Peace and Culture http://www.noadversary.org/ The Peace & Culture section contains reference materials for Peace Café workshops of the same name. Currently, these are being held weekly Mondays at 7:00pm at the Sky Dragon Centre, 27 King William Street in Hamilton, ON.

]]> en-us Open Source, Copyright, and Social Justice Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:16:07 -0500 http://www.noadversary.org/open-source-copyright-and-social-justice It may seem a stretch at first to talk about copyright in the context of social justice: and thus equating it with human rights, peace, environmentalism, and other important realms.

It turns out, however, that the issues behind copyright, and the emerging “copyleft” movement can deeply affect all realms of social justice in some way.

]]> The Media and Conflict Sat, 24 Oct 2009 21:13:16 -0500 http://www.noadversary.org/the-media-and-conflict It is not difficult to find a lot of written material in modern Western society criticizing the main-stream media (MSM) for their role in manufacturing the consent of citizens in various endeavours of governments and militaries. Ever since Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman’s Manufacturing Consent was published in 1989, political awareness of this trend has been relatively high, particularly amongst those who consider themselves politically progress.

What I seek to explore today though, is a deeper, more radical notion: one that nearly all media today are dependant on having clear and easily definable conflicts, and consequently, often are complicit in the escalation of the conflicts they cover.

]]> Ethnocentrism Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:12:29 -0500 http://www.noadversary.org/peace-and-culture-ethnocentrism There are many places on the web where you can learn about the term “ethnocentrism”, often geared towards an academic audience.

I see a problem with this: while the academic study of something like ethnocentrism is important, it seems to be the vast majority of the content online. There is not a lot out there for the general audience, for explaining what is important to know in our day-to-day lives, if we are to promote a culture of peace.

Ethnocentricity can be easily defined as a collection of cultural biases through which we see the world. In the context of peace at the interpersonal level, a lack of awareness of one’s own ethnocentricities can quickly lead to escalations in conflict with other persons or groups. In broader contexts, ethnocentricities can be a cause of something as large-scale as war.

How does this happen? Generally, it is that the level of awareness one has of one’s own culture is far greater than that of other’s cultures.

]]> Reframing Remembrance Tue, 03 Feb 2009 03:01:03 -0500 http://www.noadversary.org/reframing-remembrance For decades North Americans have set aside November 11 as a day to stop and contemplate in silence the human sacrifices made during the wars of the past. Many agree these wars preserved our way of life, our freedom and democracy, others suggest that wars in general are not inevitable, and that while certainly some wars were defensive in nature, perhaps they would not have been necessary if much earlier diplomatic interventions were made.

But when it comes to recognizing sacrifices being made, the reasons don’t matter as much as the fact that people died, and people were injured. Harm coming to individuals is always something worth contemplating and reflecting. ]]>