Mois : février 2006

Linked with our presentation of some of his texts, with his presentation of July 12, 2007, and with America’s Empire of Bases.

Chalmers Johnson – USA

CHALMERS JOHNSON was born in 1931 in Phoenix and raised in Buckeye, Arizona. After World War II, in which his father served in the Navy in the Pacific, his family moved to Alameda, California, where he finished high school and earned a B.A. in economics at the University of California, Berkeley. He first saw Japan and Korea in 1953, when he served in the Navy during the Korean War.

Returning to Berkeley, he switched fields and earned both his M.A. and Ph.D. in political science. In 1962, he began teaching political science at Berkeley, and did so until 1988, when he moved to the San Diego campus of the University of California. He retired in 1992. At Berkeley he served as chairman of the Center for Chinese Studies from 1967 until 1972. He was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1976.

Continuer la lecture de « Chalmers Johnson – USA »

She was a famous Human Rights Activist and Leader.

Coretta Scott King – USA 1927-2006

Biographical Information (Taken from the King Center):

Coretta Scott King is one of the most influential women leaders in our world today. Prepared by her family, education, and personality for a life committed to social justice and peace, she entered the world stage in 1955 as wife of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and as a leading participant in the American Civil Rights Movement. Her remarkable partnership with Dr. King resulted not only in four talented children, but in a life devoted to the highest values of human dignity in service to social change. Mrs. King has traveled throughout our nation and world speaking out on behalf of racial and economic justice, women’s and children’s rights, gay and lesbian dignity, religious freedom, the needs of the poor and homeless, full-employment, health care, educational opportunities, nuclear disarmament and ecological sanity. In her distinguished and productive career, she has lent her support to democracy movements world-wide and served as a consultant to many world leaders, including Corazon Aquino, Kenneth Kaunda, and Nelson Mandela.

Continuer la lecture de « Coretta Scott King – USA 1927-2006 »

Linked with our presentation of Anatomy of global sex industry.

Also linked with our presentation of The Origins of the Mainstream JapaNIEs Cultural “Order”.

Linked also with our 2 presentations of NGO’s: ARENA, and IPRA.

Kinhide Mushakoji – Japan

He is currently a Board Member of the Asian Cultural Forum on Development (ACFOD), the UN Voluntary Fund for Technical Assistance in the Field of Human Rights, the President of the Asia-Pacific Human Rights Information Centre (Hu-Rights Osaka) and the International Peace Centre in Osaka (Peace Osaka).

He is Secretary-General of IMADR, Internat. Mouvement against all forms of Discrimination and Rascisme, Geneva and Tokyo.

In the academic field, Mushakoji is a Professor in the Department of International Relations of the Chubu University and the Director of the Chubu Institute of Advanced Studies. He teaches in Ferris University Japan. Formerly the Vice-Rector of the Regional and Global Studies Division of the United Nations University for 13 years, he is also former Director of the Institute of International Relations which he founded in 1969 at the Sophia University in Tokyo.

Kinhide Mushakoji (e-mail), a reputed Japanese authority on international affairs and a lifelong peace advocate, teaches in Ferris University, Japan, and is a director of the International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR). Formerly Vice-Rector of the Regional and Global Studies Division of the United Nations University for 13 years, Professor Mushakoji, who is particularly interested in peace research, is former Director of the Institute of International Relations which he founded in 1969 at Sophia University, Tokyo.

He has been a visiting professor at Princeton University and Northwestern University in the US.

Continuer la lecture de « Kinhide Mushakoji – Japan »

Linked with our presentation of ashoka.

Hasanain Juaini is reforming Indonesia’s Muslim schools to encourage critical thinking, tolerance, democracy and civic participation. (Read more here).

