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Quarterly sent from our site: Nonkilling.org.
“Homo Sapiens have not yet failed. Yes, we are failing, but there is still time to turn everything around. We can still fix this. We still have everything in our own hands.”
—Greta Thunberg
“I do not allow myself to be overcome by hopelessness, no matter how tough the situation. I believe that if you just do your little bit without thinking of the bigness of what you stand against, if you turn to the enlargement of your own capacities, just that itself creates new potential.”
—Vandana Shiva
"Hope can't happen unless we take action and fight to get there."
—Jane Goodall |
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Nonkilling Arts Research Committee Letter: Vol. 6, N. 3 (July-September 2022) |
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Dear NKARC members and friends,
Thank you so much for the peace and arts contributions that you have sent or pointed to for this issue of NKARC Letter. Hope and compassion with action are imperative to life-affirmative change. |
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1. Nonkilling Poetry
Four poems below by NKARC colleagues Katyayani Singh, Jocelyn Wright, Ada Aharoni and Francisco Gomes de Matos represent aspirations of trust, compassion, prevention and reconciliation for nonkilling peace and shared humanity.
Halt, Cease, and Retreat
By Katyayani Singh
Halt the war Comrade if you can, and speak without the sword,
Convince if you can, sans the military horde.
The world is ready to be with you on board,
If only you can strike their heart with a musical chord.
Cease the killings if you can, for we know it is not your resolution,
But somehow you think it is the final solution,
And that is thy greatest delusion.
If only you knew, your solution rests in your fusion,
You would never have taken advantage of your freedom,
You would have looked after your people as also, as your nearby kingdom.
The powers you possess would have been used with wisdom
Making wars and killings a phenomenon, that occurs only seldom.
Stop, wait and look around and see the oozing blood,
Flowing through the soil and lying on the mud,
You may find corpses of someone’s or perhaps your own beloved,
That will be soon flowing in the flood.
What did you get from this, other than humanity’s hate,
Whom did you conquer by your speedy killing rate,
The innocent beings lost their lives and the land now, is in a barren state,
For god’s sake halt, cease, and wait, before it’s too late.
There are many as we know who have flouted the international peace,
In various places at multiple instances, with great ease,
We urge all of you with collective pleas
To retreat from these killing sprees.
--Katyayani Singh teaches at Jagran Lakecity University, Bhopal India, she is co-author of the book The Nonkilling Paradigm (Springer, 2020).
Still support we can offer!
By Jocelyn Wright
We sit helplessly by as opponents to peace
Decimate Ukraine
One town after another
On diverse devices, TVs, and radios
Forgetful of our shared humanity
Meanwhile, to our North
Another dictator
Spews threats
And fashions weapons
We know we could be next
And we should not stand idly by ...
Prayer alone won't work
What can we do?
Helping Ukraine might help us, too!
As expats,
Though demonstration is illegal,
Still support we can offer:
International petitions we can sign
And home governments we can persuade
Peace-promoting causes we can endorse
Donations we can send for humanitarian aid!
Refugees we can protect
Activists and victims we can assist
Nonviolent and nonkilling actions we can encourage
Hate speech and dehumanizing ‘Others’ we can resist!
How DO we bring all people together?
Through creative contemplation
We might imagine compassionate ways
To mediate conflict
Achieve reconciliation and
Focus on prevention
If only we try,
Peace, nonviolence, and nonkilling,
We CAN achieve
In what we think, say, and do
--Jocelyn Wright teaches at Mokpo National University, South Korea
Mothers and Women
By Ada Aharoni
Mothers you know, a long time ago
have been wisely decreed
by diverse human creeds and needs
goddesses of peace-in-the-home,
lavishly giving life, love and healing
through their wombs and life-blood.
And they have been quite successful
those cozy peace-in-the-home mothers,
closely guarding us with their wisdom
their tender words and watchful eyes.
Surely safer than in a Nuclear War
or in a new World War, or just a tiny war!
So, what about making mothers
the guardians of peace on earth?
Surely, we wouldn't be so much worse?
And they are so available those mothers -
you can even find them in enemy land...
