Introduction

The proposal to hold the Summer University in South Asia with host countries being Bangladesh and Sri Lanka was made known in the year 2004 and the invitation was accepted in mid 2005.

Various arguments proved that South Asia could be the venue for the Summer University 2006. What weighed more is the possibility to organise the programme in two of the world’s poor countries, which have been taking little internationally known but highly effective measures and initiatives for advancement with the help of various non- governmental, governmental, religious and development-oriented organisations.

One of those initiatives, “micro-credit support systems that are popular all over South Asia received an international recognition when one of its initiators, Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh received the 2006 Nobel Peace Price.

Besides Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have made specific contributions to world economy though their efforts are seldom recognised. It is also one of the regions where there are huge problems of migration, poverty, clean water, diseases and so on, which are neglected by the so-called international community.

Summer University was the occasion for a selected group of journalists from different parts of the world to get to know one small part of our global population comprising of more than 150 million women, children, young people and men. The event took them deep into the realities of this part of the world where few people give attention and most of them are unfortunately business people.

It is the duty of journalists to give voice to the voiceless through formation and exposure programmes such as the Summer University especially when the international media loses time, space and energy, as they are concentrated on the same issues for many decades.

Context

The event had to be organised in an extremely difficult time that affected peoples worldwide in various ways. The situation in Sri Lanka became worse as peace-initiatives broken down between the fighting groups. Bangladesh, being a Muslim majority nation continues to suffer from the lack of confidence in an atmosphere of on-going threats of terrorism.

War in Lebanon last July did not contribute to calm down the situation. It generated more hatred and anger against all western establishments including Christian institutions which majority of Muslims see as representations of western powers.

Three days before the event was supposed to start, the Muslim community worldwide began protesting against the comments of Pope Benedict XVI. Situations became very tense and the foreign ministry officials in Bangladesh advised the organisers there to postpone the programme, as they were not able to ensure security to participating journalists of the Summer University. In addition to this came the military coup at Bangkok, Thailand through where participants had to transit.

Participants were already on their way when the information to postpone the event was sent out in all urgency. Though we have to spend time, energy and money we managed to do justice to all participants by finding solutions to each case. The event was officially organised a few weeks later with utmost caution and care.

Though things looked complicated, all these events gave the Summer University 2006 greater importance. In addition the Nobel Peace Prize came for the first time to Bangladesh, bringing congratulations and at the same time generating occasions to analyse how even the Nobel Prize helps unjust business.

Findings and recommendations

The organisers found extraordinary keynote speakers from various walks of life in the host countries. Both the participants and resource persons together explored the situation in South Asia in general and in the host countries in particular. Here are a few findings and recommendations:

Challenges dating back to the formation of nations

Today’s Sri Lanka is formed two ethnic groups. Sri Lanka’s main problem therefore consists in the traditional rivalry between the two ethnic groups, which have their own culture and distinct language with their own alphabet.

The ethnic conflict has divided societies and religions and some of the religious authorities continue to take advantage of this ethnic divide for their own short-term interest. There are few who beyond the ethnic and religious borders so that a permanent solution can be found for these devastating conflicts in this paradise on earth.

Resource persons and journalists proposed the need of setting up a committee that takes care of the human persons in all ethnic groups in order to find solutions. Such inter-ethnic groups are set up in some parts of the island and they have been exemplary in bringing peoples of various ethnic groups, cultures and origins.

Bangladesh was liberated in 1971 from Pakistan. It thus returned to its status of non-Islamic Republic. This gave greater freedom on all levels. Life in Bangladesh began to be better than before.

Though it managed to escape from almost all the problems it suffered from an artificial union with Pakistan, it is not yet able to be on its own because of the forced and artificial separation from the “mother India”.

In addition to this, the looting of resources and de-valorisation of services and prices since the British colonisation, and the artificial making of nations at the military, political, business and religious interests of the colonisers forced Bangladesh towards the bottom of the economic ladder.

According to various resource persons and analysts, the British colonisation was so subhuman and it pushed the region to hell. In order to understand the damages, one should explore examples of great robbers and looters such as Robert Clive who is known in England as co-founder of the empire in India. Robert Clive came to India in the late 1760s as an impecunious young man and he came back a few years later as the wealthiest man in England. After such devastations and forced divisions, it would be impossible for small countries in South Asia to even imagine the horizons of developed nations.

