Crafting Gentleness

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

European Summit for Global Transformation

http://blog.europeansummit.org/

TorrentFreak: Pirate Party Gets Second Seat in European Parliament

http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-party-gets-second-seat-in-european-parliament-091104/
Pirate Party Gets Second Seat in European Parliament
Written by Ernesto on November 04, 2009

With the Lisbon Treaty being signed by all European Union member states, the Pirate Party has gained another seat in the European Parliament. The second Pirate Party seat will be occupied by the 22 year old Amelia Andersdotter, who will become the youngest Member of the European Parliament.

With more than 7 percent of the vote, the Swedish Pirate Party secured a seat in the European Parliament in June, and the possibility of gaining another if the Lisbon Treaty was signed by all member states.

The Lisbon Treaty was ratified yesterday by Vaclav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic, who was the last to sign the document.

Ironically, The Pirate Party was against the Lisbon Treaty, which has now doubled the number of seats the party has in the European Parliament.

The newly gained seat will be awarded to Amelia Andersdotter, who will become the youngest Member of the European Parliament. In order to free up time for her political career, Amelia recently decided to quit Economics and Spanish at Lund University in Sweden.

Besides fighting for fairer and more sensible copyright legislation, she will also spend time on education and the development of Europe’s knowledge economy.

“The Parliament needs to be going for a sustainable knowledge economy, and that’s where I come into play,” Amelia told TorrentFreak.

Amelia will officially take her seat in Brussels on December 1st, where she will be joining Christian Engstrom. The two will have plenty of work to do in the years to come, countering the growing influence from pro-copyright lobby groups.

Youthink - Engaging Students Through Art

http://www.youthink.org/yT_new.html

youTHink utilizes the power of art to foster critical thinking about local and global contemporary issues.

youTHink works to empower youth to find and use their voices to take action for positive social change.

youTHink brings students from different walks of life together, creating just and inclusive communities.

youTHink helps students learn about the legislative process and the active role youth can play.

To fight aloud is very brave - Emily Dickinson

To fight aloud is very brave,
But gallanter, I know,
Who charge within the bosom,
The cavalry of woe.

Who win, and nations do not see,
Who fall, and none observe,
Whose dying eyes no country
Regards with patriot love.

We trust, in plumed procession,
For such the angels go,
Rank after rank, with even feet
And uniforms of snow.

Emily Dickinson

Stevenson High School officials halt publication of student newspaper

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-stevenson-school-paper-20-nov20,0,1175320.story

Administrators at Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire spiked Friday's edition of the school's award-winning newspaper because of concerns about stories on drinking and smoking by honor students, teen pregnancy, and shoplifting, the editor said.

Advocates of press freedom bashed the decision to halt publication.

"It is irresponsible to withhold this information so they can protect their fantasy image of Stevenson as a place where no one has ever gotten pregnant or shoplifted," said Frank LoMante, executive director of the Virginia-based Student Press Law Center. The paper's faculty advisers, Matt Lockowitz and Lisa Lukens, as well as the school's spokesman, Jim Conrey, did not return phone messages.

The ban is the latest rift between administrators and student journalists for the Statesman, regarded as one of the premier student newspapers in Illinois and the nation. Concerns about content last year led to the resignation of the paper's faculty adviser, Barbara Thill.

The Charter for Compassion

http://charterforcompassion.org/

"A call to bring the world together…

The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.

It is also necessary in both public and private life to refrain consistently and empathically from inflicting pain. To act or speak violently out of spite, chauvinism, or self-interest, to impoverish, exploit or deny basic rights to anybody, and to incite hatred by denigrating others—even our enemies—is a denial of our common humanity. We acknowledge that we have failed to live compassionately and that some have even increased the sum of human misery in the name of religion.

We therefore call upon all men and women ~ to restore compassion to the centre of morality and religion ~ to return to the ancient principle that any interpretation of scripture that breeds violence, hatred or disdain is illegitimate ~ to ensure that youth are given accurate and respectful information about other traditions, religions and cultures ~ to encourage a positive appreciation of cultural and religious diversity ~ to cultivate an informed empathy with the suffering of all human beings—even those regarded as enemies.

We urgently need to make compassion a clear, luminous and dynamic force in our polarized world. Rooted in a principled determination to transcend selfishness, compassion can break down political, dogmatic, ideological and religious boundaries. Born of our deep interdependence, compassion is essential to human relationships and to a fulfilled humanity. It is the path to enlightenment, and indispensible to the creation of a just economy and a peaceful global community."

The Charter for Compassion on TED.com TV

http://www.ted.com/themes/the_charter_for_compassion.html

Montessori School Of Dentistry Lets Students Discover Their Own Root Canal Procedures

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/montessori_school_of_dentistry

NEW YORK—Inside the Montessori School of Dentistry, you won't find any old-fashioned cotton swabs, or so-called periodontal charts, or even any amalgam fillings. That's because at this alternative-learning institution, students are being encouraged to break away from medical tradition and discover their very own root canal procedures.

"At Montessori, we believe dentistry is more than just the medical practice of treating tooth and gum disorders," school director Dr. Howard Bundt told reporters Tuesday. "It's about fostering creativity. It's about promoting self-expression and individuality. It's about looking at a decayed and rotten nerve pulp and drawing your own unique conclusions."

"In fact, here at Montessori, dentistry is whatever our students want it to be," Bundt continued.

Disobedience Makes History

http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/eventseducation/coursesworkshops/20641.htm

Disobedience Makes History

Led by the Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination

Saturday 23 January 2010, 10.30–17.30
Saturday 30 January 2010, 10.30–17.30

In 1989 thousands of citizens defied the law and brought down the authoritarian regimes that were already crumbling under economic burdens across Eastern Europe. Many of the seeds of these revolutions were planted by artists and subcultures who devised forms of civil disobedience and opened up a space for dissent.

Twenty years later we are in the midst of an unprecedented economic and ecological crisis not unlike that which swept across the east in 1989 and yet voices of dissent are being increasingly repressed. There has never been a more urgent time to develop new forms of creative disobedience and artists have the skills and imagination to do this. This workshop will explore the history and practice of creative disobedience and will culminate in a co-created intervention.

No arts or activism experience necessary.

Tate Modern Level 7 East Room
£50 (£35 concessions), booking recommended
Price includes refreshments

For tickets book online
or call 020 7887 8888

Many killed in Phillipine elections

Any work on gentleness is of little value to me unless it allows us to stand in awareness of events like this, and reaffirm that there can be an otherwise, that other ways of being are already possible. But also that such as this are not 'outside humanity' but very much 'of humanity', part of the possible, how particular people make sense of their lives in certain circumstances. These killings made sense to those who carried them out. How did that happen? How can we work to lessen the possibilities of it happening again, and maybe closer to home?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2009/nov/24/press-freedom-philippines

Twelve journalists were among 24 people murdered yesterday in the Philippines in what is thought to be the greatest loss of life by news media in a single day. Several of the victims were beheaded in the massacre carried out by a huge force of gunmen.

The journalists were among a group of about 50 people travelling in a convoy in Maguindanao province, on the southern island of Mindanao, to register candidacy papers for a local mayor planning to stand in a governorship election.

As the convoy reached the village of Masalay it was ambushed by a 100-strong armed gang said to have been led by a politician and a police inspector who opposed the candidacy of Esmael Mangudadatu.

The group, which included his wife and other relatives, were kidnapped and then systematically murdered. Mangudadatu, who wasn't travelling with the convoy, said female members of the group were raped before they were killed.