Look at the terrible mess they have
made of our blue planet, mother,
you are the only one who can save it now
The only one who really knows
how to protect your fearful children
weeping over their drugged ailing world,
the only one who can heal it now, mother
cradling it in your warm, loving arms.
--Ada Aharoni is founder of International Forum for Literature and Culture of Peace (IFLAC), Tel Aviv - Yafo, Israel
Song of the World/ Au chant du monde
By Christophe Barbey
I chant the song of the world,
We are pearls of future,
Planted in beauty
In human nature ...
We are the song of the Earth,
Enshrined in the universe,
I am for you to be,
You are for me to be,
We are,
Living humanity!
We bear our future,
Flower of love and creativity,
Fruit of life and humanity!
Deep in your eyes,
All freedoms
Lived in bliss,
Fulfilled and happy
Destiny!
J’appelle au chant du monde,
Nous sommes perles d’avenir,
Plantées dans la beauté
Dans la nature humaine …
Nous sommes le chant de la Terre,
Lovée dans l’univers,
Je suis que tu puisses être,
Tu es que je puisse être,
Nous sommes,
Vivante humanité !
Nous portons l’avenir,
Fleur d’amour, de créativité,
Fruit de vie et d’humanité !
Je regarde au fond de tes yeux,
Toutes les libertés
Épanouies d’extase,
Vécues de destin
Heureux et accompli!
-- Christophe Barbey is the CGNK Main Rep at the UN Human Rights Council, Geneva, Switzerland |
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2. Nonkilling Play
A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction by Miranda Rose Hall: From the Baltimore Theatre Centre Stage program notes, the play synopsis: “Meet Naomi, a dramaturg who must retell the story of life on Earth, including all the great extinctions. The solo performer, a panic-stricken dramaturg/stage manager named Naomi... Her company, Zero Omissions, is closing a two-year tour of a devised “Inconvenient Truth”-ish play called “Climate Beasties”. On the last night of the tour, both cast members are absent due to a family crisis, and Naomi is pushed onto the thrust stage of the Pearlstone Theater in order to make apologies to the house as well as to the folks watching at home. Naomi is not an actor and is understandably anxious about having to kill 90 minutes on stage all by herself. “I don’t travel with a one-woman show in my back pocket,” she tells us. “I do travel with research and snacks.” Based on the research she has compiled in her five-inch thick, three-ring binder, Naomi decides to deliver an impromptu TED Talk consisting of the geological and biological history of planet Earth. This, after first telling us that science was never a strong suit for her. It comes a bit more naturally, perhaps, for Naomi to address issues of race and class justice within the homo sapien species itself, but either way, Naomi’s message is clear and loud, summarized best when she uses puppets to perform a short bit of “Climate Beasties.” There’s a musical number, “Everything is dying, It is all your fault,” follows a dance break. We believe it.”
The synopsis ends with a note of irony: “At times, this is a very funny piece. It also carries a lovely, hopeful irony in its litany of prior mass extinction events (our current one is the fifth) on Earth — that even though most life on the planet was destroyed in each past occurrence, Earth itself survived and gave birth to new life afterwards. So it turns out that we humans are probably not destroying the planet after all. We’re just destroying ourselves and most other life that we know about except rats. Our 50,000 years of living here are (were?) a nice run, but scarcely a blip in the world’s timeline. We don’t actually matter.” (The play had its world premiere in Baltimore in July, 2021, and staged later in Montreal at the Centaur Theatre in May,2022, length; 75 min.)
Playwright Miranda Hall is a founding member and artistic leader of LubDub Theatre Co, a New York-based physical theater company that animates stories of science, myth, and magic. She graduated with her BA from Georgetown University and her MFA from the Yale School of Drama.
