Summer 2006 (14.2)
of Internationalism: More Essential Today Than Ever Before
by Betty Blair
Elementary school in a small rural town in the foothills of the
Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee (southeastern USA). Late 1950s.There
we were, as school kids, being told that sometime during the
day - we didn't know exactly when - there would be a "bomb
drill". When the siren went off, we should line up at the
classroom door and rush to join the 300 other pupils in the hallway.
As the school had no basement, that narrow space in front of
the principal's office was the only area that was not exposed
to big glass windows that could shatter. This would be a trial
run-a practice - so that we would know "what to do"
in case of real danger. The implication was that the "Russians"
were formidable foes. Watch out! They might bomb us.
For most of us, including me, everything was quite vague and
fuzzy in our minds. But we picked up on the atmosphere and knew
we should be afraid-very afraid. We didn't know the terms that
grownups applied to the political situation between the Soviet
Union and the West, such as "Cold War". Nor had we
heard of "McCarthyism" - that anti-Communist movement
where people from all walks of life were hauled off in front
of Congressional committees under suspicion of being Soviet spies
or Communist sympathizers. Joe McCarthy was the Senator who tried
to convince everyone that there really might be "A 'Red'
under every bed!"
Azerbaijan? Where was that? We had never heard of the place.
To us, there was only one big vast monstrous enemy and that was
"Russia". Little did we know that the USSR was made
up of 15 republics, and Azerbaijan was one of them.
It was all rather disjointed - bombs, planes, possible invasion,
but the fear that pierced our young hearts penetrated very deeply.
In fact, so much so, that as adults, we didn't quite know what
to think when the Soviet Union "collapsed" in late
That same year when we were practicing bomb drills, our teacher
started reading to us Thor Heyerdahl's venture sailing the Pacific
on a balsa log raft called Kon Tiki. He and his companions made
the trip crossing 4,300 miles in 101 days. They had only a few
sails, a rudder, a compass and a simple radio,. That along with
courage, determination, sheer grit and muscle.
Thor Heyerdahl was convinced that early man had migrated to distant
shores via quite predictable ocean currents and that boundaries
between countries and peoples were artificial constructs. Walls
really didn't exist, and that those barricades, which had been
needlessly erected, should be torn down.
Fast forward 30-odd years to when we first started publishing
Azerbaijan International in January 1993. How could it be that
when I first set foot in Baku that year, that Azerbaijanis greeted
me with genuine warmth and hospitality. Hadn't they been living
"behind the "Iron Curtain" all of their lives?
How was it that they were so eager to embrace the West (especially
during those early years of independence) - their hearts full
of dreams, waiting to become realities.It wasn't long before
I learned that as kids, they, too, had been indoctrinated - much
as we had. One Azeri told me: "We were very frightened of
the United States.
We were taught to be afraid. When Ronald Reagan became President
in 1981, I remember our headmaster telling us: "Now a really
crazy guy has come to power in the States. You can call him 'Ares
- the God of War' from Greek mythology. And then he went on to
talk about the arms race," she said.
"They dumped all this stuff on us when we were seven and
eight-year-old kids and I would wake up in the middle of the
night, horrified that this crazy man might attack us." ["Soviet
Collapse: The 30s Generation - Changing Horses Midstream"
by Dr. Alik Zeynalov, Sona Abbasova and Betty Blair. AI 11.4,
Winter 2003. Search at AZER.com] These shared childhood memories
became the basis of our friendship. And since then, Azerbaijan
has inundated us in a sea of friendship - not only to me, but
countless others as well.
But now, I sense that globally once again, walls are going up
at an unprecedented speed, especially after September 11, 2001,
when planes crashed into the World Trade Center in New York and
governments used this tragedy to instill enormous fear into grown-ups
and kids alike - all over again.
At first the walls and barriers were only mental and psychological,
observable on a personal basis whenever anyone new or different
stepped across imaginary boundaries into our personal space.
Then visas between countries started to become more restrictive.
But now the building materials for the walls - the concrete,
barbed wire, electronic cameras, and watchtowers are starting
to appear. Just recently, the U.S. Congress approved legislation
to erect "the most advanced technological wall ever built
by humankind". It is to be erected for at least 300 miles
along the 1900-mile border that separates the United States and
Again fear has generated the initial building blocks for constructing
these barriers. And that's why events such as the annual Caspian
Oil and Gas Exhibition - now in its 13th year - provide incredible
venues to counter such global trends and to reinforce the spirit
of friendship, trust and internationalism.
Even a quick look at this issue of Azerbaijan International reveals
that so many people are eager to share in this spirit, starting
with world-renown cellist Yo-Yo Ma, a Chinese American born in
France, who recently spent nearly a week in Azerbaijan offering
his time and talent in teaching Master Classes to young Azeri
musicians and giving concerts.
Art collector Anne Visser of Holland found us on the Internet
and shared his impressions about his collection of post-Stalinist
paintings featuring Lenin.
Anna Tatti, a photographer from Sardinia off the coast of Italy,
generously offered her exquisite photos of saffron crocus so
that readers might become more conscious of the medicinal properties
against cancer that Dr. Fikrat Abdullayev, an Azerbaijani is
carrying out in laboratory studies in Mexico City.
And then there is Tomoko Imura, a young Japanese scholar, who
came to Azerbaijan a decade ago in search of Caucasian art. She
now translates articles about Azeri culture into Japanese, publishing
them on the Web.
Truly, the spirit of internationalism is alive. All of us should
commit ourselves to fostering venues in which it can flourish.
As the American poet Robert Frost (1874-1963) once penned so
profoundly, as he reflected upon the imagery of New England orchards
where he lived and where stone walls had been built to separate
his neighbor's property from his own:
"Before I built a wall,
I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down!".
Enjoy the Oil Show. Tear down
a mental wall or two, reach out and delight yourself with making
some life-long friends. Make this exhibition, once again, another
milestone in the spirit of Internationalism.
From Azerbaijan International (14.2) Summer 2006.
© Azerbaijan International 2006. All rights reserved.
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