Two participants enjoy life

9-11

Happy 9-11? Not everyone think so. Does the song "Yesterday" make sense today, or should we rather look forward and grab the day of tomorrow to be able to solve the challenges of today? Is it fruitful always to start out with the discussion of who did it or is it time to just move forward? How precise do we have to be when we image our enemy? Does 9-11 legitimize domestic and foreign policies that would otherwise not have been pursued? There are obviously a lot of issues related to the aftermath of 9-11 which we sometimes comprehend and approach differently.

Ragheed Al Solh: Challenges for the Middle Eastern region (by Katrine)

From Ragheed Al Solh's point of view there are at least three different approaches to be identified regarding the solution to the challenges for the region. First, there is the conservative way, where people really don't want to change the system, second there is the radical approach, which is relied upon of both the US and the EU, in different ways though. The European Union is concerned of the perceived threat mainly coming from Northern Africa whereas the United States is more concerned of the international terrorism coming from the extremist groups in the Middle Eastern region. Both the EU and the US are into the economic and social issues in the region, which no Arab really will disagree upon. The third approach is the reformist approach where the important part to focus upon is regional cooperation and it should be pursued primarily from the civil society.

Two main obstacles concerning the development of the Middle Eastern region are on the one hand the leader problem concerning implementation of the decisions made although that the exact same leaders seem to be able to make quick decisions on various topics. On the other hand it can turn out to be a major obstacle if reformist actions actually are taking into actions and the EU and US not are able to keep out their own interests in the region and the perceived fears out of the policy solutions that they eventually will be a part of.

The Challenges of the Middle East (by Mohammad)

The session started by Dr. Al Solh, who pointed out the challenges of the Arab Regional System, which in its current form is one of the oldest regional systems in the World. He mentioned the two important regional structures: the Arab Summit Conference (interministerial meeting) and the Arab League.

He then talked about what he call the chronic problems in the Middle East; the lack of intentions from the Arab leaders to implement policies, where in 1945-1979 only 5% were implemented appointments.

According to the magazine The Economist the region has opportunities such as more than half of the international oil reserves and a common language - but the opportunities are constrained by the relatively weak regional system.

In relation to the socio-economic field the lack of interregional trade is a major challenge to the development in the region.

On the gender challenges he conducted a comparison between Arab parliaments and African parliaments; only 2% of members of parliament in the Arab world are women and 9% of members of parliament in Africa are women.

Then he talked about what he believed are some of the prospects for reform, which he believes are attached to the regional level: an Arab Security Council, a common Arab Market and GAFTA.

He elaborated on questions like whether the Arab world is ready for democracy with all the illiteracy and unawareness.

He stressed that democracy could work even if the society has a high percentage of illiteracy, where he used India as an example, where after he gave the example of a prospering economy under the lack of democracy and in that regard China was quite the example.

The ADDA group met with the Danish Foreign Minister Mr. Per Stig Møller

Jacob Erle's presentation of Hannah Arendt "On Violence" (by Jultan)

An introduction to Arendt's "On Violence" was conducted through a brief presentation on Arendt's conceptual differentiation of the concepts of Power/Authority/Force/Strength/violence.

It was obvious that summarizing her book in these differentiations aroused many points of debate, and in such a context, it was obvious how an explanation of both her biographical background and the milieu in which she wrote that book was most fundamental or else we would end up in a dilemma of misinterpretation of her concepts.

To portray her life, it is obvious how she suffered from the loss of one's identity, having to flee to France in 1933 to escape the Nazis, then in 1941 to the United States where although she got the American nationality, she felt still different, then upon visiting Germany later, she was regarded as the American professor, so in some how she went through a series of losses from family to identity.

Her works include The Origins of Totalitarianism ( 1951), the Human Condition ( 1958), Eichmann in Jerusalem ( 1963).

"On Violence" came as a means to examine why student violence was disrupting campuses in America and around the world after the students' demonstrations of 1968. In her own words, the context that the book was written was that of " a century of wars and violence".

To quote her:

Under conditions of tyranny it is easier to act than think.

Power and violence are opposites; where the one rules absolutely, the other is absent. Violence appears where the power is in jeopardy, but left to its own cause it ends in power's disappearance.

No government exclusively based on the means of violence has ever existed. Even the totalitarian ruler whose chief instrument of rule is torture, needs a power basis- the secret police and its net of informers.

EDU-Game

The subject for this game is placing different problems such as 'trafficking', 'environment', 'drugs', 'social inequality', 'mafia' etc. in a local, national, regional or global level and point at where solutions to these problems should be addressed.

The game was a huge success, and it seems very meaningful in showing some of the problems in creating a democratic development in the Middle East.

The game was very efficient in showing how the Danish and Arab groups percept the presented problems in very different ways. The results from the two Danish groups were very similar, but there was a huge difference in what the Arab and the two Danish groups consider a problem and at what level these problems should be solved. The Arab's consider most of the problems to be of a global character and that these problems should be solved at this level. The two Danish groups consider more of the problems to be of a regional, national or local level, and that these challenges therefore should be addressed at these levels. There is an obvious difference in the perception of the presented problems. Since the problems from an Arab point of view are global, the solution to these problems is out of the hands of the civilians. Therefore the civilians cannot be hold responsible for the development. From a Danish point of view this point is hard to understand and also difficult to accept. This point will be a subject for further discussions the following days.

