Salim Lamrani - France

Linked with Changes in Cuba?

Salim Lamrani is a French professor, writer and journalist who specializes on U.S.-Cuba relations. He has published the books Washington contre Cuba (Pantin: Le Temps des Cerises, 2005), Cuba face à l’Empire (Genève: Timeli, 2006) and Fidel Castro, Cuba et les États-Unis (Pantin: Le Temps des Cerises, 2006). (STWR)
… (I found no personal datas like birth date or place or nationality about Salim Lamrani).

… The Bolivarian government successfully challenges the neo-liberal doctrine, which is unsustainable in social, economic and political terms and that explains the anger of the White House. Despite several aggressions and threats coming from the U.S., President Chávez launched signs of opening to Washington by saying: “If they change that attitude, we will respond in the same way. Everything can be improved if they show respect for our sovereignty, respect for our decisions”. However, is not very probable that reason and dialog lie in the heart of the belligerent Bush administration. (full text, March 11, 2006).

Fidel Castro and Cuba’s Future, March 15, 2008.

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Salim Lamrani - France

His video: Superpower Priciples - U.S. Terrorism against Cuba, 55 min, Oct 28, 2006, and shown by Google: Related videos, running under THE SAME LINK (why this new furt, instead of giving each’s video link separately?):
Michael Parenti: Race, Gender and Class Struggle, 68 min.
Michael Parenti: Terrorism, Globalism and Conspiracy, 60 min.
Embracing Humanity: Truth in a Time of War with Howard Zinn, 88 min.

Thanks to the control achieved by information transnationals , the world elites imposed on humanity a vision of reality that is very limited to a given ideological framework. These set doctrine barriers aimed at marginalizing any alternative thinking that may question the good reasons of the current world order. That is, the role of the media is not that of providing the people with objective information but defending the social, economic and political order that has been set using effective means such as propaganda, disinformation and censorship … (full text, February 15, 2006).

The Economic Sanctions Against Cuba: the Failure of a Cruel and Irrational Policy.

The economic sanctions imposed on Cuba by the United States are unique in view of their longevity and of their complexity but they are consistent with the real objectives of the first world power. In order to show this, it is necessary to base this analysis on the following postulate: the blockade is part of a scheme designed not to promote democratic values, as the administration in Washington would have us believe, but to control the natural resources of Third World nations through subjugation. And the history of the United States ? characterized mainly by violent and bloody conquest of new territories ? proves this unequivocally … (full text, 2003).

The role of the alternative media: A wall against the manipulation of reality, February 2006.

The silence kept by the «freedom-of-the-press» Reporters without border (RSF) organization about Sudanese journalist Sami al Hajj raises many questions on the impartiality of that association headed by Robert Menard. RSF, which is always willing to stigmatize- usually arbitrarily- those countries targeted by Washington such as Cuba, Venezuela and China, has fully ignored the torture suffered by Al Hajj, a journalist with Qatar’s Al Jazeera TV chain … (full text, February 7, 2006).

A Politicized Prize, January 8, 2006.

… During the 2006 presidential campaign, Chávez launched the idea of submitting the renewal of concessions to private channels to a popular referendum. Instead of applauding this democratic initiative, the proposal seems to worry the owners of the commercial media, the international press and Washington. Do they perhaps fear popular will? In any democracy worthy of the name, isn’t the population sovereign? The real question is not to wonder if the RCTV affair constitutes (or not) a case of censorship because, in view of the facts, that accusation lacks a foundation. The question that should have appeared on Page One of all the international media is the following: How is it possible that Globovisión, Televen, Venevisión and RCTV, all of which participated in the coup d’état against President Chávez, are still under the control of the putschists? What would happen to French channels TF1, Canal+ and M6, for example, if they openly supported the overthrow of President Jacques Chirac? (full text, February 7th 2007).

The Reporters Without Border’s Fraud, 2005.

He writes also: … Europe is not ready to disassociate itself from the interventionist approach in Cuban internal affairs imposed by the Bush administration. Along with Germany, which has once again shown evidence of its interference by inviting “dissident” representatives to its embassy in Cuba, the Czech Republic is the European country most virulent towards the authorities in Havana. (37) The Czech Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ciryl Svoboda, is a fierce supporter of taking a hard line with the revolutionary government. He has called on the European Union to give financial support to “Cuban civil society” with the aim of overthrowing those currently in power … (full text, January 8th, 2006).

Cuba, the Internet and Reporters without Borders. September 10, 2007.

Those in the United States and Western Europe who thought that the Cubans would receive the news of Fidel Castro’s retirement joyfully completely ignore the realities of Cuba today. The great majority of the population professes affection, admiration and infinite respect for their political, historical, moral and spiritual leader. On the other hand, if the Cubans have more or less accepted the fact that Fidel Castro does not wish to aspire to the presidency of the Republic, they categorically deny that he gave up his rank of Commander in Chief. Cuba is not sensitive to pressure or blackmail and even less to threats. The revolutionary government will not accept any demand from Washington or from Western Europe. This reality has to be understood by those who try to decide Cuba’s destiny instead of the Cubans themselves … (full text, 02-03-2008).

Lo importante es decir la verdad sobre Cuba, 08 de Junio de 2007.

Find him and his publications on Global Research.ca; on ZNet; on EMM news explorer; on Selves and Others; on Google Video-search; on Google Book-search; on Google Scholar-search; on Google Group-search; on Google Blog-search.

Hugo Chávez, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero et le roi d’Espagne, Novembre 15, 2007.

Les relations entre Cuba et le Venezuela débouchent parfois sur des miracles, et nombreuses sont les personnes qui peuvent en témoigner. Depuis juin 2004, 20 000 citoyens vénézueliens qui avaient perdu de la vue, depuis plusieurs décennies pour certains, à cause de cataractes et autres maladies oculaires, ont pu revoir la lumière du jour grâce aux prodiges accomplis par la Révolution cubaine et son incomparable système de santé1. Evidemment, les performances médicales réalisées par les spécialistes cubains ont été passées sous silence par la presse internationale, trop occupée à faire la part belle au thème désormais idéologique des violations des droits de l’homme … (full text, 20 mai 2005).

