Two weeks ago, I wrote a post on this blog about going to the Yosemite Valley with a group of Mongolian educators, and I talked about rivers and bugs and the importance of putting environmental monitoring tools directly in the hands of Mongolian citizens (click here to see a short film on the group visiting Yosemite).

After the Yosemite trip, I visited once more with the Mongolians before they returned home, this time along the shores of the Pacific Ocean at the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, where they were continuing their study of water quality monitoring.

Seemed strange to me ” isn’t Mongolia landlocked? What’s the point of teaching them about water quality in the ocean of all places? I posed the question to Chris Plante, The Asia Foundation’s Director for Environmental Programs.

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On April 7 and 8, an important conference on the Philippines was held in Washington, D.C., titled “Can the Philippines Break Out of its Affliction: Prospects for Democratic Governance, Economic Development, and Philippine-U.S. Relations,” organized by Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) Southeast Asia Studies Program and The Asia Foundation, with generous support from Exxon-Mobil Corporation.
This program was a chance to focus attention in Washington on the Philippines, and it was occasioned by the Visiting Professorship at SAIS of Noel Morada, immediate past Chair of the Political Science Department at the University of the Philippines. This piece is a follow-up to last week’s, which discusses panels I-III.

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On April 7 and 8, an important conference on the Philippines was held in Washington, D.C., titled “Can the Philippines Break Out of its Affliction? Prospects for Democratic Governance, Economic Development, and Philippine-US Relations,” organized by Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) Southeast Asia Studies Program and The Asia Foundation, with generous support from Exxon-Mobil Corporation.

This program was a chance to focus attention in Washington on the Philippines, and it was occasioned by the Visiting Professorship at SAIS of Noel Morada, immediate past Chair of the Political Science Department at the University of the Philippines.

Read more »

Nepalis go to the polls on April 10th for the most important election in their nation’s history, one that will choose a 601 member Constituent Assembly to rewrite Nepal’s constitution. The election has been a long time coming, and its success is crucial to Nepal’s immediate peace and democratic future.

Beginning as an unfulfilled promise by King Tribhuvan in the 1950s, the call for a Constituent Assembly reemerged in the 1990s as one of 40 demands by the Maoist insurgents. After a decade of armed conflict, in 2006 the Maoists and the government signed a comprehensive peace agreement that included as a key feature elections to a Constituent Assembly. The government scheduled polls in June 2007, and then again in November 2007, but both times the elections were postponed due to political maneuvers and unrest. Now, on the third attempt, the election is finally going forward.

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In the last several days here in Kathmandu, despite real and threatened violence, a flurry of campaign activity has taken place in advance of Nepal’s critical Constituent Assembly election. Parties from across the political spectrum engage in planned and spontaneous rallies that snake through Kathmandu’s narrow lanes in a seemingly endless procession of colorful flags, banners, and percussive chants. Motorcycle caravans numbering in the hundreds, often with two or more riders astride each bike, chaotically rumble up and down the city’s wider thoroughfares, waving party flags and calling out to passersby for their support. In Kirtipur on Sunday, Prachanda, the leader of the decade-long Maoist insurgency and himself now a candidate, laid out his agenda for change: a passionate desire to bring education, fresh water, and new roads to Nepal’s most remote regions. Prachanda (a nom de guerre meaning “the fierce one”) appeared to have settled comfortably into his new role as “the candidate.” Speaking before a crowd of several thousand of his fellow countrymen, he respectfully requested their support.

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“Everything is connected. John Muir explored these very mountains and came to that same conclusion. That’s how we approach the environment in Mongolia — by understanding that everything is part of a system.”

We’re in the car descending into the magnificent Yosemite Valley in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains. Chris Plante, The Asia Foundation’s Director for Environmental Programs, is explaining to me why we’ve brought a group of Mongolian educators here — 13,000 miles from the arid steppes of Central Asia to lush rolling hills, almond orchards, old mining towns, and fir-lined granite mountains still packed high with snow. These teachers are here to learn about the importance of water quality monitoring, and how they can introduce simple experiential learning into their own classrooms in some of Mongolia’s most remote areas.

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Last week, just before dawn on Tuesday morning, six boats loaded with over 120 people left the island of Sin Hai and sailed for the mainland. Elsewhere along the coast of Ranong province, hundreds of other people climbed into buses and pickup trucks to travel to Ranong city for an event held by The Asia Foundation in conjunction with the provincial government. The long-awaited day was the culmination of a program organized by the Foundation’s Tsunami Rights and Legal Aid Referral Center (T-LAC) to provide free DNA tests which enabled unrecognized Thai citizens to prove their nationality and obtain ID cards.

