#757 nobel women peace laureates

Id #757 L.G. Stambler, Ph.D. Internationally Renowned Nobel Women Laureates Who Were Peace Activists 1

7th Annual Hawaii International Conference on EducationJanuary, 2009

Honolulu Hawaii, USA

TITLE: “Internationally Renowned Nobel Women Laureates Who Were Peace Activists”

TOPIC AREA: Social Studies Education, Teacher Education

PRESENTATION FORMAT: Presentation of Power Point and Paper Session of research about twelve Nobel Women Peace Laureates, and the Biography Genre

NAME OF THE AUTHOR: Leah G. Stambler, Ph.D.

DEPARTMENT & AFFILIATION: Education and Educational Psychology Department, Western Connecticut State University [WCSU]

MAILING ADDRESS: 1785 Litchfield Turnpike Woodbridge, CT 06525, USA

E-MAIL: [email protected], [email protected]

PHONE NUMBER: 203-389-4323

FAX NUMBER: 203-837-8413

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR: Same as lead author listed above

HICE ID NUMBER 757

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]


Abstract:Twelve prominent women have earned recognition as Nobel Peace Laureates between

1905 and 2004 for their extraordinary work. Were they truly “Heroines of Peace,” as they have

been labeled by Irwin Abrams? Did the Laureates transition through the “Six Steps of

Consciousness Development” and “Six Opposing Types of Difficulties” that could have hindered

them as they reached each developmental step? Analysis of the lives and work of these women,

examined through the important literary genres of autobiography and biography, is conducive to

the teaching of critical thinking skills in college and university level education courses for

methods of teaching Social Studies, History, English, and American Studies.

Section One Introduction

RATIONALE FOR CHOOSING THE TOPIC

Three factors influenced the author in the selection of the topic for this paper. First,

contemporary international events of an unsettled, adversarial, and war time nature in Africa,

South America, Eastern Europe, Asia, and the Middle East should propel Teacher Educators to

instruct their teacher candidates about the importance of teaching curricula for world peace and

civility. Second, the infusion of Women’s History topics into Education courses provides

models for action to the teacher candidates. Third, the study of biographies as case studies of

peace activist individuals enriches curriculum in the Foundations of Education, History, the

Social Sciences, and English courses.

Historically, women have been known to be advocates of world peace, and have

organized female peers in their efforts to persuade political leaders and governments about the

rectitude of their causes. Quek Geok Cheng, addressing the University Women Association of

Singapore in 2006 on the subject of “Ordinary Women, Extraordinary Qualities: Women as Role

Models in Peace Efforts” asked the question about what made women more likely to pursue


peace efforts than men. She used evidence supported by an expert in gender issues, Angela

King, that

“women are better at listening and so they tend to be more receptive to differentpoints of view. They also seem to be better at transmitting messages of peaceand better at traditional means of negotiation that might work in a community.” (http://www.uwas.org/uwasArchive/Conferences/Paper_ordinarywome_Xordinaryqualities.pdf)

Lyn Reese, authoress of the online “Women in World History Curriculum,” has written

about the connection between women and peace activism.

The linking of peace with women’s human rights is not a new concept. Since the late 19th century, women activists connected the need for an organized peace keeping system with the protection of women’s civil rights. In the decades before World War I, rivalry among the European Great Powers had led to a build up in armaments. The glorification of nationalism and of armed strength found support among many people. War was seen as not only inevitable but as the purest kind of patriotism. Europe’s increasing militarism was challenged by activists who felt women were best positioned to counter it. These reflected the 19th and early 20th century notion that women were more innately inclined toward pacifism than were men, and were the more moral of the two sexes. As defenders of the moral life against the supposed innate militarism of men, some women felt that their natural mission was to try and prevent war. ……………………………………….Peace groups had strong ties to international suffrage groups, further strengthening the creation of pan-national women’s peace movements. Women who could not vote and had no say in the matter of war or peace quite naturally linked the issues of suffrage and peace in these militaristic years. Some naively believed that if women had a voice in national and international affairs, war would cease forever. (http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/essay-05.html)

Twelve prominent women have earned recognition as Nobel Peace Laureates between

1905 and 2004 for their extraordinary work. It is noteworthy that of the thirty-four women who

have been designated as Nobel Laureates, the twelve women Nobel Peace Activist Laureates

formed the largest number of awardees of any of the five categories of the Nobel Prize.

Assessment of the lives and work of these women Nobel Peace Activist Laureates,

examined through the literary genre of biography, is conducive to the teaching of critical

thinking skills in college and university level education courses focused on how to teach literacy

across the content areas, and courses for methods of teaching Social Studies, History, English,

http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/essay-05.html

http://www.uwas.org/uwasArchive/Conferences/Paper_ordinarywome_Xordinaryqualities.pdf



and American Studies. Teacher education candidates, more often than not, are required to write

their autobiographies, as well as study the biographies of famous educators, theorists, and

philosophers in search of models of performance and thought that will assist the candidates

during their forthcoming careers. Knowledge of these genres is valuable for future teachers.

Some famous people have made important statements about biographies that are worthy

of note when contemplating the integration and/or study of biographies in the cited education

courses: (1) “Biography is: a system in which the contradictions of a human life are unified.”

