New Book Forthcoming by Dan Bar-On:

Tell your story!
The dialogue work between Germans and Jews, Palestinians and Israelis

Translated from the German original:

Bar-On, Daniel (2004). Erzähl dein Leben! Meine Wege zur Dialogarbeit und politischen Verständigung. Hamburg: Edition Körberstiftung.

Please see the Preface and the Introduction of the forthcoming English version of the book at www.humiliationstudies.org/documents/Bar-OnTellYourStoryPrefaceIntroduction.pdf.

Fellowship of Reconciliation
20 hour nonviolence training for personal and social change
will be the weekend of April 1 - 3, 2005
at the Riverside Church, 91 Claremont Ave., between 120th & 122nd Sts, New York City.

This spiritual experiential training will cover the causes of
violence, the transformative power of nonviolence, nonviolent social
movements, community building and action planning. Facilitated by the
Creating a Culture of Peace program of the Fellowship of Reconciliation,
FOR's nonviolence training is great for long time nonviolence
practitioners seeking to renew and share their commitment as well as
newcomers interested in learning about principled nonviolence.

Cost: Sliding scale of $50 - $200 includes all materials
To Register or for more information contact Heather Maxwell at
(845)358-4601 x26 or nv-intern@forusa.org

Co-sponsored by the Fellowship of Reconciliation and the Temple of
Understanding. This nonviolence training is part of the Gandhi-King
Season for Nonviolence.

AfricAvenir News
sent by Eric Van Grasdorff

Hillbrow Kids im Berliner Filmtheater Hackesche Höfe Am Sonntag, den 06. März 2005 laden die Initiative Südliches Afrika (INISA e.V.) und AfricAvenir International e.V. um 17.00 Uhr zu einer Film­vorführ­ung mit anschließender Diskussion in das Filmtheater Hackesche Höfe ein. Gezeigt wird ‚Hillbrow Kids’

Mehrsprachigkeit und Bildung: AfricAvenir Bericht Von September bis Dezember 2004 versuchte die Stiftung AfricAvenir in Douala das Bewusstsein über die Notwendigkeit des Gebrauchs und der Beherrschung einheimischer Sprachen zu stärken. Das Thema kam so gut an, dass es 2005 weiter gehen soll!

Liguapax Prize to Maurice Tadadjeu The Cameroonian sociolinguist and AfricAvenir collaborator Maurice Tadadjeu, who has successfully developed a model of functional trilingual education that now serves as a reference for many African countries, has won the Linguapax Prize.

Les langues africaines : quel engouement ! Rapport du concours de langues africaines organisé par la Fondation AfricAvenir à Douala, Cameroun de Septembre 2004 à Décembre 2004. Plus de 1.600 élèves ont participés!

Healing the Mind – Negritude as the Stepping Stone Toward an Emancipative Discourse Paper written by AfricAvenir member Linda Toenskoetter on the Negritude as a specific part of an emerging African anti-colonial discourse. Despite legitimate criticism against its glorification of the African past, Negritude appears to have been an important step toward the decolonization of Africans’ minds. [Article, pdf]

Verleugnung eigener Werte reproduziert Abhängigkeiten Praktikumsbericht von Christof Mauersberger. […] Der leitende Gedanke der Stiftung ist die Afrikanische Renaissance. AfricAvenir setzt sich für ein Ende der einseitigen Abhängigkeit, ein Erwachen des in Geschichte und Gegenwart gedemütigten Selbstwertgefühls vieler Afrikaner und für eine selbstbestimmte Entwicklung des Kontinents ein.

Dialogue Forum 2/2004: Les langues africaines comme moteur de développement Vous ne parlez pas la langue du blanc en Afrique noire? Alors, vous êtes mis hors circuit. Hors du circuit politique, hors du circuit économique, hors du circuit juridique, etc. Blanchissez d’abord votre parler, alors, on vous donne la carte d’accès pour participer à la gestion de votre pays

Studienreise ins afrikanische London: 10.-13.- Juni 2005 Mit der Eventserie ‚Africa05’ wird London in diesem Jahr zum weltweit größten Schauplatz zeitgenössischer afrikanischer Kunst und Kultur! Über vierzig Museen, Konzerthäuser und Kulturinstitutionen nehmen an diesem Megaevent unter der Leitung von Augustus Casely-Hayford teil. (Ausgebucht!)

Non au génocide intellectuel Mercredi 15 décembre 2004 fut un grand jour pour AfricAvenir. Cette journée fut en quelque sorte la grande messe qui clôturait son concours de langues nationales, un concours organisé dans le dessein de dire comme le fondateur d’AfricAvenir, le prince KUM’A NDUMBE III « non au génocide intellectuel ».

La grande ambition d’AfricAvenir La renaissance de l’Afrique est le dessein de la fondation du Prince Kum’a Ndumbe III. Modeste, déterminée et méritoire, l’expérience dure depuis onze ans. C’est en 1993 que le professeur Kum’a Ndumbe III a officiellement créé AfricAvenir. [Cameroun Tribune]

Au secours des langues nationales Le concours scolaire organisé la semaine dernière à Douala par la Fondation AfricAvenir pose des problèmes profonds. La finale du concours de langue nationale a permis au public de passer un moment agréable et non moins instructif. [Cameroun Tribune] >>>

Langues nationales : Finale à trois Organisé par la fondation AfricAvenir, le concours oppose des collèges de la place cet après-midi à Bonaberi. [Cameroun Tribune]

12 juillet 1884-12 juillet 2004: Il y a 120 ans, le sort de tout le Cameroun basculait de manière durable sous la domination étrangère Il y a 120 ans, les rois du «Cameroons» signaient des traités avec des commerçants allemands mandatés officiellement par le Chancelier Bismarck. Depuis, le Cameroun a basculé dans un régime politique.

Cheikh Anta Diop - L’importance d’une conscience de l’histoire pour un développement auto-déterminé Lors de la parution du livre Nations nègres et culture de Cheikh Anta Diop, le contenu semblait si révolutionnaire que très peu d’intellectuels africains osaient y adhérer; sauf Aimé Césaire, évoquant que cet ouvrages était “le livre le plus audacieux qu’un nègre ait jamais écrit”.

AfricAvenir Dialogue Forum 1/2004 Linguistic diversity in Africa and the world, African tales as an instrument of cultural transmission and the “New Dynamic” at AfricAvenir Douala are the topics of this new Dialogue Forum issue.

Faut-il abolir le français et l’anglais comme langues primaires et principales d’enseignement dans nos écoles au Cameroun? La réponse est sans ambiguïté: il faut abolir le français et l’anglais comme langues primaires et principales d’enseignement au Cameroun, absolument, nécessairement. Il s’agit d’une urgence nationale et pan-africaine. Mais il faudra le faire à un terme raisonnable.

General News

Neue Tendenzen in Architektur und Stadtplanung in Südafrika
Vom 11. März bis 21. April 2005 wird in der Galerie des Café Aedes eine Ausstellung zur zeitgenössischen Architektur in Südafrika stattfinden. Die Bauvorhaben spiegeln die Suche nach einer eigenen Identität…

Gedenktafel zur Berliner Westafrika-Konferenz 1884/85
Am 26. Februar 2005 um 11.00 Uhr in der Wilhelmstr. 92 in Berlin-Mitte wurde eine Gedenktafel zur Berliner Westafrika- Konferenz 1884/85 aufgestellt. Diese Gedenktafel soll nicht nur erinnern, sondern auch Denkanstöße für die Zukunft geben

Der Afro: Einheitswährung für den afrikanischen Kontinent
Der in Berlin lebende senegalesische Künstler Mansour Ciss Kanakassy will mit seiner erfundenen Einheitswährung, dem Afro, nicht nur ein Nachdenken über selbstbestimmte Wirtschaftsreformen provozieren.

Sometimes in April Written and directed by Raoul Peck (Lumumba), the movie is the first large-scale film about the 100 days of the 1994 Rwandan genocide to be shot in Rwanda, in the locations where the real-life events transpired.

U-Carmen eKhayalitsha wins Golden Bear Award A South African take on Bizet’s tragic opera Carmen set in a township captured the Golden Bear for best picture at the 55th Berlin film festival on Saturday, edging out a clutch of hard-hitting political dramas. [Mail & Guardian]

Africa05: Celebration of African culture in London Africa 05 is the biggest celebration of African culture ever organised in Britain. Between February and October a huge range of organisations from national museums to community centres will be hosting events that will celebrate the best African and diasporic arts. [Africa05]

FESPACO 2005 The Pan African Festival of Cinema and Television of Ouagadougou which will take place from February 26 to march 05, 2005 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso is the biggest manifestation of Cinema of the African continent.

Tierno Bokar in Berlin Vom 15.02.-27.02.2005 wird dieser Klassiker des afrikanischen Theaters in den Berliner Sophiensaelen aufgeführt. Die wahre Geschichte wurde vom großen Amadou Hampâté Bâ geschrieben. In der Hauptrolle sehen wir Sotigui Kouyaté. [Berliner Festspiele]

Dumile Feni Online The Dumile Feni Foundation, established in 2004, launched a website on the famous South African artist. This website will be used to publish Dumile’s work and to provide a platform for like-minded artists to express their views.

South African History Online South African History Online (SAHO) is a non-partisan people’s history project. It was established in 1999 as a not-for-profit organisation, to promote research; to popularise South African history and to address the biased way in which the history and cultural heritage of Black South Africans has been represented in our educational and heritage institutions.

The African Renaissance as a Challenge for Language Planning Das Potential der indigenen Sprachen als zentrale Ressourcen für menschliche und soziale Entwicklung wurde bislang in den politischen und wissenschaftlichen Diskussionen über die Entwicklung des Kontinents fast vollständig vernachlässigt.

Africa reiterates position for UN security council The issue of the membership of the United Nations (UN) Security Council dominated yesterday’s meeting of the Executive Council of African Union (AU)

Reines d’Afrique et héroïnes de la diaspora noire A travers cette fresque historique qui s’étend de l’antiquité au début du XXe siècle, Sylvia Serbin, journaliste et historienne, nous présente vingt-deux portraits de reines, de femmes d’influence, de résistantes, mais aussi des prophétesses, guerrières ou mères de héros, pour la plupart inconnues du grand public. [Grioo]

George Granville Monah James et L’Héritage Africain Volé En 1954 à Paris, un jeune africain réinvente l’histoire africaine et son antériorité sur les civilisations méditerranéennes. On sait beaucoup moins que la même année, aux Etats-Unis, George Granville Monah James publie une thèse similaire à celle de Cheikh Anta Diop intitulée The Stolen Legacy. [Afrikara]

Complicités internationales dans le génocide du Rwanda Cette année a marqué le dixième anniversaire du génocide rwandais. Ce dossier étudie en détail l’ampleur de la complicité française. Deux livres, des rapports et documents en ligne. [Réseau Voltaire]

Humanitärer ImperialismusFluthilfe für Asien, Aufbau in Afrika - mit Katastrophen- und Entwicklungshilfe wird Politik gemacht. Sie zwingt Geber zur Machtausübung und entmachtet Empfänger.

VIH/Sida: Scandale au Cameroun! Un reportage de France 2 a mis en lumière les agissements d’un laboratoire américain (GEDEAD) rémunérant un groupe de 400 prostituées séronégatives officiellement volontaires afin d’avoir des rapports non protégés pour tester un vaccin préventif (VIREAD). [Grioo]

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AfricAvenir International e.V.
Wilmersdorfer Str. 78
10629 Berlin
Tel/Fax: +49 (0)30 885 08 57
Mobile: +49 (0)177 75 45 788
Mail: info@africavenir.org
http://www.africavenir.org

EINLADUNG ZUR FILMVORFÜHRUNG UND DISKUSSION

Hillbrow Kids
Ein Dokumentarfilm von Jacqueline Görgen und Michael Hammon, 94 Minuten, Engl. mit dt. Untertiteln
Mit Straßenkindern aus Johannesburg (siehe auch: http://www.hillbrowkids.de/)

Am Sonntag, den 06. März 2005 laden die Initiative Südliches Afrika (INISA e.V.) und AfricAvenir International e.V. um 17.00 Uhr zu einer Film­vorführ­ung mit anschließender Diskussion in das Filmtheater Hackesche Höfe ein. Gezeigt wird ‚Hillbrow Kids’, ein ungewöhnlicher Dokumentarfilm, gespickt mit erzählerischen Elementen, der den Straßenkindern selbst eine Stimme gibt, Sie als Menschen und nicht (nur) als Opfer darstellt.

Im Anschluss an den Film bieten wir eine Diskussion mit den Regisseuren des Films, Jacqueline Görgen und Michael Hammon an.

Am: Sonntag, den 06. März 2005
Zeit: 17.00 Uhr
Ort: Filmtheater Hackesche Höfe (Rosenthaler Str. 40/41, 10178 Berlin, Kino 3, Vorbestellung unter: 030 - 2 83 46 03 (MO-SA ab 14.30 Uhr/SO ab 10.30 Uhr)
Eintrittspreis: 5 Euro

Filmbeschreibung:
Über drei Jahre hinweg begaben sich Michael Hammon und Jacqueline Görgen, die in Berlin lebenden Regisseure, immer wieder in die Welt der sog. ‚Hillbrow Kids’, der Straßenkinder von Hillbrow, eines Stadtteils von Johannesburg. Ergebnis dieser langjährigen Arbeit ist ein ungewöhnlicher Dokumentarfilm mit erzählerischen Elementen, der den Kindern selbst eine Stimme gibt, Sie als Menschen und nicht nur als Opfer darstellt, Ihnen die Möglichkeit gibt, von Ihren Erlebnissen, Enttäuschungen, Hoffnungen und Träumen zu erzählen.

Synopsis:
„Einst lebte eine Familie... Mutter und Vater waren ganz normale Menschen, wie du und ich, aber aus irgendeinem Grunde waren ihre Kinder anders...“ erzählt eine alte Frau und beobachtet das Leben der Straßenkinder in Johannesburg. Sie muss feststellen, dass die alten Geschichten Südafrikas durch die Schicksale dieser Kinder modernisiert sind. Die Kinder sind anders als ihre Eltern, nicht mehr bereit zu ertragen, zu verzichten, zu verlieren. Allein, ganz auf sich selbst gestellt, kämpfen sie für die Erfüllung ihrer Wünsche. Und so arbeitet Vusi für sein Fahrrad, sucht Jane verzweifelt nach ihrem Kind, kämpft Silas gegen schlimme Zahnschmerzen, schaltet Bheki die Realität durch Überdosen an Glue aus. Und Shadrack?
Shadrack hält gar nichts von der Regierung Südafrikas. Aber er glaubt an sich und an das große Glück.
Sie alle stammen aus den Townships, wo es die Regierung Mandelas noch längst nicht vermochte, die Spuren des vergangenen Apartheidregimes zu verwischen. Armut, Arbeitslosigkeit, zerrüttete Familienverhältnisse und Brutalität trieben sie auf und davon, um in einer Großstadt wie Johannesburgs ihr Glück zu suchen. Aber welches Glück?
Kinder, auf dem Weg, ihre Zukunft zu verlieren. Und so ruft die alte Frau Legenden Südafrikas in die Stadt hinein, in der Hoffnung, die Menschen mögen sich an ihre Traditionen erinnern.

Wir freuen uns auf einen weiteren interessanten Kinonachmittag mit Ihnen,
Rene Gradwohl Eric van Grasdorff
INISA e.V. AfricAvenir e.V.
renegradwohl@hotmail.com eric@africavenir.org

----------------------------------------
Eric Van Grasdorff, Dipl.Pol.
Mail: eric@africavenir.org
http://www.africavenir.org
http://www.humiliationstudies.org

NEWSLETTER FROM THE HUMAN RIGHTS HOUSE NETWORK

1 Urgent appeal for Kurdish human rights defender
The Kurdish human rights defender Remzi Kartal was arrested in Germany in January and faces extradition to Turkey, with the high likelyhood of being tortured upon return. The Norwegian Council for the Rights of the Kurdish People, one of the member organisations of the Human Rights House in Oslo, has appealed to the German government to release him and refuse any request for extraditon to Turkey.

2 Azerbaijan: Prison conditions life threatening
20-year-old Algait Maharramov, who was sentenced to three years for participating in post-election disturbances in October 2003, has died in colony No 17. - The situation in Azerbaijani prisons is the absolute mirror of events taking place in our country right now: strange, unexplained, uncommented and absurd, says local human rights activist Shahla Ismayilova. The tragic death of Maharramov in prison has coincided with a series of protest actions in a number of penal colonies.

3 Total Oil out of Burma!
This week, the Burma Campaign UK launched a campaign to drive the French oil giant Total out of Burma. Total openly co-operates with the military regime in Burma, and has been condemned by Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. The campaign is supported by 41 organisations, among them the Norwegian Burma Committee, a member organisation of the Norwegian Human Rights House.

4 3000 die annually in the Russian Army
About 3,000 conscripts die each year while doing their mandatory service in the Russian army, according to Veronika Marchenko (picture) at the Mother's Right Foundation. The most dangerous places to serve are in the Moscow region and the North Caucasus region surrounding Chechnya.

5 Belarusian human rights defenders pushing to improve legal standards
- I hope the European standards will become a basis for lawmaking in my country, Zhanna Litvina, Chair of the Belarusian Association of Journalists said last week in Minsk at a conference co-hosted by HRH, about European human rights standards. The situation for independent media in Belarus has worsened since 2001.

6 North Korea must be given prime priority, says HRH
- Seen from a human rights perspective, there is hardly a place on earth worse than North Korea. At the same time, depressingly little attention is paid to this. In that sense, the regime's closure of the country's borders has been a success, says Niels Jacob Harbitz from the Human Rights House Foundation (HRH), just back from an international conference in Seoul, South Korea, focussing on the human rights situation north of the border.

7 Strasbourg vindicates McLibel pair
In a ground-breaking judgment delivered today, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the libel trial launched by McDonalds against two campaigners who had criticised its social and environmental practices, often referred to as the McLibel case, had been unfair and violated their right to freedom of expression. Article 19 reports.

8 Azerbaijan: Young lawyers combat corruption
Being a member of the Council of Europe, the corruption-ridden Azerbaijan is obliged to combat corruption. - Corruption is one of the most unsurmountable, poignant and delicate problems of our country, says Nadir Adilov, the chairman of the Azerbaijan Young Lawyers Union (AYLU).

******************************************************************
Free of charge news and background service from the Human
Rights House Network, an international forum of cooperation between
independent human rights houses. It works to strengthen cooperation and
improve the security and capacity of the 70 human rights organizations in
the Network. The Human Rights House Foundation in Oslo is the
secretariat.

To subscribe, please send an email to: newsletter-subscribe@humanrightshouse.org

More news and background on www.humanrightshouse.org

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Sent by:

Borghild Tønnessen-Krokan
Editor/Project Manager
The Human Rights House Foundation (HRH)
Address: Menneskerettighetshuset,
Tordenskioldsgate 6b, 0160 Oslo, Norway
Tel: (+47) 22 47 92 47, Direct: (+47) 22 47 92 44,
Fax: (+47) 22 47 92 01
Website: http://www.humanrightshouse.org,
http://www.menneskerettigheter.no

Please be informed on this upcoming, one-week workshop:

"Hiroshima and Nagasaki for College Teachers" June 27 - July 1, 2005.

Workshop details at http://titan.iwu.edu/~physics/Hiroshima.html

Here is a comment from a 2002 participant,
"...greatly appreciated the time and trouble you put into obtaining course materials. These are a tremendous boost in developing similar courses at our home institutions. In particular the book by Glasstone and your course notes were extremely useful. My main reason for taking this workshop was to obtain materials that might help me develop an interdisciplinary course for our university honors program. I found this workshop to be perfect, with its combination of physics, history, politics, economics, and world affairs."
He has since established his course, Honors 318: Issues of the Nuclear Age, http://physweb.mnstate.edu/Courses.htm.

We expect the workshop to be repeated in 2006.

Raymond G. Wilson, Ph.D.
Emeritus Associate Professor of Physics
Illinois Wesleyan University
Bloomington, IL 61702-2900
USA
TEL: 309-556-3176
FAX: 309-556-3864

Home Page: <http://titan.iwu.edu/~rwilson/>
Hiroshima Panoramas: <http://titan.iwu.edu/~rwilson/hiroshima/>
"Hiroshima and Nagasaki for College Teachers,"
June 27-July 1, 2004. Workshop at tp://titan.iwu.edu/~physics/Hiroshima/>

The WMD's DemocracyNews
Electronic Newsletter of the World Movement for Democracy - www.wmd.org

CALL FOR ITEMS

POSTING NEWS:
We welcome items to include in DemocracyNews. Please send an email message to
world@ned.org with the item you would like to post in the body of the message.

******************************************************************

Dear World Movement Participants:

The next issue of DemocracyNews will go out on March 8, 2005. In order to make DemocracyNews as useful as possible, we ask you to send us any items related to democracy work that you think would be of interest to others.

The next deadline for submitting items is ** March 3** Please send items to: world@ned.org.

You are encouraged to submit items under any area of democracy work. We welcome items announcing publications, upcoming events, reports on research, new Web sites, and other information, and we are most interested in posting requests for partnerships between organizations on collaborative projects, brief descriptions of collaborative projects already underway or completed, and ideas for new initiatives in which others may be interested. We hope DemocracyNews will be a source not only for information about participants' activities, but also for new ideas about strategies to advance democracy.

Please share this message with your colleagues.

******************************************************************

To subscribe send an email to subscribe-democracynews@lyris.ned.org.

If you do not have access to the Web and would like to access the materials mentioned above, please contact us by e-mail (world@ned.org) or fax (202-293-0755).

DemocracyNews is an electronic mailing list moderated by the National Endowment for Democracy as the Secretariat of the World Movement for Democracy. The material presented in DemocracyNews is intended for information purposes only.

WORLD MOVEMENT FOR DEMOCRACY TO MEET IN ISTANBUL
Hundreds of Democracy Activists Will Convene April 2-5, 2006

The World Movement for Democracy will convene on April 2-5, 2006 in Istanbul, Turkey, for its Fourth Assembly, Advancing Democracy: Justice, Pluralism, and Participation.

The Assembly, which will take place at the Lotfi Kirdar Convention and Exhibition Centre, will bring together more than 400 democracy activists, practitioners, and scholars from over 100 countries for a wide variety of practical workshops focused on meeting regional challenges, addressing various areas of democracy work, and building networks across borders. The workshops will be designed to maximize participation and to produce practical recommendations and initiatives to address the myriad challenges democrats confront worldwide, including developing viable political parties, ensuring free and fair elections, securing workers' rights, combating corruption, instituting economic reforms, increasing women's equal participation in politics, and promoting ethnic and religious reconciliation.

Two Turkish partner organizations, the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV, www.tesev.org.tr) and the Helsinki Citizens Assembly (HCA, www.hyd.org.tr) are working with the World Movement Secretariat to organize the Assembly.

A highlight of the event will be the presentation of the World Movement's Democracy Courage Tributes at the John B. Hurford Memorial Dinner. Tributes are presented to democracy groups and movements that have demonstrated exceptional courage in their work and have struggled, for the most part, outside the spotlight of world attention.

Initiated in 1999 to strengthen democracy where it is weak, to reform and invigorate democracy even where it is longstanding, and to bolster pro-democracy groups in countries that have not yet entered into a process of democratic transition," the World Movement is a global network that meets periodically to exchange ideas and experiences and uses new information and communication technologies to foster collaboration among democratic forces around the world. It is led by a distinguished international Steering Committee and the Washington, DC-based National Endowment for Democracy (NED) currently serves as its Secretariat.

More information about the World Movement, including a report on the Third Assembly, which took place in Durban, South Africa, in February 2004, is available on the World Movement Web site (www.wmd.org). A Web site for the Fourth Assembly will be available in mid-2005.

******************************************************************

To subscribe send an email to subscribe-democracynews@lyris.ned.org.

If you do not have access to the Web and would like to access the materials mentioned above, please contact us by e-mail(world@ned.org)or fax (202-293-0755).

DemocracyNews is an electronic mailing list moderated by the National Endowment for Democracy as the Secretariat of the World Movement for Democracy.

"Volume 7: The Collected Clinical Works of Alfred Adler"

===================================================

Adler’s journal articles, written between 1931 and 1937, encapsulate
the most mature expression of his ideas on theory and practice. Of the
twenty-eight articles included in this volume, five are devoted to
child development: selection of symptoms, consequences of pampering,
prevention of delinquency, and education. Another five cover
theoretical issues: self-consistent unity of personality, structures
of psychic activity, striving for superiority, and social interest. In
three articles about psychopathology, he addresses the neurotic’s
character, symptoms, and picture of the world, as well as the
prevention of neurosis; five more articles contain his ideas on
compulsion neurosis, fear of women, alcohol and drug abuse, the
mind-body connection, and psychosomatic disturbances. He offers
practical diagnostic guidance in two articles about family
constellation and earliest recollections. Finally, he provides a
dramatic comparison to psychoanalysis, and then a rare insight into
the technique of psychotherapy. This volume is an essential resource
for anyone wishing to gain an in-depth understanding of Adler’s
remarkable, timeless insights into human nature and their
yet-to-be-realized potential.

To order Volume 7, go to http://go.ourworld.nu/hstein/cwaa-v7.htm.

The Forum conference 2005 will focus on
Globalization and Indigenous Peoples: Poverty and Education
and take place at the University of Tromsø (Norway) October 5th - October 7th 2005.

Globalization and Indigenous Peoples: Poverty and Education
"Cultural resources documentation and mapping", art (music, painting), exhibitions etc.

Program and more information will be availible in June/July 2005

Forum for Development Cooperation with Indigenous Peoples is a meeting-place for researchers, development workers and Sami organisations engaged in cooperation with indigenous peoples in the South. At our webpages you find information and reports from previous conferences. For more information consult our webpages: http://www.sami.uit.no/forum/indexen.html

Sincerely
Terje G Lilleeng
University of Tromsø¸
Centre for Sami Studies
9037 Tromsø¸
Norway
http://www.sami.uit.no/

SSRN's Economic Research Network is pleased to announce that the
World Bank will now post their working papers in SSRN's Government &
Public Agency Research Paper Series. This new series enables
Government & Public Agencies to disseminate their research worldwide
and to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues,
governance, and their relation to the behavior and performance of
banks, the structure of the U.S. banking system, and other national
banking systems as well as the international banking system, and the
interaction between financial institutions and the real economy.

The new World Bank Research Paper Series (which now contains over
1,900 working papers) can be viewed at the following url (which you
may wish to bookmark in your browser):

World Bank Policy Research Working Paper Series
view papers: http://www.ssrn.com/link/world-bank.html

To subscribe to the ERN World Bank Abstracting journal at no cost and
with one click go to: http://hq.ssrn.com/jourInvite.cfm?link=world-bank

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The Herbert C. Kelman Seminar on International Conflict Analysis and Resolution

Greetings!

The Herbert C. Kelman Seminar on International Conflict Analysis and Resolution welcomes you to attend the first seminar of our spring series. On Monday, February 28, 2005, Anne Marie Oliver and Paul Steinberg, authors of The Road to Martyrs' Square, will be giving a talk entitled, "The Ethnography of Martyrdom."

The seminar will be held in the Bowie Vernon room at the Weatherhead Center for Interntional Affairs, 1033 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA from 4-6 PM.

The Seminar is co-sponsored by the Middle East Seminar.

We hope to see you there!

Donna Hicks
Chair

--
Donna Hicks
Weatherhead Center for International Affairs
Email: dhicks@wcfia.harvard.edu
Web site: The Herbert C. Kelman Seminar on International Conflict Analysis and Web site: http://www.wcfia.harvard.edu

Appreciative Leadership Development Program with Diana Whitney and Jim Ludema

Appreciative Inquiry (AI) pioneers Dr. Diana Whitney, author of ten books on AI, and Dr. James D. Ludema, author of two books and numerous articles on AI, invite you to attend their strength-based leadership development workshop: the Appreciative Leadership Development Program (ALDP). Join Diana, Jim and other leaders from business, government, health care and education Monday, April 4th through Thursday, April 7th in Taos, New Mexico for this groundbreaking workshop.

The ALDP is based exclusively on the discovery, cultivation, and amplification of strengths.

It is designed specifically for executives, managers, and leaders of change who want to enhance their leadership capacities in a constructive, inquiry-intense learning environment. It is also ideal for leadership teams who want to elevate their collective performance by combining and leveraging individual strengths.

Register by March 4 to receive an early bird discount. For more information, e-mail us at office@positivechange.org or visit the CPC website at www.positivechange.org.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Best wishes,
Diana Whitney & Jim Ludema
E-mail: office@positivechange.org
www.positivechange.org
Corporation for Positive Change
PO Box 3257
1010 Camino del Monte
Taos, NM 87571
Voice: 505-751-1232
Fax: 505-751-1233

Newsletter from the Human Rights House Network, 16th Febuary 2005

1 "Orange" Belarusians ask for political asylum in Ukraine
Two Belarusians who participated in the orange revolution have asked Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko for political asylum, stating that Belarusian authorities persecute and threaten them. A criminal case is already brought against one of the applicants.
See also: Belarusian iron curtain

2 Sarajevo: Want fascism to be banned
Nine organizations in Bosnia and Herzegovina want neo-fascist expressions and organizations to be banned. - Attempts to revise the history and rehabilitate the forces that had been historically defeated in the Second World War, have increased the past few months, the nine organizations warned in a recent statement.

3 Poland: Prisoners' baby died, HFHR reacts
A court case of a prison inmate vs. a midwife and a doctor from prison in Grudziadz who neglected their duties – which resulted in death of an unborn child – begun last Wednesday in Grudziadz. The Polish Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights sent a representative to observe the trial.

4 Iraq's elections: the world's most dangerous assignment
Amid threats to personal safety, accusations of disloyalty, and mixed messages from the US authorities, Iraqi journalists and media workers reported widely on the 30 January election. How did they manage? Index on Censorship´s Rohan Jayasekera reports.

5 Croatia: Journalist wiretapped again
The special working group of the Parliamentary Committee for Internal Affairs and National Security is opening an investigation today of the Croatian Counter Intelligence service (CIS). The principal cause for the investigation is the recent public address of five journalists who were the subject of secret treatment of the CIS during 2003 and 2004, under the allegation that they have deliberately published wrong information about Hague fugitive general Gotovina in order to obstruct Croatia to enter the European Union.

6 Azerbaijan: Seven people died of torture in 2004, says ACAT
Seven persons were tortured to death in Azerbaijan last year, according to Azerbaijan Committee Against Tortures (ACAT). - The torture is so terrible that people will confess even if they haven't committed the crime, says Elchin Behbudov, Chairman of ACAT, who asks for a thorough investigation.

7 Azerbaijan: AVHRC fights against election fraud -
The disputed presidential elections of October 2003 and rigged municipal elections of 2005 in Azerbaijan proved that the local NGOs should work dynamically and actively with the general public, particularly with those living in remote areas who lack awareness on basic electoral rights and other fundamental civil rights, says Fuad Hasanov, the director of the “Against Violence” Human Rights Centre (AVHRC).

8 Human Rights Houses engaged in North Korea
The grave human rights and refugees´ situation in North Korea is addressed at the 6th International Conference that opened in Seoul this week. The Human Rights House Foundation is present, and will co-host the next year´s conference with the Egil Rafto Human Rights House in Bergen.

9 Optimism in Ukraine
For the first time since Ukraine’s revolution, representatives of the newborn democracy visited Norway to share their experiences and debate what to do next. At a seminar hosted by the Norwegian Helsinki Committee and NUPI last week, both Ihor Ostash, Ukrainan Member of Parliament and Yvehen Zakharov, Chairman of the Kharkiv Human Rights Group, are optimistic with regards to their new government’s chances of success.

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the Network. The Human Rights House Foundation in Oslo is the
secretariat.

More news and background on www.humanrightshouse.org
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Editor/Project Manager
The Human Rights House Foundation (HRH)
Address: Menneskerettighetshuset,
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Website: http://www.humanrightshouse.org,
http://www.menneskerettigheter.no Borghild T. Krokan
Project Manager
The Human Rights House Foundation
Address: Tordenskioldsgate 6b, 0160 Oslo, Norway
Tel: (+47) 22 47 92 47, Direct: (+47) 22 47 92 44,
Fax: (+47) 22 47 92 01
Website: http://www.humanrightshouse.org,
http://www.menneskerettigheter.no

THE VOCABULARY OF INDIGNITY: A MNEMONIC CHECKLIST
by Francisco Gomes de Matos

Dear Evelin,

Our Research Group homepage is inspiringly titled Human Dignity and Humiliation. What happens if we change the word order and create this phrase: Humiliation of Human Dignity? As an applied peace linguist, I would reply: such combination of words could mean “humiliating treatment”, usually conveyed/represented by nouns. Interestingly, such nouns typically begin with the prefix DIS, which has a negative, reversive communicative force. If colleagues ever decide to probe the language of Indignity, an easy way to start is to compile a list of such nouns in DIS. In my workshops on Communicative Peace (for teachers of English) I challenge participants to produce the mnemonically-activated “list of nouns to be avoided” and to discuss ways to change each item into its positive, dignified meaning. Thus, on suggesting that DIScord be added to the list, a positive opposite would be given: Accord.

Before providing a sample of such vocabulary of indignity, I’d like to share a bit of usage information: in American English slang, DIS is used with the meaning of “to show disrespect for “to belittle” (cf. Random House Webster’s College Dictionary, 1997, p.372) Such Americanism made its written debut in 1980, and, as can be easily inferred, it is the initial syllable taken from such verbs as disrespect, disparage. Now, here is the checklist. What to do with it? One creative possibility is to provide the corresponding phraseology that can go with the noun. What would language users typically say when there isdiscourtesy, for instance? Research on the phraseology of both dignity and indignity would be most revealing, both intra and interculturally.

List of Nouns in DIS (would you agree with all inclusions? Why (not)?

Disagreement
Discomfort
Disapproval
Discord
Disconnection
Discouragement
Discourtesy
Disgrace
Dishonor
Disharmony
Disorder
Disintegration
Disorganization
Disparagement
Displeasure
Disregard
Distrust
Disunion /Disunity

Before closing, let me share two quotations. One by the Italian playwright Luigi Pirandelo, in his play “Six characters in search of an author, Act 1, 1921)

“Each of us, face to face with other persons, is clothed with some sort of dignity, but we know only too well all the unspeakable things that go in the heart” (cf. Words on Words. Quotations about language and languages, edited by David Crystal and Hilary Crystal, Penguin Books, 2000, p.)

How about applying such provocative thinking to our uses of languages for dignity?

Another quote is from the Greek playwright Aristophanes, who, by the way, wrote a play named PEACE. In his play The Frogs (translated by D. Barrett), two Greek playwrights - Euripedes and Aeschylus – engage in a lively interaction. The latter says: “Noble themes and noble sentiments must be couched in suitably dignified language.” (My source: Words on Words. Quotations about Language and Languages, compiled by David Crystal and Hilary Crystal, Penguin Books, 2000, p. 147).

Cogently, peace educators have been reminding us that it is society’s responsibility to help create conditions for human beings to be educated for dignity. In such spirit, applied peace linguists would add that “communicative dignity” is one of the requirements for “communicative peace” (to know more about that coinage, google the term) and that part of our challenge as researchers centered on dignity and humiliation studies is to documents, analyze both dignified and undignified uses of languages and the effects of such choices on people, groups, communities. It is largely through our vocabulary that we can humanize or dehumanize our communicative life, so may I ask you to apply this mnemonically-construed principle: Let’s dignify our daily dialogue/discourse.

Francisco Gomes de Matos
Federal University of Pernambuco and Associação Brasil América, Recife,Brazil

IFLAC - INTERNATIONAL FORUM FOR THE LITERATURE AND CULTURE OF PEACE

INVITATION

5TH IFLAC PEACE CULTURE CONFERENCE
Los Angeles, US, 3-6 August 2005
With the participation of International Writers and Poets’ Associations WCP

CHAIR:
Prof. Ada Aharoni: IFLAC World President
57 Horev Street, Haifa 34343, Israel
Tel. +972-4-8243230 - Fax +972-4-8261288
Email: ada@tx.technion.ac.il

CALL FOR PAPERS
The 5th Iflac Pave Peace International Conference
IFLAC PAVE PEACE, The International Forum for the Culture and Literature of Peace, organizes this interdisciplinary conference. IFLAC is a network of peace researchers, writers, poets, women leaders, educators, journalists and media, working together to foster joint cooperation and understanding in the Middle East and in our global village. The conference will bring together experts and participants from a broad range of fields, to discuss the impact of the cultural and literary dimensions for promoting the paving of global Culture of Peace, which would pave and promote a world beyond war.
The major themes to be examined and discussed at this conference will include the following. Please choose one of them or suggest your own subject.
1. From A War Culture To A Peace Culture,
2. Conflict Resolution Through Culture and Literature,
3. Pluralistic Cultural Identity in an Era of Globalization,
4. Women and Peace,
5. The Communications Revolution and its effects on Culture,
6. Creation of a Peace Culture in the Media,
7. Peace Education through Literature,
8. Economic Globalization and Its Effects on Culture,
9. The Dangers of the glorification of the Culture of Terror and of Suicide Bombing
and the Possibilities of A Peace Culture As A Means to Combat it.
10. Can NGO’s like IFLAC, and “Gather the Women,” Influence World Governments
and Institutions to Promote Peace in the World?

See following websites for more information on Iflac: Pave Peace: www.iflac.com www.iflac.com/ada
www.iflac.com/iflacheb.htm and online Anthology: HORIZON Numbers 1 to 5- www.iflac.com/horizon
Subscribe to IFLAC and to Digest IFLAC-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

* The WCP Congress (The World Congress of Poets), will take place at the same Hotel Ayres from August 6 - 10, and IFLAC Conference Participants are welcome to attend it. For more information please contact the WCP Congress President: Dr. Lucy Cabieles: Drcabieles@aol.com

IIASA Job Opening in PCC

Dear colleague,
The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) is
recruiting a Research Scholar for its newly formed Population and Climate
Change (PCC) Program.
Details about the job opening can be found on our web site at
http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Admin/PE/Jobs/2005-03-pcc-rs.html

I kindly request that you forward this information to interested parties in
order to assist us in soliciting suitable applications.
If you have any questions on the opening or need additional information,
please contact me.

Sincerely yours,
Walter Foith

Walter FOITH
Head of Human Resources Department
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria
Phone: +43 2236 807 243
Fax: +43 2236 71 313
Email: foithw@iiasa.ac.at
Web: www.iiasa.ac.at

At 10.02.2005, Amy Hudnall wrote:

Dear Lynne, Livia, Evelin, Craig, Lindsey, Nelden, and Colleagues,

As many of you have already heard rumors about the creation of a tsunami relief page from H-Net, I wanted to let you know that it is now in the offing. Hopefully in the next few days we will have a Web page available with multiple fact sheets on regions hit by the tsunami.

As we have all learned through egregious mistakes and trial and error, the best way to be successful with trauma victims, whether we are there as helpers or journalists, is to have a strong background in the culture or society and their history. You make less mistakes with this knowledge, you are successful faster and at the same time you reduce risks to your personal health.

H-Net is an international interdisciplinary organization of scholars and teachers dedicated to developing the enormous educational potential of the Internet and the World Wide Web. Their edited lists and web sites publish peer reviewed essays, multimedia materials, and discussion for colleagues and the interested public. There are over 120,000 members of H-Net, including some of the best scholars in their fields. It is a perfect source for harnessing the knowledge you need in the field.

What H-Net has begun to do is recruit, with the collaboration of the Institute of Rural Health at Idaho State University,well-qualified field experts in selected topics related to the language, history, culture, mores, religions, and political practices of areas where relief operations are active (the call is at this site, the page will be up shortly at the same site, http://www.h-net.org/). These experts will create fact sheets, provide press interviews, and otherwise offer background information for reporters, journalists, relief workers, and other individuals entering the disaster area. This material will help make the relief effort more sensitive to local cultural conditions and thereby improve the efficiency of these operations. It may also help to reduce the potential for secondary trauma among relief workers exposed to an extremely stressful and culturally unfamiliar environment of death, suffering, and destruction.

The briefing and background materials will be available from a website offered by H-NET. However, it would be helpful for us, in recruiting these experts, for them to know that you would find this valuable. If you could respond to me about what you think of the usefulness of the project so that I could share your responses with the list members, I think we might have a response strong enough to allow us to keep a page like this up permanently. We could respond quickly to any crisis at any time and you could consider us as partners in your pre-deployment training programs. Please spread the word to other aide organizations. If we make this successful, we are essentially providing you with a ready made portion of your training: you don't have to find the experts, prepare the materials, or evaluate the quality of the materials, it will already be done for you.

I look forward to hearing from all of you with your comments and suggestions.
Thanks so much,
Amy Hudnall

--
Amy C. Hudnall
LECTURER
History Dept., Whitener Hall, Appalachian State University,
Boone, NC 28608
828-262-6025; hudnallac@appstate.edu

RESEARCH ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
Institute of Rural Health, Idaho State University, Pocatello, ID
208-282-4681; hudnamy@isu.edu

H-GENOCIDE BOOK REVIEW EDITOR, H-NET

Let's legislate consensus-building
By John Marks and Susan Collin Marks
February 10, 2005

WASHINGTON - In 1994, Rick Santorum, a conservative Republican congressman, narrowly won the Pennsylvania Senate seat held by Harris Wofford, a liberal Democrat. The campaign was not pleasant. Representative Santorum publicly called Senator Wofford a liar.

Yet, seven years later, Wofford and Santorum stood together in the shadow of the Capitol, to announce they would lead a working group on faith-based and community organizations. Wofford acknowledged the incongruity, saying they were "the odd couple."

"How could you?" former Wofford staffer Steven Waldman recalls asking his boss. "He gave me a knowing smile that seemed to say, 'Someday you'll be old enough to understand that you can accomplish more in life seeking agreement than nursing grudges.'"

The former foes came together because the nonprofit organization that we head, Search for Common Ground (SFCG), invited them to lead a working group to find consensus between right and left - both religious and secular - on the role of faith-based groups in overcoming poverty. They agreed to be part of a consensus process that we - and a coalition of national leaders - hope to institutionalize through Congressional legislation.

Santorum and Wofford buried the hatchet and attracted key players from across the political and social spectrums. The idea was to make recommendations on the role social service providers with religious ties should play in publicly funded poverty programs. The 27 participants included leaders from organizations as diverse as People for the American Way and Evangelicals for Social Action; and Christian, Jewish, and Muslim organizations. Both liberal and conservative foundations funded the process.

None of these very busy people missed the meetings held once a month for six months - not even on 9/11, when they were evacuated from a building near the White House and walked a mile to reconvene elsewhere.

"It was our answer to those who would divide us," recalls former Philadelphia Mayor Wilson Goode, a working group member.

Still, division did exist. For example, one liberal leader arrived at a session outraged at conservative participants, because he felt their allies in the Bush White House were using "underhanded" tactics that made attempts at compromise pointless. He nearly walked out. But a key part of our process was the use of a professional facilitator who kept participants out of attack mode by guiding conversation back toward collaborative action, while still allowing anger to be expressed.

It was important to avoid recreating the debate as it was being framed in the media and Congress: a food fight over whether more funds should be given to faith-based groups and whether they violated separation of church and state.

Wofford said later that he and Santorum agreed the public debate "had gotten off track." They came to see that they could work together on the basis of shared compassion. The framing question for liberals and conservatives to cooperate became: What could they do together to help poor Americans?

At first, everyone had stereotypes. Faith-based advocates generally believed the civil libertarians cared more about constitutional rights than helping people. Civil libertarians thought that the faith-based contingent was interested mainly in proselytizing. Common ground emerged when each realized that the other was equally committed to alleviating poverty - and to staying true to core beliefs.

The atmosphere encouraged participants to relinquish rote responses and to step beyond their stereotypes. As they got to know each other, they mostly stopped demonizing the other. They rolled up their sleeves and got to work. No one was required to give up strongly held positions or to compromise principles. They were asked only to seek solutions acceptable to everyone in the room. Each participant had what amounted to veto power, so there was no need to round up votes to support positions, and participants became adept at putting themselves in one another's shoes. In the end, participants unanimously adopted 29 specific recommendations, including:

* Tax deductions for charitable contributions from Americans who do not itemize taxes.

* Prohibition of using public funds to support proselytizing.

* Transparency by service providers and government agencies.

* No discrimination against faith-based groups because of their religious beliefs.

Subsequently, Santorum joined Sens. Joseph Lieberman and Hillary Rodham Clinton to sponsor a compromise bill that included the bulk of the recommendations. President Bush hailed the bill as a "great accomplishment," and most of the recommendations either became law or were adopted as government policy.

To be sure, the group did not address every contentious issue. For example, the participants could not agree on whether faith-based service providers could refuse to hire homosexuals, or on whether government vouchers should be used to support overtly religious programs. In these cases, participants agreed, without rancor, to disagree.

Beyond the specifics, however, the process itself proved it could work even on a highly controversial issue.

"What the consensus group did was to show people on both sides that the faith-based issue didn't have to escalate to the level of the abortion issue that freezes everything around it," said program director Roger Conner.

If processes like this could be expanded to other divisive issues, it would be a transformational leap for US politics. While not every problem is ripe for a consensus-building approach, such processes could drain much poison from the political debate.

Indeed, we have launched similar consensus-building processes on domestic healthcare issues and on prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS around the world.

And a task force - led by Mark Racicot, a former governor of Montana and President Bush's reelection campaign manager, and Dan Glickman, a former Democratic congressman from Kansas and former Secretary of Agriculture for President Clinton - has been lobbying Congress to create the US Consensus Council. Modeled on successful organizations in several states, the USCC would institutionalize consensus processes and assist Congress and the president in finding agreement on selected national issues. The USCC would be a private, nonprofit body, authorized by Congress and funded by publicly and privately.

While consensus processes are no panacea, they could certainly disprove the idea that national politics can be practiced only in an adversarial, partisan way. The system doesn't have to function the way it does. People with deeply held, opposing beliefs can find common ground and work together.

There are alternatives to win-lose, take-no-prisoners politics if - and this a huge if - Americans choose to use them.

* John Marks is president and Susan Collin Marks is executive vice president of Search for Common Ground, a nonprofit organization working in societal conflict resolution in the US and abroad.

Dear All!
Mohammed Mesbahi kindly sent us the article THE TSUNAMI AND THE BRANDT REPORT for publication. See his coordinates further down.
Warmly!
Evelin

Mohammed Mesbahi
Chair and Founder
Share the World's Resources (STWR)
P.O. Box 34275
London NW5 1XT
Website : www.stwr.net
E mail : mohammed@stwr.net / Mesbahi@slsuk.com

THE TSUNAMI AND THE BRANDT REPORT
by
Mohammed Mesbahi and Dr Angela Paine

The response of the world public to the tsunami disaster on the 26th December 2004 was (and continues to be) one of heartfelt empathy and an instinctive desire to help fellow human beings in trouble. Never before have so many people, from so many countries given so much to the victims of a disaster. World governments have been shamed into promising far greater sums of aid than they originally wanted to offer by the sheer magnitude of the public’s generosity. The US initially pledged $15 million but in the end promised $350 million while the UK government felt obliged to raise their pledge to $96 million, still a tiny fraction of the money these governments have so far spent ($148 billion –the US and $11.5 billion - the UK) on the war in Iraq. As George Monbiot says, the UK has spent almost twice as much on the war in Iraq as it spends annually on aid to the third world. The US gives just over $16 billion in foreign aid: less than one ninth of the money it has so far burnt in Iraq.

How many people realise, however, as Devinder Sharma points out, that many of the deaths caused by the Tsunami could have been prevented? The area affected has been hit by tsunamis in the past, with far fewer deaths resulting, because the coastlines of South East Asia were protected by a natural defence system, composed of coral reefs and mangrove forests. Many of the previous tsunamis were tamed by the coral reefs before hitting the coast, where they were absorbed by a dense layer of red mangrove trees. These flexible trees, with long branches growing right down into the sand below the surface of the sea, absorb the shock of tsunamis. Behind the red mangrove trees there is a second layer of black mangrove trees, which are taller and slow down the waves.

Thousands of miles of coastline in South East Asia were densely covered in mangrove forests, protecting the coastline from erosion, absorbing carbon dioxide and providing a breeding ground for crustaceans and fish, on which the local population depended for their livelihood. This was a fragile environment, which ecologists have long recommended should enjoy special protection. In India a Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) was created to protect a 500 meter buffer zone along the coast.

While the belt of mangrove forest still existed, the people of the area lived inland, behind it. In 1960 a tsunami hit the coast of Bangladesh in an area where the mangroves were intact. No-one died. These mangroves were subsequently cut down by the shrimp (prawn) farming industry and in 1991 thousands of people were killed when a tsunami of the same magnitude hit the same region. On Dec 26th 2004, Pichavaram and Muthupet, in South India, who still have their mangrove forests, suffered fewer casualties than the surrounding mangrove-less areas of coast. Mangroves also acted as a barrier, helping people to survive on Nias Island, Indonesia, close to the epicentre of the Dec 26 tsunami. Burma and the Maldives suffered less from the tsunami because the shrimp and tourism industries had not yet destroyed all their mangroves and coral reefs.

