Update: Pinchas vs. Jordan, Ammons, Lovett - IVth Deaf History International

From: DEAFSPORTLAWSUIT - 22 Dec 2002

DEAF HISTORY INTERNATIONAL PAPER PRESENTATION

Two days ago I received an e-mail from one woman. Let me quote as to what she wrote:

Dear Mr. Pinkhasov Pinchas,
I was very touched by your recent news story about that murderous and senseless act by Stalin's agents and firing squad men against those innocent 35 deaf Soviet people in 1937. From you I learned and am continuing to learn many interesting things.
In your lawsuit paper filings you identified yourself as a versatile deaf person: a sports administrator and leader, a journalist, a multilingualist and a historian. I also noticed that you have unique skills like "a lawyer" by representing yourself in the last 15 months or so in this big and what appears to be a very costly and nasty lawsuit case. I want you to know that I do feel very badly about your still-ongoing lawsuit battle against those three adversaries. However, I do still pray that one day soon you and the three defendants will find a mutually acceptable solution and begin to work anew as one united, strong team.
I believe that you all four can do many good things to the deaf sports community, including the CISS!
In spite of all this, you are still truly demonstrating and proving to the world that there is a tremendous deaf person with his very unique and comprehensive background, who can do anything, except hear! In one of your releases published on this website, you indicated that you one time ago took part as a paper presenter on behalf of the CISS at the Deaf History International Conference in 2000. What kind of a paper did you present there? Please, if it will be OK with you, publish the contents of your such paper presentation in full through your very educational and splendid website."

My answer: Yes, I was part of the three-member CISS delegation ( the other two were Dr. Donalda Ammons, the CISS Secretary General, and Mr. Terry Giansanti, a very gifted sports writer and young intern at the CISS Museum in Rome, Italy ) at that Conference, which was superbly chaired by Dr. Ausma Smits, the well-respected Professor of History at Gallaudet University.

Below are the contents of my paper co-presentation titled PRESERVATION OF THE HISTORY OF THE CISS, which I delivered to the attendees of the IVth International Conference on Deaf History at the 700-seat Gallaudet University Kellogg Conference Center Auditorium premises on June 28, 2000:

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am honored to take part at this Conference and present my paper, which is related to the CISS and Deaf World Games.

It's the first time that the representatives from the CISS have the opportunity to participate at this Conference. The other two presenters on the CISS behalf will be Dr. Donalda K. Ammons, the CISS Secretary General, and Mr. Terry Giansanti, an intern at the CISS Museum in Rome, Italy. The two will, later on, tell you as to why it is vitally important to preserve the many records of the CISS archives.

Each of you know that sports plays a very significant role in the lives of deaf people. Since 1924 the deaf people - athletes, leaders, officials and spectators from many different parts of the planet - have been taking part in the major international sporting gatherings called the World Summer Games and the World Winter Games ( by the way, the Winter Games were inaugurated in 1949 ).

Allow me to introduce myself.
I am a native of Tashkent, Uzbekistan, which is part of the now-defunct Soviet Union. I am a 1979 graduate of Gallaudet. I am currently the Chairman of the CISS Deaf World Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year Awards Commission ( every year such a Commission under my guidance and leadership selects the world's top male and female sportspersons for the outgoing year ). I am also a frequent writer for the CISS Bulletin.

For me, researching the history of the CISS and its Games is not a new discipline. I have been engaged in such a research since the age of 13, when I was a schoolboy at the Tashkent School for the Deaf. To this day, I continue to do research on this special area at my own expense, without getting any outside financial support or help. In addition, I never dreamt that I would see a day like today - today is the day, in which I have the honor and the privilege of introducing my research paper about the CISS and its Games to this Conference.

As you know, the most reliable historical source is a document. Only the document, which is a witness of the previous and past years, can verify the fact and the accuracy of an event in question. It also should be noted that the word "document" in Latin means a proof and/or an evidence.

Although I was probably the first one to get interested in doing the research on the CISS history, there were the two individuals who should largely be credited for collecting and preserving the many documents, which are now stored at the CISS Museum in Rome, Italy. These two distinguished persons were Signor Francesco Rubino of Italy and Monsignor Antoine Dresse of Belgium ( both of them of blessed memory ). Mr. Rubino was the influential leader of the deaf sports in Italy as well as the founder and first curator of the CISS Museum in 1975. Mr. Dresse was the co-founder of the CISS in 1924 and for 43 years its organization's Secretary General. Thanks to Mr. Dresse, the many different documents of the CISS were diligently safeguarded and, later on, delivered to the CISS Museum ( I would like you to note the following: Mr. Bernard LeMaire, one of the leaders of the Deaf History International organization, is the grandson of Monsignor Dresse ). The other persons who also should be recognized for collecting and preserving the CISS archival documents are the former CISS Secretaries-General - Mr. Oswald Dahlgren of Sweden and Mr. Knud Sondergaard of Denmark.