José Ortega Y Gasset; (2) “Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without

theory.” Benjamin Disraeli; (3) “The secret of biography resides in finding the link between

talent and achievement. ….discover the overlap between what the individual did and the life that

made this possible.” Leon Edel; and (4) “Let us have our heroes. Let us continue to believe that

some have been truly great; that it lies within human ability to overcome temptations and trials;

that it is sublime to suffer and be strong. …..Down with the debunking biographers.” Lyndon

Johnson (http://writingprogram.uchicago.edu/biography/index.htm).

Analysis, interpretation, making connections, locating meanings of the unexpected, and

arguing about the significance of someone’s life accomplishments are important skills that the

teacher candidates who are readers of biographies must have in their comprehension repertoires.

Knowledge of primary sources such as letters, diaries, and newspaper accounts, and secondary

sources such as biographies, references, and histories of individuals are used by the writers of

biographers, as well as the readers.

THE PROBLEM STATEMENT

The focus issues of this paper and power point presentation are whether or not the twelve

women Nobel Peace Activist Laureates truly were in the words of Irwin Abrams “Heroines of

http://writingprogram.uchicago.edu/biography/index.htm


Peace,” and did the Laureates transition through the “Six Steps of Consciousness Development”

and “Six Opposing Types of Difficulties” that could have hindered them as they reached each

developmental step? The twelve women awarded the Nobel Peace Prize between 1905 and 2004

came from a variety of countries and regions:

– 1905 Baroness Bertha von Suttner [Austria, Europe]– 1931 Jane Addams [USA, North America]– 1946 Emily Greene Balch [USA, North America]– 1976 Betty Williams [Northern Ireland, Europe]– 1976 Mairead Corrigan [Northern Ireland, Europe]– 1979 Mother Teresa [Yugoslavia, Europe]– 1982 Alva Myrdal [Sweden, Europe]– 1991 Aung San Sun Kyi [Burma, Asia]– 1992 Rigoberta Menchu Tum [Guatemala, Central America]– 1997 Jody Williams-Long [USA, North America]– 2003 Shirin Ebadi [Iran, Middle East]– 2004 Wangari Maathai [Kenya, Africa]

___|__________|__________|______|__________|________|_________|________|_____ __|________|______ __|________ __|____VON Suttner Addams Balch Williams Corrigan Mother Teresa Myrdal Aung San Tum Williams Ebadi Wangari(Photos downloaded from the work of Irwin Abrams and Nobel websites)

The lives of these twelve women Nobel Peace Prize Laureates will be analyzed, using the

writer’s selected eight variables, and utilizing biographical information to determine if they truly

were the labeled “Heroines of Peace,” that Irwin Abrams thought that they were.

• 1. Early family life, education, personal life choices• 2. Factors that inspired peace activism; • 3. Specific concerns for the world population and the environment;• 4. Organization capabilities and results;• 5. Reasons for hope during the laureates’ struggle for their causes;• 6. Representation of feminist ideas;• 7. Contributions to world peace efforts;• 8. Personal price paid for peace activism

Clare Murphy, writing in an October 4, 2004 BBC News Online article entitled “The

Nobel: Dynamite or damp squib?” commented that “It cannot be denied that the prize provides

recipients with world exposure, sometimes bringing activists and their causes to international

attention.” Two Nobel Peace Activist Laureates included in this paper were recognized in the

BBC News Online article: “The prize brought Ebadi international attention;” “It has been argued


that the prize has protected Aung San Suu Kyi.” Their photos were shown in the article, and are

included here:

Shirin Ebadi of Iran Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma

This table represents the body of Clare Murphy’s categorization of how the twelve women Nobel

Peace Prize Laureates should be categorized according to their accomplishments

Table 1 Clare Murphy’s Comments about Women Nobel Peace Prize Laureates’ Accomplishments.

Category 1 Category 2 Category 3

Individuals and organizations which have sought to resolve wars or minimize the potential for

conflict

Those who have tried to bring humanitarian relief to others caught up in conflict

Those who have sought to further the march of

democracy and human rights

1905 Baroness BerthaVon Suttner

1931 Jane Addams[note: also worked in category 1]

1991 Aung San Sun Kyi

1946 Emily Greene Balch 1979 Mother Teresa 1992 Rigoberta Menchu Tum

1976 Betty Williams1976 Mairead Corrigan

1997 Jody Williams-Long 2003 Shirin Ebadi

1982 Alva Myrdal

2004 Wangari Maathai

Section Two Selected Review of the Literature

Brian D. Osborne in his 2004 publication, Writing Biography and Autobiography,

provided a variety of caveats about writing biography, which have relevance to the types of

literature consulted by the author of this paper. He warned that the biographer needs to be

cautious. (http://www.writersservices.com/mag/05/Writing_biog_autobiog_1.htm)

http://www.writersservices.com/mag/05/Writing_biog_autobiog_1.htm


Always ask yourself why a document was written, why it says what it says, whether its statements are internally consistent and whether they can be backed up by other sources……..

No biography is, or can be, the full, unvarnished story of a life.

Our job as biographers or autobiographers is to select, to condense, to simplify, to draw inferences and conclusions – and, I would suggest, to present the evidence to our readers in as open and fair a way as possible.

A variety of questions usually are asked by biographers in practicing their craft: What is

there that is special or interesting about this person? What type of effect did this person have on

other people and the world? What qualities and adjectives best describe this person? Which

examples from the person’s life demonstrate those qualities? Which events impacted the

person’s life, shaping or changing his/her life path? Were there risks and/or obstacles that the

person overcame? How and why the world would have been better or worse had the person not

lived? The historian Irwin Abrams, primary biographer of the Nobel Peace Laureates, appears to

have addressed most of these questions and those similar to them in his writings. Psychologist

and peace activist David Adams’ analysis of ten 20th Century peace activists, in search of the

“Six Steps of Consciousness Development” and “Six Opposing Types of Difficulties” that could

have hindered them as they reached each developmental step, closely followed the types of

questions that biographers use for their research and writing guidelines.

Writers in the field of History have grappled with the problem of whether or not

biography is an outmoded genre, and whether or not the approach of “Life Writing” should and

has replaced it. This issue will not be addressed here, since the selected literature used for the

paper mostly falls into the category of biography.

Electronic sources of information about the twelve women Nobel Peace Prize Laureates

formed the greater part of biographical information for this paper and power point presentation.

Osborne indicated that the act of being selective is inevitable and necessary, but that “we need to


be aware that we are doing it, that there are other options, and that the way we have chosen owes

everything to our characters, our background, experience, education and formation.” (Osborne,

2004)

Sources of materials, resources, and knowledge about the twelve women Nobel Peace

Prize Laureates, between 1905 and 2004, easily are available (1) as “hard copy” in libraries by

referencing the genres of autobiography and biography, (2) through the internet [online] at the

website http://nobelprize.org , and (3) through the internet [online] websites about each of the

women. Selections included in this section of the paper spotlight the websites with the most

reliable and valid links.

A very interesting slide show on the internet about Alfred Nobel’s will is found on the

Nobel Prize biographical website. (http://www.nobel.se/nobel/alfred-nobel/biographical/will/index.html)

This is a Nobelprize.org production made possible through: the manuscript based on the book,

"The Legacy of Alfred Nobel. The Story Behind the Nobel Prizes," by Ragnar Sohlman, The

Nobel Foundation, 1983, (Slide Show The events leading to the establishment of the Nobel Prize are

presented in a short slide show. )

"The Will" is divided into 14 chapters, marking the major events and circumstances leading to the awarding of the first Nobel Prizes. The narration follows a chronological order and it is advisable to see the presentation from beginning to end without jumping between chapters. You may however, go back to any desired chapter whenever you want to. It takes at least 12 seconds to restart a chapter.

Irwin Abrams is recognized as the major author of biographies about the Nobel Prize

Laureates and as editor of a variety of collections of primary sources emanating from the

Laureates, both in his hard copy publications and on the internet. Geir Lundestad, Director of

the Norwegian Nobel Institute, wrote about Irwin Abrams as “the leading authority worldwide

http://nobelprize.org/alfred_nobel/will/slideshow/index.html

http://nobelprize.org/alfred_nobel/will/slideshow/index.html

http://www.nobel.se/nobel/alfred-nobel/biographical/will/index.html

http://nobelprize.org/


on the history of the Nobel Peace Prize.” Lundestad praised Abrams for THE NOBEL PEACE

PRIZE AND THE LAUREATES: An Illustrated Biographical History 1901-2001, the Centennial

Edition, released by Science History Publications in 2001. He continued that “This Centennial

Edition of the award-winning reference work, first published in 1988, has been extensively

revised and updated to include all the recent recipients, including Kofi Annan and the United

Nations, winner of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize.” Other works by Irwin Abrams demonstrate his

depth and breadth of knowledge about the Nobel Laureates:

• THE IRAQ WAR AND ITS CONSEQUENCES:Thoughts of Nobel Peace Laureates and Eminent Scholars Edited by Irwin Abrams and Wang Gungwu World Scientific Publishing Co., 2003 464 pages. $65 (Hardcover), $26 (Trade Paperback).

• THE WORDS OF PEACE:The Nobel Peace Prize Laureates of the 20th Century --Selections from their Acceptance SpeechesThird Edition Selected and Edited by Irwin AbramsForeword by President Jimmy Carter Newmarket Press, 2000 160 pages. $14.95. Hardcover.

• NOBEL PEACE LECTURES 1971-1995Three Volumes: 1971-1980, 1981-1990, 1991-1995. Edited by Irwin Abrams World Scientific, 1997-1999. 272, 308, 150 pages. $55 each. Hardcover.

Brian D. Osborne warned readers that they needed to be cautious when involved with

biographical works. This caveat especially is appropriate in reference to Irwin Abrams’ prolific

record of biographical writing about the Nobel Prize Laureates.

(http://www.writersservices.com/mag/05/Writing_biog_autobiog_1.htm)

Biographers are sometimes said to fall in love with their subjects. This may be a slightly exaggerated statement but there is quite clearly a temptation to become ‘uncritical’, because you have got to know and perhaps understand somebody, and maybe feel that you know them better than anyone else. This is probably as dangerous and certainly as unsatisfactory as the ‘knocking’ type of biography.

http://www.writersservices.com/mag/05/Writing_biog_autobiog_1.htm

http://www.irwinabrams.com/books/lectures.html

http://www.irwinabrams.com/books/words.html

http://www.wspc.com/

http://www.wspc.com/books/general/5381.html

http://www.shpusa.com/books/nobelpp.html

http://www.irwinabrams.com/books/centennial.html



Abrams wrote specific biographical information about nine of the women Nobel Peace Prize

Laureates in the online article “Heroines of Peace: The Nine Nobel Women,” written in 1997.

