Running With a Cause, Building Bridges and Remembrance August 2009

Running With a Cause, Building Bridges and Remembrance August 2009

August can only be described as an incredible month of running and doing social justice work for me. It was a month that started with pure happiness and ended with a deep sadness connected to loss.

August started with the Interns Running for a Cause BABSEA International Legal Studies ½ Marathon, 10km and 5km event in Sangkampaeng, Thailand (about 25km outside Chiang Mai) The event, which operated as a core part of our legal internship program, both motivated our legal studies related interns to stay fit during their 12 week program, as well as worked to both raise additional awareness and support for the causes we support.

Looking back and reflecting on the health conditions of many of the lawyers I use to practice with, I think the issue of mentoring the interns to stay healthy in body, was one of our prime goals. As the saying goes, “a healthy body means a healthy mind” and it is my ardent belief that you cannot effectively do social justice work, for any prolonged period of time, without both. The simple stress of doing this work requires a positive relief. Yet, unfortunately many in our field of work turn to various forms of inebriants to provide the crutch they need.

So the event went well, starting with all the participants (interns, BABSEA team members and others from the Chiang Mai community alike) at 4:30am, yes, not a typo, to head out and Run for Justice.

The day was about as perfect as we could have imagined Thailand could be in early August. It was not too hot and it was not too sunny and aside from the occasion mal-oder whiff of cow dung in the air, much else worked so well.

We all ran at what we refer to as the King’s Project, which is a reforestation program in the mountains of Northern Thailand, and one of our key partners at BABSEA. Interns and volunteers in the past have worked at the King’s Project to plant trees, teach law, paint schools and work at the local orphanage.

Running on this day, with my tested tried and true running partner, Gillian Gough, who many referred to as the bionic intern, we both stuck to plan. We ran 10 minutes and swiftly walked 1 minute, ran 10 minutes and so on. My gadgets that I previously wrote about began to clunk out from the beginning and by the end, not even my IPod worked. Never mind I thought as I ran through, slowly building up speed in between each interval.

By half way through it became clear to me that we would come in under the 2 hour mark if we just stayed steady on the course. I was ecstatic about this happening, more for Gillian than for me. Gillian, who has run and done yoga most of her life, never ran more than 10km prior to our internship program and now she was perched to run her first ½ marathon in under two hours.

I let her know this with about 4 miles to go, we slapped hands, and onward we went, through the paved and unpaved roads, forests and open aired paths we were on.
Coming in to the finish we shot up the final hill, about 100 meters long, to a bunch of smiling interns who had mostly run the 10 and 5km. We came in as a team, just like we trained, holding hands and smiling to the end.

Well, we thought it was the end but when we finished at 1:57 minutes we were immediately told that we were not actually at the finish line and had to continue to run back onto the road and into the distance.

“Fantastic” was not a word that was going through my mind at that point as both of us set back out and dutifully listened to a group of people who I came to understand very quickly were misguided. We ran about 20 more seconds and I stopped defiantly, fully knowing that we had run our run, down to the minute and second and we both knew what 21 km was and that we had just completed it, no matter what others had said. We knew this because aside from there being no actual FINISHED sign, the overall course was brilliant marked with signage throughout.

We came back in, sweat dripping, grabbed fruit and bananas and both of us were ready to put forth the strongest “legal arguments” about how we knew we just ran the full course and how we were not going one more step. We were then informed that the 2 other interns who ran the ½ who came in before us, where still running out there and had no idea that they had in fact finished the run. Oh, what a beautiful thing a FINISHED sign would be and could do, and I made a strong mental note to make sure to have one out our Trio for Justice Run in November, which is planned to be on the same course.

Shortly afterward, our two jack rabbit interns, Jase and Davis, came in, in that order, and they were honorifically congratulated for coming in first and second in both the First Annual BABSEA Interns Running for a Cause ½ Marathon as well as the First (and Last) BABSEA Interns Running for a Cause 26km unplanned event.

I think it is fair to say that other runners, walkers and even strollers absolutely loved the event. We had Anna, from Russia, active all her life yet not a runner. Anna decided 2 weeks before the event to run the ½ marathon and did so with a steady one foot in front of the other, always smiling attitude, coming in around 2hr 30 min. Others, with little care about time or distance, opted for the 5km and took hordes of photos along the way.

At the end of the event, many of the interns understood that this was no mere exercise but was in fact a strong symbol of much of what our social justice internship program stands for. It successfully challenged interns and placed many of them outside their comfort zones, similar to other experiences of theirs throughout the May-August program. Yet, in the end, there was a finish line, even if just like in life there was no sign. There was a finish line and these eager young minds successfully reached it. Once reached they were ready to return home to pick up the torch and continue the battle for fairness, access to justice and equality, that so often is deprived to many persons within the country borders that these students came from. Simultaneously, we helped sow the seeds that may allow a number of these torch bearers to be a bit more physically and mentally fit in the days, months and years to come.

Following this event, I spent the next two weeks diligently sticking to my 18 week marathon training program, slowly and surely building stamina, strength and mental perseverance. Much of this time found me back on a treadmill, which was easily accessible, and easily able to control and alternate my runs with. I began much more hill training, after reading that this is one of the most important aspects to doing well in the New York Marathon. In addition, I began to alter my tempo day runs, fitting in more sprints and multiple fast paced mile intervals. The absence of my traveling to other countries made it much more possible for me to set into a routine of eating better, sleeping better and exercising better.

