Citizen Diplomat

This interesting program opens up with an arresting piece of video footage: a woman is seen handing a document to Soviet premier Gorbachev, who, in turn, smiles and shakes her hand. As we quickly discover, this woman is an American citizen--not a politician--named Rama Vernon, a mother and yoga instructor, now Director of the Center for Soviet-American Dialogue. This video portrait tells her story. The first half of the tape is a filmed lecture by Vernon, who opens her talk by saying: "Motherhood prepared me for negotiations with the Soviets." While attending a meeting in which a Soviet and an American diplomat spoke, Vernon was shocked and frightened by the antagonistic closed-mindedness of the speeches. Determined to make a change, she began visiting the Soviet Union, meeting with government officials, trying to set up new rules for discussions between Americans and Soviets. On her trips, she brought many people form different walks of life and arranged for them to meet with their professional Soviet counterparts. (The language barrier sometimes interceded, Vernon allows, as when an American parapsychologist was accidentally paired with a Soviet parasitologist.) Her efforts have been successful in opening new doors of communication between the superpowers, and she is quite convincing in her strong belief that citizen diplomacy can not only succeed, but also prove successful where government has been ineffective or downright dangerous. The second part of the tape, which features an interview with Vernon, is neither as focused or as good. Vague suggestions about citizen diplomacy in the home and an extremely strained metaphor explaining the feminine nature of "Mother" Russia and the masculine nature of America ("Uncle" Sam) are neither fully laid out nor adequately supported. However, the first part of this program is inspiring, interesting, and unique--and for these reasons Citizen Diplomat is recommended. (Available from: U-Music, Inc., 389 Martin Ave., Mill Valley, CA 94941.)