#876 – Dick Bernard: The new Saints…and the real ones.

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Two recent Popes were officially declared as Saints on April 27. Here is the flier which we Catholics could pick up yesterday at Mass, probably at all churches: Sts Jn XXIII and JP II001.
They’re very different folks, these two new Saints. John XXIII would be my fave by far. He became Pope five months after I started college, and gave meaning to the word “ecumenical”. Back in those good old days of the 1940s and 1950s, being Christian didn’t mean getting along in any sense of the word. Denominations emphasized the differences, and did things to ensure that their young uns had little to do with each other. Until mobility started mixing nationalities, even Catholic Churches (and others, too) were largely ethnic: Norwegian Lutheran; French-Canadian Catholic, etc. Times have changed, thank goodness. Things aren’t perfect by any means, but better, in my opinion.
I got closest, physically at least, to John Paul II. In the fall of 1998 I was in Rome, and managed to get a place next to the Pope’s route through St. Peter’s Square and got a closeup view of this increasingly infirm man. Two years later, late in the evening of early May 2000, enroute to Krakow Poland with a group of Catholics and Jews on pilgrimage to holocaust sites, soon to include Auschwitz-Birkenau (at Oswiecim), I convinced the tour leaders to have the bus go through Wadowice, Poland, to the very near proximity of the place where John Paul II grew up.
We didn’t stop, of course, it was late at night. Later I was to learn that Oswiecim (Auschwitz) and Wadowice (John Paul II’s home) are only 20 or so road miles apart, with Auschwitz actually a few miles closer to Wadowice. Of course, the Polish Jews were essentially obliterated by WWII; Polish Catholics were also killed by the millions. And after the war, Poland became a satellite Communist state of the Soviet Union.
One can understand how JPII’s attitudes developed (and were, in my opinion, manipulated) by the anti-Communist forces. He was never viewed as a particular friend of Liberation Theology in the Global South, for instance; and his ultimate successor, Benedict XVI, then Cardinal Ratzinger, was even less so. As I say, “Communism” was a useful word….
But that’s a debate for someone else, some other time.
There are two new official Saints in the Catholic Church, both with their fan clubs.
Another publication caught my eye at Basilica yesterday.
It was the usual weekly newsletter and the cover story, by Janice Andersen, Social Justice coordinator, bears reading. Jackie under the bridge001.
We lose something in the adulation of certain individuals who are set apart to symbolize something or other, as is the case with the two Popes who were just canonized.
In small and large ways, every day, everywhere on earth, there are endless examples of ordinary people, Christian or not, doing extraordinary things, and thinking nothing at all about it. It is just who they are.
My guess is that most all of us once in awhile are in this category of “saint”. There are no books of miracles attributed to us; that’s not the point.
We put one foot in front of the other and do our best.
That’s sainthood to me.

#872 – Dick Bernard: Listening to Adama Dieng, and A Musing about the United Nations in our ever more complex World

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This evening I attended a talk by Adama Dieng, UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide. As the speaker biography describes him, Mr. Dieng “is an internationally renowned human rights lawyer and expert who has spent his career working to establish and defend the rule of law.” A native of Senegal, “in 2012 he was appointed United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide…Mr. Dieng served as the Registrar of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda from 2001-2012.”
(click to enlarge photos)

Adama Dieng in dialogue with Barbara Frey of the UofM Institute of Global Studies.

Adama Dieng in dialogue with Barbara Frey of the UofM Institute of Global Studies.


This month is the 20th anniversary of the horrors of the Rwanda Genocide in which, according to Mr. Dieng, “one million people were killed in the first 100 days”, and that was just the beginning of the tragedy. Introducing Mr. Dieng, Eric Schwartz, Dean of the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, reflected on his 25 years in public service positions, noting that more time needed to be devoted to “scanning the horizon”. As I interpreted his phrase, more of us need to have the vision to anticipate and mitigate problems before they happen; rather than be in a reactive mode as we so often seem to be.
Genocide is a prime example of recognizing a problem too late….
Mr. Dieng was most impressive, as one would expect a person of his credentials, and in his position, to be. His native language is French, a very common official in many African countries, and he would express his homey saying first in French, then translated into English. His English was impeccable.
As I sat there listening to this obviously brilliant and diplomatic representative of the United Nations and his native Africa, I mused about a question I’ve never heard asked: “what if the United Nations had not been created in 1945 or didn’t exist today? Where would we all be, now, in this increasingly complex planet?”
Ordinarily, if the UN comes up in conversation, it is the subject of general criticism, from being some sort of sinister world government scheme to at best being an ineffective representative on the world stage; a worthless collection of bureaucrats.
It is so often caricatured by use of bad examples of what it supposedly represents. This is not hard, because where the UN is found, there is often trouble which it did not create in the first place: Rwanda, for example, in 1994.
If there was no United Nations at all would we all be better off, or not?
Sitting there, just reflecting on bits and pieces I’ve seen and heard over the years, the United Nations has been a crucial instrument to help coordinate international efforts, and to act as a buffer, indeed, to act on occasion as a punching bag, in this ever more complex world. Let the UN pass away, and we would soon see what we were missing. Surely, it represents the imperfections of the world, but that is a main reason it exists.
It is an ever more essential entity in our ever-more global society of over 7 billion people.
People like Mr. Dieng deserve our thanks for their efforts to make this world a better place, one tiny bit at a time.
Adama Dieng, April 16, 2014

Adama Dieng, April 16, 2014


Giant Globe, Boston MA, 1972

Giant Globe, Boston MA, 1972


Late June, 1972, the United Nations NYC

Late June, 1972, the United Nations NYC

#868 – Dick Bernard: A Declaration of INTERdependence

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It was a nice day on Saturday, and I had gone to downtown Minneapolis at the invitation of my friend, Lynn Elling, who gave a brief talk to Business students at St. Thomas University’s downtown campus.
(click to enlarge all photos)

