Page 47 - Bulletin, Vol.81 No.1, May 2022

At 91, my mother was not suffering from any serious illness. She just had trouble
hearing and didn't really dare to go out alone anymore. She lived in a building with a
small restaurant on the ground floor (my mother was on the fourth floor). So she would
take the lift and go down to eat there. There she was welcomed, but above all, she
never ate alone.

Then the "Covid" happened, everything, or almost everything, stopped and the balance
of many people was upset.

The little restaurant shut down and the people she met stayed at home. As a result, my
mother gradually stopped eating, became weaker and lost weight. The medicines
became too strong and ill-adapted. She started to fall, broke an arm, then a foot. It was
the beginning of a downward spiral.

At first I went to see my mum for about two hours a day, four times a week, my brother
going the other three days. Then, as events unfolded, I went every day to prepare
meals, wash her hair, do the laundry, take care of her administration, eat with her, and
help her wash. I spent almost all my days there until she left.

Now, she's gone. I do miss her, her love, her looks, her smiles, I miss everything. But
now I admit it, I was really exhausted at the end of her life. I should have asked for more
help and this is, humbly, the only advice I want to give.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Revised by Margarete Hahnen

BOOK REVIEW: “ASIA’S TROUBLE SPOTS”

The Leadership Question in Conflict Resolution”. By A.S.
Bhalla, Former ILO and former Fellow, Sidney Sussex
College Cambridge, UK.

In Dr Bhalla’s latest book he examines the effectiveness of
leadership in conflict resolution. Based on seven cases of
major Asian conflicts and the attempts to resolve them the
importance of strong leadership is accentuated. But strong
leadership is not what we probably think it is. It is dependent
i.e. on the leader’s legitimacy, popularity among the general
public and the competence of the national civil service. A set
of required conditions must be fulfilled for successful conflict
resolution.

1) Conflict resolution can occur when the state itself does not act as spoiler like the
non-state agents

AAFI-AFICS BULLETIN, Vol. 81 No.1, 2022-05 45