"WALK FOR TRUCE" AUCTION

Michael Bates’ solo  Walk for Truce from Olympia in Greece to Westminster, London has reached the 2000 mile mark in just over 200 days. There is a further 1000 miles and 100 days to go before he arrived in London (estimated 15 February, 2012). The walk so far has been personally funded by Michael with occasional support from family and friends, but as the costs of accommodation have risen sharply especially in Switzerland and taking advantages of the many opportunities which have presented themselves to promote the truce have also added to the budgeted costs. Expenses have increased since Michael’s fall in the Alpes in which he fractured and dislocated his shoulder which has meant that he has been unable to carry his rucksack. Moreover, Michael rightly receives no income at all whilst he is away from Parliament and has no other  source of income or assets. As a result of these increased costs the available funds have been all but been all but exhausted. In response to this rise in costs Michael is holding an auction of his remaining personal possessions in the hope of raising sufficient funds to complete his walk.

The following items are offered for sale:  Lot 1:

Michael’s car—a Saab 1.9TiD. The vehicle was registered in January 2005 and has been owned by Michael since Jauary 2006. The car is a metallic bronze and has cream leather and walnut interior. The car is in good condition and has completed approx 95,000 miles although a new engine was installed after 36,000 miles in 2007. The tax and MOT on the vehicle expired in June, 2011. The car was valued at £2500 for cash in March, 2011 and £4000 as trade in.  The car has a personalised number plate ‘V7 MWB’. The vehicle is available for inspection at Michael’s parents home in Low Fell, Gateshead, Tyne & Wear. Further pictures available on request.

Lot 2: Michael’s antique travel writing desk which Michael has owned since 2001. The travel desk was purchased for £350 and its estimated current value is £500.

Lot 3: Michael’s dress watch purchased in 2008 for £375

Lot 4: Michael’s bike purchased in 2009 for £185

 

The aim of the auction is to raise between £5000 and £7000 to cover the costs of the walk over the next 100 days. Items are available for view at Michael’s parents home in Low Fell, Gateshead. The auction willbe open until Christmas and offers or requests for further information should be directed to:

Alison Hardy alisoneil@hotmail.co.uk  or via telephone or SMS to 07894 513 987

Michael can be contacted on the walk for more information viamichael@waltonbates.com

DAY 206 - LAUSANNE AND MEETING THE PRESIDENT OF THE IOC

15 November, 2011

2021.8 miles–4,352,201 steps

It was an early start to get the train down from Berne to Lausanne for my meeting with International Olympic Committee President, Count Jacques Rogge. This was a blessing because I hadn’t slept more than twenty minutes at a time on account of the pain in my shoulder and arm. At least I didn’t have to rush as it takes me over an hour to shower and dress with one arm.

There were a couple of last minute changes which were to make the day extra special: The previous afternoon, Shona Wright, Head of the International School in Geneva wrote to update me on progress by the Student Council in getting responses from the national delegations to the UN in Geneva about what they intended to do to implement the Olympic truce in London 2012. They were doing better in a few weeks that I had managed in a few months. Shona asked if some of the students could come and meet me before I left Switzerland. I suggested that we could meet at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne and I had half a hope that I might be able to get them in to meet the IOC president.

Also, it was great to be accompanied down from Berne by Andy Holbrook who is Political Counsellor at the British Embassy and was a huge help in making sure that I got the right train and was prepared for the meeting with the IOC. We are blessed with outstanding diplomats around the world and having the opportunity to attend meetings with them gives you the type of confidence that you get when drawing up at the front door in a Rolls Royce (I would imagine).

We arrived at Lausanne Station at 9:45AM and met up with the International School students and teachers (pic): Mordecai Corijn, Sophie Duin, Jose Ortega, Orlagh Flanagan, Pheobe Kennan, teachers: Carlo Palusci and Rick Dennie and flanked by Andy Holbrook (British Embassy, Berne) and T.A.G. Sithole, (Director of International Cooperation and Development at the IOC).  We had a bit of a challenge finding the place, mostly because I said that it was next to the Olympic Museum—it isn’t and then we headed for Chateau de Vidy which is the President’s Office, rather than the IOC HQ which was where the meeting was to take place.

We arrived to a warm welcome and some cameras, curiously one from TAS the Russian news agency (later we found that they had been given permission to shadow the IOC president for the day). The officials from the president’s office and the External Relations team were, as one would imagine, first class, calm and courteous even if we were a few minutes late.  Asked if it might be possible to get a photo with the IOC president and the children, they politely said that the president’s programme was extremely busy, but they would arrange something. That ‘something’ was fabulous in that they got to meet Tommy Sithole who is directly responsible in the IOC for the Olympic truce and also we were given a VIP tour of the Olympic Museum.

Andy and I were escorted upstairs past various meeting rooms named after ‘London 2012’ and ‘Sochi 2014’ and then into meet Count Rogge, who I had last had the honour of meeting in Zagreb back in July. The President of the IOC is, by any measure, a great man: he was born in Belgium and competed in three Summer Olympic Games as a yachtsman and also played for the Belgian national Rugby team. Often athletes offset excellence in academia and professionally against their sporting goals, such are the demands to achieve world-class sporting performance, but Jacques Rogge qualified and practised as an orthopaedic surgeon. If the Olympics is about excellence, as it is, then Jacques Rogge is its ‘poster boy’ as well as its president.

