VOICES RISING

YEAR III - VOL 3. Nº146
July 15, 2005

CONTENT
ICAE ACADEMY OF LIFELONG LEARNING ADVOCACY (IALLA)
1.- ASPBAE BASIC LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT COURSE
2.- NO MORE BABIES, LEST WE RESPECT LIFE!
3.- WORLD POPULATION DAY MESSAGE FROM KOFI ANNAN, UN SECRETARY-GENERAL
4.- ARUNDHATI ROY ON THE WAR IN IRAQ
5.- ON-LINE COURSE ON INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH AND EVALUATION
6.- AN OPPORTUNITY FOR A RESEARCH STUDENTSHIP HAS ARISEN WITHIN
7.- CALL FOR NOMINATIONS FOR THE E-LEARNING COURSE ON "HEALTH OUTCOMES AND THE POOR"
8.- ARE YOU ATTENDING THE GLOBAL CONFERENCE ON THE PREVENTION OF ARMED CONFLICT ? THEN THIS IS AN INVITATION FOR YOU:

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ICAE ACADEMY OF LIFELONG LEARNING ADVOCACY (IALLA)

The second edition of ICAE Academy of Lifelong Learning Advocacy will take place in Buskerud Folk High School, Norway, from July 27th to August 11th, 2005.

23 applicants were selected to attend the course. They are coming from different regions of the world: Africa, Asia, Europe and South America. The countries: Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Pakistan, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Sudan, Zambia, India, Lebanon, Nepal, Philippines, Chile, Colombia and Germany.

The aim of this three-week intensive session is to give emerging leaders in adult learning and social movement activists the opportunity to empower themselves and acquire the skills to advocate for and support adult learning for active citizenship.

Our objective is to help them generate a broader vision of adult education and lifelong learning within the framework of human rights, developing linkages with the most important globalization issues that are currently affecting the world.

In brief, we will inform you on the progress of the course.

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1.- ASPBAE BASIC LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT COURSE

January 14 - 19, 2006, Philippines

Dear ASPBAE Members and Friends,

Greetings from ASPBAE!

ASPBAE is pleased to invite nominations for participation in the next Basic Leadership Development Course. The Course would be held in the Philippines on January 14 – 19, 2006.
 
Please find enclosed, the Brochure and Nomination form to give further details on the Course and the nomination process.
 
Kindly note that the Basic Leadership Development Course is meant primarily for members of ASPBAE, with only a few slots available for non-members. Non-members who wish to apply will have to be prepared to self-finance.
 
The last date for receiving the completed nomination forms at the ASPBAE Secretariat is September 9, 2005. Selected participants would be informed in the last week of October 2005.

We look forward to hearing from you. 
Warm Regards,

Sincerely,

Maria Lourdes Almazan-Khan
aspbae@vsnl.com
http://www.aspbae.org
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2.- NO MORE BABIES, LEST WE RESPECT LIFE!

Salma Maoulidi

smlidi@yahoo.com

This week we marked World Population Day surrounded by all the contradictions of a rapidly developing, poorly governed world. It is ironic that in times of advanced medical and technological breakthrough, mass deaths should now be daily occurrences. Deaths by bombings, shootings, accidents, disease and grief; death glorified in action movies and actualized by military action!

Why all this unnatural dying? Why this show of disrespect to life? Surely, if I had a platform I would urge women to go on a strike and refuse to have babies. Earth life is not willing to cherish human life. The world is gripped by war, chaos and conflict. Most children will be conscripted in senseless wars, by wicked factions, regimes and greedy governments fighting lost for lost or immoral causes curtailing their lives and development.

Indeed, a human fetus coming into earth is certain to experience cruelty and violence. A baby born in Tanzania is certain to have a cool, if not traumatic reception. Birth will be expedited because the staff and facilities are limited. Most certainly it will not enjoy the warmth of the mother but instead be bundled up in a crowded cot full of naked and crying babies. This is the standard reception for the majority of children in Tanzania but it represents but a beginning of an ordeal to survival.

