Nonkilling Arts Research Committee Letter: Vol. 3, N. 1 (Jan-Feb 2019)

Bimestrially sent from our site: Nonkilling.org.

"Nonkilling art explores the spirit and practice of how to prevent, respond to, and to improve individual, social, and global well-being beyond killing." —Glenn D. Paige

Dear NKARC members and friends,

Happy New Year! Hope you had peaceful holidays.

It will be exactly two years this month (January 22) when our beloved Professor Glenn D. Paige passed away. This Letter continues as one of his many legacies. Colleague Prof. Chaiwat Satha-Anand's biographical essay on Prof. Paige, entitled, Teacher Glenn was published in the latest issue of the Journal of Peace Education. Both the leading-edge article (item #2) and the Peace Education journal (item #7) are covered in this issue.  Additionally, we have in this letter your contributions to poetry, non-fiction writing, visual arts, doc film, museums, music, photography, contests, nonkilling research, CGNK news, and reflections.

Tribute to a friend “Glenn” from Prof. Francisco Cardoso Gomes de Matos: 

Glenn Paige' s Legacy to Humanity
Nonkilling Awareness forming
Uniquely Violence transforming
Global Political Science reforming
Dignity elevating by nonkillingly performing

1. Poetry and Nonkilling

Four poems below heralding the new year include poetic renditions of the integration of a nonkilling world illuminated by hope and love inspired peace! Unabashedly one of the poems proclaims: i am all hope, that if you ripped me open, i would bleed sunlight.

(i) Untitled

by Christophe Barbey
(Center for Global Nonkilling’s Main representative to the United Nations in Geneva)  

The last gun on Earth

It had to be history.

We had to,

Or still need to, learn:

Delicacy and wisdom,

To cherish life,

And love therein,

To overcome,

And live together in peace ...


Can we make do with history,

Shall we choose to share

Rather than fight,

To show and care

For the love of life,

To make happiness the norm

Rather than strife,

To give life its worth

By living together

Happy and free?


We are history

When together all,

We work to sustain it ...

Life to the beauty of the planet,

Love to the bounty of humanity,

With the flow of our living hearts:

Fulfilling,

We are history!

The beginning of dignity

(ii) I Love Therefore I Am! The Evolution of Homo Sapiens
by Koozma J. Tarasoff (Founder, Spirit-Wrestlers, Ottawa, Canada)

In evolutionary history
we know that continuity and change are constant.
Darwin discovered this on his research ship Beagle.

We also know that during the Scientific Revolution of the 17th Century
René Descartes proclaimed the First Principle of Certainty, saying
‘I think therefore I am.’
Meaning—‘I am, I exist’.

As well, we know that wisdom people for centuries
have sought to create a world without wars.
We’ve seen futile attempts by politicians of all stripes
proclaim ‘this war is the end of all wars’.

Yet violence and wars — corporate murder —
continue to cause havoc with
the use of weapons of mass destruction, regime change,
and all kinds of human indignities. Countless victims suffer.

Today we need a new discussion on human development —
a discussion that would lead to humane behaviour,
such as envisaged by the late Glenn D. Paige of Hawaii
on the nonkilling society — the responsibility not to kill and the right not to be killed.

We need to talk about something simple, yet profound —
the power of love comes to mind
as penned in the 1800s by Tolstoy, author of War and Peace.
We need to discover the merits
of the Inner Spirit
and apply it to our Charter of Love and Compassion for the living.

Friends, my fellow homo sapiens,
it’s time to build a new world order
that will save us from the scourge of wars and
give a supportive structure to us, to our children and to future generations.
It is time to upgrade Descartes’ maxim to a new authentic identity:
I LOVE THEREFORE I AM!

The Inner Spirit of love opens the way
to a new world of common humanity.
So let’s embrace the new charter of life:
‘I love therefore I am’!

