“Folklore is the expression of the soul of the German people. Goethe led the way in writing poetry in folkloric style, a style which was emulated by poets who followed him, a style which still endears his poetry to the masses today.”
It’s been thirty years since I was in the BDR as a young English teacher. When I left, I never thought I’d come back and so threw away the dictionary. Now I‘ve had to go back into the museum of my mind, find the lost room, unlock the door, throw open the windows, take off the dust covers – and there, somehow, my German treasure house is still intact, apart from a little oil needed to grease the wheels. In fact, it’s been so long that I can’t actually remember ever speaking German! It’s a little bit scary.
Of course, things have moved on since then. There’s the new technology to catch up with. So I’ve had to learn the German for mobile phone: das Handy and the mobile phone emporium is das Handy Shop. Then in so many bars you get live music: Live Musik or sometimes there’s just a DJ: Live DJ (happily).
Every so often I get stuck for the right expression. I never like to stop in full flow so just throw in a word from another language (usually French). I find you can use die Nostalgie; die Philosophie; die Melodie usw. This seems to do the job and people tell me how good my German vocabulary is!
The easiest conversations are professional because here again German has adopted a lot of the English international development language. Some attempt has been made to integrate a German ending. For example you have ‘evaluation’ become
die Evalueirung. Der Monitoring sort of sounds a bit German, but then - oh why bother making it even look German: let’s just use der Gender Mainstreaming!
As always in a foreign country it is the everyday that is problematic, rather than debates on philosophy and politics. Because it is in the everyday where you expect things to be most familiar and yet you constantly feel as if you’re in a parallel universe – things are just that little bit different.
At the local orthopedic practice, which clearly caters for, and employs, a lot of people from eastern Europe, the doctor barks at me: “What, don’t you speak Russian?”
At the Postamt, I shamefully have to ask where the post-box is (no, they’re yellow and on the other side of the pavement!) but also am forcibly impressed by the notice that says:
Achtung!
Sie werden heute ueber unser Girokonto angesprochen!
(Attention! Today you will be spoken to about our Girobank!)
At the hairdressers – well, I’ve learned that hair stylists all over the world have their own understanding of what I want to look like, whatever language we’re speaking – I just sit back, smile and pay the tip.
So it’s always comforting to get back on the internet; that’s my medium and in Berlin every other café has wifi for free. You can sit in the sun, drink white wine and surf: what better working environment? I can do everything online! I was told for train journeys you go to www.bahn.de (our equivalent would be www.train.uk). I follow the German order here thinking: why not try the same for flights www.flugzeug.de (www.aeroplane.uk )? Yes!
However when I come to put new entries on my blog, I see that the instructions on blogspot are in German! (All the adverts come up in German too: how do they know, I ask myself?) Later I check my blog stats to see who is reading and find a lot of hits in northern Germany. Oh no, I think, the police are tracking me as a suspected terrorist planning violent action against the G8 summit! But then I realise it was probably just me uploading my entries in the local bar. Which also feels bizarre…
Bridging the gap
We don’t have wifi (I should say wireless lan) in the flat. I tell my landlord he has to move into the 21st century but he’s proudly fixed in the 19th, has no knowledge of the internet and doesn’t speak any other language than German. Still we manage to get on well, because we’re both very direct, have a good sense of humour and after all, we have to negotiate the important intricacies of shared living – whose turn is to buy the toilet paper and, oops, who left the lights on all night?
I just love playing with language. Like little children, that’s how you learn how to do it. My landlord comes in with his friend from their traditional Saturday afternoon pub-crawl (Kneipenbummel)
Wie geht’s? Besoffen? How’s it going? I say (Are you) drunk?
Verneunftig! he says. (We’ve been) sensible
Verneunftigerweise besoffen? I ask. Sensibly drunk? (Lots of laughter)
Ich auch! I say, me too…
Because there’s no easier way to get your tongue round those polysyllabic German words – and some are longer than that. Try the word for gender equality: Geschlectergerechigkeit (nice!) and another favourite at the moment is Entwicklungsnichtregierungsorgansiationen = development non-governmental organisations. The thing always to remember is that when we actually say those things in English, we don’t mind the gap either.
Noam Chomsky - before he became known as a political analyst and activist - first won worldwide fame as a socio-linguist, with the groundbreaking concept of the difference between the surface and deep structure of language. You have to track back from the words that are used (the surface structure – or code) to the speaker or writer’s actual intention (the deep structure - the real meaning).
The intelligent reader here will begin to see how this might relate to analysis of political rhetoric. Unfortunately in our so-called sophisticated society, so much use of language has become a self-serving commerce along with everything else.
I would say that genuine communication is more to do with paralinguistics : that is, the ability to pick up clues in a new context from your own knowledge of the world and to read one another – because you want, simply, to have real human contact and share fundamental life experiences for non-profit-making purposes.
Svenja Cussler, a German film maker who collaborated on a documentary of female genital mutilation in Mali, put into words for me what impressed her most there: “In Africa, people really see who you are. When they reach out to greet you, it’s not to check if your suit’s from Armani, they’re feeling the quality of your soul.”
(So, all in all, I seem to get by pretty well in the language of Goethe.)
Tuesday, 26 June 2007
Rainbow in Berlin
Last weekend I woke up in the very middle-class Schoeneberg district of Berlin to find I was in the middle of Europe’s largest gay and lesbian street-party.
Schoeneberg has in fact been the gay centre of Berlin since the 1920s and outside the local metro station there’s a plaque commemorating the thousands of homosexuals who were persecuted under the third Reich: one reason why the gay scene in Berlin is pretty politicised. The rainbow monument has just been re-erected - this is also a reminder of the pink triangle used to stigmatise homosexuals in the concentration camps.
