Mind the Gap

Dear Family and friends,
I have finally come the final day of the course in oxford. yesterday came to an end at about 1;30 am with the final party that followed the dinner. We were so dazed for the final day since half of us had not slept almost the whole night. We had to pack and vacate our room before 10:00am. We sure did well with little sleep, packed our stuff deposited it with the Porters lodge handed over the key and the access cards to the gate and met in our tutor groups at 10:00. We had a good high tea and proceeded to evaluate our course.

We discussed our views on the course. Majority of us felt positively about the course. More than the class itself the interaction with the tutors, fellow students and other professional was the most important experience. We also shared our critiques of the program. One of the very significant criticisms was the use to Potatoes in all its forms. Potatoes were seen in all different shapes and sizes, sliced, baked, boiled, fried, semi fried, dried, in the salad, as wedges, as chips etc etc. Wow that was a lot for my whole life time.

Well in terms of constructive remarks, it was important for the course to provide an overview of the situation of the refugees. To this we had three main areas of input, the conceptualization of forced migration, the legal approaches and the psychosocial approaches. Too much time was spent on the first part. what could be completed in 3 days took 5 days. The second part was very good and very intense. The third part was given a step motherly treatment. We especially those from the social work background, felt that a lot more could have been done. The readings were not not very strong, moreover they were not in line with most of the discussions. We hence suggested to deal with it elaborately in the coming years.

The tutorials were rated the best and most useful sessions. It is a pity that we had so few of them. The activities that were planned were very useful and gave us many insights that would have taken many months to read and understand. Another key highlight is the use and interpretation of law when it came to refugees seeking asylum and resettlement. The methodologies used were particularly useful. I am sure i will be able to use much of that is my own class.

After the evaluation, we moved to the final session. We were undoubtedly the best group ever, as announced by the Director of the RSC. Every tutor so much pride in his own group and gave out the certificates filled with humourous comments about every student. That actually brought us to the end of the summer school.

We said our good byes to all our friends and began to leave oxford. Just before i was about to leave i went for a final walk. I met Rajesh a person who I wanted to meet before leaving Oxford. He did not know me but I had information about him from the RSC. While he was walking up the road I saw him and called out his name. He looked completely puzzled, I asked him if he was Rajesh, he said, "yeah how do you know it and how did you identify me" I said, "simple, the RSC receptionist told me that you had a Moustache and you are Indian."

Well we had a nice discussion about his work in Sri Lanka looking at the politics. We ended up knowing the same people in Sri Lanka and hence updated ourselves about those who we knew.

Finally it was really time to leave, i hauled my one ton luggage with books and materials from the summer school to the Bus Station got a bus to London. I got of at bakers street to head to the liverpool station. I was completely confused by those maps. However i braved it and took the train to reach Allan.

I i got into the grain guess what i heard, "mind the gap!"

Getting ready to leave

Dear Friends and Family.

It was the actually the last class. A day to have a beer with peers and say cheers so that we depart in Peace. However we had the final sessions, the final set of presentations and the final address by Mr Dennis Macnamara who served int he UNHCR and other UN bodies for about 40 years.

Today began with the recap of yesterday. We recounted our discussions and tried to summarize them only because we were ready with our points and there was no time to do it yesterday. The main points were related to the case study of Zimbabwe and displacement. From the case study we were able to bring out our understanding of internal displacement. After lengthy discussions we felt that globalization, structural adjustment and the market economy had it own role to play in the present crisis in Zimbabwe.
We then moved on to discuss the rules of the game of internal displacement. This was centered around the question of, "when does a person actually cease to be internally displaced." It sounds like a million dollar question. From our own experience we felt that there the classic cessation clauses that were in the guiding principles of forced migration or related instruments did not really work. For example some suggestion such as: When the situation changes. when the situation returns to normalcy, when the needs of the displaced people are met so on were too simplistic to solve the issue. Once a person is displaced it simply means that that person is uprooted we need to talk about the right to complete compensation such as if a person is displaced because of a development project the person should be compensated with similar land.

We all know too well that it does not happen that way. So we decide to just read and debate them to gain a better understanding of the perspectives of others on this issue.

This took us to the student presentations for a whole session. Issues related to refugee situations, the effectiveness of the UNHCR in Jordan and Syria we discussed elaborately.

