#peacebuilding — Public Fediverse posts

🚨 New projects alert! 🚨

Join our mission to map vital areas for peacekeeping in the West African region. 🌍🇨🇲🇳🇬

📍 https://tasks.hotosm.org/explore?location=Nigeria&omitMapResults=1&organisation=UN%20Mappers
🗺 Features to map: Roads and Places
👩‍💻 Open to beginner and expert mappers
⏳ Target completion date: 20 September

Become a #UNMapper! 💙

#UNMappers #UNMaps #MappingforPeace #OpenStreetMap #UNOWAS #volunteering #UNvolunteering #UNvolunteers #peacebuilding

I love the rainbow flag. It's such a strong and magical symbol. There are (at least) two versions often confused.

I'm privileged to travel for my work doing what I love. About a week ago, I went to Cascia in Italy, to hold a workshop on sensitising young minds to the challenges of equitable inclusion and participation. It was a mixture of the 10th-anniversary Social Hackathon and Peace Village. Symbolically, we carried a 25-metre "PACE" (peace) flag. It's a rainbow flag with the white letters of the word placed on it - sometimes it's even without the word. You can see how easy it is to confuse it with the pride flag. I sent the image to all my friends and acquaintances, because I felt this was a special walk, where a common appeal to peace beyond ideologies was delivered through poetry, by the youth.

Several asked what I was doing at the parade. Some ignored my message. To me, the peace flag, which Umbria has been carrying since 1961, represents camaraderie, or at least constructive acceptance among all. We're all children of the Sun's rays, after all.

That's what the event got right - prosperity built through difference, not despite it. The Hackathon part involved 8 young teams mentored by experts to compete in delivering tech solutions to build peace and tackle other Sustainable Development Goals, and twice as many smaller junior teams building applicable solutions for local communities. The Peace Village side was subtler: mindfulness, and responsibility for building and maintaining peace. With 46 nationalities in attendance, it was an enchanting 3-day event, giving hope when, at least to me, it was very much needed.

Anyone working with youth, pay attention to Umbria's Social Hackathons and C.R.E.A. Cultura Festivals. Challenging models to replicate (you need a highly driven team), but worth stealing from.

#SHU #SHU2026 #Education #PeaceBuilding #YouthWork #Cascia #Umbria

I love the rainbow flag. It's such a strong and magical symbol. There are (at least) two versions often confused.

I'm privileged to travel for my work doing what I love. About a week ago, I went to Cascia in Italy, to hold a workshop on sensitising young minds to the challenges of equitable inclusion and participation. It was a mixture of the 10th-anniversary Social Hackathon and Peace Village. Symbolically, we carried a 25-metre "PACE" (peace) flag. It's a rainbow flag with the white letters of the word placed on it - sometimes it's even without the word. You can see how easy it is to confuse it with the pride flag. I sent the image to all my friends and acquaintances, because I felt this was a special walk, where a common appeal to peace beyond ideologies was delivered through poetry, by the youth.

Several asked what I was doing at the parade. Some ignored my message. To me, the peace flag, which Umbria has been carrying since 1961, represents camaraderie, or at least constructive acceptance among all. We're all children of the Sun's rays, after all.

That's what the event got right - prosperity built through difference, not despite it. The Hackathon part involved 8 young teams mentored by experts to compete in delivering tech solutions to build peace and tackle other Sustainable Development Goals, and twice as many smaller junior teams building applicable solutions for local communities. The Peace Village side was subtler: mindfulness, and responsibility for building and maintaining peace. With 46 nationalities in attendance, it was an enchanting 3-day event, giving hope when, at least to me, it was very much needed.

Anyone working with youth, pay attention to Umbria's Social Hackathons and C.R.E.A. Cultura Festivals. Challenging models to replicate (you need a highly driven team), but worth stealing from.

#SHU #SHU2026 #Education #PeaceBuilding #YouthWork #Cascia #Umbria

I love the rainbow flag. It's such a strong and magical symbol. There are (at least) two versions often confused.