Lynn Elling on April 5 at St. Thomas University Minneapolis

Lynn Elling on April 5 at St. Thomas University Minneapolis


His is a near life-long passion for peace, for survival of the human family. This was born of his experiences as a WWII and Korean Navy officer; later viewing Hiroshima in the 1950s.
He walks the talk. His is a story with many chapters, and hidden pieces continue to be revealed as he goes through the archives of his 93 years.
This particular day he had along a recently re-found Declaration of INTERdependence, authored by Henry Steele Commager in 1975, and co-signed in support by the bi-partisan political and civic establishment of Minnesota May 1, 1976: Decl of INTERdependence001. (Click on the document to enlarge it; a link with some of the history of Interdependence can be seen here. Scroll down for the Commager declaration, the one affirmed in the Twin Cities in 1976.)
This was not the first Declaration signed by these leaders or others. The first one he showed me back in 2007 was a Minnesota Declaration of World Citizenship (1971) 1971 film produced by Lynn Elling is here). In 2012 it was a Declaration of World Citizenship for Minneapolis and Hennepin County (1968). And the most recent earlier discovery was President Lyndon Johnson Declaration of the U.S. as a World Citizen (1965), also affirmed by Minnesota leaders of the time. All of these were largely the doing of Lynn Elling and another Minneapolis businessman, Stanley Platt. In the case of the Hennepin County, Minneapolis and Minnesota Declarations, the United Nations was given special recognition, accompanied by the flying of the UN flag at the Hennepin County Plaza (1968-2012) and also over the State Capitol in St. Paul.
Supporting signatures on May 1, 1976 Declaration of Interdependence

Supporting signatures on May 1, 1976 Declaration of Interdependence


What has struck me about each of these new (to me) discoveries, is that they happened at all, all coming during the era that we call “Vietnam”.
While the focus then was on making war (or anti-war); there was more than lip-service given to peace by political leaders, in this case, through acknowledging and building upon our InterDependence with the rest of the planet.
Today we remain mired in the era of presumed self-reliance, freedom from other than personal responsibility, victory by the strong, the vestiges of American “exceptionalism”. It is no accident that I publish this on the day of the NCAA Basketball Championship – celebrating the best of the best; only one in a series of such celebrations in our society, where individual or group excellence is rewarded, and national strength and dominance is hi-lited for a single winning team for one moment in time.
Commager and others back in a very difficult time in our national history set about to hi-lite another course; find another way for planetary survival.
We need to re-energize this ethic, for our survival as a planet.
Lynn Elling April 6, 2014

Lynn Elling April 6, 2014


After Saturdays meeting, I crossed the street from St. Thomas to Target Corporations World Headquarters, I paused to take a quick snapshot of downtown Minneapolis. Many of the conversations which led to those older declarations took place in downtown Minneapolis amongst business, political and civic leaders.
Back in that St. Thomas classroom, Mr. Elling reported later, many students wanted to meet him, having photographs taken with him.
Such conversations need to happen over and over again….
We have no choice. The survival of more than simply the human family is at stake.
Minneapolis MN April 6, 2014

Minneapolis MN April 6, 2014


A final thought: we are a country basically run by what is called the “business model”, primarily of, by and for the benefit of business.
There are many aspects to this “business model”. Ascendant, especially today, is power through competition – “winning”. Money is the primary value.
Between 1965 and 1976, in the Twin Cities and Minnesota in particular, a very large group of businesspeople and others apparently embraced the intent of the declarations cited above. For a moment in time there seems to have been more highlighting of the power of positive relationships, local, national, international
There remain, doubtless, very large numbers of businesspeople and others who would still embrace this, but a much harder edged individualistic winner take all ethic seems to have taken control, at least for the moment.
Here’s to a new Declaration Generation, where action goes beyond simply declaring intent.
I think the base is available for getting back to this idea….
POSTNOTE: the model which took substantial root in the Twin Cities and elsewhere back in the 1960s and 1970s was inspired by a national group called United World Federalists – not a political party, rather a philosophy of national cooperation. You can read the history of this national organization here (see WFA 1947-97 History). GlobalSolutionsMN.org is the local successor of WFA.

#867 – Dick Bernard: The Tar Sands Pipeline and other matters of the environment

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A relevant and current addendum to this post is the 2014 Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change accessible here.
Last Sunday after church I stopped by a table staffed by two members of the environmental organization MN350.
This day they were encouraging action against a proposed expansion of the Alberta Clipper Pipeline of Enbridge Energy, a Canadian Corporation. The planned demonstration was Thursday April 3 in St. Paul. The essential information about the contested project is here: Stop Alberta Clipper001.
I was interested in this issue, and Thursday afternoon came, with icy rain preliminary to a predicted 6-10 inches of snow overnight.
After some hemming and hawing, I arrived late at the demo, walked a few blocks in the march and came home.
I was glad I went. There was a good attendance, especially given the weather. My two favorite photos are these.
(click to enlarge photos)

