Fred Cuny - Richard Butler
- Scott Ritter - Arthur
R.G. Solmssen: A Princess in Berlin
PROPOSAL 1: Independent Minds and Modern Heros
-awarded second price by Me,
Myself and Eye, Hamburg, Germany-
A single broadcast or a series of
broadcasts presents extraordinary individuals of our time, who worked for
a better world on their own initiative and usually not at all courageously,
but unflagging, and consistently disregarding their own advantage. Although
not aiming at it, they are heros and thus fascinate the young in egotistic
Based on excerpts from
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Life and Death of a Hero by
"A mountain of a man, but
not because he was loud (he was quiet), nor because he was boisterous (he
was gentle)Ñrather because of the intelligence and commitment he
radiated. Intelligence and commitment, yes, and these went along with the
wonderfully expansive and savvy humor that characterized him whenever I
saw him, not least at that last dinner. I'd asked him something along the
lines of what on earth kept him going and he conjured up a story from one
of his earliest missions, in Biafra in the early Seventies, where he'd
gone to help out as a pilot in the air relief campaign. One day, he recalled,
taxiing his ramshackle, fully laden aircraft out onto the mud-rutted runway,
he'd radioed the control tower for clearance. "Hold on, Red Cross Three,"
came the reply, "till after this next plane lands." Watching that plane
in the distance coming in for its landing, he'd noticed how one of its
engines seemed to be expelling smoke. "Then I saw another one catch fire,"
he recalled, "and then a third, and finally all four. The plane lurched
toward the runway, banked and then came slamming onto the tarmac, breaking
up and erupting in flames, a sheet of boiling fire racing right past my
idling plane and down the rest of the runway. At which point, over our
earphones came the squawking voice of the control tower: 'All right, Red
Cross Three: cleared for take-off.' Nothing stopped, you just kept going
- and that's pretty much what you do: you just keep going."
""Chechnya is the scariest place
I have ever been," Cuny declared flatly" But Cuny, being Cuny, concluded
his own terrifying litany by saying offhandedly: "So, naturally, I've got
to be heading back." He was only fifty years old. He never came back. ...
He had quite literally saved tens and probably hundreds of thousands of
lives. Since his own death, over four years ago now, there are likely many
thousands more who have perished for lack of his interventions. It is not
uncommon to hear that he could have made a difference in the refugee camps
on the borders of Kosovo or East Timor or in Angola.
Fred Cuny became an expert in inventing
new kinds of relief work. It was his revolutionary insight that he saw
disasters as opportunities, as occasions for societies to reinvent themselves
and in particular for the most disenfranchised members of those societies
to discover a fresh sense of agency and possibility within themselves.
He wanted to work out methods of assistance that fostered such potentialities
rather than overwhelm them in a typical binge-and-famish cycle. Conventional
disaster relief, for example, to rush food assistance into some fresh disaster
site, might be oblivious of the bankrupting effects such relief might have
on outlying farmers.
He had prodigious practical knowledge
of construction techniques, hydraulics, and medicine,.... And then there
was his sheer, almost loopy ingenuity. He once headed off a rapidly developing
famine in one region of Ethiopia by manipulating the currency exchange
rates in a market town several hundred kilometers away.
Cuny's Organization, International
Technical Consultants in Emergency Management (Intertect), attracted the
investment banker and philanthropist George Soros. Soros employed Intertect
for almost a dozen projects in Eastern Europe, including supervision of
the rehabilitation of the schools in Albania and a fuel assistance program
in Macedonia. Also the U.N. contracted Intertect for the evaluation of
a relief programs in Bangladesch.
Soros spends hundreds of millions
of dollars, not only to influence wrong social developments. Like Cuny,
he senses the obligation to change societies (G. Soros,
lost Russia, New York Review of Books, April 13, 2000: "The collapse
of the Soviet empire in 1989 and the Soviet Union in 1991 offered a historic
opportunity to transform that part of the world into open societies; but
the Western democracies failed to rise to the occasion and the entire world
has to suffer the consequences." ). In Russia he generated a foundation
that supports the sciences and universities.
Here are some few stations of Cuny's
Further Reading: Frederick C. Cuny und
Richard B. Hill, Famine,
Conflict and Response : A Basic Guide, Kumarian Press, 1999.
