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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Laura Ingalls (laura.ingalls@worldlearning.org) in Washington, 1.202.646.6973

International Conference Features World Learning Democracy Fellows Director

BRATTLEBORO, VT (October 8, 2009) -- Dorin Tudoran, Director of World Learning's Democracy Fellows Program, recounted his experience as a political dissident in Romania and examined Eastern Europe's difficult path toward reform at an international conference in Italy October 1-3, 2009. The conference, Twenty Years after the Fall of Berlin Wall: Testimonies, Representations and Reflections, featured presentations from 20 prominent intellectuals from Western, Central and Eastern Europe.

Tudoran's presentation, A Bird with One Wing Can't Fly – Where is My Piece of Berlin Wall?, was part of the conference's opening day. As an award-winning poet and journalist, Tudoran became a sharp critic of the Romanian Communist Party in the early 1980s and was forced to emigrate to the United States where he continued to advocate for democratic reform.

Talking about the current challenges of the new Europe, Tudoran expressed concern that the Berlin Wall has been replaced with a "wall in the mind." He urged Europeans to work together to address persistent divisions on the continent between former communist East and the economically and culturally dominant West.

He likened Europe's current situation to that of a rare species of bird that is born with only the left or the right wing because of a genetic mutation. However, these birds possess such an incredible determination to fly that a bird with a left wing will push up against one with a right wing until they manage to take flight together. Europe must find the same will to cooperate in order to create a better future for its people.

Tudoran's presentation touched off a fruitful discussion among those in attendance, including academics, students, Italian and international press and members of the public. Event organizers—including the University of Naples L'Orientale and the Italian Institute for Philosophic Studies—responded by inviting Tudoran to return to Naples to participate in a series of conferences next year.

Among the conference's other top speakers were Albanian writer and journalist Visar Zhiti, who was sentenced to 13 years in prison in a sham trial in 1980, and Gyorgy Konrad, the Hungarian writer, essayist and former president of the International PEN-Club whose novels The Case Worker, The Loser and a collection of essays titled Antipolitics won him international recognition. Also featured were Marion Titze, the recipient of the Bremen Literature Prize (1995) the Anna Seghers and Lessing Prize of Saxony (1999); Sebastian Kleinschmitdt, Editor-in-chief of the Sinn und Form Magazine (Berlin); and Geza Szocs, a Hungarian writer, journalist and activist who was among the organizers of the August 19, 1989 "Friendship Picnic" of Sopron, during which over 900 East Germans rushed the border and escaped into Austria.

World Learning's Democracy Fellows Program assists the advancement of democratic practices in emerging and transitional democracies by placing field-experienced democracy and governance professionals at USAID Missions and Bureaus.

The program supports up to 15 Democracy Fellowships annually, generally awarding six new fellowships each year. Fellows participate in assignments at USAID’s field missions abroad or in Washington, D.C. to gain practical skills. More information on Democracy Fellows can be found on the World Learning website at: http://wlid.usaid.gov/dfp_index.html.

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