This is my first morning in NYC, lining up for the 'UN' pass. Staying near Columbia University meant a good hour commute with the walking at either end so I arrived here at 7:30. The day was sunny and the conversations had begun. Crystal, on the bottom left, was with a group of students from the University of San Diego. She is a M.S. Candidate in Peace and Justice and researcher at the TransBorder Institute
Our conversation ranged from the program to the excitement of what lay ahead at the Commission on the Status of Women. Such a warm and kind hearted human being.... I felt like I had been her great aunt in another lifetime! So much fun just to mill around in past and present without judgement or expectation.
The Kroc Institute (in San Diego )for international peace studies offers a non-violent smorgasbord. Some of the topics of research are 'preventing mass atrocities'. Atrocities 101 could align with Greed 101 and Ego 102 in my opinion. Does it not seem inconceivable that our humanness inclines us toward atrocities.
I have a dear friend here in Canada, Bill Bhaneja, who is active in supporting the creation of a Department of Peace in Canada . He belongs to the Non-Killing movement. I am interjecting this here because of Crystal's connections to an institute that holds Peace at it's academic centre. In any case, Finland has recently hosted a conference on Demilitarization and Countries without Armies. This is so hopeful to me. Why can't we imagine Canada without an army? We have to pry our national identity away from the military complex - and also realize that the ideas of defense and offense have outlived their relevance with the present state of the planet. Nonmilitary statehood and nonkilling nations are not unthinkable.
On the right, we have another new conversation partner. The Hon. Mark Ogolla was accompanied by Vincent Villeneuve, as part of EPF -bringing together Parliamentarians committed to protecting the sexual and reproductive health and rights of the world’s most vulnerable.
European Parliamentary Forum
The conversation with Mark Ogolla was talk about family, education and gender equity. I can't imagine what it would be like to be a parliamentarian in Kenya but Mark spoke about growing up in rural Kenya and his motivation to serve and lead - I shared my experience in Uganda with the Canadian Teachers' Federation and my admiration for the rural teachers who had many challenges, including the high teacher to student ratio. I am happy to see today that a Kenyan teacher won the Dubai prize. His student to teacher ratio is 58:1.
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