Issue 7 - What is the relationship between "Global" and "Local" agendas and responsibilities?

 

Issue dealt with in Episode 8 - MDG 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development 

 

Cultural identities and intercultural dialogue: is dialogue a risk or an opportunity for the preservation of community heritage?

 

See also:

• Localitŕ e globalitŕ nell’identitŕ culturale – Verso un’ontologia del dialogo.   

• Decentralised_Cooperation

 

 

Testimonials P. Krishna is the Rector of the Krishnamurti Foundation India, Varanasi. He was interviewed in Delhi on the 24th of March 2010 by Fausto Aarya De Santis How can Communities count more in Development Choices Role of Aid and opinion on foreign aid      He thinks that  old   distinctions between "international aid" and "local aid" are no longer valid, because the world is now  a global village and we feel global ethical responsibilities. What is important is to understand how to make aid effective and fair.  In cases of emergencies the aid given as external "assistance"  surely provides immediate relief; but it should not continue for long; aid should become development cooperation, otherwise it will weaken the recipients and make them chronically aid dependent.  "If instead we can educate them to stand on their own legs, we have really helped them." The real long term empowerment is only through education. "We now live in a global world, so we must not distinguish anymore between foreign aid and local aid. What is important is to understand how aid must be given. In cases of emergency, aid surely provides immediate relief, but it should not lead the receiver to be a parasite on society. If instead we can educate them stand... on their own legs, we have really helped them. Aid as Aspirin has value but as a cure for the disease has no value. Long term help is in the form of Education. " see full interview: :http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL19CD1F8E78885101

 

 

Testimonials Zulfiquar Haider is the National Programme Coordinator for the Planning Commission (GoI) - UN, Joint Programme on Convergence. He was interviewed in Delhi on the 13th of April 2010 by Fausto Aarya De Santis What is the importance of involving local communities in project design and implementation. Can you also tell us about your project? In India right from the time of Mahatma Gandhi the idea of a village republic, power to the people has been there. Over a period of time in the practice of development both in academia and practice, it has been apparent that once you have planning done locally then people have a better idea of their needs, aspiration and they will have ownership of ideas; and whatever therefore gets done will be much more efficient and effective. There is now a very strong commitment from the Government to get local communities more involved in development activities. There is space being given and if somebody can properly demonstrate how it can happen, it will be honored. This is what the program we are doing is trying to achieve. We want to demonstrate how the bottom up planning will actually function. How there can be convergent action around the people's own plans, how to give information to the communities as to what is happening to their plans and trying to identify the bottle necks of large government schemes at district levels - there is a lot of unspent money at district levels in India which is very sad. What do you think is the relationship between possessing a strong cultural identity and the capacity to understand and share the values of others? Why should we be identified so much with anything. One can have a fluid idea of identity. The danger is when we are so strongly identified that implicitly we are saying that our is the right way and the other is way is either lesser or wrong... and this is one of the fundamental reason of conflict and violence in the world. Honestly i don't think it takes too much intelligence to just observe life around to realize that what we hold on to are nothing more than conditioning. If a person is identified with a religion, it is just an accident of birth. Which would easily reaviel that there is nothing fundamental about it. So whatever perspective we carry are just conditioning based on socialization and the upbringing we had, so there isn't necessary a grand ultimate truth about it. Therefore there is no reason to hold on to it and say this is the only way. You can be flexible and curious about life. How to address this? I think we need to create spaces and platforms where dialogue can happen, where people can get relaxed about their identity.... and as child that curiosity which is innate needs to be foster.   see full interview:  http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL77195325F4994608

 

 

 

Testimonials Montek Singh Ahluwalia is the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Government of India. He was interviewed in Delhi on the second week of April 2010 by Fausto Aarya De Santis Do Millennium Development Goals play a role in the formulation of the Planning Commissions plans?  MDGs refer to commonly shared notions of what constitutes and improvement in human welfare. Our plans have specific programs which deal with deal with each of the Human Development Goals; if these programs are successfully implemented then the Government will end up meeting the MDGs…. Do you think that the Government of India makes too many plans, too many promises?   There is nothing wrong with making too many promises, it pushes the government to deliver on those promises. The central government has about 150 programs but over 90% of the money goes in the top 20 programs, that is not too many. India is both a donor and an aid receiving country, what give India this peculiar characteristic?  We have always felt that we have some capacity to help people. Globally we are among the poorest country so we accept aid... but we also want to show that we can use some of our resources in other to help other countries where possible see full interview:   http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL073E7C62882137D9