In summer 1969, age 24, visits the
West African nation Dahomey, base for the airlift to Biafra.
cooperates with relief projects
after one of the deadliest cyclones in history
realized that what was needed was immediate
road repair so that parts of the country that hadn't been devastated could
start assisting parts that were (thereby improving the overall economy
of the entire region); but repair work needed to be done in a way that
would employ and train as many local (and suddenly now unemployed) laborers
as possible. Earthquakes were frequent in Guatemala, and the country was
going to need such indigenous expertise on a long-term basis. The Guatemalans
also need cheap, easily reproducible models for new housing of the sort
that might more effectively resist future earthquakes. Cuny and his local
advisers developed such modelsÑsome capable of being dismantled
and carried in backpacks to remote peasant villages..
Initially the program seemed to prove
a huge success. If anything, however, it was too successful: it bred an
entire new generation of indigenous leaders, apostles of self-sufficiency
and empowerment, leaders who then began threatening the local power establishment,
which in turn began training its death squads on them. The ensuing massacres
provided Cuny himself with a horrifying and sobering lesson. As a result,
his future interventions were more politically nuanced, more aware of possible
opposition from powerful opponents.
Winter 1991: Kurdistan
1/2 million kurdes flee from Saddam
Hussein's troups into the desert. Within 2 months he bluffs - in contact
with the US State Department, but without its approval- the Iraqi troops
from the country and returns the kurds.
recommends the US (the Bush administration)
and the UN to build bases in the countryside, leaving the cities to the
competing war lords. These zones of peace and order might radiate outward
once Somalis started to hook up with the bases.
imports fifteen miles of plastic tubing
so they could tap into the main natural gas feeder line that passed through
the city (and then went on to Belgrade, and hence was not likely to be
He brings an entire custom-designed
two-hundred-yard-long water filtration plant, constructed offsite in Texas
and then snuck in, in modular segments, on successive C-130 air transport
runs and secreted in an abandoned highway tunnel; this was the centerpiece
of a brilliant scheme to resupply water to the homes in a large part of
the city. He thereby supplies heat and stove-fire to tens of thousands
of people who thereafter didn't need to leave the house for water and fuel
and be killed by their enemies.
Callous inaction of the Bosnia
government in view of corruption and greedy warlords, who were making a
small fortune from the way water, delay the turning on of the plant by
a 8 months. This challenged one of Fred's most deeply held assumptions
about humanity, one that guided and compelled him throughout his life:
that people were essentially good."
March 1995: Cuny's International Crisis
Group (ICG) is about to become reality
ICG ist eine consulting group, composed
of the world's most accomplished humanitarian aid experts who would conduct
independent analyses in regios where disaster loomed, then report back
to the US government, the UN, and private relief groups to coordinate preventative
action. The ICG steering committee comprised a formidable array of international
statesmen and business leaders, including Desmond Tutu, Elie Wiesel and
PROPOSAL 2: Whistleblower
is the American word for a person, who -mostly in his/her field of professional
expertise- detects dangers and sees wrong demands from their employer and
who informs the public after all attempts at solving the problem internally
have failed (for more detail see e.g. Title
V -- Whistleblower Protection,, U.S. Department of Labor, Office of
Administrative Law Judges, 2003) The whistleblower decides to do so well
aware of the prospect of losing his/her job and facing grave personal harm,
because s/he feels a responsibility for his/her work.
US environmental protection laws
include sections for the protection of whistleblowers (e.g. Clean Air Act,
Clean Water Act, Toxic Substances Control Act, Resources Conservation and
Recovery Act, Atomic Energy Act, all from the late 1970's). Such a protection
cannot be found in German laws, although the German Atomic Energy Act has
been derived from the US Atomic Energy Act.
(see also Khizhir Hamza: Saddam's
Bombmaker, Scribner, 2000)
Two of these courageous people have
worked for the United Nations: Richard Butler, last head of the United
Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) and Scott Ritter, chief weapons inspector.
Both are concerned that proliferation of biological, chemical and nuclear
weapons of mass destruction (WMD's) is unsufficiently controlled. In 1999
and 2000 both have surprised us with the political thrillers, "The Greatest
Threat" and "Endgame". Richard Butler reveals us the gears and failures
of international diplomacy. Scott Ritter lets us accompany him on the inspections.
