Root of Conflict: A Vietnamese Perspective

by: Hoang Lan

Two knights met each other at a tavern in a small village.  They politely introduced themselves; bowed at each other many times, and started a conversation.  They were standing next to a window and behind that window the sun was setting.  One knight believed it would be convenient – and neutral – to talk about the sun.  Since he had some from a small island, he said: “Isn’t it wonderful, Sir?  Each morning, the sun rises from the sea, and in the afternoon, it sets into the sea.”  As it happened that the other knight had spent all his life in a high mountain, he quickly replied: “I am sorry, Sir, but you are completely wrong!  Throughout my life, I always see the sun rising each morning from the mountains, and each evening, setting into the mountains!”

As we all know, knights, are men with very long swords and very short temper.  After a few arguments, they quickly drew their swords and started fighting.  At the sound of the swords clashing, the owner of the tavern rushed in, separated the two fighters, and asked about the cause of their dispute.  After listening to both sides, he promptly said:

“Gentlemen, both of you are wrong!  Each morning the sun rises from the woods and each evening.  Look!  Don’t you see? …  It is setting right into the woods, other there.”  He was immediately killed by the fierce knights, who resumed their duel until both were mortally wounded. 

Although fictitious, this story reminds us of the following:

1) No topic is safe enough for a casual conversation with people whose temper is unknown to us, because conflict or accommodation essentially depends on individual temper that may be peaceful or violent.

2) There are things that we see everyday with our own eyes, which are not what they seem to be.  And there are many other things that our eyes cannot see.

3) As long as human beings stick to their belief and refuse to listen to reason, there will never be peace on Earth.

Tuzla

by: Dragan Lalovic

The discovered remains of ancient cultural artifacts provided evidence that Tuzla and its surroundings is one of the oldest settlements in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and that this area of salt water spring has continuously been inhabited from the earliest times.  The oldest written records from Ancient Greeks also provided information that they knew about the region of Tuzla.  Caesar Constantine Porfirogenet, around the 950, mentioned about the existence of Tuzla’s saltwater springs and the settlements surroundings them.  Tuzla was named after its natural resource, salt. 

Under various reigns, from Byzantine, Turkish, Austro-Hungarian, Tuzla has changed in this area.  The region was first occupied by the Turks in 1460, and somewhat later in 1474, the occupation was total.  Within the Bosnian vilayet, Tuzla was under administrative government of the Zvornik Sanjak, and in the early XVII Century, Tuzla became the provincial seat.  Due to the reform of the Turkish administration, a freer development of the town economy and introduction of modern crafts, Tuzla grew into an administrative, communication, military and cultural center of northeast Bosnia.  Towards the end of the Turkish rule, Tuzla had approximately 5000 inhabitants and it was on the the biggest towns in the XVIII Century Bosnia.  In 1826, the first school was opened in Tuzla, then the first hospital “Hastahana” was opened in 1874, and the 6 years before the Hastahana was established, the first pharmacy began to operate.  The first theater in Bosnia was constructed in Tuzla.

After the Austro-Hungarian settlers came in the area, the economic development of Tuzla became an integral part of Austro-Hungarian economy.  In the whole Bosnia, Tuzla is a town where people from different religious backgrounds live together, and there are innumerable examples throughout history showing how they have been helping each other.

All inhabitants in Tuzla have on thing in common, wherever they live they will always think about Tuzla as the first and last point in their life.  When I am thinking about Tuzla, it is not a picture of a town, it is a movies with all my best friends in it, my parents, my first loves, all my memories.

For the past few years, I have lived on different places on Earth, but for some reason, I always compared those places with Tuzla.  All those towns were more beautitul than Tuzla, but I could not find my soul in them.  And, that’s why Tuzla will always remain a cherished woman for me.

Health and Human Rights

by: Dr. Pary Karadaghi

Health and human rights have rarely been linked in an explicit manner.  With few exceptions, involving access to health care, discussions about health have rarely included human rights considerations.  Similarly, except when obvious damage to health, such as torture, is the primary manifestation of a human rights abuse, health perspectives have rarely been in-closed from the human rights perspective.

