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A white shark among minnows? Australia's changing role in the Pacific

This paper by Prof. Vijay Naidu of Victoria University of Wellington was presented at the Australian Council for Overseas Aid (ACFOA) Forum "Shifting Tides in Pacific Policy", 18 September, 2003, Canberra, Australia. In it he looks at Australia's Pacific policy. Prof. Naidu concludes by saying "Over the last two decades Australian Pacific policy has been based on an increasing lack of respect for the capacity and indeed the ability of island countries to govern themselves. Instead of attuning themselves to the challenges that confront island states and the specificities that each of them encounter in managing the impact of the globalisation process, Australia has led the charge for 'reform' as a blunt instrument of privatisation. Not satisfied with the speed and scope of reform, there has been a ganging up of Australia, New Zealand, ADB and possibly other multilaterals. This harmonized blue print approach has now extended to poverty reduction in the region. Australia appears to have taken up the role of a self appointed task master to orchestrate the changes that it desires. Australian self-interest is manifest in most of its dealings with countries of the region. The intervention in the Solomon Islands and the appointment of an Australian as SG of the apex regional body may not be sufficient to hold all Pacific states in line. Fortunately for them, there are other players such as China, Japan, Malaysia and South Korea who will increasingly challenge Australian hegemony and provide space for more pragmatic approaches to their development challenges. Already Japan is the largest aid donor in island Pacific outside of Papua New Guinea and Chinese generous funding of the sports facilities in Suva for the South Pacific Games did not go unnoticed by officials and athletes of participating countries. "Australians must recognise the capabilities of island people in dealing with the challenges that confront them, seek to be supportive when this is needed, make principled stand when there is obvious abuse of power, seek to understand the complexities in island societies before pushing the neoliberal 'one size fits all' model of development and make partners of Australian and Pacific island state and civil society actors to reach the broad masses of island people."

http://www.dev-zone.org/kcdocs/6518acfoanaidu.html

(Added: Wed Nov 12 2003   Modified: Fri Nov 11 2005   Hits: 673)

A window on the world, by Edward Said

Western scholars helped justify the war in Iraq, says Edward Said, with their orientalist ideas about the 'Arab mind'. Twenty-five years after the publication of his post-colonial classic, the author of Orientalism argues that humanist understanding is now more urgently required than ever before

http://www.guardian.co.uk/alqaida/story/0,12469,1010540,00.html

(Added: Tue Aug 26 2003   Modified: Fri Dec 16 2005   Hits: 267)

An African's plea: No more 'saviors'

Africa doesn't want to be saved. With fair partnerships, it is capable of unprecedented growth. (Uzodinma Iweala, Christian Science Monitor, 24 July 2007).

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0724/p09s02-coop.html?page=1

(Added: Fri Jul 27 2007   Hits: 198)

Effects of Colonization on Indian Thought

By Michel Danino. This paper was presented at a seminar on "Decolonization and its Cultural Problems" organized by N. V. Krishna Warrior Smaraka Trust at Tripunithura (Kerala) on 9-10 October 1999. The theme chosen by this seminar is a very apt one. Having suffered the burden of two centuries of British occupation, India has, since Independence, tried to come to terms with the impact of that exotic presence perhaps diametrically opposed to her own temperament, culture and genius. If anything, this introspection has only intensified in recent years, as Western culture (if it deserves this noble name) aggressively spreads around the globe. But it stands to reason that for an effective "decolonization" to take place-even in order to find out whether and how far it is desirable-we should first take a hard look at the effects of this colonization, what traces it has left on the Indian mind and psyche, and how deep. That is what I have briefly attempted to do in this paper-briefly, because it is a subject as vast and complex as Indian life itself, and also because I am a mere student of India, not a learned scholar like those present among us today.

http://www.indiacause.com/newsletters/nL_030815.htm

(Added: Mon May 31 2004   Modified: Wed Jan 10 2007   Hits: 204)

Human Rights & the Treaty of Waitangi

The Human Rights Commission initiated its strategy for public dialogue on human rights and the Treaty of Waitangi at the beginning of 2002. The Commission plans to reach into communities and facilitate dialogue sessions based on the human rights dimensions of the Treaty of Waitangi. We have decided to use a dialogue methodology because it involves establishing a respectful and safe environment for people to tell their stories. The language of dialogue is story telling.

http://www.hrc.co.nz/index.php?p=23986

(Added: Tue Jul 06 2004   Modified: Thu Jun 22 2006   Hits: 253)