Well, that was at least for 2 weeks and then I once again had to face the fact that my position and responsibilities do not always allow a routine schedule.

During the 3rd week of August our organization assisted in the facilitation of 16 Vietnamese legal scholars coming to Chiang Mai for a study visit of the Chiang Mai University Legal Clinic. The participants represented 6 universities in Vietnam, all interested in either developing or expanding Clinical Legal Education programs at their institutions. This study visit was the next step results of my earlier trip in July to Vietnam, where I found myself running throughout the country, in the North, Middle and South.

Now it was finally happening and all of us at BABSEA were required to be completely “on” for the 5 days that our Vietnamese guests where here. With a fully packed agenda, I found myself stretched thin to keep to the letter the required training of my 18 week schedule. Yet, overall I was pretty successful, with an often quick dash to the Kantary Hills treadmills, fitting in a 45min to 1 hour run, mixed with hills and sprints. I even tried to force myself to arise at 5am twice during the week, figuring I would get in an early run on 2 days, but I utterly failed in this and had to contend with the fact that my runs would be between meals or late at night.

All was good and I even managed to fit in a 16 mile treadmill run on my long slow run Sundays, although this was probably the most difficult part of the week’s training. It was not a physical thing but more of a mental challenge, as I watched the entire movie Cool Hand Luke and 2 episodes of the HBO series, True Blood, with my legs steadily pounding away.

One significant change in the training schedule happened on the last night of the study visit. On this night, with me supposed to put in an easy 4 miles, I decided to forgo this and succumb to the social requirement of me attending the communal dinner at the BABSEA House, where all the participants cooked Vietnamese and Thai food together, and even some good old chocolate chip cookies.

In true Vietnamese fashion, we all drank beer, something I have been avoiding doing much of since my training began, and we toasted and cheered the success of the
week’s full on events.

On that night I left feeling good and proud of the accomplishments our organization has been such a significant part of. I went home, a bit tipsy, with thoughts of how the next day I would easily make up the missed 4 miles and prepare myself for the 8 mile Saturday and 17 mile Sunday that awaited me.

I went home, crawled into bed, and did what I normally do, I checked my email.
It was that moment that I knew my training was about to undergo a seismic shift, at least temporarily. As I read the heartfelt email sent by my sister Suzanne, letting me know her husband Tom was now in a coma and shortly would pass on, I knew that my road to justice would include the justice of family love and responsibility.

I immediately called my sister and confirmed that my brother in law, a man incredibly loved for his core values, compassion, wit and positive ethics, was finally dying from a debilitating and life ending disease he was struggling through for more than 1 year. Already knowing this event would come, but not sure exactly when, I assured her that I would make flight arrangements first thing in the morning and be there as soon as possible. Laying my head down on the pillow, I thought how happy I was that the Vietnam study visit was such a success and yet, like many aspects of life, I would not really be able to fully revel in this triumph because other matters, equally as important, where now going to take priority.

Waking myself 5 hours later, I was met with an email confirming his death just hours before, and I made my plans to head to Miami that night. The funeral was to be Sunday and they were going to wait for my arrival.

With reservations quickly made, and a planned 5 day trip to Miami and back,

I packed my bags, making sure to include my running gear in my carry on, and off I went.
Well, off in a sorta, kinda way. I went but it did not seem the airplanes I was scheduled to fly on would want to operate in the same manner. A tip I always follow is to pack your running shoes and some sportswear in your carryon bag, just in case. My plan was perfect, or so I thought. I had a 6 hour layover in London and I would either walk the airport for 2 straight hours, or try to get out for a 1 hour run, and use the lounge showers inside, refreshed for my flight to the USA.
After attending to a bit more emails I looked at the flight departure monitor, with 4 hours to go before my next flight, and was stunned to see the word Cancelled next to my flight number. This resulted in no running, or walking on my part, but instead a “pleasant” experience with the airlines trying to get me to anywhere in the USA that evening so I could make the funeral the next day.

Failing to achieve this, it was decided that I would be flown to Frankfurt, Germany and would take a morning flight directly to Miami, putting me in a bit late but in time to attend most of the funeral.

So I flew that evening to Frankfurt, arriving exhausted. I woke at 4am, put on my running gear, and was out by 4:30am, running back and forth in a somewhat lit path areas in front of the airport hotel, to keep from getting hit by traffic. All that running on a treadmill in the past few weeks made this somewhat monotonous path seem grand and exciting. As well, the cool early morning air, made the experience one of real enjoyment.

Coming in refreshed and ready to head to Miami, I packed again, making sure once again to keep my running gear in my carryon luggage and headed off to the airport for my non-stop flight from Frankfurt to Miami.

Well, the flight should have been called a non-start flight because 4 hours after we were supposed to take off, I was still sitting on the plane, which has a broken sound system, and we were not moving anyway.

Finally, after getting off the plane, and changing flights, 5 hours later than we were scheduled to, the flight took off and I made it to my sister’s 20 hours later than my planned arrival. Try as they would have liked to wait, the funeral went on without me physically being present. Exhausted and so happy to be with my family, I collapsed into a deep sleep that night, content with being there.