The only way redress South Asian countries is to recognise their contributions to humanity, which date back more than ten thousand years. This will give them due respect and justice on all levels such as intellectual property, religion, culture, customs, science, health, agriculture and so on.

Lighting a candle should not replace justice and respect

Lighting a candle is better than cursing darkness but without recognising the value of resources and services, international community can not respect peoples in South Asia or help justice prevail.

Summer University 2006 experience showed that one of the huge problems of South Asian continent is that it is possibly the place for charity without justice and respect on all fronts and on all levels.

There are thousands of charitable organisations and United Nations’ bodies especially in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, which have been helping people and at the same time keeping them forever “low castes” in the globalised world. And rich people abroad and in the region have entered into this dynamics for many decades and it is important for them to keep the people poor.

By keeping people poor, one can gradually eliminate customs and rituals, which in this part of the world still miraculously safeguard their roles. Such policies make people dependent forever and it is vital for amassing wealth and keeping it in the hands of the rich people forever.

One example for this is the use of pharmaceutical medicines by charitable organisations, United Nations’ bodies and new hospitals. South Asia is the only region in the world where traditional medicines kept people in good health and forever. Today business-minded pharmaceutical companies continue inject in to human persons there all their junks, poisonous and forbidden medicines in developed countries.

It is all done through vast and well-spread networks of corruption, unhealthy and unjust incentives, aggressive and misleading advertising and by propagating that all the people there are ignorant. While on one hand the false propaganda is used for disabling and killing people through business, on the other hand rich people in developed nations, some of them the producers of the pharmaceutics go for traditional medicine treatments in South Asia to keep them in better shape.

The Summer University 2006 emphasised that there is a great need to use both methods of medicine for better analysis and treatment rather than going for one excluding the other. Some of the hospitals and health centres have already adapted to use both methods but many of them are under the influence of wealthy pharmaceutics. Summer University 2006 unanimously recommended that through combining all knowledge; humanity is led to wisdom.

Micro-credit Support System

The system of micro-credit was born in the context of centuries-old cruel exploitation of the people and thus ignorance and the ongoing greed of foreign investors to loot the rest. It is just a beginning for uplifting the people from subhuman conditions. But it can not be the solution to attain a just and equal society. Some of the resource persons preferred to call it “advanced charity”!!

Micro-credit system is prevalent all over South Asia in various forms and it can work only in the situation of extreme poverty and helplessness. But without micro-credit the poor can not even begin to imagine to come to the ranks of developed world.

The 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner Mr Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh believes that in order to create riches, it is important to have access to capital. After his education in the USA, he returned to Chittagong where he became professor of economy in 1971, the year of the liberation of Bangladesh. Within a year he abandoned almost all the ideas and theories he learned abroad in order to find real solutions through micro-credit support system to the problems of majority of the poor people in the world.

In 1976, He inaugurated a micro-credit programme under the name “Grameen” which means “of the village”, “of the people”, “village-oriented”). In 1983, Grameen obtained the bank status. Today it has 6 million clients whose majority are women, more than 17’400 employees and 1861 branches. Almost six billion US dollars have been given in loans, and almost 99 % of the loans were returned.

As people appreciate the Nobel Peace price to Bangladesh, they also worry about the fact that many people would think that everything is going well in the country and the region. Besides the Nobel Prize brought some unnecessary divisions, as only one of many serious micro-credit institutions was awarded!! The other worry is the business attached to the publicity. The French yoghurt company “Danone” has already inaugurated on 7th November 2006 with former French footballer Zinedine Zidane who was expelled for violence during the 2006 world cup finals the production of an “ultra-nutritive” yoghurt factory at low production cost and not necessarily at low price.

Danone is one of the many foreign investors whose aims are not to make Bangladesh rich but make profit there and live well in France or other developed countries. Therefore, for many ordinary Bangladeshis, even the so-called “good things” coming abroad are ultimately taking profits out of the country and in addition they are “strings-attached”. Some of them even fear whether the foreign investors already bought the Grameen bank!!

Summer University 2006 participants and resource persons believe that initiatives like micro-credits are to be appreciated but if they serve as pretexts to continue the global system that keeps some 80 percent of the people poor is not just and therefore to be changed with all force and means.

Tsunami and the Perversion of Humanitarian Aid

Sri Lanka is one of the South Asian Countries that have been devastated in December 2004 by Tsunami, the earthquake under sea and by the “big waves” it produced. Tsunami devastated also parts of Indonesia, Thailand and India.

