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.