We soon moved to the final session, it was a talk by Dennis Macnamara, a senior diplomat who had spent his life in the UN in the most coveted positions. In his lecture he was critical of the UN and spoke of its teethlessness to act and protect people who were in dire need. He outlined the limitations of the UN owing to the global politics. Quoting examples from around the world he said that the UN had an important role to play in the protecting the marginalized sections of the society.

After the lecture we were getting ready for the "Last Supper of the Summer School". We were given a hour to get dressed to come to the dinner. We had received announcements to come in our national costumes for the dinner. So once it was time we expected to see people from all the countries in their traditional attire. Well, owing to time and other constraints 50% of the participants came dressed in their traditional wear. It was a real spectacle to watch the some African friends who were so elegantly dressed.

We had a three course meal and went on to listen to Songs from different countries. The participants sang in their own languages and set the party mood for celebrations. Following the dinner the party continued and I had to don my DJ role again. This time it was cool because we had the music and there was not too much pressure so things were very smooth. People grooves, jived and even danced to our own dappa kuthu. That brought us to the end of the day.

Wrapping up

Dear Friends and family,
I am actually approaching the end of the summer school. It is wrapup time already. All that is left is the final case studies, presentations that will happen tomorrow. The last day will just have evaluations and closing remarks. Before that let me tell you what happened today. We had to choose between three working groups: Internally displaced people, Refugees and Post conflict reconstruction. I chose to go to the IDP working group. My choice was based on the subject i was interested in and as well as the people who were going to be there.

We had an elaborate lecture by Jean Francois. He outlined the entire IDP regime and gave a clear picture of the current debates of the very definition of the IDPs. The analysis revealed that treating IDPs alongside the refugees was unjust to both the categories. Our debate furthered into dissecting the IDP definition. The discussion revealed that it was impossible to precisely define IDPs as they fell in to a broad category. Hence the the attempt to define often ended up in descriptions.

In the readings that we had been assigned we noted that one of the major problems in dealing with IDPs was the inability of the international community to pressurize the governments to protect their people, promote the right to stay where there and right not to be displaced. In the event of any displacement it was impossible to deliver humanitarian assistance without the cooperation of the respective country.

In order to have a better understanding of the situation of the IDPs it we had to discuss the case study of Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwe case study actually brought out several issues that we were not aware of. Starting from the colonial history of the nation up to the current crisis we read a comprehensive article. In addition to the articles we also read the latest news reports. After the readings we had to respond to six questions that were concerned with the IDP situation in Zimbabwe.

The readings enlightened us the understanding of the steady deterioration of the nation from a socialist state that was catering to the needs of the poor to a state with 2000% inflation. The sides of political leadership and the blood letting became evident when we further discussed. Another interesting fact that evolved is that the major culprit in the Zimbabwe disaster was the Structural Adjustment Program, or globalization that systematically destroyed the economy in combination with corrupt officials and policies.

We then moved into a set of very interesting case studies where eight cases were given and we had to prioritize assistance for them. We had four groups that prioritized the issues so differently based on the preceptions of who needed what. That actually brought us to the end of the day,s deliberations. We reconvened at 8:00 to listen to a lecture on Sudan. It was very interesting to learn about the conflict, the oil politics and the displaced people. The three were linked integrally to form more problems. The speaker analyzed the patterns of displacement owing to the oil politics. Even more interesting was the role of China in the conflict as they owned the oil industries.

That took us to the next important moment where our Tutor Group met with our tutor to have a drink and wrap up our session with him before the actual evaluation that would happen on Friday. It was a very light hearted meeting to get a bit of his humour and also to thank him for all his wisdom.

Well will be back with more news soon

Psychosocial interventions

Hi All,
Today has been an eventful day. A day with a lot of psycho-social interventions. We started the day with the discussion on the psychosocial intervention. In fact we had a case study where we had to plan an intervention for a situation. In a camp the organization was being funded for an intervention on Trauma. The member of the camp were in need of a children's park. The funding agency was planning to send in a consultant to evaluate the situation of trauma for a long term intervention. the plan was to negotiate with the community members and get the program going.

We were divided into three groups and set to plan. It was a competition for a box of Swiss chocolates. Our group meticulously planned for a child centric approach. We would construct a children's activity room and get the children involved. Later we would reach out to the parents and other elders. We would use this time to study the children and assess their exposure to trauma and maintain records of the situation. After sufficient preparation of the people we would bring the consultant. Convene a meeting of the elders and other stake holders and take the program through smoothly. We had presented it in the form of a chackra that would grow out from the inside. We even named it as the "ashok chackra".