El secretario general de Reporteros sin Fronteras reconoce que su organización está financiada por Estados Unidos, 05-05-2005.

Il demande: Doit-on considérer comme prisonniers d’opinion des individus qui ont été condamnés parce qu’ils étaient stipendiés par une puissance étrangère pour déstabiliser leur pays? À l’évidence non. Et pourtant, Amnesty International admet que les agents des États-Unis chargés de renverser un régime socialiste sont des prisonniers d’opinion. Salim Lamrani s’interroge sur cette étrange conception selon laquelle tout État aurait le droit de se protéger des ingérences étrangères, sauf lorsqu’elles proviennent des États-Unis et visent à imposer leur idéologie et leur modèle économique … (full text, May 5, 2008).

La dette du Venezuela à l’égard de Cuba, Octobre 20, 2007.

Les médias occidentaux triomphants ont présenté la levée de restrictions à la consommation à Cuba comme le signe d’un renversement du système économique, du socialisme vers le libéralisme, à la faveur de l’abandon du pouvoir par Fidel Castro. En réalité, observe Salim Lamrani, ces restrictions ont été abrogées parce qu’elles sont devenues inutiles, Cuba ayant trouvé de nouveaux partenaires pour redynamiser son économie malgré le blocus US. Loin de marquer une rupture politique, ces réformes —qui ont fait l’objet de vastes débats préalables— manifestent la volonté des Cubains de parvenir au développement en conservant leur approche économique … (full text, Avril 17, 2008).

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Abdourahman Ali Waberi - Djibouti

Abdourahman Waberi is novelist, essayist, poet and short-story writer. He was born in Djibouti in 1965. He studied literature at the université de Bourgogne, France. Waberi worked as a literary Consultant for Editions Le Serpent à plumes, Paris, France, as a literary critic for Le Monde Diplomatique, Paris, France. He has been a member of the International Jury for the Lettre/Ulysses Award for the Art of Reportage (Berlin, Germany), 2003 & 2004. Furthermore Waberi worked as an English teacher at Caen, France. He was awarded with several honors including the Stefan-Georg-Preis 2006, Heinrich-Heine-Universität, the Grand Prix Littéraire de l’Afrique noire 1996 and the Prix biennal « Mandat pour la liberté » - offered by PEN France, 1998. In 2005 he was chosen amongst the “50 Writers of Future” by French literary Magazine “Lire”. He was a DAAD Berliner Kunstlerprogramm in 2006 and lived at Berlin. He is currently a Donald and Susan Newhouse Center Humanities Fellow at Wellesley College, USA. His work is translated into more than ten languages. in 2007 Waberi participated in the Stock Exchange of Visions project … (full text).

He says: “If you are so electrolyzed, if you are so computerized, if you are so dependent on devices and tools, electronic tools, maybe we’ll see people who are more and more sedentary, so less and less nomadic and maybe trying to control everything remotely with a distance, I mean with devices. And then, less and less kissing, less and less hugging, less and less touching which is, for me, a kind of a nightmare because as an African, even as an Arab, I’m used to touch and to feel people. I will imagine some kind of human beings with big cranium, with a big skull and a small body. With less hands, and a big skull … (in stock exchange of visions, 04.06.2007).

Son website en françaishis / his official website in french.

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Abdourahman Ali Waberi - Djibouti

Listen to him what he says on (or read the transcript of) some short videos: about technology; about balances; about religion; about cities; about mass media; about water; about globalization; about growth; about evolution.

Portes d’Afrique”: une opération littéraire et maritime.

He writes: “For almost two hundred years now, since the defeat of Napolean III., the collapse of the colonial empire and the ensuing hegemony of the United States, sweet ‘ole France is really very tiny. This country has become a trusted landscape for me. I study the natives in their natural environment. However formidable, the major difference between me and professional anthropologists is that I don’t work for any investigative institution, but instead do it at my own expense. My moneybag suffers because of it, but who really cares. In Africa, investigations and apprenticeships are devaluated to such an extent that mothers already begin to worry about their daughter’s future as soon as they are old enough to marry, telling their admirers, “Hey, you! Go work or teach!” … (full text).

His bio.

French-speaking Africa has produced a constellation of phantom writers who live in Western Europe and primarily write for — some say cater to — a Western readership. The most prolific Guinean writer, Tierno Monénembo, lives and writes in France, as do the novelists Abdourahman A. Waberi of Djibouti; Fatou Diome of Senegal; and Henri Lopes of the Congo Republic, who has also been Brazzaville’s ambassador to several European countries … (full long text, 4 pages).

Abdourahman A. Waberi is among the writers who have joined UNESCO in its fight against illiteracy. Here is an extract from his text on the subject to be published by the Organization in its forthcoming book “The Alphabet of Hope”. (UNESCO).

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Shabnam Hashmi - India

Linked with Act Now for Harmony and Democracy ANHAD.

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

Shabnam Hashmi (born 1957 in Aligarh, a small town about 80 miles from Delhi) has worked for more than 20 years to combat communalism in India. She was associated with the creation and running of Sahmat, formed by artists and intellectuals in memory of her activist brother, who was murdered while performing a street play in 1989. After the Gujarat carnage, she understood the need for an outfit to systematically counter fascist propaganda, and the NGO Act Now for Harmony and Democracy (Anhad) was born in March 2003. Working voluntarily and without fees and with limited funds, Shabnam has emerged as a single-person pressure group. She was the youngest of five children. Although her family belonged to Delhi, Partition reduced her grandfather’s business to ruin.

She says: “The fascist forces are very organized and gaining ground. It is a battle for the hearts and minds of the people”.

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Shabnam Hashmi - India

She works for Act Now for Harmony and Democracy ANHAD.

While some relatives decided to move to Pakistan, her father, Haneef Hashmi, decided to stay put: he had much at stake, having spent years as a student leader, as well as four years in British jails during the freedom movement. Faced with a deep financial crisis, the family decided to relocate to Aligarh.

While Haneef joined the university, her mother, Qamar, who came from a highly-educated family of writers and poets, soon found life in Aligarh claustrophobic. The Muslim clerics in the area had started objecting to the fact of her oldest daughter walking around in frocks and skirts. Disgusted, Qamar shifted to Delhi and took up a job as a school principal.

In 1964, she brought her children to Delhi. The family had just about enough wherewithal for three meals a day; all the children went to government schools. In 1969, Haneef also found a job in Delhi as editor of a magazine.

Shabnam was brought up on the stories of the freedom struggle and of World War II and classical literature. The first book that made a deep impression on her, when she was 13 years old, was The Diary of Anne Frank. By the time she finished school, she had read most Soviet, Russian, and English classical literature.

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Mrinal Gore - India

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

Influenced by Mahatma Gandhi’s Quit India exhortation as a youngster, Mrinal Gore (born 1928) chucked in a promising career in medicine to devote herself to organizing the poor and the disenfranchised. For more than half a century, she has been involved with a series of organizations and leading protests both on the streets and in the corridors of power, focusing on women’s rights, civil rights, communal harmony, and trade union activities. She was fortunate to have had extremely enlightened parents: her father was a professor of physics at Mumbai’s Elphinstone College, and her mother came from a family of intellectuals. Of her six other siblings, three went on to become doctors and two engineers.

It is said: Mrinal Gore’s sacrifice of her medical career for lifelong social activism was one of a kind with postindependence idealism and the establishment of a democratic superstructure of governance

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Mrinal Gore - India

She works for Swadhar (named on Gov.India, and on NIC.in ), and for the Keshav Gore Smarak Trust KGST (described on MIT.edu, USA, and on AIDprojects.org, India).

It was during a family vacation to the nearby town of Palghar that Mrinal came in contact with the Rashtriya Seva Dal (RSD), a voluntary organization connected with the Indian National Congress. At the time, India’s freedom struggle was at its height, and the atmosphere was charged by Mahatma Gandhi’s Quit India exhortation.

Mrinal had taken up medicine for her higher studies, and although a brilliant student, she decided to drop her academic career in favor of devoting herself to organizing the poor and the disenfranchised. She had passed the first MBBS examinations with flying colors, but in 1947, the year of Independence, Mrinal departed medical college, choosing to become a fulltimer with the RSD, organizing housewives for sociopolitical work.

She spent a year with the Congress, leaving in 1948 with a group of Socialist youngsters who decided to form the Socialist Party, which became a critical thorn in the Congress party’s flesh. The same year, Mrinal married Socialist leader Keshav “Bandhu” Gore. The two were from different castes and were breaking the prevalent caste taboo by marrying. The Gores lived and worked in Goregaon, a rural area that has now become part of suburban Mumbai.

In 1950, Mrinal joined the Goregaon Mahila Mandal as its secretary. The Mahila Mandal worked for the uplift of women in the area; in 1951, the organization put in place the Family Planning Center under Mrinal’s guidance. She was a step ahead of the Indian government, which introduced its family planning programs only in 1952.

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Elizabeth Edattukaran - India

Linked with The Salesian Sisters.

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

Sister Elizabeth Edattukaran was born in 1938 into a humble Christian family in village Malla, Trichur district, Kerala. She has worked fearlessly and relentlessly under the most trying circumstances, and at considerable personal risk, to provide healthcare and relief to people affected by conflict and violence in northeast India. She has also been instrumental in setting into motion several conflict resolution initiatives, and in providing livelihood options to women affected by ethnic violence. Her deep faith in god and her humane touch have helped dispel much of the fear and distrust that result from endemic conflicts.

It is said: In many, many ways, Sister Elizabeth personifies the words “in the service of God”, bringing together two neighboring communities separated by ethnic distrust

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sorry, we have no photo of Elizabeth Edattukaran, India

She works for the Salesian Sisters.

She had six siblings. From her parents, who were both very involved with social service, she absorbed the Christian values of giving and service to society.

Elizabeth is trained to be a nurse and holds a PCBSc degree in nursing. She has also obtained a diploma in administration, and higher training in geriatric nursing. She has worked in Northeast India since 1956, founding the Rapsun School of Nursing in 1979 (which she handed over to the Holy Cross Sisters in 1988).

Since 1984, Elizabeth has been directly involved with providing health services and relief to people affected by violence. The ethnic violence in the Northeast deeply disturbed her: during the eponymous 1984 Nellie massacre of an immigrant community in Assam, she was an important player in healing the wounded and the affected. She was also key in the rehabilitation work that followed an upsurge of ethnic violence in Meghalaya. In 1985, she received a presidential award for her exemplary services.

Since 1991, Elizabeth has been working under very difficult circumstances in Assam’s Kokrajhar district. In 1996, when communal and ethnic violence erupted in the area, she immersed herself completely in providing much-needed medical and emotional support to the broken communities. She is deeply involved in healthcare, with a special focus on reproductive health for the most marginalized tribal communities.

Elizabeth has also been instrumental in setting into motion confidence-building and conflict-resolution initiatives. An intercultural peace meet was organized, with her as a key member of the committee. She played a leadership role in providing basic necessities, healthcare, and trauma-counseling to victims who had witnessed the killings of their dearest ones. Equally remarkable is her work on enhancing skills and providing livelihood options to women affected by ethnic violence.
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Urvashi Butalia - India

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

Urvashi Butalia, born 1952 in Ambala in Punjab, is the face and voice of feminist literature and publishing in India. In 1984, she set up Kali for Women, India’s first feminist publishing house, from a little office in a garage and with almost no funds. Two decades later, Kali has succeeded in bringing to the fore the marginalized voices of Indian women. Her parents, Subhadra and Joginder Butalia, had relocated to what became India after Partition when The Tribune, where Joginder worked, had shifted there. Her mother began as a teacher, and taught both at school and university.

She says: “Early in my life I realized that knowledge is a most powerful weapon, and the silence of women across the world was premised on the denial of knowledge and information”.

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Urvashi Butalia - India

She works for Kali for Women (Feminist Publishing in Asia), which is part of Zubaan Books.

The third of two brothers and a sister, Urvashi was brought up to believe in honesty and self-reliance. Her mother worked even as she bore four children, and looked after her own brother and sister, who became refugees after Partition. Urvashi’s parents brought up their children with no thought to gender inequity.

