Solidarity and Gdansk

On Sunday, May 29, we arrived in Gdansk, the beautiful and famous Baltic port city. While we liked seeing this old Hanseatic League city, with its spectacularly restored Royal Way, our real reason for making the long journey here was to meet with the leadership of Solidarity, the famous Polish trade union and democratization movement. Upon our arrival, we placed a traditional bouquet of flowers at the memorial by the old Lenin Shipyard to the martyrs of Solidarity.

                                              One of Alma students holding Solidarity flag at
                                                       Roads to Freedom center in Gdansk

Our original schedule, including a meeting with the head of the Solidarity Foundation, Jerzy Borowczak was changed at the last moment as a result of President Obama's visit to Poland. In Warsaw, on Saturday, the President met with the leaders of Solidarity and honored the past work of the movement in bringing democracy but urged them and other Poles to take up the cause of further democratization in Eastern Europe, especially Belarus and Ukraine.

Public Affairs Class at Roads to Freedom Exhibit

Gdansk, May 29, 2011

The President said: "The kind of repressive actions we're seeing in Belarus can end up having a negative impact over the region as a whole and that makes us less safe and less secure." The President specifically praised Solidarity, and how it inspired the American people in the 1980s, "I remember at that time understanding that history was being made because ordinary people were standing up and doing extraordinary things with great courage and against great odds. Your actions charted a course for freedom that inspired many on this continent and beyond." Relating the Polish experience to current reform in the Middle East, Mr. Obama added, "Part of being a serious actor is adding value internationally, and the Poles rightly feel that they can add value on democracy promotion and democratic transition, given their own success since 1989."

Our group felt honored to be in the midst of such important events and gladly accepted a change in our schedule.  However, we were more than rewarded for our wait. On Monday morning we had the opportunity for a small informal meeting with Mr. Borowczak, who not only directs the Solidarity Foundation but is a member of parliament (the Sejm). Mr. Borowczak, was one of the three original organizers of Solidarity. At age 22, which he pointed out is nearly the same age as our students, he and the others organized the confrontation with the Communist authorities. At the start of the strike, the previously fired worker, Lech Walesa, climbed over the shipyard wall and joined in the leadership of Solidarity. Within a few weeks they forced the government to recognize their union and began an effort at social change in Poland. After a little over a year, pressure from other Communist countries in Eastern Europe led to Mr. Borowczak's arrest and martial law.

Of course, the story ended positively. Mr. Walesa won the Nobel Peace Prize, Communism eventually collapsed in Poland and Solidarity's candidates won the first free elections after World War II and ushered in the collapse of dictatorships in Eastern Europe. Walesa went on to become President of Poland and Borowczak won a seat in Parliament.

However, Solidarity has not rested on its laurels. It runs a series of programs, not only in Poland, on democratization and free trade unionism. Additionally, it supports popular democratization education, including the well respected Roads to Freedom Exhibit in Gdansk, which we visited. In 2013, that exhibit is moving into new, larger, and more high-tech quarters. Already, guidebooks give it top billing as a site to visit in Europe.

                                           Alma students placed a bouquet at the feet of the
                                                     statue to slain Solidarity workers.
The good news for our human rights program at Alma is that Mr. Borowczak committed to co-sponsoring our December conference in Washington, pledging to send several professors from Poland, and one or more current leaders of Solidarity and perhaps democratization leaders from neighboring countries.
Now our work begins to make the conference a stellar success.

Dresden (and Guernika)

May 26 began in Dresden. We walked to the center from our hotel near the main train station. The entire distance, through what once was the core of old Dresden, was filled with new buildings, as a result of the old center being destroyed in the 1945 fire bombing. Only as we approached the Elbe River and the old palace of the Saxon kings, the Semper Opera House, the catholic Cathedral and the Frauenkirche did old buildings appear, and most, if not all of these were a result of rebuilding.

                                                   Pieta (made partially of rubble from 1945
                                                   firebombing) in Dresden's Catholic
                                                   Cathedral.  Dates etched into altar 30-1-33
                                                   and 13-2-45 note start of Nazi rule and night
                                                   of bombing.

Our visit to the old heart of the city started at the palace of the Saxon monarchy. It is a glorious place, with a porcelain museum housed there today. It reflects the power and wealth of old Saxony, which made it both a power and a prize I the unification of Germany. As a result of the power and local creativity, Dresden came to be known as the Florence of the North, with beautiful public buildings, churches, and the famed balcony of Europe, the promenade that follows the Elbe through downtown.

