The Nobel Peace Prize

Photo: Time

The Nobel Prizes hold special meaning in my family because my father worked for Elsevier Publishing when we lived in Amsterdam. For five years he was the science editor for the English-language series of all the science-related Nobel Prize Lectures from 1901 to 1966.

Though my father did not work on the Peace Prize, I was thrilled to see The Nobel Peace Center (Norwegian: Nobels Fredssenter) when we visited Oslo this summer. It is located in an old train station building overlooking the harbor in the Pipervika area.

A temporary exhibit by Kendell Geers was installed in front of the Peace Center. Geers is fascinated by words with double meanings and those that exist in “symbiosis”. 

In Slaughter/laughter, the neon leading “S” flickers on and off. Originally created in response to the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center, Geers suggested that Slaughter/Laughter could also reflect the story of Alfred Nobel, whose discovery of dynamite ultimately led to the establishment of the Nobel Peace Prize. 

The Nobel Peace Center is within view of the Oslo City Hall (Oslo rådhus), just across the Vigeland Fountain.

Its distinctive white clock faces the harbor.

On the opposite side of the building is the main entrance with a double swan fountain…

… a beautiful astrological clock…

…and enchanting wood bas relief carvings depicting scenes from Norwegian folk tales.

Every year since 1990, on December 10th, the Nobel Peace Prize Award Ceremony takes place in the grand Central Hall.

Numerous Norwegian artists won commissions to complete the decorations of the hall.

Henrik Sorensens painted the large mural on the south wall between 1938 and 1950. Titled “Administration and Festivity” depicted scenes from Norwegian legends and history, including many from World War II. 

Alf Rolfsen painted the mural along the staircase.  The scene at the bottom of the stairs depicts the legend of St. Hallvard, Oslo’s patron saint. 

OSLO’S PATRON SAINT

The story of St. Hallvard is a constantly recurring theme in the decorative elements of the City Hall. According to legend Hallvard was a highborn youth who in 1043 tried to save a woman from being assaulted. He took her aboard his boat in order to reach safety on the other side of the fjord, but they were pursued and killed, Hallvard being shot by three arrows. His body was weighted down with a millstone and thrown into the sea, but both his body and the stone floated up to the surface. When this became known, the local people saw it as a sign and worshipped him as a saint. Hallvard was originally buried at Lier, southwest of the town, but when the Oslo Cathedral was completed in 1130, his bones were placed in a shrine before the high altar. Two centuries later Oslo took into use a city seal depicting the St. Hallvard legend. The present coat of arms was designed in 1924, when the capital was about to change its name from Christiana back to Oslo. Against a background of stars in the sky, St. Hallvard is shown sitting on a throne of two lions. He holds a millstone in one hand and three arrows in the other. At his feet lies a woman. The surrounding inscription reads Unanimiter et constanter Oslo(united and resolute).

The intricate tessellations look like a beautiful blending of M.C. Escher’s and William Morris’ art.

At the top of the stairs is the Munch Room with the beautifully adorned ceiling...

...Edvard Munch's painting "Life" as the focal point...

Edvard Munch (1863 - 1944) "Life"

...and furniture with the elegant wood frames and upholstered with tapestry in a shade of blue so characteristic in Scandinavia.

Down the hall, through these richly-decorated wooden doors…

…is the grand dining hall, which boasts the painted portraits of the King Harald V and Queen Sonja…

…and a large dining table lined with Scandinavian blue chairs...

...upholstered in a tapestry with a regal flying swan pattern…

...which matches the chairs reserved for the 2010 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, and his wife.

Photo: Reuters

The Nobel Committee recognized his participation in the 1989 demonstrations in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, where he urged student protestor to remain peaceful, and his continued non-violent struggle for human rights in China. Xiaobo is serving an 11-year sentence in China for subversion and was unable to be present to receive the award. The unclaimed award and document were left in an empty chair meant for Xiaobo. His wife’s chair is also vacant because she was placed under house arrest by the Chinese government. Nobel committee chairman Thorbjoern Jangland spoke at the ceremony: “Liu has only exercised his civil rights. He has not done anything wrong. He must be released.”

The Fight Against Proposition 8

LA Times blog

Ken Starr, after leading the impeachment effort against Bill Clinton, found a new crusade. On March 5, 2009, he will be arguing the case in the California Supreme Court to forcibly nullify 18,000 same-sex couples that were married in California last year. Going after these marriages retroactively speaks to the mean-spiritness of Starr and others associated with the Prop 8 Legal Defense Fund.

The Courage Campaign has created a video called "Fidelity," with the permission of musician Regina Spektor, which puts a face to those 18,000 couples and all loving, committed couples seeking full equality under the law.

After you watch the video, please consider joining me in signing the letter to the state Supreme Court.

One of the marriages Starr is seeking to annul is that of Ellen Degeneres and Portia De Rossi. They had a beautiful wedding in their Los Angeles home last August. Portia’s gown and Ellen’s suit were designed by Zac Posen, flowers were by Mark’s Garden, Ellen mother did the calligraphy for the place cards, and their cake was good ol’ Southern red velvet cake. Their friend Wayne Dyer officiated the wedding. Watch as Ellen narrates the wedding photos and video on her show:

After you watch these videos, please consider joining me in signing the letter to the state Supreme Court. Visit tangobaby for more information on who the donors behind the movement to pass Proposition 8 were.

At Last

Other than the clock striking noon, when Barack Obama officially became the President of the United States, this was my favorite moment of inauguration day:

It was all perfect: The song, Beyonce, Michelle's dress, Barack in white tie, The First Couple gazing into each other's eyes...

