On Friday, I went to see Desmond Tutu at the Arlington. Desmond Mpilo Tutu is an Anglican Archbishop from Cape Town, South Africa and a Nobel Peace Prize recipient. As Secretary-General of the South African Council of Churches, Desmond Tutu lead non-violent opposition to the South African government’s system of apartheid. After the fall of apartheid and the election of Nelson Mandela, Tutu was appointed head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The TRC gave amnesty to perpetrators of violence in exchange for the truth. At the lecture, Tutu discussed the decision to forgive and he compared the outcomes of the truth and reconciliation process in contrast to the Nuremburg trials. In fact, the theme of the evening was “Reconciling Love”.
Desmond Tutu spoke about ubuntu which is the South African ‘belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity’. Tutu hopes for world peace and is currently working towards that goal with the Tutu Peace Centre.
Tutu is a very charismatic speaker. He made a few points that I really agreed with. He has a very optimistic view on the progress being made towards social justice. Instead of dwelling on the bad in the world, Tutu tries to emphasize the good. I also felt that his thoughts about the truth of all religions were right on. When Tutu was asked what Christians can learn from other religions, Tutu replied “God is not a Christian”. After much shocked applause, he went on to explain what he meant by this. Tutu firmly believes that God does not have a ‘Christians-only’ policy and that people of different religions should not be segregated on Earth or in Heaven. Tutu has great respect for those who devote their life to prayer and he particularly admires the fourteenth Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso. Tutu shared a theoretical conversation between the Dalai Lama and God at the gates of Heaven:
The Dalai Lama: “Can I come in?”
God: “Dalai Lama, you know, you — you are the cat’s whiskers, but, ahh, sorry - no. Better luck next time.”
(Did you catch that great pun by ‘God’ referring to the Tibetan Buddhist belief in reincarnation? Desmond is a sharp fellow!)
The entire experience was wonderful and I’m very glad to have been able to attend. As this was a UCSB Arts and Lectures event, Tutu brought up the role of students in social change. The 1976 student protest in Soweto against the use of Afrikaans in black schools began a massive uprising in South Africa. In addition to the direct action, Tutu reminded the audience that the end of apartheid would not have been possible without the help of foreign countries and their citizens, particularly the students who urged their governments to become involved. These words of encouragement made the lecture not only spiritually uplifting but politicaly uplifting as well.
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P.S. For those of you interested, Andrew, Fiona, Ian, Pedro, Erin, and a few others were there too but because we bought our tickets seperately, we were spread throughout the theater (I got lucky and scored a seat in row 16). Fiona has also written about the event on her site.
I also saw Kelly Bowles there as well as Sam Laurabee because Dunn school got to attend. Oh and I saw Chancellor Yang and his wife and almost asked them for a ride back to school because we were alone in the parking lot. But instead I just waved and went to find a bus stop. I jumped on the wrong bus and headed towards Carpinteria. Luckily I realized my mistake and got off right before the freeway onramp. I walked to a busstop on Milpas and discovered I had just missed the last bus to State Street and found myself abandoned at Trader Joes. I called just about everyone I knew trying to find a ride. I about to be on my last call (to Carlos, my RA) when the last bus arrived. It was 15min late. Hooray! I jumped on and found out that it was only going to Rusty’s pizza by the Greyhound station so I asked the driver how I could get home. As I was explaining my situation, she drove past two girls at a bus stop but I alerted her and we went back. The driver radioed the Goleta bus and that driver agreed to wait so I could get on and connect. When we got to the rendevous, the IV bus had been waiting 10 minutes for me which seemed bad at the time but it turned out that Andrew and Erin were on the same bus. They had gotten on five minuted before me. Which means they were five minutes late to when the bus would have left. Which means if I hadn’t have gotten on the Carpinteria bus and taken the detour and radioed to have the bus wait, they would have been late. So although it took me an hour and a half to get from the Arlington to UCSB, I guess it worked out for the best. Another example of how people and their actions are connected - ubuntu!