I'm privileged to travel for my work doing what I love. About a week ago, I went to Cascia in Italy, to hold a workshop on sensitising young minds to the challenges of equitable inclusion and participation. It was a mixture of the 10th-anniversary Social Hackathon and Peace Village. Symbolically, we carried a 25-metre "PACE" (peace) flag. It's a rainbow flag with the white letters of the word placed on it - sometimes it's even without the word. You can see how easy it is to confuse it with the pride flag. I sent the image to all my friends and acquaintances, because I felt this was a special walk, where a common appeal to peace beyond ideologies was delivered through poetry, by the youth.

Several asked what I was doing at the parade. Some ignored my message. To me, the peace flag, which Umbria has been carrying since 1961, represents camaraderie, or at least constructive acceptance among all. We're all children of the Sun's rays, after all.

That's what the event got right - prosperity built through difference, not despite it. The Hackathon part involved 8 young teams mentored by experts to compete in delivering tech solutions to build peace and tackle other Sustainable Development Goals, and twice as many smaller junior teams building applicable solutions for local communities. The Peace Village side was subtler: mindfulness, and responsibility for building and maintaining peace. With 46 nationalities in attendance, it was an enchanting 3-day event, giving hope when, at least to me, it was very much needed.

Anyone working with youth, pay attention to Umbria's Social Hackathons and C.R.E.A. Cultura Festivals. Challenging models to replicate (you need a highly driven team), but worth stealing from.

#SHU #SHU2026 #Education #PeaceBuilding #YouthWork #Cascia #Umbria

I love the rainbow flag. It's such a strong and magical symbol. There are (at least) two versions often confused.

I'm privileged to travel for my work doing what I love. About a week ago, I went to Cascia in Italy, to hold a workshop on sensitising young minds to the challenges of equitable inclusion and participation. It was a mixture of the 10th-anniversary Social Hackathon and Peace Village. Symbolically, we carried a 25-metre "PACE" (peace) flag. It's a rainbow flag with the white letters of the word placed on it - sometimes it's even without the word. You can see how easy it is to confuse it with the pride flag. I sent the image to all my friends and acquaintances, because I felt this was a special walk, where a common appeal to peace beyond ideologies was delivered through poetry, by the youth.

Several asked what I was doing at the parade. Some ignored my message. To me, the peace flag, which Umbria has been carrying since 1961, represents camaraderie, or at least constructive acceptance among all. We're all children of the Sun's rays, after all.

That's what the event got right - prosperity built through difference, not despite it. The Hackathon part involved 8 young teams mentored by experts to compete in delivering tech solutions to build peace and tackle other Sustainable Development Goals, and twice as many smaller junior teams building applicable solutions for local communities. The Peace Village side was subtler: mindfulness, and responsibility for building and maintaining peace. With 46 nationalities in attendance, it was an enchanting 3-day event, giving hope when, at least to me, it was very much needed.

Anyone working with youth, pay attention to Umbria's Social Hackathons and C.R.E.A. Cultura Festivals. Challenging models to replicate (you need a highly driven team), but worth stealing from.

#SHU #SHU2026 #Education #PeaceBuilding #YouthWork #Cascia #Umbria

It’s in the Blood

In 1539, a fugitive former-priest-turned-Anabaptist, in his seminal work “The Foundation,” penned the following words:

“Christ is our fortress; patience our weapon of defense; the Word of God our sword. …Iron and metal spears and swords we leave to those who, alas, regard human blood and swine’s blood of well-nigh equal value.”

So said Menno Simons, principal leader of the Protestant sect which then became known as the Mennonites.

More than 500 years later, his words still resound with a mighty truth.

At the risk of sounding morbid, it has to do with blood.

While Menno specifically refers to the difference between human blood and that of an animal, his larger point is the “value” we place on the blood of another.

My point is quite simple.

Killing will not end through education, conflict resolution, or disarmament, though all of these are important and can help. Killing will end only when there is a fundamental shift in the mind and heart of those who kill.

For how can you kill someone if you believe that their blood is just as valuable as your own?

Let’s call it – for lack of a better term – bloodism.

The other – their humanity, life, blood – is somehow less than I, and therefore, their humanity, life, blood, is not as valuable as my own. It becomes quite easy then to justify killing the other, ie. spilling his/her blood.

