, dehumanize entire populations. Brilliantly he reflected that the damnés cannot go to hell for they are already in hell (in Maldonado-Torres 2006). Therefore, to assume that human rights are by de facto at the service of the human condition is not only naïve but dangerous for it is not all humans’ humanity that is included in this assertion but the humanity of some at the expense of the humanity of the majority.

Poverty, imperial wars and its daily and deadly impacts, I am afraid, are dehumanizing all of us because they are becoming a “normal” part of life and when something as deadly as poverty, state terror and war become so obviously “natural” we can continue saying that we support equality and the dignity of all humans and in fact contributing to and perpetuating the hierarchy of humanity in which some humans count as humans, some lives count as lives and some deaths deserve to be grieved.

As part of my urgent call to rethink human rights is the invitation to reflect about the ideological practice to represent persecuted, impoverished and victimized peoples as passive victims in need of salvation for it has serious implications such as indirectly feeding the dichotomy of “deserving and undeserving victims of human rights violations,” where “deserving victims” are thought and treated as “truly innocent and apolitical,” and “undeserving victims” as “partisans, collaborators and even terrorists.” My research as well as others’ attests to this fact (Martinez 2000, 2002, 2005; Grandin 2004, 2006; Jonas 1991, 2000; Razack 2004). Victimized people are survivors who have not created systemic violations of human rights. Feeding the industry of victimology even with the best intentions is not wise leadership; it is the continuation of colonial paternalism and maternalism at best, and indirect and direct racism and Orientalism, at worst.

Paternalistic and maternalistic victimization is dangerous because as soon as political conditions change as it has happened after the tragedy of September 11, 2001, the other face of victimization surfaces: the vilification and demonization of peoples and cultures as threats to the nation, to progress, and to human rights to the point that many men and women legally lose the little humanity attached to their bodies, minds and spirits. They become disposable or “bare life” (Homo Sacer) in Agamben’s terms (1998). In either case, the inferiorized “Other” is seen as lacking creativity to create knowledge and lacking ability to be a progressive actor that dreams of the possibility of another just world.

Keeping in mind the urgency to rethink human rights in a world of increased inequalities and to decolonize and de-victimize survivors and community leaders as a relevant step towards the creation of a new leadership in human rights, I would like to invite you to watch a short video that demonstrates part of the effects of transnational corporate mining in Guatemala, an economic activity portrayed as a good development strategy for a society torn by four decades of state terror during which more than 200,000 people were killed, 83% of which were indigenous people and the rest Mestizo men and women who struggled in practice for an integral vision and practice of human rights (CEH 1999). The video titled “Violent Evictions At El Estor, Izabal, Guatemala” shows how,

"On January 8th and 9th 2007, hundreds of police and soldiers in Guatemala forcibly evicted the inhabitants of several communities who were living on lands that a Guatemalan military government had granted to Canadian mining company INCO in 1965. Local indigenous populations claim the land to be theirs, and resent the exploitation of an outside corporation. Canada’s Skye Resources now lays claim to the land, and paid workers a nominal sum to destroy people’s homes. With the force of the army and police, company workers took chainsaws and torches to people’s homes, while women and children stood by. Skye Resources claims that they maintained 'a peaceful atmosphere during this action' (Rights Action 2007)." This video is available at http://www.rightsaction.org.

References

    • Agamben, Giorgio. 1998. Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life. Standford: Standford University Press.
    • Anghie, Antony. 2005. Imperialism, Sovereignty and the Making of International Law. Cambridge University Press.
    • Comisión del Esclarecimiento Histórico -CEH-. 1999. Guatemala Memory of Silence TZ'INIL NA'TAB'AL. Report of the Commission for Historical Clarification. Guatemala. CD Spanish Electronic version.
    • Grandin, Greg. 2006. Empire’s Workshop. Latin America, The United State, And The Rise of the New Imperialism. New York: Metropolitan Books.
    • Grandin, Greg. 2004. The Last Colonial Massacre. Latin American in the Cold War. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.
    • Jonas, Sussane. 2000. Of Centaurs and Doves. Guatemala's Peace Process. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press.
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    • Martínez, Egla J. 2002/2003. Peace as a Masquerade: Militarization and Post-War Terror in Guatemala. Canadian Woman Studies. Volume 22, Number 2. Pp. 40-46.
    • Martínez-Salazar, Egla. 2001. "Development and coercion in the Maya-Tzutuhil community of Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala." In Desfor, Gene, Deborah Barndt & Barbara Rahder Eds. Just Doing It: Popular collective action in the Americas. Montreal, New York & London: Black Rose Books.
    • Nyamu-Musembi, Celestine. 2005. “Towards an actor-oriented perspective on human rights.” In Kabeer, Naila, Editor, Inclusive Citizenship. Meanings and Expressions. London & New York: Zed Books.
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    • Rights Action. 2005. Skye Resources to buy Exmibal properties and legacy in Guatemala. Info@rightsaction.org/
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