Sorry about the blog silence. I realize it sounds tacky, but I was actually somewhat demoralized by the sudden and rather unexpected outbreak of war in the Middle East. To put it mildly, I'm not a big fan of bombs or disproportionate violence. The realization that's stuck with me for the last few days is that by the time the bombs start falling, it's kind of too late to really do much of anything except be horrified and angry. We spend so much time and energy recoiling acutely at the horrors of war, and it's hard to come up with a good "diet of daily action" to carefully, regularly nurture the peace.
So anyway, here's a little bit of what I've been reading: Cyrus Farivar is right on top of this stuff, with a Wired News article about Beirut bloggers and posted a letter from a friend of his studying there. Matthew Yglesias has been doing a lot of commentary. BoingBoing recently posted this all kinds of writing blog, which is by an Israeli-Canadian named Melly who flew back to Israel to be with her family in Haifa.
I've done some very shallow Google/Wikipedia research to come up with a following list of peace groups in no particular order. Please note that I am not vetting or endorsing these, since I don't have time or resources to investigate them quiet yet, but they may prove a useful starting point for those of you who are interested:
- Gush Shalom, an Israeli group
- Bat Shalom, another Israeli group
- Tayuush, another Israeli group
- Forum for Development, Culture & Dialog, a Beirut-based group which is the interim contact for
- The Arab Partnership for Conflict Prevention and Human Security
- The International Solidarity Movement, which appears to be both Israeli & Palestinian, and has quite a long history according to its Wikipedia article
- The Palestinian Center for the Study of Nonviolence, based in Bethlehem.
- The Initiative for Inclusive Security, formerly known as Women Waging Peace, appears to be international, as does
- Nonviolence International.
- There's also Seeds of Peace.
- The Tomorrow Party of Egypt looks promising (Wikipedia article), though its leader has been sentenced to hard labor.
- Quakers rock.
Ethan Zuckerman has some wise and timely words on the repercussions of everyone focusing on the Middle East:
In total, it’s likely that, over the past decade, at least forty times as many people have died directly or indirectly from violent conflict in central Africa as have died in the Middle East. With forty times the violent death toll, you’d expect to hear a bit more about conflicts in central Africa - instead, Congo, Uganda and Sudan rank #1, #2, and #3 on Alertnet’s list of “forgotten emergencies.” . . .I mourn the deaths of everyone killed on both sides of the current conflict in the Middle East and I pray for a speedy end to the conflict, followed by negotiations that lead to progress, not a resumption of conflict. But I also pray that elections go smoothly in Congo, that they augur progress towards stability… and that somebody outside of Africa notices. Far be it from me to suggest that anyone stop reading the newspaper. Let me suggest an experiment instead:A post well worth reading in total. With that let me point to an excellent Christian Science Monitor series Ethan blogged previously about Africa's peacemakers.
When you read a story on the Israel/Lebanon conflict, assign yourself some homework: a story on the ongoing conflicts in northern Uganda, DRC or Sudan. You won’t find many on Google News - you’ll need to lean on AllAfrica.com or Global Voices. If you find yourself interested in the role of minerals in the DRC - critical to understanding the situation, IMHO - I recommend Global Witness’s reports on the region. You’ll likely find the news confusing, complicated, incomplete and unhelpful in forming your opinions about how Central Africa can move towards a peaceful future. And that, oddly enough, is a useful first step.
