Peace building, transformation and the arts

 Learn about the tools and projects of artists and performers around the world from Peru to Serbia.

http://youtu.be/q0Xj8eELbcg

Making it happen: Kiva and the global family makes biz work

Focusing on partnership and equity in economic ventures.
http://www.westnorthmedia.com/projects/2912564

Cape Verde's Pires wins Mo Ibrahim Prize for African good governance

Way to go! Along with Botswana and Mozambique, Cape Verdean governance, economy and 80% literacy
rate bodes progress for the small African archipelago. Independent from Portugal since the 1970's, more Cape Verdeans
reside outside the country than inside. This award now recognizes the insistent work done by this country to move to the company of newly middle-income nations in Africa.


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203633104576622643418381176.html

Nobel Peace Prize shared by Liberian and Yemeni leaders

In an effort to shed light on non-violent activism, the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to these women leaders.
Few women have received the NPP since its inception in the last century. Focusing on the world's most troubling public health crisis - gender-based violence - alerts the international community to the role that women have and continue t play at both the grass-roots and policy level in CEDAW- THE Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.
We applaud the international community for acknowledging the struggles of women peace-makers.
What's your view?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/08/world/nobel-peace-prize-johnson-sirleaf-gbowee-karman.html?_r=3&hp

Bolivian President Evo Morales up for Nobel Peace Prize

 Who will receive the Nobel Peace Prize this Friday?
http://bcove.me/4vsgq949

Development Experts Present at Boston Baha'i Center TODAY!

Come hear Dr. Cecil Cook and New Dawn Associates founder Crispin Perberton-Pigott present their
views on spiritual solutions to working in international development.

TODAY, October 2 at 3pm, Bosotn Baha'i Center, 595 Albany St.,  3-5pm.

Fear of education/learning=freedom

 In Iran, members of the Baha'i Faith who are educators are being imprisoned. Why? Is there a link between true liberty, training the human intellect, and the growing needs for higher education training in every nation? Why would any nation that seeks true prosperity for all of its citizens, use religious prejudice to persecute professional educators? In "educators Under Fire", actor Rainn Wilson speaks for educational freedom. There is a link between knowledge and freedom- a universal human right.

http://vimeo.com/29493907

Sunday Easy Rider

Not a great bike day, but I note the quieted city as we move into autumn. As the world moves in and out of disaster and progress, turmoil and reconciliation, remember what moves the world -love- as 13th century poet, Rumi might say: "I went to the doctor. 'I feel lost, blind with love. What should I do?' Give up owning things and being somebody. Quit existing. " (Rumi, #1886, 'We Are Three', 1987)

Thoughts from the late Ralph Bunche on the Palestine-Israeli struggle

As history watches as Palestinians seek UN recognition this month, remember former UN Under secretary, Ralph Bunche. In fact, in 1936, long before the launch of a distinguished career, Bunche wrote: "And so, class will some day supplant race in world affairs. Race war will then be merely a side-show to the gigantic class war which will be waged in the big tent we call the world." Receiving the Nobel Peace Prize (1950) for his mediation of the Israeli-Arab/Palestinian struggle, Bunche was a political scientist and diplomat who was a central player in the writing of the UN Charter and worked with Eleanor Roosevelt on the UN Declaration of Human Rights. He was one of the most highly ranked American diplomats and, as a person of color, also mediated conflicts in Yemen, Cyprus, and the Congo. In fact the membership of numerous African and Asian states in a  post-war mid-2oth century UN was made possible by Bunche who helped to dismantle the old African and Asian colonial systems as they took their eventual place in the UN as independent states.
Despite a prestigious career, Bunche confronted racism in the U.S. throughout his life.

Remember his words in these perilous times:
"May there be, in our time, at long last, a world at peace in which we, the people, may for once begin to make full use of the great good that is in us."
-Raplh Bunche

"Fly Girls" /Season of Peace campaign, Boston

 Are we remembering that ending violence and creating peace is a 365-day job?
Boston's "Fly Girls" work towards ending the cycles of abuse among young girls and women.

http://www.bostontenpoint.org/programs.php

Clever commentary on Global violence at post 9/11 commemorative time

What has the persistent focus on the 'war on terror' produced? The 'Jihad vs McWorld' position expressed by Barber points to our massive global inequalities in the basic needs of life. We find ourselves in the midst of either affluence or poverty creating entrenched divisions in human societies.