We see horrific cynicism and life
threatening confrontations, but at the same time the tragedy of multifacetted
culture clashes, i.e. the conflicts between the arabic, the anglo-saxon,
the french, russian and chinese cultures, and -on a level above the nationalities-
between diplomatic and technical-scientific thinking/acting.
At times, the events are extremely
funny and entertaining. Butler and Ritter have a talent for writing and
fascinate us with the colors of human characters, individual failure or
human greatness in difficult circumstances and the joy after a successful
These are novels of a new kind and
time, in the sense that their authors are multitalented: specialists in
their fields and excellent entertainers.
This is the background: The nations
of this world are in a state today, in which e.g. the principalities were
in the middle ages: As a consequence of their connections through trade,
science (and today industry and internet) they form a community. The conscience
of politicians (as well as the people) is still under the impression of
the age in which they were isolated. The states do not share organizations
which could come up with a constitution and reinforce it against the individualistic
interests of single member states.
The United Nations (UN) were founded
for that purpose. But international diplomacy does not consider action
against mass murder to have priority, to be above the pursuits of traditional
policy. This is comparable to a situation in which a state accepts murder
a a means of solving problems within the state and thus does not prosecute
In his introduction published in
2000, Richard Butler presents us a scenario which underlines the importance
of the issue and shows that acts of agression do not need to make use of
missiles or airplanes.
A hit squad from somewhere
in the Middle East travels to New York City carrying a one-liter bottle
filled with one of the several chemical weapons agents we have long known
Saddam Hussein to be developing. Using a simple sprayer (like one that
a gardener or house painter might own), they diffuse the contents into
the air over Times Square on a Saturday night or into the main concourse
at Grand Central Station at 5:30 P.M. on a weekday evening. Hundreds, maybe
thousands of people die agonizing deaths as a result. Because of their
own handling of the substance and the strategic concern to maintain ambiguity
over the source of the attack, the terrorists may have to be prepared to
Richard Butler und Scott Ritter do not
want us to be discouraged. During their work, their teams have received
advice - mainly from American research centers (some examples,
of German research). Based on this experience they propose ways out of
the danger, which remind us of solutions after World War II, of the Dayton
Accord and peacemaking in Kosovo.
Obviously, the world would erupt
in almost unprecedented horror and outrage. A search for the perpetrators
would be launched. Identifying them, dead or alive, on the ground in New
York may prove difficult, but even if their identities became known quickly,
it may not be clear whom they represented or, above all, who provided them
the deadly weapon. Answering this question beyond a reasonable doubt might
not be easy.
Most Americans (and American allies
around the world) would be loath to punish any single nation or people
through military strikes or other assaults without specific proof. And
assembling such proof might take years, as the ongoing struggle to affix
responsibility for the explosion of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbee, Scotland,
and the 1996 attack on the Khobar Towers complex in Saudi Arabia suggests.
Under these circumstances, it's quite possible that Saddam could get away
with the act. Sadly, on the question whether there is a defense against
such an event, the answer seems to be probably not.
Even if the crime could be clearly
traced to Saddam - if, for example, Saddam were to boastfully acknowledge
his responsibility in a public statement or simply say he supported it
- it's not clear exactly how the U.S. government and world community could
and should respond. Of course, the sense of anger and the demand for retaliation
would be overwhelming, and the media would feed these reactions. (Imagine
the televised scenes from hospital emergency rooms overwhelmed by victims,
the weeping relatives, and then the shots of anti-American demonstrators
in Baghdad dancing with glee in the streets.) The president, Congress,
and the U. S. military would be pressured from all directions to hit back
at Iraq - and hard.
But what would be the purpose of
an American attack? Would it be simple revenge? If so, would it be fair
to slaughter innocent Iraqi civilians, the most likely victims of U.S.
bombing raids? Would the purpose be deterrence of future terrorism? In
that case, if those actually perpetrating the crimes are not the ones who
suffer, it's unclear how effective the deterrence would really be. Would
the purpose be removal from power of Saddam? If so, who would take his
place as the head of the Iraqi government? Whose support would he enjoy?
