Mois : juillet 2006

Linked with our presentations of Oronto Douglas – Nigeria, and of Nigeria’s Oil and the population, (a text and a video of Democracy Now!), and
SEEN – Sustainble Energy & Economic Network. Also with The World Bank’s Recipe for Climate Disaster.

ERA is bound together and guided by a philosophy which avoids moral ambiguity when approaching problems of human ecology. This philosophy is not a rigid dogma, but a guide based upon the seven beliefs described below.

ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS
Article 24 of the African Charter of Human and Peoples’ Rights states that:

« All people shall have the right to (a) generally satisfactory environment favourable to their development. »
ERA believes that a respect for all forms of life is an essential foundation to human happiness. In other words, a genuine concern for humankind and our habitat depends upon a respect for other animals and their habitats, and upon recognition of the importance of diversity.
Humankind cannot achieve happiness in a degraded environment; living in harmony with other forms of life (as in some traditional relationships between people and their environment) is in itself a human right. Furthermore, every individual and responsible human being has an equal right to happiness, regardless of his or her wealth.

ALL ECOSYSTEMS ARE NOW HUMAN ECOSYSTEMS
This concept is central to the ERA philosophy.

Continuer la lecture de « Environemental Rights Action ERA – Nigeria »

Linked with our presentation of Amsatou Sow Sidibé – Senegal, and Fondation pour l’inovation politique, and also Finding the Law: Islamic Law.

RAFET, Réseau Africain Pour La Promotion de la Femme Travailleuse (au Sénégal) / African Network for Promotion of African Women Workers (in Senegal):

DAKAR – FANN, Senegal – Established in 1997, RAFET works to promote women’s meaningful participation in decision making at all levels. The organization seeks to promote and ensure respect of international norms for women in the workplace, and provide education, literacy, information, and training to working women to help improve themselves. RAFET also promotes civic and human rights education and organizes support initiatives for underprivileged women. (See Oxfam America).

Learning to be Providers, the Women of Senegal – Many women in Senegal must go beyond the caregiver role to act as sole provider for their families. To succeed, they must learn business skills and expand their markets and opportunities. (Read more on this page of Oxfam America).

Excerpt: … I was in Senegal to research the many non-governmental organizations there that deal with women’s issues … (Read all on sais-jhu.edu).

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Les attentes des travailleuses africaines: Le Réseau Africain pour la Promotion de la Femme Travailleuse (Rafet), fidèle à sa mission de promotion du statut de la femme africaine aux plans juridique, économique, social et culturel, avait fondé beaucoup d’espoir dans le Nepad pour ses objectifs de développement durable de l’Afrique. C’est une grande déception et une frustration que ressentent finalement les travailleuses africaines du fait de l’absence dans ce document d’une prise en compte de la dimension sociale et de celle du genre.

Continuer la lecture de « RAFET – Senegal »

Linked with our presentation of Amsatou Sow Sidibé – Senegal, and RAFET – Senegal, and also Finding the Law: Islamic Law.

What is “Political Innovation”? – Political innovation, based upon an assessment of the present situation and future prospects, consists of:

suggesting new behaviors, new strategies, and new structures;

mobilizing public opinion around these new ideas in order to make them a reality.

What the Foundation does? – In France, innovation comes only rarely from the field. Our country and the rest of Europe are committed to the globalization process and therefore need, more than ever, enthusiastic support of those individuals—whether elected officials or simply citizens – who want to be political innovators.

The Foundation offers them resources to help them nurture their ideas, mainly by informing them about the politics, institutions and behaviors experienced in other countries.

It examines the latest global and social trends which are making it indispensable today for us to use our collective imagination.

Continuer la lecture de « Fondation pour l'innovation politique »

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

The Garifuna are descendents of Africans and native Carib and Arawak Indians, and they represent a sizeable percentage of Central America’s coastal inhabitants. For over 200 years, the Garifuna have managed to maintain a strong collective identity, including a distinct language, traditions and a communal way of life. The Garifuna have preserved their rich cultural heritage despite facing discrimination, including lack of adequate education or health services and entrenched poverty.

For generations, the Afro-Honduran Garifuna community has resided along the northern coast of Honduras and in La Mosquitia in the east. Many of the core Garifuna religious and cultural practices are inextricably linked to the land, including their collective claim to certain territories. But because the Garifuna live on a prime section of coastal territory, the growth of the tourism industry threatens to undermine their way of life and encroaches on what they regard as their ancestral lands.

Continuer la lecture de « The Garifunda Community – Honduras »

Linked with Rosalina Tuyuc Velásquez – Guatemala, and with Linking Gender, Food Security and the Environment.

Sites about the Coordinadora Nacional de Viudas de Guatemala:

1) More than 60 per cent of the Guatemalan population is Mayan while the other main ethnic group is constituted by the Ladine population (of Spanish and mixed blood). The barriers of Guatemalan society still work against the Indians, with women suffering from a double discrimination, being both Indian and women. However, Indian women play an essential role in the commnunity. She is the pillar of the family, as wife, mother, and educator of her children, and she also plays an important economic role. All the women develop craft activities based on their own culture: weaving, pottery, etc.

Guatemala is the last country in Latin America to have put an end to its civil war, which has lasted thirty six years. With the signature of the « Firm and Sustainable Peace » agreement on 29 December 1996 between the URNG (Guatemalan Revolutionary Unit)and the government, democracy has been widened to encompass indigenous organizations.However, this recent peace cannot hide the memory of years of bloody repression which, using the pretext of destroying centers of guerilla resistance, was unleashed on the country during the eighties with extreme violence against the civil rural population. The term ‘death squad’ was coined in Guatemala. These squads led to the mass exile of whole communities to Mexico, the displacement of populations towards the cities or deportation to ‘model towns’ under the control of the army. A consequence of this process is the fragmentation of traditional community structures and the destruction of the Indians’ social and cultural fabric. Women are at the top of the list of the victims.

Continuer la lecture de « CONAVIGUA »