Susan Gittler performing "Hiroshima" at Epworth United Methodist Church.
I owe an apology. It has been months since I recorded the 3rd Annual International Women's Peace Conference and agreed to bring this woman's plight to the attention of as many as I can. I have only now been able to transfer the video and load it to the web. Sorry, Lucy.
Lucy Semeiyan Mashua was born on March 19th, 1978 in Illassit, Loitokitok a remote village in southern Kenya. She is from the nomadic tribe of the Maasai people and is fluent in 10 African languages as well as English and speaks some French and Arabic. She graduated in 1998 from the International Central Management Institute and holds a degree in Hospitality and Public Service specializing in Communications. In 1999, Lucy was the only Kenyan at the time to qualify as an international radio broadcaster with the Voice of America (VOA) radio. Lucy has lived in eight African countries including Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Somalia, Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo engaging in social and political activism. In 1999, at the age of 21, Lucy became an activist, speaking out against the subordination and abuse of women, and became a mobilizer of peaceful demonstrations. In September 2003, Lucy was the head of Public Relations and Media at the 13th International Conference on AIDS and STDs in Africa (ICASA) held in Nairobi, Kenya. She has also volunteered with the International Somalia Rehabilitation Association (ISRA) helping to organize the 2006 International Women’s Day in Baidoa with the Ministry of Gender and Family Affairs in Somalia. She has been on the forefront of the fight against governmental corruption and the misuse of funds in Africa. Her activism soon put her life in danger. Eventually, she had to flee her homeland, leaving behind three young children. In 2006, Lucy came to Dallas seeking asylum. Today, she lives in Grand Prairie and is fighting to gain her asylee status. She is now a member of the United Nations Dallas Chapter. At the age of nine, Lucy could not escape the deep-rooted tradition of female genital circumcision and was forced to undergo the procedure. Then three years later, at the age of 12, she was forced to marry. Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is a controversial practice that violates several human rights laws set into place by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. While speaking out against the genital mutilations performed on girls in her native Kenya, she has faced strong resistance from people in her tribe. She has even had to hide her family for fear of reprisals. Soon her eight year-old niece whom she has adopted as her own daughter will have to endure the procedure. Relatives are keeping her children safe, but she hopes someday to bring all her family members to the U.S. As a result of her horrific experience, Lucy is now fighting hard to stop the tradition of female genital mutilation. She wants to establish rescue camps for girls in her country. “I want to be a voice for the voiceless,” she says. “I would like to start an organization here to help with this,” she said. She hopes that she can help end genital mutilation by raising awareness of the practice. As a survivor of torture, Lucy now speaks out on the following topics: Female genital mutilation, early childhood marriage, forced abortions, human rights abuses, and the abuse of women both physically and emotionally.
My earlier post dwelt mostly on the politically motivated demagoguery during the Women's Peace Conference that put me in mind of the contemporary devaluing of authentic criticism. This post attempts to range more widely and tell more of my experience of the event as a whole.
The event began with a ritual in which dozens of women (and men) carried a flag from each of the entities with U.N. recognized sovereignty and led the group antiphonally intoning "May Peace prevail in _______" for each. My mother represented the Maldives and was a bit mortified at not knowing how the country's name is pronounced. Everyone followed her lead loyally, however, wishing that Peace might prevail in Mald~..*_s. Despite the conspicuous absence of the Duchy of Grand Fenwick, the whole thing was rather moving.
Dr. Nia MacKay buslted about being a most effective Director of Communications for the Conference, and took care of everyone in grand style. At one point I had the pleasure of saving the day for an Israeli delegate named Hagit who had not brought her laptop and could therefore not show her presentation. I overheard an advocate for her telling the story of her dilemma and finally offered to provide my laptop for the length of her presentation. Later she came by and graciously thanked me, after which we entered a conversation about the Conference and it's worth, during which she insisted on teaching me that there is no need for teachers. This oft repeated lesson is almost always appreciated.
