It is one o’clock in the morning, and all I want to do is go to bed. I’ve been at War News Radio since 11:30 p.m., trying to get through to Afghanistan to do an interview with Shukria Barakzai, one of the first female Afghan politicians. But it’s Eid al-Fitr, a holiday, and all the working phone lines in Afghanistan are tied up with people calling their family and friends to celebrate. I dial the number on the phone card, wait, and dial the number I have for Ms. Barakzai.
Finally, the phone rings and she picks up. “Is this still an alright time for you to do the interview?” I ask. And from the other side of the world, she says yes. For her, it’s 10:30 a.m., a normal hour to work. As we talk, she tells me about her experiences as a politician and as a woman, her concerns about Afghanistan’s elections next year, her frustration with the corruption she sees in the Afghan government, and her hopes for the future of her country. In listening to her stories, all of my own frustrations-with the late hour, with the nonfunctional phone lines, with the recording equipment-melt away, and I remember why I am still here in the recording booth at War News Radio, even at one o’clock in the morning.? … Read more
Last Friday at LPAC, the Film and Media Studies Department and War News Radio hosted Ellen Spiro and her documentary “Body of War.” “Body of War” is a documentary co-directed by Spiro and Phil Donahue that chronicles the story of Iraq-war veteran Tomas Young as he deals with his disability. After only five days in Iraq, Young suffered a shot through his collarbone and spine, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. The film juxtaposes the story of his life as a disabled person with the series of decisions that led to the war in Iraq. … Read the full story by Isaac Han in the April 16, 2009 edition of The Phoenix.
Several events sponsored by Swarthmore’s chapter of STAND are coming up!
April 9th – Swarthmore College will host French filmmaker Fabienne Le Houerou speak about “The impact of the decision of the International Court of Justice to arrest the Sudanese president Omar Al-Bashir on the Darfurian refugees perspective” and see part of her documentary film from Darfur. Her website: http://www.imagmundi.com/indexImagmundi.php
Stay tuned for more events…
April 14th – a panel on the ICC. DRP will also be airing some of their clips and serving Ethiopian food.
April 30th- some Lost Boys from the area will be coming to speak
May 1st – we are partnering with Hillel and Ruach for Holocaust Memorial Day.
This year is the 5th annual Tri-Co Peace Week (April 8-11, 2009), bringing you events designed to inspire students at Swarthmore, Bryn Mawr, and Haverford, Colleges to think critically and in new ways about the struggles for and between violence and peace, about their personal relationship with these concepts, and about how they themselves can cause or promote change. The theme for this year is “refugees” and “issues of human rights during a conflict”.
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Wednesday, April 8
Die-in Demonstration
A Die In is a form of protest in which participants simulate being dead by lying still on the ground. Peace Week is hosting this type of demonstration to represent the refugees of Bhutan, Palestine, Darfur, and the Congo who will die if the international community does not take immediate action to help them. This demonstration will help spread awareness of global conflicts that have left millions of innocent people displaced and at serious risk.
VENUE: Swarthmore College, Parrish Walk Way 12:30 p.m.
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Gandhi – Richard Attenborough – 1982 – 188 min
This film describes the life and times of Mahatma Gandhi, Indian political leader who managed to free his country from the British rule using peaceful means and thus giving hope and inspiration for generations to come. Refreshments will be provided at the screening.
VENUE: Bryn Mawr College – Thomas 110 7:30 pm
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The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo– Lisa Jackson (76 minutes)
Shot in the war zones of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), this extraordinary film sensitively yet unflinchingly brings to light the plight of women and girls caught in that country’s intractable conflicts. A survivor of rape herself, Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Lisa Jackson travels through the DRC to understand what is happening and why.
The film features interviews with activists, peacekeepers, physicians, and even the indifferent rapists. But the most remarkable moments of the film come as survivors recount their personal stories, inspiring examples of resilience, resistance, courage and grace. The Greatest Silence won a Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 2008.
Professor Niklas Hultin will moderate a discussion after the movie.
