|
|
|
Speech by Mr. David Turner, Centro Italiano di Solidarieta
I have known Eva, I think since 1976. At that time we weren’t entirely in agreement but not being in agreement with Eva is one of the pleasures of working with Eva because the argument is as much fun as anything else. We have argued and battled with enormous pleasure, sometimes with slightly more bottles of wine than was absolutely necessary for the argument but always with enormous pleasure.
I think what is very important to say about Eva, is that she has made a massive difference, which most people don’t know about and that is extraordinary because she learnt the many years before me that to make the difference, you’ve got to persuade somebody else that it was their idea.
If she hadn’t worked the way she did, demand reduction would not have risen up the agenda. All sorts of clever moves were used. I remember in the ´80s that as a little group we started off with ten of us talking about demand reduction.
The next year there were 20. The year after that it had doubled and the year after that we didn’t actually have enough room to accommodate everyone who wanted to be part of it and from that came eventually the Guiding Principles on Drug Demand Reduction.
But if we hadn’t started that meeting, which Eva did, we would never have the Guiding Principles and those are very important documents. The things she has done in that quiet sort of way, which nobody notices because she doesn’t push herself forward, so she doesn’t get the awards but it makes a massive difference. No other NGO that is still around was at the 1971 Convention.
She was there for the 1988 Convention. She was there making a difference all the time, asking questions, pushing, prodding quietly, and making connections.
I think that is a very important function because she learnt an art that NGOs have not been very good at over time which is working out how to transfer policy into gentle usable politics.
Sometimes NGOs were very good at the noisy policy and the noisy politics and not achieving what we want. She taught us how to do the quiet politics and make a difference. For that alone she deserves an award. And I thank her.
|
|
|