They were all educated in a co-educational school. When her father was offered a job with The Times of India in Delhi, Urvashi and her sister Bela went to a girls’ school where their mother taught, and where education for them was free.

Urvashi earned a Masters in literature from Delhi University in 1973 and a Masters in South Asian Studies in 1977 from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. Involved in student politics while at university, she became leader of the students’ union in her college, Miranda House, and worked for women and girl students. She was the vanguard of a campaign for women’s colleges to become members of the Delhi University Students’ Union, until then the preserve of male students.

Urvashi participated in crusades to make the university a safer place for women, for better hostel conditions for girl students, against the commodification of women through beauty contests, and several other campaigns. It was this that led, in the early 1970s, to her involvement in the then nascent women’s movement in India, where she was initially part of a large umbrella group called Samta (Equality), the parent group that founded the journal Manushi.

Urvashi was on the original founding collective of this now-legendary journal.
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Sushobha Barve - India

Linked with Himmat online.net / the Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation CDR.

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

For more than two decades, Sushobha Barve (born 1949) has been working tirelessly, often without any organizational support, to create dialogue and reconciliation in conflict-stricken areas. Her philosophy is based on the need for reconciliation, whether it is in Maharashtra, Bihar, Sri Lanka, or Jammu and Kashmir. Sushobha believes that people do not need state agencies to solve their problems. Born in 1949 in Mumbai, she grew up in a middleclass Maharashtrian- dominated area, the Hindu Colony in Dadar, one of the older parts of the city. Her family encouraged liberal thought and unfettered questioning. Both home and school environments bolstered the spirit of service and social work. The walls of the family sitting-room were adorned with the photographs of the freedom movement’s leaders … It is said: Sushobha’s sensitive and democratic approach to conflict resolution has led to inimical communities accessing each other’s mutual survival desires, and to building bridges over choppy waters. (1000peacewomen).

Conference on JK calls for ‘truth commission’, May 7, 2008.

THE India-Pakistan peace process has been stalled for almost a year now. Its negative impact is seen most in Jammu and Kashmir where people feel discouraged and disheartened about their problem ever being resolved. It was against this gloomy backdrop that the first intra-Kashmir women’s conference, ‘Connecting women across the Line of Control’, was held in Srinagar recently. It helped to lift spirits and revive hope … (full long text).

Her book: Healing Streams: Bringing Hope in the Aftermath of Violence, by Sushobha Barve, 30 May 2003.

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Sushobha Barve - India

She works for the Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation CDR (a project of Himmat online.net).

New Delhi, May 06: A conference on Kashmir has been conducted quietly for the past two days at a resort near Mehrauli off MG Road, which connects New Delhi to Gurgaon.Thirty-eight leaders from Pakistan-administered Kashmir (PaK), Gilgit-Balwaristan and Jammu and Kashmir are attending this meet. At the end of the first two days of deliberations, the message that has emerged is that if something concrete is not done to resolve the Kashmir dispute soon, the Valley could see another violent uprising. The strictly “closed-door” conference, organised Sushobha Barve of the Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation … (full text, May 6, 2008).

Her book in Roupies.

Sushobha Barve demonstrates that communal conflict in India can be addressed through dialogue. Working in the most violence-ridden regions of her country, she engineers conversations that involve all parties in an exploration of the social and economic factors that led to their conflict, and leads them toward practical solutions. Paying no heed to those who doubt the power of discussion, she has helped feuding groups make and implement strong plans to end violence, recover from it, and avert it in the future … Sushobha plans to apply the systems and techniques she developed through years of work in hot spots like Kashmir, Malegaon and the slums of Mumbai to communal conflict in the whole of South Asia. She is now spreading her methods through programs for teachers, community leaders, police, and citizens throughout the region. (full text on ASHOKA Changemaker).

Forging New Paths in Peacemaking in Times of Conflict and Violence.
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Veteran Gandhian Nirmala Deshpande - India (1929 - 2008)

Veteran Gandhian Nirmala Deshpande passed away in the national capital early on Thursday morning. She was 79 … (New Delhi, May 1, 2008).

Linked with Remembering Nirmala Deshpande: South Asia has lost a great crusader of peace,

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

Nirmila Deshpande, a well known peace crusader of India, died on May 1, 2008, after a long period of illness. She was 79-years-old and left behind so many followers who like her, wanted peace. From her early years she was a Gandhian and an enlightened person whose only aim in life was to work for the cause of humanity … Didi will be remembered for her time as a peace crusader in a region which is on the verge of self destruction by racing to acquire nuclear arms over the importance of feeding millions of poverty ridden people (full text).

She said: “Nirmala is a pioneer of peace work, especially in terms of mobilizing women and girls to engage in establishing pacifism-and the subcontinent is the net gainer” … (1000peacewomen).

She received the National Communal Harmony Award 2004.

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Veteran Gandhian Nirmala Deshpande - India (1929 - 2008)

Her official Website.

Listen her video: Nirmala Deshpande: Limitation, Complexity and Interdependenc, 5 min, June 25, 2007.

She said also: “Gandhi belongs to the world”.

She worked for All-India Harijan Sevak Sangh AIHSS (named on blogs about Harijan Sevak Sangh), for Akhil Bharat Rachanatmak Samaj ABRS, (named on her official website), and for the National Centre for Rural Development NCRD.

She helped also the Association of Peoples of Asia, the Women’s Initiative for Peace in South Asia WIPSA (scroll down), the Adhyatma Jagaran Manch (named on her website), and the Peoples Integration Council (named on AICC.org).

She was Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) (Nominated twice): First term from 1997-1999, Second term from 2004 onwards. (on her website).

Photo-Gallery.

(From 1000peacewomen): Nirmala Deshpande (born on 17 October 1929) was the quiet, reflectiv face of Gandhianism in a world torn apart by strife and communal hatred. A pioneer of peace work, Nirmala has been especially successful in mobilizing women and girls, founding several organizations that function as platforms for people who believe in peace and nonviolence to come together.

Also crucial were her numerous Track II initiatives to establish peace with Pakistan at a people-to-people level. To the many people whose lives she’s touched, Nirmala was known as just didi (elder sister).

