Bob, an individual I know on the Internet often has this tag on this e-mail messages:
“war is a failure of imagination”
Alan Moore
I like the idea. But I thought the source might have been older than Mr. Moore, who’s noted for his comics over several recent decades (though he might be something approximating a polymath). There’s a site attributing it to H. G. Wells and another that says that’s the correct answer to a question about which quote H. G. Wells did not coin. Sheesh. My search is failing.
Pardon me for mixing my interests in basketball and peace. Here’s a story worth promoting, though. In the Los Angeles Times, Chris Hine has a story entitled “Lakers’ Jordan Farmar to go on peace mission to Middle East: Lakers guard, who is Jewish, will travel to Israel in August to run basketball camps for Israeli and Palestinian children, with the goal of giving them a lasting foundation of friendship and goodwill” that caught my eye. Here’s the lead:
Like other NBA players, Jordan Farmar will head overseas this summer, only with a different mission — to facilitate peace in the Middle East.
The Lakers’ guard, who is Jewish, will travel to Israel to run basketball camps for Israeli and Palestinian children in association with the Peres Peace Center. The goal of the camps, which take place Aug. 4 to 11, is to bring Israeli and Palestinian children together through basketball and create a foundation for peaceful relations between them in years to come.
Mr. Farmar, thanks.
Link to Mr. Hine’s story.
Mubarak Awad, who established the Palestinian Centre for the Study of Nonviolence, is one of those folks whom I admire for their persistence in promoting non-violence in the face of daunting examples of disappointment. Mr. Awad advocates Gandhian solutions to conflicts in what has to be one of the most difficult regions of the world: The lands along the eastern end of the Mediterranean.
Wikipedia entry about Mr. Awad. Here’s a link to a news report about a presentation at a Modesto (CA, US) church, to a blog entry about one of Mr. Awad’s talks, and (of course) to Nonviolence International.
Mahatma Gandhi Center for Global Nonviolence (Lecture in the History and Philosophy of Hinduism) and College of Arts and Letters (Visiting Scholars Program) at James Madison University will host a visit by Barbara A. Holdrege, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Chair of the South Asian Studies Committee, and Director of the Center for the Analysis of Sacred Space at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Professor Holdrege will give a public lecture entitled “South Asia and the Middle East: Connecting Cultures Outside of and in Spite of the West” (see abstract below).
The lecture will be held at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, October 23, 2007 in CI/ISAT 159 at James Madison University.
Admission: Free and open to all
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Lecture Abstract:
South Asia and the Middle East: Connecting Cultures Outside of and in Spite of the West, by Barbara A. Holdrege
Wilhelm Halbfass, in his landmark study India and Europe, explores the history of intellectual encounters between India and Europe from classical antiquity to the twentieth century. He concludes with a discussion of the “global predicament of Westernization” in the contemporary period, reflecting more specifically on the problems that the so called “Europeanization of the earth” presents for both European and Indian partners in the “dialogue.” The lecture will explore the critical necessity of going beyond the European horizon of such dialogue and undertaking an alternative form of cross-cultural encounter that does not privilege Europe as a principal partner but rather investigates instead India’s connections with other cultures whose distinctive histories have unfolded outside of, inside of, and in spite of the West. This type of comparative enterprise shifts the focus from India and Europe to South Asia and the Middle East and explores the ongoing economic, political, social, cultural, and religious connections that linked these two regions long before the “rise of the West.” The lecture will consider the role of comparative study in critically interrogating two related sets of paradigms that have assumed the status of dominant discourses in the human sciences in Europe and North America since the nineteenth century: the Eurocentric paradigms that have dominated scholarship in the social sciences and humanities; and the Protestant Christian paradigms that have dominated scholarship in religious studies more specifically. One of the important tasks of comparative study in this context is to challenge scholars to become more critically self conscious of the legacy of these dominant paradigms that lingers in our categories and taxonomies and to reconfigure our scholarly discourses to include a multiplicity of epistemic perspectives. The lecture will suggest two comparative projects that can contribute to dismantling the dominant paradigms. First, comparative studies of South Asia and the Middle East can provide the basis for developing alternative epistemologies to the Eurocentric paradigms that have dominated scholarship in the human sciences. Second, comparative studies of Hindu and Jewish traditions — religious traditions rooted in South Asia and the Middle East, respectively — can provide the basis for developing alternative epistemologies to the Protestant-based paradigms that have dominated the academic study of religion.
I don’t pray, but I’m glad that some who do pray pray for peace. There’s an event slated for 16 October 2007 in Washington (DC, US) that is billed as “Pray for Peace Benefit” This link points to a PDF file on the Web site of musician Graham Nash, one of the artists who will perform for the benefit.
Who else is on the bill, one might wonder? Emily Saliers, John Hall, Krishna Das, Keb Mo, Jackson Browne, and David Crosby are among them. Check Cobalt6 for a blog entry about it.