Monthly Archives: April 2014
Educating Rohingyas
Written on April 30, 2014 at 12:05 am, by Ian Holliday
Sectarian violence in Rakhine State has isolated Rohingya communities and reduced or even eliminated access to essential services. This much is widely known. But what is the current situation in towns and villages across the state? I talked through this issue with a local aid worker (based in Yangon) who recently surveyed educational provision in…
Thingyan 2014 – Jacqueline Menager
Written on April 29, 2014 at 12:05 am, by Ian Holliday
Thingyan has become virtually unrecognisable from its traditional roots as a cleansing New Year celebration. Amongst all the changes, though, there is one constant feature: it remains the site of new relationships. Where in the past a potential suitor would raise their interest with a gentle pouring of water over their love interest’s shoulder, now…
In conversation with Htein Lin
Written on April 28, 2014 at 12:05 am, by Ian Holliday
Htein Lin is one of Myanmar’s most challenging contemporary artists. He’s currently engaged in a landmark project to make gypsum plaster (or plaster of paris) casts of the hands and lower arms of former political prisoners. Earlier this month he had a one-man show of recent paintings at Yangon’s River Gallery II. He’s long been…
Pansodan Friday Journal
Written on April 25, 2014 at 12:05 am, by Ian Holliday
Pansodan Friday Journal is no more. Launched on July 19 last year, it flourished for a brief but exhilarating seven months, and appeared in its final issue on February 28 this year. Still, this was a significant cultural initiative, and it does have an afterlife. The journal was born into a vibrant artistic and cultural…
The Irish Constitutional Convention – David Farrell
Written on April 24, 2014 at 12:05 am, by Ian Holliday
I was privileged to be the research director of the Irish Constitutional Convention, which met over an 18-month period from late 2012 through to early 2014. Established in the midst of Ireland’s worst economic crisis, the intention behind the 100-member body was to bring “ordinary citizens” into the heart of debates over important questions of…
Lost in translation?
Written on April 23, 2014 at 12:05 am, by Ian Holliday
Experts from the Humor Research Lab at the University of Colorado have spent the past nine months working out which are America’s 50 funniest cities. Really it’s a crazy project. Crazier still is a book recently published by team members Peter McGraw and Joel Warner – The Humor Code: A Global Search for What Makes…
Reconciliation in Rwanda
Written on April 22, 2014 at 12:05 am, by Ian Holliday
In the wealth of commentary quite properly generated by this month’s twentieth anniversary of the start of the Rwandan genocide, two brief articles caught my eye. One by Laura Seay was academic: an overview analysis of whether reconciliation by legal means has worked. The other by Susan Dominus was journalistic: a report on one photographer’s…
Sectarianism under Modi
Written on April 21, 2014 at 12:05 am, by Ian Holliday
The strong likelihood is that the remarkable general election currently taking place in India will result in victory for the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party and its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. In itself, this will be significant for Myanmar. Also of rather dismal cross-border interest is the long record of sectarian discord associated with…
Constitutional convention
Written on April 18, 2014 at 12:05 am, by Ian Holliday
One consequence of We the Citizens was that several months later, in July 2012, the two houses of the Irish Parliament passed a resolution to establish a convention on the constitution. A ragbag of tasks drawn from different party platforms was specified for it, including altering the presidential term, reducing the voting age, reviewing the…
We the Citizens
Written on April 17, 2014 at 12:05 am, by Ian Holliday
Alongside listening projects, several other tools are now used by societies around the world to enhance the involvement of ordinary people in political and policy processes. Participatory democracy, deliberative democracy, deliberative polling and citizens’ assemblies are all variations on a core theme – the umbrella term “mini-publics” is often used to describe them. Today I…