Feb 23, 2010

I just finished reading John Foran’s new book, Taking Power (2005) and I think is a must read for anyone interested in human rights, social justice and peace. Although Foran is a sociologist and brings a predominantly sociological approach to his analysis, he also offers a multidisciplinary perspective.

He seeks answers to a simple age-old question: Why do revolutions happen? Focusing on a diverse range of revolutionary episodes – China, Cuba, Iran, Mexico, Nicaragua, Angola etc – Foran argues that five inter-related causal factors must combine in a given conjecture to produce successful social revolutions – 1) dependent development; 2) repressive, exclusionary, personalist state; 3) elaboration of effective and powerful political culture; 4) crisis arising from economic downturn and 5) a world systemic opening (external factors).

While I do not agree with some of the more rigidly structuralist arguments that Foran makes, I think his overall attempts at systematizing our understanding of social revolutions is to be commended. I was particularly intrigued by his discussion on the “Future of revolutions." He questions whether Globalization represents the “Highest Stage of Capitalism?” (p.260)

Globalization the Highest Stage of Capitalism?
In his classic 1916 account of imperialism, Lenin conceived it as the highest stage of capitalism, and dated its rise in words that echo eerily almost a century later: “The beginning of the twentieth century marks the turning point from the old capitalism to the new, from domination of capital in general to the domination of finance capital.” Foran wonders if, as imperialism represented for Lenin a special state in capitalism, globalization at the beginning of the twenty-first century represents a special stage in imperialism and neo-colonialism. This, I think, is an interesting proposition that draws attention to the structural inequities inherent in contemporary globalization.

Book of the Week: John Foran, Taking Power: On the Origins of Third World Revolutions

2/23/2010 04:16:00 PM , ,

Feb 21, 2010

A famous biblical verse states: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." I find this admonition by Jesus Christ relevant to the human rights movement in many ways. Not everyone who professes human rights does so with an objective commitment to human rights ideals. A look at the history of the human rights movement bears this out.

One of the legacies of the Cold War for human rights was the creation and intensification of the boundaries between civil and political rights on one hand, and economic, social and cultural rights on the other. These boundaries reflected the East West polarization in international relations which reduced human rights to a weapon of propaganda and political ideology in a bi-polar struggle. The West emphasized civil and political rights pointing the finger at socialist countries for denying these rights. The socialist (and many developing countries) emphasized economic and social rights criticizing the richest Western countries for failure to secure these rights for all its citizens.

In a post-Cold War era where the world is no longer that sharply divided between East and West, much of the propagandist human rights language of the Cold War era has lost its relevance. More countries across the former East West divide are now better disposed to affirming the interrelatedness, interdependence and indivisibility of human rights. However, the co-option of human rights by both state and non-state authority structures for parochial ideological and propagandist purposes did not cease with the end of the Cold War. International discourses on the right to development, for instance have continues to be underscored by similar manipulation of rights language to serve the political and economic agendas of states, ruling regimes and other non-governmental authority structures. The ideological fault lines may be less rigid than they were during the Cold War, but the language of human rights continues to be appropriated and invoked in ways that sell it short.

We must therefore continue to seriously consider the morally troubling outcomes that arise when human rights is co-opted by authority structures in ways that serve more to enhance their power than to alleviate human suffering. As we celebrate the many progressive developments that have been brought about by the post Second World War human rights movement, we must also pay attention to how the misuse of human rights can undermine its claims to universalism, inalienability and normative objectivity.

Whose “Human Rights” Agenda?

2/21/2010 04:40:00 PM ,

First published in Portuguese in 1968 Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed remains as relevant today as it was four decades ago. Written within the same Marxist intellectual traditions as Franz Fanon’s Wretched of the Earth, the appeal of this book for me goes beyond its ideological message. In this classic which has now been translated into several languages, Freire, a Brazilian educator critiques what he called the “banking concept of education”, in which the student is viewed as an empty account to be field in by the teacher. He emphasizes the need for education that is self reflective and relevant to the intellectual and material empowerment of the disempowered and marginalized. In reading Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed, I am reminded of my high school teacher, Mr Onyema, who, when asked to define education stated: “Your education is what remains with you when all you learnt in school must have been forgotten.”

Book of the Week - Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed

2/21/2010 04:08:00 PM

Jan 21, 2010

The outpouring of global support and assistance for the people of Haiti following the devastating earthquake in that country has been heartening. The people of Haiti are historically, a very resilient people and they will pull through even this devastation.

