Sunday, May 30, 2010
Monday, April 5, 2010
IFP conference@ Ohio University: Leadership via Fellowship
The glimpse of young people passionately engaging in issue of social justice is always a very positive glimpse. It not only produces hope but also creates an environment of converting this hope into actions.
Ford Foundation International Fellowship Program’s 3 day conference with a theme to ‘Cultivate Leadership for Social Change’ held in rural Appalachia provided one such glimpse, where IFP fellows from eight American universities representing ten nationalities gathered at Ohio University which hosted the conference between March 25 and March 28 2010.
Established in 1804 Ohio University was just the right campus for such an event. Its vibrant campus with a mix of Victorian and Modern architecture, rich international student community and diverse community interactions makes it a creative hub for student-community to intellectually engage with one another and work on the most pressing social issues that our world is facing today.
The conference agenda was both enriching and entertaining. And it began right at the Columbus airport, which was the point of arrival for all participants. Conversations started amongst fellows, amongst IFP officials who flew from New York, and soon enough amongst the two as well. As everyone boarded the Ohio University Bus, with its giant green Bobcat mascot printed across it, these conversations became the background music while the bus navigated the bright sunny Appalachian visuals through the 90 minute journey from the airport to the Athens campus.
The program began at Salaam, a pan Arabian restaurant on Court Street, campus’s downtown area, where everyone gathered for the dinner. This was the ice breaking session where everybody shared each other’s history, work and culture. As we ate together, fellows from Uganda dressed in their traditional attire danced and rest of us joined them in cheers with rhythmic clapping and humming. Soon enough the Ohio University IFP fellows came forward and added to the environment by a collective dance performance, dedicated to all participants, and then the Chinese fellow’s solo singing performance and a solo poem recitation by an Indonesian. While all of this was underway, the constants flashes of cameras lighten up the ambience and the conversations continued.
Second day of conference was 27th March and everyone was a friend to everyone by now. Well, pretty much. That set the stage of this day, which was full of introductions, discussions and Q& A sessions. After the initial welcome of the participants by the Ohio University’s Ford Fellows Association and the video address by Joan Dassin, Executive Director of International fellowships Funds, followed by the remarks from Krista McCallum, Director of Ohio University International Students and Faculty Services, the conference marched into the keynote address by Dr.Judith Millesen, Associate Professor of political Science and Fellow Faculty at Ohio University. Her work and words on social justice leadership was inspiring and provided the fellows with fresh perspectives of an academician and a practitioner of social change.
This was followed by the panel discussion moderated by Dr.Haley Duschinski, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Anthropology. Panel members came from diverse background and brought in grassroots experiences that are required to translate methodologies into social change actions. Mara Giglio from Appalachian Peace and Justice Network, Carol Kuhre from Rural Action and Leslie Schaller from ACEnet shared the rare insights of working at a grassroots level to develop social change movements through basic human devices such as listening, participatory approaches and conflict resolution through peer mediation.
This panel was uniquely successful in its presentation and fascinating in its discussions because it avoided all the abstract and academic notions of social change and emphasized on the real issues in a very real terms. This, we call, hitting the nail in the coffin!
The panel also really synergized the participants with new enthusiasm and urgency. This was clearly reflected in the next post- lunch session, where fellows organized themselves in small groups to brainstorm and share their thoughts on topics such as Poverty and health ,education, gender and equality issues, which are plaguing the humanity across the globe.
It was these small group- discussions that brought forth, the distinction between issues which are important and which are urgent, concerns that are global and that are local, and solutions that need national perspective and those that transcend nationalities and need universal addressal. It is from these discussions that Ohio Declaration, a document of ‘actions to be taken by fellows’ emerged in a very powerful way; all groups sat together and reflected on their life experiences, discussions and social realities in all its political, economic and cultural context to know the problems and come with solutions. Ohio declaration was thus created!
The day progressed with a new session called ‘Connecting to your IFP community’ that provided a chance to all fellows to know how best they can network with each other and contribute toward the global social change movement. Blogs, video conferences, new media platforms like Facebook and other ways of communication such as telecommunication text messaging was explored. Remarks by IFP officials including Senior Program Officer, Tammy Langan, Communication Officer, Diana Whitten and the Grant Administrator, Barbara Wanasek, further emphasized the crucial communications and protocol issues. This emphasis resulted in an immediate networking as fellows connected with each other though Facebook and emails after this face to face communication. New blogs in future and new communication platforms using new media technologies will go a long way to keep the fellows connected and build the social justice caravan.
