The following is a prayer for peace written by Carol Penner. You can read more prayers on Carol’s blog.

As we wait for the anniversary of your birth, Lord Jesus,
we are waiting for peace in Afghanistan.
We have created a war that goes on and on;
military operations come and go,
bombs get dropped or planted,
hospitals fill up and empty,
graveyards in Afghanistan and around the world
are visited by those who mourn.
And we have not found peace.
Saviour, where is your relief?
We need your strength and consolation.
We need release from fear and sin.
We require a rest from war.
And so today we ask for deliverance.
Deliver us from a mindset that takes war for granted,
that is unaffected by casualty figures,
that gives up hope for an end to conflict.
Deliver us from corporations that make billions
selling arms and armaments to countries at war,
profiteers who would like to see this war go on and on.
We pray for Afghan civilians,
who have endured too many foreign occupations.
We pray for Taliban fighters,
who believe in the cause for which they risk their lives.
We pray for foreign troops,
who also believe in the cause for which they risk their lives.
We pray for political and military leaders,
for religious leaders and diplomats on every side.
Open every heart to a longing for peace,
not just for themselves, but for their enemy.
Taliban, American, Canadian, all nations in Afghanistan
holding the bodies of their dead,
weeping together and saying, “Enough.”
Afghani people standing up to govern themselves,
providing justice for men and women.
This vision of peace is monumental and seemingly impossible,
but we know that you are the Prince of Peace,
and we ask for this gift in your name.  Amen.

Copyright Carol Penner, www.leadinginworship.com

by Scott Cressman

Leymah Gbowee (Bow-ee) never wanted to be an activist. She was a 17-year-old student when the civil war in Liberia began with rebel groups fighting president and accused war criminal, Charles Taylor. She wanted to stay far away from the trouble.

But the conflict soon chased away her dream of attending college, and Gbowee turned to a new, “crazy dream.” She decided that she and other Liberian citizens were the only solution to the rape, murder, starvation, and chaos affecting so many families. She joined the Women in Peacebuilding Network and led Christian and Muslim women in moving from helpless victims to powerful voices for peace. Using the slogan “Does the bullet know Christian from Muslim?”, Gbowee called women of faith into action. Prayer and a refusal to be pushed aside were their weapons.

The women wore white, made human barricades, and appeared holding peace signs wherever the war leaders went.  Gbowee also organized a “sex strike,” calling on all women to say no until their men agreed to stop the fighting. The group managed to meet Taylor and convinced him to attend peace talks.  After Gbowee and her network used demonstrations and public pressure to bring both sides together, in 2003 both sides agreed to disarm and end the 14-year war.

In her May 2009 acceptance speech for the Blue Ribbon Peace Award from Harvard University, Gbowee said that the world needs women, children, and rural people, those who pay conflict’s highest toll, at the peace tables:

“This award is a call to invade spaces. This award is a call to infiltrate private homes, schools, public buildings, and international spaces. This award is a call to constructively interfere in the lives of women, children when the men are so preoccupied with taking power and taking it violently.”

This Liberian mother saw the untapped potential hidden in her war-torn country’s most vulnerable people. United, they demanded and created peace.

Leymah Gbowee, the woman who didn’t want to get involved, continues to innovate peace-making. She is now executive director of the Women Peace and Security Network Africa group in Ghana.  Gbowee even has a Mennonite connection; in 2007, she graduated from the Eastern Mennonite University’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding in Virginia. Her story, and that of other women in the Liberian peace efforts, is told in the documentary “Pray the Devil Back to Hell.”

by Scott Cressman

We are lucky that Remembrance Day is when we reflect on war. If they don’t want to, no Canadian needs to think about the fear, violence, and turmoil that war carries. But one man, a man who had more to remember than most people, did not enjoy Remembrance Day. War is a waste, he said, and Nov. 11 is “just show business.”

That man, Harry Patch, died in July at the age of 111. He was the last British veteran of the trenches from the first World War, which Woodrow Wilson called the “war to end all wars.”

Mr Patch was 18 years old when he was conscripted into the infantry. The next year, 1917, he manned a machine gun in France, where the war had slowed to a crawl in the muddy trenches. He fought at Passchendaele, a three-month battle that gained only five miles but cost both sides hundreds of thousands of lives.

He soon felt the routine tragedy of war, as an exploding shell killed three members of his gun crew. Mr Patch spent a year in hospital, and the war was over when he emerged. Back home, he kept quiet about his war experiences for 80 years. Finally, in 1997, this veteran decided to use his war hero status and make peace his legacy. He was interviewed on television, in magazines, and wrote a book about his experiences and observations. The war was a tragic waste, he said

On the 90th anniversary of Passchendaele, the old soldier returned to France to lay wreaths for both Allied and German soldiers. He never forgot the humanity in the men he had fought in his youth. He never praised victory or glorified war.

Harry Patch was a regular man, a soldier, a plumber, and a man of peace.