An unacceptable number of women still die while replenishing the human population. Maternal mortality rate stands at 110 for every thousands births in Tanzania. Many African countries do not budget for reproductive health services, this sector being left to donors. Poor maternal services leave many women at risk of developing complications related to reproductive health. Further a legal system, which encourages early marriage and childbirth defeats global and national efforts to improve maternal and sexual health.

Many women give birth in vain. While Tanzania has a high birth rate, almost 80 of 1000 children born will die before their first birthday. Fewer still will live to see their fifth birthday, many succumbing to preventable communicable diseases. A significant number of the children who survive will never go to school. Few will get a basic education. A high number of children will not be able to explore their potential not because of some innate inability or lack of qualification but because the education system and framework is unable to support a learned population. Only 9% of children finishing their basic education are able to go into secondary education in Tanzania.

This sense of despair about the future is global. Economic and military impunity unleashes rampant injustice. People are rendered helpless. Hope is fading. Many people, young and old are so beaten they only go through another day stoned. Others, whose cause is beyond despair, dare blow themselves, and others to pieces. The world is shocked not only by the violence of the act but at the desperation felt by the younger population, the hope for humankind.

Suicide is rampant. It is not only the youth strapped with explosives who blow themselves up, at least not in the literal sense. Suicide results from the inability to meet life challenges financially and emotionally. Increasingly we hear stories of farmers drinking pesticides or hanging themselves because they are unable to operate under the present trade regime, sinking them further in debt while getting them smaller returns. The farmer, who set himself alight at Cancun, is an everyday occurrence in many parts of the developing world. Also we hear of old women being killed suspected of witchcraft solely because her accusers want her land. Small-scale farmers are under threat from big scale farmers. Independent producers are under threat from multinationals.

The WTO is working hard to re-establish serfdom with masses employed as part time or seasonal work hands in big farms or factories. In most of East and South Africa, we are encouraged to open up our lands to white farmers from Zimbabwe and South Africa undoubtedly so that Tanzanians will be employed as labourers. Why should agriculture be an ambit of white farmers or a system embedded in apartheid? Tanzania has a number of research institutions in agriculture and trained extension workers. Why is it impossible for the state to invest these support local farmers produce commercially?

Scarcity or lack of access to land, poorly resourced agricultural sector and aligned local government structures renders rural life uninhabitable and populations flock to urban areas in hope for a break from debilitating poverty. However, the urban explosion serves but to accentuate socio-economic inequalities. Whereas western quarters wanted African leaders to condemn Mugabe on his demolitions of squatters, they would not oblige since this is common occurrence in most African cities. In Tanzania the pretext for demolition is often road expansion or protecting big traders from the Machinga influence. 

Consequently young men and women leave rural life, towns, cities and even countries to look for economic prospects elsewhere often working in inhumane conditions with no labour protections or social security because of their illegal status. The fact that this is a global phenomenon, it is not enough to say that these migrants are economic opportunists. Rather it is a product of an economic system, which is unable to absorb a labour force; a system that is rendered ineffective by high costs therefore labour is redirected to cheaper, less regulated labour zones termed free economic zones housing sweat shops an indication of present day slavery. Those who find work in foreign land endure long separations, even alienation from family. They do not earn enough. Those unable to find work loose a sense of self and of self worth.

More than ever, global events emphasize the complexity and centrality of population issues. Indeed, population issues go beyond the act of human reproduction. Equally, population issues encompass the aspect of production and preservation. Yet, there are quarters that don’t cease to make population issues political. Population control was prevalent in the 60’s and 70’s targeting poor and powerless women. Population control methods though expensive, failed because they did not address power and resource imbalance. 

Currently population control options are politicized in religious and economic terms; to get aid assistance especially in the reproductive health sector governments and populations are forced to subscribe to an ideology on matters of personal choice, which leaves them with little choice in managing their families or protecting their health in a context of high opportunistic infections. On the other hand, its proponents are quick to condemn large families as irresponsible sexual behaviour on the part of the poor, especially women.

