Friday, October 3, 1997
First person:
Celebrities and Causes
A Daily Bruin reporter was working with a land-mine charity this
summer when Princess Diana’s death caused a surge of response for
this cause. She tells of her work and experiences.
By Cecelia Fuentes
Daily Bruin Contributor
This summer, in the time-honored tradition of students
everywhere, I packed a small bag and left home to spend three weeks
working as an intern. I headed for a small non-profit organization
called The Earthstewards Network. There, for the first time, I was
to witness first-hand what it means to be truly committed to an
ideal.
I was particularly interested in their most recent project,
PeaceTrees Vietnam, in which they cleared 18 acres of land mines
along what used to be known as the demilitarized zone (DMZ) and
replanted it with 1,700 trees.
I studied the people at the Earthstewards office who had worked
so hard to make this incredible project happen. I wanted to know
what made them tick.
Rather than somber activists who deal daily with the horrifying
facts of the world’s brutality, my co-workers carried on with a
mindful concentration which, I have come to feel, defines a life of
service.
The facts and numbers did get to me, though. Twenty-six thousand
people each year are killed or maimed by land mines. A majority are
civilians, and many of these are children who mistake the colorful
plastic mines for toys.
Any child wounded by a land mine must suffer through repeated
amputations, because their bones continue to grow but their skin
doesn’t.
I found out that many people go willingly into the minefields to
search for scrap metal to sell or for firewood to cook.
And I discovered that land mine manufacturers purposely design
the weapon to maim and not to kill, thereby making the wounded
person a greater liability to their military unit.
Each land mine costs as little as $3 to manufacture but can cost
as much as $1000 to remove. There are currently over a hundred
million land mines in the ground worldwide.
As a matter of course, land mines are used to terrorize civilian
populations and keep refugees from returning to their lands.
There have been some arguments made against a ban of the
devices, however. According to President Clinton, the United States
has a strategic interest in maintaining land mines in certain
‘hotspots’ in the world, such as the border between North and South
Korea. If Clinton were to sign the International Treaty to Ban Land
mines, those land mines would all have to be dug up in the space of
three years. And the U.S., now allied with South Korea, does not
want to risk a confrontation with North Korea.
Plus, Clinton has announced that the United States has
discovered a way to build land mines which self-destruct after a
period of time. They are more expensive than normal land mines,
however, and it is uncertain whether poor nations would spend the
money.
So as governments continue to debate the issue, the work of
clearing the mines has been taken on by some non-governmental
organizations like EarthStewards. A half-hour ferry ride from
downtown Seattle, on tiny Bainbridge Island, are the headquarters
of this thriving international organization. I began, on my first
day, with the simplest of tasks, sending out packets of information
about the Earthstewards to the numerous people who write in. This
gave me an opportunity to read up on the group’s history, ongoing
programs and workshops.
PeaceTrees Vietnam was the twentieth in a series of
reforestation projects carried out by the Earthstewards over the
last 10 years around the world, from South Central L.A. to
Kayelitsha Township in South Africa.
The idea: to bring young people together from different
countries and from all walks of life to plant trees in areas
greatly in need of restoration.
It is hard physical labor by day, and in the evening the
participants are taught skills which will help them to become
tomorrow’s leaders.
Conflict resolution, cross-cultural communication, team
leadership, male-female co-leadership and environmental restoration
are all tools put to work in real-life situations during the
three-week projects. Participants live and work together.
I was amazed at the scope and diversity of their work. From that
first day also, I answered the phone and found myself responding,
not only to the callers’ requests for information, but more
importantly to their unspoken desire for a connection to something
bigger than themselves.
People called from all over the world, and they wanted to talk.
The oddest and most wonderful thing is that I seemed to be quietly
encouraged by the office staff to take my time with these people,
as if we were mainly there, after all, to share ourselves with
them.
There were many moments of fretful self-examination, where
everything I’d been taught about work and a decent career was
turned upside down.
I confronted my insecurities about money, remembering the great
salary I had made as a clothing designer. Then I remembered how
unhappy I had been as a designer before I returned to school to
find a more meaningful vocation.
As each day progressed, the world became a little smaller to me.
I began to realize the many things which connect all of us. I
thought about a career in conflict resolution. It was not glamorous
work, but it was deeply satisfying.
Then I learned of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, a
self-appointed spokesperson for the International Campaign To Ban
Land mines.
She was truly a great hope for all workers in the movement for a
ban on the production, sale and use of anti-personnel land mines.
She had put a human face on the problem, caressing children whose
legs had been blown off and showing the world that they
mattered.
Suddenly, what had been a trickle of calls from people with a
vague notion of their own need to connect became a steady flow of
souls reaching out in what seemed like a heartfelt cry to be heard
and maybe to make a difference. In the mail came donations, one of
which was an envelope with five $100 bills. It contained no name
nor any note.
On Saturday, the day of her funeral, when I could not watch any
more, I went to the office to spend my emotions on work. Several
people called that day, many who had heard of the Earthstewards
work in removing land mines in Vietnam, saying they wanted to get
involved.
Some said that there was just no sense to what they were seeing
around them and that if someone as beautiful, rich and famous as
Diana could not ultimately be happy with all the trappings of life,
there must be a reason. Her care for the world’s downtrodden and
defenseless had left its mark on them.
Her death apparently made an impact. The issue become a part of
the national debate. As part of the reporting on her death, the
media covered the issue of land mines as well. The International
Treaty to Ban Land mines was successfully passed a month after her
death, although the United States has not signed it.
And on the day of her death, one Vietnam Vet walked into the
office. He talked about how he had spent his two years of duty in
Quang Tri Province, the area where the PeaceTrees had been planted.
He said he’d been meaning to contact us and offer his help, but it
wasn’t until that very day that he was compelled to come down and
do so. It was a day just as needful of his service as any
other.