MasterPeace 2014 's Blog

Commercialization of love, do you agree?

Image Credit: By Adam 
First appeared here http://gulfnews.com/opinions/cartoons/commercialisation-of-love-1.980168 

Just DO It!

"What can we do to promote world peace?" "Go home and love your family." ~~MotherTeresa

If you want to make a difference in the world, start with the community you are living in, and MasterPeace gives you the chance to start the change chain in the world. That is exactly what people in Gambia, Philippines, Kenya did, they started their journey with MasterPeace inspiration to spread peace in their own community.

In Gambia, our MasterPeace Club Gambia celebrated the international day of Peace in the
garden of the Town Council. Drama performance about environmental war was presented in collaboration with the Green Tech.

 Poetry reading about peace featured the celebration attended by around 150 persons. The
festival hosted different musical entertainments and acrobatics  involving various Gambian music bands and solo artists representing  their own communities.

 The artistic groups ranged from Afro-manding  music, Reggae dance hall, and traditional music from Pa Mboob, Gambia´s  Stevie Wonder, Doctor Shaka, Hard Breaka, The Bright Star Band and lastly The Kambeng Band from Brikama.

In Kenya, MasterPeacers gathered people at Mathare  slum grounds one of the most hit areas in Nairobi by post election  violence. They served their community by collecting garbage and
cleaning-up the slum, symbolizing cleaning of vices that lead to
conflict.

With the participation of Teens of Hope initiative, they also  planted 45 seedlings in the slum. They also, organized a football tournament along with different musical performance, to involve more  people and share their dream and peace culture.

In Philippines, Students of Tagoloan Community  College in Baluarte, decided to start a MasterPeace club inside their  university. The students are majoring in Tourism and Hospitality

Management. Therefore, they decided in celebrating the International Day of Peace in the best way they know, and in three very innovative ways;  ReciPeace, where peace was promoted through innovation of international  recipes which revolve around the dual theme of peace and nutrition, this included artistic bread showpiece, main course preparations, cake
decorating, fruit and vegetable carving.

Judges considered the creativity of the contestants to promote “international peace” in the
menu as well as the “nutrition” that it provides.

MasterPeace (masterpeace.org) gives you the opportunity to become a co-owner, by obtaining a license to develop MasterPeace activities in the frame of a MasterPeace Club.

MasterPeace Clubs are the arms we are using to encourage dialogue, togetherness and social sustainability throughout small local neighborhoods and global regions of international conflict, and via involving Music and Art in our celebrations for peace.

MasterPeace Club will foster your own creative peace-building initiatives. Join the change Chain by starting your own MasterPeace Club in your country, city, or neighborhood.

If you want to start the change, Mail us at: clubs@masterpeace.org or download our Start-up guide to give you a more clear idea about us, and join our global grassroots movement!

The Dutch National Postcode Lottery has announced on Februari 9th  that IKV Pax Christi (Founding Partner of MasterPeace) has been chosen as new beneficiary. 

At the ‘Goed Geld Gala’, IKV Pax Christi and MasterPeace were awarded a joint grant of 500.000 Euros per year for the next 5 years, for peace building activities worldwide.

IKV Pax Christi will use half of the grant for its general peace building work and the other half for the development of MasterPeace, as international bottom up peace movement.

This joint grant is an example of the co-creation that MasterPeace stands for: Creating Peace.

Together. The ‘Goed Geld Gala’ is an annual initiative of the Dutch National Postcode Lottery. 

Thanks to the 2.5million members of the Postcode Lottery good causes can continue their important work and start new projects. 

Half of each lot of the Postcode Lottery goes directly to charities in the field of development cooperation, human rights, nature, environment and social cohesion in the Netherlands. 

By Ed and Dep Shreipo

Ed is a passionate and expert skier. When you sit for meditation and your mind drifts you can just bring it back to your practice and continue. But if you are skiing down a steep mountain and you lose concentration you could hit a tree.
 Ed teaches this, calling it inner skiing, where our perception is on the edge and we’re in tune both within and without. It is a dynamic and relaxing freedom – meditation in action.To anyone first coming to meditation they can be met with a plethora of advice and techniques that is enough to baffle and confuse.

Where to go? What to do? Which is best? How to start? How to chose between mindfulness, TM, mantra recitation, kundalini, vipassana, insight, witness, breath awareness, shamata, visualization, MBSR, metta, and more?Part of the difficulty is that the word meditation means both the experience and the technique.

