Tag Archives: Democratic Practices

Is Civil Society the Conscience of a Community?

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In his speech last year to the U.N. General Assembly, President Obama said that “civil society is the conscience of our communities.”

The dictionary defines conscience as “the inner sense of what is right or wrong in one’s conduct or motives.”  But can a society collectively have a conscience?  And, is civil society that collective conscience?

In his speech, President Obama also expressed confidence that the free flow of ideas is essential to personal freedom and, ultimately, democracy.  The assumption is that free societies will ultimately choose the right path.

Lech Walesa, once a humble electrician, led the Solidarity freedom movement in communist Poland.

Certainly there are plenty of examples of how the desire for personal and societal freedom continuously simmers under even the most repressive regimes.  Aung San Suu Kyi and fellow like-minded activists have endured decades of repression and yet remain steadfast in their support for a free and democratic Burma.  Liu Xiaobo is only the latest in a long line of individuals who have endured government harassment and imprisonment for speaking out for greater human rights in China.

But civil society does have the power to overcome repressive regimes and promote freedom.  One of the most notable in recent history was the trade union Solidarity’s ultimate success in instituting democratic reforms in what was then communist Poland.  In past weeks, the people in Tunisia have had tentative success in shaking off an undemocratic government.

What do you think?  Is civil society the conscience of our communities?

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The Evolving Work of Democracy

You Can Ask the White House a “First Question”

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The White House launched a new public outreach program this week called “First Question.”  Here’s how it works:

1. In the morning, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs will ask for that day’s questions in a post to his @PressSec Twitter account.  He won’t ask for a question every day, but he’ll do it frequently.

2. Once he’s has asked for questions, anyone can submit a question via Twitter using the hashtag #1q.

3. White House staff will collect all of the questions, record his answers to some of them, and post the video on YouTube.

The initiative is already proving to be popular with the American public.  On the first day of First Question Gibbs received over 300 questions and recorded answers to two of them, which you can watch on YouTube.
 
What would you like to ask White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs?

U.S. Pakistan Talks / A Cholera Outbreak in Haiti / The U.S. Vote

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The United States and Pakistan continue strategic talks. Health officials fear an outbreak of Cholera in Haiti could spread, read what the United States is doing to help. The rule of law in Latin America is on the agenda at a conference in California. The U.S. government is turning to American farms for fuel. Somalia needs more international help. And, we’ve got a pair of reports about the coming elections in the United States.

U.S.-Pakistan Dialogue
The latest round of the U.S.-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue demonstrates a commitment to strengthening the relationship between the two countries based on values, mutual respect, trust and interests, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says. “We came together in this Strategic Dialogue to discuss how to help the Pakistani people in the areas that Pakistani people themselves had identified as their more important concerns,” Clinton and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said. Aat right, Clinton and Qureshi at an earlier meeting.

Fighting Cholera in Haiti
The U.S. government is working rapidly to respond to a cholera outbreak in northwestern Haiti that officials fear could lead to a country-wide epidemic.

Democracy in Latin America
In California, at a conference of Latin American leaders, the focus was not on past triumphs, but on the issues and challenges that many countries face today in strengthening democracy and the rule of law.

U.S. Calls for More Somalia Aid
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson says more countries need to contribute troops and assets to the African Union Mission in Somalia. He says allowing Somalis to simply fight amongst themselves “is in no one’s interest.”

From Fields to Fuel Tanks
The U.S. government plans to ramp up production and consumption of biofuels to help lessen the country’s dependence on foreign oil, and to create new jobs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

U.S. Prepping for Midterms
On November 2, Americans will cast their ballots in midterm elections that will determine who will represent them in the 112th Congress, scheduled to convene in January 2011. In electing a new Congress every two years, American voters decide who will speak for them in crafting legislation, determining government spending and overseeing the activities of the executive branch.

U.S. Voters as Decision Makers
When Americans vote in the midterm elections, they will select their future leaders and decide a wide range of ballot issues, including how their taxes are spent or what rights their state constitutions guarantee.

A Busy Day in Brussels || An Environmental Success Story || A “Paradigm Shift” in Health Care

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Busy in Brussels, Secretary Clinton discusses NATO and Pakistan. There’s hope ahead of a crucial vote in Sudan. A new initiative is spurring interfaith action to improve Muslim countries. China and the U.S. are partnering on air quality. Counterfeit drugs are a pandemic. And finally, experts call for a “paradigm shift” in health care in Africa.


NATO’s 21st Century Threats
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates urges members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to focus on 21st century threats such as terrorism, cyber attacks and ballistic missiles. “Relying on the strategies of the past simply will not suffice” says Clinton, right with Gates. The two also express support for the alliance’s proposed Strategic Concept.


Taxing Pakistan’s Wealthy
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urges Pakistan to collect taxes on its wealthier citizens in order to help pay for the country’s recovery from flooding that could ultimately cost tens of billions of dollars.

The Timeline in Sudan
Following a week-long visit to southern Sudan, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice reports that the Sudanese people remain hopeful ahead of a January 9, 2011 referendum on the region’s independence.