VENUE: Swarthmore College, Science Center 199, Wednesday April 8th, 8:00 PM
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Thursday, April 9
Through the Human Right’s Watch Film Festival, two documentaries will be screened at Swarthmore and the director of one will be speaking as well.
The Sari Soldiers-Julie Bridgham2008 (90m)
Filmed over three years during the most historic and pivotal time in Nepal’s modern history, The Sari Soldiers is an extraordinary story of six women’s courageous efforts to shape Nepal’s future in the midst of an escalating civil war against Maoist insurgents, and the King’s crackdown on civil liberties. When Devi, other of a 15-year-old girl, witnesses her niece being tortured and murdered by the Royal Nepal Army, she speaks publicly about the atrocity. The army abducts her daughter in retaliation, and Devi embarks on a three-year struggle to uncover her daughter’s fate and see justice done. The Sari Soldiers follows her and five other brave women, including a Maoist Commander, Royal Nepal Army Officer; a monarchist from a rural community who leads a rebellion against the Maoists; a human rights lawyer; and a young student activist organizing the protests to establish democracy. The Sari Soldiers intimately delves into the extraordinary journey of these women on all sides of the conflict, through the democratic revolution that reshapes the country’s future.
Julie Bridgham, director and producer of the documentary, The Sari Soldiers will give a talk followed by questions and answers after the screening. Professor Niklas Hultin will moderate a discussion with Julie Bridgham.
VENUE: Swarthmore College, LPAC Cinema, Thursday April 9th, 7:30 PM
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Friday, April 10
Activist filmmaker Ellen Spiro will be visiting campus with the film she made with Phil Donahue, Body of War (http://www.bodyofwar.com/), named best documentary by the National Board of Review in 2007.
Body of War is an intimate feature documentary about the true face of war. Tomas Young, 25 years old, was paralyzed from a bullet to his spine – wounded after serving in Iraq for less than a week. Body of War is Tomas’ coming home story as he comes to terms with his disability and finds his own unique and passionate voice against the war. The film is produced and directed by Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro, and features two original songs by Pear Jam’s Eddie Vedder.
Body of War was named Best Documentary by the National Board of Review, and John Anderston, writing in the Washington Post, calls it “Architecturally sound, emotionally ravaging… a ferocious film.”
Ellen Spiro is a long-time video activist whose works including? DiAna’s Hair Ego (about DiAna, an AIDS-educator and hairdresser), Greetings From Out Here (lesbian and gay culture in the South), and Troop 1500 (about a Girl Scout troop that unites daughters with mothers who are serving time for serious crimes, made with Karen Bernstein) and, now, Body of War (with Phil Donahue). Spiro, Associate Professor at the University of Texas in Austin, is the recipient of a Guggenheim and two Rockefeller Fellowships and numerous other distinctions.
This event is presented by Swarthmore’s Program in Film and Media Studies and cosponsored by War News Radio, and made possible by the Department of English Literature’s Owen Moon Fund.
VENUE: Swarthmore College, LPAC Cinema, Friday, April 10th, 7:00 pm
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A Cappella Concert
Impact!, Bryn Mawr’s student organization for socially responsible and sustainable business, joins with Peace Week to present a benefit concert by 4 of the Bi-Co’s a cappella groups: Counterpoint, Lavender’s Blue, Humtones, and the Night Owls.
(Donations in a sum of your choice will be requested at the door. Proceeds will go to an organization TBD).
VENUE: Bryn Mawr College – Pembroke West Dance Studio 8:00 pm
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Thursday & Friday April 9-10
Handicraft fair – Shop for earrings, scarves, bags, …. etc from which proceeds will help to sponsor education of children and widows displaced by the conflict in Nepal. *1 year’s education for a child costs only $15! Everything sold in the fair will cost $15 or less. More than 50,000 children and widows have been displaced due to the conflict.
