Month: August 2016

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How the system has failed, not us

In this extremely educative video from the BBC, economics professor Steve Keen explains how the system we live under has failed us. If we have have bad debts, they should be forgiven because they come more from the system rather than a lack of prudence on the part of the borrowers.

Steve also explains how rising violence comes from systemic faults that need to be addressed.

Read more on Steve’s website Debunking Economics

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Beta version of our Peace Bank released

We have set up a Peace Bank facility to help fulfill our mission of encouraging and supporting more activities to promote peace in the world . We have just released a beta version of our Peace Bank. The Bank holds details of organizations working to promote peace, and is under continuous development and update.

The Peace Bank also collects stories to inspire and inform us how people and their organisations came to build foundations for peace in different ways. In a short while we will publish stories you will be able to retrieve using a search function. In the meantime we have some demonstration stories here.

 

Visit our Peace Bank Page.

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Investor in peace: Initiatives of Change

OVERVIEW

Name:  CAUX-Initiatives of Change Foundation (CAUX-IofC)

Type:  Foundation under Swiss law, established 1946

Mission Statement:  to provide a safe and privileged space to inspire, equip and connect individuals, groups and organisations from around the globe to engage effectively and innovatively in the promotion of trust, ethical leadership, sustainable living and human security.

Peace-promoting activities:  organizes and coordinates international and local conferences, seminars and training in Switzerland, primarily in its Conference Centre, the former Caux-Palace, bringing together a diversity of people.

Short description:

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Peace Story: Post-WW2 reconciliation

Frank Buchman

TIME AND PLACE: CAUX, Switzerland post WW2

THE PEOPLE INVOLVED: Frank ND Buchman was the initiator of Moral Re-Armament, now known as Initiatives of Change.

SITUATION: Buchman returned to Europe after WW2, conscious that lasting worldwide peace could only be established on the basis of a change in personal and public relationships. At this time any contact with the Germans was extremely difficult.

WHAT HAPPENED: Moral Re armament opened an international conference centre in Caux, Switzerland, made possible through the generosity and hard work of hundreds of Swiss citizens. Over the next four years more than 3,000 Germans and 2,000 French came to Caux, and their

CAUX Conference Center

encounters became the basis of a massive development in reconciliation and reconstruction.

END RESULTS: Buchman was later decorated by both the German and French governments for his contribution to European reconciliation. The story of one them, Resistance leader Madame Irène Laure, is told on video – and is also available as a book. The conferences at Caux, and similar ones at Mackinac Island in the United States, achieved further public recognition through several other major contributions to international developments in the post-war years, notably the part played in the reconciliation of Japan with her South-East Asian neighbours, and in the achievement of independence by several African countries without major bloodshed. By the 1950s, casts of plays presenting MRA’s ideas were travelling all over the world.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

See the IOFC website under history

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PEACE EDUCATION

Even if we provide a roof over our own and our family’s heads, and even if we can food sufficient  food on the table, for our lives and for society to function we still need peace.

Peace Ambassador Prem Rawat set out to create a simple education program to help people discover their own inner resources—innate tools for living such as inner strength, choice, and hope—and the possibility of personal peace.

Together with a team from TPRF – the Prem Rawat Foundation – they created a curriculum that consists of 10 videos, each focusing on a particular theme. The videos form the main material for customized, interactive workshops that are are non-religious and non-sectarian. The content of each theme is based on excerpts from Prem Rawat’s international talks. The themes are: Peace, Appreciation, Inner Strength, Self-Awareness, Clarity, Understanding, Dignity, Choice, Hope, and Contentment.

The DVDs come with accompanying workbook and facilitators manual in many different languages.

Peace Education Programs have been run in many different situations including Civic & Government Groups, Community Groups, Corporations & Foundations, Correctional Facilities, Education, Health & Wellness, Police & Law Enforcement, Seniors, Special Groups and Veterans.

Participants have enjoyed the course and have been overwhelmingly positive. For example, a Peace Education Program run in the UK at London’s Thameside Prison volunteer Tony McLean says; “out of the 140 participants, four didn’t complete the course—less than 3%—so overall, it’s been a huge success”.

In a recent interview Tony went on to say, ” it’s had a wonderful impact. About 140 inmates have participated in all the sessions of the 10-week course. Many inmates have low self-esteem. They come from backgrounds where they have not been respected at all, and a lot of them feel they have never been listened to. Many of them have never really listened to anything either. With the Peace Education Program, they have learned to start listening. It takes less than a minute in any one session for the participants to calm down and pay attention. They are usually more than happy to make comments and many like to express themselves after having studied the materials. Their self-esteem seems to be increasing and many express themselves eloquently.”

The TPRF website lists a wide range of endorsements coming from different parts of the world and people in different situation.

Find out more here:

http://tprf.org/programs/peace-education-program/