Did it look like Barack was saying “How about that?” to Michelle? Is it considered eavesdropping when you read someone’s lips when they are dancing? I hope not.

Photo lifted from here.

Obama Inaugural Breakfast

Today at noon EST, the Barack Obama became the 44th president of the United States. I was surrounded by friends as we watched President Obama deliver his inaugural address. As always, he set his hopes high:

“…We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.”[1]

Having lived through the discrimination against ethnic Chinese in Indonesia, racism was foremost in my Chinese father’s mind when we emigrated from The Netherlands to America in 1966. He even made the last-minute decision to settle his family in San Francisco instead of New York City because he heard that San Francisco had the largest Chinese population in the nation. I recall having watched the turmoil of the American Civil Rights Movement on our television in Amsterdam. After our arrival, we witnessed the assassination of those who gave their lives defending the inalienable rights promised in the Declaration of Independence.

Today, I am bursting with pride that my adopted nation has not only survived the bloody turmoil of those years, but that now the headlines around the world will shout out that Barack Obama is our president!

I am also proud that this is the beginning of a new era:

The above keyring belongs to one of the guests at this morning’s inauguration breakfast.

Thank you to Dakota Angel and her husband for sharing this historic moment with us.

Did you watch the inauguration? Where were you and what were you doing?

_________________

[1] A full transcript of the prepared address is here.

From George Washington to Barack Obama

 Getty Images

With the presidential inauguration one week away, it is a good time to celebrate the genius of our constitution.  I find immeasurable comfort in knowing that I can wait out a presidential term to have another opportunity to vote in a new president -- without bloodshed. Good, bad, or indifferent, here are 44 of the many reasons why we live in a great country:

Plus it is always a good time to listen to Maurice Ravel's Boléro.

Veterans Day

Today I would like to honor the military servicemen who served our great country in the past and those currently fighting for us in the Middle East. Your service continues to protect the constitution that made last week’s election and the promise of a bloodless transition of leadership possible. I thank you, and all others whose lives you touch, from the bottom of my heart!

I actually did remember it was a school holiday today. The last time my son had a school holiday, I forgot and woke him up at 7 a.m. He was not amused. This time he took a precautionary measure:

How well does he know his mother?

Flags at Arlington photo by Adam Skoczylas

A Defining Moment in History

Oh what a night!

The ever-gracious Mor Mor Kris hosted the historic election night in her beautiful home. We ate gourmet cheeses, delicious chili, and Obama cookies:

We shared our voting stories. One guest drove a colleague to her precinct in East Palo Alto yesterday. The precinct worker told the colleage that she could not vote because she did not speak enough English. Fortunately, our friend was able to reach an attorney on his cell phone and within a half hour, the colleague was able to vote and the precinct worker was ejected. YES! Obama’s campaign had a pool of 5,000 lawyers available for all voters. Evidence of another stone that was not left unturned in Obama’s amazing campaign!

It was a long, hard campaign, but now victory was ours, fair and square. There were tears of joy, shouts of triumph, clenched fists of victory, and lots of champagne!

I am thrilled that I can travel abroad now without having to apologize for our administration. I wish Barack Obama wisdom and strength as he embarks on this historic journey.

Speaking of the future, I am honored to be nominated to run alongside tangobaby in her administration of 2012. I am looking forward to making lots of patriotic arrangements and bouquets and readying the compost bin ;-)

San Francisco Chinatown - Part I

Goddess of Democracy

I had a glorious weekend in San Francisco with my fantastic book club friends. Even though it is only forty miles away from Palo Alto, we felt like we really got away from it all. The autumn weather was perfection and the weekend flowed effortlessly from one event to the next. Several of us chose to take the San Francisco Chinatown tour offered by the all-volunteer organization San Francisco City Guides sponsored by the San Francisco Public Library.

Our City Guide, Mae Schoenig, met us in the heart of Chinatown at the historic Portsmouth Square. She not only shared many nuggets of history of Chinatown with us, she also shared how she and her family fit into this history.

We learned that Portsmouth Square is where the discovery of gold was announced in May of 1848. It is also the site of the terminus of the first cable-propelled street car in the world, and it is the home of the first public school in California.

Robert Louis Stevenson lived in San Francisco when he wrote “Kidnapped” and "Treasure Island" . This marker was erected in his honor:

The poem reads:

To Remember Robert Louis Stevenson
To be honest, to be kind – to earn a little, to spend a little less - to make upon the whole a family happier for his presence - to renounce when that shall be necessary, and not be embittered - to keep a few friends but these without capitulation - above all on the same grim condition to keep friends with himself - here is a task for all that a man has of fortitude and delicacy

A bronze statue of the Goddess of Democracy stands at Portsmouth Square. It is a replica of the impromptu foam and paper mache statue that Chinese students created during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.

The resemblance to our Statue of Liberty is of course the highest form of flattery. I hope that if a similar struggle for democracy were to occur somewhere abroad today its activists would still choose the Statue of Liberty as inspiration.

Register to Vote by Monday

Become part of history, vote on November 4th.

In order to be eligible to vote in California on November 4th, your voter registration form must be postmarked no later than Monday, October 20th. Forms must be completely filled and please don't forget to sign it. Forms can be picked up at the public library or U.S. Post Office. Beware, in some areas bogus voter registration forms are being circulated.

The deadline to vote has already passed in many states, check at http://www.vote411.org/ to learn about voting in your state.