It is great to be here tonight and I am honored to have been invited to participate in this prestigious dinner so I thank Arnold and Patricia Foote for hosting this event and for asking me to speak tonight.
I am indeed honored to consider myself a friend of Arnold Foote; with a curriculum like his listing a breathtaking number of awards and different important positions over more than 50 years, many of them in pro-bono and honorary work. And I am very proud to meet you, the directors and members of the World Federation of Consuls. But I am also proud of many other people here tonight.– Professor Michael Nobel
Why am I honored: well let me tell you what I learned from a speech made by The Honorable Ayku Eken:
I quote “In accordance with international practice, honorary consuls do not receive any regular payment or salary for their work. Honorary consuls do exactly the same work as career diplomats of the same rank. They are heads of missions. The economic sense underlying their functioning has made honorary consuls more and more sought after and has led to more and more honorary consuls being appointed in preference over career consuls.
They have earned high praise for their work from heads of state and governments and are emerging as significant components of diplomatic power in the scheme of traditional diplomacy exercised by embassies.”
I felt the words of the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic sums it up nicely “…a good honorary consul is a dream of every Prime Minister, every Minister of Finance and every Minister of Foreign Affairs. He carries out his mission as a career diplomat, but free of charge.”
When people talk of diplomats they usually refer to ambassadors, charge d’affaires, military and commercial attaches and other career positions. But I feel the real and hard work is being done by you, the members of FICAC, the honorary consuls.
You are facing all the practical and onerous problems of the world, replacements of lost passports and money, visits to prisoners, helping stranded and sick people and who have lost their money back to their home country, attending frequent, drawn out diplomatic events, having to explain and impose ever-changing and complicated rules from the home country and this without pay. You are the unsung but real heroes of the diplomatic corps and I am honored to meet you tonight.
With your permission I’ll like to move on to another issue. I have been told that a speaker has to tell a story or two to keep the audience interested so I’ll talk about age and what impact it has.
A group of English chaps, all aged 40, discussed where they should meet for a reunion lunch. Finally it was agreed that they would meet at Wetherspoons in Eastbourne, because the waitresses had voluptuous figures, plunging cleavages and wore mini-skirts.
– ten years later, at age 50, the friends once again agreed that they would meet at there because the food and service was good and the beer selection was excellent.
– ten years later, at age 60, the friends again agreed that they would meet at the same restaurant because there was plenty of parking, they could dine in peace and quiet, and it was good value for money.
– ten years later, at age 70, the friends agreed that they would meet at the same restaurant because the restaurant was wheelchair accessible and had a toilet for the disabled.
– ten years later, at age 80, the friends discussed where they should meet for lunch. Finally it was agreed that they would meet at Wetherspoons in Eastbourne, because they had never been there before.
What has this to do with anything you might ask. Well, time passes quickly as we all know. In a few weeks I will be 75 years old so the story might have relevance to me and others here tonight in the same age group.
Looking back at your life at your sunset years I do feel that everyone should have tried to do something worthwhile in his or her life before retiring from work. So that, when you look back upon your life you should be able to say: “ Well, I did do something good for others” or at least I tried to do so”.
Even if you feel you did not succeed it does not matter. My philosophy would be: don’t be discouraged, do not lose faith in what you do or have done as long as you did the best you could.
And to be a decent human being pays off, as you will learn from the following story. My great grandfather Ludwig, and his brother Robert, Alfred’s brothers, came to Baku in the middle of the 19th century. The prevalent working conditions in Baku for the oil workers at that time were simply appalling. Pictures show them standing up to their chests in oil in their daily work and living in hovels you would not want your pets to live in.
Ludwig and Robert Nobel brought with them many revolutionary social concepts from Sweden. The Nobel Company built hospitals; food stores, schools and housing for its workers, they even had one of the world’s first profit sharing plan for their employees and in doing so they attracted the anger and criticism from the other oil barons who treated their own workers worse than cattle.
Then came the Russian revolution Most of the other petroleum barons were killed; many of them by their own irate workers, blood were literally flowing in the gutters. The Nobelites, as the Nobel workers were called, surrounded the Nobel family home and protected them from the Bolshevik’s attacks saying they were good and decent people who had always treated them well so they should be spared.
Emanuel Nobel my grand uncle was actually offered to assume the directorship of the entire oil industry by the communist regime but wisely refused and retired to Sweden I, for one would not stand here today if it were not for such values in my ancestors.
But motivation also plays a vital role in life. To do a job really well you have to be convinced that what you do is worthwhile and not only for money and material rewards like the great majority of our fellow men do.
Most people undertake a lifelong pursuit of what they believe is happiness: make more money, buy more things, and consume more, a philosophy that leaves little or no trace of them when they are gone from this earth.
This life is not a dress rehearsal. Unless you believe in reincarnation you might assume you only have this one life and that your only hope of immortality is by passing your genes on to your children. The most important thing in life is then not to leave them a lot of material possessions but to leave a legacy of spiritual values that hopefully will make them good persons and to help others like you do in your profession.
