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| These are regular editorials
produced alongside the corresponding issues on Nonviolent
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Also in this editorial:
The Irish government's White Paper on overseas
aid, launched during September, is a welcome document, and
was certainly welcomed by Dochas, the umbrella body for aid
agencies. Aid will reach the 'magic' figure of 0.7% of GNP
by 2012, or an estimated €1.5 billion (€1,500 million),
and for the first time a rationale for Irish overseas aid
has been set out which, inter alia, declares that Ireland
has no "political and strategic motives" influencing
decisions on the allocation of development assistance.
The move means Irish government aid will nearly
double over the next 5 or 6 years. A billion and a half Euro
can achieve much in countries where a Euro is much more than
the small change it is in Ireland, and Irish aid will continue
to concentrate on Africa, the continent which is most in need
of a leg up but faces many problems in even running to stand
still with HIV/AIDS as a major factor in a considerable number
of countries, and trade still run in favour of the rich.
But if we analyse what €1.5 billion is
worth in Irish terms, the answer is actually 'not a lot'.
A modest house in a not-too-fashionable area of Dublin would
now be half a million Euro. In other words, the Republic will
be giving away the equivalent of 3,000 modest houses in its
capital city each year. Generous? Yes by world standards but
it is hardly earth-shattering. In the UK, overseas aid in
2005 will be around 0.48%, slightly above the Republic's current
0.41% (though talk in the UK of an 'ethical foreign policy'
at the start of "New Labour's" term in office is
but a distant memory, and a grim one in the light of what
has proceeded since). Norway and Sweden manage over 0.9% of
GNP, followed by Luxembourg, Netherlands and Denmark at over
0.8%. Why could Ireland not give a nice, round 1%?
However, let us consider another aspect of Ireland's
contribution to the world. Greenhouse gases. These have literally
gone through the roof since the Celtic Tiger did its thing.
Result? The Irish contribution to global meltdown has also
gone through the roof and is far in excess of even the modest
Kyoto figures. In a century which will see many countries
half drowned at sea level it is gross irresponsibility not
to tackle to the fullest extent possible Ireland's role in
global warming. Another aspect of this is drought, and elsewhere
storms. Drought affecting poor countries brings starvation.
But rising sea levels could mean a country like Bangladesh
alone has ten or twenty million climate change refugees this
century as low-lying land becomes salinated or flooded, and
certainly also prone to those storms or other natural disasters.
Global melting is the greatest threat of additional structural
violence (injustice) in the 21st century.
Ireland's contribution to overseas aid is totally
negated by its role in global meltdown. It really is like
throwing a few coppers to a beggar but being responsible for
the beggar's penury through actions you have taken. Who is
going to welcome millions of climate change refugees? The
rich countries who caused the bulk of the meltdown? Never.
There are now many initiatives on climate change
and one recent plan from the European Christian Environmental
Network (ECEN - see http://www.ecen.org)
entitled 'Climate Justice Now' points out that "In ecological
terms, the [global] North owes a huge debt to the South. The
rich countries are using up more than the entire capacity
of the Earth to absorb carbon dioxide, emitting 24 billion
tonnes of C02 every year. This is twice the amount the earth
can cope with...." A core idea they are promoting is
that each person on the planet has a 'fair share' budget of
two tonnes of C02 a year if the Earth can absorb 12 billion
tonnes and there are somewhat over six billion people. A quick
web search will give you various sites to help you work out
your own emissions.
If Ireland is really concerned for the wellbeing
of the poorest in the world, and the White Paper shows its
heart is in the right place (after a previous heart-breaking
reneging on a promise to reach the 0.7% by 2007), then action
is needed. All new building should be virtually independent
of fossil fuels and a massive programme of insulation be introduced
for all existing houses. Large subsidies for renewable energy
should be introduced. Planning and building will need to ensure
people live and work in the same communities and are not long-distance
commuters (unlike Dublin which is now a case-book example
of how not to allow urban sprawl to develop). Action needs
to be taken to curb car travel and seriously promote public
transport, cycling and walking. Air travel needs to be seriously
curtailed which means new airport terminals should be ditched
in favour of money spent on better overland and sea links
to Britain and the mainland of Europe. These are just some
of the radical measures which are needed now.
