Updates ; Fiji

The Minority Rights Group has published a new report, Fiji ; The Challenges and Opportunities and Diversity.

The report comes at a time when Amnesty International and Labour Start are expressing concerns about the situation in Fiji.

The MRG report is "based on evidence drawn from exclusive interviews across the diversity of Fiji`s ethnic groups and aims "to provide insight into the underlying causes and consequences of ethnic tensions in Fiji."

  Links ;

http://www.minorityrights.org/11850/reports/fiji-the-challenges-and-opportunities-of-diversity.html

http://www.minorityrights.org/643/publications/publications.html

An Update

I`ll be back posting on this blog again very soon, but until then, keep up with me at http://bookshelvesandbrownale.blogspot.com and http://hoonaloon.blogspot.com

Thanks

Another Aid Controversy

The vexed question of overseas aid raises it`s head yet again in a recent article by an anonymous representative of Ethiopia`s Oromo people* ;

The writer refers to Ethiopia`s FDRE Proclamation 621/2009, which he/she acknowledges was "intended to impose superior regulation of charities", but goes on to argue that in practise it has meant that "party leaders decide who should receive...emergency support" .

The article goes on to say that in many cases "the authorities decide who should die."

Admirers of Ethiopia`s current regime often present it as a kind of synthesis of old-style state-centralist economy with western individualism and initiative. I can actually see where they`re coming from with that, though I doubt that in practice the "best of both worlds" approach is actually what is happening on the ground.

Leaving that aside, the article does raise questions about how NGO aid agenices can be made accountable. While many would question whether self-regulation and intitatives like The Sphere Project are really a long-term solution, it`s unclear how any form of independent scrutiny is ever to be achieved.

These are big questions with no easy answers and I don`t pretend to have any special wisdom. Hopefully, I`ll be able to return to the subject in due course.

*http://www.minorityvoices.org/news.php/en/1381/ethiopiauk-oromo-rally-in-london

Quotation Station - Richard Pankhurst

"Life is nothing without enthusiasms."

Richard Pankhurst (Richard Marsden Pankhurst)

Pretty much my whole knowledge of the Pankhursts is derived from Barbara Castle`s book Sylvia and Christabel Pankhurst, which I`ve owned for about twenty years and only read twice, so I can`t claim to be an authority on the subject.

The Pankhursts are chiefly associated in the public mind with the Suffragette movement, of course. On wider issues, their endless idealogical twistings and turnings can make unintentionally humorous reading.

Richard M Pankhurst began his political life as a Conservative, went on to become a radical Liberal and eventually began to associate himself with socialist causes of his day such as the Fabian Society and the Independent Labour Party. His wife Emmeline joined her husband in his campaigning for the Independent Labour Party but ended her days a Conservative.

Of their three daughters, Adela was a founding member of the Australian Communist Party but like her mother eventually moved to the right. Christabel evetually became a Second Adventist and disowned her Suffragette past, whilst Sylvia was at one point so far to the left she thought Lenin too moderate.

In fairness to Sylvia, in her post-Communist period she continued to apply herself tirelessly and indeed selflessly to a variety of causes, in some ways anticipating later developments in progressive thinking, for instance in her involvement with Africa. Her son, the younger Richard (Richard Keir Pethick Pankhurst) lives in Ethiopia and is a well-respected author/historian.

Perhaps for Sylvia another of Richard M Pankhurst`s sayings is also relevant ;  "Every struggling cause shall be ours."

More Hoonaloons For Webdubs

Having been relatively high-minded for the last couple of postings, I still have to make a living !

Here are a couple of recent additions to our stock that may be of interest ;

 

 

At 5394 in our listings is Alex La Guma`s A Walk in the Night and Other Stories, with an introduction by Nahem Yousaf.

 

Prior to leaving South Africa in 1966, La Guma (1925 - 1985) had been active in anti-apartheid causes and the labour movement, as had his father before him, and was among the defendants at the so-called Treason Trial. He pursued his career as a writer whilst in exile, as well as continuing an involvement in the social/political issues of his homeland.

 

 

 

 

At 5399 is Ian Dewhirst`s The Story of a Nobody ; A Working Class Life 1880 - 1939

 

Dewhirst has written a number of books about Yorkshire in general and Keighley in particular. 

 

 Taking as his starting point an old school photograph showing a nine-year old Arthur Illingworth - an ordinary man, the `nobody` of the title - and his friends, Dewhirst has told the story of Arthur and the times through which he lived, including World War One and the Depression of the `30s.

 

 

I`ve only picked out a couple of titles here. Our monthly online newsletter can be found at  http://hoonaloon.blogspot.com , and further details of a couple of other titles can be found at http://thesextonblakeblog.blogspot.com and http://bookshelvesandbrownale.blogspot.com .

 

To view our entire stock, click here ;  http://www.abebooks.co.uk/Hoonaloon-Books-Derbyshire/53404521/sf .

 

Thanks for your interest,

 

 

Nick

 

 

 

 

Updates ; Minority Rights Group September 2012 (Kenya)

The Minority Rights Group has issued a press release condemning "ongoing retaliatory attacks" between the Orma and Pokomo ethnic groups in Kenya`s Tana River Disrict.

The group has praised Kenya`s "new and progressive constitution" and has urged the Kenyan government to build on the "postive environment" this has created by taking "immediate steps to protect the lives of  affected communities and prevent a further escalation of violence.""

MRG`s Director of Policy and Communications, Carl Soderburgh, is quoted as saying "These attacks are related to poverty, competition for scarce resources and marginalisation of minorities...If governments in East Africa continue with policies like the privatization of rangelands, commercial ranching and sedentarisation of nomads, without the participation of communities, peace will continue to elude the region."

For more information ; http://www.minorityrights.org/7962/press-releases/press-releases.html

Samuel Morley 1809 - 1886

This is Samuel Morley MP (1809 - 1886), a noted 19th century philanthropist and social reformer.

To find out how the man they called The Merchant Philanthropist became a noted anti-slavery campaigner and a major backer of a radical trade union jourmal, see my post `Samuel Morley of Nottingham`, posed yesterday at http://bookshelvesandbrownale.blogspot.com .

NB  The photo is entitled Nottingham Arboretum : Bust of Samuel Morley by John Sutton. To find out more about his work, click here ; www.geograph.org.uk/profile/38492