Archive for May, 2008
Saturday, May 31st, 2008
Two days ago, students from Gaza received a letter stating that their Fulbright scholarship had been revoked. In fact, the State Department withdrew all Fulbright grants to Palestinian students in Gaza, who were supposed to be going to the U.S. to study during this coming academic year. And no one really seems to know what’s going on or why the State Department canceled without any apparent attempts to ensure they were allowed out. Why do I believe this? Because now that the New York Times has released the article, all of the sudden people are looking up from their desks going, “What happened?”
According the Times article, “when a query about the canceled Fulbrights was made to the prime minister’s office on Thursday, senior officials expressed surprise. They said they did, in fact, consider study abroad to be a humanitarian necessity and that when cases were appealed to them, they would facilitate them. They suggested that American officials never brought the Fulbright cases to their attention.”
And then AFP reported that Secretary Rice had no idea this had happened.
“We really have to be concerned about the future of Palestinians and the future Palestine,” Rice told reporters during a visit in Iceland.
“And if you cannot engage young people and give them a complete horizon to their expectations and to their dreams, then I don’t know that there would be any future for Palestine” or the people of the region, Rice said.
“It was a surprise to me and I am definitely going to look into it… I’m a big supporter of Fulbrights for people in places that have been isolated from the international community and we will see what we can do.”
So who knew what was going on and pulled the plug? The Times article said that the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem canceled the scholarships “out of concern” that the grant money would go to waste in light of the Israeli government’s crackdown on isolating Gaza beginning at the end of last year. The article also cited that internal State Department problems may have contributed to the lack of effort to assist these students:
The State Department and American officials in Israel refused to discuss the matter. But the failure to persuade the Israelis may have stemmed from longstanding tensions between the consulate in Jerusalem, which handles Palestinian affairs, and the embassy in Tel Aviv, which manages relations with the Israeli government.
You would think that if the awarded scholarships were in jeopardy for an entire area, that the Consulates of the U.S. would step up their efforts before canceling a whole program, and in the process, dealing a huge blow to the students who had received these awards based on their merits and leaving the mess to senior officials and the Secretary of State who probably could have intervened before this fiasco. Especially because it appears even if the Israeli government allows them out at this point (along with the dozens of other students with Western scholarships and offers to study abroad), the Fulbright grantees will not be able to go.
However, there is no confirmation that the money has been reallocated and Israel said yesterday that they would reconsider the situation. So there may still be hope to reinstate these Fulbright students.
Some of the current Fulbrighters have put together an open letter to the State Department and the IIE, which administers the Fulbright Program, to reinstate these fellows and to do whatever is in their power to reverse this backward move on the part of the program. So far, eighty former and current Fulbrighters have signed it. The site also includes links to the latest news on the situation. Although it is true that some of this depends on the Israeli government and not entirely on the shoulders of the State Department, it seems there is willingness on the part of Israel to reexamine this without too much complication. In fact, there seems to be misunderstanding as to why this happened in the first place.
Hopefully the situation will be rectified in time to give these students the opportunity they’ve earned without having to wait another year. The Fulbright’s goals are to increase “mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries” and it serves as “a context to provide a better understanding of U.S. views and values, promotes more effective binational cooperation and nurtures open-minded, thoughtful leaders, both in the U.S. and abroad, who can work together to address common concerns.” It is pretty difficult to accomplish that goal when grants are being canceled without much effort to ensure the ability of the student to start their studies.
UPDATE!
I have just heard from my fellow Fulbrighter in Gaza and he has told me that just a few hours ago, they received this message from the Consulate in Jerusalem:
The US Department of State is working to secure exit permits for you to travel to Jerusalem for your visa interview and for final travel to the United States in order to participate in the Fulbright program this year. We are working closely with the Government of Israel in order to secure its cooperation in this matter.
Therefore, I’m pleased to inform you that the Bureau of Educational and Cultural affairs (ECA) of the US Department of State has instructed Amideast in Washington to continue the placement process at a US university for the 2008-09 academic year for your Fulbright program nomination.