The three groups presented their plans and there was a voting. We were so sure we would get the chocolates. When the votes were counted, the last group that presented won by one vote. But we were still the favourites. With that we move to a plenary session on psychosocial interventions. The session tried to address many issues such trauma, camp life and other possible scenarios. The interventions came from real life experiences of the participants and the tutors. With the wisdom of the interventions lasting for about an hour we stopped for lunch.

At lunch the whole discussion was about the way in which the psychosocial issues were dealt with. "There was no role of the social workers mentioned, most of the interventions were psychology oriented, the intervention was given a step mother's treatment, it could have been dealt with in a much better way, it did not meet our expectations" were some of the dominant topics.

With that we moved on to our student presentations. We had presentations related to camp life, interventions in the camps, and many other topics. People were giving newer paradigms to the model interventions. In some presentations the participants tried raise vital questions which they have been struggling with.

The session gave us a clear understanding of the limitations of organizations like the UN as well.

After that i went to a friend's house, had dinner came back, watched a short documentary on Palestine titled"without rights"
In any case it was too early to sleep so two of my Japanese friends went fro a long walk. We got back and had a juice party with Indian snacks and completed the day.

The Dinner

Dear Friends and Family,
Today was the beginning of the last week of Summer School. The last week was filled with legal debates and analysis of the laws pertaining to the refugees in the international scenario. The most important learning from the last week was applying the laws to the case studies on granting refugee status. The interesting simulations and the discussions that followed enabled an understanding of the processes that were involved the dealing with forced migration.

With the beginning of the new week we began to deal with issues of well being. I was actually waiting for this week because I thought i could contribute more and and also wanted to learn more from the shared experiences of other interventions around the world. Even before the week began, Mioara, a social worker from the US said that "next week we will have a lot to say". It was as if we were waiting for this to come.

As the week started, and as we were meeting after the week end the first discussion was not on well being but on "what did you do over the week end" a barrage of replies came out. I went to the Bath, the Stonehenge, London some even dared to go to Scotland. After listening to those wonderful stories people were in fact tired after a week end of celebrations.

Finally we did get to the discussions on well being. We actually had to analyze two articles related to the topic. One was on research on well being and the other was on the experiences of implementation of a program in Iraq. The most interesting part was the analytical questions that followed. For example, "How does the described intervention conceptualize threats to the Iraqi population?" A loaded question that made the reading analytical and shred it thread bare to understand these issues.

After similar questions were discussed we were able to share with our own experiences with our group members. This was followed by a session on Well being by Dr Jason Hart. The lecture led us to a discussion on deep controversies of the role the psychosocial interventions played in politicizing the masses.

In the afternoon we discussed the lecture and then went into another set of readings. This time it was about what i had already read for my PhD, Karen Jacobsen's article on research methodology. The article that we read was a critique of her work and a reply to the critique by Karen Jacobson. With a lot of sharing we moved on to another lecture to wrap up the day.

With the academic exercises over, it was time for me to leave to Nick's house to cook for the family. I volunteered to cook Indian food for them. The menu was , rice pulav, chicken gravy, cauliflower manchurian, and aubergine chutney, and soup. I had all i needed, i even checked on the recipe before i left my room. I took my Japanese friend along with me because he loved indian food. Even before leaving the told me that he wanted to get back before 8:00 pm to watch the movie that was being shown. But after we went there he became my assistant cook. He all the veggies, the chicken and even the garlic. I was doing all the other work. I was cooking for 7 people and there were confusions about the quantity of ingredients. It actually appeared to be a lot, Kieta my japanese friend told me that it was too much . But at the end we found that we had very Little left over except for the aubergine chutney. In fact the soup, Flo's special was the best, it struck the right beginning.

It was quite late when i finished food. We had to get back because Kieta had a presentation to make this morning and had to prepare for it. So we got back evaluating the day's experience.

Symmetry of Life

I was at the breakfast today and listened to people who were speaking about going to the Bath and another group discussing about going to the Blenheim Palace. I was not very interested in seeing palaces hence i set off to go to the Bath. The previous day I had gone to the bus operators to find out the tourist routes to Leicester and other places they did mention to me about the bath. I also heard from my sister who lived in the UK who told me about it. So decided to take my chances to see the Bath.

