Tom Andrews is the Robina Senior Human Rights Fellow at Yale University Law School, and Associate of Harvard University’s Asia Center, and is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar. He will speak to Portland Rotary on August 27 about the situation in Myanmar.
A former member of the US Congress from Maine, Tom Andrews has run national advocacy organizations including Win Without War and United to End Genocide. Through his consulting practice, Andrews Strategic Services, he has worked with the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs as well as parliamentarians, democracy advocates and human rights organizations in several countries including Cambodia, Indonesia, Algeria, Norway, Croatia, Serbia, Ukraine and Yemen. Andrews served as General Secretary of “The Nobel Peace Laureate Campaign for Aung San Suu Kyi and the People of Burma” in 2001 and served as an advisor to the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma and the Euro-Burma Network. Andrews was Director of the Maine Studies Center at the University of Maine and served in the Maine House of Representatives and the Maine Senate.
The mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar was first established in 1992 under the Commission on Human Rights Resolution 58 and extended annually. Human Rights Resolution 25/26 adopted 15 April 2014 broadened the mandate to report on the progress in the electoral process and reform in the run-up to the 2015 election. Human Rights Resolution 31/24 adopted 24 March 2016 broadened the mandate to include identifying benchmarks for progress and priority areas for technical assistance and capacity-building.
A graduate of Bowdoin College, Andrews lives with his family in Fairfax, Virginia outside of Washington DC.
Bits and Pieces
Charlie Frair provided the invocation to open our meeting of 30.
Roger Fagan told of the challenges of helping the hearing clinic in the Dominican Republic fit hearing aids and shared a video showing a young man hearing for the first time through the benefit of one. “Now that he can hear,” Roger said. “He can go to school. This is the work we do.”
Charlie Frair reminded everyone of the Flags for Heroes project. The club web page will soon be able to handle credit card transactions for contributions to this program.
Bob Martin shared the results of the recent survey conducted to learn member preferences on returning to meeting-in-person. The survey resulted in 43 responses, or 37% of the club. This information will help guide the Board’s planning for returning to meeting in person.
Palaver Strings entertains, educates
By Ben Lowry
Violinist Maya French and cellist Matt Smith, the two managing directors with Palaver Strings, were graciously introduced by President Bob Martin at our Zoom meeting Friday, August 20. Maya, speaking to our group from the Rockland Music Festival, gave us a wonderful overview of this ground-breaking nonprofit which, while founded in 2014 in Boston, has its roots now firmly entrenched in the cultural and educational scene in Portland. With half of its 40 performances per year in Maine, this ensemble of 13 string musicians has garnered national attention for their stances and interpretations on not only music, but on various social issues that affect our world.
With two studio albums, from 2017 and 2018, and a successful YouTube video under their belts, the energetic group is now set to release their third album, “Ready or Not” in January of 2022. With that as a backdrop, Maya shared her computer screen with our club as we watched and listened to a performance from this past May when the group played in Rockport, Massachusetts. In listening to the ensemble play a magical rendition of Tchaikovsky’s “Serenade for Strings”, our club was in for a real treat. With no conductor, Maya explained, the group has to weave their way through each piece with body movements and eye contact, no easy feat. The piece was splendidly performed and the visuals were top notch, reminding us all of the loss that we’ve shared over the past 18 months with limitations on live performance.
Matt Smith took center stage next and gave us a bit more information about the educational aspects of Palaver Strings. While in Boston, he explained, the group noticed that many of their most meaningful musical experiences were not in concert halls, but in schools, nursing homes and small, intimate venues. With that passion for creating a bond with those who may be impressionable or seeking education, they created the Palaver Music Center here in Portland, where five programs have been established to provide varying musical support for many young or interested music lovers. With two Head Start programs in southern Maine, the group works with 250 to 300 children per week, while the Strings Program provides guidance and lessons to groups of pre-K to 2nd graders at a reduced cost basis with aid given to over 60% of the children, a necessity when one considers the $2000 annual cost for a single child’s lessons. The Lullaby Program provides a unique opportunity for parents to compose a lullaby for their newborn babies and the Life Songs for the Queer Community provides a safe space for many young people in the LGBTQ community to find confidence through music. The last portion of Matt’s talk was a video of a small group performing a rap that was powerfully and skillfully performed.
Our club and our community are very fortunate to have such a group in our midst and we were all thrilled to be able to enjoy the story and the musicianship of Palaver Strings at our last meeting.
Moment of Reflection
The physicist Carlo Rovelli has a beautiful way of talking about science in terms of ignorance and curiosity. In Helgoland: Making Sense of the Quantum Revolution, he writes:
“I believe that one of the greatest mistakes made by human beings is to want certainties when trying to understand something. The search for knowledge is not nourished by certainty: it nourished by a radical absence of certainty. Thanks to the acute awareness of our ignorance, we are open to doubt and can continute to elarn and to learn better. This has always been the strength of scientific thinking—thinking born of curiosity, revolt, change.”
Speaker Schedule
August 27 | Tom Andrews, UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar
September 3 | NO MEETING
September 10 | Hadlock Field: In-person NO ZOOM
September 17 | Blaine Grimes, Chief Venture Officer, GMRI
September 24 | Rita Heimes, Chief Privacy Officer, IAPP
October 1 | Emily Isaacson, conductor
October 8 |Dick Hall, District Governor
October 15 | Henry Beck, Maine Treasurer
October 22 |Dan Brennan, Maine Housing
October 29 | Dana Eidsness, Director, North Atlantic Development Organization
November 5 | Leigh Saufley, Dean, Maine Law
December 10 | Paul Mayewski, Climate Change Institute, University of Maine
practice, Andrews Strategic Services, he has worked with the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs as well as parliamentarians, democracy advocates and human rights organizations in several countries including Cambodia, Indonesia, Algeria, Norway, Croatia, Serbia, Ukraine and Yemen. Andrews served as General Secretary of “The Nobel Peace Laureate Campaign for Aung San Suu Kyi and the People of Burma” in 2001 and served as an advisor to the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma and the Euro-Burma Network. Andrews was Director of the Maine Studies Center at the University of Maine and served in the Maine House of Representatives and the Maine Senate. 
Center here in Portland, where five programs have been established to provide varying musical support for many young or interested music lovers. With two Head Start programs in southern Maine, the group works with 250 to 300 children per week, while the Strings Program provides guidance and lessons to groups of pre-K to 2nd graders at a reduced cost basis with aid given to over 60% of the children, a necessity when one considers the $2000 annual cost for a single child’s lessons. The Lullaby Program provides a unique opportunity for parents to compose a lullaby for their newborn babies and the Life Songs for the Queer Community provides a safe space for many young people in the LGBTQ community to find confidence through music. The last portion of Matt’s talk was a video of a small group performing a rap that was powerfully and skillfully performed.
