District 5040 Rotary Peace Fellow, Saad Karim selected as graduating class spokesman in Bangkok.
 

Saad Karim from North Vancouver was sponsored by District 5040 as a Rotary Peace Fellow. On August 30 2012 Saad graduated from the three month peace program at Chulalongkorn University Bangkok.

Saad has worked for the past ten years with a variety of humanitarian programs in Africa, most recently in Darfur, Sudan. He has accepted a new job working in Liberia.

If your club is interested in nominating someone from your community to attend Rotary’s three month peace program or one of the two year graduate university programs please contact the District 5040 Peace Center Committee Chair Gloria Tom Wing Staudt gloria@peaksuccesscoaching.com.  For more information on the Rotary Peace Centers visit www.Rotary.org/RotaryCenters

 

Saad Karim was selected by his fellow students as one of the two class spokesman at their graduation. This is the graduation presentation speech.


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To download a copy of this presentation click HERE 


Graduation – August 30, 2012

Rotary Peace Fellows Class XIII – Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

Remarks by Class XIII Rotary Peace Fellows Saad Karim and Patricia Shafer

 

SAAD KARIM:

Good evening ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us at tonight’s graduation of Class XIII of the Rotary Peace Fellows in Bangkok. We greatly appreciate your support.  Thank you, especially, to Rotarians, in general, and the Rotary Foundation for funding this program. We admire your commitment to global peace and understanding. All of this combines to make it possible for us to stand here today. Class member Patricia Shafer and I are deeply honored that the class asked us to speak on its behalf.

We would like to start with this African proverb: “Alone we can run faster, but together can we go further,” also sometimes stated as “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go further, go together.” Let me say it again, because it’s truly the essence of what we want to convey and remember tonight – to one another and to you: “Alone we can run faster, but together we can go further.”

The 22 members of the Rotary Peace Fellows cohort on this stage began this journey on separate paths, each with different, individual ideas about peace and conflict resolution. But the past three months changed our outlook and added meaning to that African proverb. Together, we began to think about peace as more of a team. We came to Bangkok from nine countries, learned from each other, and the notion of accomplishing more together came to life.

We met guest lecturers from around the world and traveled to Cambodia and northern Thailand on field visits. We heard voices and perspectives that we didn’t expect to encounter, even including conversations about the connections between design, architecture and peace. The program, our cohort members, and every discussion offered up amazingly unique, yet thoroughly relevant points of view.

To be honest, some of us arrived thinking of ourselves as the “real peace builders,” professionals serving on the frontlines— in war and post-conflict zones, as government policy influencers, and as non-profit movers and shakers. But our eyes have been opened to the notion that anyone can be a peace builder if and when given the opportunity, guidance and support.

And frankly, support for anyone courageous enough to be a voice for peace is a necessity. The path toward peace is not always easy. It is hard work:

·         The reality is that there will always be conflict;

·         Often – governments, NGOs and those designated as “peace builders” are competitive, not collaborative;

·         Usually, there just aren’t enough resources to tackle all the issues and needs;

·         At times, fighting for good causes can feel solitary and isolating;

·         And in the worst moments, you feel like you’re surrounded by darkness, with little hope.

In fact, that’s precisely how it felt during the first few days of our field trip to Cambodia.

Like a full frontal assault, we felt the impact of visiting “The Killing Fields,” the physical reminder that people and communities in a country of several million people have been marked and repeatedly characterized by a particular period in time, a period of extreme violence. During our discussions, we asked over and again, “How could people let this happen?” And in those moments, it was hard to see Cambodia’s past and future as anything other than bleak.

But the picture shifted as the days passed. We met individual Cambodians, especially children and youth, who inspired us. We were also motivated by local Rotarians working on sustainable development projects in the rural countryside. Through these exchanges, we were reminded how resilient people can be. We felt deeply the common desire, across cultures, to create a better future.

We can’t say that the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel was clearly evident. Cambodia, like most post-conflict countries, is a work in progress. But we came to think of the many individuals and groups we met as lighters of lanterns revealing paths that can lead to long-term prosperity. The more lanterns there are, the greater the potential for peace locally and globally.

PATRICIA SHAFER:

            Saad began with a reminder of the provocative African proverb: “Alone we can run faster, but together can we go further.”

He shared a bit of our experience on our very challenging field visit to Cambodia. And he reminded us that, depending on perspective, the proverbial glass can easily look half empty when it comes to peace making and peace building.

But as Saad also alluded, the glass can look half full, too . . .

Indeed, you should know that in many a dialogue with visiting speakers, one of us would inevitably ask, “You’ve given us several examples of where peace is not ‘holding.’ Please, can we focus for a moment on the good – in other words, cases where peace building is really taking root?”

And there exists a great and welcome surprise. The fact is, by participating in this program in Thailand, specifically, we had firsthand exposure to a number of interesting and unexpected examples of peace building at work, every day.

Let’s start with the opportunity we had to meet with Mr. Bhichai Rattakhul, past Rotary International President from 2002 to 2003. As we understand it, this Rotary Peace Fellows program in Bangkok was in many ways his brainchild. So, we felt fortunate to meet with him. But we were nearly speechless when he recounted his personal experience as one of the first people involved in outreach to Cambodia and Pol Pot after the country’s history of genocide. We asked him, “How did you do it? Were you afraid? Were you nervous?” And he responded, “I love my country, Thailand. So, I did what was necessary.”

