Catégorie : World People

Published on The Hindu Businessline, Oct, 13, 2006, by Aparna Pallavi.

She is one of the best-known media photographers in Nagpur, India and has a host of awards. She also runs her own photography business, and is a fiery activist working to better the lot of slum women.

She says: « My life would have been no different from that of other rural girls had it not been for my mother, a Gandhian and Marxist, who had a very different vision of life ».

She says also: « In my years in the slum, I saw much up close. Goons, alcohol, violence, the works. A goon once stubbed his cigarette on my arm. Another time, I reasoned with a goon who walked into our hut with a knife and sent him back.

My mother’s relentless courage against such intimidation also gave me a different vision of my own life ». (All three on The Hindu Businessline).

Read: When a Woman Wields the Lens.

Sangeeta Mahajan – India

She works as the only female press photographer in the city of Nagpur.

And she adds: « If my work was not twice as good as anyone else’s, I was useless. And if my work was good, the bosses used it to taunt my male colleagues, who became, if anything, more insecure and resentful ».

Continuer la lecture de « Sangeeta Mahajan – India »

She is Laureate for the Prize for Women’s Creativity in Rural Life.

Hongxia REN – China

She works for reforestation.

Early 2000, the Chinese government issued a policy accelerating the development of deserted mountains, wild slopes, waste- and swampland; especially encouraging civil servants to take up the challenge of reforesting and developing these areas. Ren Hongxia (40), who was born and brought up in rural areas, was familiar with the living conditions of rural women in such regions. With great courage, she contracted to develop 313 hectares (over 1200 acres) of a bald mountain – the first woman civil servant to accept such a challenge. The mountain she contracted to reforest was in a remote area with no roads or electricity. People and animals used water from the same ponds. Villages were isolated and the standard of living was extremely low.

Hongxia Ren started by organizing the people to build a 17 km road, one pump station for water and 42 wells. She then organized 200 young people to plant over a million trees. There are now 1.19 million trees, including 253 hectares of ecological forest (i.e. trees planted essentially to stabilize and regenerate the landscape) and 60 hectares planted mainly with fruit trees of different varieties (peach, apricot, walnut, pear, etc). She met major disasters with equanimity and courage, such as the 2000- 2001 drought, which almost wiped out the project right at the onset. But the area is now covered with trees, and an aging, balding mountain is now a source of great activity and significant income.

Continuer la lecture de « Hongxia REN – China »

Linked with Labour Market Flexibility and Foreign Direct Investment, and with The Bank that rules Europe? The ECB and Central Bank Independence.

Book Review: Britain & the EU, Alternative Futures, by Mark Baimbridge, Brian Burkitt & Philip Whyman (April 2005): This timely contribution to the growing debate in Britain and across Europe on the need for fundamental change in how European countries work together in the 21st century provides a groundbreaking analysis of the economic and democratic effect that EU membership has had on Britain. Published by the CIB, this important new book offers not only a concise examination of the costs of EU membership but also a well reasoned study of alternative relationships Britain, perhaps together with other European countries, could more beneficially forge in the future. Options scrutinised include a defence of the status quo through to various renegotiations of membership and options for withdrawal. (Read more on Referendum.org).

Mark Baimbridge – England

Book Review: ‘Implications of the Euro – A Critical Perspective from the Left’, Mark Baimbridge, Brian Burkitt, Philip Whyman – … critical analysis of the EMU project has largely been advanced from the centre-right spectrum of British politics.

Continuer la lecture de « Mark Baimbridge – England »

Linked with New social justice movements in a changing reality, with The WDM Death Counter, with The International Gender and Trade Network IGTN, and with The World Development Movement WDM.

She says: ”The Collapse of the WTO Doha negotiations are good for Africa and Women. This is an opportunity for Africa to move away from the myth that the Doha Round was a ‘developmental round’. Nothing could be further from the truth. From the start, the aim of the developed countries was to push for greater market openings from the developing countries while making minimal concessions on their part. Invoking development was a cynical ploy to make the process less palatable. The break down of the talks, is a turning point for Africa to contribute to developing a multilateral trading system based on developing Africa, women’s rights and sustainable development ». (Read the whole, on July 2006, on International Gender and Trade Network/ see also their Homepage ).

