26 - June - 2011 | 0
By Niruban Balachandran
Issue 24/ May-August 2011
From conflict prevention to third-party mediation, intercultural organizations have long had a unique history of resolving ethnic disputes between communities. The importance of grassroots intercultural organizations to international peacebuilding, which has often been overlooked, is now attracting the attention of governments, NGOs, diplomats and multilateral organizations worldwide.
Below are profiles of five intercultural organizations that have different geographical locations, different goals and different visions for the future, but are united in a belief that cross-cultural dialogue and mutual respect are crucial to peacebuilding. They are Seeds of Peace, The Valley of Peace Initiative, The Pontamina Choir of Bosnia-Herzegovina, The Solomon Asch Center for the Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict and Peace Direct.
Continue reading »
17 - February - 2011 | 0
Issue 23/January-March 2011
By Guy Burton
The issue of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank forms a central part of any negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. The settlements started to be built in the occupied Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza after the end of the 1967 war. While settlements grew under Labor governments during the 1970s, it was after the election of the pro-settler and right-wing Likud party in 1977 that the number of settlers and settlements increased rapidly.
Over the past decade the number of settlements in the West Bank has reached 121 with another 100 classified as outposts. While the settlements were officially sanctioned, outposts emerged without any authorization by the state. However, both types receive the same assistance from the Israeli state in terms of security and road construction around them. In total, around 460,000 Jewish Israeli settlers currently live in the West Bank. Around 191,000 of them live in or around Jerusalem with 271,000 in the rest of the West Bank. The settler population is also growing faster than the rest of the Israeli population, at 4-6% compared to 1.5% each year over the past two decades (1).
Continue reading »
20 - December - 2010 | 0
Issue 22/October-December 2010
By Ángel Gómez de Ágreda
The international financial crisis has resulted in a desperate race by the largest economies in order to recover the previous growth rates of 2008. Having, among other things, the intention to reduce the unemployment rates caused by the decline in activity and exports.
While in most Western economies, the recovery is not only slow but it even threatens to stagnate, other countries - most notably China - have barely reduced their rate of growth for a few months before increasing them back to levels similar to those of two years ago.
Due to its peculiarities, the effect of financial crisis on the banking sector is manifold. On the one hand, the economic damage that the crisis caused in the first instance and that led to the closure or absorption of several entities, amongst which one as important as Lehman Brothers. A second negative effect came with the discovery of the accounting manoeuvres of some funds and entities, i.e. mutual distrust in the markets. Similar lack of confidence has grown in some national economies whose financial engineering has come to light after the collapse of the house of cards that they had been building on cheap - and seemingly infinite - credit during the past decade.
Continue reading »
05 - November - 2010 | 1
Issue 22/October-December 2010
By Xavier Cornut
“The woman who bought Marie had a son, who at the time was close to 20 years old. He tried to rape Marie when she was nine years old. Marie cried and ran toward her owner, hoping for protection. Antoinette says the woman told Marie: I bought you for $330. You let my son do what he wants with you or you pay me back my $330. Then she beat her”. [1]
On September 15, 2010, walking through the huge corridors of the Palais des Nations, at the United Nations European headquarters in Geneva, the Ambassador of Mauritania entered a side-event room and joined a panel to discuss the issue of forced labour. The intent was to give figures and clarifications on this enduring outrage present in an amazingly high number of places throughout the world. The Mauritanian diplomat stood side by side with a delegation of South America. Indeed, the State of Brazil had come to present an extensive panorama of its sincere effort in combating slavery and developing remote areas and suburbs where modern slaves are still exploited. Knowing the importance of the issue, Brasilia had sent a large delegation and even produced a little film on modern slavery in the country, with the candid will of showing how the emerging state is committed to erase a cause - and a consequence - of poverty. The message was much appreciated. When it was time for the Ambassador of Mauritania to take the floor, however, we were given a speech at the very opposite of Brazil’s; in fact, it contradicted the very values defended in this august place.
Continue reading »
23 - September - 2010 | 0
Issue 21/July-September 2010
By Guy Burton
The image of a house being destroyed is one of the most visually compelling in contemporary Jerusalem. The scene is almost always the same: a Palestinian family evicted from their home while the machinery of the state in the form of a bulldozer breaks through its walls. A crowd of onlookers will be standing alongside, which may include both Israeli and foreign protestors.
But whereas house demolitions are the most visible expression of Israeli power in the city, they are only the surface of a broader objective that successive Israeli governments have held since their capture of the whole city in the 1967 war. That goal has been to make Jerusalem an indivisible and united city. As part of this process the municipal authorities are carrying out a form of urban planning which goes beyond the direct destruction of Palestinian homes in the city, to reduce both their construction and the number of Palestinians in the city, which currently amounts to around 30% of Jerusalem’s population.
