April
21, 2017 "Information
Clearing House"
- While much of the
world is engulfed in violence of one sort or
another (whether violence in the home or on the
street, exploitation, ecological destruction or
war), a global network of individuals and
organizations is committed to ending this
violence in all of its manifestations.
With
individual signatories in 100 countries and
organizational endorsements in 35 countries,
each of these individuals and organizations
works on one or more manifestations of violence
in their locality and some of the organizations
and networks have considerable national or even
international reach. However, as you might
understand, there is a great deal to be done and
the Charter network continues to expand as more
people and organizations are motivated to join
this shared effort.
A
native of Iran,
Professor Manijeh Navidnia was born in
Tehran where she attended school and university.
She married in 1982 and had her first child in
1985. Her original research interests were in
social science and sociology but after
collaborating with the Islamic Azad University,
she became interested in strategic studies and
most of her research work and publications since
then have focused on security. Her first book in
2009 was particularly focused on ‘societal
security’ and her political engagements are
designed to enhance international cooperation
across cultures.
‘The ongoing drought in Somalia – referred
to in the Somali language as Sima, which
means the leveler, ubiquitous or pervasive –
has enveloped the entire country. If rain
does not arrive by mid April, and if a
massive humanitarian campaign is not mounted
swiftly, the drought could morph into an
insidious famine that could devastate the
country’: hundreds of thousands of
vulnerable men, women and children could
starve to death. Sadly, while awareness of
the ongoing suffering and the potential
famine has been high, ‘the response of the
international community and the mitigation
strategy by Somalia has been wholly
inadequate.’ Despite UN agencies raising
over US$300 million, the majority of the
population across the country is not
receiving basic necessities. ‘Many pastoral
communities have also lost 80 percent of
their livestock, escalating their
vulnerability to an alarming and perilous
level.’
Ruth Phillips is
the central figure in the initiative to create
‘an ecological, co-housing village here on a
fully restored, 17th century chateau estate in
rural France. The property lies in the heart of
30 acres of parklands and forests in the midst
of quiet, deep-green nature, surrounded by hills
and mountains, forests and lakes. It is set in
the eastern Dordogne, one of most unspoilt
regions of France’. They have permission to
create a permaculture village around the chateau
for residential and/or holiday use, with 23
houses blended into the natural and historic
landscape. Plans include the chateau ‘hub’
offering education, leisure and cultural
activities for residents and visitors; a small
restaurant; a multi-functional workshop space;
the swimming pool; a sauna and communal space,
as well as large individual garden plots and
access to acres of forest and fields on the
property. The site aims to be a showcase for
permaculture and sustainable living. Too good to
be true? Check out the
Ecochateau
website and email Ruth if you want to go there
to stay for a while and help make their vision a
more complete reality.
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Burmese
scholar and activist,
Dr Maung Zarni
has been indefatigable in his efforts to raise
awareness of the Burmese government’s genocidal
assault on the Rohingya Muslim population in
Burma. He has also not shied away from drawing
attention to democracy icon
Aung San Suu Kyi‘s complicity in this
genocidal assault. While he has written many
articles on the subject, this two-minute video
will give you a clearer sense of Zarni, the
compassionate scholar/activist.
‘Multiple Denials of Myanmar’s Atrocity Crimes
against Rohingyas prevent a peaceful resolution’
In one
of her
public talks,
Kathleen
Macferran posed the question
‘Are we really safer when we put those who
harm others behind bars and forget about
them?’
She
explores the idea of ‘turning our prisons into
houses of healing and creating connections that
lead to greater safety’ by having incarcerated
men and women return to our communities as
peacemakers.
Greg Kleven
is a 68 year-old American living and teaching
English in Viet Nam. He was 18 years old when he
went to Viet Nam as a soldier in 1967 ‘and
thought that what I was doing was right. But
after a few months in country I realized that I
had made a huge mistake. The war was wrong and I
should never have participated.’ After going
home he had a hard time adjusting back into
society. ‘I couldn’t get the war out of my
mind.’ In 1988 he went back to Viet Nam as a
tourist and realized he had a chance ‘to make up
for what I had done’. For the next two years he
helped organize ‘return trips for veterans who
wanted to go back and see Viet Nam as a country,
not a war’. In 1990 he started teaching English
in Ho Chi Minh City and he has been doing it
ever since. Greg shares the passion to ‘some day
put an end to all wars and violence in the
world’.
Professor of Mathematical Analysis,
Tarcisio
Praciano-Pereira, reports from Brazil
that he is personally well but that living in
Brazil is
‘very bad! I am 73 years old and I have
suffered the dictatorship of 1964 when I was
forced into exile. So I have a very clear
picture of what is going on here and this
doesn’t make me well because I know clearly
the dangers we are facing. My life has
changed entirely, my intellectual production
has dropped down because I am all the time
in the fight. I am seriously afraid! And I
am not a young boy anymore as I was in
1964.’
He
advised the death of a judge of the Supreme
Court, who was overseeing a massive corruption
investigation into the state oil company,
Petrobras, against the will of the ‘putsch
owners’ and conservative media outlet ‘Globo’.
It is clear that the possibility of crime in
this death cannot be dismissed. Now they are
trying to replace the dead judge with the
Justice Secretary ‘who is nothing but a
criminal. Please take a stand against this if
you can. Afraid is the right picture, friend!
Yes, Fora Temer! Fora Temer, o traira!’
Ending
human violence requires courage, not to mention
toughness and determination, often in
extraordinarily difficult circumstances.
For
that reason, you might be sceptical about the
prospects of achieving it.
Can we
do it? If we do not try, we will never know. And
one day, fairly soon now according to some
climate scientists (and assuming we can avert
nuclear war in the meantime), homo sapiens
sapiens will enter Earth’s fossil record without
even making a concerted effort to prevent it.
Robert J. Burrowes has a lifetime commitment to understanding
and ending human violence. He has done extensive research since 1966 in
an effort to understand why human beings are violent and has been a
nonviolent activist since 1981. He is the author of 'Why Violence?'
http://tinyurl.com/whyviolence His email address is flametree@riseup.net
and his website is here. http://robertjburrowes.wordpress.com
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