Articles by Rene Wadlow
We found 504 results.
Wendell Willkie (18 Feb 1892 – 8 Oct 1944): One World
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Feb 2018
In order to show the unity of the American people, Republicans and Democrats, once the US had entered WW II, President Roosevelt asked Willkie to go on a “good will mission” to the Middle and Far East with a stop-over in the USSR to see Joseph Stalin. The result of the trip – a short one by today’s round-the-world standards – was the book One World.
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Koreas’ Olympic Truce: Time for Concerted Non-Governmental Efforts
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Feb 2018
8 Feb 2018 – There is a need for a coming together of NGOs that are primarily focused on the resolution of armed conflicts with those groups concerned with the abolition of nuclear weapons. The current Korean tensions are based on the development of nuclear weapons and missile systems and the pressures and threats to prevent their development. The Olympic Truce period should be taken as an opportunity to advance “Track II” efforts.
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Gandhi’s Assassination: In the Midst of Death, Life Persists
René Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Jan 2018
On the anniversary of the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, 30 January, we still try to find ways to resolve conflicts peacefully and to deal with violent religious movements and individuals. For Gandhi, the spiritual and political means were interdependent and could not be separated. Today, religious movements are often seen as promoting violence, Islam in the Middle East, Buddhism as an anti-Muslim current in Burma.
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(Italiano) Leadership cinese sulla riforma ONU
René Wadlow | Centro Studi Sereno Regis – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Jan 2018
12 gennaio 2018 – Una delle più complete proposte di riforma è appena stata emanata per la trattazione all’ONU dal governo della Cina in un documento di 27 pagine. (1) Molte delle proposte sono molto simili ai suggerimenti fatti dall’Associazione dei Cittadini de Mondo.
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Pitirim Aleksandrovich Sorokin (21 Jan 1889 – 10 Feb 1968): The Renewal of Humanity
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Jan 2018
Sorokin was especially interested in the processes by which societies change cultural orientations, particularly the violent societies he knew, the USSR and the USA. As he wrote renewal “demands a complete change of contemporary mentality, a fundamental transformation of our system of values and the profoundest modification of our conduct towards other men, cultural values and the world at large.
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Alexandre Marc (19 Jan 1904 – 22 Feb 2000): Con-federalism, Cultural Renewal and Trans-frontier Cooperation
René Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Jan 2018
Marc was a complex man, one of the bridges who helped younger persons to understand the debates which surrounded the Russian Revolution, the rise and decline of Fascism and Nazism, and the post-Second World War hopes for a united Europe.
→ read full articleThrough the Wall of Fire: Armenia-Iraq-Palestine – From Wrath to Reconciliation
René Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Jan 2018
Muriel Mirak-Weissbach in her new book Through the Wall of Fire uses a sequence from Dante’s Divine Comedy to stress the need within the wider Middle East for a fundamental revolution in thinking and a far-reaching shift in moral outlook leading from wrath to reconciliation.
→ read full articleChinese Leadership on U.N. Reform
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Jan 2018
6 Jan 2017 – There have been a number of periods when proposals for new or different United Nations structures were proposed and discussed. One of the most complete reform proposals has just been issued for discussion at the U.N. by the Government of China in a 27-page document. The Chinese proposals merit close attention. Most are not radically new.
→ read full articleInternational Migrants Day: 18 December
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Dec 2017
Today, there are some 232 million persons who reside and work outside their country of birth. The reasons for migration are diverse − most often economic, but also refugees from armed conflicts and oppression, and increasingly what are called “ecological refugees” − persons who leave their home area due to changing environmental conditions: drought, floods, rising sea levels etc. Global warming is very likely to increase the number of these ecological refugees.
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10 December: Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – Eleanor Roosevelt, World Citizen
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Dec 2017
8 Dec 2017 – It was Eleanor Roosevelt who helped to craft and then championed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights whose anniversary we celebrate on 10 December.
→ read full articleTalcott Parsons (13 Dec 1902 – 8 May 1979): The Promise of Transdisciplinarity
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Dec 2017
There are two aspects of Parsons’ work that merit attention. The first is his role in introducing and championing the work of the German sociologist Max Weber in the USA. The second is helping create transdisciplinarity in area studies.
→ read full articleAnti-Sufi Wave Hits Sinai
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Dec 2017
30 Nov 2017 – In the case of the anti-Sufi acts, it is more difficult to find the focus since we are not dealing with a government policy or actions. There are always local causes to violence which must be taken into consideration. Often conflicts draw little attention from outside peacemakers until a certain threshold of violence is reached. The attack on the Egyptian mosque may be such a threshold.