I woke the next day, mixed my Gatorade, put on my running shoes and shot outside at 5:30am, with my other sister, who was visiting from New York. She tailed me on a bike and I meandered, in the early morning Miami think and humid air, for the better part of 6 ½ miles, dripping sweat all the way.

That evening, and still trying to keep to a weeklong schedule that was less than perfect, I planned my long distance Sunday slow run on a Tuesday. Then, surrounded by people and food, and more food, prayers, laughter, sadness, crying and incredible respect was put forth for Tom. I thought and expressed this belief, that of all the people in the world I have met doing social justice and human rights work, Tom rated at the top of them in being what the Australians refer to as “True Blue”. Dignified and generous until the end, I went to bed thinking how much I would miss him, and thought too about how I would tackle 17 miles the next day.
Once again arising early, Lois, my sister from New York, and I ventured forth. We began in North. Miami, about 4 miles inland and slowly meandered our way toward the Atlantic coastline through post dawn quiet mangroves, Sunday morning traffic, over inner-coastal bridges and finally to the sea. Like the tortoise I am, and with her in tow on a bike, I ran and ran and ran, sticking to the 10/1, run/walk plan, and 3 hours later 17 miles was behind me, I fell into the sand on Hallandale Beach and felt really triumphant. In my happiness, and for a minute, I thought of calling Tom, who always marveled and was so supportive of the achievements of others. I then felt that sense of loss that had been traveling with me all the way from Thailand. With this I rose up out of the sand, chaffed beyond belief, and headed for breakfast with my brother Arnold and his wife Fini. There was definitely a bit of “ouch” from applying the soap while showering that afternoon.

Two days later and I was preparing to return to SE Asia, my quick trip over, but knowing I would see most of my family in October and then again in November at the New York Marathon. I managed to get in one more run in Miami prior to my departure for Laos on August 28th. Running over the causeway from N. Miami to the boutique shops of Bal Harbor in Miami Beach, I felt the sweat just oozing from my pores as the sea air gently brushed itself against my body. It was late to run, already about 8am, but I knew this would be it for the next few days, as I faced flight after flight. I made the most of it, not pushing myself but really enjoying the 4 ½ mile jaunt toward the sea and back again. This run was really my monthly reflective run as I began saying goodbye to August, all that it brought, and welcomed September and the Autumn of running and social justice actions it would bring.

Tom, I love and miss you.

9 more weeks until New York.

Running Gadgets and the Jericho Mile

Running Week July 20th-July 26th, 2009

This week was one filled both with being connected to running gadgets and trying to free myself from such things. It has also had me reflect on how lucky I really am to be able to do what I do, with or without gadgets, and without many of the restrictive walls which haunt others.

Running is about freedom, or at least it should be. It is about being able to walk out the door, at a time of one’s choosing, and just setting out on a pre-designed path, or a random one, depending on the moment. It is such a liberating feeling to know you can “just do it” as the saying goes, and do what many others believe is impossible for them to do, or are not allowed to do.

I returned this morning, having run 13 miles and feeling incredibly content and not so sore. I returned to the smiling face of Anna, our intern from Russia, who at 7:40 am looked over and asked if we had just run 10km. “Actually 21km today” was my response and she gave an even wider smile saying “that’s amazing; I don’t think I could ever do that”. After reassuring her that she actually could with just a little training and a plan, I began to think again about how to actually get there and about gadgets, walls and The Jericho Mile.

To begin with an explanation, this was the week that I somehow misplaced the running transmitter that fits on my iPod. This little device lets me know how far I have run and also how quickly I am running at any particular moment. It is a wonderful piece of technology that has really allowed me to plan my training much more efficiently and keeps me on track during my workouts. Not sure where the sensor went and I have basically given up looking for it. I thought this would not be a problem and I would go and buy a new one in town. Believing this to be the case, I was very surprised when, after going to numerous iPod dealers in town, I utterly failed to do so. All of them told me that the item was on back order and would only be here a month from now.

Ok, so I figure I can deal with this and just order one online. While I came up short on the iPod running transmitter, I did manage to buy a heart rate monitor- another gadget. The heart rate monitor lets me know my specific heart rate and training percentage at any particular point of my training. I like these gadgets because even if I believe I should be tired or out of breath, I can read my heart rate and know that in fact I should still be able to keep going. The monitor comes in two parts: one being a type of watch and the other a flexible band that wraps around the chest area.

So I was not lucky with the transmitter but did score with the heart rate monitor. No problem though because for my 13 mile run today I went online yesterday and logged on to the website My Run to map out a 13 mile course. It is very easy to do and pretty accurate. While doing this I felt like I hit the jackpot because the website advertised a downloadable program for iPhones, another gadget, that allows the iPhone to act as a GPS and log your runs and speed, just like the iPod transmitter I lost. “Fantastic” I thought, as I quickly powered up my computer and transferred the program and data onto my iPhone. ‘All good’ I thought but then I went one step further and updated my iPhone general application program. Oh boy, was this a mistake as I seemed to wipe out all of the information on my iPhone and now it is locked up. Tomorrow it will be taken to the iPhone store and fixed (hopefully).

