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