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.

Coronavirus reveals need to bridge the digital divide

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION

An article from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)

The global crisis brought on by the coronavirus pandemic has pushed us further into a digital world, and changes in behaviour are likely to have lasting effects when the economy starts to pick up. But not everyone is ready to embrace a more digitized existence.

A new analysis from UNCTAD  maps the changing digital landscape since the last major global calamity, the 2008/09 financial crisis. It looks at how a digitally enabled world is working for some, but not all equally.

According to the analysis, the coronavirus crisis has accelerated the uptake of digital solutions, tools, and services, speeding up the global transition towards a digital economy.

However, it has also exposed the wide chasm between the connected and the unconnected, revealing just how far behind many are on digital uptake.  
 
“Inequalities in digital readiness hamper the ability of large parts of the world to take advantage of technologies that help us cope with the coronavirus pandemic by staying at home,” said UNCTAD’s technology and logistics director, Shamika Sirimanne.

“This situation has significant development implications that cannot be ignored. We need to ensure that we do not leave those who are less digitally equipped even further behind in a post-coronavirus world.”

The power of digital revealed

The analysis provides snapshots of how technology is being used as a critical tool in maintaining business and life continuity.

Measures to contain the coronavirus pandemic have seen more businesses and governments move their operations and services online to limit physical interaction to contain the spread of COVID-19.

Digital platforms are also thriving as consumers seek entertainment, shopping opportunities and new ways of connecting during the crisis.

“There are incredible positives emerging that show the potential of a digitally transformed world,” notes Ms. Sirimanne.

Digitalization is allowing telemedicine, telework and online education to proliferate. It is also generating more data on the expansion of the virus and helping information exchanges for research.

There has been a leap in teleworking and online conferencing, amplifying the demand for online conferencing software such as Microsoft Teams, Skype, Cisco’s Webex and Zoom, the analysis says.

According to Microsoft, the number of people using its software for online collaboration climbed nearly 40% in a week.

(Article continued in right column.)

Question related to this article:

Is Internet freedom a basic human right?

(Article continued from left column.)

In China, the use of digital work applications from WeChat, Tencent and Ding took off at the end of January when lockdown measures started to take effect.

Other benefits include using artificial intelligence to help find a cure and a significant shift to e-commerce, benefitting small and big businesses alike.

However not all technology companies are profiting and there are some serious consequences of the rush to online platforms. These include mounting security and privacy concerns, according to UNCTAD.

The downside and the digital divide

The fast-paced shift towards digitalization is likely to strengthen the market positions of a few mega-digital platforms, the analysis finds.

This finding echoes the conclusions drawn in UNCTAD’s 2019 Digital Economy Report, which pointed out that the world’s top seven digital platforms already accounted for two-thirds of the value of digital platforms globally in 2017.

They have benefitted from network effects and from their ability to extract, control and analyse data, then transform it into digital intelligence that can be monetized.

“This situation will now be amplified as more people come or are forced online due to the coronavirus crisis,” said Torbjörn Fredriksson, UNCTAD’s digital economy head. “Those that do not have access are at risk of being left further behind as digital transformation accelerates, especially those in least developed countries.”

The least developed countries (LDCs) are the most vulnerable to the human and economic consequences of the pandemic, and they also lag farthest behind in digital readiness.

Only one in five people in LDCs use the Internet, and in most developing countries, well below 5% of the population currently buy goods or services online.

Lack of Internet access at home also limits connectivity, cramping, for example, the possibilities for students to be connected if schools are closed. “The education gap may also expand in developing countries, compounding inequalities,” said Sirimanne.

Low broadband quality hampers the ability to use teleconferencing tools. Mobile data costs also remain expensive across the developing world.

A development opportunity?

The coronavirus pandemic’s ability to show fractures can, hopefully, be turned into an opportunity, said Ms. Sirimanne. “More developing countries are exploring e-commerce and other digital solutions that can help build local resilience to future shocks,” she said.

The main policy takeaway from the analysis is that much more attention should be given to bridging existing and emerging digital divides to allow more countries to take advantage of digitalization.

New policies and regulations are needed to ensure a fair distribution of the gains from digital disruptions.

“If left unaddressed, the yawning gap between under-connected and hyper-digitalized countries will widen, thereby exacerbating existing inequalities,” she added.

“As with the coronavirus crisis and other development challenges, the world will need a coordinated multilateral response to deal with the challenge of digitalization.”

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION, global, HUMAN RIGHTS, United Nations,

Nobel Laureate Mairead Maguire: Do Not Be Afraid…. All Will Be Well….

TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY .

An editorial on April 9 in Transcend Media Service (Editorials and articles originated on TMS may be freely reprinted, disseminated, translated and used as background material, provided an acknowledgement and link to the source)

We, as a human family, are living in extraordinary times but must not be afraid. Many people are traumatized as they face the shock and pain of a new virus called Corona Covid 19, which is spreading rapidly around the world, snatching the lives of loved ones.

The virus has forced scientists and health care experts in laboratories around the world to work for a life-saving vaccine. In the meantime, medical experts and political leaders are cooperating to face the challenges, both personally and collectively, to deal with this pandemic. The new virus has changed the world we live in literally overnight and even though it will pass in time, things will never be the same. We have been told by health officials, scientists and government leaders to stop shaking hands, self-isolate, stay at home, and in some cases whole cities are in lockdown to help stop the spreading of this disease. To all those who have lost loved ones, I express my deepest sympathy and to those suffering sickness my prayers go out to you.

We are all inspired and give thanks to health workers putting their own lives at risk on the front lines, doing their duty with love, and taking care of the sick and dying in societies all over the world.  We can NEVER thank enough the carers in the British National Health Service for their sacrifice (many have died) in the service of others. I am sure the best way to thank the carers and the NHS is for us all to demand that governments throughout the world put their citizens’ health care on top of government policies in ‘Health Budgets’.

If this virus has done anything, it has reminded us that we are only human and very vulnerable; we need each other to survive and thrive.  If anything, this virus hopefully will cement the opinion that we are All One, brothers and sisters; what affects one affects all.  Hopefully, it will create a greater sense of community and solidarity within the human race in addition to respect for each other, for nature and the universe. We will become more aware that we are interconnected, interdependent, cooperation and solidarity being key to human and environmental survival. We have seen countries that have shown great compassion towards others and a willingness to help other nations.  This may be our greatest hope and foundation to build upon for more cooperation.

But it is with great sadness that we watch the build-up of military forces and increased isolation and destruction by some of International Treaties such as Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, Climate Change Agreements, and Universal Declaration of Human Rights, etc.

However, we can take inspiration and get hope from countries such as China, Russia, and United States, cooperating to fight Covix 19.   This hopefully is a foundation where Superpowers can work closer together.   It is only with cooperation and solidarity that the human race will defeat the virus as we have many challenges ahead such as food shortages, global warming, pandemics, ethnic conflicts, but leaders, people, settling up structures to share information, resources, across the globe can work will achieve great things for humanity.

(continued in right column)

Question related to this article:
 
How can we work together to overcome this medical and economic crisis?

Are economic sanctions a violation of human rights?

(continued from left column).

There should be no enmity between nations but rather a spirit of generosity and magnanimity across the globe; this is not only the right thing to do, but it is in all our interests that this virus be eradicated as soon as possible. Government policies of sanctions, militarism, nuclear weapons and war must be radically replaced by government policies that put their citizen’s health – both physical and mental – on top of the political agenda.

Government policies which are hampering their own and other countries ability to cope with Coronavirus should be changed immediately. The USA could lift sanctions placed on Iran, North Korea, Cuba, etc., and all 54 countries where these sanctions bring death and destruction to citizens, leaving their governments with no money for medicine and food or to help them cope with the coronavirus.  For too long governments have squandered taxpayers’ money building military complexes and enforcing the West’s colonial system onto the developing world.

The USA spends over 600 billion on the military every year, and has 700 military bases around the world.   The U.K. recently ordered three new nuclear submarines which are expected to cost around 60 billion pounds and yet we see the National Health Service facing a 15% budget reduction over the last ten years.  For too long the taxpayers footed the bill for too many wars that have only served to enrich the elite at the top l% of our societies.  We are told these wars are for our benefit but the poor get poorer while the rich get richer.  Large corporations share the business, the assets and wealth seized in war and paid for by taxpayers who increasingly don’t see a share of the world’s wealth.

Through violence, sanctions and war, we export a version of colonialism to poorer countries forcing mass migration and poverty (including famine and starvation in some countries)  in the developing/underdeveloped world.  It is time we hold governments to account and put to bed our colonial past.  Our civil societies need to question where is our tax money going. People of all countries need to unite to demand better governance, transparency and accountability from our political leaders and international organizations.  Too long have we the people been divided; we need to unite and create a better, stronger human society that sees neighbour not as threats but as brothers and sisters.

Another policy to be changed is to cancel Third World debts, such as from Bangladesh, to help protect their country from flooding that would cause millions to flee to safety.  The Secretary General has called for a Global Ceasefire (meaning governments and non-state fighters) to be observed in order to help governments to implement the UN Development Goals to be reached.   He has offered his ambassadors and diplomatic core to help mediate peace agreements, etc.