Perhaps it was because of his profession that his immediate concern was for my fractured shoulder and how this was impeding my journey and what the prognosis was for getting back to full strength. I was then introduced to Tommy Sithole who, as Director for International Development and Cooperation, was in the lead on the Olympic truce and was able to give us an excellent briefing on the many ways in which the truce is being recognised.

We had a great discussion about the history of the Games and the possibilities for the truce, but it dawned on me about half way through that I didn’t have a specific agenda or ‘ask’ for the meeting. I suppose the aim was really just to explain my walk to the IOC president and even if this was not something that they could get behind publicly, as they are doing so much themselves, then hopefully at least they would see at something which was complimentary to the work of the Olympic Committee and to the purposes of the Games—I felt that this objective was achieved. I guess from their side, as with LOCOG, they were probably thinking that they feel uncomfortable about free-lancing initiatives connected with the Games, but whilst they didn’t want to publicly encourage it, they wouldn’t want to be seen as publicly snubbing it either.

The conversation began to get traction when I mentioned my visit to Sarajevo and the example which that war-torn city offered for capturing the truce spirit of the Olympic truce. I hadn’t realised, but Jacques Rogge had actually accompanied Juan Antonio Samaranch, then IOC president on his historic visit to Sarajevo in 1994 to negotiate a ceasefire under the Olympic truce to allow in humanitarian aid to the city. He spoke of travelling in via a French tank, such was the prevalence of indiscriminate sniper fire from the besieging forces. I added that in my view Sarajevo is the model for the true expression of the Olympic truce as through it there was the possibility of securing a temporary cessation of fighting to allow in humanitarian aid.

We spoke about the torch relay which I had been disappointed had been truncated for security reasons following Beijing, and now in London it was going to be a Greek and UK affair only. I felt this was a missed opportunity and the IOC president was able to confirm that negotiations were underway to see if the torch could symbolically be extended across the border in Northern Ireland to the Republic of Ireland. This would be a profoundly significant gesture and in the best traditions of the Olympic truce.

As the torch relay was becoming increasingly controversial I offered the suggestion of an alternative method for summoning nations to the games and declaring the period of the truce and this would not take the torch relay, which was first used in 1936 for the Games in Berlin, but would go back to the start of the Ancient Games when messengers or Spondophori were gathered from all city states in Olympia and briefed about their mission and then they took out the invitations to the Games on bronze discs. I suggested that this may ease some of the modern staging difficulties of the torch relay and rediscover another aspect of the Games ancient routes. The IOC president thought this was an idea worth further consideration, which he would give.

Sensing I was on a bit of a role I ventured with a further request that the Olympic Museum should make space for a significant display about the Olympic Truce when it was revamped in 2012. The IOC president thought that this idea was already under consideration and would be done.

Count Rogge and Tommy Sithole had been very generous with their time and had been very encouraging about what I was doing and I had been similarly encouraged by the work which they were doing, especially the ‘reporting back’ addition for the Olympic truce for London 2012 in which all member states would be required to report back to the Secretary General on what they had done to implement the Olympic truce which he would then include in his broader report to the General Assembly on sport as a means of peace and development.

As we parted Count Rogge presented me with a beautiful Dunhill Olympic pen, which Andy Holbrook immediately took to return safely to the UK via the diplomatic bag. I, in turn, presented Jacques with a House of Lords mug which he joked he would keep and bring out on lord Coe’s next visit to impress him.

After the meeting there was an interview with the External Relations team about the nature of the walk and my hopes for its success, which would then be turned into an article for the web-site. There was an interesting exchange when I asked if they could link to my web-site in the article and their response was that there could be some possible conflict with my sponsors and theirs. I responded that I didn’t have any sponsors, I was funding this myself and walking alone. They seemed genuinely quite shocked and immediately said that I should have made that clear to the IOC president. In fairness when I pulled up in a mini-bus with an entourage of ten they could be forgiven that this must be some massive money spinning venture with professional back up and sponsors, but when I explained that I was walking alone, finding accommodation day to day and with a small support team of mates volunteering time back in London. Still I was glad that the opportunity arose to put the record straight.

We were then ushered off to the Olympic Museum where we had a wonderful tour and were met by Veronika Henriod, whom I had promised I would raise the issue of the permanent Olympic truce exhibition with the IOC president when I had visited the previous week. Politicians are always smug when they are able to declare that they had done what they said they would.

It was a special day and made all the more so by the opportunity to spend more time with students and staff of the International School, Geneva and to be energised by their enthusiasm for the possibilities for the truce.

I arrived back in Berne and sought some further medical opinion on the pain in my arm and on my ability to sleep. I received some Voltaren Dolo painkillers and in addition some sleeping tablets. I took both before going to bed and slept much, much better.

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.