April 3 Tar Sands Pipeline demo St. Paul MN

April 3 Tar Sands Pipeline demo St. Paul MN


April 3, 2014

April 3, 2014


Often I wonder if the whole climate change situation is hopeless. Are the people who walked in this demonstration wasting their time? As friends in the peace and justice movement know, I am no particular fan of protests simply for the sake of protesting.
But every now and then, there is encouragement, and Thursday was such a day, coming from an unusual direction. I picked up a little hope that the quiet majority is generally getting it – that there is a problem, despite the scoffers at ” the very words Global Warming”.
Before driving into St. Paul I had stopped at the Post Office to mail some items, and while I was affixing stamps a guy in my age range started to chat.
Of course, the threatening weather came up.
He said, “guess I’ll have to go and talk to God about it”. I answered, “I’ll check what happens and see what God had to say about your talk”.
We both chuckled.
We compared notes a bit, in the way that strangers do, dancing into uncharted waters. The deadly mudslide in Washington came up; the drought in California; less predictable and more severe weather generally….
The guy said, “maybe Al Gore knew something back then. Even my wife is starting to think so.”
The demonstrators probably won’t stop the pipeline but maybe they’ll encourage one or two more conversations like the one this fellow and I were having.
Games like this – making change – are played by the inch, not the mile. Dramatic change happens so slowly as to not even be noticed.
I’m thankful those two women caught my eye on Sunday, and that I picked up their literature.
Enroute home I got to thinking about two years ago at almost exactly this date in my town: the temperature was in the low 70s, and the trees were budding….
There was a frost that messed up the budding a few days later, but the difference between two years ago and now was indeed dramatic.
April 2, 2012, Woodbury (suburban St. Paul) MN

April 2, 2012, Woodbury (suburban St. Paul) MN


Native Americans from Red Lake MN used their banner as a windshield in downtown St. Paul April 3, 2014

Native Americans from Red Lake MN used their banner as a windshield in downtown St. Paul April 3, 2014

#862 – Dick Bernard: An airliner vanishes, Stone Soup, House on Fire, and the 26th Nobel Peace Prize Forum, March 1, 7-9, 2014

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UPDATE Mar 2, 2014: Video of all speeches referred to below should be accessible here.
Noon today is the first day of Spring in Minnesota. It’s been a long enough winter here.

Bicycles at the University of Minnesota Mar 8, 2014

Bicycles at the University of Minnesota Mar 8, 2014


It’s been about two weeks since the 26th Nobel Peace Prize Forum, convened at Augsburg College. “Crossing Boundaries to Create Common Ground” was the theme; purposely acknowledging and bringing together different voices, different points of view.
The format worked well. Mark your calendar for next years Forum, March 6-8, 2015.
Best as I can count, there were 37 different possibilities of workshops and speakers in the four days.
I attended 14 of the 1 1/2 hour sessions, beginning with the Dalai Lama on March 1. It was a phenomenal, exhausting, enriching four days. I’ve spent the time trying to distill my own impressions of over 30 hours into a brief recap. All the major talks likely will later be accessible on-line. If they do go on-line, they are all worth your time.
*
It is also two weeks since Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went missing early in the morning on March 7, 13 time zones east of here: Airline Mystery Mar 7 14001.
Two weeks later, this first day of spring, nobody knows anything for sure. What happened is speculation, including from “experts”.
Coincidentally, a few hours before Malaysia officially announced that Flight 370 was missing, I was at the Forum, among two or three hundred, listening to Ian Bremmer, an international consultant to the powerful on Eurasia, primarily, talking about shifts in international power relationships, the kinds of things we hear about in the news: China, Russia-Crimea-Ukraine*, etc.
Geopolitically, “times they are a’changin”.
That missing American airliner, piloted for a Malaysian airline by two experienced Malaysian pilots, carrying primarily Chinese passengers from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, was probably a routine red-eye flight. Then it went missing. The world community, countries, volunteers, and others sprang into action to try to answer what might turn out to be unanswerable questions.
The search from the beginning has been a community activity – the entire world, literally, becoming the community.
Yes, there have been disagreements about most everything, and everybody has a theory, but what else is new? Such happens in every nuclear family, incessantly: “yes I did”, “no you didn’t”. Flight 370 is just on a much more massive scale, and it is remarkable to watch the world, literally, working together.
Our world is very different from the traditional sphere we grew up within; so is our nation. It is a difficult change for some to adjust to. I hope Bremmer’s talk remains on-line, or returns on-line soon, at the Peace Prize Forum website. For me, his talk will be worth a re-listen, and this time I’ll pay closer attention to his opinions, now, in relation to Flight 370 and what it means. (When he was talking, there had not yet been an announcement about the missing flight. That came several hours later.)
*
Until 370 took center stage, what follows was the essence of my thinking about the just-completed Forum.
There was a general additional tone to the four days of the Forum that led me to think about the below photo of my then-near two year old grandson, Ryan, taken May 25, 2001.
(click to enlarge)
Ryan, May 25, 2001

Ryan, May 25, 2001


In sundry ways, at Augsburg, I picked up the message that we ordinary individuals are the ones who must be the change we wish to see in the world (Gandhi’s quote) and that small groups, as Margaret Mead liked to say, are the key to changing the world for better or for worse.
Liberian Laureate Leymah Gbowee’s keynote at the end of the Forum, March 9, brought things together nicely. Here was a 39 year old Liberian Mom thrust onto the world stage simply because she dared to make a difference in her home country in a time of political crisis. Her then-one year old was folded into her speech. Hers was a practical message, as I would interpret it: “folks, we’re all in this together.”
The day of national or personal omnipotence is past. We’re on this globe together; what happens there, has impact here, and vice versa. There are no boundaries: the internet; portability of disease…. It is a bewildering world for those accustomed to being in control.
There were, I heard, 3200 of us in the hall listening to Dalai Lama on March 1.
He talked, but it is the 3200 of us who have to translate his thoughts and his deeds into action, where we live, that will make a difference.
At the Crowdsourcing session, The classic “Stone Soup” was described…a kettle of water was brought to a boil, and some small stones were the first contributions to the “soup”.
Of course, stones are not edible, even boiled stones. One villager came and dropped in a few carrots, someone else brought beans, and after a while there was a soup for everyone, contributed by everybody…. (“Crowdsource” volunteers with computers and time are helping scour satellite photos of the Indian Ocean for some piece of evidence that may be out there, somewhere.)
Crowdsourcing uses everyone’s talents to get a handle on, and solve some problem or other.
In one of the keynote speeches, Dr. William Foege, one of those considered most responsible for eradicating smallpox as a world disease, talked about a crucial moment in developing a strategy for dealing with the disease in India.
The VIPs were in a community experiencing an outbreak of smallpox, and the discussion centered around whether to target immunize in areas with outbreaks, or blanket immunize entire populations.
A simple villager rose at the meeting, and said that in their village, if a house started on fire, each person would bring their bucket of water and throw it on the fire. It was just common sense. You deal with the fire….
It was a simple piece of village wisdom, made all the sense in the world to the important people there, and Dr. Foege titled his book, “House on Fire”.
Which leads back to that picture of my grandson with the basketball back in 2001.
Ryan obviously had a vision that day – he knew what that hoop was for; his Grandpa – me – had been shooting baskets in that same hoop.
All he needed was a few years, and the patience to grow up a little.
He’s now near 15, loves basketball, is not varsity calibre, but plays actively in the local athletic Association league. He’s fun to watch. He got seven points in one game this year, and he’s learned teamwork in the process: basketball is a great team sport.
#12 Feb 23, 2014

