Letter to Liz O Donnell on Development aid
Dear Liz
As a voter in Dublin South, I have admired your record on development
co-operation. The other night I watched Zambian children dying for lack of
basic health facilities in Zambia, one of our development partner countries.
You say the failure to meet the promised target is "indefensible", but have
you voted against the government in the budget vote?, the estimates, or any
motions to do with Development Assistance?
Have you influenced the PDs to make it an issue in cabinet?
You are a TD in a government party. If you cannot exert influence, if can't
use your power in this instance, when lives are at stake, then your
statements in the oireachtas are little more than hot air.
Please do more. I know you appreciate that this is a moral issue that
transcends party political interests. I will be mobilising my nephews,
nieces and all their friends on this issue in the next general election. You
may have seen my letter on the Commission for Africa report in the Irish
Times ( June 9 2005 ). This issue will not be going away.
Please do more than express disappointment to the Dail.
Use your position to take a stand.
It will stand to you.
Kind regards
Daniel Dunne
Deputy O Donnell has requested that her reply to the above letter not be published:
Dear Daniel,
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Kind regards,
Liz O'Donnell, T.D.
Saro-Wiwa reponse on Kevin Myers 'ranting':
Message from Remember Saro-Wiwa; RSW is a coalition of organisations and individuals encompassing the arts and literature, human rights and environmental and development issues. Remember Saro-Wiwa is working with Ken Saro-Wiwa's family and the Ken Saro-Wiwa Foundation.Daniel,
Thanks for sending this. Unfortunately, a free press means that people such as this writer get to assault us with their misinformed ranting.
While I agree with some of what he says about debt relief, he is tarring millions of people with the same brush and perpetuating age-old falsehoods with his obsession with voodoo and the like.
Anyway, to stick to the accusations aimed at Saro-Wiwa. While what happened to the four Ogoni chiefs was indeed appalling, there was no "cannibalisation". This statement shows the prejudices of the writer's views and the fact that he has clearly not read any of the details of the case.
After being beaten to death, the car the four chiefs were travelling in was set alight. There was nothing left to 'cannibalise'.
There was never any evidence of Ken's involvement in that incident and the UN, Human Rights lawyers and other observers at the trial have documented the complete sham that the trial was. There was no evidence and the 'witnesses' later confessed to being bribed. Today, the Nigerian courts are considering overturning the verdict and declaring Ken an innocent man.
The
attached documents Ken Saro-Wiwa's story, including what happened at the trial and what has been going on in the Delta since. It's our side of the story but it's based on a wide range of references.
- The Remember Saro-Wiwa Co-ordinator.
http://www.remembersarowiwa.com/
No Logo vs. Pro logo
WNYC ( a leading New York public radio station) have a nice download of a debate entitled
No Logo vs. Pro-logo:
It features
Naomi Klein, author of the international best-seller No Logo
and Sameena Ahmad, The Economist's Business CorrespondentFull program downloadable from
http://www.wnyc.org/news/articles/4390Also participating was
Owens Wiwa, brother of the late Nigerian writer and environmentalist Ken Saro-Wiwa. Last week I noticed Kevin Myers claim that Wiwa was executed "for his part in the murder and cannibalisation of four Ogoni elders" rather than for his campaigning activities. (Irish Times 15 June 2005). The statement has not elicited a reponse yet on the Irish Times letters page. Perhaps readers are now above responding to his provocations.
Live8 and the Commission for Africa
A letter published June 9 2005 in
The Irish TimesDear Madam,
Dr LF LACEY (Tuesday June 7th) uses a single quotation from the Commission for Africa report to argue against ill-conceived 'solutions' to poverty. He goes on, however, to reduce the cause of Africa's problems to one factor, good government, and implies that dealing with this alone is the solution. The Commission for Africa report clearly shows that multiple interlocking factors have caused african underdevelopment. In turn, the solution it proposes involves a coherent set of interlocking measures. These include more and better aid, debt relief, fairer trade, as well as action on improved governance.
Dr. Lacey's quote from the Executive Summary of the report, that "without progress in governance, all other reforms will have limited impact", should be taken in the context of the paragraphs which precede and follow it. Progress is already being made toward democracy and
better governance, rendering generalisations about an entire continent increasingly inaccurate. Rich nations have a role to play in helping to build the capacity of African governmental systems, by making aid more accountable, and by refusing to be complicit in corruption. It is wrong to
say that past development aid has not made a difference. The full report outlines a plethora of evidence which supports the demands of the Make Poverty History campaign, and Bob Geldof's Live8, and shows why they are morally compelling (available at
www.commissionforafrica.org ). When millions are dying needlessly, it is simplistic excuses for in-action which are ill-conceived.
Yours etc.
Social Capital and Local Government
I notice the Lord Mayor had the Professor Puttnam of Bowling alone fame over to talk to the Dublin Dvelopment Board. It prompts one to think of Local Government reform, one of those old chesnuts that Labour has never gotten around to in government. (Please add to shopping list Pat). People have been talking about it since we were part of the UK.
Anyway, here is an idea that could be included.
Parish based elected civic councils. What?. Well my idea is that there is a gap left where once the catholic church represented the focal point of life at a local level in Ireland. Back in the days of one monoculture, the Parish encompassed most of civic life at local level. The parish hall and grounds, administration of school, scouts etc, various other forms of voluntary and social groups. Mass on Sunday was more than religious observance. Congregation at a single space strengthened the community bond.
Now we have major changes. Multiculuralism (and individualist type of confession / non-belief), more telecommunications, and of course the car. But a local form of institution could perform important functions.
Firstly, it could be based on universal participation, ie re-establish community but not based on faith or culture. It could perform a liasing role between local voluntary and social organisations.
It could establish physical fora, a local space for the civic.
Based on universal suffrage, perhaps from age 16, locals would get direct experience in local participatory democracy. (How often do we give a space for the youth of an area to give their opinion on local facilities and services?)
Local residents / tenants interests would be given a form of legitimacy sometimes missing in residents groups, which are sometimes unrepresentative.
I envisage elected commissioners on a small stipend, and also part-time community stewards charged with pro-social community building tasks. Stewards could liase with community police about any issues connected with security, and keep a protective eye on the vulnerable. They could also help to organise community activities like car pooling, walking busses, recycling etc. There are any amount of initiatives.
Pro-social behaviour and voluntary effort could be recognised and rewarded. We hear enough about anti-social behaviour after all.
In the long run, such councils could also get involved in local economic activity which could aspire to ecological goals.