You can find Mr. Patch’s life story in his book “The Last Fighting Tommy.”

Information gathered from the New York Times and BBC .

http://answer.pephost.org/site/News2?news_iv_ctrl=-1&abbr=ANS_&page=NewsArticle&id=9193

Informação sobre os locais das manifestações de Outubro organizadas pela

A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition  – Act Now to Stop War & End Racism

by Scott Cressman
Retold from the book “War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning,” by Chris Hedges.

The year is 1992. The Bosnian War has begun, using ethnicity and religion to tear neighbours apart based. Violence is rising between the nation’s three groups of people, Bosniaks, Serbs, and Croats.

Rosa and Drago Sorak live in the town of Gorazde, some of the few Christian Serbs in this Muslim area. As the conflict grows, their two sons are killed. They suffer death threats and their town is bombed. The couple has a baby girl, but no electricity, gas, or water. Food becomes scarce and the parents can do little as other infants die and their own daughter weakens.

Then, one morning there is a knock at their door. It’s Rosa and Drago’s Muslim neighbour, Fadil Fejzic, offering half a litre of milk for the baby. Fadil has milked his cow during the night so snipers can’t shoot him. He does this for the next 442 days, bringing milk for the “enemy” child, ignoring the disapproval and threats of his own community. The baby lives. The families move to avoid the fighting, but they survive the war.

Fadil Fejzic stood his ground against the pressures of war and hate, but not because he was part of an international organization or a missions team. He saw how he could slow the tide of violence in his home community, and he acted. Without fund-raisers, a support team, or public praise, a life was saved. This man’s actions may have been overlooked as a tiny moment in a much bigger war, but he demonstrated how even small individuals can make an impact by mixing love and selflessness.

In Guinea sta succedendo il finimondo. Firmate qui:

“If we can push the African and European Unions to apply targeted sanctions on the ruling elite, this could be the quickest way to get the military to step down, with out hurting the Guinean people. Sign the petition below and spread the word – and it will be delivered to the EU and AU leadership this week”

PM

by Scott Cressman

Did you know that Sept. 21 was the International Day of Peace? Since 1982, the United Nations has devoted one day in September to stopping war and the pain it creates. For years, the world has been slow to embrace this occasion, but now the peace movement may gaining speed.

This was a day to act and reflect on all the ways war costs us. True, the twenty-first is over now. But saving lives during a specific 24 hours is not what’s important; it’s finding an attitude and inspiration to work toward peace everyday in big and small ways. From the UN website: “International Day of Peace is also a Day of Ceasefire – personal or political. Take this opportunity to make peace in your own relationships as well as impact the larger conflicts of our time. Imagine what a whole Day of Ceasefire would mean to humankind.”

Maybe this is a good chance to think about how we can reduce armed conflict and promote safety for others around the world. You might also find inspiration in this full-length film on YouTube about the years one man devoted to developing this peace campaign.

The Day of Peace organizers’ goal is “peace-building,” which means not just stopping existing conflicts but creating a new environment of friendliness and tolerance. That sounds a little like just a vague, utopian ideal. But inside this slogan, there’s an attitude and an ambition that says mistrust and violence doesn’t have to be humanity’s default setting. Instead, we can try to build something better. Let’s grab that optimism and run with it, no matter what day the calendar says.

by Scott Cressman

Most Canadians have probably never heard of Muriel Duckworth, the pacifist and activist from Nova Scotia who died Saturday. Neither had I, but now I wish Canadians knew this peacemaker better. She seems like the kind of Christian who grabs Jesus’ ideas of peace with both hands and won’t let go. Judging from these admiring articles from the CBC and the Associated Press, her strong voice and efforts earned real results and respect.

Ms. Duckworth was an outspoken pacifist during World War II, a position that made her unpopular with her neighbours. Decades later, she worked with Oxfam and led the national Voice of Women group against the Vietnam War by focusing on war’s real victims and causes. She brought Vietnamese women to Canada to share their stories, and also condemned our country’s support for the war through arms dealing. More recently, she remained dedicated to justice by speaking out through the Raging Grannies activist group.

Although I didn’t know her personally, Ms. Duckworth’s Christian faith seemed a major inspiration to her. She was first a United Church member, then the Quakers’ stronger emphasis on peace-making drew her to join that group. Her work for peace kept others from forgetting the costs of war, an example anyone who advocates peace should remember. Although what she said was not always popular, Canada later awarded her both the Order of Canada and the Lester B. Pearson Peace Medal.

Muriel Duckworth lived a life that embraced radical peace-making moulded after Jesus by following this motto:

While there is a lower class, I am in it
While there is a criminal element, I am of it
And while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.
-Eugene V. Debs

Believing in a peaceful revolution needs to be more than just reading (or writing) a blog. It should be more than a bumper sticker or a catchy slogan. How can we reject violence in our daily lives? How can we inspire others to see peace in our actions and attitudes?

