The voices of Peace...

Dear ladies and gentlemen,

You are cordially invited to these special events, an international exhibition and a Peace Talk entitled "From A Culture of Violence to a Culture of Peace: Transforming the Human Spirit". The exhibition will be held from 23rd Oct until 4th Nov 2007, whereas the Peace Talk is on 27th Oct at Dewan Tuanku Syed Putra, USM from 7.30pm-10.00pm. It is an opportunity not to be missed as we can hardly encounter such international exhibition in Penang! Admission is free.


Kindly refer to the above flyer for details on the time, venues and dates.

和平之声...

各位先生,女士们,盛情邀请您们参与这项国际和平展览与和平讲座,"从暴力文化到和平文化--人的精神变革". 此次和平展将从 (十月二十三至十一月四日)进行, 进场免费. 请参考以上的资讯,日期,时间与地点.

和平讲座只在27/10/07, 假理大礼堂(Dewan Tuanku Syed Putra)举行, 时间是7:30pm~10pm.

Map to the Location

Map to the Location

2007年10月23日星期二

From A Culture of Violence to a Culture of Peace
















Golden Anniversaries” are special moments, not least because they happen only ONCE in a lifetime. Pioneers. Visionaries. Patriots. – People like Mahathma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Tunku Abdul Rahman ; these are MEN dedicated to enriching others.

History has a purpose. We learn from its mistakes so that we may NOT repeat them. We learn from its achievements so that we may emulate them. If only to learn the best.

It is said that today the nations of the world spend more money on military preparations than the total spent on positive development and that the scientific knowledge and technical skills expended on military improvements far exceed what is devoted to more constructive and beneficial ends. In short, humanity is devoting a vast amount of its resources and wealth to self destruction.

In August this year, Malaysia turned 50. Think about it.? We have been a nation for 50 years, since 1957. How far we have come? What have we achieved? Five decades of development and progress.

When the first cries of “MERDEKA” were jubilantly roared across the country led by the late Tunku Abdul Rahman, somewhere across the Pacific one week later , on Sept 08, 1957, the second president of the Soka Gakkai, JOSEI TODA, made a historic declaration condemning nuclear weapons “an absolute evil” fundamentally threatening the dignity and right to live of all humanity.

Toda issued this declaration at the height of the Cold War between East and West. Both Eastern and Western blocks were frantically engaged in developing nuclear weapons and conducting test blasts. Nuclear weapons, capable of destroying all human life, cast a dark and terrifying shadow over the destiny of all humankind.

Toda called out strongly for their total abolition, stating that he wished to rip out the claws hidden in the very depths of these weapons. Toda saw such thinking as a product of the darkest aspects of human nature.

Today, 50 years later, the significance and farsightedness of Toda’s approach stand out more strikingly than it has ever done before. Almost 20 years after the end of the Cold War, the ever present threat of nuclear multiplication continues to cast its dark shadow over the international community. Despite Post-Cold War reductions, some 12,000 nuclear weapons remain in active service (“deplored”).

The total of both deployed and non-deployed weapons today is estimated to be in the region of 27,000 warheads. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the danger of nuclear weapons falling into the hands of terrorists is very threatening.

The problem needs an urgent solution. The abolition of nuclear weapons is an imperative that can no longer be postponed. What then is the fundamental solution to abolish nuclear weapons that Toda is attacking so vigorously?

The answer to this is the SGI’s movement for “human revolution” based on the daily struggle to transform our lives from within is an essential aspect of the historic challenge to rid the world of nuclear weapons. At the same time, the awakened solidarity of the world’s people is of the utmost importance, for only this can lead to an unstoppable current towards the renunciation of war.

The SGI aims to empower the world’s citizens to rid this Earth of needless suffering and lead lives of peace and happiness. Although anti-nuclear movements were emerging in Japan, the vast majority of people based their opinions about nuclear weapons on the ideology of one side or the other.

President Toda wished to inspire in his audience the belief that since human beings created the atomic bomb, human beings must also ensure its abolition. He wished to arouse them from their state of fear and helplessness in the face of this monstrous threat fifty years ago. And today, 50 years later, this arousing awakening still stands.