{Read review at MD Theatre Guide.}
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3. Nonkilling Culture
Culture and Anthropocene
In this introductory issue of Culture and Anthropocene by #CultureHackLabs, the group has curated pieces on the cultural context of the Anthropocene. The work is centrally concerned with “finding new life-affirming narratives that can guide us through the uncertain territories of this transition”. In her article, "New Deep Narratives: we need new stories of what it means to be human", Pheobe Tickell informs about the power of stories in this increasingly complex world and how we need to adapt to more nuanced narratives to invite the possible into being. In another piece, through his personal story and poetry, Richenel Ansano shares on narratives of belonging "Between Love and Terror: Having a Sense of Belonging is no Joke". He paves the pathway from stories of disempowering belonging to those of naming power and bringing about transformation. In the final contribution, a positioning document on the cultural paradigm of the Anthropocene this white paper aims at a framework and shared language of the structural and cultural roots of this era, while defining the pathways for cultural evolution.
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4. Nonkilling Photography
Photo of red dresses hung on crosses along B.C. roadside wins world photo award
Amy Judd tells the story of award winning photo of red dresses hung on crosses by Amber Bracken: Bracken, a freelance photojournalist who is based in Edmonton, Canada captured the photo of red dresses hung on crosses along a roadside to commemorate the children who died at the Kamloops Indian Residential School. The story broke last May when the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc Nation in Kamloops, B.C. Canada said that a section of land was searched at the former school with ground-penetrating radar and what were believed to be the remains of up to 215 children were found. “This winner represents the awakening of a shameful history that is finally being addressed in Canada,” the jury said in a statement.
"Photo of red dresses hung on crosses along B.C. roadside wins world photo award" | Globalnews.ca |
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5. Nonkilling Cartoon
Alexey Talimonov is an internationally published cartoonist who currently resides near the Tolstoy estate in Tula, Russia. He was born in 1947 in Ukraine. After graduating from the Ukrainian Academy of Printing, he worked in Russia. He was promoted from an ordinary engineer to the Director of a large publishing and printing association IPO "Lev Tolstoy" (in Tula). For Talimonov’s profile and prolific work, see articles by Koozma J. Tarasoff in links below.
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6. Nonkilling Graphic Novel and Animation Film
NKARC colleague Manuel Casal describes Hilda and the Mountain King a pacifist graphic novel and animation film: “It’s a great example of a tale for kids against the building of enemies, against the fear dynamics that usually get people into war, and that helps us think about walking in our supposed enemies' shoes to try to understand them. A very needed message for our times.”
{Review by Aatqa Arham} |
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7. Nonkilling Announcements/Campaign
- GAMIP Global Short Film Forum 2022. The first I AM PEACE SHORT FILM FORUM (SFF) is being launched at the 7 th GAMIP Summit in Tunja Colombia, October 3-7, 2022. GAMIP is Global Alliance for Ministries and Infrastructures for Peace
For full Submission Guidelines and any questions contact: iampeace2022@gmail.com
Registration form
Deadline for submissions 15, July 2022
(In Spanish) "Los invitamos a compartir con sus estudiantes y personas entre los 18 y los 35 años la siguiente convocatoria para la muestra de cortos que se llevará cabo en Octubre 3 al 7 en Tunja, Colombia con el TEMA: I AM PEACE. GRIT. GRACE. THE GOALS. Para más información, fechas de entrega, formatos etc. revisen el archivo adjunto donde encontrarán la misión y propósito de esta muestra. ¡Ayúdenos a difundir! GRACIAS!"
GAMIP Film Media + Arts Development Team: Georgina Galanis, Carol Colmenares, Marla Slavner.
- IFLAC PEACE POETRY CONTEST 2022
The founder of INTERNATIONAL FORUM FOR LITERATURE AND CULTURE OF PEACE (FLAC) Dr. Ada Ahroni informs: “We are pleased to announce our 2022 Peace Poetry Contest (In English or Spanish). You can register your poem for this contest from February 15 to July 15, 2022. The winners of this contest will be announced in September 2022, during the celebrations for the International Day of Peace.” For more about this contest and other IFLAC activities/programs, see updated bilingual (English-Spanish) site.
- Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (NAPF) campaign about Nuclear Weapons and the Ukraine War: A Declaration of Concern
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8. Nonkilling CGNK News
- CGNK takes Nonkilling to the 50th session of the Human Rights Council
by Joam Evans Pim
“The Center for Global Nonkilling’s team at the UN and the Humans Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva is reinforced by the presence of Elina Viitasaari from Finland, our UN Gender focal point, thanks to the support of the Swedish-Ostrobothnian Foundation (Svensk-Österbottniska Samfundet). Present, sometimes with her 8 years old son, at numerous sessions, she is focusing on discrimination and violence against women and on the Universal Periodic Reviews of the Human Rights of all countries, the one of South-Sudan and others. She engages with delegations and takes the floor in negotiations and in the plenary of the Council to advance our living cause. On the 27th of June, during the special day dedicated to the rights of Women, she will be for CGNK the first NGO of only four, to take the floor and speak at the High-level panel on “Climate change and violence against Women”. { Read more. }
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- CGNK joins appeal for the protection and asylum for conscientious objectors and deserters from the states involved in the war in Ukraine
by Joam Evans Pim
“It is assumed that among the 300,000 people who have left Russia recently because of the war, there are many men who seek safety abroad to avoid being sent to the war. In the last few months roughly 20,000 men from Belarus have left the country to avoid recruitment. There are also Ukrainian conscientious objectors who do not want to fight in this war; around 3,000 men have claimed asylum in Moldavia alone.
Each citizen, registered in Ukraine by February 24, 2022, is currently granted humanitarian residence in the European Union. This is encouraging. However, we should seriously consider what will happen to Ukrainian conscientious objectors when this provision expires. European countries should take in these people fleeing the war effort without red tape and grant them a permanent right to stay…” { Read more. }
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9. Nonkilling Book Reviews
- Dick Preston reviews the book On Consolation: Finding Solace in Dark Times by Michael Ignatieff, Random House Canada, (2021).
Reviewing Michael Ignatieff’s book, Preston writes: “Why does he (Ignatieff) focus on consolation? Spoiler alert: consolation is a foundation for hope. I hope we needn’t ask, “why hope?” But we can benefit by looking at what provides that foundation. Or we can discover it in unexpected experiences, as Ignatieff did at a choral performance of all 150 of the psalms, when he found enduring aftereffects (a non-believer’s rapture?) that motivated him to write this book. It is not an easy read, but it is very worth the effort.”
Preston asks: "What are we to do about suffering? Hurtful things will happen, and we need to find a way to accept these as inevitable facts of life. And we must be able to move on. We have many stories about suffering. Great literature sometimes emerges from individuals who tell of their experiences, their feelings, and their will to survive”.
- Joam Evans Pim reviews new CGNK book Peace Portraits: Pathways to Nonkilling -A memoir by Balwant Bhaneja, Creighton University and Center for Global Nonkilling, USA (2022).
The Center for Global Nonkilling has just released its most recent book, co-published Creighton University. It artfully explores the intersection between faith, ethics and politics in modern times. The intimate autobiographical portraits in the collection reveal how five global peace leaders –Mahatma Gandhi, Lester B. Pearson, Glenn D. Paige, Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai, and Máiread Corrigan Maguire impacted the author’s life. Using their short biographies, Bhaneja examines the path of nonviolence and nonkilling.
(Peace Portraits is available in paperback on Amazon and also in a digital Kindle edition.)
