Peace and Collaborative Development Network
Building Bridges, Networks and Expertise Across Sectors
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Vasiliki ("Kiki") Anastasakos
- Female
- Bethlehem, PA
- United States
- Assistant Professor of Political…
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Vasiliki ("Kiki") Anastasakos's Page
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This group supports community college faculty and administrators who are teaching about peace, conflict, and security issues in community colleges. Others interested in assisting community colleges are also invited to join.
Profile Information
- What motivated you (or your organization) to become involved in peace and conflict resolution?
- I have been teaching political science and international relations courses for 18 years. I have come to believe that learning, practicing, and teaching peace can lead us to a more peaceful world.
- Please feel free to provide a short bio about yourself or the work of your organization (no more than 3 paragraphs)
- I am a native of Greece but have lived in the U.S. for the last 35 years. I hold a Ph.D. in international relations and have an interest in issues related to peace, human rights, women and economic development.
- Please list the countries and/or regions in which you (or your organization) have direct and significant expertise
- Greece; Turkey
- What is your current country of residence (or location of your organization)?
- U.S.A.
- What is your current job (and organization) and/or where and what field are you studying?
- Assistant Professor of Political Science, Northampton Community College, Bethlehem, PA
- What is your personal or organizational website?
- http://www.northampton.edu
- What is one of your favorite websites in the field? (please provide one answer per box)
- http://www.usip.org
- What is one of your favorite websites in the field? (please provide one answer per box)
- http://www.peacejusticestudies.org
- Which are your primary sectoral areas of expertise (or the primary sectoral areas of your organization) ?
- Development, Gender, Civil Society
- Which are your primary skills areas(or the primary skill areas of your organization)?
- Advocacy, Research
- What are some of your current areas of research (if any)?
- Women and economic empowerment/disempowerment.
- If appropriate feel free to list several of your (or your organization's) publications
- "Structural Adjustment Policies in Mexico and Costa Rica", chapter in Women in Developing Countries: Assessing Strategies for Empowerment
Rekha Datta and Judith Kornberg, editors.
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Events
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Tele-seminar on Culturally-Adapted MHPSS in Haiti and for Haitian-Americans
March 19, 2010 from 1pm to 4pm – New York City + Remote Distance Learning
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trainingcourse Peacebuilding and Local Governance
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Nonviolence In The Context Of War Or Armed Conflict
June 18, 2010 at 6pm to July 5, 2010 at 7pm – Kurve Wustrow
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Bologna, Italy Symposium on Conflict Prevention, Resolution, and Reconciliation
June 19, 2010 to July 17, 2010 – Johns Hopkins SAIS Bologna Center
Latest Activity
Tele-seminar on Culturally-Adapted MHPSS in Haiti and for Haitian-Americans at New York City + Remote Distance Learning
March 19, 2010 from 1pm to 4pm
Dear all,
On Friday, March 19th there will be a distance-learning on “Cultural Sensitivity in Disaster Response: Haiti and the Haitian Community.” There is a registration form attached with information about the panelists. Online registration for t…
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© 2010 Created by Craig Zelizer
Comment Wall (20 comments)
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best wishes my dear friend
Join our community college group!
David
Please the network lost my account, and I recreated again, reason I ask again friendship with you, please allow again to be friends
and it now a long term I did not hear from you, please dear Hope do not forget us
God bless you
Pastor Samuel
Please the network lost my account, and I recreated again, reason I ask again friendship with you, please allow again to be friends
God bless you
Pastor Samuel
Thank you to be our friend, please we welcome your service in my region, I'm the founder of PCR/D.R.Congo and need to cooperate with you if you may allow, because People in east of D.R.Congo need the service you offer.
for furthermore you may contact through my email
Pastor Samuel
peacecrp@yahoo.com
Your help is solicited in analyzing a set of suggestions prepared by me to bring about peace in Sri Lanka. The concept promoted in these suggestions can be applied in any country.
In Sri Lanka, the trouble started due to discrimination and injustice and continues due to bribery and corruption. These may be the reasons for troubles in other countries too.
Current wars have to be ended and new wars have to be prevented. To achieve this goal the present system of Democratic Governance has to be changed to one that is really democratic in its true sense.
In the present democratic system it is only the powerful - speech, money and thuggery - can join the ruling class to suppress or convert others all others as their subjects and is a fertile ground for "corruption" in various forms to thrive.
In my opinion "Corruption" includes any kind of waste, neglect and every form of malpractice, dishonesty, abuse, misuse, unreasonable exercise of power, failure or refusal to exercise power, anything and everything left undone which results in the right of the people being denied or impaired.