Comparatively recent Laureates Jody Williams-Long, Shirin Ebadi, and Wangari Maathai were

not included in the article. (http://nobelprize.org/peace/articles/heroines/index.html)

The online website http://womenshistory.about.com/od/nobelpeace/Nobel_Laureates_Peace.htm

provides biographies about all of the women peace activist Laureates, written by Jone Jones

Lewis. She is the women’s history guide for the website since 1999. Each of the web home

pages for the Laureates provides links for additional resources, related articles, primary sources,

quotes, and photographs. Links to the Laureates’ biographies from the About.com website are:

Heroines of Peace: Nine Nobel WomenEssay highlighting the nine women who've been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.1905: Baroness Bertha Von SuttnerAustrian honored for her writing and work opposing war.1931: Jane AddamsInternational President, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. There's also a biography of Jane Addams on this site.1946: Emily Greene BalchHonored for her pacifism and work for peace through a variety of organizations.1976: Betty Williams and Mairead CorriganFounders of the Northern Ireland Peace Movement to bring together Protestants and Catholics to work for peace together.1979: Mother TeresaHonored for her "work in bringing help to suffering humanity" and her respect for individual human dignity.1982: Alva MyrdalHonored with Alfonso Garcia Robles for their work with the United Nations on disarmament.1991: Aung San Suu KyiBurmese activist honored for non-violent work for human rights in working for independence in Myanmar. For more biographies and articles, see the topic Aung San Suu Kyi on this site.1992: Rigoberta Menchú TumHonored for her work for "ethno-cultural reconciliation based on respect for the rights of indigenous peoples."1997: Jody WilliamsJody Willliams was honored for her work with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines.2003: Shirin EbadiIn 2003, Iranian human rights advocate Shirin Ebadi became the first person from Iran to win a Nobel Prize.2004: Wangari MaathaiThe 2004 Peace Prize winner was the first African woman to be named Nobel Peace Laureate, Wangari Maathai.

http://womenshistory.about.com/library/bio/blbio_wangari_maathai.htm

http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ/Ya&sdn=womenshistory&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fnobelprize.org%2Fpeace%2Flaureates%2F2004%2Findex.html

http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ/Ya&sdn=womenshistory&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fnobelprize.org%2Fnobel_prizes%2Fpeace%2Flaureates%2F2003%2Febadi-autobio.html

http://www.nobel.se/peace/laureates/1997/


http://womenshistory.about.com/od/aungsansuukyi/





http://www.nobel.se/peace/laureates/1946/balch-bio.html

http://womenshistory.about.com/library/bio/blbio_addams.htm

http://www.nobel.se/peace/laureates/1931/addams-bio.html

http://www.nobel.se/nobel/alfred-nobel/biographical/life-work/suttner.html

http://www.nobel.se/peace/articles/heroines/index.html

http://womenshistory.about.com/od/nobelpeace/Nobel_Laureates_Peace.htm

http://nobelprize.org/peace/articles/heroines/index.html


The website “Gifts of Speech: Nobel Lectures by Women Laureates” carries primary

source materials for a multitude of women Laureates, including links for the following women

Peace Activist laureates: (http://gos.sbc.edu/nobel.html)

1905 - Baroness Bertha von Suttner (Austria) 1931 - Jane Addams (USA) 1946 - Emily Greene Balch (USA) 1976 - Betty Williams (Northern Ireland, Great Britain) 1976 - Mairead Corrigan (Northern Ireland, Great Britain) 1979 - Mother Teresa (Yugoslavia, India) 1982 - Alva Myrdal (Sweden) 1991 - Aung San Suu Kyi (Burma) 1992 - Rigoberta Menchú Tum (Guatemala) 1997 - Jody Williams (USA) 2003 - Shirin Ebadi (Iran) 2004 - Wangari Muta Maathai (Kenya)

Psychologist and peace activist David Adams, in his work Psychology for Peace

Activists, wrote about the psychological development of the people “who must undertake the

most important tasks on the historical agenda” the termination of the culture of war in the world,

and its substitution with the culture of peace.(http://www.culture-of-peace.info/ppa/title-page.html)

Adams used an inductive case study approach to investigate the autobiographies of prominent

20th Century American peace activists, in search of lessons that they might provide for

contemporary 21st Century peace activists. He gleaned information about the former activists’

development of steps in their consciousness and the consequent psychological difficulties that

ensued at each stage of their development. Two of the 20th Century peace activists who Adams

studied in his research were Jane Addams and Emily Greene Balch, both members of the group

of twelve “Internationally Renowned Nobel Women Laureates Who Were Peace Activists.”

Adams identified a pattern of six cumulative steps in consciousness development among

the autobiographies of his selected 20th Century “great peace activists,” as well as six opposing

types of difficulties that can hinder the peace activists as they reach each developmental step. He

postulated the need for contemporary activists to study the progression of these positive

http://www.culture-of-peace.info/ppa/title-page.html

http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/2004/maathai-lecture-text.html

http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/2003/ebadi-lecture-e.html

http://gos.sbc.edu/w/williams.html

http://gos.sbc.edu/m/menchunobel.html

http://gos.sbc.edu/m/myrdal.html

http://gos.sbc.edu/m/teresanobel.html

http://gos.sbc.edu/w/bwilliams.html

http://gos.sbc.edu/nobel.html


psychological stages and their possible opposing life problems as important preparation for

contemporary peace activists to engage in their work to replace the culture of war with the

culture of peace.

