Catégorie : World People

Linked with our presentation of COICA Coordinadora de las Organizaciones Indigenas de la Cuenca Amazonica.

Antonio Jacanamijoy – Colombia

Antonio is from Colombiaâs Sibundoy Valley. He has a university degree, is married and has three children. Antonio speaks Spanish and Quechua. Antonioâs interests, concerns, and experiences are in indigenous rights, human rights, economic development, natural resource protection, biodiversity, and intellectual property rights. Antonio began working in his local community in the Colombian Amazon from which he rose to Colombian regional and national levels, and then on to such international arenas as the United Nations, the World Bank, OXFAM, and the Climate Alliance (Germany).

In each case, he has taken a leadership role that encourages and enables the sort of open dialogue and negotiation that, breaking with Latin Americaâs traditional hierarchies, moves toward participatory and deliberative democracy. Antonio assumed his first official leadership role as governor of the Colombian Inga Indigenous Community in 1987. From this position, he gained more powerful roles as he represented the interests of his community at increasingly wider regional and national levels. His representation of indigenous interests extended internationally when he assumed coordinating positions for Amazon basin indigenous groups in Ecuador and became a member of the directorate for the Forest Stewardship Council in Oaxaca, Mexico.

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Dean, School of Visual Arts, Beaconhouse National University, Lahore, Professor Salima Hashmi is a painter, art educationist, writer and curator. She was educated at the National College of Arts (NCA), Lahore, the Bath Academy of Art, U.K., and the Rhode Island School of Design, USA. She taught for 30 years at NCA, Pakistan’s premier art institution, and retired as its Principal. She has exhibited her own work, travelled and lectured extensively all over the world, and has curated about a dozen international art shows in the U.K., Europe, the USA, Australia, Japan and India. She is a recipient of The President’s Award for Pride of Performance, Pakistan. (southasiafoundation).

She says: « The objective of art is to give life a shape and though artists cannot change the world they can, through their work, give flight to imagination, they can give you the direction ».

She says also: “You don’t understand the singing of birds but that does not mean it has no meaning. Similarly, if you watch it closely, your eyes start talking to the works of art”.

Salima Hashmi – Pakistan

Excerpt: … Last year, Salima Hashmi published a book titled Unveiling the Visible: Lives and Works of Women Artists of Pakistan. The book examines the lives and works of about 50 of Pakistan’s women painters since independence. As Murataza Rizvi wrote in his review of Salima’s book in Dawn, 09/2202, « She took to writing (the book) only because our writers had failed to document the history of Pakistan’s women artists. »

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Linked with our presentation of … the role of islam in politics ….

Also linked with Ibn Warraq – another Muslim with a Fatwa, of Akbar Ganji – Iran, of Mehdi Mozaffari – Iran & Denmark, of Mehdi Khanbaba-Tehrani – Europe & Iran, of Wafa Sultan – Syria & USA, of Ayaan Hirsi Ali – Somalia & Netherlands, of Taslima Nasreen – Bangladesh, on of many other couragieous women and men, to be found on this or any other blog by the links there.

Chahla BESKI-CHAFIQ, sociologue, éxilée politique d’origine iranienne et sociologue de formation, elle est responsable de formation

Linked with our presentations of The Sydney Peace Foundation, of the Conflict Resolution Network, and of the Australian Centre for Peace & Conflict Studies.

She is one of the 1000 women proposed fort the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

She says: « How many are needed to make a world of peace, justice, and human rights? Just one more, you! Strength comes from kindness and concern for future generations, not from waging war and military might. »

Stella Cornelius (left) – Australia.

On 4 September 2000 former president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, presented Dr Stella Cornelius, founder of the Conflict Resolution Network, and Faith Bandler, campaigner for indigenous rights in Australia, with certificates for their dedication and achievements in conflict resolution and education. The Sydney Peace Foundation was proud to have such an honoured guest. (Read more on this link of the Sydney Peace Foundation).

She works for the Conflict Resolution Network (CRN); for the United Nations Association of Australia (UNAA); and for the Australian Center for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Queensland.

Born in 1919, Australian Stella Cornelius has devoted a lifetime to peace, conflict resolution, and social justice issues. Her unique contribution to global peace has been to make access to conflict resolution training widely available. These skills are now used in workplaces, universities, schools, community organizations, and by individuals. For her lifelong community and peace work, Stella was awarded the Order of the British Empire (1979), Order of Australia (1987), and an honorary Doctor of Letters (1999). She is acknowledged as a Peace Messenger of the United Nations.