→ read full articleConfederation, Autonomy, Renewal, and Reform
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Nov 2017
Con-federation and autonomy are broad concepts, capable of covering a multitude of visions extending from very limited local initiatives to complete control over everything other than foreign policy. Autonomy can therefore incorporate all situations between nearly total subordination to the center to nearly total independence. The ways in which the elements and patterns of autonomy are put together requires political imagination, far-sighted political leadership, a willingness to compromise, and constant dialogue.
→ read full articleRaimon Panikkar (2 Nov 1918 – 26 Aug 2010): A Bridge between Cultures
René Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Nov 2017
Raimon Panikkar, an Indian Roman Catholic theologian well versed in Catholic, Hindu, Buddhist and Western philosophical thought developed the need for “cultural disarmament.”
→ read full articleJohn Boyd Orr: (23 Sep 1880 – 25 Jun 1971)
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Sep 2017
John Boyd Orr was a medical doctor and biologist from Scotland concerned with the impact of poverty and malnutrition on health. He worked on food issues with the League of Nations and during the Second World War was deeply involved in food issues in Britain, especially focused on the needs of children and youth.
→ read full articleWorld Law to Protect Refugees and Migrants
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Sep 2017
On 19 Sep 2016, the UN General Assembly held a one-day Summit on «Addressing Large Movements o Refugees and Migrants» and set a new agenda for responding to large movements of people crossing frontiers. The UN resolution is called The New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants. There needs to be strong cooperation among the UN and its Agencies, national governments, and NGOs to deal more adequately with current challenges and to plan for the future.
→ read full articleDenis de Rougemont (8 Sep 1906 – 6 Dec 1985): The Future Is within Us
René Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Sep 2017
For de Rougemont, revolutionaries attempting to seize power, even from the most repressive regimes, invariably fall into the power structures they hoped to eliminate. Only the power we have over ourselves is synonymous with freedom. For the first time, the person has not only the need but also the power and ability to choose his future.
→ read full articleEdward Carpenter: (29 Aug 1844 – 28 Jun 1929)
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Aug 2017
Edward Carpenter was an English writer, educator, pacifist, and socialist reformer who came from a middle class intellectual family. As others influenced by the Theosophical Society, he gave up formal university extension work and bought a farm which became a meeting place for discussions among many in the area − an early “back to the land movement”. He stressed using hand-made clothes, the non-killing and non-eating of animals, and the use of herbs for health.
→ read full articleNuclear-Weapon States and Their Neighbors: There Is Still Work to Do
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Aug 2017
We thank the U.N. Missions of the US, France and the UK for reminding us that there are security challenges. We disagree that these challenges require deterrence with nuclear weapons. Rather, we think that confidence-building measures linked to creative negotiations is the best step forward.
→ read full articleLiu Xiaobo and Charter 08: Fire under the Ashes
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Aug 2017
4 Aug 2017 – The media reports on the recent death of Liu Xiaobo, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, of cancer after years of imprisonment, have focused on his life, especially the prison years and the continued surveillance of his wife, the poet Liu Xia.
→ read full articleU.N. Human Rights Procedures and the Role of Citizens of Non-Member States
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jul 2017
In practice, it is difficult for a person who is considered as “stateless” or a citizen of a Non-Member State to be able to use the human rights procedures put into place by the United Nations, especially what are considered complaint procedures.
→ read full articleDag Hammarskjold (29 Jul 1905 – 18 Sep 1961) Crisis Manager and Longer-Range World Community Builder
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Jul 2017
Dag Hammarskjold became Secretary-General of the UN at a moment of crisis in the 1950-1953 war in Korea and died in a plane crash in 1961 on a mission dealing with the war in the Congo. He became an expert crisis manager, to the point that there was a common slogan in the UN- “Leave it to Dag”. He liked to work alone but had created a team of people working under him who were highly competent and totally devoted to him.
→ read full articleWoody Guthrie (14 Jul 1912 – 3 Oct 1967): Dust Bowl Blues and Revolt
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Jul 2017
Woodrow Wilson Guthrie was an American folksinger who had a creative influence on at least three generations of folksingers, such as those of his own generation, Pete Seeger and Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, the next generation Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and his son Arlo Guthrie and a more recent generation’s Bruce Springsteen.
→ read full articleRex Tugwell (10 Jul 1891 – 21 Jul 1979): Planning and Action for Rural Reconstruction
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jul 2017
As world-wide climate change has made the issues of land use, water, desertification, and land reform vital issues, it is useful to recall the contributions of Rexford Tugwell, an economist and advocate of government planning… When as a graduate student at the University of Chicago, I met Tugwell; he had largely left the field of economic planning to write about political leadership, especially the style and experiences of Franklin Roosevelt.
→ read full articleHermann Hesse (2 Jul 1877 – 9 Aug 1962): Revolt and Enlightenment
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jul 2017
Rebellion against established structures, the quest for personal values and a religious impulse are all elements in Siddhartha, published in 1922, perhaps his most widely-read book. It is not clear that Hesse found the harmony of enlightenment in his own life. In his last major work The Glass Bead Game (1943) he describes what might be an ideal Buddhist monastery devoted to the discovery, preservation and dissemination of knowledge.