This meant that today’s run, beginning at 5am, was going to rely on the course I mapped out. I ran through Chiang Mai University, back past the old city of Chiang Mai, skirting the moat, across the Ping River and looped around to a return to the BABSEA house around 7:30am. It was a nice slow and steady run with pictures taken throughout using my camera- yet another gadget. However, along the way I began to “curse” the new heart rate monitor as it kept coming undone as I ran and I stopped about 10 times to reattach it. Finally, in the final 2 miles of the run I just took it off and ran home, free of the monitor, knowing how much further I had to go and not needing any distance monitor whatsoever to measure it for me. I felt free and I kept thinking that this was the way running was really supposed to be. Of course I did not mind having the music from my iPod to keep a very strong and steady beat as I picked up speed in mile 12 and put in a good kick to finish the final 13. Thanks to the hydrating drink made from the powdered Gatorade that our volunteer lawyer Sherman Kassoff brought me from the USA, my body was kept quenched throughout. Not sure if Gatorade counts as a gadget but perhaps it does! So that was my run today, following a week that had been made up of smaller but faster runs, both on treadmills and very often on the Chiang Mai University track. The week was good, even if filled with the use of gadgets to make the running more scientific and so presumably better and more efficient.

I however kept thinking through this week if all this was really necessary and if I was not being a running purist. Wasn’t I supposed to be free during my runs and not held prisoner by all these gadgets that were “so necessary” to improve my ability? I then began to think about a movie I saw in 1979 called The Jericho Mile. Now I have to admit something. Most of what I am about to write about the Jericho Mile is based upon my memory of a movie that I saw in 1979, 30 years back, when I was 12. I have not seen it since and I may not have remembered all of the actual facts and scenes of the movie perfectly but that does not matter to me. What matters is how I was moved by the movie then and what I believe the movie was meant to represent and what it still represents to me.

This is how it goes. The story was is about a man spending his life in prison for the murder of his father. To find freedom within the walls, the main character, Rain Murphy, runs and runs in circles outside in the prison yard, around oil barrels, on a make shift track. He runs in canvas high tops, using no gadgets at all. In addition, he not only runs but runs an almost continuous and consistent 4 minute mile.

Eventually his running habits gain the interest of others from outside the walls, and there arises speculation as to whether Murphy can run as a USA Olympian. But to do this he must first run an official qualifying race which cannot be done as such a race required an official running track. After much inner politics, racial conflict and violent turmoil in the prison, which demonstrates the true lack of freedom that exists within its walls, an official race is run on a track built by inmates of all walks of life within the same prison walls.

The race is preceded by a prophetic quote by Murphy to his coach, "I'm going to grab the lead and hang onto it." (I must admit that I looked up this quote on the internet because my memory is not that good) And ‘hang on’ he does as Murphy, who is now provided with gadgets of all sorts including better running shoes, racing gear and a stop watch, is the victor.

It would seem that Murphy should now be ready to represent his country in the Olympics, but all the gadgets in the world cannot do this for him. Other manipulative forces are at play and upon winning the qualifying race, Murphy is interviewed by the Olympic committee and is asked about the crime he is in prison for. What is hoped is that he will demonstrate remorse for killing his father and therefore he will be spared and pitied and so be allowed to find freedom outside the walls and run for the Gold.

Yet Murphy refuses to do this and conform to others as he feels it is impossible for him to lie. In an emotionally challenging scene, Murphy reveals that his father was an abusive man who beat Murphy’s sister to the point that Murphy could not let it go on anymore. He further states that rather than be remorseful and sorry, under the same circumstances, he would have defended his sister in the same way once again. Wrong answer for some but it was the right answer for Murphy. We then see Murphy listen to the Olympic races via radio and hearing of someone else setting the Gold record.

The final scene of the movie sees Murphy suit up with his new racing shoes and run on the newly built track in the prison, with his stopwatch in hand. Racing against none one or anything but himself once more, Murphy completes his journey, breaking the record set at the Olympics. He stares at the stopwatch in his hand that shows he broke the Gold record and we know that he is really the winner who has found a freedom that was not really possible for him prior to this event. It is the freedom of self worth and knowing his respectability. Murphy ends the movie by throwing the stopwatch through the air, no longer needing such a thing. In that one moment, he brings down the Walls of Jericho.

I remember thinking at that time, at only 12, that Murphy was really running for his own justice- a justice that he found within himself. So here I am running and running for justice. I think of how lucky I am to be able to be free to run freely where I want and when I want. I am lucky and grateful for this and this drives me when I feel lazy, tired and lack motivation. I think of the many Murphys out there who are not as fortunate or as free as me. This helps me on those days that I am “dragging my bottom.” I also think about all the gadgets I have. I really don’t need them and I think I will rely on them less, although I will still continue to use them more than I probably need to, at least for now! These are my thoughts this week and I hope they can fix my IPhone.

14 weeks until New York!

Running for Justice, Food, and the Art of Bridging Across Borders in Southeast Asia

It is Saturday and I just got back from a 5:00 am run in Chiang Mai with one of our legal studies interns, Gillian Gough, from Saskatchewan, Canada. The run was an easy slow paced 7.5 miler (or 12km), which we began at 5:00am, a little before the sun rose. Having experienced a wonderful cross cultural and international “potluck” dinner last night at the Chiang Mai BABSEA Volunteer House, my belly was filled from the evening before, so going slow in this early morning was a grand idea. Still the run was scenic, watching the sun come up, the markets being set in motion and the monks walking often in single file, collecting alms.