This pandemic, among other causes, will force a recession. Government policies of putting the peoples’ tax money into bankers and the military industrial complexes, in many countries, have reached a tipping point and rightly people are demanding social equality and justice.  It does not go unnoticed by the public everywhere that the bankers, corporations, and rich get the tax breaks and bailouts while the majority of people are left with no or low paid jobs (often two in a household working round the clock trying to survive without the basics of life).  Capitalism does not work, the system is broken, and we are all challenged to build a system of real democracy that works for everyone.

Many will not survive COVID-19.  There will be many families grieving for their loved ones, it will take a long time to recover, but a new consciousness has been born from this tragedy.  We cannot go back to the old ways. We need a revolution of values from selfishness and greed to values of kindness, economic justice, empathy, compassion, equality and taking care of each other.  We need to construct nonkilling, nonviolent societies built on forgiveness (which is the key to peace). Only by dedicating our lives to building such a world, can we build a monument of love to all those who have died and to all those on the front line of saving other people’s lives.

We are at a turning point in history of the human race.  We can grasp this opportunity for change and build a civilization with a heart and give hope to millions.  Let’s join together with the youth and take this quantum leap of faith and love into the future.  Such a world is possible, there is hope for humanity. And in the words of the great English mystic, Julian of Norwich, let us believe that ‘All will be well; all manner of things will be well.’

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, global, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY

Sabadell, Spain: Ensuring intercultural mediation and interfaith dialogue

.. DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION ..

A report from the Council of Europe

The Intercultural city aims at building its policies and identity on the explicit acknowledgement that diversity can be a resource for the development of the society.

The first step is the adoption (and implementation) of strategies that facilitate positive intercultural encounters and exchanges, and promote equal and active participation of residents and communities in the development of the city, thus responding to the needs of a diverse population. The Intercultural integration policy model is based on extensive research evidence, on a range of international legal instruments, and on the collective input of the cities member of the Intercultural Cities programme that share their good practice examples on how to better manage diversity, address possible conflicts, and benefit from the diversity advantage.

This section offers examples of intercultural approaches that facilitate the development and implementation of intercultural strategies.

(report continued in right column)

Questions for this article:

How can culture of peace be developed at the municipal level?

How can different faiths work together for understanding and harmony?

(report continued from left column)

The city of Sabadell [Spain] has a municipal mediation system which deals with all kind of conflicts and situations, including intercultural mediation. Intercultural mediation and dynamization is provided by two professionals from the Council: one profile works with Maghrebian people and the other with Sub-Saharan people. The service is offered to professionals from the different municipal services (social services, education, economic promotion, housing, etc.) as well as to supra-municipal institutions (hospital, ambulatories, etc.) and to entities and associations that require it. In addition, mediators provide accompaniment whenever necessary, to various external services (social security, tax, courts, etc.).

Regarding Interreligious Dialogue, there is a specialised person at the Department of Civil Rights and Gender who offers support to the activities implemented by the different confessions, provides advice on the establishments of new worship centres and deals with the administration (other departments) especially in topics related with activity licenses or building new centres. This person also coordinates the Table of Religious Beliefs, a space for debate, which reflects and seeks consensus in the areas of management of religious diversity in the city,  participates in the updating of the Map of Beliefs (see Good Practice), and year after year collaborates in the organisation of the Open Day for Worship Centres (see Good Practice). The table is a space for debate, reflection and consensus of all areas of management of religious diversity in the city.

In addition, the map of the diversity  of beliefs of Sabadell takes stock of all the communities, representatives of spiritual, religious or non-religious traditions, humanistic, present in the city, with information such as where their places of worship are, when they meet, how to contact, with whom you can talk, etc. Religions and humanistic currents, the common heritage of all citizens, have community and spiritual resources that, if properly managed, can contribute very positively to the achievement of a culture of peace and a more just society. The map is a tool to make them closer to each other and to encourage them to set up common projects. Everyone wins. Through this interactive map, a journey can be made through the cultural and religious diversity of the city. 

Finally, the Open day for worship centres  celebrated its 10th edition. The programme offers different activities to promote knowledge of religious diversity and freedom of conscience, combating mistrust, favoring coexistence and posing in common the values on which these beliefs are based. The central activity consists of a guided tour and open doors to various worship centres in Sabadell.

DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION, Europe, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY

Intercultural Cities: Raseborg, Finland, testing solutions to Covid crisis

.. DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION ..

A report from the Council of Europe

In the wake of the Covid-19 crises, municipalities across the globe are taking action to serve their residents under the new conditions. This is also the case in Finland, where cities have found new innovative ways of sharing information and utilising already existing services, as well as learn from each other. One example of services offered can be found in the municipality of Raseborg, where a number of actions have been taken, including:

Questions for this article:

How can culture of peace be developed at the municipal level?

How can we work together to overcome this medical and economic crisis?

