After capitalism…?
What will be the end of the economic crisis we are facing? A reformed capitalistic system, maybe an ”enlightened capitalism”, according to Neville Isdell (Coca Cola) or something else? The good thing with a crisis is that it opens up for new possibiities. Like forests, which need large forest fires now and then to thrive, societies may need economic crisis now and then to develop.
However, a new economic system – or a reformed capitalistic system – is needed not only to handle our financial systems. Above all, it’s needed to handle the main problems and challenges of today: poverty, inequality, environmental problems, especially global warming, etc.
The capitalistic system is very efficient in creating economic growth – but is that the most urgent need today? More and more people seem to answer ”no”. And it might be easy to agree, thinking of all our abundant consumption – at least here in the rich countries. However, most people in the world have never experienced any ”abundant consumption”, hardly any consumption at all.
All these people still desperately need eonomic growth. Would it be possible to develop an economic system that on one hand creates growth in poorer countries and on the other leads to a ”steady-state” situation in the richer societies?
In Prospect, the British monthly magazine, Geoff Mulgan has written a very readable essay, ”After Capitalism”: After Capitalism
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
The root cause to most problems?
Inequality is the root cause to almost all common social problems in the developed countries. That is the message in a new book: The Spirit Level – Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better (Allen Lane 2009). The authors, Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, claim that countries with less inequality, such as Sweden, also have less social problems than more unequal societies such as United States or United Kingdom.
Wilkinson and Pickett also claim that it’s not only the poor within a society that suffer from those problems but also the well-to-do. Those with higher incomes in more equal societies have for example a longer life expectancy than similar people in more unequal countries. Conclusion: inequality seems to have a direct negative impact on all groups in a society.
I will probably have reason to write more about this book later, but here are two links to try out:
– Equality Trust
– The Guardian
Inequality is the root cause to almost all common social problems in the developed countries. That is the message in a new book: The Spirit Level – Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better (Allen Lane 2009). The authors, Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, claim that countries with less inequality, such as Sweden, also have less social problems than more unequal societies such as United States or United Kingdom.
Wilkinson and Pickett also claim that it’s not only the poor within a society that suffer from those problems but also the well-to-do. Those with higher incomes in more equal societies have for example a longer life expectancy than similar people in more unequal countries. Conclusion: inequality seems to have a direct negative impact on all groups in a society.
I will probably have reason to write more about this book later, but here are two links to try out:
– Equality Trust
– The Guardian
Well-educated barbarians or…?
I happened to find an article on Internet, written by a Swedish social scientist, Bo Rothstein, 2006: ”The Constitution in a Multicultural Society” (my translation from Swedish). Rothstein quotes Yehuda Bauer, one of the leading scientists about the Holocaust, when he explaines what he regards as the most decisive reason why such an extreme annihilation could take place in a culturally developed nation like Germany.
Bauer’s explanation is that many of the most well educated in the German society – doctors, university teachers etc – became members of the Nazi party because they were promised good future prospects and status. When those ”intellectuals” started to collaborate with the party about the genocide it became easy to convince the rest of the people of the necessity to take part in the murder in order to achieve an utopian future.
Bauer, and Rothstein, wonder of course if we – the societies of today – still are producing ”technically competent barbarians at our universities”?
I would like to quote Ragnar Ohlsson, who several years ago wrote a definition of the Swedish word ”bildning”, which is a broader concept than just ”education” and in English maybe best could be translated into ”enlightenment”:
Is this a vision that characterizes modern universities?
I happened to find an article on Internet, written by a Swedish social scientist, Bo Rothstein, 2006: ”The Constitution in a Multicultural Society” (my translation from Swedish). Rothstein quotes Yehuda Bauer, one of the leading scientists about the Holocaust, when he explaines what he regards as the most decisive reason why such an extreme annihilation could take place in a culturally developed nation like Germany.
Bauer’s explanation is that many of the most well educated in the German society – doctors, university teachers etc – became members of the Nazi party because they were promised good future prospects and status. When those ”intellectuals” started to collaborate with the party about the genocide it became easy to convince the rest of the people of the necessity to take part in the murder in order to achieve an utopian future.
Bauer, and Rothstein, wonder of course if we – the societies of today – still are producing ”technically competent barbarians at our universities”?