→ read full articleAntoine de Saint Exupéry (29 Jun 1900 – 31 Jul 1944): Solitude and Solidarity
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Jun 2017
Saint Ex for the style was influenced by Frederic Nietzche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra which he had read. However, the spirit is much closer to Khalil Gibran’s The Prophet. There is no indication that he had read Gibran in Saint Ex’s period in New York. It is more likely that both writers shared a common outlook on life.
→ read full articlePearl S. Buck (26 June 1892 – 6 March 1973): The Good Earth-China
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Jun 2017
Pearl Buck was a cultural bridge-builder, bringing an understanding of Chinese rural culture to the USA and Europe, but also to Chinese urban society as at different times her books, translated into Chinese, were widely read in China. In the 1950s-1960s she was active in helping children in South Korea fathered by US soldiers and then left behind.
→ read full articleBattle for Raqqa: Protests Needed on Violations of Humanitarian Law
René Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Jun 2017
The battle for Raqqa, a symbolic city for the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria, is underway with ever-increasing dangers to civilian populations caught in the cross-fire of ISIS and the advancing Kurd-led Syrian Democratic Forces, supported by air strikes of the US-led coalition.
→ read full articleLet My Children Go: World Efforts to Eliminate the Worst Forms of Child Labour
René Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Jun 2017
12 June is a red letter day on the UN agenda of events as the World Day Against Child Labour. Child labour is often related to conditions of extreme poverty and to sectors of the society where both adults and children are marginalized such as many tribal societies in Asia, or the Roma in Europe or migrant workers in general.
→ read full articleInstability Widens in Mali and the Sahel Region of Africa
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 May 2017
23 May 2017 – The first foreign visit of the new French President Emmanuel Macron, after a now habitual trip to Berlin, was to Gao in northern Mali as head of the French military. The visit was an attempt to be seen as paying attention to the efforts of French troops in operations in northern Mali and other states of the Sahel region of Africa.
→ read full articleKorea: Back from the Brink, Small Steps Forward
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 May 2017
The election on 9 May 2017 of Moon Jae-in as president of the Republic of Korea may have applied the brakes to a dangerous increase in tensions between the two Korean States, the USA, China, Japan, and Russia.
→ read full articleFrank Baum (15 May 1856 – 6 May 1919): The Father of the Wizard of Oz
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 May 2017
As with all myths, the story can be read at different levels. However, Frank Baum had a strong interest in Asian thought, and a spiritual reading of the myth is not adding something that was not consciously there.
→ read full articleKorean Tensions: Could They Slip out of Control?
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 May 2017
While tensions in the past have been managed by diplomatic discussions or changes in policy, there are always dangers that conflict management may fail due to miscalculations, misinterpretations of military moves, misinterpretations of aims and strategies. The misinterpretations and the failures of conflict management were important factors in the start of the Korean War in 1950 as well as the intervention of Chinese “volunteer” troops.
→ read full articleTeilhard de Chardin (1 May 1881 – 10 Apr 1955): Evolution toward World Unity
René Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 May 2017
For Teilhard, love was not an emotion or a sentiment but the basic primal and universal psychic energy. This is a concept drawn from Chinese culture. Teilhard lived in China from 1923 to 1946. The Chinese word jen, a term translated as love, benevolence or affection, is not only an emotional-moral term, but it is also a cosmic force − a compassionate quality that is the very structure of the earth.
→ read full articleTo Prevent or Stop Wars: What Can Peace Movements Do?
René Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 May 2017
We, who are part of structured (more or less) organizations for the resolution of armed conflicts, need to seek ways to meet on-going challenges, to build cooperation among groups and to reach out to the “unorganized”. The book, the first of a new peace publishing house headed by Jørgen Johansen, also of The War Resisters’ leadership, merits close reading and especially discussion of strategies.
→ read full articleDay of Mother Earth – 22 April
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Apr 2017
In traditional Indian culture, according to texts as early as the Vedas, the Earth is home to all living species that inhabit it and must not be excluded as they all contribute to the planet’s welfare and preservation. Therefore, human beings must contribute to the web of life of which they are a part and find ways of using the elements to produce food without damaging other life forms as far as possible.
→ read full articleKorea: Challenge and Response
René Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Apr 2017
In a message to the UN Secretary-General, as President of the Association of World Citizens, I stressed that a crisis can also be an opportunity for strong initiatives and action. Citizens of the World call for speedy and creative action to meet the challenge of growing Korean tensions with a response of cooperation and reconciliation.