We took a train to the Bath. While changing trains at Didcot i was so surprised to see a steam engine that just passed by from the station. I was thrilled to see it as it was the same as the one we have in Coonoor. The train was pulling a few small bogies. Before i could get my camera out the train disappeared. I had to board the train and leave for the bath. As soon as we got of the train there was a magnificent building that welcomed us. it was the Cathedral with a number of sea gulls welcoming. the cathedral was the last church built by the Tudors. The facade contained the angels going up and down the ladder. As soon as i saw it i was able to recollect that it was Jacob's dream from the old testament.

The Bath is very close to Bristol near the Atlantic. in fact like the other coast of the country. the sea gulls were all over making those gooing sounds to attract attention.

As we walked along we saw the Pump Room, presumably there was a pump there to take the wall up hill for distribution. Before i start with that, let me tell you about the Bath. The city is believed to be founded by King Bladud, the father of King Lear. He is said to have leprosy, so he came to the mud and rolled in it where his pigs were and got cured of his leprosy. In fact the name comes from the hot springs that are present there. Firstly the Romans used to bathe in the water and get heald of a number of diseases. Even now Rheumatism and allied diseases are treated with this water. The Romans then converted into a bath where the nobles could come and take bath.

We went to a hotel, and drank a glass of spring water which was rich in minerals and tasted like hot water. After drinking we went and saw the place of bath from the hotel. The water was green, and had a few feathers of a pigeon. we looked at it and told ourselves we just paid to drink this green water.

We then took a long walk to come back for the road walk guided tour. Walking around we went to the The bath Circus, this was not a place where people performed, but a huge Semi circular building. We even went into a museum house that depicted the life in the 18th century. We got to see the rooms the chairs, tables, food, bedding and all that they used including the toilet pots which were used because of no running water. The halls and everything was arranged in perfect symmetry as the people of that day loved things to be in order and life itself moved according to some sort of symmetry.

We got a chance to take a peek into the women's chamber which had all the make up essentials including a wig scratcher. The guide told us that women would use so much make up that some would die of it because the chemicals had lead in them. Many would loose their eye brows and used mice skin to replace it. Sounded awful but that was the pursuit of being beautiful.

The kitchen was absolutely great as it looked like the one in the old seminaries in India. The only difference being they are still in use there but in the UK the utensils are in the museum

On our way back we stopped to get some food as a small eatery, owing to the delay in getting the food and eating it we got the tour place half an hour late. Hence we missed the tour.

We then decided to go to the park. We strolled around and found the park where the Bath Band was playing. This was the first time I was witnessing a full band play in public. they were playing compositions of various artistes from the UK and the USA. Usually a brass band in our country plays for weddings, of festivals, in college the brass band is played for some occasions only. But here it was like an orchestra with the band.

We then took our train back to Oxford. The day was not over yet. My Japanese friend and I wanted to find some dinner. We went in search of the stores but they were closed so we decided to look for a distant store. After a good 15min walk we found that they was closed as well. So we decided to treat ourselves with Indian food. He was telling me that he was going to eat till he dies. We ate so well and got back to watch out Sunday evening show. To my surprise I had a Sri Lankan friend who was waiting to meet me. We had a discussion and he took me to his house and we started to talk many home matters the time flew by that we ended up talking till 11:45 pm. It was so late that i got to my room well passed midnight.

Views of Oxford

Dear family and friends,
After the party last night where I was the DJ again, we went to a night club. It seemed like fun, more music, more dancing and more fun as it seemed we came back at 2:30 in this morning. In our party we had a lot of fun. this time we had an international collection of music. People were set free to dance to their tunes. My friend Danelle took charge from me and played all the Reggae and made the people groove to it. I would manage the show by assisting in the technical details and getting the music organized. I would also fill in with my own version of the malsala mixes every now and then. I ended up teaching my classmates Bangara in the Chennai style for a song from Daler Mehendi.

Well after all that I was reluctant to get out of my bed but did so to make it to my favorite breakfast. It was lovely day with the sun coming out to signify that it was Summer. I did want to go anywhere for lack of company. I did not want to go to places all by myself. Many of mu classmates went to London. others went on local trips to Palaces and walks around the city. For me it was too boring to do it alone so I just wanted to take it cool.

