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Nonkilling Arts Research Committee Letter: Vol. 5, N. 1 (January-February 2021)
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Dear NKARC members and friends,
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This marks the 9th year of NKARC Letter. Covid-19 continues but recent announcement of vaccines have raised hopes globally about anticipated wellness and safety. Trust the vaccine will be available to everyone and everywhere free of charge soon showing our common humanity and affirmation of our zeal for living. Your artistic input below on fighting pandemics, suicides, capital punishment, wars, environmental disasters point to ever strong human will towards that.
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1. Nonkilling Poetry
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Four poems follow: Aspirations for 2021 by colleague Francisco Gomes de Matos about which friend Anoop Swaroop commented: "his thought provoking verses say it all for the world that leads us to the next level of civilizational change!" Jeremy Seligson’s poem Magic is about a delightful moment when children of two ethnic backgrounds happen to meet. In third poem Beacon for Peace, the poet Jocelyn Wright reminds us about importance of peace, it happens when killing stops. And the final note is from author Haroon Rashid about his "falling asleep in one world and waking up in another world" poem. You may remember it from May-June 2020 NKARC Letter that was well received.
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Aspirations for 2021
by Francisco Cardoso Gomes de Matos
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Coronavirus has impacted the world
What has Humanity learned from such lethal/ painful experience?
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Globally to unite against a
Human health enemy?
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Globally to cooperate for
a universal disease prevention
program in many languages?
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Globally to educate children
as good health co-promoters?
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Globally to exchange scientific
info on effective research on Health?
A top priority individual/ public wealth
and probe the emerging Human Right to living in a
Healthy environment
and interaction of Health and Spirituality
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Globally to transpire affirmative nonkilling for positive peace?
Structures that prevent violence and promote coexistence
for good learning, good schooling, good character and good ethos.
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A Beacon for Peace: An open letter
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Peace, paz, paix, pyeonghwa
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But intra-, inter-, around
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Can it everywhere be found?
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Today, this month, next year
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Is the time drawing near?
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Solh, śānti, salām, shalom
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A socially desirable aim?
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If only the violence and killing could end
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So that all hurt could eventually mend!
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Mir, hépíng, Friede, hòa bình
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How can this aspiration be satisfied?
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Only when the beacon of peace shines bright
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In NKARC Letter: Vol. 4, N. 3 we included a poem, "We fell asleep in one world and woke up in another". As we couldn't find the name of its original author, it was published as signed "by anonymous". We were recently approached by its original author, Haroon Rashid. Our regrets for inadvertent omission of his name. This time the poem with Haroon’s byeline, it reads:
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We fell asleep in one world, and woke up in another
by Haroon Rashid
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We fell asleep in one world, and woke up in another.
Suddenly Disney is out of magic,
Paris is no longer romantic,
New York doesn't stand up anymore,
the Chinese wall is no longer a fortress, and Mecca is empty.
Hugs & kisses suddenly become weapons, and not visiting parents & friends becomes an act of love.
Suddenly you realise that power, beauty & money are worthless, and can't get you the
oxygen you're fighting for.
The world continues its life and it is beautiful. It only puts humans in cages.
I think it's sending us a message:
"You are not necessary.
The air, earth, water and sky without you are fine.
When you come back, remember that you are my guests.
Not my masters."
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Haroon on the Galaxy tv news Link notes that his poem is about preserving earth, "if there will be no planet, then there will be no you... all the humans out here, stand with and for truth, that makes us human and when we will become true human, then only we will be true to earth." The poem is mentioned in other blogs too including one by Oprah Winfrey written while she was recovering from Covid 19 recently. See links:
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2. Nonkilling Fiction
The Plague and The Fall by Albert Camus
In times of Covid 19, we are reminded of two fiction classics by French novelist Albert Camus (1913-1960), he was winner of the 1957 Nobel Laureate for Literature. The Plague written in 1947 is a survival tale during a devastating epidemic in a fictional port town of Oran in Algiers; The Fall (1956) is a confession of nagging guilt by a French lawyer in a seedy Amsterdam bar. Both novellas are philosophical meditation on search of meaning of life. Camus, a humanist, in these works points to the troubled conscience of modern man that longs for redemption to resolve societal crises in a world torn apart by war, pestilence, and social inequalities.
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In The Plague, Dr. Rieux, the survivor of the epidemic as narrator, concludes that the plague bacillus never dies or disappears for good, so the fight must continue against it, but “more important what we learn in time of pestilence: that there are more things to admire in men than to despise.”
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The Fall (1956) is a chilling story of human apathy where witnessing a suicide triggers in the Parisian lawyer Jean-Baptiste Clemence a train of thought. The lawyer Clemence with his bourgeois pretensions of concern, having spent all his life passing high minded judgements on others, is unable to reconcile with his unresponsiveness to jump into the river to save a drowning woman: "At the end of every freedom, there is a sentence, which is why freedom is too heavy to bear, especially when you have a temperature, or you are grieving, or you love nobody.” For more on the Fall: https://the-artifice.com/albert-camus-the-fall-modern-society/
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3. Nonkilling Movie
Clemency directed by Chinonye Chukwu
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Writer-director Chinonye Chukwu's film is a gripping drama about capital punishment, it tells how that consumes the humanity of both the executioner and the one on death row proclaiming his innocence.
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On July 14, 2020, Daniel Lewis Lee became the first death row inmate executed in USA by the federal government since 2003. There are currently 52 other inmates on federal death row. 10 federal inmates have been executed since federal executions resumed in July 2020 (accessed fm Wikipedia 14/12/2020).
