WTO Geneva: Diary entry for Monday 30th November

This is another official diary entry:

First day, first little getting-lost trip in the city, we pass by the famous broken chair monument, took the picture, saw the huge installations of the United Nations (Big enough to be the global headquarters of the UN) and keep moving towards the WTO Offices to do the registration process and pick up the badges.

Right after headed to the Norwegian delegation office, to meet with the Official Delegation (OD) and all the Norwegian NGO´s and Civil Society Institutions (CSI).

In this informational meeting the OD shared some of the ideas of their agenda and opened the table for questions from the people present.

It was a nice and interesting expression of transparency and cooperation. With people of deep knowledge in different issues, making the right and perhaps controversial inquiries, it all became a full exercise where the official and “normal” answers of the OD were demanded.

With that spirit we walk to the Centre International de Conferences Genève (CICG) where the Conference is being held. Strict badge checks, airport-style security procedures and then you are in the main building. But this infrastructure is just for the “real” Conference, the one were only the Official delegations can be inside the auditoriums doors, properly identified press and civil society representatives can get close and be in the halls, but not inside the auditoriums. For us there was a building right in front, where Seminars and Conferences were about to take place. These, and other venues around, are the places to exposes the ideas, policies, messages and debates that keep our institutions running on the pursue of Justice, Fairness, Development and Improvements goals in the Trade issues. I guess the main strategy is not to have seminars and conferences to justify our work and present our ideas among the same group of people, but to also and specially involve the official institutions, politicians and main actors in this play, in order to influence, create conscience, commitment, awareness and overall action.

This is one of the greatest challenges, and with the presence of the NGO´s and Civil Society Institutions, we are putting up a concrete fight for it: achieve a transparent and democratic functioning of the WTO.

In the meeting with the Norwegian delegation Aksel, the leader of The Development Fond, ask their opinion about NGO´s and CSI´s participation in the plenary sessions, it was pleasant to know that they did not see any reason for us not to be in any of the plenary sessions, but more than comforting, this confirmation from the Norwegian delegation became useful, it was during the first press conference between the WTO venue organizers and the NGO´s representatives, Aksel himself raised the comment and demand of participate in the plenary sessions supported by the Norwegian delegation. It was the only round of applause during the meeting. But it can also make us think of a proposal where each official delegation can agree on letting NGO´s and CSI´s participate, therefore the will of the plenary will allow an open, transparent and more democratic flow of the meetings.

From the program of activities we choose to attend to the Conference called “The Rights approach to trade rules”, in short there were presented different aspects on how to incorporate the Human Rights approach or perspective to Trade, with special attention to the right to food, which is an item ratified (made law) by more than 160 countries.

A briefing of the day from the O.D. to all the NGO´s and Civil Society Institutions was schedule for the end of the evening, but it was cancelled. We don´t know the reasons (yet), but as soon as we know it, we´ll let you know.

Also published on the Spire blog:

http://inspirerende.wordpress.com/2009/12/02/271/

Professional Profile

I made this profile of myself for apply to an internship, it was interesting because it had to be in third person and include aspects of my professional background.

Here it is:

He is a young adventurer, willing to experience the cultures of the world. Passionate Social Worker, who has now a Master in Social Welfare and Health Policy, with 4 years of experience on the Social/NGO sector he wants to devote himself to the Development work. With experience in community and projects evaluation, provision of social services, social programs manager and research.

To find and understand the reasoning behind every human action (and no-action) really fascinates him. He believes in the capacity to build your own future based on the present moment actions, the social empowerment of people and communities is visible in all his work. He has great commitment to his work, to manage projects and social programs, conduct research, be fund raiser, lead capacity building processes, make effective and human distribution of social services and get involve with people are the sparks that sets up his fire. He is social sensible professional that beliefs in the people and on collective changes for good.

to Geneve

Official diary entry:

Sunday 29th

The Spire-WTO journey began. A rush to get to the Central Station, take the Flytoget and depart in a nice and cheap flight to Geneva.

From the arrival Geneva is a city that welcomes you, first everyone receives from the airport a free all-public transport ticket valid for 80 minutes (enough to get anywhere), right there we find out that when you reserve in a hotel normally there is a transport card included in the price, those are great first steps to get around the city. I was lucky to find from the Swiss Christian solidarity roots a nice and cozy shared-room and my partner Mari tempted her luck by hunting a reasonable-price hotel in that very same night in the city center, and did it!