 

 

Testimonials Pietro Cocco is a founding member of Kautilya Society and the Head of Web Department,  Vatican Radio  web services.  He lives and works in Rome. He was interviewed in Varanasi in December 2010 by Vrinda Dar Pietro Cocco - Il dialogo interreligioso Perché cercare il dialogo a Benares see full interview: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL70168408B4966BCB

 

 

 

Testimonials Jean Drčze is a development economist teaching and working in India. He was interviewed in Allahabad, India on the 23rd February 2011 Impact of AID and its Future Social Change as Banging Against the Wall but there is Hope see full interview: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL46EDF7CD88112E51

 

 

 

 

Testimonials Olivier Consolo is the Director of CONCORD, an European NGO confederation for Relief and Development. He was interviewed by Vrinda Dar and Stefano De Santis in June 2011 in Brussels, Belgium Short term unsustainable versus long term sustainable interests The true European "Interest" see full interview:   http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9D696DEFD5A5F5F7

 

 

 

 

 

 

Testimonials Rajendra K. Pachauri , Nobel Peace Prize winner, is the Director General of the The Energy and Resources Institute, TERI. He was interviewed in New Delhi, India on the second week of February 2011 by Stefano De Santis How can the youth approach studies and work for and inclusive development? Is joining the NGO the only way?  Development is not just government, is not just civil society… it involves also the corporate sector. If a young person who is socially conscious is getting an MBA program, then in the course of studying for that MBA program then that person must also understand how he can be responsible towards society in business decision making. In each of our profession there is a great deal we can do, we don’t necessarily have to join an NGO to do good to society, we can do it in whatever profession we are in.  Today companies are becoming much more sensitive towards these issues. see full interview:  http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1B4B968D8E371E8F

 

 

 

Testimonials Fabio Melloni is the Director of the Italian Develepment Cooperation in Lebanon.   He was interviewed in Lebanon in November 2010 Integrazione di cooperazione locale, regionale e internazionale Integrazione tra cooperazione civile e intervento militare see full interview: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8CF6FE1FB663E520

 

 

 

 

Interview to Vrinda Dar 
 

Testimonials (please give a detail of Vrinda Dar and what she says) See more in the complete interview    _Rqr7y_se_o|200}} http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Rqr7y_se_o

 

Interview to Mirela Ciucur
 

Testimonials (please give a detail of Mirela Ciucur and what she says) See more in the complete interview    SF_dAMwdGEQ|200}} http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SF_dAMwdGEQ

 

 

Interview to Zulfiquar Haider

Testimonials Interviewed by the TVP Documentary team in India, Zulfiquar Haider the National Programme Coordinator for the Planning Commission (GoI) - UN, Joint Programme on Convergence believes on a fluid concept of identity, not a rigid one. A rigid form of identity implicitly says that "our is the right way and the other is way is either lesser or wrong" and this is "one of the fundamental reason of conflict and violence in the world.". For him "if a person is identified with a religion, it is just an accident of birth", which shows that there is nothing fundamental about his identity or truth claim.""Honestly" he says, "i don't think it takes too much intelligence to just observe life around to realize that what we hold on to are nothing more than conditioning." There is no reason for holding on to identitly and say this is the only way; "you can be flexible and curious about life."   See more in the complete interview    3kLSxgR4ttc|200}} http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kLSxgR4ttc

 

 

Montek Singh Ahluwalia

The concept of an identity that is static is a huge mistake. Any effort to preserve identity is backward looking, static and frozen. The global environment is increasing the possibilities for countries and cultures to interact and i would strongly in favor of anything which increases that interaction.

But i'm not a supporter of the idea of all cultures merging into a some pre-digested-homogenized-mush. I would like to see an interaction of cultures where cultures absorb things from outside, contribute things to the outside but yet remain disticntly different. How do you get the balance is the issue in my view.