#12 Feb 23, 2014


So it is with us and our world.
We might not be on be on the varsity, but we can play our part, or we can at minimum participate by showing up in the stands. Together we make all the difference. But we have to show up.
In the end analysis, what world our kids inherit will depends on us.
Have a great Spring.
World at Peace Prize Festival at Augsburg College March 5, 2009

World at Peace Prize Festival at Augsburg College March 5, 2009


* – A long, interesting commentary on the Ukraine-Crimea-Russia issue is here.

#857 – Dick Bernard: Final Day of 2014 Nobel Peace Prize Forum at Augsburg College.

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Dates for the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize Forum: March 6-8, 2015
Posts for previous days accessible here.
Today’s short and final session of the 2014 Forum was very interesting, beginning with a debate about the success or failure of the 113-year Nobel Peace Prize Forum, and ending with a very stimulating talk by 2011 Nobel Laureate Laymah Gbowee of Liberia.
In between was the final series of breakouts. My choice from among seven options was a well attended session, “Nonviolent Resistance: Still Relevant?” with Dr. Mary Elizabeth King of the University for Peace. Dr. King’s website is here. Her activism began in the Civil Rights days of the late 1950s and early 1960s.
As with previous days, today’s debate about the relevance of the Peace Prize as well as Ms Gbowee’s Laureate address are accessible on line. You can view them here.

Laymah Gbowee, March 9, 2014

Laymah Gbowee, March 9, 2014


Ms Gbowee’s talk, and her answers in the following question and answer session, were particularly powerful and revealing, much different than I recall the focus of presentation of F.W. deKlerk on the same stage two years ago. The difference, perhaps, is more due to the fact that deKlerk, when he won his award with Nelson Mandela, was a career political actor in South Africa, representing, in effect, the ideology of the international political establishment in the years of Apartheid; while Ms Gbowee rose from common citizen to grassroots activist to one who helped change her nation, Liberia.
Both spoke powerfully from their personal framework of reference remembering their time in history.
And, of course, gender difference and traditional role differentiation between men and women plays a major part in the different ways of speaking, and differing priorities in prepared remarks.
Ms Gbowee had some powerful insights. I highly recommend watching and listening to her presentation.
She chose as her theme “how to reclaim our boundaries for peace”, a variation on the Conference theme: “Crossing Boundaries to Create Common Ground”.
The debate between Geir Lundestad, Director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, and Jay Nordlinger, Senior Editor of the National Review, was more predictable. Likely the choice of who you felt won or lost the debate depended on your bias going in.
from left, Jay Nordlinger, Stephen Young, moderator, and Geir Lundestad, March 9, 2014

from left, Jay Nordlinger, Stephen Young, moderator, and Geir Lundestad, March 9, 2014


I happen to think that the Nobel Peace Prize has had a remarkably effective history, given how people organizations work and the fact of its 113 year history.
The Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize is easily the most well known of many variations on the Peace Prize, and, indeed, more well known than the companion prizes awarded by the Swedish Nobel Institute.
Prior to the event I printed out and read a March, 2001, essay by Dr. Lundestad about the first 100 years of the Nobel Peace Prize. It prints out at 25 pages, and can be accessed here.
Jay Nordlingers book about the Nobel Peace Prize can be ordered here.
Of course, Dr. Lundestad’s summary stops at the year 2000.
The Peace Prize recipients since 2000 are as follows:
2001 – United Nations and Kofi Annan
2002 – President Jimmy Carter
2003 – Shirin Ebadi
2004 – Wangari Muta Maathai
2005 – International Atomic Energy Agency and Mohamed elBaradei
2006 – Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank
2007 – Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Al Gore
2008 – Martti Ahtisari
2009 – President Barack Obama
2010 – Liu Xiaobo
2011 – Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Laymah Gbowee, Tawakkol Karman
2012 – European Union
2013 – Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
Minnesota Boychoir March 9, 2014

