Philippa Neave: The unexpected challenges of a country's first election
Philippa Neave: Provocările neașteptate ale primelor alegeri electorale
Philippa Neave is senior advisor on the UN's Lexicon of Electoral Terminology. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
there's no word for it,
nu există nici cuvântul care-l denumește,
care denumește un lucru,
we know what we're talking about.
știm despre ce vorbim.
We have the vocabulary.
Avem vocabularul.
where democracy doesn't exist,
no words to describe the concepts
care denumesc conceptele
of electoral assistance,
deseori pentru prima dată.
cu ce mă ocup
who goes around the world
on countries that can't handle it."
unor țări care nu-i pot face față!”
does not impose anything on anybody.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
a Drepturilor Omului din 1948,
to choose who governs them.
dreptul de a-și alege guvernatorul.
este mobilizarea publicului.
designing information campaigns
proiectarea de campanii informaționale
to participate or to vote
de a candida sau vota
să se înregistreze,
campaign to reach out to women
campanie pentru a ajunge la femei
că ele pot lua parte
la toată lumea.
because very often in this work,
pentru că deseori în această muncă,
that I've been doing it
am observat acum
high levels of illiteracy,
de analfabetism,
it was in 2005,
on the same day.
în aceeași zi.
are so incredibly difficult,
era foarte complicat,
explaining two elections instead of one
să explici două alegeri în loc de una
la realul buletin de vot,
so many people wanted to take part,
foarte mulți voiau să ia parte,
pentru 52 de locuri
which is the parliamentary elections.
adică alegerile parlamentare.
we had even more candidates.
am avut și mai mulți candidați.
a lot of symbols and things like that.
multe simboluri.
in Southern Sudan.
în Sudanul de Sud.
who had never, of course, voted,
care, desigur, nu votaseră niciodată,
high levels of illiteracy,
de ridicat de analfabetism,
the size of Texas, more or less.
where we landed the planes
pe care au aterizat avioanele
about what a box looked like.
despre cum arată o cutie.
was obviously the way to go,
era evident esențială,
by that enormous movement
prin această mișcare enormă
there was Egypt, there was Yemen.
historical moment.
with the election commission,
cu comisia electorală,
about various aspects of the election,
aspecte ale alegerilor
that I hadn't actually heard before,
pe care nu le-am mai auzit,
I'd worked with Jordanians, Egyptians,
iordanieni, egipteni,
„Asta e ciudat.”
was this word "observer."
a fost cuvântul „obsevator”.
was talking about "mulahiz" in Arabic.
vorbea despre „mulahiz” în arabă.
in a passive sort of sense,
într-un mod pasiv,
he was wearing a light blue shirt."
că el purta un tricou albastru deschis.”
the shirt was light blue or not?
era albastru deschis sau nu?
observatorului electoral.
by all kinds of treaties,
prin tot felul de tratate,
that control function in it.
of the fact that in Egypt,
de faptul că în Egipt,
which means "to follow."
care înseamnă „a urma."
followers of an election.
adepții alegerilor electorale.
that's already accepted and in use,
deja acceptat și folosit
which means "a controller."
adică un „controler”
for one concept. This is not good.
trei cuvinte pentru același concept.
we thought perhaps it's our role
am realizat că probabil e rolul nostru
that the words are understood
că au fost înțelese cuvintele
of Electoral Terminology,"
de Terminologie Electorală”,
in eight different countries.
of everything you need to know
a tot ceea ce trebuie să știi
a democratic election.
o alegere democratică.
și am ajuns la o înțelegere
about what would be the appropriate word
and that's part of the problem.
și asta este marea problemă.
that speak Arabic,
care vorbesc limba arabă,
that is used across the whole region
folosită în toată regiunea
to the next in day to day language and use
și de la un limbaj obișnuit la altul -
added layer of complication.
un strat de complicații.
fully ripe, if you like,
new expressions.
eight correspondents in the region.
corespondenți în regiune.
to harmonize or force harmonization.
sau să forțăm armonizarea.
understanding among people.
înțelegerea între oameni.
the different expressions in use
it took three years to produce this
a durat trei ani să producem așa ceva
and took it actually into the field,
și l-am aplicat apoi pe teren,
in all these different countries,
în toate diferitele țări,
și am redefinit proiectul,
in November 2014 in Cairo.
în noiembrie 2014 în Cairo.
We published 10,000 copies.
Am publicat 10.000 de copii.
off the internet in PDF form.
de pe internet în format PDF.
that they've taken it up in Somalia.
că au început să îl folosească în Somalia.
a version of this in Somalia,
for Electoral Management Bodies,
pentru Organismele de Management Electoral
built up a pan-Arab observation unit,
o unitate de observare arabă
is quite high-pitched.
de referință destul de pătrunzătoare.
are quite technical,
sunt destul de tehnici,
need to know at least a third of it.
nu ar folosi nici o treime din ei.
of what we know as civic education.
de ceea ce noi numim educație civică.
in that part of the world,
the right of everybody
producing a work of reference
o lucrare de referință
folosind aplicațiile de pe telefon,
that can be used now
ce pot fi folosite acum
about the Middle East.
din Orientul Mijlociu.
We hear terrorism.
Auzim terorismul.
and all this horrible negative news
și toate știrile oribile
the people, the everyday people, thinking?
e ce gândesc oamenii obișnuiți.
let's give them the words.
să le dăm cuvintele.
with the knowledge tools
oamenilor uneltele cunoașterii
does not need to be silent.
nu trebuie să fie tăcută.
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