AFRO-NETS> Implications from Sept 11th on..Development issues.?

["Warren Feek" <wfeek@comminit.com>]

Implications from Sept 11th on..Development issues.?
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In common with others around the world, we are returning to work. The 
new Home Page http://www.comminit.com is up and the Drum Beats and DB 
Classifieds [commencing with Son De Tambora and a Vacancy special] 
will return this Wednesday. We do so with very heavy hearts. Too many 
people in the Drum Beat network are suffering as they learn or await 
news of family, friends, colleagues and other loved ones. And we feel 
a high level of nervous anxiety and fear about the further death and 
destruction that now seems inevitable as the "response" is planned 
and carried out. So many ordinary people, doing such extraordinary 
things in their lives, have suffered and will suffer, outrageous 
pain. From all involved with The Communication Initiative our 
thoughts and support. You are in our hearts.  

  The events of September 11, 2001 pose significant implications and 
challenges for Development. It is very hard to see how anything will 
continue as normal. Below are some initial thoughts. But, we are more 
interested in you contributing to a forum that will share your per-
spectives and ideas on: 

  a. The IMPLICATIONS of September 11, 2001 and the resulting "re-
sponse" How will this affect work across development issues 
[HIV/AIDS, Education, Micro-enterprise, Gender, Children, etc] and in 
the range of settings [Africa, South Asia, South-East Asia, The Pa-
cific, Caribbean, Latin America, etc ] in which we all work.    

  b. The COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES in communities and countries as the 
world enters a very uncertain, probably violent, phase. What can we 
all, as people with development experience and communication skills 
contribute in the coming months? What should be our role? 

  Please contribute your views and perspectives to the Drum Beat Chat 
discussion forum at mailto:drumbeatchat@comminit.com If you are not part 
of this forum and wish to engage please 'subscribe' at 
http://www.comminit.com/email_forum.html#drumbeatchat or just reply 
to this email and we will post your contribution and subscribe you to 
Drum Beat Chat. Address all contributions to 
mailto:drumbeatchat@comminit.com 

Our primary interest is in your perspectives and ideas. The follow-
ing rather random thoughts, re- lated to both the questions above, 
are included as an initial contribution to this process. Please note 
that they are my personal views and questions. They do not reflect 
the views and opinions of the Partners or other C.I. staff.    

  1. Placing the events of September 11th in the context of other vio-
lent political actions. 

The death and destruction in New York and Washington DC are all too 
familiar to many people in many countries and communities across the 
globe. Civil populations, normal people, going about their normal 
daily activities, have been shot, bombed and otherwise violently vio-
lated. Colombia, Israel, Palestine, Kosovo, Rwanda, Bosnia, Burundi, 
Chechnya, and the Democratic Re- public of Congo come immediately to 
mind. There are many others. Of course there are some large differ-
ences. Though the number of deaths can be the same or larger than the 
toll in New York and DC [25,000 in Colombia alone last year], they 
often took place over a longer period of time, through more interper-
sonal means and without an association to the global symbols repre- 
sented by the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Is there any way 
that we can broaden the debate and action on so called "terrorism' 
[recalling the famous phrase that 'one person's terrorist is another 
person's freedom fighter'] to include these! experiences as well as 
those that so terribly  affected the USA? Is it legitimate to make 
these connections? Or, is the New York/DC connection so special that 
it requires individual attention and response?

2. Maintaining A Focus On The Major Development Issues. 

Though the world's attention has turned to "terrorism" there are 
still: 2 billion people living on under USD two dollars per day; 37 
million people infected by HIV and 1.3 million women per year dying 
of an AIDS related illness; minimal growth or falling average per 
capita GDP across  Africa; 4 billion living without basic sanitation; 
and, falling development aid from the rich OECD  countries -  from a 
per capita level of US$32 in 1990 to US$19 in 1998 and probably lower 
since.  These are just examples of the issues faced. [Search on 
http://www.comminit.com/base_line.html for others.] How do we retain 
this focus on these equally serious issues as the world's major deci- 
sion-makers are almost exclusively engaged in the "response" to Sep-
tember 11th?       

