NOSTALGIA
Memories of East West Center
I never felt like an alien (a strange term Americans use for foreigners) in Hawaii. People are very friendly, not to speak of the climate which is simply splendid. It is never too hot or never too cold – no sweat, no grime, no dust. For me it was a place of beauty, pleasure and wisdom,
writes Khaleda Rashid
Where should I begin? No opening sentence seemed appropriate to describe the life and experience at the East West Center (EWC). There is so much to say; the wonderful fond memories; the richness and variety of experience; and my eagerness to convey the intensity of it all. Perhaps starting with the island and its people would be appropriate.
Hawaii, the 50th state of the United States of America. Hawaii or the Aloha State comprises islands, namely Oahu, Kauai, Molokai, Maui, Lanai, Kahoolawe, Niihau and Hawaii, the Big Island. Honolulu on the island of Oahu is the capital of Hawaii and is home to about 80% of the 1.2 million people living in Hawaii. The Hawaiian Islands is the home of friendly and beautiful people with a laid back life style. No ethnic group is in a majority; even the native Hawaiians comprise less than 30% of the total population. Japanese Americans form the largest group. There are Filipinos, Portuguese, Indians and white men locally called the ‘Haulis’. People speak English and the native Hawaiians use a pidgin version. In recent times there has been a renewed interest in Hawaiian culture and language, especially among young Hawaiians. I spent most of my four-year stay at the EWC in Honolulu, Oahu, while pursuing graduate studies at the University of Hawaii (UH) on a EWC grant.
Hawaii is a ‘heaven on earth’. Its clear blue skies, azure blue water, beautiful friendly people, natural ambience and numerous activities make Hawaii a sought after destination of tourists. The breath-taking beauty of the natural environment; amiable people with diverse culture and rich history; easy and comfortable living, transform Hawaii from the worldly into the realms of the divine. The Hawaiian Islands boast over 2 million visitors a year. Despite the congestion, even Honolulu has much to offer. The crowded but safe and lively Waikiki beach in Oahu, the water skiers paradise on the north shore, the many lookouts, Kaanapali Hills, Punch Bowl Cemetery, Diamond Head crater, Hanuma Bay, a sanctuary of exotic fishes, the Polynesian Cultural Center, a vibrant night life and restaurants to wine and dine whet the taste of even the most demanding tourist. One could take a car and go round the whole island in a few hours looking at the vast bluish-green to deep-blue ocean on one side and lush green tropical forest and coconut palm, pineapple or sugarcane cultivation on the other. The mountains and the ocean are an integral part of the Hawaiian psyche, so much so that the traditional concept of north, south, east and west is absent. Mountains, the ocean and landmarks influence their concept of direction. ‘Mauka’ is mountain-ward and ‘makai’ is ocean-ward and in Honolulu ‘Ewa’ the south and Diamond Head the north.
Iolani Palace, the only palace on American soil, stands in somber remembrance of the Hawaiian age of monarchy and is a novelty to the American dream. Thousands of visitors flock to it for a glimpse of the palace and the statue of King Kamehameha the Great, who unified the Hawaiian Islands under a single rule.
I never felt like an alien (a strange term Americans use for foreigners) in Hawaii. People are very friendly, not to speak of the climate which is simply splendid. It is never too hot or never too cold — no sweat, no grime, no dust. For me it was a place of beauty, pleasure and wisdom.
In 1977 I got an East West Center grant as a degree participant to do my post-graduate studies at the University of Hawaii (UH). The East-West Center was established through an act of the United States Congress in 1960 to ‘promote better relations and understanding between the United States and the nations of Asia and the Pacific through cooperative study, training and research’. To support this mission, the Center’s programs focus around specific institutional goals — to assist in creating an Asia Pacific community in which the United States is a natural, valued, and leading partner. Research, dialogue, educational activities and public outreach incorporate both the Center’s mission and the programmatic focus of building an Asia Pacific Community’ (1960s Alumni Reunion, 2003).
The aim of the Center is to strengthen relations in the region through ‘Cultural and Technical Interchange’ and is a national and regional resource for information and analyses on Asia and the Pacific. It is a meeting ground of people with a wide range of perspectives and views. The EWC is a public, non-profit national and regional research and education institution. It is run by an international Board of Governors funded by the US government in addition to support from private agencies, individuals and corporations, and a number of governments in Asia and the Pacific. The Center is an internationally recognized education and research organization promoting a stable, peaceful and prosperous Asia Pacific community. Since its establishment more than 50,000 people have participated in Center programs. Degree participants have pursued higher studies and short term participants/visitors/fellows have conducted researches and/or exchanged ideas on regional concerns.