As soon as i saw the Sun come up, I took this opportunity to take a long walk around the Town and waited for the sun to get to the top of the tower of the Church of Mary the Virgin. I climbed the stairs and went right to the top. Once i got there I saw the views of Oxford. The steeples of the churches, lawns of the colleges, the Thames, and the meadows that transported me to the English countryside.

I was half hearted to come down. I was reminded of the time when Flo and I went to the CN towers in Toronto, Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Empire State building in the US. I had to come down as i had spent about an hour on the top of the tower. I came down and looked around the Church. It was historical site. It was the parish church of Oxford and the church of the University for a long time. It was the place where the reformation actually peaked. I was appalled by the number of people who were murdered in the name of religion during that time.

I go a chance to take a peek at the room of Cardinal Newman, the one who wrote Lead Kindly light. The historical events just come up as you read these things. While this was happening the Church choir was practicing for its concert. the grand piano, the pipe organ, two violins and a double bass along with 15 tenors, 12 bass and 3 sopranos set the scene alive. I had to sit in that church and just close my eyes when they sang the Amen. it was like the most refined digital music authenticated by Bose systems.

Guess what they were singing? They were singing a composition based on Mozart and Kyrie Eli son and various cantos. the way they started and ended made the heart ebb and swell it orchestrated the my goose bumps. once they finish a song my hair would settle down but only to get up soon and dance to the music.

with this experience i came out of the church.

later that evening I walked to a mall and saw some usual stuff. I also met some Indian software guys who welcomed me home. We made a mutual agreement. I would go to their home and they would visit the college. As agreed i was supposed to visit them this evening, they were to send their address by sms.

After waiting a long time they never called, i sent a message but there was no reply hence i have resorted to my usual dinner and would go to sleep. in a short while from now.

Am not sure what i will be doing tomorrow. Will tell you whatever happens.

What it means to be in Oxford.

Dear Family and Friends,

Today was a pretty relaxed day. In fact it was optional to attend class as there were a series on lectures on the functioning of the refugees studies centre. No matter what it was i was interested in attending it. The point was that i wanted to learn more from this place. The much awaited lecture about the RSC started with the Director, Roger Zetter spoke to us about what it means to be in Oxford. They have a master's program, a D Phil program and the icing on the cake is the Summer School.

From what he said it is pretty tough to get into the Masters' program as the set the standards very high. they take only 25 students out of about 150 applicants. Moreover the students should have great references and good marks as well. Apart from all this it cost about 12000 to 15000 pounds to complete a nine month program for those India just multiply that figure by 84 and you will get the amount that it costs. But there are a few scholarships in fact they are always looking for students from the Developing World.

Had we known this earlier we could have applied well in advance when we had the age and time. the same procedures also apply to the D Phil as well. but once you get in the chances of getting funded are many. So did not sound as much as a nightmare. Listening to this made me feel that this sort of education was unreachable for ordinary people. in our parts of the world education is cheap but very few of us use it well to achieve good ends.

In fact i was thinking of my own college, the fees is comparatively cheap and students get an accommodation and food but when we organize anything after class hours it is impossible to track them. Well I know about the social burdens people come with, i guess that keeps them striving for other things apart from class room education.

The next part of the lecture was about Children and war. It was interesting see all my class mates turned up for it despite it being optional. Since the focus was on children it attracted more attention. A broad understanding of children in conflict was established. I was very familiar with the issues and was able to contribute to the issue. Some issues in the camp like early marriage, respect for elders, inter generational conflicts and economic problems were all too common all over the world.

After that interesting lecture i had a burritos for lunch. I was reminded of the lovely Burritos we had in Cockeysville. I made my own and ate and left for a walk outside. But as you may know this place has a bad weather any way. the moment i started it started to pour heavily. that did not stop me. I went to the Bodlian Library to see the very old manuscripts. I was paying attention to the mostly hand written literature that was much before the printing press. Stopping at every rack, i stumbled upon a palm leaf manuscript. I found that it was written in Tamil. But the description said that it was a common prayer book translated into malabaric. I took a closer look at it and found that i could read many alphabets and understand a few words as well. Then I learnt that it was Tamil for sure.

