ProblemIndividualLevel

Individual Level

Why Don't People Build Peace? - This is in response to the often asked question, “Why is Person ‘A’ doing so much to promote peace, while there are so many others in his/her organization and generally who appear to underachieve their potential to contribute to a Culture of Peace and Non-violence?” http://www.cultureofpeace.ca/whydontpeoplebuildpeace.htm

Two excellent articles on the serious effects of violent Video Games, on children and on everyone:

Do video games breed violence? By CAROLINE ALPHONSO

Let's blast video violence: As more violent games are linked to adolescent aggression, parents alone can't tackle the problem, says psychologist DOUGLAS GENTILE

"Circumcision" of healthy babies, and of older boys and girls, is a euphemism for sexual mutilation.

Real life bullying is fed by a culture of cruelty - The effect of violent music on individual behaviour - "A good friend sent me copy of a few articles about (what I call) the culture of cruelty and violence. Please find it by clicking on the link. There is a strong relationship between bullying in our schools and the cultural food that nurture the mind of kids who can barely (and sometimes cannot) make the difference between fiction and reality. Just a joke? The use of cruelty and violence as marketing ingredients hurts thousands of children around us, and kills some of them. Just like Walkerton water. Child abuse for commercial purposes is not a right, it's a crime. How can we, as a society, be so blind when blaming intoxicated kids and so tolerant for intoxicators ? Thanks for your attention." courtesy of Jacques Brodeur

Brutality Isn't Child's Play - World Wrestling Federation ("WWF") promoting violence and sexual brutality as appropriate entertainment for children

A formula for crime - “If you were interested in creating a criminal, you would have a pretty good chance if ... you took a young person from a seriously troubled home, put them into a series of foster and group homes, changed their primary worker on a regular basis, let them run away from ‘home’ at an early age, and enabled them to develop a drug and/or alcohol addiction. Your chances would improve if somewhere in their lonely and painful existence, they had been sexually, physically, or emotionally abused.” “If in those few instances that they sought help ... you would ensure that there were no accessible services, that the workers they encountered were rushed and overwhelmed by heavy caseloads, and that they would be seen first and foremost as trouble rather than troubled, is it surprising then that these young people would become perpetrators or victims of crime?” Source: National Crime Prevention Centre, Community Mobilization Program Information Workshops, Edmonton, June 15–24, 1999.

The victim
By Ashley Gillies
A child stands alone.
No friends at school to call his own.
He feels so bad.
He’s never felt so sad.
Why is he all alone?
Though he tries real hard to be included.
He always seems to be excluded.
They always stare.
Maybe it’s what he wears.
Why is he not included?
They taunt him and they tease him.
In the classroom and in the gym.
His eyes are too revealing.
To hide the hurt he’s feeling.
Why do they taunt and tease him?
They seem to think that they’re the best.
He’s not treated like the rest.
His eyes, so sad, no burning flame.
It’s not his fault, he feels such shame.
Why do they think they’re the best?
Alone he cries, he plays and walks.
Always longing for a friend, to share long talks.
He’s not real slow, he’s not real smart.
He bleeds real blood, and has a heart.
Why must he cry, play and walk alone?
Think hard, think long.
How would it feel to not belong?

Ashley Gillies is a student at Chief Justice Milvain School in Calgary. Her poem "The Victim" was the winning entry in the Turn Off the Violence –Action Committee Against Violence’s 2001 Creative Writing Contest.

TWENTY GOOD REASONS TO STOP A BAD PRACTICE Compiled by Jordan Riak (corporal punishment in schools and spanking issues) http://oz.plymouth.edu/~lsandy/spanking.html

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

Nearly 1 in 3 students either a bully or victim

Manhood and Violence: The Deadliest Equation

Environmental Scan

- "after Prenatal exposure to drugs, alcohol and maternal stress, as well as abuse and neglect in the first two years of life cause chemical and neurological changes to the infant brain that predispose that child to violent behaviour." Robin Karr

- "the information age will define our rights, our work, and the nature of our interrelationships in society, resulting in increased opportunities and risks

- growing individualization and personal responsibility

- people have fears and anxiety about their livelihoods, their jobs, and their place in rapidly developing processes

- impressive examples of commitment, energy, and creativity

- redistribution of work releasing the potential of "liberated time", which will provide space in society for "life projects" and new forms of social coexistence

- rise in life expectancy, personal wealth and knowledge workers

- progress (some say too slow) toward equality of genders, races, religions and the celebration of diversity" (Rita Sussmuth)

- "aging of baby boomers: this is a moment of extraordinary importance for the community of the future, because Boomers are deciding what part they are going to play. Their choices will prove determinative.

- Halftime: Changing Your Game Plan from Success to Significance indicates that in the first half of life we are dedicated to the pursuit of success, making our mark on the world, and establishing intimacy with and through our families. Midlife is a time for reflection asking 'What difference am I making with my life', 'What do I want to be remembered for?' How Boomers answer these questions will largely tell the tale about what our communities will become over the next 30 years.

- rise of the social entrpreneur, transforming the process in the social sector, also with a view toward extracting a higher yield (i.e. getting results), the "product" being changed human beings." (Bob Buford)

FORECASTING THE FUTURE

(to come)