After the palace and opera, we walked to the Catholic Cathedral. While Saxony was a home of Lutheranism, as the kingdom came to include major areas of Catholic settlement,the monarchy bu8ilt the Cathedral and celebrated Catholicism to win the support of these populations. The Cathedral was heavily damaged by the World War II bombing Now rebuilt, one of the side altars houses a modern pieta, carved from ruins. Also, while there, we saw a display celebrating the sacrifice o f one of the priests who served the Cathedral parish and who died in the “priest bloc' [barracks] at Dachau. As so much in Dresden, the Cathedral and its contents reminds one of the horrors of Nazism and war generally.

                                                              Fauenkirche, Dresden

However, the biggest symbol of the horrors of war is the Frauenkirche, the huge Lutheran church. The Frauenkirche, survived the bombing, seeming to rise above Dresden's doom on Ash Wednesday 1945. However, the churches greatly weakened support structure then failed. The ruins of the collapsed church were allowed to sit as a pile of rubble until after the end of the Cold War. Only in the 1990s was rebuilding begun, to be completed a few years ago. Now the church is a symbol of hope, assembled from many fire scared and some clean new stone. We climbed to the church's towering coupala where the whole city lay beneath us.

The prime reason for coming to Dresden was to see one final World War II victim of incendiary bombing, the technique refined at Guernika by German pilots. First drop large explosive bombs that make fire fighting difficult and open holes in structures. Then the incendiary bombs were dropped next, starting massive and uncontrolled fires. The final step, which apparently came the next day, on Ash Wednesday was strafing the fleeing inhabitants with machine gun fire. As at Guernika, where the bombing took place on Market Day, when the city would be most full of people; the Dresden bombing took place on the night of shrove Tuesday, when the city would witness crowds celebrating before the start of Lent.

                                          Conducting a class discussion in the Baroque palace
                                                   of the Elector of Saxony in Dresden

This approach was described by Kurt Vonnegut in Slaughterhouse Five, excepts of which we have read. As Vonnegut says, in his usual off-hand way, of the machine gunning of civilians along the Elbe, "The idea was to hasten the end of the war.” Of course, the issue for us to consider is how can we place controls of nations and their leaders, so they do not endorse indiscriminate fire bombing again. Yet, long after Dresden, the U.S., as others, practiced bombing that seemed to grow from this technique.

Related to the institutional leadership theme of so much of our course, Dresden in so many ways reminds us of the link of churches to foreign and military policy. First, many churches have raised fundamental, if not often ignored, criticism of military policies. Some church leaders, as the many priests in the priest bloc at Dachau, paid with their lives. Yet, also there is the problem of churches blessing national military policy. How can we build the type church that promotes peace and the rule of law and not the one that has contempt for the rule of law and accepts defense of the fatherland as a Christian duty.

Visiting The Hague and the ICC

On Monday, May 23, we had the opportunity to receive an orientation to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and sit-in on part of the trial of Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo. Mr. Gombo is accused of crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in the Central African Republic. We received substantive orientation from Eleni Chaitidou, an attorney who works for one of the ICC's 18 judges and Antonia Percira de Sousa of the Prosecutor's Office. We also were impressed when on the way through security, the Prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo walked up behind us and declined the guards offer to jump ahead of us. Mr. Moreno-Ocampo said, “I don't want to chest!”

Ms. Chaitidou provided a quick overview of both the court's limited jurisdiction to serious crimes committed in member states or by their subjects since the court became active, with the exception of referrals from the U.N. Security.Council. Her review of the court's efforts to protect witnesses became good preparation for the trial we were to observe, since the entire time we wee in the court room, the witness was shielded by curtains.

Ms. de Sousa provided a great overview of some current cases facing the court, including Libya and Sudan. Coincidently, our visit came as news arrived that Sudan troops became engaged in military action against the south. The attacks, organized by the leadership already indicted by the ICC confirms the ICC is attempting to address the right problems.

