A Nobel Cause:
My Encounters and Experiences with Nobel Peace Laureates and the BIG PRIZE!
Following my meeting with His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama in March 2024, interest in my work peaked - without necessarily focusing on His Holiness as the 1989 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, Indeed, as global the leader of Tibetan Buddhism and a key leader in the movement for a FREE TIBET, His Holiness is rightfully associated with many causes. For me, however, and for a number of my colleagues in the International Peace Research Association (IPRA), his work for peace and nonviolence is an outstanding aspect of his lifelong contributions. Since my own long-standing relationship with the Nobel community is most marked by my own connection with one of His Holiness' best friends - South African Archbishop Demond Tutu, recipient of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize - for me meeting the Dalai Lama was also a chance to recall and discuss fond memories of my work with the Archbishop - including learning a lesson that the two great leaders tried to teach together: Despite the hardships we face, sometimes quite extreme - we must move forward with a sense of hope, joy, and humor. It is, indeed, hard to picture those two guys without broad smiles on their faces!
This, then, is my photo essay of my personal and political meetings, discussions, and work with over a dozen Nobel Peace laureates. Some of them I only met once (and a few so briefly I didn't even get a photo taken!). A few of them, such as Northern Ireland's Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Argentina's Adolfo Perez Esquivel, and East Timor's Jose Ramos-Horta, I have enjoyed close consistent and close connections with over many years. Still others are not embodied in any individual, but in my associations with folks who have served in leadership roles in organizations that won the Nobel Prize. In all cases, the priority has always been to find more creative and effective ways to work together into the future, so that the real work - organizing for a world of justice and human rights for all so that peace flows out of the prosperity of all peoples - gets center stage. The photos in this essay also contain places worth visiting which have special connection to the Nobel - most notably the Nobel Peace Museum in Oslo, Norway, and Swarthmore Peace Archives in Pennsylvania, USA. If you note in these photos a couple of me holding what appears to be an actual Nobel Peace medal, IT IS! The Swarthmore collection includes the medal won by Jan Addams, and lucky visitors there sometimes get to hold onto it for a bit!!
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