PeaceWheeling : September 2012

As the first Rotary Peace Fellow class at Uppsala University, we the fellows have been quite spoiled. Last Tuesday we had a pre-inauguration dinner with Rotarians from around District 2350 and John Osterlund, the General Manager of the Rotary Foundation also came. I sat next to Margareta, a very helpful honorary Rotarian and her husband. She has been a wonderful and consistent source of support as we Fellows have struggled to tackle the sometimes complex bureaucracy in getting the correct legal status, etc. I also happened to sit across from a Rotarian who a few years ago was invited to her taxi drivers Gambian village and has since become a major fundraiser for the area. She told me all about her work to get medical equipment donated and to work with the government to provide farm training to the area which is very distant from the capital. Her passion was evident and it was lovely to speak with her.

The dinner was at Eklundshof which is an area that used to be a training and barracks area for the army. One of the Rotary host counsellors told me about his basic training the various buildings - the one where you got your uniforms, the other where the officers slept. All men in Sweden used to serve in the army and quite a number of the older Rotarian men I have met have talked about some type of career in the air force or army. In 2009 the Swedish parliament did away with peacetime conscription for good, although the system was changed several times since these men began serving in the 1950s and 1960s. (Sweden does have some armed forces serving in Afghanistan and Kosovo, Swedish classmates have pointed out to me.)

John Osterlund and Magnus Öberg in front of new sign.

(from http://www.pcr.uu.se/ accessed 24 Sept. 2012)

On Wednesday we enjoyed the Peace and Conflict Research Department's hosting of the inauguration of the Rotary Peace Center. We had introductions from Hanne Fjelde, one of the Rotary Center co-Directors and currently our Professor in the course, 'Causes of War'. We also heard from Magnus Öberg, the head of our department and John Osterlund from the Rotary Foundation. A couple of fellows helped John unveil the Rotary Peace Center sign (pictured above). During the reception that followed, each Rotary Fellow introduced his/herself with Liana Lopes, the other Rotary co-Director in Uppsala and Senior Professor Peter Wallensteen shared about the history of the department.