Ireland and Pakistan Speakers
by Robin Clements and Ginny Moore
In early April St. Bernard’s was pleased to welcome a pair of illustrious speakers to give the boys an introduction to the two countries being highlighted at our annual Multicultural Fair: Ireland and Pakistan. On April 3, 2013, Andrew Mitchell ’12 and his father, George Mitchell, former Senator from Maine, came to St. Bernard's to tell the story of their visit to Northern Ireland last summer to boys in the Middle and Upper schools. The following day, the same boys returned for a talk on Pakistan from one of that country’s more distinguished diplomats, Qazi Shaukat Fareed.
In early April St. Bernard’s was pleased to welcome a pair of illustrious speakers to give the boys an introduction to the two countries being highlighted at our annual Multicultural Fair: Ireland and Pakistan. On April 3, 2013, Andrew Mitchell ’12 and his father, George Mitchell, former Senator from Maine, came to St. Bernard's to tell the story of their visit to Northern Ireland last summer to boys in the Middle and Upper schools. The following day, the same boys returned for a talk on Pakistan from one of that country’s more distinguished diplomats, Qazi Shaukat Fareed.
Senator Mitchell helped to negotiate the Good Friday agreement between representatives of the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, and Catholic and Protestant factions in Northern Ireland fifteen years ago after twenty-five years of conflict. Six months before the Good Friday agreement was reached, Andrew Mitchell was born in New York City. In October 1999, sixty-one children were born in Ireland on the same day. Last summer Senator Mitchell and Andrew met with four of the families of those sixty-one children as part of a BBC documentary, which aired in the United Kingdom.
Senator Mitchell told us his story of being sent by President Clinton as a United States representative to help negotiate peace between the warring factions in Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom. He spent five years in those negotiations and credits perseverance for making his desire for a peaceful Ireland come true. Andrew's birth was significant. He wanted Andrew to have a peaceful life and wanted the same for the sixty-one children born in Ireland on Andrew’s birthdate.
Andrew told us about going to the homes in Northern Ireland of three boys and one girl who all shared his birthdate. He was taken around one boy’s family farm and shown how it is run, and he practiced archery with the girl. He and his father listened to the families explain how their lives were affected by time of discord and the peace agreement.
Ambassedor Fareed, who studied economics at Cambridge University and went on to serve his country in places as diverse as Saudi Arabia and Mexico, gave the boys a quick tour of the history of the subcontinent and the creation of Pakistan.
He began by acknowledging the structural similarities between Ireland and his own region, places that were both dominated by Britain and subsequently torn apart by sectarian and communitarian strife, but he went forward to trace similarities between Pakistan and the United States, also a former British colony. He praised Woodrow Wilson’s determination to create the League of Nations in 1910 and, even in its ashes, to press for self-determination of peoples as a moral polestar for international relations. Both at the start of his talk and in its conclusion he noted the long-standing friendship of our two countries, even in these times which find unexpected events straining the relationship.
The geography of Pakistan, he noted, is that of “a dangerous neighborhood,” with three long borders, two of them potential trouble spots: that with India (and the contention over Kashmir) and another with Afghanistan (and the easy transit of warriors through “porous” and un-policeable mountains). He traced the history of his land back to the earliest civilizations of the Indus Valley and forward to Ashoka, Alexander the Great, and the long rule of the Mughals.
Modern Pakistan is a country of two hundred million, smaller than the United States’ three hundred and ten million, but crowded into a nation the size of Texas and New York combined. Not only is there great crowding but also an economy whose per-capita income is one-sixth that of the U.S. All this plus the “dangerous neighborhood” mean that Pakistan faces many challenges, he said, but he closed with a sincere hope that the common goals and ideals of our two countries would keep us in a friendly and productive relationship.
The pair of speakers led up to the Multicultural Fair that took place in the medium gym on Friday, April 5.
