Reprinted from TRANSCEND Media Service – TMS: Nonkiling: A Checklist for Family Use
Tag: nonviolence
News of its Death is Greatly Exaggerated
It is alive. It is well. It goes underground and then reasserts itself.
It can currently be seen in Hong Kong, striving for greater democracy, under the name of Occupy Central—Central being the major financial center in Hong Kong, sort of like Wall Street, New York.
Occupy Central was described this morning, Monday October 20, 2014, in the South China Morning Post, as “a civil disobedience movement which began in Hong Kong on September 28, 2014. It calls on thousands of protesters to block roads and paralyse Hong Kong’s financial district if the Beijing and Hong Kong governments do not agree to implement universal suffrage…”
The full name of Occupy Central is Occupy Central with Love and Peace –love and peace being central themes in Gene Sharp’s book, the “Manual of Disobedience.” This manual and Sharp’s other publications have energized and guided a growing number of nonviolent resistance movements such as the Arab Spring and the Occupy Movement of 2011.
Sharp, who has been nominated three times for a Nobel Peace Prize, is founder of the Albert Einstein Institution, a non-profit organization devoted to the use of nonviolence in struggles for human rights, peace, and social justice. Many of his books and papers are available free on the Institution’s website. To see, for example, a list of his “198 methods of nonviolent action,” click here. Be inspired: Consider the extent to which many of these methods can be applied not just to Occupy Movement tactics but to conflicts at all levels of society. Become engaged: Join the nonviolence movement.
Can we get there from here? Pursuing nonviolence
Discouraging stories, infuriating stories, heart-breaking stories abound.
The media shout out their tales and pummel us with their gory photos, of violence, murder, rape, hatred, and we at Engaging Peace try to provide some different perspectives, regarding events…
And in Ferguson Missouri
Engaging Peace has had posts on most of these horrifying stories, but, stubbornly, we have also continued to press the feasibility of nonviolence, most recently with posts from Dr. Ian Hansen and Dr. Majed Ashy as well as reminders from Ross Caputi and Dr. Alice LoCicero of ways in which you can help.
In today’s short post, I invite you to learn more about an important peace initiative aimed at promoting a stable peace between India and Pakistan.
Please be inspired by this model and send your words and images on behalf of peace and social justice—starting perhaps with the work that needs to be done in your own country.
Anyone anywhere can work for peace and nonviolence. The world will be better off if you join the endeavor.
Gaza: Time to take sides
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Author=Jmarchn
The news out of Gaza has been horrendous, overwhelming, tragic, heart-breaking. Death upon death. Destruction after destruction. Loss of life; losses for families, communities, the human race. It is easy to feel rage and horror, depression and defeat. Will the violence ever end?
Although the outlook for peace and reconciliation may seem at a discouraging low, there are also some hope-inspiring stories that should not be ignored and buried in these deadly times:
- In Gaza, Greek Orthodox Christians have reached out to and provided shelter for displaced and injured Muslims.
- Following the strategy that helped bring about an end to apartheid in South Africa, a group of Palestinians have organized a Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (BDS) as an alternative to violence.
- And closer to home there is Seeing through Walls, an awe-inspiring group of Jewish and Muslim artists who got together in 2010 to create a mosaic peace mural that “expresses our vision of peace, justice and hope for the Israeli and Palestinian people.” Please visit their site, view the photos of this magnificent project in progress, and feel your hope rejuvenated.
After considering these stories, you decide:
Which side are you on, man? Which side are you on?
If you’re on the side of violence, you’re home free. No need to do anything. There are enough people benefittng one way or another from armed conflict and other sorts of atrocity to stoke hatred, distrust, and misunderstandings and thereby keep the violence going.
On the other hand, if you’re on the side of nonviolence, there’s a lot you can do. Donate your time, your money, your expertise to the efforts to find nonviolent solutions to the conflicts in Gaza and elsewhere. Your voice counts, it matters.
Make yourself heard.