People there especially in Sri Lanka are still without home and basic necessities as Tsunami devastated properties, infrastructures and nature. The situation in Sri Lanka is worse because of the ethnic conflict.

In this context of extreme poverty, charitable organisations have evaluated that they received more money than they really need and now they are making arrangements to return part of the money to contributors!! People in these Tsunami affected regions especially in Sri Lanka and India are not the ones who run after aid. They try to live as they can even in the shambles.

The wrong evaluations of charitable organisations whose representatives earn fortunes make matters worse in all fronts: (1). They give the impression that everything is well there though people are living without basic needs. (2). It helps boast their contributors that they were extremely generous and there is no need to do anything in this part of the world. (3) “Crying child has the milk”: the money meant for people surviving still without basic necessities in Tsunami affected areas are being diverted even by force to countries where the aid is ended up in the hands of corrupt people and terrorists. (4) They cultivate ignorance and distrust on both sides among contributors and receivers and thus making a few richer and all the rest poorer.

Summer University 2006 observed that humanitarian aid can not be more perverse than in the case of Tsunami. They explored that though humanitarian aid can not solve all the problems, they can make the first effort to redress the devastation. But walking back with the resources meant for redressing, or diverting it to other destinations is crime and it plunges the Tsunami affected population to extreme poverty.

Ship-breaking yards of South Asia

When the French military ship “Clemenceau” began its voyage to South Asia some months ago, people worldwide began to get some rough ideas of the conditions of the people and their families in the ship-breaking yards of South Asia.

Summer University participants visited Sitalpur colony in Chittagong where the families of some of the workers at these deadly ship yards ? migrants from far away places in Bangladesh ? put up in rented houses built of mud and tin sheets. 24 families narrated to visiting journalists their harsh life in the ship-breaking yards in their search for a better living!

Ship-breaking yards are one of the many forms for throwing the waste to the poor countries in the name of “out-sourcing”. It helps developed nations to make more profit by finding cheapest and unjust alternatives to dispose heavily hazardous and poisonous waste derived from industries they have created to support war and conflict.

Feedback

Many encouraging feedbacks have reached Geneva headquarters from participants, resource persons and organisers of the Summer University:

Summer University should not end with the highly enriching visits, encounters, debates, and learning but it should help us go on such acquiring more concrete knowledge and wisdom so that we can continue to live and exercise our profession according to ideals. It is a powerful and dynamic springboard for many initiatives to come and we have resolved to maintain a journal to keep us all informed.

First of all I would like to thank you for providing me such a high profile formation and learning programme. Summer University 2006 was an exiting experience for me. I appreciated very much the opportunity to talk to people in the grassroots and they revealed many new things. This is indispensable for the journalist. Summer University has provided me with the capacity to see things in a different way and no doubt, this great event gave me the best of professional skills, knowledge and wisdom.

Over all, it was a nice and memorable time I spent during the Summer University 2006. Moreover we initiated a network among participants, which we named “Maha Dwip” (Great Island) and launched an e-news letter named “Alo” (light).

Countries like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh get pitifully poor coverage in the West. They are tiny, troubled and under developed. Their voice is too small to make a great impact on international affairs, so they is largely ignored. They do not deserve this. They are among the countries which will feel the earliest and heaviest impact of global warming because of their geographic situation: Bangladesh in a vast delta basin and most of the country is less than 6 metres above sea level; Sri Lanka Lanka is a tiny island surrounded by Indian Ocean and it was devastated by the Tsunami almost two years ago.

Rising waters mean the south is sinking, while the north is afflicted by drought. It is the ultimate injustice because people in the south are being forced to reap a devastating crop sown by rich, oblivious countries in the West.

Summer University 2006 has made an impact on me that will last. Not only have I discovered extraordinary peoples and cultures that were hidden from me, but I’ve had access to it in a way that only Summer University can enable. The Summer University programme is valuable in many ways but the most important is its ability to give young journalists a unique view of a constantly surprising world. As journalists we are in a position to give others a glimpse of that world. But as a journalist from the careless West my responsibility to convey that through the pages of the newspaper I write for is doubled. Once again Summer University has given young journalists worldwide the chance to explore a remote corner of the globe. Now it is our turn to do justice to that opportunity.