March 2015 – Page 2 – Thoughts Towards a Better World

#998 – Dick Bernard: Day Three, International Women's Day, at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum, Minneapolis

March 8, 2015/0 Comments/in International Relations, Minnesota /by dickbernard

Videos of many of the speakers for Mar 6, 7, 8 can be accessed here.
POSTNOTE Mar 13, from singer Patty Kakac, re International Women’s Day: Just thought some of you might be interested in the youtube video of the song Seven Sisters. NO, it’s not the one I wrote. This song was written by author and Publishing Consultant, Laine Cunningham, who also happens to be a friend. She called me up a number of years ago and asked me to record this song for her website. Now it is set to a video with pics of Aboriginal girls. If you care to listen here is the link
Related: Mar 6, 7, 9 and 10.

Throughout this years Nobel Peace Prize Forum, the organization, Peace It Forward was encouraging delegates to create statements of peace. Mostly, it is a creature of Facebook; an exercise in togetherness, one small statement at a time. Take a look, and participate…at Facebook.
Today, March 8, 2015, is International Women’s Day. The focus of today’s Nobel Peace Prize Forum was, properly, peace issues as seen by women.
Here was today’s agenda: Peace Prize Forum Mar 7001 (March 8 is on the second page).
Today’s program was powerful. As an “old white man”, I prefer not to interpret todays general sessions. Fortunately, three of the sessions can be watched in their entirety here. The on-line presentations:
1. Sanam Anderlini, co-founder of International Civil Society Action Network (I CAN)
2. Protecting our Sacred Women (Mother Earth and Indigenous Women)
3. Toward Inclusive Disarmament: the role of women and civil society.
A fourth general session, Women, Business and Peace, was not televised. Panelists were Roxanne Mankin Cason, CEO, Cason Family Foundation; Ingrid Stange, Founder of Partnership for Change; and Tuija Talvite, Executive Director, Crisis Management Initiative.

Roxanne Mankin Cason, Ingrid Stange, Tuija Talvitie, Mar 8, 2015

Included below are a few other photos from today.
The dialogue session I chose to attend was that of my friend, Annelee Woodstrom, who powerfully talks about her experience growing up during the Adolf Hitler period in a small town in Nazi Germany. Her session attracted 75 persons, and her presentation was filmed by the Forum. She did her usual outstanding job.
In #999, perhaps on Monday, I will convey my own general thoughts about the meaning of the three packed and productive days in Minneapolis at the 27th annual Nobel Peace Prize Forum.
Next year, same time of year, the 28th Nobel Peace Prize Forum in Minneapolis. Plan now to participate.

Bonni Jenkins, U.S. Department of State Coordinator for Threat Reduction Programs. on panel “Toward Inclusive Disarmament”

More on Threat Reduction Program here.

Sanam Anderlini, co-founder of the International Civil Society Action Network.

More on Sanam Anderlini’s International Civil Society Action Network (I CAN) here.

Native American panel on Protecting our Sacred Women (Mother Earth and Indigenous Women)

Bios on primary panelists Paula Horne-Mullen and Nac’a (Chief) Looking Horse can be read here. More on World Peace and Prayer Day (June 21) seems primarily shared on Facebook. Some possible access points for information here.

from left, Annelee Woodstrom at age 16 (1942), 19 (1945) and 88 (March 8, 2015)

The Calliope Women’s Chorus of Minnesota closed out this years conference with two songs dedicated to Peace

More about Calliope here.