In the afternoon, we met with staff of the Committee for the ICC. We discussed the continuing need to work to win the best possible U.S. support for the work of the ICC. The decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Court of Appeals decision NOT to review rendition cases on the grounds of protecting national security, makes clear the great need in the U.S. to consider renewal of the country's earlier leadership role in support of human rights. It is the goal of this class to find ways to restor that leadership. We need to resume the tradition of the founders, as reflected in the inclusion in the Constitution of the power to enforce the Law of Nations [and confirmed when the first Congress passed the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA)]. Of course, the nation's leadership at Nuremberg and later in the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights built on that stellar legacy. Now we see the country embarrassed by failures of the courts to prevent torture.

As we write this summary on Tuesday morning, May 24, the International Herald Tribune's lead editorial attacks the Supreme Court's failure in the rendition cases. Of the Appeals Court reasoning, the Tribune added, “[The Court] should not have allowed this nonsense to stand.” That decision makes all the more our ceremonial visit to Nuremberg on Tuesday. Americans need to celebrate and defend the legacy of that process. More after we visit Nuremberg . . .

Alma and Nuremberg

Today, May 25, we visited Nuremberg, the old imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire that became both a center of Nazism and, as a result of that, the place picked for the post-World War II trials of war criminals. Today the city bills itself as the “City of Human Rights.” Accordingly, the city has the Nazi Documentation Center focused on helping us understand how a nation of well educated people could “fall for” Adolf Hitler.

                                                 Entrance to Nazi Documentation Center,
                                                 with entrance slicing through Hitler's old
                                                                  Congress Hall

This is really an important question, since there clearly have been a number of other modern leaders who, while seldom approaching Hitler's brutality, have used similar methods to win support or delude large groups into supporting or accepting horrendous regimes. Since all of us should be on-guard against the use of techniques of propaganda and mass mobilization to do harm, we need to understand the phenomena that brought so much support for Hitler, especially in this picturesque old city.

The Documentation Center also has an item related to the success of an Alma education. In a display of media (newspapers and magazines) that criticized the rise of Hitler, they had a copy of the Chicago Daily News, the paper published by Frank Knox, the later Secretary of the Navy for Franklin Roosevelt. As those of us from Alma know, Knox, who was in the class of 1898 and became a leading Republican (running against the Roosevelt ticket in 1936), by the late 1930's became a supporter of Roosevelt's criticisms of the rise of dictators in the 1930s (especially the Quarantine Speech of 1937).

Knox in the 1930s challenged the isolationism being promoted in Chicago by the rival Tribune. We can be proud that his foresight was exemplary enough to be singled out at this center which demonstrates the need to confront totalitarianism. Hopefully our little group of people from Alma College will follow in his footsteps and continue to provide needed leadership to oppose such tendencies in the modern world, especially currently in America with our fear of “terrorism,” tendencies that claim we do not any longer have the “luxury” of refraining from torture or universally defending international law (including against Americans who break that law).

A Thunderstorm in Switzerland

Battle of Verdun

We visited the Verdun memorial today, located about an hour away from our hotel in Metz. Verdun was the site of one of the worst battles in World War I, with over 300,000 French and German soldiers dying over the course of the ten-month long battle in 1916.

Driving into the vast area where the battle took place, it was hard to tell that this was once a barren battleground; the trees and flora of the forest have covered the battleground completely, having had almost one hundred years to erase the visual reminders of the effects of the war. However, if you looked close enough, you could see where the ground looked unnaturally uneven--the craters in the earth remain where the shells exploded. It was so eerie to see the battleground as it is today, especially because it was such a gorgeous sunny day--it made it hard to remember that thousands of men died in the same place.

We first visited the museum at the memorial, where we explored the exhibition about the battle; it helped us to visualize Verdun as it was in 1916 and to put into perspective the amount of damage and suffering that this area endured during the battle. Nine villages in the surrounded area were completely razed to the ground due to the battle; we ended up driving through two of them, and there was nothing left but markers to remember those who lived there, as well as a reconstructed chapel.

After the museum, our last stop in Verdun was the cemetery and ossuary; approximately 130,000 soldiers could not be identified, and so their remains were interred in the Douaumont ossuary. It was overwhelming to see the rows and rows of white crosses; the sections of the cemetery went further than I could see, and I thought the rows would never stop. For those were identified, they were buried with a cross marker, or a star of david, or facing Mecca for Muslim soldiers. On the markers, each read their name, and underneath read "Mort pour la France"--meaning that they died for France. It made me question: they died for France, yes, but for what? For a battle that ended with no significant strategic improvement in the war? For a war that was fought because of alliances? For a war that--despite its name--did not actually end all wars?

