Caring for The People of The Blog

Dear Students for Nuclear a Weapons Free World,

I am hoping this blog is reaching students desiring to bring hope for a safe world and a saner future. I would like to help. My name is RuthAnn Purchase and I am working to find more funding for internships, more support for student activism in general, and more efficient and effective methods of social change.

I believe we need to publicize the success stories of student activists in order to recruit more students into this movement! Negative information recruits angry people who are not necessarily the most diplomatic, or convincing. Fear based motivational techniques promote denial at best, or "bury-my-head-in-the-sand" at worst.

Can we overcome these two obvious results of the most favored strategies of activists in the past?

PLEASE, GIVE ME YOUR INPUT:
What is most effective method for getting people to move through denial,
getting heads out of the sand,
and building courage for action?

I would venture to say:
THE ARTS?
MORE HUMOR?
And definitely MORE SUCCESS STORIES!

That is why I love the new "Two Nukes Hit the Streets" video.
It does the first two upright. Now it begs for a trailer with the story about a real human being who got funded to make that video! Tell how they used it and how they tracked the results and how many people have watched it! That inspires more of the same!

Thus my invitation to check out Net2, a social networking group that supports the use of new technology "mashing" for non-profits.

One theory for effectiveness that I have adopted is as follows:
Balance "in-your-face" harsh reality with courage building techniques!

I.e.: I watch many Americans influenced by real facts "bury their heads" in the electronic "sand," or in their drug of choice, or sport of their choice.

If we build courage and give specific, measurable, out-come focused actions to jump into EVERY TIME we present, we build momentum and we retain energy for taking those first baby steps toward action. E'vuala! A new activist is born!

If we are asking people to do more than write a letter, but we must empower them to do more. In order to promote intentional, effective activism, we cannot support "the passing fancy" activist or the "quick fix for guilt trips" campaign. We must help people adopt this cause as a moral obligation, as a life long passion. And we must together build our courage to face hard questions in hard times. We might even adopt trauma transformation techniques as we present so that everyone we work with is taking good care of their stress levels.

Please, consider helping me create a simple, interactive workshop & social networking tool that empowers the overwhelmed, encourages the ashamed, and unites the befuddled.

I have theories, but you, students, are are the ground and in the trenches, as it were.
You understand new lingo and new technology that is reaching far more than any academic presentation will ever reach. And you have energy for the future. So write to me. Give me your responses to this blog. Let's do this together.

May our synergy clear a path toward more practical action and quicker results,
For heaven & earth's sake,

RuthAnn Purchase,
Greenbridge CDC

PS
I work in the Philadelphia region, am a member of the UN Working Group of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and a member of Soka Gakkai Int'l.

I hope the students in this network sign off
with a bit of detail about themselves so that we can get to know who is listening,
and who is writing, and where they are working geographically.
(You too, Simon!)

Nukes Gone Wild

Launch Talks Not Missiles- No War with Iran

"Got Bomb?" by Bunker Syfert

Security by Nukes is No Way to Live!

The disintegration of the former Soviet Union arguably placed the final full stop on every argument that delusively justified the Manhattan Project.

The search for contemporary justifications primarily has the United States pointing first to an expensive insurance policy for that sacred supreme superpower status, then to threats posed by terrorism. Russia follows aggressively with a case for balance of power, given the US’ relentless drive for perfection in nuclear arsenal fortification.

Put together, the world has been served a readymade recipe for perpetual global insecurity.

The combined destructive capacity enthusiastically nurtured by the US and Russia, in the name of ‘security’, is capable of trivializing the likely outcome of a thousand re-intensifications of climate change and more; a murderous heritage capable of obliterating all human existence in a matter of minutes.

Unfortunately, this calculation which equals to Armageddon is not inclusive of nuclear stockpiles held by China, France and Great Britain. Neither does it consider the mutually assured destruction postures held by India and Pakistan, nor the rationale behind a nuclear-armed Israel amidst hostile Arab neighbours. North Korea’s is another matter entirely.

One thing all nuclear powers share in common – both legal and illegal possessors of weapons of mass destruction – is a conviction that nuclear weapons are a most effective deterrent against threats to political sovereignty, territorial integrity, and all what not.

However when we speak of threats to global peace and stability, especially in the 21st century, simple reference to common sense reveals that nuclear weapons have no place in ensuring our collective security from such threats.

At the Students for a Nuclear Weapons-Free World Seminar which was held last month at the Palais des Nations, Geneva, and hosted by the World Federation of United Nations Associations (WFUNA), it was clear that the younger generation think of nuclear weapons as grossly irrelevant in ensuring world security. Students from all parts of the globe gathered, under the distinguished chairmanship of Dr. Hans Blix, President of WFUNA and legendary Chair of the United Nations’ Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission, to spark a global youth movement against reliance on nuclear weapons as guarantors of security.

One student from New Zealand argued that “climate change, energy shortages, ethnic tension, local wars, discrimination, terrorism, disease, hunger and extreme poverty” are the foremost contributors to today’s global security challenges. Nuclear weapons “cannot destroy these new adversaries” of our world today. They therefore “deliver no security”, are “obsolete in this new age” and serve “no purpose in our world, our lives, our time.”

It becomes hard to fathom why any government will set out to squander obscene sums of money on nuclear arms, even when it is common knowledge that nobody really wants to put these things to use.

And who sets the pace? Any guess should pass.

According to Stephen Schwartz of the Monetary Institute of International Affairs, combined U.S. military expenditures between 1940 and 1996 totaled $18.7 trillion. At least 29% ($5.8 trillion) of that went straight to its water basket nuclear weapons program.