Without a "just society" in existence much talked about "terrorism" cannot be eradicated. For the creation of a "just society" there should be "good governance" in the country. For the creation of "good governance" in the country "corruption" in ALL its forms must be eradicated. And to eradicate "corruption" the present democratic system of governance, where full power to make final decisions ultimately rests in the hands of one person, must be changed.
So the only way to salvage a country is to change the present system of governance to one that is truly democratic where the final decision-making power will NOT be in the hands of ONE person BUT shared by as many people as possible and thus restricting any individual hasty decisions that might lead to trouble everywhere.
To make a country truly democratic, the powers of the Parliament (the decision making supreme body of a country) should be split and separated and each of the separated powers must be handled by different groups of persons selected and elected by the people for the purpose of administering EACH SET OF POWERS or duties as the case may be so that no single group has the full power. All the groups together will make the whole. The country is not divided but the powers of parliament are divided/separated.
Different groups have to be elected for such purposes as administration, fiscal management, planning, implementing, policy and law making, auditing and for any other function that may be deemed necessary.
The group that is entrusted with the power to make laws and regulations shall not be given the duty/power of implementing/administering the laws and regulations.
Particular care should be taken to see that all powers are NOT CONCENTRATED in one place and that they do not overlap and there must not be a secret budget to be handled by a single person.
All transactions should be transparent including Diplomacy which has to be diplomatically transparent.
One set of powers dealing with the development of the country should be given to the set of representatives at the village level. The people of each and every village must be empowered to determine their way of life (lifestyle). The life-style of a village, its lands and resources shall not be disturbed by external forces.
All plans of development of a village that remotely/indirectly affects the village must have the concurrence of the people of that village concerned.
It has to be ensured that people are treated equitably regardless of their gender, race, colour, ethnic or national origins, age, disability, socio-economic background, religious or political beliefs and affiliations, marital status, family responsibilities, sexual orientation or other inappropriate distinction;
The decision-making powers with regard to each and every set of powers must be spread through-out the country.
With such system in practice discrimination, injustice, bribery and corruption, the four pillars of an Evil society might become history.
When the above four pillars of Evil are eradicated, the people would be living under a system that would guarantee sustainable peace, prosperity and a pleasant living to everyone in any country.
Comments on the above views are solicited from everyone with a view to prevent future wars and end current wars.
East Congo — Need for Reconciliation Bridge-Builders
Rene Wadlow
On bridges are stated the limits in tons
of the loads they can bear.
But I’ve never yet found one that can bear more
than we do.
Although we are not made of roman freestone,
nor of steel, nor of concrete.
From “Bridges” – Ondra Lysohorsky
Translated from the Lachian by Davis Gill.
Violence is growing in the eastern areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo, basically the administrative provinces of North and South Kivu. The violence could spread to the rest of the country as Angolan troops may come to the aid of the Central Government as they have in the past while Rwandan and Ugandan troops are said to be helping the opposing militia led by Laurent Nkunda. While Nkunda and his Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) say that they are only protecting the ethnic Tutsi living in Congo, Nkunda could emerge as a national opposition figure to President Joseph Kabila, who has little progress to show from his years in power.
There is high-level recognition that violence in Congo could spread, having a destabilizing impact on the whole region. UN diplomats, led by Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, have stressed that a political solution — not a military one — is the only way to end the violence, and they are urging the presidents of Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, Kenya and Tanzania to work together to restore stability. The instability, along with Congo’s vast mineral and timber riches have drawn in neighboring armies who have joined local insurgencies as well as local commanders of the national army to exploit the mines and to keep mine workers in near-slavery conditions.
The United Nations has some 17,000 peacemakers in Congo (MONUC), the UN’s largest peacekeeping mission, but their capacity is stretched to the limit. Recently, the General in command of the UN forces, Lieutenant General Vicent Diaz de Villegas of Spain resigned his post after seven weeks — an impossible task. Their mission is to protect civilians, some 250,000 of which have been driven from their homes since the fighting intensified in late August 2008. The camps where displaced persons have been living have been attacked both by government and rebel forces — looting, raping, and burning. UN under-secretary general for peacekeeping, Alain Le Roy, is asking for an additional 3,000 soldiers, but it is not clear which states may propose troops for a very difficult mission. While MONUC has proven effective at securing peace in the Ituri district in north-eastern Congo, it has been much less successful in the two Kivu provinces.
