Changing the Media in Pakistan: Becoming a Powerful Tool for Peace

Media is a powerful instrument with enormous potential to affect public attitudes and perceptions, the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) has worked globally to promote best media practices that strengthen tolerance and mutual understanding. Recently USIP’s Grant Program provides support to Pakistani nonprofit organizations working to provide media professionals with the ability to craft content in ways that promote tolerance and diversity.

Pakistan is routinely ranked as one of the least free and most dangerous countries for journalists.  The mainstream media has become exceedingly sensational and the country. In addition, women and ethnic and religious minorities are often portrayed in a disparaging fashion, if their circumstances are addressed by the media at all.  While media can be a key instrument to develop ideas of tolerance, peace and diversity across society, the current trend in Pakistan has created an environment where media exacerbates common discriminatory notions and practices.

With the support of USIP, Insan Foundation Trust trained more than 100 student and faculty members of mass communication departments at five universities in the Punjab to identify and analyze media biases toward women and minorities, develop strategies that can be used to address these biases, and outline and develop alternative content.

Their efforts culminated in “Balancing Control! Alternative Media for Social Change,” a booklet highlighting the television commercials, documentaries, dramas, songs and written articles created using ethnic, gender and religious equality as a core theme.  The booklets were then distributed to local businesses with the anticipation of use in future media campaigns.

It is reported that students’ attitudes and worldviews changed significantly during the training sessions, as many began with fixed negative views about women and minorities, as well as the U.S. and India.  By the end, they came away with more nuanced views about diversity, how peace and tolerance are beneficial, and how to use conflict resolution effectively in their local community.  Insan’s activities received widespread media coverage, resulting in numerous articles in national Pakistani newspapers.

While the immediate effect of the training is evident in student’s attitudes and media projects, Insan is giving power to communication professionals to alter the toxic media landscape by strengthening inclusive, positive values that will have a long-term impact on media consumers from all segments of Pakistani society.

Arab Hip Hop Artists Collaborate on Peace with Music

Rhymes and rhythms can share ideas across cultures, especially one of peace and justice. That is just what the Arab Hip Hop artists at the event, “Rhymes of Peace: Arab Hip Hop Artists on Youth and Media,” emphasized through their performances and discussions at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) back on October 27, 2010.

This unique opportunity explored how music and the media can serve as platforms to speak out against injustice and for peace. The Narcicyst and Omar Offendum were two of the Arab hip hop artists that performed and then participated in a discussion at USIP with Manal Omar, director of Iraq Programs and Theo Dolan, senior program officer at the Center of Innovation for Media, Conflict, and Peacebuilding.

Both spoke of the complexities of the Arab world and the conflicts that take place there and how their messages for peace in their music show the complexities as well as the commonalities among all people. Performing in the U.S. from coast to coast, the Narcicyst and Omar Offendum are no strangers to the American (and global) hip hop scenes. Both being Arab Americans they also offer a great perspective on conflict in the middle east as well as identity in conflict situations.

Born in Iraq and currently living in Montreal, the Narcicyst’s lyrics, both in English and Arabic, deal with his seemingly opposed identities rooted in both the East and West.

“Do I think that the Arab voice is loud enough in hip hop—I don’t think so, not yet,” said Arab hip hop artist the Narcicyst via video chat, at the October 27th, 2010 event. “I think the music, or the message is ahead of its time. I think it’s going to take a little bit of time, but somebody will break the barriers and eventually it will boost the voice.”

The Narcicyst said it is important when talking about the Middle East and the conflicts there to realize that there are “multiple layers of history and emotion to take into consideration.”

Omar Offendum is a Syrian-American based out of Los Angeles who in the fall of 2010 had just released his first full-length album “SyrianamericanA” that explores his Damascus roots while paying tribute to Syrian Poet Nizzar Qabbani and Egyptian musician Abdul Halim al-Hafez.

“People see hip hop as a barrier breaker or an ice breaker,” Offendum said.

Offendum went on to elaborated on how hip hop allows him to bridge two parts of his identity together—he’s American and Arab. He said being Arab is a complex thing, and his goal is to help people understand there are all different types of Arabs and that regardless of ethnicity we all have things in common. He said among those differences are that Arabs are Muslim, Christian, Jewish and nonreligious.

“It is important to show a holistic approach to understanding religion,” Offendum said, and for that reason he uses characters and references to Christianity, Islam and Judaism in his songs.

Maybe if more hip hop artists spoke of injustice and peace as opposed to sex and money, the world just might be a better place.

Promoting Peace through Poetry

I am completely fascinated by the power of words and the talent of spoken word artists and poets to so eloquently state what so many others have difficulty forming words around. What better way to promote peace than through poetry!