Our willingness to live comfortably while ignoring reality is the silent violence to the lag of interest that could threaten the human race. On the other hand, assuming that this reality will continue unchanged into the future is a major human weakness. In an increasingly interdependent world, we share responsibility for the security of all human beings. Our challenge is to rise above violence – to stop the rapid buildup of arms and forever ban the most fearsome weapons in history.

WE MUST DO SOMETHING……
Is it possible to transform the culture of violence into a culture of peace?

WE THINK IT IS POSSIBLE!
Becoming informed and sharing awareness is the first important step towards achieving this goal. Spreading awareness will make a difference because knowledge empowers

In this regard, Soka Gakkai Malaysia too will continue to work alongside people of like mind in building a culture of peace in Malaysia and the rest of the world in the twenty-first century.
This is why "From A Culture of Violence to a Culture of Peace: Transforming the Human Spirit" exhibition is being held.

Although it may seem like a detour, this is in fact the shortest possible way to the peace and security of the world.

Contributed by Eric Mah (MD - H4C3)








Video (Click on Play button below)



The destructive force of the Atomic Bomb Video

2007年10月22日星期一

SGI's AntiNuclear Efforts
















SGI's Antinuclear Activities
Sep 1957, Josei Toda, the second president of the Soka Gakkai, issued a declaration calling for the complete abolition of nuclear weapons.
It has became the foundation of the Soka Gakkai's peace movement and its grassroots activities to promote peace and nuclear abolition.










Toda saw nuclear weapons as an absolute evil, an embodiment of the destructive aspect inherent in the lives of all people that seeks to subjugate, control, and ultimately destroy others.
He believed that nuclear weapons, which threaten the collective right of humanity to exist, should be absolutely condemned. Toda wished to "expose and rip out the claws that lie hidden in the very depths of such weapons."












Toda's successor, SGI President Daisaku Ikeda, has spearheaded and inspired the organization's global peace movement.
His annual Peace Proposals, examining global problems and outlining viable solutions grounded in a Buddhist humanist perspective, suggest broad themes and approaches to the SGI members.
In 2006 Ikeda proposed an International Decade of UN Action for the abolition of nuclear weapons in partnership with civil society.

There are several activities for Peace organized by SGI:

Peace Proposals
Every January 26 since 1983, President Ikeda has published an annual Peace Proposal on the anniversary of the founding of SGI.
Consistently emphasizes the importance of the UN and appeals for the reform of the UN as "the congress of humanity."
Praising President Ikeda’s long-term support for the UN and several global peace movements, the United Nations has honored Daisaku Ikeda with the
– UN Peace Award
– UN Special Commendation for Outstanding NGO Activities
– UN Peace Medal.

It is notable that several propositions presented in the Peace Proposals have been realized in international society.

For example,
– Ikeda called for "a global conference renouncing war" and "the adoption of a Declaration for the Renunciation of War."
– The Hague Appeal for Peace (HAP), the largest civil society international peace conference in history was held in May 1999 in The Hague and created new partnerships between citizens, governments, and international organizations.
– At the HAP attendees adopted a global statement supporting a culture of peace, urging the abolition of war and the elimination of nuclear weapons, and stating that peace is a human right.
– The Hague Appeal for Peace and Justice for the 21st Century, and planned continuing actions to achieve their goals. Moreover, the HAP agenda became an official UN document.
– President Ikeda founded several institutions that engage in the peace research.
– The Institute of Oriental Philosophy (1962)
– The Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research (1996)
– have attracted the attention of intellectuals all over the world as institutes whose studies contribute to world peace.
– The SGI campaign against nuclear weapons began in 1975 collected 10 million signatures on a statement calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons were collected by young Soka Gakkai and presented to Secretary-General of the United Nations Kurt Waldheim at the UN Headquarters.
– In September 1997 David Krieger of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation met Daisaku Ikeda and asked for the cooperation of SGI in collecting Abolition 2000 petition signatures. SGI youth collected "13 million voices of hope" within three months, from Dec 97 through Jan 98 on the Abolition 2000 petition calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons, a monumental effort achieved by young people, under President Ikeda’s strong leadership.



