U B U N T U + PSYCHOLOGY

UBUNTUPSYCHOLOGY: EXPLORATION OF THE SOUL...

2012-01-19T23:17:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64RcnMpHhLs&feature=share

Quote POSTED BY Frederica-Azania Clare: KEVIN WASHINGTON, Ph.D. on "ZULU TRADITIONAL HEALING" and "AFRIKAN" UBUNTU PSYCHOLOGY

2011-07-13T14:02:00.000-07:00

"Within the Afrikan context, humanity is focused on one’s being in the world. A person is determined good (sane) or not good (insane) on the basis of one’s behaviors. If one’s behaviors is deemed to be communally beneficial then that person has good character or what the Yoruba of West Afrika call iwa pele. This idea is a manifestation of Ubuntu. For the Afrikan no discussion about the color of one’s skin was relevant to the idea of character, or this would only explain the esoteric aspect of being. The exoteric is that which is of great significance to the Afrikan minded thinker. How does one be in the world? What do they do that adds beauty to life? How do they enhance the existence of the community? These are the questions of relevancy that are posed towards a person with respect to the Afrikan Worldview." - Written by Dr. Kevin Washington. Quote POSTED BY Frederica-Azania Clare: Quoted from, WRITTEN BY, Kevin Washington, Ph.D. "ZULU TRADITIONAL HEALING", "AFRIKAN PSYCHOLOGY" & UBUNTU PSYCHOLOGY.
Dr. Kevin Washington and Ubuntu Psychology: "As a Fulbright-Hays scholar Kevin researched the impact of socializing institutions on the healing or restructuring of post-apartheid South Africa. Additionally, he researched traditional healing systems in South Africa and Ghana, West Africa. Kevin is developing therapy (healing) paradigms for working with ethnically and culturally diverse populations with an emphasis on African American families, relationships, and men. The major thrust of the paradigms is to ensure that methods of healing are consistent with the essence and desires of diverse populations. His African Centered therapeutic model (Ubuntu Psychology) has been implemented in the Prosocial Family Therapy Project that provided in-home family therapy. It is being utilized with his consultant relationships and with his psychotherapy clients."-University of Central Florida

Pax,
Azania

2011-02-10T06:25:00.000-08:00

From Dr. Sam Anderson www.blackeducator.org at Black New Yorkers for Educational Excellence:

NOTE: The minute you see "race" discussed as both a biological and geographical phenomena, you should stop reading. BUT, as African American sociocultural analyst, Neely Fuller, says (I'm paraphrasing): "If you don't understand the centrality of race... all other things will confuse you." The idea of "race"- at its very inception -has been a creation of racists/"white" supremacists to justify their dominance, exploitation and elimination of a people. Of course, it would vary over time and between the racists competing to bumrush the world.

Now, we are approaching a United States that will be -in the next generation- comprised of mainly people of color... and the dominant Eurocentric racists need to -somehow- remain dominant. So, since they have the power to define/redefine national policies around "who is who," they create this messy contradictory categorization of people to their advantage: the "traditional" African American, Asian, White and Latino categories are atomized so as to directly economically and politically disempower neighborhoods and cities dominated by Blackfolk and Latinos. Suddenly, the mythical "one drop Black blood" gets reversed to the "one drop White/Asian/Native American/ Nation X blood" myth to create a whole slew of nonBlack/nonLatino categories that feed into the "race-don't-matter-till-we-say-so" syndrome.

The physical reality is that there is but one race: THE HUMAN RACE. But the political reality is dictating that RACISM is still the deciding factor in who will benefit the most from the wealth and resources of Humanity and Mother Earth-- SEA
----------------------------

February 9, 2011

Counting by Race Can Throw Off Some Numbers
By SUSAN SAULNY

College student Michelle López-Mullins

Mixed America’s Family Trees
The United States is in the midst of a demographic shift. Driven by immigration and intermarriage, multiracial and multiethnic Americans — usually grouped together as “mixed-race” — are one of the country’s fastest growing demographic groups. Examine the mixed-race family trees submitted by readers and listen to them describe their families, then submit your own.
GO TO: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/us/family-trees.html?ref=us

The federal Department of Education would categorize Michelle López-Mullins — a university student who is of Peruvian, Chinese, Irish, Shawnee and Cherokee descent — as "Hispanic." But the National Center for Health Statistics, the government agency that tracks data on births and deaths, would pronounce her "Asian." And what does Ms. López-Mullins's birth certificate from the State of Maryland say? It doesn't mention her race.

Ms. López-Mullins, 20, usually marks "other" on surveys these days, but when she filled out a census form last year, she chose Asian, Hispanic, Native American and white.

The chameleon-like quality of Ms. López-Mullins's racial and ethnic identification might seem trivial except that statistics on ethnicity and race are used for many important purposes. These include assessing disparities in health, education, employment and housing, enforcing civil rights protections, and deciding who might qualify for special consideration as members of underrepresented minority groups.

But when it comes to keeping racial statistics, the nation is in transition, moving, often without uniformity, from the old "mark one box" limit to allowing citizens to check as many boxes as their backgrounds demand. Changes in how Americans are counted by race and ethnicity are meant to improve the precision with which the nation's growing diversity is gauged: the number of mixed-race Americans, for example, is rising rapidly, largely because of increases in immigration and intermarriage in the past two decades. (One in seven new marriages is now interracial or interethnic.)

In the process, however, a measurement problem has emerged. Despite the federal government's setting standards more than a decade ago, data on race and ethnicity are being collected and aggregated in an assortment of ways. The lack of uniformity is making comparison and analysis extremely difficult across fields and across time.

Under Department of Education requirements that take effect this year, for instance, any student like Ms. López-Mullins who acknowledges even partial Hispanic ethnicity will, regardless of race, be reported to federal officials only as Hispanic. And students of non-Hispanic mixed parentage who choose more than one race will be placed in a "two or more races" category, a catchall that detractors describe as inadequately detailed. A child of black and American Indian parents, for example, would be in the same category as, say, a child of white and Asian parents.

The new standards for kindergarten through 12th grades and higher education will probably increase the nationwide student population of Hispanics, and could erase some "black" students who will now be counted as Hispanic or as multiracial (in the "two or more races category"). And reclassifying large numbers of white Hispanic students as simply Hispanic has the potential to mask the difference between minority and white students' test scores, grades and graduation rates — the so-called achievement gap, a target of federal reform efforts that has plagued schools for decades.

"They're all lumped together — blacks, Asians and Latinos — and they all look the same from the data perspective," said Daniel J. Losen, a policy expert for the Civil Rights Projectat the University of California, Los Angeles, referring to the Department of Education aggregation. "But the reality is much different. There are different kinds of discrimination experienced by these subgroups."

"It's a big problem for researchers," Mr. Losen continued, "because it throws a monkey wrench in our efforts at accountability, student tracking and the study of trends."

Education officials say the changes will more accurately reflect how Americans see themselves. The standards were also devised to save schools time and money. If schools were to report on every possible racial and ethnic combination to the federal authorities, there would be dozens of possibilities. It is simply easier to call students "two or more races."

"Ultimately, the department's final requirements aim to strike the balance," said Russlynn H. Ali, the department's assistant secretary for civil rights, "between minimizing the burden for local education agencies while also ensuring the availability of high-quality racial and ethnic data."

But critics, including elected officials and the Citizens' Commission on Civil Rights, a Washington group that monitors federal policy and practices, have called the move disturbing and want more transparency. While the policy was still in developmental stages, the commission urged the Department of Education to "evaluate alternative approaches, including those adopted by the U.S. Census" to track students' race.

In 2006, 62 members of Congress signed a letter to the education secretary at the time, Margaret Spellings, expressing "utmost concern" about the changes. And research by the Harvard Civil Rights Project in 2006 showed that the new method of race reporting would result in a significant reduction in the black student population nationally, producing data that it called "questionable and often meaningless."

That could affect responsibilities held by the Department of Education in areas including civil rights enforcement, program monitoring, and the identification and placement of students in special education. The numbers also affect areas like research and statistical analysis, and school and teacher accountability when it comes to student achievement and academic progress.

"We believe that these changes are not supported by good research," the Harvard report stated.

In the late 1990s, the Census Bureau abandoned the idea of a catchall "multiracial" classification in favor of letting people check more than one box, in part because many Americans did not understand what multiracial meant. And a federal task force had concluded that creating a multiracial category would "add to racial tensions and further fragmentation" of the population.

The N.A.A.C.P. had vowed "vigorous resistance" to the notion of a multiracial catchall, concerned that such an option would diminish minority numbers, particularly blacks, in government counts.

But Project RACE, for Reclassify All Children Equally, one of the largest and most vocal multiracial advocacy groups, and its president, Susan Graham, a white mother of biracial children, were among those who had pushed equally hard for a multiracial classification.

"It is simply ridiculous that multiracial children should have to have the sanction and approval of other minority groups in order to have their own identity," Ms. Graham testified before Congress in 1997.

