Dear peaceables,
The big news this week is that neuroscientists have shown that it feels good to do good (we knew that, didn’t we?) more info....
Apparently, donating to charity activates the same pleasure centres in the brain as food and sex. Even when the money goes to a good cause involuntarily (i.e. through taxes), the pleasure centres are activated, but not as strongly. Maybe conservatives’ apparent obsession with dismantling our social safety net is based on pure hedonism and they’re looking forward to orgies of charitable giving...
Selfishness in all its manifestations (greed, intolerance, injustice, etc.) has brought us crisis upon crisis, including the Big One: climate change. It couldn't hurt to try altruism for a change...and it's heartening to think we might be hard-wired for for it!
Peace,
Chris
Around the globe, people are organizing to make 07/07/07 the largest one-day movement building effort in human history-- based on Live Earth, a 24-hour 7-continent concert series bringing together more than 100 artists and 2 billion people “to trigger a global movement to solve the climate change crisis.” To find out how to be part of it, go here.
The Council of Canadians and Common Frontiers Canada are challenging the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP).
There is an extensive national network of groups working on various issues related to immigration and refugees. No One Is Illegal - Vancouver has a comprehensive list of local and national campaigns. See also Toronto and MontrealThere will be an international course on engaged Buddhism and peacebuilding for women in Chiang Mai, Thailand, July 26 - Aug. 4.
Iraq’s women are refusing to be left behind.
Neuroscientists have shown that it feels good to do good - we knew that, didn’t we?
You can see the presentations from an international symposium on educating health workers for peace this month at http://uit.no/sih/8989
If you’re confused by the campaign to discredit Al Gore because of a badly- chosen example in An Inconvenient Truth, read this.- Peace Pilgrim
Mark Twain’s The War Prayer is as relevant and moving today as it was when he wrote it in 1904 or thereabouts.
Naomi Klein: How War was Turned Into a Brand.
Robert Scheer: “Welcome to Grandpa’s World, Baby Cheney.”
Paul Craig Roberts on the real reason for Bush’s invasion of Iraq.
If you understand Spanish (and maybe even if you don’t) this video of Ernesto Che Guevara may interest you.
This isn’t so recent, but it’s darned good advice from Heather Mallick, one of the smartest columnists to ever grace the pages of the Grope and Flail (and the idiots let her go!).