In a new feature called “Real Peace-Makers,” the iamrevolting blog will look at real people, people like you, who have stood up for their beliefs and worked for peace. If you know anyone who fits the description, email MCC.iamrevolting@gmail.com. We would love to tell these stories.

As a person who acts as a true peace-maker, you may often faces real risks. When you rock the boat, you might get a little wet. Today, our story comes from a new Christian, a woman who worked as a boder service guard. After eight years monitoring the border, the Canadian Border Service Agency changed its policy to require all guard to carry and train with a weapon. Because of her new commitment to Jesus’ way of peace, this woman felt she could not obey her job’s new requirements. Yet she did not want to lose her job either. She wanted some help in preparing for an important meeting with her employer where she could express her deeply-held convictions and ask for exemption from the “arming initiative.” A MCC employee wrote a letter of support for her based on the Canadian Charter’s article on her right to freedom of religion and conscience, and Canada’s own history of making provisions for conscientious objectors. Her pastor and others provided additional counsel. The young woman later reported that the meeting with her employer had gone very well, and that she had been assigned to a new position which would maintain her status in the organization but not require her to be armed.

This young woman willingly risked her job to challenge common thinking and give testimony to her faith and commitment to peace. She is a modern-day conscientious objector.

Our  current  course  of  climate  change  is  worse  than  the  worst  case  scenario projected  by  the United Nations  Intergovernmental Panel  on Climate Change  (IPCC), with the  damaging  and  often  fatal  effects  already  being  seen  through  such  extreme  events  as hurricanes, flooding, droughts and heat waves. 
 
Even  if  the world  reduces  greenhouse  gas  emissions,  the  planet will  take  time  to  recover from the gases already in the atmosphere.

This is why it is necessary to focus on short-lived gases, namely methane. Methane traps at least seventy-two times more heat than CO2, averaged over a twenty year period. Methane’s biggest  source  is  the  livestock  industry,  which  is  indeed  one  of  the  top  causes  of  global warming that must be stopped.

Below are some of the latest evidence of the impacts of climate
change on humans’ and animals’ lives:

Arctic melt 
 
The Arctic, or North Pole, may be ice-free by 2012, seventy years ahead of IPCC estimations. Without the protective ice to reflect sunlight, ninety percent of the sun’s heat can enter the open water, thus accelerating global warming.
 
The change  in Arctic  ice cover  is dramatic, with climatologists saying  that only  ten percent now is older and thick ice, while over ninety percent is newly formed and thin.
 
Another  Arctic  change  is  the  thawing  of  permafrost,  a  normally  frozen  layer  of  earth containing methane stores. The thawing of this layer in recent years has caused methane to be  released,  with  atmospheric  levels  that  have  risen  sharply  since  2004.  Further  global warming beyond a two degree Celsius rise could cause billions of tons more of methane to be released into the atmosphere, leading to mass extinctions of life on this planet. 
 

The melting Arctic is releasing vast quantities of methane

As  the  massive  ice  sheets  of  Greenland  and  the  Antarctic  continue  to  melt  as  well, catastrophic sea level rise and stronger storms are expected to follow.
 
If the entire West Antarctic sheet melts, global average sea levels would rise at least by 3.3 to 3.5 meters, affecting over 3.2 billion people – that is half of the world population – who live within  two hundred miles of coastline. And United States scientists  from  the National Snow and Ice Data Center now say that if all of Antarctica were to melt, the sea level could rise to a
much higher level than expected, some say even up to seventy meters, which means more deadly to all lives on earth. 

Antartica melting and sea level rise

 
Lands sinking and climate refugees

We  have  lands  sinking  and  climate  refugees.  Right  now,  at  least  eighteen islands  have  completely  submerged  around  the  world,  with  more  than  forty  other  island nations  at  risk  from  rising  sea  levels.  A  report  from  the  International  Organization  for Migration stated that there may be two hundred millions, or even up to one billion people will
be climate refugees by 2050, or within our lifetime. 
 

Future Flood of Refugees

These are people who must  leave  their  island or coastal homes due  to  rising sea  levels or permafrost melts that cause entire communities or nations to sink and collapse. 

 
Glacier retreat and water shortage

Himalayas glaciers retreat

Most of the planet’s glaciers will be gone within a few decades, jeopardizing the survival of more than two billion people. 
 

One  billion  of  these  people will  suffer  the  effects  of  the Himalayan  glacier  retreats, which have been occurring at a pace more rapid than anywhere in the world, with two-thirds of the region’s more than eighteen thousand glaciers receding. The initial effects of glacier melt are destructive floods and landslides.

As  the  glacial  ice  retreat  continues,  reduced  rainfall,  devastating  droughts  and  water shortages are the result.  
 
Oceanic dead zones 
 
Climate change is creating areas of sea known as dead zones, which
now  number  more  than  four  hundreds.  These  arise  due  to  fertilizer  runoff  largely  from livestock, contributing to the lack of oxygen which is necessary to support life.