How could we know the new strongman would be better than the old one?
The answers to these questions would
be far from obvious, yet they are essential to determine the nature of
the appropriate response. Would the United States be prepared to land American
soldiers on the ground to go to war against Iraq? What level of U. S. casualties
would he acceptable for such a mission. A hundred? A thousand? Ten thousand?
What would we ask our allies to do? What could we expect from the other
Arab nations? (President George Bush barely managed to hold together the
Gulf War coalition against Saddam; an invasion aimed at overthrowing Saddam's
government would find little support among other Mideast regimes.) Would
Russia simply stand on the sidelines? What would happen to Israel if the
Merely to list these questions makes
it clear that the decisions involved would be intensely difficult. Clearly,
it would be unacceptable for Saddam Hussein to use chemical or biological
weapons to kill thousands or tens of thousands of innocent people and to
do so with impunity. Yet it would probably be equally unacceptable in the
eyes of the world community to see the United States respond by killing
tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians in return.
Such a terrorist action would bring
us to a virtually unmanageable place, a situation in which angry Americans
are baying for blood; the more sober heads at the Pentagon and the White
House are trying desperately to figure out how to keep the situation from
exploding; and leaders of dozens of other countries - from Russia, China,
and France to Syria, Iran, North Korea, and maybe even Cuba - maneuvering
to exploit the crisis to their own advantage. It's likely that all of the
choices facing the U.S. president (and, for that matter, world leaders
at the UN and NATO) would be horrendous, not readily promising peace and
justice but, more likely, more death and terror.
The only real solution to the dilemma
posed by weapons of mass destruction is to ensure that no such dilemma
should ever be faced - that the world act now to prevent any attack with
a chemical, biological, or indeed, a portable nuclear weapon, not only
by Saddam Hussein but by other states, terrorist movements, "armies of
liberation," lone lunatics - anyone with the motivation to launch such
an attack. The only reliable means of prevention we know is offered by
the treaties, conventions, and global organizations directed against the
manufacture of such weapons and to their ultimate elimination. But the
effectiveness and possibly the very existence of these restraints is now
being undermined by Saddam Hussein.
PROPOSAL 3: Film based on Historical
Little, Brown & Company,
Berlin 1922: Pandemonium reigns in the
capital of Germany after the Allied victory in World War I and the fall
of Kaiser Wilhelm II. The proletariat have swarmed out, waving the red
banners of Communism; private armies of unemployed, disaffected veterans
roam the streets thrashing the Communists. The Weimar
Republic ts established under the protection of the Freikorps. An explosion
of radical music, theater, and art manifests the seething rancor and nervous
energy of the people. The most insane, paralyzing inflation the world has
known makes life a misery for the hungry, desperate populace (see also
). Although the flower of their kind lie buried in Flanders fields, a few
aristocratic families preserve their privileged, even exquisite lives:
boating parties at summer palaces, chamber music in great townhouses on
This is the rich backdrop of "A Princess
in Berlin" (full text-version: http://www.acamedia.info/literature/princess/A-Princess_In_Berlin.htm),
a social novel in the grand tradition of e.g. Theodor
Fontane in the Germany of the 19th century.
Into this feverish society comes
Peter Ellis, a young American from Philadelphia who was an ambulance driver
on the Western Front. In Paris, given a year by his Quaker
family to get over his shell shock, Peter encounters a former German
officer, Christopher Keith, whose life he saved at Verdun. Christoph is
shepherding the young Bobby von Waldstein, scion of a family of Berlin
bankers, once Jewish. At their urging, Peter agrees to come to Berlin,
to study painting. There Peter is ushered into the Waldstein milieu, where
he meets Max
Liebermann and Walther
Rathenau (see also 1,
then foreign minister of the German government. Princess Helena, a daughter
of the Waldstein family, becomes a good friend, and through her and her
brother, Peter realizes the sadness with which (the hated and despised
Jew) Rathenau tries to moderate politics and social life in Germany.