Dr. Patricia Dodd from Brookhaven Community College found herself hanging out at the CRS table and blowing off steam on the first day. She had submitted a paper for consideration to present and had been sandbagged, she believes, because it made no bones about the ethnic cleansing in progress in Palestine. The Conference organizers decided in advance that they would exclude and discourage talk about the war against the people of Iraq and the current activities of Israel. This they couched in terms of being "non-partisan" which, of course, makes her irate, as she spend time in the middle east on a semi-regular basis and feels pretty alone among folks who talk about peace and then stay home.
After Betty Williams expressed her ire (see previous post) several women in the power structure stomped around as though they had received a personal affront. I suggest that nobody involved is stupid. A significant quantity of the middle aged, white, wealthy women at the helm (it is Dallas after all, and that is how moderately "progressive" things most often get done) are more and less aware of strategy and tactics, and more and less identified as activists. They knew, as they chose to be "non-partisan" and quash certain voices that every laureate would speak against the atrocities the U.S. is committing under the banner of the agenda abbreviated as "BUSH." Betty Williams was followed by Jody Williams who beat that drum as well, not till the skin was peeling back but sufficiently to let everyone know where she stands. I don't agree with where they drew their line but I'm certain it was consciously scribed.
One of the highlights in my experience of the conference was my interview with Sharon Welch, who outlined several of the more vital points of my dissertation during her keynote. If you'd like to hear it click "POSTS" on the Gcast player on the right and chose "In the Midst with Integrity"
Here is a list of authors mentioned:
The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace by John Paul Lederach
The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative (Indigenous Americas) by Thomas King
Manifest Manners: Narratives on Postindian Survivance by Gerald Vizenor
Also my mother introduced me to Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, from the South African Peace and Reconciliation process. Lovely woman with whom I'd love to speak more about her take on the psychologies of conflict currently in vogue.
Peace laureate and candidate for the Presidency of Guatemala, Rigoberta Menchú Tum, was a pleasure to hear, if done a profound disservice by mistranslation during her keynote.
Local guitarist, Christopher McGuire, presented an amazingly virtuosic classical guitar concert, in beautiful counterpoint with the next evening's performance by Sara Hickman who has always been a favorite of mine. In the "Blast From The Past" category, I ran into two regional theater actors from my past at the Dallas Theater Center, including Pam Hoffman who directed Tall Texas Tales and was one of my children's theater instructors even before that adolescent success.
Finally, it was my pleasure to speak with and videotape Lucy Mashua. A Kenyan who "has worked for African women throughout her life on the issues of female genital mutilation, early childhood marriage, forced abortions, human rights abuses, and the abuse of women...has worked with the International Somalia Rehabilitation Association and is a member of the United Nations Association Dallas. I will post the video to YouTube and here as well so she can use it to appeal for greater attention for her work and the women and men she wants to reach. I'll bring this post back to the top of the blog when that happens.
This post took some time to complete and is out of chronological order as a result. After the time it needs to be the lead post I will return it to it's original place in the vicinity of 7/17/07
We have a dilemma that is so obvious as to be almost past the point of mentioning. This necessitates mention because that kind of obvious is a next door neighbor to "that's just the way things are". I worry lest the other ways that have made us who we are (free speech, open dialogue, etc.) fade mostly into the past and personal attacks, which once upon a time marked a public figure as a desperate lightweight and not worthy of attention, fall into the place of everything that once was reserved for public and foreign policy.
It is Wikipedia which notes that "A pundit is, in contemporary English, someone who offers mass-media opinion, analysis or commentary on a particular subject area, (most typically political analysis, the social sciences or sport), on which they are presumed to be knowledgeable. As the term has been increasingly applied to popular media personalities lacking special expertise, however, it can be used in a derogative manner. Pundit is also a slang term for politically biased people pretending to be neutral."
