Pakistan – Page 2 – Engaging Peace

Ban the bomb again!

Posted on August 29, 2011August 29, 2011 by kathiemm

“…the end of nuclear tests is one of the key means of achieving the goal of a nuclear-weapon-free world.”

Those words are from the Preamble of the United Nations Resolution designating August 29 as International Day against Nuclear Tests.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5PRZh_C0e4

Please take the time to watch this brief dramatic video about the events leading up to the U.N. General Assembly’s unanimous decision on December 2, 2009.

It includes information and powerful images about the 2000+ nuclear tests conducted before the first test ban treaty.

Despite the significance of the August 29 commemoration, global stockpiles of nuclear weapons, as well as nuclear power production, still have the potential for ending most life on earth.

However, there are also signs of hope:

Regional treaties have led the southern hemisphere of the world to become almost entirely free of nuclear weapons.
On February 2, 2011, President Obama ratified the New START, a landmark nuclear arms treaty with Russia.
Progress has been made towards incorporating the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) into international law; however, to achieve this status, it must be ratified by the 44 “Annex 2” states that possessed nuclear research or power reactors at the time of the original treaty negotiations.

BUT, as of August 16, 2011, there were nine nations from that group that still have not ratified the CTBT: China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, and the United States.

Some strange bedfellows here? What do you make of this group?

Do you know where your representatives in Congress stands on the START treaty? On the CTBT? On nuclear power? If you don’t, shouldn’t you find out?

And don’t forget the power of one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QzjqOl2N9c&feature=related

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

The federal budget: Invasions, yes! Peace, no!

Posted on February 24, 2011July 6, 2011 by kathiemm

At least that’s what the politicos are telling us.

By now, everyone must have heard something about the debates about the new U.S. budget. You may know that to address the deficits that have accrued since former President Bill Clinton created a budget surplus, powerful forces in Congress seek, among other things, to

Gut the Environmental Protection Agency
Block spending for health care
Cut food and other assistance programs for children, the elderly, and the disabled

U.S. Institute of Peace building — U.S. Institute of Peace, Washington, D.C.

But did you know that while declaring funding for the Pentagon off-limits for budget considerations, a majority in the House of Representatives also voted to eliminate funding for the United States Institute of Peace (USIP)?

The USIP, established by Congress in 1984, conducts research and training designed to prevent and end wars and to promote international peace, stability, and development. In recent years it has engaged in mediation and conflict resolution activities in Afghanistan, the Balkans, Colombia, Iraq, Kashmir, Liberia, the Korean Peninsula, Nepal, Pakistan, the Palestinian Territories, Nigeria, Sudan, and Uganda.

Despite the fact that the U.S. spends as much on what is euphemistically called “defense” as the rest of the world combined, Congress wants to end this independent nonpartisan organization with a budget that is only one tenth of one percent of the State Department budget.

The previous budget for USIP was minuscule compared to the spending in Iraq and Afghanistan (approximately $42.7 million every 142 minutes according to Congressman Dennis Kucinich).

What message is Congress sending to the American public? To the rest of the world? Why is there so much more commitment to the arms industry than to peace?

Please send us your answers—and consider becoming an activist on behalf of peace and justice.

For inspiration, check out this BBC video and consider how we are all one people and if we want to survive in all our commonalities and all our uniqueness, we need to support efforts for peace.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

Book review: Stones into Schools

Posted on February 14, 2011March 11, 2021 by kathiemm

[Note from Kathie MM: For Valentine’s Day, we would like to share a wonderful love story—a story of a love for a people and a place, for peace, and for education, especially for girls. This guest book review by Jillian Zingarelli provides a glimpse at this love story.]

Review by Jillian Zingarelli

Anyone who read number one bestseller, Three Cups of Tea – the collaborative effort by journalist David Oliver Relin and Greg Mortenson – will be excited to see Mortenson take over the narrative wheel in his new book Stones into Schools.

In Three Cups of Tea we learn about the start of Mortenson’s passion for educating children, especially girls, and how it sparked the creation of the Central Asia Institute (CAI). Since 1995 the CAI has helped to build 131 schools throughout Pakistan and Afghanistan, the majority of which are located in some of the most rural and remote areas in Central Asia.

In Stones into Schools the CAI ventures into post-9/11 Afghanistan where it encounters an unrelenting desire by the Afghan people for more schools for their children, even as poverty and bombs threaten their personal security.

How with all of these obstacles do Mortenson and his team (whom he endearingly terms “the Dirty Dozen”) continue to yield successful results? And why of all forms of relief to poverty, starvation, war, etc. do they offer educating girls as a principal means for engaging peace?

In Stones into Schools, Mortenson cites an African proverb he heard growing up in rural Tanzania: “If you teach a boy, you educate an individual; but if you teach a girl, you educate a community.” Education enables both men and women to recognize the ignorance of turning suicide bombers into martyrs, and Islam–a religion that is both inherently peaceful and complex–into a simplistic doctrine of violence and suppression.

If you would like to learn more about the CAI and become involved in their mission in Pakistan and Afghanistan, visit them at www.ikat.org.

What do you think about the idea that educating girls helps to promote peace?

Principled moral arguments (Moral engagement, part 3)

Posted on September 20, 2010July 6, 2011 by kathiemm

Since World War II, several wars involving the United States (for example, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan) have been launched with initial public support. However, these conflicts lost their popularity when more and more Americans became aware that their government had been less than honest in linking invasion and occupation with noble principles such as bringing democracy to brutalized people.

Japanese Peace Bell of United Nations — Japanese Peace Bell at U.N. Headquarters (Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 2.5 Generic, from Wikimedia Commons)

Rejecting the pseudo-moral arguments for these wars, many people have embraced principled moral arguments–asserting, for example, that war is a violation of the Golden Rule, that no human being has the right to decide who will live and who will die, or that war and torture violate the hard-won international human rights agreements that grew out of the unrestrained violence of World War II.

Recognizing and rejecting pseudo-moral arguments and living by life-affirming principles is a challenge, particularly in a fear-mongering environment, but millions do it.

Tomorrow is the International Day of Peace. Established by a United Nations resolution in 1982, the celebration begins with the ringing of the Peace Bell at the U.N. The Day is often celebrated with greater enthusiasm and hope in other parts of the world than in the U.S.

Do your part this year. Consider the words of Miss Nida Ashfaq, member of the International Young Catholic Students (IYCS) from Pakistan, “Peace is not the absence of war; it is respecting and accepting each other and promoting human rights.” Then light a candle and formulate your own moral argument in favor of peace. Please share your thoughts with us.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology