The Was Is Escalating: Call for Peace

[Toyin Falola]

There is no global peace coalition. Whether it is ISIS, Syria, Boko Haram, or Fulani herdsmen attacking farmers, all issues start on a small scale. Human beings become onlookers. You join power and vested interests in repeating their justifications. You say the past is not important. They feed your human desire for aggression and revenge. You see the state as if it is the person you resent at the workplace.

 

This war may soon get out of hand:

--separatist war may open up in Mordovia

--the US openly declares that its goal is to weaken Russia and will keep supplying arms

--Russia is moving more soldiers

--three provinces of Russia on the borders witnessed blasts.

--Russia shuts off the gas pipeline to Poland and Bulgaria

 

The media is playing along. Many are rejoicing, trigger happy.

 

One day, you all will wake up and see that millions of human beings have been killed. I mean millions. Call for a peace coalition to end conflicts and wars. Don’t waste your energy on the causes of wars but on the termination of wars. Why worship God but empower weapons to kill? Why do you think salvation awaits you in heaven if you cannot secure one for human beings on earth?

TF

 

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

well said prof

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[Edward Kissi]

Great one, whom I often call Chief,

I share the anguish you express here. I associate myself with the feelings of the bombed and displaced in preventable wars, and the trauma they experience. I imagine the hopes and plans of the dead who could not pursue what they had hoped to do before they were cut into pieces by bombs and bullets. Relentless wars produce carnage. But they also induce paralysis in those who watch helplessly. What I find odious too in all these bloody exercises is the American television coverage of recent wars as if death, and destruction induce some excitement in the unaffected.

That absence of a global coalition for peace that you point to is, perhaps, the most painful reference to the collective paralysis that deadly wars induce. We watch in anguish, see television people fly in their anchors to war spots to cover war like delightful spectacles. Everyone, everywhere watches the carnage in Ukraine like an ordinary Hollywood movie. I am familiar with the phrase “Never Again” but I have wondered whether we have made any serious commitment, globally, to it beyond our books, sermons, and statements.

Perhaps young people may be the answer if they are not like some Ethiopian youth who, reportedly, showed up at the Russian embassy in Addis Ababa, recently,  to seek visas to volunteer to fight for Putin in Ukraine. Hopefully, there are many unlike them on every continent today who can rise to take the mantle of peace from their aging mothers and fathers. They must not permit others to destroy, today,  what they must inherit tomorrow. They must use the technology that only they know how to mobilize and create a global coalition of young people for peace. They should direct their peace movement not only at the makers of wars, but the suppliers of arms, and those who sit in television studious talking about the war and not how to end it.

My deceased father used to say that there was a man in our neighborhood always clad in smock studded with cowrie shells. And with his whisker could turn a bullet from a firearm into water. If that is not a rural legend, then, perhaps, we need many of such people now to charm deadly arms into water to regenerate the soil and plants that bombs destroy.

War exposes our collective inability to make peace when we need it to save lives.

Edward Kissi

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On Apr 27, 2022, at 6:15 AM, Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:



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[Emeagwali, Gloria (History)]

“young people may be the answer if they are

 not like some Ethiopian youth who, reportedly

, showed up at the Russian embassy in Addis

 Ababa, recently,  to seek visas to volunteer 

to fight for Putin in Ukraine” Kissi

You missed the point here.Those Ethiopian 

young people who showed up were making 

a  common sense decision. They 

heard all the lies of the West, as they ganged

 up to dismantle Ethiopia  and  hand 

over what was left to a group that was voted 

out of power in 2018. They  witnessed the 

assistance of Russia, and others, in staving

 off disintegration,  and saving the country. 

Some of their colleagues studying in

Ukraine probably had  a lot to say about

racism in Ukraine, too. We need some 

data on that.

Also, the Ukrainians have been going 

around the continent,  to  Nigeria and other 

countries, enlisting potential soldiers, so there 

is an ongoing Russian and Ukrainian 

competitive recruitment drive. No doubt 

some  recruits were calculating remuneration,  

as was the case of some Ukrainian -

 enlisted Nigerians who saw this as a 

job opportunity.

Russian-Ethiopian relations go back far.

The acclaimed founder of Russian literature 

Alexander Pushkin, is of Ethiopian descent

through his maternal line.  I don’t know

if this is of significance in responses.

Is this mentioned in local textbooks?

Interesting to note that the Mengistu era 

was one with close USSR links but that 

regime has been discredited- although 

I did come across a few pro-Mengistu 

Ethiopian supporters.

It’s complicated.