In this millennium, population control though termed racists persists and assumes a new form: it can be linked to the incidence of bombings and imprisonments, which not only assume a racial and ethnic dimension, but increasingly a religious dimension. Racial prejudices is fuelled by the media and political rhetoric bent on amplifying difference- “it is us against them”, “it is our way against their way”, “they despise our way of life”, “they are an affront to civilized notion of life”…

Language is used effectively to portray bias… “poverty stricken Africans” as if poverty does not exist in Germany, the US or UK; “Islamic jihadist/terrorists” as if the Lord Resistance Army or the IRA do not use religious justification to bomb, maim and kill; “wicked mother who left her children” as if the woman is the only parent a child has. In the end, it reinforces the “branding” of populations, scaring them irreparably because of the acts of individuals regardless of the motive.

More than ever economic and geo-political interests will continue to inform the value of life. The recent bombing in London serves to remind all of us, the fragility of life. Clearly we are all under siege. More importantly, it underscores the different status attached to life depending on context- deaths in Darfur, the Congo, Iraq and Afghanistan hardly attract live or all day coverage, while the bombings in London, as did nine eleven do. Two days after the fact, the bombing was still the main news item such that equally disturbing loss of life that was a train crash in Pakistan killing hundreds and a Bombing in Iraq killing innocent children hardly qualified to be leading news. Certainly, there are lives, even in death, are more valued than others!

If we preach justice, equality and opportunity for the human race, can such standards and perceptions be tenable? It is no wonder millions go in destroying life through the military and pharmaceutical industry while little effort is ever made to uphold justice and preserve human life. If this weren’t the case, there would be No Darfur, No Iraq, No Congo, No Bombs and certainly No AIDS, TB or Malaria.

Salma Maoulidi

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3.- WORLD POPULATION DAY MESSAGE FROM KOFI ANNAN, UN SECRETARY-GENERAL

Sonia Correa
scorrea@abiaids.org.br

World Population Day Message from Kofi Annan, UN Secretary-General 11 July 2005

This World Population Day is an occasion to stress the empowering effect of gender equality, and the fact that respect for this human right benefits everyone -- men, women, boys and girls alike.
Equality between men and women is a guiding principle of the United Nations, inscribed in the United Nations Charter. It is also central to global efforts to free people from fear and want to which nations agreed in the Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals. At the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, equality and women's empowerment were considered both ends in themselves and cornerstones of development. Equality goes hand-in-hand with investments in education, economic opportunity and
reproductive health, and taken together, these are a powerful force for lifting millions out of poverty.
By contrast, when discrimination prevents true equality, the consequences are grave. Millions of girls are "missing" from populations because parents preferred the birth of sons. More girls
than boys are out of school, denied their right to an education and the keys to a better life, and impoverishing the communities in which they live. Poverty, gender discrimination and violence are fueling the AIDS epidemic, with the number of women and adolescent girls newly infected rising in every region. And in some regions, alarmingly high levels of maternal mortality are claiming the lives of too many women and depriving children of their mothers' love and care.
Despite these enormous challenges -- indeed, because of them – women all over the world are mobilizing to secure their rights. And they are registering important successes. Global and national debates on human rights and human development are focusing on issues of gender equality and women's empowerment. Many countries are enacting laws and policies that advance women's rights, and are supporting services to improve and protect women's health. More women are participating in politics, and more men are taking responsibility as partners for change.
On this World Population Day, let us resolve to empower women and girls by our commitment to gender equality. And let us remember that every society that wishes to overcome poverty, hunger, armed conflict and disease must draw fully on the talents and contribution of all of
its members.

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4.- ARUNDHATI ROY ON THE WAR IN IRAQ

THE MOST COWARDLY WAR IN HISTORY

Istanbul, Turkey
June 24th

Claire Slatter
dawngc@infogen.net.nz

This is the culminating session of the World Tribunal on Iraq. It is of particular significance that it is being held here in Turkey where the United States used Turkish air bases to launch numerous bombing missions to degrade Iraq's defenses before the March 2003 invasion and has sought and continues to seek political support from the Turkish government, which it regards as an ally. All this was done in the face of enormous popular opposition by the Turkish people. As a spokesperson for the jury of conscience, it would make me uneasy if I did not mention that the government of India is also, like the government of Turkey, positioning itself as a "allie" of the United States in its economic policies and the so-called War on Terror.

