:

DE sign:
(Deconstructing in-order to find new meanings)

A blogging space about my personal interests; was made during training in Stockholm #Young Leaders Visitors Program #Ylvp08 it developed into a social bookmarking blog.

I studied #Architecture; interested in #Design #Art #Education #Urban Design #Digital-media #social-media #Inhabited-Environments #Contemporary-Cultures #experimentation #networking #sustainability & more =)


Please Enjoy, feedback recommended.

p.s. sharing is usually out of interest not Blind praise.
This is neither sacred nor political.

Showing posts with label #peace. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #peace. Show all posts

Monday, August 24

everyday #PEACE


Published on Jan 25, 2014
Take 1.40 minutes out of your day to be inspired by peacebuilding...working towards the prevention, interruption and healing from violence in all forms! This animated minute and half mini-video highlights what peacebuilding looks like in a local community and how it can literally prevent, reduce and heal from violence. Thanks to Isaac Tinto, Katie Davison, Rain Phoenix, Mike Amish, Jeffrey Weisberg and Heart Phoenix!
www.tintomedia.com and www.centerforpeacebuilding.org

Sunday, August 9

Writing Salam #Peace

#Peace

Writing Peace, An exhibition for thinking and sharing peace across time and space

Writing Peace, an exhibition for thinking and sharing peace across time and space

04/11/2013

© UNESCO
Writing Peace, an exhibition for thinking and sharing peace across time and space” is composed -in its current setup- of 30 panels that represent the writing of the word “Peace” in diverse written systems, such us Chinese, Latin, Greek, Indian, Mongolian, Cherokee, Braille… Writing the word peace is already a way of thinking about the entailed concept and invites us to engage in intercultural dialogue.

This exhibition it’s a meeting point between cultural diversity and languages. A stop along the way for youth to become supporters in their respective surroundings of peace and non-violence, values that UNESCO constantly promotes. The exhibition continuously evolves, with a progressive addition of existing writing systems. Five exhibitions sets were presented all over the world on the occasion of international conferences about a culture of peace (New York, USA; Luanda, Angola; Baku, Azerbaijan; Vienna, Austria and Paris, France).  The success of the exhibition and its trilingual catalogue (French, English, and Arabic) allowed the elaboration of several derived products such as a presentation film, postcards, greeting cards and mouse-pads for sale at UNESCO’s boutique. 

Saturday, January 17

Want Democratic Change in 2015? Try More Empathy and Creativity

Want Democratic Change in 2015? Try More Empathy and Creativity

By Julia Roig, President, Partners for Democratic Change 

As we begin the New Year, my Facebook feed, Linkedin, and email inbox have been full of hopeful predictions for 2015. For example, Carl Gershman from the National Endowment for Democracy gives us reasons to feel optimistic about the triumph of democracy in the world. I’m also sure that many of us received the checklist on how we can contribute to peace from thePeace and Collaborative Development Network. And then we were all shocked by the horrible terrorist attack in Paris. In my community of professionals working in international development, we seem to share a deep sense of optimism that positive change is possible. But in the face of senseless and tragic violence and such horrific strikes against fundamental freedoms, how do we stay motivated and keep going on with our work? As I reflect on my year ahead at Partners, I find myself focusing on what I believe is the essence of our work as change agents: to find and promote more empathy.



For the past several months I keep bringing up empathy in different contexts and conversations, and more and more I am convinced that it is the fundamental catalyst for both interpersonal and societal change. One popular definitionby Dr. Brené Brown describes empathy as the ability to identify with or understand another’s situation or feelings. This idea is what fuels genuine connections that recognize and acknowledge diverse perspectives and emotions and is a fundamental concept underlying so much of Partners’ work in peace-building and democracy building:

