ERR in India

A team of three spent almost a month in India to find out how is it possible, that a country, best known for it’s contrasts and inequality in its society, is becoming the fastest growing economy in the world. The analysis of the topic and everything we personally experienced visiting the country will be brought to you as a documentary film in the autumn of 2016 by a cameraman Mustafa Celik, director Gert Kark and the author of the film Eeva Esse.

A former part of British Empire, regained independence in 1947, India has 29 states that differ by language, culture, living standards, religions etc. But India’s diversity often conceals its underlying unity. Despite not having decent infrastructure of roads and railways for proper connectivity, India has covered the whole country with mobile internet and also plans to cover the land with broadband internet. This makes it possible for more than 1,2 billion people living in India to be connected to each other and with public sector service providers via internet.

The focus of our film lays in the boom of technology sector in the last 20 years, which followed the economic liberalisation in 1991. However, the country still faces tough challenges of poverty, malnutrition, corruption, inadequate public healthcare and education. Our documentary aims to show how the progress in the technology sector could also reach the problematic areas and help to decrease inequality in India’s society and generate wealth in different sectors.

We started our exploration from the South Indian city Chennai, formerly known as Madras. As we decided to show how technology has the power to improve the lives of poor people, we chose ride sharing technology platform Uber as an example of it. We got acquainted with an Uber driver in Chennai and drove around with him for several days. He told us his story, that coming from a poor background and no potential to improve his living standards, Uber is now giving him the opportunity to rent a car from them and earn the best salary he has ever got for any job. He is now able to pay back his loans, also pay for his living and provide education for his children. Since Uber was launched in India in 2014, it can be said that the company has changed the life for tens of thousands of its drivers, by giving them well-paid jobs.

Our ambition was to get the best overview and analysis about the struggles the Indian society is facing and what part technology is playing in solving those problems. This means that we had to find people who literally know the anatomy of Indian technology development during the last decades. For that we had to travel to India’s start-up capital city Bengaluru, situated also in the southern part of the country; and after that of course the capital itself, New Delhi. In those cities we managed to meet up with some world-renowned IT industry grandees, the founders of one of the biggest software engineering company Infosys - Narayana Murthy and Nandan Nilekani. Both of them have retired from the company’s everyday management, but are still active in the IT innovation field. Mr Murthy is considered to be the father of Indian IT industry and nowadays a great visionary who is attending summits all over the world. The same goes about Mr Nilekani, who has developed the cloud-based identity system, which is far more innovative than, for example, the ID-cards we use in Estonia. The idea itself, as he told us, to have innovative system for governing, came from Estonia. But this man took a step further and started a system which identifies the person by scanning his or her eye retina. There should be about billion Indians who are already registered in the system. The cloud-based retina-scanning system also means that the registered person has to own a smart phone to identification oneself when using public sector services for example. The same system is also needed to open up a bank account, which is also comparatively new service in India. This kind of innovation in e-governing is brought to action in order to decrease corruption in the public sector and at the same time it is once again a great example how technology is something that the people of India need to have in their pockets to keep up with their daily lives.

What is interesting with the technological development is that half of the population is under the age of 25, which will make it the youngest country in the world in the near future. This makes India a rapidly growing market and especially for tech-gadgets, smartphones in particular. This factor alongside the proper internet access has brought India to the point, that if you do not have a smartphone for your everyday actions, then you basically do not exist. And there is a tough competition between tech companies for the title - who can produce the cheapest smartphone available? Growing demand in this field is more than certain.

During our stay in Bengaluru and New Delhi we also met some other great minds, when it comes to big time investment in innovation together with a touch of social awareness. Mr Pramod Bhasin, founder of multinational tech company Genpact and Mr Saurabh Srivastava, the head of Angel Investor Network in India, are men who have made a fortune in the IT industry, but are giving much effort nowadays in matters of finance and knowledge altogether to make India stronger and more educated via technology.

