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A role fit for a council of elders
By Laura Ofobike
Beacon Journal chief editorial writer
Published on Tuesday, Nov 25, 2008
Is this any way to treat an Elder? Last week, Jimmy Carter, Kofi Annan and Graca Machel were refused visas to visit Zimbabwe. The former president, the former secretary general of the United Nations and the human-rights advocate and wife of Nelson Mandela were all set for a two-day visit to see and hear for themselves how the people of Zimbabwe are coping with life in a country where a citizen needs a trunkful of cash to buy a loaf of bread — if he can find it.
You may recall that the three are members of an international group of elder statesmen and women who came together about a year ago in a council they called the Elders, with Nelson Mandela as its president. They see the council as a means for them to bring their collective experiences and wisdom to bear on national and international conflicts to help the feuding sides find breakthrough. They listen, to ''amplify the voices of people who are not heard'' and report their findings to provide peace negotiators additional perspectives.
As the Elders explain it, they have ''lived long, learned much'' and believe they must do everything within their power ''to bring peace where it is absent, justice where it has been denied and dignity where it is under attack.''
Zimbabwe certainly qualifies for attention under all three criteria: peace, justice and dignity. Violence early this year capped years of economic and political instability when President Robert Mugabe rejected presidential election results that favored the opposition candidate.
Annan's team of Elders was asked to come back later at a time when a visit would not coincide with the planting season. It isn't as if the team was planning a two-day work stoppage on farmlands. This, definitely, is no way to treat an Elder. (Apparently, the experience is the first time Jimmy Carter has been denied a visa anywhere. For an enhanced experience of visa rejection, President Carter and the Elders might want to set aside some time to visit an American Embassy somewhere in West Africa. They'll discover many voices that need to be amplified.)
A village needs its elders. You know about our ''global village,'' the sense that the layers of isolation between countries are evaporating fast. Day by day, it becomes a little more clear how we are yoked together — economies in synchronized swoon, infections (electronic and otherwise) hopscotching across continents, the feeling that the consequences of decisions don't stay confined to the people who made the decisions or to the places where they were made.
At the moment, our ''village'' appears to be in sad shape as far as mediating leadership goes. Really, who is afraid of the United Nations anymore? North Korea or Sudan? Iran or Zimbabwe? In a fast-moving global financial crisis, what has been the relevance of bodies such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund?
The sentiment that seems to energize the council of Elders is that there is a wealth of experience and insight to share from people who provided valuable leadership in their time and still have credibility (political and moral capital, if you like) to play a supportive role in the background, nonpartisan and nonthreatening, to help all the sides in a conflict hear one another.
In a world where there is so much spillover, where the space continues to narrow between national concerns, whether the issue is prosperity or problems, informal teams of intermediaries such as the Elders offer the potential to nudge things along when larger organizations bog down in suspicion and hostility. Kofi Annan, for instance, spent much of his influence helping Kenya sort through its own presidential election violence last year to reach a power-sharing agreement. A team of Elders recently completed a visit to Cyprus, encouraging Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders to press on with negotiations to unify the island.
To be sure, there is always the risk that self-appointed elders (it doesn't matter whether they are operating within their own families and community groups or as international ambassadors), can get carried away by a sense of their own wisdom.
It is obvious, too, that elders are valuable only to the extent that those they wish to influence pay them any attention. Can a group of elderly men and women whose capital comes from the good will toward them make any difference? After all, the first mission the Elders undertook was a visit last year to Sudan and the Darfur region. Little has changed there. The value the Elders offer is the whisper in the ears of the powerful from those who have been there.
Ofobike is the Beacon Journal chief editorial writer. She can be reached at 330-996-3513 or by e-mail at lofobike@thebeaconjournal.com
Is this any way to treat an Elder? Last week, Jimmy Carter, Kofi Annan and Graca Machel were refused visas to visit Zimbabwe. The former president, the former secretary general of the United Nations and the human-rights advocate and wife of Nelson Mandela were all set for a two-day visit to see and hear for themselves how the people of Zimbabwe are coping with life in a country where a citizen needs a trunkful of cash to buy a loaf of bread — if he can find it.
Get the full article here.
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Posted 11:48 AM, 11/27/2008
Lady, you are one of the biggest pollyannas I have ever seen in my life. Have you ever written a thing about a topic other than Africa? What exactly is your job at the ABJ, some kind of idealistic figure head?