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Nonkilling Arts Research Committee Letter: Vol. 4, N. 6 (November-December 2020)
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Dear NKARC members and friends,
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Autumn is a time for ruminations. Through Remembrance and Armistice Days, nations have set aside this ritual period to commemorate and reflect about our fallen soldiers. This year we are waging another kind of battle, one against the global pandemic of Covid 19 that has taken more than 1 million lives globally. There is grief and mourning for the dead around the world. The Heroes this time are health care workers, health professionals and frontline essential service providers fighting the pandemic, often with inadequate tools. Fatalities have continued to rise showing a lack of preparedness, poor leadership and dwindling resources. Military budgets continue to rise but not national budgets for food, shelter, health, and education infrastructures. The artistic contributions you have sent reflect on this, and yet provide a glimmer of hope to ending this existential threat.
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1. Nonkilling Poetry
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The four poems below are about love, valour and gratitude in unprecedented times. The first two are elegy to Lost Lives amidst abundance and prosperity, unraveling our structural inequities and political ineptitude. The second poem points to a Health Martyrs Day reminding us the will to live is here to stay and the time has come for us to work collectively. The last two poems about children and human security are taken from an uplifting collection of poetry and drawings published by the International Forum for the Literature and Culture of Peace (IFLAC).
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Lost: Beautiful Lives
By Jocelyn Wright, Jeonnam, South Korea
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In 2020, so many have perished
Cherished friends, colleagues, and relatives
The main cause: structural
A lack of preparation
In relation
To investment in healthcare
Resulting in weakened infrastructures
And ruptures
In supplies and inadequate response
Detrimentally compounded by a lack of information,
Misinformation,
Even disinformation
Leading to poor choices
And governments scrambling
And citizens confused or ignoring good advice
And front line workers sacrificing
Beautiful lives, many lost
At a cost.
They cannot be redeemed.
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For a Health Martyrs Global Day
By Francisco Gomes de Matos
ABA Global Education, Recife, Brazil
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Coronavirus a universe of martyrs has made
A terrible price Humanity has paid
Those lives will not have been given in vain
A lesson in global solidarity all who have survived will gain
Health professionals everywhere work painfully
to save lives
and Humanity's search for a cure thrives
For today's health martyrs let's
dedicate a global day reminding people that the will
to live is here to stay
May this also be a Plea for Health and Spirituality to be integrated for the wellness of
Humanity
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Children Are Stars of Peace
By Ada Aharoni
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Founder IFLAC, Haifa, Israel
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Dear Children, you were born
With loving hearts
And in them star-seeds of peace
You are the future, you are life,
You do not want to die in wars
Like some of your fathers and mothers
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Smart children, armed
With smart-phones and computers
You will shoot your peace messages
All over the Middle East
All over our global village
Your rapid fingers will bring us
What we failed to bring you -
A world where not one gun is fired
A world where each child
Is a twinkling star of Peace
Well-fed and smiling at life.
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How Children Saved the World
By Jeremy Seligson
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Co-founder, Iflac, South Korea
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One day, children woke up
Saw clouds in the sky
And felt the ground shaking
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Waters overflowed
Soldiers marched off
Shot and killed one another
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Mothers and fathers
Fled from home
Leaving their young alone
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Soon the babies cried
Cast off their clothes
And crawled outside
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They let go of
Sticks and stones
And stood up in the fields
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Boys and girls
—black and white,
Red and yellow
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All danced out
Holding hands and singing
To the adults,
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“Hate, hate, hate and war,
Please stop your war, today!
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“Love, love, love and peace,
Please give us Peace, today!”
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2. Nonkilling Music
17th Century Punjabi sufi poet Bullah Shah’s poem, ‘Bulla ki Jaana Main Kaun (Bulla. I know not who am I)’ sung by Rabbi Shergil.
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Bulla! I know not who I am
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Nor am I a believer of the mosque,
Nor am I in rituals of the infidel
Nor am I the pure inside the impure.