This is important because the experience is spontaneous, natural, arising from within, while the technique is simply the learnt method that helps you have the experience. And it makes little difference which technique you use. When you drive to Rome you need a car but once you get there you don’t.

The techniques are designed to help you calm the mind, to bring your attention inward, focused in just this present moment, so that the experience of meditation arises naturally.We clarify this difference in our book, Be The Change, How Meditation Can Transform You and The World, as it is so easy to get caught up in the technique – mine is better than yours – and forget that it is only a way to something, it is not the something itself.

 We talked with over 100 meditation teachers and practitioners who all stressed that the experience is far more important than the technique used because what you are really doing is opening yourself to an inner stillness that grows each time you come to sit quietly with yourself. In other words, just shut up, sit still, and see what happens!The experience of meditation is one of being completely and utterly present.

That may sound so simple but it is rare – notice how your normal state of mind is distracted by issues from the past or dealing with issues in the future – anywhere but just right here!

When we are fully present all those demanding thoughts begin to drop away, are seen as being far less important, even the anger, resentment, hurt and other negative emotions lose their power. Being fully present we experience the totality of our being and the richness found in stillness and silence.

So, when looking for a meditation technique, it may be worth trying them all. Each one will offer a slightly different take on the same thing, and we each need to find that one that suits us best.

As one of Deb’s teachers said, there are as many forms of meditation as there are people who practice it.Just watching the flow of the breath as it enters and leaves very naturally internalizes our attention and is more than enough for many people (mindfulness, breath awareness, shamata –see below).

Others have the same affinity to repeating a mantra or sound as the repetition induces greater peace (TM, mantra meditation). We can also purposefully foster positive states of being, such as cultivating greater peace, kindness, and forgiveness, through the repetition of simple phrases or visualization.

However, meditation can appear very boring, especially to beginners. Just sitting and watching our mind can seem so absurd, especially when we are invariably confronted with an endlessly chattering mind: the dramas, fears and neurosis seem to have a picnic, pushing anything meaningful out of the way. It’s not that this chatter is new, just that we are now more aware of it, like an endless parade of senseless scenarios.

When we were teaching meditation in England Ed was explaining how the mind can create havoc, and how some of the most inane thoughts can arise like: “I want to kill my mother!” The woman he was talking with blurted out, “How did you know?”PracticeAll you have to do is sit comfortably and watch your breathing. Just breathe naturally, in and out, no forced, short or long breathing. Simply watch each movement of breath.

If this is hard, then you can also silently repeat, “breathing in, breathing out” with each breath.Thoughts will come and go. You will probably find yourself getting distracted. The mind is very good at finding reasons not to be still, like a monkey bitten by a scorpion leaping from branch to branch it leaps from or drama to drama. When it does, just come back to watching your breath. The monkey will eventually get quiet and be still.Make friends with meditation by not pushing yourself. Start with sitting for just 10 minutes a day until you naturally find yourself wanting and doing longer. That way you won’t resent it. Sit upright – a bent or slouchy back will bring your energy down.

And as the saying goes, practice makes perfect. Which means that meditation is accumulative – you may not experience anything the first time you do it, but keep at it and you will. And though it may appear as if nothing is happening, in the midst of it all you may have a breakthrough, a moment of insight, and that one moment can change your life.

Appeared originally in the blog of Ed and Dep Shreipo
http://www.edanddebshapiro.com/blogs/ 

By Donald G. Ellis 

There are important differences between Syria and other Arab Spring countries but they all share one thing in common – failing repressive governments. This is particularly true of Syria and I believe we are seeing the beginning of the end.

It probably will not come any time too soon but before long the Syrian state will either fail or radically revise itself, and I doubt the latter. The Syrian regime is telling itself and the world a story: it’s a story of foreign backed troublemakers causing problems for the Syrian government and stirring up revolt.

The Syrians claim to be opening up more liberal possibilities similar to Jordan and promising reforms. Moreover, they claim that outsiders are trying to destroy the country and that the strength and power of the protest movement is exaggerated by a hostile press. It is true that Syria has initiated some limited reforms, but it is all far too little and transparent.

The story will just not hold. The regime has slowly been coming apart and its political structures seem to be weakening. Other Arab nations have lost confidence in Syria and have little influence with the executive leadership of the country. One reporter claimed that the military was weakening and losing its will to fight the protest movement. There are more reports of Syrian soldiers deserting the army.

