It is difficult to get a definitive number of how much money in total has been given to developing countries in development aid/overseas development assistance but the number must be in the trillions of dollars. I believe in helping people and of recognising the opportunity for people to use their ideas and experience to help themselves.

Sadly no matter how far we have come in the developed nations of Europe and the United States development aid does not allow people to drag themselves out of poverty and to build a good life for them and their families. Instead it perpetuates a patronising cycle of dependence, rules and sadly racism. No one really wants to go ‘cap in hand begging for money.’

It is true that a large proportion of development aid is used for humanitarian emergencies but the amount of money used for the relocation and salaries of international staff spends a good chunk of money intended for the starving crying women and children. There has to be a better way where recipients of aid DO play a role in improving their lives and those of their communities, not just on grant applications but in a practical and meaningful way.

The EU Aid programme has introduced new programmes in several developing countries to set up food co-operatives where each person has a certain role to play in cultivating crops and selling them. The money generated in profit is put back into the co-operative for the next sowing season and for the salaries of all of the members. The EU also trains co-operative members in good farming and husbandry techniques, which are not only beneficial to the co-operative but also to their own small food gardens that produce food for their families.

A new country has emerged on the international development scene. China, the once isolationist reclusive and insulated juggernaut, has recently emerged as the new player on the block with an alternative development aid model. Ask most people in Africa which international country they have visited and 99% of them will say China. This is not surprising since China began a silent development aid programme during the 1990s.

The Chinese model is based on the foundation of business. Identifying opportunities and creating new markets in developing countries. By encouraging some of their brightest entrepreneurs to take the plunge and open shop in some of the poorest countries in the world, China has transported factories and new industries to Africa. Chinese entrepreneurs establish textile factories and launch ambitious building projects like motorways, dams etc… By employing local African people they are trained on new machinery and learn new techniques of business so that they may replicate the Chinese and become the businessmen of their countries.

China couples business with development aid with nearly every business venture associated with a ‘development’ enriching initiative. Initiatives can include building a good water supply system, roads, communication infrastructure, schools and hospitals. This new model of development has been received warmly by the dignitaries of many African countries as it encourages a relationship of mutual respect, business and co-operation.

On the ground there have been some positives, some people have been successful in using the business and industrial techniques of the Chinese by setting up their own replica business or by launching their own ideas as a local business. Masses of people are employed by the various Chinese enterprises so many families have a steady income. Many African employees are invited to China for exchanges and training courses so that they can learn new techniques.

While on the negative side some Chinese enterprises have shut down local African businesses who cannot afford to compete with undercut prices. Some African employees are treated harshly with severely lower wages compared to their Chinese colleagues, and the threat of termination if they happen to get sick.

Development aid as it now stands is not working for the people it decries to help. Improvements have been made to the monitoring of how aid is spent but this is not the only issue. During the reign of Mobuto Sese Seko, the former President of Zaire, pocketed some $5 billion into his personal Swiss bank account. No one wants to see that happen again.

Development aid must be a partnership between the giver and recipient. Also business in developing countries HAS to be encouraged or they will forever remain stagnant and poverty stricken. Entrepreneurialship already exists on a micro level, if development aid would also encourage the scaling up of businesses then the results and profits could be used for the greater good to eliminate poverty in a sustainable way.

Tara Finglas -http://searchingforpeaceintheworld.blogspot.com/2010/05/challenging-stereotypes-where-has-all_29.html

In 2002 Todd Gitlin wrote a book called Media Unlimited about what he called “the torrent of images and sounds” that overwhelm our lives. In the eight years since the book was published media has only become more ubiquitous in the lives of people around the world.
The super-saturation of our lives by advertisements, television shows, movies, video games, news, and the Internet seemingly serves to support the status quo. Yet, media is increasingly being called on to solve the social ills of our time. The conflicting purposes of media warrant some exploration:

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It is 8:15 AM in Bethlehem. The city is cordoned off from Jerusalem by an enormous cement barrier cutting a serpentine line between the two towns that are only seven miles apart. In one town King David and Jesus were born and today eighty percent of its inhabitants are Muslim. The other town holds the third holiest site in Islam, the place where Jesus died on the cross, and was seat of the United Kingdom of Israel ruled by David. The inhabitants of one town can no longer travel to other except for on very rare occasions. According to the media, the people living in the two towns cannot share the same spaces.
I am eating breakfast in the home of a Palestinian Christian family. The father and mother, wonderfully hospitably people in their sixties with great senses of humor, are sitting on the couch watching satellite TV as I eat a plate full of falafel, humus, pita, and other local foods. At pretty much any time during the day you can enter their home and the television will be on broadcasting anything from church services in the morning to Egyptian cinema in the evening or the Arabic version of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire”. I am told it provides distraction and escape in a town where physical movement for local inhabitants is extremely limited.