The Census Bureau's solution may have added layers of complexity for demographers — creating 63 categories of possible racial combinations — but it laid to rest fears from civil rights advocates that adding a multiracial category would diminish the number of blacks, Asians or American Indians in official government counts, since multiracial people are counted in the ranks of all of the races they check. (This does not distort the total population of the United States because that number is based on how many people answer the census questionnaire, not on adding the totals from each racial column.)

Even the Census Bureau acknowledges that accurately counting the multiracial population is a challenge and says it continues to explore ways to do it better, said Nicholas A. Jones, chief of the racial statistics branch. Some people of mixed race were fickle about their racial identifications in early tests of the new, more expansive methods, changing their answers from interview to interview.

Moreover, because the census in 2000 began allowing respondents to mark as many races as they wanted, today's numbers are not directly comparable with those before 2000.

The National Center for Health Statistics collects vital statistics from the states to document the health of the population. When it comes to collecting birth certificate information, though, the center encounters a problem: 38 states and the District of Columbia report race data in the new and more expansive manner that allows for the recording of more than one race. But a dozen states do not, because they still use old data systems and outdated forms. As a result, the center cannot produce consistent national data for what it calls "medical and health purposes only."

To get around that problem, the center reclassifies mixed-race births using a complex algorithm. For example, a birth to a parent who marked white, Asian and Native American would be declared just one of those races, depending on a number of variables in a probability model, like sex, age of the mother and place of birth. (Birth data is reported, in most cases, by the race of the mother.)

States were supposed to begin moving to the new way of collecting data in 2003, but a lack of resources has proved a hurdle for many and forced the center for health statistics to come up with this solution, which officials call temporary.

"There are over four million births every year, so we can't possibly get back to the mother and see which race she would prefer," said Stephanie Ventura, chief of the reproductive statistics branch at the center. "We don't do that on birth or death certificates."

Speaking of the complexities of keeping track of people by race now that the multiracial population is growing, Jeffrey S. Passel, a senior demographer at the Pew Hispanic Center, said, "The issue is multiplied manifold if you start thinking about HR departments and private firms."

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission mandates that most companies provide an annual count of their workers by race, ethnicity and gender. (The E.E.O.C. strongly suggests that companies ask workers how they identity themselves, as opposed to making assumptions based on appearance.) In 2007, the E.E.O.C. added a "two or more races" category.

Today, federal education officials defend their changes as an improvement over the more limited choices of the past, when students were identified by only one race and Hispanics were often undercounted. They also say they are merely trying to abide by orders from the Office of Management and Budget — which sets standards on how federal agencies keep statistics — that all agencies try to collect data in a two-part question: the first focused on Hispanic ethnicity and the second on race, allowing the reporting of more than one.

"The department strongly believes that the new requirements will help educators and others better serve students who identify with more than one race and Hispanic/Latino students, which is the fastest growing population in our schools today," said Ms. Ali, the assistant education secretary. Further, she said, schools are required to retain the original, more detailed answers to racial survey questions that they collect but do not report to the federal authorities — in case discrimination complaints arise, for instance.

"If our goal is to gather better information," said Louie Gong, a former president of Mavin, a mixed-race advocacy group based in Seattle, "then you'd think we wouldn't begin by arbitrarily reallocating people to categories they didn't pick."

Many mixed-race Americans are wary of statistics on race. In a typical year, Ms. López-Mullins, the Peruvian-Chinese-Irish-Shawnee-Cherokee president of a multiracial student group at the University of Maryland, says she is asked to fill out forms for school, for extracurricular activities and standardized tests, for example, that follow no set standards in asking the questions or gathering the answers.

"It's always, 'How can these multiracial individuals best benefit us? What category can we put them in to fulfill something?' " she said. "I figure there's such a large margin of error with that kind of ridiculous accounting anyway, I'm totally against it."

For years, when asked her race, she checked everything that applied: Hispanic, Asian, white and Native American. And if she is now confronted with a blank space for her race, she might challenge the form with a question of her own: "What does this tell you?"

The Department of Education says that answer tells a lot, and that its new race reporting standards are a step forward, particularly since the department will get a more accurate count of Hispanics, the nation's largest minority.

"Balancing these goals is difficult," Ms. Ali said, "particularly in light of how personal this issue is for many people."

2011-01-31T10:06:00.001-08:00

Hello All,

A professor I know is co-editing a special issue of the Journal of
Negro Education and asked me to circulate the opportunity below.
Interested authors must submit an abstract no longer than 500 words by
e-mail to journalnegroed@gmail.com by February 4, 2011. Please direct
any inquiries to Dr. Chance Lewis, chance.lewis@tamu.edu or Dr.
Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz at sealeyruiz@tc.edu.

Peace and blessings,
Joe
----------------------------------------------------

Call for Papers

Teacher Education and the Black Community: Preparing Teachers to Teach
Black Students, Preparing Black Students to Become Teachers

The Journal of Negro Education (JNE) issues a Call for Papers for a
special issue to be published in summer 2011 to advance scholarship
focused on the current and potential role that teacher education plays
in advancing the Black community. Chance W. Lewis, Ph.D., Associate
Professor and Endowed Chair in Urban Education, Texas A&M University,
and Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz, Assistant Professor of English Education,
Teachers College, Columbia University will serve as guest co-editors.

This special issue will feature research articles that assess models
and pedagogy to effectively train teachers of all backgrounds to serve
diverse classrooms. In addition, this issue seeks articles that
explore strategies to increase the number and capacity of African
American teachers; particularly Black male teachers, who currently
represent less than 2% of America’s teaching force.

Manuscripts acceptable for this volume will address one or more of the
following:

· How can contemporary teacher education programs prepare
teachers of all races, genders, and socioeconomic backgrounds to
educate diverse classrooms?
· How can teacher education contribute to eliminating the
achievement and discipline gaps that exist between Black students and
students of other races?
· What is the efficacy of modern approaches to helping teacher
trainees understand diverse classrooms, such as the use of multimedia,
documentary film, service learning, and volunteering?
· What are effective strategies to diversify America’s
teaching force?
· What are the key considerations to teacher across gender in
the Black community? (i.e., female teachers teaching Black male
students, and male teachers teaching Black female students)
· What is the influence of federal- and state-level
educational policies on building teacher education programs to
accommodate Black students?
· What is the unique role of historically Black colleges and
universities in preparing and recruiting Black teachers?
· How do we combat institutional racism and culturally biased
assessments when training teachers to serve diverse classrooms and
increasing the number and capacity of African American teachers?

Final manuscripts will undergo a blind peer review. This special issue
will be distributed to a wide range of educators and advocates,
including teacher education programs, teachers, school administrators,
policymakers, activists and families. Therefore, invited authors are
encouraged to use graphs and charts, summaries in layperson language,
and numbered practical recommendations and policy implications.

For initial consideration, please submit an abstract no longer than
500 words by e-mail to journalnegroed@gmail.com by February 4, 2011.
All inquiries regarding submissions should be directed to one of the
guest co-editors, Dr. Chance Lewis, chance.lewis@tamu.edu or Dr.
Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz at sealeyruiz@tc.edu. Invited authors will need
to submit completed manuscripts by April 15, 2011.

For more than 76 years, The Journal of Negro Education has been the
leading purveyor of a wealth of scholarly research concerning Black
academia. The quarterly journal is operated under the auspices of the
Howard University (HU) School of Education (SOE). With world-wide
readership and subscribers, JNE has published distinguished scholars
that include Horace Mann Bond, Ralph J. Bunche, W. E. B. Du Bois, and
Kenneth B. Clark. The current Editor-in-Chief is Dr. Ivory A. Toldson
itoldson@howard.edu.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Black New Yorkers for Educational Excellence" group.
To post to this group, send email to bnyee@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to bnyee+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/bnyee?hl=en.

2011-01-29T13:49:00.000-08:00

Follow this blog

UNITED AFRICAN MOVEMENT
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________

ALTON H. MADDOX, JR.
CHAIRMAN
TEL.: (718) 834-9034
FAX : (718) 884-8241
P.O. BOX 35
BRONX, NY 10471

Why Blacks Must Violate the Slave Code
By Alton H. Maddox, Jr.

My cousin, Darnell Brewster, made his transition on my father's birthday, January 17. There was a memorial service in Harlem on January 21 and a memorial service in Dayton, OH on January 24. Because of a snowstorm, no flights were available from Ohio to New York City on January 26.

I had two options: stay in a hotel in Cincinnati or fly to Atlanta. My sole consideration was a temporary workstation. This favored Atlanta. UAM practices the philosophy of Hon. Marcus Garvey which has been outlawed in the United States as beyond a morontocracy. Mr. Garvey was imprisoned and later given the boot. Thus, UAM's work is hard and dangerous.

His deportation from the United States to Jamaica was not personal. It was a signal to all Blacks to embrace a fake philosophy or else. Dr. W.E.B. DuBois became its chief adherent in the Negro community. He spied on Blacks and paved the way for a successful federal prosecution against Mr. Garvey.

Black people must learn to allow their history to work for them. Malcolm X said: "Of all the disciplines, history is best qualified to reward our research". History explains our plight in the United States and it is a condition precedent to critical thinking. The key is to connect the historical dots.

