Sunday, September 18th, 7 pm, Olin Science Center, Room 1, Colby College: Mia Bloom, University of Cincinnati, “Dying to Kill: The Allure of Suicide Terror”. Dr. Mia Bloom is an expert on terrorism, martyrdom, rape in war and child soldiers. She is currently an assistant professor of political science at the University of Cincinnati and consults for the NJ Office of Counter Terrorism and for federal agencies. She has held research or teaching appointments at Princeton, Cornell, Harvard and McGill Universities. Dr. Bloom speaks nine languages and began focusing on international terrorism in 1990.
Friday, October 28th: Adam Cote, the “Adopt an Iraqi Village” Program. As platoon leader with the 133rd Engineer Battalion, Adam Cote served with the Maine Army National Guard in Mosul, Iraq from March 2004 through March 2005. The 133rd was responsible for rebuilding schools, hospitals and other infrastructure in Northern Iraq. Among other work, Adam created the “Adopt an Iraqi Village” program where he coordinated the distribution of donated clothing, toys, and household necessities to different local villages. He received two Army Commendation Medals for his service in Iraq. He is still currently a member of the Maine Army National Guard. Please join us for an eye witness account of what’s been happening in Iraq.
Monday, November 7th, John Martin’s Manor: David Brancaccio, “From Kennebec County to Timbuktu”. Co-sponsored with Waterville Rotary. David Brancaccio, host and senior editor of the program “NOW” on PBS, will talk about how the security of faraway places may have more connections than you think to our own security and well-being here at home. David grew up in central Maine and has traveled extensively in developing countries. For three years he served as the London-based European editor for the public radio program “Marketplace” and the radio service of the Christian Science Monitor. He recently completed a television documentary on global public health and a radio documentary on global security issues.
Tuesday, December 6th: Oak Fellow Dr. Frances Lovemore, “Human Rights Abuses in Zimbabwe”. Frances Lovemore, the 2005 Oak Human Rights Fellow at Colby, is the medical director of the Amani Trust, which is the key organization in Zimbabwe providing services and support to victims of human rights abuses. Dr. Lovemore is a medical doctor who has been involved in the documentation and treatment of victims of torture and organized violence. She has been involved in research into methods of empowering survivors to address issues of reparation and redress, both locally and internationally. For more information about Dr. Lovemore and the Oak Institute, please seewww.colby.edu/academics_cs/goldfarb/oak/fellows/2005.cfm
Friday, January 13th: Shenna Bellows, “Challenging U.S. Torture in the Courts and Congress”. Shenna Bellows, Executive Director of the Maine Civil Liberties Union, will talk about ACLU Freedom of Information Act lawsuits pertaining to torture, including the ACLU and Human Rights First lawsuit against Donald Rumsfeld, and the most recent ACLU lawsuit against former CIA director George Tenet, on behalf of Khaled El-Masri, challenging the abduction, detention and interrogation of foreign nationals under the extraordinary rendition program. For more information about the ACLU, please seehttp://www.aclu.org.
Friday, February 17th: Raymond Baker, “Capitalism’s Achilles Heel”. Raymond Baker is an internationally respected authority on governance, growth, and foreign policy issues as they influence developing and transitional economies. After more than 40 years of experience in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Europe and extensive research he has written a book entitled “Capitalism’s Achilles Heel: Dirty Money and How to Renew the Free Market System.” In his book Baker chronicles the widespread illegal flow of money around the world through schemes like fictitious pricing, dummy corporations, and fake transactions. The practice bolsters international crime and contributes to global inequality and poverty. Please join us for a glimpse at the way criminals, terrorists, and business people move money around the world, and the resulting deleterious effects. Bring along your book for a signing.
Monday, March 6th, John Martin’s Manor: Local physicians on “Global Health Volunteerism: Efforts and Impacts on Health in Impoverished Areas”. Co-sponsored with Waterville Rotary. Pathologist John Benziger works with Partners in Health of Maine to rebuild and improve the health system in the northern Atlantic region of Nicaragua. Emergency medicine physician Michael Klein works with Maine-based Masons on a Mission building efficient wood-burning cook stoves for indigenous Mayan families in Guatemala. Dr. Guy Nuki runs the Himalayan Health Center, a new nonprofit organization that provides medical care to the rural destitute in the Indian Himalayas.
Tuesday, March 21st, Philip Brown, Assistant Professor of Economics at Colby College, “China’s Economic Growth: Prognosis and Challenges”. Brown recently returned from China where he led a Colby January course, visiting factories, talking to business leaders and touring Shanghai’s container port terminal. The port loads approximately 10,000 twenty-foot containers per day, making it the third largest in the world. Please join us to learn more about China’s rapidly growing economy.
Wednesday, April 12th, G. Calvin Mackenzie, Professor of Government at Colby College, “Beyond Ideology: America, China, and the Realities of the Twenty-First Century”. Although their histories and cultures are very different, China and America enter the 21st century as partners and rivals, but also as political societies struggling with similar problems and challenges. Poverty, pandemic, surging demands for fuel, trade imbalances and many of the other plagues of modern life crowd the agendas of both countries. But the primary struggle each will face, though from different directions, is the chronic need of every society to balance freedom and order. Cal Mackenzie spent six months in China in 2005 and will share his thoughts on the character of these challenges and their likely impacts on both countries.
Thursday, May 11th, “Seeds of Peace”. Each summer students from Israel and Palestine gather at the International Seeds of Peace Camp in Otisfield, Maine to live and work together on conflict resolution regarding the difficult issues confronting the Middle East. Please join us when a panel of students from 3 area high schools (Lawrence, Winslow, and Messalonskee) will have a dialog with Seeds of Peace graduates Anastasia Netta Artemyev Berg and Hazem Zoun. World history/social studies classes from the four area high schools will also attend and participate in the dialog following the panel discussion. Global Forum members will also be given the opportunity to participate with their own questions.
Tuesday, August 8th, 10th Anniversary Dinner with special guest speaker Zbigniew Brzezinski. Please join us as we celebrate ten years of bringing high-caliber speakers on global topics to central Maine. We are excited and honored to have as our speaker, Zbigniew Brzezinski. Mr. Brzezinski, who served as National Security Advisor from 1977-81 and is an internationally recognized scholar and statesman, will speak about “Restoring U.S. Global Credibility.” Time: 6:00 Cocktails (cash bar), 6:30 Dinner. Location: Schair-Swenson-Watson Alumni Center, Colby College. Cost: $25 per person or $175 per table for eight (reservations required). For more information, please email: thebenzigers@hotmail.com .
Mid-Maine Global Forum 