Since the 1960s, the mangrove forests of South East Asia have been systematically destroyed to make way for commercial shrimp (prawn) farming and a massive increase in the tourism industry. The aquaculture and tourism industries succeeded in diluting any protective regulations that were in place, until they were able to take over most of the buffer zone. Almost 70% of the region’s mangrove forests have now disappeared.

Since three quarters of South East Asian commercial fish species spend part of their life cycle in the mangrove swamps the loss of these swamps has resulted in declining fish harvests. To compound this situation, the commercial feeds, pesticides, antibiotics and non-organic fertilizers used in intensive shrimp farms have generated huge amounts of pollution, destroying the remaining fish and harming the coral reefs.

As the fish have declined, desperate fishermen resorted to dropping dynamite into the reefs to drive them out. Scientists working for the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) have recently compiled The World Atlas of Coral Reefs, an underwater survey. They found that one third of the world’s coral reefs are in South-east Asia and almost all are under threat. 70% of the world’s coral reefs have already been destroyed. 80% of Indonesia’s reefs are in danger. Dynamite fishing has contributed to the destruction of an ecosystem already under threat from sediment erosion caused by the loss of mangrove forests, shrimp farm pollution and untreated sewage from the tourism industry.

According to Susan Stonich, University professor from California University, international corporations, based in the first world but operating in the third world, produce 99% of farmed shrimp. But almost all of it is eaten in the US, Western Europe and Japan, where consumption has increased by 300% in the last ten years. Today world shrimp production, in an industry worth $9 billion, is almost 800,000 metric tons and 72% of farmed shrimp comes from Asia. Hundreds of nongovernmental organizations have sprung up at local, national and international levels to oppose this destructive aquaculture industry. In 1997 the Industrial Shrimp Action Network (ISA Net) was formed, a global alliance opposed to unsustainable shrimp farming. Aquaculture corporations responded by forming the Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA) to counter the claims of the ISA Network. Commercial shrimp farming has displaced local communities, exacerbated conflicts, decreased the quality and quantity of drinking water and decimated the natural fish species on which the local population rely. The population of these areas ended up living right on the coast, without the benefit of their protective mangrove forests. Their coral reefs were by now eroded by pollution, dynamite fishing, tourists (who tread on the reefs) and the rising temperature of the sea.

The reason why the aquaculture and tourism corporations have been allowed to destroy the coastal environment of South East Asia is because the current neoliberal trade system favours corporations over and above all concerns for the environment and the people living in it. Trade liberalisation, through the World Trade Organisation, has enabled corporations to challenge the legislation of the countries they wanted to operate in, legislation that was designed to protect the local environment.

Ecological and human disasters such as the 2004 tsunami will continue to occur as long as the current Global Economic system is allowed to exist in its present form.

Way back in the 1980s Willy Brandt warned that the current global economic system, with its emphasis on profit at all costs, would lead to environmental degradation and worsening poverty in the third world. He said “Important harm to the environment and depletion of scarce resources is occurring in every region of the world, damaging soil, sea and air. The biosphere is our common heritage and must be preserved by cooperation – otherwise life itself could be threatened” (North South, 72 -73.) How prophetic these words sound today.

He set up the Independent Commission on International Development Issues to make an in-depth study of the global economy. His team of advisers included many experts in the field of international policy and economics. Their detailed report came to the conclusion that the developed nations dominated international trade and that this was unbalanced and biased in favour of large corporations based in the West. The Brandt Commission was the first major independent global panel to examine connections between the environment, international trade, international economics and the third world. The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development took Brandt’s proposals regarding the environment seriously enough to hold international conferences in Rio in 1992 and in Kyoto in 1997. However America refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol and corporate power prevented any of the Brandt Report recommendations being put into practice.

The Brandt Reports called for a complete restructuring of the global economy, in order to protect the environment and meet the needs of the world population. Willy Brandt said “We see a world in which poverty and hunger still prevail in many huge regions; in which resources are squandered without consideration of their renewal; in which more armaments are made and sold than ever before; and where a destructive capacity has been accumulated to blow up our planet several times over”. He proposed a Summit of World Leaders, with the backing of a global citizens’ movement, to discuss how to meet the needs of the majority of the world’s people. This would, he recognised, mean reforming the international economy. He proposed a series of measures, including:

· an emergency aid program to assist countries on the verge of disaster

· third world debt forgiveness

· fair trade

· the stabilisation of world currencies

· a reduction in the arms trade

· global responsibility for the environment

· A major overhaul of the global economic system.

Brandt also recognised that poverty contributes to high birth rates and that overpopulation puts pressure on the environment. This has indeed happened all over the world, including South East Asia.

Two decades later, world leaders had not responded to any of Brandt’s proposals in any meaningful way. They continued to allow an ever increasing export of arms to some of the most repressive regimes, and public apathy towards the plight of the world’s hungry billions continued.

In the 1980s Brandt was calling for preventive action and his proposals were falling on deaf ears. Only now is preventive action beginning to be taken seriously. The World Bank estimates that losses caused by disasters in the 1990s could have been cut by $280 billion if $40 billion had been spent on preventive measures. Whether protection of the environment came into the equation is not clear but surely the preservation of the coastal environment of South East Asia was more important than providing a luxury item of food to the US, Europe and Japan. Brandt also called for coordinated relief programmes for areas where disasters had already occurred.

Only one organisation has the people and the close relationships with governments to make coordinated disaster aid work, the UN’s Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Yet immediately after the tsunami world leaders were in disagreement over coordination of the relief operation. George Bush refused to cooperate with the UN because of his long-running differences with the UN leadership. World opinion eventually forced him to recognise the need for cooperation with the OCHA for the smooth running of the disaster relief.

However the OCHA is far from perfect, partly because it has not been given the support it needs by all the member countries of the UN. Willy Brandt recognised that the UN needed to be restructured to make it democratic and effective and all the UN agencies needed to be reformed to make them more efficient. He called for emergency programs for food, housing and healthcare to be coordinated. He recommended cutting the red tape to ensure that resources reached impoverished people directly, unfiltered through inefficient bureaucracy. He called for national projects, overseen by representatives from developed and developing nations.

He recommended that instead of fighting wars, armies and navies from the developed world could be deployed to bring in the food, resources and technology needed to help poor nations reverse hunger and poverty. This has indeed been happening since the tsunami. Armies and navies have indeed been bringing food, resources and technology to the disaster areas. Ironically, as George Monbiot points out in the Guardian Jan 4, the US marines who have been sent to Sri Lanka to help the rescue operation were, just a few weeks ago, murdering the civilians, smashing the homes and evicting the entire population of the Iraqi city of Falluja.

Since the tsunami world opinion has shifted. People have been so moved by the plight of the people in the devastated areas that they have begun to talk about poverty and injustice in other parts of the world, such as Africa. Some of the poorest people in the world are concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa, where “We have the resources to save millions of lives and raise the basic infrastructure” (Jeffrey Sachs, Kofi Annan’s Special Adviser). Over the past few decades official development assistance to third world countries has been declining and few donor countries now give the internationally-agreed 0.7% of their gross domestic product. Jeffrey Sachs would like to see donor countries increase their aid budget. But in the end it will be popular opinion which pushes governments into rethinking their aid policies. Since the tsunami, people have been increasingly questioning the meanness of their countries’ aid budgets and demanding that more aid is given to third world countries.

Jeffrey Sachs has recently presented the “Global Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals”. The report, developed by 300 economists and researchers, reiterates many of the aims of the Brandt Reports:

· Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

· Achieve universal primary education

· Promote gender equality and empower women

· Reduce child mortality

· Improve maternal health

· Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

· Ensure environmental sustainability

· Develop a global partnership for development

20,000 poor people die every day from preventable diseases in Africa, partly because their governments are paying $30 million dollars a day in interest to the World Bank, the IMF and the rich world creditor nations. Currently for every one dollar that is given to Africa in aid one and a half dollars goes out to pay the interest on debts.

Third world debt today is $2.6 trillion. Between 1982 and 2003 the poor world has paid $5.4 trillion in interest. This means that the poor world has already paid back the amount it now owes more than twice. Willy Brandt called for total third world debt forgiveness. However the World Bank, the IMF and rich creditor countries were not prepared to forgo the huge amounts of interest they were receiving every year from poor, heavily-indebted countries. But over the past twenty years a groundswell of public protest has gradually been growing, demanding an end to third world debt. After the tsunami the voice of the protesters grew, with public protests, for example in Belfast, where young people marched, demanding the immediate cancellation of the debts of the countries affected. As a result governments have been pressured into giving third world debt some serious thought. Gordon Brown, who initially proposed freezing debt repayments for a year, is now leading the campaign for 100 percent multilateral debt relief for poor countries. The G8 finally announced on the 9 Jan that all Tsunami afflicted countries would have their debt repayments halted.

In the past funding for debt relief has come from the aid budget. It is essential that this does not happen now.

Brandt recommended restructuring the World Trade Organisation to allow proportional representation and decision-making by poor countries of the third world. He wanted to establish a new code of conduct for international corporations, to curb their power and prevent them from carrying out environmentally unsound practices and to improve conditions of the workers. He proposed trade liberalisation and the removal of trade barriers. Unfortunately GATT has done just that, but only in the third world, while maintaining protectionist trade barriers in the first world, where the rich counties spend $300 billion every year in subsidies, subsidies that prevent the poor countries having access to their markets. Brandt wanted to remove these subsidies, which give the rich world an unfair advantage.

Since Brandt’s reports the World Trade Organisation and the Free Trade Agreements have carried out a policy of perpetual trade liberalisation at any price. The result has been disastrous for the third world, which comprises 85% of the world population. Their share of international trade is only 25% because prices for everything that they export, from raw materials to cash crops, have fallen and continue to fall. Legislation designed to promote health and protect the environment in third world countries has been challenged and overruled in the name of trade liberalisation.

The Brandt Reports noted that the abolition of the gold standard had had a disastrous effect on the currencies of third world countries. When the US set up the flexible exchange rate system in 1971 third world currencies began to fluctuate and in most cases to fall in value. This was/is because investors could now buy and sell currencies on the world stock market, thus causing their value to increase or decrease at a moments notice. Rich countries such as the US and the EU were better protected against these currency fluctuations simply because they had larger amounts of money. This has led to rich people in third world countries investing their money in the US in order to protect it from the monetary instability of their own countries. This money has bolstered the US dollar, which otherwise would not be able to withstand the enormous fiscal and trade deficits incurred during the Bush administration.

Brandt wanted to stabilise world currencies and another Nobel Prize-winner, the economist James Tobin, proposed a solution. In 1971 he suggested that a tax of less than 0.5% on all foreign currency exchange transactions would deter currency speculation. Support is growing for the Tobin tax, which would reduce the volatility of exchange rates and raise much needed revenue to pay for sustainable human development.

Brandt was concerned about the huge waste of resources involved in military spending. Arms sales to poor countries contribute to conflict, increase their burden of debt and further impoverish them. According to Clare Short’s recent White Paper, 24 of the 40 poorest countries in the world, mostly in Africa, have recently suffered and continue to suffer armed conflict. The Brandt Reports recommended the conversion of arms production into civilian production, reducing arms exports, making the whole arms export business transparent and taxing the arms trade.

Since the Brandt Reports sales of armaments have increased massively, with the US and the UK two of the largest producers and exporters. In 1999 Britain was exporting about £4 billion worth of armaments per annum. The UK has a government agency especially dedicated to the promotion of arms export: the Defence Export Services Organisation (DESO).

The British Government, which actively encourages the sale of arms to poor countries, has recently granted arms export licences to a number of countries with repressive regimes.

British tax payers subsidise the armament industry to the tune of approximately £200 million per annum. The reason why governments subsidise corporations who export weapons is because the public allow them to. Tax payers’ money benefits arms exporters, who do inestimable harm to the third world countries who buy the arms. These countries are spending money they can ill afford on armaments, instead of investing in services. The Campaign against the Arms Trade recommends putting a stop to subsidies to arms manufacturers and exporters. Now, more than ever before, the madness of making and exporting arms should be exposed. According to estimates from the World Bank, world poverty could be relieved by spending approximately one tenth of the world’s annual military budget.

Not everything in the Brandt Reports is relevant today but significant portions of it are more relevant than ever: those parts that refer to the necessity to cancel third world debt, reduce arms trading and to put in place and enforce international legislation to protect the environment. The world was not ready for these proposals in the 1980s but it is ready now. A huge groundswell of public opinion is calling for debt cancellation, a reduction in arms trading and a halt to the destruction of the environment. The Brandt Reports have been updated by James Quilligan. see: www.brandt21forum.info

Nobel Prize winner, Willy Brandt had high hopes when he and his team of experts compiled their detailed reports. They had spent years researching world poverty and the best way to alleviate it. Brandt’s far reaching vision predicted many of the human and ecological disasters that have (and continue to) occurred since the 1980s, as a result of neoliberal economic policies. His reports laid out an alternative system of global governance, based on the principle of sharing: sharing the world’s resources and sharing responsibility for the environment. He proposed that every member of the human race had a right to food, water, shelter, clothing, education and healthcare. Only when every human being’s basic needs have been fulfilled will the world’s population stabilise. Social sustainability is the prerequisite for environmental sustainability.

Perhaps world leaders could be persuaded to re-examine both the original reports and their updated version and to come together to discuss how to implement some of the recommendations. World opinion is calling for a more equitable and just world in which everyone has the right to food, water, shelter, clothing, education and healthcare; where the power of corporations is curbed in favour of human rights and the environment; where governments are shamed into putting a stop to arms exports and where the money currently squandered in wars is spent on raising the standard of living of the world’s poor.

Without sharing the world’s resources there can be no justice and without justice there can be no peace

Mohammed Mesbahi
Chair and Founder
Share the World's Resources (STWR)
P.O. Box 34275
London NW5 1XT
Website : www.stwr.net
E mail : mohammed@stwr.net / Mesbahi@slsuk.com

At 07.02.2005, Francisco Gomes de Matos wrote to HumanDHS:

Dear Evelin,
In my workshops on Communicative Peace, I challenge participants to create a PARADIGM FOR PEACE, that is, a list of verbs which can fill the first position in the phrase ACT FOR PEACE.

The challenge can be enhanced, if you say USE THE FIRST VERB THAT COMES TO MIND, THEN WRITE IT DOWN. ON COMPLETION OF THE ALPHABETICALLY ARRANGED PARADIGM, EXCHANGE YOUR LISTS WITH OTHER PERSONS AND DISCUSS HOW HUMANIZINGLY MEANINGFUL VERB CHOICES CAN BE AND WHY.

Here is a typical PARADIGM, from one of such cognitively-linguistically challenging practices:

FOR P E A C E

A - attract
B - build
C - create
D- dignify
E- empathize
F - feed
G - group
H - humanize
I - interact
J- joy
K - kindle
L - Lead
M - mobilize
N- nucleate
O- opt
P - reconcile
Q - quest
R - ally
S- speak
T - teach
U - unite
V - vitalize
W- work
Y - yield

Additionally, participants can be asked to creactivate one example of Paradigm for the letters x and z. The dual goal of this Peace-focused wordplay is to show that Peace is paradigmatic (exemplary) and that we can enhance Communicative Peace by probing its phraseology, through paradigms such as the one illustrated above.

Wonder if members of our group have ever thought of this communicative dimension?

Liven up for Peace!
Francisco Gomes de Matos, Recife, Brazil

The Necessity of a New Multicultural Peace Culture
Peace Lectures held by Ada Aharoni at
the 36th International Sociology Conference,
Beijing, 2004 (please visit Ada Aharoni's website, where you can open her powerpoint presentation).

The International Institute for Humane Education offers its acclaimed
Sowing Seeds
Humane Education Workshop
April 23-24, 2005 • Washington, DC
Located at The American University • 4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW

Registration: $45-$145 sliding scale ($40 student)

Learn exciting, new approaches for teaching about animal protection, human rights, environmental preservation, media and culture.

“You have shown me I can do anything… You are changing the world, and make me feel like I can, too.” -Allison Jacquish, British Columbia

“This should be part of every program charged with educating future educators! Of all the education courses I’ve taken… this has been the most useful and inspiring.”

-Julie Thompson, Colorado

Humane education addresses the pressing issues of our time and promotes positive choice-making on behalf of people, animals, and the Earth. It teaches critical and creative thinking, nurtures the 3 Rs of reverence, respect and responsibility, and is one of the most important ways to help build a sustainable and just society. Zoe Weil, President of the International Institute for Humane Education (IIHE), states, “humane education inspires the next generation to live with compassion and respect, to restore our damaged earth, and to bring peace to our troubled world.”

Participants at Sowing Seeds workshops learn how to:
• present accurate information and teach critical thinking about relevant issues of our time.
• teach about consumerism and media, environmental preservation, social justice, animal protection and the connection between these issues.
• improve their communication skills.
• develop a series of presentations and activities for schools, camps, or community groups.

For more information or to register:
www.IIHEd.org • sowingseeds@IIHEd.org • (207) 785-2224

Kathy Gerbasi, Ph.D.
Niagara County Community College-Psychology Department
Resource Coordinator: Society & Animals Forum, www.psyeta.org
Director Education and Research: People Animals and Nature, PAN www.pan-inc.org
Member: APA, ASA, ISAZ, APS
email: kcgerbasiphd@earthlink.net
snail mail:
601 Sherwood Ct
Lewiston, NY 14092
716-754-2466

The Risks Posed by Success
Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan (IPS) - The World Social Forum could become a victim of its own success, as loud calls for translating ideas and talk into action and practical results threaten to generate divisions and frustration.

Portuguese Nobel literature laureate Jos Saramago expressed that tension when he called Friday for turning the World Social Forum (WSF) into an instrument for action based on concrete proposals and ideas with broad support, rather than a Mecca for an annual pilgrimage by the Left to engage in discussions and debates on utopias.

Saramago, who for the first time took part in the global gathering (whose fifth edition ended Monday), joined 18 personalities with close ties to the WSF Saturday to release the Porto Alegre Manifesto, which takes its name from the southern Brazilian city where four editions of the WSF have been held, including this year's.

The 19 intellectuals who produced the Manifesto, made up of 12 proposals that as a whole give sense to the building of another possible world, clarify that they are not speaking in the name of the WSF, but in a strictly personal capacity.
However, they say they have made a synthesis of 12 recommendations, out of the innumerable proposals presented during the global gathering, that, if they were applied, would permit citizens to at last seize control again of their future.
But the fact that most of the authors of the Manifesto have been prominent participants in the WSF since the very start, and that many of them are members of the international organising committee, could give the impression that the document represents a common position assumed by the Forum. It could even appear that the WSF, contrary to its very nature, has acquired a politburo.

Among the signatories are Argentine writer and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Portuguese sociologist Boaventura de Souza Santos, French editor of Le Monde Diplomatique Bernard Cassen, Egyptian economist Samir Amin, U.S. sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein and Pakistani writer Tariq Ali.
Seven of the recommendations concern the economy: the cancellation of the public debt owed by countries of the developing South; the taxation of financial transactions and weapons sales; full employment and social protection; the dismantling of tax havens; fair trade; food sovereignty and security through small-scale agriculture; and the prohibition of patents on knowledge and living organisms and the privatisation of water.

The remaining five are an in-depth democratisation of international organisations; guaranteeing the right to information and the right to inform; the dismantling of foreign military bases; fighting for public policies against all forms of discrimination; and putting an end to destruction of the environment, especially in the area of climate change.

Another of the signatories, Walden Bello, the head of the Thailand-based non-governmental organisation Focus on the Global South, had already argued that the WSF should be allowed to assume political positions, because it is not enough for the Forum to merely be an open space for debate.
Many activists and participating intellectuals would like to see the WSF choose three or four main themes at the most, in order to concentrate the global meet's efforts. They argue that such a broad range of ideas and proposals stands in the way of making the WSF more effective.

The WSF, however, is merely a forum, an open meeting place for reflective thinking, democratic debate of ideas, formulation of proposals, free exchange of experiences and interlinking for effective action against the neo-liberal, free-market economic model, that does not intend to be a body representing world civil society, says the Charter of Principles adopted by the WSF international council in June 2001.

Point six of the Charter clearly states that The meetings of the World Social Forum do not deliberate on behalf of the World Social Forum as a body. No-one, therefore, will be authorised, on behalf of any of the editions of the Forum, to express positions claiming to be those of all its participants.
Nor will the participants in the Forum be called on to take decisions as a body, it adds.

The WSF thus does not constitute a locus of power to be disputed by the participants in its meetings, concludes point six.
These principles clearly outline the nature of the WSF and protect it, serving as an instrument that has frequently been used by the organisers to withstand pressure.

It is the participating social movements, NGOs and activists who should join together in umbrella groups or networks to adopt decisions, rather than the Forum, the organisers argue.

The impact of the annual gathering that has brought together thousands of civil society groups since its first edition in January 2001 has grown enormously, although its significance is sometimes overestimated as a platform for catapulting social issues onto the global agenda, while overlooking the influence of the international United Nations conferences of the 1990s.

It is an increasingly irresistible temptation to use the WSF's symbolic and mobilising strength in the struggle to make another world possible (the Forum's slogan).

Success is becoming a poison that could deprive the Forum of the source of its
innovative strength - its horizontal nature, lack of hierarchies and broad diversity of participants and experiences.

The failure to comprehend the nature of the WSF appeared in the proposal by Brazilian President Luiz Incio Lula da Silva to promote a dialogue between the Porto Alegre gathering and the World Economic Forum held simultaneously in the Swiss ski resort of Davos.

That suggestion caused irritation in the WSF, which has neither leaders nor spokespersons who could take part in such a debate, since it is not an organisation per se.

Although some members of the international council said it was possible to discuss the idea of participating in such a dialogue as the leaders of their own organisations, they added that it would be impossible to avoid appearing as representatives of the WSF.

It will also be difficult to maintain the unity of the Forum. A split recently occurred at the European Social Forum, which took place in London in October as a regional WSF meet. Disgruntled groups met separately, accusing local authorities and political parties of imposing rules by controlling the budget for the gathering.

Organisational decisions are not neutral. Although these social forums reject hierarchies and internal power disputes, the WSF international council and organising committees are, in fact, scenarios of struggle.

It will not be easy, for instance, to decide whether or not next year's social forum of the Americas will be held in Venezuela, as President Hugo Chvez and his supporters would like, due to worries that the regional civil society meeting could be distorted by the appearance that it would be expressing political support for the Venezuelan government. (END)

"Other News" is a personal initiative seeking to provide information that should be in the media but is not, because of commercial criteria. It welcomes contributions from everybody. Work areas include information on global issues, north-south relations, gobernability of globalization. The "Other News" motto is a phrase which appeared on the wall of Barcelonas old Customs Office, at the beginning of 2003:What walls utter, media keeps silent. Roberto Savio

PUBLIC DEBATE, MARCH 18, 2005 AT UNESCO
"URBAN PUBLIC POLICIES AND THE RIGHT TO THE CITY"

On behalf of the Division of Social Sciences, Research and Policy, UNESCO,
I would like to invite you to attend the upcoming public debate on
"Urban Public Policies and the Right to the City." The event will be
held on Friday, March 18, 2005, from 2 PM to 6:30 PM at the UNESCO
House in Paris, Room IV.

To give you an idea of the various municipalities, NGO
representatives, researchers and professors we hope to involve in the
conference, I have attached a provisional agenda for this debate
(available in English and in French).

Should you be able to attend, I kindly ask you to send an e-mail with
your name and the name and mailing address of your organization,
school or institution to rue.martel@gmail.com as soon as possible
(please do not respond directly to this message). A circular letter of
invitation from the Division of Social Sciences Research and Policy of
the Social and Human Sciences Sector, UNESCO, will then be sent to you
as a form of pre-registration for this debate.

Many thanks for your reply and for forwarding this message to any
potentially interested colleagues and partners.

