Eupan - Good for All - www.eupan.net

" We are at our best when we use our capacities freely to help one another. Freedom's purpose is to enrich the community. I move from dependency to independence to contribute to the common good, to serve others in their move out of mere dependency.  Interdependence is the path toward the shining city. " Full article at John Franklin Hay's Blog.  Bikehiker ~ Toward eupan . ~ marty alan michelson, ph.d. Posted via email from Eupan Global Initiative

In several public and a few private events recently, I have been asked "What is the Eupan Global Initiative again?"  Or, as one person asked, "You're an anti-Genocide group, right?" So, this post is intended to clarify a few things. The Eupan Global Initiative is not a "membership" based group.  We don't have members - only interested, shared partners.  We do not have a mailing list - though we do have an email distribution list we have used, only on a few occasions. We do have persons who are more invested and involved than others - involving engagement with our events, or with other events where we partner in advocacy.  And, no doubt we have had shared partners over the years who have invested their efforts elsewhere, while we also get new invested partners that show up throughout each new year. We are not (at least currently) a 501(c)3 - not-for-profit charitable organization.  We have explored all the legal options toward this - but hav...

John W. Burton, an early thinker in peace and conflict studies and the author of Conflict Resolution (among many texts) and a professor at the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University in Virginia and a fellow at the United States Institute for Peace, created a neologism – provention. It is a combination of engaging prevention of violence while also promoting peace.   Burton has written: conflict provention means deducing from an adequate explanation of the phenomenon of conflict, including its human dimensions, not merely the conditions that create an environment of conflict, and the structural changes required to remove it, but more importantly, the promotion of conditions that create cooperative relationships. May we be the kind of people who work for provention – the prevention of violence – and the promotion of peace. Toward eupan. ~ marty alan michelson, ph.d. Posted via email from Eupan Global Initiative

A fascinating and provocative speech by John Pilger on the occasion of accepting the Sydney (Australia) Peace Prize in 2009. Many Australian specific comments - but a provocative agenda on peace and "PR - Public Relations."  <p> Sydney Peace Prize 2009 from John Pilger on Vimeo .</p> Toward eupan . ~ marty alan michelson, ph.d. Posted via email from Eupan Global Initiative

Let’s celebrate dialogue:   Dialogue is collaborative: two or more sides work together towards common understanding. Debate is oppositional: two sides oppose each other and attempt to prove each other wrong. In dialogue finding common ground is the goal. In debate winning is the goal. In dialogue one listens to the other side in order to understand, find meaning, and find agreement. In debate one listens to the other side in order to find flaws and to counter its arguments. Dialogue enlarges and possibly changes a participant’s point of view. Debate affirms a participant’s own point of view. Dialogue reveals assumptions for re- evaluation. Debate defends assumptions as truth. Dialogue causes introspection into one’s own position. Debate causes critique of the other’s position. Dialogue opens the possibility of reaching a better solution than any of the original solutions. Debate defends one’s own positions as the best solution and excludes other solutions. Dialogue crea...

Extending the good for the all must certainly include persons of various religious perspectives becoming aware of one another. It must also include the fact of religious persons sharing with one another that we all want to overcome hardship and pain, destruction and violence - in order to extend a generic (but important) truism known as the Golden Rule - that we should do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Too many persons who claim to be Christian in history - and in the middle of the 20th Century in Europe - perpetuated great harm, hurt, and violence upon the Jew(s).  It was a privilege this past week to be a participant (again) in the Oklahoma City Jewish Federation's Yom HaShoah Service.  (Yom HaShoah translates literally - the Day of The Calamity - is a memorial event for what most call the Holocaust - the nuance of terms is important and I believe we will shift over the forthcoming decades to the better term, Shoah, for what has been called The Holocaust.  An appr...

Something to think about. Not Justice, Not Victory: Just Another Murder in the Name of Peace May 2, 2011 by warresisters “I keep thinking of how awful it was to hear that there were people actually celebrating on 9-11. Now I look at the TV and see the same thing.” -Family member of a man killed in the World Trade Center of September 11, 2001. The reported killing of Osama bin Laden by a CIA operation in Pakistan represents neither justice nor victory, and should be no cause for celebration. It has been nearly ten years since September 11th, 2001. Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been killed. More than six thousand members of the United States military have been killed. Trillions of dollars have been wasted. Tens of thousands of men, women, and children have been detained and imprisoned in the “war on terror.” Torture is now an acceptable component of U.S. foreign policy. Racism is more deeply entrenched in our culture. Eight years to the day (May 1, 2003) after President George ...

As I write - the world is abuzz with tweets and status updates noting the news from Washington D.C. - announcing the death of Osama Bin Laden. There are so many things that could be said about the situation - and many things *are* being said about the situation. I note a few things.  Death - especially violent, murderous, state-sanctioned death - never brings about true "good" for anyone.  It might quell the desire that many have for vengeance - but in its wake comes only the need for someone else to seek an equally great (or even greater) retributive violence - and the cycle, so it seems, never ends. Millions and millions and millions of dollars - and countless hours of persons have invested - for more than a decade - in the pursuit of this one man - and in the process - thousands have died, untold numbers of cities and places and villages have been sacked and rampaged.  Of course there have been numerous other complicating factors, other persons, other agendas - yes, yes....