When we speak of poverty reduction, we need to speak simultaneously about 'wealth reduction'. The UN Conference of the 1990's on (over) population and over consumption was expressed in comments by Bisi Ogunkele , then Chief of Women's organizations in Nigeria. She stated: 'If the rich nations of the world are not willing to share their wealth with the poor, the poor will share their poverty with the rich.' So here we are, after several millennia, still preoccupied with a global war industry as our primary means of achieving peace by physical force and violence. Not so clever for such a clever species that claims to be enlightened. Listen to this clever blogger on the subject of the inutility of the 'war on terror' and speak your piece:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/simon-cohen/the-war-on-error_b_956333.html

Remedies (Spoken Word)

Farmageddon Trailer

In Gaza, poverty forces children to choose between survival and school

RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms

Time-lapse, collaborative speed painting

A world without art? I don't think so! Check out this  video as students at 'Artists for Humanity' (Boston), demonstrate the power of art, the  impact of unity. One of the instructors-"Problak" featured here and at the end of the video.
http://youtu.be/q2xYZ5xhxbM

Signs of the moral and spiritual degradation of society?

 Today's revelations on financial scandals at Oxfam in both Haiti and Pakistan confirm our worst fears that trust has eroded across the planet. The people of Haiti and the people of Pakistan, both poor and disaster-ridden sites, deserve better--a better kind of human being! Trustworthiness, honesty, and a shared vision are some of the qualities we need in every nation. What's your view?

http://www.devex.com/en/blogs/the-development-newswire/twin-scandals-at-oxfam-haiti-mission-chief-resigns-pakistani-flood-aid-embezzled

2011 Elections Test Peace in Liberia

Tunisian Election Law Gives Women Equal Chance | Womens eNews

Turbulent change or peaceful transition---either way, all benefit from equality-women, men, and nations.
Time will tell which nations of the world will move on the path of peace which leads to prosperity.


Tunisian Election Law Gives Women Equal Chance | Womens eNews

'Made' in America? or "We" too )still) sing America?

 http://video.nytimes.com/video/2011/08/11/movies/100000000992277/on-race-and-hollywood.html

What happened to america's sense of destiny, a progressive society? The late Langston Hughes poem "I Too Sing America" foretells that 'nobody' will tell me to eat in the kitchen..and 'they'll see how beautiful I am...and be ashamed. Sorry, little has changed as George suggests in this clip from "The Maid". Successive ethnic immigrant groups from low-income classes still have to 'eat in the kitchen', are not seen as 'beautiful', and few people are ashamed at the living/working conditions of newly arrived immigrant groups, more specifically communities of color. I am not comforted by the fact that not everyone has a 'sense of shame' because it is often the sense of shame that triggers the conscience to be more aware, more open, more ethical, and therefore, more conscientious about issues of equality. Thus, a society and an entertainment industry that still, even with a brilliant, highly educated , and influential African American First Lady, still continues to reward women of color  when they are subservient. Is the film trying to 'humanize' white women or Black women? Or is this still the troubled and scary conversation between White women and women of color that everybody's avoiding? What do you think?


As a member of a future-oriented, pragmatic religion-The Baha'i Faith- founded on eliminating all forms of prejudice as the cultural work we need to do in this era, here's the deal. There are three(3) and four(4) sets of behaviors that have to change in ourselves, respectively as 'black' (non-dominant) and 'white'(dominant) individuals for a racism-free society. Governments exist to control the outward expressions of intolerance, nothing more. If you're 'Black', the transformation tasks are to 'show the warmth of your response, your readiness to forget the past, and your ability to wipe out every trace of suspicion that may linger in your heart.' If you're 'White', the transformational agenda is to 'abandon usually inherent and at times subconscious sense of superiority, correct a tendency to reveal  a patronizing attitude toward members of the other race, the need to persuade (the other race) through intimate, spontaneous, and informal association them of the genuineness of their friendship and the sincerity of their intentions, and to master their impatience with any lack of responsiveness on the part of a people who have received for so long a period such grievous and slow-healing wounds.' (Shoghi Effendi," The Advent of Divine Justice").
Ok, Hollywood and you moviegoers! Hattie McDaniel already got the Oscar for playing a maid decades ago. No more games. Let's get with the spiritual program and change our world.