I would like to quote Ragnar Ohlsson, who several years ago wrote a definition of the Swedish word ”bildning”, which is a broader concept than just ”education” and in English maybe best could be translated into ”enlightenment”:
”Bildning” can be understood as the shaping of yourself into a social human being. ”Bildning” lead to a kind of general life preparedness. You are ”bildad” if you have a wider perspective on your life, if you can see it in a wider context than the narrow everyday life, if you can see the relations between yourself and the rest of the world, the biosphere, other human beings – now living, dead since long time and future generations. But ”bildning” is not only intellectual skills and understandings; ability to take action and ethical qualities are essential elements in that shaping of your personality ”bildning” is supposed to provide. (My translation.)
Is this a vision that characterizes modern universities?
Children literatur prize to Palestinian institute
A Palestinian institute, helping children on the West Bank and in Gaza to read and write, has got this years literatur prize in memory of the Swedish writer Astrid Lindgren, probably most famous for her books about "Pippi Longstocking". The Tamer Institute for Community Education got the prize, the world's largest for children literature, for its work in promoting reading and learning among children on the occupied territory (Tamer Institute).
It feels good to read positive news from the West Bank and from Gaza; unfortunately there are too many of other kinds of news. Here is another newsletter from my recent stay in the West Bank (see also Marsch 21 and March 23):
Security controls several times a day…
Many of us are nowadays quite used to security controls at airports. It’s not especially pleasant, you have to remove waistbelts and everything else which contain some metal etc. However, the security people are generally kind and helpful, they might even speak your own mother tongue – at least when you are travelling from your home country – and they make efforts to help you if it’s the first time for you.
Imagine that you have to pass such security controls two or more times every day, often after spending quite a long time queueing together with a lot of people who all need to pass the same control. Imagine that the security personnel often are not especially kind or helpful and that they many times appear patronizing and indifferent. Imagine also that small ”mistakes” from you can lead to – in best – unpleasant interrogations. If you are unlucky you might end up in a detention cell for a few hours before you are allowed to continue – if you are allowed to continue.
The security people also speak a language you probably don’t understand or only understand a little of and they seldom know more than a few words of your own language.
Besides, the security personnel is heavily armed, which hardly contribute to a positive atmosphere…
This could probably be an example of a military security control or checkpoint anywhere in the world, where such things exist. It is for sure an example of a checkpoint in the West Bank. There are different kinds of cheskpoints, larger or smaller, more or less permanent etc. Israel occupies the West Bank since more than forty years and many of the checkpoints are today permanent constructions.
During most of the time since the Six Day War 1967, the number of checkpoints was quite few and simple and they were mostly along the so called Green Line, the armistice line from 1949. However, during the last period, especially after the second Intifada, the checkpoints have become much more common and many of them are today well planned, with walkways which remind of those which are used for cattle and with narrow – very narrow – turnstiles. In the bigger checkpoints you will probably have to speak in a microphone with a soldier you hardly can catch a glimpse of behind thick panes of glass.
Bags and suitcases are generally controlled with x-ray, as at airport security controls, while cars are searched carefully.
Some things seem to happen randomly. A couple of young men, who are standing in the queue, are for example forced to open their bags and show the content for everyone to see – despite the fact that the bags anyhow have to pass the x-ray machine. In this case, the bags contained only sweaters and trousers. However, if they instead had happend to have underwear in their bags it might not have been as ”fun” to show all the others in the queue.
If you are a Palestinian and happen to have an ID-card with similar last digits as some one looked for, then you have to be prepared for trouble. For some reason the soldiers seem only to read the last four digits (according to Machsom Watch, an Israeli volontary organization of women who are watching checkpoints in order to make sure that the soldiers are following the rules and not are causing more problems for the Palestinians than necessary). And if those four digits are ”wrong”, then you risk being taking into detention until the soldiers have checked whom they have put into detention – and that might take some time…
Even if the soldiers are kind and acting with respect – which happens – the whole system is of course humiliating. Those who want to pass a checkpoint are – regardless of age and sex – totally depending on the soldiers, around twenty years old, who are actually doing the controls without having any training for such sensitive missions (according to ”Breaking the Silence”, an organization of mostly former officers who are informing Israeli citizens of what is happening on the occupied territory).
The soldiers are commanded to serve at checkpoints during periods of about three months, to meat people they probably have almost no knowledge about. After these three months they continue with their military training, which is something totally different from controlling ID-cards. For a long time some of the military leadership have been worried about the fact that soldiers are requiered to check ID-cards instead of preparing themselves for real wars.
