Jack Slattery
President, FOI
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The Friends of India Board wish you all the best in the New Year.
We hope your holidays with family and friends were happy, safe and
rewarding. For myself, it has been a season of reflection having had
opportunities during 2005 to travel to Israel and Palestine to work in
the West Bank and to be a Crisis Corps Volunteer in Bogalusa, Louisiana.
This year brought some hope. The Middle East peace process advanced with
the Israeli transfer of Gaza to the Palestinians and the beginning of
Palestinian Parliamentary elections. India joined forces with Pakistan
to help those stricken by a deadly earthquake in Pakistan. We in the US
provided massive assistance to Katrina victims but Katrina once again
revealed poverty, the depth of which many of us have never seen in the US.
It existed before Katrina and will worsen for many people because they were
victims of this devastation.
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These are dynamic times in the US, economically, militarily, politically,
socially, and culturally. We are all citizens of the world and the more
we understand it, the better we can meet the needs of our own people. I
believe we Friends of India still have much to offer our fellow citizens
in this regard. What we learned in India helped us better understand and
respect other nations' cultures. Many of us also have had careers that
grew from our experiences in India and other countries. As odd as it may
sound, perhaps it is time to start applying lessons we learned in those
countries in the area of economic development, such as in education,
agriculture, and micro financing, to help people in our own country.
Namascaram,
Jack Slattery
Email: FOIndiaSlattery@aol.com
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