On August 17, 1988, a group of Blacks decided to form United African Movement and model it after Mr. Garvey's UNIA. This was a death warrant. History supports this conclusion. In October 1990, UAM decided to practice what it had preached. By this time, I had been disbarred while I had successfully represented Rev. Al Sharpton in a 67-count indictment.

The meeting in October 1990 was the final nail in UAM's coffins. By January 12, 1991, all high-profile activists had fled UAM. This was to be expected. No Blacks are going to violate the slave code. In contrast, whites are only exposed to the penal code and may be subject to prosecutorial discretion.

I have had to be responsible for UAM lock, stock and barrel. At best, I have had to co-sign every UAM activity. In many instances, I have had to pick up the tab. The latest big-ticket item is the Freedom Party. Censorship has been imposed on me for practicing the same philosophy as the "founding fathers". Two organizations were established sequentially in 1865 and 1909 to enforce fear and to embrace a fake philosophy.

Because no support system exists at UAM, I formed a UAM Transition Committee in July 2007 to bring about new leadership by August 17, 2008. My pro bono work and my sacrifices for the Hon. Marcus Garvey had taken its toll on my health. No one supported Mr. Garvey as UAM's spiritual mentor in good-faith. Mr. Garvey had big shoes.

This transition committee, consisting of Bro. John Anthony, Sis. Geneva Butts, Sis. Ollie McClean, Sis. Judy McNeil and Bro. John Smith had failed to act by January 2010. In the meantime, I had to be hospitalized en route to homegoing services for Dr. Asa Hilliard in August 2007.

I received no correspondence from anyone in UAM in Atlanta. The doctor had suggested that I take an extended rest but Mark and S.L. Green as the landlords of 16 Court Street in Brooklyn had a different view. Rent exceeded Three Thousand Dollars monthly.

This was a responsibility reserved exclusively for me as well as all office expenses. UAM has never had a war chest nor a reserve fund. A big bill was waiting for me in September 2007 coupled with medical expenses. The monthly expenses have continued for UAM at my expense.

No one has suggested that UAM should have a war chest nor a reserve fund. After Gov. Andrew Cuomo took the oath, he immediately solicited funds from the public to combat public sector unions; yet, I am supposed to fight white supremacy on all fronts by performing miracles. It shows that Blacks are not at war with anyone except Blacks who dare to oppose white supremacy.

Until the Greens were able to secure a judgement in a holdover proceeding, all rents were paid. They had refused to renew the lease because of my continued defense of Blacks. The Greens had only become the landlord in 2007. They were allies of Robert Abrams who is an enemy of the philosophies and opinions of Mr. Garvey. There was a zero rent balance in January 2010.

In June 2010, Rev. Al Sharpton dispatched Councilman Charles Barron to continue the war against Mr. Garvey. Councilman Barron's first act was to retain a white lawyer for the Freedom Party. His next step was to remove the black panther as the symbol of the Freedom Party. State law requires a symbol. The third step was to remove red, black and green as the colors of the Freedom Party and to replace them with black and white (racial integration).

I had hoped that UAM would have found new leadership and a working office space by now. Alternatively, I had hoped that this committee would have supplanted me temporarily with themselves. It seems logical that five heads are better than one. To be sure, five pockets are better than a person with no pockets and who has had no income for more than two decades.

For some time, I have been trying to get, at my expense, a quorum for a business meeting. Since this UAM meeting has to be conducted outside the presence of whites, it would be unlawful. Blacks constitute the only group that subscribes to the unnatural practice of white supremacists being paired with Blacks in order for Blacks to conduct it affairs.

A business meeting is necessary to determine the future of UAM. The critical question is to ascertain if Blacks collectively, are able and willing to sustain, in 2011, the philosophies and opinions of Mr. Garvey in a country that demands of Blacks to pursue racial integration rather than self-determination. On February 2, 2011 a vote on the date of the business meeting will be taken.

2010-08-22T19:57:00.000-07:00

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1523877&show=abstract

2010-06-06T11:44:00.000-07:00

Ubuntu: An African word (and proverb) meaning "I am human because you are human." Ubuntu psychology says, "Sharing ourselves and our gifts with others optimizes our collective and individual humanity. Even in the sharing and the giving, the individual or "other" group receives the gifts and the glories of humanity."

2010-06-04T16:55:00.001-07:00

http://books.google.com/books?

2010-06-01T08:30:00.000-07:00

Book Review: Onno van der Hart, Ellert R. S. Nijenhuis, & Kathy Steele, The Haunted Self: Structural Dissociation and the Treatment of Chronic Traumatization. New York: W. W. Norton, 2006. 418 pp. Cloth: $49.95 (US), ISBN 0393704017
Etzel Cardeña
Transcultural Psychiatry. 2010; 47:191-193. [PDF]
Book Review: Richard F. Mollica, Healing Invisible Wounds: Paths to Hope and Recovery in a Violent World. New York: Harcourt, 2006. 277 pp. Paper: $19.95 (US), ISBN: 9780826516411; Cloth: $26.00 (US), ISBN: 0151010366
Boris Drozdek
Transcultural Psychiatry. 2010; 47:189-190. [PDF]
Book Review: Patrizia Brunori, Gianna Candolo, Maddalena Dona delle Rose, & Maria Chiara Risoldi. I Had a Mummy Too. War Traumas: A Psychoanalytic Experience in Bosnia-Herzegovina. London: Free Association Books, 2006. 209 pp. Paper: $34.95 (US), ISBN: 1853439738
Hanna Kienzler
Transcultural Psychiatry. 2010; 47:187-189. [PDF]

2010-05-29T14:27:00.001-07:00

Welcome to our May e-newsletter...

In this issue:

The Arab Journal of Psychiatry features major article on human givens psychotherapy
Canadian government interest in the Human Givens Charter

How one HG therapist triumphed over adversity and got to meet Archbishop Desmond Tutu

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

Major article on HG in the Arab Journal of Psychiatry

The latest edition of The Arab Journal of Psychiatry (Vol. 21, No. 1, May 2010) features an extensive article on human givens psychotherapy. Written by the HGI's chairman, Dr Farouk Okhai, the article gives a wonderfully clear and useful overview of the approach and the benefits and new insights it brings to the field of psychotherapy.
As the abstract says: "There is a profusion of psychotherapy models, most of them formulated in the west, confusing both those seeking and those striving to give help. The human givens approach seeks to integrate the effective ingredients of all therapies using as its organising idea what human beings need in order to live healthy lives. As such it will have a universal appeal, in keeping with the increasing recognition that individuals and societies have much more in common than their relatively superficial cultural differences would indicate."
The article is well worth reading, click here to download a PDF version.

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

Canadian MP's interest in the Human Givens Charter

A big thank you to everyone who forwarded the link to the new HG Charter website to people of influence that they knew. It is already causing a stir and has been picked up by civil servants and MPs in a number of countries.
In Canada, Carolyn Bennett MP was inspired after a presentation about the human givens by Aubrey Davis,
a supporter of our work, to read the Charter. She then shared it with thoughtful colleagues and has invited their comments as a
first step....
So, please don't stop sending the link around - www.humangivenscharter.com - ideas always take time to percolate!

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

HG therapist meets Desmond Tutu through her work with the Forgiveness Project
In 1991 Sue Hanisch was caught up in an IRA bombing at Victoria Station, London, England. 40 people were injured that day and Sue lost her right leg and suffered severe permanent injuries to her left foot, as well as to her right hand.
"It was only nine years later", she says, "that I got any relief from the intense trauma following a session of human givens therapy which included the rewind technique. Previously I had received hours and hours of person-centred counselling which had only made matters worse. We would go over and over what had happened to me….we would try to normalise my belief system and try to reframe all my experiences….but still I felt even more hopeless about any permanent relief. Thankfully, in the technique used by the human givens approach, the traumatic memories from the bombing and all the negative body-image/self-worth issues were effectively de-traumatised and I was able to stand back at last and see the bigger picture of my life and its meaning."
Sue qualified herself as a human givens therapist and is now working hard with others who have suffered from often intensely traumatic experiences. For many years she has also been involved with The Forgiveness Project, an organisation which works at a local, national and international level to help build a future free of conflict and violence by healing the wounds of the past. By collecting and sharing people’s stories, and delivering outreach programmes, the project aims to encourage and empower people to explore the nature of forgiveness and alternatives to revenge.
"The human givens approach has helped me greatly and is very pertinent
to the work I do now. (I particularly remember Ivan Tyrrell saying on the Diploma course that 'None of us can choose the bed we are born into',
which has helped me to hear the other side to the story and not judge
others' actions, and Pat Williams saying 'We can either live in the past or
in the present, but not both at the same time'.)
"Studying the human givens approach gave me the opportunity to challenge many of my 'tyranical' and limited beliefs, my projections, my judgements about 'right' and 'wrong'. It also gave me the opportunity to look at blaming behaviour and victimhood behaviour, and provided the right conditions to get excited about my life again and get excited about making changes and taking lots of responsibility for my actions. A state which I now relish and my life now serves me very well, and has lead me in unbelievable directions and provided me with incredible opportunities, which were bigger and greater than any of my original dreams."
It was through her work with The Forgiveness Project that Sue recently met its patron, Archbishop Desmond Tutu. He was in London on 12th May to give the inaugral lecture, 'Is violence ever justified?', of the Project's lecture series. (Featured in the above photo with Sue, who is standing just to Archbishop Tutu's left, is Mary K Blwett from Rwanda who lost 50 members of her family in the genocide there.)
"The Archbishop was a lovely man to meet, and very funny, but this hasn't been the only wonderful opportunity that has happened to me since I was injured all those years ago. Working within the Forgiveness Project I speak in prisons, travel and meet people from all cultures. Last year I was also invited to join The Sustainable Peace project in Northern Ireland, Southern Ireland and South Africa, during which time I travelled widely with 15 other people from both sides of the Irish conflict, many of whom had been released from The Maze (Long Kesh) as a result of the Good Friday Agreement.
"Exploring the idea of forgiveness is a huge ongoing task which gives me
so much scope to grow and learn from others as well as myself. Sharing my ideas regarding survivors' guilt has also been very important.... it's not often addressed ... and usually only by women."
Click here to read more of what Sue's been up to recently.
Read Sue's story in full on The Forgiveness Project's website.

