The Paragons of Peace Inspiring a New Generation

Photo by Mary Lou Boughton

(taken from The Telegraph and Argus)

By Sally Clifford

The roots of conflict are wide ranging, far reaching and run deep.

So deep that tensions, whether relating to religion, race or politics, have the potential to cause unrest within our communities.

Five years ago and before the major terror atrocities in New York and later London shook the world, Bradford was at the heart of the worst riots in mainland Britain.

Businesses weren't the only ones counting the costs. Communities were torn apart and, for a time, people were living in fear. Many argue Bradford will never be the same, but positive moves have and are still being made to create a better community.

Lessons were learned and much bridge-building is being done to restore peace to the city. However, everyone is aware Bradford, like any other city, still has problems.

Dr. Fiona Macaulay, a lecturer in the Bradford University's Peace Studies department, said: "As a city we know Bradford has social problems; quite high levels of poverty and lack of communication between different communities in the city.

"It is a city with a long activism in peace issues. It has contemporary problems and a willingness to tackle them."

The department is internationally renowned for its work. It also had a close relationship with the late nuclear scientist and peace activist Professor Joseph Rotblat who received an honorary doctorate there in the Seventies, impressive credentials which, no doubt, helped Bradford secure the bid to become a host university to an international peace-promoting organisation.

PeaceJam UK is the British off-shoot of an American education programme set up a decade ago. It is said to have been inspired by a rock musician talking a gang of gun-toting youngsters into doing something positive and less destructive.

Today PeaceJam works alongside the world's elite, the Nobel Peace Laureates, inspiring the next generation into resolving conflict and promoting peace within their home communities and, ultimately, the wider world.

Its debut UK conference was held at the university in March when Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Corrigan McGuire, joint founder of the Northern Ireland Peace Movement (renamed Community of Peace People), a non-violent organisation uniting young people from different backgrounds, discussed global issues and conflict resolutions with the city's scholars. The aim was to pass on the spirit, skills and wisdom for them to tackle issues on their own doorsteps.

Says Dr. Macaulay: "The whole point about PeaceJam is bringing young people together and working with them over a weekend so they get to meet people from different communities and different schools and realise that actually we are all facing common problems - bullying in schools, vandalism, perhaps fear of going out at night, lack of communication, racism - so young people go away with a new perspective, a new kind of confidence.

"They can tackle various problems in schools and communities and will also be involved in solving conflict in the wider world."

Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama are fellow Nobel Prize winners, and some scholars from the university, Beckfoot and Nab Wood schools and other educational establishments involved in PeaceJam throughout the country, met them during an unprecedented gathering earlier this week. The event, at the University of Denver, Colorado, was held in celebration of PeaceJam's tenth anniversary "It was quite extraordinary. Desmond Tutu is an elderly Archbishop and was greeted like a rock star," says Dr. Macaulay, who believes the words of the Nobel Prize winners will go a long way to inspire young people to strive for peaceful solutions within their home communities.

"I think it's absolutely essential that young people learn how to dialogue and how to resolve tensions and differences of opinion peacefully because we all know violence breeds further violence, it can never breed a peaceful world.

"Desmond Tutu said the 21st century was in their hands. They are the ones who have to make it better."

So far more than 200,000 children have taken part in PeaceJam which now operates in nine other countries.

Kyoko Tadaoka, a peace studies student at Bradford, became a mentor for PeaceJam through her interest in peace education. Her ambition is to see PeaceJam in her home country of Japan.

In the meantime she's busy promoting it through Bradford University. She was involved in organising the March conference and is working on a follow-up event to be held there next month for scholars who she accompanied on the Denver trip.

The event will be a platform for students to give presentations on the progress of projects they're currently undertaking focusing on issues affecting their communities such as bullying and safety in and out of schools; the development of fair trade and environmental issues.

Kyoko believes meeting the Nobel Laureates is essential in demonstrating to young people how the actions of ordinary people can make such a significant impact. "I believe everybody faces difficult times in their lives, particularly teenagers. They may be facing problems with family or at school and they may suffer low self-esteem," says Kyoko.

"It's important to meet the Laureates because they have their own stories to tell. They have been through difficult times and they share them with the students directly. They are a living role model of how they dealt with their difficulties in a non-violent way and so many have been inspired by it."

Some of the Bradford students were interviewed about their experience in Denver for a series of programmes by the BBC on the Nobel Peace laureates and PeaceJam.

Tony Myers, organiser of PeaceJam UK, admits he was initially skeptical whether the Stateside organisation would work in the UK. Witnessing the effect it is having on youngsters has convinced him otherwise. "It isn't about telling children what they should do or saying they must agree, it's saying here is a situation, what would you do? It's involving them as much as possible and getting them to use their own minds."

And he says the Nobel Laureates are the most inspiring people to do it because the perception is often they hail from privileged backgrounds when actually they're ordinary people who've gone on to achieve great things in their lives. "And I think that is effective," says Mr. Myers.

"It's understanding they (the young) can do something on their own and make a difference. It's giving them the beliefs and the self-confidence."

For more information about Peacejam, visit www.peacejam.org

Flobots Rock PeaceJam

Photo by Steve Floyd

(taken from Colorado Music Buzz, October 2006)

By Jesse Walker

"I am getting very old, and they hope I will die soon." The Dalai Lama was surrounded by dozens of people but was speaking directly to my friend Tenzing Shrestha. With their foreheads nearly touching, the two men stared into each others eyes disregarding the human chaos around them. This moment was only for them. The Dalai Lama continued, "They (the Chinese government) believe that when I die, the (Tibetan Freedom) movement will die along with me. It will be up to people like you to continue the fight when I am gone."

With that, the Dalai Lama smiled broadly at Tenzing, bowed and turned his attention to the rest of the crowd who had gathered at a special invite only reception in the atrium of the DU Cable Center to catch a glimpse of him. Over the course of the weekend His Holiness and the other nine Nobel Peace Laureates gathered in Denver for Peace Jam would be working with 3,000 high school students from around the country. Their goal was to issue a collective call to action to guide the world toward global peace.

Tenzing meanwhile wept with a look of dazed contentment. How often does a person get blessed and challenged by the spiritual leader of his religion? Tenzing works for Colorado Friends of Tibet, an organization that works to help Tibet and preserve its unique cultural heritage. Moments earlier the Dalai Lama had commanded his security detail to separate and let Tenzing approach him. Somehow the Dalai Lama knew this was a person with whom he needed to speak.

Tenzing, who also plays bass in the funk band Freak Street Project, was attending this special Peace Jam event for the same reason I was our bands were playing the Peace Jam kickoff concert at Magness Arena, and Ivan Suvanjieff, the founder and executive director of Peace Jam, had invited all the bands to the exclusive reception that took place before the concert on Friday. This was an unnecessary act of generosity on Ivans behalf for which I will be eternally grateful.

Looking back I find it amusing that in the days leading up to Peace Jam, me and my band, the Flobots, were less intrigued by our invitation to the special reception and more excited about the concert we were playing at Magness. In the spring, we played a concert for a Peace Jam event in a small auditorium on the DU campus that featured Laureate Shirin Ebadi, along with 400 Peace Jam students from around the country. Our brand of energetic, political hip-hop seemed to be the perfect match for this special group of socially conscious, highly motivated students. The energy in the room during our show that spring was electric. We had an instantaneous connection to these students, and the show itself was enough to remind us why we toil in the underground Denver music scene. We could only imagine what it would be like to play for a few thousand of these kids in Magness Arena. Consequently, I was so excited for the upcoming concert at Magness that I had glossed over any anticipation about the reception. Ironically, the reception was perhaps the single most amazing moment of my life.

We arrived at Magness around 2:00 in the afternoon. After sound checking in an empty Magness arena (an experience in itself), we nonchalantly walked over to the Cable Center to meet the Nobel Laureates. I had done research on all the laureates and was interested to see each one, but I was most excited about the Dalai Lama. I have read a couple of his books, and I consider him something of a hero. Unfortunately, there were rumors that he had not yet arrived, and I doubted I would get to see him. No matter, I thought, Desmond Tutu and the President of Costa Rica would probably do just fine.

But after milling about in the atrium for about 20 minutes, I turned around and saw His Holiness appear at the end of a long hallway. I can't properly explain what I felt, but I was surprised I felt it so intensely. I was speechless, breathless, but yet more present in the moment then I had ever been in my life. He commonly says he's just another man. But seeing him up close there is something different about him, something that borders on supernatural. Dressed in his traditional robes, he walked into the room with a huge smile on his face, pushed passed his security detail and began connecting with every person he could. Watching him shake hands and smile, I was convinced I had never seen a more genuine happiness.

Then things got really heavy. As he began to ascend up the stairs to the platform where the laureates would speak, he paused directly in front of me and Flobots guitar player Andy Guerrero. He put his hands together and bowed at us with a smile. Then he shot a puzzled look at Andy's hair, which had recently been carved into a mohawk. The Dalai Lama mimicked the shape of Andy's mohawk on his own head, and let out this deep, sincere laugh of approval. Then I melted into the ground.

The laureates all entered and slowly made their way to the platform which was not more than 15 feet from where we stood. Archbishop Desmond Tutu led off with a few short comments about his excitement surrounding Peace Jam. His Holiness followed with remarks about the importance of creating more compassion and forgiveness. I was in a strange state of elated shock, completely unable to take my concentration off these speakers. The Dalai Lama then playfully joked with Desmond Tutu. Was this really happening? Rigoberta Menchu Tum, who won the prize in 1992 while fighting for the rights of indigenous Guatemalan Indians, closed the evening by first poking fun at her short stature and then reminding everyone that history bends toward peace. It was at this point, as the Dalai Lama turned to leave, that he abruptly stopped for his encounter with Tenzing.

I was not prepared for any of this. My band mates and I walked out into the light completely dumbfounded. Flobots vocalist Brer Rabbit had to bend over to catch his breath, even though hed been doing nothing but listening to the laureates. I stumbled off on my own and sat in the grass for about a fifteen minutes. Overwhelmed yet searingly focused, I fought back the tears for a few minutes before just letting them flow. I didn't know how else to process it.

Two hours later, armed with a power and inspiration that none of us fully understood, we took the stage at Magness Arena and played the best show of our lives in front of 2,000 screaming peace jam students who literally will be the leaders of peace and justice in the coming years. Even if the Flobots were to someday experience global success, its hard to imagine ever playing a cooler, more important gig.

One of Ivan's goals for Peace Jam was to alter the way teenagers think about role models and idols. It is the hope of Peace Jam that Nobel Laureates, such as the ones who attended the events of last weekend, will become the new teen idols.

There is no question that Peace Jam succeeded in this goal. I was lucky enough to attend the Dalai Lamas Saturday address to the Peace Jam students as well as the afternoon speeches by all the laureates. What was clear to me being in Magness Arena on Saturday is that the Peace Jam students have more reverence for these Laureates then they could ever have for an American Idol, or a Hollywood star. In the minds of these children, these people have transcended simple celebrity. Peace jam has made them into a new breed of movement based rock star. It makes me giddy to think about a world in which everyone holds people of this accomplishment in the same regard as do these children. Such is the wonder of Peace Jam.

In the aftermath of experiencing Peace Jam, I couldnt help but to examine my own life and my own contribution. The words of the laureates rang like gunshots in my head. "People delude themselves into thinking that peace is the absence of armed conflict," said Jody Williams, who won the prize for working to ban land mines. "Take your country back! exclaimed Betty Williams, who after losing friends and family in a bomb blast in Northern Ireland and nearly being killed herself, won the prize for Gandhi like tactics to resolve the conflict.

Sadly, I began to feel a slight sense of despair about my lack of accomplishment. Had I ever been a part of something larger than myself? What had I really done to promote peace in the world? The answer eluded me. I thought back to what the Dalai Lama had said to Tenzing. "When I am gone it will be up to you." I thought hard about the other Laureates and their collective call to action. And then I realized that in their call to action, the Laureates are completely unconcerned about what person has or hasnt done to this point. Their call to action is about inspiring people from this point forward. In a moment of clarity, it occurred to me that only the last 26 years of my life have been written, the years that follow are still a blank canvass of possibility.

This is something we all have in common. The next years, weeks, days, moments of all our lives are completely undetermined. Instead of despair, I suddenly felt hope and empowerment. If I can truly understand the call to action in a single moment, then so can anyone, even the most war mongering individuals on the planet. Thus, the potential exists at any single moment for humanity to turn the tide. All we have to do is make the decision to do so. We all have the power to answer the call. At what moment will you? Will we answer in time? Peace Jam has me believing we will.

Students Take Up the "Global Call to Action"

Thousands of young people left the PeaceJam 10th Anniversary Event (held September 15-17, 2006) and dedicated themselves to carrying out PeaceJam’s 10-year “Global Call to Action With the Youth of the World.” The following newspaper stories give just a small sample of the young people who will be working to create one billion acts of service and peace over the next ten years.

The press coverage of PeaceJam's 10th Anniversary Celebration was unprecedented and extraordinary -- four solid days of intensive, very positive news coverage around the world. Over 450 stories ran in national and international newspapers and magazines. CBS, CNN and Fox News all gave national coverage to the event, and over 200 other television stations aired PeaceJam coverage across the U.S. In addition, National Public Radio covered the event for the entirety of the weekend.

The PeaceJam 10th Anniversary Event was covered by the New York Times, Sunday Times (UK), Los Angeles Times, International Herald Tribune, Newsday, Washington Post, Forbes, Chicago Tribune, USA Today, Independent Online (South Africa), Detroit Free Press, Washington Times, Kenya Times, Ottawa Recorder, Chronicle of Philanthropy, The Telegraph (India), TODAY (Singapore),AP Newswire, Reuters Newswire, UPI Newswire, and many, many more press outlets around the world.

Read some of the coverage:

On September 18th, PeaceJam Foundation founders Dawn Gifford Engle and Ivan Suvanjieff were presented with the 2006 Ambassador of Peace Award by The Conflict Center. The Ambassador of Peace Award is presented in recognition of resolute and exemplary dedication to peacemaking and commitment to nonviolence.

1977 Nobel Peace Laureate Betty Williams of Northern Ireland was the keynote speaker for the award ceremony. Previous winners of the Ambassador of Peace Award include former U.S. Ambassador Swanee Hunt (1997) and Colorado Gubernatorial candidate Bill Ritter, Jr. (2003).

The Conflict Center, founded in 1987, is a Denver-based non-profit corporation whose mission is the reduction of physical, verbal and emotional violence through conflict management, anger management and proper parenting.

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