Rethinking Agrarian Futures through Local Action (ReAL) in Costa Rica
This article shares the experiences of three Indigenous women’s groups that are actively defending their lands and practicing food sovereignty in Costa Rica; these experiences take place within a project from UPEACE’s Department of Environment and Development with the support of the IHE Delft Institute for Water Education.
Selection of Poems from the ‘The Unfold Pinnacle’ – Part II
Selection of Poems from the ‘The Unfold Pinnacle’ – Part II Author: Basanta Kumar Kar Too Late This is the story about a seventeen years old malnourished tribal woman and a mother of a malnourished girl child from Tumrikasa, Manpur, Rajnandgaon, Chhattisgarh, India. Rajnandgaon, a district that host many political heavyweights is dominated by the […]
Common Things: Communication, Community, Communal Peacebuilding
“I do not have thin fingers, as a farmer, my hands become part of the land and its fruits… I need this thick tombs for nurture the vegetables.” Maria Emma Prada is a “countryside lady” in her own words. A woman which has stood up for the rural women in Colombia.
She is one of the most important leaders in Colombia of ANMUCIC (National association of indigenous, afro -descendent and peasant women of Colombia) a main organization of women of the country.
Maria Emma is a refugee in Costa Rica since 2000. Her life and her family were threatened, on the one hand, by paramilitary groups, fuelled by the false news that emerged about her as part of the guerrilla in the national media. On the other, given her efforts to gain access for her organization to the peasant production and infrastructure government projects, the guerrillas believed that she was a collaborator and informant to the Colombian army. She had no choice but to leave the country.
There is an abysm between the facts and the human rights discourse in Colombia. Despite that the National Constitution consecrates Human Rights as a part of the fundamental rights of Colombian people, reality is way too far of the written laws.
Media is part of this huge gap, owe that, instead of promoting the citizen participation in accordance with an attempt of a negotiation of the armed conflict through peaceful means, it has contributed to the re -victimization of people in the countryside and people of social movements, as well that it has facilitated to all sides – guerrillas, paramilitaries and the government – to legitimate the atrocities of war by focused in heroes and villains actions.
It is necessary that media and journalism help to rethink the country that we are and the country we want to be from a human right´s perspective in the new Colombian post – conflict scenario.
Keywords: Colombian conflict, media propaganda, evil, grassroots media, women organizations, victims, communication.