PAST EVENTS

Alex Prud'homme Lecture 11-17-2011

Alex Prud’homme is an author and investigative journalist who has turned his findings regarding a number of vital human issues, such as terrorism and security, the intersection of biotech, cancer research, finance and white collar crime, and now, the future of fresh water, into best selling books.  Along the way, he co-authored “My Life in France”, with Julia Child.

 

“The Ripple Effect” finds that over the next few decades, water will surpass energy and global warming as our most urgent issue worldwide.  It addresses fundamental questions such as: is water a right – or a commodity to be bought and sold?  Our consumption of water is doubling every 20 years; but our water supply is unchanged.  The book explores this basic challenge (will there be enough?), as well as such vital issues as the state of our water infrastructures and the threats to its quality.  It supports the conclusion of the United Nations that fresh water is “a looming global crisis”.

 

Mr. Prud’homme is a native New Yorker, a graduate of Middlebury College, who spent the several years leading toward his writing career, traveling the world and compiling a journal of his work experiences.  His journalism career began at New York Magazine, moved to BusinessMonth, then to Time, People with Tina Brown and to Vanity Fair, by which time he began to write books.  These have included, in addition to “My Life in France”, “Forewarned”, about terrorism and security post 9/11, “The Cell Game”, about biotech and crime.  The latter book has been optioned by Hollywood, while Nora Ephron relied on “My Life in France” for her movie about Julia Child.

 

As observed by William Ruckleshaus, EPA Administrator under Presidents Nixon and Reagan, “The problem of water quantity, quality, and use are upon us.  Alex Prud’homme’s book identifies some of the culprits, including us inattentive citizens and the combination of regulations and markets needed to make clear water useable and available in the 21st Century.  This book should wake you up.”

 

David Rohde Lecture 5-23-2011

 

David Rohde, author of  "A Rope and a Prayer", the story of his kidnapping by the Taliban on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, and his subsequent escape. Rohde is a New York Times reporter who grew up in New Canaan.

David Rohde is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winning reporter for The New York TimesHe has covered the conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Israel-Palestine, Kosovo and Bosnia. He is the co-author of the book “A Rope and A Prayer: A Kidnapping from Two Sides” and the author of “Endgame: The Betrayal and Fall of Srebrenica, Europe’s Worst Massacre Since World War II.” Currently an investigative reporter at The New York Times, he served as the newspaper’s South Asia Bureau Co-Chief in New Delhi from 2002 to 2005. He and his wife, Kristen Mulvihill, live in New York.

 

Barbara Crossette Lecture 10-24-2010

Barbara Crossette, United Nations correspondent for The Nation and the author of several books on Asia, was The New York Times bureau chief at the UN from 1994 to 2001 and earlier a Times chief correspondent in Southeast Asia and South Asia. She has also been a diplomatic correspondent in Washington and a reporter in Central America, the Caribbean and Canada, and deputy foreign editor and senior editor in charge of the Times’ weekend news operations. Before joining the Times, she was an editor and writer for The Birmingham Post in Birmingham, England.

 

In 1991, Ms. Crossette won the George Polk Award for foreign reporting for her coverage of the assassination in India of a former prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi. In 1998, she won the 25-year achievement award of The Silurians, a society of New York journalists, and the annual prize for international reporting from InterAction, a coalition of more than 150 international nonprofit aid and development organizations. In 1999, she received the Business Council of the United Nations’ Korn Ferry Award for outstanding reporting, and in 2003 the United Nations Correspondents’ Association’s lifetime achievement award. In 2008 she received a Fulbright Award for contributions to international understanding, and in 2010 the Shorenstein Prize for her writing on Asia, awarded jointly by centers at Harvard and Stanford.  

 

Ms. Crossette is the author of So Close to Heaven: The Vanishing Buddhist Kingdoms of the Himalayas and a book of travel essays, The Great Hill Stations of Asia. In 2000, she wrote a survey of India and Indian-American relations, India: Old Civilization in a New World, for the Foreign Policy Association. She is co-author of a chapter on India in a 2009 survey of global stakeholders, Powers and Principles: International Leadership in a Shrinking World, published by Lexington Books for the Stanley Foundation.

 

Ms. Crossette has been a member of the adjunct faculty of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, a Fulbright teaching fellow in journalism at Punjab University in Chandigarh, India, the Ferris Visiting Professor on Politics and the Press at Princeton University and a seminar leader on the UN and  international affairs at Bard College. Since 2003, she has led journalism workshops in Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos, and continues to work with Cambodian reporters covering the Khmer Rouge war crimes tribunal.  She was a Knight International Press Fellow for 2004-2005 in Brazil.