Read: THE NEW AFRICAN INITIATIVE IS A TRAGEDY FOR WOMEN.

Mohau Pheko – South Africa

Go to: The Ethical Globalization Initiative.

She asked the following questions (October 2002, but still valuable): I will try to address the following questions:

Why should Africa and African feminists be concerned about Europe’s move to the right? How are right-wing policies influencing the trade & economic discourse in Africa? What are the policy implications, in terms of gender justice?

Continuer la lecture de « Mohau Pheko – South Africa »

Linked with The Core Knowledge Foundation CK.

(Eric Donald Hirsch is an) American literary critic and educator who is best known for his work on cultural literacy. ‘What Every American Needs to Know’, 1987. He cowrote The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy 1988 (with Joseph F. Kett and James Trefil) and was the main editor of A First Dictionary of Cultural Literacy 1989. Born in March 22, 1928, Memphis, Tenn., U.S. (Read more on Britannica).

He says: ”Gramsci saw that it was a serious error to discredit learning methods like phonics and memorization of the multiplication table as ‘outdated’ or ‘conservative’. That was the nub of the standoff between himself and another prominent educational theorist of the political Left, Paulo Freire. Like Gramsci, Freire (a Brazilian) was interested in methods of educating the poor. Unlike Gramsci, Freire has been quite influential in the United States ». (Read more on daily times).

… He is currently a University Professor of Education and Humanities and the Linden Kent Memorial Professor of English Emeritus at the University of Virginia. He is best known, however, for his writings on cultural literacy. He is considered the founder of the ‘back to basics’ movement. Hirsch holds degrees from Cornell University and Yale University. (Read more on wikipedia).

Eric Donald Hirsch – USA

I would label myself a political liberal and an educational conservative, or perhaps more accurately, an educational pragmatist. Political liberals really ought to oppose progressive educational ideas because they have led to practical failure and greater social inequity.
Continuer la lecture de « Eric Donald Hirsch – USA »

He says: ”India and Pakistan needed to understand the importance of petroleum in the current world scenario. The West had reached a plateau of its oil supply while the Asian countries were still in the process of using a heavy quantity of oil. In this background the political history of the two countries needed an immediate reconsideration. Excessive geopolitics was one of the reasons of Partition in the world order » (Read all on Chandigarh Tribune, January 2004).

He said also: « There was a need for India and Pakistan to work in unison in the changed world order. Study of geo-economics had become more important than study of geo-politics in the changed world order », said Dr Sanjay Chaturvedi, Department of Political Science, Panjab University, here today. Dr Chaturvedi was speaking at a talk on ‘ Geopolitics of Indo-Pakistan relations’ organised by the local unit of the Association of British Scholars. (Read the whole article down on Chandigarh Tribune, February 2004).

Sanjay Chaturvedi – India

Sanjay Chaturvedi’s area of specialization is the theory and practice of Geopolitics; with special reference to Polar Regions and the Indian Ocean. He is currently the Coordinator, Centre for the Study of Geopolitics, Department of Political Science and Honorary Director, Centre for the Study of Mid-West and Central Asia, at Panjab University, Chandigarh.

Continuer la lecture de « Sanjay Chaturvedi – India »

She said: « I don’t want to flee, nor do I want to abandon the battle of these farmers who live without any protection in the forest. They have the sacrosanct right to aspire to a better life on land where they can live and work with dignity while respecting the environment ».

Sister Dorothy Stang – Brazil  USA (June 7, 1931–February 12, 2005)

Look at these memory pages of Sister Dorothy Stang.

People walk 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) on the transamazonic highway carrying the coffin containing the body of American missionary Dorothy Stang from the airport to the Santas Missoes Church (Holy Missions Church) where Stang’s wake took place in Anapu, northern Brazil, Monday, Feb. 14, 2005. Stang was gunned down Saturday Feb. 12, 2005, at the Boa Esperanca settlement where she worked with some 400 poor families near Anapu, a rural town about 1,300 miles (2,100 kilometers) north of Rio de Janeiro. (See the AP-Photo/Paulo Santos on commondreams.org).

Continuer la lecture de « Sister Dorothy Stang – Brazil & USA (1931-2005) »

Linked with The Natural Step TNS, and with … a way of talking about « systems thinking ».