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

One last thought...

“Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
------------------------------------------------------------------

We hope you've enjoyed this latest newsletter. Please feel free to forward it to anyone you think would be interested to learn about the human givens approach.

And, if someone has forwarded it to you and you would like to continue receiving it, please sign up by clicking here.
(To make sure it doesn't end up in your junk mail folder, please add our email address to your address book.)

With best wishes from all of us at the HGI.

Jane Tyrrell
Human Givens Institute
www.hgi.org.uk

Further information:
Useful publications: www.humangivens.com
Courses and training:www.mindfields.org.uk
Talk about the human givens: www.vimeo.com/754995
Registered charity:www.hgfoundation.com
Blog: www.mindfields.org.uk/blog
Website about depression: www.lift-depression.com

2010-05-29T08:51:00.000-07:00

On President Aristide's Ph.D. Dissertation by Adrianne Aron

President Aristide's doctoral dissertation, Umoya Wamagama [The Spirit of the Words] studies and elaborates the linguistic relationship between Kreyol and isiZulu, through a methodology that is comparative, descriptive, investigative, analytic, and exegetic. The thesis demonstrates that the African roots of Kreyol are very important for many reasons, not least of which is to help one understand the differences between the French and Haitians in their distinctive interpretations of liberte, egalite, fraternite, and tout moun se moun, in their respective revolutions.

In describing the relationship between isiZulu and Haitian Kreyol, Aristide points out that Ubuntu is the unifying psychological feature—an understanding of Self and Personal well-being as inextricably linked to Collective well-being: "a social love story rooted in brotherhood." In the African-based philosophy of Ubuntu, Ancestor is equated to life, and slavery to death. Ubuntu inspires a collective psychological empowerment, protecting linguistic values as well as Ancestral cultural/religious values. The protection of linguistic values is of special importance in a situation of diglossia, where two languages are spoken but one is considered superior to the other. Both isiZulu and Kreyol have been subjected to that condition.

The thesis contains a lengthy technical discussion of language and linguistics, including a discussion of the slave trade vis a vis its effects on language. To the process of Natural Selection and Artificial Selection, Aristide adds a third: Savage Selection, the violent process of choosing human beings for enslavement.

Before the slave trade began, colonialism in Congo, Zaire, and Angola had already brought about a fragmentation of people and dismemberment of language, with three separate colonial powers imposing their languages on people previously unified by the Kongo language. The slave traffic, lasting over 400 years, greatly escalated the violence to language, producing oppressed language, language attrition, language disorder, language loss, language pathology, aphasia, dysarthria, dysphonia, and source amnesia. Plantation owners mixed their slaves from as many different African cultures as possible, both to divide them politically and to force them to deal with each other in the language of the whites.

Aristide writes, "Thousands of years ago Africans, empowered by Ubuntu, fought for a better quality of life. For healthy-minded people of the twenty-first century, this struggle is still an historic challenge. Both isiZulu and Haitian Kreyol speaking people have demonstrated an exceptional ability to nurture themselves with words of hope, while at the same time work hard to improve the conditions of life…, express[ing] human values through their languages.." While Haitian Kreyol is genetically related to French, the thesis concludes, isiZulu and the Haitian Kreyol are related through an ancestral psychodynamic and theological paradigm rooted in Ubuntu.

By: Adrianne Aron, Haiti Action Committee

2010-05-29T08:37:00.001-07:00

Children's understanding of 'Ubuntu'
Author: Marta Bonna

"The concept of Ubuntu has recently received a lot of attention in spite of the fact that there is no consensus about its meaning. African scholars have strived to attain a common meaning and English translation, and while they agree that it is typically and solely African, the closest some have come up with is 'African humanism'. A South African saying is frequently used to illustrate the core tenet of the ethics of Ubuntu: 'unumtu ngumumntu ngabantu', which translated into English means: 'A person depends on others to be a person.' The principles underlying the way of life proposed by Ubuntu are transferred from generation to generation through fables, sayings, proverbs and by tradition through the socialization of children in which the whole community is involved. Bearing in mind that traditional values may become diluted or lost during times of change and urbanization..."

Affiliation: a University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa

DOI: 10.1080/03004430701269291
Publication Frequency: 10 issues per year
Published in: Early Child Development and Care, Volume 177, Issue 8 December 2007 , pages 863 - 873
First Published: December 2007
Subject: Child Development;
Formats available: HTML (English) : PDF (English)
Article Requests: Order Reprints : Request Permissions

Single Article Purchase: US$30.00 - buy now add to cart [ show other buying options ]

purchase type customer type online access payment method price
Single Article Purchase Any 3 days, 1 user, 3 cookies credit card US$30.00 buy now add to cart
Issue Purchase Any permanent credit card US$596.68 buy now add to cart

If you would like to pay in any other currency please see the purchasing help pages for more information.

If you are an agent wanting to subscribe on behalf of your customer please contact our subscriptions department on the following email address: subscriptions@tandf.co.uk

Sign In Online Sample
View Full Text Article
Download PDF (~123 KB) View Article Online (HTML)

Abstract
The concept of Ubuntu has recently received a lot of attention in spite of the fact that there is no consensus about its meaning. African scholars have strived to attain a common meaning and English translation, and while they agree that it is typically and solely African, the closest some have come up with is 'African humanism'. A South African saying is frequently used to illustrate the core tenet of the ethics of Ubuntu: 'unumtu ngumumntu ngabantu', which translated into English means: 'A person depends on others to be a person.' The principles underlying the way of life proposed by Ubuntu are transferred from generation to generation through fables, sayings, proverbs and by tradition through the socialization of children in which the whole community is involved. Bearing in mind that traditional values may become diluted or lost during times of change and urbanization, 215 South African black children of two different age groups and from three geographical areas—rural, urban and semi-urban—were interviewed about their understanding of the concept of Ubuntu. A content analysis of their responses refutes the belief that the traditional ethics of Ubuntu are disappearing with the changes taking place and the rise in urbanization. While the replies of the children sometimes reflected the prominence of those facets of Ubuntu which might have had more significance in their specific milieu and age, perhaps denoting that the community selected views of Ubuntu which made more sense to them, from the results of this study, it can be said that Ubuntu is still alive and thriving as far as these children were concerned.
Keywords: Ubuntu; Children's understanding of; Traditional values and urbanization

2010-05-28T12:32:00.000-07:00

30/05/2008
"The worldwide food crisis makes establishing a system of global democratic governance all the more urgent

On the initiative of the World Forum of Civil Society Networks — UBUNTU, we the undersigned wish to express our deep concern and to voice our most forceful protest at having reached this long foreseen and extremely grave situation in such a critical affair as feeding the world's inhabitants. This situation clearly exposes the failure of our present economic system in financial, environmental, cultural and moral terms, the rules of the market having replaced the rule of universal values, and it exposes the condition of vulnerability of our International Organisations, brought about by the absence of support from the most powerful countries.