Then reflect on a recent United Nations report suggesting that poverty can be wiped off the surface of the earth, forever, by simply reversing from waste in nuclear ambitions to investments in extensive life-transforming goals. If the UN estimates that about $195 billion/year can end hunger and poverty completely, just imagine what a difference deviating from nuclear spending to boosting agricultural production in developing countries would have made considering the current food crises.

Instead what we get are 75,000 – 100,000 people dying unnecessarily day after day from lack of food, water, shelter, and sanitation etc. while nuclear weapons live on. Where then is the security our leaders speak of? Not a single unit of nuclear warheads is capable of saving one human life from this notorious lack of basic living necessities.

Students at the Geneva seminar also attempted to draw the world’s attention to this ill-trend, with a view to getting people to cry out for change.

“Enough is enough!” lamented a Nigerian student, while his Australian counterpart added – as though speaking for an entire generation of hopeful leaders of tomorrow – that “we want to solve these problems before we inherit them”. The search for solutions led to the initiation of a global network of Students for a Nuclear Weapons-Free World, last week at the United Nations in Geneva.

While the students were at it, another international group of rather elderly nuclear disarmament campaigners called Footprints for Peace had walked all the way from Britain to Switzerland. Making recurring references to Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Chernobyl, their International Peace Walk was a peaceful protest against the extent of insecurity nuclear weapons have created for human lives.

As both groups converged, it turned out to be an eloquent confirmation of suggestions that the young and old seem to agree more on nuclear insecurity issues than either group does with the current mix of relatively middle-aged world leaders.

Although we do not really want our current leaders dead and gone, to pave way for a new generation of futuristic thinkers, the world can take a lot of consolation in knowing they cannot be around for too long.

In early preparation for their exit, the youth have already taken the initiative by planning to expand the disarmament campaign via internet, emails, travels and exchanges at all possible levels.

The strategy is straight-forward: facilitate a worldwide campaign that targets, among others, the reorientation of young people in order to increase chances that future world leaders would have been impacted and positively influenced by the campaign.

The message too is clear: the younger generation is definitely not interested in inheriting the war mentality.

So far, nobody has been crazy enough to use a nuclear weapon again since 1945. That is a commendable achievement for the world, but still it is marred by a few stubborn baby boomers that have refused to do away with their nuclear armaments. In the event, the idea of proliferation gets increasingly attractive to more and more international actors who believe they cannot be held accountable by powers who have flagrantly violated commitments made in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Thus a dangerous spiral of insecurity takes root as humanity constantly confronts the likelihood of universal death.

Our collective fate, if terrorists of the 9/11 caliber were to grab a hold of just one nuclear weapon, is a story we may not even be around to tell.

Such risks must be eliminated, and the only way to be free from them is by inspiring enough political will for a concerted and progressive nuclear disarmament.

The Arms SPLURGE

To get rid of nuclear weapons, you need to eliminate the industry. Nuclear weapons are jobs for people, money for people. They are part of the powerful arms industry which currently, runs the U.S. government. According to a report released by the World Policy Institute, during the 2004 election cycle, Current President George W. Bush received close to 800,000 from the arms industry.

Such generous contributions can only be seen as a parallel to the unilateral, confrontational policies employed domestically and internationally by the Bush administration. Arms companies have noticeably flourished under the reign of King Bush and his castle. And so has U.S. violence and military engagement abroad. No coincidence.

Yet how can we beat these corporations? They’re rich.
In fact, recent stock analysis trumpets Lockheed Martin as a winner, wondering at its literal immunity to the prevailing recession. This miraculous economic vitality in during a widespread slump is the result of strategically granted U.S. government arms contracts, for billions of dollars. In 2003, Lockheed Martin received $21.0 billion in Pentagon contracts.

The answer to 9/11 seems to be…

GET STRAPPED!

It’s like a national fantasy of domination, Rambo Style with a Sylvester Stallone shoot in a galaxy far far away.

I am frustrated with this policy, and even more frustrated with the actions which are taken, and ignored. On August 6th- Hiroshima Remembrance Day- protesters will park themselves out side the Lockheed Martin complex in Valley Forge Pennsylvania. They will have a candlelight vigil, they might have signs, they may chant, yell, or speak words of frustration. But what will this accomplish?

A showing of unity- yes.
A sign of protest- yes.
Real movement- no.

How can we create this action? Dialog is a start.

http://www.kiplinger.com/columns/picks/archive/2008/pick0215.htm

http://www.worldpolicy.org/projects/arms/reports/TiesThatBind.html

Two Nukes take to the Philadelphia Streets

Two nuclear weapons hit the town on Wednesday August 6th for Hiroshima Remembrance Day. Sixty-three years ago, the United States dropped the first atomic bomb on Japan- causing unprecedented death and destruction. Watch out for the weapons chilling in Rittenhouse Square, or strolling along Walnut Street- out to remind Philadelphians that their tax dollars are being spent on a massive nuclear arsenal.

On hair-trigger alert, nuclear weapons present a constant lethal threat to life, and also facilitate the proliferation of their kind throughout the world. Today, the world has a total of 26,000 nuclear weapons, with the United States and Russia holding 95%. Other holders are China, India Pakistan, Israel, France, the UK and North Korea. Scientific studies prove that debris and smoke from the detonation of just 1% of the global nuclear arsenal would block out the sun, reduce precipitation, and cause massive agricultural failure.

One obstacle to disarmament is that the Nuclear weapons issue is ‘out of sight, out of mind’ to the average individual. Public street theatre with life sized nuclear weapons acts as a physical manifestation of nuclear proliferation, which is hard to ignore.

Learn more about SNWFW: http://www.disarmamenthub.org/

Learn more about nuclear weapons: http://projectfornuclearawareness.org/

Contact the SNWFW group: Emily.pna@gmail.com.