Now in its 15th year, the festival was founded by Schoeneberg’s former mayor - Dr Elizabeth Ziemer, who’s gay, and this year, Berlin’s gay mayor Klaus Wowereit received the Rainbow Award. However, walking through the one mile of back streets where the festival takes place, I was handed a number of leaflets by support groups and services – from counselling for young lesbians to gay parenting - which indicate that even in Berlin being gay is still not easy. And the local Green Party newsletter highlights the fact that the Berlin Senate will be closing the AIDS and STD advice centre in north Schoeneberg which is recognised as a model of integrated practice and success in prevention, particularly with young migrant women working as prostitutes.
The party finished with a concert by Berlin’s favourite women’s group Die Kusinen. A nice touch here was the little old couple (man and woman) sitting out on the balcony of their second floor apartment with a great view of the main stage while the fabulous blonde foursome played heavy metal to a backcloth of ‘Sexual Democracy’.
The rainbow theme continued for the whole of last week. I passed on the Gay Night at the Zoo “singing and swinging among elephants, tigers and penguins with Danny van Blond” and the boat trip on the river Spree, which culminated in the finals of the Durex gay top-model model contest - part of its better and safer sex campaign. But I caught up with the annual CSD parade on Saturday 23rd June - which involved thousands of people in a 5 kilometer-long loud colourful movement across the city, from the memorial church at Kurfuerstendamm to the Victory statue.
The motto this year was “diversity seeks work” with the parade constituting a massive demonstration of Berlin’s gay and lesbian community against discrimination in employment.
In fact, one of Berlin’s larger employers, the combined public transport service BVG has had an equal opportunities policy since before European law was implemented in Germany and they are one of the main sponsors of rainbow events.
These actually started on the 9th June with the Berlin Respect Gaymes – an initiative championed by prominent gay sportsmen and women, aimed at promoting tolerance and sexual democracy among school-children through friendly competitions open to all. Because unfortunately, according to the BVG magazine, the word “gay” is still the worst taunt in the playground. *
Things don’t seem to change. But at least there was a very low-key police presence, unlike at the anti-G8 demonstrations in May – and during the actual G8 summit. I’m afraid to say the Berlin police force are tied up in trying to prevent self-styled “autonomists” from senselessly setting fire to cars in Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain districts. Meanwhile I read that the Telecom workers, after five weeks of strike action, have had to concede defeat, returning to work with longer hours for lower pay.
We had a heat-wave in April and giant hailstones in June. It even rained on the CSD parade. The environmental lobby have yet to see any concrete steps taken by Angela Merkel’s government to address the problem of carbon emissions - despite G8 statements.
I love Berlin, but Germany’s political climate is such that you only get to see a rainbow once a year.
* My landlord tells me that, unbelievably, the other common taunt is ‘Opfer’. This means ‘victim’ and is the word used in the many memorials in Berlin to the millions who died in the holocaust.
Schoeneberg has in fact been the gay centre of Berlin since the 1920s and outside the local metro station there’s a plaque commemorating the thousands of homosexuals who were persecuted under the third Reich: one reason why the gay scene in Berlin is pretty politicised. The rainbow monument has just been re-erected - this is also a reminder of the pink triangle used to stigmatise homosexuals in the concentration camps.
Now in its 15th year, the festival was founded by Schoeneberg’s former mayor - Dr Elizabeth Ziemer, who’s gay, and this year, Berlin’s gay mayor Klaus Wowereit received the Rainbow Award. However, walking through the one mile of back streets where the festival takes place, I was handed a number of leaflets by support groups and services – from counselling for young lesbians to gay parenting - which indicate that even in Berlin being gay is still not easy. And the local Green Party newsletter highlights the fact that the Berlin Senate will be closing the AIDS and STD advice centre in north Schoeneberg which is recognised as a model of integrated practice and success in prevention, particularly with young migrant women working as prostitutes.
The party finished with a concert by Berlin’s favourite women’s group Die Kusinen. A nice touch here was the little old couple (man and woman) sitting out on the balcony of their second floor apartment with a great view of the main stage while the fabulous blonde foursome played heavy metal to a backcloth of ‘Sexual Democracy’.
The rainbow theme continued for the whole of last week. I passed on the Gay Night at the Zoo “singing and swinging among elephants, tigers and penguins with Danny van Blond” and the boat trip on the river Spree, which culminated in the finals of the Durex gay top-model model contest - part of its better and safer sex campaign. But I caught up with the annual CSD parade on Saturday 23rd June - which involved thousands of people in a 5 kilometer-long loud colourful movement across the city, from the memorial church at Kurfuerstendamm to the Victory statue.
The motto this year was “diversity seeks work” with the parade constituting a massive demonstration of Berlin’s gay and lesbian community against discrimination in employment.
In fact, one of Berlin’s larger employers, the combined public transport service BVG has had an equal opportunities policy since before European law was implemented in Germany and they are one of the main sponsors of rainbow events.
These actually started on the 9th June with the Berlin Respect Gaymes – an initiative championed by prominent gay sportsmen and women, aimed at promoting tolerance and sexual democracy among school-children through friendly competitions open to all. Because unfortunately, according to the BVG magazine, the word “gay” is still the worst taunt in the playground. *
Things don’t seem to change. But at least there was a very low-key police presence, unlike at the anti-G8 demonstrations in May – and during the actual G8 summit. I’m afraid to say the Berlin police force are tied up in trying to prevent self-styled “autonomists” from senselessly setting fire to cars in Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain districts. Meanwhile I read that the Telecom workers, after five weeks of strike action, have had to concede defeat, returning to work with longer hours for lower pay.
We had a heat-wave in April and giant hailstones in June. It even rained on the CSD parade. The environmental lobby have yet to see any concrete steps taken by Angela Merkel’s government to address the problem of carbon emissions - despite G8 statements.
I love Berlin, but Germany’s political climate is such that you only get to see a rainbow once a year.
* My landlord tells me that, unbelievably, the other common taunt is ‘Opfer’. This means ‘victim’ and is the word used in the many memorials in Berlin to the millions who died in the holocaust.