  • Conflict Resolution requires empathy. All mediators and facilitators know that you must negotiate based on interests and not on positions.  We are called upon as neutrals to help parties in conflict understand each other to satisfy each other’s needs and reach an agreement that works for everyone.
  • Advocacy requires empathy. As an advocate for a cause, if you have a blind spot and don’t understand those who disagree with you, how will you ever address their concerns sufficiently to minimize dissent and move forward with your agenda? When training in cooperative advocacy, Partners often leads activists through an exercise of putting themselves in the shoes of the “other side” to make their arguments for them and identify the facts that support those arguments.
  • Leadership requires empathy. Effective leaders in open, transparent, and democratic institutionspractice empathy. They build broad teams by understanding different talents and identifying everyone needed to get a job done. But more than that, empathetic leaders do a lot of listening and seek ways to be the most helpful to those they manage to be successful.
  • Authentic partnerships require empathy. As an international NGO, we work in partnership with our local affiliates in all our programming. We obviously come from different perspectives, but to work together effectively we have to understand each other’s realities. Some of us are sitting at desks in DC, and some are working in the field in Aden, Yemen. Empathy allows our partnerships to be flexible and respectful.
If empathy is a distinctly human capability, why is it so difficult in practice? Power, ego, insecurities, and trauma all get in the way of experiencing empathy. This inability to practice empathy affects us personally, professionally, and as a nation, and we get stuck in conflictive, vicious cycles as human beings. In the U.S., how do we find empathy for Russians?  For Iranians?  For Central Americans?  And how should that empathy inform our public policies?
Empathy through Creativity.  So, one of the most important tasks in front of us in 2015 is to work to build more empathy in ourselves and in the world. And I am particularly inspired by the power of developing empathy through creativity. One of the most popular Ted Talks (ever) is by Sir Ken Robinson discussing how our educational systemis beating creativity out of us and teaching kids how to be “right” and “wrong.”  We learn to develop an internal voice that makes us judgmental of others and ourselves.   He cites studies of musicians, dancers, and other artists that show that the parts of our brains that are triggered when we are creative are also actively suppressing judgment and self-criticism. We hold ourselves open to all possibilities when we are in a creative flow, and are more open to empathy.

This rings true to me, as we know as peace-builders that using the arts is an important tool for building understanding, tolerance, and reconciliation. For example, in Iraq, Partners has a program working with youth in high-conflict areas that not only incorporates the arts and sports to establish relationships, teamwork, and leadership skills, but also lessons of empathy for those of different religious and ethnic affiliations.

Building Bridges for more Creativity. One of the ways for us to use more creativity in our work in the international development field is to seek out new partnerships with artists whose profession is to entertain and inspire through powerful narratives that touch us emotionally. The Alliance for Peacebuilding is spearheading just such an exciting initiative together with the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California. The Media and Peacebuilding Roundtable held its first gathering in Los Angeles last fall with representatives from the movie industry, gamers, world-builders, and other creative leaders to discuss potential for collaboration with peace-builders. What struck me the most after spending the day with these artists was how differently they think about the world and their work, and how their mediums don’t restrict them to pre-existing paradigms. They can literally create new worlds and construct new stories; the only limitation is their imaginations and their inspiration to touch an audience in meaningful ways. Reflecting with some of my colleagues from DC afterwards, one of our common refrains was “my mind is blown.” I guess that is what happens when you see the possibilities of making the world you want, while viewing different mediums to share that hopeful, better world with others.
One of the fruits of these new relationships was that Partners was able to participate at the end of last year in a creative new Peace Portals initiative sponsored by Shared Studios in Manhattan. One of our staff members entered into a shipping container that was outfitted as a studio and was able to see and hear the full body image of an Iranian citizen that walked into a similar shipping container on the streets of Tehran. They had an informal conversation for 20 minutes about life, his love of motorcycles, their jobs, and the weather, (a powerful experience straight out of Star Trek). Hundreds of ordinary people participated in the Portals and one by one they are building empathy for the citizens living in a country far away from their own reality.
Using these kinds of amazing technologies, and sharing each other’s stories in new creative ways will help us be successful in working for more peaceful democratic change in 2015. There is a lot of solidarity right now throughout the world for writers and cartoonists in particular. For the New Year, I wish for all Partners’ colleagues and friends to find a creative flow that allows you to find and promote more empathy.




http://www.internationalpeaceandconflict.org/profiles/blog/list?user=0ziriq5b0t0vb

Wednesday, October 1

60 years of Science For Peace (at) CERN

Sixty Years For PEACE through Science 
& Science though Peace

Go CERN!