Marissa ELLIS
UNESCO Consultant
Urban Development section

Understanding the Iraqi Insurgency
Op-ed by Jack Goldstone, December 2004

This week Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, facing concerns expressed by U.S. servicemen that they lacked sufficient armored vehicles to deal with the insurgency in Iraq, responded by saying that no intelligence before the war had given the impression that there would be the degree of insurgency that the U.S. faces today.
In deference to Secretary Rumsfeld, this is absolutely true. No intelligence appraisal would have assumed that the 400,000 members of Iraq’s military, instead of being selectively purged and reassigned to security duties under the supervision of U.S. officers, would be summarily fired, their salaries and pensions withdrawn. No intelligence assessment would assume that in a socialist country like Iraq, where nearly half the work force depended on government jobs, the overthrow of that government would be followed by the billions of dollars of U.S. reconstruction aid being overwhelmingly allotted to a small number of mega-infrastructure projects carried out by U.S. contracting firms, rather than being allotted to thousands of smaller projects benefiting Iraqi contractors and providing Iraqi jobs. And of course, no intelligence forecast could assume that the U.S. would round up thousands of Iraqis in sweeps for intelligence, hold many in secret, deny them elementary judicial process, and in complete disregard of the Geneva conventions and past U.S. military practice, torture and humiliate hundreds of Iraqis in a manner sufficiently public and photographed that horrific images of U.S. conduct toward ordinary Iraqis would circulate around the globe.
It is time to admit that the insurgency in Iraq has reached its current magnitude in large measure because of actions taken by the U.S. after the fall of Baghdad. The insurgency is being fueled by U.S. actions that have angered, humiliated, and frustrated people not only in Iraq but throughout the Muslim world. While bringing democracy to the Middle East is a noble and desirable outcome, you cannot bring democracy to people while humiliating them – human dignity is the bedrock of individual liberty and freedom. If the U.S. does not change course, it has no hope of defeating this insurgency; instead, if it persists in the same mindset that has prevailed since the liberation of Iraq, it risks making the insurgency still worse.
The lack of coherence that has characterized U.S. operations in Iraq from the beginning of the liberation continues apace. Without knowing the true identity of the insurgents, we identify “targets” whose destruction, we believe, will weaken the insurgency. Yet securing ‘targets’ cannot win a war against mobile guerillas. We have destroyed Fallujah, rendering many thousands of ordinary Iraqis homeless. As a result, we have pushed the active insurgents into Mosul, a larger and more important city where they are creating even greater havoc, while creating in Fallujah a resentful pool of thousands of potential recruits to insurgency who will return to gutted homes and ruined businesses with neither water nor electricity.
Our longer-term strategy for suppressing the insurgency is similarly muddled. The heart of that strategy is to compensate for a deficiency in the number of U.S. troops by training Iraqi security forces. Yet no one seems to have pointed out the insoluble chicken-and-egg problem here – we lack troops to fight the insurgency, so we will train Iraqis to do so. But because we lack troops to fight the insurgency, we cannot provide adequate security for Iraqi training. While thousands of brave (and economically desperate) Iraqis have signed up to join the new Iraqi security forces, they have been decimated by insurgents who treat assemblies of applicants, training facilities for new recruits, and U.S.-appointed local officials or Iraqi commanders as so many welcome targets of opportunity for insurgent attacks. If we cannot even protect those enrolled in training for the Iraqi security forces, how can we hope to produce enough Iraqi security forces to protect the broader Iraqi population? Nonetheless, the U.S. has refused offers from allies to take recruits for Iraqi security out of the country for training abroad.
While U.S. officials assume that the lure of ‘democracy’ will eventually transform insurgents into voters, how can we be sure that our understanding of democracy is being communicated to ordinary people in Iraq? The pictures from Abu Ghraib hardly convey U.S. respect for the rule of law and minority rights as essentials of democratic process. If ‘democracy’ means the right of those in power to hold and humiliate those not in power in a bare-knuckles form of majority rule, why should any Sunnis in Iraq welcome elections that will almost certainly mean a Shia majority-ruled state? What are the lessons in rule of law and minority rights that U.S. actions have been teaching in liberated Iraq?
U.S. servicemen will eventually get better armor and vehicles. What is uncertain is whether they can ever succeed with leadership that fails to understand or admit how its own actions have inflamed the very insurgency that threatens our troops.

February Newsletter - African Review of Books:

For the first newsletter of 2005 we offer you snippets of what is new on www.africanreviewofbooks.com.

Read how the success of the Africa's 100 Best Books project has translated into exorbitant prices for at least one of the titles on the list. But it also means other titles are coming into print. The latest to be released is The Last Will and Testament of Señor da Silva, by Cape Verdean author Germano Almeida.

A group of prominent academics in the USA has begun a campaign to pressure the Kenyan government into taking the assault on Ngugi wa Thiong'o and his wife seriously.

Nigerian writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was executed by the government of Sani Abacha, is to be remembered in an anthology to mark the tenth anniversary of his death.

A number of writers' festival are planned in South Africa for later this year, and in the first major award of the new year (or in this case, lack thereof) the Noma Award committee said there would be no prize award, but five books did get a special mention.

New reviews added to the site include a humorous masterpiece of detective fiction and social commentary created by one of Angola's (and the continent's) greatest writers, Pepetela.

From Kenya comes a brave and, in some ways, groundbreaking novel by SW Omamo, Men Do Not Eat Wings. It tells of the history a family in Kenya through four generations and across two continents. It is a work which refuses to be categorised, although it is billed as a political thriller, it breaks the bounds of what is expected and takes readers on a journey through modern Kenya.

From South Africa comes a critique of the government's approach to addressing the problems of the poor, such as housing and worker rights. In We are the Poors: Community struggles in post-apartheid South Africa Ashwin Desai documents the real stories of those suffering and struggling in the South African townships.

Other reviews deal with an analysis of oral histories and slavery in west Africa, and Francis Nyamanjoh's play, The Converts deals with the lives of born-again Christians in Botswana.

In her Nobel lecture environmentalist Wangari Maathai relates the history of the Green Belt Movement and explains how protecting the environment supports peace and democracy. (She has also related a more detailed history of the Green Belt Movement in the book of that name).

All of this is available at www.africanreviewofbooks.com and please remember that our continued survival depends on you making use of our online bookshop to acquire books mentioned above, or anything else from the continent.

New in stock at special prices are:
Collected poems of Wole Soyinka: £4.00
Samarkand and Other Markets I have known by Wole Soyinka. £4.00
From Zia, With Love by Wole Soyinka. £4.00
Ibadan by Wole Soyinka. £4.00
House of Hunger by Dambudzo Marechera. £4.00
Question of Power by Bessie Head. £4.00

Remember that you don't pay postage if you select surface mail, and we accept telephone orders +44 (0) 1722 421522

Thanks for your continued interest in African Review of Books

The WMD's DemocracyNews
Electronic Newsletter of the World Movement for Democracy - www.wmd.org
February 2005

POSTING NEWS:
We welcome items to include in DemocracyNews. Please send an email message to world@ned.org with the item you would like to post in the body of the message.

******************************************************************

CONTENTS

DEMOCRACY ALERTS/ APPEALS
1. Egyptian Opposition Leader Detained
2. Commemorating Yang Jianli's 1,000th Day in Detention
3. Petition to Urge Inquiry into Gambian Journalist's Murder

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND EVENTS
4. World Movement Assembly Report Available Online
5. IDEE Launches New Section of Its Web Site
6. Online Report of Democracy Processes in the Americas
7. IFES Center for Transitional and Post-Conflict Governance Issues Activity Report
8. Conference: "Global Democracy 2005: Civil Society Visions and Strategies," May 29-June 1, 2005, Montreal, Canada
9. Conference: "Burma, Realizing the Dream," Washington DC, February, 26-27, 2005
10. Asian Network Launches Asia Democracy Index
11. International Center for Islam and Pluralism Launches New Web Site

CIVIL SOCIETY STRENGTHENING
12. New Report on CIVICUS Civil Society Index
13. New Publication: Manual on "How to Run a Workshop"

CONFLICT RESOLUTION
14. Publication: January 2005 Issue of the Journal of Democracy

ECONOMIC REFORM AND THE BUSINESS SECTOR
15. CIPE Releases Winter-2005 Issue of the Overseas Report and its Feature Service Article

ELECTIONS
16. Palestinian Civil Society Played an Important Role in Recent Elections

HUMAN RIGHTS
17. Leading Congolese Human Rights Activist has Died
18. Humanitarian Law Center in Belgrade Documents Crimes against Humanity
19. Working Paper: "Kenyan Civil Society Perspective on Rights, Rights-Based Approaches to Development, and Participation"
20. Rafto Foundation Recognizes Uyghur Human Rights Activist

INTERNATIONAL DEMOCRACY ASSISTANCE AND SOLIDARITY
21. Cross-border Collaboration between Poland and Ukraine: News from Zagranica Group
22. Education for Democracy Foundation announces the 2005 Round of the "Region in Transition" Program
23. Institute for Civic Diplomacy/Pontis Foundation Transfers Slovak "Know-How" to Belarus

INTERNET, MEDIA, AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
24. Courage in Journalism and Lifetime Achievement Awards
25. Awards to Best Blogs Defending Freedom
26. Award for Outstanding Achievement in using ICTs for Development

27. WORLD MOVEMENT PARTICIPATING NETWORKS, ORGANIZATIONS AND INDIVIDUALS MENTIONED IN THIS ISSUE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DEMOCRACY ALERTS/ APPEALS

1. Egyptian Opposition Leader Detained
On January 29, Mr. Ayman Nour, leader of al-Ghad (Tomorrow Party) and member of the Egyptian Parliament, was detained for allegedly forging documents to obtain a license for his political party. State security investigators claim that Mr. Nour forged all but 14 of the over 2000 signatures he was required to present to a governmental committee responsible for licensing political parties. However, Mr. Nour denies this accusation. On January 31, a court extended his detention to 45 days. Several human rights organizations in Egypt, including the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights and the Arab Program for Human Rights Activists, are reporting the mistreatment of him in prison and calling for his immediate release. His party, al-Ghad, campaigns for political, economic, and constitutional reforms in Egypt.

To read Egyptian NGOs' press releases, go to:
Arab Center for the Independence of Judiciary and Legal Profession (ACIJLP) -http://www.wmd.org/documents/ACIJLP.doc

Arab Program for Human Rights Activists (APHRA) - http://www.wmd.org/documents/APHRA.doc

For more information about Mr. Nour's detention, go to:
BBC - Egypt opposition leader detained:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4225179.stm

Aljazeera - Egypt Extends Lawmaker's Detention: http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/072F9344-3D0A-4E5B-9452-4EEA2CBE5AF9.htm

2. Commemorating Yang Jianli's 1,000th Day in Detention
On January 19, 2005, members of the United States Congress commemorated Yang Jianli's 1,000th day in detention. They urged the Chinese government to grant him medical parole as he struggles to recover from a stroke he suffered on July 31, 2004. Dr. Yang is the co-founder of the Boston-based Foundation for China in the 21st Century and a veteran of the Tiananmen Square student movement in 1989. Three years ago, he returned to China to visit political activists and laid-off workers and was detained by police at an airport in Kunming on April 26, 2002. Since then he has been interrogated more than 100 times. In June 2003, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded that Dr. Yang was being held in violation of international law. On May 13, 2004, Dr. Yang was sentenced to five years in prison on charges of espionage and illegal entry.

For more information about Dr Yang, go to: www.freedom-now.org or www.supportjianli.org

World Movement for Democracy Alert: www.wmd.org/alert/june2602.html

3. Petition to Urge Inquiry into Gambian Journalist's Murder
Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF) is asking free expression advocates to sign an online petition urging the Gambian government to open an independent inquiry into the murder of journalist Deyda Hydara. Hydara, one of Gambia's most respected journalists and a correspondent for Agence France Presse, was gunned down on December 16, 2004. A week-long fact-finding mission conducted by RSF in December 2004 concluded that Hydara was "murdered by well-organized professionals in a premeditated operation." RSF calls on President Yahya Jammeh to appoint an independent commission of investigation after discovering that "most witnesses are afraid of being questioned by the authorities".

To sign the online petition, to: www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=12243

To read RSF's fact-finding report, go to: www.rsf.org/IMG/pdf/rapport_deyda_hydara_en.pdf

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND EVENTS

4. Third Assembly Report Available Online
The final report on theThird Assembly of the World Movement for Democracy is now available in a Web-accessible format. This online report is an enhanced version of the printed report and includes many of the recommendations and proposed initiatives that resulted from nearly 60 workshops; video clips and full text from the keynote addresses delivered by Zainab Bangura (Sierra Leone), Lodi Gyari (Tibet), and Ivan Krastev (Bulgaria); summaries of the Democracy Courage Tributes presented at the John B. Hurford Memorial Dinner; a list of the nearly 600 participants who attended; and other material. If you or others you know are currently undertaking work, or wish to collaborate, on any of the recommendations or initiatives in the report, please send us the information by e-mail (world@ned.org) or by fax (+1-202-293-0755) so we can include it in DemocracyNews or share it directly with other participants as appropriate.
In addition, if you were a presenter in one of the Assembly workshops and wish to have the full text of your presentation posted as part of the Third Assembly report, please send the text to us by e-mail (world@ned.org).

Go to: www.wmd.org/third_assembly/index.html

5. IDEE Launches New Section of Its Web Site
The Institute for Democracy in Eastern Europe (IDEE) has announced the creation of a new section of its Web site. The new section features articles reflecting a variety of views on issues and developments in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.
Some of the current postings include: "The Hollow Refrain" by Eric Chenoweth, "A look into Putin's Soul" by Janusz Bugajski, and "Matvienko Speaks Her (President's) Mind" by Alexander Podrabinek. IDEE encourages individuals to send articles for consideration.

Go to: www.idee.org

6. Online Report of Democracy Processes in the Americas
The report, "Assessment of the Implementation of the Mandates of the Quebec Plan of Action in 21 countries of the Americas," is now available on the Web site of the Project Citizen Participation in the Summit of the Americas. The report is a follow-up to the Quebec Plan of Action, which was adopted after the Third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City, Canada, in 2001. The report analyzes five themes: access to information, freedom of expression, local government and decentralization, strengthening of civil society, judicial reforms and access to justice.

For more information, go to: www.sociedadcivil.org/informesnacionales.html

7. IFES Center for Transitional and Post-Conflict Governance Issues Activity Report
The Center for Transitional and Post-Conflict Governance, established in October 2004 by IFES, has issued Program Activity Report for October-December 2004. The report provides information on electoral assistance in Iraq, out-of country registration and voting program in the Afghan presidential elections in 2004, political finance and ethics programs in 16 different countries, and studies on the Costs of Registration and Elections (CORE) worldwide. The Center's mission is to develop and conduct programs that enhance political stability in fragile or failed states in order to advance democracy through political processes.

For copies of the report, contact Langdon Miller at LMiller@ifes.org

8. Conference: "Global Democracy 2005: Civil Society Visions and Strategies," May 29-June 1, 2005, Montreal, Canada
On May 29-June 1, 2005, the Montreal International Forum (FIM) will hold a conference on "Global Democracy: Civil Society Visions and Strategies." Participants will explore thoughts, visions, and strategies on attaining global democratic governance. Representatives and actors from civil society organizations, multilateral institutions, governments, parliaments, businesses and associations, the labor sector, indigenous communities, academia, and the media are encouraged to take part in the conference.

Go to: www.g05.org

To learn more about the Montreal International Forum, go to: www.fimcivilsociety.org/english/home.html

9. Conference: "Burma, Realizing the Dream," Washington DC, February, 26-27, 2005
The U.S. Campaign for Burma will hold its annual conference on human rights and democracy in Burma in Washington DC, on February 26-27, 2005. The conference will focus on strategies for grassroots citizens to help Burmese people in their struggle for human rights, freedom, and democracy.

Go to: www.uscampaignforburma.org/whatyoucando/conference.html

10. Asian Network Launches Asia Democracy Index
The Alliance for Reform and Democracy in Asia (ARDA), a network of individuals and organizations dedicated to reform to advance democracy, human rights, good governance and the rule of law across Asia, will conduct a survey, the Asia Democracy Index, to study the state of democracy and the prospects for democratization in various countries across Asia. The Index seeks to analyze and rank countries and governments under six main components: Civil Rights; Elections and Political Processes; Governance and Corruption; Media; Rule of Law; and Participation and Representation. The Index is expected to be completed by mid-2005.

Go to: www.asiademocracy.biz/content_view.php?section_id=3&content_id=308&PHPSESSID=3959f3c7ea1d0cbfd39cb6e93a210180

11. The International Center for Islam and Pluralism Launches New Web Site
The International Center for Islam and Pluralism (ICIP), based in Indonesia, recently launched its new Web site. The Web site highlights aspects of pluralism and democracy, provides information on ICIP's current, future and past activities, and contains ICIP's Electronic Journal, which functions as a forum for progressive and moderate Islamic groups and individuals in Indonesia and abroad. The Journal's most recent issue includes articles by Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Prize winner from Iran, and M. Syafi' I Maarif, chairperson of Muhammadiyah, which is one of Indonesia's two Muslim mass-based organizations, representing 20 million members. The ICIP was established with the support of the Asia Foundation in 2003 to help develop an extensive network among progressive Muslims in South and Southeast Asia.

Go to: www.icipglobal.org

CIVIL SOCIETY STRENGTHENING

12. New Report on CIVICUS Civil Society Index
This report provides a detailed analysis of the project approach, conceptual and analytical framework, and research methodology of the CIVICUS Civil Society Index (CSI) Project. The CSI is a participatory needs assessment and action planning tool for civil society in countries around the world. It aims to create a knowledge base and an impetus for civil society strengthening initiatives.

To order CIVICUS books and publications, email info@civicus.org

Go to: www.civicus.org/new/book_list.asp?id=39

13. New Publication: Manual on "How to Run a Workshop"
This manual guides activists through the process of organizing and running a workshop. It focuses on several stages in the process, including planning the workshop agenda, logistics, and facilitation. The guide is one of the new resources available on www.networking.org, which is a Web site that offers numerous free resources to NGOs working in development and humanitarian fields. The variety of "how to" manuals on the site help NGOs build skills, such as fundraising, budgeting, managing, etc.

Go to: www.networklearning.org/books/workshop.html

CONFLICT RESOLUTION

14. Publication: January 2005 Issue of the Journal of Democracy
The January 2005 issue of the Journal of Democracy focuses on "Building Democracy After Conflict." The issue includes articles assessing the post-war reconstruction and democratization efforts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kosovo, and analyzing various post-conflict governance issues. The issue includes article on "Lessons from Iraq," by Larry Diamond, which is available on the Journal's Web site.

To read the article and to review the contents of the January 2005 issue of the Journal, go to: www.journalofdemocracy.org/jod.htm

ECONOMIC REFORM AND THE BUSINESS SECTOR

15. CIPE Releases Winter-2005 Issue of the Overseas Report and its Feature Service Article
The Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) has released the Winter-2005 issue of its Overseas Report. The issue features results from a recent survey of over 450 small- and medium-sized businesses. The survey, conducted by Zogby International, reveals that the Iraqi business community remains confident in Iraq's short- and long-term economic growth. Other stories in this issue include a tribute to the late Jay Van Andel, founder of CIPE, and a report on the growing autonomy of Chinese business associations, in addition to news from CIPE's partners around the world.

To view the report, go to: www.cipe.org/whats_new/overseas/index.htm

CIPE also recently issued a feature article on "Bosnia: Post-Industrial Society and the Authoritarian Temptation." This article is the executive summary of a longer report, which is prepared by the European Stability Initiative. The article claims that the vast post-war reconstruction program intended to kick-start the new market economy failed to mobilize the resources or entrepreneurial energy of Bosnian society, led to large amounts of debt, and overlooked the structural failings left over from Bosnia's authoritarian past.

Go to: www.cipe.org/publications/fs/articles/esi.htm

ELECTIONS

16. Palestinian Civil Society Played an Important Role in Recent Elections
The highly visible January 9 presidential elections in Palestine confirmed a nonviolent transfer of power at the highest executive level, and Mahmoud Abbas was elected as the second president of the Palestinian Authority. In the municipal elections in December 2004 and the presidential elections in January 2005, a number of Palestinian civil society organizations played an important role in facilitating the elections, as monitors, pollsters, and civic educators. The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) conducted public opinion polls before and after the elections. Many other groups, like the Civic Forum Institute and the Palestinian Center for Peace and Democracy, were active in the planning process of the Palestinian Election Monitoring Civil Commission, which had 318 observers monitoring the voting at 805 polling stations.

Go to:

Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research's Press Release: www.pcpsr.org/survey/polls/2005/preelectionepr05.html

Elections Monitoring Civil Commission's Press Release on the Election and Vote Count Process: www.cfip.org/press/general_press2.htm


HUMAN RIGHTS

17. Leading Congolese (DRC) Human Rights Activist has Died
The DRC National Network of Human Rights NGOs (le Reseau National de ONGs des Droits de l'Homme de la Republique Democratique du Congo - RENADHOC) has announced that Mr. Omekongo Kitoko, president of Haki za Binadamu in Maniema, Democratic Republic of Congo, died on January 27, 2005 in Cotonou, Benin. Mr. Omekongo was a courageous human rights activist in Maniema, which is one of the most isolated regions of DRC. He led a human rights movement in the region,but in the 90's was forced to flee the country due to his human rights work. He returned to Maniema from France, where he spent some years in exile, and revitalized the human rights movement as the president of Haki za Binadamu.

For more information, please contact the RENADHOC Secretariat at renadhoc@yahoo.fr.

18. The Humanitarian Law Center in Belgrade Documents Crimes against Humanity
The most recent newsletter of The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC), based in Belgrade, focuses on the tragedy in Mackatica, where bodies of Albanian civilians from Kosovo were incinerated by the Serbian security forces. The HLC is a regional non-governmental human rights and humanitarian law organization that was founded in 1992 following the outbreak of armed conflicts in the former Yugoslavia. Since its founding, the HLC has researched killings, disappearances, camps, torture of prisoners of war, and the patterns of ethnic cleansing in times of armed conflict by interviewing witnesses and victims. The HLC advocates the necessity of reconciliation with history, as well as taking of responsibility for crimes committed in the recent past, and restoring the human dignity of the victims whatever their ethnicity.

Go to: www.hlc.org.yu

19. Working Paper: "Kenyan Civil Society Perspective on Rights, Rights-Based Approaches to Development, and Participation"
This paper is part of a series of working papers that draws on the findings of an action research project, "Linking Rights and Participation," which was co-convened by the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) Participation Group and Just Associates, in collaboration with partners in Brazil, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe. The paper goes beyond the conceptual debates to explore country-level practice around emergent rights-based approaches to development, and their relationship with more established practices of participatory development. Previous papers in the series include: "What is the Rights-based Approach all about? Perspectives from International Development Agencies" and "Rights-based Approaches and Beyond: Challenges of Linking Rights and Participation."

Go to: www.ids.ac.uk/ids/bookshop/wp.html

20. Rafto Foundation Recognizes Uyghur Human Rights Activist
On January 26, 2004, the Thorolf Rafto Foundation for Human Rights, The Uyghur American Association, and the National Endowment for Democracy, in conjunction with the U.S. Congressional Human Rights Caucus, held an awards ceremony and reception in honor of 2004 Rafto Memorial Prize laureate Ms. Rebiya Kadeer. Rebiya Kadeer is a prisoner of conscience in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (also known as East Turkistan), China. Ms. Kadeer has distinguished herself in the struggle for the rights of the Uyghurs and against social and economic marginalization. Through this award, the Rafto Foundation appealed to the Chinese Government to respect and protect the civil, economic, and cultural rights of the Uyghurs and other minorities in China. The Rafto Foundation expressed its concern for Ms. Kadeer's health and demanded her immediate and unconditional release.

Go to: www.rafto.no/DesktopModules/ViewAnnouncement.aspx?ItemID=161&Mid=42

INTERNATIONAL DEMOCRACY ASSISTANCE AND SOLIDARITY

21. Cross-Border Collaboration between Poland and Ukraine: News from Zagranica Group
In December 2004, a coalition of 27 Polish NGOs working abroad, known as the Zagranica group, joined the consortium of Polish NGOs organizing the Polish Observation Mission to Ukraine (Polska Misja Obserwacyjna na Ukrainie - PMO). In collaboration with the student initiative "Wolna Ukraina" (Free Ukraine), Polish Schuman Foundation, and Association of Ukrainians in Poland, Zagranica prepared a mission of 230 Poles to observe the presidential elections on December 26, 2004. All observers received training in Warsaw and additional briefing onsite. The report from this observation mission is available on the "Wolna Ukraina" Web site. Other recent initiatives of Zagranica group include the project "Together (Razem)-Polish Ukrainian Cooperation for the Future," which was launched in January of 2005. The project fosters youth and community exchanges and partnership building between Poland and Ukraine.

For more information, go to: http://zagranica.ngo.pl or email: jusjani@engo.pl

To read the report on the Polish Observation Mission in Ukraine, go to: www.wolnaukraina.pl/obserwatorzy.php

22. Education for Democracy Foundation Announces 2005 Round of the "Region in Transition" Program
The Education for Democracy Foundation has announced the 2005 round of the "Region in Transition" (RITA) Program of the Polish American Freedom Foundation. The goal of the program, administered by the Education for Democracy Foundation, is to facilitate the transfer of Polish NGO experience to the societies of the former Eastern Bloc and to support their democratic and free market transformations. During the past four years, RITA has provided grants for some 250 projects of Polish non-governmental organizations and education institutions working in post-communist countries. In addition, RITA organizes meetings to exchange information and discuss problems connected with the activities of Polish organizations in the region of Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans. RITA also provides reliable information concerning the activities of Polish non-governmental organizations in post-communist countries and informs Polish NGOs about potential partners in the East.

