Congratulations

We congratulate the students of IGNOU who participated in large numbers last week in the Greenpeace campaign 'Save the Forests'. After an SMS campaign which reached about a lakh students we were told by the Greenpeace India that about 10,ooo students registered to express their support. The activity involved giving a simple missed call to the number given in the campaign message to register support.This campaign is a part of the larger movement of the Greenpeace where issues of climate change, marine biodiversity and related concerns have been highlighted.In a subsequent meeting with the activists of the Greenpeace India we were told that they intend to take up their campaigns through talks, plays, posters etc. to different localities in India with the help of volunteers drawn from all sections of the society including students.IGNOU students who are located in different parts of the country could come forward here. We in IGNOU have been interacting with the Greenpeace India for the past one year.We organised(thanks to SOSS) an interaction of the students,academics,teachers and the staff with Greenpeace India at the Convention Centre at the Maidangarhi campus last year in March.Subsequently we went to their actions at the India Gate, Delhi Haat and at the Jantar Mantar.The interaction at the Convention Centre has now been made in to a documentary "Going Green: An Interaction with Greenpeace" and has been telecast on the IGNOU's Gyan Darshan. The IGNOU teachers association blog too expressed its support to the Greenpeace ship 'Hope'(working on the question of marine biodiversity) recently when it discussed IGNOU's thrust towards a green curriculum. On our blog too we had posted a letter of support from the Australian Green Party when we were campaigning against the racist attacks on the Indian students in Australia.The massive support which we have received on the IGNOU-Greenpeace 'Save the Forests' campaign is also a support for non violent campaigns for the expansion of democratic environmental space. It is in this context we view the recent violent clashes in Senegal in Africa with concern. It is here in the city of Dakar that one of the largest gathering of the Global Greens(a network of Green parties from all over the world) will be taking place at the end of March this year.They will be addressing the complex task of democratisation in North Africa.They are hoping that with this attempt they can move towards a new green deal and a politics for the new millennium.It is for this reason that they are supporting the greens FEDES which is opposing the ruling party's unconstitutional moves.However violence has broken out with the incumbent President announcing his candidacy for a third term deemed unconstitutional by many.Greenpeace Africa has already issued a statement condemning the violence in which even some young people participated.We too wish to reiterate that violence will only take us back to regressive political structures and ideologies and defeat any attempts towards building a peaceful,tolerant and an environment friendly world. (SFC, PG IGNOU with the help of Mr. Ajay Mahurkar and Dr. Dolly Mathew)