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4. Nonkilling Photography and Description
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The book Where Angels Come To Earth: An Evocation of the Italian Piazza is by author Mark Frutkin and photographer Vincenzo Pietropaolo. The Piazza has been described by urban planning thinker Jane Jacobs as a place to tap inspiration and creative experience, noting that this unique space in Italian landscape offers opportunity to everyone to express themselves. The life affirming images and vivid description of Piazza confirm that this unique public space has existed over centuries in Italy, described as a ‘living room of the city’, a ‘small village’, a ‘place to make love’, a ‘place to play and pray’, a ‘place for refuge and shelter for transients’... The 60 minute reminiscent presentation - a virtual tour with select reading from Where Angels Come to Earth is on YouTube.
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5. Nonkilling Books: Review
- Peacebuilding in Language Education: Innovations in Theory and Practice, Edited by: Rebecca L. Oxford, María Matilde Olivero, Melinda Harrison, Tammy Gregersen
This innovative book shares collective wisdom and practical strategies to help language teachers and peace educators communicate peace. Its six-part Language of Peace Approach underlies more than 50 creative activities that promote peacebuilding competence in secondary and post-secondary students, current and prospective educators and community members outside of academia. Chapters span the spectrum from cross-cultural peace education to the positive psychology of peace, from nonverbal peace language to transformative language teaching for peace.
https://www.multilingual-matters.com/page/detail/?k=9781788929783
- Doug Roche offers recovery for a wounded world in the new Biden era by Jim Creskey
{ Interview on Youtube }
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6. Nonkilling Short Film
Art of Peace Construction and Reconciliation by Carol Colmenares (7 min.) in Spanish with English subtitles). An interview with Prof. Agustin Parra of Universidad de Antioquia, Medellin, Colombia.
Prof. Parra is an artist and educator, he has been working on interesting peace construction process through the arts. The interview was done last year based on his work with victims of the civil war in Colombia.
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7. Nonkilling Reflections
CGNK Sponsor Irish Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire’s talk: Pax Christi Annual Peacemaker of the Year award was presented to Malachy Kilbride on 7th November, 2020, at Conference in Metro D.C. Baltimore. On the occasion, Maguire noted: “... we are in the midst of a Pandemic and the Corona Virus is spreading around the world and has stalled humanity in its tracks…The pandemic has shown us all how fragile and vulnerable we are and how much we need each other. No one person alone can deal with this life-threatening pandemic as we need the collective efforts of everyone to join in solidarity to help save lives. But we can take inspiration and hope when we witness the generosity of spirit as people, including children, reach out to community, local and international, to offer solidarity and help.”
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A Cherokee story of 'The Battle of Two Wolves Inside us All'
On the need to minimize or eliminate 'war language', a Cherokee grandfather told his son about the battle that goes on inside people. He said: "my son, the battle is between two wolves inside us all. One is NEGATIVE with qualities of anger, envy, jealousy, greed, arrogance, self-pity, resentment, lies, false pride, and superiority. The other is POSITIVE with feelings of peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, compassion and faith." The grandson thought about it and then asked his grandfather "Which wolf wins?" The wise Cherokee replied: "The one you feed."
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That is the wisdom we all need to observe in the New Year. We need to feed peace, love and joy if we are to build a world without wars and survive on Planet Earth.
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For a reference to this story, go to Jon-Lee Kootnekoff, "The Battle of Two Wolves inside us All', in 150 Canadian Stories of Peace. An Anthology (compiled by Gordon Breedyk, Mony Dojeiji, Koozma J. Tarasoff and Evelyn Voigt. Ottawa: Walking for Peace Publishing, 2017: 164-165). Thank you Koozma for pointing to the story.
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8. CGNK Updates
CGNK at the Human Rights Council 45th sessions: Truth and progress by Joam Evans Pim
Despite a complicated health situation, the Human Rights Council has preserved the core of its work and started to return to a more usual functioning, noticeably with informal dialogues starting anew, a large part of the work of Christophe Barbey, our representative at the United Nations in Geneva.
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9. Nonkilling Research
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10. Nonkilling Documentary Film
Infinite Potential: Life and Ideas of Dr. David Bohm
A new documentary film about inter-connectedness of humanity and nature -"Reality is undivided wholeness." Connection between microscopic and macroscopic - connection between quantum physics and theory of relativity - individual consciousness to universal consciousness. From Bohm, Oppenheimer, Einstein to Dalai Lama and Upanishads.
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Image source: InfinitePotential.com
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11. Nonkilling Journalism
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Last Word
Nature
By Francisco Gomes de Matos.
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Nature we respect when we
describe it with affect
Its unique features we fondly select
Its humanity--inspiring phenomena we elect
Its applications to
community living we wisely direct
Its wondrous creativity we humbly protect.
Its spiritual relevance we erect
A climate-change global policy to effect
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2021 Nonkilling Agenda
Celebrating a global victory over the virus
Deepening global economic/political/ scientific sapience. Understanding global unity
Sustaining Interaction of Health and Spirituality
Elevating the quality of multilingual communication
Preparing educators as peacebuilders/nonviolence promoters/nonkilling science
appliers
Prioritizing climate change policies
-- Francisco Gomes de Matos. A peace linguist, Recife Brazil
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My deep gratitude to all who contributed and pointed to the material for the Letter.
I look forward as always to your inspirations, suggestions and comments.
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Wishing you a healthy and safe 2021!
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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