Beautiful and colourful coral reefs before

Coral reefs degraded & destroyed by human impact & climate change

   

 

 

Coral reefs degraded and bleached

Local and regional extinctions are far more common than global extinctions

Record heat  
 
The  past  decade  has  twice,  at  least,  seen  the  hottest average annual  temperatures ever  recorded  in our planet’s history.  In 2003, a  record heat wave hit Europe, claiming  tens of  thousands of  lives. Heat waves also preceded  the worst wildfires ever in Australia’s history.

It kills!!!

Heat waves in South Australia

 
Storms increasing
 
Storms  increasing: The  intensity and duration of hurricanes and  tropical storms have been noted  to  increase  by  a  hundred  percent  over  the  past  thirty  years, which  scientists  at  the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States say is likely due to climate related increases in ocean temperature.

Gonalves devastated by Hurricane Hanna_080903

  
Wildlife disappearing 
 
Leading  ecologists  say  that  the  decline  of wildlife  due  to species  extinction  is  so  rapid  that  there  is  no  modern  comparison.  Scientists  also  now predicted  that  the  earth’s  sixteen  thousand  endangered  species  may  become  extinct  a hundred times faster than previously thought. 

Nearly 900 species extinct in the past 500 years

Governments should put as much effort, if not more, into saving nature as they do into saving economic and financial sectors.” )

We  have  drought,  desertification.  In  Nepal  and  Australia,  wildfires  this  year  have  been severely intensified by drought conditions.
 
In Africa, people in Somalia, Ethiopia and Sudan, to name just a few, have been crippled by drought. According to the United Nations, desertification, which often results from felling too many  trees and damages  that occurs  from such activities as cattle grazing,  is affecting  the well-being of more than 1.2 billion people in more than one hundred countries at risk.
 
Precious fresh water supplies are also drying up, such as aquifers under the major cities of Beijing, Delhi, Bangkok, and dozens of other regions such as the Midwestern United States; while the rivers Ganges, Jordan, Nile, and Yang Tzu have been reduced to a trickle for much of the year.
 
In China’s worst  drought  in  five  decades,  vital  crops were  lost  in  at  least  twelve  northern provinces, costing the nation billions of US dollars in drought relief to farmers with losses.
 
Human health
 
We have the human health problem. According to Swiss-based research, climate change is already responsible for some three hundred thousand and fifteen deaths a year, with another three  hundred  and  twenty-five  million  people  who  are  severely  affected.  This  comes  in addition to an economic loss of US$125 billion every year.
 
The worst affected are developing nations in Africa, with other very threatened areas being in South Asia and small island nations.

Solutions
 
We have enough with problem, but we have solutions  to  this problem.  It might not be  that early,  but  it’s  still  not  too  late,  we  still  can  rescue  our  home,  planet  home. 

1)  Number  one solution is vegan, organic vegan.

Veganism will save our world.  
 
Luckily,  there  are  easy actions we can take for reference.   
 
Now, many  of  these  areas  where  we  are  seeing  such devastating effects of climate change, such as Arctic melt, lands sinking, water shortage from glacier melt,  and  even  storms  increasing  are  all  directly  related  to  the  earth’s  temperature increasing. 
 
So, we must cool the planet, first and foremost. And the best way to stop global warming is to stop producing the greenhouse gases that create the heat.  
 
We  already  know  about  the  efforts  to  reduce  emissions  such  as  from industry and  transportation. But changes  in  these sectors are  taking  too much  time – more than we can afford at  this  rate, at  this hour. One of  the most effective and  fastest ways  to reduce the heat in the atmosphere is to eliminate methane production. 

 
Methane not only  traps up  to seventy-two  times more heat  than carbon,  it also goes away from  the  atmosphere  much  faster  than  CO2.  So,  if  we  stop  producing  methane,  the atmosphere will cool more quickly than if we stop producing carbon dioxide.  
 
Organic  vegan will  produce  beneficial  cooling  effect as  it will  cut  down
methane and other greenhouse gases which are fatal to our survival. 

Veg Week promoted in Washington DC, USA

Ghent City, Belgium - Government promotes meatless day per week

 
Eliminating methane
 
We can start by cutting down on the biggest methane producer in the world, that is, animal raising. So, to cool the planet most quickly, we have to stop consuming meat in order to stop the  livestock  raising  industry,  and  thus  stop  greenhouse  gases, methane  and  other  toxic gases from the animal industry. 

Cows in a confined place - factory farming

Pig - factory farming - full of diseases including swine flu

Chickens bred in confined environment

 
If everyone in the world would adopt this simple but most powerful practice of an animal-free diet, then we could reverse the effect of global warming in no time. We would then have time to actually be able  to adopt  longer-term measures such as more green  technology,  to also remove the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. 

