[Oe List ...] The Elders

[LAURELCG at aol.com]

I just received this lovely article & want to pass along the good  news.

Jann 

 

The  Elders

STEPHANIE NOLEN 

 

>From Thursday's Globe and  Mail 

July 18, 2007 at 9:50 PM  EDT

 

JOHANNESBURG — The official order of business Wednesday was the introduction 

of  The Elders: convened at the request of Nelson Mandela, a collection of 

former  leaders that has begun to work together to advance the causes of 
peace 

and  global justice. 

Five Nobel Laureates and a handful of other eminences  gathered on the stage 

in Johannesburg as Mr.  Mandela announced that they would seek to fulfill the 

traditional role of elders  in a village, providing wisdom and leadership and 

attempting to resolve  conflicts, taking on everything from climate change to 

the fighting in  Darfur. 

A symbolic empty chair was left on stage for Aung San  Suu Kyi, the activist 

who will join the group when she is free of  government-imposed house arrest 

in Myanmar (formerly known as Burma).  But as the Elders sat in a row and 
spoke 

about their very serious work, a  current – of irreverence, of resilience, of 

what looked very much like joy –  kept bubbling up through the formality. And 

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who chairs  this elders' council, voiced the true 

theme of the gathering: “Goodness will  prevail.” 

Wednesday was Mr. Mandela's 89th birthday. And so what  was slated to be a 

routine press conference was almost immediately hijacked when  the sprightly 
and 

elfin archbishop commanded that everyone join in singing  Happy Birthday as 

Mr. Mandela was  helped slowly to his seat by a bodyguard and his elegant 
wife, 

Graca  Machel. 

 

 

 

 

(http://images.theglobeandmail.com/archives/RTGAM/images/20070718/welders0718/
elders12500big.jpg) 

_Enlarge  Image_ 

(http://images.theglobeandmail.com/archives/RTGAM/images/20070718/welders0718/
elders12500big.jpg)   

Nelson Mandela helped by his wife Graca Machel at the  ceremony launching the 

group known as The Elders, in Johannesburg.  (ALEXANDER JOE/AFP/Getty  Images)

Photogallery

    *   _The  Elders announced_ 

(http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070718.weldersgallery071
8/PhotoGallery01?slot=6)  

Interactives

    *   _The Elders  online_ (http://www.theelders.org/)  


And in that moment came the transformation that seems to  happen whenever Mr. 

Mandela is in a room: Everyone, from the flinty CNN crew to  the guy who ran 

the metal detector in the doorway, got a bit gooey. People broke  out in huge 

smiles, lifted their hands to their faces, turned and nudged one  another. “

Madiba Magic,” South Africans call it, using the tribal name by which  Mr. 

Mandela is universally known here. No one, it seems, is  impervious. 

Beaming at Mr. Mandela, the archbishop then told the  crowd, “Finally he 

listened to me about something – I told him they should get  married.” Mr. 

Mandela laughed, and clutched Ms. Machel's hand: Wednesday was  also their 
ninth 

wedding anniversary.  

At that point, Archbishop Tutu turned a gently reproving  glance to Kofi 

Annan, and the former United Nations Secretary-General leapt up  and into 
action, 

bustling across the stage to present a huge bouquet of flowers  to Ms. Machel 

in honour of the occasion. 

The Elders, it emerged, is the brainchild of the English  tycoon Sir Richard 

Branson – who was himself in the audience with his elderly  parents. Back in 

2001, he and his friend, the British musician and  anti-apartheid campaigner 

Peter Gabriel, sought out Mr. Mandela and asked if he  would try to convene a 

group of world leaders to take on conflicts such as that  in Israel and the 

Palestinian territories – to use their moral influence where  others with 

political agendas had failed. 

“The structures we have to deal with these problems are  often tied by 

political, economic and geographical constraints,” Mr. Mandela  said 
Wednesday. “As 

institutions of government grapple with the challenges they  face, the 

efforts of a small, dedicated group of leaders working objectively and  
without any 

vested personal interest in the outcome can help to resolve what  often seem 

like intractable problems.” 

The Elders have no formal role – nor, Mr. Mandela  stressed, will they seek 

to replace or compete with any official or elected  body. None of the group 
was 

willing to commit specifically to which issues they  will take on, although 

former Irish president Mary Robinson said they are  already at work. Darfur 
was 

mentioned  repeatedly and a source who sat in on one of their meetings told 

The Globe that  they have also made overtures to Zimbabwean President Robert 

Mugabe, seeking to  negotiate a way to have him leave office. 

But former U.S. president Jimmy Carter said it  would be fine with him if no 

one outside their council ever knew what issues  they worked on. “The Elders 

neither want, nor will we ever have, any kind of  authority except that that 

comes from common moral values,” he said. “We will be  able to risk failure 
and 

we will not need to claim  successes.” 

The group's work is being funded with an initial  infusion of $18-million 

(U.S.) by wealthy friends of Sir  Richard. 

Introducing him and Mr. Gabriel, the archbishop remarked  that he should ask 

Mr. Gabriel to sing Biko – his iconic hymn about the murder of  anti-aparthe
id 

activist Steve Biko 30 years ago. Sir Richard's head snapped up  at that, and 

he shouldered his way back to the microphone, saying, “If you won't  ask him, 

I will!” Moments later an abashed-looking Mr. Gabriel found himself in  front 

of the crowd, clearing his throat. 

It was a fitting place to sing this song: the gathering  was held on the 

grounds of South Africa's Constitutional  Court, which was once an apartheid 

prison. As the  archbishop said, “This was a place of tears, of suffering, of 

humiliation.  People were detained without trial here, people were tortured 
here. 

But they  didn't buckle.” 

So Mr. Gabriel squared his shoulders and sang Biko, every haunting word, and 

the  audience – journalists and dignitaries and a row of South  Africa's 

Constitutional Court justices – joined him  with a low and rhythmic hum. 

Tumultuous applause erupted as he finished, but then  just as quickly died 

away, as people noticed the archbishop: He was hunched  over, hands clutched 
in 

fists, weeping  inconsolably. 

“We stand on the shoulders of incredible people,” he  choked out, taking off 

his glasses and wiping the tears. “We owe our freedom to  incredible people.”

 

Mr. Mandela said, with what sounded like a note of  genuine regret, that “I 

am trying to take my retirement seriously” and so would  not participate in 
the 

hands-on work of his group of Elders. But he will, as Mr.  Branson said, pick 

up the phone when he needs to, using his unique level of  moral suasion to 

get others involved. 

In the end, Mr. Mandela left the gathering to celebrate  his birthday with 

his children and grandchildren, and the other Elders went to  work. 
Archbishop 

Tutu, dancing a little jig, sent everyone into the world with a  final 

observation: “We have been through incredible times and God has helped us  to 
see that 

the evil doesn't have the last word. It's ultimately goodness and  laughter 

and joy,” he said. “Those are what are going to prevail in the end.” 
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