An open letter to US Consul General to Bermuda Bob Settje

Dear Mr Settje,

Imagine Bermuda wishes — on behalf of residents sharing these sentiments — to express appreciation to the Administration of President Obama for its leadership on the Framework Agreement achieved on Thursday, April 2 by negotiators representing the United States, five other world partners and Iran.

This tentative agreement is a potential watershed in international relations and comes during a period of some global instability.

This turning point represents a bright ray of hope during a gloomy period.

There is evidence of polarisation in some US cities and campuses; on the signing date, a campus in Kenya was invaded by terrorists who killed some 150 students while the death toll in the Ukraine dispute has recently exceeded 6,000 men, women and children.

This framework agreement was reached on the eve of Easter Weekend, the same publishing date of a joint statement of seven local church leaders.

Having been unaware of the accord, their message speaks to the spirit of this work done to make the world a safer place through painstaking negotiations, based on mutual respect.

We offer best wishes to those involved as they embark on the final phase.

This complex process will involve negotiators seeking to address the interests of all stakeholders in the context of the big picture. While some of us in Bermuda may not recognise any connection, we might recall that we are part the global village.

We might also recognise lessons in this international scenario, which have relevance to local circumstances. Secretary Kerry and the other negotiators have demonstrated a high degree of patience and perseverance. It is obvious that while those participants have had extremely wide differences, they have maintained a high degree of respect for one another.

Evidently maintaining a climate of mutual respect has opened the opportunity to explore reality with limited defensiveness (a lesson for Bermuda).

Those international negotiators have recognised the need for an internal shift that sees that rather than seeking for the other side to “lose”, the goal must be that everybody “wins”.

It seems very evident that if this process ends successfully, it will benefit the entire human family, and upcoming generations.

Glenn Fubler

Imagine Bermuda