Sunday, 27 May 2007
Africa and democracy: Club rules still apply
The Club of Madrid is comprised of 68 former heads of state and effectively amounts to an old boys network. When I first heard it was launching the African Women Leaders Project - in support of high-level women politicians in West Africa – I was a little sceptical. However, Mary Robinson, one of the few women members of the club, is leading the project, and it’s a salutary reminder that we need more women leaders not only in Africa - but across the world.
With funding from the European Union, the project will provide opportunities for sharing experiences, networking and looking at feasible policy options for the increase of women’s political participation.
It’s a worthy cause. Because feminists, women lawyers and human rights activists in Africa have already been systematically addressing these issues and wherever I go the message is the same: we’ve heard the rhetoric, let’s see some action.
The key instrument for gender equality is the African Protocol for the Rights of Women (based on CEDAW) - which, after much lobbying, was ratified by the African Union in 2004. Women are still actively campaigning for individual governments to ratify and implement the protocol at national level.
In November 2006, The Gambia hosted an ECOWAS conference for women’s rights representatives to develop a common approach. The difficulty they all have is explaining to male-dominated governments that, under the protocol, affirmative action to achieve equal representation of women is not an option but a regionally (and internationally) endorsed principle.
Once this right is recognised and enforced, there are examples of electoral systems which facilitate equitable election of women candidates. The most impressive example – not only for Africa but for the world – is the quota system in Rwanda, underpinned by civil society involvement, which has resulted in fifty-fifty government. Rwanda also led the way by holding the first international women parliamentarians conference (February 2007). According to organiser Judith Kanakuze, this aimed to develop participating countries’ “insights and commitment to gender equality as a tool for nation building”.
Where this principle remains in question, women’s efforts continue to be frustrated. The Women’s Manifesto for Ghana was developed collaboratively by Abantu for the 2004 elections to provide a common platform for both voters and candidates. Their hope was: “women would be empowered to use their vote as a bargaining tool; candidates have an agenda once elected; and political parties held accountable as to where they stand in relation to women’s issues.” Ghana, widely recognised as a stable progressive democracy, recently celebrated her 50th year of independence. But, with only 9% of elected officials at national or local level, women still feel left out of the celebrations.
Meanwhile, the Fifty-Fifty Group in Sierra Leone - a country still recovering from civil war - is campaigning hard to get at least 30% representation for women in the July 2007 national elections.
It all comes down to money
Even where (male) political support is not forthcoming, women clearly have the capacity to move forward their own agenda. While cultural and educational restraints are often quoted, my discussions with women activists in Mali reveal a consensus on what is really holding them back from success. “Basically, it all comes down to money,” says Nina Walet, former Vice-President, Haut Conseil des Collectivités, the independent state watch-dog for local government.
Women’s lack of economic empowerment hinders their political participation from the very first step. In order to register as a voter, to join a political party or to stand as a candidate, you need to have a birth certificate and that costs money. So does running an election campaign. In countries with limited infrastructure, travelling round the constituency can be difficult and expensive. The same applies for getting to the voting station, as Nina Walet, who stood for mayor in the desert region of Kidal, describes: “Voters have to travel long distances of up to 60 kms, so you need to give them food and lodging overnight, provide water for their animals. I sent my people out one week beforehand to find two or three tents each and persuade the touaregs to come in and vote.”
And even then… Nina, whose electorate consists of 70% women, was elected mayor in 1999 but her appointment was never endorsed by the state because of pressure from the men of the (wealthy) ruling family of Kidal.
Women’s organisations all emphasise the need for finance to support their lobbying and campaigning work - to mobilise members from different parts of the country, run meetings, produce leaflets, discuss and publish manifestos or get media coverage. “Awareness raising is an essential activity - for both men and women, not only at the grassroots but also among intellectuals and professionals”.
Article 26 of the women’s protocol obliges member states to provide a budget for effective implementation of gender equality. Oumou Traoré, director of the coalition of women’s associations (CAFO) in Mali, is indignant about the lack of state support. “Women are just treated as election fodder. We need leadership training and citizenship education. Women should understand their rights, put up resistance to party politics, learn to vote for the policies not the person, check the party lists to see if women candidates are included. But the government’s afraid of this kind of thinking, maybe that’s why we don’t get any funding from them.”
The right conditions
National women’s organisations often look in vain to the international community to support their cause. In fact the situation has got worse with the introduction of the poverty reduction strategy (PRSP) model. “In 1997-8 we had a lot of encouragement from donors for women candidates and direct support. But now all donor money goes through the government, the donors shrug and say sorry, they can no longer help out,” says Nina Walet.
Rwanda, with her critical mass of women in government, has moved towards institutionalising gender through all areas of planning, legislation and development. This requires a process of gender budgeting– not an increase in funds but an equitable redistribution.
For women in Mali the answer is clear. “Donors should impose conditions on the government for quotas - and proper resources to support women’s political participation.” I’m not generally a proponent of conditionality for aid, but this is one case where G8 countries could, in one simple move, change the face of development, reduce corruption, increase efficiency, promote peace – by themselves endorsing international law on women’s rights rather than enforcing privatisation of basic services which result in the economic disempowerment of women.
At the France-Afrique summit in Bamako in December 2005, the participants celebrated the presence of Ellen Johnson- Sirleaf, first democratically elected woman head of state in Africa – an inspiration for Liberians, Africans and women everywhere. She also addressed the US Congress in March 2006, an honour bestowed sparingly on international dignitaries. She faces the daunting task of bringing peace and prosperity to a society afflicted by years of conflict. However, as soon as she took up position, the European Union laid down conditions for continued funding. She has been back to the US a second time to lobby for debt cancellation - which, along with control of trans-national companies and additional aid for health and education, may have been a more effective way of strengthening female leadership and public confidence in women political leaders, as the Club of Madrid project aims to do.