I ran with Gillian, who I must say is an incredibly open minded, budding future lawyer, filled with the desire to explore the social justice side of life and the marvels and frustrations that this brings. She is poignant in her questions and perceptive in her analysis of situations and people and she is wonderfully kind and considerate. She has been a class A running partner as well. Her discipline and determination are inspiring. Recently, I had the pleasure to witness her burst through her maximum running distance wall of 10km. Together we are slowly increasing our abilities week by week.


On this morning, as we ran along I purposely kept my IPod music slow to allow my thoughts to develop and not wander as they usually do. This allowed me to think about the evening before and our BABSEA potluck dinner which simply required one email to go out to all of our interns in Chiang Mai at the beginning of the week and four days later we had an actual feast of food representing countries across the globe.

In just mentioning a few of the many dishes, I must say that the Vietnamese spring rolls were to die for; the Thai pork sausage salad a spicy delight; the Polish platski (what we Jews grew up eating and calling potato latkas) were crunchy on the outside and light in the middle; the Louisiana chicken and sausage gumbo made by my nephew Jason (his first solo cooking meal) was rich in diverse flavors; the Russian omelet was “cloud in the sky” fluffy and light; one of my favorites, Lao pork larb, was just spicy enough to satisfy my tongue and roof of my mouth; and then there was the rice pudding, apple/mango crumble, the American bar-b-que’d chicken; one cannot forget the lightly breaded and juicy chicken fingers; the Japanese miso soup; the potatoes in curry; and so many others epicurean delights.

Yet the food was not the most delicious part of the meal, and this is what I thought about around mile 2.5 of this morning’s run. What I was really feasting on last night was watching the diners themselves, coming from Thailand, Laos, USA, Canada, Poland, Russian, France, Britain, Australia, and Vietnam, all on the same legal studies program and all laughing, cooking, eating, joking and just thrilled to be together.

Many of them during the dinner were still deeply involved in discussing the previous night’s event of going to a Male Sex Club with our Partner Organization MPlus, to do HIV/AIDS outreach prevention. The conversation progressed from utter amazement, to uneasiness, to the challenging of societal gender roles and paradigms, to down right sadness and even some outrage at the “lack” of free choice faced by the performer/workers from the night before.

So these were my thoughts and at mile 3, or kilometer 4.8, I thought about how I sat on the floor last night, just observing the interaction and thinking “how did all this happen?” How did it come to be that all these people would be here as a result of something I and our BABSEA team was so fortunate to be a part of? What experiences would these people carry away from this time of their lives? Would the experience positively shape them to go on and better their own world and the world we all live in? I also just kept thinking about the food they were eating and what this could mean. Just about a half a mile later, I recalled a question that someone asked me at the Global Alliance for Justice Education 5th Worldwide Conference in Manila, Dec 2008. An inquiring mind wanted to know how BABSEA actually builds bridges and gets Community/Clinical Legal Education programs to work together with institutions throughout the region. The answer I usually gave as to a core method was “food.” I explained to a conference of legal educators that we helped organize from over 50 countries that when you get people from different countries and backgrounds to eat together and actually cook together, this one action develops a bond often making the achievement of many other objectives easy.

Last night was no exception and in fact illustrated the point pretty fully and it was clear that “bridging” was happening all over the place.So, rounding mile 4 this morning I thought back to a different type of experience I had this week and one that occurred during a run just 3 days before. Just a few days back I finished work around 5:30 pm, an early day, and shot home to quickly get in a 30 minute workout and before returning to the BABSEA Volunteer House for Human Rights Movie Night. Greg and Justyna, our Polish Interns, were doing a presentation on the History of Poland and the Solidarity Human Rights movement. I needed to get in my scheduled run and I only had 30 minutes so I jumped on the treadmill, raised the incline level up a few notches, and began running an approximate 9 minute mile, trying to knock out a quick 3, trying and trying to stick to my 18 week running plan.

I hopped on to the machine, which is quickly becoming “soul mate”, synchronized my IPod-Nike pedometer and began to run at a relatively brisk speed for me. I was stunned that after one mile, I was not in any way breathless nor tired and I felt good, running along, listening to music and watching the news on the television above my head. It seemed that my training plan was actually working and I was experiencing the positive results.

It was then, a little after 1 mile, that a news story came on about a Russian Human Rights worker that was just killed. Her name was Natalia Estermirova and she was known for being an outright critic of the Kremlin and the ongoing human rights abuses going on in war torn Chechnya. She was kidnapped in broad day light and then shot and killed. This was absolutely a story I wanted to hear and understand more about so I took out my earphones and began to watch the news and even turn up the volume of the television a tad to hear better over the hum of the running machine I was steadily pounding on.