Finland is famous for the school lunch which is served to all students until high school. At the moment, schools are working remotely. Losing this daily meal service places added economic strain on families. To assist, the municipality now offers the opportunity for families with children to reach out to receive the daily meal delivered home.

In Finland, persons over 70 are asked to self-quarantine as a protective measure. The municipality calls residents over 70 to assess their needs and to inform them of the services available from the municipality (for example delivery of groceries).

Local youth centres are now available online when the physical locations are closed.

Offering online training programmes on their Facebook and also offer the opportunity to have a call with the sports leaders of the city for personalised training at home.

Do you know of good practices in other cities? The ICC is collecting new practices and policies created as a response to the Covid-19 crisis, with the aim of spreading the information to assist cities across the globe in managing the crisis. Contact us with ideas you wish to bring forward.

DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION, Europe, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY

US war against Venezuela: How can it be prevented?

. DISARMAMENT & SECURITY . .


US invasion of Panama in 1989: Is Trump trying to repeat this for Venezuela?
(click on image to see video)

The following email was sent by CPNN to its mailing lists on April 2, 2020:

I have never used this mailing list for anything except the CPNN bulletin.

However, the threat of Trump to make war against Venezuela demands a special and unique response from all of us.

Here are the sources:
Associated Press
Russian Television Website

For the moment, it seems that this news is being ignored by other commercial media.

If you are in the USA, I suggest you contact your senator with a message similar to the following:

Please use your influence in the Senate to prevent Trump from starting a war with Venezuela which could lead to World War III because of the support to Venezuela from Russia and China. Trump is trying to divert attention from the medical and economic crisis but he is producing a crisis that is even more dangerous.

If you are in a country that is in NATO or the UN Security Council, I suggest you contact your government with a message similar to the following:

Please use your influence in the [UN Security Council] [direction of NATO] to prevent Trump from starting a war with Venezuela which could lead to World War III because of the support to Venezuela from Russia and China. Trump is trying to divert attention from the medical and economic crisis but he is producing a crisis that is even more dangerous.

If you are not in one of the above countries, you can still urge your government to call a special session of the UN General Assembly to deal with the crisis.

Peace through struggle, and patience,

David Adams
CPNN coordinator

Here are the CPNN articles on this subject:
d-disarmament, Latin America

The U.S. Should Fight COVID, Not Venezuela

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

An article by Leonardo Flores published on April 7 in Common Dreams ( licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.)

On April 1, the Trump administration hijacked a COVID-19 press conference to announce the deployment of U.S. Navy vessels and other military assets towards Venezuela. According to Defense Secretary Mark Esper, “included in this force package are Navy destroyers and littoral combat ships, Coast Guard Cutters, P.A. patrol aircraft, and elements of an Army security force assistance brigade”, while General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, added that there are “thousands of sailors, Coast Guardsman, soldiers, airmen, Marines involved in this operation.” The pretext is a counter-narcotics operation to follow up on the Department of Justice’s March 26 indictment of President Nicolás Maduro and 13 others on narcoterrorism charges. This indictment is politically motivated  and has been critiqued in depth.


Venezuelan soldiers prepare for war… against COVID-19. (Photo: Twitter @Planifica_Fanb)

In between the sticks of indictments and the deployment, the Trump administration seemingly offered a carrot: a proposed “democratic transition framework” that would progressively see the sanctions lifted after the resignations of Maduro and Juan Guaidó, the installation of a “Council of State” and elections in which neither Maduro nor Guaidó can participate. This proposal, which is more of a poison pill than a carrot, was immediately rejected by Venezuelan opposition politicians and the government. The plan is unconstitutional, it violates Venezuelan sovereignty (insofar as it is a tacit acceptance that illegal sanctions imposed on the U.S. should be allowed to dictate the country’s domestic affairs), and it runs counter to the ongoing dialogue in Venezuela that is getting closer every day to establishing a new National Electoral Council and setting a date for legislative elections. Henri Falcón – a former opposition presidential candidate – criticized the plan and said an agreement cannot be imposed, that a “solution in Venezuela is between Venezuelans.” It was also called into question by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Eliot Engel, who called the approach “an utterly incoherent policy”, as it came days after the Department of Justice said nothing would stop them from moving forward with the narcoterrorism case.   

The Distraction from and Weaponization of COVID-19

It seemed as though Venezuela was finally moving forward towards a negotiated solution to its political crisis, yet the naval deployment may sabotage the dialogue, as it was partially designed to do. The other purposes of the deployment were to distract from COVID-19 at home and to take advantage of the epidemic in order to increase the pressure on the Maduro government.

