Wangari Maathai – Nobel Lecture - 3

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
In 1977, when we started the Green Belt Movement, I was partly responding to needs identified by rural women, namely lack of firewood, clean drinking water, balanced diets, shelter and income.
Throughout Africa, women are the primary caretakers, holding significant responsibility for tilling the land and feeding their families. As a result, they are often the first to become aware of environmental damage as resources become scarce and incapable of sustaining their families.

The women we worked with recounted that unlike in the past, they were unable to meet their basic needs. This was due to the degradation of their immediate environment as well as the introduction of commercial farming, which replaced the growing of household food crops. But international trade controlled the price of the exports from these small-scale farmers and a reasonable and just income could not be guaranteed. I came to understand that when the environment is destroyed, plundered or mismanaged, we undermine our quality of life and that of future generations.

Tree planting became a natural choice to address some of the initial basic needs identified by women. Also, tree planting is simple, attainable and guarantees quick, successful results within a reasonable amount time. This sustains interest and commitment.

So, together, we have planted over 30 million trees that provide fuel, food, shelter, and income to support their children’s education and household needs. The activity also creates employment and improves soils and watersheds. Through their involvement, women gain some degree of power over their lives, especially their social and economic position and relevance in the family. This work continues.

ref: agency management system, world peace, nobel peace prize

Nelson Mandela's Peace Prize Speech - 5

We are talking about Peace Movement. As a part of our talk we were talking speeches of different Nobel Peace Prize winner. We talk about Dalai Lama’s and Nelson Mandela’s Speech -1 , Nelson Mandela’s Speech - 2, Nelson Mandela’s speech – 3, Nelson Mandela's Speech - 4.

Today we are going to talk Nelson Mandela'sSpeech - 5.

It remains our hope that these, too, will be blessed with sufficient reason to realise that history will not be denied and that the new society cannot be created by reproducing the repugnant past, however refined or enticingly repackaged.
We would also like to take advantage of this occasion to pay tribute to the many formations of the democratic movement of our country, including the members of our Patriotic Front, who have themselves played a central role in bringing our country as close to the democratic transformation as it is today.
We are happy that many representatives of these formations, including people who have served or are serving in the "homeland" structures, came with us to Oslo. They too must share the accolade which the Nobel Peace Prize confers.
We live with the hope that as she battles to remake herself, South Africa, will be like a microcosm of the new world that is striving to be born.
This must be a world of democracy and respect for human rights, a world freed from the horrors of poverty, hunger, deprivation and ignorance, relieved of the threat and the scourge of civil wars and external aggression and unburdened of the great tragedy of millions forced to become refugees.
The processes in which South Africa and Southern Africa as a whole are engaged, beckon and urge us all that we take this tide at the flood and make of this region as a living example of what all people of conscience would like the world to be.


ref: Peace Movement Volunteering, noble peace prize

Internal Peace-1

while searching about Peace i find following notes from Swami Ramdas's Book The Divine Life.

Peace is an internal state of the soul acquired through the realization of the highest Truth, which is inherent in every human being. Peace related to the eternal. The transient and the ephemeral things of the world are incapable of granting peace. If you would have peace, turn your mind to the immortal source of your life-the deathless and changeless Reality. By constant contemplation and meditation, tune your thought to this Reality, ultimately sublimate it into the Divine existence and thereby attain to a peace which knows no change.

God is Peace, Truth is Peace. So be the devotee of God, if u long for peace. Live and act for the sake of this peace and having possessed it, spread its cooling radiance around, bathing all about you in its blissful floods. First, gain the GOD of peace for yourself. Be liberated from the clutches of a restless spirit which has thrown the soul into darkness and chaos.

Next Time more on the same subject.

Peace Movement

PEACE MOVEMENT

The present state of the world offers a wonderful study. The race for earthly power and dominion is assuming a terrible feature. Hate, distrust and fear on the one side, skepticism, greed and thoughtlessness on the other, combine to hurl nations into the vortex of war. The heart of men and women of the highest vision are wringing with inexpressible anguish at the sight of the havoc which war leaves in its wake. Their heroic struggle to cool down the raging fever of the war-mad peoples is a sight for gods. The air resounds with their clarion voice, proclaiming insistently the message of goodwill and peace for mankind. What a contrast! --- The heart that bleeds for the sufferings of humanity and the heart that causes such sufferings. Both are ostensibly human, but they are really not. Whilst the one is superhuman, the other is inhuman. Once is Divine, the other is demoniac. The same heart can either be the one or the other. It can pour out the purest emotions of love, compassion and forgiveness. It can also give vent to the turbulent waves of hate, fury and vengeance. The world may be divided into two camps---those who possess a heart of the first caliber ad those who possess a heart of the second. Naturally, the stronger of the two prevails.

So, it is absolutely necessary that those of us who take our stand upon the eternal principle of invincible Love should join hands. We ought to wax powerful by working for the transformation of as many hearts as lie within our purview for an ordered and consolidated resistance against the inrush of war. The normal tendencies of the human heart from its infancy are mild, merciful and loving in character. Our task is to appeal to this part of human nature which is in fact higher than human—it is Divine. Educate the heart to the knowledge of its Divinity. Awaken it to the consciousness of its possibilities for good.

Let the divine instincts subdue the undivine aberrations that distort life and make it ugly. Let us join the ranks of those great souls who are putting forth all their intellectual and spiritual energy to thwart the darkening and degeneration influences that seek to possess and sway human hearts. Let us stand up, as soldiers of GOD, to spread the soothing power of peace and goodwill in the world. Let us move fearlessly with all, but in every contact transmit the overpowering thought of peace and friendliness. Let us encourage every such individual or society by the free offering or our powers, be they of wealth, though or body. Merely to sit still aghast and wail over the wanton massacre of human lives in the name of imperialism, communism or some other equally reprehensible cause is not the thing to do. We are the embodiments of the greatest Power that rules the world. Let us be aware of this and give up faint-heartedness and inaction. If at once we cannot reveal all the powers of soul, as we work on for the cause of universal peace and fellowship, we will be enabled in time to bring out the full brilliance of the light within us. Let us be the votaries of peace which is GOD--- peace for ourselves and peace for humanity.

There are many souls gifted with the spiritual vision, who are striving to establish the sovereignty of peace on the earth. There are some among them prominently in the forefront who are inspired by splendid organizing and creative powers. These outstanding figures are making themselves felt by their worldwide activities. May the Almighty bring them all victory in their selfless labors of love and service, and make the world better and more secure to live in.


ref: agency management system
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