Philippa Neave: The unexpected challenges of a country's first election
Phillipa Neave: De onverwachte uitdagingen van de eerste verkiezingen van een land
Philippa Neave is senior advisor on the UN's Lexicon of Electoral Terminology. Full bio
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heeft ooit gezegd
there's no word for it,
er geen woord voor is.
we know what we're talking about.
waarover we praten.
We have the vocabulary.
where democracy doesn't exist,
waar democratie niet bestaat?
no words to describe the concepts
die deze concepten beschrijven
of electoral assistance,
bij het organiseren
who goes around the world
die de hele wereld afreist
on countries that can't handle it."
aan landen die het niet aankunnen."
does not impose anything on anybody.
niemand iets op.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
van de Rechten van de Mens van 1948,
to choose who governs them.
om te bepalen wie hen bestuurt.
designing information campaigns
informatiecampagnes uitwerken
to participate or to vote
om deel te nemen of te gaan stemmen
ze zich kunnen inschrijven,
om deel te nemen.
campaign to reach out to women
die zich specifiek tot vrouwen richt
because very often in this work,
heb ik in dit werk gemerkt
that I've been doing it
high levels of illiteracy,
it was in 2005,
het was in 2005.
on the same day.
organiseren op dezelfde dag.
are so incredibly difficult,
is zo ongelooflijk ingewikkeld,
explaining two elections instead of one
niet één maar twee verkiezingen waren
veel pictogrammen gebruiken.
so many people wanted to take part,
omdat er zo veel kandidaten waren.
voor 52 zetels
which is the parliamentary elections.
de parlementsverkiezingen,
we had even more candidates.
voor 54 zetels.
voor de provincieraad.
a lot of symbols and things like that.
hebben moeten gebruiken.
in Southern Sudan.
who had never, of course, voted,
hadden uiteraard nog nooit gestemd,
high levels of illiteracy,
hoge mate van ongeletterdheid
the size of Texas, more or less.
de grootte van Texas
where we landed the planes
waar we aankwamen,
about what a box looked like.
hoe 'n stemhokje eruitzag.
was obviously the way to go,
mondeling uitleggen.
by that enormous movement
uit die overweldigende beweging
there was Egypt, there was Yemen.
historical moment.
en historisch moment,
with the election commission,
about various aspects of the election,
van de verkiezingen kwamen aan bod.
that I hadn't actually heard before,
die ik nog nooit had gehoord.
I'd worked with Jordanians, Egyptians,
en Egyptenaren gewerkt.
al die woorden.
was this word "observer."
het woord 'waarnemer'.
was talking about "mulahiz" in Arabic.
gebruikte het Arabische woord 'mulahiz',
in a passive sort of sense,
maar dan op 'n passieve manier,
he was wearing a light blue shirt."
dat hij 'n lichtblauw hemd droeg'.
the shirt was light blue or not?
of z'n hemd lichtblauw was of niet?
by all kinds of treaties,
bepaald door allerhande verdragen,
that control function in it.
of the fact that in Egypt,
which means "to follow."
wat 'volgen' betekent.
followers of an election.
that's already accepted and in use,
een algemeen aanvaarde term,
which means "a controller."
wat zo veel betekent als 'controleur'.
for one concept. This is not good.
dat kan niet goed zijn, dacht ik.
we thought perhaps it's our role
dachten we onder elkaar,
that the words are understood
dat de woorden begrepen worden.
een naslagwerk samenstellen
gebruikt kan worden.
of Electoral Terminology,"
van Verkiezingsterminologie' op.
in eight different countries.
of everything you need to know
van alles wat je moet weten
a democratic election.
about what would be the appropriate word
over het gepaste woord
and that's part of the problem.
en dat is gedeeltelijk het probleem.
that speak Arabic,
waar men Arabisch spreekt.
modern Standaardarabisch,
that is used across the whole region
over de hele regio,
to the next in day to day language and use
verschilt van land tot land,
added layer of complication.
een extra moeilijkheid toe.
fully ripe, if you like,
new expressions.
of nieuwe woorden.
eight correspondents in the region.
correspondenten in de regio.
to harmonize or force harmonization.
understanding among people.
vergemakkelijken.
the different expressions in use
uitdrukkingen die gebruikt worden
it took three years to produce this
drie jaar geduurd heeft om dit te maken.
and took it actually into the field,
goedkeuren en ermee het terrein optrekken,
in all these different countries,
in alle landen,
konden vastleggen.
in November 2014 in Cairo.
gepubliceerd in Caïro.
We published 10,000 copies.
laten drukken,
off the internet in PDF form.
pdf-kopieën gedownload van het internet.
that they've taken it up in Somalia.
dat men hetzelfde gaat doen in Somalië.
a version of this in Somalia,
in Somalië,
for Electoral Management Bodies,
in die regio verkiezingen organiseert,
built up a pan-Arab observation unit,
Panarabische observatie-eenheid opgericht,
is quite high-pitched.
redelijk ontoegankelijk.
are quite technical,
staat vol met technische termen,
need to know at least a third of it.
minstens één derde ervan niet echt nodig.
of what we know as civic education.
van maatschappelijke opvoeding.
van het leerprogramma.
in that part of the world,
bestaat dat eigenlijk niet.
the right of everybody
producing a work of reference
over het opstellen van een referentiewerk
om mee te werken.
via mobiele applicaties,
that can be used now
aan de mensen.
about the Middle East.
in het Middenoosten.
We hear terrorism.
en het terrorisme.
and all this horrible negative news
en al het vreselijke, negatieve nieuws
the people, the everyday people, thinking?
de gewone mensen, nu denken.
let's give them the words.
de woorden hiertoe geven.
with the knowledge tools
de nodige tools te verschaffen
does not need to be silent.
hoeft niet te zwijgen.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Philippa Neave - Electoral consultantPhilippa Neave is senior advisor on the UN's Lexicon of Electoral Terminology.
Why you should listen
Philippa Neave specializes in electoral communications and education, devising information and training campaigns for voters and candidates in emerging democracies. Since 2005 she has worked in electoral assistance as a consultant for the United Nations, developing strategies to inform people on their voting rights, with particular emphasis on reaching women and people with low levels of literacy. She has worked on elections in Afghanistan, Iraq UAE, Jordan, Turkey, Cambodia, Madagascar, Southern Sudan and Tunisia.
An Arabic speaker, Neave initiated and conducted a three-year project to produce the first Arabic lexicon of electoral terminology. With close to 500 entries, the tri-lingual (Arabic, English and French) lexicon provides clear and accurate explanations of key concepts and terms in the field of elections. Neave's approach included a groundbreaking effort to account for Arabic language variations across the region in eight participating countries: Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Palestine, Tunisia and Yemen.
Neave has always worked with words. For 15 years she was a reporter specialising in the Middle East. After a year and a half in Cairo, she became a foreign correspondent for an international features syndicate in based Rome, Paris and New York. Later, in London, she was chief editor of a magazine on arts and culture and in Paris after that, she was chief editor of European Press Network. She then left the news business and worked as Middle East Director for a British charity, based in Beirut for five years.
Her interest in democracy building goes back to the time when soon after leaving university, she served for several years as deputy Secretary General of the Parliamentary Association for Euro-Arab Cooperation, organising and participating in the Euro-Arab Parliamentary Dialogue.
Born in 1960 in France to an English father and a Danish mother, Neave grew up bilingual. She studied Arabic at Durham University in the UK and obtained a BA degree. She speaks seven languages, including Arabic, and is based in Paris.
Philippa Neave | Speaker | TED.com