World Peace March

A world march for peace has started off in Aotearoa New Zealand, a country chosen for its outstanding ranking in the Global Peace index and is well known for not engaging in international conflict. Peace leadership in Aotearoa New Zealand includes traditions such as Moriori, Parihaka and other indigenous communities and is a country that has prohibited nuclear weapons.

The march has been endorsed by leading figures such as the Dalai Lama, Yoko Ono (artist), Inter Milan (football team), Brian Adams (Musician), Arun Gandhi (Arun Gandhi's grandson), Queen Rania Al Abdullah (Queen of Jordan) Kerry Prendergast (Mayor of Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand), Edgar Mitchell (Astronaut), and many more spiritual, political leaders, Heads of State, sports and entertainment celebrities and Nobel Laureates.

However, Aotearoa New Zealand has also alot of conflict within communities resulting in injustice and violence. Even with a sparse population, one of the highest rates of violent crimes are reported in the 'developed' world with 40 000 violent crimes reported, 100 murders and 7000 children abused in their homes each year. Nearly 30 % of women have reported to have been abused physically or sexually in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Read more about the arch on World March website

Walking Around the World in Six Years

Look there are goats in the tree! Two brothers endeavor to meet their challenge to walk around the world in Six Years to raise awareness of Peace.

Here is an excerpt from their latest post;

"Walking around the world is a great challenge, but despite the difficulties and problems they have to retain their individual peace. This is not only the key to the mission’s success but a proof of their philosophy: they’re friends, they’re brothers, they can live in peace. They’d like to share this message with as many people as possible".

I'm following this peace adventure project, and you can too by clicking straight onto their latest blogsite post on the sidebar - WorldWalk-Peace - or click one of the images.

Quote of the Day: 'The harder the conflict... '

'The harder the conflict, the greater the triumph.' - Thomas Paine

'The best way to motivate other people to help you fulfill your goals is to help them fulfill their goals'. - Deepak Chopra. When you want to motivate somebody to help you or join you, see it from their side, how will it benefit them or help them? Working out how to go forward together is the way to peace. This is one step further than compromise. In compromise, there is always someone that looses.

The journey of the Tibetan people is also a long hard struggle, however, as the reward is so great, the journey, although hard, is well worth while, writes James De Havilland author of the Temple of 42 steps.

Peacemaking by armed conflict?

With a Sinhalese majority ethnicity whom are people who mostly follow a peace / non- violence philosophy of Buddhism, Sri Lanka would like to be known as a peaceful country. But 30 years of armed conflict have marred the peace. Why? The Tamil ethnic minority - whom feel they are prejudiced against through discrimination and marginalisation - a social injustice which has been fought against using weaponry and violence by the infamous Tamil Tigers.

Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_Tiger

The Tamil Tigers have instigated a long running civil war against the Sinhalese majority government supported financially by ethnic Tamils living in countries overseas such as Malaysia. There is a Tamil majority in the neighbouring Southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu whom have often demonstrated to the Indian government to raise the profile of the situation of the Tamil minority in Sri Lanka. They use armed violence as their tactic and had previously murdered a former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Ghandi on 21 May 1999.

Now, with the Sinhalese army advancing into areas that were the stronghold of the Tamil Tigers, the Tamil Tigers leaders have been accused using civilians as a human shield meanwhile the Sri Lanka military has been accused of shelling schools and hospitals located in Tamil areas as part of the offensive. During U.N. relief efforts, Tamil Tigers have been accused by the U.N. of disallowing injured civilians, women and children to leave, shooting any that try and recruiting child soldiers.

Will the armed offensive into Tamil Tiger areas end the civil war once and for all? Will this bring peace to Sri Lanka and equal rights for Tamil minority population? Will the armed violence be justified in the future? Can peace in a civil context be achieved by armed conflict?

Sources: Aljazeera News hour broadcast 16/2/09; Aljazeera website Sri Lankas Tigers Deny War Crimes accessed 16/2/09 http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/02/2009217135117589149.html; WiKI Rajiv Gandhi accessed 16/2/09 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajiv_Gandhi

U.K. to Gaza: One Hundred and Ten Vehicles, Ten Ambulances, and a Boat load of Aid

George Galloway, Member of British government is leading a convoy of 110+ vehicles including 10 ambulances, a boat, hundreds of volunteers and £1m of aid. The convoy has left London and is on its way to Gaza. George Galloway said that normally when a state is besieged aid would be airlifted to them, however sending an overland convoy was currently the best option to support Gaza.

The journey will start from UK to France, through Spain, Morocco, Tunisia through Libia and on to Egypt. Organised by Viva Palestinia, the convoy is supported by the Stop the War Coalition, the Respect Party, the Anglo-Arab Organisation and several UK trade unions. 90% of the population are dependent on Food Aid in Gaza with 100 000 displaced from their homes.

Jasmine Whitbread, Chief Executive of Save the Children hopes that the convoy will raise awareness that not enough aid is getting through to the besieged Gaza.