Petition Drives
In 1973, youth members of Soka Gakkai Japan gathered 10 million signatures supporting abolition which Ikeda presented to then Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim at the UN in 1975.Abolition 2000 International Petition: In 1997, SGI members collected over 13 million signatures, mainly in Japan, as part of the Abolition 2000 petition drive. The signatures were presented in 1998 to the chairperson of the Preparatory Committee of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT PrepCom) and to the United Nations Secretary-General through a representative.







http://www.abolition2000.org/
















Exhibitions
The "Nuclear Arms: Threat to Our World" exhibition was first presented in 1982 at the UN Headquarters. The exhibition was viewed by 1.2 million people in 25 cities in 16 countries, including Moscow, Beijing, Paris and New Delhi.

"Nuclear Arms: Threat to Humanity," launched in 1996, is an updated version of "Threat to Our World." It was viewed by about a half million people in 14 cities in eight Latin American countries. During a showing in Mexico in 2002, the youth members of SGI-Mexico collected 60,000 signatures on an antinuclear petition which was submitted to the Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean (OPANAL).




















The "Linus Pauling and the Twentieth Century" exhibition introduces the life and achievements of this tireless campaigner for peace and nuclear abolition. Since 1998, it has toured seven cities in the United States including Washington, D.C., and five cities in Japan. To date, it has been viewed by more than one million people.A new international exhibition on nuclear weapons abolition, human security and building a culture of peace will be launched by the SGI in 2007.


Conferences
August 5, 2007
Hiroshima Women's Peace Committee Sponsors A-Bomb Experience Rally

August 8, 2007
Soka Gakkai youth of Hiroshima held the 122nd in a series of "Lectures on Hiroshima" at the Soka Gakkai Hiroshima Ikeda Peace Hall.

September 1, 2007
SGI-Brazil Sponsors Student Conference on Nuclear Abolition
"Nuclear Arms: The Evolving Challenge," commemorated the 50th anniversary of second Soka Gakkai President Josei Toda's call for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
Professor Arno Wehling, president of the Brazilian Institute of History and Geography




Publications
Factually recording the horror of war as ordinary people experienced itThe youth of Soka Gakkai Japan compiled and published 80 volumes of more than 4,000 individual war and atomic bomb-victim experiences from World War II between 1974 and 1985. The Soka Gakkai Women's Peace Committee in Japan published a 20-volume work of women's war experiences. In 2005, the Soka Gakkai Women's Peace Committee in Japan compiled a DVD of 31 women war survivors talking about their experiences for educational purposes.



Quotes
* Weapons of mass destruction have come into existence through the workings of the human heart: our only hope, then, of reducing or eliminating the terrors they entail must lie squarely in the inner transformation of our lives.
Daisaku Ikeda

* Here, then, is the problem which we present to you, stark and dreadful and inescapable: Shall we put an end to the human race; or shall mankind renounce war?
Russell-Einstein Manifesto, 1955

* . . . the world was not meant to be a prison in which man awaits his execution.
John F. Kennedy

* The proposition that nuclear weapons can be retained in perpetuity and never used-accidentally or by decision-defies credibility. The only complete defense is the elimination of nuclear weapons and assurance that they will never be produced again.
Canberra Commission on the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, 1996

* Weapons of mass destruction cannot be uninvented. But they can be outlawed, as biological and chemical weapons already have been, and their use made unthinkable.
Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission, 2006


The new global SGI antinuclear exhibition
"From a Culture of Violence to a Culture of Peace:
Transforming the Human Spirit"
“Arms-based Security vs. Human Security"
"Changing Our Worldview"
Facts on global efforts to control and eliminate nuclear weapons.




























Contributed by Chew KHian Kee ( Regional YMD Leader, Penang)

2007年10月20日星期六

In the Begining of the Destructive Force


In 1932, James Chadwick discovered the neutron, a small atomic particle with mass but no charge. This turned out to be an extremely useful tool for bombarding atomic nuclei. Two years later, Enrico Fermi bombarded uranium with neutrons, hoping that it would cause the uranium to emit a beta particle and become a new, artificial element above uranium in the periodic table. It seemed he had done this and in the process showed that slow-moving neutrons were more effective than high-energy neutrons for the task. Fermi won the Nobel Prize for his work in 1938. He was a committed antifascist and when he and his wife left Italy for the Nobel ceremony, it was for good. They settled in the United States.