Hasanain Juaini – Indonesia

He is a traditional religious teacher and leader who is reforming Indonesia’s Muslim boarding schools (pesantren) so they promote a practical understanding and implementation of pluralism, diversity, tolerance, and basic democratic values as they apply to daily life. He also encourages education for women, critical thinking, and participation in community development. Indonesia’s religious schools and their leaders wield much influence in their surrounding Muslim communities. Juaini is addressing some of the problems of the pesantren including the fact that: 1) many pesantrens ignore social problems in their area; 2) some pesantren have been co-opted by the state or political parties and have become tools to control and satisfy immediate needs; 3) many tend to have dogmatic, exclusive, and authoritarian teaching materials and methods; and 4) most pesantren give more attention to the education of boys than girls.

Continuer la lecture de « Hasanain Juaini – Indonesia »

Linked to our presentation Global Exchange.

Linked to our presentation of Leslie Cagan.

Medea Benjamin is a well-known political activist and Founding Director of the San Francisco-based NGO Global Exchange, which advocates « fair trade » alternatives to corporate globalization.

She has also been involved with anti-war groups such as United for Peace and Justice and Code Pink: Women for Peace. In 2000, she ran for the Senate on the Green Party ticket from California, basing her campaign on such issues as a living wage, education, and universal healthcare. In 1999, San Francisco Magazine elevated her to their « power list » of the « 60 Players Who Rule the Bay Area. »

Medea Benjamin – USA

Together with Kevin Danaher and Kirsten Irgens-Moller she created Gobal exchange (see link above).

She is also the co-founder of CODEPINK: Women for Peace, a women’s group that has been organizing creative actions against the war and occupation of Iraq. CODEPINK is pushing for a reorientation of budget priorities in the US to focus on heath care, education and housing, not war. Code Pink now has over 250 chapters throughout the United States.

Continuer la lecture de « Medea Benjamin – USA »

Linked with the presentation ashoka.

Linked also with our presentation of the Baby Academy she works also for.

Linked also with her text Working Mothers – The Balancing Act.

Dina Abdel-Wahab is pioneering the integration of special needs children with « normal » children in schools, a first important step toward achieving society-wide integration in Egypt. She recognizes that the early preschool years offer an especially promising opportunity to change attitudes, pave the way for broader societal reform, and set a different expectation of normalcy early in life.

Dina Abdel Wahab – Egypt

At least two million Egyptians are disabled or have special needs as a result of genetic or neurological problems, and half of these are children. Only about one percent of children and adults with special needs receive services from the government and citizen sector organizations.

Continuer la lecture de « Dina Abdel Wahab – Egypt »

Linked with our presentation Oxfam.

Meet Kafil Ahmed is an Oxfam project officer in Bangladesh. « My job is to find organisations and groups who need support to combat poverty in their region. I check that everything is going well, and help them solve their problems. Today I am going to Manub Mukti Sangstha (MMS), an organisation working with some of the very poorest people in the country. These are people living on chors, low islands of silt built up in the rivers, which are easily flooded and washed away. »

Kafil Ahmed – Bangladesh

A day in the life of Kafil Ahmed: 9am: « I leave Dhaka and travel by car and boat to MMS, an organisation working with poor people. »  » At MMS I will talk to the staff, and will visit a village to see if the work done after last year’s floods helped to save lives and belongings in this year’s floods. »

2pm: « I arrive at MMS’ headquarters. They’re helping people to be better prepared for the floods, so that they have some protection. » 2.15pm: « A meeting with all the staff. They tell me how things have been going since my last visit. They are involved in a lot of projects:

Continuer la lecture de « Kafil Ahmed – Bangladesh »

Linked with our two Humanitarian Texts Statement of US Rep. Nancy Pelosi, and Making Rehabilitation Into a Serious Business.

Not many people choose to spend their lives working with convicted felons and drug addicts. But Mimi Silbert, founder of San Francisco’s Delancey Street rehabilitation project, has committed her every waking hour to helping ex-cons become productive, welcome members of society. (Read more on Giraffe Heroes).

Mimi Silbert – USA

In 1971 Mimi Silbert founded Delancey Street with four residents, a thousand dollar loan and a dream. She envisioned a place where substance abusers, former felons and others who had hit bottom would, through their own efforts, be able to turn their lives around.

Continuer la lecture de « Mimi Silbert – USA »