In its final stages, the conference’s destination was what is popularly known in Athens, The Ridges, a beautiful historical space situated on the top of the hill with Kennedy Museum of Art. Dr.Pam Benoit, Executive Vice President and Provost, Ohio University and Dr.Weinberg, Director of Ohio University Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs addressed the fellows with inspiring examples of political and social change.
Yet again, emphasizing the power of individual actions backed by the collective solidarity for the sustainable social change.
As the fellows returned from The Ridges, it was time to conclude, and say good bye to each other, only with a hopeful new beginnings with each other and on issues we feel strongly for .And what better way to come together and have group photos as a memento of the conference!
The conference ended on a note of solidarity and camaraderie .As our bus moved back to the Columbus airport, we were no longer a bunch of fellows; we were a family members who were to meet again. And again, as we were bonded by the same desires and restlessness of a social change.
Ford Foundation International Fellowship Program’s 3 day conference with a theme to ‘Cultivate Leadership for Social Change’ held in rural Appalachia provided one such glimpse, where IFP fellows from eight American universities representing ten nationalities gathered at Ohio University which hosted the conference between March 25 and March 28 2010.
Established in 1804 Ohio University was just the right campus for such an event. Its vibrant campus with a mix of Victorian and Modern architecture, rich international student community and diverse community interactions makes it a creative hub for student-community to intellectually engage with one another and work on the most pressing social issues that our world is facing today.
The conference agenda was both enriching and entertaining. And it began right at the Columbus airport, which was the point of arrival for all participants. Conversations started amongst fellows, amongst IFP officials who flew from New York, and soon enough amongst the two as well. As everyone boarded the Ohio University Bus, with its giant green Bobcat mascot printed across it, these conversations became the background music while the bus navigated the bright sunny Appalachian visuals through the 90 minute journey from the airport to the Athens campus.
The program began at Salaam, a pan Arabian restaurant on Court Street, campus’s downtown area, where everyone gathered for the dinner. This was the ice breaking session where everybody shared each other’s history, work and culture. As we ate together, fellows from Uganda dressed in their traditional attire danced and rest of us joined them in cheers with rhythmic clapping and humming. Soon enough the Ohio University IFP fellows came forward and added to the environment by a collective dance performance, dedicated to all participants, and then the Chinese fellow’s solo singing performance and a solo poem recitation by an Indonesian. While all of this was underway, the constants flashes of cameras lighten up the ambience and the conversations continued.
Second day of conference was 27th March and everyone was a friend to everyone by now. Well, pretty much. That set the stage of this day, which was full of introductions, discussions and Q& A sessions. After the initial welcome of the participants by the Ohio University’s Ford Fellows Association and the video address by Joan Dassin, Executive Director of International fellowships Funds, followed by the remarks from Krista McCallum, Director of Ohio University International Students and Faculty Services, the conference marched into the keynote address by Dr.Judith Millesen, Associate Professor of political Science and Fellow Faculty at Ohio University. Her work and words on social justice leadership was inspiring and provided the fellows with fresh perspectives of an academician and a practitioner of social change.
This was followed by the panel discussion moderated by Dr.Haley Duschinski, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Anthropology. Panel members came from diverse background and brought in grassroots experiences that are required to translate methodologies into social change actions. Mara Giglio from Appalachian Peace and Justice Network, Carol Kuhre from Rural Action and Leslie Schaller from ACEnet shared the rare insights of working at a grassroots level to develop social change movements through basic human devices such as listening, participatory approaches and conflict resolution through peer mediation.
This panel was uniquely successful in its presentation and fascinating in its discussions because it avoided all the abstract and academic notions of social change and emphasized on the real issues in a very real terms. This, we call, hitting the nail in the coffin!
The panel also really synergized the participants with new enthusiasm and urgency. This was clearly reflected in the next post- lunch session, where fellows organized themselves in small groups to brainstorm and share their thoughts on topics such as Poverty and health ,education, gender and equality issues, which are plaguing the humanity across the globe.
It was these small group- discussions that brought forth, the distinction between issues which are important and which are urgent, concerns that are global and that are local, and solutions that need national perspective and those that transcend nationalities and need universal addressal. It is from these discussions that Ohio Declaration, a document of ‘actions to be taken by fellows’ emerged in a very powerful way; all groups sat together and reflected on their life experiences, discussions and social realities in all its political, economic and cultural context to know the problems and come with solutions. Ohio declaration was thus created!