VENUE:
Swarthmore College, LPAC Cinema, Thursday, April 9th, 7:30- 10:00 pm
Swarthmore College, Parrish Beach, Friday April 10th, 4:00-6:00pm
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Saturday, April 11
Walk For Hunger
Join Bryn Mawr’s Saturday of Service for a trip to this year’s Walk for Hunger in Philadelphia. The Walk Against Hunger is a 6-mile walk beginning and ending at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, with the goal of raising money to help struggling families meet their most basic need — food. The funds raised at the Walk Against Hunger are distributed to food cupboards and soup kitchens in our region, which are run by volunteers who work tirelessly to provide food for those in need. The Bryn Mawr College team will bring together students, faculty, and staff to raise money for food cupboards at two of the college’s partner agencies in Norristown. The walk lasts from around 9:30 am to 12:30 pm.
VENUE: Philadelphia (Bryn Mawr College / Haverford College) – 8:00 am to around 1:00 pm
Contacts:
Sneha Shrestha email sshrest1*at*swarthmore.edu
Aaron Zimmerman azimmer2*at*swarthmore.edu
Sponsors:
Bryn Mawr: President’s Office, Dean’s Office, Department of Sociology, Peace and Conflict Studies Program.
Swarthmore: Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Peace and Conflict Studies Program, Intercultural Center, Dean’s Office, Political Science Department, SBC Account [I dont know what this is], French and Francophone Studies (Department of Modern Languages and Literatures), President’s Office, Film and Media Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies,? Islamic Studies Program.
And African Studies Consortium (U Penn, Swarthmore, Bryn Mawr, Haverford).
Aaron David Miller, author and former adviser to six Secretaries of State, from George Shultz under Reagan to Colin Powell under Bush, came to Swarthmore on Wednesday [March 18, 2009] to offer President Obama some expert advice on how he can best on deal with Israel during his administration.
Aaron Brecher ’10 raised funds and sponsorship from a variety of organizations in order to have Miller appear — Sofi, the College Dems, FFFS, the President’s Office, Peace and Conflict Studies, Political Science Department, and outside grants from Legacy Heritage as well as the Israel on Campus Coalition.? Read the full story by Lauren Stokes in The Daily Gazette.
Afghan women’s rights activist Suraya Pakzad to speak at Swarthmore Friends Meetinghouse, Monday, March 23, 7:00 pm
For over a decade — beginning in the darkest days of Taliban oppression– Afghan activist Suraya Pakzad and her organization, Voice of Women, has worked to protect girls and women from the abuses of tribal marital customs and of Islamist extremism. Under the most dangerous and hostile of circumstances, Pakzad has tirelessly provided girls and women with education, physical safe-havens, and paid employment. Crucially, Pakzad has also enriched awareness within Afghanistan of the depth of its human rights injustices, allowing the society to heal from within. Through Voice of Women, Pakzad has begun to build a social infrastructure that will go a long way toward achieving regional strength and stability.
We are fortunate to be able to meet Suraya Pakzad on her first return to the United States after her acceptance last year of the rare honor of the U.S. State Department’s International Women of Courage award.
Please join us to hear Suraya Pakzad. Learn more about her human rights work, and consider what can be done to help.
This talk is free and open to the public.
Monday, March 23, 7:00 pm
Swarthmore Friends Meetinghouse, 12 Whittier Place
“During her time at Swarthmore, Miriam Feingold Real ’63 was no stranger to the county jails. An ardent activist who was involved in organizing many of the demonstrations against segregation in Chester, Pennsylvania and Cambridge, Maryland, Real believed that sometimes sacrifices had to be made in the name of social justice. ‘Some of the activities we were involved in ended up with us being arrested,’ Real said. ‘I remember spending several days in jail with my school books from Swarthmore, attempting to do my homework and study.’
“Real is only one of many students in the history of the college who have translated their concern with social justice into explicit activism. This dual dedication to academics and social change has been a mark of Swarthmore’s reputation for years, but few have questioned to what extent it is a part of the College’s history….” see the full story in The Phoenix.
Gulliver’s Troubles: the Obama Administration and the Arab-Israeli Conflict.
A Lecture by Aaron David Miller
Wednesday, March 18, 4:15-6:30 in Sci 101
Come hear the author of The Much Too Promised Land, an advisor to six secretaries of State on Arab-Israeli issues, and a twenty-year veteran of the State Department talk about America’s role in brokering Middle East peace.
