[Project-fallujah] [Request for Comments] The Jigsaw Puzzle

[2 % Human]

Dear Councillors / Lists,

I've had a lot of feedback now and would like to submit a partial answer 
to this question ...

>> Can we crystallise what we expect to achieve to improve the
>> humanitarian situation with this initiative?  [1]

... for it is this question that addresses the task at hand.

Any question answered by one person alone, or by one group of people, 
can only ever be partially correct ... and I ask therefore that you 
spend some time thinking about how your own experiences up until now are 
relevant to this answer.

My take on how to start with this initiative would be to establish 
effective communication channels between us and the survivors. I 
understand that internet connectivity of high quality is supplied to 
this region via satellite link. Most of this connectivity is presently 
requisitioned by the military no doubt, and no doubt shall be returned 
to civil use as and when the region stabilizes.

It would be helpful if a mobile or static satellite unit could be 
requisitioned and placed in Fallujah at a suitable location, at a 
hospital, a college for example. I understand that our council is 
chronically under funded and may find it difficult to allocate anything 
other than a nominal budget to this initiative. However, I would inform 
the council that such a unit is now of nominal value and could be gifted 
from redundant civil / military supplies. The same can be said for the 
computers and ancillary ICT infrastructure required at that location.

The installation of the above mentioned infrastructure would be the easy 
bit of the jigsaw to fit; then would come the difficult task of matching 
the needs of that City with what we have to spare, and with what we have 
in abundance.

How to fit these pieces together can only be ascertained via dialogue.

Our council is responsible for the supply a wide spectrum of health, 
civil and recreational services. Its work force is multicultural and 
diverse. I would suggest that the council encourages volunteers from 
across its workforce to partake in this dialogue. [2] The wide range of 
experiences of such a group together with this group's knowledge of our 
City, its people and its existing communities would provide, I suspect, 
a fertile ground for creative and inexpensive solutions.

I theorise that it is by dialogue alone that the journey to a lasting 
peace in this region will begin. Further, I theorise that it is by 
dialogue alone that we ourselves will gain a better understanding of the 
unfolding events.

"Do not cry, do not laugh, but understand" ( Spinoza )
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	Fallujah Reality Pictures

http://img111.exs.cx/img111/52/jazeeraapril.jpg
http://img63.exs.cx/img63/9226/jazeeraseptember.jpg
http://fallujapictures.blogspot.com/

The stories, songs and comedy of any region commonly contain vastly more 
information about its residents, than that contained in the most 
independent and complete communiques.

It would be foolish to think that any of the stories originating from 
Fallujah could be anything other than tragic, at least in the short 
term. However we should remain hopeful that the survivors can be 
provided with a peaceful existence through the intervention of ourselves 
and others.

In February 1993, I traveled to Romania for 3 weeks on an analogous 
humanitarian mission. On this occasion the project was lead by students 
from the Art Schools of Sheffield, Brighton and Wolverhampton 
Universities née Polytechnics. Our mission was to obtain invites, 
permits, accommodation etc. for a larger party of 25 who were to travel 
there later that year. The later party's mission was to decorate some 
more of Romania's many orphanages.

1993 was the third year of this initiative; in the visits of the 
previous years, the group had concentrated their efforts on the 
orphanages to the south of the country and to it's midlands. Our mission 
in 1993 was to take this initiative to the north, a place at that time 
barely scratched by external civil intervention.

On arriving in Bucharest we spent the first three days meeting with 
representatives of the various aid agencies as a brain picking, 
information swapping exercise. We were unable to gather much new 
information from these meetings but gained expressions of support, 
permission to travel and provisional contact information for orphanages 
in a northern region of Romania called Iaşi [3]. The temperature in 
Bucharest was 5 below zero and as we journeyed by slow train to Iaşi the 
temperature gradually fell to - 15 C.

My companions, being artists, amused themselves, each other and the rest 
of the travelers with charade-type-games and everyone kept themselves 
warm with an admixture of commradary and plum brandy. We arrived in Iaşi 
city in the small hours of one morning and we were greeted by two art 
students from the university.

We spent the next week and a half traveling around the region with these 
two local lads and got on with our mission; setting up invitations and 
the like for the later parties.

Some of the orphanages, the ones nearer the City, were already well 
supported: Enough staff and food, although the food was poor and very 
hit and miss; hardly any fruit or fresh veg. The orphanages were spartan 
but functional and welcomed our offer of help with open hands and 
smiles. The later party returned there within a few months and painted 
murals on the walls. They involved the kids in lots of stuff and, from 
what I could judge from the photographs, did a lot of juggling.

The lads took us to one particular orphanage out in the sticks that 
contained a very different experience. This orphanage was housed in a 
damp stone building which held three rooms of orphans; each room held 40 
children aged between 18 months and 3 years. Fuel delivery to this 
orphanage was scarce and the lady doctor in charge of the orphans had 
fabricated temporary double glazing to the windows from polythene 
sheets. Heat in the main was provided by wood-burning and lighting in 
the main from car-batteries.

As we entered the rooms the doctor switched on the candle and the 
children came to life and sounded ... not recognisable words ... more 
groans and squeals than anything else with their hands outstretch over 
the bars of their cots desperate for attention, desperate for stimulation.

People who care for kids in their day-to-day responsibilities will be 
able to understand the sheer lack of hope generated by such a scene. 
Where do you start when you want to help in this kind of situation ?

Well, I'm glad that my comrades were artists and knew how to juggle. We 
attended each room and their show began, and in to each room my mates 
brought at least one joyful experience to those kids in cages.

The doctor had to leave the building; I knew how she felt and I followed:

	"Don't let my mates upset you" I said to her. "They irritate me also, 
but they mean you no harm."

