Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers, outlines some of the many ways public schools have become a cultural battlefield even though they should be insulated from politics and culture wars so they are free to fulfill the fundamental purposes of public education: to help nurture the citizens of a democratic society.
According to the American Friends of the Parents Circle – Families Forum, “the Israeli government has recently announced its intention to restrict the Parents Circle’s public activities, starting with the removal of its Dialogue Meeting programs from Israeli schools…based on false allegations that the Dialogue Meetings [it often hosts in schools] denigrates IDF soldiers.” The dialogue meetings being challenged are led by two PCFF members, an Israeli and a Palestinian, who tell their personal stories of bereavement and explain their choice to engage in dialogue instead of revenge.
In this statement on the Ukraine war, PEACEMOMO observes that humanity has few options left. What the proxy war of global power confrontation in Ukraine shows is that we have hit the deadly cross-road of cooperation or common destruction.
In the context of the war in Ukraine, it should be the most natural thing in the world to try to find a way out of this catastrophe. Instead, only one path of thought is allowed – war for victory, which is supposed to bring peace. Peaceful solutions require more courage and imagination than belligerent ones. But what would be the alternative?
It’s 90 seconds till midnight. We are closer to the brink of nuclear war than at any point since the first and only use of nuclear weapons in 1945. While most reasonable people understand the need to abolish these weapons, few officials have been willing to suggest elimination as a first step. Fortunately, there is a voice of reason in a growing grassroots coalition: this Back from the Brink movement supports the elimination of nuclear weapons through a negotiated, verifiable time-bound process with the common sense precautionary measures necessary during the process to prevent nuclear war.
One of the most insidious characteristics of patriarchy is rendering women invisible in the public realm. It is a given that few, if any, will be present in political deliberations, and it’s assumed that their perspectives are not relevant. Nowhere is this more obvious or dangerous than in the functioning of the interstate system that the world community expects to address threats to global survival, the most comprehensive and imminent of which is the impending climate catastrophe. Ambassador Anwarul Chowdhury clearly illustrates the gender inequality problematic of state power (and corporate power) in the three well-documented articles on COP27 re-posted here (this being post 1 of 3). He has done a great service to our understanding of the significance of gender equality to the survival of the planet.
One of the most insidious characteristics of patriarchy is rendering women invisible in the public realm. It is a given that few, if any, will be present in political deliberations, and it’s assumed that their perspectives are not relevant. Nowhere is this more obvious or dangerous than in the functioning of the interstate system that the world community expects to address threats to global survival, the most comprehensive and imminent of which is the impending climate catastrophe. Ambassador Anwarul Chowdhury clearly illustrates the gender inequality problematic of state power (and corporate power) in the three well-documented articles on COP27 re-posted here (this being post 2 of 3). He has done a great service to our understanding of the significance of gender equality to the survival of the planet.
One of the most insidious characteristics of patriarchy is rendering women invisible in the public realm. It is a given that few, if any, will be present in political deliberations, and it’s assumed that their perspectives are not relevant. Nowhere is this more obvious or dangerous than in the functioning of the interstate system that the world community expects to address threats to global survival, the most comprehensive and imminent of which is the impending climate catastrophe. Ambassador Anwarul Chowdhury clearly illustrates the gender inequality problematic of state power (and corporate power) in the three well-documented articles on COP27 re-posted here (this being post 3 of 3). He has done a great service to our understanding of the significance of gender equality to the survival of the planet.
To ensure the “revolution of values” that Dr. King called for, justice and equality must be enshrined under new anti-racist systems. This requires exercising our imaginations, investing in peace education, and rethinking global economic and security systems. Only then will we defeat the evil triplets, “shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society,” and foster positive, sustainable peace.
If our societies are to become more resilient and more ecologically sustainable, then priorities must be changed, and then such a large share of resources cannot be permanently poured into the military – without any prospect of de-escalation. Our current shift must therefore contain more than the present rearmament.
Multilateralism is supposed to be the guarantor of all human rights and dignity, for all people, at all times. But as governmental regimes weaken, so do traditional multilateral entities heavily reliant on those governments. It is time for community-based transnational networks based on intergenerational, multicultural, gender-sensitive leaders.
Research has found that hope, or the wish for and confidence in the realization of a goal, is essential for achieving social change and peacebuilding efforts, and that futures thinking, or mentally planning out a desired world, is a key means to achieve these aims efficiently.