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Tuesday 27 April 2010

Charnobyl: Black Pain of the White Land



Daša Słabčanka (Minsk)- 26 April 2010, warm and sunny day. Cities all around Belarus are made gaudy with “back to the USSR”-style flags and posters reminding in advance the victory in the Second World War. But I would like to see black flags alongside our wide prospects as a symbol of a never-won battle. 24 years ago the blow on the Charnobyl nuclear power station changed the life of my country irreversibly: according to the official statics, 23% of the territory of Belarus became contaminated with long-lived radioactive isotopes (in comparison to 4.8% of Ukraine and 0.5% of Russia) (more statistics).
In reality, every single person in Belarus is affected by Charnobyl. Even me. I know this when I visit doctors more often than is normal for my age. Today we face a double crime. One is on the conscience of the government that lies to us, that cuts benefits for affected, that hides the real numbers of still dying people, that feeds us with products produced on contaminated lands. The government denies the laws of physics. Another crime is our own - of being too naive and irresponsible, of being just stupid. We are not capable of realising that this will stay with us forever. And we never know exactly how  Charnobyl will influence the health of each person, but no doubt it will.          
Today morning at state TV Charnobyl anniversary was not the main news, not even the second. We were reminded what day is today and assured that at some contaminated territories the ecological parameters now are much better than before the catastrophe. The government plans to build a nuclear power station. The practise of the Soviet authorities is continuing.


The Black Truth
What is Charnobyl? That is the black truth about our white country (Charnobyl, if translated, means “Black truth” and “Bel”, in Belarus, is “white”). That is the dark side of us. The truth we are afraid to see. Charnobyl became a cognitive switch: people were burying the ground in the ground; their enemies were the sun, the rain, fruits from our garden, milk from own cows.
Svetlana Alexievich is the world-wide heard voice of Charnobyl. She has collected many painful stories and gave a philosophical view on the tragedy. At least once a year, on the 26th of April, I read these stories to make sure my heart has not been hardened by the cold statistics and my consciousness is not lulled by the government. By the way, this year the movie based on her story was nominated to an Oscar (The Door, by the Irish director Juanita Wilson).
This day I want to mourn for my beautiful and beloved country. This day I want to hear the truth. But I know it is hard to think about sad things in such a sunny day.
Somewhere I heard the phrase that if people would learn from each tragedy we will live in absolutely different world now. Charnobyl lesson was not learnt.     
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Monday 26 April 2010

Solidarity in crisis, solidarity in fight



Julia Zimmermann (Warsaw)-  On the 7th of March the XI Great Manifa marched the streets of Warsaw summing up the last ten years of women movements' struggles in Poland.





Every year since 2000 around 8th March, the International Women’s Day, Manifas (Manifa is an abbreviation from the polish word for a manifestation – manifestacja) walk streets of more and more polish cities with the most prominent one taking place in Warsaw on the Sunday closest to the date.

The idea came up in the end of last century when the so-called "consensus on women issues" (meaning "everything is fine just the way it is"), started taking the shape of a dogma. An informal group of feminist activists took the name of the Alliance of Women of 8th March and started fighting for a greater visibility of women’s problems in media. The colourful demonstrations were intended to remind people that women in Poland were a diversified yet discriminated group which, however, was able to speak up for itself. Another aim was reclaiming the International Women’s Day breaking the cliché of communist celebrations of 8th March when women received tights (extremely hard to get at the time) and cheerless wilting carnations in their workplaces; a poster announcing one of the first Warsaw Manifas pictured a woman vomiting with red carnations.

This year’s Manifa, summing up previous ten ones, gathered reportedly few thousand people under the slogan “Solidarity in crisis, solidarity in fight”: usual attendees – feminists, members of LGBT community, leftist and anarchists of all sexes - were joined by members of the All-Poland Trade Union of Nurses and Midwifes (OZZPiP), the Polish Teachers’ Union (ZNP), the All-Poland Alliance of Trade Unions (OPZZ), and of the Free Trade Union August 80, as well as by many artists and common people. As someone said, "feminism became fashionable", which is probably an overstatement, yet it is true that after the First Congress of Polish Women gathered last year over 120,000 signatures under the civil project of the Parity Act which should ensure bigger participation of women in the politics, the very existence of the women's movement in Poland became much more visible.


