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Training
Seminar in Astrakhan Power
пїЅ what a sweet word! There
had been another training seminar of the Center for Interethnic Cooperation
(CIEC) on the subject пїЅInteraction between Ethnic Communities and Government
OrgansпїЅ in the conference hall of the hotel пїЅLotosпїЅ in Astrakhan on the 18th
and 19th of February 2003. We traveled to Astrakhan by train. The
train was going two nights and one day straight to the south. And all along
we were positive of a southern sun and a southern heat. The sun was in fact
southern, but concerning the heat we had been mistaken. It was not the worst
that there was a temperature of minus 16 degrees. The stormy wind coming from
the Caspian Sea was simply beyond endurance. Our try to walk trough the old
part of the city turned into small sprints. We sprinted from one shop to
another. In the shops we tried to get warm and to prepare ourselves for the
next sprint on the street. They didnпїЅt heat the foyer and the corridors of
our hotel; even the rooms werenпїЅt really warm. Indeed, warm welcomes expected
us in the Section for Interethnic Relations of the Department for Work with
Nationalities of the Administration of the Astrakhan oblastпїЅ (region), and in
the Russian-German House and in the Uzbek Cultural Center. Right away worth
mentioning that we have worked in many regions
but nowhere such an impressive delegation of local authorities attended at
our trainings as in Astrakhan. Before the training seminar we met with
Aleksandr Sergeevich Stadnik, the chairman of the Department of Interethnic
Relations, and with Oleg Pavlovich Popov and Viktor Mikhalovich Viktorin,
both employees of the Department. At the end of our visit in the
Administration we had a meeting with Vitalij Yakovlevich Mizov, the chairman
of the Department. This was a pleasant surprise for us, as far as it is no
secret that the more southern the region the more complicate it is to find a
common language with the local administration, especially if the question is
nationalities, living in the region. It is visible on the streets of
Astrakhan that the national composition of the cityпїЅs inhabitants is very
multifarious. We havenпїЅt seen so many different face contours and figures of
eyes and we didnпїЅt hear so many non-understandable languages, neither in
Rostov-on-Don, nor in Krasnodar or even in Moscow. However, we didnпїЅt feel
any tensions in these peoples, and we didnпїЅt see the hordes of militia on the
cityпїЅs streets implementing the total check of the пїЅpassport systemпїЅ we are
used to. As in all southern regions of Russia, also in the Astrakhan oblastпїЅ
(region) there work and live many immigrants. Besides, in difference to
Moscow, there are considerable less places of employment, and the concurrence
on the labor market is therefore considerable higher. In
a word, there are enough problems in the given oblastпїЅ. However, the local
authorities do not tend to explain the existing difficulties with the crafty
manners of the newcomers, as it often happens in other regions of Russia. On
the contrary, the leadership of the oblastпїЅ aspires not to allow that
conflicts because of concurrence on the labor market get a national coloring.
It is characteristically that the gubernator meets once a quarter (of the
year) with the leaders of national communities. That is a very simple and
quite effective mechanism of representing the interests of peoples and
national groups living in this southern territory. And in general, Astrakhan
is a special city. The Caucasus and Asia realities mix with the Russian one. Alas,
there is an ethno-cultural museum in the very center of the city, even in the
center of the Kreml. In the museum visitors can familiarize with the customs
and life of the peoples living on this piece of earth. In
Astrakhan, as before in PermпїЅ, the local administration undertook the work of
inviting the leaders of the local national communities to our training. Unfortunately,
the only hostel in the Astrakhan oblastпїЅ which worked also in winter were
booked until May. Thus we had to carry out our training in a small, but very
nice conference hall of our hotel. On the morning of the 18th
February it turned out that not all leaders of national communities kept
their promise to come, which they had made to us and to the employees of the
local authority organs. As always, leaders of German, Jewish and Tatar
communities came to our training seminar. That testifies the level of these
organizations on an all-Russian scale and their aspiration to be always well
informed about all events connected with national themes. In
addition, in the training seminar took part representatives of the municipal
administration as follows: TatпїЅyana Aleksandrova Mordasova, the chairman of
the Department of Relations with the Public of the Astrakhan Administration,
and Vyacheslav AnatolпїЅevich Simirnov, the chairman of the Department of Work
with Public, National and Religious Civil Communities of the Astrakhan
Administration. It
seems that the presence of authoritative representatives of the authorities
makes the leaders of national communities behave restrained and not showing
activity. The following picture can be usually observed in Moscow: leaders of
national communities willingly criticize the authorities in the lobbies, and
prefer then to пїЅapprove entirely and completely of the decision of the party
and governmentпїЅ during the meeting with them. However
when our trainer Viktoria Shuhkat proposed to the participants to specify the
problems existing in the Astrakhan oblastпїЅ in the international sphere, the
leaders of national communities named 41 problems. The problems are as
follows: Problems 1.
