Behind every opinion there is a human being

We've just concluded the forum on Addressing Europe's Unfinished Business (AEUB). Yesterday we heard Jo Berry, whose father was killed by an IRA bomb, tell how she met the man responsible for the bombing and how they have worked together to build peace. Two days after the bombing, she said, "I made a vow that I was not going to have an enemy. I wanted to understand the man who killed my father." Sixteen years later after Pat Magee was released from prison, Jo arranged to met him. He began by justifying the bombing as an act of war, but as the conversation went on it became more honest and emotional and Pat finally said, "I am sorry I killed your father." At that point, said Jo, "I felt my father became a human being, not a legitimate target." 

Two Romanian organizers of the forum, Diana Damsa, founder of the Centre for Social Transformation, and Simona Torotcoi, a Roma activist, described their very different experiences growing up and their paths to a new understanding. "I was brought up to believe that Roma were dangerous and unreliable and that I should keep my distance. I felt superior." At a forum in India she was faced with the question, "Who are the people you are afraid of and why?" She was challenged to acknowledge the history of hundreds of years of slavery and discrimination suffered by the Roma people. 

Simona grew up in a two-room house which was better than most of her relatives who lived in shacks near the rubish dump. At school she felt ashamed of being Roma and tried to blend in with the majority children, but as she grew older she became a strong advocate for equality and justice. She and Diana now work closely together as partners.

It is fascinating to learn how Richmond, Virginia, has played a small part in inspiring and encouraging the work of someone like Diana who spent several months in Richmond some years ago studying the Hope in the Ciites approach to dialogue and reconciliation. Yesterday I met with Olena Kashkarova from Ukraine who also interned in Richmond. She has developed dialogues with people of diiferent views about Ukraine's history, and also with people of different political persuasions in the 2014 Euromaidan revolution; and she co-founded a network of of facilitators. She told me that her Richmond experience gave her the courage to do what she is now doing. 

Earlier in the week we heard another remarkable story from Peter Sundin from Sweden who grew up in a racist family with Nazi traditions. "White power music was the only music played in our house." His mother worked as a cleaner and blamed foreigners "for taking our jobs." The family believed that the holocuast was a fraud. As a young man he was jailed for taking part in a brutal assault on an immigrant. His transformation over five years was supported by a friendship  with a police officer who today is his colleague. He has cut ties with family and friends and says, "I learned that behind every opinion is a human being." 

In the training track that Ebony Walden and I led there were several Roma participants as well as Ukranians, Swiss, French, Germans, a Sudanese immigrant and Muslims from various European countries. Over three days we worked intensively on questions of history, identity, and narrative; we explored experiences of being part of dominant and non-dominant groups in our countries; and the participants developed dialogue questions around their key concerns and began to consider how to build teamwork with others. 

Last night we were treated to a magnificent concert by two brilliant Romanian musicians. As the sun set over the mountains, five conference participants joined them in singing "The Whole Wide World's On Tiptoe, Waiting for Something New." 

Addressing Europe's Unfinished Business - Notes from Caux

We arrived at the international conference center for Initiatives of Change in Caux, Switzerland on Saturday morning. Our room has a spectacular view over Lake Geneva. There are 181 delegates here from 32 countries, most of them young people, who have come to begin a three-year exploration of the link between personal and collective identities in Europe, the rise of populism and nationalism, the need to address collective trauma and build more cohesive societies.

Among the participants are 11 young Muslims from several European countries who are part of a program called Learning to be a Peacemaker. One of them said, “Within our communities we have sometimes forgotten the essence of our religion; and in the wider society there is often misunderstanding.”

Tatjana Peric, from Bosnia Herzegovina/Serbia, is Advisor on Combating Racism and Xenophobia for the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe. Speaking at the opening of the forum last night she said the biggest challenge in Europe today is the merging of anti-immigrant feelings with racism. There is a great need to support civil society organizations.

Lord Paddy Ashdown, politician, diplomat and author, noted that power is shifting to the Internet, global finance, and satellite broadcasting which are outside the rule of law or accountability; and economic power is shifting from the West to the East. "It is the end of 400 years of Western hegemony." He warned against the contagion of populism; and he stressed that "the rule of law is the first thing that must be in place." Drawing on his own experience from growing up in Northern Ireland, he called history "the most political issue in any reconstruction." Who tells the story? And how is it handed down generationally? Language is important. Don’t fall into the trap of saying we are fighting for Western values. We are fighting for universal values. Above all, "Get involved. Don't leave it to someone else."  

Barbara Hinterman, Secretary General of IofC Switzerland, stressed the role of silent reflection and storytelling as two key ingredients of the Caux experience.  "It can be a trigger for honest conversation and developing trust."

Today we launch into a variety of training tracks. 

The power of narrative

I am writing this as Susan and I prepare to fly to Europe. We will be attending a forum titled Addressing Europe’s Unfinished Business at the Initiatives of Change conference center in Caux, Switzerland. While there I will conduct a training workshop with my colleague Ebony Walden. Our theme is "Trustbuilding in a diverse world: history, identity and equity." Based on a quick look at workshop registrants we will have young leaders from Ukraine, France, Switzerland and Germany.

From Switzerland Susan and I continue to the UK where we will spend the month of August visiting family and friends and exploring parts of the country we are not familiar with such as the Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District. It is more than a decade since we spent any length of time in the UK and much has changed in recent years, not least the present chaos surrounding Brexit. It will be interesting to get a first-hand impression of what people are thinking and feeling – not just in the major urban center like London but in the small towns and rural counties of northern England and  Scotland.

It seems that the US and Europe face similar challenges with the rise of authoritarian leaders, populist movements, anti-immigrant sentiment and distrust of central government. As Roger Cohen pointed out in the New York Times, “A vigorous counterrevolution against the liberal-democratic orthodoxy of diversity and multiculturalism is under way.” This movement is characterized by attacks on the media and independent judiciary and the growth of a new elite through crony capitalism. It energizes "a national narrative of victimhood and heroism through the manipulation of history." “Nobody stopped to ask whether the market and liberal democracy were necessary eternal twins. Turns out they were not." We see the growing attraction of Russia, Turkey and China as strong-man models in opposition to values based on universal human rights that are portrayed as "Western." But as Obama pointed out so eloquently in South Africa recently, Mandela demonstrated that these are not just Western values. 

Key to this populist and authoritarian trend is the power of narrative. Trump may be an appalling president but he does know how to control the narrative. One of the focal areas of our workshop in Caux will be how to understand and disrupt false narratives that divide. Recent events illustrate that when people feel they are not being heard they may act in ways that are harmful their own long term interests. They won’t listen to “facts” if they feel their stories are not respected. So we must learn to listen, even to those we find difficult to hear.

Another thoughtful insight is given by David Broder who notes that while national politics takes place through the filter of the media circus, "localism" is thriving in many places. In Washington, DC, politicians throw insults at each other. Local mayors and citizen groups are actually getting things done. “We are in an era of low social trust. People really have faith only in the relationships around them, the change agents who are right on the ground.” 

When localities learn to appreciate their shared history and find ways to work together on practical needs, we may be surprised by what can occur. I can attest to this from our ongoing experience in my hometown of Richmond.

Over the next few weeks I will be sending occasional “notes from the field” as we travel and listen and learn.