While i was about to leave the place i went to the curator staff and told them about my observation. He immediately got a piece of paper out and made a not of it and said, I shall let the authorities know about this. He greatly appreciated my contribution i was happy to do a bit. What i appreciated was his open mindedness to take that comment from me.

The next stop was at the History of Science museum. A place i would like to spend a whole week. They had so many astrolabes(things like sun dials) they were instruments that were used in astronomy. I realized that so much effort has been put in to understanding the earth and that universe. All the instruments were about 800 years old. I saw the first camera, the medical instruments that were used in conducting postmortems and also got to see some of the Chinese science developments. Here it was great to learn that the Jesuits were pioneers in taking mathematical equations to china. They taught the Chinese maths and also got them converted to Christianity. many of the exhibits openly acknowledge the role of the Jesuits in the social and scientific contributions.
Well after all that i went for a rain walk along the Broad street, high street, Magdalen street and so on though all this sounds long, all of it came to an end at about 6:30 since i had to get ready for the party at 8:00

Negotiation

Dear Friends and Family,

I have been waiting to come and share with you all that happened during the day. It is abt 11 now and I have run out of all juice to type. I am going to take my chances and try and tell you all that happened. I woke up reluctantly from my bed at about 5:30 am to get my readings done. I finally got it done by 7:00 am and went for my shower. Lo and behold there was a queue and thus had to wait. I rushed into the shower and got a treat of cold water. I rushed for my breakfast, ate my usual stuff and got out to do more readings.

At 9:oo am our negotiations started. We were dealing with the East Timor case. The country was a colony of Indonesia and had proclaimed independence in 2002 with the international community. There were 135 refugees who were granted citizenship and kept back in Indonesia. The job was to repartriate them back to East Timor. We had the East Timor defence Ministry, The international donors, the UN, the Indonesian Military, the Minstry of external affairs and the Portuguese govt.

I was part of the Indonesian minstry of External Affairs. We were allowed to talk to the Indonesian military to reach an agreement to repartriate the refugees. They would not agree to the end because hey were afraid that the refugees may be witness to the atrocities of the army and would get the Army punished for their crimes. With this hidden agenda, the army was never keen to promote the repartiation. But they always said,"it is not safe for the refugees to return since the conditions in the country are not conducive to return. They said that the returning refugees were a threat to the national security and hence there was no question of return.

WE then had discussions with the UN, the Portuguese govt and other actors and came to an great conclusion that they would repartriated with international protection. But before that they will be screened. Those who do not pass the screening would become a question. The east Timor Government felt that they would not take in the ex combatants who failed the screening and the Indonesians did the same as well.

We finally agreed to send them to the care of the UN who will find a third country to resettle. While all this was happening. The army was clearly wanting to fight the battle of hierarchy and power with the Ministry of external affairs. This was manifested in the first round of meetings with the UN in which the army was trying to take a lead and sabotage the initiatives. the ministry was aware of this and tried and cornered them.

After a whole round of discussion we had to come up with some solutions. Now another meeting was called with the UN. This time the Military did not have a chance to lead. The partied almost came to an agreement when the Military took the country through a Coup. this was dramatic but did not work. Finally we announced that the army personnel who created this confusion were arrested.

Then the UN went ahead with a decision to repartriate the refugees on the agreed circumstances.

We learnt to deal with the needs interests and positions. Secondly, when one position was getting strong the other was acting out of desperation. With all that the session came to a mighty end.

For the evening I met with Nick van Hear and Catherine. We had met them in Sri Lanka and then in India. in 2003 May. we spoke about Chennai, Colombo, Puttalam, and the east. It was nice to share perspectives and learn about their work. We then went to a pub and had a drink met with some of his friends. For dinner I had Tapas and Nick had something called Madras Balti vegetable. I couldnt help laughing when i Saw it. It came in a Kadai and you had to eat outof it.

Now we spoke about life, literature and livelihoods. In fact I have been given the opportunity to review a book on Internal Displacement in India. as we drank and ate our meal we met Catherine's friend arrived to join us at the table. She, her partners and four children had driven from Norway. Now they were returning from the Stone Henge monument. They showed their souvenir. i really wanted to go there immediately but restrained myself and told myself that I will go there some day.