We will notify you when your placement has been arranged to begin the next steps in the grant process.
WOOHOO! Such great news. Although as my contact pointed out, there are still hundreds of students that were granted study through other U.S. programs that are still trapped by this isolation policy that the U.S. has not been to negotiate their exit.
Today, we will celebrate this small victory. These students will not only become an asset to the academic and cultural communities of the U.S., but will also help shape the future and international contributions of their country. Good luck to all of them.
Posted in International News | 2 Comments »
Saturday, May 17th, 2008
From the International Institute of Buffalo:
Fundraiser for Burmese Cyclone Victims
This Sunday, May 18, 1:00–4:00 pm
International Institute of Buffalo
864 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo
Featuring traditional Burmese music and dance, ethnic food, a silent auction, and handcrafted items and artwork available for sale. Burmese refugees living in Buffalo are hosting this event to aid families, friends, and countrymen in Burma suffering the effects of this disaster. Proceeds will go to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to be used specifically for humanitarian aid for this tragedy.
Donation requested at the door. Open to the public. For more information, call 883-1900 x319, email dbeehag@iibuff.org, or visit www.iibuff.org.
If you would like to make a donation to help victims of Cyclone Nargis but cannot attend the event on Sunday, you can make a check out to the International Institute of Buffalo, 864 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14209
Please write “Burma fundraiser” in the memo
Here is the link to the UNHCR page, and under the news links, you can find out what they’re doing in Myanmar to assist victims.
Posted in Events | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, May 13th, 2008
I know I raised some alarm with my last post on racial issues in Ukraine, and there is good reason to be alarmed. But at the same rate, ground has been gained. A couple weeks ago, there was the first conviction of a violent crime using Article 161 of the Criminal Code:
The Darnytsky District Court on Friday issued its verdict over the killing of Nigerian national Kunyon Myevi Hodi* in Kyiv near the metro station “Poznyaki” on 25 October 2006.
Of the group of four people whom the criminal investigation unit believed involved in the attack or present at it, one appeared as a witness and one came under an amnesty as being underage.
The other two were both convicted.
One was found guilty of murder (Article 115 § 2 of the Criminal Code) and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and of inciting racial hatred and enmity and denigrating a person’s ethnic honour and dignity (Article 161 § 3) and received a four year term of imprisonment. Since the sentences are to be partially merged (under Article 70 of the Criminal Code), he was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment. The sentence is counted from 15 November 2006.
The other was found guilty of inciting racial hatred and enmity and denigrating a person’s ethnic honour and dignity (Article 161 § 2) and received a four and a half year term of imprisonment. This sentence is counted from November 2006.
In passing sentence, among other considerations, aggravating circumstances were taken into account – the fact that at the time of the crime, the men were in a state of alcoholic intoxication (Article 67 of the Criminal Code)
The defendants only partially admitted guilt. They have 15 days from 18 April to appeal against the verdict.
* In all the reports at the time, the name was given differently - Hodnoys Myevi. The victim was 47 years old and had lived in Ukraine for a number of years. He had graduated from the Institute of National Economy, defended his PhD thesis in economics and was married to a Ukrainian.
As well, there have been two more cases opened.
Today, I was able to get a bit more imagery on growing understanding among people in Ukraine. Today was Dehn Evropi (Europe Day) in Kyiv and there were a couple dozen tents and stages set up all the way down Khreshatik representing European countries, EU institutions, and a few others. Among the few others was the Diversity Initiative. We had hand-outs, a quiz, a skit about inter-racial marraige, and we also had an African drumming group. During the drumming, this happened:
These lovely Ukrainian ladies jumped into the circle during a drumming dance contest, and showed everyone what was up. A small reminder that this is not a foregone problem and that a little interaction goes a long way.
Posted in Experience Abroad, International News | 1 Comment »
Monday, May 5th, 2008
Burma (Myanmar) is in the news again for the suffering of its people, this time at the hands of a disastrous cyclone. On Saturday, Cyclone Nargis hit hard causing at least five states and the city of Rangoon to be declared disaster zones. At this point, the exact death toll is unknown, but just in the last day it has gone up from a little over 300 to now close to 10,000 and still counting. Whole villages have been wiped out and hundreds of thousands of people are without shelter, clean water, and basic supplies. Profiteering is taking its toll as the prices for goods are drastically increasing.