Ireland is projecting itself as an altruistic
player on the world scene. But its relationship to the production
of greenhouse gases, at a time when the urgency of change
is not only apparent but becoming more and more stark, shows
that it is refusing to take proper action in the most important
matter affecting the globe in these times. The next generation
may regard the meeting of the 0.7% target for aid as a case
of fiddling while the world burns.
Northern Ireland enters a crucial period over the next month
or two as the deadline (24th November) approaches for making
or breaking local government at Stormont. The ball is in the
DUP court and while it has looked very much like they are
still unwilling to play ball with Sinn Féin, a positive
Independent Monitoring Commission report on IRA activities
has added to the pressure for change. This IMC report said
that the IRA is not involved in 'terrorism' and has been disbanding
various aspects of its structure.
Ian Paisley has never been a man to say 'yes',
and whether at this late stage he will do so remains to be
seen. Or he may keep shifting the goal posts to avoid going
into government with Sinn Féin. It is certainly generally
accepted that others in his party would go for it but he may
still pull the plug.
If he does go for government at Stormont, irony
of ironies, he will claim that it is the DUP which has achieved
peace, whereas the truth is that the DUP has resisted change
all along, but been quite prepared to take political advantage
of situations as they arose. But the DUP is the majority party
within unionism, as voted for by people within Northern Ireland,
and it has the make or break power; it has meanwhile conveniently
forgotten about its promises to overthrow all the trappings
of the Good Friday Agreement.
As stated often before in these pages, we are
not keen fans of the governmental system set up by the Good
Friday Agreement (because of the restrictions which some of
the guarantees set on Northern Ireland moving beyond sectarian
politics). But it is far better for a new system to be hammered
out sometime in the future, with years of government at Stormont
under the belt, than to try and return to some drawing board
now, with wrangling leading to a not dissimilar result to
what is already in place.
So, let us hope the green light (for 'go') gets
stronger and there is no red light while Northern Irish politics
negotiates this junction or juncture. If it does get through
then it will not be plain sailing but the journey can begin.
If not, then Northern Ireland will remain in political limbo
until the next 'last chance' comes around.
Mark Chapman represented INNATE
at the WRI 'Triennial' conference of Globalising Nonviolence
in Germany in July. Here is his report:
The overall theme of the 2006 WRI Triennial,
held in Germany was 'Globalising Nonviolence'. This was WRI's
24th international conference and was held over 4 days at
the end of July at Schloss Eringerfeld, a rural residential
conference centre near Paderborn. The background to the conference
was the Israeli bombing of Lebanon and Hizbullah rockets landing
in Israel. A statement on the Lebanon crisis was agreed by
the conference and is available at http://wri-irg.org/statemnt/lebanon06-en.htm
More than 200 participants from 30 countries
including South Korea, Sudan, Columbia, India, Israel, Palestine,
Zimbabwe and Georgia attended the gathering and we were encouraged
to get involved with organising workshops, contributing to
the daily bulletin titled 'The Wise Elephant'! (Available
online at http://wri-irg.org/from-off.htm
) and volunteering for various duties including working in
the bar.
The structure of the event worked well with
a plenary session each morning followed by theme groups, and
workshops and another plenary in the afternoon. The cultural
programme in the evenings provided another chance to relax,
chat, unwind, plot some nefarious war resisting activities
and learn new tricks from DVD's and videos brought along by
others.
The vision of the conference organisers was
to bring together practitioners and representatives of two
worldwide movements. The first is the anti-globalisation movement
which opposes the neo-liberal economics of organisations such
as the International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organisation,
World Bank and G8. It's a relatively recent movement having
come to real prominence in the 1999 Seattle protests against
the WTO. The other movement promotes war resistance through
nonviolence and its origins stretch back to the socialist
internationalist opposition to the first world war. This movement
opposes militarism in all its forms and seeks to develop active
nonviolence for social justice and against systems of domination.
The conference provided an opportunity to examine the connections
between the new economics and war and build a more effective
counter culture to these dysfunctions.
One of the speakers, Maria Mies, a retired sociology
professor and veteran globalisation resister, spoke of the
economy being the driving force for war and said that neo-liberal
globalisation leads automatically to war because war is a
necessary feature of this order and this order needs war so
that it can exist.