But I have been struck by the shallowness of the global media reporting of the event. Virtually none of the media reporting of the tragedy has gone beyond the fixation with Haiti’s recent history to explore the long and complex sequence of historical events that have shaped what Haiti is today. This is, in many ways, typical of Western media reporting - a preoccupation with the here and now. An obstinate presentism that insists on draining today's events of yesterday's antecedents; an antipathy for historical contexts. Yet, a broader historical context is crucial to understanding the realities of poverty and political instability in that country today. The only analysis have I seen in the media so far that even attempts to provide such a historical context is Fareed Zakaria’s GPS on CNN (Below).

Beyond the media's fixation with Haiti’s present history of corruption, poverty and political instability, is a long and brutal history of slavery, emancipation, exclusion, hostility, and foreign intervention. The legacies of these historical realities continue to shape the situation in that country today. We need to understand this past to be better able to help the people of Haiti move into a more promising future.



Sir Hilary Beckles, the pro-vice-chancellor and principal of the University of West Indies offers a historical perspective to the Haitian situation on in his article, “The Hate and the Quake”

http://www.barbadosadvocate.com/newsitem.asp?more=letters&NewsID=8490

HAITI: Media Reporting and the need for Historical Contextualization

1/21/2010 11:58:00 AM , , , ,

Dec 2, 2009



Dr. Bonny Ibhawoh (Centre for Peace Studies, McMaster University, Canada) discusses President Obama's decision to send additional troops to Afghanistan.

Afghanistan cannot simply be a military project. It also has to be a civilian empowerment and reconstruction project. That part of the overall Afghanistan strategy is becoming less clear. In his December 2008 speech announcing his decision to send 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, Obama stated: "The Nation I am most interested in building is our own." This seems to signal a radical shift from the lofty nation building agendas put forward by the US government in the earlier stages of the war. While I can understand the skepticism that some have voiced about America’s nation building role in Afghanistan, it goes without saying that the long term stability and security in Afghanistan which the international community so desperately desires can only be achieved when military campaigns are followed with sustained and coordinated civilian development assistance. For now, it seems that the Obama policy is to continue with an expanded and intensified military counter-insurgency strategy aimed at pushing back the Taliban. While this may well be a necessary first step, it does not by itself offer a comprehensive strategy that will bring long term peace and stability to that country.

Obama's Military Plan for Afghanistan: Beyond Counter Insurgency

12/02/2009 10:27:00 PM , ,

Nov 21, 2009


Listen to lecture:

http://macsfp.org/Who%20Will%20Protect%20Us%20dr.ibahowa.mp3

Who will protect us from those who want to protect us?

11/21/2009 06:53:00 AM , , ,

Oct 22, 2009

Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.

Chimamanda Adichie: The danger of a single story

10/22/2009 09:26:00 AM , ,

Oct 20, 2009



Playing for Change is an interesting initiative that digitally brings musicians from all over the word together to create beautiful and empowering music aimed at bringing positive change to the world. Their videos have become a you-tube sensation garnering over 20 million views. This my favorite in the collection. It is titled Chanda Mama, an old Indian folk song about the moon in Telugu language, a language mainly spoken in southern India. It is performed here by artists from 4 continents who probably have never spoken Telugu. It brings a truly universal meaning to ideals of peace and positive social change. Enjoy!

Playing for Change

10/20/2009 12:03:00 PM , ,

Oct 10, 2009

THE CENTRE FOR PEACE STUDIES McMASTER UNIVERSITY

THE 20th ANNUAL BERTRAND RUSSELL PEACE LECTURES
GWYNNE DYER

GWYNNE DYER has worked as a freelance journalist, columnist, broadcaster and lecturer on international affairs for more than 20 years. Born in Newfoundland, he received degrees from Canadian, American and British universities, finishing with a Ph.D. in Military and Middle Eastern History from the University of London. He served in three navies and held academic appointments at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and Oxford University before launching his twice-weekly column on international affairs, which is published by over 175 papers in some 45 countries. His first television series 'War', was aired in 45 countries in the mid-80s. One episode, 'The Profession of Arms', was nominated for an Academy Award. His more recent works include the 1994 series 'The Human Race', and 'Protection Force', a three-part series on peacekeepers in Bosnia, both of which won Gemini awards. His award-winning radio documentaries include 'The Gorbachev Revolution', a series based on Dyer's experiences in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union in 1987-90, and 'Millenium', a six-hour series on the emerging global culture. His most recent projects are a book and a radio series called 'Climate Wars', dealing with the geopolitics of climate change.
WAR AND PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST - NOV 9, 2009

CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE THREAT OF WAR - NOV 10, 2009

7:00PM Health Sciences Centre, room HSC-1A1 McMASTER UNIVERSITY

Bertrand Russell Peace Lectures 2009

10/10/2009 07:19:00 PM , , ,

Sep 20, 2009

A documentary on the ravages of war in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Congo Mission

9/20/2009 03:22:00 PM , , , ,
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