Thursday 18 October 2012

Welcome to Growing Peace!


Most of us will probably agree that PEACE and how to create more PEACE is one of the most important topics in today's world. Interestingly enough, it is also a topic that has global and personal implications at the same time. In fact, personal peace (or the absence of it) seems to have a strong impact on global peace (or the absence of it) and vice versa.

The good thing about this interconnectedness: we all can, individually, contribute to creating more global peace because our personal peacefulness will affect the world!

I therefore would suggest we all work together to create - or "grow" - more PEACE in this world - every single day for the rest of our life. One way of doing this, is, I think, to make more and more people become aware of the importance of PEACE and to encourage them to contribute to a peaceful world. Special events that are dedicated to promoting PEACE are among the many things we can do to raise awareness about this important topic.


FDU Vancouver has therefore organized special PEACE events for the past 3 years. 




Here a link to our 1st and 2nd FDU Peace Symposium and Fair:

https://sites.google.com/site/gudrundreher/10-projects/creating-more-peace-in-this-world/world-one-peace-one-future-fdu-peace-festival-fair


Our 3rd FDU Peace Symposium and Fair will take place on Friday, November 23rd, 

from 2:00 to around 8:00 pm at FDU Vancouver, 842 Cambie Street.


I would like to invite all of you to contribute to the event and to GROW WORLD PEACE together with the rest of us!

We will have a 1st planning meeting on Friday, November 2nd, at 2:00 pm at FDU in Room 136.
Please come if you would like to be involved in a more active way!



This year, we would like to focus in particular on 3 areas of creating more PEACE:

1) Creating Global Peace through Cultural Sharing
2) Creating Peace with the Environment and with Other Species
3) Creating Inner Peace

Here some further information about each of these areas:


1) Creating Global Peace through Cultural Sharing


Hostilies and conflicts between different nations, countries, races, and cultures seem in most cases to be caused by fear of the unfamiliar "other," whose actions appear to be "strange," "unpredictable," and therefore "threatening." The consequence: prejudices and stereotypes arise that label the unfamiliar other as "immoral," "inferior," "uneducated," or "evil." The prejudices and stereotypes are in most cases based on projecting negative self-images onto the other. They therefore say more about the characteristics of the ingroup than about those of the cultural "other." However, the fact that the "other" is not known well increases the fear and makes it difficult to counteract the existing prejudices and stereotypes.

If people learn more about the "other" cultural, racial, or national group, they will soon discover three things:

a) that in reality the "others" are very similar to them, and that the differences are only minor differences 

b) that these differences are interesting and fascinating, and

c) that becoming familiar with the "other's" ways of life, including customs, ceremonies, music, art, literature, language, philosophy, political ideas, religions, festivals, clothing, housing, food, etc opens up new perspectives and insights that are extremely valuable and that enrich one's own life.

The "other" is no longer feared but admired and loved - and hostility is transformed into admiration and friendship.
One way of creating more global PEACE consists therefore in sharing aspects of our own culture freely with people from other cultures so that they will come to understand - and love - it as well! 

Particularly easy to share - as well as easy to appreciate - are: music, dance, visual art, literature, festivals, ceremonies, clothes, and food.


2) Creating Peace with the Environment and with Other Species


The mechanistic world view that has dominated many (in particular Western) societies for several hundred years now and that has made many humans believe that everything around them is dead matter that can be exploited and destroyed without any further consequences has led to global warming, climate change, pollution, loss of habitat and species, and other irreparable damage everywhere in the world. It has also tempted humans to torture, injure, kill, and exploit other sentient beings - beings who share not only over 90% or even 99% of DNA but also the same consciousness with them - in horrible ways in the food industry (dairy, egg, and meat production), fur and leather production, laboratories (not just for the advancement of medicine but also for the sake of lipsticks, dish soap, and other cosmetics and household products), as well as in circuses, zoos, and so-called "sports," and thus inflicted unbelievable suffering on other beings. 

If we want to survive as a species we do not only have to change our damaging behavior dramatically during the next weeks and months - and, if we have, years - in order to counteract the destruction of our environment. We also need to change our world view and adopt the new scientific insights about the primacy of consciousness over matter as well as abiyt the interconnectedness of everything with everything else.

Many organizations have done detailed research about the damage that has been done & suggest what we can do as individuals to act more responsibly in the present and future.


Here some links:


Organizations that focus on Environment and Wildlife:






Organizations that Focus on the Wellbeing of Animals:


c) Creating more Inner Peace


We usually pass on our emotional state to those around us. If we are angry, we yell at our mom - or the cashier in the supermarket, if we are happy, we smile at the person in front of the line-up and maybe make his or her day. It is therefore crucial to transform destructive emotions (anger, fear, grief, despair) into emotions that will make us as well as those around us happy and well. Of course, different people need different things to create inner PEACE. However, there are some things that have proven to work for many: creative expression, exercise, energy work (such as reiki and acupressure), breathing techniques, yoga, and meditation. Creating balance and harmony inside thus becomes the key to creating a happier, healthier, and more peaceful world outside us as well.

