ACHA PEACE BULLETIN
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A
publication of Association for Communal Harmony in Asia (ACHA)
www.asiapeace.org & www.indiapakistanpeace.org
Editor: Pritam K.
Rohila, PhD asiapeace@comcast.net
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Volume
XIV, No. 01: January 15, 2010, Next
Issue February 15, 2010
_____________________________
CONTENTS
EDITORIAL
*Peace camps for children and youth in India and Pakistan, Pritam K. Rohila, Ph. D.
ARTICLES OF THE MONTH
*Teaching Peace through Fun: 17 Years of a
Peace Camp for Kids, J. Jody Dempsey
*Occasionally, peace deserves a war, TNN, 6
January 2010
*A doomed region,
Kuldip Nayar,
Kashmir Times, January 7, 2010
*Peace
is where the media is, M J Akbar, January 10, 2010
*(Geopolitical)
Reality Bites,
Shaan Akbar, The Insider Brief, November 29th, 2009
BOOKS
*Bridging
Partition: People’s Initiatives for Peace between India and Pakistan
EDUCATION & TRAINING
*May-June 2010, Brattleboro, Vermont, USA: PEACEBUILDING PROGRAM
EVENTS
*January 29, Delhi, India: AHIMSA
DAY LECTURES-II
*January
30, Worldwide: LIGHT A LAMP OF HOPE
*February
1-7, Pune, Maharashtra, India: YOUTH CAMP ON PEACE, DIVERSITY, &
*July 9-11, Brisbane, Australia: COPING RESILIENCE & HOPE BUILDING
*September 27-October 1, 2010, Chandigarh, India: 5th YOUTH PEACE FEST
EVENT REPORTS
*Pakistan: Civil society rally for democracy SMN | December 31, 2009
MEMBERS’ CORNER
*Dr. Lenin
Raghuvanshi
PEACE & HARMONY NEWS FROM
INDIA & PAKISTAN
PEACE & HARMONY NEWS FROM
SOUTH ASIA
UPDATE: KASHMIR
UPDATE: NEPAL
UPDATE: PAKISTAN
UPDATE: SRILANKA
*The power of keeping one’s word, Dr. Jehan Perera,
NPC, January 4, 2010
EDITORIAL
*Peace
camps for children and youth in India and Pakistan, Pritam K. Rohila, Ph.
D.
I am sure what is currently
going on in many parts of South Asia is a source of concern to many people. We,
at the Association of Communal Harmony in Asia (ACHA), have decided to do
something about it.
We will work with South Asian
peace and harmony activists and supporters to develop and initiate
peace-building programs for youth and children in India and Pakistan. Also we
have sought guidance from a couple of American Peace Psychologists.
An ideal program should help youth and children learn
skills in independent thinking, empathetic listening, and cooperative
problem-solving and compassionate conflict-resolution. It should help them to inculcate the noble
values of kindness, compassion, tolerance and nonviolence. It should assist them in adopingt ways of
living in peace and harmony with others, especially those who differ from them
in social status, religious beliefs, and national origin. Finally, it should
enable them to become decent human beings and good members of their family,
neighborhood, nation and the global village. We expect the program would
help foster a culture of peace, tolerance and harmony WITHIN as well as BETWEEN
not only India and Pakistan but also in other South Asian nations.
For this purpose, sometime this year, with the help
of local peace and harmony activists
and supporters, we would like to organize peace camps for youth and children in a few
selected places in India and Pakistan.
For an example of peace camp please check out Dr. Jody Dempsey’s
article, “Teaching Peace through Fun: 17 Years of a Peace Camp
for Kids,” below
under Articles of the Month, or at http://www.asiapeace.org/article_of_month.htm
We are now collecting stories, poems, songs and
other suitable group and individual activities in Urdu, Hindi, and English),
which can be used in peace camps. Also we are looking for volunteers who can
help us fund, organize, and conduct these peace camps. Please let us know at asiapeace@comcast.net if you can help us.
ACHA is a small, US-based organization, which is dedicated to promote peace in South Asia, and harmony among South Asians everywhere. More information about us is available at our two websites www.asiapeace.org & www.indiapakistanpeace.org
ARTICLES OF THE MONTH
*Teaching Peace through Fun: 17 Years of a Peace Camp for Kids,
J. Jody Dempsey dempseyjody@earthlink.net,
Peace Psychology, Volume 18, Number 2, Fall/Winter 2009, Pages 22-25.