It is not easy; take drug prevention work as an example. I worked in the field for little or no pay for four years in Switzerland and found that maybe 10 percent of our patients ever became free of their affliction. The rest died or went to prison or simply disappeared. I used to feel frustrated, and discouraged in my work.
I then used to recall a story. A woman walked on a beach. It was a hot summer and the waterline had receded, leaving hundreds of sea dwellers; mussels, starfish and oysters exposed to the sun.
She saw a little girl at water’s edge picking up starfish and throwing them back into the sea. She walked over to her and said: “little girl, look at you, all dirty, and look around you, there are hundreds of starfish dying in the heat, you can only save a few of these; do you really think what you do will make any difference at all?”
The little girl looked up to her, held out her hand with a starfish and said smiling: “Yes, maybe not, but to this one, it makes all the difference in the world”.
It is the same for your work, it might not influence the course of history but you when you provide an invaluable help and assistance to the individuals you encounter, you leave a spiritual legacy.
I will tell you another one, also directly related to your work, a true story about a miracle. A little girl named Tess went to her bedroom and pulled a jar from its hiding place in the closet. Slipping out the back door she made her way to the drug store and waited patiently for the pharmacist to give her some attention.
Finally she took a quarter from her jar and banged it on the counter. “And what do you want?” the pharmacist asked annoyed. “I’m talking to my brother from Chicago whom I haven’t seen in ages”
“Well, I want to talk to you about my brother,” Tess answered back. “He’s really, really sick and I want to buy a miracle.” “I beg your pardon?” said the pharmacist. “His name is Andrew” said Tess, “and he has something bad growing inside his head and my Daddy says that only a miracle can save him now. So how much does a miracle cost?”
“We don’t sell miracles here, little girl. I’m sorry but I can’t help you,” the pharmacist said, softening a little. “But, said the little girl, I have the money to pay for it. If it isn’t enough, I will get the rest. Just tell me how much it costs for a miracle.”
The pharmacist’s brother was a well-dressed man. He stooped down and asked the girl, “What kind of a miracle does your brother need?” “I don’t know,” Tess replied, with her eyes welling up. “I just know he’s very sick and Mommy says he needs an operation but my Daddy can’t pay for it, so I want to use my own money”.
“How much do you have?” asked the man from Chicago. “One dollar and eleven cents,” Tess answered barely audibly.” And it’s all the money I have, but I can get some more if you need it. “Well, what a coincidence,” smiled the man. “A dollar and eleven cents is the exact price of a miracle for little brothers”. He took her money in one hand and with the other hand he grasped her mitten and said “Take me to where you live. I want to meet your brother and your parents. Let’s see if I have the kind of miracle you need.”
That well dressed man was Dr. Carlton Armstrong, a famous neuro-surgeon, The operation was successful and it wasn’t long until Andrew was home again and doing well. Mom and Dad were happily talking about the chain of events that had led to this. “That surgery,” her Mom whispered. “was a real miracle. I wonder how much it would have cost?”
Tess smiled. She knew exactly how much a miracle cost. It cost one dollar and eleven cents plus the faith of a little child.
This story also reflects your job, as honorary consuls you provide invaluable services to individuals, without requiring any compensation, this is true dedication like Dr. Armstrong manifested in this story.
I’ll finish with a brief mention of the Nobel Prizes. You have probably received the impression that it is one of the foremost and most prestigious prizes in the world and it certainly is. Basically every scientist and scientific medias in the world agrees to that. So bear with me if I criticize it.
The science prizes were meant to be given to young researchers on the way to greatness and to honor those who during the preceding year had done the discovery or invention with the greatest benefit to mankind. Instead it is most often given as a lifetime achievement award to people in the twilight of their careers for discoveries made twenty or more years ago and which since long has been replaced by others more advanced.
And what about the prize in literature?
Some wit have said that in order to gain it you should preferably live in a totally forsaken place, write in a language no one has ever heard about and not distribute it in more than a few hundred copies.
But the real controversial award is the Nobel Peace Prize. Alfred Nobel, in his will, emphasized that the Prize should go to the person who has done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of the standing armies and for holding and promotion of peace congresses.
As a former chairman for 15 years of the Nobel Family Board of Directors I have become increasingly critical in recent years of the Nobel Peace Prize being given to individuals and organizations that do not fulfill the conditions established by Alfred Nobel in his testament in 1895.
Political opponents to regimes, environmentalists, human rights proponents and agricultural innovators are all worthy persons but should not be included among the true peace activists and conflict resolution organizations that my great grand uncle intended to recognize with his award. Instead I believe that organizations like FICAC should be honored for the many years of devoted service to mankind you have committed yourself to.
In finishing let me propose a toast to your president Arnold Foote for the many years he has dedicated to the impressive development of your organization.
Your excellencies, dear colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, please rise. Arnold, here is a toast to you from all of us.