Plus i have an additional responsibility I will be cooking next week for Nick and his family. I already have a menu going and will tell you once i have cooked and tasted the food.

that it for now zzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzz

that means i am sleepy

Presentations

Dear Friends and family,
even before i start let me tell you that i am really tired and sleepy, I have to gather enough strength to type. Because you will eagerly wait for my update I will make it a point to be brief and not disappoint you. Let me pick from where i left yesterday. I did finally enjoy it twice this morning, had a spice burst and felt relieved apart from having set my back on fire.

To quench the fire i went to have my usual breakfast, i have started to cut on the Baked beans, fried bread and the croissants with butter. I just took cereals, egg, a piece of bacon and a hashbrown. had to have it fast to prepare for my first presentation. I had to present my groups discussions in the morning. I was the day's starter.
My presentation was on the return issues from the centafrica case study. I was looking at three questions, What were the laws that were violated in the process of closing the registration? Was the principle of refoulement (sending a person against his/her will back to the country of origin)violated? What was the role of the actors who were involved? based on what we had discussed i was able to make a presentation.

Towards the end of the session I had a chance to elaborate on the treatment of the refugees in India and the attempts to repatriate them in 1997, the role of the UNHCR and the Indian government and so on. In an other occasion I was able to trace the the realities of repatriation when it came to long term refugees. Here i was able to draw from local examples where refugees went with the hope to returning home but had to languish in the camps in their own countries for over 10 years. this was well appreciated and people wanted to hear more.

Another question that came up was: How do you keep militants away form the camps? I quoted the example of Indias dealing with the militants and the qurantine system and the alternatives and so on.

I also listened to several presentations. The main thing that caught my attention was that of the refugees from Iraq who live in Jordan, Syria and other neighbouring countries they have been there in the millions. one office in Syria that operated with a budget of 8 lakh dollars had an increase of 60 million in a month and had to find about 200 people to work in the office. The refugees arrived in the thousands. They had a queue that was 4 miles long. THey decided to give tokens for registration with the dates. The last token was for mid may of 2009.

among the several things that happened today i had a chance to listen to Dr Sathaya who presented on the Tibetan refugees and their medical hazards undertaken during their flight. Then i also got a chance to present my topic. A sustainable model for nation building with the IDPs in Sri Lanka. Much of the theme was based on OfERRs work in Sri Lanka combined with my ideas of development. At this point i recalled all the houses and the IDPS who we work with.

Since many people presented on the law and its variations i was presenting with a development framework. It was well recieved. I got a chance to clarify the position of the non militant stand for sustainable peace to the group. I made use of this time to highlight the key alternative advocacy strategies, education efforts and other aspects of the lobby work.

After that i went for a detailed briefing on East Timor. We have a discussion/simulation in class tomorrow. I have a lot of readings to do. as i said I am now going to sleep since my fingers are typing some rubbish.

abt the photos,
the first photo is taken on a door way, it has minute details of birds.
the second is that of a Garcoyle which is trying to poop into a pipe drain. (they believed that it kept the evil spirits away)
the last is the statue of Judith who enticed the invading commander into her bed room and severed his head.(i swear this is taken from the Bible)

More Law

Dear Family and Friends,
Today was another day that was filled with laws related to refugees. We started the day with a loaded lecture on Seeking International protection. It made me wonder how the students of law would sit in a lecture that was so full of Law. It was so pregnant with ideas that many of us could not really understand what was really happening for the first fifteen minutes. I have hence recorded the lecture for my own understanding.
The next session was a workshop, the tile was Seeking durable solutions. We were given a case study, divided in to groups and asked to discuss a question. It was the modified case of the Rwandan conflict, the genocide and the refugee situation. The questions that followed were in four categories. 1. The admission processes of refugees in the country, 2. The Situation at the boarder, 3. Protection in the country of Asylum and 4, the possibilities of return.

I took the fourth point and discussed the issues with Dr Sathyanarayanan, the one who used to work with OfERR India. He now works for the UN. As we saw that the entire genocide could have been prevented int he first place. Secondly the refugees would have been treated in a better way to avoid further conflict. Thirdly the country of Asylum did not explore more options to deal with the burden of refugees. this resulted in the refugees and the militants living the camps. The camps became breeding ground for the Militia and eventually led to self destruction.