By the end of 1941, British studies had outlined the materials requirements for an atomic bomb and uranium research was going on at about 12 American universities. In 1942 Fermi's team at the University of Chicago created a sustained chain reaction of fission for the first time. Also during 1942, the Manhattan District of the Corps of Engineers was formed to construct three secret "cities" for major portions of atomic bomb development. At Oak Ridge, Tennessee, a nuclear reactor and plant for separating uranium 235 from natural uranium was built. In Hanford, Washington, three reactors were built to extract plutonium (another element with atoms that could be split) from a non-fissionable type of uranium. Finally a lab for the design and construction of the bomb was built at Los Alamos, New Mexico. The cost of these Manhattan Project installations was $2 billion.















J. Robert Oppenheimer was made director of the Los Alamos lab, and in 1943 he gathered about 200 of the best scientists in the field to live and work there. They designed two bombs, one using uranium (called "Little Boy") and one using plutonium ("Fat Man"). By early 1945, the plants at Oak Ridge and Hanford had produced enough raw material for testing. On July 13, 1945, at a site called Trinity 100 km northwest of Alamogordo, a plutonium bomb was assembled and brought to the top of a tower. The test was postponed by thunderstorms. On July 16, the bomb was detonated, producing an intense flash of light seen by observers in bunkers 10 km away and a fireball that expanded to 600 meters in two seconds. It grew to a height of more than 12 km, boiling up in the shape of a mushroom. Forty seconds later, the blast of air from the bomb reached the observation bunkers, along with a long and deafening roar of sound. The explosive power, equivalent to 18.6 kilotons of TNT, was almost four times larger than predicted.

Some of the Los Alamos scientists had circulated a petition asking President Truman to give Japan a warning and a chance to surrender before using the bomb. Some signed, some didn't, but the project remained a secret until the end.

Twenty-one days after the test, the B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped the uranium bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later the plutonium bomb was used to bomb Nagasaki. The two bombs killed approximately 150,000 people when they fell. Earlier in the year, intense bombing of Tokyo with conventional bombs had killed about 100,000 people without causing Japan to surrender, but on August 15, 1945, Japan officially surrendered, bringing an end to World War II.

2007年10月19日星期五

What's in the News.....

The Star (03 Nov 2007):
U.S. says experts to start disabling N.Korean nuclear
More news.... http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/11/3/worldupdates/2007-11-03t160912z_01_nootr_rtrmdnc_0_india-303073-3&sec=worldupdates


The Star (01 Nov 2007):
U.S. pilot who dropped Hiroshima bomb dies

More news.... http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/11/2/worldupdates/2007-11-01t234136z_01_nootr_rtrmdnc_0_india-302815-1&sec=worldupdates

HCTV News (25 Oct 2007)
“从暴力文化到和平文化──人的精神变革”反核武展
More news...http://www.hctvnews.net/hc_web/hc_read.asp?n=2704&rlt=1&cls

The Star (29 Oct 2007)
Young ones say no to war

More news.... http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2007/10/29/north/19294168&sec=north


Malaysiakini (27 Oct 2007)
Culture of peace: Transform the human spirit

More news... http://www.malaysiakini.com/rentakini/74073


Documentary clip from TV New Zealand about an interview given by Joycelyn Foo, a SGI member in conjunction with the peace exhibition and seminar at the NZ Parliament on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vva7HTB8AXU (1st Clip)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12_fOCJxQXs (2nd Clip)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vT7eKUNQmIo (3rd Clip)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hahy1oJEjCc (4th Clip)

2007年10月17日星期三

Photo Gallery

From the Culture of Violence to A Culture of Peace:
Transforming the Human Spirit Exhibition

2007年10月15日星期一

Transforming the Human Spirit Exhibition

Comments on the Exhibition:















“Brilliant exhibition! Congratulations!"
- Dato Dr. Ronald S. McCoy (Peace Talk Speaker)

















“Inspiring to Action”
- Dato (Dr.) Anwar Fazal (Peace Talk Speaker)
















"Feel peace is very importance to everyone .... we shall established start from our personalities, family, company, society and etc."
- Chan Choon Hong (Seberang Jaya)











Statistics of the Exhibition
---------------------------------

Total to date: 12,437 persons

Total to date: 13,943 students

Total to date: 10,967 persons