Why doesn’t the international community turn rhetoric into action? After all, fifty-fifty is a simple concept and it’s been shown to work. “The real problem is that men won’t give up power,” says Nina. “ In fact, they just get greedier.”
A surprising end to the story is that there has been a female candidate for the first time in Mali’s presidential elections: Mme Aminata Sidibé, lecturer at the University of Bamako and well-known environmental activist. She was inspired by the International Women’s Day celebrations in Bamako - which focussed on women’s political emergence as a force for change. She entered the race late and her only support was a group of Malian women employed by various international development agencies who were able to help with networking. While Aminata didn’t really have a chance in the primaries against the incumbent, President Amadou Toumani Touré, her name and face were in the polls and in the newspapers – underlining the fact that there are competent African women willing to come forward, dedicated to building social capital and changing the face of development.
They are held back by north-north, south-south and north-south male economic networking. After all, it’s nice to have the ladies providing a little colour. But, apart from in Rwanda and other notable exceptions, the boys club still rules OK.
Nice quotes
Further links
Women’s Manifesto for Ghana
Gender Budgeting
International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance
iKNOWPolitics
With funding from the European Union, the project will provide opportunities for sharing experiences, networking and looking at feasible policy options for the increase of women’s political participation.
It’s a worthy cause. Because feminists, women lawyers and human rights activists in Africa have already been systematically addressing these issues and wherever I go the message is the same: we’ve heard the rhetoric, let’s see some action.
The key instrument for gender equality is the African Protocol for the Rights of Women (based on CEDAW) - which, after much lobbying, was ratified by the African Union in 2004. Women are still actively campaigning for individual governments to ratify and implement the protocol at national level.
In November 2006, The Gambia hosted an ECOWAS conference for women’s rights representatives to develop a common approach. The difficulty they all have is explaining to male-dominated governments that, under the protocol, affirmative action to achieve equal representation of women is not an option but a regionally (and internationally) endorsed principle.
Once this right is recognised and enforced, there are examples of electoral systems which facilitate equitable election of women candidates. The most impressive example – not only for Africa but for the world – is the quota system in Rwanda, underpinned by civil society involvement, which has resulted in fifty-fifty government. Rwanda also led the way by holding the first international women parliamentarians conference (February 2007). According to organiser Judith Kanakuze, this aimed to develop participating countries’ “insights and commitment to gender equality as a tool for nation building”.
Where this principle remains in question, women’s efforts continue to be frustrated. The Women’s Manifesto for Ghana was developed collaboratively by Abantu for the 2004 elections to provide a common platform for both voters and candidates. Their hope was: “women would be empowered to use their vote as a bargaining tool; candidates have an agenda once elected; and political parties held accountable as to where they stand in relation to women’s issues.” Ghana, widely recognised as a stable progressive democracy, recently celebrated her 50th year of independence. But, with only 9% of elected officials at national or local level, women still feel left out of the celebrations.
Meanwhile, the Fifty-Fifty Group in Sierra Leone - a country still recovering from civil war - is campaigning hard to get at least 30% representation for women in the July 2007 national elections.
It all comes down to money
Even where (male) political support is not forthcoming, women clearly have the capacity to move forward their own agenda. While cultural and educational restraints are often quoted, my discussions with women activists in Mali reveal a consensus on what is really holding them back from success. “Basically, it all comes down to money,” says Nina Walet, former Vice-President, Haut Conseil des Collectivités, the independent state watch-dog for local government.
Women’s lack of economic empowerment hinders their political participation from the very first step. In order to register as a voter, to join a political party or to stand as a candidate, you need to have a birth certificate and that costs money. So does running an election campaign. In countries with limited infrastructure, travelling round the constituency can be difficult and expensive. The same applies for getting to the voting station, as Nina Walet, who stood for mayor in the desert region of Kidal, describes: “Voters have to travel long distances of up to 60 kms, so you need to give them food and lodging overnight, provide water for their animals. I sent my people out one week beforehand to find two or three tents each and persuade the touaregs to come in and vote.”
And even then… Nina, whose electorate consists of 70% women, was elected mayor in 1999 but her appointment was never endorsed by the state because of pressure from the men of the (wealthy) ruling family of Kidal.
Women’s organisations all emphasise the need for finance to support their lobbying and campaigning work - to mobilise members from different parts of the country, run meetings, produce leaflets, discuss and publish manifestos or get media coverage. “Awareness raising is an essential activity - for both men and women, not only at the grassroots but also among intellectuals and professionals”.
Article 26 of the women’s protocol obliges member states to provide a budget for effective implementation of gender equality. Oumou Traoré, director of the coalition of women’s associations (CAFO) in Mali, is indignant about the lack of state support. “Women are just treated as election fodder. We need leadership training and citizenship education. Women should understand their rights, put up resistance to party politics, learn to vote for the policies not the person, check the party lists to see if women candidates are included. But the government’s afraid of this kind of thinking, maybe that’s why we don’t get any funding from them.”
The right conditions
National women’s organisations often look in vain to the international community to support their cause. In fact the situation has got worse with the introduction of the poverty reduction strategy (PRSP) model. “In 1997-8 we had a lot of encouragement from donors for women candidates and direct support. But now all donor money goes through the government, the donors shrug and say sorry, they can no longer help out,” says Nina Walet.
Rwanda, with her critical mass of women in government, has moved towards institutionalising gender through all areas of planning, legislation and development. This requires a process of gender budgeting– not an increase in funds but an equitable redistribution.
For women in Mali the answer is clear. “Donors should impose conditions on the government for quotas - and proper resources to support women’s political participation.” I’m not generally a proponent of conditionality for aid, but this is one case where G8 countries could, in one simple move, change the face of development, reduce corruption, increase efficiency, promote peace – by themselves endorsing international law on women’s rights rather than enforcing privatisation of basic services which result in the economic disempowerment of women.
