DUSKE - Sylff Fellows Association

The Nippon Foundation/CANPAN Northeastern Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund

2011-03-20T16:04:00.001-07:00

The Nippon Foundation has started a donation project for the victims, as shown below:
The Nippon Foundation Donation Project

http://members.canpan.info/kikin/products/detail.php?product_id=1080

We would appreciate it if you could share this who may be interested in supporting the victims.

The damage wrought by the massive earthquake that struck Northeastern Japan on March 11 has been devastating.
Estimates already place those dead and missing in the thousands.
At the moment, there is little that untrained volunteers can do to help on the ground. What we all can do right now, however, is to help raise funds to support both the relief organizations currently working in the affected areas,
and the extensive reconstruction work that will follow.
The Nippon Foundation has extensive experience working with local partners to provide support after disasters such as the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995, and more recently the Mid Niigata Earthquake and Noto Peninsula Earthquake. Our work has really brought home the importance of non-governmental funding that allows civil society to respond in a timely and flexible manner.
The Nippon Foundation/CANPAN Northeastern Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund will provide effective, accountable, and timely support to trusted partners working in the affected areas.
To ensure the highest degree of transparency, reports on the receipt and use of funds will be posted on The Nippon Foundation/CANPAN website.

Reconsidering Our Values

2010-06-09T09:00:00.000-07:00

A message from Tokyo Foundation: http://www.sylff.org/2010/04/13/3321/

Questions about IMF/World Bank Reform? Ask a TripleCrisis Economist.

2010-04-07T01:40:00.001-07:00

Questions about IMF/World Bank Reform? Ask a TripleCrisis Economist.

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Beauty will save the World

2010-03-25T00:01:00.000-07:00

How does Modern Art point at Global Problems

2010-03-25T00:00:00.000-07:00

LUIS BERMEJO: From Global Crisis to Transformation of Social Model

2010-03-24T23:58:00.000-07:00

Yasuni National Park

2010-03-13T05:08:00.001-08:00

Yasuni Green Gold Campaign presentation, Bilbao 2010

Global expectations – local solutions: regionalisation efforts and the situation of minorities

2010-03-13T02:49:00.000-08:00

Bank Times: Old Responses to New Challenges

2010-03-10T09:25:00.000-08:00

Moziki, Women Associations and Financial Support Groups in Kinshasa

2010-03-10T08:59:00.000-08:00

Fiare Project: Ethical Banking based on Social Networks

2010-03-10T08:53:00.000-08:00

Challenges of HRs in the Era of Globalization

2010-03-10T08:37:00.000-08:00

Recetas en el mundo e imaginación para salir adelante

2010-03-03T07:46:00.001-08:00

Los microcréditos, la banca ética, los bancos de tiempo o las "slow cities" son algunas alternativas:

http://www.deia.com/2010/03/03/sociedad/recetas-en-el-mundo-e-imaginacion-para-salir-adelante

Mungia atrae al mundo

2010-03-03T02:24:00.000-08:00

Veinte visitantes de cuatro continentes conocen el municipio y su cultura "slow":

http://www.deia.com/2010/02/26/bizkaia/uribe-txorierri/mungia-atrae-al-mundo

Playing For Change | Peace Through Music

2010-03-03T00:37:00.001-08:00

Playing For Change | Peace Through Music

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Edgar Cahn: About time banking

2010-03-03T00:08:00.001-08:00

Felipe Gómez Isa: “Human rights: Between the Global and the Local”

2010-02-16T15:01:00.001-08:00

The basic aim of this paper is first to reflect, from an epistemic perspective, on the relevance of the local in the global process of the production of human rights, taking as a point of departure the process of adoption of the UDHR and its recognition of so-called subsistence rights. At a second stage, I will explore effective avenues to better localize ESC rights, in focusing on the way in which local communities, social movements, and non-governmental organizations, in the framework of strategic alliances with international NGOs and transnational advocacy networks, can make use of existing UN mechanisms to influence international agendas and strengthens their capacities to defend those rights. Finally, some comments will be made on the current process of globalization and the challenges it poses for ESC rights from a local perspective.

Peru Sasia: “Fiare Project: Ethical Banking Based on Social Networks”

2010-02-16T15:00:00.001-08:00

Trying to describe a particular project of Ethical Banking implies a necessary effort to fix and delimitate which aspects of the general concept are prevalent. This is a mandatory first step, taking into account the huge number of sensibly different experiences that can be found under the generic umbrella of “Ethical Banking”. Starting from the concept of Social Responsibility of economic institutions and a particular conception of Common Interest, the presentation outlines a proposal of what must be considered as an Ethical Bank in strict sense. The consequences of such proposal on significant aspects of the project (as property, governance, management or stakeholders relationships) are analyzed. In the second part of the presentation, the case of FIARE project is outlined.

