Level: Community — Pillar: Conflict Transformation

This week’s featured story came in from Washington, DC:

During my freshman year of college, I enrolled in a self-defense class. Every Tuesday night, together with 20 other eager young women, I descended into a dark, dank gymnasium basement where we enacted a series of physical attacks and learned corresponding – hopefully life-saving – defense techniques. When an attacker reaches for your arms, aim for his legs. If his hands are wrapped around your throat, strike at his inner elbows. I was comforted by the knowledge that a woman’s strength is in her hips and thighs, therefore being on the ground could sometimes actually work to my advantage. I embraced the opportunity to practice screaming – only after realizing that a lifetime of learning to be a girl had left me feeling physically incapable of mustering much more than a weak whisper.

January is Self-Defense Awareness Month. The focus is on educating individuals to take control of their personal safety. The objective is to replace fear with skills, knowledge, and confidence.

Luckily I have not confronted a situation where I have needed to use my self-defense skills (and I do consider this to be pure luck, especially given the fact that I live in a city with a higher homicide rate than most US cities – 23.33 murders per 100,000 people). However, I have no doubt that knowing how to avoid potentially harmful situations, how to outsmart an attacker, and how to effectively defend myself in the face of a physical assault is important. Even more important is the fact that my persistent sense of helplessness and powerlessness has dissipated as a result of this knowledge.

With that said, ten years after taking a self-defense class there is one aspect of the experience that continues to unnerve me. The memory of a plastic gun thrust in my face still momentarily paralyzes me to this day. There is no denying that the line between life and death is thin when a gun is involved. The strength of my hips are no help, a key poised between my fingers stands little chance, and a confident demeanor is worthless.

Worldwide, 1,000 people die every day as a result of gun violence; many because of the illegal global trade in small arms, which is estimated at $1 billion per year. A person dies from gun violence every 17 minutes in America. Individuals around the world are exposed to gun violence each day, sometimes without even noticing.

I think one of the most effective self-defense techniques we can all do as a global society is to prevent gun violence. We need to change our attitudes toward guns and violence. And it is critical that we imagine a future free from gun violence. That is self-defense!

Level: Personal — Pillar: Conflict Transformation

This week’s featured story came in from Washington, DC:

In many parts of the world, it is that time of year – the time when individuals are compelled to commit to a lifestyle change or a new project. Some people declare their New Year’s resolutions boldly and publicly while others make quiet promises to themselves. Whichever way it is done, the list of New Year resolutions never ends. I’ve heard more than a few friends – and strangers – resolve to be more health conscience, to spend less money, or to learn a new language in 2010. Every year women and men all around the world come up with thousands of innovative pledges of self-improvement, social consciousness or a unique combination of the two.

Here at Peace X Peace we are each re-affirming our commitment to peace in 2010. Together with our members we have learned that peace grows through actions large and small. Individual peace action multiplied over and over can replace the growing tendency toward conflict and war with a propensity for peace.

Please join us. Make a New Year’s Resolution to take This Week’s Peace Action every week in 2010!

Level: Community — Pillar: Environmental Sustainability

This week’s featured story came in from Washington, DC:

For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, December 21st marks the winter solstice. “Solstice” derives from the Latin phrase “sun stands still” and marks the day each year when the Northern Hemisphere experiences the least amount of daylight between sunrise and sunset. It also marks the beginning of lengthening days leading up to the solstice in June. (In the Southern Hemisphere, December 21 is the time of the summer solstice and the longest day of the year. As the northern days grow longer, the southern days get shorter.)

Throughout history, humans have observed this seasonal milestone by creating spiritual and cultural traditions to celebrate the rebirth of sunlight after the darkest period of the year. Several years ago, I visited Ireland’s prehistoric monument to the solstice – Newgrange. What appears to be little more than a grass-covered mound is in fact a mysterious passage tomb that dates back to 3200 B.C. Although it is impossible to know the full story of its origins, historians suspect that long before the invention of the wheel 300 workers took 20 years to shift 200,000 tons of stone from as far as 50 miles away to build this monument. The tomb is comprised of a long tunnel and cave-like chamber, both of which are precisely aligned to capture light at the exact moment of the winter solstice sunrise. Witnessing a thin beam of sunlight penetrate the inner chamber and flood it with blinding light is breathtaking.

