Well,
I am back from a short holiday and ready to report on the very busy couple of
weeks from just before I left. That time period
was one of those where it almost seems as though everyone involved in a similar
line of work or engagement got together and said, ah-ha!, we’re all going to
put on events just to keep everyone busy!
Or maybe it’s just the season, this being spring. Whatever the reason, there were a multitude
of human rights and development events occurring in the Calgary area over the
last half of May and the beginning of June.
So many it was difficult to decide upon which to write, and I was too
busy attending to write about all of them!
I finally decided upon three events which stood out and which, somehow,
even though they were hosted independently, came together as though they were a
planned series. I guess they were just
meant to be. These associated but
independent events were
i. A
meet and greet by a colleague of mine, Janyce Konkin, for her emerging
not-for-profit Peace Africa Alliance Consulting, Education & Training
Center (PAACET)
ii. A
presentation by one of my favourite, relatively local, presenters, Leroy Little
Bear
iii.
A
presentation by Romeo Dallaire
These
three events all took place within a week of each other, with, in fact, the
last two, the presentations by Romeo Dallaire and Leroy Little Bear, occurring
on the same day.
So
I’ll start with the last event, which was the presentation by Romeo
Dallaire. Lieutenant-General the
Honourable Romeo Dallaire is a “retired lieutenant-general, senator, and
celebrated humanitarian”. If interested,
his full bio can be found here - LGen Dallaire Biography . LGen Dallaire was the Force Commander of the
United Nations Assistance Mission in Rwanda, an experience which appears to
have been impactful on the path he would subsequently follow in his life. Since his medical release from the military
in 2000 LGen Dallaire appears to have spent a vast amount of time and energy
informing the world of the various states of human rights as well as advocating
for the rights of those who are, and have been, denied these rights. He has tirelessly appeared in presentations,
written books, and served as an advisor for a variety of national and
international agencies. He was
presenting here in Calgary as part of the 2016 Congress for the Humanities and
Social Sciences, hosted this year by the University of Calgary, although LGen
Dallaire’s presentation was held at Mount Royal University. When I saw that he was scheduled to present,
and that his presentation was free and open to the public, I was determined to
attend. I am glad I did.
For
those who have not yet heard LGen Dallaire present, do try to do so. He is an excellent speaker, engaging and
employing excellent use of visualization to assist in the communication of his
points. I believe the main thrust of his
presentation on June 1 was that the world has entered into a new era of
conflict. We have left the familiar era
of nation vs nation, where one group with a well defined set of boundaries and
peoples desires something, another doesn’t want them to have it, they fight it
out, somebody wins, help is sent in to assist with the harm that was caused to
the loser, and we move forward. Hardly
desireable, but it was known, and we had the structures to deal with it. Now, things are not so well defined, conflict
is often not nation versus nation, and, more importantly, there isn’t
necessarily an “end” to a particular “conflict”. This renders our structures for dealing with
conflict irrelevant, or at least difficult to implement as per their current
arrangements. We can’t, for instance,
wait until the conflict is “over” to send in assistance. Which means that those organizations offering
assistance will be on the ground in and around the conflict area at the same
time as those who are doing the fighting.
Our structures for managing those involved in and around a conflict were
developed from a sequential order of events, one which no longer exists. Thus our structures, which were meant to be
accessed sequentially, are now having to be accessed simultaneously, resulting
in a confusing array of a variety of types of personnel with a variety of
agendas all operating in the same area at the same time.
During
the course of his presentation LGen Dallaire of course went into far greater
depth and made far more points than what I have related here. One of the topics he also touched upon was
what can be done about this situation?
How is peace to be obtained, and maintained? This is where his presentation ties into the
other two events which I mention here today, the meet and greet by my
colleague, Janyce Konkin, and the presentation by Leroy Little Bear, one of my
favourite local presenters.
Two
items which LGen Dallaire mentioned as being essential for the creation and
maintenance of peace were NGOs and respect.
LGen Dallaire emphasized the role that NGOs are playing, and from what I
understand he expects to continue playing, in filling those “helping” gaps that
need to be filled while the conflict is ongoing, and when it is in danger of
flaring up again. In accomplishing the
“recovery” which, in this new era of conflict, is needing to be addressed
before the conflict is even over. He
also emphasized the requirement for respect.
