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Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Saturday, October 1, 2016
Gandhi: ‘My life is my message’
Each of us has a choice. We can stand aside in the great fight for survival in which humanity is now engaged. Or we can be involved. What is your choice?
( September 29, 2016, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) As
most of the world ignores or hypocritically celebrates the 147th
birthday of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi on the International Day of
Nonviolence on 2 October, some of us will quietly acknowledge his life
by continuing to build the world that he envisioned. When asked for his
message for the world, Gandhi responded with the now famous line ‘My
life is my message’ reflecting his lifelong struggle against violence.
Gandhi’s life was dotted with many memorable quotes but one that is less
well known is this: ‘You may never know what results come of your
actions but if you do nothing there will be no results’.
Fortunately, there are many committed people who have identified the
importance of taking action to end the violence in our world – whether
it occurs in the home or on the street, in wars, as a result of economic
exploitation or ecological destruction – and this includes the
courageous people below. These people have identified themselves as part
of the worldwide network, now with participants in 96 countries,
committed to ending violence in all of its forms. I would like to share
their inspirational stories and invite you to join them.
Christophe Nyambatsi Mutaka is the key figure at the Groupe Martin Luther King which
promotes active nonviolence, human rights and peace. The group is based
in Goma in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in
central Africa. They particularly work on reducing sexual and other
violence against women.
Also based in Goma, the Association de Jeunes Visionnaires pour le Développement du Congo headed
by Leon Simweragi is a youth peace group that works to rehabilitate
child soldiers as well as offer meaningful opportunities for the
sustainable involvement of young people in matters that affect their
lives and those of their community.
Given the phenomenal suffering in the DRC, which has experienced the
loss of six million lives and the displacement of eight million people
due to the long war driven by Western corporations keen to exploit the
country’s mineral wealth, Christophe, Leon and their colleagues are
testimony to the fact that committed people strive in the most adverse
of circumstances.
Tess Burrows in the UK is an adventurer (including parachutist,
mountaineer, cyclist and marathon runner), peace activist, author,
speaker, healer, and ‘most importantly a mother and grandmother’. In her
words: ‘I am dedicated to the pursuit of World Peace and the healing of
the Earth.’ Tess has written several books and, if you are looking for
inspiration, I suggest you try these: ‘Cry from the Highest Mountain’
(describing a climb to the point furthest from the centre of the Earth),
‘Cold Hands, Warm Heart’ (describing a trek across the coldest, driest,
windiest place on Earth: the Geographic South Pole), ‘Touch the Sky’
(describing her climb of Mt Kilimanjaro, in Africa’s heartland, pulling a
car tyre which included peace messages from every nation on Earth and
embodying their desire for everyone to pull together to promote peace)
and her latest book ‘Soft Courage’. Her video ‘Climb For Tibet‘
won’t bore you either! The funds raised from sales of the books and
donations have, among other things, built six schools in Tibet and
supported a Maasai community tree-planting project in Africa. Tess
collects messages of peace from individuals and speaks them out from
‘far high places’. So far, this has included the North and South Poles,
the Himalayas, Andes, Pacific and Africa. You can be part of her next
Peace Climb in Australasia by writing your personal message on her website where you can also check out her books. Be warned however, this website will exhaust you!
Recently, on the International Day of Peace, the Afghan Peace Volunteers
and Borderfree Street Kids in Kabul, mentored by Dr Teck Young Wee
(Hakim), reached out to the visually impaired and blind students at
Rayaab (Rehabilitation Services for the Blind Afghanistan). They brought
MP3 players as gifts to 50 visually impaired students. The students
will use the MP3 players to listen to recorded school lessons and
educational programs. Rayaab is an Afghan non-governmental organization
run by Mahdi Salami and his wife Banafsha, who are themselves visually
impaired. If you want to see photos from this day, and to watch an
extraordinary three minute video, you can do so at ‘To Touch a Colourful Afghanistan‘.
Kristin Christman in the USA continues her tireless efforts to make our
world more peaceful by seeking to understand the deeper drivers of
conflict while offering practical steps forward. She is currently
working on a book based on her monumental ‘Taxonomy of Peace: A Comprehensive Classification of the Roots and Escalators of Violence and 650 Solutions for Peace‘ A recent rather personal article offers insight into her approach: ‘Make serving in war an option, not an order‘ and illustrates how violence is ‘built-into’ society.
Ghanaian Gifty A. Korankye has just developed a new website titled ‘Daughters of Africa‘.
Explaining why, she writes: ‘Over the years I watched women go through
unbearable pain …. Our daughters go through FGM in their puberty…. The
humiliation we face when we lose our spouse, all in the name of customs
and tradition.’ Determined to help address the issues that plague many
African women she wants to give them the chance to be ‘a useful voice to
our communities’, to share the success stories of African women and
African-American women in business administration, the entertainment
industry and elsewhere in order to share learning from their journeys
and to ‘help mentor our young generation’. She invites African women to
write to share their stories and work together to find solutions. ‘We
can do it because we are daughters of Africa.’
So what about you? Do you believe that ending human violence is
possible? Even if you believe that it is not, do you believe that it is
worth trying? As Gandhi noted: ‘The future depends on what we do in the
present.’ What will you do?
In essence, working to end human violence and to create a world of
peace, justice and ecological sustainability for all life on Earth might
not be what gets you out of bed in the morning. But if it is or you
would like it to be, you are welcome to join those of us who are
committed to striving for this outcome by signing the online pledge of ‘The People’s Charter to Create a Nonviolent World‘.
And if you subscribe to Gandhi’s belief that ‘Earth provides enough to
satisfy every [person’s] needs, but not every [person’s] greed’, then
you might consider participating in ‘The Flame Tree Project to Save Life on Earth‘ which he inspired as well.
Each of us has a choice. We can stand aside in the great fight for
survival in which humanity is now engaged. Or we can be involved. What
is your choice?
The bottom line is this: What will be the message of your life?
Biodata: Robert J. Burrowes has
a lifetime commitment to understanding and ending human violence. He
has done extensive research since 1966 in an effort to understand why
human beings are violent and has been a nonviolent activist since 1981.
He is the author of ‘Why Violence?’ http://tinyurl.com/whyviolence His
email address is flametree@riseup.net and his website is at
http://robertjburrowes.wordpress.com
Posted by
Thavam