Education – A Time of Slowing

            Being that it is reading week, I finally have some time to breathe. September seems to have dissolved without my knowledge and as the weather begins to turn, I am keenly aware that it is no longer the beginning of the semester.

            I am back at school, and boy am I glad to be back. I am starting a Masters of Christian Studies at Regent College, which means I get to see much more of Duncan and Amy as well as spending countless hours with my face in books.

            I am glad to hear from Danielle and Kelsey in their latest posts that education occurs in the work place and on the farm. I value these kinds of learning, and might even posit that these types of experiential learning have a longer lasting impact on us as persons, but that is not where I am at this moment in time. I have chosen to return to the academy. Why have I done so?

            Well because I love it and I am challenged by it. I think that wrestling with the mind is a worthwhile endeavour. The challenge to think in new ways, to consider information from previously untried angles, and the opportunity to test and reconsider beliefs and values is never a frivolous pursuit. 

            I also love the academy because at its best it makes a mockery of the capitalist system we live in. What I mean by this is that the academy, in its true form, makes a mockery of our prevailing worldview that time = money. In essence, I can waste vast amounts of time on a paper, which in reality will be read by one professor at one moment, probably not making a huge impact on that person, to receive a grade that does not matter all too much. This, to my knowledge, is not generally accepted in the working world. In some ways, academic pursuit acts as an extended period of the spiritual discipline of slowing. The discipline of slowing is to stop time, pause, think, reflect, realign oneself in order to act and live better in the subsequent moments.

            My goal in this extended period of slowing is to increase my ability to be self-critical. I think education at its best teaches and trains a contemplative mind, not only skills and content. It trains us to perceive the underlying questions, to show us how “facts” can be read and interpreted in various ways, and to open ourselves to other perspectives. In doing so we can approach the rest of life more humbly, acknowledging the complexities, the diversity, and the wonder of the human experience. So although education, specifically education in the academy, often does not feel like slowing, I think it largely emulates the discipline of slowing.

            This reading week has also given me time to finalize a paper I wrote at the UN this past summer, which was presented August 24th in New York at a conference in honour of Shi’a Muslim scholar Dr. Mahmoud Ayoub. I spent Sunday finalizing the citations and writing an introduction and brief critique on Christian just war theory, which now introduces the main argument of the paper. It is entitled “A Mennonite Vision for Tolerance and Global Peace” and it should be published by the end of this year. After sending off the final copy, I received an e-mail from Doug the MCC UN director. Here is an excerpt, “You should also know that Ed Martin [Ed Martin was Mennonite Central Committee area director for Central and Southern Asia from August 1989 through September 2007] borrowed freely from this (with my permission) for a short presentation he was asked to give in a meeting with Iranian President Ahmadinejad here in New York on September 25th.”

            This in no small way made my day! As I told my mom about it over the phone this evening, we reflected on the importance of sharing alternative perspectives. Specifically because without sharing them we remain limited to our own conceptions of reality. We wondered together if maybe, in some small way, my paper might have been an alternate perspective Ahmadinejad needed to hear. I am not sure, and there is probably no way of ever knowing. Nevertheless, as I wrote on education this example seemed to fit. For I think at the heart of education is hearing and perspective sharing, and then learning to think about what we hear. 

A North Korean, an Iranian, and Me

Today was a day I will remember for a long time. It went something like this: expecting not much -> meeting for two hours with the Ambassador for the DPRK -> lunch with the editor of Global Scholarly Publications = a crazy wonderful day.

A groggy nothing much morning, a missed bus, surprisingly slow morning traffic, all to arrive at the office a little later than normal. Into the morning routine of checking emails, reading the news, and almost about to begin writing another article BUT the a reminder that THIS morning was the meeting with the Democratic Peoples Republic of North Korea. A meeting that had been briefly mentioned to me late yesterday. How could I have forgot!!!

This led to frenetic preparing as the director and I realised we were out of sugar for the coffee! So off I ran to the corner store – milk and sugar – and back I ran. After a power briefing on the topics we hoped to cover, two articles read, and coffee made, everything was set with two minutes to spare.

In walks Ambassador Rei (Permanent Representative to the UN) and Mr. Moon his associate. Cordial greetings are exchanged, tea and coffee are served in our cramped office, and off we go.

Highlights:

Having some of the most frank discussion with an ambassador to date. He was very open to our ideas, paraphrased and took copious notes, and enthusiastically jumped on ideas of cultural exchange (although saying now was not going to work because of the heightened antagonism by the US since the April launch of a satellite by DPRK. A Satellite launched in celebration of Kim Il-Sung – on his 100^th birthday. He died in 1994). The frank discussion completely out did the briefing I had attended with the US Ambassador. The US was much less direct, much more elusive, much more hidden in their intentions.

Hearing an unfiltered Northern perspective on the ongoing, wrongly named Korean War. The North was never at war with the South, but with the US. The ceasefire was with the US, the South had no part in it. Therefore, when in 1994 the US attempted to shift the ceasefire relations from a US colonel to a South Korean, it was rejected because the South had never signed anything. Also raising the question why a peace agreement was never pursued after the ceasefire – as in every other international conflict.

He also told the North’s account of the recent (last 10 years) military flashes in the last 10 years. All of which occurred in the disputed territory in the Western/Yellow Sea. The North holds to the 38^th parallel (the same line across the Korean Peninsula), while the South/US claim the ocean because of three Islands in it that were held onto by US troops. So the North Claims the ocean even though they do not control the Islands. They warned the South/US not to do live ammunition military drills, when they went ahead with the drills the North “had no option but to respond”. (It would be like doing live military exercise in the Straight of Juan de Fuca by Vancouver Island and saying that is not a threat or infringement on Canadian/American sovereignty.)

