Thank you Sumerians and Assyrians. Your cuneiform writing in 3,000 BCE on clay boards started it all. Thank you Egyptians for your ingenious idea to write hieroglyphics on papyrus. Also more recently thanks, to the man! Johann Gutenberg who’s first books we know so well today, when he published the Bible using his invention, the movable-type printing press. The pen is certainly a mighty weapon…and it does not kill as many people either.
The weapon of mass instruction…or as peacebuilders like to call this PEACEFARE…adding resources to peace to bankrupt war. I really love this!
Cave Church in Mokattam, Cairo via Tall Skinny Kiwi
one wouldn’t know it because the small bit of International news media focused on Egypt was too busy talking about hundreds marching thru Cairo to protest the 27 dead protestors from Mespero – which was a worthy story and than there is the not so worthy – the pyramids were closed because of fears of pagan rituals….
Bad news invades our lives each day – but when 70,000 people gather to say enough is enough with the situation in Egypt and pray for peace… no one in the media seems interested.
Blogger Tall Skinny Kiwi was there and wrote about it – and several YouTube videos were posted – however all in Arabic.
Peace Oriented Media or Peace Journalism as it is sometimes called is media that focuses on the positive stories. While of course there is debate over the objectivity of peace-media, there can be little harm in showing stories where a Palestinian and Israeli work together for peace or an Indian defends Kashmir human rights and desire for autonomy. These do happen, but we often do not hear of them. So in my small effort to counter the media monsters, I will share three positive stories from news this past week. While it was quite the hunting expedition, between a Turkish highjacked ferry, Mexico’s war on drugs, Europe’s austerity plans, Syria’s bloody protest… somehow I found them… please enjoy.
1. Kidnapped Baseball player is found alive in Venezuela. via AP News
2. Maasai Land Preservation Trust began to compensate herders for cattle lost to predators. Economic development and environmental preservation – a success story! via Al Jazeera English
3. A fathers love, human ingenuity and compassion can do miracles. Argentinian father creates a home physical therapy walker for his son and dozens of other that cannot walk. Via BBC
