Michael Furtado – Engaging Peace

100 new peace activists, Part 1

Posted on February 19, 2018March 3, 2018 by kathiemm

By Kathie Malley-Morrison & Anthony J. Marsella

Be not afraid! You are not alone! There are thousands of advocates and activists across the world who are bringing conscience to the struggle for peace and justice. They are willing to endure the dangers of speaking for peace and justice, wherever human and legal rights are violated by people in power.

In the face of abuses and oppression, we recall the iconic peace and justice leaders of the past, including Mohatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, Samuel Gompers, Caesar Chavez, Larry Itliong, Rachel Corrie, Philip & Daniel Berrigan, Glenn Paige, Hedy Epstein, and Malcom X. Peace advocates like these are testimony to the enduring human quest to resist oppression and to claim liberty, even when the cost is life itself.

This is the second list of living peace and justice advocates and activists we have compiled and published to celebrate Reverend Martin Luther King’s enduring contributions to peace and justice.

We are eternally grateful for Rev King’s efforts to free people and nations from the brutal oppressions of governments, nations, societies, organizations, and individuals who support racism, prejudice, violence, and war.

We have chosen to demonstrate our responsibilities and commitment to Rev King by identifying another 100 living peace and social justice leaders and models, starting with 50 new names. You will recognize many of the names, while others have not yet received the attention they deserve.

Please help us make the lists grow. The list will include emerging local community activists as well as some who have already attracted media attention. Although our current lists include mostly journalists and academics, we welcome people from other disciplines. Please use the comment section at the end of this post to nominate a wider range of peace and justice activists.

Abu-Nimr: Mohammad Abu-Nimr
Adams: Glenn Adams
Arbuthnot: Felicity Arbuthnot
Arrigo: Jean Marie Arrigo
Arredondo: Patricia Arredondo
Awad: Murbarak Awad
Baez: Joan Baez
Barber: Reverend William Barber
Barnat: Ilyad Barnat
Bassett: Larry Bassett
Belle: Deborah Belle
Bigombe: Betty Oyella Bigombe
Blackmon-Lowery: Lynda Blackmon-Lowery
Blume: Art Blume
Bowen: Kevin Bowen
Bretherton: Diane Bretherton
Bryant: Brandon Bryant
Burghardt: Tom Burghardt
Cacciatori: Joanne Cacciatori
Campos: Pam Campos
Caputi: Ross Caputi
Carruthers: Charlene Carruthers
Chappell: Paul Chappell
Chomsky: Avi Chomsky
Chossudovsky: Michael Chossudovsky
Christie: Daniel Christie
Clark: Ramsey Clark
Connolly: David Connelly
Cox: Lynell Cox
D’Andrea: Michael D’Andrea
Dunbar: Edward Dunbar
Correia: Antone De’Jaun Correia
Degirmencioglu: Serdar Degirmencioglu
Drake: Thomas A. Drake
Fihn: Beatrice Fihn
Finklestein: Norman Finklestein
Flowers: Margaret Flowers
Fox: Matthew Fox
Furtado: Michael Furtado
Gagnon: Bruce K. Gagnon
Giffords: Gabrielle Giffords
Gillotti, Michael Gillotti
Goldberg: Whoopi Goldberg
Green: Paula Green
Hall: Mitchell K. Hall
Handwerker: Steven E. Handwerker
Haney: Craig Haney
Hazare: Anna Hazare
Hines: Denise Hines
Jackson-Lowman: Huberta Jackson-Lowman

This is a somewhat condensed version of a post that appeared today on Transcend Media Services. Part 2 will appear 2/19/2018 on this blog.

Teaching Peace Through Popular Culture

Posted on August 27, 2015March 11, 2021 by kathiemm

Book Title: Teaching Peace Through Popular Culture

Edited by: Laura Finley (Barry University), Joanie Connors (Western New Mexico University), and Barbara Wien, (American University)

Review by: Guest Author Dr. Michael Furtado, St Mary’s in Exile Community, Brisbane, Queensland, AUSTRALIA

Authored by scholars from a variety of disciplines, including English, Theology, Philosophy, Communications, Sociology, Humanities, and Peace Studies, this edited volume provides detailed descriptions of the many ways in which popular culture can be used to teach peace.

Chapters discuss documentary and feature films, music, television, literature, and more, providing both educators and the general public with a timely and useful tool for thinking about ways to promote peace. From popular dystopian novels like The Hunger Games to feature films like The Matrix to modern rap and hip-hop music, contributors to the book provide not only critical analyses of the violence in popular culture but also an assessment of how the same or alternate forms can be used by peace educators.

Additionally, each chapter provides synopses and teaching ideas, as well as recommended resources. In a world that often overwhelms us with stories of death and destruction, an era in which many people feel helpless in response to human brutality, this book helps remind us that there are things we can all do both to recognize the messages of violence permeating our culture, and act instead to promote recognition of the possibility of peace.

Michael Furtado is a former school-teacher in Catholic schools in the UK and Australia. He was not a success at school in India, where he was born, and so pursued alternative paths of education that took him to London, Strathclyde and Oxford universities. From there he migrated to Australia to explore the possibility of alternative schools for marginalised children. Catholic schools account for between a quarter and a fifth of all Australian schools and so are major Australian educational providers. Michael did a Masters at the University of WA and a PhD at Queensland University, while gaining experience in post-Vatican II approaches to human development and religious education. From 1985-92 he was Education Officer (Social Justice) at Brisbane Catholic Education. Michael currently works in a social inclusion education project, called Discovering Disability and Diversity, with a colleague with a disability, Sharon Boyce.

Drone warfare: Immoral? Unjust?

Posted on September 26, 2013September 21, 2013 by kathiemm

By guest author Michael Furtado

Drone launched from U.S. Navy ship. Image in public domain.

My most fundamental concern about drones relates to the question of moral proportionality.

Granted there are terrorists, but to battle them with unmanned weapons of destruction smacks of policing and preemptive attack rather than honoring the principles of the just war. It places the U.S. in the position of being the world’s police-person while protecting its own interests, which is the kind of binary that sets up a conflict of interest.

Not that I support the just war theory in an era when collateral damage is routine. To wreak this damage with unmanned remote surveillance aircraft appears to be particularly intrusive and punitive, and unmanned intrusions into another country’s airspace are a clear breach of sovereignty.

Moreover, part of that sovereignty entails providing guarantees to citizens about protecting their human rights, especially their right to life and limb. The power imbalance ensuing when one party can ride roughshod over another by invading its airspace and killing its citizens completely out-trumps any secondary considerations regarding rationales for the invasion.

At best, arguments justifying such a transgression claim a need to protect soldiers engaged in peace-keeping assignments. However, the greater likelihood is that drones are used because of the high cost and increasing non-viability of stationing U.S. troops around the world for search and destroy missions.

Because of the surveillance technologies drones employ, they also intrude beyond all reasonable expectation and justification into the private lives of third parties, which ought to be a freedom that is sacrosanct.

Michael Furtado has served as education officer (Peace, Justice & Development) for the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane, Australia, and contributed to peace and human rights education projects in Catholic schools as with the Catholic Archdiocesan Justice and Peace Commission in Queensland.