{"id":174453,"date":"2020-12-07T12:00:53","date_gmt":"2020-12-07T12:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=174453"},"modified":"2020-12-06T05:10:48","modified_gmt":"2020-12-06T05:10:48","slug":"peace-is-possible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2020\/12\/peace-is-possible\/","title":{"rendered":"Peace Is Possible"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The following is an open letter I sent from Buenos Aires, Argentina, to the International Peace Bureau<\/strong>\u00a0in Berlin, Germany, following their request for a donation on “Giving Tuesday” (1st December)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Dear IPB Executive, dear friends of Peace,<\/p>\n

Nothing would make us happier–HUFUD and I personally–than help IPB achieve its goals of “disarmament, development and education<\/strong>“, but we first need to know what are your achievements in your 128-year history.<\/p>\n

I know you have already created\u00a0a very wide global network for peace and justice; I know you’ve\u00a0partnered with trade unions, social movements, and climate activists.<\/p>\n

I also know that in those 128 years we have experienced:<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 two World Wars,\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 hundreds of wars, long and short, between countries as well as civil wars<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 thousands of armed conflicts, many still raging, thousands killed every day<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 development of the military industry<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 increase in killing power\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 increase in Injustice (poverty, homelessness, unemployment, hunger)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 increase in Trade Union strikes<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 increase in the number of refugees<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 increase in deforestation<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 increase in climate change<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 increase in social violence<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 increase in diseases<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 many tourist economies destroyed (well before the Covid-19 invasion)<\/strong><\/p>\n

In those 128 years we have also seen the creation of the\u00a0International<\/strong>\u00a0War Club<\/strong>\u00a0known as the\u00a0United Nations Organization<\/strong>, the idea originating from\u00a0America<\/strong>, the only country in history to have killed through\u00a0nuclear power<\/strong>, which partly explains why UNO agreed, at their UNESCO meeting, to have their own\u00a0Nuclear Research Centre<\/strong>\u00a0(CERN) close to their European Headquarters, in Geneva, Switzerland. The United Nations model inspired many countries to establish their own nuclear centers.<\/p>\n

In your communication you say, “We know that together we can<\/strong>.” I believe exactly the same but I also know\u00a0Peace, Justice, Equality, Education for all, no hunger, no homelessness, control of climate change, of air pollution and the environment in general, better health research and healthcare, and much more,\u00a0<\/strong>will\u00a0only<\/strong>\u00a0be achieved after we free the planet from Militarism, Armed Forces and military production.<\/p>\n

Machine guns, bullets, landmines, grenades, bombs, rockets and torpedoes are made for\u00a0killing<\/strong>\u00a0and nothing else. Tanks, rocket launchers, air fighters and warships are manufactured to help destroy life and buildings. As collateral, they destroy economies and the environment.<\/p>\n

Our sincere and strong hopes, my friends at I<\/strong>PB, <\/strong>is\u00a0that you are with us on this and accept the reality, that unless you – we – demand and achieve the\u00a0Universal Abolition of Militarism<\/strong>, working for Peace, Justice, Human Rights, is a total waste of time, energy and people’s money.<\/p>\n

______________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>Alberto Portugheis is a member of the\u00a0<\/em>TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment<\/strong><\/a><\/em>. By profession a <\/em>concert pianist and pedagogue<\/a><\/em>,\u00a0he\u00a0is an\u00a0active peace campaigner, whose anti-military stance earned him\u00a0a nomination\u00a0for the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize.\u00a0As a result,\u00a0Portugheis wrote\u00a0<\/em>Dear Ahed\u2026..The Game of War and a Path to Peace\u00a0\u2013 a book that has received <\/em>critical acclaim<\/a><\/em>.\u00a0 Another successful book followed: <\/em>$$$$$s In Their Hearts. In 2015 he founded the Movement <\/em>HUFUD-Humanity United For Universal Demilitarisation<\/a><\/em>, which has many followers worldwide.\u00a0 In 2018 HUFUD Latin America was born, based in Bogot\u00e1, Colombia. In Portugheis\u2019 writings, speeches, thoughts, ideas\u00a0and reflections transpire his desire \u201cto make people think\u201d and not take for granted what they read or hear, \u201cno matter where.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following is an open letter I sent from Buenos Aires, Argentina, to the International Peace Bureau in Berlin, Germany, following their request for a donation on “Giving Tuesday” (1st December)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":137171,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[1817,1253,1938,119],"class_list":["post-174453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members","tag-anti-militarism","tag-demilitarization","tag-international-peace-bureau-ipb","tag-peace"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}