Monday, March 17, 2003

Waging Peace QUOTE OF THE DAY  "The United Nations itself was created in the belief that dialogue can triumph over discord, that diversity is a universal virtue and that the peoples of the world are far more united by common fate than they are divided by their separate identities." -- Kofi Annan RHINO HERE: I had a bunch of requests about finding T-shirts with the Apache Homeland Security Crew. For those interested, not only are they available for a reasonable price, you can also get them with the Navajo Homeland Security Crew or the Sioux Homeland Security Crew. Send $10.00 each (add $2.00 for size XX), plus $3.00 for shipping to: Mathew Tafoya, 6101 St. Joseph Ave., NW, Albuquerque, NM 87120 tinajtafoya@aol.com, 505-352-6115 Waging peace is possible. It's possible as is shown by the leaders of the have been & would be imperialist powers (U.K. Spain & the U.S.) being forced to have their war council on a remote albeit club med type island. The Emerging Superpower of Peace by Harvey Wasserman, March 15, 2003 by the Columbus Free Press The emerging superpower of peace 'Moment of Truth' in the Azores By Paul Reynolds, BBC News Online, Sunday, 16 March, 2003 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/2853421.stm But waging peace is also possible, & potentially much more effective than waging war, through the visions of people like Congressman Dennis Kucinich and Dr. Robert Muller. Dr. Robert Muller THE BOTTOM LINE today is an inspiring synopsis of a recent speech given by Dr. Robert Muller at an event in San Francisco where he was being honored for his work with the United Nations. For those of us who believe that the only way to true homeland security, and to world security & peace, is to facilitate a quantum leap of world consciousness through waging peace, Dr. Muller is truly a role model.  A former assistant secretary general of the U.N., he is now Chancellor emeritus of the University of Peace in Costa Rica.  He was one of the people who witnessed the founding of the U.N. and has worked in support of or inside the U.N. ever since. The web site for the University of Peace is: http://www.upeace.org An Excerpt From His Bio "Born in Belgium in 1923, and raised in France, Robert Muller experienced constant political and cultural turmoil during his youth. He knew the horrors of World War II, of being a refugee, of Nazi occupation and imprisonment. During the war he was a member of the French Resistance. Afterward, he returned home and earned a Doctorate of Law from the University of Strasbourg. In 1948 he entered and won an essay contest on how to govern the world, the prize of which was an internship at the newly created United Nations. Dr. Muller devoted the next 38 years of his life at the United Nations, until his retirement in 1986. He rose through the ranks at the UN to the position of Assistant Secretary-General. He worked directly with three secretaries-general, U Thant, Kurt Waldheim and Javier Perez de Cuellar, as director of the secretary general's office, as secretary of the Economic and Social Council and as deputy under-secretary-general for coordination and interagency affairs in the secretary-general's office. In this capacity he helped coordinate the work of the thirty-two U.N. specialized agencies and world programs...." MULLER'S ENTIRE BIO IS POSTED AT: http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/wca/robert_muller_bio.htm FOR MORE ABOUT DR. MULLER'S WORK, VISIT HIS WEB SITE AT: http://www.robertmuller.org/ The synopsis that is THE BOTTOM LINE today was written by Lynne Twist; Representative to the State of the World Forum; President of the Turning Tide Coalition; Co-Founder of the Pachamama Alliance; Founding Executive of The Hunger Project; Board Member of the Institute of Noetic Sciences; explorer of "the soul of money" and all-around global transformational spirit.  Since the speech she is describing is not available on the web, I have posted Twist's remarks in their entirety  I'm told that in a few weeks the actual text of his remarks should be available on the web at: http://www.una-sf.org/events/index.htm Meanwhile, if this all whets your appetite for more Muller, an acceptance speech he gave in October 2002 for the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation World Citizenship Award is posted on the web at: http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/02.10/1025muller_speech.htm 8:30:31 AM    comment