Conflicts with a national background 2.
Passivity of members of the NGO 3.
Situation of requirements of the NGO 4.
Financing national organizations 5.
Self-financing 6.
Registration of newcomers 7.
Interaction with law enforcement bodies 8.
Steady changes of ministers of national affairs 9.
Absence of means in the budget for national problems 10.
Study of the national language 11.
Absence of means in the budget for the language studies 12.
Politic tricks with the leaders of national communities 13.
Interference in the affairs of the NGO by the municipal administration 14.
Special attitude towards petering peoples 15.
Difficulties in uniting regional NGOs in all-Russian organizations 16.
Social adaptation of new settlers 17.
пїЅReceiving citizenship 18.
Equality of all peoples before the law 19.
Tolerance 20.
Knowledge about the activities of communities and the administration 21.
There is no proper reporting on the national problem in the mass media 22.
Concurrence of leaders within national communities 23.
Split within the NGO 24.
Agitations in the places of residence 25.
Bad coordination of work of authorities of different levels 26.
Different positions of the municipal and oblastпїЅ (regional)
administration 27.
Thrust decay in the own people 28.
Rise of national consciousness 29.
Search for partners 30.
Native language in all educational institutions 31.
Self-elimination of the federal center 32.
Laws at a regional level 33.
Peaking of national problems 34.
Absence of a Ministry of Nationalities 35.
National culture and politics 36.
Necessity of new forms of contacts between NGOs and authorities 37.
Educational classes in places of compact residing 38.
Organization of succession 39.
Legal problems 40.
No specialists for fundraising 41.
Who receives grants (everybody except of national NGOs) 42.
Privileges
of communities Then
Viktoria ask all participants to choose three most important out of all
listed problems. According to the results of this short survey the four most
important problems are as follows: Main
problems: 1.
Financing 2.
Absence of an Ministry of Nationalities 3.
Contacts to mass media 4.
National
education And
then happened something quite unexpected. Aleksandr Stadnik stood up and
proposed to the participants of the training to add a fifth point, that was
пїЅHuman RightsпїЅ, to the list. When all persons present agreed, on proposed to
put this point on the first place. Worth mentioning that Aleksander Stadnik
works already for years with national communities of the oblastпїЅ, and
perfectly knows the national situation on the place and the leaders of
national Diasporas. Furthermore the Siberian-born man turned out as a rather
temperamental person. This made our training even more interesting. Just he
proposed concrete mechanisms for the solution of problems existing in the
region by the introduction of a separate article in the budget of the oblastпїЅ
for the realization of concepts of the national politicsпїЅ (min. 3 million rubles a year). This was
an excellent hint for us and for the national leaders for a successful choice
of the topic of negotiations, both during the training and after it. Further
Viktoria talked about the modern theories of negotiations. After this lecture
the participants were divided into groups and developed arguments
indispensable for negotiating. It is interesting, that the arguments of the
different groups were differently. Here the outcomes of work of two groups: First
group
Arguments:
1.
Legitimacy 2.
Interests of the territory 3.
Mutual responsibility 4.
Systematic and priority 5.
Protection of human rights with allowance of ethnic belongings 6.
Equality
of ethnic groups Second
group Arguments: 1.
Constitutional right 2.
Responsibility of the state 3.
Language of each nation is a state value 4.
Only the knowledge of the national language and its writing give the
growing up generation the possibility to study the history, traditions and
culture of the people 5.
The disappearance a nationпїЅs language will lead to the nationпїЅs
disappearance 6.
