Human Face : Asian-European sounds in Helsinki

First posted 00:11am (Mla time) Sept 07, 2006
By Ma. Ceres P. Doyo
Inquirer

Editor’s Note: Published on Page A11 of the September 7, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

HELSINKI — Here in the land of revered Finnish composer Jan Sibelius (1865-1957), Asian and European peoples’ voices are being aired loudly. Here is a symphony of sounds, so to speak, rising, blowing with the cold Baltic wind that is getting colder by the day.

The event is the Asia-Europe Peoples’ Forum 6 (AEPF 6) for NGOs and civil society organizations (CSOs) that are non-state and non-corporate. The theme is “People’s Vision: Building Solidarity Across Asia and Europe.”

What better way to start than with a short ferry boat ride and an informal dinner-gathering of kindred spirits at Suomenlinna Island, a historic tourist site just off the city? After that it was back to the city and the tasks ahead. Time for long words and CSO-speak.

AEPF aims to bring all these voices from the ground to the official Asia Europe Summit (Asem) and create alternatives to Asem’s “neoliberalist agenda.”
Asem would be to Asia and Europe what Apec is to Asia Pacific and the United States. Well, more or less. Heads of state, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, among them, are attending Asem, which consists of the member countries of the European Union (EU), the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and East Asian countries China, South Korea and Japan.

AEPF (which I am attending) consists of NGOs and civil society groups from all European and Asian countries. Created in 1996, AEPF has had forums every two years that paralleled the Asem summit. The last one was in Vietnam. These forums are meant to give a venue for CSOs in Asia and Europe to discuss issues that affect their respective regions. (Not to confuse this with AEBF, or Asia-Europe Business Forum, which is also going on.)

Asian and European CSOs have called for more civil society participation in Asem but this is not happening. These groups have had to make their own parallel gathering in order to call attention to issues on the ground. Coming out together in a big way calls the attention of world leaders and decision-makers. The Philippines has a good representation in AEPF, from the non-communist Left mostly, and why not, it is also the NGO/civil society hub of Asia.

As a bi-regional network, AEPF has indeed opened a new chapter in people-to-people relations and among CSOs in Asia and Europe. Socio-economic and political experts from both regions have recognized the significance of intergovernmental relations and concerted responses to issues.

Besides strengthening linkages in these two regions, AEPF has made lobby visits to Asem member countries to bring up the Asian financial crisis and call for an Asia Monetary Fund, European development cooperation and the EU-Latin American regulation.

AEPF has also done research on the impact of economic instruments such as the Investment Promotion Action Plan and the Trade Facilitation Action Plan developed by Asem.

There have been exchanges on privatization of water utilities in Asian cities and the involvement of European companies. The reconciliation process in the Korean peninsula and security issues have also been discussed in the past. The AEPF network has been expanded with the inclusion of Vietnamese groups and requests from Chinese groups for inclusion.

AEPF bewails the “narrow economic focus” of the Asem process that results in the “severe marginalization” of key concerns such as human rights, equitable development, democratization and environmental protection. Government-civil society dialogue has yet to be concretized.

AEPF sees EU-Asia relations to be in an interesting stage. Both are seeking positions in the global trade and the geopolitical state of affairs. For EU, it is the inclusion of new countries, deepening integration and major constitutional issues.

In Asia, things continue to unfold. There is the restructuring of the labor market, migration, deregulation and privatization of public services. Asia also hopes to be a fully integrated region with the establishment of the East Asian Community modeled after the EU.

The question: How united can East Asia be with its “patchwork of political discord, territorial conflict and economic equality”? Asia has much to learn from the EU experience.

AEPF’s long-term goal is to establish itself as a leading forum for advancing a critical understanding of Asia-Europe relations through research excellence, policy formulation and campaigning. “Critical mass” is important if it is to sustain its interregional connectivity, expertise and collaboration. It hopes “to develop into a hub of networks with genuine national and international significance leading to multilateralism from below.”

AEPF’s target groups from below are trade unions, peasant and farmers organizations, food sovereignty networks, environmental movements, human rights and development groups, women’s movements, indigenous peoples’ movements, peace movements, debt and trade justice campaigns, academics and students. Throw in the media, parliamentarians, policymakers in government, and Asem-related institutions. It’s a very potent brew.

Deliberations, discussions and debates are still going on among the stakeholders. More on the aftermath next time.

So much for long words and CSO jargon. Tomorrow, AEPF’s last day, there will be a meeting with Asem delegates and the drafting of the Final Declaration. And a street carnival in the center of Helsinki.

