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Winter 2004 In this issueMessage from the President Gift Committee Reports Successful Visit to Dushanbe NAVRUZ: Come Celebrate the Beginning of Spring at the Teahouse! Meet the New BDSC Board Members Dushanbe Friendship Fashion Tea Nets $2500 for BDSC Gift Fund Muslim Students Meet at Teahouse in Leadership Summit Event TAJIK FILM: "Live Containers" to Screen Saturday at CU Want More Information about Any of BDSC¹s Activities? |
Message from the PresidentBy Don Mock Greetings! Vern Seieroe and I were elected co-Presidents of BDSC at the December meeting of the Board of Directors. We have replaced Jancy Campbell as President, who has stepped down after many long and fruitful years of service to our organization. (Thank you, Jancy!) I have agreed to chair the Board meetings, while Vern is busy coordinating the final touches on the Cyber Cafe design with architect David Barrett and working with the folks in Dushanbe to prepare for the upcoming construction phase. (You can read more about last month's delegation trip to Dushanbe elsewhere in this newsletter.) Vern has been with BDSC for a long time, but some of you may be unfamiliar with my background. Let me tell you a little about myself. I just stepped down from seven years on the Boulder City Council to take the position of Executive Director of the NOAA Research Labs in town. I have previously served on the boards of the Dairy Center for the Arts, the Boulder Convention and Visitor's Bureau, the Boulder Creek Festival, and the Boulder Downtown Business Improvement District. Back in 1996, when I first started on Council, Mary Axe and Vern came to my house to tell me about the Teahouse (then in storage in the sewage treatment plant). They were very persuasive, so the following year I made the motion on Council to provide the final funding to assemble the Teahouse. For the past two years I've served as City Council's liaison to BDSC. Most recently, I've been working to aid the cause of the Cyber Cafe. On December 16, 2003, the City Council passed a resolution pledging the future revenue stream from the Teahouse operations (lease) to help with the Cyber Cafe. (Read more about that elsewhere in this newsletter, too.) The Teahouse is a lasting reminder to us of the culture and generosity of the people of Dushanbe. With the Cyber Cafe, we will soon be reciprocating that gift. I believe 2004 is going to be a great year for BDSC. I hope you share my enthusiasm and excitement. Gift Committee Reports Successful Visit to DushanbeMembership Numbers Highlights of the trip included:
Vern said that the next steps in the process are to send new drawings to Dushanbe; prepare the structural engineering, mechanical, and electrical drawings; put in place a bidding procedure; go through a pre-qualification of contractors in Dushanbe; narrow the list to a few; form a committee with Dushanbe consultants; finalize the drawings; obtain cost estimates; get all proposals for art; meet with mayor for final approval; put out bids; get a fixed price; and begin construction, hopefully this summer. Vern feels that the Cyber café could open in the spring of 2005. NAVRUZ: Come Celebrate the Beginning of Spring at the Teahouse!The Boulder-Dushanbe Sister Cities will host the sixth annual Navruz Festival to celebrate the Tajik and Persian New Year on Saturday, March 20, 2004, from 12–5 p.m. at the Boulder-Dushanbe Teahouse on 13th Street between Arapahoe and Canyon. This is what you will enjoy at the Navruz Festival: Tajik arts and crafts; Tajik foods, including shaslik and plov; Central Asian music by members of Serefe; a performance by renowned Central Asian singer Tofakhon Pinkafasova; Information on the Cyber Café to be built in Dushanbe; traditional Tajik dancing; and children¹s activities. Dinner will be served at the Teahouse from 5-10
p.m. The citizens of Tajikistan celebrate Navruz each spring with music and dance, stories, and special dishes. This year, for the sixth time, Boulder-Dushanbe Sister Cities celebrates our ties with a culture halfway around the world with a similar flair. With the sixth anniversary of the opening of the Teahouse approaching in May, we invite the community to come and learn more about their Tajik friends. In Tajikistan at this time, a ceremonial table is covered with a cloth called a sofreh and set with seven dishes, each beginning with the Persian letter "sinn" ("s" in English). The seven dishes are sabzi (sprouts), seeb (apple), seer (garlic), senjed (jujube fruit), samanou (wheat-based pudding), somagh (sumac) and serkeh (vinegar). Each dish represents an angelic herald of life — rebirth, health, happiness, prosperity, joy, patience and beauty. In addition, a candle is lit for each child in the family and placed near a mirror, representing the images and reflections of creation. Meet the New BDSC Board MembersThere are seven new members of the BDSC Board of Directors. They are: Steve Brett Sylvia Manrique Chaney She is an active member of the Boulder Chamber of Commerce and the Lafayette Chamber of Commerce; and she serves on the Board of the Mental Health Center of Boulder, Retired Senior Volunteer Program, and Boulder County Professional Latina Women¹s League. Ms. Cheney enjoys her "little" time off with her 20 year old daughter, a Neuroscience major at the University of Colorado. She is also an avid runner, ski skater and telemarker, and scuba diver. Don Mock He has also served on the following committees and boards: Downtown Boulder Business Improvement District, Denver Regional