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Linked with our presentation of Boycott against civil conduct.

She said (excerpt): … the sense of geographical topsy-turviness was the most concrete expression of displacement. Of course when I was growing up in Poland, I thought that Poland was the very center of the world, as we all do when we grow up in a place. And that the world existed in relation to it. All of a sudden, I was in Vancouver, and Canada, North America, was the center of the world and Poland was on the periphery and very far away. And that of course, corresponded, [was] a kind of objective correlative, the most concrete symbol of the many cultural displacements that went along with it, the many sorts of cultural values that changed as I went from Poland to Canada. Our cultural values, both on the largest and on the smallest scale in the sense of, say, political outlook or world view or the social set-up; too, notions of human intimacy or beauty or the distances at which we stand from each other, etc., etc. … every cultural value sort of did a flip or sort of moved … (Read more on this page of berkeley interview).

Eva Hoffmann – USA-Canada-Poland

« It is only through the efforts of imagination and memory that the shadows can be made to speak, » writes Eva Hoffman. Her memoir, LOST IN TRANSLATION follows her journey from Cold War Poland to Canada, and later, Texas, as she grapples with language, identity, and alienation. In her more recent books, SHETL and AFTER SUCH KNOWLEDGE, she examines life before and after the Holocaust, and the complexities of remembrance. A former editor for the NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS, Hoffman currently teaches at MIT. (Read on Films42.com).

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Linked with our publications of Nigeria’s Oil and the population, and with Environemental Rights Action ERA – Nigeria, and
SEEN – Sustainble Energy & Economic Network. Also with The World Bank’s Recipe for Climate Disaster.

He says (excerpt):  » … So we need to discuss, and in discussion, the issues we have raised must be analyzed. We have called [for] and we are demanding resource control. When we talk about resource control, we mean that we want to be in control of the air that we breathe. We don’t want to breathe polluted air. We want to be in control of the forests and the land, where the wildlife and the rain forest bring forth life. We want to protect the waters. We don’t want those waters polluted; they are our vital resources. Oil and gas are temporary resources that could evaporate, that could go away over a given period. It is not a key issue, say, over a thousand years. Because we are going to be there for many more years than that! We have been there for more than 10,000, 20,000 years, as human memory can remember, and there is a possibility that we will remain there for more thousands and thousands of years. But oil is very temporary. When it’s finished, it is finished. But the people, the land, the environment, will remain. The challenge is: what is going to be left to be integrated? An impoverished land that after 2,000 years cannot be healed, or what? These are our legitimate worries. We are calling for resource control by our people » … (Read all on this page of Berkely interview of 2001).

Oronto Douglas – Nigeria

He is a human rights attorney and environmental activist. He is Deputy Director of the Environmental Rights Action Group in Nigeria.

Read the text on ERA of May 02, 2006.

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Linked with our presentations of The Garifunda Community – Honduras, and with Garífuna Community Leader in Honduras Threatened with Death.

An Afro-descendent community leader in Honduras, Jessica Garcia, was forced at gunpoint to sign a document surrendering land and rights to a powerful real estate company. After refusing to accept a bribe to endorse the document, a representative of the company threatened to kill Ms. Garcia, the leader of the San Juan Tela Patronato, which represents the interests of the San Juan Garifuna community, and to murder her children.

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Sorry, I can not find any photo of Jessica García, Honduras (see also my comment ‘Brave women without photos‘).

This incident is only the most recent in a series of mounting threats and violent attacks faced by the Garifuna community and their leaders over the last several years. Powerful business interests, who seek to benefit from developing Garifuna territory into major tourism projects, engage in intimidation and violence, with virtual impunity. (Read more on action.humanrightsfirst.org).

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english links:

rights action.org; and Brandeis panel and HR;

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spanish links:

article on conexihon.com, and homepage of conexihon.com;

this case on UNHCR;

Prensa indigena.org;

rds.hn;

RESOLUCIÓN DE LA CORTE INTERAMERICANA DE DERECHOS HUMANOS DE 21 DE SEPTIEMBRE DE 2005; and same also on cortheidh.org.

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“Rosenthal quiere quedarse con todo Nuevo San Juan” (Marzo 2006):

Defender sus tierras hasta con sangre es la decisión de los pobladores de la aldea garífuna de San Juan, quienes argumentan que no están invadiendo nada porque los terrenos son suyos.

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Linked with our presentations of ‘ Lié aussi avec notre présdentation en français d’attac france. And also with another Communication is possible.  Added Jan. 26, 2008: He is a better world heroe.