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 Human Face : Surging like ’The Oceanides’

First posted 01:21am (Mla time) Sept 14, 2006
By Ma. Ceres P. Doyo
Inquirer

Editor’s Note: Published on Page A13 of the September 14, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

HELSINKI — After days of Nordic food, bottomless coffee, workshops, talk shops, civil society networking and so-called “open space” discussions (throw in a few films), the 450 participants of the Asia-Europe People’s Forum 6 (AEPF 6) held in Helsinki called it a day.

There was no evidence of rice-and-spice-deprivation withdrawal among the Asians as they were very vocal, as victims and potential victims of neo-liberalism should be. Asians and Europeans of the G&D (grim and determined) grassroots variety have, once again, found their collective voice. On the fourth day, they let it all hang out at a city square through songs, dance, mime and a “people’s soup kitchen,” courtesy of the Finns.

Here in the land of a thousand lakes, the land of the revered composer Sibelius, (for “cellphonephiles,” the land of Nokia), Asian and European voices swirled and rose, like the ocean’s roiling surge in Sibelius’ symphonic poem “The Oceanides.” (Finland is just a wee bit larger in area than the Philippines but has a population of only five million. Compare that to our 80 million plus, or just Metro Manila’s 10 million.)

As AEPF ended, the object of its trajectory, the Asia Europe Meeting (Asem) was about to begin, with government leaders in attendance, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo among them. These Asian and European leaders forge political and economic links that could spell the race to the top for some or the race to the bottom of the ocean (the Pacific, particularly) for many. Together, the Asem member-states have influence over half the world’s GDP.

AEPF, the vibrant people’s forum that it was, ended on a high note, clamoring to push the people’s alternative agenda to the attention of Asian and European heads at Asem.
AEPF 6 holds its big assembly parallel to Asem that meets every two years alternately in Asia and Europe. Asem 2008 will be held in China and already, AEPF is wondering whether it could also hold its own there. At the plenary, the distinguished Susan George, fellow of the Netherlands-based Transnational Institute, described China with foreboding as the worst example of communism and capitalism.

Well, Chinese “NGOs” (read: government-supported) at AEPF got it on the chin. And why not, they came with propaganda installations that showed Tibet as a happy place, (no)thanks to China. But that is another story.

George warned that unbridled competition between Asia and Europe is destroying the European social model. “European leaders who tell us that the European Union needs to accept open markets, labor flexibility and deregulation are pretending we can do the impossible — compete with China and other low-wage but high-skill, high-tech countries.”

Asia-Europe relations, she stressed, must be based on cooperation rather than competition if a race to the bottom on wages and social welfare standards is to be avoided. George was also concerned that the European Commission is using trade negotiations to undermine the development of public services and greater equality within Asia.

Charles Santiago, director of Malaysia-based Monitoring Sustainability of Globalization and member of the AEPF organizing committee, agreed. “With the WTO discussions stuck somewhere between the intensive care unit and the crematorium, there is fear and concern from the Asian side that the EU will aggressively pursue its trade and investment objectives through bilateral agreements,” he said.

AEPF 6 hoped to provide ways for Europeans and Asians to cooperate rather than accept competition as a way of life.

Neo-liberalism, the evil that AEPF has bashed to a pulp, remains a global threat. I asked delegate Dr. Alfredo Robles of De la Salle University for a layman’s definition and he called it “a night watchman’s concept of the state, it means privatization, deregulation, liberalization, with minimal state intervention in the economy.”

But AEPF, he said, could provide strategies for exchange and an articulation of alternative views. It can also influence official processes, say, in Asem. Well, the Asia-Europe Business Forum (AEBF) has a voice within Asem while AEPF, the people’s voice, has to cry out loud in order to be heard up there. AEPF seeks to be recognized as an independent forum that has a legitimate role in the Asem process.

“Asem has a continuing democratic deficit,” AEPF’s closing statement said. “Asem has concentrated on promoting cooperation between governments and representatives of business interests, and its agenda has been geared towards trade, investment and political issues. The economic pillar has promoted pro-market policies as opposed to alternative people-centered policies.”

In other words, AEPF said, there has been no attention to learning from those who have felt the effects of the imposed development patterns — the farmers and workers in both continents, for example.

The groups within AEPF must go beyond constantly talking to one another and project the AEPF’s socially oriented agenda more forcefully through concrete moves. They should make use of the different forms of media. But first, they must speak simply and carry a big picture, give their concerns a human face. What does it look like down there?
For example, Finland’s reindeer herders are a threatened lot because of too much logging in prime forests — an issue brought up at AEPF through film. Tapio, the God of the forest in Finnish mythology, must be angry. Also, the issue of Asian labor and migration in Europe was among the hotly discussed topics at AEPF. And so, before flying home, I made sure I picked up some related stories — the Filipino au pair problem in Europe, for example — for a special feature.

I also picked up some smoked reindeer cold cuts from the Finnish deli.