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Nor am I inherent in the vedas,
Nor am I present in intoxicants.
Nor am I lost nor the corrupt.
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Nor am I union, nor grief,
Nor am I intrinsic in the pure / impure
Nor am I of water, nor of land.
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Nor am I fire, nor air.
Bulla! I know not who I am
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Nor am I Arab, nor from Lahore,
Nor am I the Indian city of Nagour.
Nor hindu or a turk from Peshawar.
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Nor did I create differences of faith,
Nor did I create Adam and Eve
Nor did I name my self.
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Beginning or end, I just know the self,
Do not acknowledge duality.
There's none wise than I.
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Who is this Bulla shah
Bulla! I know not who I am.
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Nor am I Moses, nor Pharoah
Nor am I fire nor wind.
I do not stay in Nadaun city. (City of innocents)
Bullashah, who is this man standing?
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Bulla! I know not who I am
Bulla! I know not who I am.
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3. Children's Nonkilling Poetry and Visual Art
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All these years friend Ada Aharoni has built bridges between cultures, trying to humanize us with her poems, paintings, writings and special projects telling us of her notion of what unites us - Love. There is only one religion - Religion of Love. I just finished reading this wonderful collection of children's poems and paintings edited by her and Jeremy Seligson. These poems about love and peace by young ones show their gentle honest emotion. Looks like we will be digging into this treasure for many NKARC issues. Congratulations Ada, Jeremy, and the children of the world for this valued contribution!!
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Below are select poems. At the end, there is a letter of thanks to the children for from the editors.
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Children Peace Poems and Drawings from 27 countries
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Everything is peaceful if the heart is at peace.
And peace is like a virus
That spreads everywhere in people's minds.
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— Hyo-yeon, 11 years old, South Korea
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Peace in My World
I am a girl
Who speaks of Peace,
But few listen
And fights continue.
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Walking through my neighborhood,
The neighbors talk and help each other,
Children laugh and play
With celestial happiness
Thinking of the Earth
I see far and around me and think,
“If there is war, where is love?”
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I am a girl who speaks for world peace,
But many have to listen
And, like me, see through eyes of friendship.
— Lucía Ortiz Cabellos, 10 years old, Argentina
People Who Start Wars are Heartless
People who start wars
Are heartless;
They don’t think.
To them, war is a song,
A joke.
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For them,
Death is nothing
But a game.
Their love is hate;
They think bombs
Are great.
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In countries
Where there is no war,
People are happy.
At least they have food;
They can live together.
— Suzan, 9 years old, Iraq
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Peace
A ray of light in obscurity is peace.
When I’m filled with light
I feel peace and shine more.
Let there be peace in the world,
Then it can become brighter
Let there be light in darkness,
Each time more, each time more.
— Estrella Suyai Lobos, 10 years old, Argentina
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A Beautiful Day
The day rises over my village,
A day of light and beauty.
You who are the source of life
The future, I adore your
Scrolling across time
With tenderness and passion.
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No one wants you to disappear
Because our happiness
Comes through you.
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You are the reincarnation
Of souls.
Oh, beautiful day
In my beloved country !
Oh, how beautiful is the
Peaceful day that is rising!
— Mathias Salako, 12 years old, Togo
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Letter from the editors
Dear Children,
Thank you for contributing your moving peace poems and drawings from twenty-seven countries and five continents around our beautiful planet. You show others who read your words and admire your art that PEACE is the most crucial issue of all! Readers can see how much you care for our global village; that you love life and wish peace and safety for all the children and people of the world.
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Before anyone thinks of going to war, they ought to contemplate your insightful words and pictures. They will be touched by your work and hopefully, reconsider their harmful intentions and change their minds. All leaders should look for kind ways to solve conflicts and do their best to bring about Peace and Understanding, Friendship and Love between all human beings. How marvelous this would be!