Aid organizations and foreign governments are scrambling to put together packages, as well as ship out stocks of supplies already prepared for natural disasters. The government of Burma has said they are willing to accept this aid, but it is hard to say what the future will bring for the affected populations, especially those completely cut off by destroyed infrastructure. In fact, these outlying areas are “still under negotiation” as to whether the UN and other aid organizations will be allowed to go there. The aid will also be difficult to watch from the outside as many major news organizations are still not allowed to report out of Burma.
Even in cases where countries have infrastructure, money, and the capability to respond to natural disasters, as Americans, we know what a lack of organization and political will can do to prevent assistance from reaching those most deeply affected by severe natural disasters. And if the death toll continues to rise in Burma, it will be the biggest natural disaster in Asia since the Tsunami of 2004.
Disasters of this magnitude take a great deal of time to recover from. For example, India, despite having a more modern infrastructure and more money than Burma, is still dealing with the remnants of the Tsunami in 2007, almost three years after the storm hit. This is especially the case for Indians among the poorest classes living in the affected areas. According to a report by the United Nations in December of 2007, the “recovery effort is still in full swing” as “Reconstruction has taken longer than originally anticipated” even though the national and local governments of the affected areas are credited with being helpful in the effort. Although the recovery seems to be almost complete, these populations, in the mean time, have been exposed to risks of human trafficking, setbacks in their education and livelihoods, among other issues. Not to mention this disaster affected mostly women and children. Seventy-five percent of the people killed by the tsunami were women and children.
Now, let’s take the situation and turn to Burma, where the disaster is at least equal, if not more devastating. India lost about 12,000 people, hundreds of thousands more were displaced, about 100,000 completely lost their homes. So far, Burma has lost about 10,000 with the number expected to grow as more accurate reports come in. The disaster zones encompass areas that are (were) home to about 24 million Burmese. And instead of the world’s biggest democracy working with foreign governments and aid organizations to organize the delivery of food, supplies, and basic needs, there is the military junta with a less-than-perfect record on human rights even in fair weather.
In fact, the Burmese government has decided to push ahead with Saturday’s vote on the Constitution despite the fact that almost half of Burma’s population are living in areas declared disaster zones. This is also despite the fact that some areas have reported not even so much as seeing the authorities come to their area to patrol and assist people. People have already expressed their frustrations with this blatant expression of indifference on the part of the government about the well being of its population:
Pictures on state TV show security services working to clear roads but in Rangoon and elsewhere there are complaints that the response to the disaster has been weak.
“Where are the soldiers and police? They were very quick and aggressive when there were protests in the streets last year,” a retired government worker complained to Reuters news agency.
Even if it seemed likely that this vote would have a positive effect on the freedoms and rights of the Burmese people (the general consensus seems to be that it will not), the fact that at least hundreds of thousands will not be able to participate already delegitimizes the results.
But as a depressing article from the BBC expresses:
Whatever they think of their leaders right now, the people of Burma desperately need their help.
Some photos and videos from the disaster:
Photo taken during the cyclone:
Video of storm footage from the AP:
Video of the aftermath from Al Jazeera (still allowed to report inside Burma):
Aftermath pictures from the BBC:
ReliefWeb has an appeal call from Church World Services, who is working with the Myanmar Council of Churches to get aid to people affected by the storm. They are looking to raise $50,000 and fast. The details of how you can contribute are on this page.
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Monday, May 5th, 2008
So a little over eight months into my research and I’m finally wrapping my case studies of domestic non-governmental organizations that do anti-trafficking work in Ukraine. In the coming weeks, my research assistant (yes, that’s right, a research assistant. I feel so legitimate) and I will head off to Chernivtsi and Mykolaiv to meet with the last two organizations we will be studying. So far we have gone to organizations in Ternopil, Simferopol, Vinnytsia, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zhytomir, Pavlohrad, and Odesa. It’s been an unending blur of planes, trains, marshrutkas, squatter toilets, strangely suspicious hotel lobby employees, and Cheletano pizza. The task of taking down fourteen to twenty pages worth of notes and retyping them has been daunting, but extremely rewarding.