As for myself, for the last 32 years, since 1968, I have been researching on the very long and unique history of the CISS in four different places of this globe, which cover four countries and three continents - the State Library in the city of Tashkent, Uzbekistan; the archives room of the VOG ( the All-Russian Society of the Deaf ) in Moscow, Russia; the CISS Museum in Rome, Italy, and the Edward Miner Gallaudet Library here, on Gallaudet University campus. The continued research has also enabled me, a Russian-speaking person, to learn and comprehend the other classical foreign languages - English, French, Italian and Spanish mainly because many of these historical papers were documented on those languages. Interestingly, every time I initiated the research at these four different locations I faced the unpleasant and annoying task by struggling with the dirt and the dust, which came from the never used various papers or boxes. In other words, no one before me, for a certain amount of time duration, touched these archival CISS documents for the research or other purposes!

Briefly, my comprehensive research work ( this includes 1. the collection and preservation of many old and historical photographs and other CISS-related memorabilia, 2. my countless interviews with the many different people who have had the first-hand knowledge of an event in question ) involves, for example, the various subjects like:

a. the names of national sports organizations that joined the CISS in various years ( since 1924, 80 nations joined the CISS, of which 7 were removed from the CISS membership for a variety of reasons );

b. the names of the cities that hosted the Summer and Winter Games ( of the 31 cities that hosted the Summer or Winter Games, the city of Copenhagen, Denmark, is the only city to host the Games twice, in 1949 and 1997 );

c. the names of sports officially included on the Games program ( 17 different sports were played in the Summer Games, only four - in the Winter Games );

d. the statistical number of male and female athletes participating at the Games ( over 15,000 athletes took part at the 1924-1997 Summer Games, while over 2,000 athletes competed at the 1949-1999 Winter Games );

e. the most outstanding and acomplished performers in the CISS Games history: among the men, Giovanni Calissano, a shooter from Italy, collected an aggregate of 43 medals; among the women, the most medals won was by a swimmer from Australia, Cindy-Lu Fitzpatrick who got 28 medals; another unusual feat was achieved by an alpine skier from Norway, Hans Lie, who competed in the Winter Games for ten consecutive times ( i.e., between 1953 and 1987 );

f. the world and Games records recognized by the CISS in athletics, swimming and shooting ( since 1927, the CISS began to conduct the list of the world records );

g. the CISS Congresses ( the first such a Congress was held in 1926 );

h. the names and biographies of the prominent individuals who built the CISS as an independent worldwide sports organization;

i. the deaf Olympians and their biographies ( so far, 13 deaf persons had the rare privilege of competing at the Olympic Games between 1948 and 1996 ); I have just received the e-mail message from the CISS President, Mr. John Lovett, who informed that Terence Parkin, an outstanding deaf swimmer from South Africa, made the 2000 Olympic team, which means he has become the 14th deaf athlete to participate at the hearing Olympics;

j. the CISS and politics ( the death of 35 deaf citizens - members of the Leningrad Deaf Society in the Soviet Union by a firing squad after it was determined that these persons were implicated with a deaf foreigner who happened to be a 1924 Deaf World Games swimming champion; the controversial South Africa's membership in the CISS; the cancellation of the Deaf World Games in 1981 in Tehran, Iran, due to the revolution in this country led by the Ayatollah Khomeini ).

By perpetually continuing to do the research, I can proudly say that the CISS has UNDOUBTEDLY a very rich, phenomenal and illustrious history.

Thank You.

POSTCRIPTUM. For the factual record, after the completion of the June 28, 2000 paper co-presentation by the trio of CISS speakers Dr. Ammons, Mr. Giansanti and myself, many attendees in the spacious Auditorium applauded by thanking three of us for our "well-done job". The three speakers also congratulated each other, including there was the customary bear hug and kisses-on-the-cheeks exchange between Dr. Ammons and Mr. Pinkhasov Pinchas. Among the notable attendees at that Auditorium's presentation was one person who was the CISS doyen and who eagerly watched the presentation. That USA-born person would later on, after the end of presentation by the three, go out to personally congratulate the other two USA-born paper speakers, while the third speaker - a Soviet Union-born, long-time and leading authority on the history of the CISS and Deaflympic Games, was discouragingly ignored.

That USA-born person, who inappreciatively and impolitely snubbed Mr. Pinkhasov Pinchas, was Mr.Jerald Jordan, the very one who would later on become the defendant Number One in the still-pending lawsuit case. This legal case filed at the USA District Court in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, involves the four different deaf litigants - Pinkhasov Pinchas as the deposed CISS Awards Commission Chairman, on the one side, and Jordan as the so-called universally-revered deaf sports leader-role model and "CISS Honorary Life Member" ( read www.deafsportlawsuit.com/update22.html ), Lovett and Ammons as the still-suspended CISS President and CISS Secretary General ( read www.deafsportlawsuit.com/update23.html ), on the other side!
Meanwhile, I am sending my best wishes on the occasion of this week's holiday - Christmas Day!

Sportingly Yours,

Rafael Pinkhasov Pinchas

www.deafsportlawsuit.com