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LUCA IN HIS ROOM

March 2007

THIS MONTH's THEME:

War and Peace

Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars

Martin Luther King Jr.



[no, I haven't cut the blog here in the middle,
I am just starting from the 16th.
Sorry, compelling reasons for this! ;]


I come in peace

Now you might think that the theme of this month refers to the film "I come in peace", where some kind of alien landed on earth. No, I can see the picture but I wasn't thinking at that when I chose the theme, only to real peace. That is, first of all and at least, absence of war. In fact, that's what I have been dedicating a lot of my energy to in the last times.

I have been working on my album "War-ning"

MY ALBUM WAR-NING

and it is going soon to be ready for you to listen and download, preceded by another composition, a kind of 'bonus track', that is an instrumental piece called: "To the dying people of Iraq"
[update: it has since then developed to an entire album ]
and I don't think I need to add much more than the title.


Mid-life crises anyone?

And I wasn't thinking about Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy either, even if it wouldn't be out of place at all here.

Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy

The obvious reason being, he stole my blog's title, 142 years ago :)
Yes, the author of Anna Karenina wrote another masterpiece too, War and Peace (Война и мир), in fact. The other reason being he could be considered a perfect symbol of what I am going to write about, the issue of whether war is an inexplicable disgrace out there or if it is linked by any means to the little common man. A big question, but for now I would like to say that no one more than Tolstoy was a bigger living contradiction, throughout his life: a military man and a nonviolent pacifist, a hunter and a vegetarian, the rationalist and anarchist and the converted Christian. No one is perfect we know, and could this be one of the reasons of wars? Is war just the immature state of humanity, or an ever returning part of it?


The people of Iraq say thanks for the coffee

We opened with the philosophical speculations about war, but there is someone, actually a whole nation, that is so 'privileged' to experience the practical results of wars, whatever its deeper reasons are.

Four years ago, on the 20th of March 2003, the "War against Iraq", as I called it from the beginning, started. And four years after the result is this:

  • 1 dictator less, and 1 civil war more
  • 59326 to 65160 civilians reported killed (but might be more than 650,000 even)
  • U.S.A.'s casualties: 3223
  • 409,584,668,003 dollars spent, and only considering the U.S.

And so many other data could be reported, but I will stop here for now.

I have been always against this horrendous war, from the very beginning. I haven't changed my opinion at all. And I will continue to protest until I have some voice left.
Today you can too use your voice. You can join one of the demonstrations in the world. Find one here and see you there.


Anything else?

Everybody knows there is a war going on in Iraq, and many seem to want to forget about it. But nothing in comparison to the total blackout that can occur regarding other conflicts.
War has become one of the normal trivialities I was talking about last month.

Nevertheless, there is a lot going on out there. All kinds of nasty fights like terrorism, genocides, coups, secessions attempts, revolts, ethnic cleansing, armed conflicts, and, yes, civil and other wars.

It requires a strong and healthy stomach to inform yourself about all those violent conflicts. But if you want to be a champion of awareness, you can start with brushing up your memory about the past wars, here at the always precious Wikipedia. And then bravely continue, exploring what is still going on in the world, right now.

This page about ongoing armed conflicts will show you which ones are afflicting the world right now.


Chasing the common man

Now that you have got a precise idea of how our world of conflicts looks like, we can begin to go back to the original philosophical speculations.
I caressed very gently the idea that such big and far away conflicts like wars, could somehow be linked to the human failures we all know and behave, at times.
This link is a big taboo, and a source of worried or irritated glances from the average person.
"What have I to do with wars? It's not me causing them, it's the politicians fault!" we would hear him/her say.
But I would like to quote the same thought I reported in my album "War-ning", introducing the song Kosovo/a, a thought by Anne Frank.