Synopsis of Remarks by Dr. Robert Muller by Lynne Twist Dr. Robert Muller, former assistant secretary general of the United Nations, now Chancellor emeritus of the University of Peace in Costa Rica was one of the people who witnessed the founding of the U.N. and has worked in support of or inside the U.N. ever since. Recently he was in San Francisco to be honored for his service to the world through the U.N. and through his writings and teachings for peace. At age eighty, Dr. Muller surprised, even stunned, many in the audience that day with his most positive assessment of where the world stands now regarding war and peace. I was there at the gathering and I myself was stunned by his remarks. What he said turned my head around and offered me a new way to see what is going on in the world.  My synopsis of his remarks is below: "I'm so honored to be here," he said.  "I'm so honored to be alive at such a miraculous time in history. I'm so moved by what's going on in our world today." ( I was shocked. I thought -- Where has he been? What has he been reading?  Has he seen the newspapers? Is he senile? Has he lost it? What is he talking about?) Dr. Muller proceeded to say, "Never before in the history of the world has there been a global, visible, public, viable, open dialogue and conversation about the very legitimacy of war". The whole world is in now having this critical and historic dialogue--listening to all kinds of points of view and positions about going to war or not going to war. In a huge global public conversation the world is asking-"Is war legitimate? Is it illegitimate? Is there enough evidence to warrant an attack? Is there not enough evidence to warrant an attack? What will be the consequences? The costs? What will happen after a war? How will this set off other conflicts? What might be peaceful alternatives? What kind of negotiations are we not thinking of? What are the real intentions for declaring war?" All of this, he noted, is taking place in the context of the United Nations Security Council, the body that was established in 1949 for exactly this purpose. He pointed out that it has taken us more than fifty years to realize that function, the real function of the U.N. And at this moment in history-- the United Nations is at the center of the stage. It is the place where these conversations are happening, and it has become in these last months and weeks, the most powerful governing body on earth, the most powerful container for the world's effort to wage peace rather than war. Dr. Muller was almost in tears in recognition of the fulfillment of this dream. "We are not at war," he kept saying. We, the world community, are WAGING peace.  It is difficult, hard work. It is constant and we must not let up.  It is working and it is an historic milestone of immense proportions. It has never happened before-never in human history-and it is happening now-every day every hour-waging peace through a global conversation. He pointed out that the conversation questioning the validity of going to war has gone on for hours, days, weeks, months and now more than a year, and it may go on and on. "We're in peacetime," he kept saying. "Yes, troops are being moved. Yes, warheads are being lined up. Yes, the aggressor is angry and upset and spending a billion dollars a day preparing to attack. But not one shot has been fired. Not one life has been lost. There is no war. It's all a conversation." It is tense, it is tough, it is challenging, AND we are in the most significant and potent global conversation and public dialogue in the history of the world. This has not happened before on this scale ever before-not before WWI or WWII, not before Vietnam or Korea, this is new and it is a stunning new era of Global listening, speaking, and responsibility. In the process, he pointed out, new alliances are being formed. Russia and China on the same side of an issue is an unprecedented outcome. France and Germany working together to wake up the world to a new way of seeing the situation. The largest peace demonstrations in the history of the world are taking place--and we are not at war! Most peace demonstrations in recent history took place when a war was already waging, sometimes for years, as in the case of Vietnam. "So this," he said, "is a miracle. This is what "waging peace " looks like." No matter what happens, history will record that this is a new era, and that the 21st century has been initiated with the world in a global dialogue looking deeply, profoundly and responsibly as a global community at the legitimacy of the actions of a nation that is desperate to go to war. Through these global peace-waging efforts, the leaders of that nation are being engaged in further dialogue, forcing them to rethink, and allowing all nations to participate in the serious and horrific decision to go to war or not. Dr. Muller also made reference to a recent New York Times article that pointed out that up until now there has been just one superpower-the United States, and that that has created a kind of blindness in the vision of the U.S.  But now, Dr. Muller asserts, there are two superpowers: the United States and the merging, surging voice of the people of the world. All around the world, people are waging peace. To Robert Muller, one of the great advocates of the United Nations, it is nothing short of a miracle and it is working. "RHINO'S BLOG" is the responsibility of Gary Rhine. (rhino@kifaru.com) Feedback, and requests to be added or deleted from the list are encouraged. SEARCH BLOG ARCHIVES / SURF RHINO'S LINKS, AT: http://www.rhinosblog.info RHINO'S OTHER WEB SITES: http://www.dreamcatchers.org (INDIGENOUS ASSISTANCE & INTERCULTURAL DIALOG) http://www.kifaru.com (NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIONS VIDEO DOCUMENTARIES) Articles are reprinted under Fair Use Doctrine of international copyright law. http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html All copyrights belong to original publisher. 8:00:39 AM    comment

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