The whole system also means that a lot of people loose a lot of time every day by passing checkpoints. I’m not sure about what would be the worst for me, the humiliation or all the time I would have to spend waiting in queues…?
(I worked for the Christian Council of Sweden as an Ecumenical Accompanier, serving on the World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). The views contained in this report are personal and do not necessarily reflect those of the Christian Council of Sweden or the World Council of Churches. If you would like to publish or disseminate it further, please first contact the EAPPI communications officer and managing editor (eappi-co@jrol.com) for permission. For mor information see: www.eappi.org/en/home.html)
A Palestinian institute, helping children on the West Bank and in Gaza to read and write, has got this years literatur prize in memory of the Swedish writer Astrid Lindgren, probably most famous for her books about "Pippi Longstocking". The Tamer Institute for Community Education got the prize, the world's largest for children literature, for its work in promoting reading and learning among children on the occupied territory (Tamer Institute).
It feels good to read positive news from the West Bank and from Gaza; unfortunately there are too many of other kinds of news. Here is another newsletter from my recent stay in the West Bank (see also Marsch 21 and March 23):
Security controls several times a day…
Many of us are nowadays quite used to security controls at airports. It’s not especially pleasant, you have to remove waistbelts and everything else which contain some metal etc. However, the security people are generally kind and helpful, they might even speak your own mother tongue – at least when you are travelling from your home country – and they make efforts to help you if it’s the first time for you.
Imagine that you have to pass such security controls two or more times every day, often after spending quite a long time queueing together with a lot of people who all need to pass the same control. Imagine that the security personnel often are not especially kind or helpful and that they many times appear patronizing and indifferent. Imagine also that small ”mistakes” from you can lead to – in best – unpleasant interrogations. If you are unlucky you might end up in a detention cell for a few hours before you are allowed to continue – if you are allowed to continue.
The security people also speak a language you probably don’t understand or only understand a little of and they seldom know more than a few words of your own language.
Besides, the security personnel is heavily armed, which hardly contribute to a positive atmosphere…
This could probably be an example of a military security control or checkpoint anywhere in the world, where such things exist. It is for sure an example of a checkpoint in the West Bank. There are different kinds of cheskpoints, larger or smaller, more or less permanent etc. Israel occupies the West Bank since more than forty years and many of the checkpoints are today permanent constructions.
During most of the time since the Six Day War 1967, the number of checkpoints was quite few and simple and they were mostly along the so called Green Line, the armistice line from 1949. However, during the last period, especially after the second Intifada, the checkpoints have become much more common and many of them are today well planned, with walkways which remind of those which are used for cattle and with narrow – very narrow – turnstiles. In the bigger checkpoints you will probably have to speak in a microphone with a soldier you hardly can catch a glimpse of behind thick panes of glass.
Bags and suitcases are generally controlled with x-ray, as at airport security controls, while cars are searched carefully.
Some things seem to happen randomly. A couple of young men, who are standing in the queue, are for example forced to open their bags and show the content for everyone to see – despite the fact that the bags anyhow have to pass the x-ray machine. In this case, the bags contained only sweaters and trousers. However, if they instead had happend to have underwear in their bags it might not have been as ”fun” to show all the others in the queue.
If you are a Palestinian and happen to have an ID-card with similar last digits as some one looked for, then you have to be prepared for trouble. For some reason the soldiers seem only to read the last four digits (according to Machsom Watch, an Israeli volontary organization of women who are watching checkpoints in order to make sure that the soldiers are following the rules and not are causing more problems for the Palestinians than necessary). And if those four digits are ”wrong”, then you risk being taking into detention until the soldiers have checked whom they have put into detention – and that might take some time…
Even if the soldiers are kind and acting with respect – which happens – the whole system is of course humiliating. Those who want to pass a checkpoint are – regardless of age and sex – totally depending on the soldiers, around twenty years old, who are actually doing the controls without having any training for such sensitive missions (according to ”Breaking the Silence”, an organization of mostly former officers who are informing Israeli citizens of what is happening on the occupied territory).
The soldiers are commanded to serve at checkpoints during periods of about three months, to meat people they probably have almost no knowledge about. After these three months they continue with their military training, which is something totally different from controlling ID-cards. For a long time some of the military leadership have been worried about the fact that soldiers are requiered to check ID-cards instead of preparing themselves for real wars.
