The University of New England offers an online course called Peace Studies. Title of units include
PEAC100 Introduction to Peace Studies
PEAC102 Environmental Peace
PEAC303 Active Resistance: Contemporary Nonviolence
PEAC304 Environmental Security
PEAC328 Peacemaking
Today, on ABC , I watched the documentary 'How sweet the sound' about the life of folk singer Joan Beaz, She was a great advocate for peace. She used her music and her fame to promote Nonviolence.
She was jailed because she encouraged young American's, drafted into the Army for the Vietnam war, to reject their governments call to arms. She has since lent her music to numerous human rights causes.
The current protests in Egypt are violent. We live in a very violent world. As another great musican said can't we 'Just give peace a chance?' The link below is Lennon singing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSCLtT42sGU
PEAC100 Introduction to Peace Studies
PEAC102 Environmental Peace
PEAC303 Active Resistance: Contemporary Nonviolence
PEAC304 Environmental Security
PEAC328 Peacemaking
Today, on ABC , I watched the documentary 'How sweet the sound' about the life of folk singer Joan Beaz, She was a great advocate for peace. She used her music and her fame to promote Nonviolence.
She was jailed because she encouraged young American's, drafted into the Army for the Vietnam war, to reject their governments call to arms. She has since lent her music to numerous human rights causes.
The current protests in Egypt are violent. We live in a very violent world. As another great musican said can't we 'Just give peace a chance?' The link below is Lennon singing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSCLtT42sGU
I also watched that documentary. Baez is an amazing person.
ReplyDeleteI suppose that if there wasn't such inequality in the world there might be a reason for peace, but since there is so much injustice, poverty, limited resources and of course, greedy people, I suspect that war of some kind will always be on the agenda. Sad, but a true.
The protests by millions of people in Egypt are justified since they live under a totalitarian government, which cut all communications (telephone, internet, etc) from 27 January so that they can control what the world will know about what they are doing to the people, but not before the dozen or so killings of innocent people was reported.
Almost half of Egypt's people - about 40 million live under the poverty line - $2.00 per day.
As much as I loathe violence, I totally support the actions of these people. If they don't protest they will have peace, but at what cost?! I'm afraid that PEACE is a luxury of those who can afford it.
You might find this article interesting.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/all-egyptians-are-being-liberated-from-the-burden-of-history-20110130-1a9qi.html
I gave a simplistic approach, I am glad Julie has drawn out the complexities. However would she or I like our children to be part of a violent revolution?
ReplyDeleteLauren
I would be proud if my son stood up for something he believed in. I may not like the idea that being in a violent revolution or protest might mean that he was injured or that he injured someone else, or that I may loose him in the process; but sometimes if we do nothing because we fear injury, rebuke, death, damnation then we loose personal power and hand it over to those who weild the biggest stick. I found this amazing quote from Theodore Roosevelt:
ReplyDeleteIt is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."
Citizenship in a Republic, Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910