(iii) Peace Education, Peace Psychology, and Peace Linguistics: Toward a Humanity-improving Integration
by Francisco Cardoso Gomes de Matos (a peace linguist. Co-founder, ABA Global Education, Recife, Brazil)

Peace Education, Peace Psychology, and Peace Linguistics interconnected they are
Their principles and applications will help Humanity go far

Peaceful, nonviolent, nonkilling human beings the world urgently needs
May peaceducators, peace psychologists, and peace linguists globally plant
PEACE seeds

By Peace Education, dignifying learnings-teachings are sown
By Peace Psychology, dignifying character/emotions are sown
By Peace Linguistics, dignifying monolingual/muiltilingual interactions
are sown
By the contributions of the three interconnected fields a sustainable
COSMODIGNITY will be grown

The integration of Peace Education, Peace Psychology, and Peace Linguistics
will enhance the global role of PEACE
and the peacebuilding efforts of Humanity will never cease

When Education + Mind + Language(s) for PEACE are fully integrated
Life on Earth will become joyfully experienced and humbly appreciated

When no longer will there be a need for
educational-psychological-linguistic PEACE ?
When a thorough, LOVE-inspired PEACE will always illuminate ways of
sharing the EARTH

(iv) Their Families Wore White
by Madison Trice

if i had a dollar for the times i’ve been distrusted
because i am not cynical enough
because people say i am all hope, that if you ripped me open, i would bleed sunlight
so people poke and stab and jab and tear
asking impatiently, “why would you choose such a futile cause”
master of hopeless causes, i will put the hope in hopeless, against all odds
i will hold the hope like a butterfly between my fingers, gently, gently, and hold it up to my heartbeat to remind it that it is alive
i will cradle it in war zones, between buildings hollow and shaken
i will hide it away in government-given housing in far away places
and when i am told to stop holding on
i will release it, into a jar, with little holes in the lid to allow it to breathe
and my butterfly and i will share the same air
because i cannot afford the freezer burn of logic and detached conversations about the rationality of letting situations deteriorate,
sitting in sections with people who have never met someone from the regions they debate
no, i can’t afford to let go

Madison Trice’s above poem won NAPF’s 2018 Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry prize. { All 2018 award winning poems in the contest }

The 2019 Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Awards
The Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Awards is an annual series of awards instituted by Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (NAPF) to encourage poets to explore and illuminate positive visions of peace and the human spirit. The awards include three age categories: Adult, Youth 13-18, and Youth 12 & Under. The annual contest is open to people worldwide. Poems must be original, unpublished, and in English.
Deadline:

• All entries must be postmarked (or emailed) by July 1, 2019.

Awards:

• Adult Winner - $1,000

• Youth (13 to 18) Winner - $200

• Youth (12 and under) Winner - $200

2. Biography and Nonkilling

"Teacher Glenn" a biographical essay by Chaiwat Satha-Anand
In his 'Teacher Glenn' essay, published in October 2018 issue of the Journal of Peace Education, Prof. Chaiwat Satha-Anand draws an erudite and affectionate portrait of a nonviolent visionary who he knew over three decades. Chaiwat organizes his material in three parts intersecting lives of both the mentor and his student: reading, writing, and talisman. The concluding section on ‘talisman’ advances Paige’s central idea of politics about making decisions, especially to choose alternatives which could mitigate the killing effects and enhance nonkilling possibilities. Chaiwat considers Nonkilling as a prime value without which nothing else could exist, a value that permeates our Alpha to Omega. 

{ Full article “Teacher Glenn” (the pdf is a copy BEFORE the published version) }

Thank you Chaiwat for this unique biography writing piece.

3. Visual Arts and Nonkilling

A mural commemorating the 100th  Anniversary of Arms Burning in Russia.
(See image below - 1995 triptych oil paint on  canvas (100 x 200 cm - 3.3' x 6.6') by Volodia Gubanov, Tuapse,  Krasnodarskii krai, Russian Federation.

Arms Burning Mural triptych oil on canvas 100 x 200 cm. Created in 1995 by Vladimir Gubanov commemorates the 100th year anniversary of the 1895 arms burning by Doukhobors in Russia. This work took the artist nearly three years of research and work. Vladimir describes his work as follows: “It characterizes a romantic view of the burning of guns near the village of Orlovka in Bogdanovskoi Raion, Georgia. The image depicts the struggle between the forces of good and evil. In the first plan, there is perturbance (disturbance or agitation), and the site of burning of arms. In the lower place, is the sun – the centre of creation. On the right side, at the edge, is the earth. There is a moon, Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn. The colours have significance. Light colours are for the sun in the centre and its rays fill the whole. The perturbance relates to the worms and snakes which characterize evil….In front is a person who lights the fire. Next is a person who struggles for life. Higher up is a man who has fallen to evil. Higher up still is a man in the process of transformation between one form and another. On the bottom, right, is the city, churches, and homes…. Doukhobors are separated from the main civilization. If the wrestler stops, this may cause an effect on the whole universe. Lower left shows a view of people carrying torches – they point the way to action. Women hug their children and save them."