Last year included, among many, many other things, an early humanitarian crisis in Haiti as the result of the January 2010 earthquake - and then, another aquatic/biological crisis from the "Deepwater Horizon" and/or BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico (April 2010). This year the earthquake in Japan has lead to this news today as that catastrophe unfolds: Reporting from Tokyo— By Kenji Hall and Julie Makinen, Los Angeles Times    April 5, 2011 , 4:39 a.m. The operator of Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear plant said Tuesday that it had found radioactive iodine at 7.5 million times the legal limit in a seawater sample taken near the facility, and government officials imposed a new health limit for radioactivity in fish. The reading of iodine-131 was recorded Saturday, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said. Another sample taken Monday found the level to be 5 million times the legal limit. The Monday samples also were found to contain radioactive cesium at 1.1 mil...

Oklahoma City University Hosts Human Rights Rally Oklahoma City University will host a rally called "Building Peace for a Just World" at 10:30 a.m. April 9 in the Quad Lawn in the center of campus to promote social justice and human rights. The rally will include music and guest speakers and is being held in conjunction with other rallies taking place throughout the world. Student groups from OCU are partnering with other organizations including the Peace House; Peace Education Institute; Oklahoma Center for Conscience; Church of the Open Arms, United Church of Christ; Mayflower Congregational Church, United Church of Christ; and student groups from Oklahoma City Community College. We with the Eupan Global Initiative have requested opportunity to participate.  Probably too late for us this year - but we will hope for future events and intentional connections for the future!  For more information or to participate, contact Joe Meinhart at jmeinhart@okcu.edu ....

The Museum on the Seam - located in Jerusalem - lays claim to the "origin" of the famous "COEXIST" bumper sticker. A Polish graphic designer, Piotr Mlodozeniec, designed the first coexist image. He created the design to participate in an art contest hosted by the Museum on the Seam for Dialogue, Understanding, and Coexistence in Israel to promote religious tolerance. I had opportunity to visit the museum while I was in Jersusalem. Their print information notes: The Museum on the Seam is a socio-political contemporary art museum located in Jerusalem. The Museum in its unique way, presents art as a language with no boundaries in order to raise controversial social issues for public discussion. At the center of the changing exhibitions in the Museum stand the national, ethnic and economic seam lines in their local and universal contexts. The Museum is committed to examining the social reality within our regional conflict, to advancing dialogue in the face of discord...

According to sites like socialearth.org , Aquaponics is not new. The practice of Aquaponic farming is not a new technology, it dates back to the Aztecs, but recently it has has been re-discovered. Aquaponic farming combines the techniques of Aquaculture (fish farming) and Hydroponics (plants grown in water) to create the most sustainable food production system on earth. The system works by using a type of fresh water fish (usually Tilapia or Trout) that multiply in a water tank, then plants are grown on the water’s surface. The relationship works perfectly between the fish and the plants. The fish produce waste in the water, and through natural bacterial processes, fertilize the plants, which in turn clean the water for the fish. The process is completely organic and sustainable for both parties. And the best part is that this system can be used on a small scale in your backyard, or for commercial production on large farms. But, it is relatively new to me - and might be new to some of...

In many ways, with varied interest, persons from around the world have been watching the global situations most urgently recently in Egypt - and now Libya - and along the way developments in Bahrain, Sudan and elsewhere. In today's news, the Christian Science Monitor is reporting that Colonel Qaddafi is planning to stay in Libya - noting: “Plan A is to live and die in Libya. Plan B is to live and die in Libya. Plan C is to live and die in Libya,” said Colonel Qaddafi’s son Saif Islam in a TV interview yesterday. Qaddafi himself, who made an appearance before cheering crowds at Tripoli's Green Square today, said on state TV that he was willing to open up his weapons caches to anyone who wants to fight on his side, and said he would set the country “aflame.” It is a sad state of affairs when persons (or institutions) in power, in order to maintain their discredited power - turn to violence as the path for resolving their loss of power. Today I hope for the people of Libya and ...

BETHANY, Okla. (February 17, 2011) - Southern Nazarene University professor, Marty Alan Michelson, Ph.D. was chosen to receive a fellowship opportunity from Rotary International. Michelson was one of 19 recipients, from a pool of several hundred international applicants chosen for a full-ride scholarship and stipend for all expenses for 12 weeks at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand, summer 2011. Fellows earn the Professional Development Certificate in Peace and Conflict Resolution from the University curriculum. International Fellows work to improve health, support education, and alleviate poverty through real-life, international field experience on issues of peace, goodwill, causes of conflict, and world understanding. Fellows will advance a culture of tolerance and peace, enhancing knowledge and skill while engaging practitioners and academics in the arena of peace and conflict resolution. “The Rotary Peace Fellowship’s purpose is to support and advance the issues ...

While traveling through Jordan, Israel, and Palestine on an educational tour I lead, I was able to meet Elias Jabbour, working with the House of Hope International Peace Center. There is something so very real about meeting with persons who live elsewhere, hearing them share their stories. Elias shares some of his stories in a book he has published - and he has been influential in working with numerous groups attempting to bring peace to the Israeli-Palestinian situation. His work includes working with the Center for Religious Tolerance and The Middle East Project , to name just a few of his connections. I doubt he would see them as "connections" or "networks" in anyway like modern business tries to work through connections and networks, though. I think he would see his work as a calling, and his connections and friendships. I know I felt that he wanted to genuinely be a friend to me and the group of persons with me when we met with him. The above link mentio...