#997 – Dick Bernard: Day Two at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum, Minneapolis

March 7, 2015/0 Comments/in International Relations, Minnesota, Peace & Justice, War /by dickbernard

Videos of many of the speakers for Mar 6, 7, 8 can be accessed here. Day One, here. See also, Day Three, and March 9 and 10.
Over the years, I’ve developed a habit of not being concerned about the specific speaker(s) or program when I choose to attend an event. I just show up, and what happens, happens. I guess I like mysteries.
Very rarely am I disappointed. Mystery means, usually, opportunity, not risk.
Today, at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum in downtown Minneapolis, the program was a uniformly a great day.
All but one of the program speakers today were unfamiliar to me: I’d never heard of them, actually. Ahmet Ozumcu*, Courtney Rasch*, Muhammad Ashafa, James Wuye, Steve Pinker*. Last year I’d happened to attend a session at which Adama Dieng was speaker, otherwise I would not have heard of him either. (The presentations of those marked with * can be seen in their entirety here. The schedule includes some of Sundays programs, for your reference.)
The organisation of which Mr. Ozumcu is Director-General, the “Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons“, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2013.
Courtney Rasch witnessed and led us in a moment of silence for the large number of journalists who have been imprisoned and/or killed reporting from dangerous areas on dangerous topics.
As was true yesterday, the presenters – all of them, with their diversities – were phenomenal.
It was a phenomenal day. I left a little early, basically exhausted, but with a great sense of hope.
As I take time to learn, it is amazing to note the existing and high-quality and active infrastructure for peace and justice that exists everywhere in our imperfect world.
Those presenters on video (see link above) can speak for themselves. A few snapshots of the presenters are below.
A couple of notes on the programs not on video:
Adama Dieng, an immensely impressive gentleman, is Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser of the Secretary-General of the United Nations on the Prevention of Genocide. When last I heard Mr. Dieng, a year ago, he talked about the legal aftermath of the Rwanda genocide in 1994. Today he mentioned he had left Rwanda just days before the 1994 Genocide began. At today’s presentation, he discussed the background of the tragic situation in the Central African Republic, which he described as basically religious-justified animosities (Christian v. Muslim). Mr. Dieng called special attention to a 43 page booklet published by his office, Framework of Analysis for Atrocity Crimes, which is publicly accessible at the link for his UN office (click on his name at the beginning of this paragraph).
I wish that the conversation involving Muhammad Ashafa and James Wuye, moderated by retired ELCA Lutheran Bishop Mark Hanson, was on-line, but it was apparently not scheduled for on-line presentation. The conversation was powerful, and light-hearted, and was interrupted by applause often by a most appreciative audience.
Immam Ashafa and Rev. Wuye are Nigerians from Kaduna, Nigeria. At an earlier time, in the early 90s, they were bitter, probably deadly, enemies. The Immam had lost a teacher and two relatives to Christians; The Reverend had lost much of his right arm to Moslems in one of those mini-religious based wars. The two were on opposite sides. Eventually, almost by accident, they met each other at a gathering, and in a few years time became close friends and now travel the world spreading a message of peacemaking.
It was obvious from how they were with each other that they are fast friends. Indeed, quite by accident, I observed them in the lobby before I knew who they were, and, there, they were very much at ease with each other.
In a way, both men reminded me a bit of South Africa’s Bishop Desmond Tutu: light-heartedly and effectively dealing with deadly serious problems.
But the most surprising and hope-filled presentation for me was that of Prof. Steven Pinker, author of “The Better Angels of Our Nature“. He gave an information packed powerpoint (watch the video) that demonstrated convincingly that, with all our problems, violence in global society is decreasing, and decreasing very markedly.
It was useful to see evidence that all is not going to hell…often in our world where negative publicity is about all that is press worthy, it is easy to believe the worst.
By no means does Pinker suggest that the world is a perfect place.
By no means, though, are things as bad as the “news” likes to portray, and we sometimes like to think, and we can have hope.
I leave this day more hopeful for the future.
POSTNOTE: I elected to attend the breakout session on Minnesota 2015: Global Summit on Democracy for Sustainable Future: Tools, Solutions and Best Practices, October 25-28. From all appearances, this will be a significant and positive event, and I’d urge individuals and organizations to follow, cooperate and indeed participate in developments.
Here is the schedule for March 7 (Saturday) and March 8 (Sunday): Peace Prize Forum Mar 7001. Sundays agenda seems focused on women and peace.
(click to enlarge)

Ahmet Ozumcu, Director General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, 2013 Nobel Peace Prize winner.

Adama Dieng, Under-Secretary-General and special Adviser of the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide.

Bishop Mark Hanson, Imman Muhammad Ashafa, Pastor James Wuye, March 7, 2015

at right, Prof. Steven Pinker, author of “The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined”

#996 – Dick Bernard: Day One of the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize Forum, Minneapolis MN

March 6, 2015/0 Comments/in History, International Relations, Minnesota /by dickbernard

NOTE: Videos of many of the speakers for Mar 6, 7, 8 can be accessed here. See also, posts for March 7, 8, 9 and 10.
The opening of this years Forum began with an inspiring surprise: the “>1964 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech by then 34-year old Martin Luther King Jr. This clip was especially appropriate given that this year is the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, for which King and others campaigned for many years; and gives particular context to the film, Selma, set in March of 1965, just months after Dr. King won the Peace Prize. (Tomorrow, Saturday, March 7, is the 50th anniversary of the first march in Selma, where over 500 protestors were attacked by the police.)
(click to enlarge this or any photo)

from Martin Luther King acceptance speech, Oslo, December, 1964

Friday, March 6, brought eight hours of inspiration featuring numerous speakers (here is the day one program: Peace Prize Forum Mar 6001
Gro Harlem Bruntland, Daniel Wordsworth of American Refugee Committee, Monica McWilliams, all had inspiring messages.
Ending the day, 2002 Laureate Jimmy Carter, U.S. President 1977-1981, gave an inspiring talk. He is one of my all-time favorite Presidents, much maligned (very unfairly, in my opinion) when running for a second term in 1980; now without question one of the most visible and active retired world leaders post-term, working for good in the world. He and Rosalind’s Carter Center takes on the impossible, regularly.
The messages of President Carter, Elder Gro Harlem Brundtland and Monica McWilliams can all be viewed here. Several of the Saturday and Sunday programs will also be broadcast live on-line, and later on video as these talks are.
Each general session speaker had very strong messages of hope, built on the speakers very long personal experience dealing with very tough issues: realities, on the ground, in this imperfect world of ours.
Consistently, speakers such as these are quick to emphasize that the solutions to the major problems rest not with people like themselves, but rather with citizen activists, no matter how humble in circumstance, village by village, city to city, farm by farm.
Succinctly, we, each of us, not them, or someone else named on the news, are the real solution. A better world comes one small piece at a time, through us.
Time after time, over many years of listening to people who made a difference, I get the sense that they are simply courageous realists: they faced a reality that was impossible; assessed the environment; stuck their neck out beyond their comfort zone; and worked and worked and worked and worked…pragmatically…towards some ideal.
In some ways, it is a hard message, but consistently how success is finally achieved.
The Dialogue Session I chose was troubling yet very informative and hopeful: “The Dark Side of the Boom: Seeking Solutions for Human Exploitation and Trafficking in North Dakota’s Oil Patch” was a collaborative program of iEmpathize and North Dakota Force to End Sexual Exploitation (FUSE). As a son of North Dakota, who lived in “the oil patch” during its earliest boom as a 13 year old in 1953-54, I found the program of particular interest and the speakers to be very knowledgeable.
A new 26-minute video produced by iEmpathize was shown. Information about the video, including a trailer, is at their website (link, above).
The latest of President Carter’s many books, “A Call to Action. Women, Religion, Violence, and Power” gives 23 suggestions for anyone wondering what they, personally, can do as their own, personal “Call to Action”. The suggestions can be read, here. They are found on pages 196-198 of the book which is an excellent one for discussion in book club formats, as well as for individual reading.

Jimmy Carter, March 6, 2015, Minneapolis MN Nobel Peace Prize Forum

Here are a few other snapshots I took during this first, inspiring, day:

Gro Harlem Brundtland, Deputy Chair of the Elders and former Prime Minister of Norway.