Published in Spirit Wrestlers: Doukhobor Pioneers' Strategies for Living
by Koozma J.  Tarasoff, 2002, page 225.

4. Museums and Nonkilling

Return of African Artifacts Sets a Tricky Precedent for Europe’s Museums
By Farah Nayeri

Nayeri writes: Prince Kum’a Ndumbe III of the Duala people in Cameroon, who runs AfricAvenir International, a non-profit that calls for the restitution of artifacts taken without consent, said that the French report was “the first step in the right direction.” He added that such a political commitment had been awaited since Cameroon and much of the rest of Francophone Africa gained independence from France in 1960. “This is not just about the return of African art,” he said. “When someone’s stolen your soul, it’s very difficult to survive as a people.”

5. Nonkilling Sculpture/Installation

(i) ‘The Angel of Knives’ Sculpture by artist Alfie Bradley in Liverpool, U.K.
The Knife Angel was created by artist Alfie Bradley as a national monument against violence and aggression. The sculpture, which stands 27ft high, is installed outside Liverpool’s Anglican Cathedral and remains in place until 31st January 2019.
A memorial to those whose lives have been affected by knife crime, Alfie has designed and created the artwork single-handedly at the British Ironworks Centre. 100,000 knives were surrendered and collected during nationwide amnesties in 2015/2016. The Centre provided knife banks for the amnesties with 43 police forces across the country involved.

{ 2 min video of the sculpture }

(ii) Creative Anti-gun Commemoration in Montreal, Canada
On 6th December, 2018 fourteen beams of light shone into the night sky from Montreal’s Mount Royal in memory of the 14 women who died at the Ecole Polytechnique engineering school 29 years ago. As each woman’s name was announced a new beam illuminated the night sky, the 14 forming a semicircle around the dignitaries, victims’ families members and members of the public.  A gathering that included Commemorating the victims killed on Dec. 06, 1989, Catherine Bergeron, whose sister Genevieve died in the shooting said the light beams are an appropriate way to remember these 14 bright women. “They were little suns, bright girls with light in their eyes who were full of life, who wanted to do all kind of things.”

6. Documentary Film, Videos and Nonkilling

(i) Sri Lankan film maker Vishnu Vasu's doc: A Handful of Leaves
Kudos to NKARC colleague Vishnu Vasu on his well crafted meditative doc about socially engaged Buddhism and Dr. A. T. Ariyaratne who together with a group of fellow school teachers founded a grass roots movement Sarvodaya in Sri Lanka in the 1960s. Like Buddha's sublime message, both images and gentle pace of the film is punctuated with thoughtful commentary by Vasu and Ariyaratne and other exponents of Sarvodaya (welfare for all). The lyrical rhythm of the film finely attuned to its rich content brings life into a simple yet complex nature of this doc's topic of transforming consciousness through service to poor and needy. Concluding endorsement of Dr. Deepak Chopra describes Dr. Ariyaratne as "one of the luminaries of our times providing a practical way to social revolution through love and action". An inspiring doc about humanist nonviolence and nonkilling based on six decades of grass roots work in Sri Lanka amidst violence and disenfranchisement.

{ Doc trailer }
To access the film, Vishnu Vasu’s coordinates are: villagemonk@gmail.com

(ii) Swackhamer Disarmament Video Contest
Sponsored by Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (NAPF)Santa Barbara, California, the Swackhamer Disarmament Video Contest is an annual competition in which contestants submit short videos on an aspect of nuclear disarmament (the specific topic is announced on February 1). The deadline for submissions is April 1. 

