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| Peace and Movements |
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Joining Peace Boat from Ecuador to Tokyo is Professor
Jorgen Johansson, peace researcher, educator, and more importantly
for today's theme, peace activist for over 30 years with experience
in over 50 countries. He joins us with Professor Johan Galtung and
will together expand our universe of understanding about peace issues
in the world today. Today's discussion focused on a better understanding
of the idea of a 'peace movement'. Using many examples throughout
history and from his own experience, Professor Jorgen argued that
when we think about peace movements, we think too much of the idea
of peace, and not enough about the action of the movements. Looking
at the greater picture, the utopian (and distant if ever) idea of
a world without violent conflict is not the goal of the peace movement
in the world today, but rather as a means to reduce and limit the
spread of violent conflict, making the world a better place to live. |
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| Three Levels |
| What is the 'peace movement' made up of? Professor
Jorgen separated the idea into three levels. At the top are the organizations
working for peace and conflict resolution, covering a wide spectrum
of issues and existing for certain, finite periods of time. The next
level is that of campaigns which are oriented towards specific issues,
originate from the work of campaigns, and are generally more specific
than organizations. Under campaigns are the actions of the peace movement.
For example, Peace Boat is a broad based organization connected with
different campaigns for peace and environmental issues, organizing
specific actions (protests or conferences for example) in different
ports. When thinking about the peace movement, it is more realistic
and rewarding to focus on the 'movement and action' than to think
of 'peace' as a goal. Other characteristics of the peace movement
are that much of it is not very visible in the media, often focusing
on structural violence (economic, systemic, class, etc.), and has
existed since long ago in history and will continue on as long as
there is conflict. For us this is a very good chance to clearly see
Peace Boat in the larger context of the world peace movement, the
work we do and how we can improve our efforts. |
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| Raku-go / Kokontei Kikuchiyo |
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| With a 'Nankin-tamasudare' - how about 'sticks-and-string
toy' in English? |
Raku-go is a traditional Japanese individual performance
art, a little like a combination of stand-up comedy and drama in traditional
Japanese style. From a profession in which over 99% of the top level
performers are men, Peace Boat welcomes Kokontei Kikuchiyo, one of
the few female performers at the highest level of Raku-go. The performance
itself centers on a humorous dialogue between multiple characters
performed by the individual performer, often focusing on the lives
of ordinary people and daily difficulties in work or providing for
the family. Before her performance, Kokontei-san told us a little
about her experiences breaking into the male-dominated world and becoming
one of the best. Her story was inspiring and comedic performance about
a poor father and pestering daughter brought loud laughter from the
full-capacity audience. During her time, Kokontei-san will also teach
Raku-go in workshops for the aspiring performers among us.
Text and photos by Stacy Hughes
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PEACE BOAT is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. |
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