Week of December 9, 2024

Nonviolence Report begins at 44:36

Transcript

Stephanie: So, we're going to turn now to some nonviolence going on all over the world, our Nonviolence Report with Michael Nagler. Welcome, Michael.

Michael: Thank you so much, Stephanie. And that was certainly a challenging beginning to our program. And I would like to start off by sharing a couple of resources that are going to be very helpful in responding to that challenge.

Now, the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania has been doing excellent work on the media for decades and mostly documenting how harmful commercial mass media are in promoting violence.

But they now have an institution there at the Annenberg School called the Peace and Conflict Neuroscience Lab, which I am very, very interested in. I think physical physiological sciences weighing in to prove that nonviolence works is kind of the pivotal change that we need in our day and age. So PCNL, if you like acronyms – peace and conflict neuroscience lab.

And what they have done is produced what they call targeted media interventions, which in this instance is just a five-minute video that they can use to bolster reintegration efforts between former enemies. And we are talking former Palestinian activists and former IDF soldiers, who, just looking at a five-minute video are learning how they can, well, basically, and the terms that John Dear was just sharing with us, how they can learn to love one another.

So, we have said so much and the Annenberg School has said so much about how harmful violent media is, and it's wonderful to have the balance of that to show how helpful nonviolent media can be. Which, of course, is what the Metta Center is all about.

Now, another thing that we like to focus on, an event that happened over a period of many years during WWII, is the famous story of Le Chambon, which was a small village in the Dordogne region of France. Where a pastor by the name of Andre Trocme and his brother and his wife, decided that, in contravention to the orders of the Vichy regime, they would rescue Jews.

Bryan Farrell of Waging Nonviolence had started a series, a ten-part podcast series from Waging Nonviolence to take us inside that remarkable and little known story, how they openly resisted the Nazis and rescued more than 5000 refugees.

I want to focus for a second on that word openly. Long after the war, Philip Hallie, who writes his book, Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed. He went to Major Schmäling, who is still alive, who was the commandant in charge of that region for the Nazi occupation and said, “How could you not have known that this was going on?”

And Schmäling said, “What makes you think we didn't know? We knew perfectly well what was going on. But we, I'm a good Catholic, you know?” He said, “And I understand these things. This was nonviolence and violence is powerless against it.” That is a rough paraphrase of what he actually said.

Well, coming back to the present where there is, I'm happy to say, some refreshing nonviolence news. We always like to promote unarmed civilian peacekeeping, UCP, as a front-line organization where the conflicts are at their worst, and where courageous people are facing them down.

And they are doing hard work in Palestine, which we are pretty much familiar with, and in the Western Sahara, where we're not so familiar. Western Sahara has been occupied by Morocco since 1972. And Palestine, of course, has been occupied by Israel for the last 75 years. And UCP is operating in both these areas, like in the village of At-Tuwani in the South Hebron Hills that Stephanie and I visited.

And I want to highlight a couple of things that they say that they are doing because this is what unarmed civilian peacekeeping does. They are documenting and resisting – documenting the daily challenges faced by Palestinians, including settler violence, military harassment, systematic displacement. And by their presence, the UCP’s presence, they were able to not only shine a light on these injustices, but also serve as a shield for vulnerable communities. And they call this, “Embodying the essence of unarmed civilian protection.” And this demonstrates how individuals, regardless of background, can contribute to the global pursuit of peace and justice.

Now, Michael Beer at Nonviolence International has received requests for international intervention by both these groups – Palestinians and the Saharawi groups, to help protect them from violent occupiers. And Michael points out that the US and most European states support or acquiesce to the Israeli and Moroccan illegal occupations and the repressions of these residents.

And so, now the sentence I wanted to quote, “To fill the vacuum, international groups and tourists are helping.” So, this is a major failure of the international community into which non-governmental organizations are rushing to fill that critical vacuum.

A couple of things now on the environment. In Norway, there has been a very big win because the Norwegians are getting ready to do deep sea mining in the Arctic Circle. And this is now a direct quote, “After hard work from activists, environmentalists, scientists, and fishermen, we have secured a historic win for ocean protection as the opening process for deep sea mining in Norway has been stopped.”

Continuing the quote, “The wave of protests against deep sea mining is growing. We will not let this industry destroy the unique life in the deep sea, not in the Arctic, nor anywhere else.” Now that's the spirit of nonviolence for you in its resistant mode.

Also in the United Kingdom, happy to say, as a former academic – as I like to say, a recovering academic myself – in the UK, 77% of universities have now pledged to divest from fossil fuels. The latest ones include, Birmingham City University, Glasgow City of Art, Royal Northern College of Music, and the University of Bradford, where there has been a peace studies program for many, many years now.

Now, this is important because universities sit on major endowments that invest billions in fossil fuels, among other things. And so, getting them to divest is significant. Another very catchy phrase that comes up in this connection, “What good is an education on a dead planet?” That's reminiscent of, “Why should I go to school?” you know, the movement that started by Greta Thunberg. God bless her.

Similarly, some other nice news, in Kenya, there is now an interesting model I want to draw your attention to. I think its connection with nonviolence is obvious. It's called “Food4Education”. And they have been feeding 350,000 kids school lunches every day. And as we know, giving kids school lunches has a huge impact. It enables them to, well, for one thing, stay awake. For another, pay attention to something other than knowing hunger. And it has led to a well focused effort on improving their education and their functionality as human beings.

So, a report by UNICEF that came out in June found that in that country, in Kenya, almost 80% of children in schools had no access to a nutritious school meal. So, this project, Food4Education, they’re feeding a third of a million children, one of their spokespeople in Ajuru said, quote, “We can put an end to this. We have a blueprint that works.” And that is a very, very important thing for nonviolent actions to be able to say that not only are solving this problem here, but we have a model that can be duplicated, that's critically important.

If I have one second more, I'll just mention that there's a development that Doctor King and Thich Nhat Hanh supported called Beloved Community Circles. And since these are difficult challenging times, I think that's a very helpful idea and a very good, resource for all of us – Beloved Community Circles. All right, beloved community, thank you very much. Until our next episode.

Stephanie: So, a Beloved Community Circle, I believe you can find it online. There is a resource, and it's encouraging people to come together, study together, support each other in spiritual practices, and also get involved in community action. I think it's BelovedCommunityCircles.org or something like that. And it's, I think it came out of the Thich Nhat Hanh movement.

Michael: At Plum Village, yeah.

Stephanie: So, this has been a great show. Thank you so much, Michael Nagler, for your Nonviolence Report. We want to thank our guest today, Reverend John Dear. Find out more about his work at JohnDear.org. Also, check out the Beatitudes Center for the Nonviolent Jesus, BeatitudesCenter.org. He has a new book out, Gospel of Peace: A Commentary on Matthew, Mark, and Luke from the Perspective of Nonviolence.

We want to thank our mother station, KWMR, KPCA, to the Pacific Network who helps to syndicate this show. Thank you so much. Matt and Robin Watrous, your transcription work and editorial work is amazing. Sophia, Annie, thank you very much for all you're doing to support and share the show. Bryan, also over at Waging Nonviolence, we appreciate the syndication.

And to all of you are faithful listeners, it's so great to hear from you. Find the rest of this show at NonviolenceRadio.org, and you can learn more about the Metta Center for Nonviolence, and nonviolence at Metta Center.org.

Okay. Take care of one another. Until the next time.