{ More information including video clips from 2018 contest awards }

7. Photography and Nonkilling

School Shooting Survivors: New York magazine photo shoot and article on High School Victims of American gun culture
On the cover of New York Magazine’s October 29 - November 11, 2018, issue is a portfolio by photographer Michael Avedon who travelled the country (from Parkland to Columbine) taking photos of half a century of school-shooting victims across USA. With interviews conducted by Jared Soule and Amelia Schonbek, the piece is about 27 school shooting survivors in their own words. { Photos and the text }

8. Music and Nonkilling

Music IN Peacebuilding Research
Music in peacebuilding is an emergent field with interested scholars representing a variety of intertwined fields, from applied ethnomusicology to sociology, from peace and conflict studies to social movement studies. In addition to scholarly pursuits, there are numerous practitioners and activists who are involved in the work of music in peacebuilding, sometimes explicitly connected through their work to music and peacebuilding and sometimes implicitly. The Min-On Music Research Institute (MOMRI), based in Tokyo, Japan, is possibly the only research organisation in the world dedicated solely to music in peacebuilding. There is a growing interest in music in peacebuilding (and music, conflict and violence). MOMRI has decided to find a common set of reference points and discourses to facilitate collaborative work. This special issue of Music and the Arts in Action on "Keywords for Music in Peacebuilding" is the result of this process. The Keywords of Music on which essays in the issue are written are: Community music, Dialogue, Emotions, Harmony, Indigeneity, Trust and Violence.

We have selected for NKARC from the Music and Arts in Action journal vol. 6, No.2 essay on “Music and Violence” by JONATHAN P. J. STOCK, Department of Music  University College Cork, Ireland.  It provides a critical review of a wide cross-section of ethnomusicological research into violence, conflict, and music, leading to proposal of a new model for field researchers. The paper concludes that music is not inherently peaceful: instead, it frames and commemorates conflict, making its impacts resound. Music is put to contrasting, and even conflicting, usages by those in, or recovering from, situations of hurt, hostility, or overt conflict. The article provides examples from research carried out in many parts of the world and in the shadow of numerous types of violence, from the re-imagining of a heroic individual to the systemic antagonisms of colonization or poverty, and from the recruitment of extremists to the self-regulation of inmates. Finally, a new model for applied ethnomusicological involvement in the area is briefly presented. Its component parts – naming, witnessing, intervention, and survival are discussed showing how an ethnomusicologically trained researcher can contribute to peacebuilding via musical research, listening, and participation.

Thanks to NKARC colleagues Olivier Urbain and Joám Evans Pim for pointing to the above material.

For those interested in some of the other articles, as Olivier wrote: "We would like to start a deeply engaging global conversation on the topic, so please take a look, pick your favorite article, and spread the word far and wide".

9. Nonkilling Research

The Journal of Peace Education, published by Taylor & Francis under the sponsorship of the Peace Education Commission of the International Peace Research Association is edited by Jeannie Lum. The October special issue is dedicated to Nonkilling Education, it was made possible by the contributions of authors from CGNK’s Nonkilling Research Committees.

10. CGNK News

Two Nonkilling Conferences are scheduled for 2019 in Europe on “Women and Nonkilling Cultures” and “Non Militarisation and Countries without Armies”:  

(a) The Kolo: Women’s Cross Cultural Collaboration, with the Center for Global Nonkilling, is organizing the “2nd International Women’s Summit: Nonkilling Cultures” to be held in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, June 19-25, 2019.  Conference theme will be: “Women’s Issues: Trauma Healing Practices, Nonkilling Cultures- Motherhood, Empowerment in Feminist Narratives.” Detailed themes include: Women’s Trauma- psychology, neurobiology, neuroscience, Women’s Human Rights, Holocaust, Genocide & Gynocide Studies, Violence against Women, Women’s Social Collective, Peace and Social Justice Activism, Cultural Psychology, Anthropology, International Studies, Knowledge Management, and Rule of Law.

(b) Åbo Akademi University in Vasa, Finland, home of the Programme in Peace, Mediation and Conflict Research, will co-organize with the Center for Global Nonkilling, its fourth international “Explorations in Peace & Conflict Research” conference, March 18-19, 2019 focusing on “Nonmilitarisation and Countries Without Armies”. The conference is organized with the collaboration of the Åland Islands Peace Institute (Ålands fredsinstitut) and the Swiss NGO APRED participative institute for the progress of peace, it will take place at Åbo Akademi in Vasa. Admission is free, prior registration, can be done by email to info@nonkilling.org

The topic of this conference follows up on the 2013 book Nonkilling Security and the State developed by CGNKs Nonkilling Security Research Committee.