“Partners for a New Beginning”
Partners for a New Beginning (PNB), an initiative joining American private sector and civil society leaders to strengthen opportunities in Muslim countries, adds further support to President Obama’s vision of “a new beginning” for the United States and Muslim communities across the globe.

A U.S.-China Success Story
AirNow International, a joint U.S.-China air quality program, is cited as a bilateral success by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa P. Jackson during a visit to the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai.

The Danger of Counterfeit Drugs
The key to fighting a global “pandemic” of counterfeit drugs is building partnerships among drug companies, pharmaceutical trade groups, law enforcement and customs officials worldwide, experts say. Rubie Mages, a security official with U.S. drug manufacturer Pfizer, says pharmaceutical companies must “monitor the supply chain” and report counterfeit drugs to authorities.

Changing Health Care in Africa
Experts say a “paradigm shift” is needed in health care in Africa to include greater focus on the prevention and treatment of noncommunicable diseases like diabetes and not just infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS. Silver Bahendeka, chair of the International Diabetes Association’s Africa region, predicts that “Africa will have the highest percentage of increase in the number of people with diabetes over the next 20 years.” Left, Archbishop Desmond Tutu is examined for diabetes in South Africa.

How Important is U.S. Foreign Aid?

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Polls say more Americans are worrying about budget deficits and their impact on the short and long-term future of the country.  But the problem is: Where should the United States government cut its spending?

One radio news show I listen to during my trip into the office said many Americans favor reducing foreign assistance.  Help the folks at home first, I guess, is the way these people look at budgeting federal dollars.

The U.S. Congress, too, has been looking for ways to cut government spending, and, at the moment, it seems to want to trim foreign assistance.  On June 30, the House State-Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee marked up and approved, by voice vote, a draft FY 2011 funding bill that would provide $52.66 billion — $4 billion less than the Obama Administration had requested — for international programs and activities.  A Congressional Research Service (CRS) report released July 2, 2010 notes that the subcommittee bill would actually increase funding over the President’s request for a few programs such as the Democracy Fund, which would get an additional $120 million.  But lots of wrangling remains to be done before the House and the Senate approve the final figures for funding FY 2011 international affairs operations.

According to figures provided by the CRS, U.S. foreign aid funding hasn’t exceeded one percent of U.S. gross domestic product since 1965, so trimming that part of the U.S. budget might not represent huge savings in the big picture of overall U.S. government spending.  A CRS report released April 9, 2009 acknowledges that the United States is the smallest contributor among the major donor governments when calculated as a percent of gross national income.  Even so, the report says, “the United States is the largest international economic aid donor in absolute dollar terms.”

Some people argue that U.S. foreign aid is crucial for promoting stable, democratic governments, achieving U.S. national security goals and ensuring a favorable global economic environment for American products.  Others say that part of the budget can be cut back.  What do you think?

[image src="http://photos.state.gov/libraries/amgov/3234/Week_3/09232010_AP05121508097-500.jpg" caption="Some people argue U.S. foreign aid is crucial to promoting and protecting democracy around the world. Here an Iraqi woman shows her ink-stained finger after casting her vote during Iraqi parliamentary elections."]

Swedish Voters React to Immigration

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[guest name="Karin Rives" title="Writer/Editor, America.gov" biography="Karin Rives produces content for the State Department's America.gov website and other digital channels. She has a journalism degree from Northeastern University and has worked as a newspaper, magazine and marketing writer since 1991, covering business and environmental issues. Half Swedish, half American she has a passion for politics on both sides of the Atlantic." image=http://photos.state.gov/libraries/amgov/4110/week_4/082710-Karins-60.jpg]

Swedes protest the election of a far-right party to parliament.

Elections in Sweden don’t typically make international headlines because most of the time they’re – well, pretty boring.

Policies tend to remain largely intact in this progressive and consensus-oriented Nordic nation of 9.4 million. But last week, something changed in the country where I grew up.

For the first time ever, a far-right Swedish nationalist party with an outspoken anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim agenda gained seats in parliament after capturing 5.7 percent of the votes. With the ruling centrist government coalition unable to reach majority, the nationalists may soon be tipping the scale between the two dominant party blocks to push their own political agenda.

The Sweden Democrats want an end to government-supported multicultural events, a sharp reduction in immigration from non-Western “culturally distant” nations, a ban on religious circumcision of boys, a 90-percent drop in refugee asylums, and so forth.

The election was a lesson in democracy and it left many Swedes offended, and some emboldened.

As other European countries tightened their borders in recent years, Sweden took in hundreds of thousands of refugees from countries such as Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan. Nearly one-fifth of Swedish residents today are foreign-born, or children of foreign-born parents.

Meanwhile, discontent over the nation’s immigration policies was brewing beneath the surface.

The leader of the Swedish nationalist party needed police protection when campaigning this month.

Moving with my American family to Stockholm a few years ago, I was baffled to hear people make disparaging remarks about immigrants and expecting me to agree. “But my whole family consists of immigrants,” I would protest. “I’m practically an immigrant myself!”

There would be a puzzled stare in response. “I’m talking about the other immigrants,” I’d be told.