Continue reading »
21 - June - 2010 | 1
Issue 20/April-June 2010
By Niruban Balachandran
The Transformed International Security Environment
“With the Soviet Union receding in memory, it is a wonder that NATO still exists,” wrote former National Security Council Director Mark Medish on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s 60th anniversary celebrations last year. “After the fall of the Soviet bloc many voices called for disbanding NATO. That was not an outrageous idea.”
Founded in 1949 to counter expansionism by the Soviet Union, NATO is the world’s most powerful military alliance. Under the North Atlantic Treaty’s Article 5, the security of all current 28 European and North American NATO member states (known as “Allies”) is regarded as “indivisible”: an attack on one is an attack on all. The first NATO Secretary General, Lord Ismay, pithily stated the Alliance’s purpose was “to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down.”
Continue reading »
25 - May - 2010 | 1
Issue 20/ April-June 2010
By Xavier Cornut
“Oh mother, I see the hangman’s noose in front of me. They are going to execute me. Please save me.” Delara Darabi, 22, screamed in the phone of her parents last May from the jail of Rasht, northern Iran. A few minutes later, the line went dead, and the young woman was executed on a charge of murder. Years before, at 17, Darabi had told the police that her boyfriend had persuaded her to make a false confession by telling her that he would be executed, as she would not, being a minor. The investigation confirmed that the murder had been committed by a right-handed person, while Delera was left-handed. But in Iran, the life of a female is worth half that of a male. While her boyfriend was serving a 10-year sentence, Darabi was hanged.
On April 19, 2009, Iranian officials announced that Delara’s sentence had been granted a two-month delay. But on May 1st, they suddenly killed her without warning her parents and lawyer in advance in violation of the Iranian national code, in order to avoid domestic and foreign protests. A silent and illegal murder.
Continue reading »
15 - January - 2010 | 0
Issue 18/December-January 2010
By Glen Ruffle
For the past century, the global spread of democracy has helped secure peace and stability in the world. It has long been noted that democracies rarely go to war with other democracies, and particularly in this day and age of international communications and globalisation, the capacity for citizens to communicate internationally has grown phenomenally.
Yet 2010 could be the start of the end of this era. The passing into law of the Lisbon Treaty represents a choice by the elite of Europe to choose power instead of democracy. The rise of China as a global power, still controlled by a single party; the secure base of power that Putin and Medvedev have in Russia; and the dictatorships across the Middle East; all of these show us that democracy still has a long way to go. As Vaclav Havel noted, “The era of totalitarian systems has not ended…new, far more sophisticated ways of controlling society are being born” [1]. All of this means one thing: the time of democracy has passed. We are entering a new epoch in world history.
Continue reading »
14 - October - 2009 | 0
Issue 17/October-November 2009
By Glen Ruffle
Lisbon has finally been passed after the Irish were made to vote again. Yet the process exposed how the EU breaks its own rules, how the mass media can change societies, and how vulnerable Ireland now is to the Lisbon Treaty.
It was not a surprise. Given the vast amounts of resources thrown at it, the second Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty was a foregone conclusion. To be truly democratic, of course, we should now have a third referendum, a deciding vote. All we have now is one ‘yes’ and one ‘no’ [1]. Yet Europe has what it wants now, so such democratic niceties can be laid aside.
The second referendum was an exercise in power and manipulation that the Soviet Union would have been proud of. It harnessed the full power of every available medium and used them to persuade the people of Ireland to vote ‘yes’. Business, the European Parliament, the European Commission and the Irish government all combined forces to manipulate a ‘Yes’ vote [2].
Continue reading »
02 - September - 2009 | 1
Issue 16/August-September 2009
Erica L. Green
The Olympic Games last year was a crowning moment for Beijing and the country China. The games all began with the opening ceremony as a cotillion-like showcase of new wealth, appreciation for fine art, and athletic prowess. However, it was evident even before this event that China has come of age in today’s global economy and has emerged as an influential force. Currently, China securely sits within the ranks of the world’s top economic Group of 20 (G20), Group of 8 (G8), and now G2. It is the world’s largest manufacturer of exported goods and it is a chief stakeholder in the global economic recovery. With such gains, however, how are the Chinese people adjusting to the recent prosperity? How are these changes shaping the new generation, Generation Next (16 to 25 year olds)? Is it possible to have too much wealth and freedom?
Despite the recent economic gains and success that China’s Gen Nexters enjoy, many still remember the way China once was. The 20th century was a time of great change and turmoil in Chinese history. Beginning in 1911 China’s political system shifted rapidly from an imperial state to a republic, then to communism. After the Japanese invasion during World War II, China joined forces with its ally Russia. Deng Yan, a Chinese-American immigrant now living in the United States, witnessed much of the Mao Revolution first-hand. She states the partnership was fueled by Stalin who is said to have influenced Mao Zedong, who took over shortly after in 1949. The ideology held today in China under the current president, Hu Jintao, is a hybrid of traditional communism and western influenced capitalism. This new government has strong traditional conservatism at its core with branches of enthusiasm and vigor.
Continue reading »
