Reflecting on Nature, Peace, and Cultures

NoAdversary.org is an independent alternative media site, with a focus on the issues of nature, peace, and culture. Its name is derived from an aspect of a culture of peace -- that such a culture does not seek to create enemies or adversaries.

2010 Updates!

It's been a very busy fall/winter, and we took a bit of a break to focus on other work.

We're back, continuing some old blogs, and starting some new ones. More content coming very soon!

Life and Death, Hurt and Healing in Southern Vietnam

Bear with me! I’m about to give you a “word picture” firstly of a trip I and five other students took to the home of Mai (the harmonica girl) in Bam Lau in the Xuyen Moc district of Viet Nam. For reasons that I won’t go into I’ve lost all the really great photos I took that day, but I’m rising to the challenge of recall. This was a breezy bus-trip of about 20 kilometres followed by a scorching walk of about one km which tapered into what some would call a “jungle path”. I’m learning that our English colloquialisms don’t really describe realities so don’t take “jungle path” in the way you’ve always understood it.

Signs of Hiking

Tonight it's just a quick-and-dirty get-the-ball-rolling update, starting with something I've been doing every once and a while - getting photos of various hiking signs or blazes.

This week's hiking blaze comes from Allegany State Park in upstate New York, skirting the border of Pennsylvania. It's roughly a 3 hour drive from Hamilton, so not actually all that far away.

This wasn't the only marker used.. just the one for the 'blue' trail we were on. I can't recall at the moment the name of the trail.. not that it matters much, but I'll probably update this later with the right trail name.

The Dangers of a "Single Story"

Each culture is comprised of a multitude of stories -- sometimes, however, we might only know a single story from a culture other than our own. Therein lies the danger of being overly ethnocentric, and of not being educated about others.

Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.

(click "read more" to go to video stream page)