Carteret Islanders: the first climate change refugees
"Carteret Islanders of Papua New Guinea have become the first climate refugees as they relocate to new sites to escape the effects of climate change on their homeland.
According to PNG's Post Courier, the islanders moved to their new homes, Tinputz, the relocation site, last Wednesday to prepare the land for their families to move over permanently.
...
There were reports in the media earlier in the year and even late last year stating that the Carteret Islanders will be the first refugees of climate change and this has come to pass."
(Solomon Islands News, 06 May 2009)
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CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Viewing the poor through Western eyes
"In global campaigns on issues like landmines, trade, medicines or small arms, international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) face dilemmas of control. How much of the management and publicity of a campaign should they keep and how much should they give away?
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Interational NGOs (INGOs) are often the intellectual originators of campaigns. They are also some of the few global organisations with the requisite money, sophistication, media expertise and brand recognition to run a global campaign. For efficiency's sake, they need to drive global campaigns.
In countless NGO communications, civil society heroes from Asia and Africa are presented as dependent second class citizens, defined primarily by their relationship to the international NGO.
Pioneering local campaigners are introduced as an "Oxfam partner" or a "CARE project". There is a colonial echo here in the implication that it is really INGOs who are saving the situation as the primary movers and shakers.
Part of the reason for this kind of post-colonial choreography by INGOs is because they are still required to be the visual mediators of the poor world to the rich world.
In Western society, our INGOs are inter-cultural gatekeepers. They know both worlds and report the one to the other."
(Hugo Slim, 30 Apr 2007)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Agora Phobia (digitalis): Ambiguous Private/public Space
Direct Exposure
Agora Phobia (digitalis) is a project taking place in physical as well as virtual environment. It deals with the flexible concept of safety in public and private spaces. Agora Phobia (digitalis) challenges the viewer/participant to go into the experiences related to isolation, safety, vulnerability and private/public. Inside the "isolation pillar" pictured above the visitor can engage in a closed internet dialogue with a person living in isolation. These people are for example a prison, a nun, a hermit, an agoraphobic person, a refugee. Extracts of the dialogues are published in the website where also the public can take part in discussion and send messages.
Find further information on Karen Lancel's Web site.
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The Constellations ProjectSHARE