At the France-Afrique summit in Bamako in December 2005, the participants celebrated the presence of Ellen Johnson- Sirleaf, first democratically elected woman head of state in Africa – an inspiration for Liberians, Africans and women everywhere. She also addressed the US Congress in March 2006, an honour bestowed sparingly on international dignitaries. She faces the daunting task of bringing peace and prosperity to a society afflicted by years of conflict. However, as soon as she took up position, the European Union laid down conditions for continued funding. She has been back to the US a second time to lobby for debt cancellation - which, along with control of trans-national companies and additional aid for health and education, may have been a more effective way of strengthening female leadership and public confidence in women political leaders, as the Club of Madrid project aims to do.
Why doesn’t the international community turn rhetoric into action? After all, fifty-fifty is a simple concept and it’s been shown to work. “The real problem is that men won’t give up power,” says Nina. “ In fact, they just get greedier.”
A surprising end to the story is that there has been a female candidate for the first time in Mali’s presidential elections: Mme Aminata Sidibé, lecturer at the University of Bamako and well-known environmental activist. She was inspired by the International Women’s Day celebrations in Bamako - which focussed on women’s political emergence as a force for change. She entered the race late and her only support was a group of Malian women employed by various international development agencies who were able to help with networking. While Aminata didn’t really have a chance in the primaries against the incumbent, President Amadou Toumani Touré, her name and face were in the polls and in the newspapers – underlining the fact that there are competent African women willing to come forward, dedicated to building social capital and changing the face of development.
They are held back by north-north, south-south and north-south male economic networking. After all, it’s nice to have the ladies providing a little colour. But, apart from in Rwanda and other notable exceptions, the boys club still rules OK.
Nice quotes
“Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is not an anomaly. The African political landscape is being reshaped by women, generating hope for the future of the continent and raising the bar for democracy worldwide.” Pambazuka News
“Female illiteracy is a social mechanism designed to ensure female acquiescence and mute the voice of women.” Roselynn Musa
Further links
Women’s Manifesto for Ghana
Gender Budgeting
International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance
iKNOWPolitics
Monday, 7 May 2007
My New Berlin Blog
When I got back from covering the World Social Forum from a women’s perspective in Nairobi, I was asked to write a monthly column for www.openDemocracy.net and you can check out some of my recent pieces here
Now we are working on a new project to provide a women’s perspective on the G8 summit - which is happening in Germany 6th to 8th June 2007. So I’m here in Berlin partly because of that and partly because, well, everyone’s got to be somewhere.
Wherever I go, there’s a different kind of stimulation – although the issues may still be the same. The first two pieces below are the beginning of my personal Berlin blog. The other two are earlier pieces, related to women in Africa. I try to put a different spin on everything I write. But none of these topics are going to be resolved so easily.
Now we are working on a new project to provide a women’s perspective on the G8 summit - which is happening in Germany 6th to 8th June 2007. So I’m here in Berlin partly because of that and partly because, well, everyone’s got to be somewhere.
Wherever I go, there’s a different kind of stimulation – although the issues may still be the same. The first two pieces below are the beginning of my personal Berlin blog. The other two are earlier pieces, related to women in Africa. I try to put a different spin on everything I write. But none of these topics are going to be resolved so easily.
Tuesday, 1 May 2007
Berlin Checkpoints
Best European youth campaign (but worst postcard)
Everyone different, everyone equal
When I first arrived here, I stayed in a hostel in Friedrichshain, a borough once part of what was East Berlin - thinking it would be interesting to see the area. For a short time it was. The buildings have now been enlivened with pastel colours and the new youth scene is much in evidence. As Sabine Reichel describes in the Berliner Zeitung (14/15 April 2007) 96% of the population is under thirty and down every street you can meet twenty-five young mothers with pierced eyebrows.
My friend came from the borough of Kreuzberg by car to find me, not having been able to identify which metro line I should take to get to her house. “I just don’t know the area,’ she explained, ‘I never come here. Eighteen years since the wall came down and in my head the border’s still there.” See the map here
On my first weekend I visited AlexanderPlatz, the centre of former East Berlin. Alongside the town hall is a leafy park where you can wander, sit and admire the statue of the female worker or the monument to Marx and Engels. But searching for postcards to send home, I browsed the kiosks (not only in AlexanderPlatz but all over Berlin) to find that, indeed, eighteen years later, it’s difficult to find any images of quality which do not in some way commemorate the wall.
In fact a blown-up Checkpoint Charlie notice is on the outside wall of the youth hostel in Friedrichshain: “You are leaving the American sector”(threat or promise?). Postcards show the Brandenburg Gate in all her guises between 1961 and 1989: from the east, from the west; with Russian tanks or US armoured cars; people leaning over the fence, climbing on top of the wall or slipping through a hole. Even the modern shot of the Brandenburg Gate by night, illuminated in her restored glory, only serves to invoke the shadows of the past. And they’re still selling cards with a tiny piece of the graffiti-ed wall enclosed in a plastic bubble (or am I just naive?)
It’s all over now
Another reason my friend doesn’t visit former East Berlin is that she has two adopted children from Mali and racism is still alive in the east – as I’ve seen it myself - across all the former soviet states.
But not just there… In the current affairs journal Der Spiegel (No. 16, 16 April 2007) I read an item on the upcoming Islam Conference at the beginning of May, which is being co-organised with the German Minister of Internal Affairs. Leader of the newly formed Islamic Coordination (KRM) an umbrella for Muslim organisations, Aiman Mazyek is demanding a “clear roadmap for achieving equality between Islam and other religions in Germany,” including the same rights and status as church groups - and Islamic teaching as part of the school curriculum.
I worked in former West Germany thirty years ago as an English teacher, so I know that the 3.3 million Turkish population of “guest-workers” - as they are so quaintly called - are now into their third generation and questions of citizenship are still problematic (see a very comprehensive post on this by Aaron Erlich). They have no rights to develop their mother tongue within the state school system - although you can find Germans (because that’s who they are) of Turkish origin (excellent English students all) as successful entrepreneurs, academics, artists across the country.