The Center’s 21 acre-site is in Honolulu, adjacent to the UH campus. The Burns Hall with conference facilities is the center for administration and research; Hale Manoa, Hale Kuhini and Lincoln’s Hall are residential halls for participants; and Jefferson Hall with meeting rooms, a large conference room accommodates the cafeteria, students lounge and many seminars and conferences. Jefferson Hall was the center for social interaction among the participants. It was the venue for the yearly event, the International Fair, where participants and the Hawaiian community learnt about other cultures and people. Unfortunately this is no more. The Jefferson Hall is now a private facility that the Center may use on payment. What a shame! Except for the Burns Hall the other buildings of the Center were designed by the famous architect, I. M. Pei.
On the East-West Road (occasionally closed to vehicular traffic) of the UH and the Center, Jefferson Hall and Kennedy Theatre stand facing each other. When I saw Jefferson Hall for the first time, I was amazed at its architectural beauty, elegance and its serene landscaped setting. The large cantilevered first floor gives the building its grandeur and a sense of bouncy. The wide terrace on the back overlooks a picturesque Japanese garden gradually merging into the Manoa Stream and the mountain beyond. The garden is visible from the residential halls, Hale Kuhini and Hale Manoa. I will never forget the indefinable quality and intimacy of the courtyard of Hale Kuhini. I still remember with nostalgia the ‘home away from home’, many friends and the activities we shared, the plumeria (frangipani) groves on the campus and mild scent of its flowers, the adventure of gathering mangoes, the picnics and outings and the hiking trip to Kauai so strenuous yet enjoyable.
As a way of thanking the Center and the people of Hawaii, we had to be involved in different community service activities in addition to academic pursuits at the University of Hawaii. Skill and efficiency were not required; what were essential were the willingness and determination to contribute and belief in the task. In return we gained the trust, admiration and respect of people in the community. I believe that understanding and appreciation of cultures other than one’s own is an important aspect in a learning process. Participants from different nationalities celebrated their national events by hoisting national flags in front of Jefferson Hall and sharing national dishes with others. Participating in ‘International Nights’; enjoying leisure at the Thai Pavilion; and socializing with ‘host families’ are unique experiences that have left indelible marks never to be forgotten. At the EWC we lived, worked, played, and shared our thoughts and beliefs enriching our lives and widening our mental horizon. The EWC taught us to know ourselves — who we are as individuals and also as people and cultures. The ideas and ideals of EWC are not high brow concepts; rather they are things that emerge everyday; teaching one to see with one’s mind not just with one’s eyes.
At the University of Hawaii, in both the Department of Architecture and the Department of Planning, I came in touch with a few very competent personalities not only as teachers but as human beings as well. I bear a deep sense of admiration for them. I recall with gratitude their contribution in developing my career and an understanding of other people. The University of Hawaii provided me with the knowledge and the confidence to meet future obstacles with professionalism and competence.
What better location can there be than the Hawaiian Islands for the EWC, the ‘Center for Cultural and Technical Interchange between East and West? Indeed an appropriate place, midway in the Pacific Ocean for the East to have a dialogue with the West! Let us contribute to the establishment of a stable, peaceful and prosperous Asia Pacific Community; let us come together to the celebration of EWC Day on Saturday, the 14th May 2005.
May 14 is EWC Day. Being an alumna of the EWC, I assign great importance to the role of alumni of different educational institutions/organizations can play in building international understanding. Looking at the world and the events taking place around us, it is evident that now more than ever that we need to understand each others cultures, way of life and religion. There are about 37 East West Center Alumni (EWCA) Chapters in Asia. The EWC Alumni, Bangladesh Chapter remained quite inactive and dormant for many years. Dan Berman, former EWCA President and presently Special Representative for South Asia, EWC President’s Office, New Delhi, and Karen Knudsen, Director, External Affairs, EWC visited Bangladesh in September 2004 to rejuvenate the Bangladesh Chapter. An ad-hoc committee was formed. So far the ad-hoc committee has been able to successfully track down 273 alumni and update information on some of them. Much more remains to be done. Dan Berman’s recent visit to Bangladesh on 23rd April, 2005 has paved the way for further consolidation of the Chapter.