Last stop for us was Chennai again, where we visited local slums to get the real experience when it comes to the contrast between the much spoken two India - the India with astounding poverty alongside the modern India. In the Nochikuppam slum, we saw the phenomenon with our own eyes. Most people living there have to manage their lives under 2 dollars per day, which is a clear sign that they live in utmost poverty. But what caught our sight was that technology is accessible even for them. Those people, living in the poorest conditions imaginable, have smartphones to connect with the world, gather information and make their lives easier. For example, it is financially complicated for them to educate their children, but technology again gives solution for this matter. There are countless free smartphone apps for educational purposes and made exactly for people who don’t have enough finance for schooling their children or even themselves.

All this mentioned before reflects the steps India has made to break through the image we tend to have about it. In some parts it has been possible with the help from abroad, from European Union funds to decrease the poverty for example, but also with the technological know-how the country has developed together with the demographic situation we can see nowadays. But many steps are needed to be taken in the future. And these are the steps needed in the process of “becoming the first”.

Seven years with no war

In February 2016 a team of ERR documentarians travelled to Sri Lanka in order to see how the country lives in nearly seven years after the civil war. For 25 days of stay on the island the author and editor of the film Artur Aukon, director Mati Kark and operator Väino Laisaar crisscrossed more than half of the country and talked with representatives of different ethnic and social groups.

The confrontation between the Tamils ​​and the Sinhalese that lasted for a quarter of a century has left a serious mark on the social situation in the country. Until recently, there were special restrictions on visiting the northern part of the island, populated mainly by Sinhalese. Even today more military bases are located here. On Jaffna peninsula, where active military operations were carried out, there are still many destroyed buildings and uncleared minefields.

One of the central figures of the film is a driver and a guide of Sinhalese origin, who continued doing what he loves most – even during the war. Together with him the documentary team discovered the post-war Sri Lanka. He shares his memories about the conflict, his reflections on the current political situation in the country, and tells the story of how the war changed his life.

The film is divided into several parts, each one dedicated to a specific episode of the journey. For example, St. John’s College, Jaffna takes one of the central places in the narrative. It was founded by the Church of England in 1823. During the military conflicts most of its buildings were destroyed. The United Kingdom and Norway paid for their restoration. The current head of school N. J. Gnanaponrajah took office in 2006, during commencement of the last phase of the war. By that time, many children were already left without parents, placed in field centers for refugees and had no access to education. Thanks to the actions of the head of the college and the support of the EU countries, ca. 400 orphans received free education and accommodation on the campus. Currently teachers from Denmark and the United States are involved in internship under international exchange programs – they are trying to understand how the experience of the European multicultural education can be applied in Sri Lanka. With the support of the EU funds several school buildings for joint education of children of different nationalities were restored in the country. 

The subject of inter-ethnic and inter-religious dialogue can also be traced with the example of drastically different fates of fishermen in the west and in the east of the country. They also share memories of life during the war, and reflect on the social and economic problems of the country.

Volunteers from European organizations help in solving these problems. In particular, the film focuses on the activities of the organization People in Need, representatives of which are trying to work towards two goals. This year they hope to get a grant for implementation of educational projects. The organization also successfully runs projects on implementation of modern waste recycling and bio-gas production technologies. These plants are used to supply both state institutions (for instance, hospitals) and private companies. For example, in the city of Batticaloa such eco-friendly technologies are actively used in the hospitality industry.

Newsletter for journalists

 

In February 1st issue of 6 newsletters planned for year 2016 was distributed to 188 journalists.

It reminds activities and events organized last year as part of the European Year for Development, highlights the new development Agenda 2030 that was adopted last September by UN member states including the Slovak Republic and points out that in spite of the declared announcement, the Slovak budget for the bilateral development cooperation will not be higher this year.

The newsletter provides basic information about two major UN events of the year 2016 - World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul, Turkey and Habitat III in Quito, Ecuador.



It also lists activities planned for journalist: the VIKES training for writing journalists - beginners, joint media trips to Palestine and Nepal, the photo /story competition 2016 and includes links to selected articles and resources on development issues that journalists might find interesting. One of them is directed to the report released by the CONCORD Europe that states that security and economic interests of EU and its members continue prevailing in the EU’s policy and institutional approach to migration and development.