“WE NEED TO DO MORE THAN GIVE
PEACE A CHANCE. WE NEED TO GIVE IT A
PLACE IN THE CURRICULUUM.” (Coleman
McCarthy, circa 1990, Binghamton, NY)
“TEACH THIS TRIPLE TRUTH TO ALL:
A GENEROUS HEART, KIND SPEECH, AND A LIFE OF SERVICE AND COMPASSION ARE THE
THINGS WHICH RENEW HUMANITY.” (Buddha,
date unknown)
“I PROMISE TO TRY TO NOT HURT
OTHERS BY MY WORDS OR ACTIONS; TO RESPECT OTHERS, EVEN IF THEY ARE DIFFERENT
FROM ME (BOYS & GIRLS, ALL COLORS AND RACES, ALL COUNTRIES, ALL
RELIGIONS.) I KNOW THAT EVERYONE
DESERVES TO BE TREATED THAT WAY. I WILL
TRY MY HARDEST TO KEEP MY PROMISE OF PEACE."
(Peace Camp Pledge)
“IT IS IMPORTANT TO TEACH PEACE
BECAUSE IT IS A LOT MORE FUN WHEN EVERYONE IS GETTING ALONG.” (Sean, Peace Camp Counselor, 2009)
Clinical/Empirical
Basis for Logic of Teaching Peace
Why teach Peace? Who should it be taught to? Who should teach it? And finally, how should it be taught?
The logic of reaching out to teach Peace to children is supported not only by the face validity of such a concept, but also by a number of reports and studies. For example, in January of 2001, responding to an order by Congress and President Clinton following the tragedy of Columbine, the Surgeon General published “Youth Violence: A Report of the Surgeon General.” This report, the product of a joint commission of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institute of Health, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, is a multiple chapter examination of the problem from many perspectives. Some of their findings relate directly to the potential benefits of interventions such as our Peace Camp.
Specifically, it was concluded based on the study of children and adolescents that “The window of opportunity for effective interventions opens early and rarely, if ever, closes.” (p. 3) It was also suggested that such interventions be viewed not from just a problem-reaction perspective but rather with a broad, public health approach. Indeed, in contrast to “the medical model which is concerned with the diagnosis, treatment, and mechanisms of specific illnesses in individual patients, the public health approach offers a practical, goal-oriented, and community-based strategy for promoting and maintaining health.” The Report goes further to evaluate existing intervention programs and to categorize these programs as meeting intentions of what the Commission categorizes as Primary Prevention, Secondary Prevention, and Tertiary Prevention efforts. The Commission further rated each program for effectiveness in meeting the goal of reducing youth violence.
Primary Prevention “is defined...as lessening the likelihood that youths in a treatment or intervention program will initiate violent behavior....therefore, prevention programs are designed to target youth who have not yet become involved in violence or encountered specific risk factors for violence...they are implemented on a universal scale and aim to prevent the onset of youth violence and related risk factors.” (p. 2)
Secondary Prevention and Tertiary Prevention programs are “defined as reducing the risk of violence among youths who display one or more risk-factors for violence (high risk youths) or preventing further violence or the escalation of violence among youths who are already involved in violent behavior.” (p. 2) Overall, such programs target youth who have already shown violent behavior or multiple risk factors for violence. Secondary Preventions are more geared towards individual risk factors while Tertiary Prevention is the most intensive level with a combination of both approaches.
Because the intention of our Peace Camp is to reach a broad base of children and to give them an opportunity to think about how they perceive themselves and their relationships with others, familiar and not familiar, and to learn skills to navigate those relationships and to integrate them into their way of living, our Peace Camp appears to best fit the category of Primary Prevention. Indeed, we have not seen the Camp as an appropriate activity for children with more intense behavioral/emotional needs, given that ours is an unfunded, completely volunteer activity that is intended to be recreational and educational but not clinically therapeutic. We have had a few circumstances when a child with more significant emotional needs may have been signed up for the Camp with some subsequent behavioral issues. So far, however, we have been able to both devote more of our own attention to those Campers while also matching those children to more individual supervision with older, more experienced counselors, and no child to date has needed to leave Camp because of behavior.