Respect between all the peoples which are now in contact with each
other. Without respect, conflict will
reign.
Six
days prior to LGen Dallaire’s presentation I was at a meet and greet hosted by
a colleague of mine, Janyce Konkin, for her emerging not-for-profit - Peace
Africa Alliance Consulting, Educating & Training Center (PAACET) (http://www.paacet.org/ ) . She and her colleague, Charles B.P. Lahai, of
Sierra Leone, developed the idea of their organization when they met at the
European University for Peace and Conflict Studies (EPU) in Austria, from which
both of them obtained upper level degrees.
PAACET is an organization committed to aiding in the peaceful
co-existence of all peoples, where all can enjoy their basic human rights. They believe that each individual can
contribute to this situation through personal choices informed by compassion,
integrity, respect, acceptance and forgiveness. They believe that values such as these can be fed
through education, knowledge-building, and training, and that in fact many
indigenous conflict resolution methods are set up to do exactly that. Thus PAACET aims to contribute to the
peaceful co-existence of peoples through the use of, or education in, such indigenous
methods. With a head office in Calgary,
Alberta, and an African Regional Office in Freetown, Sierra Leone, PAACET has
the geographical presence to make a difference.
With Mr. Lahai’s history of involvement in Sierra Leone (bio link - Charles B.P. Lahai bio), Ms. Konkin’s
experience in Canada (bio link - Janyce Konkin bio ), and their
education in peace training they have the skills, experience, and real-world
knowledge and experience to see their vision realized. And now they have the structures in place to
begin moving forward more assertively, and Mr. Lahai was here, in Canada, to
meet supporters and to arrange those bureaucracies which need to be
accomplished in person. What an
uplifting experience this was, to be present at such a marker event as Mr.
Lahai and Ms. Konkin move forward in this great task of theirs. They will never get rich in material goods
doing what they are choosing to do, but the world will be a richer place
because of their work. They are a part
of that essential piece for peace of which LGen Dallaire spoke - the NGOs. As Mr. Lahai stated at the meet and greet –
“We study peace because we know the world is full of conflict”. They study peace so as to create peace, and
we need them. Thank-you to Janyce,
Charles, and all like you.
The other event of which I will speak was a presentation by Leroy Little Bear (Leroy Little Bear writeup) titled "Big Thinking and rethinking: Blackfoot metaphysics 'waiting in the wings'", (video and writeup) also held as part of Congress 2016. I have heard Mr. Little Bear present before, as well as read some of his publications. He is also an individual I would highly recommend making an effort to go see. I always find his talks engaging, even when, as was the case for this time, they are a repeate of ones he has done before. Mr. Little Bear is, among other things, what I would term a translator. He translates Blackfoot ways of thinking into Euro-based Canadian understanding. As always his audience last week was rapt. Mr. Little Bear was doing his typical skilled translation and he had the audience's full attention and appreciation. The audience was learning. They were learning about different ways of seeing, they were learning how it was different from their own, and they were accomplishing this learning in an environment of acceptance for both theirs and the others' ways of thinking. Respect was being built. Although I had heard this presentation before, and the material and way of thinking were not new to me, I was fully engaged here also. Engaged in what was beingsaid, for I have found there is always something new to be learned, or realized, since one's own perspective is always changeable, and also engaged in the effect that was being had on the audience. The theatre where Mr. Little Bear was presenting was full, and it was wonderful to look around and see all those faces, all those people, being touched by Mr. Little Bear, the enlightenment many of them were experiencing, perhaps for the first time, setting a platform perhaps for the development of true respect, and peace.
So
there it is. My two case studies, one of
a group who studies how to create peace, one of an individual working to bring
cultures together, and a summary presentation on the conundrum of peace in a
globalized world, which requires the contribution of the two case studies. What could have been a potentially depressing
communication of information and situation by the final presentation
transformed into an experience of hope and optimism through seeing two
beautiful examples of the necessary components at work, here, locally, as we
speak. There is destruction, there is
failure, but, as long as people like Janyce Konkin, Charles Lahai, Leroy Little
Bear, Romeo Dallaire, and everyone who attended their presentations and those
like them exist, people who work
constantly, or even sporadically, in large ways or small, who even think about
the messages being passed along, there exists hope. Hope, for the resolution of differences,
hope, for the possibility of a future for all.
Working together, it can be done.
