The Story of Ian Berendsen and Family
The ignominious death of the Idol with feet of clay.
Paul’s dream of Ian;
After his death he was in a barren land with dead trees begging Paul to keep him company. Paul being
the most despised son of the family. It seems fitting since I know now about Ian’s hypocrisy. I later
found out I was the only one who spoke to him.
After his death, Robin found on the internet, Ian looking through field glasses at Lumumba being beaten
and tortured, and saying to the Blue Berets, “do not interfere.” She had a printed copy and said,
“shall we put it on the coffee table for the family to read?” Since then it has been removed from the
internet, but if it is true, it makes at least a liar out of Ian.
Paul says, he must have been out numbered. (There were only six Belgians beating and torturing
Lumumba.) Ian circumvented the situation, indeed ignoring the whole thing saying the day after
Lumumba’s death, among other things, there could not have been enough time for him to be mistreated on
the way from the plane to the destination.
My children were completely enamored with my family. I worked against that. I wanted them to see the
hypocrisy, but it was useless for me to have an attitude about it. Recently I see the reason for my
children’s dependency on them. The family, in their ineptitude, relied on Jane’s audacity. She made all
the decisions. I was seen as weak, even a bad influence. My skills as a mother were undermined.
There is a reason why the truth about Ian only came out after his death. He had power. He was editor in
chief and head of the credit union. Indeed he was one of the founders of the UN.
Who was Dag Hammarskjold writing about in Markings when he described a climber?
My parents used to make fun of people who were preoccupied with prestige when in reality they were.
Their grip on life was so paltry they used to copy me and secretly ask for advice. I never gave it even
though I knew. Regrettably I was spiteful toward them. Ian and Mother were so hard on me when I should
have been hard on them for their deceptive ways.
Ian was there at the UN’s inception and went on to undermine everything the UN stood for. How could
that happen? I’ll never understand it, just like I can’t understand my behavior when I was young.
Knowing this about my stepfather is almost too much to bear. The more I think about it the more pain I
feel. My talks with Ian about politics were a sham. I thought of him as sophisticated when he was
really banal. I idolized him. The real person was not hateful but deceptive and avoidant. I am
wondering if there was a toll on me. Did it affect my innermost being. Granted, I was being lied to
throughout my young life. I was totally unaware, or was I?
Why was Lumumba singled out for such hatred. There were only six executioners and their brutality was
overlooked, even condoned.
Ian used to be very hard on anyone he thought was complicit in a lie. Then he should have been hard on
himself. He hated Reagan, but never mentioned the Bushes. Elder Bush was ambassador to the UN.
Now I see why I was nice to liars, cheats and money grabbers. Ian was all of that. Now I see why I
trusted all the wrong people. The more I face it, the more pain I feel. The nature of hypocrisy is to
not know the truth no matter how hard you try. To give up on it is even worse. I can’t even make sense
of it, or even be understood. How can you be something that you hate? The more I write the more stupid
I think the whole thing is.
My family glosses over what they do know, which is very little. Who is better off? Them or me. Are they
part of the problem or is it me? Ian’s father once said he’s jealous because his son achieved greater
renown than he ever did. Renown for what?
Ian was an elitist brought up in sheltered luxury. He lacked the conscience required of him to do His
job effectively. He did not care about Lumumba or what he stood for. He went ahead with his own agenda
in spite of the UN resolution. The UN and Dag Hammarskjold had high expectations for the first
decolonization in Africa. Thereby lending aid to Lumumba’s newly formed government. Ian undermined all
of that by lending support to the puppet Tshombe. After Ralph Bunche said Tshombe is a puppet he was
soon replaced, relieved of his post in the Congo. When asked why he didn’t activate his troops Ian
said, we might “clash,” and it wasn’t naïveté driving him, rather he was a dilettante. Lumumba was
mercilessly tortured and beaten the whole day of his death and Ian was aware of it but he professed
lack of knowledge while spending time with Tshombe who even pointed out to him the pitiful state of
Lumumba.
When the Katangans finally showed justified impatience with Ian, and totally ignored him, he just said
it was “rather a peaceful two or three weeks.”
My mother, his wife, used to say the UN is no good. What I guess she didn’t know is that Ian, along
with others, played a pivotal role in bringing that about. As far as the legacy of Dag Hammarskjold is
concerned, there is blood on their hands.
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