In the meantime, Recep Tayyip Erdogan the Turkish Prime Minister is running out of patience waiting for Germany, currently holding the EU Presidency, to make a firm commitment to support Turkey’s application for European membership.
Best poster
Inside each one of us lurks a pacifist. I’d like to live in a society where no one, whether Muslim or Christian, needs to be afraid.
Then there was the story of the CDU leader in Bad-Wuertenburg, Günther Oettingen, who caused Angela Merkel a headache with his eulogy at the funeral of Hans Filbinger. In this he claimed that, although Filbinger was a high-profile member of the German military during the second world war, “he wasn’t really a nazi at all,” which understandable incensed the families of victims, academic researchers and other politicians. At Merkel’s insistence Oettingen publicly distanced himself from his remarks – although CDU federal parliamentarians from the south-west say “every word was correct.”
Indeed Merkel, while juggling “the grand coalition” with much more skill than anyone would give her credit for being able to do when she was first elected, is more often held back from achievement by the ultra-conservative members of her own party than any ideological differences with the SDP. The Family Affairs Minister Ursula von der Leyen has been attempting to bring in legislation to increase the provision of quality affordable pre-school care (kindergartens) to enable women to pursue their careers. In opposition to this, CDU representatives in the Laender (different regions) are basically invoking the nazi “Kinder Kirche Kueche” role for women – despite the fact they have elected a divorced childless woman scientist as federal leader.
Still in that very same issue of Spiegel is the poignant tale of two sisters who were separated in 1945 after five years in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. One came back to Hamburg to live and the other was brought up by a foster family in Czechoslovakia - too young to remember where she was from. Through the Red Cross tracing service they were recently reunited. Sixty years too late the Czech woman travelled to Hamburg with her background papers, all the while thinking, “Oh my god, my sister’s a gypsy!” (Zigeunerin, German for Roma, still the subject of acute discrimination in the transitional states). They don’t have much to say to each other and watch a lot of television.
And by the way, the Jewish synagogue in the centre of Berlin - along with the Jewish café in front of it - is cordoned off from pedestrians and protected by a police patrol (although Esther Slevogt says that’s not the only thing that keeps people out).
Road blocks of the mind
Before travelling out to Berlin I met up with my Palestinian friend who had just come back from visiting family. After many years living and working around the globe she’s decided to return to Palestine in a professional capacity as a humanitarian aid / development project manager.
It’s not much of a leap from Berlin to Jerusalem, which is still divided into quarters - Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Armenian - where Israeli Arabs have a hard time moving around because of the curfew and where Palestinians need to go through checkpoints to enter the city from the West Bank. Not forgetting the controversial security wall that Israel has erected…
I carried out an education mission in Palestine late 1999 at the time when both sides were preparing to sign a territorial agreement – just before Ariel Sharon provoked the current intifada in his visit to Nazareth. So I know a little about how it feels, even armed with a British Council letter of invitation, to be held up at a road block or searched twice in the middle of the night when crossing Israel from Bethlehem to Tel Aviv airport. “It’s not just the frustration or the time-wasting, it’s diminishing as a person - to be constantly reminded you have no rights, no status, no statehood,” says Yara. She noticed that people’s expectations have also diminished: “they’re just glad with the new regulations, that it only takes four not eight hours to cross.”
On 5th June, the fortieth year of the Israel-Palestine conflict will be commemorated (an opportunity Avaaz.org sees for civil society to stop the clash which is politically rather than culturally based). Germany has played a role in The Quartet and Condoleeza Rice has been diplomatically active in the region. The discourse has changed from ‘roadmap’ to ‘destination’. The Arab League’s offer to renew the 2002 peace initiative makes the future look slightly more hopeful for a Middle East settlement.
But clearly that’s not the end of the story.
However many years of division, whoever we are and whatever kind of map we draw up, we’re not going to get anywhere - unless we can somehow find a way to dismantle the roadblocks of the mind.
Best quote so far
Esther Pfeiffer, a young black woman from South Africa, was one of the panellists at a meeting in Hamburg on the topic “Women bringing about change: gender and development” organised by VENRO’s Africa Project.
When asked if women from different (racial) backgrounds in South Africa now work collaboratively to promote their rights, she answered (in perfect German):
“Unfortunately apartheid lives on inside us. But then, in Germany, you know all about that.”
Patricia Daniel
April 2007
A matter of national importance
What I appreciate most about newspapers in Germany and France is that they cover Europe-wide and international issues much more thoroughly than we tend to find in mainstream British media.
But front-page news in Germany at the moment is a matter of national importance: there’s going to be a record asparagus harvest. From end of April is asparagus season in restaurants. Usually served up with hollandaise sauce, maybe roast potatoes and ham on the side, asparagus (in German: Spargeln) are delicious.
But taking a look at this bizarre photograph in the Berliner Morgenpost of Agricultural Minister Woidke and Asparagus Queen Nadine opening the season, I’m not sure I’ll ever eat Spargeln again!
20/04/07
Sudan: The chips are down
Carmen Moreno, director of the United Nation’s international institute for training and research for the advancement of women (Instraw) describes the appalling levels of insecurity and violence which shape women’s lives as a ‘Russian roulette’.
Reports of sexual violence on all sides of the Darfur conflict continue. Women may be victims in this game but not always passive. “Women go out of the camps to get firewood. They say that if their men went, they’d be killed and that’s why the women choose to expose themselves to being raped instead.’ Subsequently, many of the victims then bear and bring up the nameless children of this aggression. (Louise Arbour on international women’s day)
Systematic use of rape was highlighted in the controversial report prepared for the current session of the Human Rights Council. The team of investigators led by Jodi Williams claim the Sudanese government has failed to protect the population of Darfur from large-scale international crimes and has itself orchestrated and participated in these. In fact, it is estimated that women comprise 90% of the of the victims of the conflict.