In the ossuary, the names of the unidentified soldiers were inscribed on the walls--names that, just like the crosses, seemed to go on and on. The ossuary made me think of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Washington, DC; but here, it's the tomb of 130,000 unknowns. I read as many names as I could when I walked through the huge building, reading each name as a remembrance of a real life. Karen (Dr. Lorenz's daughter) and I light two candles in the ossuary as a small gesture of remembrance.

Verdun raised so many questions about war and peace. Could we have avoided the number of casualties that Verdun saw? For what end is 300,000 lives worth? It just seemed so nonsensical to me.

-Ashley Yuill

The ILO and the High Commmissioner for Human Rights

On Thursday, may 19 we visited two international organizations, in addition to the World Council of Churches: the visit to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and to the ILO. What is so impressive about the leaders whom we met, is both their knowledge of many parts of the world and their ease of communicating in multiple languages. There, of course are difficult issues confronting them, from defining human rights standards that will be accepted in both the developed and developing worlds. There especially is the need to find standards for non-state actors, such as global business.

There also is the major issue of how to treat migrants with justice. Globally, there is the massive movement of people from the developing world to the developed. Since employers and communities benefit from the labor of most of these migrants, justice would demand they be given the rights and opportunities of others living in their community. However, fears of both the migrants taking jobs from citizens and importing alien cultural or social customs results in all sort s of efforts to restrict immigration or deny rights to the migrants. While understandable, many of these efforts have the consequence of making the migrants work under the “table,” or outside regular legal work structures, making it advantageous for employers to hire the undocumented. If hiring a legal worker means the employer will need to pay the legal minimum wage and adhere to other labor laws, and hiring the undocumented means a lower wage and no threat of complaints by workers to labor law enforcement, then it is to the disadvantage of citizen workers that the undocumented aren't granted full work benefits.

These issues especially raise problems for people from the U.S. So often we resist applying global standards to our migrants or to the behavior of non-state actors. The consequence has often been the U.S. blocks global progress on imposing standards anywhere, to the great disadvantage of U.S. workers and employers. Nations that allow great abuse of human rights can avoid global sanction because the U.S. has helped block effective global regulation. One of our leadership challenges is to get U.S. Citizens to be less inherently hostile to global standards.

Chambon and the World Council of Churches

There is a unifying theme in our visits to Le Chambon sur Lignon onn Monday and Tuesday (May 16-17, 2011) and to the World Council of Churches in Geneva on Thursday (May 19). In both cases people needing confront major global challenges found both core ideas to guide their actions and institutional support necessary for success. One of the challenges people from the U.S. face in thinking about leadership is thinking the person must 'do it alone.' While clearly Andre Trocme did a lot to lead his community, he knew he and his family could only succeed with a whole existing structure behind them. They found that structure in the churches on 'the plateau.'

                                                            Chambon sur Lignon

Another challenge Americans face is seeing the role of the church is that U.S. Christianity so often has a focus simply on personal or individualistic faith. We seldom are reminded that much of scripture is focused on how people relate to each other, including issues such as welcoming aliens, forgiving offenses, forgiving debts, and caring for the stranger.. These visits hopefully will serve to remind us of both the relevance of faith to addressing issues of international justice and the structural support that churches can provide to multiply the impact a single leader can have.

Lyon Resistance Museum

On May 18th - day 9 of our trip - we went to Lyon for the Centre d'Histoire de la Resistance et de la Deportation. The museum focused on WWII history concerning the French Resistance movement and deportation of citizens. 

Lyon is the second largest city in France and it's where the Gestapo was based during WWII - with Klaus Barbie as its leader. Klaus is famous for being "The Butcher of Lyon" during the war itself, then afterwards working as an intelligence agent for the US. When he was almost arrested for his war crimes, he escaped to Bolivia. He returned around 1979 and was sentenced to life in prison in 1987. He ended up dying not too long after that from natural causes. 

So this museum was in the same building - Hotel Terminus - where Barbie operated from between 1942 and 1944. This put the museum into the appropriate eerie context for the subject of the museum. 

While no pictures were allowed in the museum, I remember one image that stuck out to me as we walked through. This picture is a caricature of Hitler drawn in 1942 by the French Periodical "Pour la Victoire" and it was published in New York. It's called "Le nouveau Moloch."  