“When you want the best for your country, you find a way to build bridges with your neighbors, whoever they are.” We propose that Mr. Rattakhul is an example of someone lighting a lantern on a path to peace even when the light at the end of the tunnel is not readily visible.

Again, in Thailand, on our field trip to the North, we witnessed a unique style of peace building in the course of daily living. When we visited camps of displaced members of the Shan community from Myanmar (Burma), our group sat for a discussion under a small open-air hut on the border. In the ravine below, there was a rough, handmade fence, marking the boundary between two countries. We were told, “Absolutely, don’t walk down in the ravine. There are landmines.” Across the way, armed Burmese border soldiers were watching. It was an unsettling feeling to say the least.

Yet, in the same day, not very far away, we met with a Thai Buddhist monk who has a Ph.D. and is leading a project that is building sustainable housing, cultivating farmland, educating novice monks in principles of peace underpinned by the Buddhist notion of “The Middle Path,” and addressing HIV/AIDS. The impact he and his fellow monks are having is jaw-dropping. They are accomplishing their good work in a tenuous geographic area and political circumstances. Together, they are lighting lanterns of peace and going further than any one of them could alone.

 

Similarly, because we were given the chance to study and reflect on peace and conflict resolution in Thailand, we met a group of farmers who have banded together to address an issue that is all too real in many countries. The conflict is how to resolve the interests of corporations, particularly agribusiness, with the needs and livelihoods of local residents. In other words, land rights, use and acquisition are sources of friction in Thailand and many parts of the world.

But the farmers we met are impressive in their commitments to non-violent organizing and steadfastly making their case for social justice. When we asked them what the future holds, they told us, “We’re reaching out to other cooperatives and hope to build a network of more than one million farmers.” There again, we propose, is that proverb at work: “Alone we can run faster, but together we can go further.”

Our “last but not least” example from the experience in Thailand comes to us (and you) from our daily interactions with the Thai people in Bangkok. As I said before, we admire and appreciate an example of peace building such as the one supplied by past Rotary International President Mr. Bhichai Rattakhul – outreach to Cambodia during an unpredictable time. Yet, as inspiring as this is, in some ways it is to be expected. People who know Mr. Rattakhul, well, know him to be an exceptional man. One would expect extraordinary acts from an extraordinary person, right?

In retrospect, we are also intrigued by extraordinary acts of peace building that we consistently witnessed from seemingly ordinary people.

Coming from nine different countries and spending 10 weeks in Thailand, we naturally approached each day with outsiders’ eyes and perspectives. For those who were paying attention, there was a myriad of simple acts of peace building that occurred each day in Bangkok - riding the BTS train and metro, walking across the Chulalongkorn University campus, or ordering a simple meal in a restaurant or from a street vendor. From this international experience, we learned about the power of intentional acts of kindness from Thailand. For example:

·         The way you enter and exit a room matters;

·         The way you greet people matters;

·         The tone of your voice matters;

·         Hospitality to strangers matters;

·         Your ability to introduce a difficult question or comment and still leave another person feeling whole and respected matters.

And I think I can prove it by sharing with you a terrific point made by the last speaker that we had the benefit of hearing during Class XIII of the Rotary Peace Fellows program . . .

Dr. Mark Thamthai, our concluding lecturer, is a sort of Renaissance man – a mathematician; director of an institute focused on religion, culture and peace; and facilitator of peace discussions in conflicted communities of southern Thailand. So, we asked him, “How do you define peace?”   

He responded, “Any time you can minimize a social injustice or demonstrate basic respect for someone else, you are helping lay a foundation that allows the bigger, tougher issues of power and peace to be addressed.”

In other words, we learned a lot in the program about “negative peace” - steps governments and policymakers take to minimize or bring an end to war and violence. But we also explored - through discussion, activities and serendipity – principles of “positive peace.” These are things you do to create environments conducive to sustainable peace and conflict resolution. Positive peace can occur in organized, disciplined political and economic frameworks and be reinforced through daily ways of being our best selves!

In closing, the most important thing we can say, again, is: “Thank You.”

To the Rotary Chapters that selected us to be Rotary Peace Fellows, we are grateful.

To the Rotarians in Thailand who have hosted us, we are humbled by the time and energy you put into making us feel at home.

To everyone, please know that we have each developed Action Projects to put our learning to work now that our fellowships have ended. And we have begun active discussions about how to stay connected to one another and build on this wonderful opportunity.

 

After all, we each came as individuals. We benefited from being a group (or team) of 22. But we also see that in a world of 7 billion people and countless opportunities and challenges related to peace and conflict resolution, we can and should be catalysts for new connections.

Rotary International is a platform of more than one million members with a public commitment to “Peace Through Service.” You can be sure that we’ll be looking for ways to create more synergy between ourselves, other Rotary Peace Fellows alumni that have gone before us, and Rotarians who make up such a great humanitarian network.

When it comes to being effective agents of peace and conflict resolution, “Alone we can run faster, but together can we go further.”

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