The whole system also means that a lot of people loose a lot of time every day by passing checkpoints. I’m not sure about what would be the worst for me, the humiliation or all the time I would have to spend waiting in queues…?
(I worked for the Christian Council of Sweden as an Ecumenical Accompanier, serving on the World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). The views contained in this report are personal and do not necessarily reflect those of the Christian Council of Sweden or the World Council of Churches. If you would like to publish or disseminate it further, please first contact the EAPPI communications officer and managing editor (eappi-co@jrol.com) for permission. For mor information see: www.eappi.org/en/home.html)
Monday, March 23, 2009
The bonus system
The horrendous bonuses that in spite of the financial crisis are paid to top executives in big business, especially in the financial sector, have created a popular outcry in many countries. So also in Sweden. And no wonder, who can justify such payments when ordinary employees are fired – especially when those top executives in many cases belong to those who by their greed have created the crisis.
On the other hand, what you really can wonder about is how those people could believe that people in general wouldn’t care about such bonuses? Have they no idea of the situation for ordinary people? Didn’t they think…? Whatever the reason, could you ever have trust in such people?
However, the bonus system shouldn’t be crtiticized only now, during a financial crisis. The system itself implies that top executives are a special kind of breed who need to be bribed in order to do their very best. All other employees are expected to do their very best while getting a regular salary – but not top executives! Could you ever have trust in such people?
Quite often, at least in Sweden, extremely high salaries and bonuses to managers are defended by the argument that they otherwise would move to other countries with more favourable ”living conditions” for top executives. Well, let them leave. I prefer serious managers who are guided by ethical values to selfish and shortsighted executives, guided by greed.
I also wonder how those who own shares in companies with such a system seriously can trust their managers and feel comfortable with them?
Does anyone believe that those people have such talents and skills that they are worth salaries and bonuses that are hundreds of times higher than the salaries their lowest employees get? After all, who created the financial crisis of today…?
Some years ago I was chairman in a board of directors. One year that company had a very good result and we decided to pay an extra monthly salary to all employees – also to the CEO. That is a kind of bonuses I like, it acknowledges that all employees are part of a success.
By the way, recently the minister of trade and industry, Maud Olofsson, one of the least intellectual members of the Swedish government, defended the bonus system and placed the kind of bonuses that top executives get on an equality with the incentive pay that garbage collectors get…
___________
Here is another of those newsletters I wrote during my stay in the West Bank last winter (see the first letter, March 21st):
Imagine that you are living in a small idyllic village…
Imagine that you are living in a small idyllic village in the countryside. The village is situated on the sloop of a hill and below the village you can see a small valley, surrounded by a ring of other similar hills. At one place there is an opening between the hills and that’s where the only road leads to the village.
You can walk down in the valley and work on the fields in the valley and you can walk or drive on the narrow road from the village. But if you walk to high up on the sloops of the hills or more than a few meters beyond the upper buildnings in the village, then you will face big problems. You might be assaulted and beaten; if you are unlucky it can be even worse…
If you are among those in the village who ownes sheep, you’d better make sure they don’t walk to high up on the hills. Then you might loose them, either they will be killed or stolen. If you have children, make sure they know exately where to walk and where not to walk.
On the top of the hills surrounding the village are a few so called settlements, with foreigners who have taken the land without buying or renting it. They don’t speak your language and they don’t come from your country but from the neighbouring country which since more than forty years is occupying your country. But those foreign settlers believe they have more right to your land than you have.
Because they are occupiers they have made sure that they, with the help of the occupying army, are well armed. They are also claiming a large security area around their houses, where no outsiders – and certainly not you – may set any foot upon. A large part of the traditional pastureland that belongs to the village has in that way been taken away from you and the other villagers.
Because the settlers think they have the right to all your country, also your tiny village, they use to take provoking walks to the village – almost always in groups. And always at least one in each group is heavily armed with a machine gun of that kind which are used by modern armies. Sometimes they walk over the fields, sometimes they let their dogs bath in the village well or pee in the well. At such moments the villagers are passive in order not to provoke the settlers to use violence.
But the police and the courts, what are they doing? Yes, they in a way have indicated that the settlements are illegal and that those settlers have no right to live there. However, they have not done anything to evict them; and they have not prevented the settlers from building roads up to their houses or getting electricity. Moreover, they have allowed the settlers to arm themselves with weapons from the army.