Unchanged demands
However, the demands have remained unchanged for the last 10 years: better payments for nurses; free nurseries and kindergartens; equal rights and duties for both parents, promotion of the paternity leave; changes in the pension laws, so women don’t get pensions significantly lower than men; fighting the practices of outsourcing which break the work code; putting to end all actions of employers using the crisis as an excuse to pay less and fire employees; creating formal protection for one-sex relationships in terms of inheritance laws; banning of illegal evictions and creating an aid system for evicted people; legal counteraction to the economic violence in families; modern antidiscrimination actions, respecting the secularity of the state; full reproductive rights. In recent years new demands have followed newly occurring problems: dismissal of the current Equal Rights Commissioner (not affiliated with the feminist movement), introducing parity in parliamentary elections and public funding of infertility treatment including IVF (after recent suggestions of the right-wing to regulate IVF procedures because of ethical reasons).


The political scene in Poland seems petrified with two leading parties representing national and liberal wings of the conservative movement, thus making any changes in favour of women less probable. The very formula of Manifa was strongly criticised  this year by some feminists including organizers of the first Manifas. One of the most important criticisms was that, in search for a wider social base, the core of ideas representing discriminated groups has been lost. This was fuelled by the apparent alliance with the organizers of the Congress of Polish Women: the Congress was dominated by successful businesswomen and other middle class members; traditionally colourful and alternative manifestation was more sombre and plain this year, easier to chew for an everyman/everywoman. Even during the event some people protested against the presence of some participants perceived as too well enrooted in the establishment and too conservative. We can only wait to see effects of the new strategy.


Images: Two shots from the Manifa (upper and lower) and the poster announcing the first edition of the march in 2000 (right) (Piotr Szenajch).
Posted by Euroforum at 09:18 0 comments
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Wednesday 21 April 2010

Smoke on the water…

Monika Sargsyan (Yerevan)- On 1st October, 2009, rock legends Ian Gillan and Toni Iommi visited music school N6 in Gyumri within the framework of the Armenia Grateful 2 Rock project, realized by Mediamax and the Do Something organization from Australia. The director of the school, Harutyun Asatryan, stated in a talk with the rock stars that the pupils would very much like to have good guitars and a drum kit. Hence, this is how everything started:

March 29, 2010. It's 09:30 a.m and I'm searching the Wikipedia. Done, here it is: “Rock Aid Armenia was a humanitarian effort by the British music industry to raise money to help those affected by the Gyumri (at that time Leninakan) Earthquake of 1988 that struck Armenia. Initiated by the international charity campaigner Jon Dee, the project comprised a number of singles, compilations and a documentary. The project is most remembered for a re-recording of one of Deep Purple’s famous hit songs, "Smoke on the Water", with different vocalists singing each verse. The single made it to the British Top 40. The track was recorded by an elite group of contemporary hard rock and heavy metal musicians who gathered at the historic Metropolis Studios in Chiswick, London. Recording began on July 8, 1989 and was completed over 5 different sessions. The rock musicians involved in the recording of the song included Bryan Adams, Geoff Beauchamp, Ritchie Blackmore, Bruce Dickinson, Geoff Downes, Keith Emerson, Ian Gillan, David Gilmour, Tony Iommi, Alex Lifeson, Brian May, Paul Rodgers, Chris Squire and Roger Taylor. John Paul Jones and Jon Lord were credited as "helping" behind the scenes with the track. The track's producers were Gary Langan and Geoff Downes. Talent co-ordination for the record was overseen by Jon Dee, with David Gilmour being the first to join up after a call from Dee. Ian Gillan's manager Phil Banfield also helped out with talent recruitment.”

Meanwhile, any initiative is especially appreciated when it has continuations and here is the continuation of our story:

March 26, 2010: Ian Gillan is in Armenia again and gives a concert with the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra in Yerevan: “The Orchestra with no experience in playing rock music demonstrated professionalism and I was surprised that musicians knew all songs in the program,” Gillan told a news conference on Saturday. “Armenia is my spiritual homeland. It has nothing to do with religion… I just like you, Armenians”.

