Tuesday, August 03, 2004
Robert L. Smith
Plain Dealer Reporter
Cleveland claims 18 sister cities around the globe. But really, they're more like distant cousins.
Gdansk, Poland. Taipei, Taiwan. Segundo Montes, El Salvador. These are cities we once knew well, promised to know better, and began to forget soon after the flag-waving and speeches.
"The relationships have been largely ceremonial," said John Lecky, executive director of the International Community Council of Cleveland.
He and other global-minded civic leaders hope the International Children's Games can revive a sleepy sister-city program and give it a new punch.
Delegations from more than 120 cities should find the city hard to forget. They were feted by nationality groups, cheered by ethnic kin and introduced to business and civic leaders.
Several ethnic groups used the Games to reconnect with homeland sister cities, and organizers see a chance to build something new. They envision sister-city ties that foster not just friendships, but also tourism and business deals.
"We would like to get back to the original meaning - serious citizen diplomacy," Lecky said. "Eye to eye is where it really starts."
He saw evidence of that at the games.
Mehmet Gencer, president of a small Beachwood biotechnology firm called IMET Corp., introduced himself to Sorin Dumitru Ducaru, the Romanian ambassador to the United States, in the lobby of a downtown hotel.
Gencer said his company's wastewater treatment technology could help Brasov, Romania, solve its sewage problem.
Brasov, a sister city to Cleveland, happens to be the ambassador's hometown. Ducaru offered to set up a meeting next month with its municipal leaders.
Gencer said Romania has Eastern Europe's fastest-growing economy, and IMET can help to build sewage treatment plants in fast-growing neighborhoods.
The handshake deal strikes close to what some see as a new aim of sister-city programs.
President Eisenhower embraced the sister-city concept in 1956 as part of his "People-to-People" diplomacy effort to nurture world peace.
Former Cleveland Mayor Ralph Perk, a leader of the nationalities movement, saw a means of introducing democracy behind the Iron Curtain, and he encouraged sister-city ties in the mid-1970s.
Over the decades, a Cold War peace plan evolved into something broader. Sister Cities International, based in Washington, encourages business relationships, scientific exchanges and humanitarian assistance.
"It's time to update our program," Lecky said.
He is asking Mayor Jane Campbell to adopt new sister-city principals and to create a civic body to coordinate the programs.
The basic idea - to use personal connections in foreign lands - remains as viable as ever, Lecky argues.
Ducaru, the Romanian ambassador, agrees. His nation needs Cleveland technology, he said. But he also likes the idea of doing business with a city that is home to a large Romanian community.
"We've had a connection to this city for 100 years," he said. "Now, we want to revive it in the new context - the new Romania."
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
rsmith@plaind.com, 216-999-4024