Language: a toolkit for life on earth

Scientific research is increasingly published only in English, or, if it is in another language, such as Urdu, English words are frequently used. This article, however, argues that every effort must be made to preserve, encourage and record the world's threatened languages, and to cultivate diversity in the use of a wide range of languages in the world's conversation. If this is not done, the knowledge they embody, including life-sustaining resources that could be the key to our collective future, will die with them. (Ehsan Masood, Open Democracy, 23 March 2006)

http://www.opendemocracy.net/globalization/language_3380.jsp

(Added: Wed Apr 12 2006   Hits: 160)

My Guru by Edward Said

Ibrahim Abu-Lughod, a former professor of political science at Northwestern University who later became vice-president of Bir Zeit University on the West Bank, died at the age of 72 on 23 May in his Ramallah home, after a long illness. I learned of his death as I was walking out of Tel Aviv airport on my way to see him. He was my oldest and dearest friend, remarkable as an introspective thinker and a charismatic political teacher and leader, whose insight had sustained a friendship that lasted nearly fifty years. There were hundreds of mourners at his funeral in Jaffa, and at the 'azza - the wake - at his home and the Qattan Centre in Ramallah. Several of his friends spoke at the commemoration, held in a theatre in Ramallah the day after he was buried next to his father in a hillside graveyard overlooking the cove where he used to take his visitors for a swim - always refusing to visit the adjoining Israeli beach café, which looked very inviting just the same. One of the speakers at the funeral in Jaffa was Faisal Husseini, who was to die exactly a week later in a Kuwait hotel room.

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v23/n24/said01_.html

(Added: Mon Sep 08 2003   Modified: Thu Dec 15 2005   Hits: 220)

Native Title Report 2005

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commissioner, Tom Calma, argues in the Native Title Report 2005 that the Australian Government's proposal to encourage private ownership and leases of communal land under Indigenous title will not lead to improved economic outcomes for Indigenous people. Tabled in Australia's federal Parliament in February, this report assesses the issues and the potential impacts of the Indigenous land leasing proposal, as well as providing some alternative economic development strategies and initiatives. (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, 2006)

http://www.humanrights.gov.au/social_justice/ntreport05/index.html

(Added: Mon Apr 03 2006   Modified: Thu Jun 22 2006   Hits: 205)

Pacific: Decolonisation far from over

BY MICHELLE BREAR, From Green Left Weekly, June 19, 2002. SUVA, Fiji - Since the Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific (NFIP) movement's formation in 1975, the campaign for self-determination for Pacific island nations under colonial rule has been central to its work, and that of its Suva-based secretariat, the Pacific Concerns Resources Centre (PCRC). Small island nations account for 14 of 16 territories recognised by the United Nations Special Committee for Decolonisation (UNSCD) as non self-governing territories. Five (Guam, American Samoa, Kanaky, Tokelau and Pitcairn) are in the Pacific Ocean. Many others, including West Papua and Bougainville in the Pacific region, are not recognised by the UN as non self-governing territories.

http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2002/496/496p16b.htm

(Added: Mon Sep 09 2002   Modified: Fri Nov 11 2005   Hits: 293)

The United Nations and Decolonisation

More than 80 nations whose peoples were formerly under colonial rule have joined the United Nations as sovereign independent States since the world Organization was founded in 1945. Additionally, many other Territories have achieved self-determination through political association with other independent States or through integration with other States. The United Nations has played a crucial role in that historic change. Today, there are still 17 Non-Self-Governing Territories remaining. These are: American Samoa, Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, East Timor, Falkland Islands (Malvinas), Gibraltar, Guam, Montserrat, New Caledonia, Pitcairn, St. Helena, Tokelau, Turks and Caicos Islands, United States Virgin Islands, and Western Sahara. The current administering Powers are France, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.

http://www.un.org/Depts/dpi/decolonization/main.htm

(Added: Thu Jun 27 2002   Modified: Fri Nov 11 2005   Hits: 235)

ZNet Edward Said Archives

ZNet mourns the passing of Edward Said. His courage and unflagging pursuit of justice is an inspiration to us all. Below are several pieces reflecting on his life and work as well as an archive of all the articles he has written for ZNet.

http://www.zmag.org/meastwatch/edward_said.htm

(Added: Mon Oct 06 2003   Modified: Fri Nov 11 2005   Hits: 269)