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You young courageous budding poets and artists, have participated in an important Peace Project. When other children and adults will read your exciting book, your words will enter their hearts and minds and the Folly of War will be abolished from our lives and from our global village! This goal today is not difficult to achieve, as you children master technology, including Smartphones, that can connect you to all the young people on our planet and together you will succeed to banish the ugly bad wolf War and bring the joy and laughter of Peace.
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Share your wonderful life-saving book with your friends and families. Send it as a Peace Gift to all your friends and to the leaders of your town and country. Send it to the Media and to the “Iflac Kids” website and to the “Children’s Peace Train” on Facebook. Cherish your favorite poems and pictures. E-mail them to everyone, even to the UN and UNESCO, and to your Governments and Leaders.
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Dear Children, we are proud of you! Your extraordinary Peace Book will help to make the dream of Global Peace come true and it will bring safety and joy to every child and every human being on earth.
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(Book available at Amazon, on Kindle and Paper.)
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4. Nonkilling Activism video
Backgrounder on Hutsu and Tutsi:
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5. Nonkilling Books: Reviews
- CGNK colleague Barwendé Médard Sané, from Burkina Faso, Central African Republic is author of six books. Inspired by the philosophy of Nonkilling, his recent book is De la violence à la non-violence active en Centrafrique. Etude statistique et sociologique (Paris, l’Harmattan, 2020). It is a research focused on the experiences of violence and the collection of African traditional values of nonviolence. These include principles of: Zo Kwe Zo, “I am because we are”, Ujamaa, Burkindlem, Ubuntu, and Bisoite. For more on the above: https://nonkilling.org/center/download/de-la-violence-a-la-non-violence-active-en-centrafrique-etude-statistique-et-sociologique/ and https://nonkilling.org/center/download/barwende-medard-sanes-book-review-de-la-violence-a-la-non-violence-active-en-centrafrique-etude-statistique-et-sociologique/
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- Rhymed reflections: A forest of ideas, ideals, ordeals (2nd Ed.) by Francisco Gomes de Matos, published in 2020 by ABA Book, Brazil. Kindle edition
Book review by Jocelyn Wright:
Three years after the arrival of the first edition of Rhymed Reflections, Peace Linguist and Poet Francisco Gomes de Matos publishes an expanded second edition of his e-book, planting ordeals as well as ideas and ideals in his rich forest. This colorful collection of a decade’s worth of posters fills 144 pages, and, in line with his ecological vision stance, no trees were harmed in production. The author invites us in to his reflective habitat to share meaningful insight, artistic expression, and beautiful design.
The canopy consists of nine interconnected thematic chapters (Education, pedagogy and teaching, Peace, Dignity, Human rights, Nonkilling, Positiveness, Creativity and innovation, English, and Spirituality) and a freer one (Miscellaneous), reflecting the author’s core beliefs, interests, and lived experiences.
Together, this poetic campaign urges us to ask wide and deep questions such as What values do we hold in our hearts, minds, and souls? What promising future do we imagine? What nature of action and communication do we daily prioritize? and How do we enact these both freely and responsibly? It spreads globally-relevant messages on current and longstanding issues for sustainability in diverse and novel ways (e.g. poems, pleas, checklists, forecasts, open questions, and more) that may push spiritual and professional boundaries and prompt growth in any attentive reader. Will the playful wisdom imbue you, too?
More about the author in his 2019 bio, Peace Linguistics: Contributions of Peacelinguactivist Francisco Gomes de Matos
- The Kissing Fence, by Brian A. Thomas-Peter, May 2020. Caitlin Press (paperback), 288 pages.
