The challenge of the next half century is whether we have the wisdom to use that wealth to enrich and elevate our national life, and to advance the quality of our … civilization. Your imagination, your initiative, and your indignation will determine whether we build a society where progress is the servant of our needs, or a society where old values and new visions are buried under unbridled growth. For in your time we have the opportunity to move not only toward the rich society and the powerful society, but upward to the Great Society.
This exhortation of Lyndon B.Johnson to youths of his time is as important to this generation as it was to those youths. We are the future and can make a difference.
Welcome to this blog in which Kwa Gaston reflects on how his dream world-A world in which though scarce resources are equitably distributed to its inhabitants each according to his/her needs and merits and in which the long ignored potentials of youths as key development actors is acknowledged and tapped for the achievement of a world that is just through more people-centered and more youth inclusive policy formulation and implementation processes-could more than a dream become a reality.
The naming by Times Magazine of “The protester” as person of the year last week, prompted this post in which we have seen the dominating perceptions of change by people around the globe. In this part of the post, I give my take on what true change is.
Personally,I believe in change that is transformation. The change we need in Cameroon, Africa and the world is not change that only consists of transfers,dismissals or replacements of people and things.
While transfers, dismissals or replacements of people and things are necessary, they are not a sufficient condition for change to happen. A change in people rather than a change of people therefore appears to be the preferable and probably the most sustainable means to achieving change with long lasting impact and widespread effects.
A change in people is change that not makes different but transforms. This change consists of one putting his/her self in question and making amendments. A change in people is the change of mentality, which determines the level of change in society. True development must begin from within.
Conscious of the fact that the brain is the central processing unit of the human body, it is evident that a change of people has little , if at all any effect on the internal being of humans. For it can be fairly compared to an epidermis change and as we all know, a snake may change its epidermis a thousand times, its Vernon Vernon remains poisonous.
I am convinced that if we must achieve our common aspirations(universal access to education, end malnutrition,empower youths and women, include people with disabilities in development processes) real change is an outward(external) sign of inward transformation. I desire change with my entire mind as you surely do, “nothing is as constant as change” and nobody can do away with it. Change more than words, should become actions. Let’s take the challenge, let’s transform our perception of change, let’s transform change.
The “change we need” slogan has indisputably become one of the most popular, if not the most reknowned, in recent world history. More than a slogan, ”change we need” has become a credo to billion of souls across the globe. The enthusiasm,optimism and hopes raised and/or re-enkindled in this people by this slogan is legendary and is a clear illustration of how “powerful” the word “change” can be.
Times Magazine last week honoured the youths of the world by naming “the protester” person of the year 2011. This due to the numerous protests that wwere registered during this year.The word on every lip during these manifestations was change.
The year 2011 will be remembered in Cameroon,Africa, and the world as that year in which the desire for change was at its optimum. Social uprisings in in many parts of Africa, the Arab spring, the occupy wall street movement are among countless others the most popular modes through which people have expressed their desire to see”change”. But the word change means diverse things to different people and one will not thus to be surprised to see people having a mutually exclusive definition of what they think change is at the same protest or even voting the same candidate in an election.
Surveys I carried out in November 2008, while the “change we need” slogan was at the peak of its popularity and another I conducted during the October 2011 presidential elections in Cameroon, revealed that two main schools of thought existed when it comes to giving a meaning to the word “change”.
The first school of thought holds that change is synonymous to dismissal, displacement, and replacement. In fact to those in this school of thought, change is essentially physical and unless made to manifest in this way , they don’t consider it as change. “Change must be visible they say”.
The second school of thought on its part sees change as going beyond a physical manifestation and argues that, the most important evidence of change is that which is within a person and not without her. This is because, they say, “a snake may change its skin but its Vernon remain poisonous”.
Before taking sides, it is necessary for us to know what according to Barack Obama, the “change we need” slogan author, change really is. The 44th president of the United States of America(USA) in his inaugural speech made the following declaration: “This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the evidence for us to make that change and that cannot happen without you”.
Very explicit isn’t it?This declaration was no doubt an to people who believe change in its major part is physical and in support of those who hold a contrary view.
Why not listen to the "wind f change" while I bring you my take on the "real change to believe in" in the second part of this post.
Today is international Human Rights day. Given that in my last blog I talked of an inclusion of human rights in the MDGs to be inevitable if MDGs are to be achieved,no body better than Amnesty which is actively advocating for this can really explain what it really mean. I have posted this article from Amnesty International not only to acknowledge their efforts for human dignity to be respected but also to continue my advocacy for this to be done as soon as possible by the powers that be.
Governments risk failing some of the world's most impoverished and vulnerable groups unless human rights are put at the centre of efforts to eradicate poverty, Amnesty International warned on Wednesday.
In a new report looking at how to strengthen the Millennium Development Goals [MDGs], the organization highlights how key targets fall short of existing international human rights standards.
The report, From Promises to Delivery, outlines crucial steps governments can take to deliver meaningful progress on the MDGs over the next five years.
"The MDGs promised some of the worlds most impoverished and excluded a fairer future but it is now painfully obvious that unless urgent action is taken governments will fail the most vulnerable communities," said Claudio Cordone, interim Secretary General of Amnesty International.
"The message for world leaders when they come together in September to review progress on the MDGs is clear: they must act now to put human rights at the centre of efforts to improve the lives of those living in poverty."
The report calls on governments to ensure all MDG initiatives are consistent with human rights; address discrimination experienced by women; set national targets for delivery; fulfill the right of participation and strengthen mechanisms for accountability.
It was launched on Wednesday in New York, where representatives from governments, civil society and the UN are gathering at an Amnesty International and Realizing Rights conference to discuss the importance of human rights in achieving the MDGs.
Three main issues – gender equality, maternal health and slums – are highlighted in the report to illustrate the gulf between the current MDGs framework and international human rights standards.
On gender equality the report shows how the MDGs fail to ensure that governments address women's human rights across all targets despite it being an essential element in tackling poverty. Where gender equality is listed in the MDGs it is limited to a single target to eliminate disparities in education.
It is estimated that 70 per cent of those living in poverty are women. The report documents how women and girls continue to suffer from gender discrimination, violence and further human rights violations in all societies.
Improving maternal health is an area that has seen far too little progress according to the report. The MDGs fail to take into account a variety of underlying factors that contribute to maternal deaths and injuries.
Human rights issues such as early or forced marriage, violence against women and girls prevents women from making decisions about their own lives.
The MDGs also do not pay sufficient attention to sexual and reproductive rights. From Peru to Sierra Leone, the report illustrates the barriers women in poverty face when trying to access maternal healthcare.
The MDG target to improve the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers is described as "grossly inadequate and weak" given that an estimated 1.4 billion people will live in slums by 2020. The target also falls short of existing obligations on states under international human rights law.
Amnesty International has documented forced evictions of communities living in slums in all regions of the world. The effects of these forced evictions is catastrophic for people who were already living in poverty. The MDGs ignore the crucial obligations of states to prevent and protect people from these violations.
From Burkina Faso to the favelas in Brazil, the report shows how an accountability deficit exists which makes it hard for people living in poverty to access justice. Mechanisms to ensure accountability do not exist or are inaccessible to people living in poverty.
"Human rights are central to making the MDGs effective," said Claudio Cordone. "Governments must be held to account to ensure their efforts to achieve the MDGs are consistent with human rights."
This work is part of Amnesty International's Demand Dignity campaign which aims to end the human rights violations that drive and deepen global poverty. The campaign will mobilise people all over the world to demand that governments, corporations and others who have power listen to the voices of those living in poverty and recognise and protect their rights. For more information visit thewww.amnesty.org
Fighting HIV/AIDS and other diseases like malaria is one the Millennium Development Goals(MDGs) voted by the United Nation’s in the year 2000. Given that this fight seems to be slowing down and that more than 5% of Cameroonians are living with HIV/AIDS-60% of which are women and 40% falling in the youths category-there is a cause for concern on the strategy to be used for the achievement of MDGs.
Conscious that handicapped persons are also celebrated in December and given that living with HIV/AIDS is more and more considered a handicapped. This article is going to dwell on the inclusion of the handicapped in the achievement of MDGs.
Concerning the non-achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by most countries of the global south, much has been said and so much more left unsaid. But if there is one thing that has so often been ignored by policy makers, politicians and all those in charge of implementing policies that will lead to a timelyachievement of MDGs, it the absence of human rights in these goals. The non-inclusion of human rights in the MDGs means the exclusion of handicapped persons, indigenous people, and other minority groups in their achievement.
Given that handicapped persons constitute 10% of Cameroon’s population and are among the poorest people in the country, it is evident that talking of poverty, the fight against hunger, improvement of maternal health care and reduction of infant mortality child is pretentious if nothing is done to the more than 85% of these handicapped persons aged14-64 years who are jobless and the other 15% of them who are confined to shoe mending, shoe shinning and other informal sector activities.
Also, talking about achieving universal access to education without paying particular attention to the fact that less than 5% of handicapped children in Cameroon can afford to
go to school with only 2% of these handicapped children completing secondary school, is wishful thinking. What about theever increasing number of albino children who because of their sight defect and the inability of their parents to buy them glasses drop out daily from school?
The government of Cameroon recruited 25000 certificate holders in 2011 under a special recruitment scheme. But none of them was an handicapped person and as if this was not enough, a good number of handicapped persons were sent away from public schools because they could not afford to pay the required fees.This despite the fact that they are officially exempt from the payment of school fees in public schools in Cameroon. To protest against the above acts, the handicapped organized a protest march in front of the prime minister’s office in October 2011 but were violently dispersed by the police and military forces.
Can we say of a country whose government carries out such horrible acts against its own very population, even if it achieves all the MDGs, that it is developed? Can MDGs be achieved if the strategy to achieve them is not inclusive? Can the achievement of MDGs, as they are now, lead to sustainable development?
My answer to the above questions is ‘NO’. Because I am intimately convinced that, unless inclusive and people-centered, no development plan can produce any sustainable results. It is high time for our government and civil society to listen to and amplify the voices of the handicapped so that they are heard and acted upon by policy making and implementing structures because like all poor people, “they long to belong to, and participate in their communities on equal footing with others. Most of all, they do not want charity. They want opportunity”, as former world bank President James Wolfehnson once put it.Anything short of this will make the achievement of MDGs in Cameroon, even by 2035, a far-fetched dream.
How can one expect a country like Cameroon to achieve the MDGs related to literacy, health, and economic empowerment when it does not take the handicapped into consideration when designing and constructing public buildings and other infrastructure like roads, hospitals, universities, and schools?
How can one expect Cameroon to be democratic,united,and emerging by 2025,as exposed in its vision 2035,when more 10% of its population(handicapped persons) are disenfranchised due to their non-consideration when designing and producing electoral material(especially ballots) and situating polling stations(Most being inaccessible to the handicapped)?
Realizing that the above is impossible without respect for human rights, we, at the Education 4Development Foundation (E4DF) have made human rights the 9th MDG and therefore one of the elements of our advocacy and awareness creation campaign on a participative,timely, and inclusive achievement of MDGs in our community. Through our MDGs participative achievement programme, we reached out to more than 1000 pupils and students in 2011 and look forward to reaching out to a greater number in 2012.