It is always a fabulous thing to live the concrete feeling of realizing the fact that I have a global family called: Focolare.

I try to find hotels, to get hosted by Couch Surfers, but I was almost forgetting the focolare. Since I tough there were no focolare in this city, just in the last minute I decided to find out if at least any Gen or volunteer family was present. For my luck there is a nice focolare and on top my dear friend Rainer is living here and Rafi as well. Martin, the leader was very welcoming from the beginning. That phrase of "it was like we knew each other since for ever" is again more true than the floor I am stepping.

Many things happening

I guess this is just an non-structured diary entry.

Very, very busy days!!

Today (afternoon) I plan to finally have a time to re-start working on my thesis and on the end of next week as well.

This Saturday is going to be busy in the afternoon, I still don´t know exactly what I´ll do, options are too many.

On Sunday, after work I´ll travel to Geneva for the WTO Conference and I´ll be there until Thursday when I´ll come straight to work.

I just got my residence permit! So I can stay until February. Do I want to do it? I guess yes! Do I want to stay longer? First it does not depend on me. I need a full-time job. There is a nice offer presented through my friend Sebi, but the clients should decide if they want to do this job and more important if they want me to do it! Let´s see! If that becomes truth then, and only then I should get to ask myself how long more do I want to stay around here. A Lithuanian friend told me that once you pass the winter everything is much better and she is right. So, let´s see!

I´ll be receiving a Polish couple for 2 days soon. Some fun might be coming.

Right after we´ll go to Paris. That for sure will be fun!

Christmas will be very close after that! the plan is to go to Barcelona again to visit my cousin, probably for the last time in many years. This time a new nephew will be at home: Aaron, who should come in these days.

At some point I plan to take a cruise boat to Copenhagen and travel a bit inside Norway. (As, Stavanger, Trondheim, Volda and/or Tromso) Let´s see what can become possible and not remain a dream.

Speaking of dreams, in these weeks I´ll like to confirm the real possibility of being Consul.

I´ll present my formal resignation in Aftenposten to get the at least January free from that job.

Finish the Vivencia course.

Have job offers when coming back to Dominican.

La cuenta contracorriente

Este escrito me llegó por la lista de correos de Media-Isla, muy buena lista de correos de corte litarario muy interesantes.

Este habla sobre el Capital Social que es uno de mis temas favoritos.

La cuenta contracorriente

Por Gorka Andraka | © Gara

No tener a nadie. ¿Se puede ser más pobre? N´Demba, un senegalés que vive en Sevilla, cayó enfermo y fue hospitalizado. En el tiempo que pasó ingresado recibió la visita de varios compatriotas y amigos. Entre ellos, Susana, la joya sevillana que me contó esta historia. El vecino de habitación de N´Demba, un español, sorprendido ante el constante ir y venir de gentes que atesoraba la cama del africano, preguntó: "¿Y éste quién es? ¿Por qué recibe tantas visitas? ¿Es alguien famoso?". No, no lo es, ni rico ni importante ni poderoso, al menos para nuestra bolsa de valores.

Las principales lenguas del África subsahariana no disponen de palabras para designar al pobre en el sentido económico de este término. Sus distintas maneras de decir "pobre", traducidas a nuestro idioma, vendrían a significar algo así como "huérfano". Muchos pueblos africanos, en todos los aspectos de su vida cotidiana, cuando hablan de miseria no se refieren exactamente a la falta de dinero. Pobres son los que están solos, sin apoyo social, sin una comunidad, otras personas, que los arropen y acompañen.