If you would like to go to the closest small town, three or four kilometers away, thereit’s OK. However, if you want to go to the nearest city, 15 kilometers away or so, then you face some annoying obstacles. First of all, you can’t take the closest road, because that passes by some of the settlements and the settlers don’t allowe any car to pass if it does not have a license plate of their own country. To walk or bike is definitely not to recommend.
There is another longer road, but before you arrive to the city you have to pass a military checkpoint, where soldiers of the occupying army are controlling who may pass. If you are driving a car it is difficult to get a permission to pass; if you are walking it is easier and that is what most people prefer to do. Then you take a bus or a taxi to the checkpoint, pass the checkpoint be foot, and then continue with another bus or taxi on the other side.
That means that a travel to the city, which during normal circumstances would take at the most half an hour, ends up taking maybe an hour – if you are allowed to pass.
A little further away there is a bigger city, which contains one of the holiest places in your religion. It would take approximately an hour and a half to go there – if it were not for a number of other military checkpoints aong the road and if you ewere allowed to drive on the modern fast roads which have been built by the occupiers. However, the checkpoints have to be passed and the new roads are not for you. Therefore it will take at least two and a half hour to reach that big city; if you are travelling during rush hour it can take much longer time to pass the checkpoints.
However, before you even can start thinking about going you have to have a permission to enter that city – and such a permission you will hardly ever get. It is so hard to get a permission that if you happen to belong to the lucky few ones, then your neighbours might suspect you of collaborating with the occupying country – and that it certainly not something you want them to believe…
Well, you are of course not living under such circumstances – but the one hundred villagers in Yanoun on the occupied West Bank are. They can’t walk freely around the village and have all the time to be prepared to meet a group of settlers. It’s simple to go to Araba, the closest small town, but to go to Nablus is an annoying challenge. To go to Jerusalem is almost impossible.
All Palestinians in the West Bank are victims of the same obstacles – checkpoints, separate roads, permissions etc. However, those who live next to one of the many settlements are extra restricted.
(I worked for the Christian Council of Sweden as an Ecumenical Accompanier, serving on the World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). The views contained in this report are personal and do not necessarily reflect those of the Christian Council of Sweden or the World Council of Churches. If you would like to publish or disseminate it further, please first contact the EAPPI communications officer and managing editor (eappi-co@jrol.com) for permission. For mor information see: www.eappi.org/en/home.html)
The horrendous bonuses that in spite of the financial crisis are paid to top executives in big business, especially in the financial sector, have created a popular outcry in many countries. So also in Sweden. And no wonder, who can justify such payments when ordinary employees are fired – especially when those top executives in many cases belong to those who by their greed have created the crisis.
On the other hand, what you really can wonder about is how those people could believe that people in general wouldn’t care about such bonuses? Have they no idea of the situation for ordinary people? Didn’t they think…? Whatever the reason, could you ever have trust in such people?
However, the bonus system shouldn’t be crtiticized only now, during a financial crisis. The system itself implies that top executives are a special kind of breed who need to be bribed in order to do their very best. All other employees are expected to do their very best while getting a regular salary – but not top executives! Could you ever have trust in such people?
Quite often, at least in Sweden, extremely high salaries and bonuses to managers are defended by the argument that they otherwise would move to other countries with more favourable ”living conditions” for top executives. Well, let them leave. I prefer serious managers who are guided by ethical values to selfish and shortsighted executives, guided by greed.
I also wonder how those who own shares in companies with such a system seriously can trust their managers and feel comfortable with them?
Does anyone believe that those people have such talents and skills that they are worth salaries and bonuses that are hundreds of times higher than the salaries their lowest employees get? After all, who created the financial crisis of today…?
Some years ago I was chairman in a board of directors. One year that company had a very good result and we decided to pay an extra monthly salary to all employees – also to the CEO. That is a kind of bonuses I like, it acknowledges that all employees are part of a success.
By the way, recently the minister of trade and industry, Maud Olofsson, one of the least intellectual members of the Swedish government, defended the bonus system and placed the kind of bonuses that top executives get on an equality with the incentive pay that garbage collectors get…
___________
Here is another of those newsletters I wrote during my stay in the West Bank last winter (see the first letter, March 21st):
Imagine that you are living in a small idyllic village…
Imagine that you are living in a small idyllic village in the countryside. The village is situated on the sloop of a hill and below the village you can see a small valley, surrounded by a ring of other similar hills. At one place there is an opening between the hills and that’s where the only road leads to the village.
