International

Paris –The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) today Octobre 31, 2011 voted to admit Palestine as a full member of the Paris-based agency.

UNESCO’s General Conference, the agency’s highest ruling body, took the decision by a vote of 107 in favour to 14 against, with 52 abstentions, according to a news release.

“The promotion of wars are viewed, especially by most US politicians, as the Holy Cow, more sacred than God Himself! Obama has been so much under pressure from Republicans, where their ultimate goal is to oust him from the Whitehouse, that he has compromised his principles beyond comprehension. The Republicans want to continue to protect the rich as to become even richer,

“I think that everyone involved in or studying Occupy or Town Square or 15M and the Arab uprisings should consider that this is a ‘Values’ based movement, not an ideologically driven one. We should throw away our group banners, our more superficial reasons for being involved, and take on the core value of simply actively, non-violently expressing our wish for a better world.”

Chile is facing new social mobilizations starting on Sunday to protest against the country´s institutionalism, inherited from the Pinochet military dictatorship.
A family march is announced for Sunday afternoon, starting in the Alameda of Santiago, to demand free and public education and a law-abiding plebiscite as an exercise of the will to face the country’s problems.

Among countries that have moved from the periphery to the core, China has acquired a place of pride in a world that is no longer steered by the industrialized states of yesteryear. President Hu Jintao surfaced from the G20 summit in Cannes, as sagacious leader of a country whose ascent to the status of a new superpower was speeded up after the financial crisis in 2008.

Evolution is through the path called ‘Imagination’. Not many centuries ago the end to slavery would have appeared as a utopia to a large number of people, until the moment when someone dared to imagine it. As Albert Einstein said: “Your imagination is your preview of life’s coming attractions.” World without Wars and without Violence makes a call to imagine a different world

Dr Rowan Williams said the levy would be one way of advancing the “moral agenda” of the protesters outside St Paul’s. The Cathedral has cancelled attempts to evict the campsite. The City of London Corporation has put on hold proceedings and expressed an intention to open negotiations. Will the G20 listen to the voices of common sense?

Yet, a different kind of protest. ‘Compassion is Revolutionary’. Flash mob Meditation and Multifaith Service at St Paul’s stairs. Active Nonviolence, humour, global democratic links and leaderless consensus seeking Assemblies. Three priests resign from high posts at St Paul’s over divided views. The City of London Corporation begins eviction moves, it may take months.

Smallholder farmers, who produce up to 80 per cent of all food in some areas, mainly in Africa, “face the risk of exploitation under contract farming arrangements with processing or marketing companies,” according to UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter, who presented his annual report to the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee

It sounds like utopia. But it is a “concrete utopia”, very much in the spirit of Ernst Bloch’s philosophy and also with Nichiren Buddhism.
Whereas the former visualises elimination of all forms of oppression and exploitation, the latter envisions transformation of the human spirit – which would enable culture of peace to prevail over culture of violence.