→ read full articleElisabeth Mann Borgese (24 Apr 1918 – 8 Feb 2002): Visionary of Common Oceans
René Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Apr 2017
While the resulting Convention of the Law of the Sea has not revolutionized world politics – as some of us hoped in the early 1970s – the Convention is an important building block in the development of world law. We are grateful for the values and the energy that Elisabeth Mann Borgese embodied.
→ read full articleSyria: Chemical Weapon Use, Destruction of Children, the Ethical Vacuum
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Apr 2017
The Association of World Citizens calls for the re-affirmation of humanitarian international law. It is a call to the soldiers and militia members in armed conflicts to refuse orders to violate humanitarian international law by refusing to use weapons outlawed by international treaties such as chemical weapons, land mines, cluster munitions or any weapon to attack civilians, especially children and women. We must defend all who use their individual conscience to refuse to follow orders to violate humanitarian international law.
→ read full articleTalbot Mundy (23 Apr 1879 – 5 Aug 1940): The Working of Karma
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Apr 2017
“We act and react, do and leave undone, think and refuse to think, stand firm or are seduced while karma – incorruptible and inescapable – inscribes our spiritual progress on the rolls of destiny The Law adjusts all balances and measures, the exact effort of every thought and deed, directing each hidden motive.”
→ read full articleGeorge William Russell (10 Apr 1867 – 17 Jul 1935): To See Things in the Germ, This I Call Intelligence
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Apr 2017
“Are there not such spirits among us ready to join in the noblest of all adventures— the building up of a civilization —so that the human might reflect the divine order? In the divine order there is both freedom and solidarity. It is the virtue of the soul to be free and its nature to love; and when it is free and acts by its own will, it is most united with all other life.”
— George Russell, The Song of the Greater Life
Syria: Armed Conflict Resolution and the Reconstruction of an Inclusive and Just Society
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Apr 2017
On 5 April 2017, the European Union and the United Nations will hold a joint conference on the future of Syria and its region. “Civil Society” is invited to participate, but it is not clear in advance if the Brussels meeting will be a “fundraising” one, in which case most non-governmental organizations (NGO) in consultative status with the UN will have little to contribute, or if there will be wider aims.
→ read full articleViktor Frankl (26 Mar 1905 – 2 Sep 1997): An Inner Drive to Find a Meaning for Life
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Mar 2017
Viktor Frankl was a leading psychotherapist in the humanistic psychotherapy school. On being released from Auschwitz death camp, he wrote in a burst of energy in nine days what became ‘Man’s Search for Meaning,’ since often translated. He remains as one who stressed the inner push to find a meaning of life and a spiritual core expressed by the voice of conscience.
→ read full articleCould Robots Be More Deadly Than Humans?
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Mar 2017
The possible wider use of drones or other robotic military material such as autonomous tanks and trucks are being worked on by governments, often with the cooperation of private industry. The possibility of an “arms race” among technologically-advanced States such as the USA, Russia, China, South Korea and Israel is real, especially at a time when mutual trust is in short supply.
→ read full articleWilhelm Reich (24 Mar 1897 – 3 Nov 1957): A Taoist in Freudian Disguise
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Mar 2017
Reich, however, had a character that disturbed all his co-workers. He was expelled from the Communist Party, which felt that Reich put too much emphasis on psychological conditioning of the individual and not enough on the class struggle. He was also expelled from the Freudian circles, the Psychoanalytic Association, for putting too much emphasis on class conflict and not enough on sexuality.
→ read full articleEast Africa Food Crisis Indicates Urgent Need for a World Food Policy
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Mar 2017
2 Mar 2017 – The UN Food and Agriculture Organization in a 22 Feb 2017 alert has indicated that the States of East Africa – Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and South Sudan – face famine conditions and that some 20 million people are at grave risk. The most in danger are the people in Somalia and South Sudan where armed violence has destroyed all government infrastructures and thus the possibility of government action. All that remains for action in these two countries are UN staff and NGOs.
→ read full article8 March: Start of the Russian Revolution and International Women’s Day
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Mar 2017
8 March, International Women’s Day, was also the start of the Russian Revolution, which ended the rule of the Tsar. IWD had been first proposed by Clara Zetkin (1857-1933) at the Second International Conference of Socialist Women in Copenhagen in 1911, and the idea spread quickly. By 1917, the idea of a day calling for the equality of women within a more just society was well developed among women in Petrograd [St. Petersburg].
→ read full articleRobert Muller (11 Mar 1923 – 20 Sep 2010): Crossing Frontiers for Reconciliation
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Mar 2017
Robert Muller, whose birth anniversary we mark on 11 March, was the former Assistant Secretary-General for Economic and Social Service of the United Nations, and, after his retirement, he served as Honorary President of the Association of World Citizens.