CERN turns 60 and celebrates peaceful collaboration for science



Geneva, 29 September 2014. Today, CERN1, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is blowing out 60 candles at an event attended by official delegations from 35 countries. Founded in 1954, CERN is today the largest particle physics laboratory in the world and a prime example of international collaboration, bringing together scientists of almost 100 nationalities.
CERN’s origins can be traced back to the late 1940s. In the aftermath of the Second World War, a small group of visionary scientists and public administrators, on both sides of the Atlantic, identified fundamental research as a potential vehicle to rebuild the continent and to foster peace in a troubled region. It was from these ideas that CERN was born on 29 September 1954, with a dual mandate to provide excellent science, and to bring nations together. This blueprint for collaboration has worked remarkably well over the years and expanded to all the continents.
“For six decades, CERN has been a place where people can work together, regardless of their culture and nationality. We form a bridge between cultures by speaking a single universal language and that language is science,” said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer. “Indeed, science is an essential part of culture. Maestro Ashkenazy, conducting the European Union Youth Orchestra here today puts it most eloquently in saying that while music reflects the reality of our spiritual life and tries to convey to us the essence of our existence, science’s mission is extremely similar; it also tries to explain the world to us.”
CERN came into being on 29 September 1954 when its convention, agreed by 12 founding Member States, came into force. Over the years and with its continuing success, CERN has attracted new countries and become a truly global organization, Today it has 21 Member States and more than 10 000 users from all over the world, and more countries have applied for membership.
“Over time, CERN has become the world’s leading laboratory in particle physics, always oriented towards, and achieving, excellence,” said President of CERN Council Agnieszka Zalewska.
CERN’s business is fundamental physics, aiming to find out what the Universe is made of and how it works. Since 1954, the landscape of fundamental physics has dramatically changed. Then, knowledge of matter at the smallest scales was limited to the nucleus of the atom. In 60 years, particle physicists have advanced knowledge of forces and matter at the smallest scales, developed a sound theory based on this knowledge - the Standard model - and improved the understanding of the Universe and its beginnings.
Over the years, physicists working at CERN have contributed to this progress as a series of larger and ever more powerful accelerators have allowed researchers to explore new frontiers of energy. Among the many results achieved, some discoveries have dramatically improved comprehension of the fundamental laws of nature and pushed forward technologies. These include the discovery of the particle carriers of the weak force, rewarded with a Nobel Prize for Carlo Rubbia and Simon van der Meer in 1984, the invention of the world wide web by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989, the development of a revolutionary particle detector by Georges Charpak, rewarded by a Nobel Prize in 1992, and the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012, proving the existence of the Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism, which led to a Nobel Prize for Peter Higgs and François Englert in 2013.
Today CERN operates the world’s leading particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider. With the restart of the LHC next year at new record energy, CERN will continue to seek answers to some of the most fundamental questions about the universe.

Material available:

- Pictures will be available here
Video News Release
- Video "CERN and Science for peace" (CERN's history)
English / French
- Video "CERN and the rise of the Standard Model" (CERN's contributions to Physics research)
English / French
- Video "Knowledge and technology: from CERN to society" (Applications of CERN's research)
English / French
- For more historical material (pictures/footage), see here
- New CERN 4K ultra HD footage is also available here
CERN turns 60, celebrates peaceful collaboration for science
Today, CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is blowing out 60 candles at an event attended by official delegations from 35 countries. Founded in 1954, CERN is today the largest particle physics laboratory in the world and a prime example of international collaboration, bringing together scientists of almost 100 nationalities.

