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BY CAROLINE LINDEN

“You’ve got to get there and teach them to read and write and think…and that I think is the biggest job for our society […] and if we keep at it relentlessly, 30, 40, 50 years from now you will have a good part of the work” –Ateed Riaz (The Citizens Foundation)

This quotation from Ateed Riaz of the Citizens Foundation seems, for me, to resonate with the broad ideals of those involved in GES. The Citizens Foundation is a non-profit organization which works to bring educational opportunities to children in the slums of Pakistan which they may not have received otherwise. This organization really is a success story: they run 600 programs throughout the country and enroll 80,000 students for a price which equates to 13¢(US)/month/child. In comparison, state-run schools, they argue, are largely a failure and often have empty classrooms with low budgets and frustrated teachers. The Citizens Foundation has worked to complete Pakistan’s school system, closing the gap between these children from the slums and other educated children around the world.  Their website highlights the story of Saqib Shaukat, their first student to be accepted to one of Pakistan’s leading educational institutions on a scholarship. This shows huge strides for an organization which often does not begin educating until the children reach age 10.

Ignoring the great success of the organization, I find it more inspiring to look at the children themselves. These children often work long hours outside of their classes, and many, according to the article accompanying the video, do not even know their true age. Yet, despite their past, they still have great hope for their future. One girl expresses the dream of becoming a doctor, not because of the wage she would earn, but because she would be able to help people feel better.  Going back to Ateed Riaz’s explanation, the most important thing is to teach our future generation the importance of gaining knowledge and using it, as these children want to, in a way that will help others reach the same enlightenment. As a young boy who attends the school says: “I started [school] late because I was working, but [my brothers and sisters] don’t have to.”

For members of the GES community it is reassuring to see such a success story. As Riaz says, if we keep working relentlessly we can make great strides in bettering this world, and motivate others to do so as well, and that’s all any of us ask for.

At our day and age, Taiwan and China are enjoying the warmest relations in years. It was not always like this. Since the days of the end of the Chinese civil war, China viewed Taiwan as a renegade province. For example, in mid-1990s, Beijing fired missiles towards the island during Taiwan’s election campaign. As a response, the people of Taiwan elected the pro-independence candidate a clear majority.

However, after years of resistance, the Taiwanese government has decided to increase economic ties with China. Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou says he had no choice.  “As mainland China is rapidly becoming the second largest economy in the world, obviously, we cannot avoid doing business with the mainland,” Ma said in an interview with American journalists.

The businessmen of the island applaud the shift. For the first time, people can take direct flights from Taiwan to China, instead of transferring in Hong Kong. Furthermore, warmer economic relations also create new business opportunities. Some young people support the new policies because they see their future in China – not Taiwan.

Although support support the new policies, others are concerned about China’s influence. Joseph Wu, Taiwan’s de facto ambassador to the U.S. in 2007, opposes the new policies. “If Taiwan cannot separate itself from the Chinese economy, talking about political separation is going to be hard,” he says. “We hold the same value of freedom and human rights and democracy with the Americans.”  He argues that damage to Taiwan’s democracy as it engages with an authoritarian country should be a concern for the US. Furthermore, some worry that the opening of barriers will cause a flood of mainlanders to compete for the best jobs.

An example of China’s influence: “The Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual leader, came to Taiwan earlier this fall to pray for victims of a typhoon. China — which calls the Dalai Lama a separatist — criticized Taiwan for giving him a visa. The Dalai Lama’s visit played out in other, revealing ways as well. When he visited the southern port city of Kaohsiung to comfort typhoon victims, the Chinese government took revenge on local businesses. Beijing prohibited government tour groups from spending the night in the city. “

Although Ma claims that the economic agreements with China won’t affect Taiwan’s autonomy, the Dalai Lama’s visit shows that separating economics and politics is difficult.

APPLY TODAY

If you are an international citizen and are currently enrolled in, recently (within 1 year) graduated from, or will soon (within 1 year) be enrolled in an international university, please apply to be an International Delegate.

Contact international@theges.org or american@theges.org with any questions.

And there, the history comes in. Both countries claim ownership of Alexander – even Skopje’s airport is called “Alexander the Great” airport. Alexander the Great died in 323 BC; this conflict has roots that go back well over 2000 years. It seems like a small conflict, the name of a country, but there is so much history on both sides that it seems unlikely to an outsider that the neighboring countries will ever reach a resolution.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, that’s where GES comes in. One of the international delegates at the 2009 Summit, a Macedonian, has worked for years for an organization attempting to help his home country make a push into the EU. Although his project was related to resolving ethnic conflicts in the Balkans on a small scale (there’s another blog post in there somewhere), his work for his country represents one characteristic that most, if not all, GES delegates share: idealism. How could one young man make the difference in a fight that draws off the cultural foundations of the countries on both sides?

Sure, he has not succeeded in that particular goal quite yet. Soon, maybe. But the wonderful thing about the idealism that GES delegates come in with is that they have all taken the next step towards achieving those ideals by designing a project and applying to the Summit, where the workshops they attend will help them to make those ideals become a reality. Latent ideals will only lead to disappointment. Applying to GES will lead to anything but.

Even before the 2010 Summit begins, we are already learning from our promising international applicants. Looking through applicants’ project proposals is always inspiring and exciting, and this week, through the project proposal of one of our applicants, we have learned about an incredible movement that is completely new to us: “hibakusha.” Literally translated as “those who were bombed” and is used more specifically to describe survivors of the 1945 Hiroshima and Nagasaki blasts. The death tolls were huge, and the survivors continue to suffer physically and psychologically. Despite, or perhaps because of, these challenges, many hibakusha are involved in the movement for a nuclear-free world.  They spread the message globally by sharing their story by public appearances and testimonial videos on the Internet.  Our applicant hopes to travel around the world with a new documentary, “Flashes of Hope: Hibakusha Traveling the World,” which just premiered at the UN.  With this film, she will raise awareness and promote a nuclear-free society.

Learning about this group has made us reflect on not only the power of survivors but also our own country’s role in creating suffering globally. One question to take away from this is, what are our responsibilities and opportunities for preventing future disasters? I’d like to think that GES can play at least a tiny part in that, by building international friendships and understanding. Already we are more aware of another challenge and another chance to affect change.

More information about hibakusha and personal testimonies are available at the following websites:

Hibakusha Testimony Videos

Voice of Hibakusha

The Globalization of Hibakusha