Sources, Aljazeera News Hour 14.2.09 Gaza Bound Aid Convoy Leaving UK, BBC News Website http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7889948.stm accessed 14/2/09

The Forgiveness Project

I have come across the 'forgiveness project' a week or so ago and have been mulling it over during a very busy couple of weeks.

Marino Cantacuzino, the journalist who founded this project, says she did so because, 'gentle people attract me more than resolute ones, vulnerability more than strength, and I believe there are very few truly malevolent people in the world.

'The F Word' is an exhibition highlighting some of the work carried out by the 'Forgiveness Project', a charitable U.K. organisation. I am intrigued to find out more about the work although I admit to feeling somewhat uncomfortable reading about peoples' reactions to the exhibition.

Below is an excerpt from the Forgiveness Project website;

As I talked to friends, colleagues and strangers about this exhibition, I began to notice two very different reactions. There are those who see forgiveness as an immensely noble and humbling response to atrocity – and those who simply laugh it out of court. For the first group, forgiveness is a value strong enough to put an end to the tit-for-tat settling of scores that has wreaked havoc over generations. But for the second group, forgiveness is just a copout, a weak gesture, which lets the violator off the hook and encourages only further violence. This is why we called the exhibition The F Word. For some people forgiveness is a very dirty word indeed.

'The F word' exhibition includes real life stories and has been used for the purposes of raising awareness and education in prisons and schools, and by organisations promoting non-violence, "If one can understand why people behave as they do then often the road to forgiveness is opened" says Terry Waite, in support of The Forgiveness Project.

For example, Marino has visited Israel and the 'Parents Circle' which was founded by Yitzhak Frankenthal after his son was kidnapped and murdered by Hamas militants in 1994. The Parents Circle is a group of families whom have suffered loss of loved ones and are working towards peace and reconciliation as a solution to the ongoing conflict.

Whilst Marino says she 'defends the notion of forgiveness' she cannot 'advocate it as the way forwards' as it is a personal choice.

Please take a look at the website www.theforgivenessproject.com to read more.

Source: The Forgiveness Project website, http://www.theforgivenessproject.com/project/marina/ and http://www.theforgivenessproject.com/project/about/ accessed 9/2/09

"We have to risk trusting each other"

Who was Martin Niemoller? From the University of California website it seems he was a Peace Activist in the 1980s. But he didn't start out this way, he started out as a Commander of a German U-boat. Read all about his life by following the link http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/niem.htm.

A quote pertinent to peacemaking from the same website;

Martin Niemöller: "Wer den Frieden will, muß mit dem Gegner gemeinsam leben wollen. Wir müssen vertrauen wagen. Darum Schluss mit dem Rüsten."
('Whoever wants peace must want to live together with their opponents. We have to risk trusting each other. There stop the arms race.')

I was reminded of the quote above when I read the notes written by a commentor on recent Israeli Air Strike Article on AlJazeera News website: "Your report states that 'Hammas wants the border crossings into Gaza reopened, including the Rafah crossing into Egypt, to end the Israeli blockade in the territory' and that 'Israel wants to stop the rocket fire and prevent Hammas fighters from using smuggling tunnels under the border with Egypt to rearm themselves with weapons'. I'd add that the Palestinians wants most of their land back, while Israel wants all of Palestine".

I wonder whether Palestinian government and Israeli government want to live together and work out a solution to live in peace? Not all the population of Palestine and Israel want to fight, so how can governments be pursuaded to move forwards, and start trusting each other?

Sources: 'Niemoeller Quotation Page', UC Santa Barbara, published 12/9/2000 accessed 27/1/09
http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/niem.htm,
Aljazeera News website, 'Gazans Wounded in Israeli Air Raid' updated 27/09/2009 http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/01/20091271411489965.html accessed 27/1/09

"Peacemaking is a Long Term Endeavour with a Great Deal of Disappointment"

The latest from Aljazeera News .....

Protests against the violence in Gaza are taking place all over the world, in London protests are being staged non-stop 24-7, children are marching in protest in the West Bank, and in Paris, where violence has marred the march of 30 000 people against the Israeli military effort. Check out Yahoo News http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20090111/twl-israel-presses-on-with-gaza-war-as-d-3cd7efd.html

Whilst there have been 850 deaths so far, there comes reports of the suspected use of white phosphorous in civilian areas that causes severe burning to the skin. Israeli military threatens to escalate the conflict whilst 600 rockets have been fired from Gaza since military action began, some penetrating deeper than ever into Israel.

Journalists are locked-out of Gaza, with the only international journalists are those whom were resident inside Gaza before the military action are now targeted by Israeli troops. This is contributing to the international concern regarding what is happening inside Gaza.

"Peacemaking is a Long Term Endeavour, however there are small moments of incredible moments of extreme happiness and satisfaction". Sources: Aljazeera AJ One on One (TV) 11/1/2009