Minnesota Boychoir March 9, 2014


SOME RANDOM PERSONAL THOUGHTS ABOUT THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE:
It is an honor for the Nobel Peace Prize to be criticized. This means they are doing something worthy of notice.
My own life work was public education, and since at least 1950 the National Education Association (NEA) has annually recognized a National Teacher of the Year, chosen from among nominees from state affiliates across the country, who in turn are nominated by millions of their peers at the school building levels.
Teacher of the Year is a grassroots up award.
The Teacher of the Year program has never purported to select the “best” teacher in the U.S.; rather, to honor a teacher who especially well represents the ideals to which all teachers aspire. “Teacher of the Year” is criticized too. But it has been and remains a wonderful program.
So, too, is this the case in the annual selection of the Nobel Peace Prize winner: someone/some agency spotlighted for his/her/their efforts for Peace, consistent with what likely was Alfred Nobels wish as imperfectly expressed in his Will.
To me, personally, it seems that “peace” and “war” are antonyms, not synonyms.
I am not aware of any “War Prize” (except for the t-shirt I occasionally see which declares the U.S. as “World Champion” for “winning” World War I and World War II.
In its imperfect way, the Nobel Committee, in its many incarnations over 113 years, has attempted to select a candidate or candidates who fit the written criteria established by Alfred Nobel himself, in his Will in the 1890s.
We are now a world of near 7 billion population, with near endless variations of increasingly sophisticated ways to destroy ourselves.
A Peace Prize is ever more important, every year, not just once in awhile. Seemingly increased emphasis on grassroots nominees like Ms Gbowee is as wonderful as it is essential.
When Alfred Nobel died (10 Dec 1896), the population of the world was less than one-fourth of what it is today, and humans were infinitely less sophisticated in their ways of destroying each other.
The carnage of war has increasingly been innocent citizens rather than formal military, and we see examples of this in each and every conflict.
In a profound way, someone like Laymah Gbowee exemplifies in effect the “World Citizen of the Year”, doing something noteworthy to make the world a better place, one community, one person, at a time. In many ways she symbolizes a “changing of the guard”, ethnic, nationality, position in society, which threatens the age-old status quo of white male domination. Of course, this increases push-back from those who ran things, but doesn’t change the result.
I have long treasured two timeless quotations which summarize my own feelings on this matter, and which have long began and ended my own website (currently being updated) to two citizens I admire, Lynn Elling and Joe Schwartzberg:
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world, indeed it is the only thing that ever has.”
Margaret Mead
“We must be the change we wish to see in the world.”
Gandhi
Neither Gandhi nor Margaret Mead ever won the Nobel Peace Prize but they, like every one of us, was fully capable of making a difference….

#851 – Dick Bernard: Haiti, remembering a December, 2003, visit to Port-au-Prince, and the time before the overthrow of the Jean-Bertrand Aristide government February 29, 2004.

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UPDATE: Yesterday my friend Jane Stillwater reported on a recent short visit to the same area I visited in 2003. You can read her comments, and see some photos, here.

Map of Haiti, December 2003

Map of Haiti, December 2003


Port-au-Prince Dec 2003

Port-au-Prince Dec 2003


Back in the spring of 2002 my new friend, Paul Miller, began to lobby me to join him on a trip to Haiti. He’d been there several times, and while I knew where Haiti was, and that it was a very poor country, that was about it.
Paul kept working on me, and during most of 2003 we read and talked about Haiti, and on Dec. 6, 2003, we landed in Port-au-Prince for an astonishing and eye-opening week [Basic itinerary at end of this post]. I wrote here about that experience on the 10 year anniversary.
We had a full and extraordinarily rich week, ending December 13, 2003. At the end of December, 2003, I reflected on my experience in Haiti.
Our associations that week were with people who supported then President Aristide, and were attempting, successfully, to make positive changes in the lives of the poor. We knew Haiti as one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere and the world; nonetheless we saw hope and pride as Haiti prepared for the bicentennial of its achieving independence from France in 1804.
A few photos from that amazing trip floated to the top of my collection when looking for symbols of Haiti in December, 2003:
(click to enlarge)
Haiti Sculpture Dec 2003005
The Presidential Palace, Port-au-Prince, December 8, 2003

The Presidential Palace, Port-au-Prince, December 8, 2003


At Ste. Claire after Mass Dec 7, 2003

At Ste. Claire after Mass Dec 7, 2003


There are many more photos, of places and people, all conveying pride and even optimism. Nobody expected the end of poverty, but there was discernible pride and optimism, amongst the poor, to at minimum be working towards poverty with dignity; the more real possibility of they and their children becoming literate; and of being recognized as free citizens who could and did democratically elect their President and other officials, etc.
At the end of our week, we stayed the last night at the Hotel Oloffson, made famous in Graham Greene’s novel, “The Comedians”. We sat in the bar listening to RAM, the band of Richard A. Morse. It was in itself a powerful evening. You could almost feel the increasingly intense political intrigue in the bar and on the veranda.
RAM at the Hotel Oloffson, about Dec. 12, 2003

RAM at the Hotel Oloffson, about Dec. 12, 2003


The next day we left, flying to Miami, picking up the Miami Herald story about storm clouds gathering in Haiti: Miami Herald 121303001.
The building storm was, of course, a fact known to us.
While we viewed the common folks going about their lives, we were hearing from the rich assortment of people we met with about the storm clouds gathering which, less than three months later, would end with the democratically elected President of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, being flown out of his country by U.S. aircraft, victim of a U.S. sponsored and supported coup d’etat.
“Freedom” and “Democracy” in Haiti were too much a threat to be allowed by the United States of America.
It was a harsh lesson for me, then and now: my own country could do this to not a dictator, but a democratically elected President of an independent country.
The coup happened officially on Feb. 29, 2004, denying even the ability to commemorate an anniversary at its 10th year, 2014.
Back home, as the coup happened, and the stories abounded, I tried to make sense of what I had witnessed, trying to find some facts among the sea of fictions that flowed, especially, from my own United States government.
In March, 2006, I took another trip back to Haiti. In the time period before I left, I condensed my concerns into a letter to the leaders of three major political influence entities in the United States, and even submitted a proposed op ed to the New York Times (not printed). For those interested, my thoughts remain on line here.
Life has moved on, and my several feet of files relating to Haiti have lain undisturbed for several years.
But this anniversary brings the memories back, and the lesson learned is to be less than trusting of “truth” conveyed through official or even news sources.
A healthy skepticism is deserved.
I was last to Haiti since 2006, but still keep in touch.
Keep seeing Haiti.
The travelers above Petion-Ville, December, 2003. Leader Paul Miller is at left.

