This peace of video is an example of good practice at community level using participatory mapping, which is motivational to look at how a community is reviving in the face of difficulties.
The documentary has been jointly produced by the Indonesia Community Mapping Network or Jaringan Kerja Pemetaan Partisipatif (JKPP), and the Center for people Economic Development or Yayasan Rumpun Bambu Indonesia (YRBI).
(Source: PPgis.net, Zunia)
A major earthquake hit Haiti on Tuesday, causing huge destruction and enormous loss of life. According to the latest information from the Haiti government and other sources, the death toll stands at between 30-50,000 with 3 million individuals affected. Thousands are thought to still be buried under rubble, with some sources estimating the death toll could reach 100,000. The worst affected area is the capital city, Port-au-Prince and the surrounding suburbs.
T he worst earthquake in 200 years struck Haiti, devastating the capital and threatening over 3 million people. Haiti’s infrastructure and communications have been shattered and untold thousands killed.
COP 15 has launched a great deal of drama. It seems truly a global platform, which engaged actors across the globe to play their role and stage a drama. Leaked text of privileged group had just begun the sequence. G8 or G20 or OECD kind of platforms could escape from any drama because of absence of poor nations but COP 15 can not avoid this inevitable bargain in the presence of both rich and poor.
Well, G77 and the Association of The Small Island States are quite uncompromising not to sacrifice. Rich exploits as well manipulates poor, which is something natural and which had been practiced since the beginning of human race. In these modern days of UN conventions as well as global conscience, sugar coated political commitment needs to be little humanitarian to compensate poor and disadvantaged. Thus, the obvious bargain over fund in the disguise of climate change, biodiversity, adaptation, mitigation, and so on is apparent. Rich wants to pay less to the poor and poor wants justice. History repeats this struggle for existence.
Tempering fund from 200 billion $ to 10 billion $, holding the horse of carbon emission, and having reasonable slow rise of global temperature up to 2 degrees are the agenda of this ‘Olympic’ type indoor conference where people are distributed in groups and subgroups to talk on these issues in many different rooms . Leaders from poor countries complain that rich nations are responsible for emissions and they should compensate. Leaders of rich nations do not want to pay that easy. They want to pay less but through institutions and process that may trigger melting. At the end ice is gone.
Rich country’s critics said that rich people live within poor nations too and the nexus of rich as well as elite people hold power structure of poor nations. These power, money, chairs, and the evil eventually undermine and exploit the very poor within the poor states. However, I am not going further into this debate over cycle of exploitation.
Di-Aping, the Sudanese chair of G 77 had been found sticking to the point of bargain. He is not the man to compromise under pressure, if things go wrong, he just walks away. Small Island Representatives sound little pathetic what they suppose to be. Living withing 2 meters of sea level is not fun.
Special attention and care must be given to such circumstances where people have started experiencing the adversities of climate change. Global communities must not get lost in the politics of climate change and lots of bargain over carbon market, because, its gonna be a stock market that is supposed to melt down sooner or later.
Human rights based approach to climate change must respect the rights of the most disadvantaged and protect livelihoods of these people irrespective boarders at any cost. Thus, the priority is to identify the affected people and communities; and direct interventions to resolve their sufferings are essential. This is not just the time for playing a league tournament for longer time.
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I am quoting here the lead negotiator for the small island nation of Tuvalu. I’ve pasted a rough transcription of his words; (350.org)
Madame President, I know that you tried to visit Tuvalu, though you did not make it. Had you visited, I think you would understand our position. Our entire population lives within 2 meters of sea level… I understand that we are waiting for the US senate. It is ironic that we are waiting for one country to decide before the international community can move forward. President Obama was currently in Sweden accepting a noble prize, whether rightly or wrongly. For him to honour his noble prize, he should address the greatest threat to humanity, climate change, and the greatest threat to human security, climate change.
This is not just an issue of Tuvalu… millions of people around the world are affected. This is not just Tuvalu. Over the last few days I’ve received calls from all over the world, offering faith and hope that we can reach a conclusion on this issue. Madame President, this is not a media trip for me, I have refused to take media calls on this issue. As a humble servant of the government of Tuvalu, I have to make a strong appeal to you that we consider this matter properly. I don’t want to cause embarrassment to you or the government…
…I want to have for the leaders an option to consider a legally binding treaty. We’ve had our proposal on the table for 6 months. 6 months, it’s not the last two days of this meeting. I woke this morning, and I was crying, and that’s not easy for a grown man to admit. The fate of my country rests in your hands.