A hard-hitting report specifically on sexual violence in Darfur was published by AllianceDarc in December 2006. To coincide with publication on the global day for Darfur a letter signed by an international group of stateswomen was circulated calling for a robust and effective peacekeeping force.
Instraw, a tiny member of the UN family, has carried out research on integrating a gender dimension into the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) framework. Endorsed by the UN Reform Summit in 2005, the R2P doctrine requires the international community to prevent conflict, react to humanitarian crises and help rebuild societies - in situations where national government fails to do so.
Responsibility to protect?
While Angela Merkel, guest of honour at the 24th France-Afrique summit in Cannes spoke on the theme of ‘joint responsibility for peace and security’ with specific reference to Sudan, we haven’t seen too much R2P from G8 countries.
Current and recent political activity revolves around the call for economic sanctions against the Sudanese government. To be fair, the US government took a lead last decade on banning US business involvement, although according to Drumbeat for Darfur US financial institutions are still investing in third country foreign companies operating in Sudan. And as always, there are questions over the effectiveness of the sanctions approach.
There has been condemnation of China’s role in Sudan from both western governments and African civil society : the displacement of people in order to develop the oil-fields has contributed to, if not created, the current crisis, while government revenues from the partnership with China are said to finance the janjawid militias. China has been called on to exert influence on the Sudanese government and France’s latest ploy is to suggest boycotting the next Olympic games in Beijing if China doesn’t help out. However, it is important to note that not only the US but Britain, the Netherlands and Germany, have all had petroleum interests in Sudan; African commentators see western business interests as the root cause of the conflict - and Khartoum is a new boom town.
The Darfur Consortium an African / international civil society action group has consistently lobbied African governments for continued commitment to AMIS (the African Union peacekeeping mission in Sudan). They have also petitioned the Arab governments of north Africa in particular to take a more pro-active role vis-à-vis the Sudanese government.
I spoke last year in Mali to Commandante Nema Sagará– one of the few trained African women peace-keepers –about the development of the AU peace-keeping force. She told me then that it doesn’t have sufficient capacity (including funding) to mount, execute and maintain missions effectively – although a range of military training for African peacekeepers and observer missions has been provided by western governments (US, Canada, France, Germany) clearly with the intention that Africa will be left to sort out her own problems.
While the potential of AMIS (and more generally, the AU as a continental peacekeeper) is recognised and promoted, there is no budget support from the international community. And, since the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the European Union, G8 and other bilateral donors continue to lay down conditions for debt repayments, cuts in public expenditure, financial sector reform, privatisation of basic services and unfavourable trade agreements, African governments are a little strapped for cash.
Despite this, tiny landlocked Rwanda has sent 2,000 soldiers to AMIS. However President Paul Kagamé has expressed frustration that “our presence there hasn’t brought about any change on the ground” and Foreign Affairs Minister Charles Murgandé goes further: “We ask ourselves if we should maintain our soldiers for a mission which is not supported by the international community.”
One financial solution reported in Jeune Afrique (19-25 November 2006) comes from the US company Blackwater offering mercenaries to fight under the UN flag. This would work out cheaper than the going price of $1000 per solider per month paid to governments. Apparently Kofi Annan had even thought about using South Africa’s Executive Outcome in Rwanda during the genocide there (for similar reasons) but concluded “the world’s not yet ready to privatise peace”. Then again, everything else in Africa is being privatised.
Prevention is better
Not everyone is convinced a military solution is appropriate. Humanitarian workers on the ground in Darfur highlight the complexity of the situation, suggesting that the EU and China focus on support for reopening negotiations. Only one of the three main rebel movements signed the Darfur Peace Agreement in December. It’s not certain that a political solution can be found for Sudan either, given the fragmentation of opposing groups and the fact that just a handful of (male) leaders are involved in such discussions.
As Roselynn Musa reports on the ‘comprehensive’ peace agreement for southern Sudan signed in 2005, this excludes consideration of women’s specific contributions and concerns in peace negotiations and rehabilitation processes.
Surely, for the future, we have to do better. Above all, this requires sound investment in conflict prevention. Instraw has a new guide to policy and planning for women peace and security (UN SCR 1325). Bring together the whole range of stakeholders - including women and women’s organisations – to develop a joint strategy which represents and addresses the different needs and interests of all. However, there’s the usual caveat: ‘a dedicated budget is essential to ensuring the concrete and sustainable implementation of even the most modest action plan.’
In her speech at Cannes, Merkel claimed that Germany was “monitoring the situation in Zimbabwe with great concern.” Meanwhile Condaleeza Rice inaugurated awards for international women of courage. One of the recipients was Jennifer Williams founder of Woza (Women of Zimbabwe Arise)who accepted the award on behalf of the movement’s 45,000 members and took the opportunity to emphasise that “it’s important for the diplomatic community to play a role in helping us to achieve our struggle.”
“Women of courage are standing up for freedom and human dignity and the United States stands with them,” announced Rice .
Events in Zimbabwe have now moved on. The breath-taking gap between what western politicians say and what they do (or not) - to prevent conflict or protect civilians - remains. Are they really cynical and self-serving or do they speak in good faith? Is it a compulsive habit? Close your eyes when placing the chips and then cross your fingers. That’s how to gamble away other people’s security - when those with a real stake in peace are never called to the table.
Patricia Daniel
March 2007
Read more
Sexual violence in Darfur
Save Darfur petition
Reports of sexual violence on all sides of the Darfur conflict continue. Women may be victims in this game but not always passive. “Women go out of the camps to get firewood. They say that if their men went, they’d be killed and that’s why the women choose to expose themselves to being raped instead.’ Subsequently, many of the victims then bear and bring up the nameless children of this aggression. (Louise Arbour on international women’s day)
Systematic use of rape was highlighted in the controversial report prepared for the current session of the Human Rights Council. The team of investigators led by Jodi Williams claim the Sudanese government has failed to protect the population of Darfur from large-scale international crimes and has itself orchestrated and participated in these. In fact, it is estimated that women comprise 90% of the of the victims of the conflict.