She was born to P.Y. Deshpande and Vimlabhai Deshpande in Nagpur, Maharashtra. Her father, a Member of Parliament, brought her up in an open and free environment, encouraging her to take up higher studies. Nirmala did her Masters in political science, and then worked as a lecturer at Morris College, Nagpur.
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Dominique Plihon - France

Linked with the Community Exchange System CES, and with the Canterbury Community Dollar CCD. Also linked with John Grahl - England.

Dominique Plihon is Professor at the Department of Economics of Paris-Nord University (France). He is in charge of a Master Program (Diplôme d’Etudes Supérieures Spécialisées) in Banking and Finance. (Alternativer ECOFIN.org 1/2, scroll down).

He writes: … It is vain to sit and wait for governments and international institutions to spontaneously take account of the current situation and to commit themselves to putting things right by challenging neo-liberal dogma. The reforms we have just described will never come about unless there is a social movement on a national and international level capable of demanding them. Today’s international movement against financial globalisation, of which Attac is a part, shows the way forward. (full text).

2 french videos:
1) la crise des subprime et ses conséquences, 1 h 31 min. 25 sec, du 14 décembre 2007.

2) Cours vidéo d’Attac France: Les fonds d’investissement et la crise financière, 15 min, avril 4, 2008.

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Dominique Plihon - France

Speculation and Collapse: Enough ! European Left Demands Control of Finance Capital … (fresh ink, April 2, 2008).

… The final essay by Dominique Plihon gives a good condensed summary of developments in the world economy since the 1970s: the growing power of finance capital, the globalisation of production networks, and so on. These transformations have helped shift the balance of power between labour and capital strongly in favour of the latter, undermining the Fordist consensus of the post-war era. One of the main consequences has been a diminution of labour’s share of the cake, as Table 3 shows … (full long text, April 15th, 2008).

Libéralisation financière et crises bancaires dans les pays émergents.

Dominique Plihon est professeur d’économie financière à l’Université Paris XIII et participe à l’édition de plusieurs revues. Militant altermondialiste, il est par ailleurs président du conseil scientifique de l’association Attac … (full text fr.wikipedia).

Find him and his publications on BookFinder.com; on amazon; on Google Video-search; on Google Book-search; on Google Scholar-search; on Google Group-search; on Google Blog-search.

Regulation theory has always taken crises to be a manifestation of contradictions within the mode of regulation, as well as a source of new configurations. Robert Boyer, Mario Dehove and Dominique Plihon, who have studied financial crises over the long term, examine here the various forms such crises have taken in recent years and propose reforms of the globalised finance which is characteristic of capitalism today … (full text, April 2005, 6 pages).

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Glen Ford - USA

Linked with The Black Agenda Report, with The Lords of Capital Decree Mass Death by Starvation, and with Obama’s Race Neutral Strategy Unravels of its Own Contradictions.

The son of famed disc jockey Rudy The Deuce Rutherford, the first Black man to host a non-gospel television show in the Deep South, Columbus, Georgia, 1958, Glen was reading newswire copy on-the-air at age eleven. Glen’s first full-time broadcast news job was at James Brown’s Augusta, Georgia radio station WRDW, in 1970, where The Godfather of Soul shortened Glen’s surname to Ford. Glen Ford worked as a newsperson at four more local stations: in Columbus, Georgia, Atlanta, Baltimore, where he created his first radio syndication, a half-hour weekly news magazine called Black World Report, Washington, DC. In 1974, Ford joined the Mutual Black Network, 88 stations, where he served as Capitol Hill, State Department and White House correspondent, and Washington Bureau Chief, while also producing a daily radio commentary. In 1977, Ford co-launched, produced and hosted America’s Black Forum ABF, the first nationally syndicated Black news interview program on commercial television. … (full text).

Historic “firsts,” “mosts,” and “onlys” are the hallmarks of Glen Ford’s long career.

He says: “The consequences of vast and growing U.S. economic disparities are fatal for the poor - and getting worse. In the space of 20 years, affluent Americans have increased their longevity relative to the poor, and may have reaped most of the benefits of the medical knowledge accumulated during that era … The poor die quicker, as audio (click on link), or read it on the page (watch the whole radio archive of The Black Agenda Report, in audio AND as text).

Corporate Reporters Tell Lies for a Living, 23 April 2008.

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Sorry, I found no photo of Glen Ford, USA, certifying it’s the one of the Black Agenda Report .

His commentary: The state with the harshest record for putting African Americans behind bars has become the first to pass a law that would assess the impact of new criminal justice legislation on minorities. Iowa imprisons Blacks at 13 times the rate of whites - more than twice the national average of racial disparity in incarceration. Prison activists have long called for impact statements at every stage of the criminal justice system, so that gross racial biases could be systematically eliminated. If there is to be a national dialogue on race, it should begin with the Black American Gulag, which comprises nearly half of what is by far the world’s largest prison system. Click the flash player to hear this Black Agenda Radio commentary.

Bigger Than Hip Hop, a look at the state of black political leadership.

He writes: Tavis Smiley never wanted to pick a fight with Barack Obama. In point of fact, it is not in the media entrepreneur’s nature to pick fights with persons of power or popularity. But Obama’s zealots do not accept anything less than abject, unqualified loyalty to their leader, whom they treat more as a messiah than a Chicago politician with close ties to Wall Street … (full text).

Cancer in the Congressional Black Caucus CBC as that body has become increasingly Pro-Corporate and Anti-Community, by Glen Ford, Black Agenda Report.

ALSO, there appears to be some growing dissatisfaction with Barack Obama among some African-Americans who feel he’s wrapped up the black vote without making any promises about improving the lives of people of color. Glen Ford of the Blackagenda Report writes that Obama “never lied to Black America” because the candidate hasn’t promised blacks anything: “Without really trying, in fact, without committing a single purposeful act, Black America has succeeded in rendering itself totally irrelevant this election season,” writes Ford. “About 90 percent of Black America has allied itself with a candidate that never promised them a damn thing.” Ford goes on to say Black America has become ‘irrelevant’ in this election. It’s pretty provocative stuff … (full text).

