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All over the world, civil society is agog over possibilities
following a new administration in the United States, and changes in
the political regimes of many other countries.
Never mind that the much-ballyhoed and recently
concluded Davos Forum has not churned out any significant commitment
for development or for the world’s marginalized, except for
identifying caveats and a skillful pass-over of the usual motherhood
statements and the required paychecks to see to their fruition.
Defined a thousand fold, civil society is that
maverick catch-all social segment that is neither hard-core business
nor government, but pivotal in crafting policy and implementing
programs, largely due to strong local and international political
pressure.
It includes such diverse groups as development
and civic organizations, media, advocacy groups, non-traditional
political parties, religious and church-based groups, academic and
research institutions, among others.
Still uncharted are the waters of the Obama
administration, and with economic cataclysm under-way in the world,
superpower plans just might be revised, if not totally miscarry.
It’s not the right time for militarist maneuvers, US-made or
otherwise, and just the right time for peace advocates to flourish
as long as they are left in peace (no pun intended).
How does civil society promote peace amid
deepening crisis? Rallies and demonstrations have been given more
prominence, but this is not all that civil society can do.
For one, high on the agenda of civil society is
the conduct of study sessions to ensure diverse publics understand
and reflect on key issues. Whether it is the war on Palestine or
some other area in the country, emails, protest letters and public
statements are spread around, globally. Study sessions and public
fora are also conducted.
In the case of Peace Women Partners, a new
all-women peace formation, promoting peace means an occasional
interaction of advocates. Just last year, eight Filipinas went to
Japan for an exchange tour where they interacted with fellow peace
advocates, with funding from Japan Foundation.
Japan is an interesting country to learn from.
With militarist adventures that led to its participation in the
Second World War, Japan has since reversed itself (with a lot of tug
and pull from conqueror-mentor United States) and produced a Peace
Constitution that bans it from exporting soldiers to fight beyond
its borders and any development of nuclear weapons.
There’s a catch, though. Japan’s Peace
Constitution does not ban any funding for such a war, and for a
time, Japan funded the US-led war on Iraq at as cost of about $1
billion a day. Many felt the hefty sum was surrendered just so Japan
would not be forced to give up its soldiers for this aggression on
Iraq.
Without being deterred, Filipino and Japanese
peace advocates met on Japanese soil last year, discussing prospects
for peace and development.
Aisa Akalal, a Tausug political science
professor from the Mindanao State University in Jolo, said they
discussed how to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons and
global warming, among others.
They also discussed food sovereignty and the
regulation of extensive global economic speculation that many blame
for the global economic crisis, aside from US-led military
adventurism that channelled global resources to death and
destruction.
To ensure richer discussions, Peace Women
Partners is sponsoring this September an international conference on
the prospects of peace and development in the Asia-Pacific.
Lawyer Corazon Fabros joined the Japan Tour. She
has researched on new forms of US military bases in the Philippines,
and informed that on February 27 to March 2, a global gathering of
peace advocates will gather at the American University in
Washington, D.C. for the Security With Empire: National Organizing
Conference on Military Bases.
March 2 is extra-special as it will be spent
lobbying with Capitol Hill. The conference is a product of the
Project on Military Bases, a coalition of 15 US-based national and
community based organizations that include Global Network (GN),
Veterans for Peace, FOR, CodePink, AFSC, United for Peace &
Justice and Peace Action. Bruce Gagnon and GN affiliate Tim Rinne
(Nebraskans for Peace).
Of special focus in the conference are the
roughly 1,000 semi-permanent US bases in many parts of the world,
including the Philippines. US no longer maintains permanent
high-capital bases like Clark and Subic, but has mobile ones all
over the Philippines where you find US soldiers doing civic action,
in training or in actual military operation like it did in Sulu last
year where eight civilians were reportedly killed.
“Foreign military bases make wars from
Afghanistan and Iraq to Colombia and the Philippines possible,
oppress “host” nations and communities, and divert our tax
dollars from addressing essential human needs,” said the
organizers in an invitation flyer.
Leading peace and anti-bases activists from the
Philippines, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Germany, Guam, the
Netherlands, Puerto Rico, Okinawa and South Africa are expected to
join the conference that will provide a unique opportunity to learn
about the dangers, “abuses and usurpations” that come with
foreign military deployments.
Foremost in the minds of peace advocates is the
promotion of peace, international humanitarian law and respect for
the sovereignty of countries that find themselves in the throes of
militarism, like the Philippines.
opinion@manilatimes.net
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