Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - The Was Is Escalating: Call for Peace

Yes

Russians must lead the peace movement but my fear is they will be jailed. They are mmnit responding to email messages.

World leaders can call for a truce. They can call for a one week truce.

Sent from my iPhone

On Apr 27, 2022, at 8:23 AM, Harrow, Kenneth <harrow@msu.edu> wrote:



dear edward, toyin,

the peace movement that i am familiar with (i belong to our local peace groups) goes back a long ways (to vietnam). the most immediate cause was the iraq war in 2001, and it has opposed u.s. aggressions since then. in any event, peace marches at the time and since have brought out large crowds in europe and the u.s.

the aggressors then were linked to the west.

however, i don't remember any such peace marches, protests, movements, alliances, concerning russian aggression, although their killings in syria were awful, as was the oppression in chechnya.

wars have two sides, with their allies, so the case of syria was made complicated by the incursion of isis, which led the u.s. to unholy alliances against assad and the russians. how would a peace movement know where to begin? and chechnya seemed an internal affair, like darfur in the sudan.

the case of libya became simply a political issue between democrats and republicans

taking the u.s. as a target of our protests was easy, uncomplicated. but in this case the peace movement wouldn't feel that a march in our city, or country, would do any good since we aren't protesting against our own country's actions.

and further, in this case, it is clear to most that there is a powerful aggressor and its much less powerful victim state, ukraine.

the only marches or protests seem to be like the one i saw in chicago where there is a large ukrainian community, and their church is the center for solidarity protests. you can see yellow and blue flags all over chicago.

we tried to influence our govt through public opinion with protests here. if we were to march or hold a rally here (i am in lansing, michigan), russia would not notice it or care.

so the question is, how to mobilize for peace under these circumstances?

i know there are brave protestors in russia.but in a non-democratic state, how can one mobilize or protest without simply being thrown in jail?

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

harrow@msu.edu

---

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Edward Kissi <ekissi@usf.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2022 7:57 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - The Was Is Escalating: Call for Peace

 

Great one, whom I often call Chief,

I share the anguish you express here. I associate myself with the feelings of the bombed and displaced in preventable wars, and the trauma they experience. I imagine the hopes and plans of the dead who could not pursue what they had hoped to do before they were cut into pieces by bombs and bullets. Relentless wars produce carnage. But they also induce paralysis in those who watch helplessly. What I find odious too in all these bloody exercises is the American television coverage of recent wars as if death, and destruction induce some excitement in the unaffected.

That absence of a global coalition for peace that you point to is, perhaps, the most painful reference to the collective paralysis that deadly wars induce. We watch in anguish, see television people fly in their anchors to war spots to cover war like delightful spectacles. Everyone, everywhere watches the carnage in Ukraine like an ordinary Hollywood movie. I am familiar with the phrase "Never Again" but I have wondered whether we have made any serious commitment, globally, to it beyond our books, sermons, and statements.

Perhaps young people may be the answer if they are not like some Ethiopian youth who, reportedly, showed up at the Russian embassy in Addis Ababa, recently,  to seek visas to volunteer to fight for Putin in Ukraine. Hopefully, there are many unlike them on every continent today who can rise to take the mantle of peace from their aging mothers and fathers. They must not permit others to destroy, today,  what they must inherit tomorrow. They must use the technology that only they know how to mobilize and create a global coalition of young people for peace. They should direct their peace movement not only at the makers of wars, but the suppliers of arms, and those who sit in television studious talking about the war and not how to end it.

My deceased father used to say that there was a man in our neighborhood always clad in smock studded with cowrie shells. And with his whisker could turn a bullet from a firearm into water. If that is not a rural legend, then, perhaps, we need many of such people now to charm deadly arms into water to regenerate the soil and plants that bombs destroy.

War exposes our collective inability to make peace when we need it to save lives.

Edward Kissi

Sent from my iPhone

On Apr 27, 2022, at 6:15 AM, Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:



There is no global peace coalition. Whether it is ISIS, Syria, Boko Haram, or Fulani herdsmen attacking farmers, all issues start on a small scale. Human beings become onlookers. You join power and vested interests in repeating their justifications. You say the past is not important. They feed your human desire for aggression and revenge. You see the state as if it is the person you resent at the workplace.

 

This war may soon get out of hand:

--separatist war may open up in Mordovia

--the US openly declares that its goal is to weaken Russia and will keep supplying arms

--Russia is moving more soldiers

--three provinces of Russia on the borders witnessed blasts.

--Russia shuts off the gas pipeline to Poland and Bulgaria

 

The media is playing along. Many are rejoicing, trigger happy.

 

One day, you all will wake up and see that millions of human beings have been killed. I mean millions. Call for a peace coalition to end conflicts and wars. Don't waste your energy on the causes of wars but on the termination of wars. Why worship God but empower weapons to kill? Why do you think salvation awaits you in heaven if you cannot secure one for human beings on earth?

TF

 

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/SN7PR06MB724723695DFE3537625FB6B6F8FA9%40SN7PR06MB7247.namprd06.prod.outlook.com.

[EXTERNAL EMAIL] DO NOT CLICK links or attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/6B7A8933-F39C-4F93-9AFD-BE4D47D0D80C%40usf.edu.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/BL1PR12MB519179EC9E08DB36FAD40CEDDAFA9%40BL1PR12MB5191.namprd12.prod.outlook.com.