Dennis Byron
President and Judge
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About this Video

Country of Origin:
St. Kitts & Nevis
Interview Date:
10/28/2008; 11/05/2008
Location:
Arusha, Tanzania
Interviewer:
Robert Utter
Videographer:
Max Andrews
Timestamp:
56:38 - 61:41

Transcript

0:00
Robert Utter: Tell me about the effect of this service on you as a person. Are you the same person as you were before you came? If not, how, what effect has it had on you?
0:14
Well, your question made me smile or, or, or it made me have to suppress a smile. The, the, coming here made me get re-married.
0:35
RU: Ah.
0:37
I, my marriage had broken down many years before and I had, I had, I had more or less joined the ranks of confirmed bachelorhood and then I came here. And somehow or other, I, I don’t know exactly how to rationalize it, but I suppose, I felt lonely and in need of companionship.
1:15
And, it wasn’t long before I addressed the issue directly and made a proposal to someone who accepted it and, and frankly, I can’t imagine why I didn’t, hadn’t done it before, because it has really improved the quality of my life enormously.
1:40
Now I don’t know if I should attribute it, attributed that to the work I’m doing here but that has been the most major change in my life since I’ve been here and it’s been, I think, a change for the better.
1:51
RU: We appreciated the invitation to your home and the great crowd there and the great hospitality. If your wife was part of that, which I know she was . . .
2:02
Yes.
2:02
RU: . . . give her our thanks as well for me please.
2:04
Certainly.
2:07
RU: What, what hope do you have for the future in seeing all of this, perhaps, irrational acts of humanity involved in this genocide?
2:20
Well, hope. It’s, it's, it’s I don’t know what to say. In fact, one of the, you know, a few years ago, a friend had asked me to be godfather to his daughter, who was given a name out of Homer’s Odyssey.
2:44
RU: Ah.
2:45
And, and he gave me as a christening gift, a copy of the book.
2:52
RU: Yes.
2:54
I suppose when I was a kid I had read extracts of it but I was idle enough to, to read it again and it was very depressing because I recognized people. And I wondered – has humanity really developed? You know, do we see cycles of this type of behavior recurring?
3:23
I, I sincerely hoped that the result of our work would have supported the promise of “Never again,” but I listen to the news every day. I see Darfur, I see the violence emerging again in the, in the C-, DRC, you see. And, and so I wonder.
3:52
I had felt that one of the major lessons that the tragedy had taught was the importance of early intervention but I don’t know if even that lesson has been fully learned. So I am not sure what to hope for but I wish I could hope for something.
4:16
RU: Thank you very much, sir. Is there anything that I’ve not touched upon that you would like to add?
4:25
Well, I would like to thank you. I, I think that your, you have pulled me out quite a bit. If, if I was asked to just make a speech on these issues, I don’t think that I would have had anything to say. So I must commend you for the quality of your, of your inquiries and I have enjoyed working with you in this manner very much.
4:56
RU: As have I, sir. Thank you.