Bruno Kaimwa: “Moziki: Women Associations and Financial Support Groups in Kinshasa”

2010-02-16T14:59:00.000-08:00

MOZIKI is known as a women’s initiative in the city of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The initiatives that began as popular actuations soon became the fundamental structure on which micro finance systems were to be rooted. The first observation of MOZIKI was realised in 1930 and 1940 during the Belgium colonisation until our days. Whenever a crisis affects the Congolese society, MOZIKI is used by women as a financial instrument to deal with it. Faced with the national trouble and the international crisis in solving live problems and accessing to social security, the Congolese women have developed informal mechanisms which bear links with the principle of MICRO FINANCE. The presentation includes two main aspects: MOZIKI initiative as an answer to Congolese crisis on the one hand, and MOZIKI as a solution to the international crisis which affect Congolese society. MOZIKI initiative is an answer to the local and the global crisis.

Eider Muniategi & Lina Klemkaite: “Time Banks: Old Responses to New Challenges”

2010-02-16T14:57:00.000-08:00

Through this paper we wish to explore Bank Times as expressions of local socio-financial initiatives/alternatives. First of all, we will go back to the origins of the Time Banks seeking to understand the socio-economical background and the ideology and/or believes behind the creation of the first modern barters. Secondly, we will look at some of the current Time Banks experiences focusing mainly on the ones in the city of Bilbao. Based on a quantitative mini-research conducted in Bilbao, we aim at demonstrating that Time Banks can be regarded as old responses to new challenges.

Ameur Jeridi: “Assets and Achievements of Two Decades of Tunisian Rational Development a World of Unrest: Solutions for Global Crisis”

2010-02-16T14:56:00.000-08:00

The proposed paper will present a roundup of modern Tunisia in the last two decades from a governance, socio-cultural and economic points of view characterized by a new political reality, a tendency towards an authentic and ‘globalized’ society at the same time, and an open economy backed by a strategic governmental backing and social concern. Coupled with related mechanisms (planning, communication, law, etc.), resiliency has been a major factor in allowing infrastructure, investment and economy to keep pace with an emergent country’s evolving needs in the framework of a globalized economy with a ‘precautionary’ approach as a ‘back-tool’ for all developmental decisions. When the ‘Crisis’ burst out to seriously threaten high-performing economies east and west, Tunisia was, to a large extent, immune from drastic impacts. In fact, Tunisian 2-decade long experience with a developmental policy with a ‘human face’ consisting in a parallel ‘social policy’ and another environmental one is an acknowledged development model coupling initiative with sustainability that could be taken as a model for facing crises. It demonstrates how an ‘ethical development’ model is another way of expressing sustainability that has overwhelmed civil society and United Nations literature without real impact on world ecosystems and economy. The paper will be an illustration of the afore-presented facts, while expanding on major logical and pragmatic tools that corroborate the ‘Tunisian model’ idea, with giving examples of the way Tunisia handled the ‘Crisis’.

Csaba Mate Sarnyai: “Global Expectations – Local Solutions: Regionalisation Efforts and the Situation of Minorities”

2010-02-16T14:55:00.000-08:00

One of the greatest political challenges of the 21st century is the local treatment of global social risks. Among these the establishment of the possibility of legal power to enforce interests is of utmost importance. An essential element of this is the involvement of an ever-growing layer of voters into decision making. However, these days this fell into the background because of current and acute economic challenges. The focus of the problem seems to be shifted. The reason for this shift is to be found in the appearance of the so-called electoral democracies in the former Eastern block and in the spreading of universal suffrage. These weaknesses derive from the internal logic of the institutions which should establish democracy. From these the most significant problem is provided by the difficulties of expressing minority interests in the parliamentary systems operating currently. This presentation wants to use the case of the Hungarians in Serbia to highlight the political consequences of the problem and its handling in a social-theoretical framework. We want to handle the following separately: the institutions that actually came or are coming into being as a result of political compromises; their reception in political discourses, and their politological consequences that can be derived from the normative character of the long-term perspective.

Ginés Haro Pastor: “Yasuni National Park”

2010-02-16T14:54:00.000-08:00

The YASUNÍ National Park is one of the most bio-diverse places and last pieces of untouched nature in the world. Yasuni is home to the last indigenous people in Ecuador living in voluntary isolation: the TAGAERI and TAROMENANE and some other indigenous cultures.

On May 2007 The national government of Ecuador has stated that it is prepared to leave the Yasuni oil in the ground in return for international compensation;. Drilling will have devastating and irreversible environmental and social impacts destroying the home of the non-contact indigenous people most likely causing their death. Exploitation of the Yasuní will cause mass deforestation and the further production and burning of fossil fuels - the two main causes of climate change. This proposal has the potential to be revolutionary — to become a principal that could help other developing countries across the world save their national treasures without sacrificing economic development. It also asserts a real solution to climate change. This proposal has been presented in different networks, as United Nations, the European parliament and national governments attracting the interest all around the world. But this proposal didn’t get completely into account local voices... The local people and leaders of Yasuni region, exhausted by fighting daily for their rights and usually getting nowhere, decided to reach out to the international community as a way to get their voices heard and influenced in this big debate. Yasuní Green Gold International Campaign (YGG) was entrusted to carry their voices and their struggles to international attention. The YGG has pressure the Ecuadorian government to quit the deadline to the region and negotiate with local and indigenous leader. Is the example that how a local grassroots born campaign can influence in major international debates, as climate change and human rights, and involve people from all over the world.