At this moment I was asked by a woman next to me if she could have the television remote as she wanted to change the channel. Although I was very interested in what I was watching, I felt that I only had about 15 minutes left to go and that it would have been selfish of me to say no. I also figured she wanted to watch the news in Thai language.I passed the remote to her and waited for her to change the channel.Little did I suspect that I would next be seeing on the screen the Chuck Norris 1980’s action movie Braddock-Missing in Action III. The movie is about an ex-Vietnam veteran from the USA, Chuck Norris, who goes back to Vietnam to “rescue” a bunch of Anglo-Asian children, “trapped”, according to the movie. The children were just one more result of the aftermath of what I grew up being told was the “saving the world for democracy” war that occurred between the USA and Vietnam, with the USA on the “correct” side of the fence.

Was I hoping to have the news back on and learn more about Natalia Estermirova? You bet I was. Was it going to happen? Not a chance. So I adopted the mai pen rai (never mind) mindset and felt that I would be entertained in a different way for another fourteen minutes by Chuck.

Now this was a movie I originally just loved for what it was and what it was not. It was a pure action movie, lots of kicking, punching and blowing things up. It is a movie to sit and veg out to while mindlessly chomping on popcorn. That was the best thing about the film but it was really best not to think deeper into it because when one does, it reveals so many dark aspects of how many of us fail to build bridges but instead look to abolish borders, even when some borders are beneficial. I have been talking about this movie somewhat over the past year, which is when I think I saw a snippet of it last. I have been talking about it since that time because I realized something that was clearly not apparent to me in 1988, when the movie came out and I was 21 years old. At that time I had very little geographical understanding of much beside where New York and Florida was.

So what was the movie about? This is the deal. The final scene of the movie, which I was fortunate enough to be watching, has Chuck Norris crash landing near the Vietnam border, with a plane filled with children. The plane is shot down and everyone survives with Chuck (aka Braddock) having the duty to get them over the border, out of Vietnam, and to the safety of the neighboring country where U.S. army troops were waiting for this daring rescue to happen, and for Braddock to continue to fulfill his destiny of being the hero that he was meant to be.

Ok, so this is easy to understand and maybe stomach, if you believe this is how things are or were.,

What has disturbed me about this movie since seeing this same exact scene last year was the fact that Senior Chuck was trying to get across a bridge with the “evil” Vietnamese on one side and the wonderful country of Thailand on the other side. On the Thailand side the US troops were clearly invited guests of the Thai government and supportive of Braddock’s activities.

The problem with all this is lies in the fact that Vietnam and Thailand do not share a common border whatsoever and this movie, created more than 20 years ago, simply eliminated either or both the country of Cambodia and the country of Laos. Both of them shared, and share, the commonality of being the nations between Vietnam and Thailand. The fact that the movie did this unabashedly, and with complete disregard for the recognized existence of a defined nation state, made me marvel and even angered me to some extent. I also have been pondering, since realizing this fact last year, approximately how many people from my home country have watched this movie and made this discovery. Few to almost none I would think.

We at BABSEA work hard to dissolve the imaginary and imposed borders that separate us, but in doing so we focus on ways that concertedly try not to offend nor minimize the understanding that some valid borders do exist and that there is relevance in people identifying themselves with a nation or people. We see the unfortunate occurrence of so many people being stateless in their own “home” countries due to the failure to have valid national identity cards and we recognize many of the positive aspects of being a member of a defined nation, with defined borders, including many of the rights and protections that accompany this membership.Yet, it seemed perfectly fine for Hollywood to just disregard this fact and as a matter of convenience, just simply wipe out the existence of a country because it did not suit the script. Arrogance, gall, and ineptitude were some of the adjectives I was using to describe the makers of the film, and possibly even Chuck himself, although Chuck seems to have taken on being the brunt of a significant amount of jokes over the past year, so I thought I would spare him a little bit.

Now, let’s get back to the treadmill, my 5 minutes left, my running stronger than I have in probably 2 years, and the part of the movie that it became very clear that Vietnam and Thailand shared a new border. At this moment I looked over at the woman watching the movie to see if I could discern from her facial expressions that this movie simply wiped out the existence of one or two of her neighboring countries. There was no expression I could see that would have indicated this to be the case but this was not definite proof. I looked at her through my peripheral vision, trying not to be obvious, as my 30 minutes was ending in a sprinting crescendo and could not tell if she was aware of what has troubled me for some time and was glaring in my face once again. Then in the last 30 seconds I ran at a top rate speed and quickly it all came to an end.

I never came to know if what was so outrageous to me ever registered to my treadmill neighbor, nor will I likely ever know. Instead, I packed up my things, dampened with sweat, and ran to the building next door, where I live, for a quick shower and then back to the BABSEA House to learn about Poland and the Solidarity movement.At the close of the presentation on Poland I asked our two Polish interns what they were most proud of about their country and what they would like to change the most if they could. They both agreed on exactly the same thing. What they were most proud of was their rich history. Interestingly, what they both agreed they would like to change the most about their country was also their history and the way that so many people in their country now use and rely on their history to keep from advancing, being open minded and going forward. What brilliant insight!

I and other BABSEA team members watched this presentation in a room of people coming from countries that I knew existed, even if some people in Hollywood did not, and working with them and bridging them together to dissolve the imagined and imposed borders that separate us. We also are working with them to be proud of their history, while trying to not let it get negatively in the way of their future.

