EXTRA: Toespraak Prins Hassan

Op dit moment wachten Henk, de ligfietser, en ik op Agnes, Henk zijn vrouw, en Sjieuwke.
We zitten op het parkeerterrein bij het Postiljonhotel in Arnhem. Het hotel is nog niet open dus geen koffie.
We waren vrijdag om 08.00 uur vertrokken uit Rome en zijn, veel eerder dan gepland, om 05.15 uur al hier.
De dames komen er zo aan, ook zij hebben er wat voor over om hun mannen weer te zien!

Intussen kan ik nog wat foto's van Rome bij het vorige dagverslag plaatsen. Dus als je zin hebt kij nog maar even bij die foto's.

Verder ontvingen wij afgelopen week van de secretaris van Prins Hassan een verslag van zijn toespraak en de beantwoording van vragen tijdens de inspirerende ontmoeting met hem.

Ik wil dat graag toevoegen aan mijn webboek en dus ook delen met mijn trouwe lezers.
De epiloog laat ik even wachten. Tijdens de busreis hebik een circa 100 pagina tellende powerpoint (op Ipad Keynote geheten) gemaakt. Omdat ik per dag de foto's moest uitzoeken, filmpjes plaatsen en effecten heb toegevoegd en Keynote nieuw voor mij was, heeft me dat lekker circa 5 uur bezig gehouden. Vervolgens ging mijn presentatie al bij vele deelnemers langs. Het aantal Ipadfans is deze reis enorm toegenomen!

Dan nu Prins Hassan:


MECCA TO ROME BICYCLE RIDE

The last time I rode a bicycle with a Dutchman was on a Sunday morning in Scheveningen and we had a wonderful herring breakfast.

But then the road was much flatter than what you are exploring here. I recall Pope John Paul II speaking of the empowerment of a pilgrimage for the poor which of course he was not able to realise given the difficulties in which modern Mesopotamia finds itself. We have a spice route, a silk route, several pilgrimage routes, but it is now time to develop a route of ideas that can bring us closer together. But I hope that one day the concept of a meeting can be promoted possibly at St. Catherine’s because St. Catherine’s is a site where people can meet in the context of the tabula rasa. Nobody has prompted anybody to do this; there is no nostalgia about what we share, the sequence of the children of Abraham and their message which may well differ in emphasis from time to time but essentially focuses on the lodestar of Judaism in terms of law, Christianity in terms of love and Islam in terms of justice for all peoples.

So, I think that with law and respect for a divine presence in whichever form, there would also be respect for love and compassion. Today, we have a lot, if I may, of what I call ‘no compassion zones’. We hear a lot about ‘no-fly zones’ and with a sense of giving everyone their fair say in terms of equity and participation, in that context, I think that we have a route of ideas which I hope you can carry back to Europe with you.

I recommend to you a fascinating book produced by David Leveringham Lewis of the University of Chicago, entitled Islam and the Making of Europe. To my understanding, he does a fantastic job and is very conscious of the fact that there is so much talk about Europe and the West and the West and the rest. I think that the time has come to recognise that our origins are not too far apart as your tired legs will tell you when you return to your countries.

I want to emphasise that you are not pioneers in the modern era. I would like to mention Snoek Hurgronje, the Dutch traveller who developed photographs in copperplate. They are pictures which to my amazement, include my family – my grandfather at the end of the 19th century as a small boy. So, this personal interest as displayed by the University of Lieden that prepared this picture given to me by Princess Beatrice, as she was at the time, as a reminder of the human contact which I hope can be maintained.

If there are any thoughts or questions that you would like to put to me on the situation in our region and in our world, I would like to answer them to the best of my ability. I thank you once again for honouring us here in Amman with the privilege of meeting people who bridge the gap between talking and doing, so welcome again and safe return.

[As far as Syria is concerned, if you are going take the main highway presumably it is not a threat.]