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- J.C. Sulzenko’s reviews There and Here – poems by Maureen Korp, Hidden Brook Press, Canada (2021). Sulzenko writes: “These cinquains imagine flight, whether in a formation of fighter jets or of geese, and then the fall, the destruction, the end of existence. There is some ambiguity in the intimate moments of longing and loss Korp describes, since, apart from the context and sequence of poems, it’s difficult to discern whether they capture the mourning of a daughter for a father or a woman for her lover. Perhaps that distinction doesn’t matter, since the loss remains visceral, palpable, personal but also with universal resonance. Here are two examples:
gentle
as a fool, I
sit on the floor beside
the bed, knees draw up to my chin
can’t sleep
and
I want
to eat olives
by moon light, and have a
place to come and go from…I want
him there"
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10. Nonkilling Music
International Symposium of Jazz (10th yr. Commemoration)
As great Nina Simone said, "Jazz is not just music, it is a way of life, it is a way of being, a way of thinking". The story of Jazz is written into the quest for human dignity, democracy and civil rights. It has given strength to the struggle against discrimination and racism. Introduction to the annual All-Star Global Concert report states that "the jazz symposium showcased artists joining from an array of locations around the world–demonstrating the global appeal of this special music.“
(22) 2021 International Jazz Day Virtual Global Concert - YouTube
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11. Nonkilling Philosophy
- Glenn D. Paige - A Prophet of Nonkilling (28 June 1929 - 22 January 2017)
On the 93rd birth anniversary of Glenn D. Paige , thanks to Transcend (TMS) editor Antonio Carlos de Silva for re-posting tribute by Dr. David Krieger to Professor Paige. Dr. Krieger writes: "I wrote this in 2010, the year in which Glenn received the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation’s Distinguished Peace Leadership Award. It is about Glenn’s great transformation in life from a successful academic to a prophet of nonkilling. I’ve left the article in the present tense, and believe that Glenn lives on in the hearts and minds of the many people he inspired with his commitment to and leadership for a nonkilling world..."
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- "Flattery in Empty Rhetoric and Sophistry sham Politics in the Russia/Ukraine Conflict" by Clay Edwards. He writes: “Plato put forward a hypothesis that Flattery, the art of making things pleasant refers to what in legal terms is a public fraud that our education system doesn't really address when it comes to politics and philosophy. We speak of a mistake in general and specific terms. This war that Putin has undertaken is by mistake, a mistake the international community shares in. The effort to punish Russia including accusing Putin of war crimes and aggression on the Nuremberg model is a display of rhetoric without instruction in justice. The idea is to punish a bad man to help elevate our own estimation of ourselves, but in all events covers politics in sham because it expresses sheer powerlessness in the international community as among states. We speak bravely and poetically as a human slaughter takes place in Ukraine. We speak of the future to make people account - this when the immediate problem is to get everyone to put their weapons down and work on learning the matter of justice among ourselves. That is truly the issue of this war.”
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12. Nonkilling Reflections
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13. Nonkilling Journalism
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Last Word
TALK TO NATURE - Children rhymes
by Francisco Gomes de Matos
The rhymes below are for children (and adults) to memorize and act out.
1. Thank you, sun
You bring light to everyone
2. Hi, good morning, cloud
You´re above but never too proud
3. Thank you, rain
when you fall on every plain
4. Hi, big coconut tree
You I´m happy to see
5. Hi, Capibaribe river
Bridges cross you
and fishermen boats cruise you
6. We thank you, blue sky
where birds and planes fly
7. Hello, flowers, you´re Nature´s ART
Your beauty is joy to every heart
8. We like you, Moon
Who knows? We´ll visit you soon
9. To animals on Earth, our dignity
That´s everyone´s responsibility
10. Together, a PEACE Mountain let´s climb
and also create a peacebuilding rhyme
-- Francisco Gomes de Matos, a peace linguist, co-founder of ABA Global Education, Recife, Brazil |
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In a nonkilling world
LIFE is given total primacy
Nonkilling is a supreme blessing
Humanity should cultivate it
FGM
As always, looking forward to your inspiration, suggestions, and comments. Please note this Letter comes out quarterly. Deep gratitude to everyone who contributed and pointed to the material for the Letter.
Be Well, Stay Safe.
Nonkilling Regards,
Bill
Bill (Balwant) Bhaneja
Coordinator
NonKilling Arts Research Committee (NKARC)
Center for Global Nonkilling (CGNK)
www.nonkilling.org
"Nonkilling Culture crosses all the lines." —Glenn D. Paige
Nonkilling is THE measure of Human progress
[THIS IS AN INTERNAL NEWSLETTER OF THE NKARC. COPYRIGHT FOR ALL MATERIAL IN THE NEWSLETTER REMAINS PROPERTY OF THE SOURCES/WRITERS/ART CREATORS]
[Previous NKARC Letters are available on Nonkilling Arts page of CGNK site]
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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Center for Global Nonkilling (CGNK)
3653 Tantalus Drive Honolulu, Hawai‛i 96822-5033 United States
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