Civil Society Must Succeed Where Governments Have Failed

The headline for today’s column is an idea I took away from a peace conference, held two days ago in Stockholm, a paraphrase of what I heard from journalist and academic, Dr. Carmen Sammut, from Malta.

The conference and its workshops, press conferences and reception lasted the whole day and evening of September 21, “an auspicious day,” but I was able to attend only the morning session, which was sufficient for the purposes of this weekly blog article.

Anna Lindh, inspiration for The Anna Lindh Foundation, a co-sponsor of the conference

Many non-governmental organizations (NGOs), alliances and voluntary organizations had a role to play in this gathering of journalists, diplomats, academics and others under the heading Restore Trust, Build Bridges.

The label “auspicious” was given this gathering by one of the speakers due to the convergence around the date, September 21, of these of these events and traditions:

The autumnal equinox

The International Day of Peace has been established by the United Nations for this date

The celebration of Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year)

The end of Ramadan, in the Muslim faith

The Feast Day of Saint Matthew

In that the conflict most referenced during the morning’s session was that centering in Jerusalem, a holy city for the three faiths referenced above, the observation was apt. At least one other conflict was referenced, the one centered in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Another important point was made: those who are directly affected in local conflicts, and who support peaceful settlement, are more numerous than those who seek combat to resolve disputes. Their voices are poorly heard, however, under the noise and visual presentations of “mayhem” that capture the attention of the various news media. The three speakers representing the press told us of efforts by The Euro-Mediterranean Media Task Force to promote a proper balance between the immediate facts on the ground in a local area, and the larger picture including those who are relatively quiet (or inadequately reported on), the oft-referenced “grass roots.” Evidence of such grass roots peace efforts is found in the Blue and White Peace movement in Israel, promoting a two-state solution. A similar movement of Jews in the USA was cited, as well.

The keynote speaker in the morning session was André Azoulay, President of the Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation for the Dialogue Between Cultures. Among many observations based in his extensive and high-level experience in both Arab and Jewish cultures, he cited the hopeful note and presence of the new U.S. President, Barack Obama, and the latter’s presentation at Egypt’s Cairo University, June 4, 2009. Mr. Azoulay dwelt a bit on Mr. Obama’s use of quotations from the Quran and his opening remarks in Arabic, showing “respect” and “humility” to his hosts, considering it “a major historical point”. This positive impression was buttressed by the later remarks of communications consultant, journalist and columnist Ramzi E. Khoury, a Jordanian by birth.

So, I have cited three major points from just the morning portion of a full-day and evening conference. I consider my time well-spent if I can come away with just one new idea or insight from a full day’s meeting.

Heroes and Martyrs of the Press: Samizdat

Around a year ago Eva and I were at the home of friends in the town of Åkersberga, northeast of Stockholm City, for dinner and conversation. They recently had been to Berlin where they had married ten years ago. This led to a discussion of cities in Europe we each had visited.

Eva and I visited Budapest, Hungary in April, 2004. I told our friends of our soulful visit to the Millenáris Park Exhibition Hall, which was then housing a traveling exhibit of Samizdat printing equipment and paraphernalia, art and sculpture.

Eva examining a Samizdat printing press. Note the art image in the upper left, to be seen in full below. Please click on all images to them more clearly.

The Russian word Samizdat means “publishing by yourself”: “You write by yourself, edit by yourself, you censor by yourself, you distribute by yourself and you do time for it by yourself as well.” (Vladimir Bukovsky)

Everything the authorities in the Soviet dictatorships prohibited or that censorship did not permit found its ways into intellectual underground: out of posters and leaflets and typed or printed books, out of stamps and photographs and provocative works of arts there arose a cosmos apart, unique and colourful.

Samizdat existed in all countries of the Soviet sphere of power. It gained its widest circulation in the former USSR, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary and the GDR. With its 400 exhibits, the Samizdat exhibition attempts to rescue this fascinating and colourful world from oblivion. [Source]

Upon leaving the exhibit to re-enter the lobby where the book and gift store is located, I noticed a large wall exhibit showing the chronologies of Samizdat in the five countries mentioned in the quoted passage, above: the former USSR, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary and the German Democratic Repuiblic (East Germany). It was chilling and thrilling to see about the brave writers, artists and publishers who refused to be intimidated by the Soviet authorities, some of whom were not only jailed and sent to mental hospitals, but were even killed.

I rushed to the book store to ask for a copy of this chronology in English, but only Hungarian and Gernman was available. So I went back to the wall and took a dozen or so photographs of the entire display. later, at home, I transcribed the text into an Excel document, from which I have excerpted, below.

Chronologies of Samizdat in the USSR and Hungary. Please click on the images to read them.

Send Email to me at rpavellas@gmail.com for the spreadsheet of all five countries.

A few more images from the exhibit can be seen here.

Around 100 photos from our trip to Budapest can be seen here.