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TABLE OF CONTENTS Rene Wadlow, "Ibrahim Rugova: Nonviolent Actions in Violent
Kosovo” Franck Biancheri, "Tomorrow's common hope: Israeli and Palestinian youth are dreaming of mobility” Hazem Saghiyeh, "Opinion is a Tough Task in the Palestinian-Israeli
Conflict" Uri Avnery, "A disgusting
exercise" Lord George Carey, "Letting Go of
Legitimizing Religion" Gershon Baskin, "New Opportunities for Building Peace" Gershon Baskin, "Collective Punishment Doesn't Really Work" Mohamed Mosaad, "Interfaith Dialogue:
The Overlooked Objectives" Gul Rukh Rahman, "Children of Abraham - Jews and Muslim" Stephen M. Sachs, “Returning the World to Harmony: Getting the Peace in American Indian Tradition” |
Vol. XX, No.3 Spring 2006 Nonviolent Change Journal helps to network the peace community: providing
dialoguing, exchanges of ideas, articles, reviews, reports and announcements
of the activities of peace related groups and meetings, reviews of world developments
relating to nonviolent change and resource information concerning the
development of human relations on the basis of mutual respect. IBRAHIM
RUGOVA: NONVIOLENT ACTIONS IN VIOLENT KOSOVO Rene Wadlow
February, 13 2006
Just as negotiations on the
"final status" of Kosovo were to start on January 25 under the
chairmanship of Martii Ahtisaari, former President of Finland and a seasoned
negotiator, Ibrahim Rugova, President of Kosovo, died of lung cancer in the
Kosovo capital Pristina. The start of the final status talks have been
postponed but should start relatively soon as the negotiating team that
Rugova had put together should be able to continue, but without the
long-range vision and spirit of reconciliation that Rugova represented. As Rugova had written recently, nearly
seven years "after NATO went to war to stop wide-spread human rights
abuses in Kosovo, an interim United Nations mission still administers the
province alongside its democratically elected government, while troops from
more than 30 countries provide security.
And despite continuing difficulties, success is in sight." Success is a relative term, but for a man
who knew that he was dying and who had been the moral and political leader of
the Kosovo Albanians since the early 1980s, he had seen vast changes, even as
he deplored the use of violence such as the NATO air offensive against Ibrahim Rugova considered himself as a
follower of Mahatma Gandhi and was often called the 'Albanian or Balkan
Gandhi'. He advocated non-violent action and self-reliant economic development. Like Gandhi, he tried to keep lines of
communication open to the colonial overlords - thus the visit to
Milosevic. Like Gandhi, he had many
followers who approved of his aims but who were not deeply convinced of the
value of non-violent methods. Like Gandhi, there was a violent section of his
own people who wanted to kill him to prove that violence was the only road to
independence. The violent fringe became the Kosovo
Liberation Army (KLA) which started in 1996 to kill Serb administrators in
Kosovo and Albanian civil servants as 'collaborators' in the hope that such
provocation would lead to strong Serb repression which in turn would provoke
external aid to independence. This
policy bore fruit in 1999. There were
wide-spread rumours in the late 1990s that the KLA was plotting to kill
Rugova, and recently he narrowly escaped being killed when the car in which
he was riding was badly damaged in an armed attack. Conditions in Kosovo in the 1980s brought
two men to power who by training and previous experience were most unlikely
to hold such posts: Both became symbols of nationalism: Slobodan Milosevic
and Ibrahim Rugova. Milosevic was by
training a banker who had spent a good number of years in the After the death of Tito in 1980,
tensions between Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo grew stronger - nearly 90
percent of the population being Albanian, but Kosovo is considered the
original 'homeland' of the Serbs and a landmark of mytho-legendary significance. Under the 1974 Yugoslav constitution, the
Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo was a 'constituent part' of the By 1981, Kosovars began agitation to
become a full republic within the Yugoslav Federation. This agitation was considered dangerous by
Serbs and was countered by strong police measures. In 1983 there were
wide-spread protests followed by massive arrests. Milosevic was too young to play a
leadership role in Yugoslav politics, being only 46 in 1986 and his
technocratic suggestions for economic management had little popular appeal. Nearly by accident, Milosevic found in
the Kosovo issue and the defense of the Serb minority living there an issue
which stirred many Serbs. He took on
the role of Serbian nationalist and finally brought the country to economic
ruin despite his real competence in economic mattes. Likewise, Rugova had to focus upon the
defense of Albanians and their culture in Kosovo. He first concentrated on overcoming the
family and clanic divisions which weakened Albanian society from within. He helped to organize large ceremonies
where family heads were able to renounce their antagonisms toward other
families and to forgive past wrongs. By 1990, the Serb-Kosovar antagonism
reached the breaking point. The
Kosovars declared independence - which no country recognized. The Serbian government fired a large number
of Albanians working in the Kosovo administration as potential enemies. At
this time, Rugova followed the inspiration of Gandhi and the Congress Party
of India and created a parallel administration and society. Rugova helped set up a parallel Albanian
school system from primary through university, meeting in homes and barns.