I found the museum to be incredibly powerful. There were videos with personal stories of triumph as well as tragedy with the resistance, and there were also newspaper articles and pictures showing realities versus propaganda produced by the government. As a token, I bought a Resistance pin on my way out for one euro to represent myself as part of this important historical movement.

-Katie Gordon

Images from Le Chambon, France

My favorite place on earth. -Chelsea

Oh the people you'll meet...

It always suprises me the amazing people I am privliged to meet during my travels with Alma. Earlier this week I took a trip away from the rest of the group. I traveled to Oxford, UK for an International Criminal Court (ICC) conference to discuss the developments with the crime of agression since this summer in Kampala, Uganda.

While in Oxford I stayed with Will Allen, an Alma Alum from 2009, who is finishing his masters in Internatinal Devlopment from there. Together we went to the opening speech and dinner. The speaker was none other than the president of the ICC who talked mostly about his hopes and confidence in the future of the ICC. Then as we were walking to the dinner a very short old man walked up to Will and asked how he was going to save the world. They had a brief conversation about the importance of our generation before we sat down for dinner. Later we find out that this 92 year old man is the last judge froom the Nuremburg trials still alive.

During dinner I was seated next to an extreamly engaging Scotish man named Robbie. Robbie had been apart of the UK deligation to Kampala and told some good stories about how the agreement on how the crime of agression came into being. However this is not the first time I had met Robbie. I first met him with Elizabeth Wayne at Duke Law's ICC conference this past fall. Robbie was impressed that an undergrad program like Alma was so involved in international law. It was at the end of the meal when that he made a comment that really made me think. After learning that Will was also an Alma alum he said, "People from Alma seem to have friends all over the world. It's nice to have a place to stay no mater where you go." He's right. Next year I will have some of my Alma friends living in France, the UK, Korea, South Africa, Spain, Peru and Indonesia amongst others. I have friends that I've meet during my p-globals in Thailand, Uganda, and the Netherlands. I really will have frinds in the 4 corners of the world who would be happy to have me visit. I have made some amazing contacts and forged strong bonds these past 4 years. This  conference in Oxford is just one example.

-Chelsea Clark

A day in Oradour- Lorenz

On Monday, May 16 we began driving from Bordeaux, France to Le Chambon sur Lignon. Our first stop in the middle of the day was at Oradour sur Glane, the French town which four days after D-Day, June 10, 1944, was the vicim of a massacre carried out by the SS. All the men were shot in several squares in town and the women and children were gassed to death whole locked in the church. Then the town was set on fire. What remains are stone walls for buildings. The day after the massacre, the SS burned the bodies to prevent ever identifying the remains.

After the war, the French government made the decision not to rebuild Oradour, but to preserve it as a memorial to the martyrs. In the church, the roof was burned and in the front, by the altar are the twisted remains of a baby stroller. Throughout the town there are remains of sewing machines, automobiles, tram tracks and other examples of human habitation in 1944. In the cemetery, two glass covered small tombs show the ashes and bone fragments that are the only remains of the martyrs. Around the tombs are plaques made by families recalling their relatives.

                                 Altar in church in Oradour with remains of baby stroller to the right.

Oradour is poiganant reminder of why leaders after World War have tried to build a new international legal order. For example, at the vistors center at Oradour there was a temporary exhibit focused on the legacy of Nuremberg. As we saw in our readings before beginning this trip, many of the founders of the post-World War II international legal order were conservative leaders, such as John Foster Dulles from the U.S., Gerhardt Ritter from Germnay and Jacques Maritain from France. One of our needs is to help our society move away from the contemporary popular belief that supporters of international human rights law are some how always liberal. The “Rule of Law” is neither liberal nor conservative. It is civilized; however, as opposed to the unregulated practices advocated by some.

Lunch on the border

On Sunday, May 15, we had the amazing good fortune to meet an Alma alumna (class of '74) as we left Bilbao.  We had lunch together at Hendaye, the French city on the Spanish border at the Atlantic coast.  Dala Beld, the alumna, is one of the examples of how Alma impacts the world.

Friday the 13th - Guernika

Friday the 13^th was anything but unlucky for us. We started the day in sunny Valladolid and the weather remained beautiful for the spectacular crossing of the mountains into Bilbao. Arriving in Bilbao, with took the Euskotram to the Euskotren station for the 40 minute train ride to Guernika. The only problem was with not knowing when our station would come, since at each earlier stop the train paused for a few moments. How were we to get 13 people with backpacks off in a moment – but, as luck would have it, Guernika was a full stop, with plenty of time to exit.