For more information go to: www.edudemo.org.pl/rita/articles.php?lng=pl&pg=123

23. The Institute for Civic Diplomacy/Pontis Foundation Transfers Slovak "Know-How" to Belarus
The Slovakia-Belarus Task Force (TF), run by the Bratislava-based Institute for Civic Diplomacy/Pontis Foundation, works to establish a new framework for the transfer of Slovak "know-how" and technical assistance to Belarus on key aspects of civic society development and economic reform. The TF recently released several papers analyzing the political and economic situation in Belarus. "Belarus Three Months after the Referendum: Facts, Moods, Forecasts," prepared by Andrei Liakhovich of the Minsk-based Center for Political Education, analyzes the current policies and strategies of Belarusian authorities, the role of the opposition, and the current mood within Belarusian society following the National Referendum and Parliamentary Elections. The "Policy Report," prepared by the Institute of Civic Diplomacy/Pontis Foundation and the Minsk-based Institute for Privatization and Management, focuses on possible areas of economic reform in Belarus. Finally, "Belarus Civil Society at the Crossroads: Working Paper of the Slovakia-Belarus Task Force" provides information on current developments within Belarusian civil society.

For copies of the reports, contact pontis@pontisfoundation.sk

To learn more about Institute for Civic Diplomacy/Pontis Foundation, go to:
www.pontisfoundation.sk

INTERNET, MEDIA, AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

24. Courage in Journalism and Lifetime Achievement Awards
The International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF) is accepting nominations for its Courage in Journalism Awards and one Lifetime Achievement Award. The Courage in Journalism Awards honor women working in the news media who have demonstrated extraordinary strength of character in pursuing their profession under difficult or dangerous circumstances, such as government oppression, political pressure, physical danger or other intimidating obstacles. The award carries a cash prize of US$5,000 and a crystal sculpture that symbolizes freedom and courage. The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes a woman journalist who has a pioneering spirit and whose determination has paved the way for future generations of women in the media. Recipients also demonstrate a strong commitment to freedom of the press and a solid record of accomplishments in journalism. A crystal sculpture is presented with this award. Deadline for nominations is March 15, 2005.

For details, go to: www.iwmf.org/courage/nominate.php

25. Awards to Best Blogs Defending Freedom
Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF) is accepting nominations for the Freedom Blog Award. Organizations and Internet users are encouraged to submit outstanding examples of blogs (a personal Web site on which information is posted chronologically, as in a personal diary) defending free expression. A list of the best submissions will then be compiled and an online vote will select the best blog. Nominations should include the Web address or addresses of the blog and a short description of its activity. The blogger does not have to be identified. The prize will be awarded in several language categories: Best blog in English, Chinese, Farsi, Arabic, Russian, French and Spanish.

For more information, go to: www.internet.rsf.org

To send a nomination, email: internet@rsf.org

26. Award for Outstanding Achievement in using ICTs for Development
The Development Gateway Foundation is seeking nominations for the second Development Gateway Award. The $100,000 award will recognize outstanding achievement in using information and communication technologies (ICTs) to improve people's lives in developing countries. An international panel of independent jurors will review and select the finalists and winner, who will be announced by June 2005. The deadline for submission is February 28, 2005.

Go to: http://home.developmentgateway.org/award

27. WORLD MOVEMENT PARTICIPATING NETWORKS, ORGANIZATIONS AND INDIVIDUALS MENTIONED IN THIS ISSUE

* Alliance for Reform and Democracy in Asia (ARDA) - www.asiademocracy.biz/index.php
* Arab Program for Human Rights Activists - www.aphra.org
* Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) - www.cipe.org
* Civic Forum Institute and the Palestinian Center for Peace and Democracy - www.cfip.org
* CIVICUS - www.civicus.org/new/default.asp
* DRC National Network of Human Rights NGOs (le Reseau National de ONGs des Droits de l'Homme de la Republique Democratique du Congo - RENADHOC) - renadhoc@yahoo.fr
* Education for Democracy Foundation - www.edudemo.org.pl
* Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights - www.eohr.org
* Humanitarian Law Center - www.hlc.org.yu
* Institute for Civic Diplomacy/Pontis Foundation - www.pontisfoundation.sk
* Institute for Democracy in Eastern Europe - www.idee.org
* IFES - www.ifes.org
* Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) - www.pcpsr.org
* Foundation for China in the 21st Century - www.china21century.org

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The WMD's DemocracyNews
Electronic Newsletter of the World Movement for Democracy - www.wmd.org

CREATIVE CREATURES

A poem by Brazilian applied peace linguist Francisco Gomes de Matos,
a member of our Humiliation Studies Research group:

Are we truly deserving
Of being described
As creative creatures?
We can live all our days
In abundant, plentiful, or sufficient ways!

What about those without
Those who share survival
As a sustainable goal
And strive to keep alive
Weak in body, but strong in soul?

Creatures truly creative
Are all the world’s poor
Who face and solve problems
Only of hope being sure
While becoming media news

Creative we think we are
But how humanizingly so
If the things we create
The seeds we often sow
Seldom reach the poor?

Creatures painfully creative
Are all the world’s citizen-less
Born in poverty extreme
Teaching lessons in kindness
To the privileged on Earth

Humane creativity
As a term it exists
As a universal mission
A gap seriously persists
A challenge to compassion

Creatively the poor live
Aiming at one meal a day
Pretending to have a roof
Having so much to say
Wanting some land to stay

Creative creatures are we?
How humanizingly so?
It’s not enough to care
To say we’d like to share
The benefits we can sow

Let’s make this world anew
Rebuild it with a spirit true
So kindness will guide
Actions here, there, and afar
Let’s learn from the poor
For creative only they are!

This website was brought to our attention by Professor Francisco Gomes de Matos:

In Celebration of Women's Creativity in Rural Life

Presented by Marta Benavides
Prize for Women's Creativity in Rural Life, sponsored by The Women's World Summit Foundation
October 15, 2003 Geneva, Switzerland

First I offer thanks to life for the opportunity to be here with you, to the Women's World Summit Foundation for creating this program and process, and to all of you for coming to celebrate with us. Your presence honors our work. I am very grateful to have the opportunity to reflect together with you about the creative power that we each are, for we are always cause and not effect. I am also glad to be part of a team of women from around the world who make it their priority to work for the betterment of rural peoples, and in this way contribute to create a world of food security and a healthy environment for all. This is a contribution to peace and freedom in the world.

It is very important to reflect and recognize the contribution of women's creativity in the quality of rural life and that of their nations' in general. It is a well known fact that historically women have not been land owners, and that usually there has been little financial access to them. In spite of this, we do know that around the world, women are the ones who have been producing those basic food products, and vegetables and legumes too, it is them that understand the importance of cultivating those food products rich in energy and important for nutrition and health. It is women, especially indigenous women, who maintain traditional knowledge for food, and medicinal plants, as well as traditional methods to preserve seeds, for planting, for natural control of insects and plagues. They have safeguarded biodiversity. In many countries in Latin America, where coffee is a major national product, women and children are key to all the activities related to collecting the crop. Without doubt, rural women's work and creativity, make a great contribution to the family's economy, thus to the Gross Domestic Product, to food security, to the caring of biodiversity, to the quality of life of rural families and communities. Yet, the productive work, and all the listed contributions of rural women, continues to be invisible in statistics and government national policies. And what is more, the liberalization and privatization processes currently being implemented, and the various free trade agreements, all part of national economic policies, negatively impact on women's work and conditions making life, and rural development much more difficult and complicated.

According to the World Bank, "more than a half century of persistent efforts by the bank and others have not altered the stubborn reality of rural poverty, and the gap between the rich and the poor is widening. Most of the world's poorest people live in rural areas and this will continue for the foreseeable future." And it adds that with globalization, the "poverty challenge is getting bigger and harder." Robert McNamara, President of the World Bank stated in 1973 that " absolute poverty is a condition of life so degraded by disease, illiteracy, malnutrition, and squalor as to deny its victims basic human necessities... a condition of life so limited as to prevent realization of the potential of the genes with which one is born...the problem is most severe in the countryside...".Today, it is almost three fourths of the poor who live in rural areas and according to social analysis the majority of them will continue to live there for most of the 21st century. Thirty years later-in 2001-- James Wolfenson, president of the World Bank expressed a grave concern in terms of the lack of commitment of finances for rural development, he said, " eighty percent of our global population have 20 percent of the world's income...some 800 million people... go to bed hungry every night, the majority of them in rural areas. In deed, 70 percent of the poor of our globe are in rural areas... why is that this year in the demand for the world bank loans, we are almost at an all- time low in terms of the proportion of our lending for rural and agricultural purposes...?

As we begin the new century massive poverty and hunger are a fact of our reality. More than 1,200 million human beings-half of them under 16 years old, half of them women-live in poverty and extreme poverty, that means that they are to live under fed, in poor health and illiterate. This massive poverty and hunger negatively affects everyone and the health of the social and natural environment. As it has been pointed out before, liberalization and privatization, and the resulting elimination of basic human services are a source of the impoverishment of people in general and of women and especially rural women in particular. Academic and UN studies show that the same is true of the negative impact of structural adjustment policies, the foreign debt and its interest and payments on economic and social aspects. Thus poverty and hunger are a detriment to sustainable, to durable peace. Peace has been shown to be a key factor for sustainable development.

Under this understanding, and recognizing that poverty and hunger are not natural nor inevitable, during the Millennium Summit, September 2000, led by the UN, the official representatives of the nations of the world committed to reduce by half the number of people living under poverty and hunger by the year 2015, as a concrete step to eradicate hunger and poverty. To actually work to eradicate poverty means to in fact work to eliminate those obstacles where the impoverished are, and in the activities they carry out in order to survive. Thus since rural people live from agriculture and its related activities, it is necessary that there be a large national investment and foreign aid in support of agriculture and services in support of the social, economic, ecological and cultural development of rural areas. The situation of rural women is considered to be twice as difficult as that of their male counterparts. Thus, it must hold that to work for the eradication of poverty and hunger, there has to be an enabling environment that guarantees the access of women to social, economic and financial services, ecological education, and participation in planning and decision making in all levels and aspects of their life and the life of their communities.

I come from a country, El Salvador in Central America, where poverty and hunger are grave concerns of the day. We are at the verge of desertification, and yet each year we suffer floods and lack of access to drinking water. Air and water are very polluted, many children and elderly die of contaminated water, water born and respiratory illnesses. In the 80's and early 90's we suffered the devastation of war, and the peace agreements are not yet a living reality. There has not been a peace dividend and impunity is a big concern. We are considered the most violent country of the Americas. Women, especially rural women, and those most impoverished suffer most of this violence. We are overpopulated, adolescent girls' pregnancy rate is the highest in the continent, and the same is true for fatherhood irresponsibility.

El Salvador according to the Human Development Index Report went this year from being 104, to 105. Even though there has been economic growth, it does not mean that it has translated into peoples' better quality of life and better health for the environment. We are still suffering from colonial and neocolonial policies-the work of peoples and the use of natural resources still benefit only a few. With the recent dollarization of the economy we do not have our national coin any longer, which has made all prices go up. This is much of the reality of the region, where most countries are highly indebted and impoverished.

The various free trade agreements now under process have not been shown necessarily as a way to turn the situation for the best. Each day life becomes more expensive and unemployment rapidly grows. In the region it is our country that is exporting the most people, who even though under difficult and undocumented situations in foreign nations, manage to send the largest amount of monthly support to their families in the whole continent, making this a large and needed percentage of the national budget. Right now it represents over the amount the country's exports. It is this support that keeps our economy safe and going.

I know these conditions personally, they are part of our daily life, and that is why we commit to work to transform it. Within the framework of UNESCO's Decade of Education for Culture of Peace, and the Campaign of Education for All Through Life, we work with local communities, we have an ecological house and a permaculture farm, and butterfly gardens. We celebrate with concrete programs the life of the indigenous grandmothers, and that of peasants, youth and children too. We provide trainings on water purification and soil and water restoration and management to contribute to stop desertification, we work on mental health and on keeping our traditional knowledge on food and medicinal plants. At our initiative, we work cooperatively with other groups on festivals to promote a culture of peace. We know it is important to work with universities, and with the legislature too, on issues of environmental sustainability and sustainable peace, we work with churches and with inter religious bodies. We educate and mobilize the media, and support and worked for the creation of the International Criminal Court. We cooperate and promote various processes and programs with UNICEF and with UNESCO. We participate on the Commission on the Status of Women, Agenda 21, the Agenda for the Future, and the Commission on Sustainable Development and Financing for Development. We know that we must work holistically and intentionally in all the various levels that we can: local, national, regional and international to have an effective presence for a peaceful society and a healthy planet.

On Sunday October 12, instead of celebrating Columbus Day, and the Day of Our Discovery as it is the and has been the 500 year old practice, we held a festival and a church mass in the indigenous town of Nahuizalco to celebrate the Day of our Identity and First Nations' Cultures, the World Rural Women's Day, and the World Food Day. It was a be a festive, cultural, educational day, where indigenous popular art, medicinal plants ere special exhibits, and indigenous music and Spirituality were part of the mass and cultural programs. In this way we offered a different paradigm for equality, respect, justice and understanding. I am convinced that working on bringing about the Millennium Development Goals:

Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Universal primary education
Gender equality
Empowerment of women
Reduction of child mortality
Improvement of maternal health
Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
Ensure environmental sustainability
A global partnership for development offer a very good framework for working intentionally, holistically, in an integrated way, with a gender perspective, to bring quality of life to peoples and health and peace to the planet.
In this framework we can make use of such supportive programs as the Beijing Platform of Action, the Decade of Culture of Peace, Decade of Literacy, Education for All Through Life, Decade of Education for Sustainability, Agenda 21, Women's Agenda 21 for a Healthy and Peaceful Planet, Financing for Development, and any other programs that are relevant to carry out these goals. We can use them to guide our work, and to monitor and press our national governments and global processes to bring about these commitments and goals in favor of Rural women and peoples, food security and sovereignty: for a peaceful and healthy planet. In this context, it is urgent that each country review its agricultural and rural development programs and related financial support as an integral part of meeting its commitment to the Millennium Development Goals and WSSD. It is important to ensure that rural women's access to land ownership and the recognition of water as a national public good, and as a fundamental human right, are essential to the life of rural peoples. Historically these have been at the base of great social conflict and existing inequalities. Water has been and is increasingly becoming a source of local, national, regional and international conflict. Access to safe unpolluted water and to sanitation is another key commitment of the Millennium Development Goals and a major one of the last Social Development Summit-WSSD.

We are challenged to commit to work on these goals, we urge everyone for the good of all, to accept this challenge. I am part of the people who have committed to work creatively in all possible ways and levels to create this reality. I commit to continue to do so. I invite you to join with us.

This message is forwarded to us by Professor Francisco Gomes de Matos:

The Peace Alliance Campaign for a U.S. Department of Peace
www.ThePeaceAlliance.org

Dear Friends,

Recently, seven Congresswomen went to Iraq in what "was billed as a trip to teach Iraqi women who are running for office the rudiments of campaigning. But for the members of Congress who traveled to the Middle East over the weekend, it turned out to be a harrowing lesson on the sometimes painfully high price of democracy... The biggest challenge Iraqi candidates face: how to avoid getting killed.

Candidates of both sexes risk assassination and kidnapping. Women face additional hostility from some of the country's religious conservatives." You can read the full USA Today article at http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2005-01-12-iraq-women-usat_x.htm

We are writing to ask you to call and to write thank you faxes and postcards (letters are delayed because of the past anthrax problems) to each of these Representatives. Their phone numbers and addresses are listed below. Thank them for their interest and courage to go to Iraq. Tell them how much you know that all of us want peace in Iraq and around the world. Make the message positive and acknowledging, and also hopeful towards a more peaceful world. In addition to acknowledging them for their efforts, this is a way of building support and awareness of our work in Congress for a U.S. Department of Peace.

We are hopeful that local constituents will host meetings with each of them. If you are living in one of their districts or know someone who does, please contact Lynn McMullen at lynn@thepeacealliance.org about organizing a meeting to engage these members of the House of Representatives with the Department of Peace campaign. We are actively seeking new co-sponsors, as well as republican members to sign on.

Thank you each and every one for your vision of peace and your efforts to bring it to reality.
Warmly,
Lynn McMullen
Department of Peace Campaign Coordinator

CONTACT INFORMATION:
Debrorah Pryce (R-OH 15th)
Washington Office: 204 Cannon House Office Building Washington, D.C.
20515-3515 Phone: (202) 225-2015 Fax: (202) 225-3529
Main District Office: Columbus, OH

Sue Kelly (R-NY 19th)
Washington Office: 2182 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, D.C.
20515-3219 Phone: (202) 225-5441 Fax: (202) 225-3289
Main District Office: Fishkill, NY

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL 18th)
Washington Office: 2160 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, D.C.
20515-0918 Phone: (202) 225-3931 Fax: (202) 225-5620
Main District Office: Miami, FL

Darlene Hooley (D-OR 5th)
Washington Office: 2430 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, D.C.
20515-3705 Phone: (202) 225-5711 Fax: (202) 225-5699
Main District Office: Salem, OR

Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY 4th)
Washington Office: 106 Cannon House Office Building Washington, D.C.
20515-3204 Phone: (202) 225-5516 Fax: (202) 225-5758
Main District Office: Garden City, NY

Marsha Blackburn (R-TN 7th)
Washington Office: 509 Cannon House Office Building Washington, D.C.
20515-4207 Phone: (202) 225-2811 Fax: (202) 225-3004
Main District Office: Memphis, TN

Katherine Harris (R-FL 13th)
Washington Office: 116 Cannon House Office Building Washington, D.C.
20515-0913 Phone: (202) 225-5015 Fax: (202) 226-0828
Main District Office: Sarasota, FL

EMAIL JOIN
To join our email list if you are not on it for Dept. of Peace
updates, send a blank email to: subscribe-3536@en.groundspring.org or visit
http://www.dopcampaign.org/signup.htm
________________________________________
The Peace Alliance
Department of Peace Campaign
P.O. Box 3259
Center Line MI 48015
www.ThePeaceAlliance.org
info@thepeacealliance.org
(586) 754-8105

"Volume 7: The Collected Clinical Works of Alfred Adler"
===================================================
Adler’s journal articles, written between 1931 and 1937, encapsulate
the most mature expression of his ideas on theory and practice. Of the
twenty-eight articles included in this volume, five are devoted to
child development: selection of symptoms, consequences of pampering,
prevention of delinquency, and education. Another five cover
theoretical issues: self-consistent unity of personality, structures
of psychic activity, striving for superiority, and social interest. In
three articles about psychopathology, he addresses the neurotic’s
character, symptoms, and picture of the world, as well as the
prevention of neurosis; five more articles contain his ideas on
compulsion neurosis, fear of women, alcohol and drug abuse, the
mind-body connection, and psychosomatic disturbances. He offers
practical diagnostic guidance in two articles about family
constellation and earliest recollections. Finally, he provides a
dramatic comparison to psychoanalysis, and then a rare insight into
the technique of psychotherapy. This volume is an essential resource
for anyone wishing to gain an in-depth understanding of Adler’s
remarkable, timeless insights into human nature and their
yet-to-be-realized potential.

To order Volume 7, go to http://go.ourworld.nu/hstein/cwaa-v7.htm.

=======================================
Henry T. Stein, Ph.D., Director
Alfred Adler Institutes of San Francisco & Northwestern Washington
Distance Training in Classical Adlerian Psychotherapy
Web site: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/hstein/
E-mail: HTStein@att.net
Tel: (360) 647-5670

Below are brief notices on 2 upcoming international conferences in St. Petersburg, Russia - May 12-22, 2005.

__________________________________________
1) BULLETIN BOARD / NEWSLETTER NOTICE:

13th ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
ON CONFLICT RESOLUTION

"Engaging The OTHER"

NOW MORE THAN EVER - a time for new thinking, new vision, new understanding, and new ways of relating in an increasingly interconnected and interdependent global community.

May 12 - 22, 2005 St. Petersburg, Russia
(Formal conference program May 13-18)

Sponsored by Common Bond Institute (USA) & HARMONY Institute (RUSSIA),
in cooperation with Association for Humanistic Psychology

~ Continuing Education Credits available ~

A Multi-disciplinary, Multi-cultural conference that has received support from Former President Clinton, Former President Yeltsin, St. Petersburg Governor Jakovlev, and is endorsed by over 75 leading-edge organizations and universities internationally. Part of the Hague Appeal for Peace Civil Society Calendar. - OPEN TO ALL.

This joint US/Russian sponsored event FOCUSES ON all aspects of conflict resolution and transformation, from the intrapersonal - to the interpersonal - to relationships between groups, organizations, cultures, religious traditions, and societies - and ultimately between us and other species.

PRESENTATIONS explore conflict resolution within diverse contexts, including: arts/creativity, cross-cultural/ethnic, ecology/environment, economics/business, education, gender, global/regional conflict, health/healing arts, human rights, organizational/community, psychology/psychotherapy, and transpersonal/spiritual.

The 2005 PROGRAM is currently being developed and presentations are being accepted. This year's conference examines fear-based belief systems, negative stereotypes, prejudice, scapegoating, revenge, victim/perpetrator identity, and justified violence for a deeper understanding of how these become embodied in our concepts of "The Other." Among the variety of related topics being addressed are dynamics of Terrorism throughout the world, Trauma, Forgiveness and Reconciliation, and issues in the Middle East and South Asia.

ADDITIONAL PROGRAMMING during this years ICR Conference:
"Catastrophic Trauma Recovery (CTR) Project:" providing trauma treatment training to relief workers from regions of conflict assisting victims of war, violence, and natural disaster. Immediately following the ICR Conference we will again be holding an intensive training in trauma treatment for a number of these relief workers. * Our web site also offers Information on the other efforts of CBI and it's partners.

PRESENTERS REPRESENT DIVERSE DISCIPLINES AS WELL AS CULTURES, including psychology, education, ecology & environmental sciences, peace activism, social work, sociology, medical & healing arts, organizational and community development, civil service, spirituality, philosophy, diplomacy, government, journalism, business & economics, law, the physical sciences, and the arts.

Many opportunities are offered for hands-on practical skills training, sharing of programs and curriculums, intensive dialogues on theory and perceptions of conflict and resolution, networking and collaboration, and a powerful intentional community experience. Participants have come from over 65 countries and all continents, providing excellent opportunities for important networking contacts with representatives of many organizations and societies. The program attracts individuals in key positions in their respective societies who can model and teach these skills to many others.

6 DAYS of all-day institutes, workshops, roundtables, lectures, and community meetings. 55 day-program sessions, and a full slate of evening activities and social / cultural events. The official conference languages are English and Russian.

4 DAYS of pre- and post-conference cultural events, tours, and professional visits and meetings, in St. Petersburg.

NOW MORE THAN EVER, we invite you to join us in endorsing non-violence in the world and sharing the methods to achieve it.

~ CALL FOR PRESENTATION PROPOSALS ~

Submissions requested by: 3-10-2005
(Early submission is recommended for best choice of sessions. Submissions after this date are considered for evening or replacement sessions as space permits)

For information, proposal and registration forms, CONTACT:
COMMON BOND INSTITUTE (USA),
Steve Olweean, Coordinator
12170 S. Pine Ayr Drive, Climax, Michigan 49034
Ph/Fax: 269-665-9393 E-mail: solweean@aol.com
Full details available at WEB SITE: http://ahpweb.org/cbi

___________________________________________________
2) BULLETIN BOARD / NEWSLETTER NOTICE:

2nd Annual Youth Conference on
"THE ECOLOGY OF WAR AND PEACE,"
May 12-22, 2005, St. Petersburg, Russia
( Formal Conference Program: May 13-18 )

Sponsored by Common Bond Institute (USA) & HARMONY Institute (Russia),
in cooperation with Association for Humanistic Psychology,
Pathways Foundation for Peace and Healing,
and the Jane Goodall Institute

A Multicultural Conference OPEN TO ALL
(General age range of participants is between 14-18 years)

A parallel youth conference, held during the Annual International Conference on Conflict Resolution (ICR), addressing issues of negative stereotypes, prejudice, demonizing, and dehumanizing "The Other." The theme of ecology is used as a common issue all parties can resonate with being "on the same side" of as they also delve into personal interactions and explore these relationship dynamics. Included will be examining the ecological impact of human wars. One intended product will be to build on a youth resolution created at our 2004 EWP conference.

Participants to these youth conferences will be invited to join and be part of developing our web-based Global Youth Community to continue on-going dialogue, cooperation, and joint projects.

THE 10 DAY ITINERARY includes 6 days of conference program (opening on May 13 and closing on May 18) and 4 days of pre and post conference cultural and professional programming.

6 DAYS of interactive workshops and round tables, as well as facilitated evening community gatherings for social/cultural events to encourage dialogue and further interaction and community building. The natural setting of forest and seashore creates an atmosphere conducive to both dynamic interchange and quiet contemplation. The official conference languages are English and Russian. Interpreters are assigned to each presentation and event, and are also available in the general milieu.

(See the CBI web site for a sample of previous conference program)

4 DAYS of pre- and post-conference program includes a rich variety of cultural events and tours in St. Petersburg.

* Youth participants must be accompanied by adult chaperones.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~ CALL FOR PRESENTATION PROPOSALS ~
Submissions requested by: 3-10-2005
(Early submission is recommended for best choice of sessions. Submissions after this date are considered for evening or replacement sessions as space permits)

For information, proposal and registration forms, CONTACT:
COMMON BOND INSTITUTE (USA),
Steve Olweean, Coordinator
12170 S. Pine Ayr Drive, Climax, Michigan 49034
Ph/Fax: 269-665-9393 E-mail: solweean@aol.com
Full details available at WEB SITE: http://ahpweb.org/cbi

The Common Ground News Service, February 1, 2005
CGNews-PiH
February 1, 2005
***********

Please note: The views expressed in the articles and in CGNews-PiH are
those of the authors, not of CGNews or its affiliates.
**********

UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED, ALL ARTICLES ARE AVAILABLE FOR RE-PUBLICATION.

Common Ground News Service- Partners in Humanity

Article #1
Title: Iraqi artist reflects a lost generation in a time of chaos
Author: Kaelen Wilson-Goldie
Publication: Daily Star
Date: January 25, 2005
Wilson-Goldie gives a profile of Iraqi artist, Saadi al-Kaabi, who
talks about what it is like to live and work in Baghdad under
occupation as well as his optimism about the future of Iraq.

Article #2
Title: Islam's democratic imperative
Author: Sheik Dia Al Shakarchi
Publication: Jordan Times
Date: January 26, 2005
Another voice from Iraq, Sheik Dia Al Shakarchi considers whether
Islam and democracy are compatible at such a time when this notion may
soon be put to the test.

Article #3
Title: Rice must deploy more 'soft power'
Author: Joseph S. Nye
Publication: Daily Star
Date: January 25, 2005
Speaking to the United States government, Nye makes a cause for the
use of non-coercive tactics in the Middle East. Looking at historical
precedent, he suggests several new policies that he feels Condoleezza
Rice would be wise to adopt.

Article #4
Title: A Public Peace Process
Author: Shamil Idriss, Director Partners in Humanity, SFCG
Publication: ~~CGNews Commissioned Article~~
Date:
The eighth in a series of articles on the Muslim world and the West
commissioned by Search for Common Ground in partnership with Al Hayat,
Idriss? article advocates a ?citizen-led peace process? to address the
conflicting views and perceptions between the West and Islam world.
From his perspective as director of the Partners in Humanity program,
he considers some initiatives that may help to spur this course of
action.

*********
Article #1
Iraqi artist reflects a lost generation in a time of chaos
Kaelen Wilson-Goldie
Saadi al-Kaabi, still based in Baghdad, talks of life and work under
occupation, and his fears for his country's young people

BEIRUT: As a prominent member of the second generation of modernist
artists in Iraq, Saadi al-Kaabi is lucky. Born in Najaf in 1937, he
came of age at a time when the arts in Iraq were celebrated, when
painters were put on a pedestal and promoted, and when young talents
were given resources and funds and travel grants to develop their
skills. More basically, Kaabi has lived and worked in Baghdad for more
than 40 years. His studio lies in a posh residential district. He
feels safe in this space, despite the U.S. invasion and occupation and
the ever-more pathological spread of anarchic violence on the city's
streets. At times, the materials that Kaabi needs to work have grown
expensive, then scarce, then nonexistent in the local market. Yet he
has been able to continue painting.

From now through the end of January, 18 of Kaabi's canvases are on
view at the Agial Art Gallery in Hamra. All were produced between 2002
and 2004. And all are typical of Kaabi's contemporary work - subtle
earth tones seep from background to foreground; human figures haunt
the compositions like abstracted ghosts rendered in thick black
lines; the surface of the work alternates from the smooth resin of
ceramics to the rough texture of chiseled stone. In the 1960s, Kaabi's
style was more cubist in composition, with a garish blue and red
drenched color palette borrowed from fauvism. He painted women with
enormous eyes, oceanic enough for a viewer to drown in, and desert
scenes. His early work was brash, stylized and expressive. His late
work is spare, pensive and subdued.

Kaabi was able to travel to Beirut for the opening of this most recent
exhibition, his fourth in Lebanon, having shown twice at Gallery One
in the mid 1960s and once at Agial in the late 1990s. His physical
mobility is a mark of his social status, he suggests, as an artist who
has been established for a long time in Iraq. But his psychological
resilience at a time when his country is splitting its seams is
uniquely, impressively Kaabi's own.

"Usually a crisis makes you feel better about your presence in the
world," he explains. When you feel more aware of your presence, when
it burns your insides, you can produce. If you have five fingers and
you lose one, you feel the importance of the other four even more. A
crisis makes you feel the importance of your existence, which makes
you produce more, and better."

"[Iraq] is not a safe place," he acknowledges. "But I do whatever I
can to make it feel safe. I have an underground," he adds, "and a
dog." The community around where he lives has also developed its own
mechanisms for self-defense.

Kaabi may deal well with his day-to-day existence, but he's not
especially optimistic about the impending elections. "I feel afraid,"
he admits. "Should I vote for someone I don't know, whose program I
don't know?" There are 280 electoral lists, he explains, and it would
take him two months to read through them and another two months to
understand the policy initiatives behind each list, if they were to be
made available for the public. They have not.

"Plus, I hate sectarianism. Everyone is there for their private
interests so why should I dirty my hands?"

To hear Kaabi's thoughts on the political situation in Iraq is to view
the country through the eyes of its artists (those who stayed, as
opposed to those in exile). It is also an exercise in understanding
all that Iraq has lost, and stands to lose still, as there will likely
never be another generation quite like Kaabi's.

Flipping through a recent catalogue of the artist's work, there are
old photographs of him with his classmates, horsing around in front of
Baghdad's Institute of Fine Arts in 1957; Kaabi debonair, dressed in a
suit, and painting a landscape on an outdoor easel; the artist on
trips to Tunisia, Japan, Bangladesh, in front of the Great Wall of
China. Besides the sepia-toned nostalgia of these pictures, there's a
sense of possibility in them that has since been dashed.

When asked whether or not there will be any continuity between Kaabi's
generation and the next to come up in Iraq, he answers
definitively, "No. Everybody pities them [the younger generation]. The
government - nobody is interested in anything related to people
anymore. In my time, the government cared about people. They gave
grants, sent artists to travel. In the past there was a system to take
care of the collectivity, where now, no one cares." And, he adds, "The
newly rich people who are supposed to help artists don't know anything
about art."

In Kaabi's day, he and his colleagues were concerned with laying the
groundwork for a viable art practice. "First, identity was very
important. Second, we were interested in the conceptual underpinnings
[of creating art], so we wrote a lot. And third, we were organizing
the art." Kaabi's generation was heavily involved in shifting
folkloric traditions in ceramics into sculptural techniques, something
that can still be seen in Kaabi's work today. For his own part, Kaabi
was, and remains, intent on developing a visual language adequate to
represent the nuances of the human condition.

The outlined figures in his works, he explains, "are meant to cancel
the time factor. This human being can belong to any time, the past or
the future. The point is to reflect my own interior. And my interior
is also the result of my environment, my heritage, and the rest of
the world. I digest them all and project them back into the
paintings. I don't want [my figures] to belong to any particular
period in time."

As a young man, Kaabi earned a reputation among his peers as an
impressive draughtsman. This pushed him to draw better and he started
to win prizes. "From then, I felt I was a big artist," he
recalls. "Later on, I realized I was not."

About 25 years ago, Kaabi woke up one morning and burned his entire
archive of press clippings. He suddenly felt that everything that had
been written about him had been said to please him. He felt trapped by
an image that had been created around him. He said to himself, "This
is not real!" and torched the whole lot. The effect was a symbolic
liberation, freedom by fire. His act of destruction allowed him to
begin working from scratch. "The real thing is working," he says
simply.

"I still consider myself to be always learning and getting better."
After the episode with his archive, he says, "I became very motivated.
In bits and pieces, I started to discover something a bit blurred,
which is the dialogue with the self. That helped me to understand
things that looked very mysterious in my paintings. The knowledge of
the unconscious in the work, from that point, I am always working on
and thinking about."

To this day, Kaabi is chaotic in his working process. He doesn't paint
at regular times, but rather insists on keeping his canvases prepared,
so they are ready when inspiration strikes. "When I am not satisfied,"
he says laughing, "I run away or I sleep." Then, after running away or
sleeping, when he returns to his studio or wakes up from a nap, he
says he can see clearly the ways in which a painting is not working.
The break is necessary for him to understand where his work has
escaped him.

Kaabi insists that he remains optimistic about the Iraq his children
will inherit. He believes the current crisis will pass and the arts
will blossom again. "But for myself," he says, "I don't think I will
see stability in my time. I'm 70," he exclaims, throwing up his
hands, "What am I going to do, wait?"

**Saadi al-Kaabi's paintings are on view at the Agial Art Gallery in
Hamra through January 29. For more information, call +961 1 345213
Source: The Daily Star
Visit the website at: www.dailystar.com.lb
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity.
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.

**********
Article #2
Islam's democratic imperative
Sheik Dia Al Shakarchi
January 26, 2005

During the last 25 years, Islam has played an increasingly influential
role in politics, and not only in the Islamic world, with political
Islam frequently expressing itself in radicalism and terror. Muslims
and non-Muslims have not always agreed on the extent to which this is
compatible with genuine Islam. How Islam is understood varies widely
among devout, moderately religious, and non-observant Muslims, as well
as among Islamic scholars, political parties and organisations. Even
Western experts and critics of Islam hold different views. Overall,
there are two conflicting images of Islam: a peaceful Islam, which is
ready for dialogue and coexistence, and a fundamentalist Islam, which
is militant and even terrorist.

There is a widespread misperception that Islam's holy texts are
written in a way that can justify both interpretations. But, in my
opinion, the reason for different and frequently
contradictory?interpretations
is an incompetent and incomplete approach that detaches individual
texts from their context and construes them without a thorough
understanding of the true spirit of the Koran.

This approach to Islamic texts?coming from both secular and
religiously oriented Muslims, as well as from non-Muslims with an
interest in the subject? calls into question Islam's compatibility
with democracy, and also whether Islam is capable of peace and
moderation. But based on more than a decade of study and debate, I am
convinced of the compatibility between Islam and democracy. Indeed, in
my view, democracy is not only permitted by Islam, it can be regarded
as a religious rule.

My understanding is drawn from a principle contained by the basic
Islamic theory of legal reasoning, which asserts that when strong
religious interests can be realised only through a particular path of
action, that path itself is no longer a matter of choice. It also
becomes a religious rule. Thus, if we can establish that democracy is
the means to realise the strong interests of the Muslim community?and
I believe we can do this? then democracy may be declared a religious
duty in Islam.

Even if democracy might be viewed primarily as an evil from an Islamic
point of view, there is another principle of interpretation of
religious laws in Islam, according to which minor evils?even if
religiously impermissible or not recommended at first? become
permissible, recommended, and even mandatory if they alone can prevent
major evils.

The Muslim interest in democracy is best understood through a clear
perception of the reality of how Muslims live. A country like Iraq,
for example, is home to a diverse and varied population: Arab and Kurd,
Sunni and Shiite, not to mention minorities of other religions and
ethnic groups. Moreover, not all Muslims practise Islam, nor do those
who practise do so in the same way.

So religion cannot be imposed; individuals must practise it according
to their own decisions. Any enforcement of religious practice only
creates hostility towards religion. Thus, I believe that a political
system that best serves free choice? including the choice of people to
be practising Muslims? is the best system for Islam.

Of course, the problem of Islam's compatibility with democracy may be
analysed from different points of view. One possible approach is
purely practical, comparing democracy with all other conceivable
alternatives. In my opinion, there are only five conceivable
alternatives in a Muslim country.

The first is secular dictatorship. This is unacceptable for two
reasons. First, dictatorship itself is ugly and unacceptable; second,
secular dictatorship excludes Islamic parties from participating
normally in the political system. We have considerable experience of
this in the Middle East.

Of course, an Islamic dictatorship is also possible. But this, too, is
unacceptable. As with a secular dictatorship, Islamic dictatorship is
ugly and destructive. Such a dictatorship would damage Islam by
associating it with unjust rule and creating enemies for Islam.

A third alternative is democracy, but with secular restrictions on
religious parties. In fact, this would be a pseudo-democracy, and
would infringe on the rights of religious people to full
participation. Likewise, an Islamic democracy with restrictions on
nonreligious parties would be a mockery of democracy and harmful to
Islam. This would also be unrealistic, because in the current age of
globalisation, any claims to democracy would be exposed as obviously
false.

So, in my view, true democracy is the only alternative, because it is
realistic and promotes peace. Call this ideology-free democracy: a
political system that tolerates restrictions imposed only from within,
never from outside, the democratic process itself.

We must recognise that democracy has proved its worth around the
world. It is the best way of organising a society based on reality and
not ideals. Why shouldn't Iraqis benefit from the proven experience of
other peoples?

**The writer is a Shiite theologian living in Baghdad. Project
Syndicate.
Source: Jordan Times
Website: www.jordantimes.com
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity.
Copyright permission has been obtained from the author for publication.

**********
Article #3
Rice must deploy more 'soft power'
Joseph S. Nye

A year ago Condoleezza Rice, who was then national security adviser,
announced, when speaking about the war on terrorism: "We are engaged
primarily in a war of ideas, not of armies." She was right, but it is
a war that the U.S. is losing, because it is regularly out-flanked by
Al-Qaeda.

Rising anti-Americanism around the world threatens to deprive the U.S.
of the soft or attractive power that it needs to succeed in the
struggle against terrorism. As Iraq has shown, hard military power
alone cannot provide a solution. Poll after poll confirms that
America's soft power has declined, particularly in the Islamic world.
Even in supposedly friendly countries such as Jordan and Pakistan,
more people say they trust Osama bin Laden than they do George W. Bush.

Information is power, and today a much larger part of the world's
population has access to it. Long gone are the days when U.S. Foreign
Service officers drove jeeps to remote regions of the third world to
show reel-to-reel movies to isolated villagers. Technological advances
have led to an information explosion, and publics have become more
sensitized to propaganda. The world is awash in information, some of
it accurate, some of it misleading.

As a result, politics have become a contest about credibility. Whereas
the world of traditional power politics is typically defined by whose
military or economy wins, politics in an information age is about
whose story wins. Governments compete with each other and with other
organizations to enhance their own credibility and weaken that of
their opponents. Unfortunately, the U.S. government has not kept up.

Even the Pentagon's Defense Science Board recently admitted this,
reporting that America's strategic communication "lacks Presidential
direction, effective interagency coordination, optimal private sector
partnerships, and adequate resources." In the final years of the
Clinton administration, Congress mistakenly abolished the U.S.
Information Agency and gave its tasks to a new undersecretary for
public diplomacy at the State Department.

This office has subsequently been left vacant or, for two of the past
four years, filled on only an interim basis. The entire budget for
public diplomacy (broadcasting, information and exchange programs) is
$1.2 billion, about the same as spending in France, or what McDonald's
spends on advertising. The U.S. government spends 450 times more on
hard military power than on soft power.

In 1963, Edward R. Murrow, the famous journalist who directed the U.S.
Information Agency during the Kennedy administration, defined public
diplomacy as interactions not only with foreign governments, but also
primarily with non-governmental individuals and organizations, often
to present a variety of private views in addition to government views.
Skeptics who treat "public diplomacy" as a euphemism for broadcasting
government propaganda miss the point. Simple propaganda lacks
credibility and thus is counterproductive. Public diplomacy, by
contrast, involves building long-term relationships.

Most important in the current situation will be the development of a
long-term strategy of cultural and educational exchanges aimed at
developing a richer and more open civil society in Middle Eastern
countries. Given low official credibility, America's most effective
spokesmen will often be non-governmental. Indeed, some analysts have
even suggested that the U.S. create a non-partisan corporation for
public diplomacy that would receive government and private funds, but
would stimulate independent cross-border communications.

Corporations, foundations, universities and other non-profit
organizations can promote much of the work of developing an open civil
society. Companies and foundations can offer technology to help
modernize Arab educational systems and take them beyond rote learning.
American universities can establish more exchange programs for
students and faculty.

Foundations can support the development of institutions of American
studies in Muslim countries, or programs that enhance journalistic
professionalism. They can support the teaching of English and finance
student exchanges. In short, there are many strands to an effective
long-term strategy for creating soft power resources and promoting
conditions for the development of democracy.

The response to the recent tsunami disaster in Asia is a case in
point. President George W. Bush pledged - albeit belatedly - $350
million in relief to the victims, and sent high-level emissaries to
the region. There has also been an impressive outpouring of private
support by American charities and non-profit organizations. The images
of U.S. soldiers battling in Iraq have been supplemented by images of
America's military delivering relief to disaster victims.

But effective follow-up is essential. Bush's prior announcements of
increased development assistance and stronger efforts to combat HIV-
AIDS in Africa were not only moral imperatives, but also important
investments in American soft power. Unfortunately, the funds needed to
implement these initiatives have not flowed as rapidly as the
rhetoric. Equally important, none of these efforts at relief or public
diplomacy will be effective unless the style and substance of U.S. policies are
consistent with a larger democratic message.

That means that Condoleezza Rice's chief task as secretary of state
will be to make American foreign policy more consultative in style as
she seeks a political solution in Iraq and progress on Middle East
peace. Only then will she be able to begin the job of repairing
America's tattered reputation by shoring up its neglected public
diplomacy.

**Joseph S. Nye, a former U.S. assistant secretary of defense, is
Distinguished Service Professor at Harvard and author of "The Power
Game: A Washington Novel." This commentary is published in
collaboration with Project Syndicate.
Source:
Visit the website at:
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity.
Copyright permission has been obtained from the author for publication.

**********
Article #4
A Public Peace Process
Shamil Idriss

William Butler Yeats once wrote: ?The best lack all conviction, while
the worst are full of passionate intensity.?

He was commenting on violence in the 19th century, but his words
resonate today. In the relationship between the U.S. and the Muslim
world it seems that the best among us are paralyzed and muted while
the most extreme proceed to determine the world in which we all must
live.

Opinions on how to improve this situation abound: a just settlement to
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, an end to the U.S. presence in Iraq
and Afghanistan, an end to acts of mass murder in the name of Islam,
American independence from Middle Eastern oil...

These political realities cannot be ignored, but our problems run
deeper. Consider the head-scarf debate in France, the vandalism of
mosques in the U.S., the debate over Turkey?s acceptance in the EU, or
the denial of entry to the U.S. of such harmless figures as Tariq
Ramadan and Yusuf Islam.

Many Americans and Europeans now believe that Islam espouses violence,
oppresses women, and opposes democracy and it would be a mistake to
think these views are held only by the closed-minded. People see what
is done in the name of Islam and can?t help wondering if there is
something essentially barbaric about the religion.

In Muslim countries, views of the U.S. are more complicated. Polls
reflect that while U.S. policies are largely despised, Americans are
viewed favorably. But despite this nuance, those speaking loudest on
behalf of Islam are those videotaping beheadings, blowing up civilians
in Iraq, Indonesia, Egypt, and Israel, and murdering schoolchildren in
Russia. Muslim opposition to such atrocities is increasingly vocal
but tempered, perhaps because we sympathize with the causes of
Palestinian, Chechen, and Iraqi independence even as we abhor the
means that some use to pursue them. This equivocal response feeds
Western suspicions of Islam.

Political agreements alone will not address these problems ? what we
need is a citizen-led public peace process.

One such initiative is Partners in Humanity (PiH), a program co-launched by HRH Prince El Hassan bin-Talal and the international
conflict resolution organization Search for Common Ground. Among
other initiatives, PiH seeks to foster cooperation in fields that
touch millions of lives: mass media and development assistance.

Media polarizes, but it can also unite - by facilitating the exchange
of views. The Common Ground News Service through which this article
and hundreds like it have been distributed to editors in the West and
in the Muslim world provides a pipeline for constructive ideas to
appear in major newspapers. Similarly, televised citizen-conferences
linking Americans with citizens from diverse Muslim countries for
dialogue should be broadcast. Americans want to know what Muslims
think of Beslan and Muslims want to know what Americans think of
events in Iraq.

The media can also amplify thoughtful views. Public relations
companies should be enlisted to serve dialogue centers and activists.
It is not enough to bemoan the polarizing effect of the media.
Advocates of rational discourse should learn to write press releases
and opinion pieces in ways that are likely to get them published and
aired, especially in times of crisis.

Finally, the media can broadcast models of cooperation using popular
reality-television formats. Imagine TV shows featuring Americans and
people from Muslim countries confronting challenges that require them
to cooperate in order to prevail. Such programs might seem irrelevant
given the seriousness of the times, but one can not underestimate the
power of millions of viewers watching and rooting for Iranians,
Egyptians, Indonesians, and Americans of diverse backgrounds and
viewpoints cooperating toward a common goal.

Partners in Humanity?s second field of cooperative action is
development assistance ? a good in itself which is also a way to
relieve conditions that feed extremism.

Concerns that charitable giving might go to terrorist organizations
have had a chilling effect on Muslim charities. As Hany el-Banna,
President of the UK-based humanitarian agency Islamic Relief reports,
people are scared to donate money for fear of making mistakes or being
wrongly targeted by overzealous government agencies.

Non-governmental aid agencies, multi-lateral institutions, and
governments must cooperate to develop mechanisms to verify the
transparency of charities working in Muslim countries. This would
allow cash to flow again to good organizations so that those in need
can receive support. PiH supports El-Banna?s efforts to mobilize this
initiative. If successful, it will improve the lives of needy
populations in Muslim countries and provide Western governments a way
to combat extremism through compassion, not just military action.

This public peace process can work because the roots of activism run
deep both in Islam and in the national ethos of the United States.

Americans are taught that we can achieve anything - that we can affect
change, even on the grandest of scales. At an early age we learn of
national heroes whose bold vision inspired millions to overcome huge
challenges, none greater than that captured by Martin Luther King
Jr?s ?I have a dream? speech. Americans take pride in believing that
ordinary citizens can advance social justice on a grand scale.

Similarly, Islam instills its adherents with hope and commands us to
activism. We are taught that Islam not only accepts other
monotheistic faiths, but embraces their roots as part of the same
revelation ? there is perhaps no more hopeful perspective for
interfaith harmony. We are taught that we must work for justice in
this world, rather than resign ourselves to finding justice in the
afterlife. These lessons assume that changing the world for the
better is not only possible but is in fact a duty of every Muslim.

Drawing on this shared activist tradition, Partners in Humanity and
initiatives like it constitute a public peace process through which we
can develop cooperative ventures in any field. They won?t solve the
political issues, but our ability to resolve differences will increase
as we cooperate in those areas where we agree. And by acting
together, we can begin to shape the world around us, rather than feel
helpless as extremists do it for us.

**Shamil Idriss is Director of Search for Common Ground's Islamic-
Western Relations Program and a member of the Coordinating Committee
for the World Economic Forum's Council of 100 Leaders.
Source: This article was commissioned by Search for Common Ground and
first appeared in Al Hayat.
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity.
Copyright permission has been obtained from the author for
publication.

**********
About CGNews-PiH
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NEWSLETTER FROM THE HUMAN RIGHTS HOUSE NETWORK

1 Nepalese Government shuts down the Dalai Lama's office
The Nepalese government has shut down the office of the Representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Nepal and the Tibetan Refugee Welfare office in Kathmandu, the Country's capital. - The international community should take immediate action and demand of the Nepalese government to reverse its decision and re-open the two offices, says Chungdak Koren of the Norwegian Tibet Committee.

2 Croatia: No Gotovina, no negotiations
If the Croatian authorities fail to turn in general Gotovina until the beginning of March 17 to the Hague Tribunal, the European Commission will postpone the negotiations for joining the EU – warned Oli Rehn, commissioner to the European Commission for Enlargement.

3 British legislation threatens free speech
English PEN has launched a campaign to stop the British Government introducing legislation that could make it illegal to express provocative views on people’s religion.

4 - No peace in Nagorno Karabakh without democracy
-Only a democratic development in Azerbaijan and Armenia will garanty a peaceful solution of the conflict, the chairman of the Azerbaijan Popular Front party, Ali Kerimli, said in a meeting with the Norwegian Helsinki Committe, Human Rights House Foundation and Amnesty International in Oslo yesterday. The decision to set up a OSCE fact-finding mission was made after Azerbaijan put the issue of Armenians´ settlement in the occupied lands on the agenda of the UN General Assembly session.

5 Belarus: Access to information restricted
Although the parliamentary election and the referendum are already over, the struggle of officials against "undesirable" information doesn't stop. In January, a great number of lawless limitations of the right to receive and distribute information were registered.

6 Security Council claims Uganda is violating arms embargo of DR Congo
A United Nations Security Council panel has said Uganda continues to funnel weapons and military support into eastern DR Congo despite a current arms embargo. In a new report, the UN claims that the mineral-rich eastern DRC continues to be the pawn of Congo's two neighbours, as well as renegade army troops, militia leaders and shadowy businessmen.

7 Poland: Employees against supermarkets
Violation of employees’ rights by stores and supermarkets seems to be an increasing trend in Poland. Assisted by the Polish Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, employees now demand compensation.

8 U.S. To Press for Release of Rafto Laureate Rebiya Kadeer
The United States will press Beijing to free jailed Uyghur businesswoman Rebiya Kadeer, a U.S. senior official said Jan. 26 at a ceremony at Capitol Hill in which Kadeer was honored in absentia with Norway's Rafto Prize for Human Rights. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia Randall Schriver said that Washington's concerns over Kadeer, 58 and a prominent member of China's Uighur ethnic group in the largely Muslim Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, would be raised with the Chinese government.

9 Recommendations to the Norwegian government on human rights in UN in 2005
Seventeen organizations from the “Norwegian NGO Forum” have made recommendations on human rights issues which the Norwegian Government should focus on in this year´s meeting in the UN Human Rights Commission. It covers six countries - Colombia, Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, Russia including the Republic of Chechnya, Sudan, Tunisia, and Uganda - and five topics: Counter- terrorism and human rights, impunity, indigenous peoples rights, integrated missions, and UN human rights norms for business.

10 Head of the Human Rights House of Sarajevo "made Bosnia better"
The Sarajevo DANI magazine has selected 10 individuals who "made Bosnia and Herzegovina better". One of them is Srdjan Dizdarevic, the founder and President of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina, President of the Managing Board of the Human Rights House of Sarajevo and Vice President of the International Helsinki Federation.

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Regular update to interested people about current additions to the Canadian Centres for Teaching Peace web site:

Upcoming Events http://www.peace.ca/upcoming.htm :

February 7-9, 2005 - Nonviolent Peaceforce Canada and St. Paul University Conflict Studies program invite you to consider a Civilian Peace Service for Canada – a standing peace army. 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. St. Paul University Auditorium, 223 Main Street, Ottawa, ON. Guest Speakers include: Helga Tempel from Germany and Tim Wallis from the UK, both instrumental in setting up a civilian peace service in Europe and David Grant from Washington DC with the Nonviolent Peaceforce. Please respond by January 28 to Nonviolent Peaceforce Canada if you are able to attend at: info@npcanada.org. For more information: www.npcanada.org , www.nonviolentpeaceforce.org; Phone: 235-2725

March 28 - April 1, 2005 - The International Education for Peace Institute in collaboration with Education for Peace Balkans Institute present two workshops on the following topics: “Culture of Healing” and “Leadership for Peace” in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. During the past five years, the faculty of the International Education for Peace Institute (EFP-International), in the course of the application of the Institute’s Education for Peace program within 108 primary and secondary schools, reaching some 100,000 students and their teachers in Bosnia and Herzegovina, have developed a unique and highly effective approach to addressing the serious effects of violence on whole populations. This approach aims at creating a Culture of Healing in and between the participating populations, that until recently have been engaged in a brutal war. Participants in this workshop will: Learn the dynamics of individual and collective processes of recovery from the impact of violence on populations; Acquire the necessary skills for creating a culture of healing; and Be assisted with developing models of cultures of healing appropriate to the specific needs of the communities in which they are rooted. The Leadership for Peace (LFP) program is an intensive training workshop designed to address the fundamental challenges to constructive leadership by equipping the participants and leaders with the necessary knowledge, insights, and skills required for effective, inspiring, and unifying leadership. This will enable leaders at every level in society to engage all members of their respective communities and agencies in the pursuit of excellence and in the creation of a vibrant, productive, and peaceful environment—free from destructive conflict, disuniting and self-interested behaviour, aggression, and violence. For more information, please visit www.efpinternational.org. You may also send an inquiry to academic@efpinternational.org or call +1-604-639-7910.

April 2005 - CONFERENCE THEME: "African Youths and the challenges of peace and social stability in an emerging new Africa". The goal of the Conference: The Conference is aimed at bringing together youths from all over the world, especially in Africa, Community leaders, opinion leaders, educators, political leaders, traditional and religious institutions, leaders of NGOs, CBOs, FBOs and other stakeholders in Africa’s social development process to deliberate on issues of Peace and social stability on the African Continent as well as to proffer solutions which when accepted in good faith and translated into positive actions would become indices of authentic continental growth, lasting peace and sustainable development. The Conference shall also provide the platform for the maximum expression of youthful creativity and the harnessing of the rich potentials of African youths at home and abroad, for the promotion of positive changes towards sustainable peace and development in Africa. The Conference shall focus on crucial issues such as Peace, Religious tolerance, Education, HIV/AIDS, Conflict prevention and Resolution, the dignity of labour, crime and criminality, poverty, Women and Children and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). THE CONFERENCE ORGANIZERS: The Conference is a collaborative response to the inter- ethnic, inter-tribal, sectarian, political, inter-religious and poverty-driven killings that have characterized the African for a long time now. It is an initiative of the African Christian Youths Development Forum, in partnership with Teachers Without Borders-Nigeria, God_s Divine Foundation, African Centre for Leadership Development, Project Hope-Nigeria, Christian Leadership Network, Youths, Orphans and Women Development Initiatives and Life Excel International, for the promotion of Peace and social stability on the African continent through the deliberate commitment of African youths. KEY PRESENTATIONS: Key Presentations shall be made by eminent scholars from within and outside Africa on the following: 1. African traditional Religious Education for Peace in Africa. 2.Christian Religious Education for Peace in Africa 3.Islamic Religious Education for Peace in Africa 4.Inter-religious Dialogue for a Culture of Peace in Africa 5.Poverty eradication: An antidote to crisis on the African Continent. 6.The significance of Information & Communication technology in the promotion and sustenance of peace on the African continent. 7.Inter-religious conflict as the threat to social development in Africa. 8.Dealing with the demons of Prostitution and Child abuse in Africa. CONFERENCE TRAINING SESSIONS: The Conference will also feature a training session for prospective peace educators in Africa as follows: 1. Peace 100: General introductory lessons for peace in Africa. 2. Peace 101: First lesson for Peace- the ideal of peace. Building a model culture and community of peace and technology for peace in Nigeria. 3.Peace 102: Second lesson for peace-the reality of war. A religious perspective on the origin of war and the contemporary relevance. 4.Peace 103: Third lesson for Peace-the restoration of peace. From an emerging African culture of war and violence to an African culture of peace and social harmony. PARTICIPATION PROCESS: Participation is free and is open to all African youths irrespective of creed, tribe and location. The organizers will provide Break, Lunch and Conference materials at no cost whatsoever to participants for the duration of the Conference. However, participants will pay for the cost of their transportation and accommodation to and from the Conference. Special accommodation arrangements may be made for participants coming from outside of Plateau State and Nigeria. Other details and participation packages can be obtained free of charge from the International Secretariat of the African Christian Youths Development Forum at the following address: Engr. Emmanuel Ande Ivorgba, Conference Organizing Secretary, International Christian youths Conference on Peace (2005), ACYDFORUM International Secretariat, Dadin Kowa Last Gate, P.O.BOX 6545, Jos –Nigeria; Email: acydfsecretariat@yahoo.com ; web site www.peaceconference.8m.net

April 11 - 15, 2005 - American Educational Research Association (“AERA”) Annual Meeting, Montreal, Canada. Theme: "Demography and Democracy in the Era of Accountability" . The Peace Education Special Interest Group (SIG) provides a forum within AERA for the involvement of individuals drawn together by a common interest in peace education -- teaching, and research. The primary responsibility of the Peace Education SIG to the Association is to maintain a professional support system for its SIG membership consistent with the purpose of the Association as a whole. In this Peace Education SIG symposium, specific peace education problems will be examined by invited guests from a variety of perspectives. Contrasting points of view on peace education are invited in relation to teachers teaching about peace-the challenges of peacemaking, peacebuilding, and peacekeeping in local and international schooling contexts. The symposium will take the form of a panel discussion targeting teaching peace in the schools. Panel members are expected to prepare a commentary paper addressing central questions regarding the teaching of peace in classrooms at home and around the world. The American Educational Research Association includes a membership of educational researchers who seek to enhance their collective knowledge and understanding in ways that can inform educational policy and practice. As a research organization, AERA provides forums for critical self-reflection on the credibility of research claims and plays a leading role in educating and informing the public about educational research, as well as in bringing relevant research-based perspectives to public dialogue about educational issues. The American Educational Research Association (AERA), a professional society that represents more than 23,000 educators who conduct research and evaluation in education, offers a comprehensive program of scholarly publications, training, fellowships, and meetings to disseminate research findings and improve the profession. Founded in 1916, AERA is based in Washington, D.C. The theme for the 2005 AERA Annual Meeting, "Demography and Democracy in the Era of Accountability," is intended to promote such examination from all research paradigms and perspectives. Program organizers welcome the full range of perspectives on these critical issues from researchers in the United States and the larger international community. We are particularly interested in proposals that consider the implications for democratic and emerging democratic societies of research, practice and policy related to quality education and fair assessments for all students. For more information: Please see the AERA website at http://www.aera.net for extensive conference information and instructions for registration. Rosemarie Stallworth-Clark, Ph.D., Program Chair, AERA Peace Education SIG, Associate Professor, Educational Psychology, Department of Curriculum, Foundations, & Research, POB 8144, College of Education, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA 30460; 912-681-5715 (phone); 912-871-4026 (phone); 912-681-5382 (FAX); rosemarie_stallworth@hotmail.com or rosemari@georgiasouthern.edu

June 23-26, 2005 - The Transformative Learning Centre (OISE/UT) Summer Institute 2005 is proud to announce the course: African Values, Peace and Reconciliation.
Africa is all too often portrayed in a one-dimensional way as a continent of victims, poverty and continual warfare. In this course we will attempt to gain a more complete picture of the situation and to appreciate the transformative potential that exists. Looking at Africa from an Afrocentric, rather than a Eurocentric perspective, we will examine what has been lost in the historical and contemporary context of slavery, colonialism and economic globalization. Africa has a rich store of values, attitudes and practices conducive to peace and reconciliation. We will critically examine these traditional ideas to look at how they can be integrated with useful modern practices
to make a contribution to a peaceful world. Consistent with the subject matter, the class will make use of practices often excluded from the dominant discourse, for example story-telling, proverbs and music. Course Instructor: Anne Goodman, Ph.D. Course Schedule: Thursday, June 23, 6-9 pm, Friday, June 24, 6-9 pm, Saturday, June 25, 10:00 am-5:00 pm. Sunday, June 26, 10:00 am-5:00 pm, TOTAL HOURS: 20 hours. Place: Transformative Learning Centre, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, 252 Bloor Street West. Regular Registration Fee (before April 31st): $125 per participant; Late Registration Fee (after May 1st): $175 per participant. Enrolment is limited to 24 participants. For more information about the course, send an email to agoodman@oise.utoronto.ca . To register, call 416 923 6641 X 2595 or send an email to tlcentre@oise.utoronto.ca

Problem Identification Topics http://www.peace.ca/problem.htm :

Uninspiring and Shocking Quotes http://www.peace.ca/uninspiringquotes.htm :

"American values in action", Secretary of State Colin Powell candidly acknowledging (January 2004) the hope that Tsunami aid might improve the United States' image in the Muslim world. Lets do a comparison:
Pro
- Tsunami relief
Cons
- Torture and killing of scores of detainees in Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, etc.
- U.S. Plans Lifetime Detentions with No Trial
- U.S. Troops Kill Civilians in Botched Strikes ("Collateral Damage")
- illegal wars (eg. Iraq)
- use of depleted uranium (see video at http://www.bushflash.com/pl_lo.html - warning: scenes are shocking)
- pre-emptive attack against perceived enemies when perceived in the "National Interest"
- war profiteering http://www.truthout.org/docs_05/010205X.shtml
- blackening of U.S. moral authority around the world
- political attacks of the United Nations
- vote against key international laws, including the International Criminal Court, Nuclear Non-proliferation, etc.
- embracing nuclear proliferation and realpolitiks
- the creation and enforcement of a worldwide "Pax Americana," or American peace (imperialism; global domination)
- U.S. Quietly Tries to Replace U.N. Nuclear Agency Chief and other key U.N. officials
- approve deception as a military tool (eg. psyops, misinformation, lying, etc.) and hence create trust crisis
- meddling, covert and overt influence in other countries, against their wishes
- "stealing" others' resources
- Bush Administration Paid Pundit $240K to Support Law/influence content on his nationally syndicated television show
- $1 million deal with Ketchum that produced "video news releases" designed to look like news reports
- doubts over the 2000 and 2004 election returns

"For now the appalling truth is that there has been no remedy for the documented torture and killing of foreign prisoners by this American government." War Crimes, The Washington Post | Editorial, Thursday 23 December 2004 http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/122404B.shtml

“Bush did confront (Canadian Prime Minister) Martin and used the sort of language that sets Canadians on edge. "He leaned across the table and said, 'I'm not taking this position, but some future president is going to say, 'Why are we paying to defend Canada?' " said the senior Canadian official who was in the room and noted that he had been assured by Rice and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell personally that Bush would avoid the subject.” By Peter Baker, Washington Post Staff Writer, Sunday, January 23, 2005; Page A01

“Every time intellectuals have the chance to speak yet do not speak, they join the forces that train people not to be able to think and imagine and feel in morally and politically adequate ways. When they do not demand that the secrecy that makes elite decisions absolute and unchangeable be removed, they too are part of the passive conspiracy to kill off public scrutiny. When they do not speak, when they do not demand, when they do not think and feel and act as intellectuals – and so as public individuals – they too contribute to the moral paralysis, the intellectual rigidity, that now grip both leaders and led around the world.” C. Wright Mills (1958)

The Alternate News:
BREAKING: Seymour Hersh: U.S. Conducting Secret Missions Inside Iran http://www.truthout.org/docs_05/011705X.shtml

The Coming Wars: What the Pentagon Can Now Do in Secret By Seymour M. Hersh, The New Yorker, 24-31 January 2005 Issue http://www.truthout.org/docs_05/011805A.shtml

War Crimes Judge Sees U.S. Threat to Rule of Law http://www.truthout.org/docs_05/011805D.shtml

Who's Who (World Level) http://www.peace.ca/whoswho.htm :

AfricaFiles www.africafiles.org is a network of volunteers relaying African perspectives and alternative analyses for viable human development in the interest of justice and human rights. AFRICA INFOSERV Information and analytical articles from alternative sources nicol@africafiles.org . AT ISSUE FORUM: Current hot topics, post your comments cjhincks@sympatico.ca . ACTION FOCUS; urgent actions; kirkwood@africafiles.org. Africafiles, 99 Kimberley Ave Toronto M4E 2Z4 Canada. info@africafiles.org

Information Resources (World Level) http://www.peace.ca/info.htm:

A More Secure World: Our Shared Responsibility: Report of the Secretary-General's High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change. On December 2, 2004, the "High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change" http://www.un.org/secureworld/panelmembers.html presented its report to Kofi Annan, the Secretary-General of the United Nations. The Secretary-General appointed 16 panel members in November 2003. Read Report http://www.un.org/secureworld/ . The panel's mandate was to:
Examine today's global threats and provide and analysis of future challenges to international peace and security;
Identify clearly the contribution which collective action can make in addressing these challenges;
Recommend the changes necessary to ensure effective collective action, including but not limited to a review of the principal organs of the United Nations.
Canada has made two submissions to the High-Level Panel:
A thematic non-paper on The Responsibility to Protect http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/canada_un/HLP_submission-en.asp
A non-paper containing recommendations for strengthening the UN system in a number of key areas http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/cip-pic/library/unhighlevelpanel-en.asp . Canada, as a staunch supporter of the multilateral system was pleased to offer constructive proposals for reform of the UN system, and we welcome the panel's report. Canada Welcomes Report on UN Reform: Prime Minister Paul Martin today congratulated the members of the United Nations High Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change for their report released today in New York on the reform of the United Nations system in the area of international peace and security. Read Prime Minister Martin's Statement http://www.pm.gc.ca/eng/news.asp?id=347

At Home in the World: Canada's Global Vision for the 21st Century, by Jennifer Welsh. "In order for Canada to play a new part on the global stage in the 21st century, we need to shed some of the traditional myths that have dominated our international identity for the past half-century. We should conceive of Canada not in traditional terms, as a middle power, but as a citizen in the world of nation-states. In fact, I believe Canada has the potential to be a model citizen for the 21st century. Both words—"model" and "citizen"—are crucial to my vision. First, the notion of a model suggests a different approach to effecting change. A crucial aspect of Canadian foreign policy today is simply being what we are: a particular, and highly successful, model of liberal democracy." See more detail at http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/canada-magazine/01-title-en.asp

Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High, by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan and Al Switzler. Format: Paperback, 256pp. ISBN: 0071401946. Publisher: McGraw-Hill Trade. Pub. Date: June 2002. Retail price US$16.95. A powerful, seven-step approach to handling difficult conversations with confidence and skill. "Crucial" conversations are interpersonal exchanges at work or at home that we dread having but know we cannot avoid. How do you say what needs to be said while avoiding an argument with a boss, child, or relationship partner? Crucial Conversations offers readers a proven seven-point strategy for achieving their goals in all those emotionally, psychologically, or legally charged situations that can arise in their professional and personal lives. Based on the authors' highly popular DialogueSmart training seminars, the techniques are geared toward getting people to lower their defenses, creating mutual respect and understanding, increasing emotional safety, and encouraging freedom of expression. Among other things, readers also learn about the four main factors that characterize crucial conversations, and they get a powerful six-minute mastery technique that prepares them to work through any highimpact situation with confidence. Learn how to keep your cool and get what you want when emotions flare. When stakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions run strong, you have three choices: Avoid a crucial conversation and suffer the consequences; handle the conversation badly and suffer the consequences; or read Crucial Conversations and discover how to communicate best when it matters most. This wise and witty guide gives you the tools you need to step up to life's most difficult and important conversations, say what's on your mind, and achieve positive outcomes that will amaze you. You'll learn how to: Prepare for high-impact situations with a six-minute mastery technique; Make it safe to talk about almost anything; Be persuasive, not abrasive; Keep listening when others blow up or clam up; Turn crucial conversations into the action and results you want. Whether they take place at work or at home, with your neighbors or your spouse, crucial conversations can have a profound impact on your career, your happiness, and your future. With the skills you learn in this book, you'll never have to worry about the outcome of a crucial conversation again. Read Chapter 1 at http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadershop/0194-6excerpt.html . If you liked the book "Difficult Converations", you will love "Crucial Conversations". 5-Star Recommended/Must Reading.

The Best Country: Why Canada Will Lead the Future, by Satya Das. Canadians are characteristically surprised when the United Nations consistently places Canada at or near the top of the list of its annual Human Development Index. They shouldn't be. One of the world's most "spectacularly diverse nations", Canada has much to be proud of, and much to share with the rest of the world. This country is home to a tolerant, multicultural society; to a strong, developed democracy; and to a nation proud of its national and international accomplishments. In his newest book The Best Country - Why Canada Will Lead the Future, acclaimed author Satya Das makes a case for Canadian global leadership, sharing the best of itself with a world that seems to have lost its way. While recognizing Canada's flaws and struggles, The Best Country argues the Canadian experience can be a role-model for the rest of the world. http://www.mastersandscribes.com/item667.htm http://www.cambridgestrategies.com/

The Naked Corporation: How the Age of Transparency Will Revolutionize Business, by Don Tapscott and David Ticoll. If you have to be naked, you had better be buff. We are entering an extraordinary age of transparency, where businesses must for the first time make themselves clearly visible to shareholders, customers, employees, partners, and society. Financial data, employee grievances, internal memos, environmental disasters, product weaknesses, international protests, scandals and policies, good news and bad; all can be seen by anyone who knows where to look. Welcome to the world of the naked corporation. Transparency is revolutionizing every aspect of our economy and its industries and forcing firms to rethink their fundamental values. Don Tapscott, bestselling author and one of the most sought after strategists and speakers in the business world, is famous for seeing into the future and pointing out both its forest and its trees. David Ticoll, visionary researcher, columnist, and consultant, has identified countless breakthrough trends at the intersection of technology and business strategy. These two longtime collaborators now offer a brilliant guide to the new age of openness. In The Naked Corporation, they explain how the new transparency has caused a power shift toward customers, employees, shareholders, and other stakeholders; how and where information has exploded; and how corporations across many industries have seized on transparency not as a challenge but as an opportunity. The Naked Corporation is a book for managers, employees, investors, customers, and anyone who cares about the future of the corporation, government, education and society. A new age is upon us, and you can either work with it and thrive, or fight it and die. http://www.nakedcorporation.com/

Women Waging Peace and International Alert Joint Publication— Inclusive Security, Sustainable Peace: A Toolkit for Advocacy and Action. A resource for women peace builders and practitioners to effectively promote peace and security. Women Waging Peace and International Alert collaborated to produce the Toolkit, which outlines the components of peace building from conflict prevention to post-conflict reconstruction, highlights the role that women play in each phase, and is directed to women peace builders and the policy community. Download the Toolkit: Click on the links at http://www.womenwagingpeace.net/toolkit.asp to download sections of the toolkit. If you would like a hard copy, please email: policycommission@womenwagingpeace.net . The main goals of the Toolkit are to:
· overview critical information and strategies for addressing key peace and security issues;
· bridge the divide between the realities of peace activists in conflict, post-conflict, and transition areas, and the international practitioners and policymakers responsible for designing and implementing programs in these contexts;
· present issues in a user-friendly manner and demystify the "policy speak" and terminology used by the international community;
· describe how women are affected by and contribute to peacemaking, peace building, and security processes; and
· highlight practical examples of women's contributions and offer concrete, feasible steps for fostering their empowerment.
A key measure of our success will be the extent to which activists, policymakers, and others use, develop, and take ownership of this resource.

Proposals/Solutions http://www.peace.ca/proposal.htm :

Inspiring Quotes http://www.peace.ca/inspiringquotations.htm :

"Ubuntu", Humanist Declaration - It's a Bantu word we should make our own. It is so rich that linguists call a "crowditude" of other words to the rescue to express its nuances. "Ubuntu" is, in academic terms: "the quality inherent in the fact of being a person with other persons." When he uses it in his autobiography, Nelson Mandela translates it into English as "fellowship," literally camaraderie or, in the context "fellow citizenship." In fact, ubuntu means much more, well beyond that: a way of being human, a way of conducting oneself as a human being, a practice of mutual humanity. Also, far from being simplistic, Mandela's translation is at the heart of South African political invention, that unprecedented response anti-apartheid militants brought to the question every liberation poses: how to live together after hatred, after civil war, after crime against humanity? How to reconnect there where there was nothing but separation? We know their response: by reconciling oneself to the truth. It will soon be ten years ago that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, chaired by Mgr. Desmond Tutu, was established by the South African Constitutive Assembly in 1995. Its power: to bestow individual amnesty, case by case, in exchange for complete revelation of their crimes, to the authors of serious violations of human rights associated with a political objective. No vengeance, no reprisals, but no oblivion, no getting off, no concealment. "Facing up" says the 1993 South African Provisional Constitution, to "a heritage of hatred, of fear" on the basis of a "need for ubuntu and not victimization." By Edwy Plenel, Le Monde http://www.truthout.org/docs_05/010105H.shtml

List Servers http://www.peace.ca/usergroup.htm :

We are delighted to send you the second issue of our newsletter on the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World (2001-2010). This issue's theme is "Gender and a Culture of Peace", referring directly to one of the action areas of the Declaration and Programme of Action for a Culture of Peace, namely "Actions to ensure equality between women and men". The newsletter is available in both English and French - you can consult both versions via our website: the English one is available via http://www3.unesco.org/iycp/Newsletter/News02_en.pdf , and the French one can be found at http://www3.unesco.org/iycp/Newsletter/News02_fr.pdf . We would also like to remind you that registered Culture of Peace actors can disseminate information on their Culture of Peace-related projects and events via our website ( www.unesco.org/cp ). Please let us know whether you require any information about your "actor's account". In the meantime, we hope that the articles provide you with useful and encouraging insight, and we wish you happy New Year and great success in your work towards the objectives of the International Decade! Yours faithfully, Aurore Salinas, Culture of Peace Coordination, Coordination Culture de la Paix, UNESCO - BSP/PMR, 7, Place de Fontenoy, F - 75352 Paris 07 SP, Tel: 33 (0)1 45 68 13 49, Fax: 33 (0)1 45 68 55 57; a.salinas@unesco.org ; http://www.unesco.org/cp ; http://www.unesco.org/manifesto2000

The Human Security Bulletin http://www.humansecuritybulletin.info/November_2004/Home/en/ is the flagship publication of the Canadian Consortium on Human Security (CCHS) http://www.humansecurity.info/ . As a core part of the CCHS mandate to facilitate the exchange of information and analysis, the Bulletin features timely, informed and concise information and analysis on human security issues.

Canadian International Policy newsletters, from the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Development Canada http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/cip-pic/library/subscription-en.asp . The Canadian International Policy Web site http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/cip-pic/menu-en.asp is designed to provide information, views, and analysis on the key issues that touch on Canada's role in the international community. It describes the foundations of Canada's international policy and provides you with insights into new policy thinking.

See the following new reports posted on our web site:

Canadian Culture of Peace Program web site (temporary URL) http://www.peace.ca/canadiancultureofpeaceprogram.htm

Questions? contact Bob Stewart at stewartr@peace.ca

We are hosting 2 major upcoming events:
Canadian Culture of Peace Program Stakeholders Workshop March 14-15, 2005 http://www.peace.ca/canadiancultureofpeaceprogram.htm at University of Alberta, Edmonton.
Fourth Annual Peace Education Conference in Canada November 24 - 28, 2005 http://www.peace.ca/CanadianAgenda2004.htm at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario.

The World Challenge, brought to you by Newsweek & BBC World, in association with Shell, is a competition aimed at finding individuals or groups from around the world who have shown enterprise and innovation at a grass roots level. We want to hear about the people whose projects are making a difference to communities. It could be you or someone you know.

The World Challenge is all about global involvement, casting a net for ideas from individuals or groups deserving recognition.

We are looking for your nominations for innovative projects or ideas that are benefiting communities socially, environmentally or financially.

Click here to see some examples of the sort of project we are looking for. These projects are also being profiled on BBC World and in Newsweek, in a special advertising series sponsored by Shell.

The winner will receive from Shell a US$20,000 grant to benefit their project. One representative of the project will be flown to London to receive the award.

The Colonial Misunderstanding
Das koloniale Mißverständnis
D/ F 2004, R: Jean Marie Teno, 79' OmeU, 35mm
Produktion: Bärbel Mauch Film / Les Films du Raphia

„Als die ersten Missionare nach Afrika kamen, besaßen sie die Bibel und wir das Land. Sie forderten uns auf zu beten. Und wir schlossen die Augen. Als wir sie wieder öffneten, war die Lage genau umgekehrt: Wir hatten die Bibel und sie das Land“, bemerkte der frühere Erzbischof von Kapstadt und Friedensnobelpreisträger Desmond Tutu einmal und deutet damit die Verwobenheit von Mission und Kolonialismus an.
Als die „Rheinische Missionsgesellschaft“ 1828 im heutigen Wuppertal gegründet wurde, geschah dies in der hehren Absicht, die christliche Botschaft zu verbreiten. Mit Briefen, Zeichnungen, Photos und seit den 1920er Jahren auch mit Filmen, berichteten die Missionare den Gemeinden in der Heimat vom Leben der „Heiden“ und deren seltsamen Bräuchen. Sie leisteten hiermit einen wichtigen Beitrag zum Bild Europas vom „schwarzen Kontinent“.
Die Geschichte der Rheinischen Mission und ihr widersprüchliches Engagement, vor allem in Deutsch-Südwest, erkundet der Kameruner Filmemacher Jean-Marie Teno auf seiner Reise durch die ehemaligen deutschen Kolonien. Sie führt ihn von Wuppertal nach Namibia, Südafrika, Togo und in sein Heimatland Kamerun. Sein Film rekonstruiert Geschichte in ihrer Dialektik zwischen christlichem „Ethos“, kaufmännisch-kolonialen Interessen und den traumatischen Erlebnissen der Missionierten. Wie konnte es zu jenem „kolonialen Missverständnis“ kommen und wie virulent ist es bis heute? Die Ergebnisse afrikanischer und europäischer Wissenschaftler, Missionsmitarbeiter und Historiker werden ergänzt durch persönliche Erlebnisse dieser Geschichte bis in unsere postkoloniale Gegenwart.
The Colonial Misunderstanding ist die längere Kinoversion von Gehet hin in alle Welt... Die deutsche Mission in Afrika.

Adresse
Zeughauskino
Deutsches Historisches Museum
(Zeughausgebäude Eingang Spreeseite)
Unter den Linden 2
10117 Berlin

Information
Kinemathek DHM: 030 / 20 30 4 - 421
(Mo. bis Fr. von 10.00 bis 18.00 Uhr)
Kinokasse: 030 / 20 30 4 - 670
(Do. bis So. ab 17.30 Uhr)

*****************************************
Bärbel Mauch Film
Kollwitzstr.45
D-10405 Berlin
tel/fax:+49-30-308 19 222
email: bamauch@yahoo.de
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

posted by
Eric Van Grasdorff, Dipl.Pol.
http://www.africavenir.org
http://www.humiliationstudies.org

CFP: Teaching Globalisation: Developing interdisciplinary pedagogies for a
changing world.
CILT, London. 18 April 2005

Globalisation is a term in common use throughout the humanities, sciences
and social sciences. It raises social, political, cultural, economic and
environmental questions that cannot be addressed within the confines of a
single discipline.
A highly contested concept, it is argued by some theorists that the rise of
actors such as Multi-National Corporations has led to a decline of the
nation-state and the emergence of 'placelessness'. These corporations, it is
claimed, act globally without the connections to place that once existed.

The global nature of environmental concerns presents the practitioner with
the need to address connections between science and society. The alleged
globalisation (or Americanisation) of culture with the rise of 'global
English' and it subsequent threat to other languages and cultures raises
cultural questions. Ethical issues arise about the nature of democracy, and
the responsibility of nation-states, NGOs and individuals towards people in
other parts of the world.

Provision for teaching about certain parts of the world (especially East
Asia and the Middle East) is declining in UK Higher Education amid concerns
about student recruitment and financial pressures on institutions at a time
when the geopolitical concerns about these regions seem more important than
ever. On the one hand the world seems to be increasingly homogenised through
the Internet, technology and communication, yet on the other hand
geopolitical realities inform us that we live in a world of difference,
contrast and complexity.

This conference aims to address pedagogic issues surrounding the study of
global and local issues. How are these issues addressed in different
disciplines? How can practitioners draw on interdisciplinary and
multidisciplinary perspectives to enhance student understandings of
globalisation?

Possible themes for papers include interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary
approaches to the teaching and learning of:

* Global and local citizenship
* Ethics and concerns for 'distant others'
* Placelessless, the annihilation of space, the death of the local
* Global geopolitics
* Culture and language protection
* Globalisation of the English language
* Technology
* Environmental issues and science in society
* Globalisation and Area Studies

Please submit your papers to John Canning j.canning@soton.ac.uk
by Friday 11 February 2005. Travel expenses
will be reimbursed for presenters of accepted papers.
Registrations are accepted online at
http://www.lang.ltsn.ac.uk/events/llaseventitem.aspx?resourceid=2237

Dr John Canning
Academic Coordinator (Area Studies)
Modern Languages
University of Southampton
Southampton
SO17 1BJ
Tel +44 (0)23 8059 5408
Fax +44 (0)23 8059 4815
Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies
www.llas.ac.uk
The Subject Centre is now part of the HE Academy www.heacademy.ac.uk

SSRN's Economic Research Network is pleased to announce that the
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Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Research Paper Series
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The WMD's Democracy Alert

From time to time, the World Movement for Democracy issues alerts concerning participants and other colleagues who are facing personal danger due to their work on behalf of democracy and for whom a vigorous response from around the world may be critical.

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DemocracyAlert: Nepalese Government Shut Down of the Dalai Lama's Office

On January 21, 2005, the Nepalese government shut down the office of the Representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Nepal and the Tibetan Refugee Welfare office in Kathmandu, the Country's capital. The Office of Dalai Lama's Representative had been operating in Nepal since 1959 when a number of Tibetans fled Tibet due to the Chinese Army occupation. The Refugee Welfare office, also established in 1959, has been helping to ensure the safety and well-being of thousands of Tibetan refugees crossing in Nepal, many of whom are on the way to India. There are currently nearly 20,000 Tibetan refugees living in various parts of Nepal. The Government's official reason for the closure of these offices is that the offices were operating without proper registration. However, according to Human Rights Watch, Nepalese law does not give Tibetan refugees in Nepal the right to register associations or institutions in their name. Some other information indicates that the government's decision was the result of the the pressure by the Chinese government.

Mr. Tseten Norbu, executive director of the India-based Tibetan Institute and a World Movement participant, urges other World Movement participants to appeal to your nearest Nepalese authority to reconsider their decision and ensure the safety and well-being of Tibetan refugees in Nepal.

For more information about this case:

* Kathmandu Post "Govt Shuts Down Dalai Lama's Office": http://www.wmd.org/documents/KathmanduPost.pdf
* Human Rights Watch : http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2005/01/28/nepal10085.htm

Special Envoy of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Lodi Gyari, gave a keynote address at the World Movement's Third Assembly in Durban, South Africa, in February 2004. The full text of his speech is available at http://www.wmd.org/third_assembly/keynote_lodi.html.

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ALSO, a founder and leader of the Tiananmen Mothers Network, Ding Zilin, was under house arrest in Beijing, China to keep her away from last Saturday's funeral of the late Zhao Ziyang, former chief of Chinese Community Party. Ding's son was killed in the bloody crackdown on unarmed protesters around Tiananmen Square in 1989, when Zhao was in power. The Tiananmen Mothers Network has played a crucial role in advancing the idea of accountability for human rights abuses in China. Founded in the aftermath of the June 4, 1989 massacre in Beijing, the network has made extraordinary efforts to establish a true picture of what happened by documenting the cases of people who were killed or wounded. It has provided moral support for the victims' families, and pursued unprecedented legal action. Ding has suffered enormous persecution for her insistence on speaking the truth and calling for an end to impunity.

For more information, please go to: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/2005/01/27/china_zhao_dingzilin/

The World Movement for Democracy honored the Tiananmen Mothers Network, along with four other groups who have shown exceptional courage in their work for freedom and democracy, at the Second Assembly in São Paulo, Brazil, in November 2000. The more than 400 participants sent a message of solidarity and support to their fellow democrats who often struggle in near anonymity and isolation against some of the most difficult challenges to democracy and human rights around the world. For more information about the Democracy Courage Tributes at the Second Assembly, please go to: http://www.wmd.org/second_assembly/tributes.html

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If you do not have access to the Web and would like to access the materials mentioned above, please contact us by e-mail(world@ned.org)or fax (202-293-0755).

DemocracyNews is an electronic mailing list moderated by the National Endowment for Democracy as the Secretariat of the World Movement for Democracy.

Glosas Didacticas
Nº 8, PRIMAVERA 2002

TEACHING PEACE-PROMOTING VOCABULARY: A NEW FRONTIER
Francisco Gomes de Matos
(Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Brasil)

Ever since proposing the concept of "communicative peace" in 1991 (article: Using English for communicative peace: a pedagogical checklist, published in BRAZ-TESOL Newsletter, September, p.4), I have been probing the issue of teaching a peace-enhancing-promoting vocabulary, especially to teenagers and adults. Recently, under the auspices of Associação Brasil-América (a Binational Center in Recife) I conducted a couple of workshop-like demonstrations for a diversified audience, aimed at sensitizing them to the need for learning how to organize and use English words for peace. One of the outcomes of such experience is another Checklist, this time intended to help TESOLers start systematizing what I call "a humanizing vocabulary". I should clarify that in conducting Workshops, I have been emphasizing "using peace-promoting words in context", that is, in situations suggested by the participants themselves as they interact irenically ("irenic" is an adjective meaning that has to do with peace) in small groups.

To start organizing your teaching of a peace-promoting vocabulary, challenge yourself to:

1) Define/characterize " friendly language", " friendly use of a language", "use of English for peace". On the first concept, see David Crystal and Hilary Crystal's Words on Words. Quotations about Language and Languages (Penguin, 2000). Their section on "friendly language" subsumes words of apology, comfort, gentleness, praise, and tact". On a pioneering lexicographic treatment of the friendly use of English, see W.R. Lee's A Study Dictionary of Social English, published by Pergamon Press, 1993. Among the "social situations" covered: agreeing, approving, hoping, liking, praising, sympathizing. That book is not as well-known (and used...) by teachers and teacher-educators as it should be.

2) Make a list of your (and your students') favorite verbs which can enhance peace. As a source, I recommend Stephen Glazier's Random House Word Menu, published by Random House, 1997 (2nd ed). That creative -- alas, no longer with us -- dictionary-maker provides useful lists dealing with "agreement, applause, approval, encouragement, exaltation, flattery, praise, recognition, respect".

3) Select "positivizers" (a word I coined to express adjectives characterizing positive features in human beings). Significantly, ESL textbooks have started to give some attention to the use of human-dignifying vocabulary. My choice of exemplary contribution in that respect is Donna Price-Machado´s Skills for Success. Working and studying in English. Cambridge University Press, 1998. That American colleague (married to a very talented Brazilian musician) has a Chapter on "Developing a positive attitude" and a section on 'Defining personal strengths', in which almost 100 adjectives are listed for "increasing your self-confidence". Examples: assertive, capable, cheerful, competent, cooperative, efficient, enthusiastic, flexible, hardworking, high-achieving, innovative, knowledgeable, polite, responsible, trustworthy.

4) Select inspiring statements/quotations to be discussed by groups and to be probed (through text production, for instance). Some examples (taken from Crystal and Crystal) are "Kind words are a honeycomb, sweet to the taste, wholesome to the body" (Proverbs 16:24; Jerusalem Bible), "the music that can deepest reach, and cure all ill, is cordial speech" (Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1860, The Conduct of Life), "Good words cost naught" (Portuguese proverb) "A gentle word will make the argument strong" (Welsh proverb).

5) Select key-concepts used in the literature on Peace and Conflict Studies (there are important traditions: Peace Education (over 40 years old), Peace Psychology, and the emerging area of Peace Linguistics. This year, the TESOL organization (U.S.-based) established its own committee on TESOLers for Social Responsibility, devoted to global issues, among which human rights, justice, and peace. Also visit the UNESCO-FIPLV LinguaPax site at: www.linguapax.org.

Among the relevant concepts found in the works of Conflict Resolution researchers are: cooperation (the verb "cooperate" is a must for peaceful relations between/among persons, communities, nations), mediation, negotiation ("constructive negotiation" is a strategic phrase for diplomats and other peace negotiators), reconciliation, trust (self-trust, trust in each other/one another, and institutional trust) and last, but not least, EMPATHY.

This ever-inspiring psychological concept reminds us that, as humanizing teachers of English, we should do our best to use (and help our students to do so, too) English for cross-cultural understanding, for cooperation, for sharing (as for instance, sharing the grief of the American people over the loss of so many precious lives in New York and Washington, D.C.)

6) Activate the powerful vocabulary-improving strategy of "paraphrasing", by teaching different ways of expressing peace-loving attitudes, emotions, and feelings.

7) Evaluate materials (for possible adoption) in terms of their "communicative-peace value". To what extent do current printed and/or on-line materials contribute to helping make peace prevail both in the hearts and actions of all human beings?

May this brief piece be a plea for you to think of yourself as a Peace Patriot, by learning to teach English constructively, and by motivating your students to the vital importance of using that language - and all other languages - in deeply humanizing ways.8) Consider "how our enabling individuals to speak English and pass TOEFL tests enhance world peace and harmony", to quote Claire Kramsch in her timely, inspiring chapter on Intercultural Communication, in the thorough volume The Cambridge Guide to Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, edited by Ronald Carter and David Nunan, CUP, 2001, p.206*.May communicative peace be with you and your students!Since there is not as yet a Dictionary of Peace and Related Terms, to have an idea of the conceptual-terminological wealth of that area I would suggest that interested readers take a look at the Index of three current, important books: Peacebuilding for adolescents, edited by Linda Forcey and Ian Harris (New York: Peter Lang, 1999), The Handbook of Conflict Resolution, edited by Morton Deutsch and Peter Coleman (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2000) and Turbulent Peace. The Challenge of Managing International Conflict, edited by Chester Crocker, Fen Hampson, and Pamela Aall ( Washington, D.C., United Institute of Peace Press, 2001).

NOTA DEL EDITOR: Véase en este mismo número de GLOSAS DIDÁCTICAS el artículo del Dr. Gomes de Matos Direitos de aprendizes de línguas: uma lista para auto-avaliação pedagógica, así como la referencia de su último libro Comunicar para o bem.

Francisco Gomes de Matos (fcgm@hotlink.com.br)
(Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, Brasil)

Francisco Gomes de Matos shares with us the following message:

Dear friend,
I'd like to ask your help in forwarding this email to your network of friends and contacts you believe would want to help heal the wounds of war. I believe that even in the midst of a war, we need to think beyond wartime and work to heal those wounds that will lay the basis for further war, conflict, and suffering if they remain unaddressed. Hosting a Voices in Wartime House Party is one way to help millions of Americans understand this issue more deeply.
Thanks for your help,
Andy Himes, executive producer of Voices in Wartime
<http://www.voicesinwartime.org>

Nobody escapes unchanged.
Physical injuries show on the body. But the psychological injuries inflicted by violent conflict are harder to see. And that makes it hard for the injured (and their communities) to get the help they need to heal.
You can help.

Beginning February 15, you can host a Voices in Wartime House Party <http://www.voicesinwartime.org> or find one near you <http://www.voicesinwartime.org>.

As the Iraq War continues, the numbers of returning veterans and civilians suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) grow. Millions of veterans and civilians from other conflicts still suffer from the psychological injuries of war. And when some in society are suffering from PTSD, the whole society is affected.

* PTSD symptoms can include intense panic, grief, anger, uncontrollable memories of the trauma, emotional numbing, and anxiety that affects sleep, concentration, and intimacy. (Source: National Center for PTSD).
* Up to 17% of U.S. Iraq veterans are already suffering from PTSD. Symptoms can appear months after exposure, so experts predict higher numbers post-war. (Source: New England Journal of Medicine & National Center for PTSD).
* Up to 38% of civilian survivors of war suffer from PTSD (in Algeria, Cambodia, Gaza, and Ethiopia). (Source: Journal of American Medicine).

"Let's get it right this time."
<http://www.voicesinwartime.org>

The 18th Annual Conference of the German Peace Psychology Association
(Forum Friedenspsychologie e.V.) will be held from Friday, June 10,
2005, 17:00, to Sunday, June 12, 2005, 13:30, in Erlangen, Germany. The
conference title is

"Psychological Contributions to Peace and Justice: Current Challenges."

The aim of the conference is to take stock of important present and
future fields of peace psychology in research and professional work. As
a background, two keynote talks will be held. Gert Sommer (University of
Marburg, Germany) will speak about 20 years of German peace psychology
in retrospect, and Ed Cairns (University of Ulster, Northern Ireland)
will speak about current and future challenges of peace psychology from
an international perspective. Conference languages are English and German.

We call for empirical and theoretical papers from all fields of
psychology that can contribute to peace and justice. Papers may be
submitted in English (preferred) or German. For each talk 30 minutes
including discussion time are scheduled. Submitted papers will be
screened with regard to their general appropriateness and grouped with
related papers to thematic sessions. Please submit your contributions,
including a summary of approximately 500 words, as soon as possible,
preferably electronically at

http://www.sozialpsychologie.phil.uni-erlangen.de/ -> Tagung
Friedenspsychologie.

There you will also find further up-to-date information on the
conference. The deadline for paper submissions is April 15, 2005.

Participation fee is 10,- € for students an persons with low income,
30,- € for members of the Forum Friedenspsychologie, and 40,- € for
nonmembers.

You may find information on accommodation at http://www.erlangen.de ->
City-Tourist-Info. There are a number of hotels and guesthouses in the
city center. Places near the conference venue include the hotel
"Altmann's Stube" (tel. 0049-9131-89160; single 53-75 €, double 86-100
€) and the municipal guest house ("Freizeitzentrum Frankenhof"; tel.
0049-9131-862555; single to three-bed rooms, 18,50-23 € incl.
breakfast). The youth hostel (tel. also 0049-9131-862555; 15 € incl.
breakfast) is open to people under 27 years. Please contact me if you
need any help.

Dr. J. Christopher Cohrs
Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
Social Psychology Section
Bismarckstr. 6
91054 Erlangen
Germany
Tel. 0049-9131-8522757
Fax 0049-9131-8522951
E-Mail: crcohrs@phil.uni-erlangen.de

Psychologists for Social Responsibility and Counselors for Social Justice invite you to submit a proposal to make a presentation at their 2005 conference:
"Beyond Talk: Tools and Training for Advocacy and Social Action
For Psychologists, Counselors, Social Scientists,
Educators, and Activists"
7 pm, Thursday, May 19 -­ Noon, Sunday May 22, 2005
Lewis & Clark College, Portland, Oregon
Deadline for proposal submissions: February 15, 2005

Submissions are invited from students, new and seasoned professionals, and activists from related fields. All presentations, regardless of format, should have clear relevance to psychologists, counselors, social scientists, and mental health professionals, educators, and students, and include at least two of the following elements:

-- Transfer of skills for advocacy and activism
-- Opportunity for dialogue and sharing of experience
-- Participation of clients / “survivors” and/or inclusion of grassroots community voices and experiences
-- Description of specific roles for psychologists and counselors in connection with a change process
-- Demonstration of how the inclusion of a psychological analysis of a social problem or issue would lead to different change strategies
-- A case study providing opportunity for critical reflection on a project
-- Potential to be included in written form in a manual on advocacy and activism (presentations may be submitted for possible inclusion in a manual on roles for psychologists and counselors in peace and social justice activism)

The following themes and topics are mentioned as examples to illustrate the scope of the conference:

BASIC UNDERSTANDINGS AND SKILLS
Theory, history, and practice of social movements
Facilitating effective political meetings
Participatory action research
Leadership development
Avoiding burnout, maintaining hope
Nuts and bolts of fundraising
Addressing political polarization
Conflict transformation techniques
Strategies for deep democracy
Influencing public policy
Debates about effective protest strategies
Organizing for international solidarity
The psychology of activism
Strategies for inter-organizational collaboration on campaigns
Strategies for collaborating with community members in advocacy
Direct and indirect client advocacy in schools and communities
Influencing Congress and legislative bodies
Work with the media: Psychological angles
Integrating advocacy and activism into curricula
Effective use of the internet and related technologies
Philosophy and practice of nonviolent resistance
Organizing students: e.g., the Graduation Pledge
The role of critical social theory in relation to praxis; critical psychology
Interfaith and cross-cultural dialogues

MAJOR ISSUES
Halting nuclear proliferation and militarism
Human rights work (of all sorts)
Psychosocial work with post-conflict communities
Strategies for transforming human services into advocacy institutions
Peace education
GLBT activism
Racism
Consumerism, voluntary simplicity
Confronting enemy images
Reconfiguring training for socially-transformative human services
Prevention of youth violence
Transforming the prison-industrial complex
Resisting oppression in the mental health system
Ecological psychology practices and other environmental work
Corporate social responsibility, e.g., the TIAA-CREF campaign
Globalization, poverty, structural violence

Possible formats include:
-- Structured Workshop (1 or 2 hours) for Continuing Education units
-- Workshop (1 hour)
-- Brief presentation (20 minutes total)
-- Conversation hour or facilitated dialogue (1 hour)
-- Innovative format (poetry, art, music, film, drama, etc.)

Questions about appropriate formats and presentations may be addressed to psysr2005@psysr.org.

Send proposal by February 15, 2005 as Microsoft Word attachment to psysr2005@psysr.org containing the following information:

Presenter's name, affiliation, address, phone numbers, email address (if more than one presenter, send all names and addresses and indicate primary contact person)
-- Format (from above list)
-- Title
-- 100-word abstract for conference program
-- 30-word self-description of each presenter for conference program
-- Other information as necessary to provide rationale or background
-- Audiovisual needs

Note: If you plan to offer a one- or two-hour workshop for CEUs for psychologists, counselors, educators, and social workers, include three or more concrete learning objectives.
Notification of acceptance will be sent by email by February 28, 2005. All presenters will be required to register for the conference.

Tod Sloan, Ph.D., Co-Coordinator
Psychologists for Social Responsibility
E-mail: sloan@psysr.org
Website: http://www.psysr.org

Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela (2003). A Human Being Died That Night: A South African Story of Forgiveness. Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin

This is a book about Eugene de Kock, South Africa's most notorious perpetrator of atrocities during the apartheid era.

This book has been published in the United States, South Africa, and The Netherlands. Gobodo-Madikizela received the prestigious Alan Paton Award for non-fiction for this book in South Africa, and the Christopher Award for adult non-fiction in the United States.