The concert organizers (the director of Mediamax Ara Tadevosyan and Jon Dee, the Founder and Chairman of the Australian Do Something organization and Rock Aid Armenia project initiator) informed that the Smoke on the Water single recorded 20 years ago as the 1988 earthquake relief, as well as the Yerevan concert will be put on a DVD.

March 28, 2010, 9:30 pm: Deep Purple lead singer and a rock legend in his own right, Ian Gillan is an honored guest on local TV program “Hay Superstar,” known as the Armenian version of the hit British TV show Pop Idol. Three of Hay Superstar’s participants, Raysa Avanesyan, Suren Arustamyan and Iveta Mukuchyan, are going to sing songs by Deep Purple. This is the moment when different generations are standing hand by hand to create the future; this is the day, when different generations make our day brighter.

Those young singers definitively could not image that someday, just in the beginning of their career, they would have a chance to sing with the Legend. But sometimes dreams can become reality. And those dreams can bring others people's dreams closer to reality. I am talking about many children studying in the music school N 6 in Gyumri which was destroyed during 1988 earthquake and is still hosted in temporary shelters. Children who are dreaming about big concert, about playing with their own legends… dreams born in shelters turned into schools…

March 28, 2010, 11:30 pm: Meanwhile, the music hall was exulting from the sounds of music and from the applauses of the public. Even the space was not enough for the Legend to spread his emotions born by the whole nation’s gratitude towards his work and love. And maybe it was especially those emotions that made Suren to “smoke the water” and made the Legend, Ian Gillan, to ran to the stage and let his emotions fly and sing with Suren: that was their moment, their own story created at that very time when they were standing together and “smoking the water” with each other….

Emotions, nice impressions, congratulations, appreciations and lots of smiles were the masters of that day; a day that will remain in the memories of many people and will give birth to new dreams…


I don’t know if the world will learn about those three talents singing the songs of their parents’ time and feeling those songs as if they were sending their own statements to the heaven, but I know for sure, that Ian Gillan will remember that once he made with his presence and singing the eyes of those three talents to shine and I know defiantly that at that very time the hope knocked again the doors of thousands people cause we are:

“Making our music there 
With a few red lights and a few old beds 
We make a place to sweat 
No matter what we get out of this 
I know we'll never forget 
Smoke on the water, fire in the sky”

March 29, 2010: 11:30 am: I do hope that together we can overcome everything and I do hope that after 20 years one can say “this is just the beginning of continuation, cause we are together and we are making our music there…”
Posted by Euroforum at 07:40 0 comments
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Thursday 15 April 2010

Proposal: A constitution for the Caucasus



Our contributor Ruslan Asad has written a proposal for a Constitution of a United Caucasus. This idea comes from a large tradition of thinkers of every nationality of the region who dreamed of the unity between the peoples of the Caucasus. An early attempt at this unity was the short lived Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic in 1918.
*   *   *
I believe in order for the nations in Caucasus to solve their problems and conflicts, we as a new generation should be interested in integrating into bigger structures, which value wisedom and morality and are greater than we are. Those possible structures are the Caucasus House or the EU. Integration amongst each other in order to create a Caucasus House (or Union) and the integration into the EU do not contradict each other. Therefore as a member of new generation, I am proposing the following ideological and moral guidelines. Making use of this opportunity I am also calling on other individuals from the Caucasus to come up with their views on integration models and present them publicly.
"Our constitution is moral, pragmatic, incorporates the vision of Freedom and Cultural Diversity and strives for universal values of freedom indicated in Universal Human Rights Declaration of United Nations.
Our constitution is moral because:
 - We the people of Caucasus (Armenians, Georgians and Azerbaijanis; ethnic minorities and majorities; IDPs and refugees) believe in the idea of uniting our efforts for solving our common problems: economic monopolization, undemocratic governance, corruption, unfair distribution of wealth and economic benefits, ethnic/territorial conflicts.
  -        · We the people of Caucasus believe that for solving the above mentioned problems we need to be part of a bigger structure which gets its moral and ideological roots from the universal value of Freedom, which creates platforms and makes ideas bigger than these nations individually but uniting these nations around one Caucasian identity.
·       - We the people of the Caucasus recognize the right for an individual to have simultaneously religious, ethnic, national, regional, family identities. We believe that any type of identity can be chosen based on moral and rational ideas.