Sponsored By: Swarthmore Organization for Israel, College Democrates, Forum for Free Speech, the President’s Office, Peace and Conflict Studies, and Political Science.
This announcement is belated but nonetheless exciting! This past summer, Prof. George Lakey was awarded the Martin Luther King, Jr. Peace Prize by the Fellowship of Reconiliation. Here is the college’s press release:
Lang Professor George Lakey
Receives Martin Luther King, Jr. Peace Prize
by Alisa Giardinelli
06/27/2008
Lifelong nonviolent activist and educator George Lakey is the recipient of the 2008 Martin Luther King, Jr. Peace Prize from the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR). For 50 years, Lakey has led social change campaigns on local, national, and international levels, and over 1500 workshops on five continents.
George Lakey
“Though I never met him personally, Dr. King was a mentor to me in a sense,” says Lakey, who will begin an unprecedented third year as the College’s Eugene M. Lang Visiting Professor for Issues in Social Change this fall. ?”I hung on his every word.”
Lakey will receive the award when he gives the keynote address at FOR’s 50th annual conference in Seabeck, Wash., on July 4. He will be honored at a second ceremony at FOR’s New York headquarters in September.
As Lang Professor, Lakey advises students, conducts research, and leads workshops at Swarthmore, as well as at Haverford and Bryn Mawr Colleges, the University of Pennsylvania, and in Chester, Pa. This year, he gave a campus-wide address as part of the College’s King Day celebration. Next spring, he will repeat his popular course, “Nonviolent Responses to Terrorism,” as part of the College’s offerings in Peace and Conflict Studies.
Lakey is the author of seven books and his work has been translated into at least six languages. His first arrest was for a civil rights sit-in in Chester and he co-authored A Manual for Direct Action, which was widely used in the South in the 1960s. Other titles include Powerful Peacemaking: A Strategy for a Living Revolution and Grassroots and Nonprofit Leadership: A Guide for Organizations in Changing Times. He previously received the Paul Robeson Award for Social Justice from the Bread and Roses Community Fund and the national Giraffe Award for “sticking his neck out for the public good.” Two of his public talks,?Swarthmore’s 2008 Baccalaureate address and his lecture “Making Nonviolent Struggle More Powerful: Framing Strategies,” are available at www.swarthmore.edu.
Since 1915, FOR, a national pacifist organization in which Dr. King was active, has conducted programs and educational projects concerned with domestic and international peace and justice, nonviolent alternatives to conflict, and the rights of conscience. A part of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation, it established the King Peace Prize in 1979?to honor those who make a significant contribution to the furtherance of Dr. King’s non-violent approach to transforming racial, economic, and social injustices.
Finally, the phone rings and she picks up. “Is this still an alright time for you to do the interview?” I ask. And from the other side of the world, she says yes. For her, it’s 10:30 a.m., a normal hour to work. As we talk, she tells me about her experiences as a politician and as a woman, her concerns about Afghanistan’s elections next year, her frustration with the corruption she sees in the Afghan government, and her hopes for the future of her country. In listening to her stories, all of my own frustrations-with the late hour, with the nonfunctional phone lines, with the recording equipment-melt away, and I remember why I am still here in the recording booth at War News Radio, even at one o’clock in the morning.? … Read more
For over a decade — beginning in the darkest days of Taliban oppression– Afghan activist Suraya Pakzad and her organization, Voice of Women, has worked to protect girls and women from the abuses of tribal marital customs and of Islamist extremism. Under the most dangerous and hostile of circumstances, Pakzad has tirelessly provided girls and women with education, physical safe-havens, and paid employment. Crucially, Pakzad has also enriched awareness within Afghanistan of the depth of its human rights injustices, allowing the society to heal from within. Through Voice of Women, Pakzad has begun to build a social infrastructure that will go a long way toward achieving regional strength and stability.
Activism shapes student life at Swarthmore
Peace activist, lecturer, and author of 
Aaron David Miller
George Lakey