According to Richard Page, when he was recording a massive gathering for peace in Berlin during the 1980s, Huston Smith was reported as being a Moonie because he had defended their right to practice their faith. He was invited to go on the air in East Germany to respond and said that their right to practice their faith is guaranteed in our Constitution (implying he was just being a faithful American) and to construe from his statements that he is a Moonie would be like saying the Dalai Lama is a Communist because he supports communist people's right to govern themselves as they wish, while objecting as strongly as possible to their attempts to govern his people in spite of their wishes. The next day's headlines read
Last night at the 3rd International Womens Peace Conference in Dallas, where we (Assoc. Building Community) are audio and video recording "progressives" in progress (thanks to continuing work with Conference Recording Service), Nobel Laureate Betty Williams allowed as how violence is a choice. She lamented every pointless and horrible death on 9/11 - all 3,000+ who perished so needlessly in the Twin Towers, and the 35, 615 children around the world who died that day without notice or remark. She then talked about the responsibilities of a Nobel Laureate to stand up and tell the truth and to live with other folks' expectations. She drinks, smokes, and swears a bit and so tends to shock people who hear "Laureate" and expect Mother Theresa. It seems to her that it is easy to talk about Peace when, if you mean what you say, you should rather be living it. She is so frustrated with President Bush she'd like to kill him but obviously hasn't and made quite clear she doesn't mean literally. "How do you kill somebody non-violently?", she asked, to clarify the dilemma of keeping the natural response toward violence in check.
For a clip from my original source of what Betty Williams actually said please click on the Gcast player to your right. If you can't see it right away click on POSTS.
For a complete CD of the original recordings - audio CD or video DVD - visit conferencerecording.com and search "betty williams"
So, most of our (Richard, Lisa, and myself) today was dominated by tense running around by the more conservative upper-middle class white women who were very put out that Betty might say such a thing. One, on an errand to get a copy of the recording from us to deliver to the media, decided her time was better spent elsewhere and demanded "just give me the damn tape" when it became clear we didn't agree with her. Her main error was moving to dominate us before she actually had the recording in her hand. Later we spent hours working with Chris Salcedo (http://cbs11tv.com/topstories/local_story_193220448.html) of Channel 11, the Dallas NBC affiliate, to dig out some footage from our raw video masters. The video of the newscast from our footage is here. http://cbs11tv.com/video If it is not immediately apparent search the (if it bleeds, it leads) headline "I could kill Bush"
The issue is both honesty and flexibility of thought. Instead of talking about any of the very newsworthy things Ms. Williams said, which continue to escape coverage in most corporate media outlets, those whose power and income flourish in the presence of fear literalize and thereby purposefully misquote an obviously metaphorical but nonetheless weighty comment. This condescends both to an international public and our domestic body, dulling the potential for further authentically critical thought in the future out of habitual exposure to obvious spin for its own sake. This has ever been one of the most egregious of crimes on the part of public figures from Greece to our contemporary Capitol. Flim-flam doesn't have to be the rule. It can be the exception. Only We the People can insist on it. Call and write your purveyors of media.
Again wikipedia...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demagogy
Demagogy (Demagoguery) (from Greek δῆμος, "people", and ἄγειν, "to lead") refers to a political strategy for obtaining and gaining political power by appealing to the popular prejudices, fears and expectations of the public — typically via impassioned rhetoric and propaganda, and often using nationalist or populist themes.
The amazing gift brought by people who really make a difference in working toward Peace is that they do conflict well rather than avoiding it. There is a delicate balance struck between domination and surrender in the practice of conflict across its many manifestation. It seems to me there are any number of valid choices in response to conflict - from becoming limp in order to do no harm to the choice to cause pain and even damage while doing as little lasting harm as possible. The choice I have a hard time respecting is to voluntarily lack careful decisions about and practice of your choice of response.