The directors of death throughout history from every nation, tribe and religion have understood and disseminated this concept quite well. A person (and those like him/her) is described as having the wrong beliefs, the wrong skin color, the wrong gender, the wrong age, the wrong station in life, the wrong land, the wrong possessions, the wrong clothing, the wrong language —- the wrong blood. These others are not as valued as you are, the leaders of the macabre scream, though they couch their speech in terms such as vigilance, freedom, history, security, and truth.

Then the killing begins.

The Nazis did it to the Jews. Israelis do it to the Palestinians. Hutus did it to the Tutsis. Shiite do it to the Sunni. Palestinians do it to the Israelis. Sunni do it to the Shiite. Muslims do it to the Christians. Christians do it to the Muslims. This country does it to that country. That neighborhood does it to this neighborhood. This race does it to that race. That religion does it to this religion.

And any one of a million other combinations.

STOP!

Do not allow your mind and heart to be filled with bloodism.

We are made in the image of God.

ALL of us.

And that divine DNA resides in the very marrow of our bones and flows through our veins.

It’s in the blood.

July 28, 2014

Décroissance et obligation de puissance : pourquoi la transition exige un autre imaginaire politique

La décroissance est incompatible avec l’obligation de puissance. Pour le montrer, il faut nommer le conflit, rendre visible le coût de la puissance, ouvrir un horizon de décision collective et penser l’ONU comme sas de transition, non comme souveraineté de substitution. #Degrowth #Peacebuilding #Commons #UN #Transition La formule mérite d’être prise au sérieux :…

https://homohortus31.wordpress.com/2026/07/23/decroissance-et-obligation-de-puissance-pourquoi-la-transition-exige-un-autre-imaginaire-politique/

Renoncer à la puissance : la condition d’une sortie durable de la crise biocidaire

Une solution durable paraît difficilement compatible avec le maintien des logiques de puissance militarisée, extractive et hégémonique. Le corpus converge ici : la crise est structurelle, la puissance aggrave les risques existentiels, et la rupture doit être politique autant que matérielle. #ClimateJustice #Degrowth #Disarmament #Commons #Peacebuilding L’idée centrale est simple : il…

https://homohortus31.wordpress.com/2026/07/23/renoncer-a-la-puissance-la-condition-dune-sortie-durable-de-la-crise-biocidaire/

Sortir de l’autonomisation : quand une tutelle ne vaut que si elle prépare sa propre disparition

La sortie d’une tutelle ne peut jamais être imposée de l’extérieur : elle appartient aux peuples sous tutelle. Pour qu’elle devienne possible, il faut des conditions de sécurité, d’autonomie matérielle, de réallocation vers les communs et surtout une rupture réelle avec la logique de puissance. #Peacebuilding #Commons #Degrowth #Autonomy #Transition L’étape de…

https://homohortus31.wordpress.com/2026/07/23/sortir-de-lautonomisation-quand-une-tutelle-ne-vaut-que-si-elle-prepare-sa-propre-disparition/

Entrer dans l’étape du gel : la condition politique d’une sortie de la logique de guerre

Avant le désarmement, il faut rendre possible le gel : cessez-le-feu, sécurisation, désescalade, neutralisation des moteurs de guerre et réallocation vers les communs. Le vrai enjeu n’est pas seulement d’arrêter les armes, mais de sortir de l’obligation de puissance. #Degrowth #Disarmament #Peacebuilding #Commons #Transition Entrer dans l’étape du gel, c’est déjà rompre avec l’idée…

https://homohortus31.wordpress.com/2026/07/23/entrer-dans-letape-du-gel-la-condition-politique-dune-sortie-de-la-logique-de-guerre/

Tutelle ONU, désarmement et décroissance : organiser la sortie de la dépendance militaro-capitaliste

La tutelle ONU n’a de sens que comme sas de transition : geler la guerre, alléger l’appareil militaire, réallouer les moyens vers les communs et décroître hors de la logique de puissance. L’enjeu n’est pas de mieux gérer la violence, mais de s’en déconnecter. #Degrowth #Disarmament #Commons #UN #Transition #Peacebuilding Du principe aux étapes Si l’on veut rendre…

https://homohortus31.wordpress.com/2026/07/21/tutelle-onu-desarmement-et-decroissance-organiser-la-sortie-de-la-dependance-militaro-capitaliste/

Builder

For Nelson (May 16, 1944-July 13, 2005)

If I would have my life to live over again,
I would find an old stone wall in disrepair
and I would spend my days seeking the tumbled
down stones hidden in the grass.

