Mois : mars 2007

Linked with Paul Farmer, and with Thierry Fagart.

He says: « I’m sickened by strip malls, gated communities, decaying, dying old downtowns. We’ve lost that sense of ancestry in a place, longevity … I grew up in Long Island, a place that vanished in front of my eyes. I grew up there in the ’50s, in the great building boom. It was pretty distressing – you go away and come home and find a whole town gone, a cloverleaf in its place … Nothing human is alien to me – that’s the state of mind I’d like to aspire to. You don’t get far with people by judging them, and one of the nice things of my profession is I don’t have to. It makes things a lot more fun, more interesting. It’s important to hang around with people for a while, let people know what they’re getting into. I try to make people have their eyes as open as they can be. I think, there’s a certain level of decency and honor ». (full text).

Listen to the Tracy Kidder interview with Don Swaim, 1985 (26 min. 37 sec).

Read: Pulitzer Prize winner gives readers insight.

Read: Arts and Lecture series continues.

For the rest of the Spring 2007-tour, put ‘Tracy Kidder’ into Google and click on ‘news’.

Tracy Kidder – USA

Read: Tracy Kidder to talk about work of Paul Farmer at Case’s Fall Convocation.

He is an American author and Vietnam War veteran. Kidder may be best known, especially within the computing community, for his Pulitzer Prize-winning The Soul of a New Machine, an account of the development of Data General’s Eclipse/MV minicomputer. Kidder followed up with House, in which he chronicles the design and construction of the award-winning Souweine House in Amherst, Massachusetts House reads like a novel, but it is based on many hours of research with the architect, builders, clients, in-laws, and other interested parties. (full text).

Read: A son of privilege as Army officer in Vietnam.

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Linked with Kroc Institute of International Peace Studies, and with Shadow Sovereigns.

She is Professor for political anthropology, peace and conflict resolution, civilians in war zones, medical anthropology, gender, culture theory, (specially for) Africa and Asia.

She says: « For some reason, I’ve always approached life with the question ‘Now, how could this be presented better, no matter what the product or what the civic activity ».

Read: Anthropology 2007.

Carolyn Nordstrom – USA

She works for the University of Notre Dame, Department of Anthropology, (see course Information), and its Kroc Institute of Interntional Peace Studies.

She says also: I was born in Metter, GA, but I was raised in Collins, GA. Both of those towns are extremely small in comparison to some metropolitan area like Atlanta. I cannot speak much about Metter because I never lived there, but I can say with profound security that Collins was a breeding ground for “small town” ideology. The main focus of that ideology was that all members of that small society were to follow the social norm with very little deviance from it, if any at all. There were members of society that exhibited varying degrees of deviance form these norms and were regarded by other members of that community with the same variance of opinion. Nonetheless, not many people outwardly expressed their unique individualism without harsh, brutal confrontation from the more elite members of that community. What were the norms? The norms were that you were to live a good life—good means that you do what is right in the eyes of “the Lord”—provide for your family, go to Church, and talk about the deviant members of the society in order to manipulate them through isolation. (full text).

Read: African Studies Quarterly.

Read: ENGL 1101 Composition, by Dr. Angela Crow.

… She is also the recipient of the 2001-2002 Research and Writing Grant from the Program on Global Security and Sustainability of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation … (SSRC).

Read: the peace history commission.

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Linked with The World Future Council, and with World Social Forum: Origin and Aims.

He says: “So many people thought that Lula’s election meant change was on its way, but instead we’ve been disappointe. It’s sad, but the big lesson that we learned from these last two years is that it is an illusion to think you can change the world by taking political power”. (full text).

… In February 2000, Bernard Cassen, chair of Attac and director of Le Monde Diplomatique, met in Paris with Grajew and Francisco Whitaker, of the Brazilian Justice and Peace Commission (CBJP), to discuss the possibility of such a forum … (full text).

… As Francisco Whitaker, a member of the organizing committee from Brazil noted, « The Forum is a wind of hope that has taken hold in all of our hearts. » Almost 5 thousand organizations from 131 countries participated along with 11,600 young people who stayed in tents at the International Youth Camp … (full text).