When I was a boy I struck another boy who took the lead in a group that chose to victimize me. I struck him in the face, knocked him to the ground and saw the look on his face as he became the victim instead of me. I ran home from his house crying while they all watched dumbfounded. Thereafter I developed a willingness to allow myself to be harmed in order to model non-violence. This I practiced. Then, it became clear that there was a middle ground that would allow me to intervene when others were being victimized which the surrender method did not provide. For several years I studied what was available to me - the percussive (punching and kicking) martial arts. It became clear that this was not the middle ground I had imagined so I stopped, despite enjoying the rigor and competition. In 1990 I renewed my search for the discipline that would fit my desire for a conflict method that matched my ideology and discovered an art that has some grounds for identifying itself with peace and harmony.
One way, rather than The Way, I approach peace work is the practice of Aikido. Since it involves taking control of another person's balance there arises the specter of domination. Since it seeks a transformation of the conflict experience, rather than practicing total annihilation of The Enemy, practitioners run the risk of being overrun by an attacker. These are the tensions, both in the bodies and in the minds of the persons participating, that make Aikido work when it works as self defense and fail when it fails. The practice of Aikido, however, can be related to but independent of physical combat concerns, in that it shapes in the practitioner, like other martial arts, a pervasive energetic insistence on this particular being different. Combat systems rightly insist that the difference is "you thought you'd be beating me down and now the reverse will be the case". Breaking with this contemporary emphasis and historical background Aikido insists, from the philosophy through technique execution, that the unexpected shift of expectations will be "whatever you thought was going to happen, I insist that everyone, including you, be able to walk away from this when they choose and with their identity and body more or less intact."
Martial Nonviolence (tm) is the process art of conflict that honors the need to struggle while insisting that friction not be framed as a zero-sum game in which someone must become the victim.
Gittler danced with Martha Graham and continues to contribute to contemporary dance in the United States. She appeared recently to perform this piece at the 2009 American Dance Festival in Durham North Carolina.
I owe an apology. It has been months since I recorded the 3rd Annual International Women's Peace Conference and agreed to bring this woman's plight to the attention of as many as I can. I have only now been able to transfer the video and load it to the web. Sorry, Lucy.
Lucy Semeiyan Mashua was born on March 19th, 1978 in Illassit, Loitokitok a remote village in southern Kenya. She is from the nomadic tribe of the Maasai people and is fluent in 10 African languages as well as English and speaks some French and Arabic. She graduated in 1998 from the International Central Management Institute and holds a degree in Hospitality and Public Service specializing in Communications. In 1999, Lucy was the only Kenyan at the time to qualify as an international radio broadcaster with the Voice of America (VOA) radio. Lucy has lived in eight African countries including Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Somalia, Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo engaging in social and political activism. In 1999, at the age of 21, Lucy became an activist, speaking out against the subordination and abuse of women, and became a mobilizer of peaceful demonstrations. In September 2003, Lucy was the head of Public Relations and Media at the 13th International Conference on AIDS and STDs in Africa (ICASA) held in Nairobi, Kenya. She has also volunteered with the International Somalia Rehabilitation Association (ISRA) helping to organize the 2006 International Women’s Day in Baidoa with the Ministry of Gender and Family Affairs in Somalia. She has been on the forefront of the fight against governmental corruption and the misuse of funds in Africa. Her activism soon put her life in danger. Eventually, she had to flee her homeland, leaving behind three young children. In 2006, Lucy came to Dallas seeking asylum. Today, she lives in Grand Prairie and is fighting to gain her asylee status. She is now a member of the United Nations Dallas Chapter. At the age of nine, Lucy could not escape the deep-rooted tradition of female genital circumcision and was forced to undergo the procedure. Then three years later, at the age of 12, she was forced to marry. Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is a controversial practice that violates several human rights laws set into place by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. While speaking out against the genital mutilations performed on girls in her native Kenya, she has faced strong resistance from people in her tribe. She has even had to hide her family for fear of reprisals. Soon her eight year-old niece whom she has adopted as her own daughter will have to endure the procedure. Relatives are keeping her children safe, but she hopes someday to bring all her family members to the U.S. As a result of her horrific experience, Lucy is now fighting hard to stop the tradition of female genital mutilation. She wants to establish rescue camps for girls in her country. “I want to be a voice for the voiceless,” she says. “I would like to start an organization here to help with this,” she said. She hopes that she can help end genital mutilation by raising awareness of the practice. As a survivor of torture, Lucy now speaks out on the following topics: Female genital mutilation, early childhood marriage, forced abortions, human rights abuses, and the abuse of women both physically and emotionally.
