Please join the National Capital Branch of the Canadian International Council on Thursday, February 16, 2012 for their next speaker/dinner event.
TROUBLED SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA: ISLAMIC TERRORISM AND BLOOD DIAMONDS
Almost every week brings a new story of violence, repression, chaos or failed governance from Sub-Saharan Africa. You are invited to the recounting of two of these most dramatic stories and the lessons from them:
"A Season in Hell" - 130 days in the Sahara with Al Qaeda
Robert R. Fowler, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's Special Envoy and former Canadian Ambassador to the UN experienced terrifying captivity at the hands of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, with the threat of death hanging over him daily.
On December 14, 2008, Robert Fowler, acting as the UN Secretary General's Special Envoy for Niger, was kidnapped by Al Qaeda. Along with his colleague Louis Guay, Fowler lived, slept, and ate with his captors for over four months, gaining a rare first-hand insight into the world's most feared terrorist group. For those 130 punishing days, Fowler survived in extreme desert conditions at the whims of his volatile kidnappers, threatened with death and fearing every moment could be his last. Fowler's capture, release, and subsequent media appearances have shed new light on the confrontation between Western values and violent Islamic Fundamentalism. He tells the story of his survival in a new book "A Season in Hell", and will share details of this experience with members, and what it means for the region and the world. He gives a startlingly frank discussion about the state of our world redefined by clashing civilizations.
"Blood on the Stone" - war and redemption in the global diamond trade
Ian Smillie was a founder of the Canadian NGO, Inter Pares, Executive Director of CUSO and is a long-time foreign aid watcher and critic.
The diamond wars of the past 15 years took the lives of more than 3 million Africans, crippling the economies of Angola, the Congo, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The biggest UN peacekeeping forces in the world - in Sierra Leone, Liberia, the Congo and Côte d'Ivoire, have been the legacy of conflict diamonds. Ian Smillie tells the story of how diamonds, precious symbols of love and wealth, became so corrupted and dangerous, how human rights campaigns led to a global certification system, and how a new challenge may turn diamonds from a curse into an engine for development in some of the world's poorest countries.
"Ian Smillie was among the first international and eloquent investigators who understood and publicly denounced the use of 'blood diamonds'. In his latest work, 'Blood on the Stone,' he links his own experiences and deep knowledge of the history of how these gemstones with no intrinsic value drive conflict, corruption and mayhem. It is an important story, and one that needs to be understood if the world is to help end the misery of conflict driven by commodities and greed." Douglas Farah, co-author of Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes and the Man Who Makes War Possible.
DATE AND TIME:
Thursday, February 16, 2012
5:15 pm: Registration, networking and cash bar
6:00 pm: Presentation, discussion
7:00 pm: Dinner (optional)
LOCATION:
Rideau Room, Sheraton Hotel, 150 Albert Street, Ottawa
REGISTRATION:
Register on-line at http://cicottawafeb162012.eventbrite.com/