Editor's Comment - Charlotte Alfred
Welcome to the Winter edition of the newsletter 2004/5.
2004 : the year that challenged our assumptions and our comfort zones.
To allay fears at the start, you are not being subjected to yet another publication's 'review of the year', and the regurgitating of emotional reactions to familiar images and stories in aid of calendrical nostalgia. Yet the legacy of 2004 will have an acute impact on the development world, and on the growth of DiA as an organisation. Memories both of celebration and grief will affect how we meet the challenges of the coming year.
Firstly, it was a year of anniversaries. Sixty years since Auschwitz , twenty years since Live Aid and ten challenging and exciting years since the founding of DiA. The anniversary events were a huge success, due to the tireless dedication of members of the committee, especially Liza Coffin, who details the House of Commons event in this edition. Band Aid proved they could still effectively bring the worlds of celebrity and global poverty together and generate a lot of money. (For some, bringing together rap and global compassion may seem a feat in itself, as Dizzee Rascal's dulcet tones exhort us to “spare a thought this Yuletide for the deprived”). I give a short account of the inspirational Band Aid story.
Bands of another kind were hitting the streets/teenage fashion late 2004. Inspired by Lance Armstrong's yellow wristbands in aid of his cancer charity, white bands have now appeared as trendy demonstrations of conscience, a tool of awareness from Make Poverty History, and this year DiA joined the campaign. Liza Coffin gives the low-down on Make Poverty History, it aims and successes. Her mother, Revd. Pam Pennell, took part in the Vicar's March to Downing Street and gives a personal experience of campaigning against poverty.
2004 closed on a sombre note. In terms of the development agenda, the year that was supposed to be the supporting act had become the main band, as it were. Development agencies have expressed their hope that the tragic events of the tsunami in Asia will encourage rather than divert attention from wider and longer term ways of helping the developing world. Joni Hillman predicts this ‘aid-fatigue' and brings to our attention global scale tragedies happening every day. Kate and Leila, two Development in Action volunteers who have been volunteering with our partner organisations in Pondicherry , a coastal area affected. Their emails convey personal tragedy and shock whilst depicting the difficulties and successes in working to reach the victims with sustainable aid.
Sustainability is crucial in order to capitalise on the sentiments of global responsibility that glimmer amongst the populace and politicians. Appearances of goodwill often mask national and self interest. Abigail Dymond highlights this in respect to the Geneva Agreement. Ruth Bergan discusses whether the grand gestures made by Gordon Brown towards debt relief in late 2004 will have any more effect than the measures that have been implemented for the past ten years. Across the Atlantic , the sustenance of a particular agenda towards the developing world by a different politician, the re-elected President, has darker implications. Paul examines what George W. Bush's policies will mean for the developing world.
The events that occurred towards the close of 2004 have indellibly changed, re-directed and re-focused the way we see our organisation, and the way people see our country and the world. From our milestone anniversary in November to events spanning the spheres of economics, politics and music, these will shape the opportunities and challenges of the next year.
I hope you enjoy reading this edition. Please feel free to submit any comments about the magazine, or if your own articles, through the website. Happy New Year!
Charlotte Alfred
Editor
2004 : the year that challenged our assumptions and our comfort zones.
To allay fears at the start, you are not being subjected to yet another publication's 'review of the year', and the regurgitating of emotional reactions to familiar images and stories in aid of calendrical nostalgia. Yet the legacy of 2004 will have an acute impact on the development world, and on the growth of DiA as an organisation. Memories both of celebration and grief will affect how we meet the challenges of the coming year.
Firstly, it was a year of anniversaries. Sixty years since Auschwitz , twenty years since Live Aid and ten challenging and exciting years since the founding of DiA. The anniversary events were a huge success, due to the tireless dedication of members of the committee, especially Liza Coffin, who details the House of Commons event in this edition. Band Aid proved they could still effectively bring the worlds of celebrity and global poverty together and generate a lot of money. (For some, bringing together rap and global compassion may seem a feat in itself, as Dizzee Rascal's dulcet tones exhort us to “spare a thought this Yuletide for the deprived”). I give a short account of the inspirational Band Aid story.
Bands of another kind were hitting the streets/teenage fashion late 2004. Inspired by Lance Armstrong's yellow wristbands in aid of his cancer charity, white bands have now appeared as trendy demonstrations of conscience, a tool of awareness from Make Poverty History, and this year DiA joined the campaign. Liza Coffin gives the low-down on Make Poverty History, it aims and successes. Her mother, Revd. Pam Pennell, took part in the Vicar's March to Downing Street and gives a personal experience of campaigning against poverty.
2004 closed on a sombre note. In terms of the development agenda, the year that was supposed to be the supporting act had become the main band, as it were. Development agencies have expressed their hope that the tragic events of the tsunami in Asia will encourage rather than divert attention from wider and longer term ways of helping the developing world. Joni Hillman predicts this ‘aid-fatigue' and brings to our attention global scale tragedies happening every day. Kate and Leila, two Development in Action volunteers who have been volunteering with our partner organisations in Pondicherry , a coastal area affected. Their emails convey personal tragedy and shock whilst depicting the difficulties and successes in working to reach the victims with sustainable aid.
Sustainability is crucial in order to capitalise on the sentiments of global responsibility that glimmer amongst the populace and politicians. Appearances of goodwill often mask national and self interest. Abigail Dymond highlights this in respect to the Geneva Agreement. Ruth Bergan discusses whether the grand gestures made by Gordon Brown towards debt relief in late 2004 will have any more effect than the measures that have been implemented for the past ten years. Across the Atlantic , the sustenance of a particular agenda towards the developing world by a different politician, the re-elected President, has darker implications. Paul examines what George W. Bush's policies will mean for the developing world.
The events that occurred towards the close of 2004 have indellibly changed, re-directed and re-focused the way we see our organisation, and the way people see our country and the world. From our milestone anniversary in November to events spanning the spheres of economics, politics and music, these will shape the opportunities and challenges of the next year.
I hope you enjoy reading this edition. Please feel free to submit any comments about the magazine, or if your own articles, through the website. Happy New Year!
Charlotte Alfred
Editor
posted by Development in Action at 20:24
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