After checking into our small hotel, we had tapas at the hotel restaurant and as we finished, Andreaas Schaefter or the Gernika Gogoratuz, the peace research center in Guernika met us. We went to his office for a brief orientation and an opportunity to meet the Director of the center, Maria Oianguran Idigoras. Developed at the fiftieth anniversary of the bombing of Guernika, the center has expanded to investigate all phases of peace. Annual they sponsor events, such as international conferences, as well as publications to share knowledge about conflict resolution and issues that cause conflict. They especially hold a major conference at the anniversary of the bombing, April 26. This year's conference focused on “Im-perfect justice and peace. New theories and practices related to a human capacities and human rights approach.” They worked closely on this conference, with the University Jaume I in Castellon, which we had visited on Wednesday (11 May). Another key organizer in the 2011 conference was Daniel Nina from Faculty of Law at the University of Mayaguez in Puerto Rico.

Not surprisingly, much of the substantive discussion of peace making in Guernika reinforced what we heard at Castellon, a focus on internal or personal peace as a necessary prelude to wider social and political peace.

Later on Friday, we went on a short tour of the Basque council building and site of the “tree of Guernika,” the traditional site where Spanish kings came to pledge to respect the special rights of the people in the Basque region. One of the multiple reasons the small city of Guernika is important, well beyond what would be expected of a city its size, if because of this symbolic link to protection of community rights.

Of course, the primary reason for Guernika's significance is that it was one of the first cities subjected to planned incendiary bombing. On Saturday morning, we went to the Guernika Peace Museum to learn details of this part of the city's history. What is especially helpful at the museum is the three part approach it takes to the city's significance:. First, they use the city's history to ask the general question, 'What is peace?' Then to make that relevant, they review the history of the bombing itself. Finally, they review how the conscious incendiary bombing is tied to the rejection of basic human rights.

As fr incendiary bombing, the museum has samples of the three type bombs used in sequence to bring the greatest terror to people. The link of bombing to terror is especially important, making clear the 20^th century links of aerial bombardment to terrorism. First, there were large bombs to blow holes in roofs. Then there were the actual incendiary bombs designed to start fires. Finally, there were the anti-personal bombs to kill and injure fleeing civilians.

Guernika is inspiring because the community has moved from bitterness about their fate to assumption of an important symbolic role as a center for peaceful resolution of disputes. They have paired themselves with other cities, some of which, such as Dresden, that we will visit that also try to use the tragic experience with war to develop techniques and beliefs that promote peace.

Any visit to Guernika that includes a night in town would have to mention the wonderful local social practices. At least on a Friday night, the towns heart was filled with hundreds of families, with children playing soccer and other games and parents sitting in tapas restaurants drinking beer and wine. One joke in our group, was to say Guernika is like a nursery school with bars (places serving alcohol – not prison). The children are laughing and playing with other kids, talking to all the adults and the community is watching the children.

Finally, on Saturday, as we awaited our train to Bilbao, a friendly woman of 82, stopped on the platform to ask our nationality. When we told her we were from America and visiting to study leadership in the law of war and peace, she beamed with joy. She pointed out she had lived through the bombing as a girl of eight. Her family then became refugees in France, later returning to find everything they owned destroyed. She was glad we were learning the lessons her town has to offer.

What a lucky Friday the 13^th and Saturday the 14^th, we had . . .

Bust of George Steer, the journalist who exposed the bombing of Gernika to the world. 

Castellon thoughts - Ed's Post

Our visit to Spain began with a welcome to the University Jaume I in Castellon de la Plana. After arriving in Madrid on Tuesday morning, we left on the AVE high-speed train for Valencia and then on to Castellon, about a half hour north along the coast toward Barcelona. Those who had not been here previously, were impressed when the train quickly accelerated out of Madrid to nearly 200 mph (301 km/hr) . Once into Castellion, our first evening was to recover from jet-lag. However, before getting sleep, most wondered down to the old heart of the city, enjoying the Mediterranean breezes that cooled the heat (about 85 degrees at our hotel, to upper 60s in the old plazas.