Professor Gloria Emeagwali
Prof. of History/African Studies, CCSU
africahistory.net; vimeo.com/ gloriaemeagwali
Recipient of the 2014 Distinguished Research
Excellence Award, Univ. of Texas at Austin;
2019 Distinguished Africanist Award
New York African Studies Association

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[Harrow, Kenneth]

dear edward, toyin,

the peace movement that i am familiar with (i belong to our local peace groups) goes back a long ways (to vietnam). the most immediate cause was the iraq war in 2001, and it has opposed u.s. aggressions since then. in any event, peace marches at the time and since have brought out large crowds in europe and the u.s.

the aggressors then were linked to the west.

however, i don't remember any such peace marches, protests, movements, alliances, concerning russian aggression, although their killings in syria were awful, as was the oppression in chechnya.

wars have two sides, with their allies, so the case of syria was made complicated by the incursion of isis, which led the u.s. to unholy alliances against assad and the russians. how would a peace movement know where to begin? and chechnya seemed an internal affair, like darfur in the sudan.

the case of libya became simply a political issue between democrats and republicans

taking the u.s. as a target of our protests was easy, uncomplicated. but in this case the peace movement wouldn't feel that a march in our city, or country, would do any good since we aren't protesting against our own country's actions.

and further, in this case, it is clear to most that there is a powerful aggressor and its much less powerful victim state, ukraine.

the only marches or protests seem to be like the one i saw in chicago where there is a large ukrainian community, and their church is the center for solidarity protests. you can see yellow and blue flags all over chicago.

we tried to influence our govt through public opinion with protests here. if we were to march or hold a rally here (i am in lansing, michigan), russia would not notice it or care.

so the question is, how to mobilize for peace under these circumstances?

i know there are brave protestors in russia.but in a non-democratic state, how can one mobilize or protest without simply being thrown in jail?

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu

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[Toyin Falola]

Yes

Russians must lead the peace movement but my fear is they will be jailed. They are mmnit responding to email messages.

World leaders can call for a truce. They can call for a one week truce.

Sent from my iPhone

On Apr 27, 2022, at 8:23 AM, Harrow, Kenneth <har...@msu.edu> wrote:



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[Femi Kolapo]

I am just coming out from a presentation that discussed munition "rehabilitation"  and the science and politics of leftover war equipment and munitions and how wastes and pollution from these materials continue today to wage deadly wars that we thought had ended long ago and will continue into future generations of people who might not share our language or culture and might not share the same understanding of what horrors we have created for them to deal with. 

But there was this beautiful reference he made to a wonderful arms-to-peace art piece from Mozambique (made from scrap and disassembled AK riffles) which provides some hope that it is possible to take materials and elements of war and death and creatively turn them into harmless objects of powerful beauty to reclaim our spaces – physical and psychical. I especially love “the Bird that wants to survive”, it is magnificent, as are the others art pieces on PEACE on the site.  

https://royalarmouries.org/stories/our-collection/together-for-peace-turning-guns-into-art/

Turning guns into art - Royal Armouries The chair, created by sculptor Kester (Christavao Estevao Canhavato), is formed entirely of dismantled Kalashnikov assault rifles. This sculpture consists of: 2 1st pattern Russian AK-47’s, 4 2nd pattern Russian AK-47’s (with milled receiver), 3 Kalashnikov AKM’s of which: 1 East German MPiKM (back bracer) – right leg and 1 Chinese type 56/1 – left leg; 7 early pattern magazines and ... royalarmouries.org

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Femi J. Kolapo  | Department of History | www.uoguelph.ca/history   

IMPROVE LIFE

________  

A thought for the month:

 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

"No code is necessary to control the behaviour of matter since matter is apparently not tempted to contradict its own nature but obeys the law of its being in perfect freedom. Man, however, does continually suffer this temptation and frequently yields to it. This contradiction within his own nature is peculiar to man and is called by the Church “sinfulness”; other psychologists have other names for it. " 

Dorothy L. Sayers

 

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[Toyin Falola]

Prof:

Putin is also conducting a very brutal war—primitive, I must say—bombing apartments, etc. The consequences are enormous.

TF

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[Harrow, Kenneth]

nice to see.

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu

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From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Femi Kolapo <kol...@uoguelph.ca>
Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2022 12:45 PM

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[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

magnificent contributions 

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[Cornelius Hamelberg]

The crux of the matter:

 "the US openly declares that its goal is to weaken Russia and will keep supplying arms" 

The posts here spell this dilemma out in greater detail, how Uncle Sam's Military-industrial complex is all set to make tremendous profits - it may sound cynical that they must be very happy with former comedian Zelensky whose mantra is constant: "Give us more weapons!" for further de we could looka here : The Military-Industrial Complex is making a lot of money supplying weapons to Ukraine

Zelensky doesn't want peace, at all costs, he wants "victory" by victory he means " more weapons - please supply! "

Once upon a time, the cry was, "Give us the tools and we'll finish the job! "

Today ( laylatul qadr)  the former comedian would gladly enter into a pact with Iblis to be supplied with Satan 2, 3, 4 & 5

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Ojogbon Falola: “Are you saying Putin won’t run out of missiles?”

The same question could be asked of Zelsnky’s suppliers if they can’t manufacture and deliver fast enough. The fact is, they have a good nose for business and would like to keep the war going ( for profit): Zelensky is their man, their cash cow., their golden calf.  When he’s no longer useful he will be disappeared from the scene.

The New Gold Rush: How Pentagon Contractors Are Cashing in on the Ukraine Crisis