Mois : mars 2008

Index March 2008

Bertha Oliva Guiffarro de Nativí – Honduras

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

When Bertha was about 20 years old, she fell in love with “the tenderest man in the world.” Both were in love with a world they wanted to change. They fought for bread and smiles. One night in 1981, he was kidnapped. He is one of the 184 missing people in the country. Bertha Oliva de Nativí is today the General Coordinator of the Committee of Relatives of Missing Prisoners in Honduras COFADEH.

She is also named as Political Heroe.

She says: « We have learned to live together, to work, to give, to embrace our pain. I maintain categorically that there is no resentment, but pain and hope, always hope ».

She says also: “Since then, we have ‘planted’ ourselves in La Merced Park, on the first Friday, of every month. They look at us with contempt and call us ‘the lepers’. Slowly, we have demonstrated that those with leprosy in their souls are the ones capable of causing so much hurt”.

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Bertha Oliva Guiffarro de Nativí – Honduras

She works for the Comité de Familiares de Detenidos-Desaparecidos en Honduras COFADEH.

This organization was founded by Bertha, along with other women like her, who are searching for their loved ones.When Bertha was about 20 years old, she fell in love with “the tenderest man in the world”, and this man, Tomás, fell in love with her. Both were in love with a world they wanted to change. They fought for bread and smiles. One night in 1981, he was kidnapped. He is one of the 184 ‘missing’ people in the country.

Bertha de Nativí, is today the General Coordinator of the Committee of Relatives of Missing Prisoners in Honduras. This organization was founded by Bertha, along with other women like her, who are searching for their loved ones. “They entered my home, killed our friend, and beat my husband until he was unconscious. Just before he became unconscious, Tomás said to me: ‘They may leave you alive to ..’ give birth to our son.” On that day, June 11th, 1981, Bertha Oliva Guifarro de Nativí was 25 years old.

She continued to fight for justice.

Without a father and with a mother obliged to hide her real name, the boy was born secretly. He was named after his ‘missing’ father, Tomás.

Professor Tomás Nativí is one of the 184 ‘missing people’ in Honduras. That was the information given, some years ago, by the National Committee for Human Rights. Bertha was the driving force behind the creation of this committee, along with her companions in the COFADEH, the Committee of Relatives of Missing Prisoners in Honduras (created by them, in 1982).

Among other of their achievements, in 1987, Honduras became the first State to be condemned by the Inter-American Court for Human Rights, because of its violation of guarantees to citizens. One year later, a new case, this time concerning disappearances, was presented to the Court by their organization, the COFADEH, achieving a similar sentence. They have managed to cause the dissolution of the Department of National Investigations “the most criminal body in the country”, the repeal of Compulsory Military Service and, in 1992, the liberation of the last political prisoners.

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Anthony Ravlich – New Zealand

Linked with International NGO Coalition for an Optional Protocol to the ICESCR, with Human Rights Network AOTEAROA New Zealand; with Complaints Procedure At The UN, with Liberal Dream Turning Sour, with Social Justice is Gaining Momentum, and with Western Double Standards and the new United Nations.

Also linked with our many older posts about op-icescr on our NGO-Blog: during February 2005, and during March 2005, then with op-icescr: the Optional Protocol of the International Convent of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, op-icescr on August 31, 2005, op-icescr and Intellectual Property, with Again: op-icescr & NGOs … and on the Humanitarian blog: what’s about the endless op-icescr, and with Background Doc on op-icescr.

Anthony Ravlich, chairman of the Human Rights Foundation has some concerns about privacy and misuse. While the system is voluntary now, he sees no reason why that couldn’t change in the future:

  • « There seems to be little to stop a government from making such a scheme compulsory at some future date despite it involving people being forced to give information » Ravlich says …
  • « Privacy is only protected by ordinary law, the Privacy Act 1993, which government can change » …
  • « However if the right to privacy were included in the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 which was then made supreme law this would provide some protection. However it is very unlikely for this Act to be made supreme law at a time when civil liberties are being curbed globally to address the problem of terrorists and other undesirables » …
  • « However the Department of internal Affairs is at pains to stress the voluntary nature of the IVS saying people ‘will always have an option to use or not use the IVS and GLS (Government Log-on Service) service » … .

Tony is Chairperson of the Human Rights Council who have been involved in the community educating people in Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, a covenant that is less well understood and perhaps less applied in New Zealand, than its sister covenant on civil and political rights. He is interested in eradicating poverty and feels that it often leads to conflict in UN forums and also weaken countries internal instability (human rights filmfest.net).

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Anthony Ravlich – New Zealand

His book: Freedom from Our Social Prisons, The Rise of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, to be published on May 2008, allBookstores.

