DAY 205 - BERNE

13 November, 2011

2021.8 miles–4,352,201 steps

It was Remembrance Sunday and I had the privilege of being invited to attend St Ursula’s Church, which serves the sizable English speaking community in Berne, by the Vicar, Venerable Peter Potter. I attended with the outstanding HM Ambassador to Switzerland, Sarah Gillett (pic) and asked to give a short talk about the Olympic truce and my walk. It was a very well attended service and conducted superbly by Peter Potter. The theme for the sermon seemed to chime perfectly with the nature of Remembrance: “What does the lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8

Sometimes there can be an uneasy relationship between church and state in the area of war, and in many ways this is as it should be, for the church points the world to how it should be and the state must deal with the world as it is.  Both views are vital to our understanding of what it means to be human and to be belong to a civilisation. There is, in my view, no contradiction between pointing to the fact that the ideal is that we live in peace with one another and yet remembering those who in service of us all gave their lives in order to preserve our freedom. To over emphasise the real without acknowledging the ideal, is as great an error as to over-emphasise the ideal and not acknowledge the real.

In many ways I have tried to take this approach in my campaign on the Olympic truce, for the truce states that there is a complete cessation of all conflicts around the world for the period of six weeks during the Olympic & Paralympic Games—that is the ideal, that is what the United Kingdom Government proposed to the United Nations General Assembly just three weeks ago and that is the ideal that every member state on the planet signed up to.  But my campaign has never been that all wars should cease, but rather that instead of ignoring the pledge freely made at the UN, as has happened in the past, that the signatories should try to do at least one thing to advance the cause of peace and reconciliation.  In so doing, they would recall the ancient purpose of the Games and to ponder for just a moment as to why they could observe this sacred truce 3000 years ago, but today we see it as such an idealistic dream.

Afterwards we enjoyed a reception in the church hall provided by the British Embassy and it was a welcome opportunity to talk more about the truce and the purpose of the walk. Once again the first impression was that people had not heard of the Olympic truce and certainly were unaware that it was backed by a unanimous resolution of the United Nations General Assembly, but once it was understood, they agreed that if we sign it then we should implement it.  If we don’t think it is possible then we should not sign it—of course it is too late for an opt out as everyone has already signed up.

I was also encouraged that the members of the congregation that I spoke to seemed to agree with the approach which says that the true spirit of the act of Remembrance is to ensure that we work with every ounce of our beings to ensure that:   “ In Flanders fields the poppies blow; Between the crosses, row on row” no more. The best way of honouring the courageous fallen in wars past and present is that we, the living, devote ourselves to seeking all means to add no more to their number.

After the service, I was invited to lunch at the Bellevue Palace in Berne by our Ambassador, who had booked us in for a very reasonably priced and beautifully prepared set menu for Sunday lunch. I had never seen the use of an iPad on the table so that customers could observe their food being prepared live in the kitchen. The Swiss do take hospitality to another level and this was the top of the food chain. What made the lunch very special was the opportunity to discuss international relations, politics and economics with such an extraordinary thoughtful and insightful diplomat. I felt at times that I was attending a tutorial with a distinguished professor and I wanted to get my notepad out and just take notes, but that wouldn’t be the done thing in the Bellevue, even if we were dining off the set menu.

There were numerous insights, but the one that really transformed my thinking was when we discussed the   topic of the teaching of history in different nations and within different ethnic groups, particularly in the setting of the Balkans. I remarked that I was often surprised as to how deeply understood and rehearsed history was in many of the places I had visited in the Balkans – in fact they had so much history, they seemed to have no capacity to absorb current affairs. I contrasted this with English history teaching, which barely skims across the surface of a thousand years; to which Sarah observed, “This is because our history has not left us with a sense of grievance.” What an insight.

The conversation was flowing and Sarah offered to take me out to Grindelwald after lunch to try and catch a glimpse of the famous mountain peaks of the Eiger and Jungfrau. The thick freezing fog in Berne obscured them and so we drove out towards Interlaken and up to Grindelwald, which I had last visited in 1973 on a family holiday. As we approached the Thuner lake, the fog suddenly cleared and we were confronted by these huge mountain peaks and the Upper Grindelwald Glacier. There is something about the mountains that makes humans feel in correct proportion to their place in the universe and all the more so when the stars emerge in the clear winter skies against a silhouette of the mountains.

As a non foreign policy specialist, and non-diplomat, I am always searching for insights as to how the campaign for the observance of the truce could be more effective. As we sat in a mountain ski lodge  after a brisk walk and sipping hot chocolate, Sarah reflected on the challenge and came up with the second paradigm shift of the afternoon. She said that what should be tried is a more direct approach and that was to approach all the combatants in the worst conflicts currently underway around the world: Afghanistan, Sudan, Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo etc. along the following lines: “The 193 member states of the international community, in the form of the United Nations General Assembly, have unanimously passed a resolution calling for a truce, a cessation of hostilities between 27 July and 9 September, 2012—what would it take for your organisation to participate in such  a truce?” So simple, so profound. I resolved to work to implement that inspired idea.

A good day in which I was able to talk and inform, listen and understand think and understand.