Labels: 2007, conference, FGM, international, peace, person
| posted by Unknown @ 11/25/2007 10:18:00 PM
My earlier post dwelt mostly on the politically motivated demagoguery during the Women's Peace Conference that put me in mind of the contemporary devaluing of authentic criticism. This post attempts to range more widely and tell more of my experience of the event as a whole.
The event began with a ritual in which dozens of women (and men) carried a flag from each of the entities with U.N. recognized sovereignty and led the group antiphonally intoning "May Peace prevail in _______" for each. My mother represented the Maldives and was a bit mortified at not knowing how the country's name is pronounced. Everyone followed her lead loyally, however, wishing that Peace might prevail in Mald~..*_s. Despite the conspicuous absence of the Duchy of Grand Fenwick, the whole thing was rather moving.
Dr. Nia MacKay buslted about being a most effective Director of Communications for the Conference, and took care of everyone in grand style. At one point I had the pleasure of saving the day for an Israeli delegate named Hagit who had not brought her laptop and could therefore not show her presentation. I overheard an advocate for her telling the story of her dilemma and finally offered to provide my laptop for the length of her presentation. Later she came by and graciously thanked me, after which we entered a conversation about the Conference and it's worth, during which she insisted on teaching me that there is no need for teachers. This oft repeated lesson is almost always appreciated.
Dr. Patricia Dodd from Brookhaven Community College found herself hanging out at the CRS table and blowing off steam on the first day. She had submitted a paper for consideration to present and had been sandbagged, she believes, because it made no bones about the ethnic cleansing in progress in Palestine. The Conference organizers decided in advance that they would exclude and discourage talk about the war against the people of Iraq and the current activities of Israel. This they couched in terms of being "non-partisan" which, of course, makes her irate, as she spend time in the middle east on a semi-regular basis and feels pretty alone among folks who talk about peace and then stay home.
After Betty Williams expressed her ire (see previous post) several women in the power structure stomped around as though they had received a personal affront. I suggest that nobody involved is stupid. A significant quantity of the middle aged, white, wealthy women at the helm (it is Dallas after all, and that is how moderately "progressive" things most often get done) are more and less aware of strategy and tactics, and more and less identified as activists. They knew, as they chose to be "non-partisan" and quash certain voices that every laureate would speak against the atrocities the U.S. is committing under the banner of the agenda abbreviated as "BUSH." Betty Williams was followed by Jody Williams who beat that drum as well, not till the skin was peeling back but sufficiently to let everyone know where she stands. I don't agree with where they drew their line but I'm certain it was consciously scribed.
One of the highlights in my experience of the conference was my interview with Sharon Welch, who outlined several of the more vital points of my dissertation during her keynote. If you'd like to hear it click "POSTS" on the Gcast player on the right and chose "In the Midst with Integrity"
Here is a list of authors mentioned:
The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace by John Paul Lederach
The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative (Indigenous Americas) by Thomas King
Manifest Manners: Narratives on Postindian Survivance by Gerald Vizenor
Also my mother introduced me to Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, from the South African Peace and Reconciliation process. Lovely woman with whom I'd love to speak more about her take on the psychologies of conflict currently in vogue.