Peace Without Borders Africa in conjunction with the Canadian Toronto Poets 2011 World Tour have launched The Spoken Word Fest 2011 – promoting peace through poetry. International poets and spoken word legends from Canada, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, Trinidad, Tobago… and Greece are all said to be part of the event.

One of the artists is international renowned poet and spoken word artist Ljubomir Mihajlovski from Macedonia. He is the Ambassador of Poetas del Mundo for Macedonia & Chief Peace Ambassador for Europe of United Minds for Peace Society. The event is sure to be full of poems such as Ljubomir Mihajlovski’s “Before Big War.”

Before Big War

What occurred before Big War?
Numberless men, women and children
like dark braided whips
in the midst of the city lying dead.
In the moment when something
became unstable
there was the Big War.
The earth and hearth mingled
the view clotted.
The invasion of death ideals
have even the minds
darkened in hate.
Same with our war,
it starts from nothing
and grows bigger.
Where leads
pools of blood and pools of hearts!?
There lie the unburied graves
of those that hate and love.
In the underground
all we is same,
without politic,
without love,
without ideals
we are earth in the earth.

Other poets that are promoting peace, justice, tolerance and humanity around the world and said to be part of the event are artists such as Charlotte Hill O’Neal aka Mama C artist, poet, musician, long time community activist and co- Director of the United African Alliance Community Center based in Tanzania. Mbizo Chirasa aka THE BLACK POET FROM Zimbabwe,  Wanjohi wa Makokha, aka “Malenga Wa Damu Panda” author of Nest Of Stones from Kenya living in Germany and Mr. Ljupce Zahariev, member of Macedonia Executive Committee of United Minds for Peace Society.

Looking forward to all of the great poems to get our minds turning about peace!

Power of Spoken Word

Tonight I had the pleasure of attending the performance of Patterns of Breathing. The performance consisted of one artist, Tori Lane, with interpretive and autobiographical topics expressed through spoken word and dance. Words cannot express the power of her work. Raw emotion, and the journey of one woman from abuse to reclaimed freedom and acceptance of self.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Tori for a project on trauma healing and artistic expression. When asked about how she found artistic expression helpful in her journey to find healing Tori said:

“I know without a doubt that I would not have reached the place I am at now in processing trauma if it were not for the utilization of artistic expression.  As I began seriously exploring my artistry I found a block when I wouldn’t let all of myself, including the memories and affects of trauma, enter into my artistic process.  I also discovered the reverse to be true.  In processing trauma I can only get so far without the use of my creative faculties.  When I write, paint or dance my way through an issue, I am able to reach the depths of it and move through it more authentically.”

More than just poems and dance of overcoming trauma, the performance was filled with the simplicity of the ordinariness of life. From waking in the morning and drinking that first cup of coffee, to playing tag as a child.

Walking away from the performance this evening I am truly amazed at how an artist can transport someone to a different time and place. How a poem or a dance can take us on a journey of emotion. Even more so, I am amazed at the power of spoken word, to heal the author and the audience, to transform the lives of all those blessed to hear those spoken words.

Art CAN Change the World

INSIDE OUT Project in Brazil

“I wish for you to stand up for what you care about by participating in a global art project, and together we’ll turn the world…INSIDE OUT.” -JR

TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading and the TED Prize is designed to leverage the TED Community’s exceptional array of talent and resources. It is awarded annually to an exceptional individual who receives $100,000 and the granting of “One Wish to Change the World.”

The 2011 TED Prize winner, JR, a semi-anonymous French street artist was asked to make a TED Prize wish. His reaction in his own words was, “I was lost. I couldn’t save the world; nobody can. The world is f*#!ed up. Come on, you have dictators ruling the world, population is growing by millions, there’s no more fish in the sea, the North Pole is melting, and as the last TED Prize winner said, we’re all becoming fat.” When it was clarified that the wish was to change the world not save it, he felt a bit better, but was still lost.  Then he was asked if art could change the world. His answer was the creation of the INSIDE OUT project.

INSIDE OUT Project in the Middle East

According to the INSIDE OUT website, “the project is a large-scale participatory art project that transforms messages of personal identity into pieces of artistic work. Everyone is challenged to use black and white photographic portraits to discover, reveal and share the untold stories and images of people around the world.

Hear from the artist how he believes art can change the world and about the INSIDE OUT projects work in Palestine, Sudan, India, and around the world:

Sharing Stories of Tragedy and Hope through Drumming

In some communities dance, music and drumming, permeate many aspects of the communities social interaction. There are songs and dances for courting, weddings, births, funerals, harvesting, planting, and spiritual expression. When tragedy strikes, it is often to these modes of expression that the community flocks. This is the case in Haiti.