Evening tea with documentary journalists

On the 17th of February Kārlis Lesiņš and Lelde Prūse, journalists from the Woodpecker Pictures were invited to an evening tea at the Green Liberty’s staff and friends to share the story of their trip to Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where they filmed a documentary movie about the care for protected eastern gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei and Gorilla beringei graueri).

Evening tea with journalists was a non-formal event, where Kārlis and Lelde shared the story about two different countries – Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo. They told how Volcanoes National Park, and more specifically, gorillas living there supply these countries with resources for survival and development. While listening to them, the auditory could follow the process of filming in Rwanda (Kigali, Musanze, Gisenyi regions), DRC (Goma and Masisi regions) and the territory of the Volcanoes National Park. 

The journalist shared reflections about unexpected turning-points during the trip, interaction of the team, and what other journalist should consider when they go to Global Southern countries in Africa. It was exciting to hear that journalists had changed their conception of the movie: “I hoped the movie would be about pleasant and peaceful things like the animals, nature. Consequently, I could step aside from the previous experience to see the things through the looking glass of conflicts. Yet, it turned out that the foundation of the plot is the tension between people and animals, rebels, government and society, veterinarians and tourists” (Kārlis). It was very inspiring to hear that “the world is round. It means that we as the species on this planet are interconnected.” (Lelde).

It was inspiring to feel the connection between the journalists, sponsors, representatives of environmental organisations and activists. We hope that this Evening tea event helped participants to enrich understanding of why stories from Global South are meaningful for us.

Woodpecker Pictures is a brand new film studio – a group of energetic enthusiasts including a director, a journalist, a video specialist and a producer, who were brought together by a common vision of interests and professionalism. In project Media for Development, this film studio has agreed to make a documentary film that currently is in after filming stage. The documentary film will tell the story not only about the efforts to protect the animals and maintain their health and lives, but also about their geographic, political and social environment. The documentary will reveal personal motivation and attitude towards protected eastern gorillas in Rwanda and DRC – starting from veterinarians of Gorilla Doctors organisation to rebels in the war affected DRC.

The trip and documentary is also supported by the Boris and Inara Teterev Foundation. 

Mondo activities January-February 2016

The new year started with receiving new bracelets from Kenya. The bracelets were again made by women's self-help groups in Shianda village. The two groups who made the bracelets are called Ikoli and Riziki. Kalle Aasamäe, an Estonian designer and volunteer in the area, was the one who gave advice to the women and helped them find the necessary materials. This time the colours were chosen to be green and blue.

In January, the TV crew from ERR visited Birma/Myanmar for making a documentary. Our team members, Johanna and Triinu also travelled to the area during the same time. Silvia Pärmann – a journalist from Delfi (one of the biggest online media channels in Estonia) also travelled with them. Just after Silvia arrived back to Estonia, she was selected as the best travel journalist in Estonia in 2015 :)

Her articles from Myanmar can be found here:

• http://reisijuht.delfi.ee/news/reisiblogi/markmeid-myanmarist-i-kuld-kiirus-korgus-ja-pudel-hugo-bossi-parfuumi?id=73387833
• http://reisijuht.delfi.ee/news/reisiblogi/markmeid-myanmarist-ii-aja-seismise-voimalikkusest?id=73387881
• http://reisijuht.delfi.ee/news/reisiblogi/markmeid-myanmarist-iii-rand?id=73387909
• http://reisijuht.delfi.ee/news/reisiblogi/markmeid-myanmarist-iv-mis-trikke-on-voimalik-opetada-kitsele?id=73387935
• http://reisijuht.delfi.ee/news/reisiblogi/markmeid-myanmarist-v-ukski-buddha-kuju-ei-saa-olla-kuldsem-tanintharyi-inimestest?id=73387963
• http://reisijuht.delfi.ee/news/news/markmeid-myanmarist-vi-tatoveeritud-nagudega-naised?id=73568397
• http://reisijuht.delfi.ee/news/news/markmeid-myanmarist-vii-mrauk-u-udu-volus-ja-varjus?id=73623315
• http://reisijuht.delfi.ee/news/news/markmeid-myanmarist-viii-what-do-you-get-when-you-fall-in-love?id=73686985
• http://reisijuht.delfi.ee/news/news/markmeid-myanmarist-ix-printsid-ja-sodurid?id=73776529
• http://reisijuht.delfi.ee/news/news/markmeid-myanmarist-x-kulad-kuhu-oodatakse-eesti-opetajaid?id=73801131
• http://reisijuht.delfi.ee/news/news/markmeid-myanmarist-xi-kagu-aasia-koige-kuulsam-jarv?id=73920001