Syria could certainly produce enough troops to put down resistance but to what end?One thing that allows Syria to hold on is the support of various elite groups. These groups depend on and have been rewarded by the leadership of the country. Benefits and privileges flow to these groups and they will continue to defend their interests.

There also seems to be evidence that the Baathist party is weakening and if this continues then the jobs they provide will disappear and thus further debilitate the regime. There is considerable economic pressure on Syria and it appears as if it will continue.

Like most authoritarian regimes Syrian leadership has awarded sweet contracts to individuals for public utilities such as telephones and the operations of power and electricity. This way elites are rewarded and maintain their allegiance to the authoritarian leadership. But social unrest has interfered with trade and market exchanges with other countries such as Turkey.

Increasing economic pressures could lead to more rapid decline in Syria.Assad, like many of his counterparts, has accommodated religious groups because he fears religious extremists. He even claims that the dissidents are motivated by extremism and religion. But most analyses of Islam in Syria explain that the Muslim Brotherhood is not very powerful and certainly not as organized as the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.

Apparently religious extremists are hard to find and the average person is far more oppressed by the Syrian regime than any religious group. Peter Harling of Foreign Affairshas argued that resistance is broad based and cohesive and increasingly sophisticated. He believes that the resistance has been contained so far by violence and thuggish behavior but that will not last long.The international community seems confused and even though the Arab League began acting decisively they have not been doing so recently.

There does seem to be a consensus supporting regime change but no one knows how to go about it. The US does not want to intervene directly and is even hesitant to lead from behind. There is also the problem of those groups and states that support the Syrian regime such as Hezbollah and Russia. Russia fears the rise of religious extremists and is supportive of forceful military action against protesters, and they also fear democracy advocacy by the United States.

Syria has not suffered or been isolated as severely as it could have been because of its close associations with Russia and China both of which have protected Syria from more severe circumstances.Harling is also pessimistic about any opposition in exile. Such groups often play an instrumental role in positive regime change. They often lead the way forward and act as a liaison between their oppressed kinsman and the modern world. Moreover, they can also play an important role in the reconciliation process when the time comes. But the Syrian diaspora seems to be squabbling over minor issues and competing for recognition.

The Syrian leadership still seems to be operating under the assumption that the troubles will all go away, or that it will endure for a while and then slowly disappear. This could be true but it seems unlikely. A military defeat does not seem likely and neither does international intervention. The outcome is, I believe, in the hands of the protesters.

Original blog appeared here
http://www.middleeastmirror.com/peace_and_conflict/ 

By Mitch Ditkoff 

1."Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
2. "There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth -- not going all the way, and not starting." - Buddha
3. "Be willing to be a beginner every single morning." - Meister Eckhart
4. "All great ideas and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning." - Albert Camus
5. "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." - Lao Tzu
6. "Beginnings are always messy." - John Galsworthy
7. "When there is a start to be made, don't step over! Start where you are." - Edgar Cayce
8. "So many fail because they don't get started -- they don't go. They don't overcome inertia. They don't begin." - W. Clement Stone
9."Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end." - Seneca
10."The beginning is the most important part of the work." - Plato
11."The beginnings of all things are small." - Cicero
12. "What's well begun is half done."- Horace
13. "Every exit is an entry somewhere else." - Tom Stoppard
14. "The person who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones." - Chinese Proverb
15. "No good ending can be expected in the absence of the right beginning." - I Ching
16. "Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step." - Martin Luther King
17. "Beginning is easy -- continuing hard." - Japanese Proverb
18. "There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning." - Louis L'Amour
19. "The greatest masterpieces were once only pigments on a palette." - Henry Hoskins
20. "Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible." - St. Francis of Assisi

Originally appeared on  Mitch Ditkoff  Blog
http://www.ideachampions.com/heart/archives/2012/01/_1whatever_you.shtml 

Vasilis Takos, is a greek nurse … but he is not like any other. Determined to make a change in this world he decided not to go from the usual and “safe” path. He joined the “Doctors without Borders” (Médecins Sans Frontières), the famous international medical humanitarian organization which was created by doctors and journalists in France in 1971. During his service he found himself in places like Zambia, Uganda and Ethiopia, lands which are experiencing one of the worst droughts in decades. There, as volunteer he faced the huge crisis of malnutrition, which has affected more than 38,000 children, pregnant women and mothers. He pointed that  the providing of help to these people from the developed world is something realistic, even with the form of donations. He also went to Yemen where a big uprising against the government is on and the clashes with police and pro-government supporters are always intense with thousands of victims as the protests is an everyday routine.

