March 2007

March 22, 2007 Johan Galtung The Satyagraha Centenary: New Delhi, 29-30 January 2007 Today 59 years ago a bullet put an end to the physical life of that genius grown out of Indian soil. A spiritual earthquake shook us all. And far away from Birla Gardens, in Norway, a 17 year old boy, almost ignorant of Gandhi, was weeping, something he rarely did. The boy was me, and that was my spiritual birth. I became a Gandhi scholar, a peace researcher and peace worker, and the comments on our session’s topics is a mini-payback. Gandhi gave us that invaluable gift, satyagraha, to cling to satya. For Gandhi satya was an essence bridging the concepts of God, Love and Truth, uniting the spiritual, the emotional and the cognitive–not putting them in separate compartments as we do in the West, banning the first two from research and science. How can this guide...

21. marts, 2007 Hans Jørgen BonnichsenHånden. En PET- og politikrønikePolitikens forlag, 2006256 sider, 249 dkr H.J.Bonnichsen siger et sted i sin bog, “Hånden”, at han er taknemmelig over at have været aktiv politimand, i den periode han var det. Det var en tid med mindre vold.Jeg har lige set en film fra 70-erne over en bog af André Brink, som jeg læste for mange år siden. Filmen var en påmindelse om hvor forfærdelig politivold- og overmagt kan være, – var i Sydafrika, er sikkert også i dag flere steder på kloden.Bonnichsen burde tilføje taknemmelighed over at være dansk. Hos os blev de værste undertrykkelsesmetoder afviklet for længe siden, gennem kamp og organisation nedefra. Bonnichsen kan altså være taknemmelig for at behovet oppefra for at holde masserne nede, i hans periode ikke var så aktuelt, idet danske love og forordninger bestemte at goder skulle fordeles nogenlunde rimeligt. (Det er så ved...

The book, Friends of Gandhi.Correspondence of Mahatma Gandhi with Esther Færing (Menon), Anne Marie Petersen and Ellen Hørup.Edited by E.S. Reddy and Holger Terp and published in co-operation with Gandhi-Informations-Zentrum in Berlin.This book with all of Gandhi’s correspondence with three Danish women, beginning with their visit in 1917, makes a very important contribution to the research on and understanding of Gandhi. It’s also an example of how much single individuals can contribute to international solidarity, says Jan Oberg.(PDF 1.2 MB, 433 pages).