The testimonies at the previous sessions of the World Tribunal on Iraq in Brussels and New York have demonstrated that even those of us who have tried to follow the war in Iraq closely are not aware of a fraction of the horrors that have been unleashed in Iraq.

The Jury of Conscience at this tribunal is not here to deliver a simple verdict of guilty or not guilty against the United States and its allies. We are here to examine a vast spectrum of evidence about the motivations and consequences of the U.S. invasion and occupation, evidence that has been deliberately marginalized or suppressed. Every aspect of the war will be examined - its legality, the role of international institutions and major corporations in the occupation, the role of the media, the impact of weapons such as depleted uranium munitions, napalm, and cluster bombs, the use of and legitimation of torture, the ecological impacts of the war, the responsibility of Arab governments, the impact of Iraq$B!2(Bs occupation on Palestine, and the history of U.S. and British military interventions in Iraq. This tribunal is an attempt to correct the record. To document the history of the war not from the point of view of the victors but of the temporarily - and I repeat the word temporarily - vanquished.

Before the testimonies begin, I would like to briefly address as straightforwardly as I can a few questions that have been raised about this tribunal.

The first is that this tribunal is a Kangaroo Court. That it represents only one point of view. That it is a prosecution without a defense. That the verdict is a foregone conclusion.

Now this view seems to suggest a touching concern that in this harsh world, the views of the U.S. government and the so-called Coalition of the Willing headed by President George Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair have somehow gone unrepresented. That the World Tribunal on Iraq isn$B!2(Bt aware of the arguments in support of the war and is unwilling to consider the point of view of the invaders. If in the era of the multinational corporate media and embedded journalism anybody can seriously hold this view, then we truly do live in the Age of Irony, in an age when satire has become meaningless because real life is more satirical than satire can ever be.

Let me say categorically that this tribunal is the defense. It is an act of resistance in itself. It is a defense mounted against one of the most cowardly wars ever fought in history, a war in which international institutions were used to force a country to disarm and then stood by while it was attacked with a greater array of weapons than has ever been used in the history of war.

Second, this tribunal is not in any way a defense of Saddam Hussein. His crimes against Iraqis, Kurds, Iranians, Kuwaitis, and others cannot be written off in the process of bringing to light Iraq (Bs more recent and still unfolding tragedy. However, we must not forget that when Saddam Hussein was committing his worst crimes, the U.S. government was supporting him politically and materially. When he was gassing Kurdish people, the U.S. government financed him, armed him, and stood by silently.

Saddam Hussein is being tried as a war criminal even as we speak. But what about those who helped to install him in power, who armed him, who supported him - and who are now setting up a tribunal to try him and absolve themselves completely? And what about other friends of the United States in the region that have suppressed Kurdish people(Bs rights, including the government of Turkey?

There are remarkable people gathered here who in the face of this relentless and brutal aggression and propaganda have doggedly worked to compile a comprehensive spectrum of evidence and information that should serve as a weapon in the hands of those who wish to participate in the resistance against the occupation of Iraq. It should become a weapon in the hands of soldiers in the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, Australia, and elsewhere who do not wish to fight, who do not wish to lay down their lives - or to take the lives of others - for a pack of lies. It should become a weapon in the hands of journalists, writers, poets, singers, teachers, plumbers, taxi drivers, car mechanics, painters, lawyers - anybody who wishes to participate in the resistance.

The evidence collated in this tribunal should, for instance, be used by the International Criminal Court (whose jurisdiction the United States does not recognize) to try as war criminals George Bush, Tony Blair, John Howard, Silvio Berlusconi, and all those government officials, army generals, and corporate CEOs who participated in this war and now profit from it.

The assault on Iraq is an assault on all of us: on our dignity, our intelligence, and our future.
We recognize that the judgment of the World Tribunal on Iraq is not binding in international law. However, our ambitions far surpass that. The World Tribunal on Iraq places its faith in the consciences of millions of people across the world who do not wish to stand by and watch while the people of Iraq are being slaughtered, subjugated, and humiliated.

Arundhati Roy received the Booker Prize for literature in 1997.