Hace casi 20 años ya que la ONU declaró el 17 de octubre "Día Internacional para la Erradicación de la Pobreza". Con la crisis económica ensañándose con los más desprotegidos, recién alcanzados los mil millones de hambrientos en el planeta, suena obsceno restarle valor y mérito a la cartera. Aún así, conviene no olvidarlo: hay vida, riqueza, más allá del dinero, aunque no lo parezca. Hagamos cuentas. Contracorriente. Si apartamos la pasta, ¿qué nos queda? ¿A cuánto asciende nuestra fortuna? Descontemos. Comparemos. No hay duda. Los más pobres, los sin nadie. [lilibrik]

Crecimiento no es Desarrollo

Estoy publicando otro articulo de mi primo Miguel Román del que comparto casi todas las ideas planteadas:

La República Dominicana va a cumplir, en el 2011, 50 años de comenzar su trán-sito por el sendero de la “democracia”. Sin embargo, gobiernos van y gobiernos vienen pero ninguno aparenta encontrar la formula mágica del desarrollo. No ha habido, desde 1961, ningún plan mínimamente inteligente, factible, armónico, equitativo, y económi-camente viable que esté orientado a desarrollar el país, no solamente la economía. La improvisación ha sido el norte en lo referente a planes de desarrollo nacional. Cincuenta años de crecimiento económico (un promedio de 5% al año, la tasa más estable y consis-tente de América Latina) no han sido suficientes para que los dominicanos tengan hoy condiciones de vida mínimamente aceptables.

Muy a propósito de estas reflexiones, me encuentro con que la República Domini-ana ha vuelto a aparecer en los últimos lugares del desarrollo democrático, de inversión en educación y salud y en calidad de la gestión pública, muy en contradicción con los índices de crecimiento económico que se siguen registrando. La R.D. aparece entre los últimos 3 países (debajo sólo quedaron Venezuela y Nicaragua) en el Índice de Desarrollo Democrá-tico (IDD) difundido a fines del 2007 por la Fundación Konrad Adenauer de Alemania. De una probable puntuación máxima de 10,000, la R.D. sólo obtuvo 2,900 puntos; muy por debajo del promedio regional, el cual se sitúa en 5,114 puntos. Chile, Costa Rica, y Uruguay encabezan la lista de los países con mayor puntuación.

El Índice de Desarrollo es calculado en base a 4 parámetros: condiciones básicas de la democracia, respeto de los derechos políticos y las libertades civiles, calidad insti-tucional y eficiencia política, y ejercicio del poder efectivo para gobernar, y presenta resultados de la totalidad y en cada una de esas dimensiones. La peor evaluación de R.D. se encuentra en la cuarta área, con el indicador titulado “capacidad para generar políticas para asegurar bienestar”, donde aparece en el último escalón del ranking de los 18 países anali-zados (menos Cuba y Haití), con 2958 puntos. Este bajo porcentaje es causado por conse-cuencia del bajo gasto en educación y salud, índice de desempleo urbano, y número de hogares bajo la línea de la pobreza. En resumen, el estudio muestra lo siguiente: 1.4% del PBI es asignado a la salud, último lugar en América Latina; 2% del PBI es asignado a educación, por debajo del 4% que manda la ley; 45% de la población vive bajo la línea de la pobreza. Muy particularmente, en lo referente a educación, se añade que el informe de la UNESCO sostiene que el país ha fracasado en mejorar la calidad y alcance de la educación dentro de los objetivos establecidos por las Naciones Unidas para el Milenio.

Fruto de gestiones administrativas malas y peores, y de la presión e irresponsabi-lidad de las élites nacionales, el crecimiento económico del último medio siglo se ha con-centrado hasta un punto que la República Dominicana no es una, sino dos naciones, con un mínimo de la población viviendo en la abundancia, y la casi totalidad restante sobrevivien-do en medio de la escasez y la miseria, y con escasas oportunidades de elevar sus condi-ciones de vida. Los gobiernos deben revisarse y replantearse sus metas de desarrollo inte-gral nacional dentro de cuatro parámetros básicos: reducir efectivamente la pobreza, crear fuentes de trabajo, proteger y regenerar el medio ambiente, y promover el adelanto de los sectores tradicionalmente marginados, como las mujeres.

Es fundamental entender que crecimiento económico no es necesariamente un indicador de desarrollo humano. Los países que hoy son desarrollados, al mismo tiempo que desarrollaron su andamiaje económico, establecieron metas de desarrollo nacional sostenible a corto, mediano, y largo plazo, y las fueron cumpliendo sin importar quién estuviera en el poder; hubo continuidad del Estado. Lamentablemente, hasta que en la República Dominicana no entendamos eso seguiremos dando palos a ciegas.

También publicado en:

http://www.rumbony.com/article.cfm?id=3172