During Dan’s visit the Bangladesh Chapter hosted a EWC Alumni Evening on 26 April, 2005 and had fruitful, open discussion and question answer sessions. The EWCA Bangladesh Chapter intends to create a database of the alumni. The Bangladesh Chapter needs and expects the support from the alumni so that it can develop into a Chapter that excels all others. Chapters of the region both in quality and content of its activities. The EWCA South Asia Chapters have scheduled a Regional Conference at the Habitat Center New Delhi in November 16 -18, 2005. The theme of the Conference is ‘Building a South Asia Community in a Global Context’. Bangladesh Chapter has taken on the responsibility of organizing panels on Gender Issues and Demographic Transition in South Asia. Alumni are encouraged to participate in large numbers at the conference and make their presence felt.
(For detailed information contact Dan Berman at ewc_bermand@fulbright-india.org, Mala Kapur Shankardass e-mail M_K_Shank@yahoo.com, Ekramul Ahsan at ekramul_ahsan@yahoo.com or Khaleda Rashid e-mail khaledarashid@hotmail.com)
The writer teaches at the Department of Architecture, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology
BANGLADESH
A story of failed diplomacy? – II
Our abject failure to brief the donor countries and our inability to assess their impressions need to be seriously looked at instead of flying off the handle. Our missions should engage from now on to convince the host governments as to our achievements and intentions, writes Syed Muhammad Hussain
Any discerning analyst would find it most intriguing that the water minister’s views on India’s role have not had any support from his minions in the JRC and our water experts who also had addressed the seminar in this regard. Not even the country director of IUCN, who used to be a vocal proponent of Bangladesh’s just cause, threw a supporting line. The water resources minister did not say anything about the steps that are required or have been taken to counter the Indian moves excepting that letters have been written (which have never produced any result and the ball has always been in India’s sole possession). Also of interest is the statement of senior minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, ‘Bangladesh is absolutely dependent on trans-boundary water sources as about 93% of our water comes from outside the country.’ Sometime back the Director General, National Water Board (now member JRC), opined that Bangladesh’s water policy does not extend to waters coming from outside the borders and could not explain as to how the country can have an effective national water utilization policy if such a huge 93% water flow is not kept under constant monitoring and study.
In the Ministry of Foreign Affairs itself, the creation of a new level of State Minister, now advisor, with a technocrat, is a self defeating arrangement. It is not to say that there cannot be any State Minister. In fact, he should be political, an elected Member of Parliament. By having a retired diplomat/Foreign Secretary as the Adviser (State Minister), we have managed to express serious no confidence in the Foreign Minister’s ability to conduct the affairs of the ministry and demeaned the stature and efficiency of the Foreign Secretary as well. The Foreign Secretary and indeed the whole Foreign Office should function to enable the Foreign Minister to operate at the most effective levels. He may have a political junior minister, but with a Foreign Secretary why should one need a retired technocrat who incidentally brings in all his past links, connections, likes and dislikes into play? That is why one has the impression that the adviser acts as the Foreign Secretary relegating the serving Foreign Secretary, who is obviously 15 years or so junior in service, as an errand boy. With one grade C ambassadorial experience in a country like Vietnam, the former foreign secretary served for over three years without any visible success.
The latest example in a long chain of unpalatable events relates to the new Foreign Secretary’s response at his very first press meeting that he did not know anything about the withdrawal demand for two European envoys and later the Foreign Minister’s reply, ‘No comments, to journalististic queries regarding the Prime Minister’s now famous 15 March 05 speech on no dictation, no threat in Parliament. While in Parliament, the Prime Minister is free to express her appraisal/admonition on any matter impinging on the country’s image, the use of appropriate formulations which could be as hard as nails and the preparedness to face the inevitable reactions to such statements, in the political and diplomatic arena, ought to have been carefully thought about. Strong condemnations by the authorities in public should always be carefully weighed. The same views of the government could have been conveyed to the quarters concerned through other recognised channels with equal force, avoiding the negatively-charged fall-out. But we may be missing the point that the sudden bursts of fury at the high level are more for the consumption of the people inside who are going to be the potential voters at the forthcoming elections. And the price paid in terms of external hostility is perhaps considered well worth another term in power with all the attendant benefits, including the anointment of the successor as planned. No one in authority appears to be much concerned as to why our erstwhile benefactors, donors and friendly countries are expressing their views in a manner we perceive to be diktat or threat. Do our authorities believe that we do not bear any responsibility or we do not need any serious soul searching and a regime of comprehensive house cleaning?