All the institutions of Kosovo largely stopped as the Albanians created their own parallel
administration. The 'real government'
was the parallel government, and in 1992 Rugova was elected president in
parallel state elections. The most difficult was to create a
parallel economy for an area that was largely rural and one of the poorest in
Unfortunately, Rugova's Gandhian efforts
were not supported by European governments or even powerful NGOs as attention
was focused on the fighting in other parts of The constitutional, economic and
political issues of final status negotiations are complex and are likely to
prove difficult. Without the
non-violent philosophy of Rugova, there will be a gap of moderate voices
seeking reconciliation. The action and
philosophy of Rugova merit to be better known outside Kosovo. Perhaps his spirit can continue to inspire
the negotiations. Rene Wadlow is editor of the online
journal of world politics www.transnational-perspectives.org and an NGO
representative to the UN, Note:
For a good account of Rugova and his efforts by a non-violent activist see
Howard Clark. Civil Resistance in Kosovo ( TOMORROW'S
COMMON HOPE: ISRAELI
AND PALESTINIAN YOURTH ARE DREAMING OF MOBILITY Franck Biancheri Distributed
by the Common Ground News Service permission
to republish In December 2005, at the invitation of
the Young Israeli Forum for Cooperation (YIFC), I held a series of seminars and
discussions with Israeli and Palestinian youth. During our debates, I asked a mixed group
of these young people a very simple, but unusual, question: "If our
meeting room was a time machine bringing us into 2025, what would you dream
of finding in the It is easy to imagine how these young
people feel trapped. In a country the
size of While their elders are talking about the
important, but static, concepts of land and states, the Twenty-First Century
Generation expressed a simple, decent human expectation and right. They dream of being able to do what their
peers are doing elsewhere: moving, traveling, visiting. The past generation of leaders from both
sides, as well as the international community, have not been able to fulfil
this very basic human right. They have
even managed to further restrict movement in the last decade, and especially
now, with the construction of the barrier. From my European experience, it is
clear that people need a common dream to be able to build peace. After speaking with the youth of I am also convinced that this is where
the European Union has a major role to play. We Europeans are the very symbol
of this cross-borders, cross-cultural mobility of which young Palestinians
and Israelis dream. As one of them said to me: "I am amazed to see that,
when I chat with friends in Europe, they may be in It is vital that * Franck Biancheri is the
Director of Studies and Strategy for Europe 2020 where he heads a series of
seminars, Global Europe 2020, that focuses on the future of EU Common
External Policy. OPINION
IS A TOUGH TASK IN PALESTINIAN-ISRAELI CONFLICT Hazem
Saghiyeh Source:
Common Ground News Service, December 3, 2005. Distributed
by the Common Ground News Service permission
to republish. And after the Israeli Army invaded In both cases, Israelis and Palestinians
were mobilized in peaceful directions, as they came to see the grave damage
caused by war, and they recognized that stability and cooperation provide
generous rewards. A sense of utilitarianism is always a pre-requisite for the
emergence of noble ideas. Indeed, during the Middle Ages, Europeans created
the idea of „tolerance‰ after they realized the huge cost of religious wars.
Much more recently, American public opinion turned against the Vietnam War,
as the number of fatalities skyrocketed. The In such an atmosphere, national and
religious solidarity tends to dominate, as conservative views protect
orthodoxy. This, in turn, compels the rest of us to view history through dark
lenses and to look at the future as a natural, inevitable extension of the
past - where people inevitably will live by the sword (though the past itself
was never as bad as the one which has been invented by nationalists and fundamentalists). In situations like these, three dynamics
prevail. The first includes general approval of small steps, real or
apparent, that improve the situation and that continue until the next Israeli
raid or Palestinian suicide attack erases all progress. The The second dynamic consists of naïve
jubilation over what The third prevailing dynamic embraces
the philosophy, which has become conventional wisdom and which says that the
situation remains tolerable as long as it does not explode into something
worse. Somehow, statistical consciousness concerning the numbers of dead and
injured becomes more important than political consciousness aimed at
peacemaking. Public opinion has fallen prey to a herd mentality. It would do
us good to consult Freud, Elias Cavetti, and others to understand how
politics can degenerate into pathology, turning whole societies into horrible
clinical cases. In order to employ public opinion in the
pursuit of peace, it is necessary to know the difference between the true
moralist and the impostor; the former knows his duties, while the latter
knows the duties of others. Hence, the former acts morally without preaching
to others, while the latter preaches morality but does not abide by it. With
the exception of a select group of writers, journalists and activists, the
collective Israeli voice today instructs the Palestinians on what they should
do. With the exception of President Abbas and his immediate circle, the
collective Palestinian voice similarly tells the Israelis what they should
do. But there is one important difference, although the results are the same.
In Time, it seems, is not working in favor
of those who wish for peace. For this reason, the name 'dreamers' will stay
for a long time as a synonym for them * Hazem
Saghiyeh is a Lebanese veteran writer, commentator, and columnist for the
Arabic newspaper al-Hayat in A
DISGUSTING EXERCISE Uri
Avnery March
18, 2006 Reprinted
from Gush Shalom list serve THE CENTRAL theme of this article is
disgust. Therefore I apologize in advance for the frequent use of this and
similar words. In the thesaurus I find quite a number of synonyms: loathing,
revulsion, dislike, nausea, distaste, aversion, antipathy, abomination,
repulsion, abhorrence, repugnance, odium, detestation, and some more. They
are all present in my feelings about the action that took place in IT WAS abhorrent, first of all,
because it was an election propaganda gimmick. For a politician to send the
army in to collect votes is an abhorrent act. In this action, three people
were killed. Many more lives, Palestinian and Israeli, were put at risk. The horrible cynicism of the decision
was plain for all to see. Even the voters noticed it: in a public opinion
poll two days later, 47% said that the decision was influenced by electoral
considerations, only 49% thought otherwise. This is not the first time for Ehud
Olmert to walk over dead bodies on his way to power. As mayor of Olmert had a problem. His party was
slowly sinking in the polls. As time passed, some of the Kadima fans started
to notice that Olmert, after all, is no In general, one should beware of a
civilian politician who succeeds a leader crowned with military laurels. It
is enough to mention the classic case of Anthony Eden, the heir of Winston
Churchill, who initiated the WHAT DOES that war remind us about? The
collusion. The British wanted to topple Gamal
Abd-al-Nasser, because he had the temerity to expropriate the property of the
British shareholders of the Suez Canal Company. The French wanted to bring
him down because of his support for the Algerian war of liberation. They
conspired with David Ben-Gurion, who wanted to destroy the newly re-equipped
Egyptian army. The main middleman of the collusion was Shimon Peres, now No.