It was a bizarre scene that played out on April 1 during the press conference announcing the deployment. CNN was covering the conference live, believing it to be about the pandemic; this belief was reasonable, as it was marketed as a coronavirus briefing and it came a day after that the government released an estimated COVID-19 death toll of anywhere between 100,000 to 240,000. As the White House argued that drug traffickers might exploit the virus, CNN cut away from the discussion of the “seemingly unrelated counternarcotics operations.” That night Twitter was flooded with #WagTheDog tweets, a hashtag indicating that Trump was trying to drum up a war to distract from the incompetent handling of the pandemic.

A senior Pentagon official even told Newsweek  that Trump was “using the operation to redirect attention.” By April 3, the White House was pitching the idea that fighting the drug trade would somehow help fight the coronavirus, leading military officials to express “shock” at the conflation between the war on drugs and COVID-19. Of course, as shown by recent events onboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt, whose captain was dismissed after the virus rapidly spread amongst his sailors, U.S. service members are being exposed to greater risk of contagion by this massive deployment to the Caribbean. They are exposed on crowded ships and they are exposed on land at the nine U.S. military bases in Colombia. This is especially true considering that in Colombia, the COVID-19 response has been so poor that in late March, one of the country’s two machines for analyzing the results of coronavirus testing was knocked offline for 24 hours.

(continued in right column)

Question related to this article:
 
US war against Venezuela: How can it be prevented?

(continued from left column).

Apparently, this risk is acceptable to the Trump administration, as it sees an opportunity to weaponize the pandemic, using the instability and chaos it is causing to further its regime change goals. William Brownfield, former U.S. ambassador to Venezuela and one of the architects of the regime change policy, characterized “the sanctions, the price of oil, the pandemic, the humanitarian crisis” and the migration of so many Venezuelans as a “perfect storm” to pressure Maduro with the “non-negotiable” offer that he must leave.

The Possible Consequences of the Naval Deployment

The Trump administration has not given details as to what “counter-narcotics operations” might look like off Venezuelan waters, but it is very clearly a provocation. There is also the possibility of false flag or false positives, in which any incident between the U.S. and Venezuelan navies could be used as a pretext to war, much like the Gulf of Tonkin incident was used to draw the U.S. into Vietnam.

There are other possible scenarios that could have devastating economic consequences. The Venezuelan government is concerned that everything from imports to oil exports could be intercepted or seized  by the U.S. Navy. This is a valid concern, as the Pentagon has claimed – without offering any evidence – that drugs are trafficked “using naval vessels from Venezuela to Cuba.” Given the U.S. government’s targeting and sanction of ships that transport oil from Cuba to Venezuela, it hardly beggars belief that Venezuelan oil tankers could be boarded by the U.S. military.

As piracy is apparently back in fashion, with the U.S., among other countries, seizing COVID-19 equipment that has already been paid for by smaller countries, it would not be surprising to see the U.S. seize Venezuelan oil or other assets on the high seas, particularly given Trump’s penchant for saying that other countries will pay for U.S. military expenditures (whether it’s the wall on the Mexico border, NATO security spending or the threatened plundering of Iraqi or Syrian oil). It is an open question whether the world would allow the Venezuelan people to essentially be starved by this type of blockade.

The Danger of Military Action

Trump has been threatening military action against Venezuela since August 2017 and a naval blockade since August 2019. The deployment of the Navy towards Venezuela is the first step in backing up both threats.  According to the AP, it is “one of the largest U.S. military operations in the region since the 1989 invasion of Panama to remove Gen. Manuel Noriega from power and bring him to the U.S. to face drug charges.” The indictment of Maduro also draws comparisons to Noriega, himself indicted on similar charges. Senator Marco Rubio – arguably the biggest backer of violent regime change in Washington – tweeted pictures of Noriega in a not-so-veiled threat to President Maduro  last year. The ties to Panama go even deeper: Attorney General William Barr and Trump’s Special Representative on Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, both worked for the Bush administration as it ramped the pressure up on Noriega.

Yet the overthrow of Noriega wasn’t achieved with sanctions, indictments or a naval deployment, it was achieved by a U.S. invasion. Furthermore, Venezuela isn’t Panama. It is a substantially bigger country, it is stronger militarily, it has important allies in China and Russia, and it counts with a 3-million-person militia.

This latter point is often overlooked or dismissed but understanding the seriousness of this militia is key to understanding the political landscape of Venezuela. In February 2019, as rumors swirled of a possible invasion from Colombia, members of the militia occupied key bridges along the border, fully prepared to risk their lives, as one militia member said in a recent documentary. The militia is part of the identity of chavismo, the left-wing revolutionary movement that backs Maduro and takes its inspiration from former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. For most on the left in Venezuela, there are no more than two degrees of separation from the militia: they either form part of it, they know someone in the militia, or they know someone who knows someone in the militia.

