Fighting corruption, boosting integrity.

         This report was published at OECD.org in 2011, this is a summary and the title is above.

      Life may not be fair, but we all need to believe that the rules governing our lives are fair, and that corruption will be rooted out. That mean ensuring that the spirit of the law is respected, and that we have the right set of rules governing our societies. Tackling corruption and abuse of the system is vital to restoring people`s trust. Public sector corruption result in poorer public service.
      This is not just about big bribes to high-ranking officials to win contracts, it is also about ordinary taxpayers who end up with shoddy bridges, roads and buildings as a result.
       Sometimes, monitoring systems are not enough. Corruption is by its very nature secretive and often it takes someone inside to expose corruption and any good citizen wanting to warn somebody, but what if this person do not know who inside should complain to, or if the last person who did so lost their job or was accused of breaking confident rules.
        Whistleblowers acting from the best of motives often find that they are seen as the problem, not the solution. Losing their jobs, being discredited and even ending up in jail for speaking out, enough to discourage anyone from doing the right thing. Civil society groups such as Transparency International have long campaigned to protect whistleblowers.
       At the same time, people are asking whether some of the rules themselves also need revising. Should bankers` contracts allow them a full bonus even when profits have plummeted and taxpayers has paid for a bailout?
        One thing is clear. Having clear rules and ensuring that they are respected are key to rebuilding trust and better trust leads to better policies, which leads to better lives.

Vol. Teac. XXIII - Famous Quotes

      This post is a selection of quotes from many webpages searched at Google. Quotations is the reproduction of the words of a speaker or writer. A quotation whose author is forgotten or unknown becomes a saying. We can learn something with them.

      " By three methods we may learn wisdom: first, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; third, by experience, which is the bitterest."

                          Confucius

      " Leadership is lifting a person's vision to higher sights, the raising of a person's performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations."

                           Peter Drucker

      " Human  history  becomes  more  and  more a  race  between  education  and  catastrophe".

                       H. G. Wells

      " Teachers open the door, you enter by yourself ".

                      Chinese proverb

      " Freedom is when the people can speak, democracy is when the government listen."

                               Alastair Farrugia

      " Live as if you were to die tomorrow, learn as if you were to live forever."

                             Mahatma Gandhi

       " It is not enough to rage against the lie, you' ve got to replace it with the truth."

                           Bono U2

       " The great penalty those of us who live our lives in full view of the public must pay is the loss of that most cherished birthright of man, privacy.¨

                           Mary Pickford

       " The privacy and dignity of citizens are being whittled away by imperceptible steps, taken individually, each steps may be little, but when viewed as whole, begins to emerge a society in which government may intrude into the secret regions of a person`s life. The fifth amendment  ( compensation for government abuse ) is an old and good friend, it is one of the great landmarks in the men`s struggle to be free of tyranny and to be civilized."

                      William O. Douglas

       " Who sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither."

                         Benjamin Franklin

        " Information is the currency of democracy."

          Thomas Jefferson            
                                                                                
      "Gratitude is the memory of the heart."
Jean Baptiste Massieu

      

        " Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

                          Martin Luther King

        " He who opens a school door, closes a prison."

                        Victor Hugo

        " What a teacher writes on the blackboard of life can never be erased."

                           Author unknown

Julian Assange and the new wave

     This report was published at Economist.com at July 7th, 2011. This is a summary and the title is above.