One also recalls that this very Foreign Office has been headed by diplomats of outstanding calibre with long experience as ambassadors, such as Enayet Karim, Humayun Rashid Chowdhury, SAMS Kibria, Faruq Chowdhury, Ataul Karim, Abul Ahsan, Farooq Sobhan, Shafi Sami and, of course, there were some others who compared to things as they stand now appear to have done not too badly. It may not be entirely wrong to assume that other ministries have done much better as they were not burdened with an extra self destruct layer of adviser between the minister and the secretary. It is strongly urged that this aberration in the Foreign office is corrected, thus allowing and enabling both the Foreign Minister and the serving Foreign Secretary to become fully functional and be responsible to the Prime Minister, as it should indeed be.
Postscript: Foreign Minister Morshed Khan’s reaction to the EU Parliament’s resolution in terms of language and contents leaves much to be desired. To say ‘We do not need any lesson from anybody’ could easily be seen to be an unwarranted claim. By not going into the analysis of each of the points, the Foreign Minister seems to have conceded that a) the opposition has something to cry about, though they chose apparently the wrong shoulders and b) their cries abroad have been so effective that the EU Parliament chose to come out with a very strong resolution on Bangladesh. While that is indeed an ‘achievement’ for the opposition’s alleged activities, by the same token the Foreign Minister’s current band of ambassadors in several EU capitals have utterly failed to brief their respective governments of accreditation about the correct positions on all the issues cited. And the Foreign Minister has to counter these, as he did, after the damage is done. Interestingly, one can speculate whether it would have been more diplomatic and appropriate if these reactions, even in sharper form, could have been better delivered by Morshed Khan at a meeting with all the resident EU ambassadors at his office.
In this context, one cannot but wonder as to the categorical claim of the Finance Minister on his return from Sweden that ‘overall impression about Bangladesh was now excellent across the world’ and ‘European parliamentarians had showed a very positive attitude towards Bangladesh’s development’. The same day the tersest EU Parliament resolution was published almost in total contradiction. Our abject failure to brief the donor countries and our inability to assess their impressions need to be seriously looked at instead of flying off the handle. Our missions should engage from now on to convince the host governments as to our achievements and intentions.
Law Minister Moudud Abmed’s instant reaction given to BBC radio, namely, that the EU resolution’s contents were not ‘against us, rather these are about us’ is an admirable one — a great lesson in restraint and dignity against an obviously uncalled for onslaught from external sources. (Concluded)
The writer is former diplomat and secretary to the government of Bangladesh
IN MEMORIAM
In memory of Zahiruddin Khan
Khan was a man of conviction, fearless about expressing what he believed. He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. And because he believed in Bangladesh, he was involved directly in the war of independence and we found him on a number of occasions moving fearlessly in lungi, white cotton punjabi and slippers in villages and jungles, in and around border, writes LK Siddiqui
Zahiruddin Khan, an extraordinary man and a great son of the soil, has left us for good, leaving us to mourn his loss.
My acquaintance with him started in 1957 when his sister Kohinoor was married to my cousin MR Siddiqui. I was 18 and Mr Khan 20.
It was in 1978, while flying together from Chittagong to Dhaka, he told me that I should rally round Ziaur Rahman, then the chief martial law administrator, who was trying to bring together the nationalist forces to rebuild the country.
Khan was a man of conviction, fearless about expressing what he believed. He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. And because he believed in Bangladesh, he was involved directly in the war of independence and we found him on a number of occasions moving fearlessly in lungi, white cotton punjabi and slippers in villages and jungles, in and around border.
He was a source of inspiration to many like us. He had a resonant voice, used to talk with firm conviction, had a considered opinion of his own on subjects and what attracted us to him was he could laugh heartily. He was as simple as a child and his commitment was complete.
In 1979, in the second parliament, he made his debut as a parliamentarian and all eyes were fixed on him when he took the permission from the speaker to deliver his speech in English and spoke for almost an hour leaving the entire house spellbound.
He never shunned any responsibility and
put his heart and soul in the job he was assigned to do.
As an industries minister in Khaleda Zia's cabinet, he took on himself to find an alternative use of jute as a source of pulp for making paper and clothes, and made an impact on society.
Again he did not hesitate for a moment to voluntarily relinquish the charges of a cabinet member, a rare example of great responsibility in the history of the country.
Last time I met him he advised me to lose weight, to take care of my health, to give up smoking and to start walking as an exercise.
Little did I realise that my great friend would leave us so soon. But then we have solace in the fact that he lived a full life with dignity and with a purpose and that he left so many like me to remember him fondly. He is now framed in picture and we look at the picture with admiration.
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