The background:

Back in July 2002, in an individual statement by Federico Mayor issued in the context of the UBUNTU Forum in the wake of the Second World Food Summit — one of many milestones on the way to the forthcoming FAO Conference on World Food Security scheduled for June 2008 — the following points were made, among others:
There is a situation that demands our attention. 24,000 human beings die from hunger every day, and the Second World Summit failed to establish the necessary measures for the eradication of this silent genocide. Developed countries did not show the political will needed in order to fight the causes. ... How many women, children, and elderly people will die for the decisions not taken?
4,800 million human beings suffer from hunger today. While the most powerful countries increase their investment in arms, military expenses and national security, this significant part of humanity is denied all the resources necessary for survival—including training, knowledge and appropriate technology.
While wealthy areas protect their agricultural production with enormous financial resources, poor countries are forced to liberalize their agricultural markets. The International Monetary Fund's adjustment policies and the liberalization of world commerce promoted by the World Trade Organization has resulted in the reduction of trade tariffs and subsidies to farmers in these countries, the claim being that the market should solve its own problems.
No nation is exempt from responsibility. It is inadmissible that the moral and political responsibilities of democratic governments be transferred to "the market". A worldwide code of conduct in terms of a legal and ethical framework from a duly reformed United Nations is, for all the above reasons, urgent and imperative.
What had been happening, and what has been happening since then?
The world population has gone on rising, though somewhat less sharply in recent years, and so the need for food is growing and will continue to grow. Most of the population increase is happening in the south, and that is where most of the demand is now and, therefore, so will be in the future. In this respect:
The strong economic growth experienced in some emerging countries has led to a natural and sudden increase in the demand for cereals, together with a rise in the consumption of meat, milk, eggs and other foodstuffs — a rise associated with greater development. This addition to the world demand for cereals means greater pressure on that market, which now clearly and urgently requires worldwide regulation.
The unmet rise in demand for food in the south will inevitably lead to more frustration and radicalisation, and prompt further waves of emigration.
In any case, the present-day food crisis signifies that the limits on exploiting some of the planet's resources are being encountered, and this serves to confirm the pressing need for radical change in our current unsustainable production and consumption patterns, chiefly in the north.
Almost all agriculturally useful land is already being used, and thus only a productivity boost based on "clean" and renewable technologies can make a contribution to increasing agricultural production locally and globally. And yet significant phenomena have arisen in connection with these aspects that are contributing to a worsening of the situation.
Over the last few decades, the forces of neoliberal globalisation, overseen by the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO, have been pressing southern countries to implement privatisation and deregulation policies for the markets — markets in which they have to compete on wholly unequal terms with the countries of the north (which, for their part, have maintained and are still maintaining their agricultural subsidies, including subsidies for exporting surplus produce); this has severely weakened agricultural systems in the south. On top of the losses in international agricultural exchanges, local subsistence agriculture has also been swept away by this onslaught. The result could not be worse: more local/global hunger. It is time to call the political world to account for having brought about such situations.
In connection with another world crisis — the energy crisis — major agricultural producer countries have increasingly been devoting land and non-food agricultural produce for the production of biofuels rather than food. We the undersigned believe that in matters of this kind Humanity should endow itself with global mechanisms for arbitration and decision-making over and above the mechanisms in the hands of individual States, since the policies concerned are extremely sensitive in terms of their likely planet-wide impact.
The prices of agricultural produce have risen spectacularly, especially over the last two years, and this has only worsened the situation. The main reasons behind these rises can be summarized as follows:
A worldwide energy crisis has emerged, particularly in oil, with very significant knock-on effects on food production and transportation costs. Moreover, for many years now the big oil companies have not just hushed up the effects of excessive consumption on the environment: they have also obstructed in many different ways the emergence of clean, renewable sources for producing energy. In any case, prices will go on rising for as long as agricultural relocation remains part of the globalisation process. The unsustainability of the current world agricultural model is clear.
As a collateral effect of the financial crisis, investors are being drawn to the stable agricultural markets, and are making profits through speculative trading in commodity futures: they can sell their holdings later on at higher prices, thanks to the increased demand. The result is more hunger in the world, through agricultural produce rising in price now and in the future. As with the financial crisis, worldwide political regulation to control the global markets is now clearly indispensable.

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

Faced with this bleak and complex scenario, with its many interrelated factors and uncertainties, we the undersigned believe that only the establishment of a system of Global Democratic Governance can put Humanity in a position to direct its destinies on this planet in a democratic, responsible way, and more specifically to meet its basic food requirements. In line with what we champion at the World Campaign for in-depth Reform of the System of International Institutions, this system must contribute to strengthening the United Nations by refounding the other financial, economic and commercial organizations within the UN, and providing them with the human and financial resources needed to meet the challenges we are now facing. Specifically:

The new system must have the capacity to implement global decisions in a truly democratic framework. The production and use of biofuels, the regulation of the various global markets and other such issues cannot go on being subject to decisions taken by individual states or — worse still — by the markets of the richest and most powerful countries.
It must give priority, through positive discrimination, to the interests of the poorest and neediest groups on the planet — which means the vast majority of the inhabitants of the Earth. This entails launching a new model, much more local in scale as well as much more sustainable in social, environmental and economic terms, and dealing first with the world's least developed countries in all matters relating to agricultural production and trade.
It must spring from an in-depth reform of our present-day International Organizations, on several fronts, including:
Putting an end to the ascendancy enjoyed by some international organizations (the ones controlled by the world's richest countries) over others. Thus, in the vital field of food, the policies of the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO cannot continue to take precedence over those of the FAO.
Giving the relevant bodies of the United Nations — i.e. the FAO, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and the World Food Programme (mainly in those aspects less linked to emergencies) — the coordinating power, the framework of competencies and the human resources needed firstly to tackle the current emergency situations and secondly to implement the policies required in the medium and long term to deal with the underlying problems.
Accordingly, advantage must be taken of the fresh opportunity afforded by the Review of the Monterrey Consensus on Financing for Development to define and implement, in a just manner and without further delay, a system of financing for development that is transparent, predictable and sustainable, and that will enable the development objectives that Humanity desperately requires to be attained."

Federico Mayor

Adolfo Pérez Esquivel
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

Mario Soares

Susan George

Noam Chomsky

Desmond Tutu
Archbishop Emeritus

Wole Soyinca
Nobel Prize Laureate

Aminata Traoré
ASF - African Social Forum

Ramesh Singh
AAI - Action Aid International

Kumi Naidoo
Civicus - World Alliance For Citizen Participation

Chico Whitaker
Right Livelihood Award; Brazilian Commission Justice and Peace

Kailash Satyarthi
Global March Against Child Labour

Cândido Grzybowski
IBASE - Instituto Brasileiro de Análises Sociais e Econômicas

Roberto Savio
IPS - Inter Press Service

Alexander Likotal
Green Cross International

Tomas Magnusson
IPB - International Peace Bureau

Ricardo Díez Hochleitner
Honorary President Club of Rome

Gunnar Westberg
Past President International Physicians for the Prevention of Nulcear War

Herman Spanjaard
IPPNW -International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War

Sara Longwe
FEMNET - African Women's Development and Communication Network

Fatma Alloo
DAWN - Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era

Meja Vitalis
AFRODAD - African Forum and Network on Debt and Development

Janet Mbere
MWENGO - Mwelekeo wa NGO

Cherdsak Virapat
International Ocean Institute

Rajesh Tandon
PRIA - Participatory Research in Asia

Nadia Johnson
WEDO - Woman Environment Development Organitzation

Aldo Caliari
CoC - Center of Concern

Lois Barber
EarthAction

Paul Ortega
Pax Romana ICMICA/MIIC

Philo Morris
Medical Mission Sisters

Mohammed Fayek
Arab Organization For Human Rights

Ziad Abdel Samad
Executive Director - Arab NGO Network for Development

Mae-anne Llanza
APWLD - Asian Pacific Forum on Women Law and Development

Lau Kin Chi
CSD - China Social Services and Development Research Centre

Sean O Siochru
CRIS - Communication Rights in Information Society Campaign

Marino Busdachin
UNPO – Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation

Rómulo Torres
LATINDADD - Red Latinoamericana sobre Deuda, Desarrollo y Derechos

Ernesto Lamas
AMARC ALC - Asoc. Mundial Radios Comunitarias - América Latina Caribe

Carlos Tünnermann
ILAEDES – Instituto Latinoamericano de Educación para el Desarrollo

Luz Stella Velásquez
Red Latinoamericana de Estudios Ambientales Urbanos

Carlos Bedoya
Jubileo Perú

Martí Olivella
Alliance for Responsible, Plural and United World

Vicente García
CIVICUS - UN representative

Roberto Papini
Instituto Internazionale Jacques Maritain

Francine Mestrum
AEDH - Agence européenne pour la défense des droits de l'homme

Arcadi Oliveras
Justice and Peace Europe

Jorge Nieto
Centro Internacional para la Cultura Democrática

Markus Brun
FASTENOPFER

Antoni Giró
Rector UPC - Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya

Richard A. Falk
Princeton University; California University

Hall Gardner
Professor American University of Paris

John Trent
Professor University of Ottawa

Josep Ferrer
Professor Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - UPC

Ferran Requejo
Professor Universitat Pompeu Fabra - UPF

Joan Domènec Ros Aragonés
Professor Universitat de Barcelona - UB

Josep Xercavins
UBUNTU Forum Ad Hoc Secretariat, professor UPC

Adhered to the statement
(If you want to adhere to this statement, please, click here)

