Treasures – TFF Associates

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).

I believe there is much we can learn from the life and example of Dag Hammarskjöld, the second Secretary-General of the organization. His achievements shine in the annals of UN history, and his moral force and integrity as the “conscience of the United Nations” command wide respect to this day. Read more.

Shanghai, Kinas största stad med över 20 miljoner invånare, är världens åttonde största megastad. Här lever man efter förre partiordförande Deng Xiaopings slagord. Det syns, Shanghai är en stad där pengar och profit påtaglig präglar stadsbildens superlativer, störst, högst, bäst, vackrast. Från Jin Mao-tornets 88:e våning ser vi ut över stan. Där reser sig Oriental Pearl TV-tornet, 468 meter högt. En bit bort rinner den breda Huangpu-floden och på dess andra sida ligger The Bund, den koloniala paradgatan. Jin Mao-skyskrapan, 420 meter och världens femte högsta skyskrapa, är utformad av ett amerikanskt arkitektkontor utifrån den klassiska kinesiska pagodens former och lyckotalet åtta, som står för framgång och rikedom i kinesisk mytologi. Det är ingen tillfällighet att olympiaden i Beijing invigs den 8/8 2008. Två år senare står Shanghai som värd för världsutställningen 2010, som kommer att bli ett minst lika spektakulärt arrangemang. Jin Mao är ett kontorshus för Ministeriet för...

My summary of 35 years of thinking and practising February 14, 2007 Jan Oberg Individuals as well as societies need many things but two are basic and universal. Development means ongoing maturation, higher levels of living and being, satisfaction of micro/basic needs (e.g. food and water), meso/higher needs (e.g. community, dignity, psycho-social health) and macro/supreme needs (e.g. spirituality, love, self-and other-realization, universal community). Some, like Abraham Maslow, argue that human and social needs are organized hierarchically; while water and food may well be considered basic, human beings in severe crisis have delivered evidence throughout history that higher non-material needs and levels of being helped them survive, such as faith in God, in fellow human beings. Art history is filled with personalities whose “lower” needs were not met while they gifted the world with their own sublime expressions. Security or safety is the other basic element. Existentially it means confidence that there is something...

January 26, 2007 Hans-Christoph von Sponeck In the early nineties, people hoped for the irrevocable end to fear and the great peace dividend. Those governing limit themselves to fighting symptoms. The causes of terror are not a theme for them.Freedom from fear and freedom from distress are the fundamentals of human security. The United Nations emphasized this when the Cold War allegedly ended. Freedom from distress should be gained with freedom from fear. The goal was to overcome malnutrition, sicknesses, poor education and inequality.Since then, globalization has advanced rapidly. However, only a minority of the world’s population has benefited. The far greater part of humanity must struggle at the lower end of the quadrant for sheer physical survival, often without success, with less than one Euro per day per person.The reality of life’s opportunities distributed crassly differently cannot be hidden any longer. The rice farmers in Bangladesh, the shepherds in...

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An amazing and important commentary appeared in the January 4, 2007 issue of the Wall Street Journal, co-authored by four high-level architects of the Cold War: George Shultz, William Perry, Henry Kissinger and Sam Nunn. The article, entitled “A World Free of Nuclear Weapons,” was amazing not so much for what it proposed, but for who was making the proposal. The four prominent former US officials reviewed current nuclear dangers and called for US leadership to achieve the abolition of nuclear weapons. Their argument was as follows: 1. Reliance on nuclear weapons for deterrence is becoming increasingly hazardous and decreasingly effective. 2. Terrorist groups are outside the bounds of deterrence strategy. 3. We are entering a new nuclear era that will be more precarious, disorienting and costly than was Cold War deterrence. 4. New nuclear weapons states lack the safeguarding and control experiences learned by the US and USSR during...

Three reports at the turn of the year

Om Afghanistan Af Ulla Fasting,TFF Ven og medlem af Det Radikale Venstre Læs også Ulla Fastings “Indtryk fra Afghanistan” Dag 1 Afghanistan ved en ny tids begyndelse I denne uge tager vi til Afghanistan, som jeg har besøgt to gange i sommer og hvor jeg samtidig læste Khaled Hosseinis bog* om sin barndoms Afghanistan. En barndom, hvor drengen Amir vinder den store drageturnering og sin fars anerkendelse, men samtidig svigter sin bedste ven Hassan. Det er dette svigt og vejen til soning, bogen handler om, men den fortæller også om det Afghanistan, som var før den russiske besættelse og før Taleban kom til magten.Det er det Afghanistan, som i dag skyder op hist og her og som mange afghanere forsøger at bygge en fremtid på. Bogen er god at have med sig, for i manges bevidsthed er Afghanistan kun det 6. fattigste land i verden, talebansk mørke, kvinder i burka,...

Af Ulla FastingTFF Ven og medlem af det Radikale Venstre Læs også Ulla Fastings fortælling i Danmarks RadiosVed Dagens Begyndelse Jeg er netop kommet hjem fra min anden rejse til Afghanistan. Første gang var besøget først og fremmest privat med ophold i Kabul, men jeg fik samtidig en invitation til at undervise jordemoderstuderende i Herat for Dansk Afghanistan Komité (DAC). Anden gang var jeg to uger i Herat og et par dage i Kabul for DAC for at interviewe kvinder fra de forskellige kvindeorganisationer om deres arbejde og for at se på sundhedsvæsnet, – hospitaler, sundhedscentre, mobile sundhedsteam og sygeplejerskeuddannelsen. Jeg rejste på egen hånd, men var i Herat altid ledsaget af tolken og kørte med chauffør i en af DAC’s biler. I Kabul kørte jeg alene rundt, men med taxa fra et sikkerhedsclearet taxafirma. I Herat færdedes jeg frit sammen med andre DAC-medarbejdere i byen, når vi skulle handle...

Peace is a dynamic process of nonviolent social interaction that results in security for all members of a society. Peace is not a subject matter taught in many schools. I have often heard it said that the curriculum is too full to add more, but what could be more important than learning about making peace? I think the “full curriculum” is a justification for not wanting to challenge the status quo and teachers are not rewarded for bringing new material into the classroom. I am a proponent of bringing peace into every classroom. Basic questions need to include: How can this problem be solved peacefully? Or, how could this problem have been solved peacefully? Blase Bonpane, who received the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation’s 2006 Distinguished Peace Leadership Award, suggested that when students study wars in history the only meaningful question is: How could this war have been avoided? We need...

I. Metaphor and the Politics of Despair In addressing the General Assembly back in 2003 on the urgent need for UN reform, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, resorted to a frequently quoted metaphorical trope: “Excellencies, we have come to a fork in the road. This may be a moment no less decisive than 1945 itself, when the United Nations was founded.” He explains the rhetoric by saying “[n]ow we must decide whether it is possible to continue on the basis agreed upon or whether radical changes are needed.” And further, Annan notes that he had earlier “drew attention to the urgent need for the [Security] Council to regain the confidence of States, and of world public opinion—both by demonstrating its ability to deal effectively with the most difficult issues, and by becoming more broadly representative of the international community as a whole, as well as the geopolitical...