The implications of this should be evident: Venezuela has a substantial population that will resist any invasion or coup. This isn’t mere rhetoric; the biggest popular uprising in Venezuela of the past 30 years occurred on April 12 and 13, 2002, when Venezuela’s poor, working-class, black, brown and indigenous people took to the streets to demand the return of ousted president Hugo Chávez, reversing a right-wing coup within 48 hours. (Of note: Elliott Abrams was in the George W. Bush administration at the time and “gave a nod” to the coup, according to The Guardian.)

What this all means is that Venezuela won’t be like Panama, where there was little resistance. If the worst happens and a war breaks out, more apt comparisons would be Afghanistan, Syria or Iraq, countries in which the U.S. spent billions for regime change at a disastrous cost to human lives and regional stability. The Trump administration’s dangerous deployment should be challenged by Democrats and Republicans alike, but so far, no major politician has criticized the maneuver. Hopefully the American people will read the message of peace sent by President Maduro  and urge the U.S. government to fight covid, not Venezuela.

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, Latin America, North America,

Trailblazing Nobel Peace Laureate Betty Williams Dies in Belfast

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION

An article from the Nobel Women’s Initiative

Nobel peace laureate, Betty Williams, was a force of nature. She was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1976 alongside Mairead Maguire for their work for peace in Northern Ireland. Betty once said, “Fear’s contagious, but so is courage.” Looking back on all that she has accomplished, it couldn’t have been more true.


Photo courtesy of the PeaceJam Foundation.

Betty and Mairead met under tragic circumstances. Earlier that year Betty witnessed a horrible car crash. A runaway car driven by Irish Republican Army member Danny Lennon, who had been fatally shot while fleeing from British soldiers, crashed into a family of four who were out for a walk. All three children; Joanne, John, and Andrew, were killed. Betty immediately sprung into action, circulating petitions. In the process she met the children’s aunt, Mairead Maguire.

Determined to use this tragedy to push for an end to the violence, Betty and Mairead organized a peace march. More than 10,000 Protestant and Catholic women came to show their support. The following week, 35,000 people marched with Betty and Mairead, demanding an end to the violence in their country.

Alongside journalist Ciaran McKeown, the two women co-founded /Peace People, an organization dedicated to nonviolence in Northern Ireland and throughout the world. In the thirty years since the award, Williams devoted her life to working for peace around the world, and a movement to begin a reversal of thinking on how we deal with the injustices, cruelty and horror perpetuated on the world’s children.

(Article continued in the column on the right)

Questions related to this article:

Where in the world can we find good leadership today?

(Article continued from the column on the left)  
  
Betty was the head of the World Centers of Compassion for Children International, which was founded in 1997 in honour of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. She was also the Chair of Institute for Asian Democracy in Washington D.C. and a founding member of the Nobel Women’s Initiative. She was the recipient of dozens of honours, including the Schweitzer Medallion for Courage and the Eleanor Roosevelt Award.

Betty passed away on March 18 in Belfast. Her legacy and incredible work for peace  in Northern Ireland, and the rights of children in war everywhere, will never be forgotten. She will be greatly missed. We send our deepest condolences, solidarity and love to her family and friends at this difficult time.

Condolences from Fellow Laureates

“It is with the greatest sadness that I heard of the death of my friend and co-worker for peace Betty Williams. Betty was a woman of great courage with a passion for peace and a love and compassion for all children. Betty will be sadly missed but remembered lovingly by all of us who knew Betty. I felt privileged to know her as a great peace activist and friend.” – Nobel peace laureate, Mairead Maguire.

“Betty was a dynamo – a force of nature that left a big mark in the world. She will be missed.” – Nobel peace laureate, Jody Williams.

Read more tributes

Read this beautiful tribute from Nobel peace laureate Mairead Maguire at Peace People.

Read these touching words about Betty from His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Read moving obituaries from the New York Times  and the BBC.

Europe, FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION, global,

From Nazra for Feminist Studies (Egypt): A Letter of Solidarity; Together, We Stand in Solidarity..To Build

. WOMEN’S EQUALITY . .

A letter from Nazra for Feminist Studies (licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License)

At the present time, we and humanity as a whole are experiencing a new crisis, which can be considered the biggest crisis of our modern time. In these times, the world adopts a number of feminist values and convey them to the globe such as joining forces in times of fear, loss and build, collective responsibility and action towards our survival, international cooperation and collectiveness in order to understand and identify ways to overcome this crisis.

COVID-19 pandemic not only comes as a threat to our lives, but it threatens women by increasing the possibilities of discrimination and oppression against them. In light of this development, we reconsider the concept of survival for these women, while revisiting the different intersectionalities of women’s lives.

In this moment, we, women and feminists, are conscious of the magnitude of the fears, burdens and risks that we face.

Additionally, we realize that we have a significant role towards humanity in which history testifies for us playing this role in previous similar times. Moreover, we are aware of how to cooperate with others in order to develop values of feminist solidarity as well as our responsibilities toward each other’s and toward our causes.