     A host of non-profit actors have entered the news business, blurring the line between journalism and activism. These are non-profit organisations that are involved in various forms of investigative journalism.As funding for such reporting by traditional media has been cut, they are filling the gap using methods based on digital technology. Some of them make government data available in order to promote openness, transparency and citizen engagement, some gather and publish information on human rights abuse and some specialise in traditional investigative journalism and are funded by philanthropy.
      And then there is Wikileaks. Launched in 2006, it was intended to be ¨an uncensorable wikipedia for untraceable mass document leaking nad analysis¨. In 2010 it abandoned the wiki-style approach and adopted a new, editorialising tone. Mr. Assange explained that gave it more impact than simply posted leaked material online and expected people to seek it out.
      Despite Wikileaks`s difficulties, its approach is being adopted by others. Al Jazeera has set up a ¨transparency unit¨ with a Wikileaks-style anonymous drop box. The WSJ launched a drop box of its own in May, but was criticised for not offering enough protection to leakers. ¨Everyone`s looking at the idea, but if you`re going to do it you have to make it really secure¨, says the Guardian`s Alan Rusbridger.
      What happens next depends in part on the fate of Mr. Assange.
      The Sunlight Foundation, based in Washington, DC, also campaigns for government openness and transparency, but in a different way from Wikileaks. Its aim is to make data more easily accessible. All this provides raw material for journalists. For example, Sunlight Live, wich combines alive video stream of government proceedings on a web page with information from databases to provide context.
      The line between activism and journalism has always been somewhat fuzzy, but has become even fuzzier in the digital age. The Sunlight Foundation has been closely involved in the campaign to get the US government to provide more information about its workings. There have been similar initiatives in Britain, Australia and New Zealand, and several US cities and states have made information available about anything from procurement contracts to traffic accidents.
      In the developing world, transparency campaigners are pushing for greater openness about aid flows and the governance of natural resources, and campaign groups are often the most credible sources of information  about human rights abuses. In the past, bringing such information to attention meant working with news organisations. Yet thanks to the web, NGOs can now also publish material independently.
     Human Rights Watch (HRW) now sends photographers and radio producers to producers to work alongside its researchers in the field. Amnesty International is creating a ¨news unit¨ staffed by five journalists.
     ¨We are beginning to realise that there is a wider range of people who are qualified, have the integrity and are competent to be part of the reporting picture, and NGOs are part of that picture¨, says Sammer Padania, who advises them on the use of tech. ¨So being able to verify the accuracy and provenance of material is vital¨. he says.
      Dan Gillmor, professor of journalism at Arizona State University says, ¨in the end what matters is not whether or not particular people qualify as journalists but whether the work they produce is thorough, accurate, fair and transparency enough to qualify as journalism¨.

Stronger Civil Society Means More Power for the Weak

     This report was published at Guardian.co.uk, at July 7, 2011. And was written by Jonathan Glennie, This is a summary and the title is above.

     There are few truths in development that I hold to be self-evident and this is one of them: no matter what the problem, stronger civil society is always part of the answer.

     If we define development as rapidly rising living standards, some of the fastest growing countries in recent decades, such as China, have been authoritarian regimes with little independent civil society. However, the fruits of that growth have been shared unevenly. Strengthening civil society will lend political power to those parts of society that need to argue for their needs and rights.

      Furthermore, if we allow a broader definition of development, one that covers political and civil rights, not just improvements in health, education and income, then one of the central aims of development is to enable poor people to hold the powerful accountable. That, surely, is what civil society does at its best.

      So it is good to see that a new coalition of international NGOs, including Frontline Defenders, Freedom House and the Asia Forum for Human Rights and Development, has set up what they are calling the ¨Embattled NGO Assistance Fund¨. The aim of this fund is to help civil society activists withstand crackdowns and pressure, enabling them to continue their work to defend citizens` rights and freedoms.

      Many people now agree that gradually direct aid to governments needs to be replaced by support to non-governmental activities, including the strengthening of those necessary parts of an effective and democratic state that are not centralised in the government.

     There is, however, one major problem, the same one as ever. Aid is a form of soft power used by rich countries to gain influence abroad. That influence has often been used benignly, but equally often it has been used to shore up the interests of those powerful countries. This is a complex paradox at the heart of the development agenda, and it is often most apparent in work on political freedoms.

      Passing money through NGO consortia, as is the case with this new fund, rather than spending it as direct government aid, is generally a good way of reducing the political baggage that comes with it. But the essential conundrum remains: it is hard to separate this kind of funding from the ideology and interests of the giver. Can foreign countries be trusted to support the interest of the poor and voiceless rather than putting their own interest first?

      The answer, in short, is no. But there is no better option. The grave situation of human rights defenders in many countries requires concerted action, even if motives turn murky. Examples in the press release for new fund include ¨ a draft law in Cambodia to increase government control over NGOs, government freezes on NGO bank accounts in Ethiopia, the detention and torture of human rights defenders in Bahrain, coordinated attacks against and restrictions on the movement of opposition members in Iran, and the violent dispersal of demostrations in Belarus.

     It would be surprise if this new fund was not broadly a force for good in the world, particularly as the NGOs involved have demonstrated their independence and deep concern for human rights regardless of politics. And I am going to stick to my belief, evidenced or not. Whatever the assessment an external actor makes of a country situation, one of the best things it can do is support the growth and development of independent community organisations, NGOs and the media.