Council of Governments, Boulder Convention and Visitors Bureau, Dairy Center for the Arts, Boulder Creek Festival (President 1999-2000), Parks and Recreation Foundation (Vice President 1994-96), Parks and Recreation Advisory Board and (Chair 1996; Vice-Chair 1994-96). Mr. Mock has a PhC (ABD/PhD) in Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington; an MS in Physics, University of Florida; and a BS in Physics from the University of Florida. He and his wife Anita Marie Colin have three sons: Daniel, George, and Charles. Allen Sparkman He speaks regularly on entity selection, estate planning, asset protection, and philanthropic planning topics at accredited continuing legal education seminars. He is the author of numerous articles, and he is a member of the American, Colorado, and Boulder Bar Associations, the Boulder County Estate Planning Council, and the National Association of Philanthropic Planners. Mr. Sparkman is a Fellow of the Colorado Bar Foundation. He is a volunteer attorney for Colorado Lawyers¹ for the Arts and serves on the legal committee of the Community Foundation Serving Boulder County. He enjoys writing, photography, and hiking. Joe Stepanek John Wyatt Dick Herring Returning Board members are Miriam Allen, Jancy Campbell, Jackie Frischknecht, George Peknik, Barbara Perin, Benji Reed, Vern Seieroe, Peter Stoller, Sophia Stoller, Ron West, and Mary Barnett (ex-officio). Dushanbe Friendship Fashion Tea Nets $2500 for BDSC Gift FundThe Dushanbe Friendship Fashion Tea was held on February 10 at the Teahouse. 114 tickets were sold for the fund-raiser for the BDSC Reciprocal Gift Fund. The event raised $2490. Fine Lines Apparel of Niwot brought some of its latest designs to the Tea. Organizers Lee Bentz, Leslie Hindes, and membership Chair Mary Barnett want to thank all who helped. "We couldn't have held such a successful event without all of you," Mary said. "We distributed 36 new membership cards at the fashion tea. Thank you again for all of your help!" Muslim Students Meet at Teahouse in Leadership Summit Event67 teenagers from predominately Islamic countries joined Boulder youth and elected officials at the first-ever Youth Exchange and Study (YES) Leadership Summit February 26-29. Hailing from Gaza, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Pakistan, Syria, West Bank, Tunisia and Yemen, the students live with U.S. host families and attend high schools in 56 urban, suburban, and rural communities. The YES program is overseen by a consortium of five partnering organizations. Organized by Sister Cities International, the summit was the first time all 67 teens were together since journeying to the U.S. six months ago. Their visit to Boulder included an interactive leadership jam and a team-building ropes course challenge. The Boulder Valley School District provided key support, arranging host families and transportation, as well as meeting space. A roundtable discussion with U.S. Rep. Mark Udall and government officials at the Boulder-Dushanbe Teahouse highlighted key leadership learnings. "The leadership conference is important because it can give the students tools to use to make their work as citizen ambassadors and future leaders more effective," said Robert Persiko, Chief of the Youth Programs Division, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), U.S. State Department. "Everyone hopes that the YES participants of today will play valuable leadership roles in their countries in the future." BDSC was a partner in the project, helping to provide orientation to the nearly 40 Boulder County host families and helping to facilitate the Friday evening event at the Boulder-Dushanbe Teahouse. Friends of former Boulder City manager and current President of Sister-Cities International Tim Honey were glad to see him and his wife Honey while they were in Boulder for the weekend. Lenny Martinelli, proprietor of the Teahouse, and his staff gave the sponsors a discounted rate on the use of the Teahouse and staff. The YES Program was approved in 2003 by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) to conduct youth exchange with predominantly Islamic countries and the United States. A consortium of partners lead by AYUSA International cooperates with ECA and U.S. embassies to recruit students from Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, Kuwait, Pakistan, Syria, Tunisia, the West Bank, and Yemen. TAJIK FILM: "Live Containers" to Screen Saturday at CU
AKHBOR has not been able to identify a starting time, but a series of films will be shown from 12:00 — 4 PM. Films will also be screened on Friday. For more information, visit www.colorado.edu/germslav/russian/gendermontage.htm. Want More Information about Any of BDSC's Activities?E-mail BDSC Co-President Don Mock or call him at 303-440-6283. For Newsletter-related comments, subscriptions, or information, including requests to be removed from the list, e-mail George Peknik. |
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The
Tajik film "Live Containers," directed by Orzu Sharipov,
will screen this Saturday, March 13, in the Humanities Building,
Room 150, at CU as part of the Gender Montage: paradigms in
Post-Soviet Space" program. It is free. "The film is one
of many documentary films about women in nine post-Soviet states.
This report from a Tajik women's prison tells about a calamity
that has recently appeared yet has already become widespread.
Economic hardship and political chaos have led many Tajik women to
become out of sheer necessity "live containers",
smuggling heroin inside themselves."