Sir Paul McCartney promotes meat out Mondays

 
In fact, if we neglect to stop meat production, either all these green efforts will be cancelled out  in effect, or we may  lose  the planet before we are even having a chance  to  install any green  technology  such  as  the  wind  power  or  solar  power,  or  more  hybrid  cars,  for  that reason.

Although  livestock  has  been  reported  to  generate  eighteen percent of global greenhouse gas emissions – which is more than the world’s transportation sectors combined –  this  is actually an underestimate because  recently  revised calculations have placed it at generating possibly more than fifty percent of total global emissions.  
 
Livestock has been recalculated as to generate possibly more than fifty percent of total global emissions – more  than  fifty percent  is  from  livestock  industry. So  that was  the number one solution. 

Dr T Colin Campbell who works closely with World Bank said the figure is more than 50%

Dr Pacharui, IPCC Chairman, 18% 是一個被低估的数字,真正的数字高很多

 
2) Eliminating other gases 
 

http://www.fao.org/docrep/010/a0701e/a0701e00.htm

(Livestock’s Long Shadow from UNs FAO 2006 – Livestock is a major threat to environment – more than all worldwide transportations combined- full report is available for download from the above website.)

Besides methane, other lethal toxic gases are emitted by the livestock industry as well. 
 
It  is  the  largest  source at  sixty-five percent of global nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas with approximately  three  hundred  times  the  warming  potential  of  CO2;  it  emits  also  sixty-four percent of all ammonia, which causes acid  rain and hydrogen sulphide, a  fatal gas. So,  to stop livestock production is to eliminate all these deadly gases, as well as methane. 
 
3) Halting dead zones 
 

There are other huge benefits gained by halting livestock production. Oceanic dead zones,  for example, are caused primarily by  fertilizer  runoff  from agriculture that is mainly used for animal feed. 
 
Dead zones are a serious  threat  to  the ocean’s ecosystems, but  they can be  revived  if we stop polluting them with our livestock-related activities. 
 

Trawling – destroying marine life 

Stop  fishing,  too,  then  marine  life  will  rebound.  Since  the  heavy  fishing  that  caused  the sardines to disappear from the coast of Namibia, eruptions of harmful gases have created a dead zone that is destroying the area’s ecosystems due to the absence of that one humble but eco-beneficial, powerful species. Imagine just the sardines!!!  

 
So, we have  to stop  fishing as well as all animal products,  to protect our  living ocean and water bodies, which is crucial to our survival. 

4) Stopping desertification 

We  have  to  stop  desertification. We  can.  Desertification  is  another  climate change effect that is linked to livestock, again. 
 

For example, in Mexico, recent research stated that forty-seven percent of the country has already  taken  the  toil of desertification, has become desert, due  to damage  from  the cattle industry. 
 

And another fifty to seventy percent of the country of Mexico is also suffering from some  degree  of  drought.  Overgrazing  by  livestock,  which  occupies  nearly  a  third  of  our earth’s land surface worldwide, is a major cause of desertification and other damages, and is responsible for more than fifty percent of land erosion. 
 
Now, we must stop livestock grazing to protect our soil and protect our life.

5) Stopping water shortage  
 

We can stop water shortage. While droughts are plaguing more populations, we cannot afford to waste water. 
 

Are we short of water?

Meat production uses massive amounts of water. It takes up to one thousand and two hundred gallons of fresh and good clean water to produce just one serving of beef. 
 
In contrast, a full vegan meal costs only ninety-eight gallons of water. That is like ninety plus percent less. So, if we want to stop water shortage and to preserve precious water we have to stop animal products. 

河南汝阳县城关镇张河村村民们正在用水桶等接装镇政府送来的饮用水

6) Banning deforestation  

We have to ban deforestation.  And we have  to plant more trees, of course. Wherever there’s erosion or empty land we have to plant trees. Now,  deforestation  is  also  largely  driven  by  meat  production.  With  the  United  Nations estimating  that  deforestation  accounts  for  approximately  twenty  percent  of  all  greenhouse gas emissions, nearly all deforestation itself is related to meat production. 
 
Eighty percent of cleared Amazon forest is designated as a cattle grazing area to prepare the animals for slaughter, and the remainder is planted as soy crops used also largely for animal feed. 
 
So, to stop animal products is to protect our precious forest, the lungs of our earth, and the crucial factor for our survival. 
 
7) Alleviating financial cost  
 
Our leaders are worried about the cost of mitigating climate change. However, the good news is, if the world shifted to a reduced, or meatless diet, animal-free diet, then we could  reduce  the cost by half or more. That means we would reduce tens of trillions of US dollars. 
 
If  the world  shifted  to  vegan  diet, we  could  save more  than  eighty  percent  of  the  cost,  or approximately US$32 trillion. 
 
8)  Minimized health cost  
 
The health risks of eating meat are more and more evident these days. Livestock are routinely given excessive hormones and antibiotics,
which  then, when  consumed  as meat  can  in  turn  endanger  human  health. There  are also toxic  by-products  in  slaughter  places  such  as  ammonia  and  hydrogen  sulfide.  These poisonous substances have caused deaths among workers due to their extreme toxicity. 
 
