Stories
National culture of peace programmes
Missions for the culture of peace
The failure of the culture of peace programme
Brothers for Peace
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Arriving at UNESCO in Paris in January of 1992 during my sabbatical from the University and needing a place to stay, I got in contact with the Communist Party while staying for a while at small hotels. One day while at work a young woman named Olga came by the office to talk with me. Apparently satisfied that unlike many Americans at UNESCO, I was not from the CIA, she then went back to her friend and comrade Nicole Mokobodzki and told her that I would be OK to take on as a boarder. Nicole and her mathematician husband Gabriel invited me to use their one-room "chambre de bonne" on the top floor of their building in Passy. I was to stay there for four years, and became good friends with the family.
Nicole, in turn, introduced me to Nestor Bidadanure, originally from Burundi, who was also a comrade and who became a close friend. We would have coffee together every month or so and from him I obtained the valuable perspective of a progressive African living in Europe.
Here is Nestor (center) speaking with our Rwandan friend Ildephonse (left) at our marriage in 2019.
When it came time to develop a national culture of peace programme for Burundi, it was Nestor who gave me the perspectives that were needed. Unfortunately, the UNESCO and UN bureaucracies managed to screw it up and Nestor and I were unable to continue the start we had made. I describe this in my account of the failure of the culture of peace programme.
Over the years I have remained close to Nestor and his family, including his wife and their two beautiful children Sylvain and Juliana, shown in the photo. We published together in The Thinker in 2016.
I also stayed in touch throughout my time in Paris with Daniel Cirera of the Party, and had lunch with him regularly to discuss the world situation. Daniel became the right hand man to Robert Hue when he was elected head of the Party, but later when I left UNESCO and wanted to have some input into Party policy, Hue (and Daniel) had been replaced.
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Stages
1986-1992
Fall of Soviet Empire
1992-1997
UNESCO Culture of Peace Programme