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The solidarity call |
Educated
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SPECIAL REPORT
Vol. XVII No. 3 MARCH 2005
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by Anjali Rangaswami Can things in the world be changed for the better? The author of this article thinks they can - but there are many challenges ahead that need to be tackled by all. Opening the newspaper, we are bound to read about violence across the world, or famine that has swept a nation. More often than not, I find myself wondering, “What are we doing to put a stop to this?” This curiosity brought me to the United Nations website, where I soon learned of the efforts that so often go unnoticed. Basic rights In 1951, the United Nations established the Geneva Convention, a document with the purpose of ensuring the basic human rights as defined by the UN General Assembly to the greatest possible number of people. In the light of the war that had engulfed the whole world in the previous years, the UN was eager to start the world on a new path of peace and security. This convention has held true, preventing a number of wars, and securing the livelihood of people worldwide. However, during the next 50 years, many other problems would arise. These included poverty, famine, racism and violence. It was now the job of the United Nations to deal with these new developing issues that plagued the international community. To do this, the UN proposed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), plans that would deal with these issues head on and encourage member countries to makes these issues their priority. Major problem One of the major problems that face many developing nations is the presence and treatment of refugees. This is magnified in the continent of Africa, where human rights are being violated every day, simply on the basis of war and political instability. The question presented to the United Nations is how will these millennium goals allow for the protection and maintenance of basic human rights that refugees are being deprived of in Africa and the rest of the world? To take a look at the success of the MDGs thus far, we must thus focus our attention on Africa, the most affected area when it comes to refugees. Here the majority of the population lives beneath the poverty line. Refugees in Africa have been subject to horrendous acts of violence and genocide in the past decade. In the light of this, the African Union was created. Along with UN peacekeepers, negotiations took place between a number of African countries to form the African Union, a body that would govern with a parliament, a court of justice, a single currency, and a central bank. They were also given the power to intervene should acts of genocide or extreme human right violations take place. Starting with ideals Although the system is not even nearly perfect, it is the recognition of the government that these human rights violations are wrong that will allow for the fair treatment of refugees within Africa in the years to come. It must be understood, nonetheless, that the violence that had gone on in Africa for years cannot be stopped overnight. Generations of young people will grow up with the same beliefs, as their parent’s whole generation took part in tribal warfare since childhood. However, a change in ideals must start somewhere. Children should be able to see a life for themselves where they are not buffeted around from country to country in fear of what will come. The MDGs recognize this, and to the credit of both the various African governments and the United Nations and its various branches, they have been able to begin the long-term fight for peace. Achieving goals The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) seem certain that these goals will be achieved. In fact, Mark Brown, administrator for the UNDP was recorded as saying, “Africa is a continent of great potential, undergoing intense change. The development challenges that lie ahead are daunting, but there are also grounds for optimism. Real social and economic progress is taking place and the Millennium Development Goals can still be achieved in Africa by 2015. We can stand ready to do everything we can to help ensure that the continent’s enormous potential is unlocked.” By forming the MDGs, the UN has allowed for stronger relationships to be formed between member countries and the UN body itself. With these stronger ties the UN organization will be more unified in making decisions for the future, and that is the greatest goal that one could achieve. Recognizing the problems The Millennium Development goals themselves are quite overarching of all the world’s problems. Here are the specific goals as set out by the UN: 1) Eradicate extreme hunger and poverty 2) Achieve universal primary education 3) Promote gender equality and empower women 4) Reduce child mortality 5) Improve maternal health 6) Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases 7) Ensure environmental stability 8) Develop a global partnership for development All eight of these goals have outlined what the world presently needs to deal with. To some it may seem as though these goals are far beyond the reach of any international body. The key is, however, that these problems have been recognized, and that they are now getting the attention they deserve. Facing obstacles The year 2015 is only ten years away, but using examples like that of the refugees in Africa, we can see that progress is being made on many fronts. The hard part is ensuring that the commitment towards reaching these goals is kept strong despite whatever obstacles might arise. There are critics and supporters to every program, but all in all, the United Nations has realized that changes need to be made, and member states have started to bring about change.<WM
