12 Years A Slave

Based on a true story, this is by far the best movie I have seen this year. It tells the story of Solomon Northup, who is abducted and sold into slavery. It shows how terrible things were in the past, and you can’t help but feel that despite all the negativity that surrounds modern times, we truly have progressed for the positive. To go from what happened in this movie, to an era where Barack Obama is the president of the United States of America is an amazing achievement.

Fat Sick and Nearly Dead

I just finished watching this documentary which relates to diet and health and thought it was great, it is available to watch for free on youtube. It is produced by an Australian named Joe Cross. What I really liked about the video was how the entire video did not focus on him.  He helped one person change their life, who then went on to help a lot of other people. This video illustrates the concept of paying it forward brilliantly and at the same time has a lot of great information on diet that I think anyone can benefit from viewing.

Killing of Dolphins in Japan

It always saddens me to see this senseless killing of dolphins.

As much as I disagree with the capturing of dolphins for sale to aquariums and places like Sea World, I can at least understand that they are making money from doing that.

The killing of these animals, bottle nose dolphins have brains larger than humans, is a disgusting act. Dolphin meat contains very high levels of mercury and is toxic to eat, in many cases, it is being sold and passed off as whale meat to an unsuspecting public.

I think in the same way that Japan continues to slaughter whales, there is a certain arrogance, that they will not let the rest of the world dictate to them what is morally right. I think change will only occur when the people of Japan pressure their government to change.

If you have not seen the documentary, The Cove, I highly recommend it. There have been many reported instances of Dolphins saving humans from shark attacks.

Jody Williams, A realistic vision for world peace

This is an interesting talk from 2o10 by Jody Williams who won a Nobel Peace Prize for her work to eradicate landmines.

 

I do not agree with her comments early on in the video where she discusses what world peace really means. She argues that it is not personal serenity, but justice and equality. I firmly believe that World Peace will become a natural by product of people around the world finding Inner Peace in their lives. And although this may sound harsh, although justice is important, I do not think World Peace is dependant on equality and enough people having enough resources to live dignified lives. I think the sad truth is that resources are finite and limited, yet certain countries act irresponsibly in terms of population growth. I don’t think you can have limited resources or have land which is not suitable for food production and have a high population and expect equality. Yes I do think there are some unfair corporate practices which have lead to some countries being exploited and I think those issues need to be addressed. But if a country acts irresponsibly in terms of population control, then it must be prepared to suffer the consequences. Not living within the means of what the country you live in can provide, and trying to seek an equality of lifestyle with what other countries have, is what some wars have been fought over.  How many wars have we seen over oil and other natural resources.

I do however agree with her latter comments on the need for action, and that if enough of us got off our butts and volunteered as much time as we could, we would change this world, we would save this world.

 

Oh My God

Oh My God, no that is not the title I have chosen because it has been so long since I last made a blog post, it is the title of a documentary I watched last night. Peter Rodger, goes to many different countries and asks the simple question “What is God?”

While I am not a follower of any religion, I found the documentary fascinating, and religion and world peace are two topics which are intertwined. One of the comments from an aboriginal person from Australia, where I am from, stated “All wars are fought over religion or land”

He also interviews a number of celebrities, including Hugh Jackman, Seal, and Ringo Starr who says “God is Love”.

International Day of Peace – September 21

I would like to thank Kari from ThePrimeSpot.com for notifying me of the video below and asking to help spread the word about the International Day of Peace on September 21.

Another interesting video which gives you some background on the origins of the International Day of Peace can be seen at this TEDTALK.  The world needs more passionate people like Jeremy Gilley.

 

For What it’s Worth by Buffalo Springfield

This is an awesome song, originally written in 1966 and inspired by a riot between the police and club goers, it later became associated as being an anti war song.

Apparently the words “For What it’s worth” are not sung during the song, which is known more by its chorus line of “I think it’s time we stop, children, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down”

There is a good music clip of the song set against protests scenes from the vietnam war here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30W3iRL48gQ

When I look at the protest images, I cant help but thing what went wrong. At what point did we become so apathetic about war.

Higgs Boson

The recent discovery on a particle which is believed to be the Higgs Boson, is quite fascinating. I am not entirely sure that it has been confirmed that it is the particle that they were looking for, but the Higgs Boson, or the God particle as it is commonly referred to by the media could provide us with valuable information on both the formation and future of the universe. I do not like the “God Particle” tag that it has been given. Below is an interesting video explaining the Higgs Boson.

With all new knowledge, there seems to also be risks. Could this new discovery be used for great things, such as space exploration, or for bad things, like weapons of even greater mass destruction.  Below is a video from an australian tv show with Dr Karl which questions the future possibilities of this scientific discovery.

Like Us on Facebook

I received an email from Maurice who suggested I add a Facebook Like Button to the page.
When I added the Like Button, looks as though this site already had 117 Likes. Can we possibly get that number to 1,000?
Only time will tell. Thank you Maurice for sending me the email. Yes, sometimes I may take a little time to respond, but I do read all emails.

USA the most peace loving country?

I thought I would take a look at the newsletter subscribers, keep in mind there are not many subscribers to the mailing list.
But I was interested in seeing if I could get an idea of what countries have the most number of people who share a passion for world peace.
Now of course, the data is too small to draw any conclusions, after all there are only currently 30 subscribers to the newsletter, but the USA accounts for 13 of those 30 subscribers, so I would have to say at this stage, most of the people who visit who are passionate enough about peace to sign up for the newsletter, seem to be from the USA.
The link to the newsletter is here http://www.worldpeace.com/newsletter Oh and I promise I have not and never will spam anyone. It is only used to contact members for something important, never more than once a month, and more likely once a year at most.