KurisKa's Page

Hello,

iPeace is deleted from David Califa the end of June. Here you can find a new home.

http://peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com/

You are cordially invited.

Warm regards, Eva

2009 : The International Year of Reconciliation

Rene Wadlow



The United Nations General Assembly has proclaimed in Resolution A/61/L22, the year 2009 as the International Year of Reconciliation “recognizing that reconciliation processes are particularly necessary and urgent in countries and regions of the world which have suffered or are suffering situations of conflict that have affected and divided societies in their various internal, national, and international facets.” The Resolution was introduced by Nicaragua’s representative who stated that “reconciliation between those estranged by conflicts was the only way to confront today’s challenges and heal wherever fraternity and justice were absent from human relations.”



Yet we need to ask how can genuine reconciliation take place between people and groups with bitterly held beliefs and a violent history? How can the needs for national healing be reconciled with the demands for justice by the victims of terrible violence?



The General Assembly resolution gives a partial answer by stressing that “dialogue among opponents from positions of respect and tolerance is an essential element of peace and reconciliation.”



For there to be a respectful dialogue among opponents, certain barriers that prevent negotiations must be dismantled as a sign of a willingness to enter into a process of negotiations. Some barriers are physical, some psychological, others ideological. These barriers must be overcome if we are to progress on the long road to reconciliation. Let us, with the New Year, start now both as individuals and as members of movements in the spirit of the historian Howard Zinn’s “People are Practical”



They want change but feel powerless, alone,

do not want to be the blade of grass that

sticks up above the others and is cut down.

They wait for a sign from someone else

who will make the first move, or the second.

And at certain times in history

there are certain intrepid people who take the risk

that if they make that first move others will follow

quickly enough to prevent their being cut down.

And if we understand this, we

might make that first move.



…And if we do act, in however small a way,

we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future.

The future is an infinite succession of presents,

and to live now as we think human beings should live,

in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself

a marvellous victory.



Rene Wadlow, Representative to the UN, Geneva, Association of World Citizens

Hello KURISKA !!!
I hope, you are healthy and happy and send you the most cordial greetings.
Let's pray together that many people think like we so and fights. Not alone, only all together can manage a peaceful world we and can get them hopefully also.

I wish you a beautiful, peaceful and sunny time !!!
YOUR Hans-Joachim KNOLL

KurisKa -- Yes! I agree completely -- one country, like, a Teddy Roosevelt in khakis with an elephant gun and one foot on the dead animal's head? "I have slain the beast and he is OURS!" except the beast is the rest of the human beings on the planet.

I suppose it is even hotter in Newark today (9/15) than it is up here in Franklin (started at 84 at 10 AM!) I thought this was September. . .

It is nice to know that Americans are for peace, also. So many of the people I have contacted/been contacted by are from other countries -- which is nice, rather exotic, exciting -- but I am so glad of local involvement, by which I mean that there are actual people here in the U.S. who are tired of fighting, tired of war, tired of it as a way of life . . .

Stromek

KurisKa hi and thanks for joining iPeace. We hope that you'll find your experience here valuable, enriching and effective.

Please help us be more effective by inviting as many of your contacts as you can. You can virtually invite your whole address book with just a few mouse clicks using this link.

Hello KurisKa, and welcome! So many members are from so far away, it is so strange to see an almost-neighbor! (LOL)
Enjoy the beauty, the art, the words, and share the peace with your friends.
Stromek