He writes: … But putting this into perspective during the recent Open-Ended Working Groups discussions on whether to draft an Optional Protocol for the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (a complaints procedure for those suffering social injustice) which could be of assistance the bulk of humanity who live in poverty countries such as the US, Australia, the UK, Canada and India have opposed the drafting of the Optional Protocol. These countries prioritize civil and political rights thereby marginalizing economic, social and cultural rights, and in the case of the US this is to the point of exclusion. The US is the only industrialized country not to have ratified the covenant on economic, social and cultural rights under international law.

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Jagan Suba Gurung – Nepal

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

As a single woman seeking higher education and working for the improvement of women’s lives, Jagan Suba Gurung stands out in her Gurung community village. Her involvement in women’s empowerment and community development has made her an icon for societal alteration in a largely conservative social setting.

It is said: As a single woman promoting higher education and working to improve women’s lives, Jagan Suba Gurung has become a challenging icon for change in a traditionally conservative social setting.

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Sorry, no photo able to copied found for Jagan Suba Gurung – Nepal. But you may see her picture in this pdf-document (find her by scrolling down to page 9).

In 1990, when Jagan Suba Gurung began to work with women in her community, women did not generally step out of their homes in the evening and nights to attend adult literacy classes. It was an uphill task for her to launch such revolutionary programs in her village, Ghndruk, a Gurung hamlet located in the Annapurna Conservation Area, a protected area rich in environmental and cultural diversity.

However, much has changed in over a decade: Jagan’s work, which involves appraisals, home visits, and organizing meetings and adult literacy classes, has made a crucial difference:

  • women have availed of educational opportunities, and are able to make critical decisions about their lives; children’s health and levels of education have improved;
  • their mothers are today well aware of the value of nutritious food and reproductive health issues, and have contributed hugely to cleaning up their villages through clean-up campaigns;
  • women have been encouraged to send their children to daycare centers and to school, and have become involved in nature conservation;
  • organic farming and filtering water to make it potable are new activities that have entered their lives.

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Pablo Ouziel – Spain

Linked with The Grim Reality of Economic Truths, and with Failed Fascist States.

Pablo Ouziel is an activist and a freelance writer based in Spain. His work has appeared in many progressive media including Znet, Palestine Chronicle, Thomas Paine¹s Corner and Atlantic Free Press. (full text).

And: He is a sociologist … located in Barcelona, Spain.
And: Pablo Ouziel has international experience in Business Development and Corporate Communications having worked from London and New York, developing communications strategies and dealing with investor relations for many world leading companies. He was also co-founder of Latinia Corporation and Appareo Corporation, and currently is CEO of Can Poeti SL, a branding communications company which he runs together with his wife, and focuses on supporting projects around the globe in the areas of sustainability, ecology and health. Pablo also sits on the Board of Directors of Mas Claperol, the oldest organic dairy farm in Catalunya, Spain, (on Atlantic Free Press, scroll down, down, down … ).

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sorry, no picture found for Pablo Ouziel – Spain

He says: « If one believes that Auschwitz was a consequence of the rise of fascism, it’s certainly too late now to avoid Guantanamo » … (in failed fascist states).

Lame Duck citizens and the global economy.

But it has got to happen. “Fascism is here today because we allowed it to be here,” writes Pablo Ouziel in his excellent short piece, “Failed Fascist States.” Yes, we allowed it to be here. We have been wretchedly stupid. And now we’ve got to wake up, look straight at it, and get rid of it. Otherwise, as said, we are doomed. Paul Craig Roberts is capable of looking straight at it, or at its effects … (full text, March 23, 2008).

Geopolitical Rebirth, Feb. 18, 2008.

He writes also: « One cannot deny that corporate greed, political fraud and financial theft, are upon us with such catastrophic magnitudes that the average citizen has lost all hope in equality and fairness. Democracy has become the slogan of the powerful to justify their actions before the masses, Christ has been caricatured as the symbol of irrelevance, and our climate and ultimately us, are suffering this calamity. All this is within the grasp of anyone who watches CNN with a bit of intuition and reads between the lines » … (full text).

Forgetting Gandhi on International Nonviolence Day.

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Paul Wellstone – USA (1944 – 2002)

Linked with The Wellstone Action, and with The real threat.