Francisco “Chico” Whitaker Ferreira – Brazil

He says also: « The Forum as an incubator space for movements. The Forum’s Charta of Principles has a very advanced approach in the position against establishing for itself any kind of direction or leadership: nobody gets the right to speak in the name of the Forum – it doesn’t suit to speak in the name of a free space – or of its participants. Everyone – individuals and organizations – keep their rights to express themselves and to act during and after the Forum according to his convictions, assuming or not positions and proposals that are or have been presented by other participants, but never in the name of the Forum and of the participants altogether. The Forum is an open space, like the public gardens, and as it is specified in the Charta of Principles.

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Linked with the City of Hope, and with Women living under Muslim laws.

She is an American married to a UAE national, and her fight has focused on an altogether darker and more hidden aspect of UAE society: domestic abuse.

She says: « My friends and I discovered that domestic violence was stepping up and so I started taking women into my home … We have rape victims. We have rape victims who are pregnant. And sometimes after the pregnancy, we have had to do DNA tests to prove the identity of the child’s father » … « The development of the UAE is really amazing. But what I saw happening (at the beginning) was the development of a lot of social problems, which, as a result of the sudden influx of over 100 different nationalities, were being overlooked ».

The City of Hope – an organization founded in 2001 by Sharla and two other women, Lena Mustapha and Margaret Greeney – has served as a refuge for hundreds of abused women and children. Its establishment, says Sharla, was in direct response to a growing need that has been neglected during the UAE’s stunning infrastructural and cultural transformation … The police and other social agencies, says Sharla, found it hard to cope with the sudden rush of an incoming multinational population. Their systems – designed with the customs of the UAE in mind – began to crack. (full text).

Sharla Musabih – United Arab Emirates

She works for the City of Hope.

… for a Muslim cleric who sees the shelter going against the conservative culture of the society, Musabih is a « suspect foreigner who is inciting women against their husbands. » « There are courts and law in this country. A woman being beaten by her husband can file a lawsuit and the judge would divorce her, » Iraqi Sheikh Ahmad al-Qubaisi said. The U.A.E.-based cleric said people are very wary of the role of the shelter, claiming that some see it as a stop to traffic women into prostitution.

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Linked with Weeramantry International Centre For Peace Education and Research, with Arms Control Today, and with Arms Control Association.

He says: ”The Universal Declaration (of Human Rights) is only a starting point and its principles have kept developing over the years. International declarations like the International Covenants have developed its principles further but it is now for domestic legal systems to translate them into actual practice till they become ingrained in the legal system of each country. They must also be ingrained in the consciousness of the people and in the consciousness of the legal profession ». (full text).

Listen to his 3 minutes video on YouTube.

Judge C. G. Weeramantry – Sri Lanka

Links to Judge Weeramantry’s Decisions While he was a Member of the International Court of Justice.

He says also: Excerpt:  » … When the Universal Declaration (of Human Rights) was being drafted, there was a school of thought to the effect that it would be impossible for the Committee that was working on it, chaired by Mrs. Roosevelt, to achieve agreement on what they were striving to achieve – namely a declaration across the cultures on certain fundamentals that all traditions and cultures would accept. All the pundits of the time said that this would end in failure because it was just impossible to achieve such consensus having regard to the differences between cultures and traditions. However, Mrs. Roosevelt and her committee pressed ahead with commendable zeal.

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Jean Plantureux, who goes by the professional name Plantu, is a cartoonist specializing in political satire. His work has frequently appeared in the French newspaper Le Monde since 1972.

He says: “This trip to the U.S. will give me the opportunity to meet American cartoonists and learn how they work. Wherever I go, I have a habit of probing my colleagues in order to better understand how much room for expression and creativity their respective countries allow them. In the U.S., I will try to figure out the line that cannot be crossed”. (full text).

Read in french /lire en français les 756 pdf-pages (if you are courageous /si vous etes courageux), de: ‘La Signification Politique des Dessins de PLANTU‘, (1972-2000).

Read: Profile of Plantu, French Cartoonist.

Read: Plantu and cartoonists for peace in the Middle East.

Jean Plantureux, called PLANTU – France

For most readers of the French newspaper Le Monde, Plantu is an institution. His cartoons hit the front page of the paper almost daily and they usually set the tone for the news of the day. In that respect, he is also an exception. In the French news media, images have become overwhelming and cartoons are often, if not always, relegated to the editorial pages … (full text Febr. 19, 2007).

Continuer la lecture de « Jean Plantureux, called PLANTU – France »