Confrontation is normal and necessary

Minister Eveline Herfkens

So agreed the Dutch Minister of Development Cooperation, Eveline Herfkens, who brought her government’s greetings to WACC Congress 2001, and WACC Vice President Rena Yocom, who introduced her, commenting that "there is no true reconciliation without justice, and there’s no justice without confrontation."

"Lack of communication can breed misunderstanding and exclusion, sometimes with violent results," said Mrs. Herfkens, who previously served as a Member of Parliament and as the Netherlands’ Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva.

"But communication is not a miracle cure, a magic formula that opens the door to a world without poverty or violence. I have nothing against confrontation or conflict as such," she said, "but I have a horror against violence."

The accompanying "murderous spiral of mistrust and disinformation must be broken to give peace a chance," she said. "An active civil society is of inestimable value – and for that civil society, communication is essential." The people must have voice and be fully informed. Press freedom is crucial.

Mrs. Herfkens named several projects supported by the Dutch government in which radio, television and the Internet are giving voice to the poor and helping members of warring parties approach each other. These include Radio Voice of Hope, a project of the Sudanese Council of Churches, and an educational TV program for children in Macedonia that addresses a wide range of prejudices and cultural misunderstandings.

"The tension in Macedonia has soared in recent months, fueling fears of another war in the Balkans," Mrs. Herfkens acknowledged. "A children’s program can’t solve it, but every little helps, and may stop the scales from tipping towards violence and war."

She concluded with "a word about the increasing confrontations that globalisation has sparked in the past two years." The anti-globalisation movement, she said, "is an alliance of sometimes unlikely bedfellows … united around the idea that globalisation is bad for people and the environment – and that multilateral institutions are just making things worse.

"In my opinion, this is a skewed view of reality," the Minister said. "Stopping globalisation is like keeping the sun from rising. "We have to strengthen the international institutions, change and reform them to give much more emphasis to poverty reduction. Closing them is not the solution. Let’s focus on them living up to their lip service in the way they dispense their dollars."