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While it’s easy for the dramatic events of the last year in Pakistan to overshadow other issues, the stories that do not get told often tend to have the largest, daily impact on people’s lives. Pakistan’s very recent history has been full of tremendous highs and lows ” Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, the ongoing struggle over the judiciary, and elections, while imperfect, were widely recognized as democratic ” just to name a few. While all of this has been going on, so has constant work to campaign against a well-known and predictable foe: tuberculosis.

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Hosted by SAIS Southeast Asia Studies Program and The Asia Foundation with generous support from Exxon-Mobil Corporation

This one and a half-day conference brings together American and Filipino government officials, scholars, experts, and watchers of Philippine affairs, providing a venue for exchange ideas on the prospects for political reform, economic development, and peace and security in Southeast Asia’s oldest democracy.Specifically, the meeting will look into the issues and problems concerning democratic consolidation, reform of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, economic development, internal armed conflicts, and the future of bilateral partnership between the Philippines and the United States.

In addition to major speakers, the conference will have five panel sessions with three panelists each and an open forum for discussion and exchange of ideas among presenters and participants.The conference agenda and registration information will be available on March 14, 2008.Below is an outline of the conference program

Schedule:

Monday, 7 April 2008

8:15-8:45AMContinental Breakfast available

8:45-9:00AMWelcome Remarks

Dr. Karl D. Jackson, Director, Southeast Asia Studies, SAIS

Dr. Noel M. Morada, Visiting Professor of Southeast Asia Studies, SAIS

9:00-10:30 AMPanel I: The Philippine Economy: How Can the Philippines Sustain Economic Growth and Development?.

Chair:Dr. Veronique Salze-Lozac’h, TheAsiaFoundation

Panelists:

Mr. Brett Decker, Senior Vice President, ExIm Bank

Dr. Felipe Medalla, School of Economics,University of thePhilippines(UP) Diliman

World Bank Representative (tbi)

10:30-10:45 AMBreak

10:45 AM-12:15 PMPanel II: Transforming Philippine Politics: How Can the Philippines Get Democratic Good Governance?

Chair: Dr. Steven Rood, TheAsiaFoundation-Manila

Panelists:

Dr. Paul Hutchcroft, University of Wisconsin Madison

Prof. Alexander R. Magno, Department of PoliticalScience, UP Diliman

12:15-1:45 PMLuncheon:”Asian Development Outlook”

Briefing:Dr. Ifzal Ali, Chief Economist, Asian Development Bank
Moderator:Dr. Michael Plummer,Resident Professor ofInternational Economics, SAIS Bologna Center

1:45-2:00 PMBreak

2:00-3:30 PMPanel III: Is Military Reform Possible?

Chair: Prof. William Wise, Associate DirectorSoutheast Asia Studies, SAIS

Panelists:

Mr. James Clad, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense,Department of Defense

Col. Gregorio Catapang, Department of National Defense

Mr. Ed Ross, President, EWRoss International LLC

3:30-3:45 PMBreak

3:45-5:15 PMPanel IV: Armed Challenges: How Can the Philippines Manage Internal Conflict?

Chair:Mr. Eugene Martin, Executive Director, HopkinsNanjing Center

Panelists:Mr. F. Augusto J. Mier, National Security Council of the Philippines
Dr. Susan Russell, Northern Illinois University

5:15 PMEnd of Day 1 of the Conference

Tuesday, 8 April 2008

8:30-9:00 AMContinental Breakfast available

9:00-11:00 AMPanel V: Beyond the Security Alliance: Philippine-US Relations in the21st Century

Chair:Dr. Karl D. Jackson, Director, Southeast Asia Studies, SAIS

Panelists:

Mr. Scot Marciel, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, East Asia and Pacific Affairs, State Department

Mr. Carlos Sorreta, Deputy Chief of Mission, Philippine Embassy Washington DC

Dr. Steven Rood, The Asia Foundation-Manila

Dr. Noel M. Morada, Visiting Professor of Southeast Asia Studies, SAIS

11:00 AMEnd of Conference

Location: Kenney Auditorium, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University

1740 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC

For more information, please contact: Noel M. Morada, Ph.D.

Visiting Professor of Southeast Asia Studies, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Washington D.C.

Tel: (202) 663-5815

Email: nmorada1@jhu.edu, nmorada@gmail.com