Dipping my Toes into the U.S. and A - June 14-26

Following the Annual Seminar and travelling with Yoko I turned in my paper for my last class and then headed to the first Rotary World Peace Symposium in Salt Lake City. This was the first gathering of Rotary World Peace Fellows since the program began five years ago. I can sum up the event with the following adjectives: insane exhaustion, incredible inspiration, intellectual stimulation, overwhelming emotion, and sleep depravation. Don’t get me wrong it was a great conference in many ways and I was utterly impressed by the ambitions and work of many of my fellow Fellows. But I was exhausted so much so that on the last day around 4pm when someone asked me how I was doing I nearly broke down in tears. After a quick nap I recovered though, not to worry.

The great thing about this Symposium is that after a grueling six months of hammering out my way-too-over-ambitious-thesis, and the intellectual dead-zone that follows such an endeavor, I was re-inspired and re-invigorated to learn (again) that I am not alone in this crazy international life I have embarked upon. I don’t have to remake the wheel, I don’t have to blaze a path all my own, I have a network, a support group, and a valuable resource in my fellow Fellows that is a deep well of knowledge and experience to draw upon as I consider my next steps academically and professionally. This group of cosmocrats (borrowed from a dear friend) is an amazing bunch that I feel blessed to have the fortune to know.

This is a picture with Carla (who studied with me in Japan and was a year ahead of me), Renia (from the Philippines who studied at Berkeley and is doing incredible work in her country), Carys (my fantastic roomate of two years in Japan who I miss everyday), and moi.
















As you can imagine this picture wasn't taken with the Rotarians around! We have to have a bit of silliness with all the seriousness and with Carys it is never in short supply. I adore this picture!
















In this picture we have the wonderful Stella from Argentina, Renia again, and Path from Cambodia, who is also doing great work now in his country with the World Bank.


















After dipping my feet back into the U.S. and A (hear Borat’s influence here), I wasn’t ready to leave just yet so I headed to San Francisco to visit a city I will always love, which is full of many people I will always consider dear friends. Although I had not set foot in SF for more than a year and a half, I was thrilled to realize that indeed these friendships that have been nursed via emails over the last two years are still close and true. My community there is changing, more married folks, more kids, but they are still wonderfully themselves. You know who you are: Dimitri, Elissa, Jana, Beckie, Sumika, Pinar, John, Kevin, Dwight, just to name a few.

I also got to stop into SF #2 Rotary Club, the one that sponsored me for the Fellowship. I felt the changes of my own knowledge base and more fully developed focus professionally when I addressed the club. Two years prior I was visibly nervous about the opportunity on the horizon and my studies in Japan, in June I felt confident about what I had accomplished and had finally honed in on what I want to do with this short life I have with regard to my work, yay – it’s about time!

Knowing that I want to work for an organization involved in conflict management around land resources allocation (specifically in forestry) has taken a HUGE weight off my shoulders that I feel I’ve been carrying around for about 10 years now. What a big relief, now I can spend that energy on more interesting things like my friends, family, and learning more! I feel I am living that saying ‘when you are in love with the world, the world is in love with you’. As if to echo some of my thoughts about the importance and role of the environment (forests in particular) in bridging cultures and resolving disputes I noticed this sign at Muir Woods with Sumika















The sign says among other things that "Persons who love nature find a common base of understanding people of other countries, since the love of nature is universal among men of all nations" (Dag Hammarskjold, UN Sec Gen 1955). I would only make one slight change, and that would be to say "men and women of all nations".

Oh and here is a picture of Sumika and I on the Marin side of the Golden Gate Bridge catching the last rays of sun on a brilliant day in the Bay.


















That said, my 10-day re-immersion into the US (SLC and SF) also came with a fair amount of culture shock. Throughout my trip I was reminded again and again about the level of violence that is accepted in everyday life. In SLC myself and 6 other Peace Fellows witnessed a bloody fistfight outside our hotel. A dear friend became involved in the fight, thankfully bringing it to an end. This resulted in a long conversation about when is intervention the right thing to do? The Americans in the group showed more reservation here knowing that intervention in a street fight could easily escalate from bloody fists to gunshots.

Near San Francisco I met a Latino guy on the train in Union City who had been taking care of his sick grandmother all day. She begged him to stay for dinner meaning he didn’t leave until after dark. On the way back to the station on his bicycle two guys jumped him and tried to steal his bike. He fended them off but got stabbed in the hand before somehow escaping on his bike to the station. Also while in SF a friend of a friend of mine’s sister was killed by her husband, who also killed their two daughters and then turned the gun on himself, apparently due to financial stress. I started to ask myself what is happening in the US? I tried to chalk it up to big-city violence but after returning to small-town Maine I learned that there was a shooting just one street over from my brother’s house in Wells, a man shot his soon-to-be ex-wife on the day she was to move into her new apartment, until then she was a survivor of domestic violence.

Of course none of this probably comes as any surprise to many of you but after living in Japan a country with little gun access, limited crime, and almost no street violence (aside from the yakuza (Japanese mafia) and the terrible problem of human trafficking for the purpose of prostitution) – this all struck me more clearly and deeply than it ever has. I can’t say with any certainty the reason for all this violence. Michael Moore raised this issue in “Bowling for Columbine” and deduced that it wasn’t just about the guns – look at all the guns they have in Canada! And in Switzerland every household is required to have a gun as I understand it. What seems to be different to me is the level of poverty in the US, and by poverty I mean more than just money. I mean poverty of life, of happiness, of fulfillment, of political voice, of rights (when it comes to racism, sexism, and class discrimination).

Certainly, no country is perfect and from my experience there are heaps of social problems in every place I spent substantial time (Thailand, Japan, Italy, Switzerland). But among developed countries I believe the US is the most violent. The US is also perhaps one of the most diverse countries, which creates amazing opportunities and brilliantly beautiful multi-cultural places like San Francisco, Berkeley, Boston, etc. Surely finding ones place on this earth (not merely the place where we happen to be born) means investigating the dirty underbelly that exists in any place that no one wants to talk about. Only then, when the honeymoon polish of a new place has worn off and started to rust, can one determine – is this the right place for me? I don’t yet know where the right place for me is, I’ll be sure to let you know when I work that one out ;-)