On Wednesday we had sometime to return downtown for lunch before going to the weekly International Seminar held by the university's Peace, Conflict and Sustainability program. At first most, if not all of us, were disappointed to learn we had missed the previous week's seminar on Libya. Ours was to be on the need for 'inner peace.' However, all of us warmed to the presentations by Gloria Maria Abarca Obregon of Mexico and Marisol Suarez Sieve of Colombia. They soon had us doing a variety of exercises to reduce anxiety. By the end of the seminar, all had come to see at least the potential for this approach to preparing people to seek peace and reconciliation.

The program at the university, with students from around the world, also made an impression as a needed approach to dealing with conflicts in a “globalized world.” Especially for those of us from the U.S. Where globalization often means a few non-Americans are able to attend our event, being in a program that seeks a global student population, provided an important model. The university even has two tracks for its global students: Spanish and English.

The visit to Castellon provided a thought provoking launch to our visits. On Thursday morning early we left for Valladolid and sent Chelsea Clark off by plane from Valencia to Oxford for the International Criminal Court (ICC) meeting, which Chelsea will describe. Chelsea was scheduled to rejoin us in Saturday in Bilbao.

Bilbao Thoughts

This was our day of rest. Since we are visiting the International Labor Organization later in the trip and the U.S. And the world has officially endorsed the core labor standards that include a weekly day of rest, we are observing on our travels one day that is primarily for relaxation. This started on Saturday May 14 after we left Guernika on the 1:00 pm. Train for Bilbao.

Bilbao is a remarkable Spanish-Basque city, that reinvented itself in the 1990s, as a world class center of the arts and creativity. From the futuristic and yet naturally integrated Euskotram that follows the river, tying together the old town and the Guggenheim and other centers, to the new skyscrapers, with playful use of color and angles the city has used the Guggenheim as an inspiration for blending the old and the future into a sustainable whole. Much as the famed flower dog, outside the Guggenheim, all seems designed to show the future need not be a bleak world of scarcity, but a time to restore the balance with nature. So the Euskotram tracks aren't the usual railroad tracks, with ugly gravel between the rails. The futuristic trains run on rails embedded in mowed grass. Likewise, modern buildings need not be boring rectangles of glass and steel. In Bilbao they often are colorful and at contrasting angels.

As the old “Pittsburgh of Spain,” Bilbao should be on the itinerary of all who want to redevelop old U.S. Cities.

The Guggenheim in Bilbao

To show the wonders of this place, in the evening, the cathedral of Santiago was packed (unlike so many empty ones in Europe, for a Mass and the choir singing Handle's Alleluia Chorus. As the Mass ended people poured into a square filled with tables for people getting tapas at the many bars surrounding the square. Much as Guernika on Friday night, children filled the square street performers entertained, and people walked through the old town. Bilbao 's apparent success raises fundamental questions for those U.S. Economic and political critics who seem to gloat over the problems of the Eurozone. As in Castellon, Valencia, Madrid and Valladolid, the impression in Bilbao and Guernika is of community optimism, environmental innovation, family solidarity, great local food, and charm.

As we prepared to leave Spain on Sunday for the French border on one of the world-class trains, the general sense was one of gratitude for the opportunity to learn of Spanish leadership in defense of laws of war and human rights. Clearly, this is a culture where many are trying to fathom the lessons from past problems, whether the relations with the indigenous in the 1500s or the tragedies of Fascist rebellion and ruthless bombing in the 1930s. Riding on a high speed train, listening to classical music on the train sound system, and twice passing through the stunning coast mountains – both going out of Bilbao and back to San Sebastian, this has been a great start to our journey to review leadership.

La Paz Interior

Wednesday, we attended a workshop at the University of Jaume I on "inner-peace." At first, I must admit, I scoffed. So far my peace studies have been on things like the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping or promoting peace through food security, economic empowerment, basic freedoms... and I viscerally wrote off the study of inner-peace as a "frilly" topic.

The lecture was interesting, we colored a Mandala and heard about the theories behind inner-peace techniques.  But I found myself thinking throughout: I still don´t see how getting individuals to achieve inner-peace is going to lead to actual peace. How will inner peace overcome the massive human rights violations being committed around the world? How will it stop the outbreak of violence and conflict? Having inner-peace won't fill any stomachs or put a roof over any heads. Where people lack the necessities of life, peace cannot be sustained. Right?