As a so-called food, meat is simply one of the most unhealthy, poisonous, unhygienic items that could ever be ingested by humans. 
 
We should never eat meat at all  if we  love and cherish our health and our  life. We will  live longer  without meat,  healthier,  wiser  without meat. Meat  has  been  scientifically  shown  to cause all kinds of cancers, also heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke and obesity. The list goes on and on and on. All these diseases kill millions of people every year. Millions and millions of people die due to meat related diseases, and making millions of others seriously sick and disabled as well. 
 
There  is no end  to  tragedies  caused by  the meat diet. Meat eating  is a no-no. We  should know this by now through all the scientific and medical evidence. Please stop eating meat. 
 
Just  even  for  your  health’s  sake.  You  want  to  live  long  for  your  children  and  your grandchildren, and  live healthily. We did not even mention  the  filthy condition,  the confined environments  where  the  animals  are  kept  until  their  slaughter,  which  promote  the
transmission  of  diseases  such  as  the  swine  flu  virus.  In  fact,  some  meat-transmitted diseases,  like  the  human  form  of  mad  cow  disease,  are  tragically  fatal  in  every  case.

Whoever  contracts  mad  cow  disease  is  doomed  to  die,  sadly  and  sorrowfully.  Sadly,  etcetera.
 
Other  contaminants  such  as  E.  coli,  salmonella,  etcetera,  can  also  cause  serious  health problems, long-term damages, sometimes even leading to death. In short, simply saying no to meat will make us richer, healthier, and most importantly, it will make us a wiser person, and a great hero. Because it is the only timely way that we ensure the survival of our children and grandchildren.

In conclusion:

Plant-based organic food

We now can see how  imperative  it  is  to stop  the warming of  the planet with  the greenest  of  all  green  policies  and  actions,  the most  compassionate,  the most  heroic,  the most life-saving action, that is: The organic vegan diet. It’s better for your health as well. It is the long-term insurance against climate change. We must be the solution and encourage others with all  the  convincing and  supporting  scientific, physical and moral data  that  is  available  to  us so  they  do  the  same. Adopting  a  plant-based  diet  can  halt  much global warming, eradicate world hunger, stop war, promote peace, and  it will  free  up  the  earth’s water  as well  as many  other  precious  resources,  offering  a lifeline for the planet and for humanity. 
 
In short, it will very quickly halt many of the global problems facing us right now. Therefore, it is  vital  that we  change  our  lifestyle  –  it’s  very  easy  to  do  it  –  setting  a  noble  example  for others to follow, and do our part to bring to the public’s attention the urgent climate change issues  and  its  solutions;  the  foremost  is  being  the  vegan  diet,  to  safeguard  our  precious planet. It is time to walk the talk, because there is not much time left now!

The world spent $1.46 trillion (USD) in 2008.  That number is mind-boggling, so big that it’s nearly impossible to imagine so much money. How many ways could that money have improved the world?  Even more scary, global military spending grew by 45 per cent in the last decade.

When it comes to military spending, the United States is in its own, super-heavyweight weight class.  America spent $607 billion, eclipsing second-place China’s $85 billion, France’s $66 billion, and the United Kingdom at $65 billion.

These numbers come from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.  Check out all their information at their site.

I couldn’t help but think about our military obsession while I sat in a strange place: a movie theatre.  Hollywood’s new Transformers movie flashed across the screen, three hours of soldiers, guns, rockets, and robots in disguise.  The biggest and flashiest fighting technology saves the day.  A saviour in a machine.

So, robot soldiers are our heroes and we spend more on war than true peace.  It’s clear where this world puts its faith.  Those who believe in a better way to find peace should speak up.

by Scott Cressman

I live in a country at war.  The conflict that split Korea into North and South has never formally ended, just cooled to simmering rhetoric and threats.  Enough time has passed that the new generation of South Koreans have never met their estranged relatives stuck on the other side of the demilitarized border.  But making peace and reuniting is still on everyone’s mind.  Korea is a country proud of its long history and resilience, and this communist/capitalist split is not what they want for the country.

It’s easy to sometimes forget this war exists.  Certainly, the signs have faded under Korea’s wildfire city growth and economic development of the past decades.  But, now and again, there’s a moment that reminds you of the dormant conflict.  I went to the northern coast’s beautiful beaches and saw barbed wire and search lights to repel spies from the North.  Lately, the reminders have been scarier, as North Korea tests nuclear weapons again and defies the world to provoke them.  I’m sure my home in South Korea would be their likely first target.

But there’s not much I can do.  Like so many other around the world, I can leave my life here and flee, or sit powerless to await the outcome.  It’s not that I expect war to rekindle.  In my eyes, the costs are too high, the outcome too risky, for any nation to pursue war.  I just hope the people who can launch missiles see it the same way.  Knowing that I am mostly helpless against war is a new feeling.