1. acquisition of values and purpose vs. alienation;

2. anger vs. fear and pessimism;

3. action vs. armchair theorizing;

4. affiliation vs. anarchism;

5. integration vs. burnout; and

6. World-historic consciousness vs. sectarianism.

Information from Adams’ online text about Jane Addams and Emily Greene Balch may be found

in the answer to the first research question in the data section of this paper.

An extensive online source of information, bibliography, and curriculum resources about

women was the result of a 1985 grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The website is

directed and written by Lyn Reese. (http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/LReese.html) The “About

Women in World History Curriculum” provides recent scholarship about women for secondary

level school classrooms. A valuable collection of primary and secondary materials about peace

activism and women Nobel Peace Prize activists are available on the webpage “Today’s Heroes,

Linking Present to Past. (http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/contemporary-03.html). There also is a

significant webpage of activities for teachers to apply primary sources with their students:

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:1. Did the twelve women Nobel Peace Activist Laureates transition through the “Six

Steps of Consciousness Development” and “Six Opposing Types of Difficulties” that

could have hindered them as they reached each developmental step, as postulated by

David Adams?

http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/contemporary-03.html

http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/LReese.html


2. Did the twelve women Nobel Peace Activist Laureates have specific traits, postulated

by Irwin Abrams, which enabled the women to fulfill their goals as “Heroines of

Peace?”

Section Three Analysis of Data and Findings

Question 1. Did the twelve women Nobel Peace Activist Laureates transition through the “Six Steps of Consciousness Development” and “Six Opposing Types of Difficulties” that could have hindered them as they reached each developmental step, as postulated by David Adams?

David Adams, in his work Psychology for Peace Activists, wrote about the psychological

development of the people “who must undertake the most important tasks on the historical

agenda” the termination of the culture of war in the world, and its substitution with the culture of

peace. (Adams, 1995) He identified a pattern of six cumulative steps in consciousness

development among the autobiographies of his selected 20th Century “great peace activists,” as

well as six opposing types of difficulties that can hinder the peace activists as they reach each

developmental step. The characteristics of Adams’ identified six consciousness development

steps and their inherent difficulties, found as a result of his case study of 20th Century peace

activists, are presented in Table 2.

TABLE 2. Six Steps in Consciousness Development and Difficulties for Peace Activists, based on the research of David Adams

STEPS IN CONSCIOUSNESS DEVELOPMENT

CHARACTERISTICSINHERENT DIFFICULTIES IN EACH STEP

CHARACTERISTICS

1.ACQUISITION OF VALUES & PURPOSE v.

The development of values and purpose in the individual is a reflection of the values of Society. They are learned by imitation and through formal instruction as an active process, within a social context, and begins in the family, where it is extended by the religious practices of the individual. Love of the family extends to other values in the church and in commitment to

1.ALIENATION Young people with higher education may feel disconnected, disillusioned, and a lack of harmony between their theory and their lives after they graduate from college. P. 9


social justice. Purpose comes to the fore when the individual leaves his/her home for schooling. Values and purpose set the framework for later action by the peace activist. Pp. 7-9

2. ANGER v. The motivating factor in the individual’s actions for peace and justice stem from his/her anger against the institutions of war and injustice. Anger is an underlying factor in the peace activist’s consciousness development to move to action. Pp.10-11

2. FEAR & PESSIMISM

Fear of the enemy constantly is evoked by statements issued by the government to intimidate leaders of movements and to discourage its followers from affiliation with the causes for social change. Pessimism surfaces when fear dominates the individual’s anger against social injustice. 12.

3. ACTION v. Initial action for peace and justice occurs when the individual is young. Action is the distinguishing characteristic of the peace activist in his/her consciousness development. Values, purpose and anger continue to intensify, along with the other consciousness development steps as time passes. The action process changes the individual into a new person who has channeled anger into activity, and is operating on a higher level of consciousness than in his/her earlier stages of consciousness development. Unsuccessful actions can play a positive role , if it is assessed, and the action is shifted to a higher level of operation. P. 13-14-15

3. ARMCHAIR THEORIZING

Peace activists who come from the church or universities find the first step into action as a dramatic move from armchair theorizing.

4. AFFILIATION v.

Affiliation occurs after action, and leads to a psychological transformation of the individual, allowing him/her to collectivize anger. Action leads the individual to affiliate with organizations for the purpose of collective planning, feeling the power of his/her action, and group implementation of chosen goals. Affiliation provides support to initiate and sustain difficult and complex actions, as well as recruitment of others. P. 16-17

4. INDIVIDUALISM & ANARCHISM

Negative tendencies of individualism can lead to anarchism in practice. The isolated individual is not capable of making history. P. 18

5. PERSONAL INTEGRATION v.

Personal integration occurs after action. Action encourages the individual to

5. BURNOUT Burnout occurs when the activist does not sustain personal integration and a lifetime of involvement. Burnout occurs


reorganize and integrate his/her social relations around the issues of justice and peace. Family, friendships, and means of earning a living must be integrated by the activist in order to sustain action and affiliation. Activists must develop mutual support networks and share political responsibility with others in the organizations in order to sustain the struggle. Personal Integration is the highest step of consciousness development P. 15

when there is no mutual support in the organization, and the individual feels that the burdens of the world are on him/her. Burnout may deepen into depression, resulting in inactivity, disaffiliation, despair, debauchery, guilt, exhaustion, nervous and physical illness. Peace organizations should not weaken their recruits by discouraging personal integration of their members Governments may try to repress peace and justice movements by outlawing the organizations and forcing them underground, where personal integration is very difficult. P. 19-20-21

