Nonkilling Arts Research Committee Letter: Vol. 3, N. 2 (Mar-Apr 2019)

Bimestrially sent from our site: Nonkilling.org.

“Nonkilling art explores the spirit and practice of how
to prevent, respond to, and to improve individual, social, and global well-being
beyond killing.” —Glenn D. Paige

Dear NKARC members and friends,

Thank
you for your thoughtful contributions on Nonkilling Arts and the material you
have pointed to me.  These are eclectic and inspirational. My contributions
this time include a commentary on this year’s award winning Mexican film, Roma
and a review of the book of poems by David Krieger. Both works seek to awaken
passion to connect with life, making us experience essence of nonkilling, our
inherent desire to live in peace.

1. Poetry
and Nonkilling

(a) How to Talk to
Nature

DEAR  NATURE,

When
do we treat you with respect?
When
appropriate Nature conservation policies we select?

When
drilling the ocean floor, how responsibly do we care?
When
considering how in that process marine fauna/flora will fare?

When
your natural phenomena do we understand?
When
the impact of its forces we learn to withstand?

When
with Climate Change will we deal effectively?
When
pollution prevention/control legislation we´ll implement globally?

To
YOU, NATURE when will all Humanity learn appropriately to refer?
When
to YOU, full ECOlinguistic recognition Humanity will confer

Dear
NATURE, when will you provide Humanity with Earth-dignifying lights?
When
all global citizens share the effort of implementing NATURE´s
RIGHTS

by Francisco Gomes de
Matos, a peace linguist, co-founder of ABA Global Education, Recife,
Brazil.

(b) The Big
Lies

The
big lies
don’t
really have
short
legs.

Their
legs
only
appear to be short
because
their arms
are
so long.

The
arms
of
the big lies
stretch
so far
of
truth,
they
can make legs
or
skeletons.

The Big Lies (DIE GROßEN LÜGEN) by
Austrian poet Erich Fried(Translation Germain
Droogenbroodt – Stanley Barkan), ITHACA 565

(c) A Conspiracy of
Decency

We
will conspire to keep this blue dot floating and alive,
to
keep the soldiers from gunning down the children;
to
make the water clean and clear and plentiful,
to
put food on everybody’s table and hope in their hearts.
We
will conspire to find new ways to say people matter.
This
conspiracy will be bold.
Everyone
will dance at wholly inappropriate times.
They
will burst out singing non-patriotic songs.
And
the not-so-secret password will be Peace.

By David
Krieger from his recent collection, IN THE SHADOW OF
THE BOMB: POEMS OF SURVIVAL. (Read
a review of this collection). 
Also
published in Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and Global Poetry
websites.

2. Nonkilling Cinema

ROMA -A black and white Mexican feature
film, directed by Alfonso Cuaron.  In cinemascope, 135 min.

Alfonso Cuaron’s new award winner
film, ROMA is a richly textured
nonkilling masterpiece. Tomriss Laffy’s review of the film in Time Out describes
it as “cinema at its purest and most
human”.  The film keeps us on the edge taking us through the daily
lives of a house maid and her middle class mistress.  Alfonso Cuaron’s
unfolding of the story in Roma takes a Nonkilling approach. Usually in cinema or
tv, a director to keep the viewer engaged in the narrative, has not only one but
a series of killing moments (climaxes) to satisfy audience’s insatiable urge for
emotional excitement. In Roma, such contrived manipulation of the audience is
almost non-existent. The end of Nonkilling art is not lamentation but to
celebrate continuation of life, to live another day with dignity.

The
film reminded me of a conversation on Nonkilling I had some years ago with Glenn
Paige who often asked why don’t authors try to write nonkilling fiction or a
nonkilling play etc. He didn’t buy into the argument that artists primarily
create art for the art sake. Glenn believed that an artist immersed in
nonkilling thought would have no problem producing a nonkilling artistic work. I
searched through my files to find a short story that might fit in with his
description of NK art.  The story entitled, ‘The Last Tiger’ is about a
hunter who kills a tiger and regrets having killed this prey that was supposed
to lead to the end of that species. I wondered that might prove to be a perfect
Nonkilling narrative. Glenn thought action of the hunter to kill the prey did
not necessarily made it a NK story. To begin with, the killing of tiger was
gratuitous. It was being done merely for an  effect. He insisted humans
(and animals) had basic will to live. Heeding his advice, I tried the same story
with a different ending, this time the hunter confronts the tiger but does not
shoot the animal. In new version, the tiger stares at the hunter, looks around
and then drifts into the woods. That was perhaps a more plausible plot line than
the one involving a deadly confrontation. 

Cuaron’s Roma depicts
the way life unfolds, the tension is not artificially created or resolved, the
core truth of the narrative resonates and lasts with the viewer for long.
Reality is that less than one percent of the humans have deliberately killed
another human being.  More about the film, see Tomris Laffly’
review.

