| Posted: April 25 2005,12:16 |
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PROGRESS: Has your organization seen
progress toward a culture of peace and nonviolence in your domain of
action and in your constituency during the first half of the Decade? |
When it comes to progress, I immediately think of Burundi.
Please
see our Burundi Forum for what we try to do there
www.transnational.org/forum/meet/TFF_Forum_Burundi.html - and see
the very new analysis of it all - including the frustrating
non-assistance by the international community to the country and the
Nordic governments non-interest in supporting TFF supporting them:
www.transnational.org/pressinf/2005/pi220_PeaceAid_Burundi.html.
Beyond
doubt, the overall most positive development is the increasing
awareness worldwide about the necessity for non-violent change - in the
media (less), in research (to some extent), in the feelings of citizens
(very markedly). We "just" need to be constructive and come up with
better proposals than military conflict-management people do. Those who
still do NOT seem to understand peace and non-violence are government
decision-makers and transnational corporation leaders.
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OBSTACLES: What are the most important obstacles that have prevented progress?
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When
it comes to obstacles, I immediately think of governments, the US in
particular, the long-term (post-1999) consequences of the bombing of
Yugoslavia that has lead to very little in Kosovo and Serbia.
I
think the Kosovo Solution Series in a way says it all - but there are
other examples - there are so many creative possibilities NOT
considered because, as usual, political interests instead of local
people's needs and the general well being of the region and the world
(in short, higher-order crieria) are never applied in such cases.
The
almost complete lack of institutional learning of lessons. Why don't we
draw conclusions from failed peace-making in the Balkans, Somalia,
Afghanistan and Iraq - - and Iran soon?
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ACTIONS: What actions have been
undertaken by your organization to promote a culture of peace and
nonviolence during the first half of the Decade?
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I
guess the most important we have tried to do was to do fact-finding in
Iraq before the war, form our own views and devote our energies to
pubslihing alternative views about the conflict AND how it should be
solved without miliary means.
Thus, please find on our website
the Iraq Forum, the Burundi Forum and the Nonviolence Forum with
hundreds of articles and tons of inspiration.
Actions promoting a culture of peace during 2004, excerpted from our web site at www.transnational.org.
December 2004
Board
members Gudrun Schyman and Jan Oberg together with co-founder Christina
Spännar publish PressInfo 206, New Year in the Sign of the
Tsunami at www.transnational.org/pressinf/2004/pi206_tsunami.html
With
colleagues of Nagoya University, Oberg participates in a conference on
genocide, human security and reconciliation at Tokyo University. He
gives a guest lecture about Iraq at the International Christian
University on Dec. 13.
Board member Jørgen Johansen develops a project on the non-violent changes in Yugoslavia and elsewhere.
November 2004
Board
members Gudrun Schyman and Jan Oberg continue working on a series of
articles focussing on the relations between patriarchy and security
policies. One of them becomes TFF PressInfo 205.
Oberg
gives guest lectures at Soka University and at SGI Youth Centre in
Nagoya, Japan and participates in a weekly seminar at Nagoya University
on peacebuilding.
October 2004
The TFF Feature Collections
are intensified on our website, particularly those of relevance for the
US Presidential elections on Nov. 2. We also begin publishing the
Positive News, Views and Stories.
Jan Oberg gives an intensive
workshop on peacebuilding at Nagoya University for 25 students from
Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Cambodia It's the first
course related to peace at the university.
We launch a comprehensive bibliography of literature by and about Mohandas K. Gandhi in
Norwegian, Swedish and Danish. It covers about 80 years of books,
articles and some newspaper articles, films etc. The search for this
was done earlier this year by TFF volunteer Kirstine Rønnov Due.
September 2004
In
the small town of Celle sul Rigo in Toscana, Italy, early this month,
Jan Oberg gives a training workshop on reconciliation with people from
Greenland. The workshop is arranged by Fatuma Ali, a Somali
psychologist who has spent the last 30 years in Denmark and Greenland.
TFF becomes an adviser to the individuals and organisations that
promote peace and reconciliation in Greenland.
"Ondskabens Psykologi"
by Rolf Kuschel, Faezeh Zand og Jan øberg is published in Danish by
Frydenlund Forlag, Copenhagen (Title in English, The Psychology of
Evil. Social Psychological Essays).
August 2004
From the 20th to the 26th, Jan Oberg is on mission in Burundi, coordinating with the TFF Amahoro Coalition members
and meeting with representatives of the international community there.
A number of feature articles about the peace process and the November
elections in Burundi are written in August together with Burundian TFF
Associates Chantal Mutamuriza and SururuAdolphe.
The founders
participate in a workshop on The Crisis, The Movement and the
Alternatives 20 Years After, a workshop with some of the contributors
to three books in Swedish edited in the mid-1980s by Mats Friberg
(former TFF board member) and Johan Galtung TFF Associate. Board member
Håkan Wiberg, Galtung and Oberg plan their forthcoming common book on
what happened in Yugoslavia - and how the international community could
have handled the conflicts. The workshop was held at Orust on the
Swedish west coast with our Associates Erni & Ola Friholt.
June 2004
Jan Oberg's book (in Danish), Predictable Fiasco. The Conflict with Iraq and Denmark as an Occupying Power is published by Tiderne Skifter in Copenhagen. Several reviews, interviews and follow-up articles.