***
It is 12:30 PM in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I am waiting to go to the airport to leave for Bethlehem. I run upstairs in my house, open my computer to kill time, and log into my YouTube account. I am greeted with a video from a friend in Australia. His shaggy hair appears on the screen and he begins reading a script that I prepared for a social media based publicity campaign for a small, new nonprofit organization. “Your efforts today, tomorrow, and in the future will determine our generations legacy… together we can… build a path to peace, “ he finishes.

I think back to when I met him in Dubai a little over a year ago at an international youth conference. We spent four intense days discussing the daunting challenges facing our generation with other students from around the world and what we were doing or could be doing to address them. When we left the conference we took with us a shared sense of optimism partial created by the knowledge that we could work together, thanks to technology, despite the vast distances separating our homes.

***
The two stories above both revolve around technology. However, technology achieves different outcomes in each. In the first story it is used as an escape from a physical reality. In the second it is used to engage with reality. If technology is going to address the challenges of our time, we are going to have to seize the opportunity created by social networking and social media (media from below) and use it as a grassroots tool to create dialogue and empowerment. In the current atmosphere of media and technology, individuals have a tremendous amount of agency to join together and shape our future.

One Young World Ambassador

“If I am red; and you are yellow, let us unite and be ORANGE!” this is the one line I will always remember from my inspiring friend Yama Meerzada of Afghanistan. Amidst all the suffering around me, I have also witnessed miracles. Miracles of how love, forgiveness, kindness and acceptance have healed hurting souls and resolved wars in the grassroots level. Among these miracles is the beautiful friendship between two of my most awesome friends Elay Oren from Israel and Suhair Alami from Palestine. They both lost loved ones because of the war between two nations. And yet despite the inter-generational pain and hatred, Elay and Suhair have chosen to end the cycle of hatred between two peoples starting with the cultivation of their own friendship. We are the new generation of world leaders. We do not use only our minds in international relations for peace, but we also blend and connect from our heart as friends.

***

Emigration is one of the most contentious issues of our time. Millions of people around the world are on the move, leaving behind their home, families and friends with the hope of finding a good life somewhere else. Xenophobes believe that these people choose to leave their homes to capture employment from other deserving people but really this is not the case.

Most emigrants are on the move due to necessity not want. We all want what is best for our families and leaving their homes to go to places where they are just a faceless person in the crowd is not at the top of anyone’s list.

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), there are 192 million people living outside of their country of birth, which seems like an enormous number but really this is only 3% of the world’s population.

The recent financial crisis has sent shockwaves around the world as in developed countries like Europe and the United States people struggle to find employment, and people make the difficult decision to up sticks. It’s an uncomfortable thought but when most people think of migrants they usually say they are non-white and usually from developing countries. But what is happening today is that most migrants are white and come from Europe and not Africa or Asia. However the same alarm bell still rings out ‘they have come to take our jobs!’

Recently I was at the receiving end of hostility when I tried to board my flight to the United States to visit my boyfriend. What started out as a simple passport check at Heathrow airport turned into an intimidating and threatening encounter with airline staff and immigration officials. I was pulled aside, pointed at by airline staff to other passengers as the reason to why the flight was being delayed. My passport was passed around to three different staff that roughly pulled at each page and examined each and every stamp I have ever had.

Why was I going to the United States? I explained but I only received more looks of disbelief and the repeated words ‘she’s Irish.’ I am a white Irish female with a Masters level education and I have always worked hard and advocated for different social justice issues. I have witnessed on many occasions different people being pulled aside and endowed with the same treatment and as during those encounters and with mine I was always shocked and disgusted. After what seemed like the longest hour of my life and being threatened that I could be banned from entering the United States for five years, I was finally allowed to board the flight with many disapproving looks from the other passengers.

Emigration is not a new phenomenon; Irish emigration began with the Irish Famine of 1845-1852 with over 1 million Irish people leaving Ireland for England or the United States to escape starvation. Since then Irish emigration has continued throughout the different generations with a ‘reverse emigration’ back to Ireland during the Celtic Tiger years of 1995-2007. I have travelled to many different countries around the world and I have always been very lucky to find people who are happy to find an Irish person; someone they can practice their ‘cupla focal’ (Irish for ‘couple of words’) to compare Guinness with.

I naively thought we had come further than the xenophobic treatment people can expect to receive at airports around the world. I thought that globalization and the rainbow of cultures in every different country was something we should be celebrating like I did last week at Ireland’s ‘Africa Day’ celebrations. I hoped that we would learn lessons from our collective past that focusing on our differences instead of our similarities is not a lasting way for peace but rather for discontent and hatred.

*** This blog post was written by Tara Finglas http://bit.ly/ddib2T to further discussion at the upcoming United Nations Alliance of Civilizations Forum taking place in Rio de Janeiro from 27-29 May 2010.