2 on the Kadima list. It worked like this: Israeli
paratroopers, commanded by Ariel Sharon (founder of Kadima), were dropped
near the The One thing should be said in favor of George
Bush and Tony Blair (and his miserable Foreign Minister, Jack Straw): they
have returned the oldest profession in the world to the oldest city in the
world. The scarlet thread of Rahav the Harlot (Joshua, 2) leads to this act
of prostitution. LIEUTENANT GENERAL Dan Halutz can be
proud of this victory. In the past, he became famous for saying that all he
feels is a slight bump on his wing when he drops a bomb on a civilian
neighborhood, even if women and children are also killed. After that he sleeps
well, he said. Now he has won real glory: with the help of dozens of tanks,
gunships and heavy bulldozers he has succeeded in capturing six unarmed
prisoners in the tranquil, non-violent little town that lives off tourism. In the course of the action, Halutz'
soldiers created a disgusting picture that has sullied the image of the
Israeli army in the eyes of the hundreds of millions who saw it on their
screens. They ordered the Palestinian policemen and prisoners to take their
clothes off, and then let them be photographed, again and again - and again
and again - in their underpants. There was no need for that. The pretext,
that they might have hidden explosive belts on their body, was ridiculous
under these circumstances. And even if it had been necessary, it could surely
have been done far from the cameras. No doubt: the intention was to
humiliate, to debase, to satisfy sadistic tendencies. A person can, perhaps, get over
beatings, or even torture. But he cannot ever forget humiliation, especially
when it was done in full view of his family, friends, colleagues and all
people around the world. How many new terrorists were born at that moment? On
that day I happened to visit friends in a Palestinian village in the THE ISRAELI media had a ball. Not just a
ball, they went gaga for sheer joy. They contributed their special part to
the loathsome event and stood to attention behind the government. Like a
flock of parrots, unanimously repeating the mendacious official version. It was a festival of brain-washing. The
"Murderers of Ze'evi" have been captured! It was our national duty!
We could not rest until they fell into our hands, dead or alive! These three words - "Murderers of
Ze'evi" - turned into a mantra. They were repeated endlessly on radio
and television, and appeared in the printed newspapers (all of them!) and the
speeches of the politicians (all of them!). That's how it is: Israelis are
"murdered", Palestinians are "eliminated". Why, for Gods sake? Rehavam Zee'vi, a
cabinet minister at the time, preached day and night about
"transfer" - the euphemism for driving the Palestinians out of This is part of the endless chain of
violence: The Israeli army killed Abu-Ali Mustafa. He was succeeded by Ahmed
Sa'adat, who, according to the Israeli security service, ordered the killing
of Rehavam Ze'evi in revenge, and whose capture was the aim of the Let's be clear: I oppose all murders.
Theirs and ours. The murder of Abu-Ali Mustafa and the murder of Rehavam
Ze'evi. But whoever spills the blood of a Palestinian leader cannot complain
about the shedding of the blood of an Israeli one. THERE IS still another side to the
affair, which is no less disgusting: the attitude towards the keeping of
agreements. Sa'adat and his colleagues were held in What has happened now in Israeli governments often regard the
breach of an agreement as a patriotic act if it serves our purpose.
Agreements are binding only on the other side. This is not only a primitive
morality, it is also damaging to our national interests. Who will sign an
agreement with us, knowing that it obligates only him? How can Many Israelis believe that the LETTING
GO OF LEGITIMIZING RELIGION Lord
George Carey Source:
Common Ground News Service December
3, 2005 Distributed
by the Common Ground News Service Permission
to republish It was at that meeting that I began to
discern some of the weaknesses as well as strengths of institutional faith.
The strength and authority of religion is, of course, often taken for
granted, even when it is ignored. It is simply quite mad of any politician to
think that peace in the At our first meeting in But I saw through the eyes of my
colleagues one of the problems of institutional faith. It is difficult to let
go of power whether one is religious or political. It is extremely difficult
to criticize our own faith because we might be misunderstood by our own
co-religionists! How difficult it is for Jewish leaders to say: "We have
not fully understood the pain of Palestinians in the way they have been
'forced' from their ancestral homes and made to be refugees." How
difficult it is for Muslim leaders to say to Jews: "We abhor suicide
bombers and we must separate ourselves from them and condemn their tactics as
inimical with Islam itself." Similarly with Christians- I longed to hear
some of the Palestine Christian leaders see the Jewish point of view ˆ and
when it came, it came reluctantly and not at all convincingly. It is hard to break from our cultural
roots and begin the process towards healing because it appears to be an
unnecessary surgery. After all, aren‚t all the problems of the world someone
else‚s fault? Surely we are not to blame! Well did Jonathan Swift assert
bleakly over two hundred years ago, "We have just enough religion to
make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another." But at If religion is being driven from the
heart of political action and being ignored by politicians could it just be
that we have not allowed our faiths to speak to the problems of our day?
Could it be that we have become custodians, protectors, of religion and have
not allowed the radical message of all our faiths to love one another? At Lord Carey was Archbishop of NEW
OPPORTUNITIES FOR BUILDING PEACE Gershon Baskin Source: The November
22, 2005 \Distributed
by the Common Ground News Service permission
to republish. One conclusion of any rational and
scientific discussion is that cooperation and building interdependence is the
key to both survival and prosperity. We are not alone in facing the issues of
how to provide affordable clean water for our increasing population and
ensure a reliable flow of energy to meet our growing economy. Cooperation
among conflicting parties involved in water disputes increases access to
water and lowers the risk of armed conflict over scarce resources. Water and energy can be utilized as a
catalyst for conflict resolution and for peace building. We can learn from
other areas of the world and other periods in history where key commodities
were used to build foundations on which peaceful relations between former
enemies were advanced. Perhaps the best example can be found in
the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). This was the first treaty
organization in Economically, the Coal and Steel
Community achieved early success; between 1952 and 1960 iron and steel
production rose by 75% in the ECSC nations, and industrial production by 58%.