The travelers above Petion-Ville, December, 2003. Leader Paul Miller is at left.


The General Itinerary as I recall it:
Stayed at Visitation House
The entire week was jam-packed.
We saw many of the places in the booklet Chemen Kwa Pep Ayisyen, in English, here: Haiti Stations of Cross001
Sunday, Dec 7, Mass at Ste Claire’s, Fr. Gerard Jean-Juste
During the week, some specifics:
Driving tour of sights in the Port-au-Prince area
Dinner at home of our driver above Petion-Ville in Mont Calvare area.
Morning and lunch at BAI, advocacy group for victims of violence, primarily women
Visit Fonkoze, then beginning to mature into the major micro-finance organization it is today.
Visit Methodist Church under construction
Lunch at one of higher-end hotels above Port-au-Prince
Visit Hospice St Joseph
Visit SOPUDEP School Petion-ville
Visit the national television station/studio
Visit Fr Michael Graves at Orthodox Church
Visit President Aristide’s international press liaison
Visit Methodist Church Guest House
Visit Orphanage some distant into the countryside around Port-au-Prince
Overnight at Olaffson Hotel
COMMENTS
from Peter B, Mar 1 (in 2003, this would have been Feb 29, the day of the coup):

In case you still want to put something in there about this:
The evening of the Haiti Coup I got on the phone with the State Department’s “Haiti Desk” and spent at least thirty minutes talking with a guy who was of course parroting the party line written by the Noriega character (not the Panamanian drug king, the State man in charge of the Caribbean)). I tried my best to explain that everybody knew (everybody who looked beyond the Washington Post and the New York Times that is, and could spell Haiti) that the thugs on the border in the DR were about to slam into Haiti, murdering, raping and pillaging, freeing the Duvalier Tonton Macoute killer police to add to the rampage, and destroying a functioning democracy.
He was polite and uncaring through out. I was not hurried off the line. I still can’t figure out how the single phone line to State about Haiti could be tied up by a citizen for that long in the midst of a very big military operation to capture a head of state and deport or kill him. But that’s how it was.
And of course my fears were fully realized, far worse than I ever imagined at the time.
I now understand that the cultural rules of “Market Rule” require that no successful alternative economy be allowed to function, let alone achieve a reasonable life for the citizens of any country. I now understand that the punishment meted out by Washington will be destruction, chaos and unimaginable slaughter. There is no place I am aware of today that is not subject to this other than (perhaps) Russia, which as an oligarchy, plays the game quite satisfactorily with the “Western Powers.”
I further understand that we don’t have a vote that counts on this. And that our elected officials are helpless to change it, because they are immediately drummed out of the halls of government, and if they won’t shut up, they find themselves standing next to a spouse at a news conference apologizing for human trafficking.
We’ve seen it all before. We might possibly escape total enslavement, but probably because the environment will drop on the population first, and we will be once again reduced to roving bands of hunter-gatherers.
Gloomy? So what? Show me some evidence to the contrary. Hunker down. Gonna be a long hard one. The old folks hereabouts say they never have seen weather like this. When Vermonters complain about the weather you know something is up.

#847 – Dick Bernard: 2014 Nobel Peace Prize Forum, Augsburg College Minneapolis MN March 7-9, 2014

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Hidden in plain sight in Minneapolis MN is the annual Nobel Peace Prize Forum at Augsburg College. Here is the link for the final three days of the Forum (The first day, Peace Day on Saturday, March 1, with the Dalai Lama, is sold out.)
Now in its 26th year, the Forum annually calls attention to the urgent mission of peace around the world, as envisioned by Alfred Nobel. Every day has a different theme:
Friday March 7 is Law and Business Day,
March 7 is also Peace Prize Festival for School Children (over 900 attendance, this event not open to the general public)
Saturday March 8 is Science and Health Day
Sunday March 9 is Global Day
Each day has internationally known keynote speakers (this year, several Nobel Peace Prize Laureates are in attendance); and very interesting breakout sessions on the theme of the day.
Of specific general interest to the general public is Global Day. Among this years presentors is Ms Leymah Gbowee, Nobel Laureate from Liberia who is a Peace and Woman’s Rights advocate.
I have attended the entirety of the last three Peace Prize Forums*, and they have been uniformly excellent and intellectually stimulating. In addition to the sessions themselves is the opportunity to network with persons with similar interests.
Do take the time to browse the Forum Website; let others know, and plan to attend yourself.
A recent blogpost about this years Forum can be seen here.
* – Until 2011, the Peace Prize Forum alternated between five Midwest Norwegian Lutheran Colleges, Augsburg, Concordia at Moorhead MN, St. Olaf in Northfield MN, Augustana in Sioux Falls SD, and Luther in Decorah IA. In 2011 the decision was made to permanently have the Forum at Augsburg College.