I would like to encourage you all to try some of the techniques mentioned above in order to become more peaceful inside. Your new state of being will be catching - and magically spread to the world around you!

Thank you - and I hope to see you all at our 1st planning meeting on Friday, November 2nd, at 2:00 pm - and then, of course, on Friday, November 23rd at our FDU PEACE CELEBRATION!

In the meantime, please share your ideas about peace as well as the projects you have planned for our 3rd FDU Peace Day here as a comment!

Thank you,

Gudrun





14 comments:

  1. Hi Gudrun,

    We can do the screening of the film for our FDU- Vancouver Peace day event:


    “The Interrupters” is a documentary that tells the moving and surprising stories of three “Violence Interrupters” who try to protect their Chicago communities from the violence they once employed.


    From acclaimed director Steve James and bestselling author Alex Kotlowitz, this film is an unusually intimate journey into the stubborn persistence of violence in our cities.

    Moreover, I could also manage to bring the downloaded version of that movie.

    Here is the trailer of that film:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS5Hjhy1RhM

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    1. Hi Viren,

      I think it's a great idea to watch that movie. However, if the movie is longer than half an hour, we might want to watch it a day or two BEFORE Peace Day rather than on the day itself. The day itself should, I think, focus more on things we can do together in a more active way.
      Maybe Thursday, Nov 22nd would work for a movie night? We can still put the event into the program....

      g

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    2. Hi Viren,

      You could screen the movie on Thursday, Nov 22nd, either before (starting at 2:30 or 3:00) or after the Talent Competition. Please let me know if you would like to do that!

      Thank you,

      gudrun

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  3. Hello!

    My friends and I wanted to post our ideas for International Peace Day.

    1. The jar of problems....many of us are too shy to share our problems; sometimes too embarrassed. This is why we decided to make this jar of problems so everyone can write down their own personal problems and they would be anonymous.

    This will allow us to share what are the things that disturbed our peace, what makes us angry, stress and gets the bad side from us.
    In addition to this, I will be putting some musical background from Yanni.

    I decided to choose this musician because when he wants to prepare a concert, we look for artists from all over the world. And this made me think how we can all join together to create a beautiful piece of music.

    If we can do this, I believe we can in every other aspect!

    Here is the link from one of this songs I love:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3auxOlTl2MQ&feature=related

    2. The second idea we had has more to do with decoration. We will be bringing some candles and smelly things to change the fix environment we are in. This will show my classmates another type of atmosphere where they can relax and enjoy the activity.

    3. The third idea is pending...we are not sure if we are going to do it, but as soon as we figure this out I will let you know.

    Hope you are looking forward to my International Peace Day project!

    Alejandra

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  4. Hi Alejandra, Andrea, and Andrea,

    Great ideas! We are looking forward to your activities!
    Thanks for posting - and for having great ideas,

    gudrun

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  5. I already did the poster ill bring it on wendnesday

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    1. Excellent! Did you do it by yourself or together someone? If so, please post his/her name as well! Thank you!

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  6. Hi Gudrun,

    How are you today?:)

    For the peace day, Yilin Zhang, Benqiang Zhu and I will be together to do our peace day project. Here are our ideas:

    1. I will introduce a movie call "Life Is Beautiful" and show the movie trailer as well. I do not want to make people to watch the whole movie, because it will take a lot of time. Maybe, I will show some parts instead of showing whole movie.

    2. After that, Yilin and Benqing will teach people how to make peace dove by using paper. We also want to people do it together so that we can put them together at the end.

    Hope everyone will enjoy it!

    Thank you
    Sherry

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    1. Hi Sherry,

      Both ideas are really good. However, I wonder if you could introduce the movie - and show the movie trailer - tomorrow (Thursday) already instead of Friday. I think that would work better because the Friday schedule will be pretty packed. Maybe before or after the Talent show tomorrow would be a good time? Let me know! Viren also wanted to introduce a movie. So it would be great if we could have the two movies together!

      Thanks for posting - and please let me know if tomorrow would work for you,

      gudun

      The doves can easily be integrated on Friday.

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  7. Cathy, Claire and I (Rodrigo) will be doing a short presentation about our volunteer opportunity at The Salvation Army. We will be in room 130 at 5:50pm.
    I Hope you can make it :D

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    1. Sounds good! Yes, I will definitely try to make it :D

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  9. PRESENTATION : ALBERTA OIL EXPLOITATION

    GROUP :
    MADHADI ABHINAV
    NAIK PARTH
    PATEL KEVAL
    PATEL HARSH
    CHAVDA KISHAN

    DESCRIPTION:
    MINING PROCESS
    COMPARISON BETWEEN GULF AND ALBERTA OIL INDUSTRY
    ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
    ETHICAL ISSUES

    HERE IS THE LINK FOR PRESENTATION:

    http://www.slideshare.net/parth005/alberta-oil-exploitation-ppt

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