Welcome to Eisenhower Fellows

A year ago this week in: Washington

Author | 06.04.2008 | Category Uncategorized

….and the nostalgia kicks in… A year ago today, I was traveling with a group of fellows, on a bus, onwards to my first destination: Washington. We landed there on a Saturday morning, I broke out in terrible fever, and was “taken care of” by everyone else to the vietnamese restaurant in GeorgeTown. The next day, April 5th, I had gone out for an early morning run from the Foggy Bottom district (where we were staying), towards the Potomic and snapped this wonderful photographs… amongst others..

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Future of Saudi Civil Society Associations: Fatin Bundagji in the Arab News

Author | 06.04.2008 | Category Uncategorized

Fatin Bundagji, MNP 2007 Fellow from Saudi Arabia, has the following article in the April  4, 2008 issue of the Arab News -

During the last few decades the global community has witnessed an extraordinary leap in the positive impact civil societies have had on the communities they served. Their support for children, the young, the elderly, the challenged, and the disadvantaged… their advocacy for human rights and the rights of minorities… their campaigns on environmental threats; consumer rights; child abuse and domestic violence… and their attention to recreational and educational opportunities - as well as the preservation of culture and the arts has not only prioritized these issues on the planning agendas of nations but it has also enabled these civil society associations to position themselves as “the” indispensable 3rd sector development building blocks from which strong and prosperous nations emerge.

As global communities fast-forward themselves to become self-reliant through the systematic incorporation (licensing) of civil society associations, our local efforts are repeatedly blocked by obsolete bureaucracy and excessive restrictions that thwart any attempt to establish “civil society” initiatives as legitimate “non”governmental organizations.

The negative impact of blocking the creation of independent civil society associations is something that cannot be ignored. For one, bureaucracy kills the passion and determination of good-willed citizens and thus aborts good “citizenship” actions; and second, it encourages the growth of a negative, passive “laissez faire” local culture; and third, it creates a fertile breeding ground for unsystematic activities to operate - albeit informally under the radar.

Click here to go to the Arab News website and read the rest of the article!

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