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Human Security Now, More than Ever |
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Written by Dennis Alberto Jorolan
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Tuesday, 13 June 2006 |
ARENA Conducts Writers Workshop on Human Security in Bangkok
Ask
an activist in the street or a trade union organizer in the factory or
an urban poor community development worker, what “human security” is…
the most likely answer? Duh?
Pose the same question to a U.N. diplomat or a New York-based human
rights practitioner and a slew of jargon would spew forth from his/her
mouth describing the term with all the required whereases, insofars and
periods in time
The gap in understanding the term between those in the upper levels of
international diplomacy and the grassroots is the reason why there is
an urgent need to come up with a common set of language and tools that
can be used by those who formulate policy and concepts and those who
enforce or project these concepts at the grassroots.
ARENA thus, strives to bridge this chasm through a book project
entitled: “Human Security in Asia: A Status Report”. The aim is
to bring together concerned scholars/activists from various Asian
countries to address the issue of human security in Asia and prepare a
status report on it. It is hoped that with this book a
significant step will have been taken that would contribute to the lore
and body of works about human security. The intended audience is
civil society - the NGOs, social movements, trade unions, community
organizations and people’s organizations, with strong emphasis on those
who work at the grassroots – and the academe.
A Gathering of Eagles
The last week in May 2006 saw an influx of noted academicians, a
lawyer, a journalist, some human rights activists congregating in a
quaint hotel inside a university campus in the quaint city of Bangkok,
Thailand to refine the drafts of their papers on human security that
will comprise the book and bring about a more unified and coherent
understanding of the concept and practice of human security suitable
for reading and by those in the field and those in academe.
The workshop was held in SASA International House where the
participants and staff were also billeted, inside the sprawling campus
of Chulalongkorn University right in the middle of Bangkok. The
workshop ran from May 26 to 28 and concluded with an open forum on May
29.
The open forum, entitled “Comparative Case Studies on Peace and
Conflict Resolution in Asia”, brought together the workshop
participants, human security practitioners from Thailand and some Thai
students working on a similar study on human security in South
Thailand. The purpose of the open forum was to “empower a kind of
Asian solidarity for peace-building and call for the destruction of
machineries of government/national/state apparatus and injustice social
structure, militarist ideologies which intensify and enforce war,
violence and intolerance in our everyday life”.
The Workshop Proper
The complete lineup of participants and staff included the following:
1. Prof. Anuradha Chenoy, Professor, Jawaharlal
University, New Delhi, India (ARENA fellow and facilitator of the
workshop);
2. Dr. Clarence J. Dias, President, International
Center for Law in Development, New York (ARENA fellow and writer);
3. Mr. Francis Daehoon Lee, Chief Coordinator,
People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, Seoul, Korea (ARENA
fellow and writer);
4. Mr. M. B. Naqvi, Journalist for all major English language newspapers in Pakistan (writer);
5. Ms. Alice Raymundo, Deputy Director, Resource Center for People’s Development, Philippines (writer);
6. Ms. Surabhi Mathur, Program Associate, Vikas Adhyayan Kendra, Mumbai, India (writer)
7. Mr. Ed Legaspi, Forum-Asia (Guest participant)
8. Ms. Violet Sung, ARENA Staff member (workshop coordinator )
9. Mr. V.S. Baijupreseed, ARENA volunteer staff (workshop volunteer)
10. Mr. Dennis Alberto Jorolan, Chief Web Developer,
Web Lab Enterprises, Manila, Philippines (Workshop
rapporteur/documentalist)
11. Ms. Isabel Vadivu Govind, GAATW (workshop volunteer recorder)
May 26 – The First Day
The first day, May 26, was not the start of the actual workshop but
rather the day for checking-in of the writers and other participants.
Informal Dinner
That evening, an Informal dinner made up of delicious spicy Thai dishes
was held at the appropriately-named Cabbages and Condoms Restaurant, a
quaint and organic Thai food restaurant owned and managed by an NGO
concerned with population control.
Present at the dinner were writers: Francis Lee, M.B. Naqvi, Surabhi
Mathur and Alice Raymundo. Also present were ARENA fellow Lisa
(Neng) Magno, Isabel Vadivu Govind, Violet Sung, V.S. Baijupraseed and
Dennis Jorolan. Francis Lee of Korea, gave the welcome remarks on
behalf of ARENA.
Prof. Anu Chenoy and Dr. Clarence Dias were not present since they were expected to arrive the next day.
May 27 – The Second Day
Introduction by Prof. Chenoy
The next day, May 27, was the actual start of the workshop. Prof.