6. WORLD-HISTORIC CONSCIOUSNESS v.

World-historic consciousness occurs after action. The individual can achieve world-historic consciousness through action. Affiliation is necessary for the individual to develop world-historic consciousness. The peace movement needs leadership and the individual’s development of world-historic consciousness This is the highest level of consciousness development and requires a leader working in affiliation, who knows the mood of the people, travels, studies, and reflects upon the direction of world events and the means of achieving social change at home. The freedom of world-historic consciousness is also a burden, because it is the quality of leadership rather than the quality of an individual. P.15, 18, 21, 23, 26

6. SECTARIANISM

Sectarianism is a special risk of the affiliation step in consciousness development. Sectarianism is narrow and isolated from the common people and the course of history. A sectarian group may be ineffective and counterproductive to the course of peace and justice. Sectarianism can take various forms. P. 18, 23

The application of these six steps of consciousness development and opposing difficulties

in the lives of two peace activists examined in this paper, Jane Addams and Emily Greene Balch,


were included in Adams’ autobiographical research, and are demonstrated in Table 3, as adapted

by the author of this paper. Further research about the ten other women Nobel Peace Prize

Laureates should be based on David Adams’ model about the psychology of peace activists.

JANE ADDAMS EMILY GREENE BALCH

TABLE 3 Application in the Lives of Jane Addams and Emily Greene Balch of the Six Steps in Consciousness Development and Difficulties for Peace Activists, based on the quoted research of

David Adams in Psychology for Peace Activists (1995)

STEPS IN CONSCIOUSNESS DEVELOPMENT & OPPOSING DIFFICULTIES

JANE ADDAMS EMILY GREENE BALCH

1. ACQUISITION OF VALUES AND PURPOSE VS. ALIENATION;

As one of the generation of women who went to college for the first time, shared in the enthusiasm of her fellow graduates for their "precious ideals....way of martyrdom and high purpose we had marked out for ourselves." P9

She read and studied in an active search for the acquisition of values, truth, and purpose. P 9

She graduated from college, she felt "disconnected" and "disillusioned" and she describes

Aged 10, she responded to a "challenge" from her minister to "enlist....in the service of goodness" and years later she recalled, "I think I never abandoned in any degree my desire to live up to it." P 8

She read and studied in an active search for the acquisition of values, truth, and purpose. P 9


how she reached the lowest depths "of my nervous depression and sense of maladjustment." She later wrote perceptively about the alienation of young people with higher education who "feel a fatal want of harmony between their theory and their lives, a lack of coordination between thought and action." She described how some may become perpetual students and be "buried beneath this mental accumulation with lowered vitality and discontent.”P 9

2. ANGER VS. FEAR AND PESSIMISM

She traced her early involvement in the movement for social justice to a vision of the poor in London that filled her with "despair and resentment." p. 12

She had a similar response to Addams’: to "a man fumbling with his bare fingers in an ash barrel to try to find something to eat." For years she had seen misery and starvation and "sickening" experiences "so bad that she hated to appear to acquiesce" in the system of capitalism, but this vision was "somehow final, and led her to call herself a Socialist." P. 12

3. ACTION VS. ARMCHAIR THEORIZING

The initial action that launched her entire career of social work began when she was wandering "disconnected" and "disillusioned" in Europe following her vision of "despair and resentment" in London: P 14

“It is hard to tell just when the very simple plan which afterward developed into the Settlement began to form itself in my mind. It may have been even before I went to Europe for the second time, but I gradually became convinced that it would be a good thing to rent a house in a part of the city where many primitive and actual needs are found, in which young women who had been given over too exclusively to study, might restore a balance of activity along traditional lines and learn of life from life itself.” P 14

She sailed across the Atlantic with an anti-war group of prominent American women to meet their European counterparts opposed to World War I which was raging at the time: p. 15

She was drawn into a new career, into international political work....And finally,

An especially difficult psychological shift due to action can be the loss of a career, which is what occurred to her when she was fired from Wellesley College for being a Socialist. P. 14

She accepted an invitation to sail across the Atlantic with an anti-war group of prominent American women to meet their European counterparts opposed to World War I which was raging at the time: p. 15

She was drawn into a new career, into international political work....And finally, to crown her pioneering though unspectacular labors, was to receive the accolade of the Nobel Peace Prize. P 15


to crown her pioneering though unspectacular labors, was to receive the accolade of the Nobel Peace Prize. P 15

4. AFFILIATION VS. INDIVIDUALISM & ANARCHISM

. As an organizer she was unmatched. Starting from her affiliation at Hull House that was "held together in that soundest of all social bonds, the companionship of mutual interests," She and her colleagues established a network of organizations ranging from neighborhood cooperatives and clubs to national and international organizations that endure to the present day, including the League of Women Voters, American Civil Liberties Union, and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom P 17

She put it quite simply that her affiliation with the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom gave her "great exhilaration in the sense of active and organized comradeship with women working for peace all over the world." P. 17

The great skill of Jane Addams was not only critical to the success of the Hague Conference that brought together women from both sides during World War I, but it also served as an inspiration to Emily Balch, who described it as follows:

“Difficult as it is to conduct business with so mixed and differing a constituency, with different languages, different rules of parliamentary procedure, and divergent views, Miss Addams and the other officials carried on orderly and effective sessions, marked by the most active will for unity that I have ever felt in an assemblage.” Affiliation also requires the overcoming of negative habits P 17

5. INTEGRATION VS. BURNOUT

She may have been hampered in her attempts to achieve personal integration of her anti-war work by the repressive attitudes about sexuality, including homosexuality, in our society. She was a victim of burnout.