For further information on both the conferences, contact Joám Evans Pim, Director CGNK.

11. Glenn Paige Nonkilling School

Nonkilling School, Kazimia, Democratic Republic of Congo - a progress report on school construction By Mabwe Lucien (Project Leader).

The project that Mleci Organisation initiates consists of building 10 classrooms, one office and latrines. A full primary teaching cycle for 600 children victims of war at Kazimia, South Kivu. Project leader NKARC colleague Mabwe Lucien writes: “We thank our various friends around the world for their support of our project. A project that consists of building and completing a pioneering nonkilling school in our region...”

{ Complete report }

12. Nonkilling Reflections

(i)  Right to life versus nuclear weapons - new comment from UN Human Rights Committee By Daniel Rietker

The UN Human Rights Committee has adopted a new general comment on the right to life. The comment has an excellent paragraph, para. 66, on nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction. Its opening sentence reads: “The threat or use of weapons of mass destruction, in particular nuclear weapons, which are indiscriminate in effect and are of a nature to cause destruction of human life on a catastrophic scale is incompatible with respect for the right to life and may amount to a crime under international law.”  

For more about the development of the paragraph 66 and its significance, see:

• the post by Daniel Rietiker and

• https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CCPR/Shared%20Documents/1_Global/CCPR_C_GC_36_8785_E.pdf

(ii) Abolish Militarism and War: Address by Mairead Maguire, Irish Nobel Peace Laureate and CGNK Sponsor, Presented at the International Conference against US/NATO Military Bases, 16-18 Nov 2018, Dublin, Ireland.

“...Ireland is deeply admired in many countries and has a proud record in helping developing countries. Their role as mediators and peace negotiators is well known. I would like to propose that Ireland disband their army and focus their finance and people on developing their great expertise in the science of peacemaking through a Government Dept. of Peace. Recommitting to its tradition of neutrality and multilateralism, placing ethics, morality and justice as core values at the heart of its foreign policy would send out a clear message of Irish Government rejecting the road of militarism and war and choosing the road of peace and reconciliation, both locally and internationally...”

(iii)  “Gandhi and the Right to Peace” Address By Former Senator Douglas Roche on Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th anniversary.

“...I have often asked myself: What would Gandhi do today to address the violence of our time? What would he do for the refugees and the exploited? How would he deal with nuclear weapons? How would he cure the violence against Mother Earth? The globalization that has swept across the world since Gandhi’s day makes modern life far more complicated now. One valiant figure leading a march on the military-industrial complex is an idea I find deliciously exciting — but, alas, not very feasible. ...Much as I revere the Mahatma, I doubt that even he, acting singularly, could overcome the systemic assaults on human life today. I am convinced that Gandhi would look to, and be involved with, the United Nations as the only institution that embraces all of humanity in a collective effort to build a culture of peace...”

Last Word

(This poem from a Buddhist magazine Singing Bowl was forwarded by colleague Rich Panter, thank you Rich)

SMALL KINDNESSES
by Danusha Laméris

I’ve been thinking about the way, when you walk
down a crowded aisle, people pull in their legs
to let you by. Or how strangers still say “bless you”
when someone sneezes, a leftover
from the Bubonic plague. “Don’t die,” we are saying.
And sometimes, when you spill lemons
from your grocery bag, someone else will help you
pick them up. Mostly, we don’t want to harm each other.
We want to be handed our cup of coffee hot,
and to say thank you to the person handing it. To smile
at them and for them to smile back. For the waitress
to call us honey when she sets down the bowl of clam chowder,
and for the driver in the red pick-up truck to let us pass.
We have so little of each other, now. So far
from tribe and fire. Only these brief moments of exchange.
What if they are the true dwelling of the holy, these
fleeting temples we make together when we say, “Here,
have my seat,” “Go ahead—you first,” “I like your hat.”

My deep gratitude to all who contributed and pointed to the material for the Letter.

Looking forward to your inspirations and comments as always.

Best wishes for Nonkilling Peace in 2019!
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.]

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