The price would be steep to truly end the war.  The North is so poor and so isolated that mixing their culture with the South’s westernized lifestyle would be a big shock. Then, there are the expenses of mending separate peoples into one nation again.  But the current cost of constant mistrust and military readiness must be worse.  Every man here spends 22 months of life as a soldier.  There are the mammoth costs to patrol the truce line and maintain vast armies prepared to mobilize.  How much could South Korea reduce its $22 billion CAD defense budget (in 2008) if there was peace with its neighbour?*  The war’s price must be even more amplified in the North, where people starve on a tragic scale.

In Korea, the price of making peace might be high, but perpetual war costs more.  I can see here how conflict splits families and divides nations, making life harder for everyone.  Meanwhile, I get to a mild taste of how so many others live in a dangerous world: uncertain of the future, praying God will provide peace.

*I was surprised to learn that Canada’s 2008 military budget of $18 billion almost matches South Korea’s number, especially when Canada’s population has 15 million fewer people.

Scott Cressman is from small-town New Hamburg, Ontario.  He has wrestled a journalism degree from Carleton University, planted forests in B.C., and served in a Mennonite summer camp.  Now, he teaches English to South Korean children.

My sources insist this event is pro-peace and anti-war and anti-occupation, not anti-Israel. If it were, trust this would not be published here. We are pro-peace, pro-Israel, and pro-Palestine.

From International A.N.S.W.E.R.:

Saturday, June 6 marks the 42nd anniversary of the Israeli seizure of Gaza. Organizations and individuals in solidarity with the people of Palestine will be taking to the streets once again to demand:  End the Siege of Gaza!

The world looked on in horror this past winter as Israel mercilessly starved and bombed the people of Gaza, killing around 1,200 Palestinians (at least a third of whom were children). The Arab world now refers to the dark days from the end of December to mid-January “The Gaza Massacre.” Although the mainstream media no longer focuses on Gaza, the suffering continues there nonetheless. Using the pretext of combating terrorism, Israel has refused to allow in even one truckload of cement into Gaza. In other words, the city that was reduced to rubble still lies in rubble today.All these months later, people are still living in tents and are scarcely able to secure the necessities of life.

People of conscience around the world continue to raise their voices in outrage at this crime against humanity, and in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Gaza. We will also stand for all Palestinian people’s inalienable right to return to their homes from which they were evicted. Let your voice be heard — join us Saturday, June 6, at 12 noon at Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC (14th St. and Pennsylvania NW).

Sponsoring organizations include ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism), Muslim American Society (MAS) Freedom, American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), National Council of Arab Americans (NCA) and more!

Contact us at (202) 544-3389 or dc@answercoalition.org to get involved!

End the Siege of Gaza! March on Washington, D.C., June 6
Solidarity Day on the 42nd Anniversary of Israel’s seizure of Gaza

RALLY & MARCH
Saturday, June 6
12:00 noon
Freedom Plaza
(14th & Pennsylvania Ave. NW)

By Lucas Redekop

In the December edition of the The Walrus, Charles Montgomery asks the question “Can the shape of a city really change the psychology of its inhabitants?” The question is asked in an article entitled “The Archipelago of Fear: Are fortification and foreign aid making Kabul more dangerous?” where Montgomery hypothesizes that fortification architecture is hindering any hope of lasting peace in Kabul.

I found the Montgomery article fascinating because it brings up a question I find interesting and that I continually ask myself; “Is there such a thing as an architecture of peace?” Or more practically, “Can we design buildings and plan cities in a way that fosters peace?

To answer my own question, I do not believe there is a specific structure or formula for peaceful cities, but I am beginning to believe that cities and buildings that work towards encouraging social interaction, rather than separating people, are more open to breakthroughs of peace.

Jane Jacobs, the late urban thinker, commented that areas of the city that have a constant daily pedestrian traffic are more safer than areas of the city that have sporadic and limited pedestrian traffic. Simply put, very seldom are crimes committed in large crowds of people because of the constant surveillance of the observant masses.

That one small example shows how architecture, knowingly or unknowingly, can create places of public safety simply by putting people together. However, architecture is not developed out of thin air, but is more often than not developed from philosophical preconceptions. And I want to argue that many people, like the aid agencies and military outfits in Kabul, choose a fortress mentality to their and our own detriment. I believe that, whether we know it or not, when we choose separation we are choosing the illusion of safety rather than leaving ourselves open to a peace that results from social interaction.

For example, many people avoid living in certain areas of the city because those areas are perceived as “dangerous” and thus prefer to drive to and from work. However, statistically you are more likely to get killed in car crash than be a victim of a random act of violence, and furthermore the benefits of walking more make you less likely to suffer life-threatening ailments in the future. Malcolm Gladwell has an excellent article in which he shows the illusion of safety is often more dangerous than the perceived danger itself.

