Sunday, March 5, 2006

Saturday--The Beginning of the Iditarod Race to Nome I spent a marvelous morning with Laura Jewett, Friday´s World Affairs speaker from NDI. I picked her up at the Hilton and we drove out to the Millennium Hotel---the headquarters for official race support activities and the Iditarod volunteers---for breakfast and shopping at the official Iditarod shop. Then it was back downtown to park and walk the length of Fourth Avenue to view, mingle, and take pictures. Dee Dee Jonrowe was autographing and selling bandanas. This was definitely the ceremonial start---she does not look like a musher ready for Nome. A team starting down Fourth Avenue. Taken from the second floor of Penny´s parking garage. We concluded our Iditarod activities by going out to the Tudor Center and standing along the trail. It was beautiful with clean white snow and bright, warmish sun. And yes, we were in touching distance. Several of the mushers slapped high-fives with the people standing next to us. 3:29:22 PM    comment []

Friday Alaska World Affairs Council Friday´s usual luncheon was a great outreach program at UAA in partnership with the UAA Political Science Association. Approximately 60 college and high school students were present. They asked excellent questions. Laura Jewett, Deputy Regional Director for Eurasia at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) and Stephen Nix, Regional Program Director for Eurasia at the International Republican Institute (IRI) talked about their work in Eurasia. And yes, Russian is reverting to a closed society. I had thought as much but had hoped otherwise. Both the IRI and the NDI were created as non-profits by Regan in 1983. The organizations work together and separately to teach the how-to of open, representative government. They teach citizen involvement and how to organize grassroots political parties. Their work is not about teaching the U.S. version of democracy, but it is about teaching the mechanics of promoting a representative government that fits in the context of the particular culture. Harry Bader from Anchorage also spoke about his work in Natural Resources in Iraq. He had just returned (the day before) from six months in Iraq. 3:11:49 PM    comment []

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