By day I would rebuild the wall. At night I
would lie in its lee. I would not be afraid
of the snakes and rodents disturbed from
their dark places in the cracks between the
stones where they sleep.

And when my life came to an end and the wall
was as yet unfinished, I would not moan. I
would lay myself down against the rocks and
let my body fade away into a place of rest in
the cracks between the stones.

March 11, 2005

(Reposted on the anniversary of my dear friend’s passing)

Storm Surge

In the end,
will you be faithful?
That is question.

When the storm has come and gone,
when what you thought was precious has been stripped away,
when you sleep in darkness wondering if the lights will ever come back on,
when your life in the flash of lightning reverts back to the everyday of your sisters and brothers in the warzone,
when your plane to those destinations is grounded by the thunder’s roar?

Will you awake to new resolve for justice?
Will you spend less time before the screen and more time present to loved ones and those in need of it?
Will you leave the ground to alight among the troubled?
Will you listen to them?

Will the power that comes on be in you,
through you,
glowing out through your eyes,
electrifying,
filling you with a compassion so compelling
you become a wire
among many
channeling
love and peace
to the world?

June 2, 2015

Well, yes ... #peace is when a critical mass of socially empowered people have enough and do not desire more. Not feeling we have enough and desiring more is when we impact the climate >>

Integrating #climate adaptation and #peacebuilding capacity development in climate and conflict-affected communities - ScienceDirect

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378026000403

A Day for the World to Say Sorry

From Australia’s National Sorry Day Toward an International Day of Truth, Repentance, and Repair

A PeaceGrooves Reflection

There are words so overused that they risk becoming weightless. Sorry is one of them. We say it when we bump into someone in a hallway, when we answer an email too late, when we make an insignificant mistake. Yet there are times when sorry is not small at all. There are wounds so deep, so deliberately inflicted, and so long denied that the speaking of sorrow becomes an act of public truth.

Australia’s National Sorry Day, observed each year on May 26, is such a day. It remembers the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children forcibly removed from their families, communities, languages, and cultures under government policies now associated with the Stolen Generations. The date marks the anniversary of the 1997 tabling of the Bringing Them Home report, the landmark national inquiry that gathered testimony from survivors and documented the devastation caused by these removals. The report called not only for recognition of what had happened, but for apology, healing, reparations, family reunion, access to records, and measures ensuring such violations would never recur.

National Sorry Day did not begin as a sentimental holiday….

Read the full essay at PeaceGrooves.

Some forms of peace are built for the cameras. Others are built to survive the morning after.

This piece reflects on the difference between political spectacle and the harder, slower work of building trust, legitimacy, and durable peace.

https://associationredefine.substack.com/p/peace-for-our-time?r=6l8ed8

#Multilateralism #Peacebuilding #Diplomacy #CivicIntelligence #InternationalRelations #Democracy #Geopolitics #Substack

Today is International Day of #Multilateralism and #Diplomacy for #Peace!

However, at a time of #ArmedConflicts escalating in #Ukraine, the #MiddleEast and #Sudan, #UN coordinated #peacebuilding #funding from member states has shrunk since 2022.

#PeaceFinance #war #conflict #ArmedConflict #SDGs #SDG16 #GlobalGoals #2030Agenda

Data source:
https://www.un.org/peacebuilding/content/secretary-general-peacebuilding-funding-dashboard

The two-week US-Iran ceasefire is already fraying. With fresh strikes in Lebanon and the Strait of Hormuz closed again, can this fragile truce survive the week? Dive into the details of the escalating Middle East tensions here.