American History, Black History and the the Right to Bear Arms, April 19, 2008.

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Jianmei Guo - China

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

Guo Jianmei was born in 1961, and has been engaged in the protection of women’s rights, and related research. In 1995 she initiated the establishment of the Center for Women’s Law Studies and Legal Services of Peking University. This center provides free legal aid, and endeavors to develop the protection of the rights of women in need in China. It has contributed greatly to the progress made by lawyers and NGO’s working for civil rights.

She asks: “If laws cannot protect poor and helpless persons like my litigant, why should we lawyers exist?”

GROWTH AND SUSTAINABILITY: HOW WOMEN ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE, THE INAUGURAL MEETING OF THE WOMEN’S FORUM ASIA, Shanghai, the Pudong Shangri La hotel, 15-17 May 2008: confirmed speakers, and public program.

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Jianmei Guo - China

She works for the Center for Women’s Law Studies and Legal Services of Peking University.

After she became a lawyer for public legal aid, the first case that Guo Jianmei took was of a woman trying to pursue a lawsuit for her son; on her way to Beijing, a car knocked her down, causing damage in the clavicle and lumbar regions and blinding her in one eye. According to all relevant departments, the other party in the accident should have taken full responsibility but they paid merely 30 thousand yuan, which was a pittance - an artificial eye would have cost 100 thousand yuan. To make matters worse, the 30 thousand yuan was later stolen. Guo was devoted to the case. The procurator script was over 10 thousand characters and Guo gave it her best, debating vigorously in court.

This was the first case that Guo took up after the establishment of the Women’s Laws Research and Service Center in the Law School of Peking University. And it was during the proceedings of this case that she became determined to be a lawyer for public legal aid.

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Index April 2008

Rafael C. Lopa - Philippines

Linked with The Resource Alliance.org.

Rafael C. Lopa looks at emerging social enterprises and how to engage the business sector in building social capital at grassroots level. Introduction by Mal Warwick (Newsletter of the Resource Alliance.org).

World Forum, Introduction and essential information … in Edinburgh, Scotland from September 2nd to 5th 2008. (full text).

Billionaire venture capitalist Sir Tom Hunter is to be a keynote speaker at the UK’s first annual social investment conference, Good Deals, in London on Tuesday 6th May, 2008. Presented by the Office of the Third Sector (OTS) in partnership with NESTA, Good Deals will bring together a wide range of high profile contributors to debate and learn about new opportunities for financing social change … (full text).

ASA Philippines Foundation/about.

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Rafael C. Lopa - Philippines

Employment and skills for disadvantaged people, Social Firms: a solution. Conference 23 - 24 June 2008, Reading University - Background and event objectives: This conference is relevant for Social Firms, social enterprises and service providers who have an interest and active involvement in helping people furthest away from the labour market into employment and training opportunities … (full text Social Firms.uk).

What is the future of social enterprise in ethical markets? By Dr Alex Nicholls MBA, a social enterprise think piece for the Office of the Third Sector, November 2007, 26 pages.

Rafael is currently involved in promoting Social Entrepreneurship in the Philippines. Concretely, he sits on the board of ASA Philippines Foundation, a Non-governmental Organization involved in Micro-Financing for poor enterprising women. He is also on the Board of the PINOYME Foundation, a foundation that is in the process of setting up a Social Investment Banking Operation geared to further strengthen the Micro-Finance Institutions in the Philippines. Rafael serves as Chairman of MicroVentures, Inc. MVI, a Social Business Enterprise geared to be the leading business partner of MicroEntrepreneurs. To date, MVI has pioneered the establishment of a network of small village /community based stores (or what we refer to as “Sari-sari Stores) owned by women micro-entrepreneurs catering to the Bottom of the Pyramid Market. He will be a featured speaker at the International Workshop on Resource Mobilisation (IWRM) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 22-25 May 2008 … (full text).

Welcome to the Social Enterprise Network.

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Rani Bang - India

Linked with SEARCH.org.

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

Rani Bang’s work in the Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra has changed the face of the tribal pockets in the area. Where healthcare was once nonexistent, there are now a friendly hospital, experienced healthworkers, and trained traditional birth attendants. Rani also worked actively towards reviving traditional medicine, realizing that community mobilization combined with the optimum use of existing facilities is the only way to solve the crises in the interior areas, largely overlooked by policy and planners alike. (1000peacewomen).

She says: “Rani Bang’s forte is her responsiveness to what the people identify as priority areas of concern. She uses research to understand their needs, and then uses community-based solutions to solve them”.

National Award for Women’s Development through application of Science & Technology Conferred on Dr. Rani Bang.

Like many great medical breakthroughs, Drs. Abhay and Rani Bang’s discovery of how to reduce child deaths in the developing world as much as 75% came from a deceptively simple premise … (full text).

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Abhay and Rani Bang - India

She works for the Society for Education, Action and Research in Community Health (Search).

Two hundred kilometers to the south of Nagpur lies Gadchiroli district in Maharashtra. It is located on the borders of Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. This area is known to be one of the most backward regions of Maharashtra. In this forlorn place, a brilliant doctor couple, in their fifties, has been working for over two decades, taking medical care to the poor people … (full text).

Her profile on Ashoka.
Dr. Rani Bang comes from a family with strong commitment to medical and public service. She is also the daughter-in-law of well-known Gandhian Takurdas Bang. She completed her medical degree in India with several gold medals, and went on to Johns Hopkins University in the US for a Masters in Public Health.

Having obtained the degree, Rani returned to India. In the early 1980s, she and her husband, Dr. Abhay Bang, decided to relocate to the internal tribal pockets of Maharashtra. Abhay and Rani set up the Society for Education, Action and Research in Community Health (SEARCH) to provide community healthcare to the tribes in Gadchiroli district.

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Karen Silkwood - USA (1946 - 1974)

Linked with Tony Mazzocchi - USA, and with List of Trade Unions worldwide.