Presently, one of the most eloquent voices for the global justice and anti-war movement, she was also awarded, among many others, the Sydney Peace Prize in 2004, and the Lannan Cultural Freedom Prize in 2002.

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5.- ON-LINE COURSE ON INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH AND EVALUATION

Certificate in Adult and Continuing Education (CACE), University of Victoria and PRIA (India)

Dr. Budd Hall
bhall@uvic.ca

INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH AND EVALUATION

Registration Deadline: Friday, September 2, 2005

This new course has been an exciting collaboration between the Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA) located in India and the University of Victoria, located in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. The course was conceived to be able to share insights developed from both the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) world and the University world. The course has been designed by practitioners from both India and Canada. It is our hope that it will be useful to adult educators, community development workers, activists, and NGO staff in any part of the world.
Course descriptor:
This course is an introduction to the practice and theory of community-based participatory research and evaluation from global perspectives. The emphasis is on the role of actual case participatory research and evaluation in adult learning, community action, and community transformation. Examples will be drawn from international actual case studies. Issues of partnership, degrees of participation, and guidelines for practice will be featured, along with artistic ways of creating and representing knowledge in a community-based context.

Course authors:  Darlene E. Clover, Ph.D., Catherine Etmanski, M.A., Budd L. Hall, Ph.D.-Faculty of Education, University of Victoria; and Purvi Das, M.Sc., Martha Farrell, M.A., Namrata Jaitli, M.A., Mandakini Pant, Ph.D., Rajesh Tandon, Ph.D.-PRIA

Instructors: Catherine Etmanski, Ph.D. candidate at University of  Victoria, and Mandakini Pant, Ph.D., located in New Delhi

Registration Deadline: Friday, September 2, 2005 (early registration assures delivery of course materials before the course start date)

Course Dates: Thursday, September 29 to Friday, December 16, 2005
Course Code: EDCA510 2005F1 D01
CACE elective credit: 1.0

Fee: $390 Cdn, plus course materials
Delivery: Print materials (CACE manual and textbook) are enhanced with Web conferencing (requires access to the Internet) for course structure, additional resources, and discussion facilitated by the instructors.

International Perspectives in Participatory Research and Evaluation is offered as an elective in the Certificate in Adult and Continuing Education (CACE) at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

The CERTIFICATE IN ADULT AND CONTINUING EDUCATION (CACE) is a professional development program for those interested in adult education, instruction/training, facilitation, and program planning in government, education, health, career development; in the non-profit,
business, and public sectors or industry. The entire program may be taken by distance delivery.

For further program information, please visit: www.uvcs.uvic.ca/csie/cace/

Those who complete assignment(s) will receive elective credit in the CACE program. CACE workshops are open to non-CACE students.

Other CACE courses offered by distance in Fall 2005: Foundations of Adult Education, Facilitating Adult Learning, Instructional Design in Adult Education, Trans formative Learning for Organizational Change, and Virtual Team Skills. Another list of courses will be available by
distance education during January to April 2006; and March to June 2006.

FURTHER INFORMATION/REGISTRATION
Ione Wagner, Program Secretary, Continuing Studies in Education
University of Victoria
Victoria, BC  Canada
Phone: (250) 721-8944; Fax: (250) 721-6603
E-mail: cace@uvcs.uvic.ca
Web: http://www.uvcs.uvic.ca/csie/cace/
(you may register on line, download a reg. form from the Web site, or e-mail us to request a registration form)
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6.- AN OPPORTUNITY FOR A RESEARCH STUDENTSHIP HAS ARISEN WITHIN

Dear All,
 
An opportunity for a Research Studentship has arisen within CRADALL (Centre for Research and Development in Adult and Lifelong Learning), as advertised below.

 
Faculty of Education, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, UK
Research Studentship:  The Social Construction of Poor People

Closing Date for Applications: Friday, 26 August 2005

Applications are invited for a full-time postgraduate studentship in the Faculty of Education for three years from Autumn 2005. The research will be undertaken in the Centre for Research and Development in Adult and Lifelong Learning (CRADALL). If you would like to discuss this opportunity with Professor Julia Preece in the first instance, please contact her via e-mail at J.Preece@educ.gla.ac.uk
 
Details of the application procedure can be obtained from the Faculty of Education web site at http://www.gla.ac.uk/faculties/education/research/studentship/studentship.html.
 