3. Maintaining equity, acceptance and dialogue as essential elements 
of development work. 

Events such as September 11th place maximum strain on these quali-
ties. Across the world, in all communities, there will be a tendency 
towards increasing suspicion, isolating and marginalising of people 
who are not in the majority, resorting to old fault lines and ten-
sions, and subtle and overt forms of discrimination. The dialogue and 
debate that is essential for progress can easily dissipate. Improved 
communication is required to understand and act on the perceived 
threats to cultural contexts and specific grievances. Justifiably or 
not these provide the 'fire' for violent acts. How can we protect and 
maybe advance equity, acceptance and dialogue in an environment of 
conflict?      

  4. Reviewing Overall Development Strategies. 

As loathe as I am to suggest that 6,000 people dying as three planes 
fly into two buildings provides an opportunity, maybe there is one. 
Let's face it; the development strategies of the past 15 years have 
hardly been even qualified successes. Perhaps, with the world lead-
ers' attention focussed on the Sept 11th aftermath, now is an op-
portunity for debate amongst all spectrums of development action on 
overall strategic priorities and investments. I was struck by the 
following quote in a recent issue of Foreign Policy that assessed the 
performance of James Wolfensohn as President of The World Bank: "The 
World Bank Group alone has lent USD 470 BILLION dollars since it's 
inception and USD 225 BILLION dollars in just the last decade." The 
facts are attributed to Paul O'Neill, The Secretary of the Treasury 
in the USA Government. He goes on to say "Visit the poorest nations 
in the world and we will have little to show for it." I am sure many 
of you agree. And it is not just the World Bank. In Drum Beat 100 we 
summarised a lot of the issue trend data. Across all elements the 
trends are not good in some cases heading in reverse. So, is this a 
sadly opportune time, the space to debate the best policies and in-
vestments for the next 15 years? What policies would you put in 
place? Which constitute the best investments? Which choices will best 
address the underlying, crucial and highly relevant issues of poverty 
and culture?   

5. Learning From The Inconsistencies In The 'Rhetoric'. 

It may be churlish and ill-timed to even raise this issue. The global 
community has every right to substantively and appropriately respond 
to the September 11th death and destruction. But does it have the le-
gitimacy to cloak the response in a tradition of supporting democracy 
and freedom. And to don that cloak as if it has always been worn when 
justifying foreign interventions. That was certainly not the case for 
the USA in Chile in the 1970s. It was not the rationale for the 
global coalition that protected Kuwait and Saudi Arabia [hardly de-
mocracies] against Iraq [certainly not a democracy]. And there was no 
pressure after that for those countries to "adopt democratic princi-
ples". Was the state of Israel not established with a substantial 
contribution from what might now be regarded as terrorist activity 
with its early political leaders graduating from that violent strug-
gle? This is just the beginning of a very long list. Is part of our 
role as communicators, in communities and at national and global 
level, to raise the history, explore and debate the inconsistencies 
and to support the action that evolves from those debates? 

I am sure that you have very different perspectives, ideas and issues 
and would welcome your contributing to these very important debates 
which have such practical implications for how we undertake our daily 
work. 

Please contribute your views and perspectives to the Drum Beat Chat 
discussion forum at mailto:drumbeatchat@comminit.com If you are not 
part of this forum and wish to engage please 'subscribe' at 
http://www.comminit.com/email_forum.html#drumbeatchat 
or just reply to this email and we will post your contribution and 
subscribe you to Drum Beat Chat. Address all contributions to 
mailto:drumbeatchat@comminit.com 

Thank you.



Warren Feek 

Director 
The Communication Initiative 
mailto:wfeek@coastnet.com 
http://www.comminit.com 
Tel: +1-250-658-6372 
Fax: +1-250-658-1728

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