Karen Silkwood (February 19, 1946 – November 13, 1974) was an American labor union activist and chemical technician at the Kerr-McGee plant near Crescent, Oklahoma, United States. Silkwood’s job was making plutonium pellets for nuclear reactor fuel rods. She died under mysterious circumstances after investigating claims of irregularities and wrongdoing at the Kerr-McGee plant … (wikipedia).

Her Union activities.

Karen Silkwood (1946-1974), a nuclear plant laborer who died while investigating safety violations made by her employer, is viewed as a martyr by anti-nuclear activists. Her story was made into a film, Silkwood, in 1983 … (Encyclopedia of World Biography, on Karen Silkwood, About 5 pages / 1364 words - FREE).

Karen Silkwood was a co-founder of the (US) Labor Party.

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Karen Silkwood - USA (1946 - 1974)

She worked for the Kerr-McGee plant, Oklahoma.

Was Karen Silkwood Murdered?

  • Controversy Was Karen Silkwood Murdered Part 1;
  • Controversy Was Karen Silkwood Murdered Part 2:
  • Controversy Was Karen Silkwood Murdered Part 3.

Karen Silkwood, Campaigner.

Silkwood said she had assembled a stack of documentation for her claims. She now decided to go public with this evidence, and made contact with a New York Times journalist prepared to print the story. On November 13, 1974 she left a union meeting at the Hub Cafe in Crescent. Another attendee of that meeting later testified that she did have a binder and a packet of documents at the cafe. Silkwood got into her car and headed alone for Oklahoma City, about 30 miles away, to meet with New York Times reporter David Burnham and Steve Wodka, an official of her union’s national office. She never arrived. (wikipedia).

From the New York Times: The Karen Silkwood Story, An Unexpected Twist At The End - HERE IS THE STORY that answers the basic question underlying the Karen Silkwood controversy, 1985.

In the book: No Nukes, everyone’s guide to nuclear power, page 103.

… Karen Silkwood, who died at age 28, was buried in Danville Cemetery in Kilgore, Texas … (full text).

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Tony Mazzocchi - USA (1926 - 2002)

Linked with Karen Silkwood - USA (1946 - 1974), with List of Trade Unions worldwide, and with The Man Who Hated Work and Loved Labor.

Last October, Clean Water Action – and all who care about a safer and more just world – lost a close friend and visionary partner to cancer. Tony Mazzocchi was a leader in the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union (OCAW, which merged with the paperworkers in 1999 to form a union called PACE). He was one of the first to call attention to the injustices of an industrial system that endangers workers’ health both on the job and in the community. He believed – and acted effectively on the belief – that the path to solutions lies in building alliances between workers, environmentalists and community residents to transform conditions that ultimately threaten all of humanity. His tireless advocacy over five decades spurred creation of the modern workplace health and safety movement, sparked environmental groups’ increased emphasis on health harm from toxic chemicals, and forged labor-environmental partnerships that produced many of those movements’ most important victories … (full text).

Union Scrapper about: A Review of The Man Who Hated Work and Loved Labor.

He said: “We’re the only industrial nation in the world where if you strike the employer can replace you with scabs—permanently. That’s not a right to strike. That’s a right to commit suicide. (on ‘We Want to Redefine What Society Is All About’: An Interview With Tony Mazzocchi on the Birth of the Labor Party,” Z-Magazine, February 01, 1997″).

Download the audio-Interview with Les Leopold.

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Tony Mazzocchi - USA (1926 - 2002)

at left/above the book - at right/down honoring Karen Silkwood

Tony Mazzocchi, A Video Tribute, 8.12 min, Nov. 13, 2007.

The book telling the life and times of Tony Mazzocchi, same also on labor notes.

He said also: “When you build a big movement from down below, regardless of who’s in the White House, you can bring about change”. (on Anthony Mazzocchi, 76, Dies,” New York Times, October 9, 2000).

Occupational Safety and Health Act.

Anthony Mazzocchi (June 13, 1926 – October 5, 2002) was an American labor leader. He was a high elected official of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union OCAW, serving as vice president from 1977 to 1988, and as secretary-treasurer from 1988 to 1991. He was a mentor to Karen Silkwood, a co-founder of the Labor Party, and credited by President Richard Nixon as being the primary force behind enactment of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970. For his efforts, he was called the “Rachel Carson of the American workplace” … (wikipedia).

And he said: Movements grow in desperate times. We are being born, (on Tony Mazzocchi, 76; Workplace Safety Advocate, Political Activist,” Los Angeles Times, October 8 2002).

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Colin Greer - USA

Linked with The New World Foundation NWF, with Social justice philanthropy from the bottom up.

Colin Greer is president of the New World Foundation in New York. He was a founding editor of Change and Social Policy magazines, a professor for many years in the CUNY system, and has written several award-winning books on education and public policy. His best selling book A Call to Character (HarperCollins, 1995) is a progressive response to William Bennett’s Book of Virtues.

He says: “The Democratic party isn’t a live political party in most places outside Washington. It’s basically a message and money machine at the national level that organises itself every four years for a presidential election. Without long-term and serious attention to the local and state, it was not ready tactically to do most of the things you need to do to win an election. By tactical, I mean that you can win elections by winning just enough votes to win the Electoral College, and if you’re really careful you can get enough votes to legitimate the victory with a popular vote. The Republicans have been deeply engaged in the tactics of doing that. Democrats haven’t and didn’t. In the Democratic party there’s virtually no relationship between local candidates and the national party, and no relationship between the electoral campaign structure and local multi-issue organisations … (full interview text, Dec. 22, 2004).

… But if we DO want to engage new audiences, we must, as Colin Greer told us today, approach our new allies with a spirit of humility, listening deeply and harvesting what we hear as a prelude to action … (full long text of TCG National Conference 2006 - Building Future Audience).

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Colin Greer - USA

A Call to Character is a unique family reader that brings together a liberal assortment of voices from novels, short stories, plays and poetry - both the well loved and the obscure - to enrich and enliven a child’s imagination. The unusual breadth of readings illustrates lives defined by hign standards of personal character, such as courage, honesty, fairness, responsibility, compassion, empathy, generosity and love. (BAMM.com).

His book A Call to Charakter.

