Live 8 ... debt relief moves us no closer to a culture of African peace

"Neither debt relief nor huge amounts of food aid nor an invasion of experts will change anything. Those will merely prop up the continent's dictators. It's up to each nation to liberate itself and to help itself. When there is a problem in the United States, in Britain, in France, the citizens vote to change their leaders. And those times when it wasn't possible to freely vote to change those leaders, the people revolted.... In Africa, our leaders have led us into misery, and we need to rid ourselves of these cancers. We would have preferred for the musicians in Philadelphia and London to have marched and sung for political revolution. Instead, they mourned a corpse while forgetting to denounce the murderer."

--Jean Claude Shanda Tonme, writing in Le Messager, a Cameroonian daily. The article was translated by The New York Times on July 15th from the French.

Open literature...when libraries are not open

There is a crisis in public libraries, and it has to do with hours. A typical public library, such as the Lewiston Public Library in upstate New York State, has to select which evenings to open and how to economize by limiting weekend hours, or eliminating weekend hours entirely in the summer. Where can you seek literary inspiration when a library is closed? I regularly turn to Bartelby.com, where I can find Whitman, Yeats, Cervantes, Goethe. When you want to send a quote to someone, each page of Leaves of Grass has its own URL.

Another version of paradise...Malu 'Aina

Now that I know I will probably get to Hawaii in 2009 for the Medical Library Association Annual Meeting, I started to ponder where the culture of peace is rooted in the land that long ago gave us Hawaii-Five-0. Well, here is one sparkling example of personal commitment to harmony with the land and extinguishing the roots of violence.
Malu 'Aina (Land of Peace) is the Hawaiian name given to the Center for Non-Violent Education and Action located on the Big Island of Hawaii. A spiritual community based on peace, justice and sustainable organic farming, Malu 'Aina took root in 1980. A wide variety of fruits and vegetables are grown to share freely with people in need. The volunteers of Malu 'Aina work cooperatively and seek a deeper understanding of non-violence as a way of life. Please consider this wholesome recipe of hard work and gentle dialogue on addressing the larger problems the world faces...

forces of open vs. cash cows

Whenever cultures of knowledge ownership (aka publishing) sense a threat to their monopoly of prosperity, they assert their claim to ownership. But knowledge is free....or it should be. In the latest incident of over-reaction to a public good by the publisher of one of the world's most expensive family of data products for libraries and indiiduals, the American Chemical Society has decided that a resource developed in the public interest by the National Library of Medicine, PubChem, is a threat to their considerable revenue stream. Why has this non-profit society of chemists begun to line up against the best thing to happen to high school chemistry in the 21st century? If you think your voice can be drowned out by 15,000 chemists, perhaps consider joined the concerned consortium called the Alliance for Taxpayer Access.

take a peace quiz...lots available

After treating you to the Gandhi quiz, I thought it would be appropriate to look for other opportunities for gauging knowledge of peace. Well, a google search uncovers a bunch ways to engage or test your peace aptitude.

free knowledge tools...open office

In 2003 I attended ETD2003 in Berlin, Germany and noticed some of the presenters were using presentation tools that were not quite MS Office (the presentation handouts had slide miniatures that were more square than rectangular). When I asked what was up, the presenter told me about Open Office. OpenOffice.org is a free productivity suite compatible with all major office suites. Although you get get a Windows version, this might be the moment for you to try linux by picking up one of those no-OS pc's at Walmart for about $400 complete, add linux, Open Office for Linux, and web and email clients for linux. What has this to do with building a Culture of Peace? A whole community supports open alternatives as a way to share knowledge and literacy without a profit motive....the kind of culture that the global village needs!

Standing alone...a quiet revolutiion

As the leader of the planning group to host the Gandhi King Ikeda: A Legacy of Building Peace exhibit at Yale University from January 28 to February 9, one of the activities I planned on campus during the exhibit was an afternoon film festival on Monday, January 31. I programed a section of official Indian film documentary version of Gandhi's declaration of independence and first act of non-violent civil disobedience, the march to the sea to make salt. in defiance of the British control of salt as a taxable commodity. The second film was a rare copy of Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech at Stanford University on April 19, 1967 known as the "Other America" speech. The final film I selected was A Quiet Revolution, which was which was produced by the Earth Council in cooperation with UNDP and UNEP, and supported by Soka Gakkai International (SGI), the organization founded by Mr. Ikeda in 1975. Considering that Monday is a busy academic day, I was happy to see about 15 persons show up at the beginning of the films. By the time A Quiet Revolution was about to start, I was the only person in the audience. But I decided to stand (in this case sit) alone and ponder the visual message of individual conscience and sustainable development in local areas of our global neighborhood. I hope some of you try to obtain this short but memorable film and share it with others. Individuals standing alone produced remarkable hope and prosperity in their respective situations...

How well do you know Gandhi?

The Mahatma Gandhi Canadian Foundation, based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, presents a self-scoring opportunity to test your knowledge of MK Gandhi. You can choose from a a minimum of five questions to the entire question bank of 35 questions. They also cite an alternative source to understand the mind of Gandhi through a series of questions that you and others might ask him. As an example, you might ask Gandhi, "Why do you promote Vegetarianism ?

Sustain a sustainable idea: heifer.org

More and more people are learning about the work of heifer.org to build a greater public consciousness and bring sustainable food supplies to the places where it can make the most difference. You can read about the philosophy of the approach, which not only presents families with animals that perpetually produce consumable food(eg eggs or milk) or material (eg wool) that can be bartered for food or other necessities, but also teaches those new owners that value of caring for animals and the merit (indeed, the requirement) to pass on animal offspring to others. The seeds of community prosperity can also translate into the construction of schools and the reduction of child labor. My colleagues and I collect an annual contribution made jointly, either for general application or for specific animals. Be the one to spark a movement at your office. I owe a debt of gratitude to my colleague that opened my eyes....