Canada
Related: About this forumSenator, General Romeo Dalliare gets it!
I have always felt a deep sympathy and respect for General Dalliare. I was pleasantly surprised to read his awesome take on OWS, the Arab spring and the power of a plugged-in generation to create change in Canada too.
"Dallaire says Occupy is a magnificent movement that finally calls out the one per cent for taking advantage of the other 99. It's been since the 60s that we've waited for something like this, he says, adding the greed side of capitalism irks me significantly."
A really good quick read at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2011/12/28/romeo-dallaire-arab-spring-occupy-wall-street_n_1172570.html?ref=canada-politics
CanSocDem
(3,286 posts)We are in an era of conflict with a certain world disorder,a time of revolutions, with the communications revolution being one, Dallaire tells Huffington Post Canada.
.
Posteritatis
(18,807 posts)He's a huge advocate of youth participation/engagement in society more or less no matter the form; anything that involves people trying to make things better or at least thinking about them. I imagined the last year would have a lot of things he approved of.
Somewhat OT, but I was at another talk he gave in Ontario a few years before that about the concept of Responsibility to Protect and other things. During the Q&A period a young soldier asked him for his thoughts on acting against military orders in humanitarian or other situations, depending on the situation at a given point. Instead of giving the usual short Q&A answer he turned it into about twenty minutes' worth of discussion on the ethics of such things, balancing institutions with one's own beliefs and rights, the consequences of action and inaction, and so on. In the end the Q&A portion was about twice as long as his lecture and was one of the more insightful talks I'd been to ever.
Joe Shlabotnik
(5,604 posts)Ya, I thought it was kind of cool that he pointed out Bridgette Depape in the article. After all of Canada's press jumping on her, and public comments about her lack of respect, It was nice that she got the thumbs up from Dallaire. I thought then and still believe now, that what she did was courageous, noble and 100% correct.
Its too bad that Dallaire is kind of a broken man with very little exposure, (Ironically the Senate is a good place for him now). His experiences should be known world-over, as a cautionary tale of global responsibility, tragedy, human sacrifice, and human barbarity and consequences.
Posteritatis
(18,807 posts)He's certainly not an extrovert and it's obvious in his talks; I don't think he's especially comfortable with the idea of being in the spotlight all the time. It's also obvious he enjoys them though; he keeps a moderately busy speaking schedule, usually tied to his or his colleagues' books. He seemed to enjoy the ones at the universities where I saw him, in any case, and the Q&A at Western was spectacular. (Also, I particularly respect the soldier in that one - guy looked to be a brand-new lieutenant and was publicly asking a senator and general about the ethics of mutiny!)
He does get heard, though; a few of Secretary Clinton's foreign policy advisors are heavily influenced by his thinking, for instance. (Make of that what you will, but they're trying.) And, of course, we're having this conversation because of a Dallaire discussion on one fairly high-volume web site linked to another on an extremely high-volume site.
Considering what he went through, "broken" would have fit for awhile, but I also think he's done a stellar job of coming back from that - the humanitarian role he's taken up, and the parallel one of dealing with mental illness stigmatization or war trauma specifically, are a pretty clear-cut example of how to scrounge some new purpose out of a terrible situation.