MasterPeace blogger Sotiris Bacalis interviewed Vasilis to talk about this experience:

What made you go and work as a field coordinator in Yemen?
Well, the decision to work as a field coordinator in Yemen is the natural consequence of my work to date with MSF. This is my fourth mission (prior to Zambia, Uganda, Ethiopia) as a nurse.

How' was the situation for you there?
The truth is that this period is extremely difficult there. However, the Doctors and the Nurses do everything to protect the people who work there by minimizing, whereas possible of course, the risks.  Besides, as a coordinator,  the security of my team is one of the main concerns I have.

What were the difficulties you encountered in Yemen who goes through a period full of uprisings and revolutions?
Loads of Difficulties. Practical difficulties, since we worked in a hospital that didn’t work properly  and all the weight fell to us. Working in a war zone is tedious and makes your soul suffer. And of course the difference in culture, since Yemen is a Muslim country with many differences from Greece. Needs patience.. You need to embrace the culture. Eventually you discover the real values of life are universal and can be found in all the countries.

What are your impressions for the situation in Yemen?
The situation in Yemen is difficult and it’s getting worse day by day. I don’t want to get all political but certainly the presence of MSF in Yemen is really important.

What  did you learn from this experience? Would you ever do this trip again?
The most important is to give assistance to people in need and the moral satisfaction we receive is tremendous.
On a more personal level, I think that in environments like these, it is really a challenge to improve your organization and learn to increase your knowledge not only on the job but on a personal level by  getting to know  other people and cultures. This way we get to think, compare and finally understand that it is in our own hands how to become better as people.
After that I am sure you understand that I would do it all over again…

How did the local population treat you?
The local population, as in all our missions treated us very positively. Despite all the differences we have and I mentioned some above, knowing  the reason of our presence there, they embraced us, helped us and protect us form the first minute ...

How  do you think the rest of the world can help?
Information, awareness and valuable financial support,  especially in periods of major economical crisis  like this one, as far as it’s possible for each one of us . Especially, in such difficult times for the Greeks or other high developed nations that deal with bad economy right now, the solidarity with those who are between life and death becomes even more important.

By Mitch Ditkoff  

1. "It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." - Charles Darwin
2. "Change before you have to." - Jack Welch
3. "People don't resist change. They resist being changed!" - Peter Senge
4. "Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself." - Leo Tolstoy
5. "The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking." - Albert Einstein
6. "Nothing endures but change."- Heraclitus
7. "You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete." - Buckminster Fuller
8. "Never believe that a few caring people can't change the world. For, indeed, that's all who ever have." - Margaret Mead
9. "I put a dollar in one of those change machines. Nothing changed."-George Carlin
10. "The key to change... is to let go of fear." - Rosanne Cash
11. "When people are ready to, they change. They never do it before then, and sometimes they die before they get around to it. You can't make them change if they don't want to, just like when they do want to, you can't stop them." - Andy Warhol
12. "Be the change you want to see in the world." - Mahatma Gandhi
13. "Things do not change; we change." - Henry David Thoreau
14. "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." - St. Francis of Assisi
15. "We change whether we like it or not." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
16. "When you're finished changing, you're finished." - Benjamin Franklin
17. "All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another." - Anatole France
18. "When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves." - Victor Frankl
19. "Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure. But unfortunately, although it is true, it is difficult for us to accept it. Because we cannot accept the truth of transience, we suffer." - Shunryu Suzuki
20. "If you want to make enemies, try to change something." - Woodrow Wilson
21. "Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof."- John Kenneth Galbraith
22. "Our only security is our ability to change." - John Lilly
23. "If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude." - Maya Angelou
24. "Life belongs to the living, and he who lives must be prepared for changes." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
25. "The only way to make sense of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance." - Alan Watts
26. "The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress." - Charles Kettering
27. "We live in a moment of history where change is so speeded up that we begin to see the present only when it is already disappearing." - R.D. Laing
28. "People change and forget to tell each other." - Lillian Hellman29. "The rate of change is not going to slow down anytime soon. If anything, competition in most industries will probably speed up even more in the next few decades." - John Kotter
30. "Company cultures are like country cultures. Never try to change one. Try, instead, to work with what you've got." - Peter Drucker
31. "In times of rapid change, experience could be your worst enemy."-J. Paul Getty
32. "Change your thoughts and you change your world." - Norman Vincent Peale
33. "Know what's weird? Day by day, nothing seems to change, but pretty soon...everything's different." - Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes
34. "We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the life that is waiting for us." - Joseph Campbell35. "It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad." - C. S. Lewis
36. "If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading." - Lao Tzu
37. "The changes we dread most may contain our salvation." - Barbara Kingsolver
38. "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got." - AnonBig thanks to Val Vadeboncouer for locating these quotes.