Peter lives part of his life in Neukölln,
where he studies painting with Fritz Falke, a former student of Liebermann,
and with Fritz he experiences the misery in Berlin, which the Quakers,
Susan Boatwright in particular,
try to alleviate (see also 1,
). Berthold Brecht's
songs in Kneipen (pubs) and on parties reveal the dark and dangerous side
of the German character, the "anger, bitterness, sullen and discontent"
Robert Oppenheimer about Germans in 1927).
"I've read A Princess in Berlin
with entire absorption very slowly, allowing the story to unfold. I was
held throughout; alight with interest, moved. I do think the novel is an
extraordinary achievement, original, bold, mature .... Ambitious as well
as daring .... And what a picture of that time." (Sybille
Deutsche Ausgaben unter dem
S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt/Main
1981 und Aufbau Verlag, Berlin/Weimar 1984
Schauplatz ist das Berlin der Weimarer
Republik von 1922/23. Aufruhr herrscht in der Deutschen Hauptstadt nach
dem Ende des I.Weltrkriegs. Das Proletariat ist auf den Straßen,
die Rote Fahne schwenkend. Private Armeen, zusammengesetzt aus arbeitslosen,
defätistischen Soldaten und Offizieren - Freikorps - ziehen durch
Berlin, auf der Suche nach gewaltsamen Auseinandersetzungen. In radikaler
neuer Musik, Theater und Kunst zeigt sich die brodelnde, gehässige
und nervöse Energie der Menschen. Eine die Wirtschaft lähmende
Inflation ungekannten Ausmasses bestimmt das Leben einer hungrigen Bevölkerung,
ein Teil derer sich der Verzweiflung und dem Opportunismus hingibt. In
den Villenvierteln am Wannsee und im Grunewald glauben aristokratische
und grossbürgerliche Familien, ihr Leben in Überfluss weiterführen
Dies ist der farbgige Hintergrund,
vor dem sich 'A Princess in Berlin' (Volltext-Version: http://www.acamedia.info/literature/princess/A-Princess_In_Berlin.htm)
entfaltet, ein grosser Gesellschaftsroman des Amerikaners Arthur R.G. Solmssen
in Fontanescher Tradition.
Peter Ellis, ein junger Amerikaner
aus einer Quäker-Familie in Philadelphia, hat bei Kriegsbeginn 1914
sein Studium der Medizin in den USA unterbrochen, um an der aliierten Front
in Frankreich als Sanitäter zu helfen. Wir erleben in einer kurzen
Episode, wie er 1916 einem Piloten der Gegenseite das Leben rettet (dem
Deutschen Christoph Keith), und erfahren später im Roman, daß
er einen Teil des Kriegs mit Bombenschock in einer französischen Nervenklinik
verbracht hat, wo er mit der Malerei begann. Die Malstudien will er in
Berlin fortsetzen. Die Stadt, abgebrüht und verführerisch zugleich,
zeigt ihm eine frivole Gesellschaft à la Otto Dix und George Grosz,
angesiedelt in prunkvollen Hotels, in den Kneipen der Friedrichstrasse,
den Hinterhöfen der Arbeiterviertel, in aristokratischen Residenzen.
Als Ausländer ungebunden an
soziale Schichten, lebt Peter in zwei ganz gegensätzlichen Welten:
in der Bankiersfamilie Waldstein und in Neukölln, wo er bei Fritz
Falke, einem Schüler Max Liebermanns, Malerei studiert. Falkes Kunst
und Leben ergeben sich mit Zynismus dem Unglück, während die
Quäker in den Arbeitervierteln z.B. mit ihren Suppenküchen
in anteilnehmender Menschlichkeit ihr uneigennütziges Engagement entfalten,
wie sie es in vielen Teilen der Welt bis heute tun. Historisch authentisch
sind auch eine Reihe von anderen Persönlichkeiten im Roman, z.B. die
Familie Mendelssohn, Mitglieder der Weimarer Parteien und Regierung (z.B.
Karl Helfferich, der Führer der Deutschnationalen Volkspartei, Reichskanzler
Joseph Wirth), Rathenaus Mörder (Erwin Kern, Hermann Fischer, Ernst
Werner Techow- und ihr Helfer, der Schriftsteller Ernst von Salomon), Heinrich
Tillessen (der Mörder Matthias Erzbergers -Unterzeichner des Waffenstillstandsabkommens
1918-). Peter Ellis trifft Hermann Göring, Max Liebermann und den
deutschen Aussenminister Walther Rathenau, dann Bert Brecht.