#844 – Anne Dunn: A Minnesota Ojibwe Woman Remembers a 2003 March for Peace in Toulouse, France and "The Children's Fire"

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On February 15, 2003, the day after Valentines Day, peacemakers began a march that encompassed the world in an international protest against war! In almost 800 cities in 60 countries from 12,000,000 to 15,000,000 people took to the streets with a collective purpose.
At least one million marchers turned out in Britain, one million in Italy and two million in Spain, as people expressed their anti-war sentiment. Two hundred thousand rallied in San Francisco and New York. About 100,000 turned out in Paris, France. [Ed. note: see photo of the Minneapolis protest on Feb 15, 2003 at end of this post.]
The protests were organized to “follow the sun” from Australia to the US. Across the world the challenge came in many languages.
They say it was the first global demonstration, and the cause was to prevent war against Iraq. The war had not yet begun! No, the world was saying, we will not endorse Bush’s War. But the rubber-stamp congress would.
Although it was unseasonably cold, about 12,500 marched in the streets of Toulouse, France, to support the effort that encircled the earth. They came with balloons, banners, bulletins, badges, and babies. Quick-stepping mothers were pushing bundled babies in covered prams and fathers were carrying rosy-cheeked toddlers on their shoulders. White haired couples held hands as they strolled along.
Protestors came from across the social and political spectrum. There were representatives of democracy, socialism, communism, anarchy, business, labor, civil rights and the environment. There was at least one Anishinabe/Ojibwe Grandmother Storyteller from the Leech Lake Reservation marching the cobbled streets that day.
Yes, I was there in a borrowed ski jacket! Helene bought me a red and white checkered keffiyeh for the occasion. I tied it around my neck as I marched for solidarity and peace!
The keffiyeh is a scarf traditionally worn by Palestinian farmers to protect them from sun, cold and dust. During the Arab Revolt of the 1930s it became a symbol of nationalism. It’s prominence increased in the 1960s with the Palestinian Resistance Movement and its adoption by Yassar Arafat. He usually wore one of black and white.
From time to time the marchers joined their vigorous voices in loud anti-war chants. The words bounced around in the long stone canyons and shivered against the high windows. Some downtown residents opened their doors and leaned over their balconies to wave at the passing crowds.
As a river of people filled the streets of downtown Toulouse, traffic was brought to a standstill at several intersections. Drivers sat inside their stranded vehicles waiting patiently for the masses to pass.
Police kept a low profile and no law enforcement brutality was reported.
A statement was released the following day which proclaimed: We don’t just say ‘no’ to war, we say ‘yes’ to peace, we say ‘yes’ to building economic and social systems that are not dominated by central banks and huge financial institutions. We don’t just say ‘no’ to war – we demand an end to massive resources being squandered on the military while billions are made poorer and poorer as a few reap huge wealth totally disproportionate to any labor or ingenuity of their own.”
At one point in the march a man approached me and said his friend wanted to be photographed with the Ojibwe woman from Minnesota. Although I was quite surprised that my presence had been so noteworthy, I was more than willing to accommodate the man! Soon a short man with white hair, rosy cheeks and a cheerful smile was standing beside me. We shook hands, our photo shoot was over and he melted into the crowd.
A man standing nearby asked, “Do you realize who that was?”
“No,” I replied, ”I do not.” I had no interest in his identity. For me, it was just an encounter with a friendly stranger. It had no political significance.
But the man wanted me to know, so he went on speaking. “That was the chairman of the communist party!”
It was of no importance to me for I was marching with my friends, who were Socialists.
I flew home the following day. Like everyone else that had participated, I was exhilarated at the prospect of peace instead of war. But the leaders did not heed the wisdom of the people. So the infamous, barbarous, illegal, unnecessary and poorly conceived ‘shock and awe’ began. We became hopelessly entrenched in an unjust war. Children who were just 7 years old then, are old enough to enlist now.
Bush and his cohorts were beating a big war drum and telling loud and careless lies to the American people. The mainstream media did little or nothing to promote truth, justice and peace. Journalists simply swallowed the party line. Now we all know that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction and there was no reason to destroy their homeland and murder their children with bombs.
Many will say we failed to purchase peace with people-power. They will say we did not avert the disastrous invasion and bloody occupation of Iraq. They will say we did not sustain the momentum of the march. They will say we went home and gave up.
But we are holding the ground for future generations to stand upon by protecting their constitutional right of dissent. We continue to confront our communities on the issue of unsustainable militarism, which is buried deep in the bloody earth upon which this nation has been built.
For the welfare of unborn generations we must redirect military spending to create jobs, invest in schools, housing and renewable energy.
Solidarity requires that we communicate with other peoples of the world, not the rich elite who are planning for their own continued dominance! We must lift ourselves up high and stand tall enough to see beyond the barriers of tribe, race, language, culture, class, and nations.
(click to enlarge)

Anti-War Demonstration Minneapolis MN Feb 15, 2003

Anti-War Demonstration Minneapolis MN Feb 15, 2003


UPDATE from Anne Dunn, February 17, 2014
The Children’s Fire
Anne Dunn
Like many people today, I’m deeply concerned about the land and have often wondered what kind of a world we are leaving to our grandchildren. Anishinabeg were told by Creator that we were the caretakers of this land and for thousands of years our ancestors took care that the resources were not exploited. But that position was usurped by the European invasion.
Since the Leech Lake Reservation is located within the boundaries of the Chippewa National Forest, there are many Anishinabeg who feel it is time that traditional standards of stewardship be adopted here and now.
Because… in the beginning there was the land, seemingly endless stands of white and red pine, innumerable streams and sparkling lakes; and there were the peoples of the land… the Anishinabeg. The great forests are gone now, plundered for profit… the streams and lakes are under siege. The peoples of the land stand poised and expectant… awaiting their season of respect and restitution. When a new and honorable history can be written with dignity and truth.
For decades, environmentalists have warned that our planet has limited resources. Yet, we continue to destroy that which we must preserve if our children and their children are to live well on Turtle Island.
The beautiful balance of nature no longer exists. Animal habitat is steadily encroached upon and the plant kingdom is increasingly threatened.
We can no longer allow our ecosystems to be compromised. We cannot allow the fate of earth, our island home, to be determined by the well-funded lobby of powerful corporations motivated by selfishness and greed.
The Hopi tell a story of The Children’s Fire, which promotes the concept that no one should be allowed to do anything that adversely affects our children.
It is said that the children’s fire must be forever guarded by the elders… the grandparents. But how do we guard the children’s fire? By getting out of bed and doing what has to be done. By standing alone in difficult places to give the children of tomorrow a good life in a good land.
One day the children will know that in the beginning… man, animals, birds and plants lived together on our Turtle Island in a beautiful balance of nature. The needs of all were met in the bountiful world they shared.
However, man became increasingly aggressive and began to abuse the rights of the plant and animal kingdoms.
Therefore, the harmony between them was destroyed. Many animals died needlessly and whole families disappeared.
But man continued his exploitations until he brought great hardship and strange diseases upon himself.
We will tell the children how the plants, which had remained friendly toward man, responded to his needs by providing remedies for all his diseases. Every herb and root produced a cure for man’s many ailments.
But, as was his nature, man’s aggressiveness and greed threatened to deplete the natural supply of health-giving plants.
If we continue down this road we will undoubtedly succeed in creating an environment so hostile that the survival of mankind will be jeopardized. It will be said that this generation extinguished the children’s fire.
Sunrise Oct 2014