The purpose of these case studies is to take an in-depth look at the structure of these organizations, their mission and activities, their financial operations, their external relations with the government, community, other NGOs, etc., as well as taking some time to ask questions that require self-assessment and reflection on the part of the directors of these organizations. They are connected because they all provide direct services to victims of human trafficking in Ukraine and are IOM partner organizations (one of the groups I work the closest with). We tried to select based on geographical representation, as well. All of this will culminate in a best and sustainable practices manual as well as a possible training seminar for NGOs to be put together in June.
Most of these organizations branch out into other areas- HIV/AIDS, street children, immigration assistance/consultation, domestic violence, drug use, etc. Some do it because there is more funding that way, some do it because they feel the topics are inextricably related, and some both.
Another common thread thus far is a complete dependence on international donors. And at least some of these organizations are considered very strong and stable as far as the work they do, the transparency of their operations, and the way they run their show meaning that it is unlikely we will see a different trend elsewhere. The problem is, once the international donors lose interest, the organizations will either be forced to find funding some other way by going into different areas of work or will have to close-up shop.
In my time at these organizations, I’ve also been able to get invaluable interviews with the State Border Guard Service, the State Security Service (SBU- the hand down of the KGB), the Ministry of Family, Youth, and Sports, the Ministry of Interior, as well as lawyers and social workers that take time to work with these organizations and victims.
But it’s not all work and no play. In Simferopol, for example, the director of the organization we studied, who is a real firebrand and human rights defender both in her organization and as a practicing lawyer, decided to bring us out after the study was finished into the countryside of the Crimea to meet a Crimean artist and friend of hers. His name is Aleksander Khmailo and his work is absolutely fascinating. He lives in a small village in the Bakhchesarai region and his studio was a very small room connected to his house, which stored most of his work. He has sold very few pieces (because he does not sell them) and puts them on exhibit rather infrequently. Some of his work he claims to be prophetic: he sees the images in his dreams and paints tragedies that do not happen until years after he has finished the piece.
Believe it or not, he painted a piece during the 90s which depicted 9/11. It was of a woman, on her knees with her head down and an American flag draped over her shoulder. In the background to the right is a bright figure of death and to the left are two modern buildings upside-down and smoldering. He also painted a piece of an upside-down plane over a woman and a statue with the lion of Lviv just before the tragic plane crash in Lviv that killed over 80 people. Not all of his paintings are like this, of course, but they’re the ones he spent the most time explaining to us. The whole thing was bizarre, but fascinating nonetheless and the art was quite amazing. Below are a couple pictures I took while we were talking to him.
What else? Well I took my first express trains in Ukraine on a couple of these trips. The trains were really nice, very European. It was probably bought from Poland or the Czech Republic or something. One problem: they still run on Ukrainian tracks. To put it into perspective for my Western New York readers, it was kind of like taking the cars off the Superman at Darien Lake and putting them on the tracks of the Predator. Does the Predator still exist?
One more piece of research news: I will be staying in Ukraine through August to work on the research project on xenophobia and xenophobic violence. I’m quite excited about the project and am looking forward to really starting it. I’ve already taken on some tasks within the DI, participating in presentations to embassies and local schools so I look forward to working on the project (at least mostly) full time.
Tomorrow I leave for Istanbul as, in my mind, I thought it would be the best way to go somewhere I haven’t gone before and restart my 90 day clock to avoid registering with the city. Well, apparently, I’m screwed even if I do leave the country. Ukraine, as part of its WTO commitments is cracking down on foreigners within their visa/registration regime. I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do about registering once I get back, but I guess I have to figure it out or I’m going to get fined.
At least the weather in Kyiv is finally getting better.
Posted in Experience Abroad | 3 Comments »
