Spring Conference

The World in Crises:

Responding in the Fulbright Tradition

Our Spring Conference was held Saturday after- noon, April 12, at Concordia University St. Paul with 100 people in attendance. Keynote speaker was G. Edward Schuh, Regents Professor, The Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, who spoke on “National Security, Economic Security, and the Fulbright Program.” Dr. Schuh asserted that economic security is far more important to national security issues than military security, which President Bush had recently emphasized. The key to economic development in the future is collaboration between the U.S. and other countries. The Fulbright Program, with its exchange of scholars collaboratively producing knowledge that is mutually beneficial, has “an enormous contribution” to make in helping to generate the new knowledge on our rapidly changing world and in helping us understand each other.

Following the address, a panel of four international Fulbright scholars provided insights into the collaborative exchange of knowledge that the Fulbright Program encourages. Participants in the panel, ably moderated by George Latimer, Visiting Professor, Macalester College, were Dr. Abdul-Karim Ahmed Amer (Republic of Yemin), Dr. Jyotsna Ragahunath Bapat (India), Stephen Hall (United Kingdom) and Francesco Redivo (Italy).

The Macalester International Roundtable

On Saturday, October 11, 2003, the Minnesota Fulbright Association will join the final session of Macalester College’s International Roundtable: Complex Contradictions: African, American, and Middle Eastern Perspectives to be held in the Weyerhaeuser Chapel at 10 a.m. to noon. The three speakers of the two preceding days of the Roundtable, Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Director of the International Center for Writing and Translation at the University of California-Irvine, and Philip Chase Bobbitt who holds the A.W. Walker Centennial Chair in Law at the University of Texas, will engage in a conversation among themselves as well as with the audience on the Roundtable topic. Immediately following the session, a buffet luncheon for Fulbright attendees will be available in Room 215 in the Dorothy Stricker Dayton Campus Center (corner of Grand & Snelling Avenues) at a cost of $11.00 per person. Reservations must be made by Tuesday, October 7 with Philip Lee (phone: 651-698-1397; e-mail: Palee35@aol.com).

Each of the speakers will be making a presentation on Thursday and Friday, Oct. 9 & 10, and we are welcome to attend those free sessions as well. All sessions will be held in the Weyerhaeuser Chapel.

Thursday, October 9^t, 4:30-6:00 p.m., Rashid Khaladi will address such questions as: What dees it mean to be an Arab/Muslim in our age? What are the weighty questions that face the people of the Middle East? What productive ways might those challenges be addressed? What role should the U.S. play?

Friday, October 10, 9:30 a.m.-Noon, Ngugi wa Thiong’o will address such questions as: What does it mean to be an African in our time? What are the most critical issues (particularly cultural) that confront African peoples? What role should Africans play in the emerging global cultural panorama?

Friday, 1:30-4:00 p.m., Philip Bobbitt will treat, among others, these concerns: What are the key features of the post-Cold War/post-September 11 world? What are the most significant global interests of the United States and how might they best be pursued?

In addition, Friday evening, 8:00-10:15 p.m., a kayagum concert performance by a Korean Ensemble, led by Master Byung-Ki Hwang will be presented in the Macalester Concert Hall in the Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center. A combination of elegant national costume and virtuoso play of the kayagum, supplemented by a flute and an hourglass drum, create an awe-inspiring and pleasing artistic performance. As with the other sessions, there is no charge for this concert.

Parking is available in the south and west parking lots on the Macalester campus as well as in the parking lot of Emanuel Lutheran Church, corner of Snelling and Lincoln Avenues.

President’s Letter

Dear Friends,

Your Board has been busy planning events that celebrate American traditions and others that challenge some of its practices. We welcome your participation and your suggestions for more.

Before I tell you of our activities, let me introduce you to Denise Roy, who will take on the presidency of the chapter in December/January. She has already done most of the work of organizing the baseball event and much else; she will carry on with efficiency, enthusiasm, and a great eye for details. Dr. Roy, whose year as Fulbright Senior Scholar was spent in Airlangga University in Surabaya, Indonesia, is Professor in the William Mitchell College of Law. A graduate of the University of Minnesota and Yale Law School, where she earned her J.D., she has served on many task forces, committees, and societies related to her specialty in Taxation Law.

If you were able to join us on Sept. 19, you will already have seen Denise Roy’s plans at work. We began our year with a hit, using an exciting Twins game as an opportunity to meet our international Fulbright fellows.

October will provide a somewhat more sober gathering. As a group we will join the Macalester International Roundtable, “Complex Contradictions: African, American, and Middle Eastern Perspectives,” on Saturday, October 11 at the Macalester Chapel.. The panel discussion begins at 10; the Fulbright group will gather by 9:30 in the basement of the chapel. After the discussion, which wraps up three days of sessions, to which you are also invited, we will lunch together in the campus Student Center. If you are interested in joining us, be sure to contact Philip Lee by Oct. 7 to make reservations.

Later in the year we will attend a theater party event, exploring our multicultural society. Our year will conclude in the Spring with a conference held in collaboration with the Minnesota Journalism Center. With the participation of our international scholars and a keynoter with expertise and prominence, we will discuss the ways in which the press, particularly the American press, not only reflects but may actually shape and affect matters of war and peace around the world.

Stay tuned; keep in touch through our e-mails; make suggestions. We hope to see you at Macalester’s conference, and at our later events.

Sincerely,

Eleanor Elson Heginbotham, Ph.D.