… Formerly, he was Professor at Brooklyn College, CUNY. He is the author (with Herbert Kohl) of The Plain Truth of Things and A Call to Character, Harper Collins. Other books include: What Nixon is doing to Us; The Solution is Part of the Problem; After Reagan What? and The Divided Society. He is best known for The Great School Legend and Choosing Equality: The Case for Democratic Schooling (which won the American Library Association’s Eli M. Oboler Intellectual Freedom Award). He was a founding editor of Change Magazine and Social Policy Magazine. He is a contributing editor to Parade Magazine. Dr. Greer participated in and directed several studies of US Immigration and urban schooling policy and history (at Columbia University and CUNY). He wrote briefing papers on philanthropy and government for First Lady, Mrs. Clinton, and on education policy for Senator Paul Wellstone. He chaired the President’s White House Fellows Program (1992-4) and chaired the Funders Committee for Citizen Participation for ten years. He currently chairs Healthcare without Harm (Boston), The LARK Theatre Company (NYC), and The Culture Project (NYC). He serves on the Boards of the Teachers and Writers Collaborative (NYC), NY City Interfaith Center, Tikkun (California), Open Democracy (London, UK), and the American Institute for Mental Imagery. He is currently working on studies of philanthropy and social justice under Ford Foundation grants. (theatre communications group tcg).

Social justice philanthropy: roots and prospect, March 2006.

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Bruno Manser - Switzerland (1954 - 2000?)

Linked with The Bruno Manser Fonds BMF, with The Borneo Project, and with Bruno Manser, Land Rights.

Bruno Manser (born August 25, 1954 in Basel, Switzerland) was an environmental activist. He was well-known in Switzerland for his public activism for rainforest preservation and the protection of indigenous peoples. Manser created richly illustrated notebooks during his stay in 1984 to 1990 with the Penan people, in the jungle of the Eastern Malaysian state of Sarawak, on the island of Borneo, near the Indonesian border of Kalimanta. He stayed with the nomadic band of Along Sega, who became the Penan figurehead for their struggle. He also visited many other settled Penan communities in the Upper Baram district. These notebooks were later published, with some success, by the Christoph Merian press in Basel. Manser, however, was declared persona non grata in Malaysia and had to leave the country with a bounty of $40,000 on his head … (full text).

Bruno Manser’s 1000 photos archive: search in english, (en Francais, auf deutsch). Click on the three pictures, a hidden search tool behind each appears, to help you to select by key words between the 1000 (small) photos. Click on them to enlarge.

See all articles about Bruno Manser (and mainly this photo archive) on Google-News-Bruno-Manser.

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Bruno Manser - Switzerland (1954 - 2000?)

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Bruno Manser – Laki Penan

The engagement and commitment of Bruno Manser in favor of the indigenous people of the tropical forests continues with the work of the Bruno Manser Fund BMF, who resides in Basel. The most important project is at present time the support of the Penan with a “Community Mapping” project, whereby especially trained Penan teams map their homeland and traditional use areas in the forest. The resulting maps serve i.a. as basis and evidence for various land right cases pending before the local courts … (full text).

Rainforest dwellers successfully maintain logging road blockade in one of Malaysia’s last virgin jungle areas, Aug. 14, 2006. (BMW).

So, what did Rio achieve? Well, at that time we were truly able to build on the upsurge, on the recognition by people and governments who wanted to do something about the state of the planet and the state of the human person. I am not being over-dramatic. It is true; you could feel it in the air at that time. Bruno Manser wanted to protest about deforestation. He had had an operation on his leg, because he had broken it in Switzerland. But in Rio he jumped from a parachute, riding piggy-back on somebody else, just to make his point. So people do go to extremities. You could really feel this atmosphere in 1992, and everybody believed that governments and people were sincerely committed to the issues and commitments that came out of Rio … (full text).

En présence des cinéastes.

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Michael Edwards - USA

Disambiguation: your search tool will bring you out several Michael Edwards.

Linked with Alliance, with the Resource Alliance, and with The 21st Century Trust.

Michael Edwards is the Director of the Ford Foundation’s Governance and Civil Society Unit in New York, having worked in international development for the last twenty years, including periods spent living and travelling in Latin America, Southern Africa and South Asia. After a series of senior management positions with Oxfam and Save the Children, he moved to Washington DC to work as a Senior Civil Society Specialist in the NGO Unit of the World Bank. His writings have helped to shape a more critical appreciation of the global role of civil society, and to break down barriers between researchers and activists across the world. Michael was educated in England at the universities of Oxford and London, and now lives with his wife in the center of Manhattan. (Future Positive.org).

His two books:

  • Future Positive, International cooperation in the 21st century;
  • Civil Society;

find their publishing informations on Future Positive.org.

Global Civil Society: Expectations, Capacities and the Accountability of International NGOs, Oxford 28 March - 5 April 2003.

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Michael Edwards - USA

Just another Emperor? The myths and realities of philanthrocapitalism”, by Michael Edwards, published simultaneously in London and New York, 10th March 2008.

He says: “To me that means three things that I’ll leave you with that in the hope that they provoke some initial questions for our conversation:

  • Bringing social and economic democracy back into the conversation. Democracy requires both freedom and equality, yet (perhaps as a result of US dominance in this debate), freedom gets the lion’s share of the attention;
  • Thinking in terms of participatory and deliberative democracy and not just representation – that’s where some of the most interesting innovations lie, like participatory budgeting and citizens forums;
  • And being open to learning from non-Western experience where many of these innovations are strongest, like Brazil and India (e.g, importing participation in the local budget process by Labor government into the UK last year).

These changes would lay the basis for a different kind of conversation that sees democracy as something we co-create together, learning as we go, not something that is exported from one part of the world to another against a standard template or end point in time. And that I think would be a conversation with a lot more intellectual excitement, practical influence, ethical integrity and real purchase on the ground to which all of us as grant-makers could make a central contribution … (full conference text).

CIVIL SOCIETY: Field Statement of Current Programming (October 2003, 7 pages).

GOVERNANCE: Field Statement of Current Programming (October 2003, 7 pages).

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Xiaoliang Li, Sihai Long, Lihong Shi, Zhongxun Liu and Xiuyun Shang - China

Linked with my today̵