CHEBEAGUE ISLAND — She’s been all over the world in her work with the United Nations, grew up in the shadow of Princeton University in New Jersey where her father was a professor, but it is on this Casco Bay island that Leila Bisharat’s roots are deepest.
In a relaxed conversation in the yard of the house she shares with her husband— Suhail Bisharat, a native of Jordan—Leila casually points to property across the street and down the hill where her ancestors lived over 200 years ago.
She clearly cherishes her time on the island, where she has summered since childhood, and embraces the down-shifting nature of life here. Returning from a mainland appointment before our interview, Bisharat makes a quick sweep through the house, confiscating iPhones from grandchildren, whom she made promise to unplug while on-island.
Bisharat was trained as a demographer and regional planner and earned a doctoral degree from Princeton where she taught. She also was a senior visiting research scientist at Harvard University and continues to do international consulting work with a Boston-based private firm.
WW: So, tell us about your work with the UN.
Bisharat: I was with UNICEF for many, many years—the United Nations’ children’s fund—and I certainly did not intend to do that [laughs] to start out my working life. When I was in New York as UNICEF’s director of planning and coordination, I often had graduate students who would come and tail me to meetings of the Security Council or ECOSOC [Economic and Social Council]. And at the end of a week they would say to me, “Well how did you get this great job?”
“And the only thing I can tell you is if you love what you do so much you’ll do it 24/7, things happen.” And that’s what happened in my life—things happened.
I ended up taking a leave from Harvard, thinking it would be a year. I was totally captivated. One thing led to another.
WW: And how many years did you end up being there?
Bisharat: Fifteen. There were a lot of creative challenges of how to try to reach children in very difficult circumstances. Kids who were off the radar screen, who were in especially tough spots, in war zones. We were trying to—and still are—eliminate—actually eradicate—polio. And that inspired me. I had polio as a child.
And the only way to eradicate disease, actually, especially in the case of polio, is to get “herd” immunity. And that means being able to reach over 90 percent of the unvaccinated children.
So often they are in shanty towns. They are not in the registers of ministers of health or their health systems. So how do you do that? Aerial photographs. I was working in that kind of thing, plotting populations from the air. You could start to find where people were and send out teams.
WW: And speaking of that, what kind of general truth about the plight of kids and women around the world is something that most Americans probably don’t know? You mentioned polio, but what else?
Bisharat: I think the good news, Tom, is that there have been enormous improvements all over the world. If you look at child survival—probability of the kids to survive through the first year of life, to survive to their fifth birthday—there have been enormous improvements, a doubling of those life chances.
If you had a graph, 50 years ago you would put the United States up here [gestures] and a lot of other countries down here. Now all those countries have moved up here [gestures to where the U.S. is]. And we often are thinking that population explosion is happening because people are having too many kids, in fact, in many, many countries, young people are living much longer and overall better lives.
I’m not saying that that’s true for all. In our own country, the disparities that have become so blatant between those that are able to access health care, access food, even and those who cannot are more striking. “Within country” differences in opportunities and survival and well-being have become much more obvious. It’s a global trend, sadly.
For young people, look at the revolutions that are going on. They’re being fueled by healthier, better educated, clued-in to the rest of the world young people.
For women, unfortunately, that’s not so much the case. Probably the worst thing is how many women still die in childbirth. Childbirth is not considered very important. And sadly in our own country, if we look at different indicators of women’s health care, we’re not doing well. We’re way behind many countries that we used to consider developing countries.
WW: So we’re sitting here on this idyllic island off the coast of Maine. Yet we know that economic and cultural forces of globalization will connect Maine to the rest of the world. Is globalization a benign force, is it inevitable, or”¦ what do you think of that?
Bisharat: Certainly it’s not benign. It has its explosive aspects. But overall I look upon it as a very positive force—the connectedness, especially what has happened with the Internet, access that kids all over the world have to knowledge, in places where they will never have a chance to grow up next to a great library.
When I grew up in Princeton, anybody could go into the stacks and take out whatever book they wanted to read. A huge privilege, but how many children grow up with that kind of opportunity.
WW: And lastly, what’s your connection to Chebeague, and how is life different here and what has this island taught you?
Bisharat: Oh, a lot. On my father’s side of the family, they were among the early settlers of Chebeague. So when I was a girl, that building over there [points], that was a three-holer outhouse—it still is. It’s an exciting spot to go in. There’s a kid’s hole and two grown-up ones.
My own parents’ house across the way [points across road], this is where my great-grandmother lived [gesturing to her house]. It had been “modernized” in 1890, so there was in-door plumbing. But we liked to come over here to the three-holer.
I think that prepared me for a very different kind of life. Places that I’ve worked in didn’t have any plumbing.
But also, just looking out to sea from here. I often would look out at the entrance to Portland harbor and I was just hankering to get out to sea, beyond the confines.
In some ways, this balanced Princeton off with getting back to basics, where family was.
My husband and I decided that we would make sure that our children had this safe harbor”¦ [Chebeague] still has that wonderful insularity which helps people escape to another age. But it’s very connected.
I’m so glad I’m able to get here and draw up the drawbridge, and also be a part of this community. When you’re abroad working for the United Nations, for UNICEF, you’re always kibitzing others about things they can do. But you’re not a real participant.
And here, you have all the responsibility of being a member of a community and the rewards of being part of it.
Bisharat serves as a trustee of the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront.