All posts by CPNN Coordinator

About CPNN Coordinator

Dr David Adams is the coordinator of the Culture of Peace News Network. He retired in 2001 from UNESCO where he was the Director of the Unit for the International Year for the Culture of Peace, proclaimed for the Year 2000 by the United Nations General Assembly.

Film: Truth, Deception and the Spirit of I.F. Stone

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A film review from allgovernmentslie.com

Independent journalists Jeremy Scahill, Glenn Greenwald, and Michael Moore expose government lies and corporate deception, inspired by the legendary investigative journalist I.F. Stone.

All Governments Lie: Truth, Deception, and the Legacy of I.F. Stone, is a
theatrical documentary created by a team of Emmy Award-winning filmmakers, who subscribed to I. F. Stone’s newsletter in their teens.

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A copy of I.F.Stone’s weekly, copied from the website for I.F.Stone’s archives
(click on photo to enlarge)

“I. F. Stone’s Weekly” inspired us then, and compels us now to tell the story of a new wave of independent, investigative, adversarial journalists following in Stone’s footsteps.

We hope this film will inspire the next generation of independent journalists, many of whom are now in college, to carry on I.F. Stone’s legacy of speaking truth to power.

This film will change the way you look at the mainstream media or “MSM”. Giant media conglomerates are increasingly reluctant to investigate or criticize government policies – particularly on defense, security and intelligence issues.

They are ceding responsibility for holding governments and corporations accountable to the independent journalists and filmmakers who risk their careers, their freedom and their lives in war zones – to expose the truth.

With government deception rampant, and intrusion of state surveillance into private life never more egregious, independent voices like Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill, and Amy Goodman are crucially important. All three are inspired by the iconoclastic rebel journalist named I. F. Stone, whose fearless, independent reporting from 1953 to 1971 filled a tiny 4-page newsletter which he wrote, published, and carried to the mailbox every week.

Stone is little known today, but All Governments Lie will reveal the profound influence he’s had on contemporary independent journalists like Greenwald, Scahill, Goodman and others.

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Tabling for peace in the USA: A new sense of urgency

. .DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION. .

by David Adams, City of New Haven Peace Commission

There is a new sense of urgency in the conversation with people passing by and stopping at the table for the Peace Commission at the Farmer’s Market in New Haven. “We’ve got a lot more work to do, now that Trump has been elected,” this is a common refrain. “Now, more than ever, we need to work together for peace.”

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First two pages of Peace Commission brochure
Click on image to enlarge

We are getting the same reaction of urgency in the interview of local activists as we compile the annual report for the Commission, The State of the Culture of Peace in New Haven. It is not only a discussion of what happened in the city during 2016, but even more so, what we need to be doing in 2017 and beyond. As one person remarked, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”

The Peace Commission has been part of city government in New Haven for almost 30 years now, but there is the feeling that we have to increase our outreach and involve new people, new ideas, and, above all, new actions. It is no longer enough to hold a few ceremonies a year for Hiroshima Day and International Peace Day. We need to be out there on the front lines for the defense of human rights, for the development of restorative justice and sanctuary cities and affordable housing, which are necessary if we are to have peace in our community.

The new brochure that we are handing out (see image above) includes a letter from our mayor that invites New Haveners to join the Commission and contribute new ideas and actions to promote all of the aspects of the culture of peace: human rights, peace education, sustainable development, democratic participation, equality of women, tolerance and solidarity, free flow of information, and disarmament and public safety.

The brochure ends by saying that we want to “make New Haven a model for cities across America and around the globe to change the world from its cuture of war and violence to a cutlure of peace and nonviolence.

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Colombia: Processes of pardon and reconciliation in the Magdalena Centro Department

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An article from the Magdalena Centro Development Program for Peace (translated by CPNN)

The Development Program for Peace of Magdalena Centro (PDPMC), now in its eleventh year of management in the territory, has focused its institutional capacity to favor scenarios that seek the construction of peace from different spheres, involving all the people. With them, strategies and work dynamics have been developed with the aim of promoting the recovery of the trust, networks and social fabrics that were broken down by the violence that they had to suffer.

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In this way, the PDPMC in coordination with the Foundation for Reconciliation, dynamizes in the territory the Schools of Pardon and Reconciliation (ESPERE), helping participants reinterpret the painful events that have limited the enjoyment of their lives, so that they can overcome the suffering and the painful memory of what happened.

The strategies of ESPERE are key elements that seek to rescue the individual from their pain, to restore security and confidence in themselves and in their relationships with others. This exercise also seeks to build capacities and to form “Leaders animators” in the territory who can then promote a political culture of pardon and reconciliation.

These exercises allow them to go forward in their process of overcoming the violent past to the point of feeling and calling themselves victorious; It provides needed support that can serve as a first impulse, contributing a grain of sand, so that they can overcome and then contribute from the Magdalena Centro to the construction of peace in Colombia.

The goal is that the people can involve strategies of pardon and reconciliation as elements of their life, understanding that if they are promoted as ways of living, they will humanize the everyday acts of people, valuing and seeking primarily the preservation of life.

As an end result, the PDPMC has the firm hope and confidence of not hearing more stories of violence; always with the conviction that peace is better than war, as well as dialog and the collective construction of solutions to the natural confrontations of people, recognizing that human processes build on differences to develop individual and collective relations.

(Click here for a Spanish version of this article

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Colombia: Juntos por la Paz, the youth collective that dialogues about peace in the Department of Cesar

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An article from El País Vallenat (translated by CPNN)

85 students from eight public educational institutions in La Jagua de Ibirico, Becerril and El Paso and two corregimientos, La Victoria de San Isidro and La Loma, held the 2016 closing event of the collective Juntos por La Paz, an initiative of the Prodeco Group that trains young students in peace issues in the context of the Colombia Postconflict peace process.

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The closing event of the year was held at the auditorium Centro Virtua of La Jagua de Ibirico, and was attended by young students and the presence of Amaury Padilla, director of the Development and Peace Program of Cesar, who was in charge of a workshop on care and self-care in peacebuilding.

Throughout the year, students were formed into working groups for the production of a radio program to combat disinformation about the process of Peace Talks held between the FARC-EP and the National Government and to promote values ​​for peace.

In total, 20 radio programs were produced. They were broadcast on Energy 96.7 and half of these (10) in Caracol Radio Valledupar. For this, it was necessary to consult more than 15 sources of information, including Governors, Mayors; Representatives of National and Local Government and professionals in different social areas, such as psychologists, pedagogues and teachers. In their work as program reporters, a total of 25 interviews were conducted.

The students also held two days of reading and studying the first final agreement between the National Government of Colombia and the FARC EP. This promoted responsible and informed voting on the referendum.

Thanks to their participation in the group, the young people started activities to promote healthy coexistence inside and outside their educational institution, activities that included civic marches, socialization meetings with adults and parents and play for children.

(Click here for a Spanish version of this article

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Colombia: Creating a model of Territorial Peace in the Valle del Cauca, supported by the United Nations

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An article from the website of the Government of the Cauca Valley (translated by CPNN)

The United Nations and the Government of the Valley, have made final adjustments to what will be the territorial peace model in the Department, which is a joint commitment of the Governor, Dilian Francisca Toro and this international body.

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During a meeting between representatives of the United Nations Development Program and the work team of the Secretariat of Peace of the Valley, headed by Fabio Cardozo, defined the criteria to develop programs and actions to be implemented within the component of Territorial peace, to be executed through a $ 6 million agreement, provided by the Department and UNDP.

Irina Marún Meyer, coordinator of territorial projects of the United Nations, highlighted the institutional work that will be done in municipalities and productive projects with victims of the armed conflict. She explained that “we are going to consolidate the Municipal Peace Councils, the Municipal Councils of Transitional Justice and the bodies that must be strengthened to form the network of peacebuilding strategy at the municipal level. Also we are identifying and characterizing organizations of victims that have a potential to develop productive projects “.

On the other hand, Mauricio Cas, UNDP territorial peace adviser, emphasized the institutional commitment of the Governor, Dilian Francisca Toro, to elevate the former Ministry of Peace of the Valley to the Secretariat, within the new organic composition of the Department.

“It seems to me a very important gesture of the Governor and the Departmental Government that will allow the Department to assume the commitment of the state in the face of the problem of victims and other types of problems arising from the situation of armed conflict,” said Cas.

On this issue, Secretary of Peace Fabio Cardozo said that “this strengthens our dialogue with communities, with institutions and with mayors.”

Considering the Territorial Peace initiative, he said that “it is one of the pillars of the Development Plan and has a strategy for investment, social, cultural processes, infrastructure and work articulated with the mayors.”

The Development Plan is the mandate that the Vallecaucans gave to the Governor, Dilian Francisca Toro, where attention to the victims is a priority. ” The United Nations Development Program and works for peace in 177 countries and territories and one of them will be the Valle del Cauca.

(Click here for a Spanish version of this article

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Antioquia, Colombia: Young people united by a Territorial Peace!

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An article from the Fundación Mi Sangre (translated by CPNN)

We welcome our new project “Young Builders of a Territorial Peace” supported by the Ford Foundation and executed by the Prodepaz Corporation, which will last for 3 years. Twenty municipalities of Antioquia will be part of this initiative which will empower young people as agents of change to actively contribute to the construction of a Territorial Peace.

antioquia

The municipalities that are part of the project are: In Zona Bosques; Cocorná, San Francisco, San Luis and Puerto Triunfo; In Zona Paramo; Sonsón, Algeria and Nariño; in Zona Porce Nus; Maceo, Caracolí, San Roque and Santo Domingo; and in the Zona Altiplano; Rionegro, La Unión, La Ceja, El Retiro, Carmen de Viboral, El Peñol, Concepción and San Vicente.

The purpose is to train 848 young people, 90 significant adults and 240 boys and girls. Participants will strengthen their leadership skills, through our PAZalobien Change Leadership methodology, and likewise receive knowledge for working in organizations. Young people will not only be trained to be leaders, but also trainers, since the idea is for them to replicate what they have learned in the methodology with the children of their municipalities. They will also learn about issues of digital communication and citizen journalism that will allow them to recognize problems in their territories and influence through alternative communication tools and the Network of Young Peace Builders.

At present, there have been closer ties with social organizations, youth secretaries, educational institutions, and public and private entities. 15 youth groups are already working on the methodology and are carrying out diagnoses of their territories.

(Click here for a Spanish version of this article

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Mexico: Sixteenth National Congress of Mediation inaugurated in Tlalnepantla

EDUCATION FOR PEACE .

An article from Cadena Política (translated by CPNN)

Tlalnepantla, Mexico.- At the inauguration of the XVI National Congress of Mediation, Mayor Denisse Ugalde Alegría reiterated the commitment that her 2016-2018 administration has to consolidate Tlalnepantla as a municipality with a culture of peace and in this way prevent violence and crime .

mediation

Addressing the national and international speakers who gathered at the Centennial Theater, the mayor affirmed that it is essential that local governments make mediation and conciliation a public policy in order to confront the speeches of hatred, conflict, intolerance and aggressiveness that day by day gain ground on a global level.

“It is in the municipalities where the real transformations that the country requires are achieved, which is why from the beginning of this administration we have worked to promote mediation as an alternative way of solving conflicts, aiming at achieving our objective,” she said. She thanked Jorge Pesqueira Leal, president of the Institute of Mediation of Mexico, for allowing Tlalnepantla to host this congress in which for four days specialists in the subject exchange experiences that contribute to a culture of peace.

Denisse Ugalde recalled that this municipality arose originally from the conciliation of two cultures, and that continue to work daily work on this matter. Proof of this is that so far this year more than 1,300 people have been trained in courses to have the basic tools to be conciliators and to resolve conflicts peacefully in their communities.

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(click here for the Spanish version)

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Mediation as a tool for nonviolence and culture of peace

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For his part, Jorge Pesqueira acknowledged the efforts that the local government has made to establish the Municipal Public Mediation and Conciliation Center and thus to promote restorative justice among citizens.

He pointed out that this congress will be a space for the transmission of knowledge, reflection and, mainly, generation of ideas, which will contribute to boost the work that the municipal government carries out in this matter.

