News Updates
The following articles have been collected through the justpeace mailing list and have been posted in this section to encourage further reflection and discussion. More articles can be found in the archive.
With love, from India to Pakistan
Sumit Bhattacharya, Rediff.com
January 11, 2006
Imagine. A gigantic letter -- 240 by 360 feet, to be exact -- signed by thousands of Indian schoolchildren, to their friends across the border in Pakistan. With the message of love, peace and brotherhood.
Imagine a Guinness Book of World Record entry for the largest letter, from India to Pakistan.
No need to imagine, actually. Because on January 16, in Bangalore's Chinnaswamy Stadium, that's exactly what is going to be unveiled.
Designed by artist John Devaraj -- students of whose Born Free Art School are putting the letter together at the St Joseph School ground's tennis court -- the project is the brainchild of two Americans.
And those two Americans -- John Silliphant and Mark Peters -- came to India with friends, initially just for a year.
"We came with no real plans," says Silliphant, 35, who used to design web sites, and was "mostly into volunteer work" in the US. "We came to look for something to do, because every moment there is an opportunity to be of service. We just wanted to look around for those opportunities."
After working in Ahmedabad with slum children and on environmental issues, the time came for the philanthropist friends to leave India to renew their visas.
"We thought it would be a wonderful thing to do -- to carry letters from schoolchildren in India to their friends in Pakistan," says Silliphant, whose partner in charity Peters runs a small software business and a transport firm in America.
But when in just two days they collected 3,000 letters, the scale of things changed. "The kids just lit up at the prospect of the assignment."
No thoughts of rivalry and enmity in the fledgling minds? "Not at all," says Silliphant.
"Those mindsets, you sort of grow into them. You adopt them. Kids just want to be friends. They know kids in Pakistan are just like them -- they just want to play cricket, be friends. That's what's amazing about it."
"Every child we come into contact with, without exception, they all love it. They all have the same innocence and hope and positivity."
"If you can just connect to that purity and make those connections. Then a whole generation grows up and takes over -- that has those connections."
To connect with that purity, Silliphant, Peters and friends travelled to Delhi, Chandigarh, Ajmer, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Pondicherry.
In most places, friends and connections helped their cause. In Chandigarh, for instance, the organisation Yuvsatta set up their appointments with the little ambassadors of peace.
"In three days, we went to 20 schools and met 20,000 students -- all on bicycles!"
In the capital, Silliphant, Peters and friends, who call themselves (www.friendswithoutborders.org), had no such help. They physically "went to the school gates, asked to see the principal."
But Silliphant is quick to add that be it parents, teachers or school authorities, everyone helped their cause, everyone encouraged what they were trying to do.
The Friends Without Borders campaign marched on from city to city -- battling only a bad bout of jaundice that struck Silliphant -- "empowering the children to be the change."
"It really is going to change the world because you have such an extraordinary outpouring of goodwill. I don't think the world has seen anything like it."
With a documentary by Mumbai-based filmmaker Gopa Desai on the anvil and a bigger Mumbai event -- "with some Bollywood celebrities and even more children" -- planned a week after the Bangalore unveiling, the outpouring of goodwill continues.
Friends Without Borders describe themselves as '99 per cent children and some grown-ups who are working to let the children's voices be heard'.
::: posted by Tricia : 1/17/2006
Are the powers that be in New Delhi and Islamabad listening?
Pulling the communal wall down in Ahmedabad
New Kerala, Dec. 31 2005
The new year is set to usher in communal harmony in strife-prone Ahmedabad with the inauguration of the Muskaan park - an endeavour of an NGO to fill the divide between Hindus and Muslims here.
The Society for the Promotion of Rational Thinking (SPRAT) has set up a recreation and adventure park, named as AUDA-Muskaan Park, for children of both communities in Juhapura, a communally sensitive neighbourhood.
The division on communal lines touches ridiculous heights in the Juhapura and Vejalpur areas, evident from the wall stretching two kilometres that separates the two religious communities...."We have selected the most sensitive location for the park, where people of both communities do not know each other. Forget children, there are many who have never talked to people belonging to the other religion.
"We want to make this conflict zone as the launch pad for the promotion of peace and harmony. Our ultimate objective is to dismantle the wall," SPRAT president M.H. Jowhar told IANS.
Peace Marches in India and Pakistan
Alka Roy, December 12, 2005
India and Pakistan Chapters of Pakistan-India Peoples' Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD) have organised a peace march from Jodhpur to Munabao in Rajasthan and parallel Peace March from Hyderabad (Sindh) to Khokrapar in Pakistan from December 17 to 23. There will be meetings, street plays, and mushairas (poetry recitals), on the way to Munabao.
On the evening of December 23, there will be Aman (peace) Melas at Munabao on Indian side and at Khokrapar (Eastern border check-post of Sindh, Pakistan). PIPFPD intends to hold joint candlelight vigil of people from both the side at Zero point after the border. It is intended that they will meet at the border, exchange greetings and get a chance to light the symbolic candles of peace.
Thousands of people are desperately waiting to see, meet their relatives on the other side of the border. Trains used to run on Munabao-Khokrapar route, before they were stopped on the eve of the1965 Indo-Pak war. People residing in Rajasthan and Sindh are demanding train service to continue. In fact, local residents from Munabao and Khokrapar areas are organisng marches regularly demanding resumption of train services. The scenario, in a limited sense, is similar to Kashmir. Thousands of families are divided. They are finding it difficult to meet each other as getting visas is not easy and for that one needs to go to either Delhi or Islamabad. Crossing the border is not easy either. One needs to go all the way to Wagah border. Thus, people living few miles away have to travel minimum of 1,750 km. Most of the people living in these desert areas of both countries are not rich enough to afford long travel.
As a confidence building measure (CBM) both governments have announced new dates of resumption of train service between two countries. Earlier, it was to commence from October 2, 2005. Now it has been rescheduled to January 1, 2006. To build up the tempo and to hasten the Indo-Pak peace process, it is necessary that common people of both the countries travel each others country extensively. It will automatically remove misconceptions about each other. To make this possible, visa regime needs to be liberalised, more consulates needs to be opened. Apart from this, as both the countries share a long border more places needs to be opened up to cross the border. Visa on arrival should be made available to the people, at least to the senior citizens.
Sindh assembly has already passed resolutions demanding train service to resume on Khokrapar-Munabao route.
To boost this cause, one farmer has agreed to donate some land, where PIPFPD plans to build a Peace Park.
PIPFPD organizers have issued an appeal to people for their support for these projects.
::: posted by Tricia : 1/17/2006
Interested in reading more? Check out the article archives.