Wish of parents that their children learn the native language
(according to social inquiries) 7.
Only completely satisfied necessities of the representatives of each
nation can lead to peace and consent The
participants of the training got one more problem. They should write what
they consider as important for the preparation of negotiations. The
outcomes were as follows: 1.
Study
the subject of the negotiations 2.
Making
inquiries about the participants of the negotiation process 3.
Study
the different aspects of the negotiationпїЅs subject (legal, humanitarian,
financial, etc.) 4.
Definition
of purposes and problems 5.
Development of strategies of negotiations 6.
Collection of information about the expected opponents (personal
characteristics, interests, weak and strengths, etc.) 7.
Making inquiries about common interests Analyses
of information and development of final strategies of the negotiations and
preliminary solutions
Further there was a short, but interesting game. It
should be trained how to start negotiations with the authorities. The role of
authoritiesпїЅ representatives was to play their selves, thus Aleksander
Stadnik played himself. The national leaders and the left participants were
divided into three groups. The groups took the game very seriously. In a very
short time were developed quite interesting projects. For instance, the group
led by Viktor Viktorin preferred for the discussion with the пїЅauthoritiesпїЅ
the following project. пїЅNational
Folklore EnsembleпїЅ
Purpose:
development of national culture and its demonstration to other peoples living
in the region. Arguments: 1.
We have already a worthy group of a high level and with performed
concert program 2.
We could perform on the CityпїЅs Day and national holidays - free of
charge 3.
We got an invitation to take part in an all-Russian competition and an
international festival пїЅMunich 2004пїЅ. There they could worthy represent the
city/ oblastпїЅ 4.
пїЅIf we win the money price in
Munich, we will use the price as given means for the further work 5.
As the idea supported by A. S. Stadnik, the group is ready perform in
the regional TV with a concert program 6.
We plan to establish a children group of the Ensemble 7.
Means to the amount of ___ are necessary 8.
We organize a charity evening for the employees of the administration
пїЅ entrance-fee $ 100 ($ 50 for the meal, $ 50 for the costumes). The
ensembleпїЅs performance is guaranteed. The
game пїЅstarting negotiationsпїЅ was marvelously interesting and demonstrated
visually the weak and miscalculations of the negotiating persons form the
пїЅnational communitiesпїЅ. In
the beginning of the next training day Galina Ustinova, the representative of
the MacArthur Foundation reported on the foundation and on programs financed
by the foundation. The
culmination of the training was the role game пїЅnegotiations with the
authorities for a special article in the budget of the Astrakhan oblastпїЅ for
the realization of national politicsпїЅ. To say it in another way, we chose the
idea said by Aleksandr Stadnik in the beginning of the training as subject of
the negotiations. The intrigues of the interactive game finished in that way
that all representatives of the authorities (among them Stadnik) played the
roles of the leaders of national communities. The leaders of national
organizations played the role of the authorities. The pleasure of the Turkmen
leader Shamil TaganпїЅyazov was boundless. In the course of the training he
kept the representatives of the administration and us in a constant strain
because of his temperamental replicas and expressions. He required more or
less the role of the gubernator, and got it. Then one could see, how
Aleksander Stadnik, the representative of the Administration, persuaded him
to help with the passing of an special article in the regional budget and how
he rather severe and imperiously (with an Turkmen accent) declared: пїЅThe
budget is not rubber. We cannot finance everybody". It
was even strange to see how adults, serious people, devoted their selves so
passionately to the play, and played so interesting in for them unusual
roles. The only explanation for this phenomenon was that they earlier, maybe
even unconsciousness, put their selves on the place of their opponent, and
thought When the training ended and we said goodbye to the participants, we had the firm intent to return once again to Astrakhan, as we liked the city and the people. We have known before, that we can successfully work with national communities in PermпїЅ, Samara or Ekaterinburg and count on the severe support of the local Administration. We thought that the cold climate and bigger distance to the Caucasus is the determinative factor for the absence of serious international problems. In Astrakhan we understood that this all is not so simple. In this case another formula fits пїЅ the cadres decide everything. It is possible to cooperate successfully with the authorities of the Astrakhan oblastпїЅ, because they are really interested in a further improvement of the international situation in their region. Therefore, our work is in demand there. |