Response to questions:
Region – it is not a case of one size fits all. In Tunis the uprising started with the innocent immolation of a vegetable vendor which basically was a spark that led to the overthrow of a man who had overstayed his welcome, as have so many leaders, particularly from the third world – the Jasmine Revolution and the Arab Spring. My fear is that these developments have produced a massive hangover for all of us. It is already approaching summer and I fear that if we move from spring to autumn without realisation as stated in the very beginning – poverty, equal opportunities, respect for the law and then as the authorities began to take a more and more rigid line, particularly in Egypt, it resulted and produced a change of regime and today we hear that Mubarak is being arraigned by Court. As far as people calling for a government for change is concerned, they make a comparison with Eastern Europe. Eastern Europe for 20 years celebrates a certain point of achievement. The Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland became members of the European Union, but at the same time complaints continue whether about sectarian or ethnic difficulties which are very characteristic of this part of the world – from empires such as Turkey Ottoman or Persia and in these empires there are different groupings such as Kurds, Arabs, Muslims – all sorts of different ethnicities.

What we are witnessing is the beginning of a renaissance movement where pluralism and respect for the other, whomsoever the other may be, would be a determinant as children of the Abrahamic culture. It is very hard with colleagues to make case studies of different situations in Arab countries including my own. They show that it is about time that we addressed supranational themes, i.e., calling for a water and energy supranational commission. Culturally, no single country – 3 or 4 in water shortage countries – can address the question of energy and water. It would be no effort at all for Saudi Arabia to turn on the tap. A concept of intra independence (such as the Benelux agreement), to recognise your identity, is not a concept that exists between oil-producing countries and neighbouring human resource research countries. The focus has been on oil corporations since the end of the 19th and beginning of 20th centuries and, sadly, on the purchase of weapons from oil revenues.

Human dignity in the region has not been respected. There is a gap between rich and poor. Every region has a different organisation – South East Asian nations have ASEAN. Even Pakistan, India and Bangladesh have a South Asian community. Here, the Arab League is collapsing and the UN does not talk to everyone with some criteria. Israel is a member of the WTO. Barak, Minister of Defense, says Israel is now “off centre screen” and at the same time, contradicts himself by saying if Iran is a threat, then we need more weapons. External enemy or internal reality.

I am a member of the Nuclear Threat Initiative and we are involved in the reduction (and elimination) of Highly Enriched Uranium to Low Enriched Uranium. I still think there is the possibility of the success of this issue. But, with regard to the issue of Sunni/Shia, then this is a very dangerous confrontation based on misinterpretations of who stands for Sunni and Shia and provoked by external powers/peoples. It is not easy working as I did for 7 years as Moderator of the World Conference of Religions for Peace. Unfortunately, religions and peace are both controversial issues in certain public perception.

Israel is targeted potentially as a country with an enormous sectarian divide – Ashkenazis, African Jews, Arab Jews, two million Slavs. We need to invest in security in terms of culture, empowerment of the people to speak their mind in their own languages and traditions. We will pull the carpet from under the feet of the extremists.

I believe in preventative security, not pre-emptive security. As far as the security threat is concerned, whether in Syria, Egypt or Israel, the answer is always the stick. There is no concept of anything similar to the Helsinki Process – the three baskets of security – basic and current, economy and social concerns, and humanitarian and legal concerns, including a social charter, the concept of a water and energy community to serve the human environment.

At our West Asia – North Africa Forum, we launched the guiding principles of a social charter. Working with Europe, it is important to imagine that Europe could help us to help ourselves in developing a Council for West Asia. Why is it that we cannot have an international conference on the future of West Asia where each one presents according to their state of development in political constitutionality, the rule of law and the investment in human achievement. Countries in this region are never subjected to analysis. Oil and weapons are important. People are not important.

There is a need for an impartial commission such as the Danube and Rhine River Commissions – a regional commission that is above ideologies. There is a need for a conference on carrying capacity and for the physical and human environment and economic resources.

How do we live together? How does this soil nurture our children’s children? Do we have a future? Are there scenarios for the future?

But, we have to continue to do our best – to do good things in bad times and for that I thank you all.