As Gillian and I ran the final mile this morning, watching the sun rise over the mountains into the sky and appreciating the cool breeze that continues to bless us in the early morning hours here in Chiang Mai, I was glad to be a part of this process. I thought about running for justice, eating good food with wonderfully open minded people from around the world, and learning to bridge using respectful means and methods. What a beautiful way to start the day.

15 more weeks until the New York City Marathon!

Running for Justice in Vietnam

On July 1st, late at night and following a BABSEA Legal Studies Internship Bar B Que party at our Chiang Mai office commemorating both Canada Day (July 1st) and US Independence Day (July 4th), I packed my bags ready for a week of Community/Clinical Legal Education exploratory activities in Vietnam. Deciding what I should and should not bring, like would I need a suit jacket for meeting while in Vietnam, considering it was a million degrees in Vietnam in July, was not an easy task. However, what was easy was the packing of my running gear, knowing in our pursuit of legal education and justice during my trip to Vietnam, running along the way would be a core component.

July 2nd came, as did an early flight from Chiang Mai to Bangkok and a four hour wait in Bangkok. (No place to run although the Bangkok Airport is a million miles long at some points). Then there was my connecting flight to Hanoi, bringing me in around 3pm and shooting me via taxi to the Policy and Law Development Office (PLD) who are one of our partners in Vietnam and also where we have two international legal studies interns based for the summer.

Arriving at the office at 4pm, plans were then quickly made for our 8pm overnight train ride from Hanoi to Vinh City. Out of this office by 5:30pm I had just enough time to connect with Joi Kush, one of our interns , and both of us geared up for a run prior to our train trip going south. Originally planning to do this at her fitness center, time did not permit and instead we braved the crowded outside streets of Hanoi for a quick, and almost painful, 30 minute run in what I would describe as a steam bath/sauna, filled with pollution, motos, people and street sellers involved in all sorts of entrepreneur activities. I especially enjoyed running past the raw meat, sitting on the wood tables in the narrow alleyways, thinking that the temperature was lava level outside and this could not be doing the meat much good.

Joi led and I followed through the narrow streets and finally out and around one of the lakes near her monthly room rental. I coursed around people on the lake, almost falling in twice, and cursing my ankle which still seemed a bit swollen and non-cooperative. After about 20 minutes Joi looked back and asked if we could slow the pace and maybe only do one more lap, which I quickly understood that she was feeling sorry for me huffing and puffing behind her. I agreed happily and we then shot back to her apartment to prep, showered (thankfully without hot water) and headed to the train station to go to Vinh.

The overnight train was a really wonderful and included sharing the car with 6 young adults, all going on holiday, who started out feeding me peanuts and then after conversation, marveled that it is possible for lawyers and law students to actually want to help people and not just make money. When they asked me if it was possible for lawyers to do this and help poor people because they had to make money themselves to eat, I took the plate of peanuts and like a slice of pie, I cleared out a sliver of space. I then explained that it was simply that sliver of space that would represent the community aide work we were asking lawyers to provide and then they would be more than free to eat all the other peanuts. Prof. Giao, sitting in the car and translating, smiled big!

Arriving in Vinh at 5:30 am, Joi, Prof. Giao (my long term friend and colleague in Vietnam and director at PLD) and I arrived at our hotel with my delight because the traffic in Vinh was a microcosm of that of Hanoi and right outside the hotel was a park to run around and also another lake. It also felt about 2 degrees cooler in Vinh. Must have been that it was close to the beach.

So a day of meetings followed, where I actually did bring my suit jacket but did not wear it. We met with the Vice Minister of Justice, Vinh University President, Dean of the Law School and other prominent members of the Faculty of Law. All ended positively with them very interested in implementing a CLE program and also them agreeing to come to Chiang Mai for an exploratory visit in August. Then I was back in my hotel and dinner plans were being made with Joi and me knowing that a 60 minute run would first have to happen. Unfortunately Joi forgot her running shoes so we first darted cross the street to a “mall” and she purchased her $6 pair of athletic foot covers. We then set off but Joi did not have socks and I think the 60 minutes delivered her a foot of blisters and both she and I ran the park for 4 times around, picking up speed along the way. I loved running past so many of the people beginning to buy toys and balloons for an evening of festive activities and them watching us go round and round in circles, smiling and miming us along the way. An hour later we all hit the showers again and a seafood meal of incredible delight rewarded us.

The next day was July 4th and this was dutifully declared a rest day for all of us as we took a rental car to the beach and ate and ate and ate. Sea snake, squid with ink, steamed shrimp, sesame rice cakes, and other delicacies were just a part of our gluttonous day, filled with not much physical activity except swimming and floating in the sea. The night put us back on the train to Hanoi and I arrived back around 6am, gearing up for my “long run” Sunday. I immediately checked into the Lake View hotel and caught up on long overdue emails and relaxed in a/c. I stayed at the Lake View in Hanoi because it has a wonderful view of a lake AND I can run the lake, which is right outside my door at least that is usually my plan.

The day went by and by and Joi and I agreed to meet at her fitness center that evening where I could work out on a treadmill, with the plan of both of us doing 8 miles. However, I arrived a bit earlier than her, set myself up with the largest bottle of water I could muster and set myself in to run 10 miles that evening, slow, slower and slowest, using the run/walk method of 10 minutes of running and 1 minute of fast brisk paced walking. The session was a success with Joi knocking out 8 miles and I coming in at 10, and then me barely dragging myself outside (feel the chill of slight dehydration) and back to the Lake View for a well deserved slumber, although I did manage to fit in a nice French meal prior to my head hitting the pillow.