The 21st century's challenges from the Middle Eastern perspective - the EDU game (by Dina)

First there were four categories that we used in relation to the challenges that the region face. The categories were: local, national, regional, and global. We were divided into three groups, the Middle Eastern, the Danish girls, and the Danish boys.

We - the Middle Eastern group - put nothing on the local level, because countries in the Middle East don't suffer from problems on the local level.

On the national level we put social inequalities, generational conflict, we added corruption and over population, and these are mainly the problems that some of the countries in the Middle East suffer from.

Then, we put knowledge race, school closures, and water resources on the regional level.

On the global level, we put most of the challenges. This is mainly because that we - as third world countries - are not well represented in the international decision making process, and that we - to a big extent - are excluded from this process, so the Arab countries do not have many tools to solve the problems they face by themselves. Arab countries have become subjects more than objects. Because of this, we regard most of the problems as global ones, like: oil - slavery - chemical spill - child labour - climate change - dangerous working environment - AIDS - interest fluctuation - transnational companies - air pollution - drugs - trafficking - multiculturalism - torture - biodiversity - the mafia - natural disasters - industry decline - cultural conflict and international currency trade, and we introduced others like: immigration, and terrorism.

In regard to the institutions that can be able to solve these problems, we put nothing on the local level again because there are no challenges on the local level, beside the decentralization of power in the countries in the Middle East.

On the national level, we regarded the government and the parliament to deal with corruption, and the social inequalities. The government was also expected to deal with over population and generational conflict.

On the regional level, we introduced the Arab League and the Gulf Cooperation Council to deal with the challenges on the regional level.

Then, on the global level, we regarded a lot of organizations that have a global role to deal with it, like: UN - OPEC - WB - OECD, also there were some countries that can deal with these challenges like: USA, India, and China, then the EU comes with its sub-bodies to be placed between the regional and the global level, because it some times has partnership relations with parts of the region.

We observed that where you find Bush you will often find terror.

And we introduced International NGO's that can play an important role in facing these challenges.

We excluded some of the institutions that we believe do not have an important role in facing these challenges, like: NATO - the police - the military - OSCE - the local authorities.

EDU game - the Danish girls (by Zahra)

Round one, September 7th.

At the first day playing the EDU-game, we were divided into three groups. The Middle-Eastern in one group and the Danes into a girls' and a boys' group.

The Danish boys' group was very efficient and quick. There seemed to be very few discussions and a broad agreement in their group. The guys completely eliminated the humanitarian causes and focused instead on the business and economic issues. And their issues were quite equally divided into the four different levels.

The Middle-Eastern group believed in the democracy. The majority rules! And since the majority in the group is Egyptians, they quickly took the lead. There was not much discussion, but a lot of votes instead. They managed to get through a big part of the issues if not all. 95% of their issues were placed on the global level and not a single issue was placed on the local level.

In the Danish girls' group there was a strong belief in argumentations and discussions, which we used a lot of time on and everyone participated and had something to say. The girls mainly focused on the humanitarian causes and barely looked at the economical issues. The different issues were also quite equally divided on the four different levels.

Round two, September 11th.

On the second day of playing we were divided into the same three groups. We were told to place a "problem solver" on the different issues we had chosen that is different institutions or individuals whom we believed should solve the problems.

But even though that that was our project in the second round, the main focus quickly was on the Middle Eastern group and why they had placed most of the issues on the global level. A bigger discussion automatically started, and confusion followed. One of the big topics was why they placed school closures on the global level. The answer was "we don't have the resources to do anything about it". And of course that caused a lot of commotion. Unfortunately time did not allow to finish the discussion.

Start of project night (by Sarah)

A brief inspiration on intercultural project making. We saw a chapter from 1 Giant leap, a DVD made by to DJ´s from London. The DVD had different effect on different people.

Ideas were presented one by one, and questions were asked to the ideas. Many different ideas came up and introduction to a method called "Game Plan" was made to have a title and a goal for all projects.

The process continued, and then the participants chose the projects that they'll participate in, and as a result some projects were postponed because there was no immediate intention from enough participants to prepare these projects during these few days.

Then we were divided into groups and started working on the projects, and figured out the steps needed to implement these projects.

A presentation is to be done by each group to tell what they achieved, and how the project will work.

The ADDA group worked hard to keep the balance

Danish Institute for Human Rights - Wednesday 13/9 2006 (by Cecilie)

After a bus ride from Vallekilde to Copenhagen we arrived at The Danish Institute for Human Rights at around 10.15 AM. We were located in a conference room with a beautiful view over the canals of Copenhagen. The session started out with a short introduction to the organization of the Danish Institute and how it relates to the Danish government, how independency from intervention from the government is best secured etc. Following the introduction the session went on illustrating how the work of the Danish institute corresponds to the International Declaration of Human Rights, this part of the session also included definitions of what human rights are and how the covenants and bills of humans are related. The session ended with a brief discussion; here the questions mainly regarded actual programmes in the Middle Eastern countries and critical questions on how the actual independency from government intervention is secured (it was questioned how independently the work of the institute actually is). What I found really interesting about this session was some of the comments after the session, here the real motives of the institute was questioned, it was pointed out that on the surface, the establishment of the institute seem really idealistic, but in reality the true motives behind it was, by some, thought to be purely a matter of self interest.