The novel, The Kissing Fence, is one of the first books to set its plot in the context of how the Canadian government abused the children of Sons of Freedom (Freedomites) in the 1950s, leaving them scarred with extensive mental health problems for generations. The book fills a gap in Canadian history. Koozma J. Tarasoff writes: “The author's storytelling is well done with careful attention to details and sensitivity to the characters. The pace of the story created suspense by alternating chapter topics from one end of the interior of BC to the Pacific coast. With great sensitivity the author describes police raids on villages to enforce the School Act, life in exile in the dormitories that once held Canadian Japanese arrested during WWII, a car bombed in Castlegar killing one of the New Denver survivors, the son’s involvement in an illegal gold smuggling ring in Vancouver, the appearance of an owl as an omen of life, and fates of family members scattered across British Columbia.......The big elephant here is the Doukhobor Movement. Most of the parents of these children were not Doukhobors because they transgressed the basic tenets of nonkilling by burning public structures and their homes, as well as bombing private property. Nudity was added to the mix. When arrests were made, many made an excuse that they were the rightful owners of the Doukhobors, but in fact they were hijacking the Doukhobor movement as their own.”
- New book by David Swanson, founder, World Beyond War: Leaving World War II Behind.
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6. Nonkilling Reflections
- What is Truth? - In the spirit of seeking simplicity and clarity, NKARC physician colleague Hugh Mann offers the following: "WHAT IS TRUTH? -- Mixing metrics with ethics, truth fuses science with philosophy. Science quantifies and classifies truth, while philosophy qualifies and clarifies truth. Without this crucial fusion, we wallow in confusion."
- Nonkilling and peace - Effective implementation of fundamental values by Christophe Barbey, Main Representative, CGNK at the UN Human Rights Council, Geneva. Barbey writes: “The greatest challenge of all times! What will life be thereafter? Well, simply more living and less surviving; more dignity and more happy relationships, more peace, enjoyment and fulfillment, for each and all. The time will come because we have the tools. I am confident. The first of our tools, foremost, is “values”. Written large: humanism. Values are proactive – not defensive, alarmed, moral or whatever – participative, to be lived together; they are inclusive and uniting, joyful and life creating. Written small -- values are expressed well by human rights and by the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. Values flourish in peace. “When every life is given worth, the life of all is given span”." Read Barbey’s full piece recently spoken at the launch of Center of Excellence in Nonkilling and Peace at Jagran Lakecity University in Bhopal, India.
- Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th Birth Anniversary at CGNK India - Ahimsa and Nonkilling by Balwant Bhaneja. Summarizing Professor Dhirendra Sharma, he writes: “In ancient times, the notion of cosmos was limited to one universe, one sun, and one moon. In the 21st century, there is an unparalleled expansion in knowledge of cosmos. Now they include multiple suns, moons, galaxies, and universes of infinite possibilities providing new opportunities for knowledge deduced and its application. We need to seriously look at the impacts of these developments. Continual scientific findings have created serious gaps in all ancient paradigms that need to be seriously examined... The challenge is how to bring awareness of this new cosmic reality to our vast cultural diversity.”
- Rhetoric and Social Devices in USA by Clay Edwards. NKARC colleague Clay Edwards writes from a philosopher’s vantage point. He thinks it is important to write on the subject of nonkilling rhetoric and social media, “given the toxic atmosphere that seems to have engulfed my country and which has really hit home. So much hurtful things have been written and published this year”. Edwards continues: “Misrepresenting things is not political art but ...is part of the subject of tragi-comedy powered by flattery, the art of making things pleasant, in propagating things, promoted by people who THINK they know how to manage humankind, but are mistaken. In the annals of human development, we speak of toddlers, especially dangerous because while growing up physically, they fail to grow in knowledge and are stunted spiritually. One learns nothing and thinks one knows what he doesn’t know and through this internalizes lies about people and things...In Plato’s Apology, he has Socrates observe that the most dangerous lies are those told early in life and incorporated into a form of putative learning in prejudices. These early prejudices are most dangerous because they arrive unawares and are not defended against early. They become the foundation of dangerous anti-social conduct later in life, with dangerous to life consequences...”