TFF's
Håkan Wiberg and Oberg contribute chapters to a book about the Violent
Dissolution of Former Yugoslavia as follow-up to the March conference
in Belgrade on that theme.
Board member Gudrun Schyman and Jan
Oberg write 3 articles for the Swedish press with a focus on the EU,
security and patriarchy, arguing that we need alternative security with
feminist perspectives.
TFF Associates publish an increasing number of analyses on our website
as well as on other organisations' website. TFF sends out slightly more
PeaceBrowsers and PeaceTips than before. We pass 225.000 visitors to
our front page, one of 3.000 documents.
TFF Associate Jonathan Power gets the first interview with India's new prime minister.
May 2004
We develop the "Solidifying Peace in Burundi" An integrated project with 8 Burundian NGOs in the TFF Amahoro (Peace) Coalition, May 2004. And Jan Oberg's photo series from Burundi is launched on the TFF site.
On
May 13, Italian school children interview Jan Oberg over the phone, as
part of their school's efforts to promote world peace and
reconciliation; it is organised by member of the local Soka Gakkai
chapter.
Kerstin Schultz, TFF board member, and Oberg speaks at
the Social Forum in Lund on May 6. So does TFF adviser Karin
Wegestål.In addition Oberg speaks at the the Social Forums in
Gothenburg and Uppsala.
April 2004
On April 15, TFF
Associate Hans von Sponeck and Jan Oberg are keynote speakers at a
hearing on Iraq in Copenhagen, alternative to that held by the Danish
government.
Jan gives a series of lectures and participate in
radio programs concerning Iraq and global terrorism. We design a new
navigation menu for the website. PressInfos about Kosovo, the nuclear
proliferation issue etc. More frequent PeaceTips and PeaceBrowser
dispatches. And more Feature articles than usual - all to attract every
larger readership to TFF's website.
In Belgrade, Oberg gives a
lecture on comparative aspects of the Balkans and Iraq at the
Serbian-American Centre whose president is Zvetozar Stojanovic.
March 2004
The TFF Amahoro (Peace) Coalition consisting of 8 Burundian NGOs submits its integrated project to TFF and fund-raising for it begins.
A series of TFF PressInfos about The Balkans Five Years After the Bombs begin to emerge on our site.
Lecturing
and training at a number of Danish people's colleges as a follow-up and
testing of the educational materials produced last months.
Jan
Oberg teaches a 3-days introductory course in Stadtschlaining, Austria
on peace and conflict studies with about 30 students there during the
first days of March. TFF board member Håkan Wiberg and Oberg then
participate in a conference in Belgrade on what to learn from the
dissolution of what was once Yugoslavia.
February 2004
Jan Oberg produces the larger, final version (75 pp) of the educational materials for the Danish people's colleges. It enters the website on February 17 and promoted to other educational institutions throughout Denmark.
TFF board member Jørgen Johansen participates in the World Social Forum in Mumbai.
January 2004
PressInfo 193 about Burundi is published. The TFF Burundi Forum
is established on our site. Board chairman Christian Hårleman reports
to the Ministry of Foreign Affairsabout our mission to Burundi. We
publish a new TFF report on the risk of violence and war in Macedonia.
On February 17, Jan Oberg is awarded the North-South Cultural Communication Prize for 2004
by Mahdi Elmandjra, President of the Research Fund for the Study of the
Future of North-South Cultural Communication in Rabat, Morocco.
The
educational materials about conflict resolution in general to be used
by all Danish people's colleges in spring 2004 - are published here in English, here in Danish
with two contributions by Jan Oberg. In January he produces another set
of materials for that project, this time about the relations between
EU/Europe and the US. He also writes a foreword to the Danish edition
of Daisaku Ikeda's book, The World is Yours to Change (Det er Dig der
Ændrer Verden, Askov Højskoles Forlag 2004).
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ADVICE: What advice would you like to
give to the Secretary-General and the General Assembly to promote a
culture of peace and nonviolence during the second half of the Decade? |
1. Stand firm on the Charter's provision of peace by peaceful means!
2. Use the Charter's Para 99 and 100.
3.
Don't ask what the UN can do for the member states, ask what the member
states can do for the UN - still by far the best we have.
4.
Publicise much more effectively that the REAL UN is the one of missions
and on-the-ground activities around the world and NOT just the power
house in New York - the first-mentioned UN is forgotten in media and
everywhere else.
5. Promote peace education of citizens everywhere
AND of leaders - only people with a law education writes constitutions;
decent armies consist of well-educated soldiers.Peace seems to never
require special education or training, why?
6. Send only UN mediators who have a professional (or other special) training in understanding conflict, reconciliation, etc.
7. But nuclear weapons existence and not mainly proliferation on the agenda.
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PARTNERSHIPS: What partnerships and
networks does your organization participate in, thus strengthening the
global movement for a culture of peace? |
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PLANS: What new engagements are
planned by your organization to promote a culture of peace and
nonviolence in the second half of the Decade (2005-2010)? |
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Postal address of organization
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Vegagatan 25, S - 224 57 Lund, Sweden
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E-mail address of organization
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tff@transnational.org
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Website address of organization
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www.transnational.org
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Highest priority action domain of a culture of peace
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Second priority action domain of a culture of peace
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Highest priority country of action (or international)
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International
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Second priority country of action (or international)
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