International Day of Peace

Today-Sunday 21 Sept 08 is International Peace Day I think as named by the UN several years ago. I believe back when I was in high school I used to hear about it and we used to have a special morning service for it. For Trinis reading this blog I went to St. Augustine Girls' High School(SAGHS)- Per Ardua Ad Astra in worship and in class and play! For those non-Trinis it is a seven year government assisted all girls Presbyterian school that is considered to be top tier like the top 5% of girls writing the national entrance exams get into it. You go to high school in Trinidad from age 11 to 18 or about. But yep I think in SAGHS we used to have special services to mark it...But really post my SAGHS days I've not heard much or done much in terms of International Peace Day. I know my current employer, the first permanent employer ever and also my current employer (I've been with them almost 10 years now!). Well, it (my current employer) is big on marking Earth Day so I always hear bout that but nope not Peace day. I've not thought but Peace Day since high school! Until this year and I've been bombarded with it! Funny being bombarded with Peace day initiatives! :)

But yep this year marks the first year Im on facebook for Peace Day as I joined in Oct 07 and I've since been involved with candle4tibet efforts and the same candle4tibet people- David Califa et al have joined forces with Gordon Millar and others to form iPeace of which I'm also a member. I dont mean to sound sarcastic cause I really respect all David Califa and others are doing and from all my interactions so far with David he seems like a lovely person! However I don't agree with all his methods and I really think there is no point in bombarding people to join a thing cause yea there is strength in numbers and I appreciate that we need numbers in democratic societies to make changes happen as normally you need x number of signatures on a petition say to get the powers that be to listen and enforce them. And most bodies ask to see the numbers and your ability to affect change is seen by the numbers you have follow you. But I find...what is the point of having a bunch of people if they were pushed into joining as oppose to having a smaller number who find true meaning in joining? My point is the quantity is great but the quality is what really matters. And also having a large number of people join a group is one thing but what happens next with the following is what is even more important. And also just as they say there is strength in numbers there is also as they say the power of one. So numbers doesn't always matter with causes do they?

That said I continue to be a member of iPeace and candle4tibet and I urge others who truly believe in these causes to join them on http://ipeace.ning.com and http://candle4tibet.ning.com

On a personal level this has therefore been a very different International Peace Day for me in many years as it is the first time since high school I've really even recognized it. I've been involved in the Peace Intention Experiment and did the final intention experiment with that group today around midday. This group's peace intention site is http://www.thepeaceintentionexperiment.com and they also have on going intention experiments that come off of their main site http://www.theintentionexperiment.com . It was done to try to bring about reduction in violence in Sri Lanka. To be honest don't know how much impact it is having as this week marked teh biggest increase in violence in Sri Lanka in a long time from what I heard on the BBC World Service Radio but I'm not judging the experiment and from what I read on their site several well known scientists are part of the experiment and I hope they will be able to look at the results and report on the findings to us soon. But it is a very interesting idea and concept no doubt and I hope in the future more can come of it. Also it was a pleasure to try this experiment out and a very moving experience for me. Especially interacting with all the other experimenters post experiment on http://theintentionexperiment.ning.com

In the interim with all these things being tried on the global level where we as individuals with the assistance of modern day technologies and social networking sites can now take part. There still remains the need for peace on the national level and the family level and most importantly within. So as the day is about to come to an end I would like to spend five minutes in quiet reflection on my own peace of mind and peace within and ask all my readers to do the same. And as I remember praying in my primary school(age 5 to 11)- Mc Bean Hindu School: Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti...Hari Om!