Today, as I sit inside a warm home sheltered from the several inches of snow that blanket the world outside, I am reminded of the miraculous beauty of nature. Songwriters were on to something when they coined winter a wonderland. And, inevitably, several months from now on a day when I am basking in the summer’s sunlight, I will experience a similar moment of awe. As inevitable as the change of seasons is, so too is each season’s beauty. What a perfect reason to celebrate!

Level: International — Pillar: Education and Economic Empowerment

This week’s featured story came in from Washington, DC:

Every week Peace X Peace highlights the work that resourceful women – artists and office workers, entrepreneurs and students, educators and waitresses – are doing locally and globally to make peace a reality. Through these stories of courage and triumph, of outrage and wisdom it is clear that investments in education, health care, job creation, and other essential services to reduce poverty are investments in global peace and security.

In November, Kathleen Kern shared a compelling story from Colombia of how, in seven years, the Tiquisio Citizen’s Process has built peace and development in Tiquisio. What started as a tiny community initiative blossomed into numerous projects, including a Community Farm to address food security, a rural school, a sexual and reproductive health project, and a community-operated radio station. The Citizen’s Process has convinced many guerrilla and paramilitary members to abandon their guns and reintegrate into civilian life.

Nduwimana shared her story from the province of Karuzi in Rwanda, where ethnic conflict killed more than 18,000 Tutsis in 1993. The violence left women widowed, families without homes and a significant divide between the two ethnic communities, Hutu and Tutsi, living in the region. Amidst the despair, Nduwimana created a network of Hutu and Tutsi women to focus on small income-generating activities so women could feed their families. After one year, the women were discussing common problems and a shared vision for the future while also carrying out successful development projects. At a time when the national army and rebels were still at war, families living in Karuzi were beginning to share resources, rebuild their homes, and build peace with those who killed their families.

These stories, and countless others like them, leave no doubt: meeting human needs is an investment in our shared future as a global community.

Right now, President Obama and his senior advisors are debating the future of U.S. efforts to alleviate poverty, fight disease, and create economic opportunity for the world’s poorest people.

Peace X Peace is partnering with development and foreign policy practitioners, policy advocates and experts, concerned citizens and private sector organizations to create the first ever petition asking the White House to make a strong statement about America’s commitment to development. We want to elevate global development as a national interest priority in actions as well as in rhetoric and ensure that partnership is promoted as a key strategy to achieve results.

Raise your voice to help build a safer, more prosperous world by strengthening the United States’ ability to alleviate extreme poverty, create opportunities for growth, and secure human dignity in developing countries.

Sign the petition to make meeting the world’s human needs a pillar of US foreign policy.

Level: Community — Pillar: Justice and Good Governance

This week’s featured story came in from Lamma Island, Hong Kong:

I was handing out leaflets as part of the Human Rights Carnival on the streets of Hong Kong on Sunday when I met a young fellow activist who complained to me that she is given inadequate and irregular pay as well as expected to work long hours at her workplace, an organization that fights for the rights of the indigenous peoples. When she gently confronted her manager and director on these issues, she was simply told that these practices were expected “in this line of work.” Conversations I have had with others working in the NGO sector in Hong Kong reveal a similar pattern: low pay, long hours and no benefits. This is especially ironic since we are all activists who encourage others to fight for their rights.

I know we care about what we do and often feel genuinely willing to make various sacrifices for our work. However, in doing so we might unthinkingly contribute to a work environment that pressures our colleagues to conform to these same practices. Article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognizes that “everyone who works has the right to just and favorable remuneration” and Article 24 recognizes that “everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitations of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.”

On Human Rights Day this Thursday start a conversation with your colleagues about workers rights in your office. Do you and your colleagues feel you are overworked? Is your organization or business trying to do too much with too few resources? What about the workers cleaning your office, are their rights to adequate pay, rest and leisure respected? And your interns, are they remunerated justly and favorably? Think creatively about ways to address these issues. If you start by thinking about the treatment of workers at your office as rights that need to be protected, then you are heading towards the right direction.

YatMan Cheng
Lamma Island, Hong Kong

Use the comments section below to tell other readers what rights you want to see protected on Human Rights Day.