3. The Nonkilling Song

(a) Better
Way (5 min)
by
Ben Harper
{ Watch
videoclip }

An
excerpt from the lyrics of
Better Way
“…reality
is sharp
it
cuts at me like a knife
everyone
i know
is
in the fight of their life
take
your face out of your hands
and
clear your eyes
you
have a right to your dreams
and
don’t be denied
i believe in a better way.”

(b) The Music That’s In All Of
Us  by Robert C. Koehler 
Chicago-based
peace journalist Bob Koehler writes: “I want to focus
not simply on what’s wrong with the world but what we’re doing right. This
week’s column, about Musicians Without Borders, takes a close up look at an
organization devoted to transformative change.” 

(c) We Came
Singing by Jill Carter, Virginie Magnat, and Mariel
Belanger- alt. theatre Vol 14, No.
03. Pp.28-29.

Honoring cultural diversity through collective vocal
practices across indigenous communities is the theme of alt.theatre’s insightful
conversation.  One of the voices in the conversation
says: “I have learned through the years that singing
while certainly confessional, is as much response as it is call. It requires an
opening of self – a signal of invitation, a promise to accept what is
received.”  { See alt.
theatre’s pdf
attachment }

4. Visual Arts and Nonkilling

(i) ARS LONGA, VITA
BREVIS (HIPPOCRATES)
By
physician-poet colleague Hugh Mann, he writes on Life and Arts

“Artistry is alchemy. With talent and palette, artists
use poignant oils, idyllic acrylics, charming charcoals, playful pastels, and
stellar stencils with colored pencils, in order to communicate, commemorate,
contemplate, and celebrate God’s consecrated but complicated
Creation.”

(ii) NKARC colleague Maureen Korp’s review of an art
exhibition, entitled, Life Cycle
Conversations published in
IMAGE, p.15 of Dec, 2018-Jan 2019
issue.

(iii) Bubble
Peace – the conceptual piece about Peace on
Earth was created by Maureen McIntyre, an art historian at Dawson College in
Montreal. Maureen notes: “the image is made from a soap
bubble in the process of freezing and is as fragile as the wish that it embodies
for us all: Peace on Earth”.

5. Video and Nonkilling

“Banning the Bomb; Smashing the
Patriarchy”– TED Talk (12
min) by Ray Acheson: 
Ray
Acheson challenges the foundation of international security to raise one simple
question: do nuclear weapons really keep us safer? Her ambition is to show
through unique policy lens that the nuclear arms race is a manifestation of
masculine power and dismantle the supposed natural order of things to build a
more secure and peaceful world. New York based Ray is the Director of Reaching
Critical Will, the disarmament programme of the Women’s International League for
Peace and Freedom.

6. Nonkilling Commitment

NKARC colleague Rashida Khanam from Bangladesh sent the
following on Prof. Paige’s second death anniversary:
  
“On
this Day- the 22nd January We on behalf of the Center the members’
compassion,
empathy, and love to humanity
composing
of all faiths, cultures, colour, creed, gender and  race, be in
one
mind
and soul as a member of a family;

To
be Nonkilling, Religion must embrace the entity of God in soul
transforming
it, the embodiment of
infinite
Love for His creations;

We
will highlight the spiritual view of soul having reflection true love
of
God, keeping heart away
from
mere observance of rites and ceremonies;

Nonkilling
Religion, prepare the soul

We
will fall in love with music, literature, and arts to let heart in
rapturous
transformation go deeper and deeper
swimming
in the ocean of imagination, ideas, and form the beauty and
truth;

Nonkilling
Religion helps prepare the soul fit for meeting the supreme
Lover-God,
instilling the essence of greatest beauty; imbuing Godliness in
heart for serving humanity and all
creations”.

7. Nonkilling and Documentary Film

In Jan-Feb
NKARC letter, there was a mention of a beautiful doc
film, A Handful of
Leaves by Sri Lankan film maker Vishnu
Vasu.  We have now link to the
full doc film from its producer narrating the shaping of
humanist rural development movement SARVODAYA, pioneered by Dr. Ariyaratne and a
group of school teachers in
SL.

8. Nonkilling Activism and Reports

• “A Nuclear Arms Race Will Produce No
Winners: Despite everything, it is still in our power to avoid nuclear
confrontation”.  By Mikhail Gorbachev

Gorbachev
writes: “…It
is possible to suggest that Washington’s decision to withdraw from the treaty is
based not on the reasons cited by U.S. leaders, but on something very different:
Washington’s desire to free itself from any limitations on its weapons and to
achieve absolute military superiority.”

• Two reports from colleague Pierre Jasmin of
Quebec’s Les Artistes pour la Paix
(i) Our Common
Future – Quebec Movement for
Peace 
(ii) Déclaration
d’Urgence Climatique 

• Report on Violence and
Women in India from Australian researcher colleagues
Topsy and David Evans who travelled across India in December to present a paper
on  the subject. In last 15 years, over 30,000 men, women and children have
been killed in the name of Honour Killing in India. When innocent love is not
honoured it is an act of cowardice, a crime against humanity.
{ See
David and Topsy’s trip report }

• 4
gods-within –  from Koozma J.
Tarasoff 
NKARC
colleague Koozma writes: “For the past 6 years, 3
friends and myself occasionally meet for coffee in downtown Ottawa . We first
met at local peace events and discovered we shared a common humanity of ‘the
god-within’. We enjoyed meeting for coffee, and soon called ourselves the ‘4
gods-within’…This is my third report about our meetings which began in
December 2013.”  { Full
article, at Koozma Tarasoff’s Spirit Wrestlers Blog: ‘4 gods-within —
continued’ }

• Finding Home: Stories from Brooke
Valley, Celebrating 50 years:  This is a book about pioneers
“back to the land” peace building communities of artists, artisans and peaceful
folks who moved from cities to rural Ontario, Canada in the
sixties. Silke Reichart
reviewed this fascinating book about their settlement over
half a century.

9. Nonkilling Reflections

(i) A Document on Human
Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together
Signed
by Pope Francis and Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Mosque

An
important document that talks about significance of Nonkilling and Human
dignity. On Nonkilling: “life that God has forbidden to
kill…”; “Whoever kills a person is like the one
who kills the whole of humanity…”: 

On
the concept of Dignity: “…human beings equal in
rights, duties, and dignity”; “To achieve a
dignified life..”; “The dignity of
women…”; “The dignity of
children”; “To ensure a dignified life for
all…”; “…principles of their
dignity”

{
Complete document: Document
on “Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living
Together” signed by His Holiness Pope Francis and the
Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Ahamad al-Tayyib (Abu Dhabi, 4 February 2019)
}

(ii) A Special Lecture
“Protecting Religious People and Sacred Spaces: Nonkilling Political Science as
Alternative” by Professor Chaiwat Satha-Anand, was
held on Feb 18 at Thammasat University, Bangkok. Thailand. It was attended by
representatives from 14 countries. The thesis of Chaiwat’s lecture
was: “There is
indeed a global trend of conflicts accursed with deadly violence when sacred
spaces- temples, churches, mosques, synagogues, etc., and peoples of cloth:
monks, priests, ministers, imams and nuns become targets; and that once these
have taken place, conflicts that are already dangerous turn even deadlier.
Nonkilling alternatives could be a factor to mitigate such deadly
conflict.”

10. Nonkilling Research

Curriculum development and
bibliography by
colleague Paul Hubers
    From: paulhubers@netscape.net 
    Subject: 2018 Nonviolence Manual 101 Report*
      2018.1–12 Nonviolence 101 Manual Report* 
  _ 2018 Nonkilling, Nonviolence, & Civil Disobedience Course Outline or
Syllabi Online
  _ 2019 Nonkilling, Nonviolence, & Civil Disobedience Course Outline or
Syllabi Online
  _ 2018 Nonkilling, Nonviolence, & Civil Disobedience Guides & Manuals
Online

   Please Note – 2018 concerned the developing, writing, & editing of entire
Nonviolence 101; An Experience-based Manual for Approaches, Methods, and
Outcomes in Academic & Activist Organization; Draft of Table of Contents
with Chapters 1 and 10, plus related –  selected notes & sources, about
100 of 400 pages can be downloaded. .

If
you would like a draft “review” pdf copy emailed to you in exchange for your
comments or critique – if you please also email your relevantly-significant
icons, photos, logos, graphics, or video urls – if  illustrating the power
of nonviolence – all, if used, to be separately-annotated and fully-cited in
Endnotes – please email me at paulhubers@netscape.net.

Last Word

An Epic Poem For Our
Times? 
by
Nonkilling Poet Laureate Francisco Gomes de Matos, peace linguist, Recife,
Brazil

An
epic poem for our times?
It
would show how the history of humanity climbs

From
a history of violent civilizations
To
the growth of nonviolent civilizations
From
a history of humiliation
To
the growth of humanization

From
a history of ecological transformation
To
the growth of spiritualization

From
a history of imaginative sciencetechnologization
To
the growth of interplanetarization

From
a history of local
peaceful/nonviolent/nonkilling
communication

To
the growth of UNLIMITED LOVE globalization

An
epic poem for our times?
It
would show how Humanity wisely
climbs
the mountain of humility
thus
bringing together all of you and me

My deep gratitude to all who contributed and pointed to
the material for
the
Letter.

Looking forward to your inspirations and comments as
always.

Nonkillling regards,
Bill

Bill (Balwant) Bhaneja
Coordinator
NonKilling
Arts Research Committee (NKARC)
Center
for Global Nonkilling (CGNK)
www.nonkilling.org

“Nonkilling Culture crosses all the lines.” —Glenn D.
Paige

Nonkilling is THE measure of Human
progress

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FOR ALL MATERIAL IN THE NEWSLETTER REMAINS PROPERTY OF THE SOURCES/WRITERS/ART
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contact NKARC Letter‘s coordinator
at billbhaneja@nonkilling.org.