Women for Peace

On December 20, 2011, in Mark, by Ambassador Brzezinski
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Ambassador and Mrs. Brzezinski together with Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakkol Karmen.

On Monday December 12, I was delighted to attend with my wife a terrific panel discussion with the three powerful women who were awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize:  Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the President of Liberia; Leymah Gbowee, Peace Activist from Liberia; Tawakkol Karmen of Yemen, a Journalist and Human Rights Activist.  The event was hosted by the Swedish Institute of International Affairs and the discussion focused on peace, security and democratization.  These remarkable women have become Nobel Peace Prize Laureates “for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work.” In front of a packed room, these three champions of human dignity shared their stories of speaking truth to power and improvising to compel change.   Their strength and sheer will could be felt by everyone in the room.  Their determination to be included, and to be inclusive, has had an enormous impact on the future of their nations and of women’s rights.

 
The panel was both inspirational, and practical.  The inspirational was present before the Laureates even began to speak.  President Sirleaf was first, but before she uttered a word a photo of personal triumph appeared on the large video screen above her.  It was a photo of President Sirleaf soon after she had been released from jail, incarcerated for speaking out against oppression.  It was a picture of personal triumph, fist in the air waved in solidarity with her supporters filling the streets and celebrating her freedom, and theirs.  Without any words, we could all feel intangibly the strength of this woman.  The image captures everything about personal sacrifice and leadership credibility – she had suffered and sacrificed for her cause.

 
Laureate Gbowee’s description of how a “sex boycott” was a catalyst for getting men to join the cause is an example of thinking creatively to expand a constituency for change.  While she joked a bit about this tactic, it underscores how grass roots and authentic her campaign and struggle was.  It was not a campaign organized using modern technology, but by forcing men and society to listen in any way she could be heard.  This Nobel Laureate’s gut instincts about people and the power of her voice compelled change.  Her advice to foreign donors was instructive, to come and listen and learn about local conditions, before deploying well-intentioned foreign development programs.  How she organized is also revealing in this age of the benefits of internet connectivity.  Gbowee went from church to church, house to house to organize, her powerful voice and personality a catalyst for popular mobilization.  Change is about the people leading it, and shoe leather had been a catalyst her highly effective grass roots campaign.

 
Tawakkol Karmen of Yemen  said “women’s issues have no boundaries.”  Her point was that women’s rights as human rights is a global challenge – not unique to any region but a universal challenge – with a global opportunity associated with positive change.  The peace processes that each of these women is associated with were advanced by their participation and leadership.  The involvement of women had made an enormous difference.  By extension, how many other challenges do we face today that could radically benefit from greater inclusion of women in leadership.  With more women in business and economic leadership, might we be able to be in a better place at this time of global economic interdependence?  With more women in political leadership, might we have a more inclusive dialogue regarding the direction of our humanity?

Laureate Karmen made another point:  “the young are going to own their countries from now on.”  An important point from a woman from the Middle East, where much of the population is under age of thirty.

 
Important questions were asked at this symposium, and it was an honor to be in the presence of courageous leadership.  It is a mission of US Embassy Stockholm to make gender equality and women’s empowerment a part of our efforts pertaining to democracy, opportunity, internet freedom, and other challenges.  As Secretary Clinton has stated:  “If you’re trying to solve a problem, whether it is fighting corruption or strengthening the rule of law or sparking economic growth, you are more likely to succeed if you widen the circle to include a broader range of expertise, experience, and ideas.  So as we work to solve our problems, we need more women at the table and in the halls of parliament and government ministries where these debates are occurring.”

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Nobel Reflections

On December 12, 2011, in Natalia, by Ambassador Brzezinski
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Ready for the Nobel dinner!

The Nobel Prize Gala in Stockholm’s City Hall on Saturday evening was the single most magnificently-orchestrated, elegant event I have attended. Descending the gently angled, marble staircase on the arm of an escort, my breath caught at the warmly lit, brick-lined expanse of the hall which had ceilings that seemed to reach to the heavens. Between different courses of food, graceful ballerinas danced on pointe along our tables and masterful violinists pierced the air. The event itself was the perfect marriage of great science rewarded, and pure glamour.
But this fairy-tale scene was not the climax of the festivities — the most moving and climactic moments occurred during the awards ceremony when the laureates were presented their medals by the King.
Seated on the stage in front of members of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences, and across from the Swedish King and royal family, the Nobel laureates (which included five Americans) reflected the pride of a lifetime’s arduous experimentation and hard work. Whether it was the twinkle in Professor Saul Perlmutter’s eye every time his child made eye contact with him, or the way Professor Brian Schmidt lovingly winked at his wife, there was pure joy in the air.
Two moments in particular lit up the crowd:
Professor Ralph M. Steinman was part of the team of Professor Bruce A. Beutler and Professor Jules A. Hoffman, who received the Nobel Prize for physiology. Sadly, three days before receiving the news, Professor Steinman passed away to pancreatic cancer. Nonetheless, the Nobel Committee decided to award him the prize.
Dressed in black, his wife sat pensively throughout the ceremony and accepted the award on behalf of her husband. After three ceremonial bows—one to the royal family, one to the academy and one to the audience—Mrs. Steinman spontaneously kissed her palm and threw her arms into the air, looking up passionately at the sky and delivering a bittersweet gesture in celebration with her husband.
The second moment that defined the evening was the presence of the famed Swedish poet and Nobel Prize winner in literature, Tomas Tranströmer. Mr. Tranströmer is a hauntingly evocative poet, whose metaphors capture the minds of Swedes and literature aficionados around the world for decades. He suffered a stroke in 1990 that left him unable to speak and partially paralyzed.  But he continued to write. Upon receiving the prize, Mr. Tranströmer was wheeled to the center of the stage to thunderous applause. Although his facial movements are restricted, he began to glow and the strength of his smile radiated throughout the orchestra hall. At one point he shifted himself with such poise in order to sit up just a little straighter and a little prouder in his wheelchair in order to soak in the moment.  A truly noble Nobel moment!

The fortitude and grace of both Mrs. Steinman and Mr. Tranströmer personify the spirit that Alfred Nobel set out to establish through his legacy. A final thread woven amongst the fabric of these special moments was an enduring and powerful emphasis on the young generation to continue scientific exploration. We are in a global period where the environment is suffering and climate change issues can be a sore and contentious topic. But an enormous source of optimism for me was the excitement and proactive engagement among both the Swedish youth, and youth from around the world, who were present at the ceremonies.
Everywhere I went, young high school and university students described how inspired they were by the cutting-edge leadership on promoting new sources of sustainable energy of U.S. Energy Secretary, and 1997 Nobel laureate in physics, Steven Chu who was visiting to help celebrate the Nobel Prizes of professors Perlmutter and Shechtman, who are associated with U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories.  These students told me how excited they were to be studying science. I am confident that these young people will lead our world into a new century of preservation, conservation and sustainable development.

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