Luis A. Bermejo: “From the Global Crisis to the Transformation of the Social Model: Adapting a Non–Dualistic Perspective”

2010-02-16T14:53:00.000-08:00

The economic model can only be in crisis if its values are in crisis too and if, at the same time, this vision (crisis of values) is shared by a critical mass of people. Can we say that an economic model has values? Probably not, but we can find these values in the ideological thinking that legitimizes or criticizes the model itself. Within the neoliberal ideological frame, we conceive ourselves as individualized entities, separated from others. Thus, our perception of everything around us is "dualist": "Me and you", "Me and society", "Me and the State", "Me and the globalization", "Me and the crisis". According with this dualistic perspective, our critical or alternative approach to the current or future models forgets that "we" are part of that model. Further than that, we can consider that "we" are the model itself. Therefore the starting point for a true transformation of society is the individual transformation, and if this change is not to happen, the crisis or the no-crisis of the current economic model can only lead to another model with similar characteristics in which, although supposedly different, power relationships shall be maintained. We are the reality that we question. If we accept the non-dualistic perspective, we see that any change begins at the individual level. From that point we can try to create other type of social structures by focusing our efforts on personal transformation, working in the construction of alternatives, limiting our contribution to a minimum in the current model, and maintaining an attitude of active and peaceful civil and economic disobedience.

Simona Cupic: “How Does Modern Art Point at Global Problems?”

2010-02-16T14:52:00.000-08:00

The critical transfiguration of the underlying assumptions of the humanities has generated new approaches to the interpretation of culture. New paradigms have likewise penetrated into domain of art history where the accent has shifted away from the reflections and expressionist approaches that postulate the concept of art as mimesis and stressed the artist’s inner world. Recent critical histories tend to view art as a cultural text in which meanings and differences are created trough representation. During the last decades art reappraised, in different ways and from different ideological positions a number of social questions. Modern and contemporary art, on more then one occasion, pointed at global problems such as: democracy, human rights, race, gender, and class related questions, environment, etc. And why not Global Crisis now? This presentation should accent such examples, from past and present.

Felix Boellmann: “Beauty Will Save the World”

2010-01-22T10:39:00.001-08:00

For the pessimistic, times of crisis are harbingers of the definite end of the world. For others, times of (economic) crisis are times to buy stock cheap. In any case, times of crisis are times for reflection of one’s ways – and maybe for a new beginning? Nevertheless, from the news, it appears that the (financial) world can’t wait to get back to business as usual. The main character in Dostoyevsky’s “Idiot” is accused of claiming that “beauty will save the world”. Much has been written about this “enigma”. Most likely, Dostoyevsky didn’t mean “beauty” in any aesthetical sense, but rather thought of a “moral” beauty in humans and their interactions. Alexander Solshenizyn dwelled on this concept in his Nobel Price lecture. In the face of the current financial/economic crisis, it seems, we’ve come a long way from any such concept. This paper would like to continue the train of though, focusing on law, rather than art as has been done before. It attempts to investigate human interactions, particularly legal (contractual) interactions as a way of orderly documentation of human interrelations. While the law is an instrument, it is the legal subjects in whose hands this instrument becomes alive and takes part in shaping our society. Has the use of law changed in the recent crisis? How is this to be measured? And what would it take in order to make best use of this instrument, to help foster truthful and sustainable relations and – if we may use Dostoyevsky’s picture – beauty and embetter the general condition of our economic system and society? As an example, local think tanks’ analysis of the economic world – businesses, employment relations, bonus systems etc. – will be scrutinized for hints as to whether or not the financial crisis serves as a reason for legal subjects to reconsider their relations. Can it be said, that after the crisis, people strive for a glimpse of “beauty” in Dostoyevsky’s sense, rather than carry on as they used to before?

Forum leaflet

2010-01-22T09:40:00.000-08:00

FORUM PROGRAMME

2010-01-22T09:32:00.001-08:00

INVITATION

2010-01-22T09:19:00.000-08:00

On behalf of DUSKE (Sylff Fellows Association of the University of Deusto) and ALUS (Sylff Fellows Association of the University of Leipzig) is a pleasure to invite you to the International Forum “LOCAL INITIATIVES TO THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS” that will be celebrated on the 24th -26th of February at the University of Deusto (Bilbao).

Through the Forum we wish to explore and look for concrete examples of how people are dealing and responding to the financial and social challenges posed by the global crisis, aiming at constructing a meaningful civil society and searching feasible and creative alternatives to the current socio-economic order.

Looking forward to meet you at our Forum!

Sincerely,
Eider Muniategi, Lina Klemkaite and Bruno Kaimwa (DUSKE members)