|
PAFSO Awards
Karen Foss
Karen Foss 06/9/2005
View in - Windows Player(wmv) Real Time
Thank you to all of you for giving me the opportunity to be here tonight and the honour to be amongst the recipients. There is no greater recognition than that of ones peers – and such peers – I am doubly honoured.
Standing before you tonight is a lesson in humility – I have much to be modest about. The hard work and sacrifice of hundreds of colleagues across the tsunami affected region, all of you at headquarters and all of those called in from other posts – you never once hesitated and gave much in order to serve Canadians and deliver rapid response to the effected communities. Mine was one meagre part of this effort.
I was told when I went on post that I would feel disconnected from Ottawa and one would think this would be particularly true when based in the Aceh frontier – but I have been lucky, blessed with a modern management team that is willing to take all possible measures to supports its people. Ambassador Randolph Mank, Director General Jim Fox, Director Chris Thornley and Deputy Director Elissa Golberg, thank you for your support and for sharing with me your lexicons of experience and knowledge.
I owe a special thank you to my political counsellor Jim Nickel who is not only a great manager and a pleasure to work for, but also took on all of my files at the embassy, taking time out of his life to afford me the opportunity to move to Aceh. I do not think there are many like Jim who would be willing to do this.
And to my partner Patrick who makes sure that even in Aceh there is laughter every day. Thank you.
Upon joining the foreign service I did not think that my typical work day would be wearing a head scarf, squatting in camps. But I am very glad that that is the way it has turned out. A natural disaster on this scale was unprecedented, such also was the response. And I am proud to be a part of Canada’s effort in this regard.
The images of the devastation wrecked by the tsunami does nothing to prepare one for standing at the coast of Banda Aceh, once the most affluent and densely populated area of town and now a barren waste land as far as the eye can see. As our Ambassador to Indonesia, Randolph Mank, once noted, it is to stand on Parliament hill and see nothing left of Ottawa and to know that that destruction goes as far as Quebec city on one side and Toronto on the other.
And that is the structural damage. The human loss is far more tragic.
In a province of 4.2 million, an estimated 128,000 deaths. No one is unscathed. One of my dear friends in Aceh is a professor at the Islamic Institute in Aceh. He and his wife met at McGill where they both did their PhDs and were married in Montreal. When the tsunami struck he was in a plane flying back to Aceh where his wife and two children were waiting for him. The plane was turned around and he has not seen or heard from them since. When he first told me this story we were seated around the dinner table at Canada House and he reached over to me and thanked Canada for being present on the ground, and said "Being here right now, I feel like I am breathing the fresh air of Canada. It helps me to grieve and it gives me solace."
At times of need, we have learned the desire amongst host communities to know that Canada is there and committed to help. Post-tsunami Aceh is no exception. And what courage it gives the heart while abroad to accidentally come across a Canadian project. To see our flag and know that Canada is there and delivering.
One volunteer nurse from Toronto said on her visit to Canada House that seeing the flag waving gave her such a sense of pride, she felt that it was a reward for the months of hard work in the Red Cross field hospital. And similar stories have been reported in Sri Lanka, and Thailand.
Canada was one of the first donor countries to establish a presence on the ground and we maintain that presence in a uniquely Canadian way, keeping our doors open. One of the highlights of my posting is meeting the diverse groups of Canadians who show up on the doorstep. A knock on the door could be anyone.
I think that flipping through the guest book at Canada House demonstrates the role that Foreign Affairs plays in providing a forum for a whole of Government foreign policy. We have supported the work of the Senate, DND, Health Canada, CIDA, BC government, Federation of Canadian Municipalities, City of Toronto, and the Assembly of First Nations.
One man from Ontario who knocked on the door had cashed in his life savings to bring a search and rescue team immediately after the disaster, but his supplies were stuck at customs and he told me how an officer at our embassy, Cindy McAlpine facilitated customs clearances for his heat seeking equipments that he used to rescue survivors who had been accidentally buried alive in mass graves.
One Albertan who came to call is the former UN Special Representative to Secretary General to Sudan – as an experienced humanitarian worker he was pleased to see our presence on the ground – not only did Canada say we would expand our international presence, but there we are actually doing it. That is where your foreign service is today - mud on our shoes and grit in our hair. I am glad to have the opportunity to play a part.
Thank you and good evening
|
|