When overproduction of coal became a problem after 1959, especially in THE PRESENT-day parallel to coal and
steel is water and energy. There is a clear win-win potential for
both The development of THE PALESTINIAN co-CEO of the
Israel/Palestine Centre for Research and Information, Hanna Siniora, a
visionary Palestinian leader, has suggested for the past several years that Peace is built by developing mutual
interests and interdependence that make violence and conflict obsolete. For
years we have been working on the premise that we must reach 'end of
conflict' agreements before we can pursue long-lasting alliances that both
rely on and build interdependence. It is time to reexamine the axiomatic
notion that real cooperation before full peace is not possible. *Gershon
Baskin is Co-CEO of the Israel/Palestine Centre for Research and Information. COLLECTIVE
PUNISHMENT DOESN'T REALLY WORK Gershon
Baskin Source: The January 2, 2006 Distributed by the Common Ground News
Service permission to republish The alternative strategy looked at It should also be mentioned that
virtually nothing from the pilot model of assisting and ensuring success from
Like in IN Immediately after the disengagement There is little doubt that the
continued deterioration of life in FOR YEARS now, even during the Lebanon
War, the IDF held firmly to the working assumption that collective punishment
is effective. The basic idea is that if the local population suffers, they
will pressure their government to fight terrorism. This has never happened. Likewise, in AMONG THE upper echelons of the IDF it
is clear that most senior officers recognize that these policies of
collective punishment against the Palestinians provide more answers to
Israeli public opinion needs and concerns than to fighting and preventing
terrorism. In light of decades of failure it is
time to evaluate the chances of success of a different course, of different
policies. The policy recommended here is valid for the Gaza Strip only and
not for the If, for instance, the Palestinians find
and close down a tunnel used for smuggling weapons, Positive security performance by the
Palestinian Authority would have a price tag that It is time to try a new course that,
rather than threatening and punishing, rewards positive actions and
encourages the public to support an increasingly better reality. The
alternative is more despair and hopelessness. Gershon Baskin is the co-CEO of the
Israel/Palestine Centre for Research and Information. INTERFAITH
DIALOGUE: THE OVERLOOKED OBJECTIVES Mohamed
Mosaad Source:
Common Ground News Service December
8, 2005 Distributed
by the Common Ground News Service permission
to publish
To repair this picture let us consider
two objectives, which are unfortunately frequently overlooked. First,
scholars should apply their knowledge to seriously counter the conflict
discourse. In its Islamic variant this discourse evolves around a number of
essential concepts such as Jihad, Martyrdom, The Jews, To call this discourse fundamentalist
and attribute it to some fringe extremists, who "do not represent the
real Islam," has always proved to be a failing and, in fact, a
hypocritical strategy. The overwhelming Muslim majority believes Jihad,
Martyrdom, the Scholars, therefore, must quit composing
peace statements, a task many people can do, and commit themselves to the
task only they can promote. They should create, develop and further an
Islamically authentic discourse of peace. Such a discourse must be
tradition-friendly; one that pays serious attention to the holy text and
builds on, not ignores, the Muslims‚ historical experience and socio-cultural
forms. Only a discourse like this can serve as a legitimate outlet for the
majority of religious Muslims, who long for peace but can not neglect their
faith. Such a discourse is not impossible, given the richness and diversity
of a multilayered tradition that has been carved out and produced through a
plethora of times and locales. The second ignored objective is the
engagement of religious communities in interfaith activities. Interfaith
dialogue has to move from the five star hotels to the neighborhood mosques,
churches and synagogues. Religious people of different religious backgrounds
have to meet frequently, listen to each other, communicate humanely and share
what they value the most: their individual religious and spiritual
experiences. That should be allowed and nourished in a safe space devoid of
political representations and full of personal and intimate relations. In conclusion, scholars have to create
and develop an authentic discourse of peace and understanding. The religious
communities, on the other hand, need neither preaching nor clerical
leadership. Motivated by an authentic discourse, they have to get directly
involved in dialogue and peacebuilding. The activist scholar/theologian laity
situation we are locked in has to be urgently reversed. Mohamed Mosaad, an Egyptian psychiatrist,
anthropologist, and freelance writer. He is an interfaith dialogue activist
and serves currently as the Middle East and CHILDREN
OF ABRAHAM - JEWS AND MUSLIM Gul Rukh
Rahman Source:
Common Ground News Service (www.commongroundnews.org December
8, 2005 Distributed
by the Common Ground News Service permission
to publish The 'other' and the problems they create
- have been used as an excuse to hide behind the ignorance that has shaped
our views about each other. The mass media - in most part - has dehumanized
the 'other' and has played a significant role in perpetuating the distrust,
misperceptions, skepticism, fear, hatred and violence against each other. Islam and Judaism - the two monotheistic
faiths, have lost their identities in the political chaos of today. The
distinction between religious identities and that of political one has been
blurred to a point where Islam equates to Arabs and terrorists and to be a
Jew means to be an Israeli. Neither all Muslims are Arabs nor all Jews are
Israelis and neither do all adhere to the same political philosophies. Most of
us today emphatically defend our political positions but have lost focus on
creating and having a constructive dialogue between Islam and Judaism. Not
only have these two Abrahamic religions shared the same roots and ancestry
through Prophet Abraham, they are joined together by faith in the One God. The Muslim testimony of faith - la ilaha
illa Allah, ("There is no god but God") - has been narrated in the
Torah by: "Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall
love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with
all your might." (Deuteronomy 6:4-5). While the latter words are not
found in the Muslim testimony of faith, they are found in the Koran:
"Truly the believers are those whose hearts quiver when God is
remembered." (8:2). Islam has a deeply universal spirit. Its message for
all humanity is one of peace and mutual respect. It has built into it respect
for Judaism and Christianity. As Muslims and Jews, we have a
responsibility to create a world where we can live together in peace and with
dignity. Many of us believe that Jews and Muslims cannot co-exist because of
the political divide. But both religions emphasize the need to live
peacefully with others. Prophet Mohammed (May Allah's peace and blessings be
upon him) - once said: "None of you truly believes until he loves for
his brother what he loves for himself." The Torah says, "Love your
neighbour as yourself." (Leviticus 19:18). Even in the contemporary world, Among the Muslim world, it is still
rare to hear Muslim voices that encourage dialogue. Mostly, this attitude is
explained as an outcome of deep-rooted frustration. Muslims in most parts of
the Islamic world have been disillusioned by their governments, and they
blame the West for keeping those governments in power and hence their
reluctance to a dialogue. What as Muslims we overlook is that
nothing in Islam allows us to reject or harm a human being due to his/her
religion, language or ethnicity. The message of Islam requires respect of Jewish
faith. Jews have been called "The People of the Book," in the
Koran. Prophet Mohammed (May Peace be Upon Him) constantly taught respect for
all human beings, with all their differences. One day, he stood up out of
respect when he saw a funeral procession nearby. When someone told the
Prophet that it was that of a Jew, he replied "Is it not a human
soul?" During the initial phase of the
Prophet's time in The recognition of Moses and the Torah
is as much a part of Islamic teachings as the belief in all the other
prophets and the divine books. In the light of these teachings, we, as
Muslims, cannot continue to perpetuate the negative image of Jews in the name
of Islam. It is the responsibility of all Muslims and Jews to recognize the
link between Islam and Judaism. From the Muslim perspective, it also means
that we must respect the pain and suffering of the Jewish people during the
Second World War that has had long lasting effects on the Jewish way of
thinking. This is not to say that the Palestinian issue should be overlooked.
