Happy World Documentary: Burma

Posted on March 19, 2012 | 3 comments

On Friday I bought a copy of this satirical documentary about modern life in Burma.  It was released  last year and although it’s already outdated a little and it represents only the thoughts of the two French film-makers, it’s still worth watching (with a pinch of salt):

Click here for the second and third parts.

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Results of Conflict

Posted on March 19, 2012 | Leave a comment

According to the Landmine Monitor 2011:

“Both the military junta in Burma and non-state armed groups have continued to use anti-personnel mines extensively”

We visited Mae Tao Clinic and were able to see the direct results of these mines first hand.  There was a board in the prosthetics room in the clinic with over 2o names of patients awaking new or renewed legs/feet etc. One name was of a 17-year-old boy who was getting his leg “renewed” for the third time.  The work of this clinic, founded by Dr. Cynthia Maung was pretty inspirational.

Last year, Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi called on all combatants to “cease the way of mines” and all groups to “start to ban landmines in their operations without waiting for their opponent to start to do it.”

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Thai-Burma Trade Border

Posted on March 19, 2012 | 1 comment

The “Friendship” Bridge separating the two countries (Burma in the distance)

Border Trade.  They grey area between Burma (on the left) and Thailand (on the right side of the barrier) with stalls build on-top of the razor wire.

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Field Trip 1: Mae Sot

Posted on March 14, 2012 | Leave a comment

Our first field trip is to border town on Mae Sot.  It’s an industrial town situated seven hours north-east of Bangkok on the Burma/Myanmar border.

Mae La,  28-year-old “Temporary Shelter” for 50,000 people on the border

We arrived on Sunday and we’ve spent the last few days meeting NGO’s and governmental organisations dealing with issues around Human Trafficking, Human Rights and Migrant Labour.  There have been many meetings each day which have so far included the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR), the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and woman’s groups representing the Karen tribe etc.  Not surprisingly, the details of how traffickers practically go about their daily business, has been the most sobering.  The internet connection hasn’t been great up here so I’ll be adding more details over the weekend when I get back to Bangkok.

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Mediation and Negotiation

Posted on March 14, 2012 | 2 comments

Last week was spent with Jan Sunoo and Pat Dunn from the Federal Mediation & Conciliation Service in the USA.  It was an intense week and we looked at tools and techniques for third part interventions including an Interest Based Negotiation model.

Pat demonstrating some active negotiation skills

Many of the skills were similar to that of TIDES’s OCN courses in Conflict Management (active listening, summarising, paraphrasing and re-framing etc.) but the process itself differed in the fact that it focussed very much on negotiation and not on mediation as a form on conflict resolution (i.e. the ability of the third-party to offer potential alternative solutions was much greater).  I was able to co-facilitate a full day role play with Jan which allowed to me an insight into the more subtle nuisances of the process itself. We also looked at other facilitation techniques such as Appreciative Inquiry and Open Space Technology.

Jan looking at Issues and Criteria in an Interest based Negotiation situation.

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Posted in Conflict Resolution, Course Content, Rotary Peace Fellowship

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Cross Cultural Conflict Resolution

Posted on March 7, 2012 | Leave a comment

Monday was “Cross Cultural Conflict Resolution” day so we all had to dress in our national clothes.  As you can see from the pictures below many of my colleagues had their traditional attire, I on the other hand ended up going to the local shopping centre and finding a”traditional” Ireland Rugby shirt… along with a picture of Dunluce Castle and a stuffed leprechaun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Imal from Afghanistan                                                   Wisdom from Ghana

Bana, Sagorika, Indrajee and Jayanta from India

We looked at Cultural Competency and explored some of the issues around “unearned privileges” and “daily indignities”.  The rest of this week has been about Meditation and Negotiation…

 

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Nonviolence

Posted on March 7, 2012 | 2 comments

It’s been a few days since my last post as I’ve spent the weekend (and the last few evenings) working on my first major assignment, a 10 page Conflict Analysis report.  I found it a useful exercise with the process of practically looking at “connectors” as well as “dividers” and “drivers” in a conflict situation at home, very beneficial to my work.

Week 2 finished with Dr. Chaiwat Satha Anand (Director of the Thai Peace Information Centre at the Foundation for Democracy and Development Studies) giving us a thought-provoking lecture into the “Theories of Non-violence”.  His theoretical framework and personal experiences were all very practical and he posed question such as; what really constitutes a non violent action?  He proposed that all of these actions lie on this continuum somewhere:

Dr. Chaiwat Satha Anand discussing the differences in sitting positions between protesters who ran away and were shot and those who remained unharmed.

We also started to prepare for our first field trip to the border down of Mae Sot in a weeks time.  More to follow…

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My top 10 TED talks relevant to Conflict Resolution

Posted on March 3, 2012 | Leave a comment

TED talks are a fantastic free resource and I believe the following talks contain useful “Ideas worth Spreading” for Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding.  Let me know what you think…

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Rotary Club of Bangkok South Presentation

Posted on March 3, 2012 | 3 comments

A few of us were asked to give a brief overview of our work at lunchtime to the Rotary Club of Bangkok South on Friday.  Here I am suited and booted talking about the work of TIDES Training at home.

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Posted in Bangkok, Rotary Peace Fellowship

Conflict Analysis cont.

Posted on February 29, 2012 | Leave a comment

It’s been a pretty intense couple of days working through various conflict analysis models (see below).  In particular I’ve found the systematic analysis of interlinking connections between Attitudes, Structures and Behaviours to be a useful process and I can see how I could practically apply this model to work at home.  Which is no bad thing as I now have a 10 page analysis due for next week revolving around a conflict in NI that must be relevant to my work at TIDES.  At least I know what I’m doing this weekend…

Hybrid of Galtung’s Conflict Triangle with Do No Harm principles.

Conflict map of a situation in Darfur (terminology taken from the scenario)

Some light reading handed out today in preparation for the field trip.

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