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Testimonials We asked Fabio Poggi, the current Councillor for International Cooperation in Modena (Italy), how it is possible to sensitise people who are unlikely motivated towards cooperation.    Modena is a multi-ethnic city, and yet, unfortunately not everyone is naturally keen to open to the Other. What is the strategy used by the Municipality of Modena in order to influence and make favourably disposed those who do not like the meeting with non-EU citizens? How to target those people who want non-EU citizens to return home?  Read his opinion in<span /> his interview   Link to the full written interview: http://www.TVP.eu/wiki/index.php?title=Interview_to_Fabio_Poggi Link to the audio interview on Youtube, (italian language) ⇒  Part 2

 

 

 

Testimonials

Why does the EU work for a Glabal Partnership for Development? Interviewed by the TVP Documentary team in India, Daničle Smadja, the EU Ambassador to India. She says that the EU was very committed towards the MDGs when they were put together in the UN. In achieving MDG 8, the EU believes that its development assistance should always go hand-in-had and support the national strategies and policies of the country with which is creates a partnership and gives aid to. When a partnership is created we work with the projection of the European values but it does not impose our own model to the countries we work with. ⇒ View her complete interview {{#ev:youtube| V2rEj4Og9VY |200}}

Video Interview - www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2rEj4Og9VY

 

 

Testimonials Daisaku Ikeda, Buddhist philosopher, educator and prolific writer and poet, President of Soka Gakkai International,    in his Peace Proposal to United Nations (2009) deepens a new concept of Development, what he defines the Humanitarian competition, the key paradigm for the twenty-first century to build a Global Partnership for Development I am fully convinced that the time has now arrived, a hundred years after it was originally proposed, for us to turn our attention to humanitarian competition as a guiding principle for the new era.One reason is that social justice and equality, proposed by socialism as an antidote to the ills of capitalism, are indeed rooted in humanistic principles. These ideals should not be allowed to perish along with the systemic failure of communism. For to do so would be to condemn to the oblivion of forgetfulness one of the crucial experiences of the twentieth century--how the socialist movement attracted the allegiance of so many people,especially the young, across such large swathes of the planet.The question remains then as to why, if socialism is informed with valid principles, it has generally failed as a system. Here it is valuable to reference Makiguchi's insight: "When free competition is hampered, whether by natural or man-made influences, this results instagnation, stasis and regression." The failure of socialism can be attributed to the failure to adequately take into account the value of competition as a source of energy andvitality. There was an all too optimistic faith that if we could only eliminate social classes and establish the right conditions, a genuinely humane society would inevitably result.Free competition driven by the unrestrained impulses of selfishness can descend into the kind of social Darwinism in which the strong prey on the weak. But competition conducted within an appropriate framework of rules and conventions brings forth the energies of individuals and revitalizes society.Herein lies the value of humanitarian competition. As a concept, it compels us to confront the reality of competition while ensuring that it is conducted firmly on the basis of humane values, thus bringing forth a synergistic reaction between humanitarian concerns and competitive energies. It is this that qualifies humanitarian competition to be a key paradigm for the twenty-first century   Read the article "Humanitarian Competition: a key paradigm for the twenty-first century" http://www.TVP.eu/wiki/index.php?title=Humanitarian_Competition:_a_key_paradigm_for_the_twenty-first_century   Read Daisaku Ikeda 's Peace Proposal to United Nations, 2009: "Toward Humanitarian Competition: A New Current in History"http://www.daisakuikeda.org/assets/files/pp2009.pdf

 

 

Testimonials Interviewed by the TVP Documentary team in India,Anurag Behar says that if there is a coherence then there will be sustained good effect and if there is no coherence, then there will be sustained good effect. If there is no coherence then there will only be replication. I think at the core of this there are two issues and they are inter-related: - The first issue, and it applies to all the stakeholders: civil society, government, corporate, etc. is that of an openness of mind about intentions, about trust. Too long have we looked at each other as adversaries. We think that the government is bad, the government does not do. Somebody in the government might think that the civil society people are here only to protest and the only thing they know is the activist form of doing things and they cannot contribute. This atmosphere of miss-trust is the first thing that has to be eliminated because that is the heart of the second issue, which is - That if you have mistrust you don’t have dialogue. If you have trust that which builds continuous dialogue, I think that is the simplest, and I would say it is the only mechanism, which makes sure that we are not doing the same thing over and over again with very limited success, but that we are doing things in a coordinated fashion, we are doing things which are complimentary and supplementary, rather than repeating the same things.   {{#ev:youtube|F6KiPUIenS4|200}}   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6KiPUIenS4

 

http://www.eugad.eu/wiki/index.php/Decentralised_Cooperation