Explanation for the lack of communication between the field of health and human right include differing philosophical perspectives, vocabularies, professional recruitment and training, societal roles and methods of work and advocacy.  In addition, modern concepts of health and human rights are complex and steadily involving.  From a practical perspective, health workers may wonder about the applicability or the value and necessity of incorporating human rights perspectives into their work, and vice versa.  In addition, despite pioneering work seeking to bridge the gap in bioethics, jurisprudence, and public health law a history of conflictual relationship between medicine and law or between public officials and civil liberty advocates may contribute to anxiety and doubt to the possibilities of mutual partnership and collaboration.

Modern concepts of health derive from two related and different disciplines, medicine and public health.  While on one hand medicine focuses on the health of an individual, public health emphasizes the importance of the health of populations.  Individual health has been the concern of medical and other health care providers, in general from physical and mental illnesses.  Public health on the other hand has been defined as the condition in which people’s health is promoted, including the prevention of diseases, disability and premature death.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia recently charged the Yugoslav leader with crimes against humanity.  After the bombings in Yugoslavia stop, forensic experts from around the work were quickly converging on Kosovo to identify  massacre sites.  The sooner they begin.  They sooner they begin, the better they can gather evidence, reconstruct the events and uncover the extent of the atrocities that so the prosecutor can argue that these were systematic abuses know or planned at the highest level.  This reminds us of the Anfal campaign of genocide by Saddam Hussein against the Kurds of Iraq.  The evidence painstakingly complied over eighteen months by Middle East Watch in July 1993, stated “The phenomenon of the Anfal, the official military codename used by the government in its public pronouncements and internal memoranda, was well known inside Iraq, especially in the Kurdish region, as all horrific details have emerged, this name has seared itself into popular consciousness – much as the Nazi German Holocaust did with its survivors.  The parallels are apt, and often chillingly close.”

Yet health, and human rights in the prevention of crimes of war against humanity are powerful tools, modern approaches to advancing human well being.  Meaningful dialogue about interactions between health and human rights requires a common ground.  In conclusion human beings are vulnerable, their health and well being can be jeopardized by the actions of others.  In their plight to safe havens to survive, refugees in our backyards have to overcome these horrendous obstacles once in the United States.

Cultural Adjustments of Soviet Jew Refugees

Compiled by the Center for Applied Linguistics

Like other immigrants who came to America before them, many Soviet Jew refugees realize that some of the American customs and attitudes may seem strange or even contradict some of the accepted behaviors in their country.  In coping with a new cultural environment, one refugee may react differently from another depending on his perception of the host culture and his/her ability to adjust.  As a result, the process of acculturation may be achieved quickly or slowly.  When asked about their adjustment to the American society, many refugees shared their disappointment and the difficulties of starting over in a new country where they have to struggle to survive.  The most frequently heard comments pertain to the challenges of trying to overcome language or cultural barriers and adjusting to the American way of life.  The learner’s success often depends on and is influenced b his/her age, cultural background, level of education, first-language characteristics, socioeconomic level, and other variables.  Older refugees who are well educated and fluent in their own language seem to have fewer difficulties in learning a second language.

The government-sponsored denigration of religion in their former homeland has been fairly effective in the case of many Soviet refugees that come to North America.  Particularly for the youngest generation, the major positive association Judaism carries with it a sense of community with the state of Israel.  As one might expect, there is a wide spectrum of degrees of affiliation with Judaism among refugees.  In making the choice as to whether to continue to their nominal destination in Israel or to seek admission to the U.S., families more familiar with Jewish tradition are more disposed to want to become Israelis.  For this reason, current refugees to North America can be more secularized than are Soviet Jews on the average.

The most enduring attachment to tradition is the practice of joining – or at least observing – the dancing and singing that take place in the street outside the synagogues on Simkhat Torah.  Judaism as practiced in the Soviet Union is almost exclusively Orthodox, with  varying amounts of Hasidic influence.  Top