Culture and Media

We present a short amazing video of a conference recently held by Julia Bacha regarding the stories that can change the so called “confirmation bias” (or previous believes) that we all have, and help us open our minds and have a new cognitive resonance or comprehension of a fact that usually we tend to look with some prejudice. Such is the case of non-violence in Palestine.

Palestinian and Israeli Nonviolent resistance to the Israeli occupation

The author Maxime Kaufman-Lacusta visited Montreal on May 16th to launch her new book “Refusing to be Enemies”. Kaufman-Lacusta is optimistic regarding the future of Palestinian nonviolence movement. The book is about diverse strategies used by different organizations to struggle against the occupation.

Costa Rican production: The documentary URANIUM 238 – The Pentagon´s Dirty Pool, produced by Pablo Ortega, wins the prize for best short film category of the First International Uranium Film Festival which ended last Saturday night (28th of May 2011) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
URANIO 238 had also won an award as best documentary in Costa Rican Movie and Video Festival in 2009.

The non-violent protests continue, and they are spreading to other Spanish cities. In Madrid’s downtown, in the well-known “Puerta del Sol” about five hundred people were camping. They were vacated this morning. This did not stop them from reconvening this afternoon in the same place. The protest is also reaching into new areas.

It was presented yesterday (on May 12th), at USP (University of São Paulo) at room 08 of the building of the Faculty of Philosophy, the field research “La conciencia inspirada en el chamanismo siberiano-mongol y el budismo tibetano en Buryatia y Mongolia”, by Hugo Novotny, independent researcher of Park of Studies and Reflection Carcana (Argentina).

Quickly and unexpectedly, Marta Lucas, humanist sculptor and ceramicist has gone into the Light. A victim of meningitis, “the sculptor of fire” as she was known in the artistic circles of the city of Mendoza where she lived, died last night. A wake took place in the Small Hall of Silo’s Message located in Don Bosco and Primitivo de la Reta.

A document published in March by UNESCO reports that more than twenty-eight million children in those countries affected by conflicts do not receive education. If rich countries transferred monies from their military spending for just six days over to education, in 2015, the objective of Education for Everyone could be achieved.

Hugo Ghiara, member of the “Mediterranean” team of World without Wars and without Violence and editor of the digital newspaper Globatium, announced a proposal which arose from the meeting of delegates from the humanist organisation WwW in Madrid. Members from 11 countries and using 8 different languages participated in this meeting. The following is Hugo Ghiara’s summary:

In the occasion of the visit of Barack Obama to Chile, he was sent today, via Miss Angie Quackenbush, the person responsible for protocol at the U.S. Embassy, a gift in reference to his being a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, along with wishes for inspiration in using his influence in the construction of a new and better world.

Living in Germany one tends to view the world from a European perspective, and focus only on the lessons Europe has learned from the Second World War in the last sixty-five years. Visits to East Asia, however, not only help to adjust one’s lenses but also provide new insights. Japan is a distinguished example of a country that has been undergoing a bottom-up process of change.