Stellan Vinthagen, a peace researcher and activist
spoke of the Charter of Principles of the World Social Forum
rejecting party politics and armed struggle and suggesting
nonviolent social resistance. He also pointed out that the
Peoples' Global Action, as one of the biggest players in the
WSF is the one nearest to a nonviolent position.
The seven theme groups on offer were: Global
Military Intervention, Militarisation of Civil Society, Nonviolent
Citizens' Interventions, Nonviolent Strategy & Globalisation,
The Right to Refuse to Kill, War Profiteers, Nonviolence Training
for Beginners. It was a hard call to choose one theme group
but the 'market place' system let the leaders of each theme
group sell their ideas to us punters. The Nonviolent Citizens'
Interventions theme group had a wealth of experience of different
types of initiatives in unarmed peacekeeping by groups such
as Peace Brigades International, Nonviolent Peaceforce, Christian
Peacemaker Team, Gulf Peace Team, International Federation
for East Timor (IFET). The 1999 IFET East Timor independence
referendum observers project was a fascinating case study
in which 125 volunteers monitored human rights abuses in all
13 districts of East Timor for some time prior to the vote.
One small group exercise in this theme group was for us to
come up with 10 ideas of what we could do as a team if we
were in one of the rural districts during this project given
that there was a real threat of violence in the event of a
pro-independence vote.
In fact after the overwhelming vote for independence
the pro-Indonesian militias killed about 1500 East Timorese
in two weeks, displaced 75% of the population and destroyed
most of the buildings in the country. The IFET volunteers
were rounded up in the capital, Dili, and escorted by the
military to the airport. The volunteer recounting this experience
thought that the internationals had made the situation worse
by downplaying the threat of violence made by Indonesia.
The workshops on offer each day provided opportunities
for small group discussion on particular countries, regions
or issues and often broadened the angle that theme groups
were taking. Given the international mix at the conference,
an interpretation system was essential and the team of professional
interpreters fulfilled their role admirably.
Overall the conference was a terrific opportunity
to network, renew old contacts, establish new ones and learn
of the opportunities and difficulties of these two worldwide
movements working together. Check out the next WRI Triennial!
Larry Speight brings us his monthly column
Lessons from a roadside
Recently my wife, five-year old daughter and
myself were stranded in our car by the roadside late at night
as a result of one of our back tyres getting a puncture. Although
we had a spare wheel we did not have a jack. Needless to say
this was an unwelcome situation, as it seemed that we might
have to stay the entire night in the car, and possibly a great
many hours the following day before we could get back on the
road. Fortunately I had a torch and flashed at the stream
of passing vehicles for assistance, after a short time a driver
stopped and went to considerable effort to help us but was
unable to, before departing he entrusted us, perfect strangers
to him, with his AA membership card. With the hour even latter,
and few vehicles on the road, I once again flashed the torch,
not expecting any positive results. But after a short spell
another driver gave up his time, and perhaps overcame his
suspicions, and stopped to help. Within fifteen minutes of
him doing so, we thanked him heartedly and were on the road
for home.
The experience reminded me of two important
things. Firstly, although it often seems that the world is
mainly populated by the selfish and self-serving there are
undoubtedly a great many people in the dark, formless would
just beyond our vision who are willing to be good neighbours,
to put themselves out to help others without expectation of
anything in return other that the satisfaction that they were
able to be of assistance. The other important reminder is
that hope is a more productive than despair. Hope spurs one
to take positive action to resolve a problem, despair leads
to passivity and defeat.
These two lessons have environmental implications.
If we despair over global warming, we will never do anything
to address it, and thus the scientific predictions will in
the course of time become reality. Hope can lead to changes
in our behaviour, which although too late to prevent global
warming, is likely to mitigate the effects. The fact that
people are willing to help others at a cost to themselves
suggests that we do have the ability to make 'personal sacrifices'
for the common good. Thus what is perhaps needed to successfully
address our environmental as well as social justice problems
is to tap into this benevolence through a comprehensive, continuous
and cross-institutional awareness-raising program about the
commonality of the problems, and the necessity to do something
about them. A clear and firm belief that good can be achieved
will motivate many to achieve that good, for in the end no
one wants to have lived in vain.
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