Hi family, friends and colleagues. Since I last wrote on 2
September 201 – just over 5 months ago, a lot has happened. I had a fabulous
trip to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Gorged on lobster and clams and scallops;
feasted my eyes on dramatic landscape; much enjoyed the companionship of
travelling with Saralea, one of my dearest friends; in Wolfville, NS, visited a
friend from my childhood, David Silverberg, now a renowned artist and adding
one of his engravings to my collection; connected up with Jamie, my cousin, at
his fabulous condo overlooking the harbor in St John’s; indulged in my love for
theatre in Trinity, Newfoundland; and spent as many hours as I could in pubs
and bars listening to the folk music of the Maritimes while sipping red wine. A
wonderful holiday.
With Saralea Altman - my companion on this trip
With David Silverberg in Wolfville
Peggy's Cove
The Skirwink Trail, Newfoundland
I also had taken a delightful pre-Maritimes trip to the
Eastern township with my neighbor and friend Carole (I rented a car to see if I
remembered how to drive, as the Nova Scotia/Newfoundland trip was a fly and
drive adventure). And I spent a luxurious Canadian thanksgiving with my cousin
Terri in Vermont – meeting up with an childhood friend, Ros (who I hitch-hiked,
together with two boys, to Detroit, Niagara Falls and Stratford on Avon when we
were 15 – boys/men I have since reconnected with as well); and my cousin Bunny,
her daughter and grandkids.
All soul up-lifting, and radiating warmth ….
But I was restless. So, when I was offered a six month
posting to UNHCR, Geneva, to support the work of the Global Protection Cluster
and protection clusters in the field, I couldn’t turn it down. I flew to Geneva
– via Austin, Texas – to spend a few days with Jesse, Roxanna and my marvelous
grandchildren, Arianna and Aiden.
I arrived in Geneva on 29 of October, to take
part in a ProCap strategic review. In the last days of November, I went on a
mission to the Central African Republic and was there when the violence broke
out on 5-6 December. I was in CAR for three weeks, to help strengthen the
protection cluster coordination mechanism to respond the protection needs of
the civilian population – and especially the internally displaced population
(IDPs) – now numbering well over a million people. The poverty in CAR was so blatant, even
before this crisis. Now, with over 100,00 IDPs camped in appalling conditions
at the airport in Bangui, and thousands more in makeshift camps all over Bangui
– not to mention the IDPs in other areas of the country, and especially those
living the bush, it is inhumane and inhuman. (Some of you will have seen the
photos I have posted on Facebook.)
A truly horrendous situation, one that has
degenerated into sectarian (Christian versus Moslem) violence, with religion
instrumentalized by different political factions, and the women, the children,
the elderly the losers on both sides of the divide. What we are also now having
is ethnic cleansing, with whole Moslem communities fleeing to Chad. While this has been declared a Level 3
emergency (one requiring that the humanitarian community do its utmost to
address the situation), the response has been woefully inadequate. CAR has
always been a hidden emergency. It is a little less hidden but still hardly a
priority country, given other Level 3 emergencies that occurred at the same
time – the Philippines (Typhoon Yolanda), now South Sudan, and possibly Iraq.
(Syria has not been declared Level 3, though it is an emergency that has sucked
up the resources – human as well as financial – of so many of the humanitarian
agencies that there is little left for places like CAR.
I should have stayed longer in Bangui, but I had promised I
would be in Austin for the birthdays of Arianna and Aiden (one day apart) in
late December – Arianna turned 5 and Aiden 2. So I flew back to debrief in Geneva, and then
on to Austin where I spend a perfect holiday, soaking in the wonder of
childhood and the warmth of those you love.
Of course, I put back all those pounds I had happily shed in Bangui. But
nothing is ever perfect.
Indeed, a sad sad note – a video was released by an old an
dear friend, Warren Weinstein, who had been
kidnapped in Lahore Pakistan by extremist Islamists nearly two and a
half years earlier. Warren – who was hardly recognizable from the Warren I knew
– pleads with Obama and the American admin to do what it can to secure his
release because, at age 72, and in ill health, time is not on his side. In the
letter which accompanied the video, Warren mentioned my name. I don’t know why.
It was many years since we last met. But I was more than willing to go on CNN
to talk about his tragic situation and to add my pleading to the US government
– and Warren’s captors -- to release
him. Now, I am doing what I can to try to keep his case in the public eye, so
he does not become just a forgotten statistic. “There but for the grace of
God….”
Then a week in Montreal – to admire the floor to ceiling
bookcase I had commissioned, with a sliding ladder, that was completed in my
absence. So my study is ready for me when I am prepared to start writing. One day, I will settle down to do that. But
not quite yet, my sciatica (pain in the butt) and rheumatism not withstanding.
Back in Geneva, I participated as a trainer in a Procap
Protection training (a week, which I very much enjoyed) and assisted as
moderator with a Retreat for Protection Cluster Coordinators from the field.
And now I am off on another field assignment, this time to Erbil in northern
Iraq. With the violence recently escalating in Anbar province, there has been a
huge flow of new IDPs – some of which have been fleeing to the north, to the Turkish
area. That is where I am off to – on Wednesday – to set up a Protection Cluster
in Erbil, which will be embedded in the refugee coordination mechanisms, as
they have huge numbers of Syrian refugees in Erbil. So, a challenging
assignment and the adrenalin kicks in again. Erbil is supposed to be relatively
safe. I have no plans to go to Baghdad. I will, if I can fit it in, do the 4
day security training in Amman, so I can go outside the city limits of Erbil –
but I need to see the lay of the land when I get there.
I can’t end without a really positive note. Tomorrow – 11
Feb – in Kabul, Afghanistan, there is the launch of the IDP Policy I worked so
hard on for 9 months. In my last letter, I suggested that the policy was likely
to die a quiet death. Not so. It was adopted by the Afghan Cabinet in November
and tomorrow there is a big ceremony to promote it, with the participation of
the highest level of govt, the international community, and NGOs and civil
society. I am also very encouraged that the pilot project I worked on in Herat
is moving forward.
So energized, I set out on Wednesday with my camera and my
computer. I will have access to
Internet. So if you want to drop a line, I’d love to hear from you.
In friendship
Laurie