She was attacked viciously by the press for her opposition to World War I, abandoned by many of her friends from social work, she fell ill and suffered from "three years of semi-invalidism" and "a bald sense of social opprobrium....very near to self-pity." P 21

She had physical and nervous breakdowns. P 19

Although she had the support of a close woman companion, Mary Rozet Smith, it seems likely that prevailing sexual mores may have limited the extent to which she could be fully integrated into Addams’ life. P21

As their mutual friend Alice Hamilton explained to a biographer of Addams, such topics were not discussed in those days, and "the very fact that I would bring the subject up was an indication of the separation between

She may have been hampered in her attempts to achieve personal integration of her anti-war work by the repressive attitudes about sexuality, including homosexuality, in our society. She was a victim of burnout.

She had physical and nervous breakdowns. P 19

She suffered from nervous fatigue which forced her to interrupt her work for long periods. P 21

Although she had the support of a close woman companion, Helen Cheever, it seems likely that prevailing sexual mores may have limited the extent to which she could be fully integrated into Balch’s life. P21

She regretted having only "the half-life of the unmarried woman." Whether or not their relationships were homosexual (and we may never know), they could not be made public and thereby integrated with their political lives. p. 21


my generation and hers." P21

6. WORLD-HISTORIC CONSCIOUSNESS VS. SECTARIANISM

Her years of service among the people enabled Jane Addams to play a leading role in the peace movement: p. 22

She called it "a new consciousness, a nascent world consciousness:" P23

As Emily Balch puts it, this global view of reality is not a view of what already exists, but a "trend of development" toward "a planetary civilization:"

In looking back over the years, I have not the feeling that our efforts have been unreasonable. On the contrary, I have the impression that although the world was not ready to realize them, the trend of development runs obviously and unmistakably toward the end that we have sought - a planetary civilization. P23

www.culture-of-peace.info/ppa/chapter2-5.html

The electronic biographies of the ten other women Nobel Peace Activist Laureates reveal

inklings of the presence of the six steps of consciousness development and opposing difficulties

for the women while transitioning the six consciousness developments. Further investigation of

the autobiographies of the women Nobel Peace Activist Laureates, using David Adams’ model

of the “Six Steps of Consciousness Development” and “Six Opposing Types of Difficulties” that

could have hindered them as they reached each developmental step, should disclose more

definitive information about the Laureates. That task will not be included in this paper.

http://www.culture-of-peace.info/ppa/chapter2-5.html


Question 2. Did the twelve women Nobel Peace Activist Laureates have specific traits, postulated by Irwin Abrams, which enabled the women to fulfill their goals as “Heroines of Peace?”

Irwin Abrams distinguished seven traits in his biographical research findings, written

about in his 1997 article, and that led him to believe that ten Nobel Peace Activist Laureates

were “Heroines of Peace.” These seven personal common traits may be observed by reading this

paper’s collected data from multiple sources of biographical information about all twelve

Laureates awarded the Nobel Peace Prize between 1905 and 2004. The traits identified by Irwin

Abrams are demonstrated in the following slides from the power point presentation that

complements this paper.

January, 2009, Honolulu, HI

12 Women Activist Nobel Peace Laureates

5

Heroines of PeaceWHAT THEY HAVE IN COMMON? by Irwin Abrams


• high ideals • prepared to work and sacrifice to bring something better

into being • labored in the certainty that their objectives would

eventually be realized • carried within that sacred flame which inspired them

– to struggle against odds, – to withstand disappointments and defeats,– to resolve never to give up.

• shared a faith in humanity, whether born of religious conviction or humanism.



6

Heroines of PeaceWHAT THEY HAVE IN COMMON? by Irwin Abrams


• displayed remarkable courage – Not all faced the aimed rifle, as did Aung San Suu Kyi, or – had to hide from the soldiers, as did Rigoberta Menchú Tum, or – withstand the slings and arrows of the militaristic press of

Imperial Germany or– the war-time patriotic fervor in the United States, – to take the first step to break the circle of violence in Northern

Ireland.• persons who set examples,

– symbolized what we are seeking, and – mobilized the best in us" – "gives us confidence and faith in the power of good."

The data included in this section for each of the twelve women Nobel Peace Activist

Laureates are categorized into eight variables designed by the author of this paper, in order to

seek answers to the question of whether or not the twelve women had specific traits that made

them “Heroines of Peace:”

• 1. Early family life, education, personal life choices• 2. Factors that inspired peace activism; • 3. Specific concerns for the world population and the environment;• 4. Organization capabilities and results;• 5. Reasons for hope during the laureates’ struggle for their causes;• 6. Representation of feminist ideas;• 7. Contributions to world peace efforts;• 8. Personal price paid for peace activism


Photos and samples from writings and/or quoted comments from the power point

presentation that complements this paper are included about each of the twelve women peace

activists as an introduction to the specific data collected in answer to the eight variables, to

determine if they truly were “Heroines of Peace.”