 

Born in Philadelphia, Ms. Crossette received a B.A. in history and political science in 1963 from Muhlenberg College, where she is now a member of the board of trustees. She is also a trustee of the Carnegie Council on Ethics in International Affairs and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She writes regularly for the online news Web site of the United Nations Association of the United States and is a member of the publications board at the Foreign Policy Association.

 

 Neil MacFarquhar Lecture 10/25/2009

In their 3rd annual tribute to UN activist Anita Houston, who died in March of 2007, the UN Committee of New Canaan and the New Canaan Library co-sponsored a public lecture by Neil MacFarquhar, New York Times Bureau Chief at the UN, at the library on Sunday, October 25 at 4:00 p.m.  Mr. MacFarquhar gave his perspective -- developed over his many years of growing up and reporting in the Middle East -- on Arab culture and its relation to the U.S and the UN.

When asked to comment on the upcoming program, Mrs. Houston's daughter, Marianna, stated, "It is clear that Anita would have cherished the opportunity to hear from Mr. MacFarquhar, not only because he is a Bureau Chief at her beloved New York Times, but because he will challenge assumptions, stimulate debate, and 'restore the horizon to our understanding' of the Middle East.  We are deeply grateful to the UN Committee of New Canaan for so diligently and intelligently keeping Anita's love of intellectual growth and debate alive through this impressive lecture series."

 

 

Preparing for the third annual Anita Houston Lecture are co-sponsors Cynde Lahey, Assistant Library Director, and Al Knaus, Co-Chairman of the UN Committee of New Canaan. "We are fortunate to have signed on Neil MacFarquhar, UN Bureau Chief of the NY Times, for our guest speaker this year," reported Mr. Knaus. "Having grown up in Libya, and served as AP correspondent in several Middle Eastern countries, MacFarquhar has developed a thorough understanding of the cultures and problems of those nations and is expected to draw a large audience."

 

 

Neil MacFarquhar, NY Times UN Bureau Chief, delivered the third annual Anita Houston Lecture at New Canaan Library on Sunday, Oct. 25, Mr. MacFarquhar spoke to the title "HAPPY BIRTHDAY from HIZBOLLAH: The CASE for CHANGE in the MIDDLE EAST.  DO the U.S. and the UN HAVE a ROLE?"

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Mr. MacFarquhar grew up in Libya and covered the region as correspondent for the AP, including stints in Israel and Kuwait. He later served as NY Times Cairo bureau chief and is now its UN bureau chief. An Arabic speaker, his understanding of the region has led to appearances on national TV news channels.  According to Mr. MacFarquhar, he has developed a "counterintuitive sense that the Middle East -- despite all the bloodshed of its recent history, is a place of "warmth, humanity, and generous eccentricity".  He reports further that "I came to see all the violent news from the region as a kind of fence....  I didn't want to write only about Iraq or the West Bank or the latest terrorist bombing.  I found the process of trying to understand the gap between the outside image and the internal reality much more engaging, even exhilarating in its own way".  His book, The Media Relations Department of the Hizbollah Wishes You a Happy Birthday was available for purchase at the event.

 Other Past Events -

Ahmed Rashid, Author & Journalist

Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Future of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia.

Presented in collaboration with the New Canaan Library

2/15/2010

Margaret Catley-Carlson, Head of World Economic Forum Global Council on Water

Water: A Greater Risk than Oil

Presented in collaboration with the New Canaan Library

2/23/2009

2nd Annual Anita Houston Memorial Lecture

Rory Stewart, Ryan Professor and Director of the Carr Center for Human Rights at Harvard University and Author

New Canaan High School

1st Annual Anita Houston Memorial Lecture

Gillian Sorensan, UN Foundation

New Canaan High School

11/4/2007

Anthony Lake, Chairman, US Fund for UNICEF, National Security Advisor to President Clinton, and Director of Policy Planning in the State Departement under President Carter

The Middle East and Other National Security Problems

New Canaan Library

10/22/2006

Roshan: Light & Promise - Photographs by Young Women in Afghanistan Presented in collaborations with the New CanaanSociety for the Arts and Voices of September 11th.

Carriage Barn Arts Center

3/12/2006 - 4/15/2006

Tom Brokaw, former NBC News Anchor

New Canaan Country School

6/5/2005

Hassina Sherjan, Aid Afghanistan founder

Steve Coll, Managing Editor, Washington Post

New Canaan Library

10/3/2004