To find out about the University of Glasgow click on the Home Page at http://www.gla.ac.uk/.
 
Kind regards,
 
Joyce
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Joyce J Lang
CRADALL Development Officer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Centre for Research and Development in Adult and Lifelong Learning (CRADALL)
Department of Adult and Continuing Education
University of Glasgow
St Andrew's Building
11 Eldon Street
Glasgow, G3 6NH
Scotland, UK
Tel: +44 (0)141 330 1833
Fax: +44(0)141 330 1821
Email: J.Lang@educ.gla.ac.uk
CRADALL Email: cradall@educ.gla.ac.uk
Web Site: http://www.gla.ac.uk/centres/cradall/index.htm

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7.- CALL FOR NOMINATIONS FOR THE E-LEARNING COURSE ON "HEALTH OUTCOMES AND THE POOR"

Lan Joo
ljoo@worldbank.org

DURATION AND COURSE LOAD:  6 Weeks - 8 to 10 hours per week
DATES: 31 August - 12 October 2005
APPLICATION DEADLINE: 10 August 2005
PARTICIPANTS: (Health) Professionals involved in the Poverty Reduction
Strategy Papers process either as PRSP authors or as advisors to the government
REGIONS TARGETED: Global
COURSE FEE: $500; fees waived for World Bank Staff, $250 for WHO staff.
ORGANIZERS: The World Bank Institute and the World Health Organization
LANGUAGE: English only
GENERAL COURSE CONTACT: Jo Hindriks at jhindriks@worldbank.org

APPLY: Please go to the online application form at:
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/WBI/WBIPROGRAMS/HNPLP/0,,contentMDK:20278727~menuPK:461072~pagePK:64157898~piPK:64156199~theSitePK:461054,00.html
(Make sure you copy the entire URL, starting from "http" to ".html")
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8.- ARE YOU ATTENDING THE GLOBAL CONFERENCE ON THE PREVENTION OF ARMED CONFLICT ? THEN THIS IS AN INVITATION FOR YOU:

"femLINKpacific:Media Initiatives for Women"
femlinkpac@connect.com.fj
 

YOU ARE INVITED TO A WOMEN’S RIGHTS CAUCUS MEETING in preparation for the

GLOBAL CONFERENCE on the PREVENTION of ARMED CONFLICT for civil society women’s rights advocates

Monday, 18 July 2005

777 UN Plaza (1st Ave and 44th Street), 8th floor, Boss Room New York

6:15- 8:15 pm

Calling on women’s rights advocates to shape prevention dialogue!

The goals for the meeting on 18 July are to identify common overarching messages; to develop specific thematic messages with others working on the same issues; and to strategize on how to incorporate those messages into the conference outcomes. All participants should be prepared to discuss overarching women's rights messages, as well as women’s rights messages that address the specific issues that you will follow during throughout the

conference. The work of the women's rights caucus will support the work of the Conference’s working group on Gender Perspectives and Women's Equality, as well as all other working groups.  Ultimately, we seek an implementation plan for the global action agenda that recognizes women’s agency, contributions and needs, and promotes women’s rights and gender equality.

The women’s rights caucus will meet prior to the commencement of the Conference, 18 July, and throughout the duration of the 3-day conference. During the conference the caucus members will have the opportunity to meet every morning (19, 20 and 21 July) for a breakfast meeting from 8:30-10 am in the same room (8th floor Boss Conference Room, 777 UN Plaza) to share information and revise our strategies on the basis of progress and challenges in working groups and other fora.  Copies of the common messages identified by the women’s rights caucus members on the evening of 18 July will be distributed at the first morning’s meetings so that they can be incorporated in the first working sessions of the conference.

For more information, please contact: Jennifer Nordstrom, GAPW, +1 212 818

1861

Sincerely,

Global Action to Prevent War        NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and

Security      United Methodist UN Office      WILPF       UNIFEM