A Voice For the Voiceless

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The Advocacy Project seeks to help community-based advocates produce, disseminate and use information, and so become more effective advocates for human rights and social justice

Fellow Blogs: Karadzic Arrest Changes Atmosphere in Belgrade...

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AdvocacyNet
Fellow Update
July 30, 2008
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Thirty-four Peace Fellows are volunteering this summer in 21 countries or territories with community-based partners of The Advocacy Project (AP). AP issues a weekly digest of their blogs.
 
Highlights:
 
Karadzic Arrest Changes Atmosphere in Belgrade
Checkpoint Delays Threaten Jobs for Palestinians
Tough Times Challenge Traditions in Guatemala
Media Ignores Neo-Nazi Attacks in the Czech Republic
People With Disabilities Push for Change in Ethiopia
Uterine Prolapse Makes Life Painful for Nepali Woman
Looking Past the Poor in Nairobi
Ethnicity and Religion Clash in Malaysia
Demanding Justice in Peru, 16 Years After a Massacre
Caste System Compared to Dante's Inferno
 
Excerpts:
 
Karadzic Arrest Changes Atmosphere in Belgrade
Janet Rabin (Georgetown University) is working with the Women in Black Network-Serbia in Belgrade, Serbia.
"Radovan Karadzic's face is everywhere. The photos are no longer the mug shots of a wanted man, but a strange collection of images showing the transformation from his old to his new persona, from confident commander to gentle (appearing) guru. And the reactions to his arrest are just as diverse. Many of you will have read about the pro-Karadzic rallies that have been going on here in Belgrade... For the first few turbulent days after the arrest, I was traveling with Women in Black in northwestern Bosnia (more on that in the next post); when I came back to Belgrade, it felt like the city had changed. Standing with colleagues, looking at television footage of the marching crowd, the familiar scenery of Belgrade's city center appeared transformed."
 
Checkpoint Delays Threaten Jobs for Palestinians
Rianne van Doeveren (Leiden University) is working with the Alternative Information Center in Palestine.
"Out of the first hour, the checkpoint is closed for 40 minutes, letting only small numbers through to make it in time for their jobs. In total 2,200 to 2,500 people need to pass the checkpoint at rush hour between 5 a.m. and 7:30 a.m., but things move slowly and many cannot make it in time for their jobs.  At 7:30 there are still about 500 people waiting outside to come through. When they finally make it, they are too late for their job and risk being laid off. It is hard to imagine that the 2,500 men who cross this humiliation on a daily basis are the ones who are considered 'lucky,' as they obtained a permit to work in Israel."
 
Tough Times Challenge Traditions in Guatemala
Heidi McKinnon (University of New Mexico) is working with the Association for the Integral Development of the Victims of Violence in the Verapaces, Maya Achi (ADIVIMA) in Rabinal, Guatemala.
"They cannot afford to share much of their harvest with other families or neighbors for fear of risking their own food security... Such realities underscore the tangible processes through which cultural heritage begins to unravel in a community that had previously shared so much only one generation ago. I have heard and seen this phenomenon over and again in the years I have worked with traditional communities. When people lose their geographic context or orientation, they can fall into a downward spiral in which language and cultural traditions slowly dissipate unless the community is vigilant and proactive."
 
Media Ignores Neo-Nazi Attacks in the Czech Republic
Colby Pacheco (UC San Diego) is working on Romani rights with the Dzeno Association in Prague, the Czech Republic.
"The fight against extremism in Europe is a never-ending struggle. Here in the Czech Republic I occasionally hear of Neo-Nazi marches (which often times turn into a brawl with Anarchist factions) and even more terrifying, I hear of Neo-Nazi attacks on Roma encampments. Making these tragic sporadic events even worse is the lack of attention paid to such events in the media... The Czech Republic, in its freshly independent state (the Velvet Revolution marking the end of communism occurred less than 20 years ago) is already in danger of losing the lessons of its recent past."
 