It seems reasonable to posit that many of the elements of Peace Camp could play a clinically positive role in Secondary and Tertiary Prevention programs, but that could and should be subjected to clinical empirical inquiry. With our Camp structure, however, the Primary Prevention focus is most appropriate.
A review of the data examining the effectiveness of varying approaches to reducing youth violence by the Surgeon General showed that in Primary Prevention, skills training, behavior monitoring and reinforcement, cooperative learning, and positive youth development programs, in addition to several other approaches, are effective on a universal scale, i.e., designed to prevent the development of violent behaviors rather than trying to reduce and/or eliminate violent tendencies that might already exist. Certainly, that is what we strive for, thus aligning with the structure of Primary Prevention.
Overall, investigations of factors
correlated to the development of youth violence
indicate that risk factors for violence “result from social learning or the combination of social learning and biological processes.” (p. 3) Conversely, it seems logical to suggest that social learning that positively reinforces pro-social behaviors in an environment where such skills are taught would result in an increase in positive, peaceful, and pro-social behaviors. Peace Camp provides youth with the opportunity to do both. The Commission found that “The most important conclusion...is that youth violence is not an intractable problem.” (p. 6)
Finally, while our program content is tailored to the developmental levels of our elementary school-aged Campers, we strongly believe that recruiting the adolescents who function as our Counselors serves an equally important purpose by giving us the opportunity to train them in the specific application of peace-teaching methods. The reinforcement they receive from both the younger children they teach and interact with as well as from families, the media that has positively and enthusiastically reported on the Peace Camp every year, and the skills they learn by teaching strongly contribute, we believe, to the development and integration of their Peace-making and Peace-building attitudes, values, and behaviors.
Further support for the purposeful
inclusion of adolescents in the fabric of an intervention such as Peace Camp is
found in the Surgeon General’s Report: “Targeting prevention programs solely to
younger children misses over half the children who will eventually become
serious violent offenders, although universal prevention programs in childhood
may be effective in preventing late-onset violence.” (p. 3)
Origins of the
Development of the Peace Camp
Almost twenty years ago, amidst the swelling tide of societal concern about the of youth violence “epidemic”, my increasing recognition that the cadre of kids I treated for aggressive, externalizing behaviors needed to be reached before they viewed violence as the way, and the mounting, sometimes panicky requests from parents, schools and youth agencies for interventions and staff training to address youth violence, I heard Mr. McCarthy, former Washington Post columnists and well-known Peace advocate, speak the phrase quoted above at a conference addressing the problem of youth violence, and it was one of those clinical “Aha!” moments....TEACH PEACE!
Since then, I’ve labored to do just that whenever and wherever I can. The most effective intervention in that pursuit to date has been our Peace Camp and this summer, my wife, Terry, and I concluded our 17th annual Peace Camp in Vestal, NY, where for four consecutive evenings we gathered with 88 young Campers and 47 adolescent Counselors to share, sing, draw, discuss, dramatize, and celebrate the possibility of PEACE, to understand more about what it means in our own lives, the lives of those around us and in the world, and to begin to learn the skills necessary to make it happen.
While I have daily contact with children from preschool to college age through my decades of independent practice with youth, families and youth agencies and Terry through her 30 + years as a teacher of children from preschool age to her current position as a secondary school learning support teacher, we both rapidly realized that there were no guidelines or blueprints to go by, just a broad concept needing specifics, not only to reach and teach our campers, but to also give them a good time. We also remained keenly aware that we were asking parents and children to commit to what is too often an abstract idea while sacrificing several hot evenings in the prime time of summer to learn about Peace. It seemed clear that we would not get a second chance if the first was a flop.
While there was a scattering of literature to direct us, most was academic, abstract and geared to adults. Seeking some direction as the date of our first Camp approached, I reached out to the stimulus of this concept and managed to reach Mr. McCarthy directly, first through Directory Assistance and then through cajoling staff at the Washington Post. When I did connect with him, he was responsive, patient, and passionate about the principle and directed me to Mary Joan Parks, someone who had already done some Peace-teaching work with youngsters. A phone number search and call later, we talked about her conception and implementation of Peace Camps, and she sent her program material which gave specifics and a sense of how she approached it.