He says: (Excerpt of an interview, 2001): …  » … Historians must not be sweet. But optimistic … well, yes, a cautious optimism. Cautious in the sense that I’m not positive that things are going to go well. The future is indeterminate. But after all, the future depends on what we do now. If we are pessimistic now, we are doomed in the future. If we give up at this point then we know nothing good is going to happen. If we act on the assumption that there’s a chance that something good may happen, then we have a possibility. Not a certainty, but a possibility. So I believe it’s useful, it’s pragmatic to be optimistic. But not only that, not simply an act of faith, but also because there is historical evidence for the fact that when people act, persist, get together, organize, they bring about changes. There haven’t been enough changes. So you can look at that and say, not enough. True. But the fact that some changes have been made. The fact that labor, by struggling, won the eight-hour day. The fact that blacks in the South did away with the signs of segregation. The fact that women changed the consciousness of this country about sexual equality. Even though those are only beginnings, that historical experience suggests reason to think it is possible that other things may change … « . (Read the whole very long interview on berkeley.edu).

Howard Zinn – USA

Kate Daniels interviews Howard Zinn, author of « Original Zinn: Conversations on History and Politics, » on « Sunday Morning Magazine », July 09, 2006, at 5:30 a.m., on (US) KRWM-FM (106.9). (See on Radio: 60s rock powerhouse KJR-AM.

Howard Zinn (born August 24, 1922) is an American historian and political scientist. His philosophy incorporates ideas from Marxism, anarchism, socialism, and social democracy. Since the 1960s, he has been an important figure in the Civil Rights and anti-war movements in the United States. Author of 20 books, including the popular A People’s History of the United States, Zinn is Professor Emeritus in the Political Science Department at Boston University. For 50 years, he has campaigned against the killing of civilians in time of war. (Read more, and the rest of his biography, on wikipedia).

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Linked with our presentations of TGWU – England, and with Migrant workers ‘boost UK growth’. See also Remembering British Unions.

He says: « I’m not sure that it [is] at the moment, given the march to mega-unions and mega-mergers », and: « I’ve watched the last two Labour Party conferences and the debate, and it seems to me that trade unions have an agenda not to promote some of the policy issues, but merely to defeat the government, defeat the platform ». (See on BBCnews, June 9, 2006).

Sir Bill Morris – England

Excerpt: … A delegation from Jamaica attended, headed by Senator Delano Franklin, Minister of State for Diaspora Affairs, along with Mr Ed Bartlett, representing the Jamaica Labour Party. The keynote address was given by Sir Bill Morris, Chancellor of UTech and a champion of the diaspora in the UK. It was an inspiring gathering of Jamaicans, eager to stand up and be counted … (see on the Jamaica Observer, June 12, 2006).

Excerpt: … Sir Bill Morris, the former union leader who headed an inquiry into professional standards in the Metropolitan Police, said it was essential that armed officers who were asked to confront suicide bombers should be confident that they had public support. Sir Bill Morris: ‘This is detracting from the fight against terrorism’ He denounced the squabbling that followed the leak of confidential witness statements gathered for the investigation being conducted by
the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) … (Read all on Google Group uk.politics.misc).

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Margarita Assenova is a political analyst and journalist, who served as a research consultant for the CSIS Eastern Europe Project.

Margarita Assenova – USA & Bulgaria

Read this interview on ngoCHR about the theme The Commission is too soft on dictatorships.

Accompanying human rights activists to protect them from danger Liam Mahony, Peace Brigades International, USA Peace Brigades International (PBI) sends international observers to accompany human rights activists who are threatened by the government or paramilitary organizations. They serve as a reminder to perpetrators of human rights abuse that the international community is watching. In the event of an abduction, the observer alerts authorities in the country, their own native government and activists around the world. This brings the influence of the foreigner’s government and international contacts to bear on the perpetrators. Although the volunteers are the most visible symbol of the accompaniment tactic, the success of the approach depends on an international awareness of the situation through an extensive support network of concerned individuals and supporting organizations. This network is ready to apply special pressure in crisis situations involving PBI volunteers and the people they are protecting. Through e-mails, faxes and letters sent to authorities in the country in which the crisis is occurring, the recipients are made aware that the eyes of the international community are upon them. In selective situations, PBI also uses a high-level alert network of influential political and diplomatic authorities when it wishes to apply potent pressure. These are people who have especially strong influence on the government authorities in the country concerned. Margarita Assenova is one of them. (Read more on NewTactics).

Read her article Educating the European Way.

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