For A Change articles from April 2006

For A Change archives from April 2006

city of many.(Jerusalem)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Centre of Judaism since 1003 BCE, place where Jesus lived, preached, died and was resurrected and from which the prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven--Jerusalem has been occupied, fought over and governed by many faiths; conquered, destroyed,...

Age and mystery.(Jerusalem's Old City)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... As I walk through one of the 12 gates to Jerusalem's Old City I enter a place of mystery and antiquity. According to Jewish tradition, Abraham's ancestors founded it over 4,500 years ago. It is a city with many layers: the Roman occupation, the...

Not just a wall?(Western Wall religious aspects)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Three great holy sites--the Western Wall, the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre--can all be found within one square kilometre. The Western Wall (also called the 'Wailing Wall') is what is left of the Jewish Second Temple,...

Lost utopia?(Israel's kibbutzim)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Since 1909, Israel's kibbutzim (collective communities) have helped to form the country. Many people see them as the only genuine form of communism, where inhabitants share everything and practise the principle of 'from each according to his...

Uncertain.(Sixth Herzlyia Conference on Israel's national security)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Since its establishment in 1948, Israel has not been particularly known for being a peaceful country. When I visited in January, the country seemed to be holding its breath as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon lay in hospital, and elections took...

Restless.(Israel-fear and pain )(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... When I was 18, I lived in Israel for almost eight months and experienced life in a kibbutz, in the army and in Tel Aviv. This time I went on holiday, intending to rest after my exams. But there is something about the country that is restless. I...

Dialogue as an art.(IN MY VIEW)(Viewpoint essay)
April 1, 2006... At the end of last year I heard someone, who is strongly opposed to the war in Iraq, say that he would more readily trust someone like George Bush, who thinks he is accomplishing God's will, than someone with no religion at all. 'I'd know...

Family quest for today's heroes: worried about the world your children will inherit? So were Laurent and Marie-Helene de Cherisey.(LEAD STORY)(Cover story)
April 1, 2006... THE WORLD DOES NOT always run as it should. And that can be frightening. What kind of world will we leave to our children? In July 2004, we set off with our five children, aged between five and 11, to meet men and women in 14 countries who...

Muslims & Christians find common ground in Sydney: racial and cultural intolerance burst onto Sydney's beaches and streets last December. But that is not the whole story.(HONEST CONVERSATION)
April 1, 2006... IN JUNE 2004 a pig's head was found impaled on a stake outside a Muslim prayer centre which was being built in the Hills district of northwest Sydney, Australia. The walls of the centre bad been daubed with the pig's blood. The whole community...

Images of immigration detention.(people making a difference)
April 1, 2006... 'THREE MEN AND THREE WOMEN came to our house at 5.30 am. My wife started to cry. They took first my wife and my son, and then me and the two children.... We were all crying.' These words of a distraught father are quoted in a new...

Getting kids back to school.(people making a difference)
April 1, 2006... FRANCES HARRISON only recently came to work as a manager at Fairbridge West in Bristol, UK, with socially excluded young people. 'Society is unfair to kids who struggle to fulfil their potential. The school system doesn't always work for them...

Moving from comfort zone.(people making a difference)
April 1, 2006... JIM AMSING'S willingness to help others in Calgary, Canada, has taken him through various enterprises. He started working as a police officer in 1978, but that did not seem to be enough for him. He became Chairman of Emma Maternity House,...

Dealing with denial: Jessie Sutherland tells Paul Williams about the life-threatening experiences which brought her home in more ways than one.(turning point)(Editorial)
April 1, 2006... RECONCILIATION facilitator Jessie Sutherland cites two dramatic episodes that helped transform her life. Both took place outside Canada--her home--on different continents. Although born and raised in English speaking Vancouver,...

If every child were mine.(William McNeal at Annual Metropolitan Richmond Day)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... A WOMAN LEANED across the breakfast table, and said, 'Segregation just isn't acceptable in any form any more. It harms all of us!' She was taking part in the ninth Annual Metropolitan Richmond Day breakfast organised by Hope in the Cities in...

Circles for peace.(Creators of Peace women's network)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... 'EVERY PERSON HAS a story to tell and a need to be heard' is one of the guiding principles of a series of Women's Peace Circles which have been taking place in Australia, Malaysia, the US and Lebanon under the umbrella of IofC. The circles...

Making life an art: Francisco Toledo is not just one of Mexico's best known artists: he is also a philanthropist. He talks to Andrea Cabrera Luna.(profile)(Interview)
April 1, 2006... After a couple of weeks of chasing the Mexican artist, Francisco Toledo, via telephone and e-mail I was feeling desperate. I had delayed my return to London so that I could interview him. 'You can find him walking around the centre of the...

Creating a village: many people in the USA and Europe are designing their own communities. David Bygott and his wife Jeannette recently moved into a cohousing community. What's that like?(BUILDING COMMUNITY)(Milagro)
April 1, 2006... SIX-YEAR-OLD EMILY flies her scooter along the twisty pathway between the houses of her Arizona neighbourhood, through flower-beds alive with butterflies. She knows all her neighbours by name and greets them as she passes--her reading teacher,...

Choosing strawberry milk: Nicci Dodanwela tells the story of how she overcame anorexia.(LIVING ISSUES)
April 1, 2006... WE CRIED, sometimes. my mother and I, when she came to visit. I wasn't sure why I was crying (though now I know it was these tears that kept me alive). But tearless days slid by more easily. I was in 'North Ward', the psychiatric ward of the...

Reconciliation triangle: the slave trade has left deep scars. Ann Rignall meets a group of people remembering the past to shape a better future.(HEALING HISTORY)
April 1, 2006... DURING THE PERIOD of the slave trade, ships from ports in Britain, such as Liverpool, sailed to West Africa. There they picked up men, women and children and took them under inhuman conditions to the islands of the Caribbean and the southern...

Letter.(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2006... IN THE FEB/MAR 2006 issue, Rajmohan Gandhi recalled the thought of his grandfather, Mahatma Gandhi, 'about the place given to the human conscience in the long story of Britain'. My wife and I have spent time in countries formerly part of...

This summer at the IofC conference centre in Caux, Switzerland.
April 1, 2006... 6-12 July Service, responsibility, leadership--an interactive conference on the issues of identity which lie at the heart of so many of today's problems. 14-21 July Tools for change--a chance to develop the skills and inner...

Hakuna Matata!(A DIFFERENT BEAT)(human-animal relations)(Column)
April 1, 2006... OUR DAUGHTER, Juliet, phoned from 6,000 miles away in California, to say, 'I'm watching the rescue of a beached whale in the Thames. Are you?' Indeed, we were. Having lived in Oregon and followed the saga of the rescue and release of Keiko, the...

Ordinary and extraordinary.(nature beauty narrations)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... FOR ALMOST SIX YEARS, rain or shine, my mother and I have gone for a daily walk together. Diagnosed with Parkinson's disease 13 years ago, my mother has kept mobile by walking every day. Recently, she moved out of our home into a small...

Why Japan still needs humble statesmen.(Chinese-Japanese relations)(Column)
April 1, 2006... IN A RECENT BOOK Japan's Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi, has been dubbed the man 'who has made diplomacy a fight'. Five Japanese who had been abducted by North Korean agents have been released as a result of his meetings with President Kim...