cAIR10
7-10 April 2010
Graz, Austria
Welcome!
Richard Parncutt
Martina Koegeler
Old news: Skin color and poverty
One billion people are hungry. They are mostly black.
A child dies due to hunger or poverty every 5 s.
International Conference on
Financing for Development
Monterrey, Mexico, 2002
• world’s 22 richest countries
• pledge: 0.7% of national~ income in ODA
(official developmental assistance)
~$200 billion/year (cf. Iraq war: ~$100 bn/year)
~could eliminate extreme poverty (Sachs, 2005)
Average current level of ODA ~0.33%
USA~ 0.22%
Official Developmental Assistance in 2006
as % of gross national income – by country
 Sweden
USA
UN target: 0.7%
Official Developmental Assistance
Why is only Sweden paying 1% GNI?
Is Sweden special?
Better education?
Less sexism and racism?
Skin color, culture, violence
Genocides and politicides 1955-2001
Sudan, South Vietnam, India, Punjab China,
Iraq, Algeria, Rwanda, Congo-K, Burundi,
Indonesia, China, Guatemala, Pakistan,
Uganda, Philippines, Pakistan, Chile,
Mexico, Angola, Cambodia, Indonesia,
Argentina, Ethiopia, Congo-K, Afghanistan,
Burma, El. Salvador, Uganda, Syria, Iran,
Sudan, Iraq, Somalia, Bosnia, Burundi,
Rwanda, Serbia
Barbara Harff (2003). No lessons learned from the holocaust?
Assessing risks of genocide and political mass murder since 1955,
American Political Science Review, 97, 57-73.
Skin color and child soldiers
Skin color and life expectancy
AIDS
Area of country on map is proportional to
number of AIDS deaths per year
Female genital
mutilation (FGM)
Infant mortality
deaths per 1000 live births
Death penalty in the USA
more likely if killer black or victim white
Drug dealers in Austria
2000-2007: Austrian media reports suggest
• most drug dealers are black
• most blacks are drug dealers
2006 national police report on drugs:
No. of arrests of suspected drug dealers
• 61% Austrian
• 8% Nigerian (~15% black)
The media did not publish this.
There was no apology. No-one knows.
Skin color and literacy
dark blue = under 50%
Global warming
more serious in the tropics
Are the following racist acts?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Not paying 0.7% GNP for ODA
Instead financing the Iraq war
Using “War on terror” as a distraction
Ignoring unfair trade, tax oases
Not signing Kyoto
Not promoting condoms to prevent HIV
Not addressing indigenous health issues
Not rejecting far-right politics
European xenophobia
Far-right parties have
significant support in
most EU countries
Interculturality
in current European news
• Italy
– Lega Nord triumphs in regional elections
• Russia:
– Islamic suicide bombers in Moscow underground
• France, Belgium
– When is Burka/Niqab ok?
• Switzerland
– no new minarettes
• Turkey
– promotes Turkish-language schools in Germany
– convinces US to avoid term “genocide”
– threatens to expel 100,000 Armenians guest workers
Interculturality
in current world news
• USA
– success of first black president
• Israel
– settlements in East Jerusalem
• Iran
– G8 threaten sanctions
• China
– conflict with Google
Graz today
• NGOs
• Research
– human rights
– legal advice
– language
– employment
– women’s issues
– ikndividual
minorities
– SE Europe
– history, literature
– religion
– sociology,
– psychology
– cultural studies
– anthropology
– philosophy
Intercultural history of Graz
the Austro-Hungarian empire
• 16th -18th C.: Turkish wars
“normal” xenophobia
• 1867-1918 Monarchy
– about 20 official languages☺
• From 1870 German-nationalism
• 1939: Annexation by Nazi Germany
 popular support for Nazis unclear
• 1945: Austria = “victim of Nazism”
 less denazification than in Germany
Intercultural history of Graz
postwar
•
•
•
•
1955: state treaty, neutral republic
1960s: guest workers from SE Europe
1990s: immigration from E & SE Europe
2000: Austrian government coalition with
far-right “freedom party”; EU sanctions
• 2001: Human rights city
Accepting difference
Interaction between cultures
Awareness of
your own …
…and
other
cultures
Equal rights and dignity
Tolerance for ambiguities
Main aims of cAIR
Short term:
• synergize practice and research
 please emphasize this synergy in all presentations!
Long term:
• promote intercultural communication
• reduce racism
 difficult to monitor
cAIR: Communities of practice
Equal opportunity as a prerequisite for constructive collaboration
• Equal rights and obligations
– practitioners and researchers
– practitioners/researchers in different areas
– languages, religions, skin colors
• Analysis,
exposure and
deconstruction
of implicit
theories of
self-superiority
Welcome to cAIR10!
Submissions by country
Welcome to cAIR10!
submissions by topic
Promising:
• Visible symptoms
– health
– minorities, refugees
– towns, cities
• Awareness raising
– arts
– education
– language
Not enough?
• Big forces
– global politics
– business, economics
– mass media
• Cultural detail
– religion
– ways of thinking
Progress is possible!
Historical examples
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
French revolution
American independence
Abolishment of slavery
Education and voting for women
Defeat of dictatorships
International declaration of human rights
International criminal court
Internet and transparency
 Elimination of extreme poverty and racism?
Martin Luther King
African American civil rights movement, 1963
I have a dream that my four little children
will one day live in a nation where they will
not be judged by the color of their skin but
by the content of their character.
Wangari Maathai
Nobel Peace Prize 2004 for contribution to sustainable
development, democracy and peace
We can work together for a better world with men and
women of goodwill, those who radiate the intrinsic
goodness of humankind. To do so effectively, the world
needs a global ethic with values which give meaning to life
experiences and, more than religious institutions and
dogmas, sustain the non-material dimension of humanity.
Mankind's universal values of love, compassion, solidarity,
caring and tolerance should form the basis for this global
ethic which should permeate culture, politics, trade, religion
and philosophy.