In a message dated 11/7/2004 4:18:06 PM Central Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
that is wonderful. if these people can just overcome their governments, if all people would just stop listening to their government, what a world the inter faith groups the people who reach out to each other, they are the ones who will make this happen. [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Lunch with Zafra Lerman November 7, 2004 BY _DEBRA PICKETT_ (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST Advertisement (http://a3.suntimes.com/RealMedia/ads/click_lx.ads/www.suntimes.com/output/pic kett/527118266/Middle/dell.integrent.Oct-Jan.300x250/300x250.html/39386133363 434313431376262666230?527118266) (http://a3.suntimes.com/RealMedia/ads/click_nx.ads/www.suntimes.com/output/pic kett/@Middle?x) I've heard many things about the woman -- she is brilliant, eccentric, creative, demanding, arrogant and funny -- and, it's obvious after only a few minutes with her, they are all true. Upheaval at college After earning degrees in chemistry at Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology, and the Weizmann Institute, she came to the United States, carrying out advanced research projects at Cornell and Northwestern universities. Her scientific work was, she says, always intertwined with politics. One of her first teachers, Franklin A. Long, at Cornell, was a scientific adviser to President Kennedy and was involved in negotiating the nuclear test ban treaty. Still, her life was proceeding down a fairly predictable path of academic success, mixed with some modest activism on the side. Then, she changed direction. Lerman joined the faculty of Columbia College in 1977, when it was first being formed as a new, and boldly alternative, sort of school, with an emphasis on arts education. It did not seem like a natural fit for a highly credentialed chemist. But to Lerman, it felt strangely like home, like her experience of what she called "the greatest possible childhood," spent literally building the newly formed state of Israel. And the international conference of research chemists she organized last spring -- Here's where the Middle East peace part comes in. She wasn't joking. -- was a serious diplomatic achievement. Scientists from Egypt, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the Palestinian Authority gathered in Malta to discuss some of the key environmental, health and educational challenges of their region. Lerman lured, cajoled and bullied her colleagues to get them to attend, but she says, once they were together, "you thought, after two days, it was a family reunion." There's no hubris when she says that, still picking discontentedly at her omelet and fruit, only hope. 'Scientists are the key' to peace "Malta One," as she calls it, "was a success beyond all expectation," and the collaborations hatched there have already produced an innovative proposal for improved water purification as well as a number of scholarship opportunities for Palestinian science students in Israel. A second conference is scheduled this month, she says. It is, she says, one of the best hopes for peace she sees in the world. "Why scientists?" I ask, quite sure she won't be able to convince me that a group of chemists can do what lawyers and diplomats and soldiers and presidents have failed to do for so long. "Scientists are the key," she says simply. "What other profession in the world can't a government live without?" She shrugs as if peace is not only possible, but perfectly obvious. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free! http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/XgSolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> ----- / o o \ ===OO=====OO============================================= (4)Portals (2)News Wikis (2)Conferences - No BuSHIT! Start here: http://pnews.org/ (On Internet since 1982) http://pnews.org/PhpWiki/ (West Coast News Wiki) http://g0lem.net/PhpWiki/ (East Coast News Wiki) ========================================================= FIGHT THE RIGHT! ================== Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rhetoric-list/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