In January another trip finalised – the winner of the article competition "Decent Life for All" returned from Kenya where she visited Mombasasa and communities in the Mara and Shianda village where Mondo also works. In Shianda she visited the schools where Mondo has support programs and saw the work that our recent volunteers have been doing. She has posted photos on her Instagram account (@karolinkruuse) and published two blog posts from the trip:

• Photo essay from Shianda village: http://karolinkruuse.ee/fotopostitus-shianda-kulast-ja-mtu-mondo-tegemistest/
• Interview about religion from Mombasa: http://karolinkruuse.ee/my-friend-muslim/ 

February has passed under the star of planning our Ghana-trip that will happen in March. It will be a bigger group than we have had before, so it's quite challenging :)

ERR in Cambodia

A group of 3 documentary filmmakers from Estonian Public Broadcasting, author and director Gerli Nõmm, script editor Anniken Haldna and cinematographer Martin Tennokene, spent the month of January 2016 in Cambodia.

Background information

Cambodia used to be home to some of the most diverse arts and culture in Southeast Asia. Music, dance and theater flourished until in the years between 1975 and 1979, the Khmer Rouge put a devastating end to that.

During those years, 2 million Cambodians died from execution, starvation and overwork; among the dead were 90% percent of Cambodia’s artists, who were specifically targeted for execution. This was a ruinous blow to Cambodia’s cultural heritage, especially given that the skills were passed on from master to student, and were rarely written down.

Some of the Masters survived and the non-profit organization Cambodian Living Arts found them and since 1998 they have been supporting the Masters and giving scholarships to underprivileged children so the traditions could continue.

Our documentary tells the story of 3 women from different generations who all have dedicated their lives to the most ancient and endangered Cambodian art forms – Smot chanting. This buddhist poetry singing method shares the wisdom of life and death and brings comfort and knowledge to people. Smot chanters perform at traditional ceremonies, funerals and other religious events and have played a big role in khmer culture.

Our characters

Master Koeut Ran – an old respected woman, who shared with us her story of surviving the Khmer Rouge regime. Since 2004 she has been teaching Smot for younger generations, but by now has retired and given up teaching children. She continues giving private lessons to the monks and makes a small income by performing at the ceremonies.

She is the link between our two other characters Srey Pov and Srey Oun who learned Smot with Master Koeut Ran and have earned honorable positions in their communities thanks to their rare talent.

Srey Oun – our main character – is a 35 year old woman from Kampong Speu Province, Kong Pisey village. She lives a traditional and modest life at the countryside, works on the rice field with her family and has dedicated her life to buddhism, helping her old parents and teaching Smot at the local elementary school. She left school in the 9th grade to work, support her parents and help them out with household works. She has had no luck with finding a good husband, so she has stayed single, which is rather uncommon in Cambodian culture. Her biggest dream was getting a scholarship from CLA and studying traditional khmer music in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, but she had no luck. At the moment she is dedicated to teaching Smot chanting at the local school to hundreds of children. Her monthly income as a teacher is 70 USD.

Our third character Srey Pov is a good example of how development cooperation can change lives. She is a 24-year old successful business woman, based in Phnom Penh. She was born and raised in Kampong Speu province as our two other ladies, but thanks to the scholarship she had the chance to attend high school in Phnom Penh and afterwards study Smot at the university. She owns a growing business called Srey Pov Smot, that sells the ceremony organizing service to wealthy cambodians. She has more than 10 employees working for her and offering the full service of ceremonies, starting from decorations, finishing with catering and mastering the ceremonies. That allows her to dedicate on her passion for Smot chanting.