From a Jewish point of view, they need to understand that Islam is not their
enemy; it never was and will never be. Those who use Islam as a tool to
propagate hate and violence must not be taken as the voice of Islam. As much as it is the responsibilities of
the Muslims to take this message to their communities, it is as important for
Jewish communities all over the globe to reciprocate. Both sides must
understand that criticism of a regime either in the Muslim world or There are many who are working either as
individuals or as organizations to talk about this issue. One such
organization that is working to create bridges among the younger generation
of Jews and Muslims is Children of Abraham. They use the Internet to promote
dialogue, discovery and respect through thought provoking online discussion
as well as photography. What makes them unique is their use of photographic
images that draws upon the similarities in both the religions. Their students
come from more then 40 countries and their participation in the Discovery
Program will result in a Jewish-Muslim educational guidebook. Gul Rukh Rahman is the co-executive
director of Children of Abraham. She may be contacted at gulrukh@children-of-abraham.org RETURNING
THE WORLD TO HARMONY: GETTING
TO PEACE IN AMERICAN INDIAN TRADITION Stephen
M. Sachs, Professor of Political Science Emeritus, IUPUI Contemporary western efforts at getting
to peace are hampered by lack of a clear vision, by a great many people, of
peace as a dynamic, positive entity. Too often peace is seen as the negation
of a negative, such as "non-violence" or the absence of discord or
war, or as some ultimate static state beyond the practical realm1.
To help create a positive vision of peace to guide the world today, it is
useful to remember indigenous traditional concepts of peace, which are at the
roots of all modern cultures, of which the closely related sets of
traditional American Indian approaches to peace are typical. I: TRADITIONAL AMERICAN INDIAN APPROACHES TO BUILDING,
MAINTAINING AND RESTORING PEACE For traditional American Indians, the
ideal for individual and social life is harmony, and balance2
(which the Navajo call beauty [hozo]3),
based upon respect for all beings (and everything is alive, even the rocks
are living), in accordance with the natural order of which human beings were
a part and all are related. The Lakotas, for example, state this at the end
of prayers: Mitakue Oyasun:
"all my relations - amen!" - a word, which like the Hindu Om, when
fully stated contains all the vowels4. But harmony, balance,
beauty, peace is not automatic, one has to work continually to attain and
maintain it at every level. As the Chaudhuris say of the A major component of the natural and
human order, and a key to peace-harmony (seen slightly differently by different
indigenous cultures) is what some would call the principle of the circle,
itself based on a fundamental value of respect, which in an important sense
involves an equality between the whole and the part, at every level (i.e. the
whole at one level being the part at the next, e.g.: the individual in the
family or group, the family or group in the tribe, the tribe in the world).
As some Lakotas might understand it, the places in the circle have no meaning
without the whole of the circle, but there is no circle without each of the
individual places, which have their own qualities and ways of seeing. Hence
if anything is to be decided, everyone must be heard from in an inclusive
participatory process, in which everyone affected is a participant, and so far
as possible, everyone's concerns are worked into the decision.7
This means, also, that leaders, chosen for their fine qualities, are
primarily facilitators and announcers of collective decisions, though as
persons respected for their wisdom and integrity8 (something like
"virtue" - but that is a Roman, now Western concept, that isn't
quite the same as the American Indian sense of "good qualities"),
they do have influence and exercise what in an Eastern sense might be called
"guidance." Thus, every decision needs to include the input and
interests of the whole community, with the goal of maintaining balance for
the long term. And for native people, the community includes all beings (i.e.
the plants, animals, etc.), so that the concept of peace includes keeping the
natural environment in balance. Indeed, traditional Indian societies
functioned as families, with all tribal members treated as if they were
relatives, regardless of whether they were biologically related. As Ella
DeLoria said of the Dakota, this was a system that worked.9 Kinship was the all-important matter. Its demands and
dictates for all phases of social life were relentless and exact; but on the
other hand, its privileges and honorings and rewarding prestige were not only
tolerable but downright pleasant for all who conformed. By kinship all Dakota
people were held together in a great relationship that was theoretically
all-inclusive and co-extensive with the Dakota Domain. Everyone who was born
a Dakota belonged in it; nobody need be left outside. [And since being
Dakota, as with Indian societies generally, was more a matter of
participation in the community than blood, kinship included all who
effectively joined the community, whether they married in or were adopted, a
common practice throughout traditional Native America]. While all of the above teachings,
practices and social arrangements helped to establish the ideal of
peace-balance-harmony-beauty, and to approach and attempt to maintain it in
practice, Native North Americans understood that in a complex interactive
world, harmony will constantly be lost, individually and collectively, and
steps must be undertaken to regain it. Hence, on the spiritual-psychological
level, Indian cultures had ceremonies for reestablishing balance. For the
Navajo (Dine), for example, virtually all ceremonies are healing rituals to
return people to beauty. In addition to healing rituals for rebalancing
individuals and/or groups, many tribes had major rituals for the
"renewal of the earth and the people," such as the Sun Dance of the
Lakota and other plains, On the socio-political-economic level
(with some spiritual-psychological aspects) all native cultures traditionally
had what are often called "peace making" processes for settling
conflicts and disputes, and for redressing injuries and grievances. These are
almost always facilitated participatory processes for returning the parties
to harmony: good relationship. Thus tribal people more often dealt with harms
in ways that western legal systems would consider torts (injuries to be dealt
with by civil law) than crimes, with the emphasis on restoring the
preexisting situation and/or set of relations, rather than attaining justice
or retribution. This might involve a gift or payment for damages, such as
when a Kiowa or Cheyenne man eloped with another man's wife, it was required
that the absconder provide a suitable compensation to the injured husband,
with a peace chief facilitating the resolution of the dispute between the
parties.24 In some instances of homicide, restoration went so far
as to have the party causing the death (whether intentional or accidental)
take on a role of the deceased, as with an Aleut (Eskimo)25 or
Lakota26 man marrying the wife of the husband he had killed, in
order to insure that the deceased's family was cared for, and, particularly
in the latter case, to restore harmony between the families involved in the
dispute. With the importance of familial relations in native societies, an
injury involved not only the individuals involved, but the familial group of
which they were members. In some instances, the process of restoration even
extended to warfare. Among the Wendat (Huron), for example, a captured enemy
would sometimes be adopted to replace a family member killed by the enemy,
with the adoptee taking on all of the lost person's roles, including
leadership positions. 27 Since the handling of disputes and
trouble cases aimed at restoration and maintenance of harmony in the
community, working out a proper solution often involved consideration of the
full range of relations between the parties, and the whole catalogue of ill
feeling, and its causes, between them. This contrasts with the narrower focus
on what is specifically relevant to the case at hand in deciding on fault or
guilt in Similarly, the emphasis on restoring
harmony meant that acts of improper behavior were generally handled with a
focus on rehabilitation of the wrong doer by traditional native North
Americans. Thus, when some Cheyenne young men were caught hunting buffalo on
their own, which might have stampeded the herd so that further hunting of it
would have been impossible, the miscreants were beaten and had their horses
killed and gear destroyed. But once it was clear that they accepted the
punishment, the young men were resupplied and brought back into the ranks of
the hunters.28 It was generally only in extreme cases that a
person was killed or exiled. Among the Aleut's, for instance, a man who
killed community members several times, or someone who lied repeatedly, might
be executed or forced out as a danger to the community.29 Even in
extreme cases, some rehabilitation might be possible. With the Cheyenne for
example, killing another tribal member was considered so serious that the
whole tribe would be polluted by the act, requiring purification and renewal
of the nation's most sacred objects and the expulsion of the murderer.30
Yet, after several years, the offender, if repentant, might be permitted to
return, with permission of the family of the deceased, which there was
usually social pressure for them to give. II: THE GROWING RELEVANCE OF THE TRADITIONAL PRINCIPLES It would do well for the world today to
apply the traditional American Indian principles for attaining and
maintaining harmony, in ways that fit present circumstances, with an eye to
the future, if we are to get to peace: to survive and live decently.