He says: ”How do we get from reductionist to systems thinking? A system is, as everybody knows, constructed by a concept of overall principles for the system. In football, for example, you have eleven players in each team in that system, you have one ball, two goals and a lot of other rules. You don’t approach the referee before the match and say, “Please couldn’t we have fourteen players in our team today?” All the players share the overall principles of what football is and those rules are non-negotiable, at least while you play the match. There are people with different skills in the team: a goal-keeper, attackers and so forth, and they can work together as an intelligent organism because they share the non-negotiable rules of what they are doing. They have exact images of that. (Read the 12 pages of The Ecology of Business).

Karl-Henrik Robèrt, M.D., Ph.D., is one of Sweden’s leading cancer scientists. In 1989, Robèrt initiated an environmental movement called The Natural Step TNS.

Read: Seeding a quiet revolution.

Karl-Henrik Robèrt – Sweden

Karl-Henrik Robèrt is one of the world’s foremost sustainability experts. In 1988 he founded The Natural Step in Sweden, an international environmental non-for-profit that coaches organizations to become role models in sustainability.

Continuer la lecture de « Karl-Henrik Robèrt – Sweden »

Linked with Homogenization of Global Consciousness. And with Jerry Mander on May 26, 2007.

He says: « The machine is adapted for humans and humans are adapted to the machine. It is a human-machine merger ».

He says: « Corporations live in a kind of nether world where they have all the rights and protection accorded individuals by our laws. For example, you can’t regulate corporate speech in any way, because they’ve successfully become « fictional persons » and therefore have the same rights as an individual to free speech. But the difference is that the individual is only able to use handbills and maybe do a little article in a magazine now and then, while the corporations are able to spend a billion dollars in advertising to tell you what to think … Corporations will advertise whatever isn’t true because if it were true they wouldn’t have the image problem in the first place. If the corporation were a good citizen it wouldn’t need to say it is. The truth is that corporations generally act in direct opposition to nature because profit is based on the transmogrification of raw materials into a new, more salable form ». (Read the whole interview on ratville times).

Jerry Mander – USA

Jerry Mander is Director of the International Forum on Globalization (IFG). He is also the programme director for the Foundation for Deep Ecology and a senior fellow at Public Media Center. He is an author and co-editor of ‘Alternatives to Globalization – A Better World is Possible’.

Continuer la lecture de « Jerry Mander – USA »

Linked with Development Watch, and with IPS Europe & Mediterranean.

The Federal President of Germany awarded Jaura the Federal Cross on Ribbon in June 1996 for promoting international understanding. At the end of that year he became a German citizen. He is a journalist with an experience of nearly 39 years, most of which he has spent reporting on global communication and development affairs, Jaura is tasked with the planning and implementation of IPS’s communication and outreach strategy.

Read: Forum calls on governments and media to protect free speech, Nov. 9, 2006.

Read: International independent media forum to be held in Istanbul, Nov. 3, 2006.

Read: Media Should Voice What Is Not Voiced, Nov. 4, 2006.

Ramesh Jaura – India & Germany

He is a member of the Board of Directors of IPS International Association and Euro-Mediterranean coordinator of the IPS news agency.

He is also Editor-in-Chief of the bilingual KOMMUNIKATION GLOBAL – COMMUNICATE WORLDWIDE, a monthly magazine for international co-operation published by IPS in Germany. He is also publisher and chief editor of The Global South, a monthly Internet publication.

Then he is Chairman of the GLOBAL COOPERATION COUNCIL that he co-founded in 1983 under the name North-South Forum with the objective of creating public awareness of the need for a genuine North-South dialogue.

CV of Ramesh Jaura.

The GCC FORUM, as it is called, has heads of UN secretariats in Bonn on its global advisory board. Ramesh Jaura was the first journalist from a developing region to be elected president of the prestigious Foreign Press Association (VAP) of Germany in 1981. He was re-elected in the following two years. On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of VAP, he edited and published a collection of essays titled The Giant in Chains – Foreign Correspondents’ View of the Federal Republic of Germany that aroused great interest in the media and on the political scene.

Continuer la lecture de « Ramesh Jaura – India & Germany »