Asia

Echo from the recent past: a letter from Humanist Association of Hong Kong that appeared in the *South China Morning Post* regarding Iran was posted on the same newspaper’s website 16 January 2011 as a side-post to the issue of sanctions against Iran for its nuclear weapons programme. As chairman of the Association I re-iterate, what programme?

Pinagpalang Kamay Association or PKAI is an NGO formed by Ms. Mina Tecson to aid two communities in need, one a poverty-stricken community in Payatas on the outskirts of Quezon City, and the other a home for abandoned physically and mentally ill children residing at Cottolengo Filipino, Montalban Rizal, quite nearby. I toured both in December 2010.

*Has the target to promote peace and non-violence ‘gone to the dogs’ I was thinking on entering the Sunday-noisy Krispy Creme café situated in up-market Bonifacio High Street at Global City, Taguig, Manila. I was to meet Patricia Carrascoso of Pets for Peace & the Labrador Retriever Owner’s Club. I was in for an awakening!*

It is a quite cold winter morning in Bihar’s Beur Central Jail, India. The jail inmates – all criminals including murderers, kidnappers and petty thieves – are ready to begin their task for the day: to learn English. The authorities decided that it’s time they brought about a positive change in the lives of the prisoners.

*This is a story of a small group of organic farmers and their supporters in Bugon, Sariaya, living at the foothills of Mount Banahaw in the province of Quezon, Philippines, which mediated and coordinated the Biggest Human Peace Sign of 12,000 people October 2009, during the World March for Peace and Nonviolence in the Philippines.*

*I am looking at the families that have been affected by the violence. Especially those families like ours whose members have been killed or detained or tortured. I want to focus on what happens with these families, especially of the children, for the restoration of peace in the family, the restoration of peace in the communities.
*

*The second-last tranch of entrants into the School of Silo took place at the 20 Parks of Study and Reflection, 4 December, 2010. It was a simple procedure. People came and went. There were group discussions and parties were held. The collective conscious life of a relative few was substantially augmented to the betterment of the general human condition.*

“World Unity Day”, 29 November 2010, was celebrated in Kathamandu’s Kevre District, in Panauti, where the call went out to the city’s population drawing attention to the need for unity wherever in the world. The slogan: “We wish Peace Force and Joy to all on this day calling for unity among people.” Flags, banners, and lots of school age children made the event very lively.

The renown and revered botanist Leonardo L. Co, 56, was killed by gunfire 15 November, 2010, in a geothermal reservation in Leyte in Upper Mahiao, Barangay. Lim-ao, Kananga town, Leyte. He was doing research work for the Energy Development Corporation and was with four other team members. Three of them were killed and two survived.

*It could be said that by respecting human diversity we stand together, united in our understanding that the differences in our landscape of formation is what makes life dynamic and interesting. Wouldn’t it be boring to think alike, to want to eat the same foods, go to the same places, to express ideas in the same way?*