Nonviolence is making waves

The ripples of nonviolence have made their way across the world this week:

IN ZIMBABWE:

Four women activists from the strategic non-violence organization ‘Women and Men of Zimbabwe Arise’ (WOZA) were finally released, after spending six days in a Zimbabwean prison for protesting outside of the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA). Reporting on the struggle they endured inside of the prison-on behalf of all of the incarcerated- they described in detail the inhumane conditions to which they were subjected,  including: a lack of proper sanitary areas for the disposal of human waste for prisoners in their cells; a lack of water, dispersed on an irregular basis; verbal abuse, harassment, drug-selling and bribery by prison police. They continue to experience on-going physical pain from the floor of their concrete cells as well as diseases contracted within the six day period. Nonetheless, the women activists have expressed concern for the dehumanized mentality of the police maintaining the prison, and will continue to raise their voices as a call to the indomitable human spirit to effect  nonviolent change inside and outside of the cages of our prisons.

IN THE UNITED NATIONS– Click here to read about the exciting news about how the Nonviolent Peaceforce has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the United Nations’ Institute for Training and Research.

AND IN IRAQ:

These inspiring words were sent by a nonviolent activist in Iraq to a member of our Metta community this morning after she reached out in support of their efforts and in solidarity with their struggle for a nonviolent world:

“I am so glad to read your lines, really we feel that we are not alone against the violence, in the same time that we face the terror everyday as Iraqi people, we also feel sorry about the American soldiers and civilian who came from the other side of the earth to implement a political agenda, we feel sorry about their families who count the days and the nights for getting their sons back. We feel that we could together prove for all the world that nonviolence is the only choice that everybody should believe in.”

Stay tuned for where they may be next Friday…maybe in your own backyard!