Paul David Wellstone (July 21, 1944 – October 25, 2002) was a two-term U.S. Senator from the U.S. state of Minnesota and member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, which is affiliated with the national Democratic Party. Before being elected to the Senate in 1990, he was a professor of political science at Carleton College. Wellstone was a progressive and a leading spokesman for the progressive wing of the national Democratic Party. He served in the Senate in the 102nd, 103rd, 104th, 105th, 106th, and 107th congresses from 1991 until his death in a plane crash on 25 October 2002, 11 days before he was to stand in the midterm US senate election. His wife, Sheila, and daughter, Marcia, also died in the crash. They had two other grown children, David and Mark, who now co-chair the Wellstone Action nonprofit group … (full long text).

His Death.

excerpt chapter 3: … We know that in 2002 Vice President Lon Cheney told Senator Paul Wellstone that “If you vote against the war in Iraq, the Bush administration will do whatever is necessary to get you. There will be severe ramifications for you and the state of Minnesota.” We know that Wellstone did vote against the war in Iraq. And we know that soon afterward he was assassinated. This fact is terrifying. It is a matter not of politics clean or dirty, but it is a matter of terrorism … (full long text).

Wellstone Act will enable all to do well, March 14, 2008.

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Paul Wellstone – USA (1944 – 2002)

Watch him on the video: Charlie Rose with WELLSTONE (and SHORTZ and ANVERSA), Charlie Rose Inc., 57.03 min, 16 July 2001.

WASHINGTON – Five years after Paul Wellstone’s death, the U.S. House is poised to pass a mental health and addiction bill named for the late Minnesota senator who championed the cause in the last years of his life … (full text, March 4, 2008).

His other military votes.

Paul Wellstone was the only progressive in the U.S. Senate. Mother Jones magazine once described him as, « The first 1960s radical elected to the U.S. senate. » He was also the last. Since defeating incumbent Republican Rudy Boschowitz 12 years ago in a grassroots upset, Wellstone emerged as the strongest, most persistent, most articulate and most vocal Senate opponent of the Bush administration. In a senate that is one heartbeat away from Republican control, Wellstone was more than just another Democrat. He was often the lone voice standing firm against the status-quo policies of both the Democrats and the Republicans … (full text, and scroll down for more photos).

Wellstone and the Gulf War.

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Maude Barlow – Canada

Linked with International Forum on Globalization, with the Blue Planet Project, with the Council of Canadians, with the World Future Council, .

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

Maude Victoria Barlow (born May 24, 1947) is a Canadian author and activist. She is the national chairperson of The Council of Canadians, a progressive citizens’ advocacy organization with members and chapters across Canada. She is also the co-founder of the Blue Planet Project, which works to stop commodification of the world’s water. She is also a director with the International Forum on Globalization, a San Francisco based research and education institution opposed to economic globalization; fellow with the Washington-based Institute for Policy Studies; a board member of Food & Water Watch, the national US organization fighting for corporate and government accountability as it relates to food, water, and fishing; and a founding member of the European-based World Future Council … (full long text).

She says: « I go crazy when I see certain things and I have to find out why they happen. And I have to tell people. I have to do something so that other people will also take action ».

Listen her short video statement on Connected Life.

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Maude Barlow – Canada

She works for the Council of Canadians, for the International Forum on Globalization, for the Blue Planet Project, and with the World Future Council.

Kenyan children who have lost their eyes to river blindness; trash, blood, and sewage being dumped into rivers in Bolivia; huge, World Bank-funded dams turning fresh water to poison by blocking their flow. When it comes to the suffering caused by water shortage, water pollution, and water privatization (big private corporations buying up countries’ and towns’ water rights), Canadian activist Maude Barlow has seen it all … (full text).

An ideal future communication infrastructure … !

Maude Barlow will give documentational proof as to what the end results will be.There are places in other parts of the world where this has taken place and the price of a gallon of water is more than a gallon of milk … (full text).

the Canadian environmental activist Maude Barlow, this year’s guest speaker, will present a talk titled ‘Too Late to Panic – Protecting Canada’s Water and Energy Supplies.’ Barlow is the national chairperson of the Council of Canadians, Canada’s largest public advocacy organization, as well as the founder of the Blue Planet Project, working internationally for the right to water … (full text).

… on the National Speakers Bureau.

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Nadine Gordimer – South Africa

Nadine Gordimer (born 20 November 1923) is a South African writer, political activist and Nobel Prize in literature laureate. Her writing has long dealt with moral and racial issues, particularly apartheid in South Africa. She was active in the anti-apartheid movement, joining the African National Congress during the days when the organization was banned. She has recently been active in HIV/AIDS causes … (full long text).

Her 1991 Nobel Prize for Literature acceptance speech.

Dozens of prominent South Africans have signed a statement condemning a racist video which surfaced at the Free State University earlier this month. The list of 81 signatories includes renowned authors Nadine Gordimer and Andre Brink, journalists John Perlman and Max du Preez, retired judge Arthur Chaskalson, cartoonist Zapiro, and academic Phillip Tobias … (full text, March 7, 2008).

