FW: [MO-NP] Nonviolent Peaceforce Convening Event Press Release 3

["mc.foto" <mc.foto@libero.it>]

----------
Da: "Nick Mele" <nickmele@attbi.com>
Data: Sun, 01 Dec 2002 12:51:32 -0000
A: MO-NP@yahoogroups.com
Oggetto: [MO-NP] Nonviolent Peaceforce Convening Event Press Release 3

VENERABLE SAMDHONG RINPOCHE CALLS NONVIOLENT PEACEFORCE ESSENTIAL


Venerable Samdhong Rinpoche, Prime Minister of the Tibetan
Parliament in Exile, told an international audience that the
organisation they are founding, the Nonviolent Peaceforce, is "very
much needed in today's world."  Peaceworkers from 47 nations are
meeting near Delhi to create an unarmed civilian alternative to
military peacekeeping missions.

In his remarks, the Tibetan Buddhist monk noted, "The present
escalation of violence around the world is unprecedented.  Violence
is in the very air we breathe and the very space through which we
move."  He urged his audience to put all its energy into making
peace.  Speaking of "the globalisation of violence" Venerable
Samdhong Rinpoche said:  "We are fooled into seeing it as a law and
order problem or a national security problem.  We are unable to see
that both are manifestations of a malady in our civilisation.  What
is the remedy?"  
        
"We must determine how to establish a nonviolent society," he
said.  "When violence is met with violence, one side can be
temporarily subdued but much suffering results."  He urged the
Nonviolent Peaceforce to pay attention to the causes of violence and
to be prepared to "take them on".   Venerable Samdhong Rinpoche
particularly stressed the "commercialisation of violence" by the
weapons industry.  He focused on the connection between the arms
industry and trade and increasing violence around the world,
exhorting the audience to work to bring about a reduction in the
arms trade and eventual total disarmament.

At the conclusion of his remarks, Venerable Samdhong Rinpoche
recommended Gandhi's Hind Swaraj as compulsory reading for
Nonviolent Peaceforce trainees, especially the chapter on violence
and satyagraha (soul or truth force).  He ended his prepared remarks
as he began, by calling the Nonviolent Peaceforce "very necessary
and relevant."



To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
MO-NP-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

 

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/