You can walk down in the valley and work on the fields in the valley and you can walk or drive on the narrow road from the village. But if you walk to high up on the sloops of the hills or more than a few meters beyond the upper buildnings in the village, then you will face big problems. You might be assaulted and beaten; if you are unlucky it can be even worse…
If you are among those in the village who ownes sheep, you’d better make sure they don’t walk to high up on the hills. Then you might loose them, either they will be killed or stolen. If you have children, make sure they know exately where to walk and where not to walk.
On the top of the hills surrounding the village are a few so called settlements, with foreigners who have taken the land without buying or renting it. They don’t speak your language and they don’t come from your country but from the neighbouring country which since more than forty years is occupying your country. But those foreign settlers believe they have more right to your land than you have.
Because they are occupiers they have made sure that they, with the help of the occupying army, are well armed. They are also claiming a large security area around their houses, where no outsiders – and certainly not you – may set any foot upon. A large part of the traditional pastureland that belongs to the village has in that way been taken away from you and the other villagers.
Because the settlers think they have the right to all your country, also your tiny village, they use to take provoking walks to the village – almost always in groups. And always at least one in each group is heavily armed with a machine gun of that kind which are used by modern armies. Sometimes they walk over the fields, sometimes they let their dogs bath in the village well or pee in the well. At such moments the villagers are passive in order not to provoke the settlers to use violence.
But the police and the courts, what are they doing? Yes, they in a way have indicated that the settlements are illegal and that those settlers have no right to live there. However, they have not done anything to evict them; and they have not prevented the settlers from building roads up to their houses or getting electricity. Moreover, they have allowed the settlers to arm themselves with weapons from the army.
If you would like to go to the closest small town, three or four kilometers away, thereit’s OK. However, if you want to go to the nearest city, 15 kilometers away or so, then you face some annoying obstacles. First of all, you can’t take the closest road, because that passes by some of the settlements and the settlers don’t allowe any car to pass if it does not have a license plate of their own country. To walk or bike is definitely not to recommend.
There is another longer road, but before you arrive to the city you have to pass a military checkpoint, where soldiers of the occupying army are controlling who may pass. If you are driving a car it is difficult to get a permission to pass; if you are walking it is easier and that is what most people prefer to do. Then you take a bus or a taxi to the checkpoint, pass the checkpoint be foot, and then continue with another bus or taxi on the other side.
That means that a travel to the city, which during normal circumstances would take at the most half an hour, ends up taking maybe an hour – if you are allowed to pass.
A little further away there is a bigger city, which contains one of the holiest places in your religion. It would take approximately an hour and a half to go there – if it were not for a number of other military checkpoints aong the road and if you ewere allowed to drive on the modern fast roads which have been built by the occupiers. However, the checkpoints have to be passed and the new roads are not for you. Therefore it will take at least two and a half hour to reach that big city; if you are travelling during rush hour it can take much longer time to pass the checkpoints.
However, before you even can start thinking about going you have to have a permission to enter that city – and such a permission you will hardly ever get. It is so hard to get a permission that if you happen to belong to the lucky few ones, then your neighbours might suspect you of collaborating with the occupying country – and that it certainly not something you want them to believe…
Well, you are of course not living under such circumstances – but the one hundred villagers in Yanoun on the occupied West Bank are. They can’t walk freely around the village and have all the time to be prepared to meet a group of settlers. It’s simple to go to Araba, the closest small town, but to go to Nablus is an annoying challenge. To go to Jerusalem is almost impossible.
All Palestinians in the West Bank are victims of the same obstacles – checkpoints, separate roads, permissions etc. However, those who live next to one of the many settlements are extra restricted.
