Peace and War
« Previous EntriesBearing witness
Friday, March 21st, 2008I’ve been a member of Amnesty International for years. They do fantastic work against torture and repression, standing up for justice and truth. Membership is an easy way to feel I’m doing my bit.
For all of those years, I’ve received the regular Amnesty newsletter. Which I’ve always glanced at and dropped in the recycling, largely […]
Human Rights
Monday, December 10th, 2007Today is International Human Rights Day 2007, and we are in the 60th year since the original signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.
The Declaration begins:
Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and […]
Remembrance
Sunday, November 11th, 2007Today is Remembrance Sunday in the UK (and other countries), which this year coincides with Remembrance Day itself, when at 11 a.m. we stand for two minutes in silence to remember and honour the war dead of all conflicts.
We wear the Poppy as a symbol of our respect and to help service men and women […]
How would you deal with it?
Friday, November 2nd, 2007So General Tibbets, Commander of the B-29 that dropped the Hiroshima bomb, has died at 92. He and the rest of the crew of the Enola Gay (named, bizarrely, after his mother), have always said they have no regrets, and their stance has attracted criticism.
There has been a lot of debate about the justification for […]
Planning for peace
Monday, October 22nd, 2007In my in-box today was a newsletter from charity Peace Direct, which I’ve mentioned in previous posts here and here. There’s a link to a trailer for a powerful new documentary called Perpetual Peace, by Jonathan Holmes.
It talks about the need to plan for peace just as we would plan for war, and points out […]
Bravery
Friday, October 12th, 2007Yesterday I read about two different kinds of bravery.
First via Barney’s excellent blog I learned about Dr Randy Pausch, a young man with a family, dying of pancreatic cancer. Sounds grim, doesn’t it? But it is totally uplifting. The guy is realistic and totally without self-pity. There’s a video of his last lecture to his […]
A finger pointing
Saturday, October 6th, 2007I’m in the habit of scribbling down things I’ve heard. Today I came across a saying someone told me: “Remember that when you point one finger in anger, there are three fingers pointing back at you.”
Well I’ve been thinking a lot about anger recently. Partly because I’m reading Thich Nhat Hanh’s book Anger, Buddhist wisdom […]
Peace
Thursday, September 20th, 2007To mark the UN International Day of Peace 2007 tomorrow, charity Peace Direct have launched a new video.This is what their ambassador Gill Hicks says:
There are many courageous people risking their lives around the world to create peace in their community – they, like me believe passionately that one individual can make a difference, that […]