26

BARONESS BERTHA SOPHIE FELICITA VON SUTTNER



33

QUOTEhttp://cronologia.leonardo.it/storia/biografie/suttner.htm

• "It could and should soon come to pass that all states pledge themselves collectively to attack an aggressor. That would make war impossible, and would force even the most brutal and unreasonable Power to appeal to a court of arbitration, or else keep quiet. If the triple Alliance included every state instead of only three, then peace would be assured for centuries."

• 1. Early family life, education, personal life choices

The Countess Kinsky von Chinic und Tettau was born in Prague in 1843, and was raised

in an aristocratic family where militaristic traditions were accepted. She was a “voracious”

reader, led an active social life, and traveled extensively. In 1876 she went to Paris to become

Alfred Nobel’s secretary, which later became a lifetime friendship. Not long thereafter, she

married Baron Arthur Gundaccar von Suttner in Vienna. Nine years of the von Suttner family’s

disapproval of the marriage, resulted in the couple moving to the Caucasus, where they earned

their living by teaching language, music, and writing. She lent strong support through public

meetings, committee work, and lectures for Tsar Nicholas II’s Manifesto, which led to the First

Hague Peace Conference

• 2. Factors that inspired peace activism

The Baroness was raised to accept militaristic traditions, but in her later years she shed

advocacy of those notions as a staunch .admirer of the fledgling international peace movement.

She and her husband avidly read the publications of Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer,

proponents of the theory of evolution and its inherent concept that world peace could bring about


progress in society. Nine years after the Baroness and her husband left Austria; they returned

and affiliated with the movement for international arbitration and world peace. One of their

friends introduced the couple to the London based International Arbitration and Peace

Association, founded in 1880 by English pacifist, Hodgson Pratt.

• 3. Specific concerns for the world population and the environment

Baroness Von Suttner was an ardent supporter of The Hague Peace Conference of 1899

and the Permanent Court of Arbitration. Her major worry for world peace may be linked to a

concern for the well being of peoples in all nations. Her friendship with Alfred Nobel did not

eradicate her highly critical opinion about the military applications of dynamite.

• 4. Organization capabilities and results

The Baroness was responsible for the establishment of the Austrian Peace Society, helped

to organize a Venetian peace group, and funded the Berne Peace Bureau in 1893. She founded

the Society of the Friends of Peace (Gesellschaft der Friedensfreunde) in Austria and was the

vice-president of the International Peace Bureau (Friedensbüro) in Berne.

She tirelessly traveled, lectured, and wrote between 1900 and 1907 to popularize the

Permanent Court of Arbitration, which was established at the First Hague Peace Conference.

Her lectures and articles, provided to the International Club, established her reputation at the

Second Hague Peace Conference. .

• 5. Reasons for hope during the laureates’ struggle for their causes

Baroness Von Suttner continued her indefatigable work, with the determination of a

person committed to universal peace through negotiation by international adversaries. A June

25, 1899 New York Times article recorded the Baroness’s arrival in London from the Hague and

quoted her hope that the United States would join European nations to avoid the calamity of the


war that she feared would break out on the Continent. She expressed her hopefulness for the

success of a peace conference that she had been instrumental in effecting.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archivefree/pdf?_r=1&res=9C03E6D91430E132A25756C2A9609C94689ED7CF&oref=slogin

Irwin Abrams revealed in a paper presented at the Bertha von Suttner Symposium held at

Harmannsdorf Castle in Austria, May 2005 that the Baroness’s correspondence with Alfred

Nobel in French, German, and English expressed her hopefulness: “Bertha is optimistic and

enthusiastically parades across her pages each hopeful advance of the peace movement. She

pursues a ceaseless campaign to win him for the cause, and there is style and eloquence in her

pleading.” (http://www.irwinabrams.com/articles/bvs.html)

The Baroness replies that she has "a more ardent faith" and expects peace before the end of the century. "Oh, the idea of ridding the future from that terrible scourge, which the next war would be, such an idea is so beautiful, so bejahigend. (‘aye-saying) that to serve it, there is no need for such incentive. What is needed is only to know how and to be able to serve it." (29/1/93). Later, after the Peace Prize is established, and she expects to receive it, the Baroness has a more positive idea about the prize………………………………Apparently Nobel replies skeptically once more, for the Baroness protests, "Don't always call our peace-plan a dream. Progress towards justice is surely not a dream. It is the law of civilization." Nevertheless, she adds in jest, "I wish you could invent a little pill to blow up all fortresses and barracks at a single stroke." (in English, 15/2/93).

• 6. Representation of feminist ideas

Baroness Von Suttner was in essence the leader, between 1876 and 1891, of the women’s

international peace movement before the “Great War.” She is recognized as the first woman to

be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1905. Alfred Nobel, her good friend, responded in his will

http://www.irwinabrams.com/articles/bvs.html




to her urgings that he establish a monetary prize for the male or female person “who would have

brought about the greatest step toward advancing the pacification of Europe.”

(http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/articles/heroines/index.html)

Her friendship with Alfred Nobel did not garner her any advantage as an awardee in the

previous years 1901 through 1904, when the Prize was implemented. The Baroness’s concerns

with world peace and women’s issues were entwined in the belief that “universal sisterhood”

needed to precede “universal brotherhood.” These ideas were recorded in her diaries, letters, and

archival materials, and are found in the book A Life of Peace, translated from the German by

Ann Dubsky

• 7. Contributions to world peace efforts

Baroness Von Suttner was acclaimed in 1889 for her well researched novel, