Peace Education, NYC and UN

MONDAY: I got into NYC on Monday afternoon and spent the day catching up with Joyce (a colleague from Japan with whom I stayed for the week). She's doing well, having just returned to the States from a year on fulbright teaching in germany, and now she's eagerly searching for teaching positions in Brasil.

TUESDAY:

WEDNESDAY: The day began with a plenary session with Betty Reardon, Linda King, and Swee-Hin Toh, with Janet Gerson as moderator. King spoke about Human Rights history since 1945. Swee-Hin highlighted his 6-petals of a culture of peace: dismantling a culture of war, inner peace, environmental aptitude, intercultural solidarity, human rights, and justice and compassion. Betty discussed micro-macro zoom lenses linking the local and global. She stated gender has become a euphimism for patriarchy and heirarchy, wherein inner and outer peace linkages must encompass confronting patriarchy. She reminded us that gender changes as culture changes, hence mainstreaming attempts to bring gender into all discussions now looks at men's issues as well as women's. She concludes by asking us to look inward to develop our empathy through personal experience, and states that a politics of change is necessary: where if we can change ourselves, we can then change our society.

---------(Responses to questions)----------
Linda's response: How to involve the media in education and peace initiatives, bringing decentalized groups together--presupposition that the media is not interested in peace initiatives, we need to harness the technology that is available to bring together these groups .

Swee-Hin: Unifying values of PE--reverts back to his 6-petals and values of compassion, justice, truth, etc. Values are embedded in persons and structures/systems; Personal lenses--interconnections of those who suffer from different forms of oppression are connected but not necessarily in the same manner, however showing solidarity is paramount to resolving/managing these issues; Media can and should play a role in peace however we should remember who controls media, as a private corporations, and be critical of such perspectives, good news is that alternative media is growing.

Betty: In response to which values cut across humanity and peace work--One value that is at the core of peace is the value of universal human dignity (i.e. Golden Rule), illumination of the diversity of human richness, the model for most human organizations is there myopic and exclusive paradigms. The planet is an entity and we are a part of that, and as such, it (the planet) has a right to live and be protected...If we violate the planet we violate ourselves. (Note: The planet is left out of 1948 Human Rights!). Additionally, we do not truly converse through the hierarchies and social institutions out there, as peace educators we sometimes shout as we are not heard and listened to (however this doesn't implicate violence)...but as human beings we are problem-solvers and learners, if we can pinpoint our problems...

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After the plenary session, Nick and I went to a workshop on a Conflict Resolution study done in Beijing with parents and a comparison group in Pittsburg, PA. Nothing too fascinating, though we did run into Betty and get kisses from her. Then, I went with Nick and Brigid to a session about the UN and Peace Education...Not interesting at all, just a talk about their website, www.uncyberschoolbus.org, with which I am already familiar. Then the 4 of us went to dinner at a Thai restaurant nearby. After dinner, Brigid and I went to a Starbucks near their hotel to work on a powerpoint for Dr. Asha Hans.


THURSDAY: We had a memorial ceremony this morning for the victims of the last atomic bomb in Nagasaki. Kathy Matsui, an old friend of mine presented along with Cora Weiss of the Hague Appeal. Their ceremony was beautiful, and showcased the testimony of a hibakusha, a survivor of the A-Bomb. Following the rememberance, there was a plenary session with Israeli, Indian, British, and American educators. The 4 professors and activists spoke on..... At the beginning of the talk, a short activity was conducted in which each person in the room (over 400 of us) had to take a blank sheet of paper and create war with it. Then we each had to take that same sheet of paper and make peace!

I assisted Dr. Asha Hans with her PowerPoint presentation today, but the powerpoint we made didn't work on the projector in the conference room. In consequence, she spoke without a powerpoint, from notes on a sheet and in her mind, and the presentation was very nice. She spoke passionately and directly, raising awareness of the militarization in India and the deteriorating conditions of the state (i.e. kids becoming disabled due to uranium discharge in villages). Dr. hans works with the nexus of militarization and gender, very similar to Betty's work. Patriarchy is about power and control...as we go along our citizenship is shrinking because of the militarization taking place within nation-states. 2percent of the Indian budget goes toward the arms race.

FRIDAY ended with a reflection by Betty in which she encouraged each of us to continue working together and at the same to reaching out to others.


ON SATURDAY I went to a morning meeting at Columbia with Tony and others from the conference. The meeting concerned CIPE, a spawn of IIPE, responding to educators asking to keep IIPE going year-round in our communities.

I had a wonderful dinner with Joyce, Kathie and Bruce in the evening. We shared stories about traveling and living in Japan, and Bruce and Joyce told family stories. It was great night, and then I unfortunately had to leave for the airport at midnight. I spent the night in the airport and my flight back to KY left at 6:00am.

My Old Kentucky Home

I have been back in KY for 4 days now, sleeping at the Hutti's place, where Henry is also now living (he's been there for a year now). The Hutti's have a beautiful home and have been so very kind to me. I rested for the past few days waiting on my paycheck to come in from Chicago. Unfortunately, the pay was messed up in Chicago and they in fact did not send me the check in KY as they had said...Instead the money was sitting in the office in Evanston. Nonetheless, the mistake was quickly rectified. As soon as the money arrived on Thursday I left for home to visit my family.

Coming into London tonight from Louisville the flat roads of the city gave way to the mountains of Eastern Kentucky. Traffic in Lexington was congested due to interstate maintenance, but nine miles from the exit to London a lake glistened in the sun. I have seen this lake several times since my family moved here, I remember seeing it first when I was about 9 years old. When I came around that turn today and saw that lake a smile formed on my face. The moon was beaming orange and larger than I remember it being in years. It felt good to be home.

I immediately went to see my sister, who is now working at KFC with her boyfriend, Kyle. My sister's accent is so thick I can't hear what see says without laughing at her intonation, it's adorable...And I'm tired of repeating myself here in Kentucky because people can't understand my own mosaic of international lexicon and phrases. Apparently I now have an international accent, whatever that is...For the next few days I'll be helping my father work on a few of his projects--mowing grass, cleaning lots or delivering papers: a throwback to my teenage years.