In 1985, St. Joseph’s Home for Boys in Port-au-Prince was created to offer a family to street children and rescued child slaves. From this home The Resurrection Dance Theatre of Haiti was born.  Bill Nathan, a former child slave and a member of The Resurrection Dance Theatre of Haiti says, “This is how we share our story through dance and drumming.”

Street children, child slaves and those with disabilities are generally looked down on in Haiti. St. Joseph’s and Resurrection Dance Theatre enable them to be their best even if they have physical limitations. Nathan spoke of one member of the troupe, Reginald Mayant, who performs despite having lost an arm. Now 14, Reginald was found at age 4 by a garbage dump and brought to St. Joseph’s.

The Resurrection Dance Theatre offers the boys an opportunity to shine and be confident in themselves. It also offers them an avenue to share the plight of so many children in Haiti, one that may become a more frequent story after the destruction of the January 12, 2010 earthquake as more children have become orphaned.

St. Joseph’s Home for Boys was destroyed in the earthquake, since then, The Resurrection Dance Theatre’s performances offer an opportunity to raise money to rebuild, hence the title of their current touring program, “Resurrection from the Rubble.”

Bill Nathan stated that, “we want them to know that even though we lost two of our buildings, we still have the spirit … We’re touring to raise money to rebuild the two homes. We want to show them we were broken one time and now look at the beauty.”

Here Bill’s story in his own words:

Through their drumming and dancing, they are not just sharing their own stories, but also those of others. In honor of Ben Larson, who was killed in the earthquake on January 12, 2010, The Resurrection Dance Theater of Haiti performed a very special song, “Mourning into Dancing” written by Ben Larson, at Sheridan Lutheran Church in Lincoln, NE.

Hearts With Haiti, a partner organization for the St. Joseph’s Home for Boys,  development director Jennifer Neibert said, “From the hardships they experienced early in life, they were able to become whole. They are surviving and thriving.” Through their dance and drumming the troupe has truly embodied their final song of all of their performances, “Freedom Reclaimed.”

(Quotes courtesy of Hearts with Haiti)

Peacebuilding or Community Building

When people hear the word peacebuilding, the look on their faces transform to be a bit puzzled. This does not tend to be the case when we talk of community building. Perhaps it is because we are all familiar with community in some way shape or form, but many of us, especially in the western world, are unfamiliar with conflict and thus unfamiliar with the need to build peace.

However, for me peacebuilding and community building go hand in hand. Community building is a field of practices directed toward the creation or enhancement of community among individuals within a regional area, like a neighborhood. The same may be said of peacebuilding.

Often community building is a part of peacebuilding, even if some may not think so.   When a community comes together and can find their commonalities, starting to see the world through one another’s eyes, the likely hood of conflict lessens. When working in regions of conflict as a peacebuilder, we attempt to help people see things from other’s perspectives. We attempt to build communities if they have been so shattered they no longer look like communities or we attempt to enhance them by assisting them in finding peace with one another.

Artists, Todd Drake and Wade Billeisen, created a project called “The Talking Mobile” in 2007-2008. An excellent example of peacebuilding and community building working hand in hand.

While conflict had not arisen yet, the situation was ripe for it. Two campuses in Greensboro, North Carolina were going to be joining together into one new high school. The project’s goal was to get the fears and hopes of the students from both campuses out in the open. Why?

The artists stated, “We believe that everyone coming to Northern Guilford High School has hopes for a better education and worry whether they will be safe, successful, and accepted.” Principal Joe Yeager approved the project and provided funding because he believed it would build community, a central goal of his leadership role at the new school. (From Todd Drake’s blog Make Art Like You Mean It.)

The students submitted questions, all of which were compiled into a single notebook. Of those submitted the artists chose 40 to be displayed in thought bubbles at both campuses and then to greet the students as they started classes at their new blended high school. The students then had an opportunity to respond to the thought bubbles after a month of living and learning together. The most provocative and insightful answers were then displayed beneath the questions as “speaking bubbles.” Issues of racism, acceptance, and diversity were central to the project.

It was a personal project for artist Todd Drake. Although not explicitly stated his goal was to ward of violence and conflict that might erupt. He said, “My school did nothing like this when we integrated back in the 70′s. The only fight I got into my life occurred as a result. I hope this project helps these students learn to respect each other and see past stereotypes that, along with fear, often blind us to making friends of strangers.” (From Todd Drake’s blog Make Art Like You Mean It.)

It’s not either/or when it comes to peacebuilding or community building it’s both/and. We cannot have successful communities without peace.