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Farewell Farlan
Amalia Rasheed writes with in-put from Frederic Richard
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Farlan passed away in France on July 22nd, 2012. Our condolences and prayers are with his family, in particular his wife Katherine and his children Brigitte, Dominique, Chantal, Gilles, Maya and Hadrien. |
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What struck me when I first met Farlan Carre in Vienna over 30 years ago, was how deeply dedicated he was to the Latihan in Subud and to Bapak. This permeated his life. In his ‘free time’, a man of his professional position, he would have been expected to entertain and nurture ‘important’ relations. Instead he took on responsibilities to assist where he could in the development of Subud in Austria at a time when few others were willing or able to. In the most humble and unassertive manner, not only as a Subud brother, he was encouraging and extremely generous. Over the years I learned that Farlan was also deeply caring as a world citizen and though perhaps not so expressive, as a friend and family man.
As an economist with an engineering background, Farlan rapidly advanced in his career, he said recently, as if the doors were naturally opened for him as a servant of society. He graduated from the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, and later in life worked for GATT, (now known as the World Trade Organisation), and ended his career as Deputy Director General of the UNIDO in Vienna. He was one who hardly showed any self-interest or personal ambition, a man of strong principles and not shy of conflict to defend these. Dedicated to the broad vision of improving humanity and the conditions of the poor, he was truly a United Nations man and would not bow to specific political interests. He loved to debate and was not shy to face contrary viewpoints, yet with acceptance (if at times with regret) when he was not able to rally understanding. So those who were up to having such intense discussions could emerge out of them with interesting insights and reflections even if they didn’t fully share his opinion. After an accomplished professional life, he retired with dedication to continue contributing towards a better world.
Farlan had a brilliant mind, forever analyzing and searching for life’s meaning in spiritual and worldly terms. Yet when expressing himself, he would often reach to the center of his chest as if these were not just stubborn thoughts, but deep insights. He developed ideas based on these and his wealth of experience – concepts of a new form of world governance, where instead of domination by a few powers, there would be more regional self competence and cooperation between the cultures bridged by international institutions. He has left these in a book as part of his legacy for anyone who might wish to take them further.
As it became clear that he was preparing to pass on, Samuel and I went recently to offer our support and bid him farewell. He had been close to us in different ways and in place of my deceased father, had given me away in marriage. Knowing how much his family meant to him and how he hoped to be forgiven for his shortcomings, I told him how I identified with how we try our best for those we love, for our work in this world, yet inevitably have shortcomings we regret… I selfishly asked what was the most important insight that he might have to share with those of us he leaves behind. First he laughed and said: I’m not God! Then he added: Yes we do our best to give our children a good life, the best possible education …. that’s obvious, but what is most important: LOVE. LOVE is all they need to feel.
For your part in my life and lastly for this precious gift you sent through my heart, thank you Farlan and bon voyage!
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