(continued in right column)

Question related to this article:
 
How can we work together to overcome this medical and economic crisis?

Do women have a special role to play in the peace movement?

(continued from left column).

We are aware that together we can build bridges to cross over the fears and dangers and together we can build a new start in history for the feminist movement.

The feminist movement has continuously established feminist solidarity and collective action, while consolidating their values and disseminating them to the world through inspiring experiences. Most of these experiences reflect dedication, sacrifice and the adoption of collective survival values to enhance women’s lives. The feminist movements, wave after another have learned how to fight oppressive and discriminatory structures while being mindful of the intersectionality of women’s conditions. Moreover, they learned how to build and make progress out of major crises.

This message in such times is a reminder to ourselves and to feminist activists all over the world that we are aware of what to be done.

We know that this is a time to hold strongly to our values and causes, it is a time to share our experiences, to share our agonies and fears, to share awareness and develop it together, to exchange ideas, support and feminist solidarity, a time to build.

We know that this is a time to think about all the women who are now frightened and threatened and in need of our voices. A time to make sure that we listen to women and their experiences, and we know very well that these crises as they present pain to women, they provide them with resistance and resilience.

This time might constitute a new beginning, and we need to cooperate together and to evolve together in order to survive through various means and with an awareness that is shaped by us to present humanity with new rich values as we have always did that emanates from the continued act of resistance and dedication to defend women’s rights, while adhering to our feminist values.

(Thank you to Anwarul Chowdhury for calling our attention to this article.)

Mideast, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY, WOMEN'S EQUALITY

A global call from Palestine Action for the Planet

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

 An blog by Mazin Qumsiyeh in the Popular Resistance Blogspot

More and more people realize that the current global political and economic structures are unable to deal with global climate crisis, the endless conflicts, proliferation of WMD, and the increased frequency of pandemics. This is no longer just a question of morality and rights but a question of our survival as a civilization and as a planet facing mass extinction. erg,” he said.

World War II transformed our planet in ways not foreseen before, including creating instruments like the United Nations ostensibly to stop wars and conflict and encourage cooperation across borders. Yet we have had many wars and economic blockades and inequality that have killed tens of millions of people since 1945. A large part of this had to do with the flawed system created: the dominance of five nations at the UN, the presumption that challenges in 1945 would be the same as our challenges decades later, and the hegemony of the United States, then thought to be more benevolent than others as a policeman of the world. This hegemony includes the use of the US dollar in global trade and as a reserve currency even after the US dropped the Bretton Woods agreement in 1971. The IMF and World Bank instruments also drifted to become tools of hegemony and control.

This system, whether one thinks it worked for a while or not, is clearly unsustainable in the 2020s and beyond – an era of global challenges such as climate change and pandemics. The COVID-19 crisis shows clearly that we cannot continue in this system of supposed “growth” in certain national economies via rampant uncontrolled capitalism and hegemony of rich individuals and corporations who can and do usurp democracy, including via mass media. The rich thus got richer and the poor poorer even in supposedly rich countries. 

We humans of all backgrounds, living across this planet must work together to create new paradigms and systems. We collectively make this urgent call to restructure: not just to face this COVID-19 crisis, but to face climate change and future global challenges.

Boldly, we demand and will work towards these objectives:

1)  The institutions created following World War II were dominated by the five victors and now must be democratized and transformed to serve all people of this planet particularly the impoverished people. This can be done via votes proportional to populations and via ensuring collective global security.  A new program for a healthier global system can and must be developed with the widest participation of professionals and the general public. It will build on the excellent UN Sustainable Development Goals and other conventions such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Building on those is with the aim of sustainability and survival of our species and our fragile ecosystems. But communities and countries can also start such programs without waiting for change in the UN system.

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Question related to this article:
 
How can we work together to overcome this medical and economic crisis?

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2) Measuring development by GDP or the averaged PPP (GDP per person averaged at a national level) is a misleading approach and ignores human needs. We demand that governments do not burden future generations with debt and an illusion of growth that is profiting few at the expense of the many. The earth has plenty of resources and production to keep all of us healthy and well-fed when we reset our priorities towards: social services (the elderly and others in need), agriculture (especially permaculture), health, education, and research (technological advances that help sustainability).

3) Drastically reduce military spending (increasingly militarized police) and redirect to serve rather than kill and exploit people. Even a small fraction of the 1.8 trillion spent on the military annually would be enough to end hunger and cure pandemics.

