Mideast Tour: Sarath Fernando (Sri Lanka) & Taieb Belghazi (Morocco)

1. Meadville, PA
Event: 9/15, 8p – Carnegie Hall, Room 212 (Allegheny College)
Meadville contact: Blair Anundson, (814) 332-2148 (h)

2. Ann Arbor
Event: 9/18, 6-8p – Michigan League, Vandenberg Room, 2nd Floor
(911 N. University Ann Arbor, MI)
Ann Arbor contacts: Ryan Jonna, (248) 202-1519; Jim Russo, (734) 358-7771

3. Marquette, MI
Event: 9/20 & 21
Marquette contact: Traci Raymond, (231) 537-4469

4. Pittsburgh, PA
Event: 9/22, 7p – David Lawrence Hall, Auditorium
Pittsburgh contacts: Alex Rodley, (412) 682-4035 (h); Paul LeBlanc, (412) 365-1984 (h)

5. Oberlin, OH
Event: 9/23
Oberlin contacts: Tamara White, (440) 775-5292; Becca Rosen, (440) 775-5637

Sarath Fernando, Sri Lanka
Trained as a civil engineer, Sarath Fernando is presently Co-Secretary of the Sri Lankan umbrella organization, Movement for National Land and Agricultural Reform (MONLAR). MONLAR began in 1990 as the Committee for National Land and Agricultural Reform and today provides community-based research, advocacy and policy development support for some 70 organizations in areas such as sustainable agriculture, food and water security, resource extraction and economic justice. MONLAR seeks to strengthen the capacity of local communities to meet their own basic needs.

A community activist since the late 1960s, Fernando has worked with the Social and Economic Development Centre (SEDEC), the social action arm of the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka, and with the Devasarana Development Centre. He has published studies on land reform, as well as on the impact of export industrialization strategies and free trade zones on the Sri Lankan people. In 1999, MONLAR participated with about 100 other organizations collecting 300,000 signatures in support of the international campaign for the abolition of poor country debt.

Taieb Belghazi - Morocco
Taieb Belghazi is a professor of Cultural Studies and a member of the Culture and Development research unit at the Faculty of Letters, University Mohamed V, Rabat. He received a Ph.D in critical and cultural theory from Cardiff University, Wales, working under the supervision of the philosopher Christopher Norris. He has written on the politics of identity, globalization, postmodernism, civil society, social movements and cultural development. His most recent publications include a co-authored book on social movements: Collective Action and the Mobilization of Resources (Rabat-Konrad Adenauer)and a co-edited book on Global/Local Cultures and Sustainable Development 'Rabat-Konrad Adenauer). He is a member of the UNESCO International Panel of Reading for all.