Circumstances have changed in many ways for both Indian peoples and the wider
world, but with somewhat different application, the traditional approaches
are increasingly relevant. Indeed, some of these processes are being renewed
by tribes, today, to return to harmony after centuries of colonialism, such
as the use of peacemaker courts33 and inclusive participatory
decision making,34 while there are numerous developing equivalents
of traditional North American Native ways in the contemporary world. The heart of
what is necessary to attain productive and harmonious relations within and
between communities is to return human interaction to a basis of mutual
respect.35 Unless people deal with each other as equal
partners in a mutual relationship, interaction is likely to continue to lead
to injustice and dangerous dominance. This in turn will most probably
increase ongoing struggles marked by open and structural violence. To break
out of the recurring cycles of repression and violence, it is necessary that
we build human relationships upon the principle of "unity in
diversity," so that each of us respects the interests, views and ways of
all individuals, groups and cultures. This is important not only to avoid doing
harm to others, but because we each have something to learn from every
person, group and culture. Moreover, repression is costly and inefficient in
comparison with collaboration, which is also far more emotionally rewarding
to everyone. Thus, it is mutually advantageous for all of us to move from
relations founded upon cultural hegemony to relations centered upon cultural
sharing and exchange. The attainment
of mutually respectful relations requires appropriate processes. One of these
is the use of participatory mutual problem solving of issues, often involving
some form of consensus decision making, undertaken appropriately for the
context. For example, business, government and nonprofit organizations around
the world have improved their internal relations, communications, quality of
decision making, productivity, efficiency, effectiveness (by every measure)
and flexibility in adapting to changing conditions by initiating a variety of
participatory decision making processes, following the same principles
traditionally used in tribal councils.36 Thus, modernizing organizations have been
learning that by treating employees humanely, as partners in their
operations, participating from each person’s unique viewpoint and abilities,
that not only are internal relations improved, but organizational knowledge,
creativity and quality of operation are very significantly enhanced. Similarly, at
the level of the community, there are contemporary examples of political
decision making leading to better decisions, achieving a better balance of
interests, and thus providing a basis for transforming sharply divisive rifts
in the community into collaborative partnerships for creative advancement, by
involving all the concerned parties in decision making processes. In the
field of environmental regulation, for instance, more collaborative and
inclusive approaches have been taken to overcome the slow system of command
regulation, requiring a large bureaucracy, that often produces decisions that
do not adequately balance the needs of the effected parties, and that are
often ineffectively enforced, at considerable expense.37 In a number of cases, the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) has utilized a process for developing regulation by bringing all the interested
parties (primarily representatives of environmental groups, business and the
agency) together to participate in consensus decision making. Any of the
parties may withdraw from the process at any time. But if they accept the
final agreement, they cannot challenge it in court. As in traditional tribal
governance, the process of dialog takes time, but usually results in better
decisions than competitive processes because of the attempt to accommodate
all of the concerns and interests of those affected to create a viable
policy. By contrast, decisions in competitive processes tend to be the result
of the ability of the individual contenders to force the inclusion of as much
of their position as possible in the final outcome, with compromises being determined
more in terms of including the diverse agendas of strong pressure groups than
in achieving a well working policy as a whole. This inclusive
method was used by EPA in 1991 to set new standards for the contents of
gasoline.38 Several states, including Indiana,
California and Florida have taken such an inclusive approach to promoting
energy conservation and pollution reduction in the generation of electric
power.39 In the past, there have been no incentives
for power companies to operate efficiently or to encourage customers to
conserve energy.40 Using an inclusive
process, power company, environmental group and consumer group
representatives sat down together along with state officials to develop
regulations that meet the primary concerns of all the parties. This resulted
in measures that save consumers money and reduce energy use (thereby reducing
pollution) through allowing power producers to benefit financially from
encouraging consumers to be energy efficient. Organizations
like Search for Common Ground (SFCG) have been working to heal intra and
inter-community conflict by bringing the discordant parties together in
peacebuilding processes aimed at finding mutual interest as a basis for
resolving or transforming disputes and developing collaboration. At the end
of 2005 Search for Common Ground was working in 17 countries around the
world. For example, in the Where
individuals, in the United States and many other Twenty-First century
nations, disturb the harmony of the community by acts that are defined as
criminal, in a high percentage of cases the punitive approach of the criminal
justice system does little to return the offender or the community to
harmony, as there is a high recidivism rate among those convicted of crimes,
and extended incarceration in prisons focusing almost entirely on detaining
large numbers of convicts, often provides more education in criminal behavior
than rehabilitation. Thus, there has been a growing interest in what are
often more effective alternative approaches to correction, many of which
mirror the restorative approaches to deviance of Native nations. These
include programs that reintegrate convicts with society, such as halfway
houses with job programs, and various forms of restorative justice that
involve the law breaker doing work in the community. Sometimes this is
undertaken among those injured by the criminal’s act, to repay at least some
of the damage done and to return the criminal to a good relationship with the
community.43 Among these approaches is a growing movement
to bring young offenders face to face with their victims, when appropriate.