Here it is:

“I don't believe that the big men, the politicians and the capitalists alone are guilty of the war.
Oh, no, the little man is just as keen, otherwise the people of the world would have risen in revolt long ago!
There is an urge and rage in people to destroy, to kill, to murder, and until all mankind, without exception, undergoes a great change, wars will be waged, everything that has been built up, cultivated and grown, will be destroyed and disfigured, after which mankind will have to begin all over again.“

The 'little man' is feeling more and more anxious, I guess. Difficult not to be touched by what Anne Frank wrote.

After so many hard and challenging thoughts, at last you can find some kind of peace under the beautiful Anne Frank's Tree.


Spring has come

Interesting coincidence, this morning. I wake up every morning at 7am, when my clock-radio is switched on and the news are broadcast. In the depressing panorama of the Italian media (as I am in Italy right now, not in Danmark, don't forget), these morning news are actually very good. After that, there is a program that is called Pianeta Dimenticato (Forgotten Planet) and today it was about all the wars and conflicts in the world that are ignored by the media. If I always could set the playlist of my clock-radio like this, it would be very smart :)
Marvels of technology. After the poor common man, what about scientists?
Like Anne Frank would have lived a long and beautiful life if all the people of Germany one day marched toward Berlin and took the power back and away from the Nazi, in the very same way, no war would be possible if weapons were not conceived, made, and sold. The role of scientists has never been neutral. That is an amenity they can tell to themselves, but they are not neutral at all. Usually scientists are not a model of political awareness, with some remarkable exceptions. Like Bertrand Russell, just to quote the first that comes to my mind:

“War does not determine who is right,
only who is left.“

Honestly, what a sacrilege Spring offering us so many beautiful blossoms, and there will be no one left to enjoy them?

Welcome to all the aficionados left, reading this blog, and to all the new readers, by the way!


Peaceful and not so peaceful waters

It is the World Water Day today.
Nothing more peaceful than the surface of a lake or a calm sea. But when that resource is scarce then this quietness is at big risk of fights. And of wars even.

As written here so many times before, ecology is economy, and global events too. If you look at history from this point of view, you will realize that the most typical cause of wars has been that fight for resources, water in particular.

For those who can read Italian, on the Sostenibile Blog, there is an impressive list of all the wars in history that are related to that issue.
Starting from 2500 B.C. (the Sumerian cities Umma and Lagash fighting for the possession of water) to the suicide-bombs in Iraq, destroying the main water center in Baghdad, in 2003.


The Unknown Solitary Soldier

Like the common man tries to hide himself in the mass and not feeling responsible that way, in the same way soldiers participating in wars are strong only in the number, in troops and armies.

In fact, even they loose their power when left alone. All the illusions of the collective force disappears, and suddenly every single soldier is on his own. The landscape seems menacing and the faces around are hostile. Anyone of them could be your end. You search for some help but you can't find it anywhere.
A bit like a lover in the very moment he realizes, the game is over and he is alone again. The colorful space around him darkens and it turns to a static black and white photo, oddly pierced by a vagrant bullet.


Defining madness

It is very late today, so just a short definition from Wikipedia:

“War is violent armed combat
between differing peoples”

Let's see:

  • War is violent... – it has been calculated that wars did cause totally about 200,000,000, two hundred millions deaths, during the 20th century.
  • ...armed combat... - as already stated, if there were no weapons in the world, there would be no wars either.
    Cost of those weapons?
    2005: around 1118 billions $ / year, in the world.
    Who is selling those weapons?
    Nearly half of them are sold by the USA (45.8% in 2001), then United Kingdom, Russia, France, Japan, Italy, China. About 68% of them are sold to developing countries.
  • font: SIPRI Yearbook 2006
  • ... between differing peoples - couldn't the differing people be different without killing each other?

 


The quiet side of the Earth

As you know I am always mild on Sundays. So today it will be about positive initiatives that can prevent wars and better our civil societies.

The clear point here being: war may even be more a part of our lives than we suspected, as I showed in the last days, but it is not necessary. One can live a wonderful life without any need for violent armed combats, honestly. There is so much good we don't learn at school, we don't practice in every day life, we don't see in films or in the media. There is actually a whole world of nonviolent techniques that can substitute the violent ones entirely. Following, some glimpses at what is happening in the world on the peaceful side.

  • Control Arms: a very important campaign supported also by Amnesty International. Famous is their Million Faces, to demand a global arms trade treaty, you can join it on their site. An important success: on 27 October 2006 a vast majority of countries agreed to starting writing an International Arms Trade Treaty.
  • 198 methods of nonviolent actions: there are alternatives, nonviolent techniques to prevent or end wars. You just never hear about them, but they do exist. See the linked quite complete list on Peace Magazine. What about learning those techniques at schools?
  • Nonviolent communication: it is way too easy in every day life, or in all other situations in life, to get communication wrong. Which is not funny for anyone and will have all kinds of consequences, yes, even wars. Marshall Rosenberg has worked on his compassionate communication, useful in both every day life and in mediation, conflict resolution.

 


Late night quoting

Gosh, what am I supposed to do now, it is so late, and I am still busy, I have left you without any post today :( :(

Just a quick one then:

“I prefer the most unfair peace
to the most righteous war.”

Cicero

Right, and what happened to the most righteous peace?
Goodnight to everybody (you know who you are).


IRAland farewell (and never come back)

So, it seems it is finally the right time for Northern Ireland. After 3000 deaths and 40 years of civil war, bombings, discriminations, hunger strikes, bloody Sundays and the other days too, it is time for peace now.
The IRA is fully de-weaponed, the catholics and protestants (God's self-proclaimed soldiers) are nicely talking to each other, and it really seems the deal is there, Jan Paisley and Gerry Adams agreed to share the power on 8th of May.

Could this have been achieved already 40 years ago, and saving everybody for all what followed? Oh, yes, of course it could have. Any war can be avoided by means of dialog and political talks and agreements. What about starting directing fundings to mediation, conflict resolution, international talks, United Nations and other international organizations, in stead of the military? In stead of buying weapons?

And why not talking about union and not division, cooperation and not competition, transnationalism sinstead of nationalism?

We do need a cultural change at all levels. Are we already forgetting that not much longer ago than the Irish conflict, Europa was on fire, and now it is even unimaginable that one of our countries could be at war with any other one?

Was it guns to achieve this?
No, just a fountain pen.


Before anyone justifies wars

Many times, we hear people justifying war, as a solution for problems that otherwise wouldn't be avoided and would lead to even more casualties. A kind of "realism is better than doing nothing".
Is it really? As war is not a bagatelle, not a video game, it is going to do a lot of damage.
As usual, we tend to forget these kinds of things. I would like to remind you of them here, silence shall never fall on these aspects:

 


Terrorized by wars on terror

No matter who you are and where you are, I can be 100% sure you are part of a war. "Me??" you will say. Yes, you see, you have already forgotten the "War on Terror" is going on? War and terror have become as normal as high bad cholesterol.

Any visit to an airport should have reminded you of that. Especially when your name is Luca and it happens the metal-detector beeps like a church-bell when you try to look fresh and natural and pass the doors of the security check. It happened to me last time, one of the 4-5 times I have flown in my life. Smile, you are on, and you will have your 15 minutes celebrity, so that Andy War-hol can rest in peace. The 200 people waiting after you as spectators. The darn alarm rings every single time I pass it. I must be stressed, I know. Anyway, it wasn't funny to be nearly tilted upside down, and touched everywhere, and stared at with nasty facial expressions of distrust. Well, they simply didn't know me, and that poor Luca had an old organic jacket on, that was probably a bit too worn out. So, a tiny coin had slipped through a hole in his pockets and fallen into the jacket's back. "Alright, no problem" they finally said, while slipping me down to earth again, and still staring at me with the same faces as before.

No critics of the staff here, I know how tough it is for them to do the job every single day, and what they and we all risk. It is not that, but the fact we accept a world like this, where you don't feel safe any more, where you are met by suspicion, where everything is conditioned by this ever impending war, against who knows who, who knows when, tough and infinite.

I was just reading today an interview with Zbigniew Brzezinsky, (Washington Post, March 25, 2007) president Carter's former National Security Adviser, where he criticizes Bush's war in very clear and definitive terms. Really worth to read.

I have always said that this has been the worst possible reaction to terrorism. The culture of fear, discrimination, of militarism and unilateralism. The targeting the symptoms and not the causes. The wasting enormous amounts of money that could have been used to solve the Middle-East issues, and any other issues. The repression of civil rights, the exaltation of the fighters and the harassment of the peaceful people.

What a disaster.


Give Peace a Dance

It's Friday, let's party today, as what can be more deadly for the culture of fear and death, than happiness, socializing. music, talk, energy, positive will, dance? And the party today is a view at all the many people and movements that don't forget, don't give up, do something about it.

And do obtain results, more often than we realize.

This will be a tribute to this wonderful Nonviolence, to Pacifism.
Spoken out loud and clear and with a heck of a pride.
Right in the face of war-mongers, with the sweetest, gentlest determination possible.
This is the real History, so seldom is told. A little contribution to balance the dark side of the Earth.
This will be a stream of peace consciousness:

all the children, their mothers and fathers; all native people; all the people that suffered oppression, that were injured and killed; those who refused to oppose violence to violence, even at the cost of their life, the martyrs of any good cause; all those doing nice things to others; all those caring, helping, compassionate people; all those spreading words of tolerance, not of hate, the wise educators, the inspiring teachers; the people accompanying Gandhi in his marches, the Satyagraha; the people of Alabama, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther king; the civil rights movements; Utopian socialism; some messages of some religions, philosophies, ideologies, arts; humanistic psychology, conflict resolution, mediation; all the honest thinkers; Henry David Thoreau; the president, Robert Kennedy could have been; Nessie Mandela and Desmond Tutu; the military conscience objectors; the Czechoslovakian and central-eastern countries resistance, Andrej Sacharow, the Helsinki Groups; Gush Shalom; Sweden, not engaging in wars since 1814; Oscar Romero, Plaza de Mayo's women, Marielos Monzon; Costa Rica, the only nation in the world abolishing its army; the neutrality of Switzerland; Aldo Capitini, Danilo Dolci, Cindy Sheehan, MoveOn, Avaaz, all the peace movements in the world, all the millions of people demonstrating against wars in the world; the women of India, Vandana Shiva, the Chipko Movement; green politics; Wangari Maathai, Steve Biko, Ken Saro-Wiwa; Muhammad Yunus; the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Day of Peace (21th of September); any of you working for peace.

So many others I unwillingly forgot. Wikipedia's List of Pacifists help me! And some quoted people might not deserve it entirely, but that doesn't count today.

So let's mention even those who failed, not meaning it, not wanting it, and even those who failed wanting and deliberately wanting. They caused violence, sufferance and wars. They did it for ignorance or arrogance, for money or for power, for madness or karma, for cynicism or carelessness.

Let us not be like them, never, and for no 'good' reason ever.


Go in Peace

Time to close this month's theme. I think I pretty much have been round what I wanted to express. Just some final remarks here, then.

  • peace is the normal condition of life, the only way we can live and call it life.
  • war is the most atrocious crime ever invented in History. It is a never good, never necessary, never justified, never forgettable crime. It kills, creates infinite sufferance, so much damage in all ways, and its devastation lasts for thousands years, if not forever.
  • war is the most negative essence existing: is the absence of peace, the absence of moral and ethics, the absence of us, the absence of our speech, of our attention and courage, the absence of our protest, the absence of our compassion and disgust. War is our failure, disgrace and shame
  • peace is not only absence of war when it is our fully living life, fully taking care of it; fully aware of what we are and do. That will be what we will see in front of us. Otherwise, whatever else we do will be an illusion, heavily paid by the children and humanity of this world.