Zen and the art of social movement maintenance

Prayer, Meditation, Mindfulness.  What have these to do with social justice?  What have these to do with penetrating and  putting right the structural wrongs of society?

From the Christian tradition we can take a look at Jesus himself, move forward to the seventeenth century and Quakers, and into the twentieth century where we can find that notable mystic and anti-war activist, Thomas Merton. At this point, it seems good to ask that readers contact Beyond The Creek with people of mindfulness/mysticism who were/are also social justice activists.

The title of the story is, for those too young to recall, a pun.


At the event tweeted above, Angela Davis asked Jon Kabat-Zinn a question:

In a racially unjust world what good is mindfulness?

The most interesting and illuminating response can be found here.

I am indebted to my Friend, Dale Hess who is a Quaker, for the provision of this article.

A Memory

In 1985, I attended the UN Women's Forum in Nairobi, Kenya.

Angela Davis - at the height of controversy in her life and career -

turned up.

Not for Angela a formal speaking platform or workshop.  No!

I have a fond memory of sitting on the grass at the Nairobi University

below a knoll on top of which Angela Davis stood and spoke to us.

I can't recall what she said - only how I felt.

I felt amazed to be in the presence of a great mind - 

a mind clear, trained, incisive.

For a girl from a remote northern town, this was a wonder!

Anti-semitism on the rise in Europe?

A scene from The Death of Klinghoffer … 

The New York Met has cancelled its global telecast of the opera.

 Photograph: Tristram Kenton

The New York Met this week cancelled its planned global telecast of John Adams's The Death of Klinghoffer, the opera that portrays the hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship by the Palestinian Liberation Front in 1985. While emphasising that the work itself is not antisemitic, the Met's general manager, Peter Gelb, said that he recognised concerns among Jews "at this time of rising antisemitism, particularly in Europe". Regardless of one's view of either the opera or the Met's decision, Gelb is unfortunately spot on about Europe.

A survey of global attitudes towards Jews conducted by the Anti-Defamation League recently found that 24% of people in western Europe (37% in France, 29% in Spain, 27% in Germany, 69% in Greece) and 34% in eastern Europe (41% in Hungary, 45% in Poland, 38% in Ukraine) harboured antisemitic views. By this it meant they agreed with six or more classical stereotypes about Jews from a list of 11 including "Jews have too much control over the US government", "Jews are responsible for most of the world's wars", and "People hate Jews because of the way Jews behave".

To read more, please go here.

Please note:

Links have been inserted by the Beside The Creek editor.

Religious and ethnic organisations unite against plans by the Australian Government to weaken or abolish race hate laws

Tony Abbott is facing a fight against Australia's indigenous, Jewish, Arab, Chinese, Greek, Armenian, Lebanese and Muslim populations, who have united in urging the government not to proceed with announced plans to abolish or weaken race hate laws.

As his first legislative act, Attorney-General George Brandis wants to introduce a bill to change sections of the Racial Discrimination Act that protect ethnic groups against hate speech. He especially dislikes provisions that make it unlawful to offend or insult people on the basis of their race.

Declaring himself a champion of ''freedom'', Senator Brandis has disparaged the laws used against Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt over an article he wrote in which he accused ''white'' Australians of identifying as Aborigines to advance their careers.

The head of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Peter Wertheim, said he could not recall ''any other issue on which there has been such unity of purpose and strength of feeling across such a diverse group of communities''.

''We have read with growing concern that the federal government has plans to remove or water down the protections against racial vilification,'' reads the statement signed by the heads of groups including the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples, Arab Council Australia, Chinese Australian Forum, Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Australian Hellenic Council, Lebanese Muslim Association and the Armenian National Council of Australia.

Jewish leaders have combined in a rare joint protest with prominent ethnic and indigenous leaders.

To read more of this report, please go to this link.

Why racial hatred laws are vital to Australian multiculturalism