For A Change articles from August 2000

For A Change archives from August 2000

Power of silence.
August 1, 2000... At the heart of MRA's annual conferences in Caux, Switzerland, which have been running through July and August, is a belief that each person can make a difference to the world, through a transforming experience of liberation in their lives and...

Albania begins to see daylight: Paul Williams looks for signs of hope in a country that has suffered more than most.
August 1, 2000... `If I were God,' said the young Catholic priest from the Netherlands (two years in Albania and mastering the language), `I would admit them all to heaven straight away. They have suffered so much.' At first this might seem a somewhat odd...

Twenty years in Albanian labour camps: the leader of Albania's Muslims, Haxhi Hafiz Sabri Koci tells Paul Williams how he kept his faith in prison.
August 1, 2000... When Haxhi Hafiz Sabri Koci entered the Albanian prison labour camp system, the youngest of his six children was just six years old. When Sabri Koci saw him again he was a grown man of 27. `When they released me I didn't know my children,' says...

Guerrila fighter (Ahmen Egal) turns teacher.
August 1, 2000... When you meet Ahmed Hussen Egal, a mild mannered accountant from Somalia, now living in Stockholm, it comes as a surprise to lean that he was once a guerrilla fighter. Today he is active in the education of the 20,000 Somalis who live in...

Restitution online: (working with those whose lives have been affected by violent crime).
August 1, 2000... Although I entered law school in the fall of 1996 with the goal of becoming a tax attorney, I was drawn to a meeting of the Death Penalty Project. Defence attorneys working on capital cases needed law student volunteers to help with their...

Caldogno's drop in the ocean: (Italian town opens up to children from the Ukraine through efforts of Francesca Lomastro).
August 1, 2000... This year 400 children from the Ukraine will enjoy a holiday in northern Italy, thanks to the people of the small town of Caldogno, near Vicenza. Their visits have led to a remarkable cultural link between Caldogno and Kiev. The project is...

Ireland's president: a voice of contradiction.
August 1, 2000... President Mary McAleese has always been a breaker of barriers--and she has needed to be. She was born in Northern Ireland in the Belfast area of Ardoyne, a small Catholic enclave within Protestant dominated areas. She grew up in a deeply...

Pushing for debt forgiveness: Norway's former Minister of International Development and Human rights tells Jens Jonathan Wilhelmsen about her country's response to the international debt crisis.
August 1, 2000... Hilde Frafjord Johnson is not a tall person, but she stands tall. The cut of her jaw signals unusual determination. Her middle name--Frafjord--means `from the fjords'. The steep mountains and barren soil of western Norway have produced...

Revenge and reconciliation: understanding South Asian history.
August 1, 2000... A walk through South Asian history--with the compass points of revenge and reconciliation as guide. This is the Himalayan-scale journey that Professor Gandhi puts on offer in his new book, Revenge and reconciliation: understanding South Asian...

India I Care Conference: `corruption is anti-poor'.
August 1, 2000... Central Vigilance Commissioner N Vittal has emerged as one the main crusaders in India for honesty in public life. He has been in the headlines for publicizing on the Internet a list of senior government officials accused of corruption. ...

Africans aim to answer spiritual drought.
August 1, 2000... `Transforming Africa from a bleeding to a renewed continent' was the theme of an international MRA conference in Kampala in June. In her opening address, read by Mayanja Nkangi, Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Mrs Museveni,...

Ambassadors for peace in the Horn of Africa.
August 1, 2000... The Horn of Africa has been plagued by conflicts for the past 50 years, exacerbating famine and creating millions of refugees. So when a travelling group of four, including two senior diplomats, visited six European capitals in May, they...

Japanese look at family skills (at MRA conference).
August 1, 2000... A conference at the MRA Asia Center in Odawara, Japan, last May took place in the wake of shocking news reports of killings and violent extortion by frustrated Japanese teenagers. So the theme of creating right relationships between parents and...

New books launched at heart of Russia.
August 1, 2000... More than 80 Russians braved gusts of unseasonable snow and Siberian winds to attend the Moscow launching of Russian-language editions of four MRA books in May. The St Andrew's orthodox publishing house had suggested a series on silence and...

Australia: bridge of healing. (Reconciliation between Aborigines and the wider community).
August 1, 2000... In the largest march in Australian history, a quarter of a million people walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge on 28 May to demonstrate their support for reconciliation between Aboriginal Australians and the wider community. Aboriginal...

Learning to trust again: (Laura Trevelyan).
August 1, 2000... Laura Trevelyan has no doubt at all that it was the special atmosphere she found at an international conference in Switzerland that changed the course of her life. `When I was 15,' she recalls, `I fell in love with the theatre and...

Apology comes from within: (forgiveness).
August 1, 2000... I was recently asked why I seem to blame white people in my book, Forgiveness: Breaking the Chain of Hate. I must admit that it was a new thought to me that I did. But as I pondered it was clear to me why a reader could form this impression....

Not guilty.
August 1, 2000... For the past two years I have been on something of a spiritual journey. This has meant seeing psychologists, doing relationship courses and attending seminars and retreats. At one course the facilitator looked at me and said, `You're stuck in...

Glimpse of heaven: great artists come in awkwardly shaped packages.
August 1, 2000... The performance was over. The cast had taken their final curtain call. The stage was dark, save for a few dimly lit music stands. Outside the theatre, an excited crowd abuzz with all they had seen and heard, was heading for home--by car and...