Special Grant Enhances Welcome

of Visiting International

Fulbright Scholars

Once again this year the Minnesota Fulbright Association has received a grant to fund programs designed both to provide welcome to visiting Fulbright scholars during the academic year 2003-2004 as well as to enrich their knowledge of Minnesota and the Twin Cities area. This Fulbright 2003 Enrichment Grant was provided by the Bureau of Education and Cultural Exchanges of the Department of State and by the Fulbright Association. President-elect Denise Roy wrote the draft of this year’s proposal and organized the baseball events of September 19.

Welcome to International

Fulbright Scholars a Big Hit!

Our first event this Fall was the introduction of our international scholars to America’s favorite pastime. Forty-five people from some dozen countries (including the U.S.)—Uruguay, the Philippines, Japan, Cambodia, Italy, Britain, Sweden, Slovakia, Norway—attended a Minnesota Twins baseball game on September 19. A number of children were in the group, who seemed delighted with the free baseball and caught on to “the wave” activity with enthusiasm. A tour of the Dome was exciting also for the children because the group went to the field on which players were doing batting practice. In addition, the activities included a tour of the Star Tribune facilities and a discussion with reporter Jay Weiner. It was a wonderful day and was thoroughly enjoyed by all—as the pictures on page four clearly indicate.

Our thanks to Francesco Redivo, a Fulbright scholar from Italy, who forwarded to us some reflections on some differences of baseball in Europe compared to what he experienced at the Twins game. He says:

Baseball, America’s favorite pastme, does not attract such a heterogeneous crowd in Europe. Rather, it is always relegated to past midnight air time. In fact, in continental Europe it completely lacks the strong financial support and visibility, in addition to a basic widespread understanding of the rules, that it enjoys over here. Moreover, baseball represents the typical American sporting phenomenon for entire families, regardless of age, gender and ethnical background. As such it has become a relaxing, lighthearted and truly social event where one can observe unique combinations of technical and power skills while sipping a soda

or enjoying a hotdog. Fans are more interested in spending a good time together both before (tailgating) and during the game.

Conversely, soccer in Europe is primarily considered a male sport, both for watching and for playing. Fans’ seats inside the stadium can differ widely and bear an intrinsic meaning. Behind the goals, the cheapest seats, only the most passionate fans have a seat; geneerally, they are also organized in supporting the local team with traditional songs or refrains, flags and trumpets. Supporters of the two teams are always seated in two different sections of the stadium since a soccer match also means a (sporting) battle between the two cities.

Players often develop a tight relationship with the team for which they play; very rarely do they change teams throughout their professional career. Sometimes,certain top players even become flagship players, almost ambassadors, of their team. Their departure would be considered by fans as a harsh, reprehensible betrayal. Teams never leave the city where they are from, but they could be relegated to the lower division if they ranked among the worst four teams during the regular season. No playoffs are played.

I believe that it is easier for soccer to become popular in the USA than for baseball in Europe.

Here is a photograph from that event.

Oral, Public, Adversarial Trials

By James H. Manahan

I just returned from Valdivia, Chile, where I taught a semester of criminal law at the Austral (Southern) University Law School. Chile is changing its criminal justice system to be more like ours in the United States. Specifically, instead of having one judge determine guilt or innocence based on the written police reports and witness statements, they will have oral, adversarial, public trials like we do. Instead of a jury, three judges will decide the cases.

This has led me to ask myself why they would want to emulate our system, which is far from perfect – we have innocent people who get convicted and guilty people who go free (though neither is common). How will oral, adversarial, public trials be an improvement?

First, why an oral trial? Based on the common-law expericnce in England, Canada and the United Sstates, we believe this to be the best method for determining the truth. The fact-finder can evalute the witnesses, look at them face-to-face and decide on their trustworthiness.

But the oral trial does not work well unless the lawyers, both prosecutors and defense attorneys, have the skills to properly present their cases. A strong defense helps free the innocent, of course, but also makes the police and prosecutors work within the law.

Lawyers who rely on intuition and talent to try to improvise on the march, usually lose their cases. A large part of the “art” of litigating involves techniques that can be learned in the same manner one can learn any other discipline. These techniques can be acquired and transmitted and that is what I attempted to do in the course I taught.

Second, why an adversarial trial? One of the principal reasons for the oral trial, with live witnesses, is the right to cross-examine each witness. Our Bill of Rights does not specifically mention this right, but the courts have always ruled it is part of the “due process” to which every defendant is entitled under the 5^th and 14^th Amendments. John Henry Wigmore, the great American legal scholar, said “beyond all doubt, cross-examination is the best legal machine ever invented to discover the truth.” Judge Cokry of the Supreme Court of Canada said “the opportunity to cross-examine witnesses is fundamental to providing a fair trial to the accused.”

Third, why a public trial? Clearly, it is important in a democracy that the citizens have confidence in their courts, and that they can see that the system delivers justice. In addition, defendants as well as victims of crimes are entitled to know the public is keeping an eye on the courts so corruption and mismanagement are less likely.

In the United States, we take these rights for granted, but in Chile they are new. Now that General Pinochet is gone, it is important for the rest of the world to see that there is justice in Chile. The fact that they are adopting our system of oral, adversarial, public trials of criminal cases is a big step in that direction.

James H. Manahan practices law in Mankato, Minnesota, with the firm of Manahan, Bluth & Kohlmeyer Law Office, Charted

(N.B.: Accounts of Fulbright experiences are always welcome. Send articles, by August 1 for the Fall Newsletter, by February 1 for the Spring Newsletter, to Philip Lee – either by snail-mail or e-mail) .