CERN’s origins can be traced back to the late 1940s. In the aftermath of the Second World War, a small group of visionary scientists and public administrators, on both sides of the Atlantic, identified fundamental research as a potential vehicle to rebuild the continent and to foster peace in a troubled region. It was from these ideas that CERN was born on 29 September 1954, with a dual mandate to provide excellent science, and to bring nations together. This blueprint for collaboration has worked remarkably well over the years and expanded to all the continents.
“For six decades, CERN has been a place where people can work together, regardless of their culture and nationality. We form a bridge between cultures by speaking a single universal language and that language is science,” said CERN Director-General Rolf Heuer. “Indeed, science is an essential part of culture. Maestro Ashkenazy, conducting the European Union Youth Orchestra here today puts it most eloquently in saying that while music reflects the reality of our spiritual life and tries to convey to us the essence of our existence, science’s mission is extremely similar; it also tries to explain the world to us.”
rest found at http://cern60.web.cern.ch/en/content/cern-turns-60-celebrates-peaceful-collaboration-science

Celebrating the first of a kind
This joint opinion piece was written by Agnieszka Zalewska, President of CERN Council, and Rolf Heuer, CERN Director-General.
It was on 7 and 8 October 1954 that the first meeting of the CERN Council took place, opened by Frenchman Robert Valeur, retiring Chairman of the interim Council that had overseen the establishment of CERN. On the day we celebrate that first meeting with a special Council Symposium, it’s interesting to look back at the meeting’s minutes. 
Penned in the dry official language that is the hallmark of such documents, the momentous nature of what had been achieved nevertheless shines through. “The retiring Chairman stressed the importance of the creation of the Organization which would be the first scientific organization of its kind in the world,” Valeur was reported as saying, before going on to introduce such luminaries as Swiss writer and federalist, Denis de Rougemont, and American Nobel Prize winner, Isidor Rabi, who had both played instrumental roles in the creation of CERN. CERN pioneer Pierre Auger would only be present the following day, reported Valeur, while Louis de Broglie, whose 1949 submission to the European Cultural Conference started it all, was unable to attend.
In words that set the tone for transatlantic relations in particle physics, Rabi “stressed the great interest of American scientists in the work of the Laboratory and offered, on their behalf, the most cordial and complete cooperation. This, he hoped, would lead to a fair competition between Europe and America for the benefit of science”. Opening formalities aside, the meeting very rapidly got down to business, with elections of officials, financial and staffing matters, and detailed discussions about the suitability of the local geology for the construction of the proton synchrotron.
What made the origins of CERN so remarkable, and continues to make CERN remarkable today, is the extraordinary resonance between visionary scientists, diplomats and government representatives, all recognising science as a vehicle for peace. The names cited in the minutes of the first Council meeting include scientists and non-scientists. Today’s Council continues in that tradition, being composed of representatives of our Member States’ governments and scientific communities. It is this that makes our governance model so robust, our scientific record so proud, and it is what makes that first meeting of the Council so worthy of celebration today as we approach the International Day of Peace this weekend.
Sixty years after CERN’s creation, there is still much conflict and intolerance in the world. In such a climate, institutions like CERN, islands of peace and stability, are more necessary than ever. New ones, such as SESAME, should be encouraged, while those that exist should be nurtured. This is the message that we hope endures from CERN’s 60th anniversary year.
http://cern60.web.cern.ch/en/content/celebrating-first-kind





http://cern60.web.cern.ch/en

http://tedxcern.web.cern.ch/







http://tedxcern.web.cern.ch/video
http://cui.unige.ch/Nouvelles/TEDxCERN.html
http://tedxcern.web.cern.ch/
http://www.ted.com/tedx/events/5875
https://www.facebook.com/tedxcern

Sunday, September 22

P e a c e 1Day

May there be Peace One Day on this Earth

Over the years Peace One Day has delivered successful global campaigns that have touched millions of lives all over the world and instigated actions that promote reconciliation and peace-building through sports, dance, education, film, music, art and other areas.
Below is an overview of Peace One Day’s core campaigns. The theme for 2013 across all of these campaigns is: Who Will You Make Peace With?
Peace starts with individual action, and your actions will inspire others. So who will you make peace with? Who will you bring together on Peace Day, Saturday 21 September 2013?


