[Oe List ...] The Elders

[Charles or Doris Hahn]

Thanks so much, Jann and Lucille. Both the writing and
images are awe-filling. 
Doris Hahn
--- LAURELCG at aol.com wrote:

> 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 
> 
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