In all that i was doing I was constantly thinking how this situation was averted in our own refugee camps in India. I was not sure weather to term it the cleverness of the refugees or the brilliance of intelligence services. Even amidst the trainings that the Indian army was giving to the militants to fight the hegemonic regime in SL there were not many notable incidents of uprising or armed rebels in the Camps. In the group discussion i got a chance to talk about the efforts of Refugee organizations to take care of real refugees in India.

through out the day i was constantly thinking of OfERR and the work with the Human Rights project. I also thought that we had made real progress with situation of refugees. Not only that there has been a success with containing the refugees from the militant activity, there has been significant progress in the field of refugee protection and rights as well. Though there have been a lot of problems in the process there has been a significant progress.

after the class i spent some quality time with Ashel and Anushka who is celebrating her B'day. She has really grown and looks like a photocopy of my sister.

The highlight then came. We went out to an Indian restaurant, it was called Mirch Masala. First we peeped into a numbr of other restaurants looked at their menus, compared them and the prices and finally came to this place because it was seemingly ok on both the areas.

We wanted to order a biriyani but we ordered a coupleof Naans and rotis with an interesting Side dish called Madras Mutton Vindaloo. I was reminded of Roslind's vindaloo. We waited for 10 min. As we were getting hungry we smelt the Naans and rotis and also the vindaloo. While we were creatively engaging ourselves, the food arrived. i picked a piece of garlic naan and dipped it in the Madras Vindaloo and flung it in my mouth. The Naan was too good, the madras vindaloo was also good. It was so good that i would eat it once and enjoy it twice. I tried to mix a lime or salt but it was so hot that i was having tears down my cheek.

We did have a great time and then came home. I have two presentations tomorrow. So I should go to my bed to avoid any further delay since i have to look and do good tomorrow.


Please standby for my next message, i will surely tell you if i enjoyed it twice.

A Legal Day

Dear Family and friends,

This the beginning of my second week. After spending a the weekend sight seeing and reading it was time now to discuss and debate about all that we read. The topic of this week is Refugee Law. We had a Porf Guy Goodwin and international authority on the subject who set the perspective for us to understand the Refugee law. He spoke of the history of the Refugee management regime starting from the First world war to the current day.
Since i used to teach this course in Loyola a while ago i was able to go back to my mental notes. One comment i had made in the year 2000 said that the whole System that deals with the refugees is so Euro centric and does not talk about the refugees around the world. IN fact there were thousands of refugees from India to Pakistan and vice-versa. No one spoke about it. I shared it with my African friends who told me that they felt the same way since the situation in Africa was not any different.

We continued to discuss these issues the whole day. We came to a very interesting session where we had to read some legal materials related to the Inclusion and Exclusion criterion for refugees according to the United Nations High Commissioner For Refugees (UNHCR). We had to pick a case study in which one person had to be the asylum seeker and the other person had to play the Immigration officer. In my team we were four people. Two asylum seekers and two officers. The case was set in Bangladesh, Asam, a homosexual was beaten by his family and sent out because he was caught having sex with his male servant. Zahir had recieved 300 lashes for raping many young men in the work place. Both of them had been living together in an apartment, it was vandalized and broken down. They were seeking asylum in Australia.

We had to build the case strongly. Debbie was Asam and I was Zahir. We made up a case looking up the legal readings and presented it. after the case was argued there was a voting for the grant of asylum. Mr asam was granted asylum and Zahir was not based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. In fact they could not decide on the judgement but the vote did not give asylum to Zahir. It was a pity.

Similarly we had others in my class playing 3 other stories with intensity. the votes were divided based the law. Finally we had time to argue the case and find out what really happened in the actual case. It was relieving to find that MR Zahir has also got asylum. The analysis of all the cases revealed that he questions and arguments we were building were immaterial to the actual country of asylum. it helped me to understand the working of the asylum mindset and deal with it accordingly.

After class i had a great meeting with Prof Richard, a Pedro Aruppe fellow who spent his time talking on his experiences of bridging academic research with Field practice.

Soon it was time for the evening seminar on South Africa which focused on Xenophobia. four of my class mates from there presented their case and gave a clear picture of the happenings there. Listening to it made me think that Hatred has no reason but hate itself.


Last word: the pictures that you see are:- the world's most expensive violin, Dr Sathya and Francesca (from Italy) in front of Radcliff, and the boat ride that you can take around Oxford (thanks to Janaki who told me that it was called Punting. Young learners here take fruits and snacks and go in that boat for a few hours).

well since i have to go and read and sleep let me take my hands of the key board