Peace laureate and candidate for the Presidency of Guatemala, Rigoberta Menchú Tum, was a pleasure to hear, if done a profound disservice by mistranslation during her keynote.
Local guitarist, Christopher McGuire, presented an amazingly virtuosic classical guitar concert, in beautiful counterpoint with the next evening's performance by Sara Hickman who has always been a favorite of mine. In the "Blast From The Past" category, I ran into two regional theater actors from my past at the Dallas Theater Center, including Pam Hoffman who directed Tall Texas Tales and was one of my children's theater instructors even before that adolescent success.
Finally, it was my pleasure to speak with and videotape Lucy Mashua. A Kenyan who "has worked for African women throughout her life on the issues of female genital mutilation, early childhood marriage, forced abortions, human rights abuses, and the abuse of women...has worked with the International Somalia Rehabilitation Association and is a member of the United Nations Association Dallas. I will post the video to YouTube and here as well so she can use it to appeal for greater attention for her work and the women and men she wants to reach. I'll bring this post back to the top of the blog when that happens.
This post took some time to complete and is out of chronological order as a result. After the time it needs to be the lead post I will return it to it's original place in the vicinity of 7/17/07
Labels: acting, activism, audio, conference, CRS, Dallas, peace, video, walkabout
| posted by Unknown @ 7/22/2007 10:25:00 PM
True criticism
We have a dilemma that is so obvious as to be almost past the point of mentioning. This necessitates mention because that kind of obvious is a next door neighbor to "that's just the way things are". I worry lest the other ways that have made us who we are (free speech, open dialogue, etc.) fade mostly into the past and personal attacks, which once upon a time marked a public figure as a desperate lightweight and not worthy of attention, fall into the place of everything that once was reserved for public and foreign policy.
It is Wikipedia which notes that "A pundit is, in contemporary English, someone who offers mass-media opinion, analysis or commentary on a particular subject area, (most typically political analysis, the social sciences or sport), on which they are presumed to be knowledgeable. As the term has been increasingly applied to popular media personalities lacking special expertise, however, it can be used in a derogative manner. Pundit is also a slang term for politically biased people pretending to be neutral."
According to Richard Page, when he was recording a massive gathering for peace in Berlin during the 1980s, Huston Smith was reported as being a Moonie because he had defended their right to practice their faith. He was invited to go on the air in East Germany to respond and said that their right to practice their faith is guaranteed in our Constitution (implying he was just being a faithful American) and to construe from his statements that he is a Moonie would be like saying the Dalai Lama is a Communist because he supports communist people's right to govern themselves as they wish, while objecting as strongly as possible to their attempts to govern his people in spite of their wishes. The next day's headlines read
"The Dalai Lama is a Communist!" - Huston Smith
I'll ask him about this next time we are together because I'd love to hear the story from his lips. I'll post a recording here if I remember to take my gear.Last night at the 3rd International Womens Peace Conference in Dallas, where we (Assoc. Building Community) are audio and video recording "progressives" in progress (thanks to continuing work with Conference Recording Service), Nobel Laureate Betty Williams allowed as how violence is a choice. She lamented every pointless and horrible death on 9/11 - all 3,000+ who perished so needlessly in the Twin Towers, and the 35, 615 children around the world who died that day without notice or remark. She then talked about the responsibilities of a Nobel Laureate to stand up and tell the truth and to live with other folks' expectations. She drinks, smokes, and swears a bit and so tends to shock people who hear "Laureate" and expect Mother Theresa. It seems to her that it is easy to talk about Peace when, if you mean what you say, you should rather be living it. She is so frustrated with President Bush she'd like to kill him but obviously hasn't and made quite clear she doesn't mean literally. "How do you kill somebody non-violently?", she asked, to clarify the dilemma of keeping the natural response toward violence in check.
For a clip from my original source of what Betty Williams actually said please click on the Gcast player to your right. If you can't see it right away click on POSTS.
