tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12764347607528374452024-03-12T17:59:57.478-07:00COWDY HOUSE AN IMPRINT OF UPSTART PRESS, KINGSTON, ONMaureenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03301191203669355775noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1276434760752837445.post-22873373408714518322017-02-22T08:56:00.002-08:002017-02-25T17:02:58.094-08:00To Elena and John Schram from Nelson Mandela<h2>
<span style="font-size: 93%;">... TWO CANADIANS WHO HELPED FIGHT APARTHEID</span> </h2>
<i> “You have won many friends not only for yourself, but
also for Canada.”
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<b><span style="font-size: small; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">CBC Canada
2017 / February 3</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
John and Alena Schram leaf through a book that has come to mean the world to
them. The dedication has deep personal significance. (Courtesy of Alena and
John Schram)</span></b></div>
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<i><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Imagine a museum filled with artifacts of deep significance to living
Canadians — a collection that contains the strongest feelings, most personal
histories and most vivid memories of our diverse population. As part of CBC's
What's Your Story campaign, we're inviting Canadians to tell us about the one
object they would submit to our collection of national treasures, and how it
connects to their perspective on Canada. <br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first story in this series
comes from retired diplomats Alena and John Schram of Amherst Island, Ont.</span></i></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">FEW
CANADIANS ARE AWARE of how Canada helped bring about the collapse of a morally
repugnant system. They should be.</span>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In
1988, my husband John and I were posted to the small team at the Canadian
embassy in Pretoria, South Africa, with the following mandate: to test the
outer bounds of acceptable diplomatic activity in support of South Africans working
to bring down apartheid. </span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">John
was in charge of the embassy's political work and I ran the Dialogue Fund, a
unique instrument devised by then-Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and External
Affairs Minister Joe Clark.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">While
John and his colleagues attended every political trial, protest, and rally in
those dark days, I delivered funding to anti-apartheid and human rights groups,
and the alternative media. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Alena Schram (right) poses with Cyril
Ramaphosa, Secretary General of the African National Congress in 1992.
(Courtesy of Alena and John Schram)</b></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Before the advent of smart phones and internet news
streams, we helped draw the world's attention to the inequalities of the South
African health care and transport systems; the suffering of political
detainees; the gross injustice of political trials; and the often-murderous
excesses of the security forces of the white South African government.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We
worked to foster a spirit of understanding, especially among the youth, by
bringing together members of all races — usually for the first time.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And
later, when the evil pillars of apartheid had crumbled, we funded initiatives
to further constitutional reform, women's and workers' rights, education,
access to land and housing and a peaceful transition to black majority rule.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Now
our memories of those days, and Canada's noble support for a just and
multi-racial society, are represented by a very important gift that we received
in 1992.</span></div>
<h3>
MUCH MORE THAN A MEMENTO</h3>
It
was at the last of our farewell parties, as we reluctantly prepared to leave
for Ottawa, that Gill Marcus — then the African National Congress's chief
spokesperson — stepped forward with a gift: a large and weighty coffee table
book. I looked at it warily, wondering how we'd manage to jam it into our
bulging hand luggage.
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I'd
like you to read the dedication aloud," she said, handing the book to John
and me.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">John
nudged it into my hands and I began what I assumed was a farewell message
crafted by some ANC member of staff assigned to the task. But something about
the round, even, determined script and the cadence of the sentences made me
slow down. And as I got to the end, I burst into tears. </span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
beautiful message and the signature beneath were Nelson Mandela's own.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
book now sits respectfully in our living room, unknown to all those many
Canadians who actively participated in South Africa's fight for democracy, and
for whom Mandela's message is really intended. </span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Occasionally
we bring it out for interested guests — generally those old enough to remember
that odious system of "apart-ness." Then we slip it back into its box
for safekeeping. </span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For
us it has value beyond measure, and we hope it will remain a family treasure
for generations yet unborn.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-no-proof: yes;"><br /></span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/--JfYXBTDECs/WK3BTqOtzAI/AAAAAAAAAh8/e8nmBsvKS8U9COb2DJOeIp8Ku2uBgb6oQCEw/s1600/Schram3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/--JfYXBTDECs/WK3BTqOtzAI/AAAAAAAAAh8/e8nmBsvKS8U9COb2DJOeIp8Ku2uBgb6oQCEw/s1600/Schram3.jpg" /></a><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Copy of Mandela's letter to the Schrams (Courtesy of the Schrams)</b></span><br />
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Our
years in South Africa proved to us that saints and heroes can live alongside
evil and expediency, even in the most sophisticated societies. But a brave band
of men and women determined to do the right thing, no matter what the personal
cost, no matter how dim the prospect of success, can ultimately triumph.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For
us it has value beyond measure, and we hope it will remain a family treasure
for generations yet unborn.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Canada
did the right thing. Our national moral compass, predictably, pointed in the
honourable direction, as has so often been the case. </span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Let
us hope we can continue to be a just and ethical nation in this increasingly
confused and troubled world.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> John Schram stands beside anti-apartheid icon Nelson
Mandela. (Courtesy of Alena and John Schram)</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">__________________________________________________________________</span></b><br />
<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Alena
Schram</span></b><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> has taught in international schools and written
columns and articles for Canadian and overseas newspapers and magazines as well
as for international NGOs and UN agencies. She is the author of <i>The
Opinionated Old Cow: Ruminations from the Field</i>.<br />
<br />
After 36 fulfilling and exciting years in Canada's Foreign Service, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">John Schram</b> retired to share his
experience with students at Carleton. He also lectures at Queen's University,
where he is a senior fellow with the Centre for International and Defence
Policy.</span></div>
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<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;"><b><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Related:</span></b><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><i><span style="color: blue;">When the World Was Watching</span> </i>(John Schram
for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Walrus</i>) </span></li>
Maureenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03301191203669355775noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1276434760752837445.post-20294478596674721122016-03-01T11:26:00.000-08:002017-02-22T15:17:54.526-08:00WAYNE GRADY on WITHDRAWN from CIRCULATION<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Withdrawn
from Circulation</i> is a
compelling mystery, but it is also a wonderful novel in its own right. The
murder might tie all the threads together at the end, but it is a delight to
just follow the intrigues with Greer’s mind. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It’s the third book to be
published by the small Kingston press Cowdy House, run by Christina Decarie and
Darryl Berger. It’s being released
as both a paper book and an ebook.<o:p></o:p></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The library pun in the title will bring to mind a
string of possible future sequels. Is it too much to suggest that this debut
mystery from Maureen Garvie is long overdue?
</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://www.thewhig.com/2016/02/17/murder-at-central-branch">READ THE FULL REVIEW</a></span></h4>
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Maureenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03301191203669355775noreply@blogger.com0