exercise four
Reflection
Please read the country profile on Aurelia below. (Aurelia is a fictional country possibly in Asia.)
COUNTRY PROFILE - AURELIA
Aurelia used to be a traditional monarchy until 1990 when a popular revolt brought to power President Horatio Alger. The political system is based on a Parliament whose members are elected every four years. There exists an Opposition, currently constituted of one large middle class party and a smaller party representing mainly the business community. The President appoints the Cabinet of Ministers who are served by a public service modeled on the British system and, nominally at least, providing independent advice to the elected representatives. The advice is augmented by Parliamentary Committees and meetings of experts. The President and most of his party belong to the minority language group and most members Parliament come from this group.
Aurelia is multi-ethnic with four major language groups. People who come from the outer lying districts and who speak the majority languages have little chance of gaining public office since the law dictates that all official business and all schooling be conducted in the President's language. The Courts, based on the British legal system, also use this language. Women, however, must be accompanied in Court by their husband, father or brother. This makes it extremely difficult for wives to bring complaints about their husbands, and domestic violence is widespread. "Honour killings" are not uncommon and go unpunished by and large.
In the city, women can get employment in many factories but are segregated from male workers and are paid considerably less. It is not unknown for factory managers to rape or beat their female workers but the cases are seldom brought to court and even more rarely are the culprits punished. Unions are allowed but cannot recruit female workers, so there is no one to represent women who have been abused. There is no government office that is responsible for monitoring working conditions in the factories and many industrial accidents resulting in serious injury or even death have taken place. Those who are disabled in such accident do not receive any compensation or assistance from the state. The President can decree any industry as "essential" and the legislation forbids strikes or the organization of meetings of any kind that concern these "essential" industries. Newspapers that have criticized working conditions have been shut down by the Government. Some of the factories are owned by multi-national companies through franchising deals. There is widespread unemployment and a large urban poor population living in squatter settlements on the outskirts of the cities. These shanty towns have no running water or electricity and private developers commonly arrange for the burning of the shanties when they want to build factories or apartment blocks on this land.
In the mountainous Eastern regions one ethnic group, the Mogals, eke out a precarious existence by exploiting the forests and through subsistence farming. In a harsh climate it is not unusual for people to go hungry in the winter and the lack of paved roads means that supplies cannot reach the population at these times and it is almost impossible for the few cash crops to reach the market in the capital. Infant and maternal mortality is high. The health posts are staffed by volunteers who have virtually no medical experience and who dispense the few available medicines to those who can afford them. The single hospital in the region was built during royal times and only the well to do can afford treatment there. Because there is a lack of properly trained medical staff, people who are better off prefer to go to the newer hospitals in the capital. They also send their children to private high schools and eventually to overseas universities. High school and university fees are high and only the children of moderately well-off parents can afford to send their children to these.Very few villages have established school buildings and fewer still have adequate facilities for a learning experience. Teachers are poorly trained and often go without wages for months on end. Many children either work in the fields or mind their younger brothers and sisters in the home.
Chief District Officers and the police are appointed by the Home Ministry and are drawn from the ranks of the minority ethnic group. Their salaries are low and extortion of the population and corruption is frequent and enforced by ill-treatment and detention in appalling prisons conditions. Dissatisfaction has resulted in a Marxist-oriented insurgency which is fighting a low-level guerrilla war throughout the country. The response from the Government has been a military campaign; villages have been burnt, the population intimidated and crops burnt to deny the insurgents. These practices have had the consequence of driving poor farmers to support the insurgents and further extra-judicial executions and disappearances.
A number of international development agencies - multilateral as well as bilateral, supplemented by a range of development NGOs - have projects on capacity building, infrastructure support and service delivery in the poorest regions of Aurelia. The official agencies are careful about not criticizing local government authorities for fear of being denied access. The NGOs need to be registered by the Government and it is legally forbidden for NGOs that advocate change in Government policies or practices to be registered. Unregistered NGOs are not allowed to receive funding from overseas.
The President is proud about the fourteen international human rights instruments that Aurelia has ratified since 1991 and of the fact that human rights were incorporated in the new Aurelian Constitution in 1992. Aurelia also attended the 1993 Vienna World Conference on Human Rights and has reported to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child which made some recommendations for improvements. The report was prepared by a group of academics working in the Department of the Attorney-General. The Government has also engaged the group of experts to draft a human rights action plan and this project is being supported by the multilateral and bilateral donors.
The President is also proud that Aurelia is
managing to keep paying the interest on its foreign debt amounting to
around 30% of its gross national product. Multilateral and bilateral donors
have congratulated Aurelia on meeting this target and have encouraged
the formulation of a national poverty reduction strategy prior to negotiating
further loans to the country. Accordingly, the President has asked his
Ministry of Finance to formulate a new national development plan and has
consulted the business community on what should be included in the plan.