Carles Cañellas - Cia. De Teatre Rocamora, Spain
Ana Carmona , Spain
Ana Florido Serrano, Spain
Mari Carmen Martínez - Particular, Spain
Carmen Marsá - Particular, Spain
Álvaro Pérez Cantalapiedra, Spain
Verònica Pérez Crespo - Entrepobles, Spain
Olga Rebato, Spain
Fernando Sainz, Spain
Ghers Zonensain - Noah's Ark - international Peace, Israel
Joan Pous Cañellas - La 3ª Edat Per Al 3er. Món, Spain
Cesar Augusto Jaico Carranza - Asociacion de Juristas Peruanos, Spain
Álvaro Morera - Periódico Digital El Guanche, Spain
Alvaro Morera - Periódico Digital El Guanche, Spain
Mercedes Abdola Tabraue, Spain
Robert Otu Uwem - African Youth Movement, Nigeria
Mariella Colonna - Orti & Giardini, Italy
José Roberto Gómez Gutierrez - Orden Solar Templaria, Colombia
José Moisés Martín Carretero - Acsur-las Segovias, Spain
Gladys Enciso - Abogada-voluntaria Socio Ambiental, Argentina
Jordi Escruela I Núñez - Coynsa-2000, Spain
Ramesh Man Tuladhar - Nepal Earth Society, Nepal
Jordi Armadans - Fundacio per la Pau / International Peace Bureau, Andorra
Cristina Valverde Molina - Gam Vallès, Spain
Pedro Moreno, Spain
David Alonso - Entreculturas-fe Y Alegría, Spain
Jose A. Moreno, United States
Arwen Bird, United States
Mª Del Mar Narbona , Spain
Pilar Quera Colomina - Alive , Spain
Manuel Zaguirre Cano - Unión Sindical Obrera, Spain
Bertha Elena Munguía Gil - C.a.s.d.e., A.c., Mexico
Mercè Busquet Bosch - Aturem La Guerra, Artesans Per A Pau, Spain
Jennifer Williams Ramos, Spain
Xavier Ortega Roig - Ccd-upc, Spain
Rosa López Torrijos, Spain
Sonia Gonzalez, Spain
Quim Pons I Estrada - Universitat Inter. De La Pau, Spain
Mar Maiques Díaz - Intermón Oxfam, Spain
Carles Enguix I Borràs, Spain
Gerardo Bartolomeo, Uruguay
Eduardo Agustin Cruz - Chilean-canadian Cultural Center, Canada
Nemesio Juan Rodríguez Mitchell - México Nación Multicultural , Mexico
Iroezi Von Ikechukwu - Centre For Peace And Rural Development, Nigeria
Ronaldo Retecheski - Bit Informatica, Brazil
Chris Baruti Likoyi - Recherches Et Documentation Juridiques Africaines, Belgium
Isabel Pastor López, Spain
Ababacar Diop - Jonction, Senegal
Angeles Sánchez Braojos - Acción Para El Desarrollo Y la Igualdad, Spain
Alfons Banda - Fundació Per La Pau (President), Spain
Mario José Gutiérrez Morales - Diversidad Sexual, Nicaragua
Fernando Redondo Benito - Centro Unesco Castilla - La Mancha, Spain
Carles Furriols I Solà - Fundació H. Dr Trueta, Andorra
Marie Chantal Schmitz, Belgium
Shanti Ranjan Behera - Martin Luther King Centre Democracy &Human Rights, India
Montse García Moya, Spain
Jaume Cendra Garreta - Upc, Spain
Emili Chalaux - Acció Dels Cristians Per L'abolició De La Tortura, Spain
Montserrat Munté - Acció Dels Cristians Per L'abolició De La Tortura, Spain
Cristina Font Viola - Oratge, Spain
Caterina Molina Compte - Universitat Ramon Llull, Spain
Carlos Martínez Carbonell , Spain
Ivan Capdevila - Amfivia Outdoor Events Management, Spain
Carles Enguix I Borràs, Spain
Josep Valls Ribas - Tercer Sector, Spain
Rosa Masip, Spain
Marta Freixa Boixader - Berga, Spain
Traore M'bemba - Association Défenseurs Des Enfants, Guinea
Camara Nestor - Association Défenseurs Des Enfants, Guinea
Camara Bachir - Association Défenseurs Des Enfants, Guinea
Mamadouba Sylla - Association Défenseurs Des Enfants, Guinea
Alhassane Maïga - Association Défenseurs Des Enfants, Guinea
Amara Traoré - Association Défenseurs Des Enfants, Guinea
Mariama Sylla - Association Défenseurs Des Enfants, Guinea
Kadiatou Kollet Baldé - Association Défenseurs Des Enfants, Guinea
Mamadou Guilavogui - Association Défenseurs Des Enfants, Guinea
Gennadiy Ulyanich - Association Défenseurs Des Enfants, Guinea
Saïdou Condé - Association Défenseurs Des Enfants, Guinea
Traoré M'bemba - Association Défenseurs Des Enfants, Guinea
Sylla Mamadou - Association Défenseurs Des Enfants, Guinea
Maïga Alhassane - Association Défenseurs Des Enfants, Guinea
Traoré A - Association Défenseurs Des Enfants, Guinea
Alfons Olmo Boronat - Verdcel, Montserrat
Hendrik Siregar, Indonesia
Aram López Roca, Spain
Marta Torras, Spain
Jaime Lozada Alvarez - A.e.r., Ecuador
Pilar Remiro, Spain
Ntimpirqngeza Abdoul Mohamed - Ajvi Burundi, Burundi
Conxita González Díaz, Spain
Ana Molina Rubio - Universidad de Córdoba, Spain
Mireia Rubio Molín - Comitès Óscar Romero, Spain
Mathew Bangura - People United To Save Humanity, Sierra Leone
Xavier Bartolomé, Spain
Maria del Mar García Arellano, Spain
Mónica Cano, Spain
Ester Ollé Pérez, Spain
Jorge Eduardo Cañas López - Art-mirall.org, Spain
Paul Castro Coronel - Colectivo Juaréz, Mexico
Jordi Villanueva Palau, Spain
Leo Oroño, Argentina
Marco Berta - Mensa Del Povero S.antonio Da Padova, Italy
Frederica Azania Clare - Community Voices Heard-Harlem, United States

2010-05-09T16:48:00.000-07:00

The DISCUSSION:
"Restoring Umoya (Breath) To Enliven Dya (Essence): Untying Makolo (Knots) Of Dehumanization Through Ubuntu Psychology Kevin Washington, Ph.D., Marimba Ani, Ph. D., Cheryl Tawede Grills, Ph.D., Wade Ifabemi Nobles, Ph.D. The illumination of the divine spirit of Afrikan people can only be achieved through the implementation of a healing paradigm that is consistent with the African spirit. This presentation advances Ubuntu Psychology as the core of the healing paradigm that restores the divine essence within African people." -Association of Black Psychologists
2009 Convention.

IS THERE A DEBATE?

Pax,
Frederica-Azania Clare, M.A.
UBUNTUPSYCHOLOGIST

2010-05-05T11:13:00.001-07:00

http://radicalpsychology.org/vol4-1/holdstock_review.html

2010-05-03T15:26:00.000-07:00

"Short mission trips will allow women to build friendships
Home > Our World > News > Archive stories

Short mission trips will allow women to build friendships

A UMNS file photo by Jane Malone

Zimbabwean women work in the gardens at a Shalom Zone project in a suburb of Mutare.
Zimbabwean women work in the gardens at Isheanesu, the Shalom Zone project at Hilltop United Methodist Church in a high-density suburb of Mutare, Zimbabwe. The gardens feed church members and children in an after-school program. The Women's Division and Mission Volunteers office of the denomination's Board of Global Ministries are forming a partnership that will enable U.S. women to build friendships with women in countries such as Zimbabwe. A UMNS file photo by Dean Snyder. Photo number05-457. Accompanies UMNS #365, 6/24/05
June 24, 2005

By Kelly Martini*

NEW YORK (UMNS)—The Women’s Division and Mission Volunteers office of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries are forming a partnership that will enable U.S. women to build friendships on short mission trips in Zimbabwe, Uruguay, Cambodia, Sierra Leone and Cote D’Ivoire.

The goal of the program, called “Ubuntu eXplorers,” is to enable U.S. women to understand and share together the daily life, struggles, culture, challenges and opportunities of women from one of the countries. During the one- to two-week trips, members of United Methodist Women also will get a firsthand look at the programs and projects supported by their annual giving of about $20 million.

The program will begin in 2006 with an April visit to Zimbabwe. Trips to Uruguay in August and Cambodia in September will follow. In 2007, the Women’s Division and Mission Volunteers will host trips to Sierra Leone and Cote D’Ivoire.

“Ubuntu” is an African word and proverb meaning, “I am human because you are human.” According to Ubuntu psychology, “Sharing ourselves and our gifts with others optimizes our collective and individual humanity. Even in the sharing and the giving, the individual or ‘other’ group receives the gifts and the glories of humanity.”

Jeanie Blankenbaker, staff executive for Mission Volunteers, said the idea of “Ubuntu eXplorers” came as an answer to a prayer from Grace Musuka, coordinator of women’s work for the United Methodist Church in Zimbabwe.

A UMNS file photo by Dean Snyder

Women produce meals from this kitchen in Zimbabwe as part of a United Methodist program.