“Despite increased use of human rights language, a range of key EU development policies do not coherently or consistently reflect the applicable international human rights framework. Weaknesses include substitution of legally precise human rights terminology with vague formulations of language; misrepresenting the relationship between policy commitments such as the Millennium Development Goals and the legal obligations of human rights; failure to identify core development challenges, such as poverty as a denial of human rights, or to acknowledge the equal status of economic, social and cultural rights and civil and political rights.” (IHRN)
This briefing paper is the result of a joint initiative by Terre des Hommes International Federation, Action Aid International, Amnesty International EU Office and International Human Rights Network (IHRN). These four organisations have jointly funded the initiative, with this paper being researched and written by IHRN.
Paul Hawken has spent over a decade researching organizations dedicated to restoring the environment and fostering social justice. From billion-dollar nonprofits to single-person dot.causes, these groups collectively comprise the largest movement on earth, a movement that has no name, leader, or location, and that has gone largely ignored by politicians and the media. Like nature itself, it is organizing from the bottom up, in every city, town, and culture. and is emerging to be an extraordinary and creative expression of people’s needs worldwide.
Blessed Unrest explores the diversity of the movement, its brilliant ideas, innovative strategies, and hidden history, which date back many centuries. A culmination of Hawken’s many years of leadership in the environmental and social justice fields, it will inspire and delight any and all who despair of the world’s fate, and its conclusions will surprise even those within the movement itself. Fundamentally, it is a description of humanity’s collective genius, and the unstoppable movement to reimagine our relationship to the environment and one another.
Swine Flu is spreading around. Tamil tigers are killed mercilessly as if cleansing virus by antibiotics, wild fires are burning forests and civilization into ashes, swat refugee crisis and killing field, repression and killings in Burma, North Korea nuclear enrichment, militants and rebels in Africa are getting aggressive out of frustration,Taliban and Islamic militants are on edge of despair, increasing cross boarder conflicts, earth quakes are shaking nations indiscriminately, Yellow stone is just waiting for the bell, Iran-Russia ties out of insecurity, Israeli’s desperation out of insecurity, rich nations are shaken by financial quake, jobs cuts shattered dreams of millions to have quality nice life, migrant workers are dying like animals in the construction field without little care, malnutrition children are dying in hunger, maternal mortality rate is rising, communicable and non communicable diseases are killing millions silently.
Flood, storms, drought, land slides, and sea level rise have threatened millions else where in the world. They call it negative impact of climate change. What is the underneath reason of climate change? Is that green house gas emission or something else? Earth quakes one after another in Indonesia, tsunami in Samoa after 2004 wash away, Typhoon Parma following super Ketsana and the latest Mirinae, cyclone victims in Taiwan, unusual cyclone in Fiji, alarming phase of hurricane activity in North America, and frequent earth trembles have been very unkind with the inhabitants of earth these days.
The moments of despair have just arrived. The alarm bell has rung. Moral values are degraded, human values are declined, ethical concerns have been vanished, and Human Conscience is jeopardized by evil gamers in politics, finance, and policies. Now the final battle between evil and good.
Bad guys have powers, chairs, money, influence, control and authority over people in most territories irrespective boarders, which is dangerously undermining good power with conscience. This is an alarming state that accelerates the end or shift whatever.
“Visionaries In Our Midst: Ordinary People who are Changing our World” is Allison Silberberg’s inspiring collection of essays that profiles ordinary people who are changing our world. Silberberg shares the stories of individuals who identified critical needs in their communities and responded with courage and conviction.
This is a book about those who inspire hope, those who struggle, and those who make something happen. This is a book about catalysts – those who innovate and work to build a better life for others. This is a time to discover what is possible when individuals stand up for one another. “Visionaries In Our Midst” is a thought-provoking book that takes the reader on an unforgettable journey…
For detail see, Collection of essays (under construction)
Rubayat Ahsan
