MOIN - MOIN:
Vergangenheitsbewältigung - Conference
“dealing with the past”
Values in America's Past and Present
Peace-Pipe & Conflict Resolution
October 2021 (INDIAN SUMMER), Northfield, Minnesota, USA:
(Feel free to forward these invites / mail to family & friends.)
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100 Community Mediators for Africa
Steering Committee: Past District Governor Grant Daly; District Governor Annemarie Mostert; Advocate Les Morrison (SC); Advocate Siham Boda; Rotarian Tom Bergmann-Harris; Professores Dries Velthuizen – Unisa’s Institute for Dispute Resolution in Africa (IDRA) & Martin Rupyia (ACCORD); CEO of Mediators Beyond Borders International Prabha Sankaranarayan; Scott Martin, Global Partnerships Manager of MBBI
According to research at the University of South Africa and by other organizations, there is a need for modifications in the mediation of differences and conflicts in Africa. Currently, not all segments of society are represented during mediation sessions. In particular, young people, women, and other marginalized groups should become key participants, using mediation as an option in the resolution of disputes. The need for African mediators fits the Rotary focus area of peace and conflict resolution. Since Rotary is a politically neutral body, it is trusted by communities.
The plan is to establish mediation teams known as “African Mediators in Africa for Africa” in all Rotary districts of Southern Africa. -- The countries that will benefit are: South Africa, Namibia, Angola, Lesotho, Botswana, eSwatini, and Southern Mozambique.
What is our involvement? (RC-Johannesburg, founded in 1921, wrote a Peace-Pipe Letter, 1932.)
Eighty-nine years ago the Rotary Club of Keokuk, Iowa sent 504 letters to almost all RCs outside of the United States. In 1931, the Club President at the time, Jewett Fulton, urged each of these Clubs to smoke the peace pipe with his club following the example of Chief Keokuk. 1931, while visiting the World Convention in Vienna, Fulton must have sensed that something dangerous was brewing among the nations. After his return to the United States, he thought about how one might deal with the emerging conflicts and composed 504 letters on the typewriter. The numerous responses he received were found recently in a bank safe on the Mississippi River and are a wonderful example of an international agreement.
Today the world is once again troubled by unrest. The global order of the past decades shows signs of disintegration, tensions between the nations are increasing, but also within our national communities. For this reason, the notion of the 100 Community Mediators for Africa (& elsewhere in the world) is more relevant than ever.-- We should ask ourselves what each of us can contribute to maintaining strong lines of communication within societies and states, and to furthering friendship and goodwill so that understanding among peoples beyond all borders can be renewed and lived again and again.
Feel free to book us for a Zoom presentation for your organization or Rotary Club, in which case you can email me at yogireppmann@gmail.com, or by telephone at +1.507.518.6734; Tony Conn at conn.tony.2013@gmail.com .
A professional 4:49 video: www.peace-pipe-proposal.com
(Sound is at the lower left of the video screen.)
GOOD WISHES from Minnesota, Iowa & Schleswig-Holstein. (www.moin-moin.us)