Green Design » Nonviolence

On-the-ground Reports From Mumbai

Alex Steffen — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 10:25:56 +0000

Worldchanger Dina Mehta's doing an amazing job providing information about the Mumbai crisis on her blog and on her Twitter feed. A remarkable woman, with remarkable things to say.

Our thoughts are with Dina and everyone there, with the hopes that we not only help and stand by the people of Mumbai, but remember to keep terrorist attacks in perspective.

The world needs calm, sensible thinking and hard work in times like these. Thanks to Dina for providing it.

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(Posted by Alex Steffen in Nonviolence at 2:25 AM)

Ushahidi Documents Violence in the DRC

Ethan Zuckerman — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 21:29:59 +0000

My friends at Ushahidi, an amazing team of creative Kenyans who built a dynamic system to allow for citizen reporting of violence during the post-election period in Kenya, have just rolled out a tool to help document violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The proxy war in Congo threatens to engulf the eastern part of that nation. While the conflict is getting good media attention, incidents are spread over a huge geographic area and there’s great danger that critical incidents will go unreported.

The Ushahidi team has launched a new version of the tool focused on the DRC, and is accepting citizen reports of violence and displacement - as well as of peace and humanitarian efforts - and people in the DRC can file a report by sending an SMS to 0992592111. I hope this effort will help people around the world get a sense for the scope of the DRC conflict and the hundreds of thousands of people it’s affecting.

This post originally appeared on Ethan Zuckerman's blog, My heart's in Accra.

Image source: Ushahidi

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(Posted by Ethan Zuckerman in Nonviolence at 1:29 PM)

Changing the World Involves Being Good Winners

Alex Steffen — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 21:36:14 +0000

A few lines that came in an email today:

"Try to be kind to each other. Do not radiate triumphalism or entitlement or disparagement or distaste. Do not gloat. Help your neighbor quietly, and speak encouragingly of all efforts to make things better. Take your lead from Obama and be respectful, gracious, understanding, and aware that at this time both joy and resentment are hateful to many, Do not presume. Celebrate quietly for what has been gained. Mourn quietly for what has been lost and what may yet be lost. Nothing is guaranteed or certain. Try to be the people we would want our conquerors to be."

I couldn't agree more. The best victories are those that change a power balance, but leave relationships between the adversaries that can be healed. Here in the U.S., there's a lot of bad blood between conservatives and progressives, but if we want to see change, we'll need those conservatives to at least agree that change is something they can accept, and they're much more likely to do that if dealt with respectfully and graciously.

Which is not to say that people should not be held accountable for their crimes and misdeeds over the last eight years. They should. People should go to jail. Nonviolence does not mean ignoring criminality and wrongdoing.

But the Bush administration and the Rovian Far Right don't make up the majority of the Republican Party, or even conservatives: the vast majority of American conservatives are decent people who want good to triumph in the world, and we need to win their support, or at least their consent, if we're going to transform the world.

Let's do this with some class.

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(Posted by Alex Steffen in Nonviolence at 1:36 PM)