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By Jonathan PowerTFF Associate since 1991 Comments directly to JonatPower@aol.com October 5, 2007 LONDON – The kind of non-violent protest we are now witnessing in Burma/Myanmar doesn’t always bear edible fruit – see Ukraine where last weekend’s election has just confirmed the country’s inherent instability. Neither does this holier-than-thou approach always politically disarm the enemy. It did often enough for Gandhi and for Martin Luther King but it certainly didn’t for the students of Tiananmen Square who were brutally and unsparingly crushed, despite their success in opening up immense fissures in the ruling Communist Party elite. In Czechoslovakia in 1968 the unarmed demonstrators certainly demoralised the local Soviet soldiers and the satraps in the Czech administration. They also succeeded in bringing the economy almost to a halt but they did not undermine the hard men in Moscow who simply piled on the pressure until the resistance cracked. But we should...

Jag saknar den starka röst som en gång kom från de alliansfria staternas organisation under kalla kriget. Personer som Julius Nyerere, Indira Gandhi och även Palme kunde kritisera med så mycket starkare moralisk och politisk tyngd än de röster som dessa dagar dominerar mediedebatten om Burma. Read more.

Jonathan Power’s "Conundrums" – A Review By William Pfaff* 1. juni, 2007 Jonathan Power Conundrums of Humanity, The Quest for Global Justice, Leiden & Boston, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers The Raoul Wallenberg Institute Human Rights Library, 2007 A slightly different version has been published in Prospect Magazine When Jonathan Power told a friend that the book he was writing was meant to solve eleven of the most formidable contemporary threats to peace and human rights, the friend replied that Power was bidding for the Nobel Peace Prize.  Now we have the book, and Power’s answers to these problems, and they are extraordinarily impressive.   They don’t really solve the problems but they provide extremely well-informed and professional analysis of the issues with which Power has been concerned throughout an exceptional, thirty-year career of working and writing mainly on subjects western audiences would prefer not to hear about, and on which people...

A new field is opening its network to the world with a fascinating, multi-facetted weblog with lots of articles.“Resistance to war is probably one of the oldest social movements,” writes Jørgen Johansen. Read more.

Ruyigi – town and people

Rehabilitating street children – a Terre des Hommes project

Unity, Work and Progress

Bussuro – poor suburb of Bujumbura # 1 I was told that Bussuro was one of the really violent places during the war and genocide years. Today there is peace but water has to be fetched kilometres away, electricity is not found in the older houses. There is a school but no books and few qualified teachers. And there is one health clinique in this suburb, but it is private and few can afford it. The citizens told me that they need everything and hoped that the Nordic countries would one day turn their attention on them. As everywhere else, the smiles of the children and the kindness and hospitality of the adults touched my heart… Street life in Bussuro – Burundi © 2007 Jan Oberg, TFF Fortunately some new houses are being built. But then, who can afford to pay the rent? Bussuro – Burundi © 2007 Jan Oberg,...

Bujumbura A young man’s portrait

The King’s sanctuary outside Gitega "Casa Royale" – The King’s main mansion, outside Gitega Burundi © 2006 Jan Oberg, TFF The main treasure – the original Gitega drums in the King’s sanctuary. Gitega, Burundi © 2006 Jan Oberg, TFF The beautiful, elaborate ceiling in the King’s mansion Burundi © 2006 Jan Oberg, TFF The King’s bed, Burundi © 2006 Jan Oberg, TFF The kitchen quarters of the King’s sanctuary. Burundi © 2006 Jan Oberg, TFF The interior of the King’s mansion,fireplace in the middle Gitega, Burundi © 2006 Jan Oberg, TFF

Surroundings of Gitega Typical home and landscape, outside Gitega Burundi © 2006 Jan Oberg, TFF Coffee beans. They produce a very tasty and mild coffee. It’s the best I know. Gitega, Burundi © 2006 Jan Oberg, TFF Typical landscape, outskirts of Gitega Burundi © 2006 Jan Oberg, TFF Walking along the road in the bush outside Gitega, Burundi © 2006 Jan Oberg, TFF Climbing a tree to better see the drum show here. Burundi © 2006 Jan Oberg, TFF Burundi – a country of very young people Gitega, Burundi © 2006 Jan Oberg, TFF

Flying into Bujumbura