Follow Mitch Ditkoff  here http://www.ideachampions.com/heart/archives/2012/01/38_awesome_quot.shtml 

Blog by Donald G. Ellis 

I don’t like the term “peace journalism.” It sounds a little squishy and contrary to proper journalistic standards. But the term does gain traction in some circles. And it is easy enough to criticize peace journalism even though some of its tenets are worth our consideration. One of the best ways to transform ethnic conflict is by means of consensus democracy or the sharing of power between groups. Consociation is an ideal to be sure, but it remains an important aspiration. At a minimum, it rules out the use of force for achieving unilateral objectives. An additional deliberative goal is a media that is oriented toward peace and solving problems rather than intensifying them. This would be part of a consensus democracy project and would represent a shift in priorities from sensationalism trying to attract readers to conflict resolution. This has been termed peace journalism (see McGoldrick & Lynch, 2000), a term often met with skepticism as too simplistic.            Journalist organizations remain convinced that the media are not only positioned to illuminate conflicts but to actually resolve them and encourage cooperation. By practicing the best journalism the media can contribute to bridge building between conflicting groups. This calls for an activist journalism that relies on a set of practices that go beyond straightforward reporting about conflicts. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) calls on reporters to be trained in conflict resolution and to have the promotion of peace as their goal. They are asked to be well versed in the narratives of both sides of an issue and scrupulously avoid reinforcing violence. Moreover, journalists should be equally as concerned with solutions and common ground as much as the basics of a story. McGoldrick and Lynch pose a set of guidelines for the coverage of conflicts that are too numerous to list here, but include techniques such as (1) avoid simplifying the contest by enumerating the various goals of the conflicting parties,  (2) avoid stark distinctions, (3) see ourselves in others, (4) avoid reporting on only violence, (5) report on peace initiatives, (5) identify wrongdoers, (6) avoid demonizing words, (7) do not see signing documents and military victories as creating peace, and others. These are all potential good deliberative practices, the term “peace journalism” notwithstanding.            These recommendations can lead one to believing that clear reporting and sensitive concerns will enlighten readers and advance peace. But journalists live and work in political, economic, and power systems like everyone else. They are not independent actors who can determine effects. Hence, a biased and aggressive media will have less impact on an educated audience than and uneducated one; a prosperous and comfortable society will be less responsive to a challenging media. Nevertheless, it remains the case that the media can contribute to a helpful deliberative environment. Transparency, rationality, diversity, and the promotion of quality journalism are all part of peace journalism as well as deliberation. Bell refers to a sort of peace journalism as the journalism of attachment, that is, the concern is more for people than issues. Attachment journalism is not necessarily deliberative but it does represent a broadened sensibility to balance. It helps quiet the persistent refrain about how violence and drama captures attention, and peace is boring. Most journalism related to conflicts is “war” journalism and preoccupied with propaganda and violence. But “peace” journalists can be easily manipulated and subjected to propaganda that they are not able to understand. Scholars have explained how journalists are easily manipulated and not always able to check facts. They sometimes begin to identify with one party and simplify or distort information. In the end, journalism must take a critical stance such that it does not encourage violence but also avoids disseminating peace propaganda. The critical stance requires transparency and, most important, a diversity of opinion that comes with exposure to quality disagreement and the avoidance of polarization. In a future post I take up the issue of the role of the media in exposure to disagreement and participation in the political and conflict resolution process.

Orginal Post Here http://www.middleeastmirror.com/peace_and_conflict/2012/01/09/democracy/peace-journalism-and-deliberation/ 

Be Grateful Today!