The ambassador also cited the Disney dancers that were recently in Pyongyang. After which he stated, “We are open, it is the US who is closed!” A refrain he would return to on multiple occasions citing various examples where the North Koreans have been open to dialogue and the US continually refuses.

Dr. Parviz joined us at this point, editor of Global Scholarly Publications. His focus is the Globalization of Knowledge, increasing east-west dialogue and communication without the influence of western media. Further discussion occurred around opportunities for better relations with DPRK, specifically the facilitation of academic interchanges.

Topics of an entirely free Korean Peninsula are affirmed by all involved, while acknowledging the hypocrisy of the US who places nukes in the South and aboard the aircraft carriers floating just off shore. This combined on the US desire to remain militarily near to China, without having to directly engage them. Thereby ensuring a proxy location for war; remaining far beyond the continental USA.

Two hours pass. We say good-bye and thank you to the Ambassador. Dr. Parviz is not done however. He and I briefly discuss the article I am writing for his journal. Then he offers to take Doug, the director, and me out to lunch to continue our discussion.

Off we trot to a wonderful Turkish restaurant. Dr. Parviz orders this, and that, and then some more, then three appetizers, the some wine. We feast. The topic for the meal is how to deal with the upcoming opening of the General Assembly, specifically dialogue with Iran and Ahmadinejad. Can it be done? How to avoid ruining families and careers by avoiding Zionist attention. What people? Where could it be done? Is it even possible? What could one say? – I am completely enthralled.

Then the spry Uncle Parviz (that is what he says people call him), at the tender age of 78, questions an unassuming, beautiful, waitress, “Are you old enough to be working here? It must be illegal you still look so young!” There is a twinkle in this old Iranian’s eye and a smile on his face. She blushes, and assures us she is 27. All of this is quite unexpected.  He tells me to make sure I remember that one. But honestly how could I forget! It is not everyday one witnesses a professor/editor/diplomat/author cracking cheesy lines on waitresses in up-class Turkish restaurant.

We are not done; desert is still on the menu. As I continue to gorge of delicious food, we discuss asceticism, Islamic understandings of hedonism, and the psychology of human pleasure. Concluding with “the pleasure of the body if finite, but the pleasure of the mind is unlimited. We could sit here forever and count irrational numbers!”

So stuffed to the gills, doggy bags in hand, we depart. A wonderful lunch, a wonderful day, and wonderful conversation. It is one for the personal record books. One I do not expect a repeat any time soon.

Other highlights of conversation:

Imagining the development of a new economic system between Marxism and Capitalism based on post-Hegelian understandings of the world.

Thoughts on Syria, where to go from here, what might the outlook be???

The self-destruction of America because of its demonization of the “other”. One it cannot destroy, yet fails to embrace, will cause its downfall. – A Machiavellian concept

“Imagine you are Obama, how many political options do you truly have? He is bound by a capitalist system so entrenched and supported by military expenditure that America cannot financially afford not to be at war.”

A wonderfully engaging day.   

So what exactly am I doing in New York?

So what exactly am I doing in New York?

Here is a brief answer:

I am working for the Mennonite Central Committee’s United Nations Liaison Office. In which there is the director, a program associate, and myself. Together we attempt to act as intermediaries between MCC’s personnel in the “field” and those creating the policies at the UN.

So what that looks like on a day-to-day basis?

For me it has looked like skimming about a hundred news articles a day, mainly focusing on Africa as well as the highlights from the rest of the world. Knowing the contexts, the relevant developing events, and the limitations of the countries/governments where MCC is working.

It also looks like skype calls with MCC personnel, getting updates on the local perspective.

It looks like working with  missions to the UN from various countries, and their Ambassadors; editing, critiquing, and advocating for changes in upcoming UN resolutions.

It looks like participating in a food-security working group, made up of representatives from other NGOs, which lobbies for agricultural practices that are environmentally sustainable, small scale, local market, enabling women, and productive.

It looks like attending briefings, hearing directly from Special Representatives to the Secretary General or Ambassadors from various countries. Getting the inside scoop on various world issues.

Highlights so far:

After a skype call with MCC Haiti, Kayon (the program associate) and I met with Ambassador Noel Sinclair of the Caribbean Community - Caricom. We discussed talking points he would bring to his evening dinner the next day. By the end of the meeting, he was taking seriously the integral human capital and knowledge that Caribbean countries could offer Haiti, which large western counties are unable to offer.

Sitting in an off-the-record meeting with the Ambassador France.

Two lunch briefing with the Special Representatives of the Secretary General - Burundi and Libya.

Beyond that, I have a few projects I am working on:

I am working on compiling a short paper that will be given to college students who are coming to visit MCC UN in October. The topic of this year’s conference is, “Where do we go from here? Refugees, Internally Displaced Persons, and Migrants”.

I also am editing, adding to, and fact checking a paper that will be presented in Winnipeg in October. It is on the how human rights, specifically the responsibility to protect, has become a new justification for war.

I am also writing an article for Global Scholarly Journal called, “A Mennonite Vision for Tolerance and Global Peace”. Global Scholarly Journal is a publication that focuses on the globalization of knowledge, bringing together eastern and western thought. It  is putting together a journal in honour of an Islamic Shia scholar, in which the essay I am working on will be a part.

Just for fun, here are three of my favourite New York songs.