→ read full articleRoberto Assagioli (27 Feb 1888 – Aug 1974): Synthesis of the Kundalini Ascent
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Feb 2017
Roberto Assagioli was an Italian psychotherapist, father of an approach called “Psychosynthesis”, a younger collaborator of C.G. Jung and S. Freud before the break in approach between Jung and Freud. Although Assagioli is closer in spirit to the work of Jung, he is often considered as the person who introduced the thinking of Freud to Italians.
→ read full articleKuan Yin: Goddess of Compassion and Harmony
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Feb 2017
19 February, in countries influenced by Chinese culture, is a day devoted to honoring Kuan Yin, goddess of compassion, “she who hears the cries of the world and restores harmony.” She is a goddess for the Taoists and a bodhisattva for the Buddhists, but she represents the same values of compassion for both faiths.
→ read full articleAdlai Stevenson (5 Feb 1900 – 14 Jul 1965): Reducing Strife without Eliminating Variety
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Feb 2017
At a time when the narrow nationalism of Donald Trump, expressed in semi-literate style, fills the US media, we can only look back in sadness at the internationalism expressed in an elegant and humorous way by Adlai Stevenson. He was among those who prepared the conference to write the UN Charter during 1944-1945 and later from 1961 to 1965 was the US Ambassador to the United Nations.
→ read full articleAlfred Adler (7 Feb 1870 – 28 May 1937): Power and Social Feeling
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Feb 2017
Alfred Adler, a Vienna psychotherapist and medical doctor, was part of the early circle of Sigmund Freud. However, the two men disagreed on what each felt to be fundamental positions. In 1911, Adler left the Freud circle and founded his own approach, which he called “individual psychology”. For Adler, there are similarities between the evolution of man within history and the evolution of each individual.
→ read full articleUkraine: Still Divided and Tense
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Feb 2017
4 Feb 2017 – The start of 2017 has seen an increase in military action and tensions in the separatist areas of Ukraine, especially in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and around the city of Avdiyivka. Those of us outside the Ukraine must help facilitate discussions of national governmental structures for the Ukraine and regional security cooperation so that common interests may be found and current tensions reduced.
→ read full articlePresident Trump’s UN and a Good Time Had by All
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Jan 2017
President Donald Trump has tweeted that “The UN has such great potential but right now it is just a club for people to get together, talk, and have a good time.” Having sat through many long sessions in human rights bodies at the UN in Geneva, I could hardly wait to get out and have a good time elsewhere.
→ read full articleCyprus: Toward a Non-Territorial Confederation?
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Jan 2017
16 Jan 2017 – After some 20 months of discussions and preparations, a high political-level Conference on Cyprus was opened at the UN headquarters in Geneva on 12 January 2017. In some ways this was a continuation of inconclusive negotiations that have taken place in the 43 years that the country has been divided between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots.
→ read full articlePierre Joseph Proudhon (15 Jan 1809 – 16 Jan 1865): Pioneer of the Civil Society
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Jan 2017
It is, however, Proudhon as the pioneer of the concept of ‘civil society’ and the efforts of linking ‘Europe from Below’ that I would like to stress for the contemporary importance of Proudhon. Much of the thinking of ‘Europe from Below’ grew from efforts to bridge the East-West divide of Europe and to limit the dangers of war from the mid-1970s to the end of the 1980s.
→ read full articleThe Re-affirmation of Humanitarian International Law
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Jan 2017
6 Jan 2017 – Current armed conflicts in Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria-Iraq-ISIS-Turkey, Libya, Somalia and elsewhere have led to repeated and conscious violations of humanitarian international law such as attacks on medical facilities and personnel, killing of prisoners-of-war, the taking and killing of hostages, the use of civilians as “human shields” and torture.
→ read full articleMaurice Béjart (1 Jan 1927 – 22 Nov 2007): Starting Off the Year with a Dance
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jan 2017
January first is the birth anniversary of Maurice Béjart, a innovative master of modern dance. In a world where there is both appreciation and fear of the mixing of cultural traditions he was always a champion of blending cultural influences.
→ read full articleLaurens van der Post (13 Dec 1906 – 16 Dec 1996): Memories, Dreams, Reflections
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Dec 2016
Laurens van der Post was an Afrikaner, South African writer but who wrote in English. Deeply influenced by his friendship with the Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung, van der Post could also call his collected writings after the title of Jung’s autobiographic Memories, Dreams, Reflections. The debt to Jung is developed in van der Post’s Jung and the Story of Our Time.
→ read full articleAleppo: Short-Term Action Followed by Reaffirmation of Humanitarian Law
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Dec 2016
The Association of World Citizens stresses the need to create immediately internationally-guaranteed safe routes for the evacuation of civilians from the besieged areas of Aleppo. Such guaranteed safe routes can also serve as a model for civilians in other besieged cities.
→ read full articleMany Forms of Violence against Women
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Nov 2016
25 November is the day designated by the UN General Assembly as the “International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.” Gender inequality and the walls built around the informal sector are the marks of the “silent violence” against women. Amartya Sen defined the major challenge of human development as “broadening the limited lives into which the majority of human beings are willy-nilly imprisoned by the forces of circumstances”.