#USIranCeasefire #MiddleEastTensions #StraitOfHormuz #GlobalSecurity #LebanonStrikes #ForeignPolicy #Geopolitics #PeaceBuilding #InternationalRelations #ConflictResolution

https://reportrave.com/us-iran-ceasefire-under-threat-fresh-strikes-violations-and-middle-east-tensions-rise/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

Why the Nobel Peace Prize and United Nations now endanger the peace they were built to protect.
Trust fails when institutions ask for belief without proof.

Accountability is simple. Can the public verify the claim.

The world does not demand perfection from its peacekeepers. It demands proof.

Read the full analysis — https://patch.com/new-york/longisland/why-nobel-peace-prize-united-nations-now-endanger-peace-they-were-built-protect-nodx

#Leadership #GlobalGovernance #Transparency #Accountability #PeaceBuilding #InstitutionalReform #PolicyAnalysis #NobelPeacePrize #UnitedNations

#Norway : #Peace / #PeaceResearch / #science / #nonviolence / #Peacebuilding / #obituary / #Galtung

Just for fun, have a look in your daily newspaper to see if Galtung's death has been mentioned there. If not, please think about whether you think it would be worth continuing your subscription…

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/21/johan-galtung-obituary

How Government #FusionCenters Violate Americans’ Rights — and How to Stop It

The Biden administration and Congress must impose oversight and accountability on the state-run centers.

by Mike German
December 15, 2022

"A federal jury awarded $300,000 this month to a #MaineStatePolice trooper who was demoted after blowing the whistle on privacy violations at the state’s intelligence #FusionCenter. The federal government spurred the development of fusion centers after 9/11 as a means for sharing counterterrorism intelligence among state and local governments, as well as select private entities. The facts revealed during this trial adds to a mountain of evidence that fusion centers require greater regulation and oversight.

"The trooper alleged that the Maine Intelligence and Analysis Center, 1 in a network of 80 fusion centers operating across the country, was illegally collecting and sharing information about Maine residents who weren’t suspected of criminal activity. They included gun purchasers, people #protesting the construction of a new power transmission line, the employees of a #peacebuilding #SummerCamp for teenagers, and even people who travelled to New York City frequently. The whistleblower also claimed that fusion center supervisors pressured him to illegally share sensitive FBI information he had access to because of his position on the Joint Terrorism Task Force.

[...]

"Shortly after the Maine trooper filed his lawsuit in May 2020, a hack of a fusion center contractor exposed 296 gigabytes of intelligence records from more than 200 law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and DHS. The records substantiated the trooper’s complaints about privacy and #CivilRights violations at the #Maine fusion center and showed similar abuse occurring throughout the network, particularly in tracking #BlackLivesMatter #protests. The documents also showed that fusion centers had regularly spread misinformation sourced from dubious social media posts, including false reports alleging that #antifascists were starting wildfires or planning acts of violence. These specious reports distracted law enforcement during public safety emergencies."

Read more:
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/how-government-fusion-centers-violate-americans-rights-and-how-stop-it

#FTPFriday #ACAB #SLAPPs #Fascism #CivilLiberties #ClimateActivists #QuebecHydro #CMP #CMPCorridor #ForestDefenders #WaterProtectors #CorporateColonialism

Bullet the Blue Sky*

I went outside 
to watch the 
stars.

It is as if 
all the bullets 
from the war 
have been fired 
into the sky,
tearing holes 
in the black velvet 
for a little bit 
of heaven 
to shine 
through.

Every once 
in a while 
the fabric rips 
as a shooting star 
races across 
the sky,
but then 
it quickly 
mends 
itself.

November 2, 1988
La Esperanza, Nicaragua

Part of the continuing Ugly American series, a selection of writings from my travel journals from Central America in 1988

*From the U2 song of the same title

FSLN

I live under the mountain,
the mountain with giant letters
that glare whitely in the sun.
It stands for the people who died then
and who die now.

The coffers are empty.
History and war and the
hand of Nature have a way of
drinking you dry.

The mountain is reflected in the
dark eyes of these hungry children.
I only hope that it still stands
when they can eat again.

October 31, 1988
Managua, Nicaragua

Part of the continuing Respectful American series, a selection of writings from my travel journals from Central America in 1988