The women of Isheanesu in a high-density suburb of Mutare, Zimbabwe, produce meals from this kitchen and the adjacent bread-baking oven, in two Shalom Zone enterprises at Hilltop United Methodist Church. From left are: Trawde Mhlanga, Audrey Chivhumze and Caroline Chanderia. The Women's Division and Mission Volunteers office of the denomination's Board of Global Ministries are forming a partnership that will enable U.S. women to build friendships with women in countries such as Zimbabwe. A UMNS file photo by Jane Malone. Photo number 05-458. Accompanies UMNS #365, 6/24/05
“A couple of years ago, Grace asked me if it would be possible sometime for just women to come to Zimbabwe to worship with her women, to share in laughter and cry in sadness, to enjoy each others’ company in Christian love, as sisters of faith, letting the women in Zimbabwe know they were not alone,” she explained. “When we called Grace to ask if she’d still like us to come, she immediately said, ‘Can you come yesterday?’”

Karen Prudente, staff executive for international opportunities with the Women’s Division, said grass-roots women’s organizations, supported by United Methodist Women, will host the visitors.

“Participants will learn about the cultures of the area, travel, pray, sing, cry, teach, work, listen and tell stories, and engage as Christian sisters,” she added. “They will visit and have a mission experience at institutions such as schools, clinics, women’s training centers, hospitals, nurseries.”

The experiences will differ depending on the trip chosen. “Ubuntu eXplorers volunteers might teach at a workshop where local women exchange tips on Bible study and devotions, basic health and nutrition, artisan crafts, singing and liturgical dance,” Prudente said. Participants will share their experiences upon their return home.

Team leaders for the first three pilot programs have been selected, and team members of 10 to 12 women—with at least one member being a young adult—will be recruited.
Costs will be under $2,500, and team members will be asked to provide one suitcase of resource materials suggested by the host organization.

For more information and registration forms, go to http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/ or http://gbgm-umc.org/vim/ubuntu.htm. Interested women may also call Mission Volunteers at (212) 870-3825 or the Women’s Division at (212) 870-3911.

*Martini is the information officer for the Women’s Division.

News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

Suggested Articles:
Women’s Division letter takes up rights for detainees
United Methodist Women urged to fight torture
Bible women spread word through Asia Suggested Resources
United Methodist Women
Mission Volunteers"

2010-05-03T14:56:00.000-07:00

CONCEPT PAPER for CONFERNCE: URBAN HEALTH 2010 NYC CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

Urban Social Environment and Health

Paper and Workshop Proposal

"Innovative Methods and Measurements: Ubuntupsychology"

THEMES:

Education and Health Linkages
Learned Interdependence: Freedom from Learned Helplessness at LESC/Diversity Works program in the Bronx, USA. &
Violence and Urban Security
The Alternatives to Violence Project with the Hutu and the Tutsi: Introducing EVA, Emotional Violence Alternatives, in Bujumbura, Burundi.

"The conference invites presentations of original studies, analyses, evaluations and best practices in a multitude of sectors: health services, violence and security, transportation and injuries, housing and infrastructure, urban planning, neighborhoods and the urban environment, reproductive and maternal child health, the social determinants of health, substance use and homeless populations, and still others.

By holding this conference in New York, NY, one of the leading cities in the world, we intend to foster international research and policy exchanges to collectively improve the understanding of the common health and social risks faced by urban residents and communities and to influence the development of effective public health interventions across the globe. Perspectives and lessons from different countries can be valuable to share, and New York City’s experience shows that North-South exchanges can lead to effective, inclusive, and comprehensive policies to improve urban health.

Therefore we encourage academics, professionals, members of non-profit organizations, policymakers, community members, and individuals from the private sector of diverse backgrounds and disciplines to submit an abstract for the conference."

Dear Eileen,
As co-author, given your expertise on BURUNDI, and I am sure, some Public Health experience related to my current population in the Bronx, (our population, if we work together with 15th Street Quaker Meeting in the Bronx as we did with fundraising, and online, in Burundi) will you help me pare it down with a Public Health perspective?

Awaiting your answer so that we can claim joint authorship.

Pax,
Azania
Frederica-Azania Clare
http://www.linkedin.com/in/Azania
" I would have been able to free more slaves if they only knew they
were slaves." -Harriet Tubman

2010-04-28T07:52:00.000-07:00

Frederica Azania Clare, M.A. online
WE ARE READY TO "BE THE HEALING..."

It seems llike forever, but this month Dr. Alexia, Cassilde, the new R.N. and I, Frederica-Azania Clare, M.A. Ubuntu-Psychologist have all been in touch. The disease is the Post Atrocity Syndromes of Terror (The P.A.S.T.) and the treatment is beyond the post-traumatic stress disorder-PTSD-treatment protocols.

We will address what we will call abc-trauma (African, Black, Caribbean) atrocities (Apartheid, Black, and Colonial)terrorisms. We will address their etiology & pathology; their treatment & recovery regimes.

We will establish new protocols for treatment, post-atrocity.

We call this, the treatment of the Post-Atrocity Syndromes of Terror, or treatment of the P.A.S.T.

These protocals describes what Blacks need to do to free themselves of the yoke of Whites' domination and terrorization where it exist historically and manifests in contemporary societies in Africa and the African diaspora, such as the U.S. and the Caribbean. We will explore the past six centuries for the answers to our pain.

Many contemporary Black theorists and Truth tellers of every human color, and time in recorded humanity, will be referenced for clinical guidance; including psychologists, psychiatrisits, philosophers and activist/revolutionaries from Denmark Vesey and Hariet Tubman to John Brown and Lucritia Mott, to Neely Fuller, to Albert Luthuli,Stephen Biko, Walter Rodney and Mumia Abu-Jamal and many more.

Let's follow in the footsteps of our brave and brilliant Dr. Joy DeGruy, and, "Be the Healing."

Let's treat PTSS-Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome. Let's do it worldwide: Now and Forever ... Let's heal the P.A.S.T.-Post Atrocity Syndromes of Terror.

"Be The Healing!"

2010-04-21T13:14:00.000-07:00

http://www.aas.cah.ucf.edu/staff.php?id=673

2010-04-21T13:06:00.001-07:00

His current scholarship looks addressing the psychological wounds of Persistent Enslavement Systemic Trauma (PEST) encountered by formerly enslaved Africans of the African Diaspora. This cultural trauma is being addresses through his construct of Ubuntu Psychology.
Kevin Washington (Mwata Kairi), Ph.D. Practicing Ubuntupsychology....?

2009-12-22T18:33:00.000-08:00

2009-12-22T18:17:00.000-08:00

2008-03-24T19:40:00.000-07:00

UBUNTU AND THE AUDACITY OF HOPE

"...Barack Obama is opposed to the hierarchies of the

whites over blacks and browns and uses his own life as
a metaphor for calling on citizens to come together to
save the planet earth. Obama has gone on record to
register his opposition to the structured existence
that places humans as atomized individuals without
responsibility to family or society. Atomized
individuals are open to manipulation by the media and
are open to the Hobbesian thinking that society must be
based on conflict and confrontation or 'war of every
man against every man.' This manipulation is one form
of psychological warfare against the citizens of the
United States...

The idea of change that echoes from the Obama campaign
has been calling for citizens to place themselves at
the center and to empower themselves, firstly with
their positive thinking, "Yes we can," and more
importantly by organizing to intervene in the political
process. In response to this call, a cross section of
the citizens of the United States from Iowa to
Nebraska, from Idaho to Georgia and from Washington to
Louisiana have come forward to seek the new ideas of
twenty first century change. In the process there are
new constituencies that have found their voice. This
has led to a level of spontaneity that one could see in
the much watched video- Yes we can.

Can the old media and the old ideas blunt the quantum
leap in the consciousness of the youth that is taking
place at the moment? This is the question that emerges
from the discourse of the political talking heads on
the same television stations that were enthusiastic
cheer leaders for the illegal war against the peoples
of Iraq.

These political commentators who were brought up to
reproduce the misinformation of the media that
tormented young people and led them into depression and
isolation cannot fully understand the call of the Obama
campaign to the youth that the change must begin in the
youth themselves and that that have to believe in their
capacity for change.

The political pundits of the mainstream media have been
in the main brought up within the context of the
hierarchies of Newtonian physics have been confounded
by the bottom up, responsive, plural and holistic
message of the Yes we can campaign.

These hierarchies have been at the base of the faulty
democratic traditions of the United States that did not
recognize native peoples as humans and rendered African
Americans as three fifths of a human being. The same
democratic tradition did not recognize women as
citizens. Obama is not calling for this deformed
reference to be the basis for change, he is exhorting
all classes and all ages to be part of the solution, by
drawing from a different tradition, the progressive
traditions that sought to enrich and enlarge the
meaning of democracy...

The unique experiences that Obama learnt when he was an
organizer on the South Side of Chicago taught him the
humility to listen to the ordinary person and it is
this methodical organizing like the repetition of self
similarity that one can discern in the organizational
skills of Obama. The political victories in Idaho,
Nebraska, the Virgin Islands and Missouri followed the
scaling pattern of Obama that built up a profile in
every district and in every part of the country so that
he could not be pigeon-holed. After the land slide
victory in South Carolina, Bill Clinton sought to
compare Obama to Jesse Jackson and to limit his appeal
to African Americans citizens. But the citizens of
Washington State, Missouri, Louisiana and Maine voted
with their heads and their hearts in response to new
organizing thrust that is making the quantum leap in US
politics a possibility. This leap has been reinforced
by the nested loops of new social networks wired
through the spaces of the information revolution.