→ read full articleSouth Sudan: Limits of UN Peacekeeping
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Nov 2016
The UN Mission in South Sudan is in crisis. In fact, it has been a miss from the start as foreign military are not the ideal agents for “State building”. As a new U.N. Secretary-General takes his post on 1 Jan 2017, the UNMISS report may open a door to a serious consideration of the role and limits of U.N. troops and of the need for other categories of conflict-resolution workers.
→ read full articleWomen as Peacemakers: A 31 October Anniversary
René Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Oct 2016
There is growing recognition that it is important to have women in politics, in decision-making processes and in leadership positions. The strategies women have adapted to get to the negotiating table are testimony to their ingenuity, patience and determination. Solidarity and organization are crucial elements. The path may yet be long but the direction is set.
→ read full articleBattle for Mosul. Can There Be Respect for the Laws of War?
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Oct 2016
In a situation confused by the number and nationalities of the groups in combat and the very ethnically and religiously mixed population of Mosul, what possibilities exist for respect of the laws of war? The laws of war, now often called humanitarian law, have two wings, one dealing with the treatment of medical personnel in armed conflict situations, the treatment of the military wounded and prisoners of war as well as the protection of civilians
→ read full articleEnding Marginalization and Exclusion
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Oct 2016
17 October was set by the UN General Assembly as the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. October 17 is the anniversary of a 1987 meeting in Paris near where the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed in 1948–a reminder that the victims of extreme poverty, hunger and violence do not enjoy the rights that are set out in the Universal Declaration.
→ read full articleWorld Food Day: A Focus on Food Security in Yemen
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Oct 2016
16 October is World Food Day, so designated by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization – a yearly reminder that there are people who are constantly hungry due to inadequate agricultural methods, poor distribution, poor food storage, and armed conflict.
→ read full articleTransforming Broken Relationships: Making Peace with The Past
René Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Oct 2016
Mark Salter and Zahbia Yousuf (Eds) Transforming broken relationships: Making Peace with the Past (London: Conciliation Resources, 2016) – The term “reconciliation” is used in different ways when dealing with conflicts between individuals, groups, or States.
→ read full articleBuilding on the UN Summit to Address Large Movements of Refugees and Migrants
René Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2016
Citizens o the world have been actively concerned with the issues of migrants, refugees, the «stateless» and those displaced by armed conflicts within their own country. Thus we welcome the spirit of the Summit Declaration with its emphasis on cooperative action, a humane sense of sharing the responsibilities for refugees and migrants and on seeking root causes of migration and refugee flows.
→ read full articleDestruction of Cultural Heritage Condemned by the International Criminal Court
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Aug 2016
On 22 August 2016, Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi pleaded guilty to organizing and helping to carry out the destruction of nine tombs of Sufi saints in Timbuktu, northern Mali. This is the first trial of the International Criminal Court in which the destruction of UNESCO-designated cultural heritage of humanity sites is a major element of the accusation.
→ read full articleEdward Carpenter (29 Aug 1844 – 28 Jun 1929): The Healing of Nations
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Aug 2016
Edward Carpenter bought a farm that became a meeting place for discussions among many in the area. He stressed using hand-made clothes, the non-killing and non-eating of animals, and the use of herbs for health. He lived in a homosexual relationship with a farmer at a time when homosexuality was considered a criminal offense. ‘The Healing of Nations’ is his most important political book − a collection of essays for the most part published in newspapers and small journals written in late 1914 and early 1915 as World War I started.
→ read full article19 August, World Humanitarian Day: A Need for Common Actions
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Aug 2016
In Memory of Sérgio Vieira de Mello (1948-2003) – 19 August was designated in memory of the 19 August 2003 bombing of the UN office building in Baghdad, Iraq in which Sérgio Vieira de Mello, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and at the time Special Representative of the UN Secretary General was killed along with 21 UN staff members. Over 200 UN employees were injured.
→ read full articleDemocracy Education and Peace
René Wadlow - TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Aug 2016
Democracy Education and Peace, by Surya Nath Prasad and Suman Shukha (Eds) – Democracy and Peace-Interrelated but not interdependent: “Thus it may be safely, yet regretfully, assumed that Democracy does not exclude War and therefore bears no direct relationship to Peace. The reverse is equally true − Peace may reign without any consideration of democracy (cf Pax Romana).”
→ read full articleHenry Steel Olcott (2 Aug 1832 – 17 Feb1907): The Buddhist Bridge
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Aug 2016
There is, in a period of transition, a need for individuals with the specific talents of organization and the ability to translate doctrines into social policy. Henry Steel Olcott was such an individual. It is likely that today, when contacts among different schools of Buddhist thought are more common than in 1891, the area of agreement would be greater.