The day progressed with a new session called ‘Connecting to your IFP community’ that provided a chance to all fellows to know how best they can network with each other and contribute toward the global social change movement. Blogs, video conferences, new media platforms like Facebook and other ways of communication such as telecommunication text messaging was explored. Remarks by IFP officials including Senior Program Officer, Tammy Langan, Communication Officer, Diana Whitten and the Grant Administrator, Barbara Wanasek, further emphasized the crucial communications and protocol issues. This emphasis resulted in an immediate networking as fellows connected with each other though Facebook and emails after this face to face communication. New blogs in future and new communication platforms using new media technologies will go a long way to keep the fellows connected and build the social justice caravan.
In its final stages, the conference’s destination was what is popularly known in Athens, The Ridges, a beautiful historical space situated on the top of the hill with Kennedy Museum of Art. Dr.Pam Benoit, Executive Vice President and Provost, Ohio University and Dr.Weinberg, Director of Ohio University Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs addressed the fellows with inspiring examples of political and social change.
Yet again, emphasizing the power of individual actions backed by the collective solidarity for the sustainable social change.
As the fellows returned from The Ridges, it was time to conclude, and say good bye to each other, only with a hopeful new beginnings with each other and on issues we feel strongly for .And what better way to come together and have group photos as a memento of the conference!
The conference ended on a note of solidarity and camaraderie .As our bus moved back to the Columbus airport, we were no longer a bunch of fellows; we were a family members who were to meet again. And again, as we were bonded by the same desires and restlessness of a social change.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Navigating-Life: My Portfolio
This is my work with spaces and people in rural and urban India.It includes my encounters with different cultures, development sites and issues offering immense challenges with which I navigated life.
Inside Control Room: Where lies the truth?
Control Room showed the human cost of Iraq war both to and of the Iraqi people, and to and of the American soldiers. This was the most speculator part of the film. Some of the most elusive footage, interviews and the daily working of the media at the site of conflict were probably never seen before. Director Jehane Noujaim navigation of the mediascape at the war torn Iraq, Al Jazeera’s newsroom and the Production Control Room, the actual site of news production and broadcasting, while the workers were covering the live images of the bombing of Iraq by the American and the Coalition Army was deeply focused on the realities and power of media. At the same time it also demonstrated how media can be used and abused for political purposes. Control Room shows the story of Al Jazeera’s, the Qatar based news-channel that showed the images , sound and texts of the war to the people. Such images were most profound for the American people and indeed most threatening for the US government under Bush administration. Wounded American soldiers, dying and bleeding Marines and all of such images that showed Americans being hurt was strategically hidden from the Bush administration from its people, to justify the War on civilian Iraq as a war for Liberation of Iraqi people and War by Americans as they stand for the “need of the hour” .Control Room breaks many myths that Bush Administration created through media. Most blatant amongst those were through images of Iraqi civilian casualties which were caused by American troops, attack on media personnel, and wounded American soldiers. Even more blatant was the story of Josh Rushing who was heading the Media unit of the Central Command and spoke eloquently in the film to show his support of the US and the coalition troops and his true belief that Iraq was a potential threat. Throughout the film, the US Marine was advocating the US and coalition of its action with his frank and candid interview with a former BBC employee and presently Al Jazeera's, Hassan Ibrahim. However, according to Josh’s web site (http://joshrushing.com/Bio.html) and other online resources, Pentagon ordered Josh not to give any more interviews. Josh left the US army and according to his web site he now works with Al-Jazeera English. He also wrote a book called “Mission Al-Jazeera: Build a Bridge, Seek the Truth, Change the World”
In the story of Josh, both as we see him in Control Room and his subsequent decision to leave the US army and join Al Jazeera, what is emphasized is that no news is complete until we see what is shown to us in the light of what is not shown to us. Control Room shows what we rarely see in the so called news channels who not only shows fiction as facts but even construct news to further the political agendas and maintain status-quo. Control Room reveals how this happens. As we see the Al Jazeera’s images of wounded soldiers and civilian’s casualties in Iraq, we hear George Bush preaching to the American public with soothing words, “I expect POWs to be treated humanely, just as we are treating the prisoners we have captured humanely”. Such juxtaposition of political rhetoric and the images of the ground realities instantly separates the chaff from the wheat for it audiences. It sharpens the images that the embedded journalism has created, that of the enslaved-media, in the hands of the establishment, and at the same time, as a senior producer of Al-Jazeera Samir Khader says while looking at the wounded civilians bodies covered by its channel, “I’m supposed to call this incitement? I call this true journalism, the only true journalism in the world” thus referring to a truthful-media characterized by courage and guts.