Our constitution is pragmatic because:·
   · We the people of Caucasus are committed to the implementation of our ideas, values of human rights at grassroots, regional and national level.
·      - We are committed to listening to the problems of our nations through a parliamentary political system that welcomes all the ideas of its citizens and creates conditions for discussing different ideas coming from different constituencies.
·       - We are committed to holding free and fair elections, to creating a political space with equal opportunities for all the competing political institutions (parties, NGOs, physical and legal entities).
·       - We are committed to coming together as nations of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia and to sit at the table of peace, mutual understanding and freedom to discuss our existing conflicts, solve them and offer alternative policies, initiatives for our future generation.
·       - We are committed to creating  free trade environment which will encourage our middle class, tradesman to trade their products easily with each other and develop the welfare system of our nations.
·       - We are committed to initiating agreements on equal distribution of natural resources (Armenia’s copper, Georgia’s water, Azerbaijan’s oil) and Human Resources of these nations which are capable of bringing innovation to our businesses, industries, education, political administration and democratic civil society.
·       - We are committed to recognize the rights of ethnic minorities and different groups for administrative and legislative representation in Government.
The Constitution of the Caucasus Union is the founding document of our Union which our nations take pledge not to change unless the people of the Caucasus decide so by bringing their amendments to parliament, organizing nationwide debates and referenda. 
We are committed to protecting and abiding to the Constitution as our major guideline, letter of honor and dignity. We will always change our actions, attitudes; shape our politics according to the constitutional provisions and wisdom. We promise that we will not change the constitution based on our needs and desire, but will change our needs and desires based on the values of our constitution. Struggle for Freedom is not a matter of rational choice; this is also about passion and emotions of freedom.
Step by step towards our goal, towards our home and Union!"



Posted by Euroforum at 19:47 3 comments
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Thursday 1 April 2010

Gender Violence in Armenia, Time to Act


Astghik Injeyan (Yerevan)- Gender based violence (GBV) is a major human rights threat and a public health problem throughout the world. This type of violence is frequently invisible since it happens behind closed doors. Moreover, legal systems and cultural norms often do not treat it as a crime, but rather as a "private" family matter or a normal part of life. GBV is found in every country of the world reflecting women's subordinate status in society. Usually GBV victims do not say that they have been violated, because they are afraid of their husbands, they don’t trust those trying to help and live permanently in stress. These factors difficult establishing relations with the victims in order to help them.
The perception among Armenian population of the gender based violence and society’s stereotypes is quite troubling. Up to 22% of Armenian women and about one third of men agree that certain reasons justify a husband beating his wife*. Both women and men with higher education are less likely to justify gender based violence, as are women and men who are employed for cash.
About 250 women and girls - victims of domestic violence living under the permanent stress of gender based violence- have been trained by the Consortium of three local organisations led by International Center for Human Development (ICHD). The organizers have targeted a variety of risk groups ranging from orphanages, care centres, hostels for poor families to the patients of surgical, neurosurgical, traumatological and gynaecologic clinics.


Integral attention
Special attention was paid to confidence building among the victims. Women and girls have also been  trained in individual protection to ensure their physical security. They have been particularly informed about the use and availability of psychological counseling for GBV victims. Free individual professional counseling has been provided to these women.
Fifty seven victims of the GBV (all women) requiered psychological counseling and practical other aid. They have been offered a comprehensive assistance, ranging from financial support to medical attention, legal and vocational orientation, child care and other free services using the resources of the consortium members and their partners. Through these trainings these women and girls attained relevant jobs, social security, as well as restored their self-confidence. All this helped them fully reintegrate into society.
The initiative of the Consortium partners has both mitigated the negative impact of the violence and addressed the very roots of the domestic violence in each particular case, helping women to live their lives in a violence-free environment.


Image: A poster from Women's Aid campaign against domestic abuse.

* Demographic and Health Survey/DHS Armenia, 2005, provides latest and comparatively credible data on this matter)
Posted by Euroforum at 07:34 0 comments
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