→ read full article30 July: UN-designated Day for Developing Awareness of Human Trafficking
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Aug 2016
There are three sources of trafficking in persons. The first are refugees from armed conflicts. The second category are people leaving their country for economic reasons − sometimes called “economic refugees.” A third category − or a subcategory of economic migration − is the sex trade, usually of women but also children.
→ read full articleDag Hammarskjold (29 Jul 1905 – 18 Sep 1961) Crisis Manager and Longer-Range World Community Builder
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Jul 2016
Dag Hammarskjold became Secretary-General of the United Nations at a moment of crisis related to the 1950-1953 war in Korea, and he died in a plane crash in 1961 on a mission dealing with the war in the Congo.
→ read full articleJames Cousins (22 Jul 1873 – 20 Feb 1956): An Effort of Synthesis
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Jul 2016
James Cousins went to India as literary editor for New India and then was one of the organisers of the State University of Travancore, where he headed the Department of Fine Arts and English Studies. His A Study in Synthesis is a rich and complex study of the ways in which intuition, emotion, cognition and action structure human life.
→ read full articleAntoine de Saint Exupéry (29 Jun 1900 – 31 Jul 1944): Solitude and Solidarity
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jul 2016
Saint Ex for the style was influenced by Frederic Nietzche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra which he had read. However, the spirit is much closer to Khalil Gibran’s The Prophet. There is no indication that he had read Gibran in Saint Ex’s period in New York. It is more likely that both writers shared a common outlook on life.
→ read full articleYemen Negotiations Move Ahead Slowly: Post-War Planning Needed
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jul 2016
Thus, there is a serious need first for post-war planning to be followed by international aid for development. “Reconstruction” would be the wrong term since there was little that had been “constructed”. Rather, we need to look to a post-war socio-economic construction developed on a basic needs approach.
→ read full articleEducation for a Culture of Peace
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Jun 2016
Peace and nonviolence education is an intellectual and psychological preparation to develop the student’s critical spirit to reflect on the stages of conflicts and their nonviolent resolution. The purpose of peace and nonviolence education is to allow students to acquire knowledge, know-how and a set of behavioral and interpersonal skills so that they may cultivate peaceful, cooperative and harmonious relations with others.
→ read full articleEthiopia-Eritrea: The Cry of the Imburi
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Jun 2016
The frontier issue between the two countries was taken for arbitration to the World Court, but the Court’s findings have not been put into practice. The lands contested are of no particular economic or social importance. Intelligent leadership on both sides could make of the frontier lands a bridge rather than a wall, but intelligent leadership has been in short supply. As the African Union headquarters is in Ethiopia, the AU secretariat has been inactive on the Ethiopia-Eritrea issue for fear of displeasing Ethiopia.
→ read full articleBattle for Fallujah: Protests Needed against Violations of Humanitarian Law
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Jun 2016
ISIS had abolished in practice the frontier between Iraq and Syria, which had been created in 1916 by the agreement of Sir Mark Sykes for the UK and Francois Georges−Picot for France. Particular attention must be paid to the current battle for Fallujah and reports of mass violations of the laws of war. These grave violations by ISIS and others must be protested by as wide a coalition of concerned voices as possible. The time for action is now.
→ read full articleAustria Elects a New Green President against the Rising Right
Rene Wadlow | Toward Freedom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jun 2016
There was a sense of relief among Europeans when it was announced that Alexander Van der Bellen won the election for President of Austria over his far right-wing opponent Norbert Hofer. Austria was split: 50.3% for Van der Bellen, leader of the Green Party and an active ecologist, and 49.7% for Hofer. The vote was also a rural-urban split that also reflected educational levels as well as a generation gap.
→ read full articleWorld Humanitarian Summit: On the Front Lines for Action
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2016
The World Humanitarian Summit organized by the UN opens on 23 May 2016 in Istanbul, Turkey. The aim of the conference is to see what should be done “to end conflict, alleviate suffering and reduce risk and vulnerability.”
→ read full articleJan Christian Smuts (24 May 1870 – 11 Sep 1950): What Rises Converges
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 May 2016
It is Smuts as an original thinker, author of Holism and Evolution and a major contributor to the structure of the League of Nations and to the Preamble of the UN Charter that I would like to highlight.
→ read full articleNew Challenges for Global Citizens
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 May 2016
The Global Citizenship Commission under the leadership of the former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown presented its report ‘The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the 21st Century’ to the United Nations on 18 April 2016.
→ read full articleSecurity Council Resolution 2286 Highlights a Foundation of World Law
René Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 May 2016
On the recent Security Council resolution that we can use in support of humanitarian law. The protection of medical facilities and medical personnel is at the heart of the laws of war, currently more often called humanitarian law.
→ read full articleYemen: Is This War Necessary?
