Eye - 8 September 2023
From Celebrating seventy-five years to A splendid account
Celebrating seventy-five years
The Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) represents Friends at the United Nations, and has done for seventy-five years! At an event in June to mark this anniversary, Sarah Clarke, QUNO’s New York director, said that: ‘Quakers have consistently served as Ambassadors for Peace. In that effort we have emphasised the importance of listening to, and lifting up voices that otherwise might not be reflected in UN decision-making… In the world of global diplomacy, having the space to connect, build relationships, and share, offers the chance for transformation.’ So, for Friends who may not be familiar with their work, here are some canapés to tempt you – see if you can spot them in the puzzle! And for those who know QUNO’s work well, an opportunity to see the breadth of their work in an informal setting. You can find out more at https://quno.org, and by listening to Rachel Brett delivering her 2012 Swarthmore Lecture at https://bit.ly/RachelBrett2012.
QUNO puzzle clues
Current areas of work include:
Peacebuilding
Disarmament
Climate change
Human rights
Refugees
Economic systems
Some past areas of work:
Women in prison
Trade
Development
Child soldiers
Their offices are in:
Geneva
New York
Their unique approach:
Quiet diplomacy
Solution: Page 19 of PDF version of magazine
A splendid account
Penelope Putz, of Exeter Meeting, recently spied a Friend in a postmodernist novel by Thomas Pynchon.
Mason & Dixon is a fictionalised account of the collaboration between Charles Mason (1728-1786) and Jeremiah Dixon (1733-1779). The two British surveyors are best remembered for running the Mason-Dixon Line, the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland.
Penelope writes: ‘Jeremiah Dixon is a Quaker and there are many references to his Quakerism throughout the novel. Both Mason and Dixon express their aversion to slavery but it’s Dixon who notices that slavery has been a common element in the places where they have worked: the Cape, St Helena, and America. “This shameful Core” he notes, and they have been waited on by slaves while taking the King’s money.
‘Dixon takes action, which Mason says he could not have done. Having already said, in the pub, that they are not going to watch a sale of slaves, they meet the slave driver with his rejects in the street. Dixon seizes his whip and “places his fist in the way of the oncoming face.” He also takes the slave driver’s keys so the slaves can unlock themselves.
‘Dixon would like to kill the driver but “What’s a man of conscience to do?” He issues threats and keeps the whip saying it will lie in a Quaker Home.’
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