Salem-News.com Peace articles Page 12

Karzai to Delay Signing Afghanistan Security Pact

Karzai's latest move jeopardizes international funding for Afghanistan, and comes after he gave an impassioned speech to 2,500 tribal, community and elected leaders, voicing his support for the pact.

(KABUL VOA News) - A national assembly of Afghan leaders continues to consider a new security pact with the U.S. on Friday following an abrupt move by Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Karzai surprised U.S. and Afghan officials on Thursday when he said he is considering delaying the signing of the Bilateral Security Agreement until after the April 2014 Afghan presidential elections.

`Necessary Illusion` by Noam Chomsky, Has Been Applied Forever

We have inherited a beautiful planet and nature, which sadly is being destroyed in so many ways, because Neanderthal mentalities, and beads and trinkets are ruling and ruining our planet.

(KELOWNA, BC) - It’s been more than 50 years since I’ve read the Bible, out of curiosity, and the recent news that “Winemaker brings sacred scroll (the Torah) to the Okanagan,” peaked my interest to read some of it again.

As a well-informed adult, I’ve read with amusement about this unjust and bloodthirsty god in the Bible, which could only have been fabricated in the minds of superstitious and uninformed people of thousands of years ago.

My Promise to Children

Violence does not 'just happen'. It is perpetrated by damaged individuals, including ourselves.

(TASMANIA, Aust.) - Every day, human adults kill 35,000 of our children. We kill them in wars. We kill them with drones.

We kill them in our homes. We also kill children in vast numbers by starving them to death in Africa, Asia and Central/South America because we use military violence to maintain an 'economic' system that allocates resources for military weapons, as well as corporate profits for the wealthy, instead of resources for living.

The Struggle for Meaning in a World of Violence

How do we restore the highly individual search for meaning in life (which will also better enable us to deal powerfully with the enormous challenges to human survival)?

(TASMANIA, Aust.) - What is the measure of a human being? Is it their wealth? Their wisdom? Their spirituality? Is it something that can be measured from the outside? What if it is something else altogether?

Each human being is genetically programmed with a drive to seek and find meaning in life and it will endeavour to do this throughout its life if it is allowed to do so.

No Glory in War for this Veteran

Veterans Day ceremonies are part of a false promise of victory against those who would no more be defeated and mastered than would we.

(PORTLAND, OR) - I am a veteran – of the Vietnam era, as are my friends and my brothers. My father, uncles, and an aunt were veterans of World War II. A great uncle was stationed on a battleship during World War I. A great-grandfather fought in the Civil War, an immigrant in an Illinois regiment who suffered the rest of his life from his bullet wound.

Veterans Day on November 11 was formerly Armistice Day, celebrating the end of the Great War. But it has turned from a celebration of peace to a celebration of the false glory of war.

PAKISTAN: Pastors Booked Under Blasphemy in Lahore

The incident took place at the shop of Mushtaq Masih on 8th October 2013 and FIR No. 675/13 registered on 9 October, 2013 at about 12:05 midnight.

(LAHORE, Pakistan) - Police registered a blasphemy case against Pastors Adnan, Arfan and Mushtaq Masih, under blasphemy laws, Sections of 295,295 A,295 B, 295 C Pakistan Penal Code.

The three were charged under Sections 295 A, B and C of PPC at Police Station Township on the complaint of a Muslim man, Abid Mehmood s/o Muhammad Ashraf Aqib, 153 A Lala Zar Colony Pagat Pura Shadbagh.

Human Violence: Understanding it... Ending it

Ending human violence will require us to stop terrorizing our children, giving violent individuals support and safe spaces in which to feel their suppressed fear consciously, and changing institutions, such as the legal system, so that we no longer use fear to try to 'modify' behavior.

(TASMANIA, Aust.) - Violence is the most pervasive and destructive human problem of them all. It has been present for as long as history records. We are mired in it, all over the world, every day of our lives.

It now threatens to obliterate us from the historical record within decades, if not sooner.

Life on the Line: Can Humanity Survive?

Can humanity survive? The odds are now stacked heavily against us...

(TASMANIA, Aust.) - As we approach the International Day of Nonviolence on 2 October, which recognizes Mahatma Gandhi's birthday, one challenge we face is to celebrate his life in a way that Gandhi himself would have found meaningful.

Gandhi was not a man of token gestures. His life was dedicated to his search for the Truth and guided by his passionate belief that nonviolence was the means to reach it. He was a visionary who was profoundly aware of the damage human violence is doing to ourselves, each other and the Earth.

From Afghan Youth to Leaders of Today: Daylight is Almost Here

The daylight of a global awakening...

(KABUL) - We, the Afghan Peace Volunteers, are finding strength amidst our dark nights because, in the daylight of a global awakening, we see people throughout the world refusing to comply with oppressive systems.

We see that we aren’t alone in rejecting governments and militant groups that wage wars and make deals at the expense of ordinary people.

Small Talk Can Mean a Big Deal

My conclusion as an explorer of human relations is that "small talk" often reaps big positive results.

(SALEM) - When much, much younger, I mistakenly thought that intelligence was what made me worthwhile as a person. My brain was viewed as my most important functioning organ, and so those feeble attempts to spout "knowledge" drove the engine.

I can recall how at age 8 or 9 my father would march me in front of other adults as a show-and-tell showcase he could glorify about.