After one such mediation, the juvenile wrongdoer stated, “I now realize I
hurt them a lot.... To understand how the victim feels makes me feel a lot
different.” Hearing that in a meaningful dialog is often healing to the
victim and the perpetrator.44 Finally, in the face of rising oceans,
more - and more intense - storms, and the exigencies of climate change from
human induced global warming; increasing skin cancer rates and considerable
environmental damage from industrial production of ozone layer destroying
chemicals; and extensive serious harm to people and the environment from a
plethora of man made pollutants, it is now clear that returning to the Native
practice of living in balance with the ‘natural’ environment is essential for
human beings living decent lives, if not human survival. Moreover, as
indigenous people knew from experience, in the Twenty-First Century, we need
to return to living in balance with our environment, if we are to live
harmoniously with one another, in order to avoid disastrous conflict over
resources, made scarce from over exploitation, pollution and other
destructive action. Similarly, if we are to remove the causes of disharmony
in human affairs, our societies need to return to economic harmony, by
reinstituting sufficient levels of redistribution and reciprocity for
everyone to have the opportunity to participate equitably in well functioning
societies. As Native people in North America, and indeed all our tribal
forbearers, understood from experience, living in peace, harmony, balance,
beauty is not an unattainable ideal, but an ongoing process of living by
seeing our own interest in working to keep in balance the long term interests
of ourselves and all our relations, in what one might call an ‘ethics of
respect,45 in a contemporarily appropriate application
of traditional ethical principles.46 Perhaps it is time to remember to be
buffalos without horns: We Are the Buffaloes Without
Horns
12/30/05
(Written morning after dreaming: We are the Buffaloes without
horns. Having seen the movie, In the olden days living was
easy.
The Interpreter: We ate the grass
Sensing what it means And we knew To
return to What to do.
Where we no longer have anyone Life was good,
But that is where Though not perfect.
We remember them.) Now We have to eat the air: Remember how to be Like Gods, Or we become Demons. We have to look inside, See the patterns of the Stars As they move Across eons: Dance them into the fabric Of our days, That together We realize The
perfection of our lives. This is a revised version of a paper
presented to the Native/Indigenous Studies Area, 2006 Southwest/Texas Popular
Culture/American Culture Association Conference, FOOTNOTES 1.
Most of the peace and conflict resolution community knows better, as can be
seen by going to some of their web sites and list serves. But much of the general
public and many political decision makers do not. Some examples of peace and
conflict resolution web sites include:
The Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR): www.acr.net. The Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR)
engages in many practical peacebuilding projects and produces numerous
publications. FOR is at: http://ga3.org/forusa/home.html, or can be contacted
via Jacqueline Haessly, jacpeace@earthlink.net.. The Peace and Justice Studies Association
(PJSA), which publishes the newsletter, The
Peace Chronicle, and copublishes the scholarly journal Peace & Change: A Journal of Peace
Research with the Peace History Society, as well as running a peace and
justice list serve and holding an annual conference, can be contacted at:
PJSA, 5th Floor University Center, 2130 Fulton Street, San Francisco, CA
94117 (415)422-5238, http://www.peacejusticestudies.org/index.php.
The International Crisis Group (ICG) carries regular reports and sets
of recommendations about difficult developing situations around the globe,
at: http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm. ICG also has a regular E-mail
report circulation sercvice that can be subscribed to on its web site.
Peace Media publishes a monthly web magazine at:
http://peacejournalism.com/ReadArticle.asp?ArticleID=6086. The Bulletin of Regional Cooperation in
the Middle East, a
publication of Search for Common Ground (SFCG), seeks to provide an ongoing
link among non-governmental cooperative efforts in the Bitterlemons.org is a website that presents Israeli
and Palestinian viewpoints on prominent is-sues of concern. It focuses on the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict and peace processes as well as a variety of
topics affecting the The online journal, Nonviolent Change, edited by the author is at:
www.nonviolentchangejournal.org. 2.
As, for example, with the Muscogee (Creek), as seen in their creation story,
and in all their related stories showing how everything is interrelated and
must be kept in balance, as set forth by in Jean and Joyotpaul Chaudhuri, A Sacred Path: The Way of the Muscogee
Creeks (Los Angeles: UCLA American Indian Studies Center, 2001). The
Chaudhuris tell us, for example, "The beautiful astronomical legends
give us a picture of the balance of male and female energies, thereby showing
the patch of darkness in light and light in darkness, all circling in the
search for harmony in motion. The legends provide a humanities parallel of
the science of the Creeks which also sees the search for balance between the
four elements and the synergy linking the cycles of dynamic energies of the
earth, the water, the sun (fire), and the sky (air). This is no romantic pipe
dream, but the vision of an earth-centered culture with sacred trust
responsibilities. The Earth centered physics involves exchanges between and
transformations of various forms of energy and the cycles of energy among
soil, water, nutrients, animals, sunlight, air and rain in an environmentally
balanced manner (p. 19)". This dynamic balancing, that is necessary in
the physical sphere, is also necessary in society, in which all the elements:
men, women, the different clans and the two moieties - indeed all individuals
- each have their unique and essential functions that must be kept in, and
returned to, balance (Ch. 5-10). The same is true of the individual, who if
internally out of balance can not act socially in a balanced way. "In
the Muscogee Creek cosmos, all things consist of particular combinations of
body, mind and spirit. When these are not in harmony, one is truly lost and
healing becomes necessary for the entity to continue (p. 23, the theme
pervading chapter 4)." 3.
See Kluckhohn and Leighton, The Navaho;
James F. Downes, The Navajo (New
York: Holt Reinhart and Winston, Inc., 1972), particularly chapters 2, 3 and
8; Robert W. Young, A Political History
of the Navajo Tribe (Tsaille, Navajo Nation, AZ: Navajo Community College
Press, 1978); and Alice Reichard, Navaho
Religion (New York: Pantheon Books, Bollingen Series, 1950). 4.
