2/11/2023

JRB,

            Iranian warships docking in Rio? Why have I not heard that Iran’s vessels are cruising in our hemisphere “smuggling oil & gas” to get around sanctions. At least that’s what Atalayar says. Since I know nothing about this news source, it could be much ado about nothing, but the NYT noted that you spoke with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (LILDS) about “the fate of two Iranian warships in the region,” so I got curious.

            I was happy to read that LILDS has hesitated to sell weapons to Ukraine & believes “you need to have partners able to build a group of negotiators with credibility on both sides who can end the war.”

            That’s true of the Ukranain war & the Burmese crisis.

            As I think about addressing those challenges, I am reminded of Prof Elise Boulding of Dartmouth College. She was a sociologist who studied peace making & looked to women’s activities as an inspiration for conflict resolution. She noted that women “had to be closer observers of the environment & know where the resources were located because they bore the children and had to feed them.” They got good at quietly sussing things out & listening for news that might affect their families. She advocated listening circles & restorative justice before it became popular.

She talked about “the enormous need for the proper skills for analyzing problems in such a way that alternatives become evident” & pointed out “the incapacity of the United States to deal with problems of violence and injustice in their own communities.” She liked to cite Einsteind’s quote, “Einstein said, "peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding," & was a force behind the US Institute of Peace. Please consult with the folks there before selling any more arms.

            Thanks for talking about climate change with LILDS. Protecting the Amazon Basin is critical to our efforts to ameliorate global warming.

            Have fun with governors tonight.

            BYBS,