A hard-hitting report specifically on sexual violence in Darfur was published by AllianceDarc in December 2006. To coincide with publication on the global day for Darfur a letter signed by an international group of stateswomen was circulated calling for a robust and effective peacekeeping force.
Instraw, a tiny member of the UN family, has carried out research on integrating a gender dimension into the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) framework. Endorsed by the UN Reform Summit in 2005, the R2P doctrine requires the international community to prevent conflict, react to humanitarian crises and help rebuild societies - in situations where national government fails to do so.
The fourth session of the Human Rights Council met 12th to 30th March 2007
Responsibility to protect?
While Angela Merkel, guest of honour at the 24th France-Afrique summit in Cannes spoke on the theme of ‘joint responsibility for peace and security’ with specific reference to Sudan, we haven’t seen too much R2P from G8 countries.
Current and recent political activity revolves around the call for economic sanctions against the Sudanese government. To be fair, the US government took a lead last decade on banning US business involvement, although according to Drumbeat for Darfur US financial institutions are still investing in third country foreign companies operating in Sudan. And as always, there are questions over the effectiveness of the sanctions approach.
There has been condemnation of China’s role in Sudan from both western governments and African civil society : the displacement of people in order to develop the oil-fields has contributed to, if not created, the current crisis, while government revenues from the partnership with China are said to finance the janjawid militias. China has been called on to exert influence on the Sudanese government and France’s latest ploy is to suggest boycotting the next Olympic games in Beijing if China doesn’t help out. However, it is important to note that not only the US but Britain, the Netherlands and Germany, have all had petroleum interests in Sudan; African commentators see western business interests as the root cause of the conflict - and Khartoum is a new boom town.
The Darfur Consortium an African / international civil society action group has consistently lobbied African governments for continued commitment to AMIS (the African Union peacekeeping mission in Sudan). They have also petitioned the Arab governments of north Africa in particular to take a more pro-active role vis-à-vis the Sudanese government.
I spoke last year in Mali to Commandante Nema Sagará– one of the few trained African women peace-keepers –about the development of the AU peace-keeping force. She told me then that it doesn’t have sufficient capacity (including funding) to mount, execute and maintain missions effectively – although a range of military training for African peacekeepers and observer missions has been provided by western governments (US, Canada, France, Germany) clearly with the intention that Africa will be left to sort out her own problems.
While the potential of AMIS (and more generally, the AU as a continental peacekeeper) is recognised and promoted, there is no budget support from the international community. And, since the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the European Union, G8 and other bilateral donors continue to lay down conditions for debt repayments, cuts in public expenditure, financial sector reform, privatisation of basic services and unfavourable trade agreements, African governments are a little strapped for cash.
Despite this, tiny landlocked Rwanda has sent 2,000 soldiers to AMIS. However President Paul Kagamé has expressed frustration that “our presence there hasn’t brought about any change on the ground” and Foreign Affairs Minister Charles Murgandé goes further: “We ask ourselves if we should maintain our soldiers for a mission which is not supported by the international community.”
In response to Jacques Chirac’s recent call for sanctions, the leader of one of Darfur’s rebel movements Abdul Wahid Al-Nour challenges France and the EU to make a choice: “Either you send an international force or you give us weapons to defend ourselves.”
One financial solution reported in Jeune Afrique (19-25 November 2006) comes from the US company Blackwater offering mercenaries to fight under the UN flag. This would work out cheaper than the going price of $1000 per solider per month paid to governments. Apparently Kofi Annan had even thought about using South Africa’s Executive Outcome in Rwanda during the genocide there (for similar reasons) but concluded “the world’s not yet ready to privatise peace”. Then again, everything else in Africa is being privatised.
Prevention is better
Not everyone is convinced a military solution is appropriate. Humanitarian workers on the ground in Darfur highlight the complexity of the situation, suggesting that the EU and China focus on support for reopening negotiations. Only one of the three main rebel movements signed the Darfur Peace Agreement in December. It’s not certain that a political solution can be found for Sudan either, given the fragmentation of opposing groups and the fact that just a handful of (male) leaders are involved in such discussions.
As Roselynn Musa reports on the ‘comprehensive’ peace agreement for southern Sudan signed in 2005, this excludes consideration of women’s specific contributions and concerns in peace negotiations and rehabilitation processes.
Surely, for the future, we have to do better. Above all, this requires sound investment in conflict prevention. Instraw has a new guide to policy and planning for women peace and security (UN SCR 1325). Bring together the whole range of stakeholders - including women and women’s organisations – to develop a joint strategy which represents and addresses the different needs and interests of all. However, there’s the usual caveat: ‘a dedicated budget is essential to ensuring the concrete and sustainable implementation of even the most modest action plan.’
In her speech at Cannes, Merkel claimed that Germany was “monitoring the situation in Zimbabwe with great concern.” Meanwhile Condaleeza Rice inaugurated awards for international women of courage. One of the recipients was Jennifer Williams founder of Woza (Women of Zimbabwe Arise)who accepted the award on behalf of the movement’s 45,000 members and took the opportunity to emphasise that “it’s important for the diplomatic community to play a role in helping us to achieve our struggle.”
“Women of courage are standing up for freedom and human dignity and the United States stands with them,” announced Rice .
Events in Zimbabwe have now moved on. The breath-taking gap between what western politicians say and what they do (or not) - to prevent conflict or protect civilians - remains. Are they really cynical and self-serving or do they speak in good faith? Is it a compulsive habit? Close your eyes when placing the chips and then cross your fingers. That’s how to gamble away other people’s security - when those with a real stake in peace are never called to the table.
Patricia Daniel
March 2007
Read more
Sexual violence in Darfur
Save Darfur petition
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