Newsletter of the Center for the Advancement of Nonkilling, Germany - June 2009

Nonkilling Germany Launched

Mainz (June 7, 2009) - Is a nonkilling society possible? The book "Nonkilling Global Political Science" by the political scientist Professor em. Glenn Paige in Hawaii is concerned with this question. It first appeared in 2002 and is available in German now. This monthly bilingual newsletter at hand, starting with this issue, provides background information and reports about worldwide activities regarding nonkilling. In this issue: the new German center, the book translation release party, the Center for Global Nonkilling in Hawaii, the School of Nonkilling Studies, the Nonkilling Art Festival, and Petra Kelly research. The tip of the month is about an intelligent and entertaining audio of Sir Ken Robinson's. Each newsletter has a press photo with it, in this edition it is an image of the book cover "Nonkilling - Wissenschaft von der nicht tötenden Gesellschaft", the German version: http://img.pte.at/photo_db/hi_res/hires38664.jpg 

The Center for the Advancement of Nonkilling, Germany (ZFNND)
The ZFNND was founded in May 2009 by Anis Hamadeh and Sabine Yacoub in Mainz, Germany, and it seeks to grow into a nonprofit organization. Points of departure are the nonkilling book and the bilingual website www.nonkilling.de. The work of the Center consists of public work, research and networking, in close partnership with the American Center for Global Nonkilling. If you are interested in Nonkilling Germany and want to join you can, for example, collect organizations in Germany that support nonkilling; or maybe you have knowledge about sources for killing statistics or about actions that lead in the direction of a killing-free society; wanted are also living examples in politics and public; if you are a translator you might like to bring articles from the American website into German or something from Wikipedia; this is also the place for German speaking people to present relevant research from all kinds of sciences, own works and the works of others; if you like media and public work you can help preparing polls and info materials for the German press, politics and Academia or you can monitor the media for hints; artists can join the Art Festival, see the article below. There are many things to start with. Join in! Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it   
 
Release Party on the Occasion of the German Book Edition
On Friday, May 29th, the release party on the occasion of the German book edition "Nonkilling - Wissenschaft von der nicht tötenden Gesellschaft" took place. The book was delivered from the printing-house on the previous Monday. It is the seventeenth language in which the book has been translated, after Tamil, Hindi, Sinhala, Spanish, Urdu, Russian, French, Mongolian, Galizan, Portuguese, Arabic, Filipino, Kiswahili, Malayalam, Korean, and Thai. Thus the book reaches a potential of more than four billion speakers worldwide. See all the book covers at www.nonkilling.org/node/18 . About twenty guests attended the party in the "Diwan" restaurant on the campus in Mainz. Several volunteers put together Sabine's picture "Gaza I" outside, see photos at www.nonkilling.de/cms/en/photo-gallery.html and everybody ate the best falafil in town. Then Anis explained how the translation came about and the 40 minute documentary film "Nonkilling. A Better Way" by Rich Panter from California was shown, with German subtitles. There was a discussion of the film and the evening ended in a small circle with the guitar.
 
The Center for Global Nonkilling, Hawaii
"To promote change toward the measurable goal of a killing-free world" - this is what the Center for Global Nonkilling (CGNK) is meant for, see www.nonkilling.org . The Center is new, founded only in December 2008, a year after the first Global Nonkilling Leadership Forum. Interdisciplinary scholars and scientists from all over the world come together here, joined by Nobel Peace laureates, politicians and activists, to explore and support killing-free societies. Among the projects of the Center is a working model "Nonkilling Hawaii" to examine Hawaii's killing-related issues. A Global Monitoring initiative seeks to develop a global network of colleagues and supporters who share information on conditions related to killing and nonkilling around the world. Furthermore, CGNK runs a Global Campaign for Nonkilling and a Nonkilling Leadership project. Educational projects are also involved. Nonkilling Research Committees on various areas of knowledge act as consultative bodies to promote the advancement of interdisciplinary scientific evidence on the possibilities of nonkilling societies. These committees provide creative input on research agendas, academic events, courses and publications. Tools like the YouTube Channel www.youtube.com/globalnonkilling illustrate the goals and work of the Center. Many publications can be downloaded from the website and you find helpful working materials online in the "School of Nonkilling Studies", see next article.
 
The School of Nonkilling Studies
CGNK initiated the School of Nonkilling Studies, based at Wikiversity: http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/School:Nonkilling_studies . Wikiversity is a Wikimedia Foundation project devoted to learning resources, learning projects, and research for use in education from pre-school to university, including professional training and informal learning. The Interdisciplinary Program of the School of Nonkilling Studies includes courses such as "Nonkilling Political Science", "Nonkilling Anthropology", Linguistics, Philosophy, Human Biology, Historiography, Psychology, Physics, and "Nonkilling Mathematics". A second program is devoted to Nonkilling Spiritual Traditions. It features courses on nonkilling in major world religions and communities of faith such as Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism or Voodoo. A third program is on Nonkilling Leadership Development and renders lessons e.g. from Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Martin Luther King, Jr., Petra Kelly, Guillermo Gaviria and Ronald Mallone. Those initial programs will help develop a group of alumni learned in nonkilling who can, in turn, stimulate further active participation for the advancement of nonkilling knowledge.
 
Nonkilling Art Festival
The Nonkilling Art Festival at www.nonkilling.de/cms/en/art-festival.html is inviting artists to tackle the subject and to enrich the concept via art. As a matter of logic, a "deadline" for submission is not scheduled. There are two first entries online: nonkilling poems by Professor Francisco Gomes de Matos, a peace linguist from Recife, Brazil, and Sabine Yacoub's animated gif, a very direct, Zen-like contribution. 
 
Petra Kelly Research
The politician Petra Kelly (1947-1992) was one of the most remarkable advocates of nonkilling visions in Germany. She is mentioned seven times in Professor Paige's book and the two actually met. Today there is little in Germany that reminds of her thoughts. We find a foundation, a prize and an archive with her name, managed by the Heinrich Böll Foundation (Greens), yet the Greens have generally developed away from Kelly's approaches. Additionally, her work became overshadowed by the murder. There are not many books about her or by her on the market and you find almost no video contribution in the net. Therefore, the German Nonkilling Center revisits Petra Kelly and dedicates a rubric to Petra Kelly research. A good starting-point is here: http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Nonkilling_Leadership_Lessons_from_Petra_Kelly
 
Tip of the Month
What does a nonkilling society look like? Sir Ken Robinson has some very intelligent remarks on that: www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html - This is a 20 minute live show on stage in Monterey, California from February 2006, video or mp3 download (also high res video mp4). Self-description: "Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity." Background of the TED Conference, self-description: "TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader." Thanks to artist Amal Kaawash in London for the link. Amal - among other things - makes these wonderful minimalistic drawings, see www.meiroun.blogspot.com
 
Events
June 28: Professor Paige's 80th birthday / July 12-16: "Nonkilling Political Science: Critical Evaluation" panel at the 21st World Congress of Political Science, hosted by the International Political Science Association (IPSA) in Santiago de Chile / August 2-15: University of Hamburg, Summer Academy "Young Scientists Cooperate for Peace", www.znf.uni-hamburg.de/scoop.html
 
The Newsletter of the Center for the Advancement of Nonkilling, Germany, (ZFNND) appears monthly on the website www.nonkilling.de in German and English. Editor is Anis Hamadeh in Mainz. Contact and free email subscription: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it