After these victories the momentum began to build and
citizens in Virginia, Maryland and the District of
Columbia signaled that they were another link in the
chain of this momentous political intervention. Young
people have organized themselves into new formations
and have been energized by the promise that Obama would
want to move in a new direction. In the past forty
years the established parties benefited from the
demobilization of the youth and unlike most liberal
democratic states the numbers of citizens voting in the
USA has been consistently below the numbers of other
western democracies. Apathy and withdrawal from the
system have been the outcome of the absence of
realistic alternatives for the majority of the poor in
the United States. This absence of participation by the
youth has benefited the corporations and special
interests to the point where there had been no
incentive for the two parties to remove the
restrictions that deter young people from participating
in politics. The advent of Barack Obama is generating
the long sought after alternative, hence the
unprecedented turnout for the caucuses and primaries...

New experiences are being created in the midst of a new
kind of political campaign that builds on these
networks. The traditional media (newspapers, radio and
Television stations) and the campaign of the Clintons
have made clear statements about the organizational
experience of the team around Hilary Clinton (Madeline
Albright, Richard Holbrooke, Sandy Berger, Bill Clinton
etc). Yet, it is this same experience rooted in the
mechanistic hierarchies of Newtonian physics that is
becoming the albatross of the political campaign of
Hilary Clinton. Her experiences are very similar to the
leader of the Republican Party, John McCain. John
McCain is proud of his support for the wars against the
peoples of Iraq and the merchants of death. Hilary
Clinton has sought to demonstrate to the club of
militarists that she would oil the war machinery while
millions are without basic jobs.

Without fresh ideas when US citizens wanted a clean
break with the militarism that brought the quagmire and
fiasco in Iraq, Hilary Clinton could not understand
that she had to tell the people that she was wrong in
supporting the unjust war in Iraq. This is politics of
truth that is now needed in the society. But from the
position of Hilary Clinton on a possible military
strike against Iran and more importantly, her base in
the constituency of the financial speculators of New
York State exposed the fact that thought she is
campaigning to change conditions for women, she has not
broken with the militarists of the society. Decency
would require that Hilary Clinton rewrite her texts on
her responses to war and genocide during the Presidency
of Bill Clinton. In this campaign her character has
emerged especially in the case of the primary in
Florida. Hilary Clinton's willingness to claim a
victory in Florida when she had said she would not
brought out her true character to all peoples, black
and white, women and men...

The Obama campaign has been able to draw on the
organizational capacities of those who want to turn
truth into a political force so that the society can
turn from war to peace. This is the basic force behind
the momentum of Barrack Obama and his experiences of
Chicago has been able to translate this (peace thrust)
in order to build up the electoral profile, bringing
new teams in every part of the country and creating new
training spaces for the energetic to donate,
participate and learn the possibilities for change.
Yet, because of the limitations of the electoral system
that mitigates against direct participation of the
citizen beyond voting, it is urgent that those who have
understood the need for a new politics build new
organizations at new sites of politics.

This new urgency is especially the case in the peace
movement that has been unable to build on to the
aspirations of the masses of the people for justice.
Five years after the illegal occupation of Iraq, the
activists for peace yearn for new forms of expression
and hence there is a slow learning curve that
demonstrations without follow up will only frustrate
those who want new organizations. In 2003 at the start
of the war against the peoples of Iraq there were
millions of peoples on the streets.

Yet the established leadership of the peace movement
was not able to take the question of the illegal war to
the court of international opinion to that the
immorality of the war could be brought before the
International Criminal Court in The Hague...

Momentum means that when a person or object is moving,
regardless of what it is - the harder it is to stop
that person or object. When one consider "momentum" in
terms of politics, this means that if a presidential
candidate, such as Obama, sees and/or experiences a
gain and/or surge in his message of peace, hope and
change with millions singing, Yes we can, there could
be nothing, not even bullets that can intervene in this
momentum. This is the basis for a possible quantum leap
in US politics to bring a new mode of politics for the
21st Century.

Obama is not a revolutionary but he has been caught up
in a revolutionary moment in world history. The
electoral campaign of Obama is riding on a wave of
peace and change desired by ordinary Americans. There
are limitations to the electoral project insofar as the
task of restructuring US society is a gigantic one that
cannot be done overnight. Obama may not be the
solution, but is a small step in the direction of
making the break with the old binary conceptions that
dominated enlightenment thinking. It is the laws of
unintended consequences that will emanate from this
break that can lead to a new direction with the new
positive bottom up organizing for transformation to a
democratic society where all can live in peace.

A clear understanding of the nature of US politics and
limitation of the structures of the in-built
conservativsim of the system means that Barrack Obama
would only be trapped by this social system if those
who are being drawn into the audacity of hope do not
build their own political movement and political
organization. It is only a bottom up movement hat can
prevent Barack Obama from becoming a racial decoy for
the Wall Street forces. Self mobilization, self
organization and emancipatory ideas will create new
spaces so that the political space will be expanded
beyond the media, the lobbyists and the ritual spaces
of the White House, Congress and the Senate Chambers.
Safe and clean neighborhoods, children who are reared
to respect all human beings and a society that support
repair of the planet earth awaits these new self
organizing forces.

The campaign of Barack Obama is the story of hundreds
of thousands of ordinary people. These are the people
who are participating because they believe that
politics can mean something again. It is apt to
conclude with the words of Martin Luther King Jr.:

"Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture
the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes
hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty,
racism and militarism." "

* Horace Campbell is Professor of Political Science at
Syracuse University.

______________________________

_______________

Portside aims to provide material of interest
to people on the left that will help them to
interpret the world and to change it.

Submit via email: moderator@portside.org
Submit via the Web: portside.org/submit
Frequently asked questions: portside.org/faq
Subscribe: portside.org/subscribe
Unsubscribe: portside.org/unsubscribe
Account assistance: portside.org/contact
Search the archives: portside.org/archive

2005-11-10T08:23:00.000-08:00

City launches Moral
Regeneration Movement
WITH its eye on the SPIRIT OF UBUNTU Johannesburg is launching a Moral Regeneration Movement to restore moral fibre in society.

November 3, 2005
By Lucky Sindane

JOHANNESBURG is planning to launch a Moral Regeneration Movement (MRM) that will bring together different communities from different backgrounds to deal with their challenges and problems.

The movement will be launched on Saturday, 26 November at the Diepsloot taxi rank, in Diepsloot. It is an inclusive movement that will have its roots in communities, with support from the government.

Its objective is to revive the spirit of ubuntu, using all available resources and harnessing all initiatives in government, business, and civil society organisations and institutions to work towards restoring moral fibre in society.

"The MRM programme offers a unique opportunity for South Africans to re-define and re-affirm ourselves as moral beings and collectively formulate tangible, practical and workable strategies and programmes that will see us endorsing values compatible with the new democratic South Africa," says Loshini Govender, the deputy director in the Office of the Speaker.

Johannesburg Executive Mayor Councillor Amos Masondo, says, "The MRM programme is not an organisation. It is people coming together addressing burning issues in order to better people's lives."

However, there is a lack of participation from religious leaders.

Assertions are made that religious leaders are the only best gatekeepers of morality in our society, so they should be driving the movement, Govender believes.

But Masondo will meet religious leaders to provide political leadership on how best to ensure that all faiths are represented in the MRM.

"Together let us find solutions to moral decay by jointly developing a strategy and a programme of action," Masondo says.

The MRM programme seeks to promote the principles of good governance; to demonstrate a zero tolerance of any practice that impairs human dignity and the right to a decent life; and to profile all initiatives and good work made towards moral regeneration.

"The moral regeneration process ushered in by the government makes South Africa unique in the sense that it is an indigenous concept rather than an imposed one," Masondo says.

"Meetings will be held in all the regions to familiarise residents with the MRM and to give them the opportunity to discuss the means that will ensure their participation at the launch," Govender explains.

To ensure communities are part of the launch, the City will provide transport from all the regions to the venue.

"The strides made to strengthen the City's MRM have gained pace," Govender adds, saying this gave hope that most Joburgers will soon know of the movement.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Permission to use web site material
Publishers may use material from this site free of charge, as long as:
Credit is given to either the "City of Johannesburg website (www.joburg.org.za)" or to "Johannesburg News Agency (www.joburg.org.za)";
If the article is used online, a link is provided to the original article on this website;
The name of the article's author is acknowledged;
The webmaster is informed of how and where the material is used (fill in this brief online form).
Johannesburg News Agency is operated by BIG Media at 011-484-1400

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

2005-10-13T12:25:00.000-07:00

Wikipedia Update...from Answers.com: What is UBUNTU?
http://www.answers.com/topic/ubuntu ... See you! Pax, SangomaAzania
http://www.answers.com/topic/ubuntu