July 6th was another “rest day” for me, at least in regard to working out, although I felt guilty due to the fact this should have been a cross-training day. I am just a lazy athlete so I skipped this and planned for the next day. I worked hard on our plans for CLE in Vietnam and tried to make sure that all was good back in Chiang Mai as I received positive and pro-active news from our office on the projects they were handling there. Sustainability of our program and the office running itself without my direct presence is a key part of what we are aiming for this year and in years to come.So no physical workout but I did have fusion Vietnamese/French that night and a nice bottle of Australian Chardonnay wine.

Next day, July 6th, was an early morning run on the lake, which I think I mentioned is outside my hotel. The wonderful hotel staff wanted to know when I was eating breakfast and I had to explain that this would happen AFTER my run. All was good, it was hot, and I braved more people and even traffic, as I tried to bring up my slower than tortoise pace and even threw in a few sprints along the way. Done for the day with the running, and breakfast finished, the day led to more meetings, including those with the Vietnam Trade Union University in Hanoi, which was is now very interested in setting up CLE program to assist with workers rights and the rights of woman and the disabled. A little song and dance on the global wonders of what, how and why CLE and it looks like we were in!!! Came back that night and prepped for a 4:30 am waking as we all were flying to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) for the day of many more meetings. I packed my running shoes and workout gear!

The 6:30 am flight with the 3 amigos, Giao, Joi and me was easy and 2 hours later we were in Ho Chi Minh. After an early morning arrival, we began to make plans and trying to set up last minute meetings. while eating Pho soup. An hour later, with plans set for the day, we jumped in a taxi and had the driver find us a fitness center for me to put in a quick cardio. Victory was upon as we were brought to the Victory Hotel; I quickly de-robed, changed and was on an elliptical machine for 30 minutes, due to the treadmills being wobbly and not safe. I pushed hard and the very warm, if not hot, workout room assisted me in this.

Finally done, and feeling gleeful, I showered, dressed and met Joi and Giao downstairs for a wonderful buffet of a variety of Vietnam delights, including snails, and then off to more and more meetings. Once again, this trip like others, proved fruitful, meeting with two more universities interested in working with BABSEA and PLD to do CLE work. One of them was the Vietnam National University of Law and Economics, which was interested in using CLE to work with future employers, as a means to instill best practice principles in them. I thought this was wonderful as it led to the chance of working with two universities simultaneously, one focusing on worker rights and the other focusing on working to make better, more fair employers. What synergism this could lead to!!!

With delight all of us boarded the 9:30pm flight and I arrived back at my Lake View pad past midnight, exhausted. July 9th and my last day in Vietnam allowed me to begin to pull everything together and the day was filled with meeting with potential international donors and supporters of the CLE expansion in Vietnam. Everyone we met loved the idea of working the way we do, and building a future generation of more socially minded national and global citizens.Quite content with the blur of the week, I stepped outside in the evening for one last run and smiled and sang to myself as I ran around “my lake” a few more times, knowing that this was just one more of the many runs for justice I was going to take part in.

Official Start

So this week began the "official" start of my training for "justice", although I think I have been training and working for "justice" for years.

This time though is different as this is about the Bridges Across Borders Southeast Asia (BABSEA) Trio for Justice Run that will begin with me running in the New York Marathon on November 1st and then shift back to Thailand for a weekend of social justice awareness raising activities as well as a 10km fun bike ride on November 21st and then a 1/2 Marathon/Relay and 10km run on November 22nd, outside of Chiang Mai, Thailand.

We at BABSEA are using these events to highlight the varied and numerous legal and human rights related activities we are involved in throughout the Southeast Asia region. In addition, we are also hoping to raise some core financial support to permit us to pay our electric bills, daily expenses and the costs for our and our partner projects to keep doing the oh so important work that we do.

Having been consumed with way too much work, too many responsibilities and not enough personal fitness time, I have spent the past month trying to get my self and my body in order and balance to just begin an 18 week concentrated training. I had achieved some level of success and now I have an entire office watching over me, making sure I keep "plugging away" and sticking to my routine.

I am incredibly excited about this challenge. Having run my first marathon 3 years back, in Philadelphia, and living that moment of crossing the finish line, I am now relishing the long coveted experience of participating in the New York Marathon, a city I grew up in, and then bringing back the awareness to Southeast Asia.

I have pledged that the next 18 weeks will be filled with my training and training hard. I also know that this will occur in a multi-tude of countries in this region and internationally. In fact just last week I did some of my preliminary running in Hungary, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. (of course I only stepped 3 feet into Belgium and the Netherlands as I was at the border of where Germany met with these other two countries)

Anyway, I am very hopeful that many of you will follow my training, as I globe trot, and you will fill me with inspiration and work with us at BABSEA to continue to swell the ranks of the supporters, volunteers, interns and key team members who all make up the BABSEA Family.

I thank all of you in advance and "see ya at the start and finish line".

Smiles and hugs

Bruce