INDIVIDUALS

Peace Day is about empowering individuals to make a difference. It is everyone’s legacy. If it isn’t everyone’s, it’s not going to work.
Through detailed analysis conducted with the support of McKinsey & Company, the Peace One Day 2012 Report found that approximately 280 million people in 198 countries were aware of Peace Day 2012 – 4% of the world’s population. The report further estimates that approximately 2% of those people (5.6 million) behaved more peacefully as a result. Peace One Day expects to double those figures for 2013, creating a solid foundation for informing 3 billion people about Peace Day by 2016.
As an individual, the first thing you can do to help is register your support for Peace Day 21 September here:
http://peaceoneday.org/

#2013 Theme
Who Will You Make Peace With?...

...Is Peace One Day’s theme for 2013.
Peace Day is not only about a reduction of violence in areas of conflict, it is also about reducing violence in our homes, communities and schools.

more on #PeaceOneDay



The International Day of Peace, sometimes unofficially known as World Peace Day, is observed annually on 21 September. It is dedicated to world peace, and specifically the absence of war and violence, such as might be occasioned by a temporary ceasefire in a combat zone for humanitarian aid access. The day was first celebrated in 1982, and is kept by many nations, political groups, military groups, and peoples. In 2013, for the first time, the Day was dedicated by the Secretary-General of the United Nations to peace education, the key preventive means to reduce war sustainably.[1]
To inaugurate the day, the United Nations Peace Bell is rung at UN Headquarters (in New York City). The bell is cast from coins donated by children from all continents except Africa, and was a gift from the United Nations Association of Japan, as "a reminder of the human cost of war"; the inscription on its side reads, "Long live absolute world peace".[2]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Day_of_Peace

Wednesday, December 7

City 2.0

At TED everything could happen. It's been a very enjoyable & inspiring platform ever since i learned about it in 2008.. it never fails one searching for an original, genuine words or some Courageous voice.
Thank You #TED platform & people behind it for make it happen. 


For the first time in history, the Prize winner is not an individual, but an idea that greatly impacts the future of planet Earth… and the winner is . The City 2.0 is the city of the future, a future in which more than ten billion people are dependent on. The idea is not a “sterile utopian dream” but rather a “real-world upgrade tapping into humanity’s collective wisdom.” More urban living space will be constructed over the next 90 years than all prior centuries combined, so it is time to get it right.




Continue reading for more information on The City 2.0 and details on how you can participate.
Provided by the TED Prize press release:

The City 2.0 promotes innovation, education, culture, and economic opportunity.
The City 2.0 reduces the carbon footprint of its occupants, facilitates smaller families, and eases the environmental pressure on the world’s rural areas.


The City 2.0 is a place of beauty, wonder, excitement, inclusion, diversity, life.
The City 2.0 is the city that works.


Each year, TED Prize is awarded to an “exceptional individual” who receives $100,000 and “One Wish to Change the World.” Visionaries from around the globe will be given the collective opportunity to craft one wish for The City 2.0.
Back in 2006, TIME’s person of the year was Y O U. It became evident that we are in charge of shaping our own destiny and we are one collective whole. If you wish to contribute an idea for The City 2.0, write to tedprize@ted.com and join the conversation here.

The wish will be announced on February 29th, 2012 at the TED Conference in Long Beach, California.

“On a Leap Year date, we have the chance, collectively, to take a giant leap forward.”

Reference: TED Prize, TIME Magazine

Sunday, December 4

Narrating The ArabSpring


Call For Papers:   Narrating The Arab Spring > AWID

salam mn ard salam



a version of Antique Damascene peace...


Image of Mr. Nizar Alkak collection on #Facebook