Spotlight: Dimitri Lascaris
Contributing to peace by bridging a manufactured divide
[Image: A cropped from from Dimitri’s appearance on Oksana Boyko’s RT show “Worlds Apart”.]
Published: 2023-05-05
Introduction
It is tempting to accept someone at face value, especially when they are advocating a position of peace, reconciliation, compassion and understanding. Wisdom teaches us that if we have not personally interacted, and even then, it is wise to perform a little research. Is their position consistent, and if not what has caused changes in their approach to the world?
My recent "peace article" called for public action, for people to make what little effort they can, from something as trivial whistling a peace tune, to improve relations and guard against the risks of war which we see growing on the international stage.
This article highlights an individual doing exactly that. His latest actions attempt to create a bridge of understanding between peoples of the "west", particularly his native Canada, and Russia.
Dimitri Lascaris
Dimitri is a Canadian lawyer. He has stated that being financially secure due to some fortune and no doubt much hard work during his period as a commercial lawyer on "Wall Street" has enabled him to become an activist and journalist as a hobby. He wishes to "compensate" for the blessings he has received.
His parents, without even a complete high school education, emigrated from Greece in the 1950's during the country's civil war and ensuing right wing military rule. He shares a similar background to others you may know, like Yanis Varoufakis and Alexander Mercouris. He received a good education in Canada, enabling his legal career. He states that he has not forgetten his humble origins.
In his "On the Edge of a War Zone" article he mentions that he hired a translator and a driver who were recommended to him by Regis Tremblay. I believe Regis' family origin is French Canadian (from the name). He has been a staunch peace advocate for many years whose interviews have been referenced in this newsletter many times. (Sadly, the censorship police at Youtube deleted his channel, and most of those references to his interviews lead nowhere now. Accordingly, references are now to his channel at Rumble. ) Here we receive a vote of confidence from Regis, who would not provide recommendations to hire people he knows without having assessed the character of the person to whom his recommendation is given.
My assessment is that Lascaris is an honest man who means what he says. He is also well informed. Provided below are links to his website where he publishes his articles, particularly about his current trip to the Russian Federation which has been ongoing for around a month now. Along with some of his written articles, three videos and one audio are provided so that you may not only read Mr. Lascaris words but also hear him speak. The selection of references is a subset of those I have used to come to my assessment.
One video is a presentation to a tertiary institution in Moscow which teaches international relations. It concludes with an interesting Q&A with the students. In another video he is interviewed by RT's Oksana Boyko for her program "Worlds Apart". The audio only recording was made Mr. Lascaris of his interview with a columnist for Canada's National Post. Due to experience he expected that the interview would be the basis for a hit piece, which it was. His condition for the interview was that he would record all of it, of which he notes, he had no requirement to inform the journalist, though he did.
Make Peace Not War
Draw your own conclusions. Mine are that Mr. Lascaris is a good speaker who chooses his words carefully and strives for accuracy, almost to a fault. His intentions, as I noted above, are for understanding and peace. I believe he is being effective. I commend him for it and recommend his independent commentary and observations to you.
Should you have the time, please consult the works by or involving Dimitri Lascaris collected under Sources. Should your time be limited, choose one of the videos. It is difficult to pick between the presentataion at the Institute and the interview on Worlds Apart. Its probably the Worlds Apart interview for it has professional audio-video production. (You'll need to click on the link because Substack is essentially an Alphabet/Google property and chooses not to embed Rumble videos, as opposed to Youtube/Google videos which it does.)
I wish Mr. Lascalis all success in his efforts to bridge the manufactured divide between Russian people and the peoples of Europe and the English speaking world, even if it is one handshake at a time.
I would gladly clasp his hand in mine, look him in the eye, and thank him for his efforts.
PS: Full transparency: my entire interaction with Lascaris is the submission of 4 comments to his website, using this pseudonym, one of which was not approved. There is no other connection between us, direct, financial or in any other manner.
Sources
"Dimitri Lascaris, Activist Journalist Lawyer", his website
Worlds Apart | One handshake at a time? - Dimitri Lascaris, Oksana Boyko interviews Lascaris, Worlds Apart (RT), 2023-05-02
Click on the link above for the video published at Rumble.
Citizen Diplomacy: One Handshake at a Time, Lascaris, his website, 2023-05-02
Dimitri's article which announces the publication of the above interview. I provide above the Rumble publication rather than the Odyssey one which Lascaris provides. Odyssey does silly stuff like auto-jumping into fullscreen. Additionally, Rumble provides more variety in video format geometry for selection (yt-dlp -f - <rumble URL>).
On the Edge of the War Zone, Dimitri Lascaris, his website, 2023-04-18
Three Days in Sevastopol, Dimitri Lascaris, his website, 2023-04-29
The Ukraine War: My Debate with a National Post Columnist, Dimitri Lascaris, his website, 2023-04-20
Direct audio download.
Canadian Appeasment: A Presentation at Moscow State Institution of International Relations, Dimitri Lascaris, his website, 2023-04-08
When Nuclear Armed Powers are at War, Refusing to Engage in Dialogue with the Enemy is a Recipe for Disaster, article by Lascaris while the video is a discussion with Yves Engler, Dimitri Lascaris/Canadian Foreign Policy Hour, 2023-04-04
Offsets:
00:22:41 Intro to Lascaris' comments
00:46:11 End of Lascaris' direct comments
00:49:07 Lead into further comments by Lascaris who interacts with the meeting from here
Culture
It had to be an anti-war song by a Canadian band, didn’t it? What could be better than Disarm.
The Smashing Pumpkins - Disarm, Smashing Pumkins (the third single from the second album, from 1993 "Siamese Dream"), Smashing Pumpkins, uploaded 2011-08-02
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Copyright and Licensing
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