(I worked for the Christian Council of Sweden as an Ecumenical Accompanier, serving on the World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). The views contained in this report are personal and do not necessarily reflect those of the Christian Council of Sweden or the World Council of Churches. If you would like to publish or disseminate it further, please first contact the EAPPI communications officer and managing editor (eappi-co@jrol.com) for permission. For mor information see: www.eappi.org/en/home.html)
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Hi,
Now it is several weeks since I returned back home after three months in the West Bank, mainly in Yanoun, a small traditional village southeast of Nablus. During those three months I worked as an "Ecumenical Accompanier" which I explained in my first report. That will be my first contribution to my new blog:
________________________________________
The village that could have been an idyllic spot…
A small Palestinian village – Yanoun – with olive trees, thousands of years old, sheep and crowing cocks in a hilly landscape with a view over Jordan Valley. It sounds almost like an idyllic spot…
Yanoun is a small village on the West Bank, the west side of Jordan Valley, in the Palestinian area that was occupied by Israel during the Six Day War 1967 – and which still is occupied by Israel. According to the mayor of the village, Rashid, the name ”Yanoun” is a canaanite word, that is more than three thousand years old and which means ”tranquillity”.
Because of the occupation, the Palestinians on the West Bank suffer from a lot of restrictions in their daily life. It applies especially to all kinds of travels and transports, which often become extremely troublesome and slow due to:
– A large number of military checkpoints which have to be passed.
– A lot of detours the Israel army force the Palestinians to take in order to keep them away from the settlements which Israelis have build on the West Bank and from a number of roads that are reserved for Israelis only.
Two groups of Palestinians are extremely affected by the occupation: those who live next to the barrier which Israel is building to prevent Palestinians to enter Israel and big settlements and those who live close to the settlements. Only a minor part of the barrier is built along the internationally recognized border between Israel and Palestine, what is called the Green Line and which was the border before the Six Day War. The most part of the barrier winds itself on Palestinian area so that a number of settlements end up on the ”Israelian” side. The fact that a big part of the barrier is built on occupied territory and not along the border is the reason why the International Court of Justice has declared those parts illegal.
Because of how the barrier is constructed also large areas of Palestinian land has ended up on the wrong side, that is on the other side of the barrier from where the land owners are living. Every morning a large number of farmers have to queue to pass military garded gates in the barrier to be able to work on their fields on the ”Israelian” side. Those who may pass the gates are only those who have got special permits by the army. They have to pass only during those hours when the gates are open and they have to regularly renew their permits.
Those Palestinians who live next to religiously and nationally motivated settlements also have to endure frequent harassments by settlers who regard the West Bank as part of the ”Promised land” they according to the Bibel consider as theirs. (There are also other settlements, with settlers who live on the West Bank because of economic reasons, because they can get houses and apartements much cheaper than inside Israel.)
On the West Bank, where the land starts de descend towards the Jordan Valley you will find Yanoun, with about one hundred residents. It’s an old village, known for its olive trees, of which the oldest ones are said to be two thousand years old, and for its olive oil, which is said to be the best in Palestine – at least according to the people in Yanoun… It could have been an idyllic spot, if it hadn’t been for a number of small settlement outposts from a bigger settlement, Itamar, in the area.
These outposts are on the hilltops around Yanoun and is the reason why the village was almost totally abandoned 2002. The residents of Yanoun had at that time been harassed by the settlers in Itamar for several years. Afer five settlers had been killed by a Palestinian, Yanoun was attacked by settlers who beat all men they could find, killed a lot of sheep, polluted the well, burned an electric generator etc. All residents in the village, except two, left Yanoun. The whole story was reported in media and soon volonteers arrived from Israeli and other peace organizations to try to establish an international presence in the village to prevent settlers from taking over the whole village and to provide enough security so the residents would dare to return to their village.
Some of the residents did return, but they have to all the time adapt to the settlers on the hilltops around the the village. They can’t come to close to them and large parts of the land that the people in Yanoun traditionally have used for pasture etc have become inaccessible. Settlers, always armed, make frequent provoking ”visits” in the village or are passing over the fields close to the village, so the residents can never totally relax. However, it is obvious that the international presence is very important to prevent more serious actions and violence from the settlers.
Since 2004 the the World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) is responsible for the permanent international presence in Yanoun and from the middle of November this year until the beginning of February 2009 I am one of the four members in the EAPPI-team which will try to make life a little more bearable for the residents of Yanoun, the village that could have been an idyllic spot…
(I worked for the Christian Council of Sweden as an Ecumenical Accompanier, serving on the World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). The views contained in this report are personal and do not necessarily reflect those of the Christian Council of Sweden or the World Council of Churches. If you would like to publish or disseminate it further, please first contact the EAPPI communications officer and managing editor (eappi-co@jrol.com) for permission. For mor information see: www.eappi.org/en/home.html).