Sunrise Oct 2014

#841 – Dick Bernard: Reflecting on "Going for the Gold" in Sochi

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This will probably be modified later today (it’s 10:30 AM CST). Comments are solicited.
There are three photos, below, which may be of interest.
Last night I watched a portion of the Opening Ceremonies at the Sochi Olympics. It was an impressive spectacle, as usual. I saw the Americans come in, and the Russians, and I particularly noticed the tiny team from Jamaica, minimally funded but there, and assorted team members using assorted means to make their own movie of what they were experiencing…. (I’m too old fashioned to ever get used to the now common practice of using those big notebooks to take pictures – doesn’t look like photography, regardless of how professional the quality can be!)
Anyway, the entire script has been written to please the advertisers and the news media and business and the politicians. Those are the only reasons for the Modern Day Games, in my opinion. The cast for the Big Show are those who will win or lose, bringing home the gold, or (mostly) not. Embellishing or diminishing for a moment in time someones national pride.
I’ve never had so much as a close call to the Olympics themselves.
Back in 1983 I took a job representing teachers on Minnesota’s Iron Range, and early on I heard the story of the teacher-parent of one of the U.S. Hockey Players (remember “Miracle on Ice”, Lake Placid 1980) who had trouble getting personal leave time to watch his (or was it her) son play hockey for the U.S. against, ultimately, the Russians. Rules are Rules, you know. I wasn’t personally involved in the case, but it was still being talked about. I suspect the parents went to the games, with or without “leave”….
The Winter Games.
Then a few years later I used to attend conferences in Colorado Springs, and just down the road, on my walking route, was the famous Broadmoor Hotel, and on the grounds was one of the training facilities, I seem to think it was Figure Skating, but I might be wrong. Just now, I learned that Colorado Springs is where the U.S. Olympic Committee resides (see here).
And I must mention Salt Lake City, 2002. My brother has lived in Salt Lake City for years, and on visits since have seen some of the venues for that games.
The Olympics is a huge economic (business) enterprise.
Perhaps my closest call with the Olympics came when I was cleaning out the house of my reclusive brother-in-law, Mike, in the early 2000s, and found there a little box with about 40 snapshots, all taken in about 1972, about half of them at the Munich Olympic Games. At the time he was a GI in Germany, and went to the games as a spectator.
This was the games of the hostage masscre, perhaps the first games where the word “terror” became a part of the games narrative.
Mike’s photos are just snapshots, and they likely were taken in the early days of the games, before the hostage crisis dominated everything. But they are interesting to look at nonetheless.
(Click to enlarge)

At the Munich Olympics 1972

At the Munich Olympics 1972


Munich Olympics 1972

Munich Olympics 1972


Munich Olympics 1972. Not sure if the young woman is an athlete or not.

Munich Olympics 1972. Not sure if the young woman is an athlete or not.


I suspect I’ll watch bits and pieces of the Winter Games this year, as each Olympiad. But they are not of compelling interest to me.
Hopefully there will not be any bigger news than what we’ve seen so far.
Congratulations to the Russians and best wishes for a good Games.
POSTNOTE: Shortly after writing this post, I was standing in a post office line and chatting with a lady about my age. Conversation got around to the Olympics, and pretty soon she said, “my kids wanted me to fly to Arizona for a bit to get away from the cold, but I said no, you never know what will happen”, with the obvious overtones that somebody might highjack or blow up the plane.
There was no reason to pursue this discussion: fear is a powerful thing. On the way home I wondered about the incidence of terror related incidents aboard planes. Obviously, there’s 9-11-01 over 12 years ago; and there was an attempted high-jacking in the Ukraine in the last 24 hours. But given the millions upon millions of passengers, and passenger miles, flown in a given year, the terror threat is so minimal as to be non-existent.
Still, tonights news, I’d bet, will emphasize the Ukraine attempted high-jack, and attach it to the Olympics at Sochi. It’s a pretty safe bet….
COMMENTS (note also the “responses” section at the end of this post for possibly other comments):
from John B: Yes, the hype about the big Olympic “stars” gets over done. The chasm between the amateur and professional sports ( basketball, hockey) competitors and the truly amateurs (track events, biathlon) seems peculiar. Although I have watched Olympic coverage in the past, I have really enjoyed two things, the pageantry of the opening and closing ceremonies, and of course, rooting for the Norwegians and other Nordic athletes . . . . check out the cross country skiing.
from Lydia H: Very interesting, Dick!
I saw a bit of the snowboarding…pretty amazing actually…tho it’s the ice skating that I follow in Winter Olympics. (Don’t watch the big ceremony since it’s just too Vegas!)