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7. Nonkilling Doc Films
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THE SOCIAL MEDIA. Also entitled, The Social Dilemma (2020), 94 min. By Davis Coombe, Jeff Orlowski, Vickie Curtis. The film brings together former product directors and designers of Facebook, Google, Instagram, Pintrest, Twitter, and so on, to reflect on their creations. The creators speak openly about how they themselves took part in this co-optation of society, either naively or with malignant indifference, by designing websites in such a way to influence and manipulate billions of people for corporate interests. The film is a sobering call to undo the massive harm that technology companies have unleashed on society.
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The Man Who Saved the World by Peter Anthony
The doc film recreates the tense moment in 1983 when Stanislav Petrov, a duty officer at the Soviet nuclear early warning center, was confronted with an emergency that nearly led to nuclear war. The movie with actor Kevin Costner recreates those times in the Soviet nuclear facility, and then follows Petrov 30 years later when the incident is revealed to the West and Petrov is invited for the first time in the USA to speak about it.
The film received the 2015 Sundance Film Festival Best Feature award.
Youtube trailer (4.29 min)
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8. CGNK Updates
Jagran Lakecity University, Bhopal, India launches the Centre for Nonkilling and Peace
On 21st September the World Peace Day, an International Webinar was held to launch the Center for Nonkilling and Peace at Jagran Lakecity University in Bhopal, India. It will be first such Center of Excellence established at an Indian University. The webinar was organized by Jagran Lakecity University and saw the presence of eminent peace scholars and academicians. There is a long association between the Center for Global Nonkilling (CGNK) Hawaii, a UN NGO and the Jagran Lakecity University. In December 2016, the university had invited Professor Glenn D. Paige, founder of the Center for Global Nonkilling to honor him with Honoris Causa and give the Convocation address. In his commendation Professor Paige exhorted: "Humanity must find an effective solution to killing. Indeed it is urgent at global, international and local levels, that initiatives be taken to bring about a nonkilling society where people live in harmony with each other.” JLU last year awarded its first Ph.D. in Nonkilling Political Science to Dr. Katyayni Singh, her dissertation formed the basis of a book published this year by the international publisher Springer. It is entitled, The Nonkilling Paradigm with Dr. Katyayani Singh and Dr. Anoop Swarup as its co-authors.
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Milestone Birthdays of two Nonviolent Peace champions --Professor Johan Galtung (24th October) and Dr. A. T. Ariyaratne (5th November)
The two nonviolent action pioneers from Norway and Sri Lanka at the invitation of late Professor Glenn D. Paige were present at the First Global Nonkilling Leadership Forum in Honolulu, Hawaii in November 2007 that led to the creation of the NGO Center for Global Nonkilling (CGNK).
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Prof. Galtung's "Peace through Peaceful Means", the TRANSCEND peace studies model and Dr. Ariyaratne's grassroots Shramadana Sarvodaya movement that focuses on rural uplift and community development have continued to help inspire many in getting engaged in peace building worldwide. The Sarvodaya philosophy shows that we as human beings have the capacity to create happiness in and around us, and in the process, to transform ourselves, the environment, and our society.
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CGNK connections with these two creative peace leaders and their respective organizations continue through their advice and collaboration. NKARC Letter has regular exchanges with friend Antonio S. Rosa, founding editor of Transcend Media Service and Secretary to Professor Galtung. Dr. Ari Ariyaratne is one of the Founding Sponsors of CGNK Board.
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Antonio on this special occasion sums up Professor Galtung's peace accomplishments as follows: "Johan is turning 90 years old-- a real milestone on the same day that the United Nations turns 75... He stopped writing—by and large—but continues giving Skype or Zoom conferences and interviews. Johan in a nutshell: Mediated in over 150 conflicts in more than 150 countries and wrote more than 170 books on peace and related issues, 96 as the sole author. More than 40 have been translated to other languages and Transcend and Transform was translated to 25 languages. Published more than 1500 articles and book chapters and over 500 Editorials for TRANSCEND Media Service.” We had wonderful opportunity to have Professor Galtung in Ottawa in April 2007 at a Civilian Peace Service conference as the keynote speaker for a talk on “Peace as a Profession in the 21st Century”.