The ADDA group met with MP Mr. Naser Khader in the Danish Parliament

Naser Khader (by Simon)

After a very brief introduction to human rights we went to see MP Naser Khader of the social liberal party in Denmark.

We met him in the meeting room of the social liberal party where we also saw the chairman of the party Søren Bald. After a short introduction we went to the parliaments meeting room to have a discussion upon democracy.

Naser Khader told about his views on the Danish democratic system, which he spoke very highly about, and discussed the possibility of implementing Sharia legislation in a democracy. Naser Khader expressed his doubts about implementing Sharia even if there was a large majority in favor for it. He had the impression of Sharia that there could be no return from Sharia to civil legislation.

After the session we went back out in the sun to enjoy our lunch.

The ADDA group at the Danish Parliament

Visit to HLT-International (by Rebecca)

We had a very interesting visit to the architect office HLT-International, which is working on several building projects in the Middle East. When you walk into the HLT-international from Vesterbrogade, Copenhagen, you feel as though you enter a completely different world. The office space is a former department store, which has been transformed into two open workspaces. The atmosphere in the office seems very open and it's bobbling with creativity and busy young people. Here we met with the director of the international department, Louis Becker.

It was very interesting to hear how HLT-International works and develops their architectural ideas. Louis Becker explained, how they combined the classical Islamic architecture with a modern style in their designs in the Middle East. He stressed, that the Middle East has been lacking a development in the Islamic architecture and that a lot of the modern architecture has been dominated by the American architecture - one factor that actually explains HLT-International's success in designing buildings in the Middle East. In their unique designs they rethink Western style and technology into the Middle Eastern way of life using both elements from the culture as well as the surroundings as sources of inspiration - examples are water, corals and palm trees.

Furthermore, Louis talked about what it was like as a Danish company to work in the Middle East during the cartoon crisis. He said that the crisis had an impact on some of their projects: "During the crisis I drove down the road in Saudi Arabia on my way to get a project appointed in a competition and all the stores had posters saying "boycott Denmark" - and of course we lost the competition". Another interesting thing he mentioned was the importance of personal contact and a firm handshake in doing business in the Middle East instead of just exchanging an impersonal business card.

Perhaps we could be inspired of these ideas when we discuss democracy in the Middle East and Denmark. Could it be possible to combine the best from the cultures into the concept of democracy instead of just exporting the Western concept?

The ADDA group used a lot of time exchanging ideas

Two impressions of the visit of Imam Abdul Wahid Petersen - Thursday morning

Some points of the presentation of Imam Abd El - Wahed (by Dina El-Sayed Hany)

This presentation mainly tackled Islam as a religion and the situation of the Muslims in Denmark.

First of all, Imam Abd El-Wahed differentiated between the religious rises of Islam that dates back to the creation of Prophet Adam (May peace and blessing be upon all the prophets) and the historical one that dates back to 1400 years ago.

He pointed out that Islam provided all the human beings with absolute values, divine unchangeable ones that acts as guidelines. He said: there is no free independent opinion, all the time our opinions are under attack, so we will be at risk if we rely primarily on our own views and decisions without going back to the guidelines that the Qur'an provided us, like the ship when it floats in the ocean without a captain.

He added that some of the societies now are moving towards a destructive way morally and ethically.

He also said: the Lord knows that his creatures will live in different contexts and times, and he provided us with his words to be guidelines to all the human beings, so no one should say how can I go back to a book written 1400 years ago. According to Imam Abd El Wahed, this is not a normal book. Instead it's a divine book, which all the Muslims should follow, this fact had been agreed upon by all the Muslims that believed in the Qur'an as the words of Allah and the Prophet Muhammad (May Peace and Blessing be upon him and all the Prophets) as the messenger of Allah.

Imam Abdul Wahid Pedersen (by Tor)

At 9:30 Thursday morning we met the Danish imam Abdul Wahid Pedersen. He did a lecture on Islam and especially the Danish Muslims and their history. He talked about how the Turkish, Moroccan and Pakistani people, who came to Denmark in the sixties to work, have created communities very similar to the societies of their homelands. This was in his opinion a very natural way to react when you are living in another culture. His example was the Uzbek community in Jerusalem, which is 400 years old but still maintain their language and culture.

The most disputed part of Mr. Pedersen's lecture was his opinion on Islam as a government type. Most people didn't agree on his view that this type of government might be just as good as democracy. His arguments were based on the core idea that so many things affect us as humans - our minds are under attack - and that makes us incapable of governing in a perfect way. Only God can do so.

The ADDA group evaluates the two weeks together