To date, more than a thousand
children (Grades K to 6th) have passionately participated in our
nondenominational Peace Camp under the guidance of our “staff” of about two
hundred fifty dedicated teen counselors.
A variable indicating that the Camp is meeting one of our core
objectives of fun for campers and staff is the fact that almost all of our
counselors are former Campers who return eagerly year after year, often
bringing friends and peers who are intrigued by the concept and claims of good
times and sign up to come. Most who come
one year return the next. The Peace Camp
has been possible because of the sponsorship and donation of school/church
properties by Our Lady of Sorrows Church.
There is no fee for attending the Camp, and T shirts that have the
current year Camp theme on them and are tie-dyed in the opening Peace Art
activity are available to Campers for a fee that covers the cost of the shirts. Campers and Counselors bring non-perishable
food items if and when possible for donation to the Parish Food Kitchen
donation program.
Structure of Peace Camp
For
our first Peace Camp, we implemented many of Ms. Park’s program ideas. Since then, however, we have tailored,
created, and tapped into many other sources to mold Camp activities based on
our experiences and the response of the kids who have attended. Learning what works well and what didn’t
through experience, our current four-evening Camp schedule runs for 2 ½ hours
with a mixture of Large Group and Small Group Activities. An example of our Camp Schedule is provided
below.
Camp
Schedule
Peace
Camp - One People, One World, One Peace - Summer 2009
6 pm to 6:15 pm - Table activities. Stay with your group, make name tags, color in booklets. Tell kids why you came to peace camp, learn about each child.
6:15 to 6:30 pm
- Large group – Sit in assigned section on floor
|
Times |
A |
B |
C |
D |
E |
|
6:30 1 |
Games |
Peacemakers |
Peace Music |
Making Peace
Happen |
Art |
|
6:50 2 |
Art |
Games |
Peacemakers |
Peace Music |
Make Peace
Happen |
|
7:10 3 |
Make Peace
Happen |
Art |
Games |
Peacemakers |
Peace Music |
|
7:30 to 7:40 |
Snack |
Downstairs |
10 minutes |
|
|
|
7:40 4 |
Peace Music |
Make Peace
Happen |
Art |
Games |
Peacemakers |
|
8:00 5 |
Peacemakers |
Peace Music |
Make Peace
Happen |
Art |
Games |
8:20 Large
Group Activity – Sit on Floor in your section
8:30 When
activity finishes, return to table and have parents initial as children
leave. NO child leaves without parent!
All the Campers are grouped by age into smaller groups of 8 to10 children, each with at least four adolescent Counselors who stay with them throughout all Camp activities.
Large Group, which opens and closes
each evening’s gathering, is an opportunity for me, my wife, or a motivated
counselor volunteer to talk with all about an important and relevant theme or
concept, such as “What is Peace?”, or “Who are the Peacemakers?”, or most
importantly, “How to be a Peacemaker,” where specific age-
relevant steps to Peaceful Problem Solving, or nonviolent and effective conflict resolution skills, are taught and discussed using relevant, real-kid-life examples.
Small Group activities, run by Counselors and attended by the Campers and their Small Group Counselors, include Peace Art, Cooperative Games, Peace Music, Role Plays, Peacemakers, as well as varying proactive activities where the campers help by creating, making, writing, drawing, etc., for others such as the elderly, the ill, our soldiers overseas, etc. In Small Group, there are many opportunities for the Counselors and Campers to interact with and to get to know each other on a personal basis, to share thoughts, experiences, and opinions about Peace, Diversity, Conflict and other related topics, and relationships among and between the ages and genders are formed and strengthened. Many friendships established at Camp have continued for years after.
The 20-minute Small Group activities are located in different rooms and run by two or three Counselors who have been given specific activities and training in how to conduct them. For example, in Peace Art, all the Campers may make paint imprints of their hands on a large role of poster paper with a theme of “With These Hands, We Can Make Peace.” Another will be directing Campers on a discussion of what Peace looks like, sounds like, or feels like to them, and then drawing pictures depicting that, or in other artistic ways creating what they have imagined.
In Peace Music, Campers learn, sing, and discuss a number of Peace Songs that celebrate how Peace can bring us together. For example, “God Bless the Planet Earth,” sung heartily be about 150 kids, was inspiring to both singers and audience.
In Cooperative Games, Campers don’t compete. Rather, the game objectives call for cooperation by working together to figure out how transfer a bucket of water from one site to another using only cups and a line of Campers. Progress only flows from cooperation.
Peacemakers has Campers learning from Counselors about those who have made a positive difference in the quest for Peace, some internationally known such as Dr. King, Mother Theresa, Gandhi, and others who were not as well-known but have nonetheless impacted the world around them through their service, such as Samantha Smith, Irene Sandler, or Sadako. Ultimately, Campers are encouraged to see that they, too, can change the world through their everyday lives and interactions with that world and specifics of what they have done or might do are discussed with and by them.
Our Camp concludes the fourth night
with a Peace Camp Dinner where the
Campers bring their families to a group pot-luck dinner with food purchased,
cooked, and donated by the families, including Campers and Counselors, and the
Campers proudly show their art, their activities, and introduce their new Peace
companions. We conclude Camp with
Peace skits, songs, poems, and other brief activities conceived, rehearsed, and
enthusiastically
performed by each group. Generally, this
closing event is usually attended by more than a couple hundred people.
Future Directions/Needs for Interventions Such as Peace Camp
While in the context of our Peace Camp there is little to radically change because of inherit on a local, unfunded, volunteer activity, there are potential additions/ modifications that could enhance the objectives of increasing pro-social beliefs, behaviors and skills and decreasing observable and measurable aggressive behaviors. These additions are clear because of our experiences in running this program and our interactions with the 1000+ youngsters who have participated.
Campers and their families are asked for written feedback about the Camp, and there have been occasional comments about time and/or days chosen for the Camp or other peripheral issues. However, the most common comment by far has been that activities such as those conducted at Peace Camp happen much more frequently, including an integration into children’s education. That belief, strongly held before starting, seems more valid now. The shared experiences transform an abstract, esoteric concept into a fascinating, personally relevant, and individually reachable way of living. To be sure, we stress repeatedly that Peace does not exist on its own; rather, it needs to be made, and each of us has the chance to do so. It is also pointed out that one takes this journey a day at a time, and there are obstacles encountered along the way. However, that truth clarifies another maxim that guides Peace Camp: there is no way to Peace; rather, Peace is the way.
Finally, while we believe Peace Camp has made a difference, such an intervention needs empirical investigation, including random assignments to this and/or other interventions, control groups, data collection, and appropriate analyses to objectively define efficacy. While I hypothesize that Peace Camp has made a positive change in participants, this approach and relevant variables (e.g., duration, age, activities, etc.) should be measured to show if they improve our ability and reliability in promoting Peace and to better shape the interventions provided.
*Occasionally, peace deserves a war, TNN, 6
January 2010
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/5415293.cms
…There comes a
time however, when the cry of harmony rings out louder and clearer than the
booming weapons of war. And the desire to smile grows stronger than the need to
snarl. It is at times like these, as the Father of the
Nation
once taught us, that peace must go against its own character. And turn active
rather than stay passive. This is one of those times…Because the only real war
we need is a war for peace.
*A doomed region,
Kuldip Nayar,
Kashmir Times, January 7, 2010
.…What the
rulers in the region (South Asia) do not realize is that governance has to be
not through the police or the paramilitary forces, but through the willing
consent of the people. Development is the key. The more people are better off,
the lesser would be the tension….If countries in the region had a common union,
they would have together fought some of the challenges they face-terrorism and
backwardness. But they would rather shoot at the neighbour than cooperate. The
cooperation may help the countries to extinguish the "prairie fires,"
a la Che Guevara, raging within. At present, the countries are wasting all
their energy in harming one another. This is the reason why South Asia remains
a doomed region.
*Peace is
where the media is, M J Akbar, January 10, 2010
http://www.mjakbar.org/mjblog.htm
…The
campaign is unique: a joint public service venture by the Times, India’s most
powerful media group by a distance, and Jang, Pakistan’s most influential
newspaper. The theme is unquestionably laudable: Aman ki Asha [Hope for Peace]. No region could possibly want peace more
urgently than a subcontinent addled with angst and saddled with two nuclear
powers….
