Common Ground Newsletter

Fall 2007

Dear Friend,

We are a transformational organization. Our goal is to bring about a fundamental shift in how the world deals with conflict - away from adversarial, win-lose approaches to cooperative solutions. Our operating strategy is to create models, which show that violent conflict can be peacefully resolved and that divided societies can come together.

"Every few hundred years in Western history there occurs a sharp transformation. Within a few short decades, society - its worldview, its basic values, its social and political structures, its art, its key institutions - rearranges itself. We are currently living through such a time." - Peter Drucker

MOROCCO. In Morocco, our work is preventive. Our team in Rabat, skillfully led by Abou El Mahassine Fassi-Fihri, aims to transcend deep social and economic splits. We want to create a culture of mediation in which disputes are resolved peacefully and in ways that maximize the gain of the parties involved. Specifically, we work in partnership with the Moroccan Ministry of Justice to bring mediation into the court system, which is clogged with millions of unresolved cases. Mediation can be a more effective, more just way to resolve disputes, while avoiding a prolonged wait to get into court. We provide advice and training to the Ministry, and we have sponsored six consensus-building workshops and two training programs that involve more than 500 lawyers, magistrates, civil society leaders, parliamentarians, and private sector representatives. Funding comes from the UK's Foreign & Commonwealth Office.

Success. In July, as a direct result of our collaboration with the Ministry, the Moroccan Parliament passed a law authorizing a nationwide mediation system. It allows for individual practitioners and dispute resolution centers to mediate between aggrieved parties in civil and commercial cases. Needless to say, we are thrilled with the outcome.

IRAN AND SYRIA. One of our basic operating principles is drawn from Woody Allen who said, "80% of success is showing up." With Iran, we have been showing up since 1996 when we started the US-Iran Working Group to try to improve relations. Since then, we have sponsored discreet, unofficial meetings between key Iranians and Americans and carried out exchanges of film-makers, environmentalists, scientists and astronauts, educators, doctors, and wrestlers. While Iranian-American relations have steadily worsened in recent years, we are not deterred. We believe that we have accomplished a great deal, and we see the importance of maintaining communications - of continuing to show up - particularly now, when the two governments are barely talking. With most official channels closed, we remain well placed to play a facilitating role toward better relations. To get an idea of the impact we can have, here is what a top Iranian diplomat had to say about our role on the nuclear issue:

"I believe you saved our negotiations. Your ideas kept the negotiations going."

Syrian Connection. Official ties between Syria and the US are also at low ebb. To us, it is regrettable when governments do not talk to each other in meaningful ways. At the same time, the breakdown in official communications provided us with an opportunity, and we took advantage of it to form a US-Syrian Working Group. Our premise is that instead of having Syrians and Americans confronting each other as the enemy, they should sit together and face a shared problem of how to have better relations. Our group includes key Syrians and such Americans as former Ambassador to Syria Theodore Kattouf, former Ambassador to Israel Samuel Lewis, Rob Malley of the International Crisis Group, Abdul Aziz Said of the American University, and former Undersecretary of Defense Dov Zakheim. In May, with support from the Norwegian Government, the group met for two days in Damascus. The results were modest, yet promising. Both sides expressed amazement at the frankness of the talks - and acknowledged the other side for being so forthright.

"In all my years here, I never heard conversations of this depth and candor." - US Ambassador (ret) Theodore Kattouf
 
"This was much more than I expected." - veteran Syrian negotiator

GUINEA. Our newest African program is in Guinea where we produce radio soap opera and sponsor non-violence and civic-education training for youth groups. One workshop took place as a violent general strike swept across the country. Participants could literally hear demonstrators and soldiers clashing in the streets. Indeed, the bloodshed and destruction became a teaching aid that spurred action. Participants went home and organized their own group-training sessions in local communities.

"This is what is needed now to save the country from the virus of violence, which is expanding, especially among youth. All political parties in the country should be teaching these things and I am requesting SFCG to extend this program in all prefectures of the country as soon as possible." - Mamadou Sylla, Prefect of Kissidougou

NEPAL: SOAP OPERA. Altogether, we have produced radio soaps in 11 countries and TV dramas in five more. In Nepal, we co-produce with the Antenna Foundation a radio series called Nayaa Baato, Nayaa Paailaa (Treading Upon a New Path). As Nepal emerges from its long civil war, our shows focus on young people from different ethnic and caste groups who live together in the same village. The series uses drama to explore the root causes of the conflict and to encourage listeners to take on leadership roles in building peace. It is broadcast three times a week on national and local radio stations. Here is a comment from one listener.

"I faced an unbearable incident one day in April 2002. It was the worst day of my whole life. I was just coming home after finishing my exams when I learned the Maoists had killed my father. I kept thinking of taking revenge. My desire was to kill them in the same way they killed my father. But fortunately, I started listening to Naya Bato, Naya Paila on Radio Nepal and it changed my mind. It removed negative thoughts, and I've developed positive thinking. Now because of this program, I have been forgetting the wrongs committed in the past and giving people the chance to correct themselves."