Daniel Wordsworth, President and CEO of the American Refugee Committee, which is headquartered in Minneapolis MN.

Timothy Pippert, Professor at Augsburg College, Minneapolis, coordinator of the program on the Dark Side of the ND Oil Boom.

Anthony Baldassari, Christine Sambor, Brad Riley and Timothy Pippert, discussing the Oil Patch Human Trafficking problem.

Monica McWilliams, former Chief Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and Signatory of the Good Friday Agreement.

Tom Weber, Host of Minnesota Public Radio News with Tom Weber, conducted post-speech conversations with most of the keynote speakers. Monica McWilliams did the post speech interview with President Carter.

Post-note: President Carter’s Vice-President Walter Mondale was to introduce the President, but it was announced he had been hospitalized with the flu. President Carter, now 90, noted that he and Rosalind, his wife, have been married 69 years, and that he still does his “Sunday School” at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia.
On Sunday, March 8, from 11:30 to 1 p.m., one of the dialogue sessions will be our long-time friend Annelee Woodstrom, who will speak about Growing Up in Adolf Hitler’s Germany. Annelee, now 88, lived the reality of Hitler’s Germany as a young person in a German small town, from 1933-45. She is very frank about what happened and why. I have heard her speak many times. She is well worth hearing. I think a few tickets for Sunday are still available. The Focus this day will be issues related to inclusivity. If you’re in the area, and free, come on down…but get your ticket first!

#995 – Dick Bernard: Netanyahu at the U.S. Congress, March 3, 2015

March 3, 2015/0 Comments/in International Relations, Peace & Justice, Politics, War /by dickbernard

Back in January I wrote my two Senators and Congresswoman, urging them to not attend the Netanyahu event today – to make a quiet statement (see here: Netanyahu in Paris001.) Two of the three absented themselves (not that I had any influence in their decisions). In my opinion, they chose to not reward Netanyahu and Boehner’s disrespect, by giving undue respect to Netanyahu.
Of course, these lawmakers didn’t miss anything, since everybody had an opportunity to watch the event on television, and they also have staffs. Every word, gesture etc. has doubtless been analyzed. They just weren’t in the room, just as none of us were there.
Netanyahu is an excellent speaker, of course. Excellent speech-making does not necessarily mean that the ideas expressed are the last, or only, word on any topic. No end of tyrants have been charismatic, as we all know. They know how to put words and phrases together.
There are eloquent opposition voices, within the Jewish community, in Israel and the U.S. but they are less likely to be seen.
If you wish, here are the opinions of two:
1. Rabbi Michael Lerner of Tikkun, wrote on Netanyahu and the speech today. Here is his column.
2. Also, today, Alan Eisner of J-Street, commented on Netanyahu and the speech. You can read it here.
I have noted a persistent narrative particularly from the political right that conflict – war or threat of war – is always the answer. “Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran” was John McCain’s ditty some years ago, humorous but intended.
An enemy seems necessary, somebody to fight against, to force into submission.
Lerner and Eisner talk about another way of doing business which is embraced by many of us.
War never solves anything. Win today, lose tomorrow…it happens all the time, in all arenas.
Any move towards a negotiated peace is desirable to bombing (or threatening to bomb) the hell out of somebody else, who will always remember, and ultimately get even.
What must not be lost is that Israel is a major nuclear power; Iran has never been and likely will never be. The United States is the only country to have ever used a nuclear weapon against another (Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 1945) and is at the top of the heap when it comes to deadly nations.
In the middle east, I fear the possibility of Israeli aggression more than Iranian, even with the current Iranian leadership.
But, that’s just my opinion.
Related opinion here.
An excellent summary of some other opinions nationally here.
Brief PS: My personal world remains focused on my Uncle’s death, now on the residual matters that need to be taken care of. It has been a big change. I’ll go to his town tomorrow, and, of course, he will be gone.
So goes life. We’re here for awhile, and then we’re not.
Do what you can to make a better world while you have the opportunity.