	She cheered ever so slightly.

	"I can't do anything here." she said "I can't even make the children 
smile !"

	"You are keeping them alive ..." I rebuked "... and that is something."

She shook her head and motioned that I follow her to an out-house.

	"I need vitamins" she said "I need up-to-date information about 
tuberculosis" she said "I need the water in this well testing ... and I 
need to know how to swap these shoes for supplies"

In the out-house, under lock-and-key, were stacked box after box of Niki 
training shoes.

Where do you start when you want to help in this kind of situation ?

One establishes communication channels.

What is generally required is these missions is information and that we 
have in abundance.


What did you do in the War ?
----------------------------

I've been reading about the unfolding events in the Ukraine and I wonder 
how much the culture of this region will come in to play ? We should all 
be aware by now that the world is fully integrated and significant event 
is rapidly following significant event in this new millennium. I think 
we should expect this in our new information age.

On a night of rest back at the Iaşi art school, the students screened 
the Kevin Costner version of Robin Hood. The sound-track was rough and 
it had Romanian sub-titles. I, as was my want, concentrated on getting 
drunk and talking non sense to anyone who would listen. You probably 
won't have guessed it, but I do tend to ramble even still.

At the end of the film, a discussion sprang up between the artists 
concerning the many variants of Arthurian mythology and it's many forms 
and adaptations. Well, artists will tend to talk about these things ... 
and being an engineer, I drifted off-topic ... and instead went to talk 
to one of the lads from Iaşi who had taken us to see the nice doctor 
with the abundant supply of training shoes.

He was looking downright, if not downleft fed up.

	"What is *it* Sandor ?" I inquired.

	"It is nothing; it is nothing" he replied.

	5 minutes passed.

	"What is it Sandor ?" I asked. "Is it the kids ?"

	"No, it is nothing" he replied

	"What is it then ? Is it something you've done Sandor ?" I asked.

	"Yes; but it is nothing" he replied

	I paused.

	"What was is it Sandor ?" I asked

	"It was the War" he replied

	I paused.

	"What did you do in the War Sandor ? I asked

	"I should have stopped it sooner." he replied.

For the next day and a half I unpicked this statement with Sandor and 
his classmates.

He did have a very real part to play amongst others in an outcome. The 
context of his actions would I feel appear be alien to our culture, but 
the concept is not ... In a nut-shell, all that he did, when push came 
to shove, was argue the toss with his work mates about which way to push.

The reason why he was *so* fed-up, was that he'd not done it sooner.

Do not cry, do not laugh, but understand.
We live in the present and the present is well out of hand.

Well you have to laugh don't you ?

	"Sandor." I said "Better late than never mate, better late than never."

He finally lifted his eyes to meet mine.

I have a painting of his at work. The security guards at Bucharest 
airport took the string that secured its wrapping, I suspect they sold 
it on the black market.

How do we fit the pieces of this Jigsaw together ?
---------------------------------------------------

"What's it like where you live Adam ?" Sandor asked me later.

I told him many things and many stories, none of which I would be 
ashamed to repeat openly and again the context is of little relevance.

In a nut-shell I told him this: all nations develop in history, they all 
exhibit the same tendencies to a lesser or greater extent. They are all 
reflections of each other; they are reflections of memories of passed 
nations; and they are reflections of imagined nations ... However, I 
stated in confidence, the *form* of nations do evolve.

It was the first time I saw him smile.

"Darwin ?" he said, and on reflection I had to say maybe.

Just as the photographs of our planet taken from space has shaped the 
popular consciousness of people world-over with respect to the oneness 
of our planet, I theorised that the political groupings of our existing 
nations would overtime converge and evolve in to a more elegent structure.

He laughed.

"Darwin ?" he said

"Maybe" I admitted.

"How do you come up with such theories ?" he asked

"I spent too much time in libraries as a kid, whilst I should have been 
practicing snooker"

A joke unfortunately that was lost in translation :)

I've rambled enough ... we have the option to choose to extend a hand of 
friendship to a region that in my humble opinion needs it ... and at the 
same time learn more about a region that we are supposed to be helping.

How we fit our own experiences and our own dreams in to the bigger world 
pattern will no doubt be based to a large extent on our existing 
positions and whatever dreams we may hold for a different, and hopefully 
better pattern.

How ever we fit our dreams together will no doubt be evidenced by how 
well we are able to communicate with each other and work towards 
convergence.

--
The Jigsaw Puzzle

[1] --------------------------------------------------------------------

NOTICE OF MOTION RE FRIENDSHIP LINK WITH FALLUJAH
Proposed by Cllr Jillian Creasy
Scheduled to be heard at Full Council 01/12/04

This council

1. Deplores all acts of aggression and terrorism;

2. Notes the loss of civilian life and destruction of the infrastructure 
in Fallujah;

3. Wishes to express its sympathy and solidarity with all people of good
will in that city who are now faced with rebuilding it.

This council therefore

4. Requests the Chief Executive to investigate the possibility of 
forming a Friendship Link with Fallujah and to report back to Full 
Council in two months' time;

5. Requests the Chief Executive to send a copy of this motion to the 
Prime Minister and Sheffield MPs.

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Two wrongs don't make a right :
http://lists.aktivix.org/pipermail/ssf/2004-November/000233.html

The White Rose : 
http://lists.aktivix.org/pipermail/project-fallujah/2004-November/000000.html

[2] Time spent by such volunteers could be deemed to be vocational 
learning and converted in to formal qualifications as appropriate.

The council may wish to consider forming partnerships for this 
initiative with the local hospitals, health trusts, universities, 
colleges etc.

[3] Iaşi : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iasi