See Gerald Mohatt and Joseph eagle Elk, The
Price of a Gift: A Lakota Healer's Story ( 5.
Chaudhuri and Chaudhuri, A Sacred Path,
Ch. 9, especially where quoted at p. 68, 6.
See for example how this worked very well in Muscogee terms in Chaudhuri and
Chaudhuri, A Sacred Path. 24.
Hoebel, The Law of Primative 25.
Ibid., p. 87. 26.
Deloria, Speaking of Indians, p.
34. 27.
Trigger, The Huron: The Farmers of the
North, pp. 58-60 28.
Hoebel, The Law of Primitive Man,
pp. 143 and 150156. 29.
Ibid., pp. 70 and 88-91. 30.
Ibid., pp. 142-143 and 156-160.
Murder, however, was such a heinous act for the 31. Deloria, Speaking of Indians, pp. 32-37, discusses the traditional ways of
maintaining and recreating harmony among the people. 32. Oren Lyons, "The American
Indian in the Past" and Donald A Grinde, Jr., "Iroquois Political
Theory and the Roots of American Democracy," in Oren Lyons, John Mohawk,
Vine Deloria, Jr., Lawrence Hauptman, Howard Berman, Donald Grinde, Jr.,
Curtis Berkey and Robert Venables, Exiled
in the Land of the Free: Democracy, Indian Nations, and the U. S.
Constitution (Santa Fe, NM: Clear Light Publishers, 1992). 33.
For examples from the Coast Salish peoples see, See Bruce G., Miller, The Problem of Justice: Tradition and Law
in the Coast Salish World (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2001).
For examples from Navajo Nation see, Chief Justice Tom Tso, "The Process
of Decision Making in Tribal Courts,"
and Justice Philmer Bluehouse and James Zion, "Hozhooji
Naat'aanii: The Navajo Nation Justice and Harmony ceremony," in Marianne
O. Nielsen and Robert A. Silverman, Native
Americans, Crime and Justice
(Boulder: CO, Westview Press, 1996), pp. 170-189. 34.
LaDonna Harris, Stephen Sachs and Benjamin Broome, "Returning to Harmony
Through Reactivating The Wisdom of the People: The Comanche Bring Back the
Tradition of Consensus Decision Making," Native Americas, Vol.
XII, No. 3, Fall 1996; and "Wisdom of the People: Potentials and
Pitfalls in Efforts by Comanches to Recreate Traditional Ways of Building
Consensus," American Indian
Quarterly, Vol. 25, No. 1, Winter 2001. 35. For a discussion of this
necessity and of the process of building a culture of peace based upon mutual
respect and unity in diversity, see Stephen M. Sachs, "Building the
World Team: Getting to Peace Through Developing a Collaborative
Culture," Organization Development
Journal, Vol. 8, No. 1, Spring 1990, and "Learning the Pedagogy of
Peace: or Living the World Team into Existence," paper presented at the
COPRED 16th annual Conference in Milwaukee, 1987 (available from the author).
36. For discussion of the gains
realized from organizational democracy, and the reasons for them, see: John
Simmons and William Mares, Working
Together (New York: Albert Knopf, 1983);
Stephen Sachs, "The Cutting Edge" and "Employee
Participation: The Next Stage", Workplace Democracy, Vol. XII, No. 2,
Fall 1985, and No. 61, Summer 1988. Stephen Sachs, "The Interest and
Goal Structure of Self-Managed Organizations" (Paris: Second
International Conference on Participation, Workers Control and Self
Management, 1977) discusses the reasons for the advantages of collaborative
over hierarchical organizations including the tendency of collaborative
organizations to minimize status differences stemming from the division of
labor in comparison to hierarchical organizations. The paper is available
from the author (ssachs@earthlink.net). Stephen M. Sachs, "Building Trust
in Democratic Organizations," Psychology,
Vol. 31, No. 2, 1994. 37. See Zachary Smith, The Environmental Paradox (Englewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1992); and Charles Davis, The Politics of Hazardous Waste (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice
Hall, 1993); and on finding solutions see, David Osborne and Ted Gaebler, Reinventing Government: How the
Entrepreneurial Spirit is Transforming the Public Sector (Reading, MA:
Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc., 1992), Introduction, "An
American Perestroika," and Ch. 4, "Mission Driven Government:
Transforming Rule-Driven Organizations. 38. Jeff Smith, "Traditional
Foes Agree on Gasoline Formula," 39. Citizens Power, Vol. 18, No. 2, Fall 1992, published by Citizens
Action Coalition, 40. Wilson Clark, Energy for Survival (Garden City, NY:
Anchor Books, 1975), Oh. 3. 41. For
more information go to: http://www.sfcg.org. Common Ground's "vision is
of a world in which: * Individuals, organizations, governments
and societies respond to their differences in non-adversarial ways - where
those differences stimulate social progress, rather than precipitate
violence. * The predominant approach to
conflict is to reach out to cooperate with those we disagree with - where
reconciliation is considered the norm. * Our underlying respect for one
another and our shared interests and concerns are not overwhelmed by our
differing points of view. * In their everyday lives, human
beings are safer and more secure. Our goal
is to make finding common ground the common thing." 42. See Wanda D. McCaslin, Ed., Justice as Healing, Indigenous Ways: Writings on Community
Peacemaking and Restorative Justice from the 43. For discussion of the problems
with punitive approaches to corrections and the value of restorative and
related alternative approaches, see Michael Branegan, “Restoring Community to
Restorative Justice,” Research and Creative
Activity, Indiana University, Vol. XI, No. 3, January 1997. For an
extensive consideration of the applicability of various applications of
Native principles of restorative justice, see the various writings in McCaslin, Ed., Justice as Healing. 44. Jon 45. See John Brown Childs, with
commentaries by Guillermo Delgado-P, et. Al. Trans-communality: From the Politics of Conversion to the Ethics of
Respect ( 46. For an example of traditional
ethics see, Phil Lane, Jr., Judie Bupp, Michael Bupp, and Elders, “The Sacred
Tree: Code of Ethics,” The Sacred Tree:
Reflections on Native American Spirituality, Third Edition (National Book
Network, 1984), on line at http://www.prayer-network.info/coe/.
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