For a complete CD of the original recordings - audio CD or video DVD - visit conferencerecording.com and search "betty williams"
So, most of our (Richard, Lisa, and myself) today was dominated by tense running around by the more conservative upper-middle class white women who were very put out that Betty might say such a thing. One, on an errand to get a copy of the recording from us to deliver to the media, decided her time was better spent elsewhere and demanded "just give me the damn tape" when it became clear we didn't agree with her. Her main error was moving to dominate us before she actually had the recording in her hand. Later we spent hours working with Chris Salcedo (http://cbs11tv.com/topstories/local_story_193220448.html) of Channel 11, the Dallas NBC affiliate, to dig out some footage from our raw video masters. The video of the newscast from our footage is here. http://cbs11tv.com/video If it is not immediately apparent search the (if it bleeds, it leads) headline "I could kill Bush"
The issue is both honesty and flexibility of thought. Instead of talking about any of the very newsworthy things Ms. Williams said, which continue to escape coverage in most corporate media outlets, those whose power and income flourish in the presence of fear literalize and thereby purposefully misquote an obviously metaphorical but nonetheless weighty comment. This condescends both to an international public and our domestic body, dulling the potential for further authentically critical thought in the future out of habitual exposure to obvious spin for its own sake. This has ever been one of the most egregious of crimes on the part of public figures from Greece to our contemporary Capitol. Flim-flam doesn't have to be the rule. It can be the exception. Only We the People can insist on it. Call and write your purveyors of media.
Again wikipedia...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demagogy
Demagogy (Demagoguery) (from Greek δῆμος, "people", and ἄγειν, "to lead") refers to a political strategy for obtaining and gaining political power by appealing to the popular prejudices, fears and expectations of the public — typically via impassioned rhetoric and propaganda, and often using nationalist or populist themes.
Labels: audio, conference, conflict, daily, peace, polis, politics
| posted by Unknown @ 7/12/2007 09:35:00 PM
Martial Nonviolence (tm)
The amazing gift brought by people who really make a difference in working toward Peace is that they do conflict well rather than avoiding it. There is a delicate balance struck between domination and surrender in the practice of conflict across its many manifestation. It seems to me there are any number of valid choices in response to conflict - from becoming limp in order to do no harm to the choice to cause pain and even damage while doing as little lasting harm as possible. The choice I have a hard time respecting is to voluntarily lack careful decisions about and practice of your choice of response.
My choices
When I was a boy I struck another boy who took the lead in a group that chose to victimize me. I struck him in the face, knocked him to the ground and saw the look on his face as he became the victim instead of me. I ran home from his house crying while they all watched dumbfounded. Thereafter I developed a willingness to allow myself to be harmed in order to model non-violence. This I practiced. Then, it became clear that there was a middle ground that would allow me to intervene when others were being victimized which the surrender method did not provide. For several years I studied what was available to me - the percussive (punching and kicking) martial arts. It became clear that this was not the middle ground I had imagined so I stopped, despite enjoying the rigor and competition. In 1990 I renewed my search for the discipline that would fit my desire for a conflict method that matched my ideology and discovered an art that has some grounds for identifying itself with peace and harmony.
Aikido as metaphor
One way, rather than The Way, I approach peace work is the practice of Aikido. Since it involves taking control of another person's balance there arises the specter of domination. Since it seeks a transformation of the conflict experience, rather than practicing total annihilation of The Enemy, practitioners run the risk of being overrun by an attacker. These are the tensions, both in the bodies and in the minds of the persons participating, that make Aikido work when it works as self defense and fail when it fails. The practice of Aikido, however, can be related to but independent of physical combat concerns, in that it shapes in the practitioner, like other martial arts, a pervasive energetic insistence on this particular being different. Combat systems rightly insist that the difference is "you thought you'd be beating me down and now the reverse will be the case". Breaking with this contemporary emphasis and historical background Aikido insists, from the philosophy through technique execution, that the unexpected shift of expectations will be "whatever you thought was going to happen, I insist that everyone, including you, be able to walk away from this when they choose and with their identity and body more or less intact."