Peter beobachtet die deutsche Entwicklung
mit der Klarheit, die aus der Distanz zwischen der deutschen und amerikanischen
Kultur erwächst. Wie in Falkes Bildern zeigen sich in Berlin die gefährlichen
Seiten des deutschen Charakters, die Verärgerung, unterschwellige
Aggressivität, Feindseligkeit, Verbitterung, Gehässigkeit und
Unzufriedenheit. Walther Rathenau wird von vielen als Verräter und
jüdischer Intellektueller gehasst und verachtet. Trotz ihrer Trauer
(und zuweilen Mutlosigkeit) versuchen Menschen wie er die Politik und die
sozialen Spannungen in Deutschland zu moderieren, die polarisierten Seiten
einander näher zu bringen, sie zu lösen aus verhängnisvoller
Fixierung in einer Kultur des sorglosen Theoretisierens und der Abneigung
gegenüber praktischem Handeln in unübersichtlicher Lage.
Peter möchte das menschliche
Chaos von Falkes Bildern nicht übernehmen. Statt dessen sprechen seine
Bilder so direkt und mit Präzision von Liebe, Wärme, Kraft und
menschlicher Schönheit, daß Liebermann sie schätzt. Ebenso
selbstverständlich hilft Peter seinen Freunden.
Helena, eine Tochter der Familie
Waldstein ("die Prinzessin") und Christoph Keith, ihr Ehemann, unternehmen
mit Peters Hilfe große Anstrengungen, den Mord an Rathenau zu verhindern.
Beide sind Vertraute und Freunde Rathenaus. Im dramatischen blutigen Höhepunkt
wird Walter Rathenau ermordet. Von demselben Freikorps werden wenig später
Helena und Christoph erschossen. Auch Peter wird bei diesen Schüssen
schwer verletzt. Bezeichnenderweise spielt die Lebensgefahr, in der er
in Berlin -wie damals 1916 in Verdun- schwebt, in seinem Bewußtsein
und Gefühl keine Rolle. Es gibt für ihn keine Worte dafür,
ebenso wie seine Bilder die Sprache Falkes nicht kennen.
Um sein Studium in den USA wieder
aufzunehmen, verläßt er traurig ein Berlin, das seine Heimat
Es ist ein fesselnder Roman mit einer
packenden Handlung an historischen Schauplätzen. Die bewegende Geschichte
ist in ihrer Stimmung ähnlich der Verfilmung von Christopher Isherwoods
'Berlin Stories', die als 'Cabaret' mit Liza Minelli in der Hauptrolle
ein Weltklassiker wurden. 'A Princess in Berlin' übertrifft 'Cabaret'
aber um ein Vielfaches an Dramatik durch die Einbettung historischer aufwühlender
Ereignisse in die Handlung und die Vielfalt und das Kaliber ihrer Protagonisten.
Wir stehen mitten in einer Gesellschaft, wo politisch und intellektuell
bedeutende und ungewöhnliche Persönlichkeiten einen uneigennützigen
idealistischen Kampf übernommen haben, dem die obere gesellschaftliche
Klasse in bequemen Korbstühlen auf Gartenparties genüßlich
unbeteiligt und nihilistisch kommentieren. Andere kämpfen um ihre
nackte Existenz. Eine bewegende Liebesgeschichte ist ebenfalls Teil der
Nach 50 Jahren Dornröschenschlaf
ist Berlin wieder in Mode, besonders bei jungen Leuten. Mit dem neuen Hauptstadtstatus
rücken seine Stadtviertel, Plätze, Straßen und historischen
Schauplätze wieder in den Vordergrund. Auch ist durch die Wiedervereinigung
der beiden Deutschlands ein neues Interesse an der deutschen Geschichte
vor 1933 zu beobachten. Dokumentationen über Preussen und historische
Persönlichkeiten des 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhunderts findet man
nicht mehr nur in Arte und Phoenix (Aktuelles Beispiel: Spielfilm über
das Leben der Preussischen Königin Luise in RTL).
Der Kontakt zum Autor kann über
uns hergestellt werden.