4) We can choose to respond to crises without giving-up on our liberties. History has shown that national authorities remove our liberties in crises and then rarely return them in full. To address this, citizens must vote directly on certain issues and all measures must expire and be renewed, if need be, within a reasonable timeframe via a vote by citizens

5) Nationalism as a political organizational structure has run its course and like other systems before it (city-states, kingdoms, and empires) must now evolve into a new system to face new realities of global threats. The nature of a new system needs significant thinking, but it is clear that to respond to an increasingly global crisis (climate change and pandemics), we have to have both local empowerment and global systems of joint struggle and solidarity. A corollary of this is that certain natural resources such as the Amazon rainforest and oceans must be protected as a planetary resource, and not left to the whims of national systems that can shift quickly for greed and imperialism. Thus, we must strengthen local communities, particularly native people. Another corollary is that we must limit national authority and create new systems that challenge colonialism, racism, sexism, and exploitation.

6) We must abandon our consumerist ways by living simply and humbly and reducing our footprints on this earth. We aim for zero-waste, for using renewable energy, for growing our own food in our own communities, and for cleaner, and healthier environment for all of us (humans, fauna, flora).  Reduce, Recycle, Refuse Refuse. Reduce our use of water (e.g. via compost toilets, proper water management, etc.) and of material and supplies (living humbly). Reduce solid wastes, plastics, and fossil fuels (towards final elimination). Recycle what cannot be eliminated. But most significantly refuse the urge to shop (consumerism).

7) Decrease building of massive and much unneeded infrastructure like stadiums and dams and increase vegetation preferably with native trees and bushes.

8)   Reconnect to nature and learn from it. Ecosystem balance must be restored. We humans must recognize ourselves as part of nature and live in harmony with it.

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, Mideast

Covid-19: A new organization of the world is essential (Moroccan university professor)

. DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION .

An article from APA News (translation by CPNN)

Mr. Abdelmoughit Benmassoud Tredano, Professor of Political Science and Geopolitics at Mohammed V University in Rabat, provides an analysis of post-Covid-19 international relations, as well as the first lessons from the coronavirus crisis.

According to him, the crisis has only just begun with the collapse of the stock markets, the fall in the price of oil, against a background of war between the powers, and other more or less serious signals. “This is just the tip of the iceberg,” he said.

Now a new organization of the world is essential. First, at the individual, group and national level, individualism is outdated and solidarity is needed instead.

Also, an understanding of the uniqueness of humans and our common destiny must replace the carefree attitude of before. This certainly implies rethinking the organization of the world on all levels, in the sense of less globalization and above all the rehabilitation of the welfare state, predicts Pr. Tredano.

According to the Director of the Moroccan Journal of Political and Social Sciences and President of the Center for Research and Studies in Social Sciences (CRESS), a new organization of the world must be envisaged and new modes of production and distribution of wealth must be researched and applied. Suffice to say that a challenge to globalization is not only imperative but even beneficial.

“This is not a luxury but an essential and perhaps saving choice. Now we face the choice between the extinction of humanity and our survival. It may seem overwhelming and excessive, but the choice is there, “said the Moroccan academic, author of numerous works, books, articles and studies on internal and international political issues.

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(click here for the original version in French)

Question related to this article:
 
How can we work together to overcome this medical and economic crisis?

(continued from left column).

This is an opportunity as well as a crisis. The Covid-19 crisis “can have a virtue: that of allowing the planet a certain break,” he maintains. For him, what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and environmentalists could not impose on economic and financial policy makers, the crisis linked to this pandemic is, in part, realizing it.

Apparently, the air in the Chinese city of Wuhan is starting to be breathable; and the water in the canals of Venice (Italy) has become more transparent!

The coronavirus pandemic poses many challenges. Europe and the world are discovering that they all depend on China; economic indendence, in fact independence in general, is in question.

Also, a questioning of globalization supposes a beginning of relocation and reindustrialisation, he explains, adding that we must re-establish a circular economy, ecological solidarity, cooperation and proximity.

The academic also stresses that the organization of the world by regional groups must be adopted because no single state can stand alone, unless it is an entire continent. He insists on the imperative of solidarity between peoples and states, in these times of planetary crisis.

The global geopolitical configuration will be completely turned upside down, he acknowledges, noting that the signals since at least 2003 are becoming clearer: Europe is crumbling, America is floundering and Asia is asserting itself.

Pointing out that following each world geopolitical cataclysm, there is a need to build a new international order, Professor Tredano believes that the idea of ​​the coexistence of regional and international powers is a track and a guarantee that avoids the domination of the powerful.

“International cooperation must be effective and not just as a slogan that we wave in all international forums if we are to be able to effectively deal with crisis situations such as the one we are currently experiencing. Now everything is global!,” underlines the Professor.

While waiting for a “demondialization”, he continues, the culture of peace and tolerance must be established. “It must meet fundamental and unavoidable conditions of collective life of peoples and states in a difficult and complex world. All of this presupposes a new organization of the world.”

DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION, Mideast, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY