2010 Nobel Peace Prize Winner Liu Xiaobo’s Words of Peace and Optimism Following are highlights of the address made to a court by Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo during his trial for subversion in December 2009. The transcript was due to be read on Friday by Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann at a ceremony in Oslo marking […]

By SHAILA KOSHY 
koshy@thestar.com.my Vengeance killing was just another day in the life of Imam Dr Muhammad Nurayn Ashafa and Pastor Dr James Movel Wuye. But since 1995, the two Nigerians known worldwide as ‘The Imam and the Pastor’ have been spreading the message of forgiveness, healing and peace through their interfaith initiatives. THEY used […]

Stan Davey. In The Age 27.10.10) By JO WAINER and JAN RICHARDSON STAN Davey, who campaigned and worked for Aboriginal communities across Australia for more than 50 years, has died of pneumonia at a nursing home in Frankston. He was 88. Stan co-founded five organisations and introduced community development practices to remote areas of Western Australia […]

How do justice-focused whites fit into the struggle against racism in America? By Micah Uetricht September 22, 2010 When confronting racism in the United States, past and present activists for justice have repeatedly run into a problem: white people. In the struggle against a system created to benefit whites–or at least some of them–where do justice-focused […]

By David Sirota August 28, 2010 “Will you join me in lowering our impact?” That was the subject line on a recent e-mail I sent out to family, friends, column readers and radio listeners asking them to join me for a week in trying to reduce our individual environmental footprint. Inspired by Colin Beaven’s prophetic […]

A new book shows how grassroots community organizing and persistence turned around one of the country’s most corrupt school districts. By Louis Nayman August 16, 2010 No admonition is more likely to piss off an organizer than, “Hey. Let’s not get stuck in the weeds.” It’s among the weeds that organizers spend their working lives, […]

Julio Diaz has a daily routine. Every night, the 31-year-old social worker ends his hour-long subway commute to the Bronx one stop early, just so he can eat at his favorite diner. But one night last month, as Diaz stepped off the No. 6 train and onto a nearly empty platform, his evening took an […]

When one looks into the eyes of Khalid Qadir Mohammed, one can’t help but see the fire of passion and love for his people. When one hears his story, one can’t help but be amazed that this passion and love has never been extinguished by the pain and violence that he and the Kurdish people […]

Aram Jamal Sabir was glad to be interrupted from his work as Executive Director of the Kurdish Institute for Elections to talk with us about his passion for non-violence. He began to participate in non-violent trainings in 2004. He now teaches others about the topic. “I can’t tell you exactly when I started to believe […]

Beruk was born in 1824 at Brushy Creek near present-day Croydon in Victoria. He was brought up in the customs of the Wurundjeri people, but before he could be properly initiated his people were displaced from their traditional lands by settlers along the Yarra and Plenty Rivers. As a youngster, Beruk was said to have […]

GEOFF STRONG IN THIS age of suspicion they seem the oddest of couples: a Muslim imam and Pentecostal Christian pastor, who once wanted to kill each other. At one time both were militia leaders — and also victims — of religious conflict in Nigeria. Now they have found answers in their own faiths to become […]

Around the world, crowds took to the streets in a dozen cities last week to call on the world’s financial institutions to take greater responsibility for their actions. The Robin Hood Day of Action was a global event coinciding with Make Finance Pay, a week-long initiative pushing for a Financial Transactions Tax or FTT. Dressed […]