These Powerful Times

The Steung Meanchey Landfiil in Cambodia, near Phenom Penh is a dreadful place for a child to grow up. It smells foul, much of it is on fire and its filthy. Yet, over 500 children live and work on top of the garbage, foraging for small bits they can sell. The poverty is among the worst on earth. The dump runs a half mile square and inlike those in developed nations, is an open mountain of garbage. Dump trucks and bulldozers work constantly, adding to the heaps. Destitute families live and work in the landfill, chasing the dump trucks to get the first pick of new refuse. Phenom Penh

Golden Temple, long known for its crunchy organic granola, and gooey Guru Wha Chew candies, puts its mission up front. Created originally as a way to generate funds for peacebuilding organizations, their subsidiary, Peace Cereal turns the old business paradigm on its head. Since their inception in 1997, Peace Cereal has donated over $1 million to peacebuilding organizations. This year they are sponsoring the Peace Film Festival in honor of the UN’s International Day of Peace, as well as many other projects that support a more loving and peaceful planet. ….. Peace Cereal

That fateful day in the fall of 2005, Kyle sat down in front of the 6th and 7th graders, and began talking. “Do any of you ever feel bullied or excluded? What does it feel like?” That got their attention! Surprised that anyone cared, they talked all afternoon with Kyle about their experiences of being teased, of being excluded, of being singled out. Together Kyle and the kids brainstormed ways to make change….. Read More

The Green Festival launched in Seattle the very same weekend as the Dalai Lama’s visit and alot of us thought it would be a scheduling faux paux. But heck no, people shuttled between the two (count us in that club) and a lot of fun was had by all. The Green Festival was a great success, workshops packed, exciting vendors to explore and the Saturday night After Party was a hit! Live music, catered “green” treats, and fabulous people to mix with. There were plenty of stimulating ideas to chew on all weekend, no matter where you were among the events. It was a dynamic weekend, and one that will see its impact I’m sure as the coming months unfold. 

Those of us living in the northwest (USA) hit a lucky streak when the Dalai Lama came to visit this week. His long time goal to spend five days in Seattle to launch his new “movement” finally came to fruition. It seems his intention is to get people moving off their meditation cushions, and to start turning that peace into action. In dozens of sessions with teachers, parents, kids, business people, government officials and more ….. he headed up discussions: what can we each do personally to change the violent society we live in? There were group discussions, masterminds and brainstorms. Small groups filled easel pads with ideas. Five days of getting together and laying tracks for the new. Plus tons of music and celebration. And this is just the beginning - he’s on a roll!

High Holiness was in a grand mood on Saturday, during his big day in the football stadium. Many remarked how the weather changed for him… Seattle had snow both the week before and the week after his visit, but for his one day with tens of thousands of guests outdoors, the sun broke out (a rare event in Seattle) and the temperate shot up to 70 degrees (we barely ever see that in summertime!). Meanwhile, He was giggly and silly, cracking jokes, and having an especially fun time on Tuesday, with Rev. Desmond Tutu, who poked and giggled in his hot fucia outfit beside HH’s red one. It was quite a scene.

This new leap from meditation to compassionate action is a trend I’m noticing, you’ll read more about it in my other blog entries. His Holiness had some great messages: that all the problems we face were created by us, and are fixable by us. He half joked that our problems were largely created by men, and he feels will be resolved if we empower women to address them……Overall we had a terrific time, and look forward to his return. See the video telecasts at www.seedsofcompassion.org

Cindy Katz is one busy mama. With her brood in tow, she’s buzzing from car dealerships to mortgage offices, selling them on reforestation. When Cindy decided to help corporations go green, she meant it. Noting that buying gifts for clients is a common practice, she set out to make sure those gifts were trees planted in the clients’ names. Get the Whole Story

Myra Murphy Jacob is to me, perhaps the most inspiring person that I’ve ever met. While the rest of us bust our butts trying to save the world one person at a time - (most of the hungry and destitute in a bad way because of political not natural causes) - Myra decided to change the world by churning out new leaders - strong and powerful, well trained leaders in global sustainability - not your ordinary types. If thats not the fastest way to create lasting change, then I don’t know what is.

Myra’s program is called Sustainable Global Leadership Alliance (SGLA). She researched the best programs available today and brought their dynamic teachers together, to grow young adults into the ones we are waiting for. In just nine weeks, she delivers training in globalization: deep study of how the current economical and political scene works, and how it creates the problems we’re facing. She brings in top thinkers on sustainability and dives into a running conversation on what sustainability means, and what kind of action it calls for. She gives these 16-22 year olds solid personal skills in public speaking, financial management, personal emotional intelligence, empowered communication techniques, fundraising and tons more. And she takes them to India for three weeks, to have a look at the world for themselves.

The youth who have graduated from SGLA so far, (its only 3 years old) have blown us away. They are on fire. They are geared up with tools and skills. They have each gone forward to begin making change in their communities, and some in the bigger society. Two have received national awards for their work. All have truly become the leaders we are waiting for.

Hats off to this amazing woman!

SGLA was founded in Alberquerque, and is launching in 5 new cities in 2008 - Philadelphia, Boulder, Bellingham WA, San Francisco, Portland OR, and in 2009, Dallas. MORE about SGLA

This is from The Peace Report, a monthly newsletter from Louise Diamond, PhD…who has been teaches peace leadership around the world:

What Would it Take? What would it take to transform the current culture of violence in our society to a true culture of peace? That is the question nearly 500 people asked of themselves at the Building a Culture of Peace conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico in mid-May, 2007.

In only two days, the conference (six Peace Councils, 67 break-out sessions, and four plenary speakers) came up with a surprisingly thorough collective answer, including five imperatives, 12 strategic priorities, and ten principles/practices. Taken together, these create a significant, if not complete, roadmap for actualizing a culture of peace in our society.

The Five Imperatives

1. We must understand peace as more than the absence of war; it is socio-economic equality, and it will come about through concerted action.
2. We must understand the pervasiveness of violence and its root in anger, and commit ourselves to living the way of nonviolence, and truly being the change we seek in the world.
3. We must reconnect with the earth and the natural world, rebalancing the material and the spiritual, the masculine and the feminine.
4. We must realize that we are one family of life, interdependent and interconnected; and that we are all in this together.
5. It will take a long time, but we must practice perseverance, vision, and hope.

The Twelve Strategic Priorities

1. Focus on peace education and related life skills in the schools and for parents.
2. Encourage youth to create their own peace culture, and provide structures and resources for that.
3. Reduce access to violent media for young people, and create and popularize peace-oriented media to replace it.
4. Build alternative business and economic systems that are based on social responsibility and the common good.
5. Get the message out that we are all connected; we are one; we need each other.
6. Reinvigorate connections at every level, especially with the natural world, with spirit, with community, and with the seed of peace inside us all.
7. Heal the historical wounds in our society.
8. Encourage the use of art and ritual for peacebuilding, transformation, and healing.
9. Teach people how to develop inner peace.
10. Teach people how to see beyond the us/them split, to connect to the shared humanity in all.
11. Support existing and emerging major peace institutions.
12. Continue the work of Peace Councils for dialogue and action.

The Ten Principles/Practices

1. Empathy
2. Compassion
3. Unity
4. Appreciation of differences
5. Service
6. Connection
7. Nonviolence
8. Balance of masculine and feminine energies
9. Meditation
10. Interconnectedness

This roadmap, or template, is an important contribution to the existing global movement for a culture of peace, forit points to specific pathways for practical action. Moreover, it opens an entirely new set of questions:

How can we… accomplish each of the twelve strategic aims?

How can we… embed the ten values/principles/practices in mainstream society?

How can we… make the five imperatives common wisdom in our culture?

This set of outcomes, then, becomes a meaningful part of the next stage of our strategic journey to accelerate the global movement for a culture of peace, especially in the U.S., which is the prime exporter of culture around the world.

It is a call to reflection, dialogue, and action, individually and collectively. Ideally, it will be an inspiration as well for all those who carry the flame of peace in these times.

May Peace Prevail on Earth!

Patricia Smith Melton is a visionary. Her project PeaceXPeace, (peace by peace) connects women in wartorn villages with women in the developing world.  They chat by email, those in the developing world providing support and knowledge to those who are working to rebuild their communities. The women in the developing world benefit tremendously as well, finding friendship and deep awakenings born of the courage and stamina, the sheer power of heart their new friends demonstrate. Peace X Peace is growing and is now setting up internet cafes where the women in wartorn areas can go to connect with their PeaceXPeace sisters.xx From Simone (US) & Naba’s (Baghdad) story:Simone admits it took a huge leap of faith to sit down at her computer and extend herself to a stranger: “I was afraid Naba would hate me. I didn’t know why a woman from Baghdad would want to speak with an American woman, with me.” Naba’s first response was typical of many international Global Network participants - short, and several weeks in coming. The seeming lack of interest underscored her fears, and Simone didn’t know what to think of the silence. “I heard nothing for weeks,” she says.

The reason , Naba’s response was slow highlights an issue affecting many of the Global Network’s international members. Email, which we take for granted in the U.S., is not easy in Baghdad. The 15-minute journey to the Internet café takes two hours in the midst of war and the insurgency. The café might not be open and, if it is open, there may not be electricity. The obstacles are many, yet Naba finds the wherewithal to respond to her sisters…..

Getting a reply to her first emails with the subject line “Salaam from Baghdad” is a memory that “still makes the emotion rise up in me,” says Simone. “When Naba did write back, her response - written while the going was good - got straight to the point, acknowledging my pain and finding common ground.” Hamid takes that realization in stride. “We’re both human,” she says, “women, mothers, teachers, agony, she has hers and I have mine.”  MORE