Which begs the question, “By making ourselves more vulnerable are we actually making ourselves safer and our architecture more peaceful?”

Further Reading:

Gladwell – http://www.gladwell.com/2004/2004_01_12_a_suv.html

Montgomery -  http://walrusmagazine.com/articles/2008.12-international-affairs-the-archipelago-of-fear/

by Lucas Redekop      

    Recently as I was riding the bus, a young well-built man stepped on the bus with a visible bruise on his face and calmly sat down next to an older gentleman. As the bus rambled on, the older gentleman turned to his seat partner and kindly asked what had happened to his face. The young man responded by respectfully detailing a bar fight that he was involved in over the weekend. After a small discussion about the event itself, the older man turned philosophical and genuinely asked his seat partner, “What will it take to stop all this violence?” The young man paused and then said earnestly “Prayer”. “Are you religious?” the older man asked. “Not really… but it’s (prayer) worth a try” the young man said seriously.

             Now as an eavesdropping Christian who often neglects the spiritual discipline of prayer this was a shocking and humbling exchange to hear. Humbling, because I realize that I often jump into issues of non-violence without taking the time to pray. I try to regularly and happily concern myself with uncovering the root causes of violence, encouraging positive relationships and conflict transformation, and changing the political and religious systems that engender violence. And although these are good actions to take, the exchange between strangers on the bus reminded me that the journey of non-violence begins with prayer.

             Non-violence, I believe, begins by confessing that my vision of peace is part, but only part, of a multitude of peaceful visions. Prayer is important to peace by reminding us that peace does not begin or end with us solely, and prayer challenges us that peace may look different to someone else than we imagine it ourselves.

              For when Jesus commands his followers to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” he is inviting us to move beyond eye-for an-eye justice towards a justice that works towards reconciliation with others. Notice how in Matthew, Jesus does not say, bring peace and freedom to your enemies but rather compels his followers to first love and pray for their enemies.

              In concluding, I guess what I took away from my experience on the bus is that peace actions do not begin with “How do I do this?” or “How do I do that?” but begin when we pray for the courage to offer love even when facing the threat of violence.

I was browsing through my facebook groups and came across such a warm group, due to the fact i was erasing the non sense groups for clubs and selfish whatever you call them groups, so i decided to post their message- heres the link to the group, if you have facebook check them out- (& if you dont have a facebook, you should check it out, less drama

Anima sapiens (Global Group)

“For so many years I have been haunted and bitterly confused by the sad truths of the world, to the point of almost being ashamed to be a human being. But fortunately, there is another end of the spectrum that gives hope, and that is the extraordinary achievements of mankind. It makes no sense when you juxtapose these two extremes, e.g. compare the great pyramids of Egypt, the Mona Lisa, space exploration with child abuse, extreme poverty, genocide, to name but a few. And often, our greatest achievements have been the result of devastating circumstances, such as slavery or war. Imagine a world where these amazing feats are achieved by working together, with respect for each other and our planet. We need to do away with hierarchies, two-tiered systems, power wars, class wars, religious wars, et al. We need to get over ourselves, our belief systems and traditions, our self-righteousness, and all of our illusions about the world. We need to use our amazing cognitive gifts to overcome the evils of our world; through education, charity, respect, and the common goal of universal peace and civil rights & freedoms for every individual on this Earth.
For so many years I’ve wanted to do something to ameliorate the innumerable problems plaguing human society, and the planet as a whole. Poverty. Injustice. Cruelty. Selfishness and corruption. Prejudice. Global warming. The list goes on, and for that reason, it is incredibly overwhelming. Where does one start? And I think that is part of the reason many people may not bother trying at all; that feeling of being utterly powerless. But the fact is that there is strength in numbers, and it is time to exercise our power of supply and demand. The focus, at least in many Westernized countries, has been predominantly materialistic. It is time to shift the focus to creating a sustainable and compassionate world community. Fortunately, this trend seems to be gaining momentum, but
there are still so many people who need to be educated about the issues of the world and how we can each play a role to control our fate, rather than be a victim of it. I wish for people to see beyond
themselves, how the consequences of their actions and choices affect not only their own future, but that of others as well.
For so many years, we have been called Homo sapiens, “wise human”. It is time for an evolution. I chose the name Anima sapiens to denote this evolution into a “wise soul” (or Homo anima-sapiens to be scientifically sound); one who is compassionate, aware, and who strives to achieve the supreme greatness that each individual is capable of.

The term implies a balance of the wisdom of the mind, and the wisdom of the heart/soul.

(This movement is dedicated to those who have died or have been tortured due to corruption or hate [including the many species of animals and plants that are endangered, extinct, or who
are being exploited for man's use]; to the millions of people whose
countries have been destroyed because of Colonialism/Neocolonialism and whose peoples now live in abject poverty, if they’ve survived at all; to all who are doing their part in this urgent and necessary reform; and, with the utmost respect and hope, to the greatness we are capable of, that together we will create the world of our dreams.)”