Press Releases

Last Updated (Sunday, 08 November 2009 12:48) Written by Anis Hamadeh Sunday, 08 November 2009 12:43

Read more: Nov. 11, 2009: Prof. Paige in Berlin

Last Updated (Tuesday, 30 November 1999 00:00) Written by Anis Hamadeh Wednesday, 21 October 2009 04:01

Between October 4 and 16, twelve peace workers from all over the world met with the Nonkilling Center Leadership Team for exchange, talks, analyses, and trips to several local places like the mausoleum of Queen Lili'uokalani, Kualoa Ranch, Wai'oli Tea Room, Iolani Palace, Pearl Harbor, Ma'o Farms, and Kailua Beach. Via Skype we talked, among others, to Martin Luther King's close friend Bernard LaFayette, to James Mercy from the Centers for Desease Control and Prevention CDC, and to the Colombian singer Juanes who told us how much he had wished to join the seminar in person which unfortunately was not possible. But he is with us, anyhow. The seminars took place in the East-West Center on campus and we were accommodated nearby. The program was very dense, starting at 8 in the morning, and lasted until the shared dinner, mostly in one of the local restaurants, so that the days were fully covered with activities, including times of recreation and fun, certainly.

 

Read more: Nonkilling Seminar Accomplished in Honolulu

Last Updated (Tuesday, 03 November 2009 11:25) Written by Anis Hamadeh Wednesday, 21 October 2009 01:55

Nonkilling - Perspectives for Nonkilling Societies. An Evening with Professor Glenn Paige (Hawaii), Mairead Maguire (Northern Ireland) and Guests

Read more: An Evening with Glenn Paige in Berlin, Nov. 11

Last Updated (Tuesday, 30 November 1999 00:00) Written by Anis Hamadeh Tuesday, 20 October 2009 21:23

Is killing a problem in Germany? In a poll among some dozens of German students, journalists, sales people, teachers, neighbors, and acquaintances (excluding explicit peace activists) I found the following: most of the questioned people had to think for quite a while, for many the question came unexpected and surprising. The answers were individual and not homogeneous, yet there were trends: the rejection of killing on the one hand, and the conclusion that the killing of people poses a much greater problem in other countries than in liberal Germany, on the other. Especially because of its history Germany would be somehow refined, integrated into the West and into Europe, and especially sensitive now. Only the war in Afghanistan was regarded as a concrete problem by more than half of the people that were questioned, mostly because of the incident on September 4, when in a military operation more than a hundred Afghanis were killed after a German order.

Read more: Germany Does Not Kill Anymore – Or Does It? A Situation Report

Last Updated (Monday, 14 September 2009 15:25) Written by Anis Hamadeh Sunday, 09 August 2009 13:45

On the surface, people agree on the necessity of reducing killing in the world, if possible down to a zero body-count. At the same time, new wars have started that are not sufficiently questioned in the mainstream public. This can be criticized as double standards of the society, but it can also be recognized as a loss of values that can be overcome. Do German soldiers really have to kill and be killed in Afghanistan? The majority of the population says no, but does not have the power or strength to induce change. Too deeply rooted is the belief that killing and the threat to kill constitute effective forms of politics. And do we know a peaceful world, at all, be it at home, in school, at work, in the society? Sometimes it seems as if we simply lack functioning examples of nonkilling societies which prove their possible existance. Or is it that we view reality through the glasses of our lethal tradition and thus overlook trends of nonkilling?

 

Read more: The Nonkilling Society - Illusion or Goal?