Martial Nonviolence (tm) is the process art of conflict that honors the need to struggle while insisting that friction not be framed as a zero-sum game in which someone must become the victim.
Labels: bdwc, culture, martial, nonviolence, peace
| posted by Unknown @ 6/20/2002 01:25:00 PM
In a nutshell:
The phrase "process arts" refers to the facilitative disciplines like diplomacy, mediation, activism and cultural criticism, community building, consultation, management (organizational development), psychotherapy, etc. that attend the how of friction, creativity, and power at least as much as the what of production and making ideas concrete.
As long as there have been teachers, facilitators, and conversations about virtue there have been clear and compelling appeals to use power for the common good. The field of new vocations we now call "process arts" carries an unshakable obligation, especially in this era of a rising new myth of a worldwide communitarian movement, to access group power to practice peace so that everyone involved has support in meeting their basic needs and at least a chance to blossom fully.
The extension of the process arts into arts of peace, or peace practices, used to be a bit more buried in literal ideas of peace defined as "not in conflict" rather than "working well through conflict", but they have always suggested an education in behaviors that result in being peaceful. They have to be practiced, learned and passed on for peace to be real.
Imagine if our soldiers had an accepted and universally applied "program [that] includes every phase of education, from vocational training to graduate courses in universities" in how to practice peace with as much intensity and dedication as we train our children to destroy each other.
The phrase "process arts" refers to the facilitative disciplines like diplomacy, mediation, activism and cultural criticism, community building, consultation, management (organizational development), psychotherapy, etc. that attend the how of friction, creativity, and power at least as much as the what of production and making ideas concrete.
As long as there have been teachers, facilitators, and conversations about virtue there have been clear and compelling appeals to use power for the common good. The field of new vocations we now call "process arts" carries an unshakable obligation, especially in this era of a rising new myth of a worldwide communitarian movement, to access group power to practice peace so that everyone involved has support in meeting their basic needs and at least a chance to blossom fully.
The extension of the process arts into arts of peace, or peace practices, used to be a bit more buried in literal ideas of peace defined as "not in conflict" rather than "working well through conflict", but they have always suggested an education in behaviors that result in being peaceful. They have to be practiced, learned and passed on for peace to be real.
Imagine if our soldiers had an accepted and universally applied "program [that] includes every phase of education, from vocational training to graduate courses in universities" in how to practice peace with as much intensity and dedication as we train our children to destroy each other.
Monday, Jun. 25, 1945
The Arts of Peace
On the rue d Ayen in bedraggled St. Germain, France, stands a bright, pink, three-story schoolhouse. In its library are $25,000 worth of books. Its music room has an electric phonograph and a big collection of classical records. Its basement hums with lathes and its upper floors are alive with the clatter of typewriters and sewing machines. Last week the school awarded its first graduation, certificates—to WACs, for their proficiency in beauty culture.
The St. Germain school is one of the first G.I. schools to be set up under the Army's mammoth post-V-E education program for servicemen & women temporarily stranded in Europe (TIME, Oct. 16). To keep everybody busy, the program includes every phase of education, from vocational training to graduate courses in universities like Cambridge and the Sorbonne. But unit command schools (established by battalions) like St. Germain's form by far the biggest part of the program. By August 1 there will be one such school for every 1,000 soldiers. Every soldier who is not assigned to urgent duty will be required to attend for two hours a day (unless he prefers drill and supervised athletics) until there is enough shipping space to bring him home.
Other phases of the Army education program are now getting under way. British universities are enrolling their first small batches of G.I.s, will soon take many more.
Find this article at: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,797608,00.html
Labels: peace, processarts
| posted by Unknown @ 7/25/2001 12:11:00 PM
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