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2016
The title of the aggression of Saudi Arabia against Yemen changed its name from “Operation Decisive Storm” to “Operation Restoring Hope” probably on the advice of the public relations firm that advises the US Pentagon on the names of its operations. Saudi bombing from the air of cities, hospitals and refugee camps, created a storm, but the results were in no way “decisive”. It is not likely that Saudi bombing will ”Restore Hope”.
→ read full articleJean Giono (30 Mar 1895 – 8 Oct 1970) and the Energies of the Earth
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Apr 2016
Jean Giono was one of the most influential and original French advocates of nonviolence. Giono, a pantheist philosopher, novelist of rural life, and in his later days, a moviemaker, had fame with the wider public even among those who opposed his nonviolence.
→ read full articleInternational Day of Women: The Goddess of March
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Mar 2016
March 8 is the International Day of Women and is placed under the sign of the goddess of the month of March — Minerva. Minerva derives her name from the Latin mens (mind), and so she has a special relation to teachers and artists.
→ read full articleUN Calls for Summit Forum on Refugees and Migrants: Role of NGO in Its Preparation
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Feb 2016
The role of non-governmental organizations is to remind constantly Government representatives of the seriousness of the issues and for the need for collective action. National NGOs can highlight local conditions and thus provide information to the international NGOs in consultative status with the UN who will be at the Summit in New York.
→ read full articleWorld Interfaith Harmony Week: Steps toward a Harmony Renaissance
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Feb 2016
The United Nations General Assembly on 20 October 2010 designated the first week of February of every year as the World Interfaith Harmony Week between all religions, faiths and beliefs.
→ read full articleGandhi’s Assassination: In the Midst of Death, Life Persists
René Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Feb 2016
As has been said before, there is no guarantee that non-violent action will succeed, no more than violence is always successful. Gandhi viewed spiritual and political efforts as united through many of the people he worked with saw them as separate. For Gandhi, the spiritual and political means were interdependent and could not be separated.
→ read full articlePitirim Sorokin (21 Jan 1889 – 11 Feb 1968): The Renewal of Humanity
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Jan 2016
The two World Wars convinced him that humanity was in a period of transition, that the guideline of earlier times had broken down and had not yet been replaced by a new set of values and motivations. To bring about real renewal, one had to work at the same time on the individual personality, on cultural values, and on the social framework.
→ read full articleRobert M. Hutchins (17 Jan 1899 – 17 May 1977): Building on Earlier Foundations
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Jan 2016
Much of our current work for a more just and peaceful world builds on the thinking and efforts of earlier foundations. An important foundation is the leading role of Robert M. Hutchins, long-time President of the University of Chicago.
→ read full articleCarl Rogers (8 Jan 1902 – 4 Feb 1987): Healing the Person and the State
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jan 2016
Carl Ransom Rogers was a US psychologist, educator and a leading figure of what is often called “the third wave of psychology. The first wave was Freud and Jung, and their views of psychoanalysis. The second wave was behaviorism symbolized by B.F. Skinner and the later behavior-modification specialists. The third wave, often called “humanist”, has Abraham Maslow, Rollo May, and Carl Rogers as its best-known figures.
→ read full articleKhalil Gibran (6 Jan 1883 – 10 Apr 1931): Spirits Rebellious
René Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jan 2016
Khalil Gibran is one of the most quoted prose poets, especially his 1923 work The Prophet. The book has become bedside reading for all those who consider themselves “spiritual but not religious”.
→ read full articleBurundi : In Moments of Crisis the Wise Build Bridges
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Dec 2015
On 17 December 2015, the UN Human Rights Council held a Special Session on preventing further deterioration of the human rights situation in Burundi. A Special Session is the “highest profile” measure that the Human Rights Council has to highlight a dangerous situation and to call attention to a need for action.
→ read full articlePyotr Kropotkin (9 Dec 1842 – 8 Feb1921) Sociability as a Law of Nature
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Dec 2015
In 1902, Kropotkin published his most lasting book, Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution. “We may safely say that mutual aid is as much a law of animal life as mutual struggle, but that as a factor of evolution, mutual aid most probably has a far greater importance, in as much it favors the development of such habits and character as insure the maintenance and future development of the species.”
→ read full articleLocal Engagement with Armed Groups in the Midst of Violence
René Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Dec 2015
It is certain that insider mediators can play a key role in informal peace processes if they have “space” for action. Local populations are not just passive actors, simply coerced by armed actors. Yet the violent tactics of armed groups can overwhelm and silence voices for peace.
→ read full articleCrossing Cultural and Linguistic Boundaries: International Volunteer Day
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Dec 2015
5 December has been selected as the International Volunteer Day by a 1985 UN General Assembly resolution. This year 5 December comes as government representatives and volunteers of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are meeting in Paris to develop a new international climate agreement, COP 21.
→ read full article