Development Forum

Title: Notion of Change and Response: The Role of Civil Society in this Century

Speaker: Sohail Muhammad Ali, Provincial Coordinator, Sindh, Academy for Educational Development.

Venue: NGO Resource Centre – Information Centre
Tuesday November 29, 2005
Timing 5:00 to 6:30 pm

Role of civil society has become very important in this era of globalization where global social, cultural and economic values are changing rapidly.

This was stated by Sohail Muhammad Ali, Provincial Coordinator, Sindh, Academy for Educational Development. He was speaking at Development Forum of NGO Resource Centre on “Notion of Change and Response: The Role of Civil Society in this Century.”

Globalization may cause homogenization and hegemonization and many people think globalization can cause identity crisis. Sohail said many organizations and individuals have raised their voices against globalization of economy and culture because it gives powers to a particular economy or culture to dominate.

Talking about Civil Society, he said there is no universally accepted definition of either civil society or the related notions of a civic culture. Even in Urdu, there is no suitable translation of Civil Society phrase, he added.

However Sohail pointed out that in Civil Society there is voluntary participation by average citizens and thus does not include behavior imposed or even coerced by the state. “Civil society includes not just the individuals who participate but the institutions they participate in. Thus, civil society is strong to the degree that those institutions are large and powerful.”

He put question to the audience that what an individual can do. Many participants took part in the interactive session and gave their views on various points raised by the speaker. Sohail said “"if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem."

He lamented that subliminal messages are being bombarded on our minds through various media resources and it is very difficult to identify those messages or their sources. For example, he said after watching the famous horror movie, “Exorcist” most of viewers had started drinking Coca Cola. When people were interviewed outside cinema houses, they said they did not know why they were drinking Coke after watching movie. Sohail said when psychologists made researches, they found that in fact a subliminal message was put on screen asking the viewers to drink Coca Cola after the movie.

Similarly, he said every day thousands of subliminal message are being released through media including advertisements on TV, print media or billboards etc.

Sohail spoke about ‘change’ and said everything in the world change except the ‘change.’ He quoted a book “Who Moved My Cheese” by Spencer Johnson. There are four characters of mice in the small book. He said these mice were implied as four types of people, who react change differently.

Some people note the change and tell others about it. There are others who agree and also start noticing change. Third kind of people resist the change and the last category of people are those who are rigid and do not accept the change.

Earlier, the Incharge of Information Resource Centre Anis Danish introduced the aims and objects of Development Forum.

NGORC organizes Development Forum on regular basis to provide a platform for creating a dialogue among development sector operators. The Forum is part of the services of Development Communication Unit of NGORC.