Carlos Preza Millán, State Undersecretary of Government, said that for the State of Mexico it is an honor that Tlalnepantla is the seat of this XVI National Congress, since this locality was a pioneer in creating the Municipal Mediation Center, in which alternative dispute resolution methods are applied. He stressed that Governor Eruviel Avila Villegas has a great interest in this matter, always thinking about the welfare of Mexicans and strengthening the rule of law.

Partipants in the inauguration included Sergio Javier Medina Peñaloza, president of the Judicial Power of the State of Mexico; Jorge Alberto Zorrilla, head of the Federal Board of Conciliation and Arbitration; as well as Jorge Armando Chávez Enríquez, head of Municipal Justice and executive coordinator of the Congress. The authorities awarded the Medal of Peace and Concord to Martha Camargo, a judge of the Judiciary.

During the first day of work, Mayor Denisse Ugalde, Jorge Pesqueira and Lina Paola Rondón, adviser to the Presidential Adviser for Human Rights of Colombia, participated as speakers at the conference “Community mediation: Citizen Empowerment in Social Pacification and Prevention”.

EDUCATION FOR PEACE, Latin America

Bernard LaFayette Jr. Wins Gandhi Award

EDUCATION FOR PEACE .

An article from The Skanner written by University Press of Kentucky

University Press of Kentucky author Bernard LaFayette Jr., whose memoir In Peace and Freedom: My Journey in Selma was released in paperback earlier this year, has been awarded the 2016 Mahatma Gandhi International Award for Reconciliation and Peace. He is also co-editor of The Chicago Freedom Movement: Martin Luther King Jr. and Civil Rights Activism in the North.

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Bernard LaFayette Jr. stands with Martin Luther King Jr.

The award is presented by the Gandhi Development Trust: Promoting a culture of peace and non-violence . The GDT was founded in 2002 by Ela Gandhi, the social activist granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi. The Gandhi Development Trust’s mission is to promote a culture of peace, justice, non-violence, and ubuntu (human kindness); promoting Gandhian values of ahisma (non-violence), self-sufficiency, love, sarvodaya (good of all), compassion, and universality in order to reach their core vision of a peaceful, just, and non-violent world.

The Mahatma Gandhi International Award for Reconciliation and Peace was established in 2003 to honor people who have surmounted religious and ethnic obstacles to promote democracy, peace, and justice through non-violent measures. GDT believes that the award should not merely be seen as an annual event, but rather a catalyst for initiating non-violence, ubuntu, and nation building under the influence of non-violent leaders.

LaFayette was chosen as this year’s winner in recognition of his outstanding work towards the promotion of peace, reconciliation, and justice both locally and internationally in his capacity as a civil rights activist.

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Questions for this article:

Can peace be guaranteed through nonviolent means?

(Article continued from left column)

LaFayette’s memoir, In Peace and Freedom, recounts that career as an activist. He was a cofounder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), a leader in the Nashville lunch counter sit-ins, a Freedom Rider, an associate of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and the national coordinator of the Poor People’s Campaign.

At the age of twenty-two, he assumed the directorship of the Alabama Voter Registration Project in Selma—a city that had previously been removed from the organization’s list due to the dangers of operating there.

LaFayette was one of the primary organizers of the 1965 Selma voting rights movement and the Selma-to-Montgomery marches, and his memoir, written with Kathryn Lee Johnson, shares the inspiring story of his struggles there.

When he arrived in 1963, Selma was a small, quiet, rural town. By 1965, it had made its mark in history and was nationally recognized as a battleground in the fight for racial equality and the site of one of the most important victories for social change in our nation.

The award was presented on November 7, 2016, in Durban, South Africa.

(Editor’s note: See also the recent CPNN article, Tucson students learn ‘non-violence’ way of life amidst anti-Trump protests and its reference to the National Kingian Nonviolence Network, which was founded by Bernard Lafayette.

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Niger: Niamey opens a forum on the culture of peace through religious dialogue in the subregion

TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY .