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About Dr. Ariyaratne, the most wonderful tribute to him is recorded in the 2017 doc film, Handful of Leaves made by Vishnu Vasu. It has been seen across the globe by thousands of admirers, it was also posted on NKARC Letter. You have to watch this sublime film doc to understand the breadth and depth of Dr. Ariyaratne and his grass-roots work in Sri Lanka. Whether it is childhood peacebuilding program, immediate relief in the aftermath of natural disasters, or promoting a more human-centered and engaged civil society, Dr. Ari and his team of service volunteers has been there putting Gandhian and Buddhist-inspired values into practice.
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On behalf of the Center for Global Nonkilling, our deepest regards and gratitude to these two beloved nonviolent peace colleagues, and heartfelt congratulations on their special birthday and wishing them many more to come! Happy Birthday Johan and Dr. Ari! -- Bill Bhaneja, Ottawa, Canada.
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9. Nonkilling Journalism
Celebrating the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons on this historic day
October 24, 2020, Honduras became the 50th country to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons! Fifty was the magic number for this treaty, for it to come into force. So it will officially enter into force 90 days hence, on January 22, 2021. This is a huge milestone in the decades-long effort to eliminate nuclear weapons.
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The Artists for Peace presents 2020 Peace Awards, Montreal, Quebec Collègue Pierre Jasmin from Les Artistes pour la Paix writes: "Comme chaque année depuis 1989, le collectif des Artistes pour la Paix remet ses Prix pour la Paix. Ils ont été annoncés en public très restreint pour cause de covid-19 lors de la cérémonie du baptême du parc Lucia-Kowaluk par la Ville de Montréal le 21 septembre, Journée internationale de la Paix - ONU."
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"Election 2020, USA -The Coming Chaos" by Bob Koehler
In this thought-provoking piece, Koehler writes: “As the 2020 presidential election gets closer and closer, the doubts about its possible illegitimacy grow ever larger. On the same day as Trump’s Minnesota rally, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, giving Republicans a golden opportunity to shift the court’s ideological makeup for a generation and, maybe even more importantly, ensure victory for their party this fall, should contested election results wind up being decided by the court. All they have to do is shove through their nominee before the election, smirking at their own hypocrisy in the process.”
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"Hiroshima story: The man who wouldn’t look away" by Anne Harrington
Harrington writes: "The atomic bomb put incomprehensible powers of destruction in human hands. Maj. Claude Eatherly piloted the weather plane that surveyed Hiroshima before it was bombed, He was left racked with guilt—and pilloried for his regrets... Eatherly, then an outgoing 26-year-old Texan, piloted the advance weather plane tasked with assessing target visibility over Hiroshima, giving the go-ahead to drop the bomb that day. His role in the bombing would haunt him for the rest of his life."
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Last Word
Global Peace is tridimensional
There is Peace which subsumes Nonviolence and Nonkilling
There is Nonviolence which
includes Nonkilling
and there is Nonkilling which
implies Life priority
— Francisco Gomes de Matos
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My deep gratitude to all who contributed and pointed to the material for this Letter. As this is the last issue of 2020, my utmost sincere thanks to our readers and to our diligent webmaster Manuel Casal and CGNK Director Joam Evans for their unflinching support.
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I look forward as always to your inspirations, suggestions and comments.
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Stay safe, and Stay healthy.
Nonkilling Regards
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"Nonkilling Culture crosses all the lines." —Glenn D. Paige
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Nonkilling is THE measure of Human progress
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[THIS IS AN INTERNAL NEWSLETTER OF THE NKARC. COPYRIGHT FOR ALL MATERIAL IN THE NEWSLETTER REMAINS PROPERTY OF THE SOURCES/WRITERS/ART CREATORS]
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Stay in contact also on Social Networks
- Please feel free to contact NKARC Letter's coordinator at billbhaneja@nonkilling.org.
- You can also follow the Center for Global Nonkilling at these social networks:
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