Wednesday 21 March 2012

21st March - International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

Cultural Survival suggests 5 things you can do to combat discrimination against indigenous peoples. 
You can read all of them on the Cultural Survival website but I would like to highlight these two: 


1. Help stop land grabbing in Ethiopia
See the video on the Guardian 
Read more here  and don't forget to send an email to the government of Ethiopia


2. Learn about a community radio movement in Guatemala 



1 comment:

  1. Every time I learn something new I'm amazed by how little I actually know! For example, I wasn't even aware of the fact that there existed something like the "International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination". I'm not sure if I've never heard of it before because I don't move in circles that discuss indigenous rights, or if I've heard of it but never actually looked into the matter and therefore quickly forgot about it.

    Today I tried finding out more about the current situation in Ethiopia, but there's just such a wealth of information about the country available on the internet that I got quite lost and didn't know what to look for or where to look for it anymore. In the end I managed to locate and download a report called "Waiting here for Death" by the Human Rights Watch here as well as a report called "Understanding Land Investment Deals in Africa" by the Oakland Institute here.

    I haven't started reading them yet as I'm still waiting for the "right moment" when I can handle reading them without throwing my laptop into the corner of a room. Such reports just leave me so very very angry and disappointed in humanity and so very very frustrated about my inability to do anything other than watch it happen. I read the example of the letter that you could write to the government of Ethiopa (and others). I’ve put my name under a lot of similar minded letters and petitions as a teenager and a young adult, but since a few years I've stopped doing this because I've started doubting the effectiveness of this. I mean, why would the government of Ethiopia listen to an unknown and insignificant white woman located on an entirely different continent?

    Not to be overly critical and pessimistic, but do you know of any examples where this approach has booked some success?

    ReplyDelete

My blog list