So, during the question portion of the lecture, I decided to bring the issue. "It was very interesting to look at peace in such a different way, and myself and my peers from Alma College enjoyed it immensely. Could you please elaborate on how the tecnhiques of attaining inner peace apply in developing countries? How this view of peace can overcome the extreme poverty and human rights abuses which cause conflict?"  Her answer opened my mind to an entirely new way of thinking about peace.

To briefly summarize: Gloria had done extensive research with school children in the most dangerous parts of Mexico City. She taught them these "inner-peace" techniques and theories, and saw a decrease in unhappiness, violence, misbehavior, and discontent. Here was the qualitative proof I was looking for. Gloria's point was that we are connected to each other and we treat others how we treat ourselves: therefore, we will not promote peace on our societies unless we have peace within ourselves.

Friday and Saturday we were in Gernika, the site of a brutal attack on civilians by the Germans in 1937. We visited Gernika Gogoratuz, an organization who works with peace research and peace building. Again, we were presented with an alternative view on "peace." The center publishes reports, and on in particular intrigued me: "Dialogue Through Art." The book, by Alex Carrascosa, was about using workshops to create collective art pieces. The idea of securing peace through art reminded me of the workshop at the university, and I loved the idea.

Andreas Schafter, our contact at Gernika Gogoratuz, coordinates the "Everyday Life and Peace" division of the institute. He works with anti-racism campaigns, and research on the reflection community activities provide in relative community peace. Once more, we were presented with a thought-provoking alternate view on peace promotion.

Inner-peace as a tool for achieving universal peace is often written off, but after hearing Andreas ad Gloria's work with inner-peace I am convinced that is a mistake. It makes sense and, more importantly, it can be extremely effective: be at peace with yourself and your environment, and you´ll treat others peacefully-- start at the micro-level and peace will increase at the macro-level.

-Elizabeth Wayne

May 11-May 12 Some Thoughts

The first days of our Leadership in the Law of War, Peace and Human Rights class have gone really well, despite a few travel glitches. The weather in Spain has been perfect. Here it is warm and sunny, with Spring wildflowers blooming and storks sitting on nests on church steeples. Speaking of storks, we have repeatedly been impressed with the children friendly Spanish families. As I write this on the train into Bilbao, there is a family in our compartment with a little boy who seems to have adopted us.

While not a class in environmental policy, mentioning the train, reminds us of one of the impressive features of Spain – the commitment to full environmental sustainability. To reduce gas consumption, Spain has an excellent system of super fast, modern, and frequent trains. On our first trio from Madrid to Valencia, the train repeatedly topped 300 km/hr (about 190 MPH! Even our slower local to Valladolid yesterday went 100 MPH. Also, the country has tons of wind farms and numerous solar power installations. In Castellon de la Plana, where we spent the first two nights, the province is committed to becoming a net producer of excess energy. Of course when we eat we also find abundant and cheap local food. While a few in or group long for a little U.S. Style fast food, all have noticed we have seen only one McDonalds and one Burger King.

But, looking at Leadership in international law, yesterday afternoon, we visited the Colegio de San Gregorio in Valladolid. This beautifully restored building, was the site of what has been called the “First Great Debate on Human Rights,” in 1550. Bishop Bartolome de las Casas, came to Valladolid from southern Mexico (Chiapas) in 1550 to debate one of the leading Spanish philosophy professors regarding the humanity of the Indians. This wasn't an academic debate, it was held before the king's (Charles V) council, which was meeting in Valladolid. For five days Las Casas, by then in his 70's, argued for recognizing the basic rights of people, regardless of culture or nationality. To the great credit of the Spanish government of the time, it repeatedly responded with new laws ordering those involved in colonization to treat Indians humanely.

The importance of las Casas is that5 he exemplifies both the power of an individual leader and of the Church in motivating some to defend the rights of people who were different. This serves as a model for modern advocates of rights, who should face less severe barriers to success than las Casas. We live in a political society that respects basic rights to advocate policy change. Las Casas faced a monarchy which could take repressive action against dissent. As for the Church, las Casas model a version of religious leadership that found in faith a justification for protecting the rights of all. So often in modern times, religious leaders use religion to differentiate the privileged members of their faith from the lost members of other faiths or those without any faith.

The visit to the Colegio de San Gregorio, therefore, should show us what is possible and what institutional change we need to achieve in order to promote greater peace and protection of human rights.

In any case, now it is off to Guernika. We'll report after that.

Valladolid