An article in Mali Actu (Source: Xinhua News Agency) (translation by CPNN)

Education for the culture of peace through intra and inter-religious dialogue is at the center of a forum of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) since Tuesday in the Nigerien capital, Niamey, under the presidency of the Head of State of Niger Mahamadou Issoufou. This important meeting, which is in its first edition will last two days, welcomes the delegations of the 15 member countries of ECOWAS as well as important religious figures.

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Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou, Archive photo / REUTERS / Brian Snyder

According to President Mahamadou Issoufou, in his opening remarks, this forum comes at a time when the Sahelo-Saharan zone, notably the Lake Chad basin, faces terrorist threats. “In this region, people kill, rape and plunder in the name of Islam. Elsewhere, we are witnessing the exploitation of other religions for political, economic and social purposes, “he said.

In his opinion, it is therefore normal to promote education for the culture of peace through intra-and inter-religious dialogue in the ECOWAS region.

According to Nigeria’s Minister of Culture, Assoumana Malam Issa, the forum aims to guarantee the economic development and social integration of the fifteen member countries of ECOWAS, an area that today faces “political and social crises and tensions, both thnic and religious, that slow down the momentum in which this organization was launched.”

Several socio-cultural factors are at the root of the instability observed in the member states. They include “misunderstanding, interpreting and distorting precepts within religions, ignorance, injustice (real injustice or suspected), and mutual suspicion, as well as intolerance and extremism, the root causes of conflict.”

Thanks to the remarkable presence of the different religious confessions of the countries, it should be possible “to establish an interreligious dialogue, to bring about harmonious relations between the religions, to discuss the peaceful coexistence through the education of the faithful on the need to build a culture of peace, to inculcate in religious leaders a culture of interreligious dialogue of action in order to transform religious pluralism into a factor of social development “.

ECOWAS was established in 1975 to promote the socio-economic integration of States through the free movement of goods and persons. It comprises 15 member states namely Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Niger, Nigeria, Guinea Bissau, Senegal, Mali, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Togo, Cape Verde , The Gambia, Guinea-Conakry, and Ghana.

(Click here for the original French version of this article)

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Tucson students learn ‘non-violence’ way of life amidst anti-Trump protests

EDUCATION FOR PEACE .

An article by Monica Grimaldo for Tucson News

A rash of nationwide protests against president-elect Donald Trump have brought out thousands of demonstrators and now, Tucson students between the ages of 11 and 16 are learning how to better understand the ‘nonviolence way of life’ to apply when planning action to defend human rights. Students from several Tucson school districts are participating in a two-day introduction to the Kingian Nonviolence training program, which aims to “institutionalize and internationalize nonviolence.”

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Clip from video on article website
Click on photo to enlarge

It’s being led by the Nonviolence Legacy Project, a youth leadership program affiliated with the Culture of Peace Alliance. “The workshop is particularly timely given that many people are taking to the streets and looking for ways to peacefully and powerfully indicate their concerns and fears about the upcoming administrative change,” said Ann Yellott with the Culture of Peace Alliance.

Participants are learning how to gain additional knowledge about how nonviolence was applied in several civil rights campaigns, including those seen in Montgomery, Nashville, Birmingham, and Selma.

“Helping our children be balanced and helping them to understand compassion for another, it’s not only a bullying issue, it’s a health issue,” said program manager Hassan Clement. “These kids are leaving a legacy for other kids.”

Sixteen-year-old Naomi Reyes, a student at Sunnyside High School, is one of the program’s participants and said she suffers from anger issues from time to time and hopes this program will help.

“There’s personal experience that involves violence and that’s another reason why I’m here,” said Reyes.

Caleb Bailey, 15, is a student at Cholla High School and says he wants to influence other students through this program. Though he wasn’t old enough to vote in this year’s election, it’s the lessons he’s learning that he hopes to keep forever.

“It can teach people how to get your word out without seeming like a thug or anti-Trump supporters or something,” he said. “It’s a way to articulate without seeming violent. Even though I’m young, I still think I can do something in the community. That’s what I really want to learn so when I get older, I know how to use nonviolence, and even now, so I can be a better person.”

For more information on the Culture of Peace Alliance’s Nonviolence Legacy Project, CLICK HERE.

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