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Excerpts from Pearl McRobert's comments in Brussels, Belgium
At a meeting of Waging and EMC representatives
September 5, 2024
In order to speak to you today about my experience of the internet
and the peace-building work that I am engaged in within Northern
Ireland, I must give some context through concrete examples of how
effective the internet has been in overcoming physical and mental
barriers to engaging in meaningful communication and negotiating
within the difficult confines of building a stable and peaceful society.
For those of us who are working in the field of community relations
and peace building, the emancipatory potential of the Internet is
far-reaching.
I work for a specialist training and development organization
called the Ulster People's College (UPC). Our main aim is to contribute
to a just, egalitarian and more democratic society. One of the
main focuses of our programs is political education, which enables
real democracy and citizenship. Much of our work is concentrated
in disadvantaged and interfaith areas, and we work with both single
identity and cross-community groups. Before I outline how we as
an organization use the Internet in our work, I would like to take
the opportunity to explain why I got involved in peace-building
work.
Background
My earliest memory of being aware that I lived in a divided and
contested society was when I traveled to school on the school bus.
It always struck me as being very "odd" that every day on my way
to school I would pass other school children also on their way
to school wearing different uniforms and yet we never got to speak
to one another.
During this time I remember attending a cross-community outdoor
pursuits program on the north coast of Ireland, where for the first
time I had the opportunity to meet a Catholic. We spent a week
cycling, climbing and canoeing together - inevitably friendships
were formed. However when we returned to our homes I found that
it became increasingly difficult to maintain those friendships
and if I wanted to I did so under a certain amount of threat. (Unfortunately
we didn't have the Internet in those days!)� I found that the biggest
obstacle to being friends with these people came from within my
own family. I was openly taunted on the school bus by my sisters
and their friends and was stoned on the way to school and branded
a "Fenian Lover" (Fenian being a very derogatory comment for a
Catholic) all because of my friendships with Catholics�
Peace building work and Inclusive Security: Women Waging Peace
During my 10 years of peace building work, I have successfully
run a number of cross-community and cross-border programs. I have
initiated several international exchanges with groups from Israel/Palestine,
Ecuador, and Cyprus to mention but a few.
At the Ulster Peoples College we have increasingly become aware
of how information and communication technology can be an important
tool for learning. We have incorporated IT training into all of
our programs�
I am also trying to carry out some work with other partner organizations
within Northern Ireland on leadership training, and we are endeavoring
to set up a community training partnership, which would operate
on-line via email and chat rooms. We also deliver a community advocate
mentoring program with another partner in the United States, and
as a result we have set up a lobby link, which enables participants
to keep abreast of the most current political issues that they
would like to lobby the government on. These are some current examples
of how we as an organization have really benefited from the Internet�
Pearl McRoberts and Inclusive Security: Women Waging Peace
Since November 1999 (when I attended the Waging Colloquium at
Harvard University), I have been able to use the internet not only
to keep in touch with women with whom I met and worked from the
Waging network, but I have also been able to do some very concrete
and innovative work with delegates from Cyprus, Columbia, and Belgrade.
In February of this year, another Waging member from the Northern
Ireland delegation and I traveled to Nicosia, Cyprus, at the request
of Waging delegates on either side of that border. We had met these
women peace builders in Cambridge in 1999 and 2000 and began to
talk about ways we could help the Turkish and Greek Cypriots put
together a program over which both sides could have ownership.
Since 1999 we had been emailing furiously in an attempt to plan
an oral history project where the delegation could interview and
record a number of oral histories giving an account of pre- partition
life in Cyprus� They desperately wanted to record these stories
so that other generations are aware that Turkish and Greek Cypriots
did share a common culture before the partition. The plan is to
put this project on the Internet so that people throughout Cyprus--
and indeed outside Cyprus--may be afforded the opportunity to think
about their history in a more positive way. Since the training
that we delivered in February, the Northern Ireland delegation
has been giving the Cyprus delegation advice on editing, transcribing,
and interviewing - all of which would not have been possible without
the Internet and our shared network space on the Web site.
As well has having worked with the Cypriots, I am currently liaising
via the Internet with the Waging local partner in Colombia in order
to set up a study visit to Northern Ireland for Colombian women
who are keen to learn about those who have successfully run for
election in Northern Ireland.
I have also had the great privilege of being invited to Belgrade
to work with women from the Balkans who were meeting collectively
for the first time in nine years. I was asked to speak about my
peace-building work in Northern Ireland. Although we spoke different
languages we managed through an interpreter to facilitate a cross-fertilization
of ideas. The atmosphere during those three days was electrifying,
and I am still in touch with many of those women. I feel that it
is a result of many of those women-- who have campaigned tirelessly
against corruption and for social justice --that Milosevic is presently
in the Hague. Indeed they are owed a great deal of gratitude for
their tenacity and vigor!
Conclusion
I would like to finish by personally thanking EMC for the commitment
that they have made to making a difference to so many people's
lives. I hope that I have given you a flavor of what has and can
be achieved by their continued support. I want all of the women
out there engaged in peace-building work to feel as I do--as though
they are not alone. Because when I log on to the Waging Web site
I feel as though I am in the same room as all those other women
peace-builders around the globe. Thank you again for being here
to support us, and I look forward to meeting with you either in
person or the Web!
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