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| Sunday, 19 June 2005 |
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Editorial
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Meeting the outspoken American East West Center of the University of Hawaii in Honolulu awarded this year's Jefferson Fellowship Spring Program to Sunday Observer Senior Journalist Lionel Yodhasinghe. Following is the first in a series of his study notes after his visit to the United States of America.
My first acquisition as a Jefferson Fellow on my arrival at the East West Center in Honolulu was an electronic key which I was given with round the clock access to the Center. Where on earth, except in one's own home, is a guest given such a welcome. That is the tradition of East West Center when it awards a fellowship and includes the fellow in its over 50,000 East West Center Community of Media persons, scholars, politicians, researchers and experts in numerous fields of work from more than 50 countries. During my stay in this world's most isolated population Center on earth - Hawaii which is 2,390 miles from California and 3,850 miles from Japan and 20 hours travel time from Sri Lanka, this electronic key halved my homesickness as it bestowed me with free internent and other office facilities in the Center to reach my near and dear. The theme this year for research was a Fresh Mandate for Governance - especially to meet a cross section of American society and study the facts for the re-election of President George W. Bush. Democratic freedom and equality could be tested everyday in the United States of America than any other country in the world, and people in other parts of the globe such as Sri Lanka, maybe due to lack of interaction among people for geographical distance could get mixed perceptions over the re-election of President Bush, his foreign policy and impressions of ordinary Americans. I found this study in Hawaii as well as in the mainland a good opportunity to explore the facts in detail the outcome of which would appear in a series beginning today. My group included senior journalists, from India, Pakistan, China, Japan, Indonesia, Philippine, South Korea and US. US journalists went to Singapore, Jakarta and Beijing while Asians went to Washington, Minneapolis, Austin, Crowford and Dallas. The aim of the East West Center exchanging journalists and putting them on research is to build better relationships between US and the Asia Pacific Community. Jointly supported by US Government and Freeman Foundation, the Center annually picked journalists to engage in similar dialogue with state department officials, military men, politicians, businessmen, social and community leaders, researchers to discuss matters relating to international issues, social life, economy, environment, regional security and religion. This Spring Program was named after the third President of the United States Thomas Jefferson. Toeing the steps of President Jefferson who contributed his pen more than making speeches, my contribution would comprise what I heard, witnessed and gathered during the interaction with a cross section of the American: What I most appreciate in them is their preparedness to expose the governance, society, family life and their mistakes and at the same time, their readiness to tolerate heterogenous society. Immunity to a living democracy could be the reason, I felt. By the way, I take this opportunity to inform prospective Sri Lankans to use the East West Center facilities to engage in a true dialogue with their fellowmen in the Asia Pacific and US on affairs such as leadership, international politics, research, security issues, news and information, arts and culture and business. Young Sri Lankans could make use of these opportunities to visit US and learn new world trends, share their experience with fellow participants, gather new experience to uplift the socio economy back at home, which I hope is substantial to the final goal of the East West Center's concept. Next week: Teaching politicians politics |
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