Samir’s strong sense of journalism with adherence to objectivity and balance is also reflected in a scene where he expresses his dissatisfaction towards the choice of the interviewee, an American who criticizes America for attacking Iraq only for oil, by a co worker, for the lack of balance. Samir is seen to be looking for balance while there is none as he himself seems to have confessed as he says “the only true journalism” in the above context. We see another example of an angry journalist, Hassan Ibrahim, when he hears Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld accusing Al Jazeera's interviews with US POWs as violation of the Geneva Conventions. "What about Guantanamo Bay?" , "What about the Iraqi prisoners on American TV?", he repeatedly questions, thus sharpening the blurred lines of what we see in what is shown and what we not see in what is not shown.
Control Room uses such juxtaposition to make a very strong point; it shows how media is used as tool to sell a war to an audience, who can only see what is shown to them and will believe what is made believable to them. In its intense navigation of the site of war, conflict, media-workplaces and the testimonies of the media workers, Control Room makes a revelation-like impact to those who are glued to the beliefs of notions and fictions that are bombarded on them through the propagandist media controlled by the state. At the same time Control Room also shows the conflict of media workers as they perform their journalist duties under extreme conditions. The conflict of responsibility of work and responsibility of family is best reflected, yet again in the words of another Al Jazeera’s employee who says, “Despite everything he wishes for his children to have a future in the United States, and that he himself would work for Fox”.
In its revelation about the working of the media machinery,, focusing on centers run by the state-establishments such as the Central Command and at the same time channels such as Al Jazeera, Control Room tells a powerful story of a weapon called Media which is used to hide realities and construct non- realities by the former while at the same time, as a weapon used to reveal the truth and deconstruct non -realities through elusive and disturbing but factual audio-visual narratives.
In the story of Josh, both as we see him in Control Room and his subsequent decision to leave the US army and join Al Jazeera, what is emphasized is that no news is complete until we see what is shown to us in the light of what is not shown to us. Control Room shows what we rarely see in the so called news channels who not only shows fiction as facts but even construct news to further the political agendas and maintain status-quo. Control Room reveals how this happens. As we see the Al Jazeera’s images of wounded soldiers and civilian’s casualties in Iraq, we hear George Bush preaching to the American public with soothing words, “I expect POWs to be treated humanely, just as we are treating the prisoners we have captured humanely”. Such juxtaposition of political rhetoric and the images of the ground realities instantly separates the chaff from the wheat for it audiences. It sharpens the images that the embedded journalism has created, that of the enslaved-media, in the hands of the establishment, and at the same time, as a senior producer of Al-Jazeera Samir Khader says while looking at the wounded civilians bodies covered by its channel, “I’m supposed to call this incitement? I call this true journalism, the only true journalism in the world” thus referring to a truthful-media characterized by courage and guts.
Samir’s strong sense of journalism with adherence to objectivity and balance is also reflected in a scene where he expresses his dissatisfaction towards the choice of the interviewee, an American who criticizes America for attacking Iraq only for oil, by a co worker, for the lack of balance. Samir is seen to be looking for balance while there is none as he himself seems to have confessed as he says “the only true journalism” in the above context. We see another example of an angry journalist, Hassan Ibrahim, when he hears Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld accusing Al Jazeera's interviews with US POWs as violation of the Geneva Conventions. "What about Guantanamo Bay?" , "What about the Iraqi prisoners on American TV?", he repeatedly questions, thus sharpening the blurred lines of what we see in what is shown and what we not see in what is not shown.
Control Room uses such juxtaposition to make a very strong point; it shows how media is used as tool to sell a war to an audience, who can only see what is shown to them and will believe what is made believable to them. In its intense navigation of the site of war, conflict, media-workplaces and the testimonies of the media workers, Control Room makes a revelation-like impact to those who are glued to the beliefs of notions and fictions that are bombarded on them through the propagandist media controlled by the state. At the same time Control Room also shows the conflict of media workers as they perform their journalist duties under extreme conditions. The conflict of responsibility of work and responsibility of family is best reflected, yet again in the words of another Al Jazeera’s employee who says, “Despite everything he wishes for his children to have a future in the United States, and that he himself would work for Fox”.
In its revelation about the working of the media machinery,, focusing on centers run by the state-establishments such as the Central Command and at the same time channels such as Al Jazeera, Control Room tells a powerful story of a weapon called Media which is used to hide realities and construct non- realities by the former while at the same time, as a weapon used to reveal the truth and deconstruct non -realities through elusive and disturbing but factual audio-visual narratives.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)