Her video: Nadine Gordimer on racism, 3.25 min, 3 Oct 2007;

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Nadine Gordimer – South Africa

The Salon Interview with Nadine Gordimer, not dated.

A team-work video: Superpower Priciples, U.S. Terrorism Against Cuba, by Bernie Fox, 55 min 51 sec – 28 Oct 2006, with the participation of Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky, Michael Parenti, William Blum, Leonard Weinglass, Nadine Gordimer, and others … edited by Salim Lamrani, and published by Common Courage Press.

She says: « Learning to write sent me falling, falling through the surface of the South African way of life » (The Guardian).

Cynics may note that this is otherwise pretty familiar territory: The appointment of Suzanne Vega to the judges in 2001 caused some minor consternation at the time, and Nadine Gordimer has also announced that she won’t allow her books to run for the prize. Indeed, today’s headline star AS Byatt first expressed her reservations about the prize back in 1996, its inaugural year … (full text, March 18, 2008).

Her Political and literary activism.

Recently I discovered another writer – novelist and short story writer – whose new works I will await with great excitement and anticipation. That means he joins a short list that includes Ward Just, Nadine Gordimer, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Lorrie Moore and Ian McEwen. He is Jim Shepard, and he teaches writing and literature at Williams College … (full text, Feb. 28, 2008).

Writing And Being.

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Women Workers' Cooperative WWC – Hong Kong, China

They are proposed as a group for the 1000 women Nobel Peace Price 2005.

The Women Workers’ Cooperative WWC was established in the 1990s when Hong Kong industries were moved north to mainland China. The WWC opens up a new space that is based on mutual support and cooperation: women workers have the opportunity to rediscover and reactivate themselves through cultural and economic involvement. The Women Workers Cooperative WWC is a continuous self-strengthening group.

They say: « We can control our own fate through united force and be creative ».

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Women Workers’ Cooperative – Hong Kong, China

The Women Workers’ Cooperative WWC was established in the 1990s when Hong Kong industries were moved north to mainland China. Similar to situations in other countries, women workers were the first to be retrenched, as people believed that they could easily return home and resume full-time the care-taking role. In Hong Kong, it was assumed that women workers could easily switch to the then flourishing service industry and it was only a short-term adjustment issue.

It has however been neglected that many women workers had to continue working as a means of livelihood. And the sad and cruel reality was that these women workers, who entered the factories when they finished primary school, were in their mid 30s in the 1990s. They had encountered enormous hardships and difficulties in mastering new skills while their previous experiences had little, if not none at all, market value. Many remained unemployed for a long time. Many have had to take on jobs that are very low paying, with unreasonably long hours, and nasty working conditions.

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New Territories Female Indigenous Residents' Committee – Hong Kong, China

They are proposed as a group for the 1000 women’s Nobel Peace Price 2005.

Formed in October 1993, the New Territories Female Indigenous Residents’ Committee NTFIRC was active in the 1994 campaign to abolish the discriminatory ordinance on women’s rights to inherit property in the New Territories. Along with other groups, they encouraged their sisters to fight for their rights, using peaceful means, like signing petitions and singing songs, to lobby for public support.

They say: « The women are brave to form the (New Territories Female Indigenous Residents’ Committee) NTFIRC and to exercise their political rights in the face of violent reaction from conservative patriarchal powers ».

Excerpts of the books:

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New Territories Female Indigenous Residents’ Committee – Hong Kong, China

There were six core members in the Committee, including Tang Ying, Cheng Lai Sheung, So Ngan Shing, Tang Mui, Tang Yuen Tai and Wong Shui Lai.

They work with the Hong Kong Federation of Women’s Centres.

The success of the campaign has not only guaranteed their civic rights, it has also contributed to the women’s and civil society movements.Indigenous women living in the New Territories of Hong Kong have long been deprived of the right to inherit land and were subject to the discriminatory New Territories Ordinance. Many became poor and homeless on the deaths of their fathers because their relatives seized their properties after their fathers died. In 1993, indigenous women formed the New Territories Female Indigenous Residents’ Committee (NTFIRC) to fight for their rights.

All of them had suffered because of this discriminatory custom. Apart from Madam So Ngan Shing and Madam Cheng Lai Sheung who have received primary education, the others members are illiterate. And they live in poverty. Here are two stories of the committee members: Madam Cheng Lai Sheung (52) and single, is a villager of Ma Tin Tsuen in Yuen Long. She has two brothers and she is the eldest daughter. All her life she was told that she had to work to improve her brothers’ living conditions.

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