Those other immigrants live in large suburban neighborhoods where unemployment approaches 50 percent and crime is high. Children in schools there are more likely to speak Arabic, Somali, Bosnian or Pashtun at home than Swedish.

Few native Swedes ever set their foot in these neighborhoods or in the homes where the immigrants live, but all Swedes pay taxes to maintain their schools and overburdened social services.

The physical and cultural segregation, and the resentment it breeds, contributed to the backlash that made so many Swedes take a sharp right in last week’s election, many observers agree. Others say they welcome the opportunity to have a frank and public discussion about immigration, something they say Sweden never had.

How do you think Europe and its immigrants can learn to live together?

International Day of Democracy

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In 2007 the United Nations General Assembly passed resolution A/62/7, encouraging governments to strengthen national programs devoted to the promotion and consolidation of democracy.  In the same resolution the General Assembly decided that September 15 of each year should be observed as the International Day of Democracy. 

This year, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon offered the following statement for the International Day of Democracy: “Let us recognize that democratic governance is a yearning shared and voiced by people the world over.  Democracy is a goal in its own right, and an indispensable means for achieving development for all humankind.”

You can find more information about this year’s commemoration of democracy on the Center for International Private Enterprise’s Development Blog: http://www.cipe.org/blog/

What are you doing to celebrate democracy today?

Tis the Season for Independence Days

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J. Scott Orr runs m.America.gov, a version of the America.gov website designed for cell phones and other mobile devices.

Fireworks are a common way of celebrating independence days around the world.

Fireworks are a common way of celebrating independence days around the world.

The fireworks were hailing over Montevideo the other night, capping a celebration of independence earned 185 years before when Uruguay decided to break away from Brazil.

The day was also marked in Washington, where Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton congratulated Uruguay on its independence and its commitment to individual freedoms and democratic ideas.

“Happy Independence Day, Uruguay. On August 25th, the United States joins you in celebrating your many accomplishments this past year,” she said in videotaped message.

Such independence-day greetings are a lot more common than you might think. Why, just one day earlier Clinton toasted 19-years of Ukrainian independence. On August 19 it was Afghanistan’s Independence Day; August 15, India’s; August 14, Pakistan’s. In July, there was Benin, Peru, Colombia, the Bahamas, Argentina, Venezuela and, of course, the United States.

This is the height of the global independence day season, which occurs each year July through September when celebrations of national freedom occur at the dizzying pace of more than 20 per month. Compare that with the independence-day-challenged months of January and April that have a mere four celebrations each.

The calendar’s top independence day? That would probably be September 15, the date in 1821 when El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and Costa Rica all gained their independence from Spain. This is a big year for independence days in Africa, where 17 countries are celebrating the 50th anniversary of their freedom from colonial rule. Most of those became independent with the 1960 collapse of the French colonial empire.

Independence day celebrations are important, and not just because parades and pyrotechnics are fun. They remind us of our shared heritages, the struggle and sacrifice it took to secure these freedoms and the shared responsibilities of defending them. Independence days also highlight the common principles that link the world’s diverse democracies.

On August 1, Clinton was congratulating Benin on the 50th anniversary of its independence when she noted that the United States and the tiny African nation have in common a “shared respect for the fundamental principles of democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.”

Want to know who’s celebrating their independence today? Wikipedia has a list.

Celebrating Ramadan and Religious Freedom

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J. Scott Orr runs m.America.gov, a version of the America.gov website designed for cell phones and other mobile devices.

There they were in the White House’s State Dining Room, some 90 quests gathered at sunset, the flicker of white candles causing shadows to dance about gray, silken tablecloths. They were ambassadors, congressmen, government officials and community leaders, assembled to break their daily Ramadan fasts at an iftar with President Obama.

The event marked the Muslim month of fasting and self-reflection, but it was, at the same time, a celebration of religious freedom, tolerance and the history of Muslims in America.

“It is a testament to the wisdom of our Founders that America remains deeply religious – a nation where the ability of peoples of different faiths to coexist peacefully and with mutual respect for one another stands in stark contrast to the religious conflict that persists elsewhere around the globe,” Obama told the guests as they nibbled pitted dates and drank yogurt beverages.

“Our Founders understood that the best way to honor the place of faith in the lives of our people was to protect their freedom to practice religion,” Obama said. He went on to quote President Thomas Jefferson who wrote in 1786 that “all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion.”

Speaking of the third U.S. president, Obama noted that it was 200 years ago that Jefferson arranged a sunset dinner for a visiting Tunisian ambassador in what would be the first White House iftar. It wasn’t until the Clinton administration, though, that iftars returned to the White House, where they have become an annual tradition.

“Islam has always been a part of America,” Obama said, adding that Muslim immigrants “became farmers and merchants, worked in mills and factories. They helped lay the railroads. They helped to build America.” Obama said the first Islamic center was founded in New York City in the 1890s and a mosque built in 1934 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is still in use today.

Along with Christmas parties, seders and Diwali celebrations at the White House, Obama said, iftars “remind us of the basic truth that we are all children of God, and we all draw strength and a sense of purpose from our beliefs.”

Take a look at the full list of invited guests or watch a video of Obama’s remarks.