Chenoy opened the workshop with a brief apology for the late start and
explained the absence of Ms. Agnes Khoo, ARENA Executive Director, who
had to attend to a death in the family. She then asked everyone
to give a short introduction about themselves after which she proceeded
to give a brief background about the book project.
The project had been planned 2-3 years ago but got shelved due to
funding problems and the changes that happened in ARENA. After
Agnes Khoo became the Executive Director, she managed to get the
project moving again, hence the workshop. ARENA felt the need to
pursue this project in the light of the militarist ideology prevailing
in most of the developing countries of Asia even in times of peace and
in times of crisis and conflict.
Prof. Chenoy then gave some guidelines on how the workshop will
proceed. First there was to be a short presentation by the writer
of his/her paper with question/comments to follow. The whole
process was kept informal. Once back to their respective
countries, the writers will have two weeks to revise their paper and
submit it back to ARENA for final editing and publishing - first in the
ARENA journal and later in book form.
Presentations
1. Dr. Clarence Dias
Paper: Human Security under Global Siege in Asia
The first paper gives Asian examples on how globalization is having an
impact on human security and another paper looks at four case studies
of India and Pakistan about how the global war on terror has been used
to bring in restrictive legislation and law enforcement in India,
another two from Asia and two from outside Asia. Two new dynamics
are working in the United Nations. First is about the coming into
fore of a new breed of multilateralism and the gradual shift in power
from the Security Council to the General Assembly where more
progressive resolutions have been passed. This coincided with the
second dynamic, which is about the UN Secretary-General’s efforts to
introduce meaningful reforms into the United Nations, especially its
bureaucracy.
The paper proceeds to discover how these new UN developments can be
used by NGOs, activist intellectuals, grassroots communities and social
movements to seriously address issues of human security.
In the section on the War on Terror and Human Security, there is
concrete documentation on how governments are using this not to wage
war on terror but to promote state-sponsored terrorism
2. Mr. Francis Daehoon Lee
Paper: National Security and Human Security in South Korea: Rights, Civil Society and Identity in Security Struggles
His paper is divided into 5 sections, all of which are aimed at showing
how the national security state creates human insecurity in its pursuit
of national security and how the security goals impact human security:
a. Introduction. He raises the importance of
examining how the national security status affects human security and
how the formation of the state in South Korea was that of a national
security state;
b. Politics of National Security in South
Korea. The division of the two Koreas, each ideologically
different, was the founding stone of the identity of state in South
Korea. He also stated that war is a vital component for creating
state identity
c. IMF Intervention, Human Security and National
Security. Six subsections dealing on: the crises of life
and health, the situation of crimes, the situation of unemployment on
workers, income disparity & poverty, and security politics &
resource allocation.
d. Social Effects of Militarism. South Korea is
one of the most militarized countries in the world and has increased
militarism through living through war memories. The dictatorship in the
70s and 80s led partly to a militarized society.
e. US Bases and Human Security. Two cases
highlight this section. The Maehyangri case details the
empowering of a fishing village and the Gijichon women case which was
about prostitution, rape and beatings at the hands of U.S. soldiers and
how the women countered this.
3. Ms. Alice Raymundo
Paper: Trade Liberalization and the Struggle for Food Sovereignty in the Philippines
She was focusing on freedom from want, which is one aspect of human
security. She is focusing on trade liberalization as the most serious
threat towards the attainment of food security in the Philippines.
Part 1 – Introduction: The hunger level in the Philippines is now
at its highest since 2003. Almost 16.9% of the population or 13.8
million people are hungry
Part 2 – Nature of Food production: Before trade liberalization,
local agriculture was the main source of food in the Philippines. The
role of agriculture contributed to the national economy, number of
people employed and the area allotted to it. However, now, the
small-scale nature of agriculture is not producing enough food.
Part 3 – Trade Liberalization and Food Insecurity: This section
discusses how trade liberalization made concrete changes on the food
production of the country. It compares the promises made by the
government and the effects that the WTO policies had on agriculture and
the economy of the Philippines.
Part 4 – Impact on Rice and other Food Items: This section
discusses how rice production was severely affected by trade
liberalization. Rice has been chosen as a case because it is the
staple food in the Philippines and in most Asian countries.
Part 5 – Food Sovereignty as a Viable Option: This concept has
been put forth by various networks and builds on other concepts like
food security and the right to food.
Strategies:
• Increased pressure on national governments and new
policies and mechanisms because even if one was talking about
multilateral agreements;
• Premise opposition to WTO within the framework of food sovereignty
• Food sovereignty has to be linked with the broader
struggle for the economic and political sovereignty of nations.
• There needs to be stronger solidarity between nations in the South.