During the month in Cambodia our team had the chance to take a close look at the khmer culture and Cambodian history. We experienced the amazing hospitality of cambodian families that welcomed us in their homes and let us participate in the religious ceremonies, that were often very personal and intimate. We witnessed the harsh contrasts and class divisions in cambodian society.

As many other Southeast Asian countries, Cambodia is developing rapidly. The capital is full of fancy cafes and shops that the locals often can't afford to go to. New skyscrapers are in the process of construction almost at every street corner. At the same time, only 2 hours car drive away, there are endless rice fields, coconut forests, pagodas and villages where the inhabitants are trying to hold on to the disappearing traditional ways of living.

Education is the key factor to move Burma forward

Burma which is officially known as the Republic of Union of Myanmar will be covered in a television documentary produced by a team of Estonian public Broadcasting (director Tarvo Mölder, cinematographer Margus Malm and editor Indrek Treufeldt).

According to western media Burma has been widely known as a military-ruled authoritarian country. Nearly 50 years the country has borne international isolation. There Buddhism has a special status. Still it is a country of ethnic and religious conflicts. Officially the government recognises more than 130 distinct ethnic groups and also eight so-called ‘major national ethnic races’.  Recent general elections have brought some hope for democratic parties but a flawed constitution could be an obstacle for urgent reforms.

The TV crew started its visit from Mandalay, a city considered as a cultural capital of Burma. From Mandalay they went to Hsipaw and Namlan which both are in Shan State. It is a state with distinctive ethnicity and culture. There was a chance to travel to some remote and isolated areas with small settlements and villages. Finally the crew arrived in Yangon which is the former capital of Burma with more than 4 million inhabitants. 

The documentary examines problems and challenges concerning the educational system in Burma. There is a comparison on two different schools as typical examples of recent advances in the country. The development aid component is vital in both cases. Estonian volunteers have been working for the Rural Development Fund, an institution that helps to develop primary and also secondary education in Burma. Also Estonians contributed to find some innovative teaching methods in the biggest monastic school in the world.

One of the schools observed during the visit was a primary school Zarm Kar, in a small village of Shan State. It is a village of 200 people and 50 households. At present there is no electricity, no telephone lines or mobile network coverage. The school was opened recently as an initiative by Sai Naw Kham. He is the person who leads the Rural Development Foundation. As he explains besides logistical obstacles (bad roads and poor infrastructure in general) there are also economic and psychological constraints. In many cases children have to work on fields to help families to get their basic income. The community leader Lon Num said in the interview that after the school was built, families found new ways to cooperate and finally let children to go to school. Still the problem is that only a few children can continue their education in secondary schools. The Rural Development Foundation started to build special dormitories for villagers in towns where secondary education is available. Still there is a long way to go.

The second school observed closely during the journalistic visit was the Phaung Daw Oo Monastic Education High School. It is situated in Nanshe, in the suburb of North East Mandalay, one of the biggest cities in Burma. The school was founded by a young monk U Nayaka who currently is the headmaster of the school. His idea was to educate poor children, regardless of ethnicity, religion or gender. U Nayaka considers that the traditional Burmese teaching methods (first of all primitive repetition, monological teaching principles) do not enable to develop necessary creativity and critical thinking skills the country needs. Now all the teachers of the school use competitive debate as a tool to teach critical thinking to help to present different sides of an argument. Those are vital preconditions for emerging free and democratic public sphere in the country.

Young students (Htet Nainglin, Phone Mit Ko) described their experiences with different students projects, which are new for a country like Burma. The warden of the girls’ dormitory (Har Khaw Dee) explained what does it mean to bring together children of different background (ethnicities and religion). Traditionally monastic system has been dominated by men. Now there is an opportunity provided also for girls. There is interesting to see how traditional (Buddhist tradition first of all) and innovative pedagogical approaches come together in the biggest monastic school in the world with more than 8 thousand students where English is widely spoken which is not typical for Burma.

Both schools were also visited by the representatives of NGO Mondo (Johanna Helin and Triinu Ossinovski). For the TV crew it enabled to get valuable background information on perspectives and challenges of international development aid cooperation.