Video. Sandhya Suri, an award-winning film-maker, has made a 10-minute video about our activities to promote reconciliation in Nepal. It can be viewed at http://video.google.com/videoplay? docid=4097679757369292165.

RADIO. Our radio programming uses a wide variety of formats to promote societal healing: We make soap operas, talk shows, magazines, and children's programs. Every week in Angola, Burundi, Congo, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nepal, and Sierra Leone, we produce a total of 30 hours of original programming. (A new video describing our Golden Kids show in West Africa, produced by Deborah Jones of Common Ground Productions, can be viewed at http://video.google.com/videoplay? docid=8170520353833026139.)

CONGO: THEATRE. Many actors and actresses in our radio soaps belong to theatrical troupes. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, we reinforce the impact of our radio programming with live, theatrical performances. Audience members are invited to act out and resolve local conflicts. In the DRC in the last three months alone, actors we train and support have performed more than 100 times to a total audience of more than 100,000 people. These performances address conflicts related to repatriation, military-civilian relations, sexual violence, rumors, stereotypes, and manipulation.

SEARCH - USA. Most of our work is international, but we also search for common ground in the US. We recently sponsored a consensus-building process on how to provide health insurance to most of the 47 million uninsured Americans. Participants formed an ideologically diverse, working group of stakeholders from the US Chamber of Commerce, consumer and public health organizations, the American Medical Association (AMA), the American Association of Retired People (AARP), pharmaceutical companies, the American Hospital Association, United Health, and Blue Cross & Blue Shield. After many meetings, the group agreed on a series of proposals and decided to form the Health Coverage Coalition for the Uninsured (HCCU). Already, Democratic and Republican members of Congress have introduced legislation reflecting Phase I of the group consensus, which calls for insuring America's children. While we are not part of the ongoing coalition, we are proud to have sponsored the process from which it emerged. Here is what HCCU chair, Dr. Reed Tuckson, said about our contribution:

"The catalytic roles of Search for Common Ground and its US Consensus Council were indispensable to achieving a consensus by our 16 signatory organizations. Working in partnership with the Meridian Institute, you provided a safe platform for organizations with often sharply differing views to find common ground. In fact, one of the laudable by-products of the process is increased and enduring trust that now exists among us. The relationships and understandings reached during the HCCU process have already led to unforeseen partnerships and are likely to lead to important future collaborations…. We are all optimistic that both the substantive agreements we reach and our continuing partnership to implement them will make a real difference in the lives of millions of uninsured Americans."

AWARD. In April, the Arab American Institute presented us with a Spirit of Humanity award for "actions and deeds [that] embody the words" of poet Kahlil Gibran.

"I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit." - Kahlil Gibran

AWARDS. 2007 is our 25th anniversary, and we will celebrate at a gala dinner in New York at Chelsea Piers on November 6 when we will present the 2007 Common Ground Awards. These awards recognize individuals who have taken the field of conflict resolution and negotiation to new heights. Past awardees include former President Jimmy Carter, whom we honored for a lifetime of achievement on the world stage, and the Alliance of Concerned Men, who received their award for negotiating peace between gangs on the streets of Southeast Washington. This year, honorees will include TV host Charlie Rose, Lt. General (ret) Roméo Dallaire, former child soldier Ishmael Beah, Health Care Coverage for the Uninsured, and the Canadian TV show, Little Mosque on the Prairie. PBS and NPR correspondent Charlayne Hunter-Gault will serve as mistress of ceremonies, and Peter Yarrow, of Peter, Paul & Mary, will perform. Contact Susie Dillon at sdillon@sfcg.org for tickets.

PLEASE INVEST. We invite you to join us as financial investors. Investing in our work is a way that people in the affluent West can support our programs to transform conflict in some of the world's most challenging areas. None of our projects can survive without outside funding. We have made a difference for 25 years, and we are at a point of major expansion. Please join us as financial partners.

OPPORTUNITIES. For people who would like to learn more about us, Susan Collin Marks and I will be presenting our work at Marble Collegiate Church in New York City on September 23 and in Washington on September 24. Susan and I also will give a workshop on social entrepreneurship at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California from November 23-25 and will be in San Francisco on December 1 for our annual West Coast fundraiser at the St. Francis Yacht Club. And for investors who would like a first-hand experience of our work, we invite you to spend a week in January 2008 visiting our program in Sierra Leone or a week in March in Nepal. Experienced staff will lead these groups, which past participants have credited with providing profound, even life-changing experiences. (If you would like to attend any of the events mentioned above, Contact Jane Shaw at jshaw@sfcg.org.)