May 28 – The Third Day
4. Mr. M.B. Naqvi
Paper: (Untitled)
The State of Society: Then and Now. He begins with a
description of the state of society in Pakistan where inequality of all
kinds and goes on to discuss effects of poverty.
The Government. From the start, the government has been concerned
with all matters of development except the actual material state of the
common people.
The Kashmir Dispute. This was the result of the
historical legacy. This dispute was central to Pakistan’s
evolution. The government was engaged in three things:
a. Building up an infrastructure of some kind and improving it;
b. Promoting militarism in the name of having to win Kashmir from India;
c. Evolving an ideology to justify the existence of Pakistan in the construct of Muslim nationalism.
The Military Rulers. The military occupies high
levels of society in the country like in Iran, Indonesia and some other
countries. It has allied itself with the traditional elites and
with the mullahs.
Tasks for the Common People. If we are to have any concern for human security in the country we must:
1. Find a way to liberate the people from the stranglehold of the military;
2. A government must be installed that is responsive to the needs of the people;
What new paradigm can we adopt? MBN’s suggestion in
the paper is to go back to an earlier paradigm of capitalism itself
called the Keynesian Multiplier Principle. Keynesian economics
would spur development in developing countries. The state should
undertake the removal of poverty, provide full employment and social
security.
5. Surabhi Mathur
Paper: Securing a Livelihood in Marathwada
Concept of Human Security
The Report of the Commission on Human Security describes human security as “people- centred”
Security of Livelihood in Marathwada
Since 1991, the Indian economy has introduced a wide range of economic reforms
The larger effects of this have been disastrous as there is economic
volatility, instability and increasing economic and social disparities,
hence, the need to understand the new dynamics of labour and the
changes in livelihood
The Concept of Livelihood
According to Bernstein livelihoods connote the means, activities,
entitlements and assets by which people make a living. These
assets are natural, biological, social and physical thus making life
sustainable.
Rural Livelihoods
There is increasing depletion of CPR- alienation from land for most of
the rural folk. Onset of development projects: Monoculture
and cash crop plantation has been emphasised, subsidies in agriculture
have been slashed, access to resources is more favourable towards the
rich farmers. The viability of the Public Distribution System is
in serious question. As a result, the burden on women has
increased many-fold.
Feminization of Poverty
Women form a large portion of the world’s poor. There is overall
economic and social subordination of women. In other words,
poverty largely has a female face, or ‘feminization of poverty’.
Women do not get access to land, gendered division of labour and hence
in wages too, women are invariably a part of the reserve army of
labour, etc. All these have steadily led to making women poorer.
Globalization and SAP led policies have only led to increasing the
might of the economy at the cost of worsening gender inequalities at
all levels
Change in Crops
28% of the respondents had changed to growing a new cash crop – grapes,
soybean, sunflower, ginger. 9% had changed to growing cash crops-
these would be crops like cotton, sugarcane and wheat. 60% of the
respondents had not changed the crops they grow. It was in this group
that we found persons who had briefly changed to a cash crop that did
not yield well, so they changed to the traditional crops like Jowar,
Bajra, etc
Soybean
It has been introduced extensively in the region. However, the
yield has been low due to lack water in the region. The crop was
sold at prices ranging between Rs.800-1700 per quinta. Most
farmers who grew soybean have decided to revert to cotton or jowar and
bajra which grows more easily in the region
Monetary Habits
Like in most of the villages, the women cannot gauge how much she has
earned and what are her expenses and what are her savings. Most
households have taken loans for various reasons and have not been able
to repay if for years together. This problem occurs because
finance available in the rural areas is hardly ever in tune with the
needs of agriculturists and at reasonable rates of interest. The
local moneylenders are easier to borrow from and borrowers get
exploited most often. There is a situation of continued
indebtedness
The Women in the Household
At least 9 women out of the 24 I met during the interviews were the
decision makers of the family- what to grow in that season, how much
labour to be used, irrigation, fertilisers, etc. This is a heartening
scene for India
Coping Strategies
Diversification is the major coping strategy that most
households adopt in India. At the household level, this means
adding on new activities.
o growing of new varieties of high value crop (agricultural diversification)
o undertaking small enterprises,
o casual labour or migration (non-agricultural diversification)
The immediate coping strategy that is adopted is one of migration to an
urban centre. Hence, It is important that policy makers recognise
that migration is an integral and regular feature of the livelihood
patterns and strategies in the rural areas. The only other option
is to make agriculture more viable/ feasible in the rural areas.
Sustainability of livelihood options in the rural areas is a must- so
as to ensure food security and security of life
May 29 – The Fourth Day
The last day of the sessions was an open forum held in the
afternoon. To view the details, please click on the link:
Comparative Case Studies on Peace and Conflict Resolution in Asia.
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