The eastern area of Congo is the scene of fighting at least since 1998 — in part as a result of the genocide in neighboring Rwanda in 1994. In mid-1994, more than one million Rwandan Hutu refugees poured into the Kivus, fleeing the advance of the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front, now become the government of Rwanda. Many of these Hutu were still armed, among them, the “genocidaire” who a couple of months before had led the killings of some 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu in Rwanda. They continued to kill Tutsi living in the Congo, many of whom had migrated there in the 18th century.
The people in eastern Congo have lived together for many centuries and had developed techniques of conflict resolution, especially between the two chief agricultural lifestyles: that of agriculture and cattle herding. However, the influx of a large number of Hutu, local political considerations, a desire to control the wealth of the area — rich in gold, tin and tropical timber — all these factors have overburdened the local techniques of conflict resolution and have opened the door to new, negative forces interested only in making money and gaining political power.
UN peace-keeping troops are effective when there is peace to keep. What is required today in eastern Congo is not so much more soldiers under UN command, than reconciliation bridge-builders, persons who are able to restore relations among the ethnic groups of the area. The United Nations, national governments, and non-governmental organizations need to develop bridge-building teams who can help to strengthen local efforts at conflict resolution and re-establishing community relations. In the Kivus, many of the problems arise from land tenure issues. With the large number of people displaced and villages destroyed, it may be possible to review completely land tenure and land use issues.
World citizens were among those in the early 1950s who stressed the need to create UN peace-keeping forces with soldiers especially trained for such a task. Today, a new type of world civil servant is needed — those who in areas of tension and conflict can undertake the slow but important task of restoring confidence among peoples in conflict, establishing contacts and looking for ways to build upon common interests.
Rene Wadlow, Representative to the United Nations, Geneva, Association of World Citizens
I like read Ur political viwe about sri lankan war.can U join with my discussion in my page.
welcome
Thushara
Rene Wadlow
“determined to promote the common welfare by furthering separate and collective action for the purpose of raising levels of nutrition and standards of living”
Preamble of the FAO Constitution
The current financial crisis joins those of food and fuel to challenge the world economy. The three crises are inter-related and impact each other. Paying hundreds of billions of dollars to rescue the world’s financial industry looks likely to cut both humanitarian aid and development spending. The price of oil has dropped but is still high and is a drain on the funds of developing countries.
Foreign development issues may be the first victims of the financial crisis as government officials focus on domestic issues, especially if there is the predicted slowdown in the economy and a rise in unemployment in North America and Europe.
At a recent funding meeting in Geneva, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Antonio Guterres recognized that the financial crisis would raise challenges for those who have traditionally financed UNHCR programs. “At the same time, I must point out that the resources required to support the 31 million people we care for are very modest indeed when compared to the sums being spent to bring stability to the international financial system. It would be tragic if the funds available to the humanitarian community were to decline at the very time when demands upon us are increasingly so dramatically.”
Yet the decline in governmental aid to the developing world is probably inevitable. Thus an emphasis must be placed on creating a world food policy which draws upon improving local self-reliance while not creating nationalistic policies which harm neighbours. Food is a key aspect of deep structural issues in the world society and thus must be seen in a wholistic framework.
Jean Ping, the chairman of the African Union Commission noted recently that “The sharp increase in basic food prices has had a particularly negative effect on African countries. In the medium and long term, the Commission proposes measures to regulate speculation, the sharing of public cereal stocks, strengthening the financing of imports and reliable food aid, promoting investment in social protection and increased investment to boost agricultural production.” The African Union has 53 state-members with some 750 million people, over half of which are in what is now called “the bottom billion” — people living on $1.25 a day or less. While there is something artificial in poverty lines based on buying-power, such poverty statistics give an indication of the challenges faced.
While constant improvements in technology, mechanization, plant breeding and farm chemicals have steadily increased food production per acre in much of the world, African food production per acre has stagnated, and in some areas has gone down. Likewise, the portion of development assistance in Africa dedicated to agriculture has declined from 15 per cent in the 1980s to 4 per cent in 2006.
Thus the first need in Africa is to develop the local economies: Currently, poverty, lack of adapted technology, population pressure on ecologically fragile areas, a growth of urban slums due to rapid rural to urban migration is the lot of many Sub-Saharan African countries.
Increased action to improve rural life needs to be taken quickly. As the recent UN-sponsored Millennium Ecosystem Assessment notes “Human activity is putting such strain on the natural functions of Earth that the ability of the planet’s ecosystem to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted. It is becoming ever more apparent that human society has a rapidly shrinking window of opportunity to alter its path.”
World Food Day needs to be marked by a sharper analysis of the causes of rural stagnation and a renewed dedication to cooperative action.
Rene Wadlow, Representative to the UN, Geneva, Association of World Citizens
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