People With Disabilities Push for Change in Ethiopia
Lucas Wolf (Universidad del Salvador) is working with Landmine Survivors Network-Ethiopia in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
"Criticisms of the city and the state are quite harsh, with enough closed fists and flying hands to remind me of Argentine bus drivers expressing their views to the taxi drivers during rush hour in Buenos Aires. Much of this centers on promises that have yet to be fulfilled, like the city's plan to offer up positions for persons with disabilities on the City Council and the government's stalling on the ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. A lack of enforcement mechanisms has been one of the main obstacles to the laws that do exist and the groups hope to push for major change in this area as well."
 
Uterine Prolapse Makes Life Painful for Nepali Woman
Libby Abbott (Brown University) is advocating for women's rights with the Uterine Prolapse Alliance in Nepal.
"Eighteen years have passed since Chandmati first felt her uterus fall. For eighteen years she has suffered through pain, fever, difficulty walking and an inability to control her bladder. Sometimes she has to stay squatting in a field for up to an hour and a half before she can overcome the pain that it takes to urinate. Eating and drinking also cause her severe pain, so she has reduced her food and water intake, despite warnings from the local community health worker that she is cutting short her own life."
 
Looking Past the Poor in Nairobi
Kristina Rosinsky (University of Maryland) is teaching photography to street children with the Undugu Society of Kenya.
"I see a young man around my age sitting in the corner of two walls along the alley. He is covered in the ever-present dust that covers much of this city so that he blends in so well with the wall that I had to do a double take to make sure he was actually there... He served as a real life metaphor for the fact that those living and/or working on the streets blend in too much here in Nairobi. The other morning there was another young man sitting on a bench at the bus stop with a bottle of glue hanging from his face. A nicely dressed, middle class woman was sitting right next to him and didn't look at him, didn't move, didn't look upset, uncomfortable or anything. Just sat there next to him, looking into the distance, waiting for her matatu to arrive."
 
Ethnicity and Religion Clash in Malaysia
Ola Duru (Georgetown University) is working with eHomemakers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
"The Muslim faith is the official religion of Malaysia. In a country populated with so many different ethnic groups and cultures, and such a complex history, the simplicity of one unifying religion seems almost unfeasible, and in fact it is. From Taoism, to Buddhism, Christianity, to Hinduism, what is certain in Malaysia is that nothing is quite that simple.  So it is a bit surprising to me that the government insists that all people of Malay ethnicity are Muslim at birth... And what happens to all those Malay citizens of Chinese, Indian and Indonesian decent? Are their rights as citizens diminished because their religions fall outside the official sphere?"
 
Demanding Justice in Peru, 16 Years After a Massacre
Ash Kosiewicz (Georgetown University) is working with the Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team (EPAF) in Lima, Peru.
"From the moment I jumped out of my car upon arriving to Cantuta, I could acutely feel the Cantuta community. For 16 years, they had suffered the absence of their fallen brethren, and today they had returned. Hundreds of students surrounded the funeral cars, chanting 'Spilt blood will never be forgotten!' and 'We will not forget, nor forgive. Punish those responsible!' I had stepped foot into an aching community's fight for justice."
 
Caste System Compared to Dante's Inferno
Heather Gilberds (Carleton University) is advocating for Dalit rights with the Jagaran Media Center (JMC) in Bhutwal, Nepal.
"His family lives in a poor, rural community where severe social exclusion and discrimination are commonplace. As we headed out to his village, Dinesh explained to me that village districts are structured in such a way that higher castes live near the village center where the amenities are and span outward in descending caste-based order. Upon hearing this, I was reminded of Dante's Inferno where those who have committed slight crimes live in the upper more comfortable circles of hell. The circles spiral downward in descending order according to the severity of the crime committed and those in the lowest circle face the most severe conditions in the afterlife. The crucial difference is that caste is not based on any scales of righteousness or morality. It is based on birth and birth alone. People cannot change the card that is dealt them; born a Dalit, a Brahmin, a Chetri, or a Janjati, one remains so for life."