March 2007

The Satyagraha Centenary: New Delhi, 29-30 January 2007 Today 59 years ago a bullet put an end to the physical life of that genius grown out of Indian soil. A spiritual earthquake shook us all. And far away from Birla Gardens, in Norway, a 17 year old boy, almost ignorant of Gandhi, was weeping, something he rarely did. The boy was me, and that was my spiritual birth. I became a Gandhi scholar, a peace researcher and peace worker, and the comments on our session’s topics is a mini-payback. Gandhi gave us that invaluable gift, satyagraha, to cling to satya. For Gandhi satya was an essence bridging the concepts of God, Love and Truth, uniting the spiritual, the emotional and the cognitive–not putting them in separate compartments as we do in the West, banning the first two from research and science. How can this guide us to the essence of...

March 22, 2007 Johan Galtung The Satyagraha Centenary: New Delhi, 29-30 January 2007 Today 59 years ago a bullet put an end to the physical life of that genius grown out of Indian soil. A spiritual earthquake shook us all. And far away from Birla Gardens, in Norway, a 17 year old boy, almost ignorant of Gandhi, was weeping, something he rarely did. The boy was me, and that was my spiritual birth. I became a Gandhi scholar, a peace researcher and peace worker, and the comments on our session’s topics is a mini-payback. Gandhi gave us that invaluable gift, satyagraha, to cling to satya. For Gandhi satya was an essence bridging the concepts of God, Love and Truth, uniting the spiritual, the emotional and the cognitive–not putting them in separate compartments as we do in the West, banning the first two from research and science. How can this guide...

Jean BricmontHumanitär imperialismÖversättning Margareta NorlinKarneval Formuleringarna är hämtade ur ett tal som Mohamed Mahathir, Malaysias premiärminister mellan 1981 och 2003, höll vid en konferens om mänskliga rättigheter 2005. Mahathir citeras i ”Humanitär imperialism”, en ny bok av Jean Bricmont om hur mänskliga rättigheter gång på gång har åberopats för att sälja krig, till och med förebyggande krig. Bricmont är professor i teoretisk fysik i Belgien men också ideologikritiker och har gett ut böcker tillsammans med bland andra Régis Debray. I ”Humanitär imperialism” diskuterar Bricmont framförallt USA:s senaste krig, mot Jugoslavien, Afghanistan och Irak och granskar de argument som lanserats för att framställa krigen som rättfärdiga, maktens legitimeringsmekanismer. Vi lever i de ohumanitära ”humanitära” krigens tid. Bombningarna av Kosovo och Jugoslavien 1999 kallades allmänt för en ”humanitär intervention”. Det var ett effektivt sätt att sälja ett krig där den europeiska socialdemokratin mer eller mindre okritiskt accepterade argumenteringen. De humanitära bomberna mot...

21. marts, 2007 Hans Jørgen BonnichsenHånden. En PET- og politikrønikePolitikens forlag, 2006256 sider, 249 dkr H.J.Bonnichsen siger et sted i sin bog, “Hånden”, at han er taknemmelig over at have været aktiv politimand, i den periode han var det. Det var en tid med mindre vold.Jeg har lige set en film fra 70-erne over en bog af André Brink, som jeg læste for mange år siden. Filmen var en påmindelse om hvor forfærdelig politivold- og overmagt kan være, – var i Sydafrika, er sikkert også i dag flere steder på kloden.Bonnichsen burde tilføje taknemmelighed over at være dansk. Hos os blev de værste undertrykkelsesmetoder afviklet for længe siden, gennem kamp og organisation nedefra. Bonnichsen kan altså være taknemmelig for at behovet oppefra for at holde masserne nede, i hans periode ikke var så aktuelt, idet danske love og forordninger bestemte at goder skulle fordeles nogenlunde rimeligt. (Det er så ved...

Today marks the third anniversary of the terrible bombings in Madrid that killed nearly 200 people and wounded hundreds more, an outrage that was committed by some fundamentalists acting in the name of Islam. This was followed by similar bombings when four terrorists blew themselves up in tube stations and buses in London and killed 52 innocent people, including my cousin’s daughter, and wounded over a hundred more people. This event, and of course the much greater tragedy on 9/11, are manifestations of a very ugly phenomenon that has developed among a small minority of radical Muslims who have a deep sense of grudge against those whom they hold responsible for the afflictions that have beset the Islamic world. Yet it would be as wrong to define their activities as the evidence of a clash of civilisations between Islam and the West, as it would have been wrong to describe...

March 8, 2007 2007 Spring Semester On-Line CourseMarch 19 to June 19 With faculty drawn from amongst the leading scholars and practitioners in their fields internationally, TPU is the world’s first truly global, on-line Peace University designed for government and NGO practitioners, policy makers and students at any level working in the fields of peace, conflict transformation, development post-war reconstruction, rehabilitation and reconciliation, and global issues. Since 1996, TRANSCEND has offered more than 800 on-site training programs for over 12,000 participants around the world, using the TRANSCEND manual “Conflict Transformation by Peaceful Means,” published by the United Nations. Now, studying together with professionals and practitioners from around the world is possible through TRANSCEND Peace University’s on-line courses, offered in cooperation with many of the leading practitioners and scholars in the field. In the March 2007 Semester TPU will offer 19 courses in the area of peaceful conflict transformation, gender, peacebuilding,...