by Cat-Dan Lai From Vietnam to Hong Kong to Canada across the world. Little is known the many millions who migrate or become refugees, yet every single experience is unique and often hidden, some have an happy end to their journey others much less so. Here the author, a young student, tells of his personal experience of migration and his search for a ‘home’ and its meaning. “Is this home for you?” I was recently asked upon landing at Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Michigan, USA. As usual, I found myself pausing when faced with this deceptively simple question. My answer took the form of another question in return, “Depends on how you define ‘home’?” My fellow traveler shrugged before responding with “I like to think of home as the place where I unpack my suitcase for at least a week! Otherwise, I try to make Charlotte (North Carolina) home but I was actually born and grew up in Kitchener (Ontario).” He happily told me his birthplace after finding out I was Canadian. We then lost each other in the sudden flurry of airport announcements and an influx of disgruntled passengers searching for the baggage claim area. But this traveler’s question remained with me as I trailed behind the masses who were so eager to reclaim their possessions and continue on to their final destinations. Even then, even now, I am at a loss as to how to swiftly respond to that generic yet precious concept of “home.” In so many ways, I know this because home has evolved beyond the place where one lives. This is especially true for those whose lives have rendered them a nomad. And in our increasingly globalized world, the idea of “home” has magnified itself to include people and places of once distant stories and imagination. But because it is now possible to travel across the globe within a day, mass migration has become a norm and travel considered a form of recreation. Like the desert Bedouins, people today are constantly on the move, visiting exotic destinations and even settling somewhere far from the land where they were born and have spent their childhood. A long journey This has certainly been the winding map that my life has been tracing across the globe. The journey began in Saigon, Vietnam, where I was born to a Vietnamese and Chinese couple a few years after the end of the civil war there. Because of the political circumstances of the time, my parents then decided to risk their lives for a better future by fleeing the only home they had ever known. Thus, by the age of three months, I had unwittingly became a political refugee – and just another nameless nomad. That perilous trek by boat was also made by over a million others from my birth land though, tragically, only half of this number arrived onto foreign soil with the hopes of finding a new home. My family was blessed to reach the latter fate after we escaped and found a temporary home for the following six months in one of the refugee camps that had been set up in Kowloon, Hong Kong. Now that I was a nomad, however, my path could not end there. Eventually, visitors began to arrive at our camp and it was not until one particular guest came that my life took another dramatic change. By this point in time, the mass exodus of the Vietnamese had garnered global media attention and the nations of the world rallied to open up their borders to us. So many countries wanted to offer us a new home. One of these countries was Canada which was, for the most part, largely unknown to the majority of Vietnamese people. By then, Canada had begun to take its place on the international stage and it was the Canadian ambassador to Hong Kong who enthusiastically introduced his beautiful country to thousands of Vietnamese refugees during that time. Many were doubtful at first upon being invited to immigrate to this unknown land. Once realizing it was a democratic, developed nation situated just north of the United States, thousands of us eagerly accepted this kind offer by the Canadian government and its citizens. Thus, my parents and I embarked on our next most significant trip across another ocean to Southern Ontario, Canada, where I eventually grew up. Through the generosity and love of several Dutch families in this area, my family was able to learn a new language, adjust to a much colder climate and gradually integrate into our new community. Later, I discovered the Canadian government had initially planned and prepared to accept only a few hundred Vietnamese refugees per year. Once we began arriving, however, their desperate and courageous search for freedom heightened the Canadians’ desire to aid and adopt as many refugees as possible into their communities. Remarkably, this amazing cooperation between the Canadian federal government and private citizen sponsorship resulted in over 100,000 Vietnamese refugees being invited and integrated into the country between the period of the late 1970s and the early 1980s. Because of this global effort, both Canadian foreign policy and my life became transformed forever. Quest for home Even so, my nomadic blood has still been flowing and my quest for “home” still continued. Since my first arrival in our new homeland of Canada, I have lived in many different places within the province and beyond, including time spent on the West Coast in Vancouver, British Columbia and, more recently, down south in Houston, Texas, U.S.A. All these distinct communities have allowed me to get to know more of myself but they have also not become my “home.” Instead, they have added to my perpetual feelings of displacement that have taught me that my home is not a place where I live. That home encompasses much more than that. Naturally, I have encountered and befriended countless others who also share this strange yet modern nomadic experience with me. In our age of global mobility, fear and concerns have also increased in the form of international security or illegal immigration. As governments attempt to cooperate and prepare to handle such issues, I find that I must somehow do my own part like the private citizens who moved their government to aid my people when we most needed it. It is powerful to remember what I have journeyed through and to extend my heart and my resources to these other nomads who desperately seek refuge and need to find home, even if all I have to offer them is my complete empathy and understanding. In the end, that is truly where home is to be found.<WM Copyright ©World Mission Magazine |
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