Now it is several weeks since I returned back home after three months in the West Bank, mainly in Yanoun, a small traditional village southeast of Nablus. During those three months I worked as an "Ecumenical Accompanier" which I explained in my first report. That will be my first contribution to my new blog:
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The village that could have been an idyllic spot…
A small Palestinian village – Yanoun – with olive trees, thousands of years old, sheep and crowing cocks in a hilly landscape with a view over Jordan Valley. It sounds almost like an idyllic spot…
Yanoun is a small village on the West Bank, the west side of Jordan Valley, in the Palestinian area that was occupied by Israel during the Six Day War 1967 – and which still is occupied by Israel. According to the mayor of the village, Rashid, the name ”Yanoun” is a canaanite word, that is more than three thousand years old and which means ”tranquillity”.
Because of the occupation, the Palestinians on the West Bank suffer from a lot of restrictions in their daily life. It applies especially to all kinds of travels and transports, which often become extremely troublesome and slow due to:
– A large number of military checkpoints which have to be passed.
– A lot of detours the Israel army force the Palestinians to take in order to keep them away from the settlements which Israelis have build on the West Bank and from a number of roads that are reserved for Israelis only.
Two groups of Palestinians are extremely affected by the occupation: those who live next to the barrier which Israel is building to prevent Palestinians to enter Israel and big settlements and those who live close to the settlements. Only a minor part of the barrier is built along the internationally recognized border between Israel and Palestine, what is called the Green Line and which was the border before the Six Day War. The most part of the barrier winds itself on Palestinian area so that a number of settlements end up on the ”Israelian” side. The fact that a big part of the barrier is built on occupied territory and not along the border is the reason why the International Court of Justice has declared those parts illegal.
Because of how the barrier is constructed also large areas of Palestinian land has ended up on the wrong side, that is on the other side of the barrier from where the land owners are living. Every morning a large number of farmers have to queue to pass military garded gates in the barrier to be able to work on their fields on the ”Israelian” side. Those who may pass the gates are only those who have got special permits by the army. They have to pass only during those hours when the gates are open and they have to regularly renew their permits.
Those Palestinians who live next to religiously and nationally motivated settlements also have to endure frequent harassments by settlers who regard the West Bank as part of the ”Promised land” they according to the Bibel consider as theirs. (There are also other settlements, with settlers who live on the West Bank because of economic reasons, because they can get houses and apartements much cheaper than inside Israel.)
On the West Bank, where the land starts de descend towards the Jordan Valley you will find Yanoun, with about one hundred residents. It’s an old village, known for its olive trees, of which the oldest ones are said to be two thousand years old, and for its olive oil, which is said to be the best in Palestine – at least according to the people in Yanoun… It could have been an idyllic spot, if it hadn’t been for a number of small settlement outposts from a bigger settlement, Itamar, in the area.
These outposts are on the hilltops around Yanoun and is the reason why the village was almost totally abandoned 2002. The residents of Yanoun had at that time been harassed by the settlers in Itamar for several years. Afer five settlers had been killed by a Palestinian, Yanoun was attacked by settlers who beat all men they could find, killed a lot of sheep, polluted the well, burned an electric generator etc. All residents in the village, except two, left Yanoun. The whole story was reported in media and soon volonteers arrived from Israeli and other peace organizations to try to establish an international presence in the village to prevent settlers from taking over the whole village and to provide enough security so the residents would dare to return to their village.
Some of the residents did return, but they have to all the time adapt to the settlers on the hilltops around the the village. They can’t come to close to them and large parts of the land that the people in Yanoun traditionally have used for pasture etc have become inaccessible. Settlers, always armed, make frequent provoking ”visits” in the village or are passing over the fields close to the village, so the residents can never totally relax. However, it is obvious that the international presence is very important to prevent more serious actions and violence from the settlers.
Since 2004 the the World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) is responsible for the permanent international presence in Yanoun and from the middle of November this year until the beginning of February 2009 I am one of the four members in the EAPPI-team which will try to make life a little more bearable for the residents of Yanoun, the village that could have been an idyllic spot…
(I worked for the Christian Council of Sweden as an Ecumenical Accompanier, serving on the World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). The views contained in this report are personal and do not necessarily reflect those of the Christian Council of Sweden or the World Council of Churches. If you would like to publish or disseminate it further, please first contact the EAPPI communications officer and managing editor (eappi-co@jrol.com) for permission. For mor information see: www.eappi.org/en/home.html).
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