We should not succumb to hopelessness when terrorists get through our defenses
and inflict violence, as they did in Srinagar this week. There may not be
unanimity in the Pak establishment on peace, but, as noted, the participation
of Jang represents an important reappraisal and it would be extremely foolish
to ignore any glimmer. The initiative taken by media groups also means that
they must create a new culture of reporting in which honesty is not undermined
by hysteria. The street listens to media in the hope that it is more credible
than governments, a hope that is often belied. Peace, like charity, begins at
home, and peace is where media is.
*(Geopolitical)
Reality Bites,
Shaan Akbar, The Insider Brief, November 29th, 2009
http://www.pakintel.com/2009/11/29/geopolitical-reality-bites/
For the last several months,
we’ve witnessed Pakistan tread down the path of implosion…It’s a grim picture
that, at first, reaffirmed for me the need for consensus among the country’s elite….However, the more I’ve thought
about it, the more the problem presents itself as one that is rooted in
perspective – Pakistan’s elite appear to be out of touch with geopolitical
reality. After all, when the situation is so dire, why is the
military-bureaucratic complex hacking away at the PPP-led government? Why does
the media remain mired in conspiracy theories? Why are the country’s political
parties locked in a cycle of political opportunism? The behavior isn’t rational…
BOOKS
*Bridging
Partition: People’s Initiatives for Peace between India and Pakistan
(Review: “Book documents voices of sanity,”
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/amankiasharticleshow/5429448.cms)
Campaigners for
Indo-Pak peace — writers, academicians, journalists, activists, retired army
personnel from both countries — have, for three decades been
organizing civil-society initiatives for peace. And
now their efforts have been documented in a book, Bridging Partition: People’s
Initiatives for Peace between India
and Pakistan, a collection of 21 essays, set to release Sunday...
EDUCATION & TRAINING
*May-June 2010, Brattleboro, Vermont, USA: PEACEBUILDING PROGRAM. SIT Graduate Institute invites applications (from human rights workers, non-profit and NGO middle and senior level managers, government employees, mental health professionals, educators, graduate students) for a three graduate credits training course in which participants from 20-25 countries develop new skills for peace-building and new relationships with each other. Education takes place in and outside the classroom as participants live and socialize together in structured and unstructured activities. The wide variety of regional, ethnic, and cultural background provides abundant possibilities for participants to deepen their proficiency in intercultural communication and peacemaking practices.
Topics of Study
include Conflict analysis and interventions, inter-communal dialogue, negotiation
and mediation, peacebuilding and development, healing and reconciliation, peace
education, training skills, issues of global relations, and more. Apply by April
15, 2010. More information visit www.sit.edu/contact or contactprogram@sit.edu
EVENTS
*January 29, Delhi, India: AHIMSA DAY
LECTURES-II, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m., in Indraprastha College Auditorium, 31 Shamnath
Marg, Delhi – 110054. Speakers include Purushottam Agrawal (Towards A
Non-Violent Modernity), Amita
Baviskar (Good To Eat - Gandhi And The Ethics Of Food) and Dilip Simeon (Gandhi’s
Final Fast). Also “A Death for Peace,” a documentary
film by Arnaud Mandagaran on Gandhi’s assassination will be screened. More info
from Akshay Bakaya akshay.bakaya@gmail.com
*January 30, Worldwide: LIGHT A LAMP OF HOPE at your door or window, on the evening of the Mahatma Gandhi's assassination to express faith in Non-Violence (Ahimsa or Adam-e-Tashaddud). More info from http://www.gandhitopia.org/profiles/blogs/a-lamp-of-hope-at-the-doorstep Akshay Bakaya akshay.bakaya@gmail.com
*February 1-7, Pune,
Maharashtra, India: CAMP ON PEACE, DIVERSITY, PLURALITY & YOUTH (SAYC10),
a week-long program is being organized by the Centre for Youth Development and
Activities (CYDA) to promote youth-to-youth dialogue among South Asian young
people. The dialogue will focus on subjects such as Democracy & Good
Governance, Gender Concerns, Diversity & Plurality, Youth Participation,
Civil Society Movements Democracy and Violence. Also eminent personalities will
address the youth on these themes. More info from Mubashir Ahmed Mirza mubashir.mirza@cydapakistan.org, or www.cydapakistan.org
*July 9-11, Brisbane, Australia: COPING RESILIENCE & HOPE BUILDING, an Asia Pacific Regional Conference will bring together
practitioners, researchers, community activists and academics working in the
trans-disciplinary area of human coping with diverse challenging life
circumstances.
The Conference is interested in the
fascinating capacity of human resilience to most adverse life events, as they
unfold. The conference aims to advance evidence-based practices in
resilience promotion and hope building. It will look at interplay of
individual, family, community and social responsibility factors in resilience
and provide directions for future practice and research.
The conference will be held in the
beautiful City of Brisbane at the Griffith University, Nathan Campus. More
info from Dr.Venkat Pulla
dr.venkat.pulla@gmail.com
*September 27-October 1, 2010, Chandigarh, India: 5th INTERNATIONAL YOUTH PEACE FEST. To is to promote peace, equality and living in harmony with nature and to provide a platform for increased cross-fertilization of ideas through greater interaction among the young people, Yuvsatta, in cooperation with other organizations, is organizing this event, at the Peace City of Chandigarh. Around 10,000 (Ten Thousand) youngsters from around the world, and different states of India are expected to participate, many of whom will stay with a local yuth of the participant’s age and gender. Some of the things planned for this initiative are; A Peace Parade, Carnival games & Quiz Contests, Make and take crafts, Multi-cultural performances, Peace Talks & Peace Stalls, Face Painting & Photography contests, Film Shows & Music to UNITE, Deliberations on Environmental issues, Cricket for Peace, and One Sky One World Kite fly. Last date to register is July 30, 2010. Registration fee of Indian Rs. 100 is payable at the start of the Festival. For more information and to register, send your resume with details of your interest in promoting a culture of nonviolence to yuvsatta@gmail.com
EVENT REPORTS
*Pakistan: Civil society rally for democracy SMN | December 31, 2009
http://www.southasianmedia.net/index_story.cfm?id=628767&category=Frontend&Country=PAKISTAN
LAHORE: Save Democracy Network, a group of civil society activists, held a rally on Wednesday from the General Post Office Chowk to the Punjab Assembly in support of democracy, Wednesday….The participants enchanted pro-democracy and anti-Taliban slogans at GPO Chowk in front of Lahore High Court buliding for an hour. Later, they peacefully marched towards the Punjab Assembly and briefly stayed at Chairing Cross. The speakers, in their brief speeches, urged the people of Pakistan to support the constitutional and democratic order in Pakistan…
MEMBERS’ CORNER
*Dr. Lenin Raghuvanshi and some
of his associates at the Varansi, India-based People’s Vigilance Committee for
Human Rights (http://www.pvchr.org)
were involved in taking testimony of and providing psychological support to Ram
Lal, a torture victim. The testimony was
used in the meta-legal process. The case is under the consideration of NHRC,
New Delhi. News related to it have recently been published as "Therapeutic approach to help torture
victims" and "Police
role in custodial torture under cloud" in the Varanasi edition of Times
of India. It can be accessed at http://testimony-india.blogspot.com/2009/12/times-of-india-varanasi-edition.html
PEACE & HARMONY NEWS FROM
INDIA & PAKISTAN
*http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IndiaPakistanPeaceDay/
PEACE & HARMONY NEWS FROM
SOUTH ASIA
*http://groups.google.com/group/peace--harmony-news-from-south-asia
UPDATE: KASHMIR
*http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KashmirSolutionsForum/
*www.drshabirchoudhry.blogspot.com
*http://kashmirforumorg.blogspot.com/
UPDATE: NEPAL
*http://www.nepalasiacenter.com/
UPDATE: PAKISTAN
UPDATE: SRILANKA
*The power of keeping one’s word,
Dr. Jehan Perera, NPC, January 4, 2010
The forthcoming election has generated a coalition of
political forces that few would have believed possible even a few weeks
ago. Those who write the history of these times may record that President
Mahinda Rajapaksa’s domination of national politics during the period from his
election in November 2005 to his announcement of Presidential elections in
December 2009 was the responsible factor. He skillfully divided the opposition
parties and united the people under his leadership to prosecute the war.
During this four year period, the President gave political leadership to
destroy the LTTE that had outlasted five successive Sri Lankan governments and
ended up ruling almost a quarter of the country’s territory. But today an
increasingly beleaguered President Rajapaksa gives the impression of being a
man who knows he has the fight of his life on his hands…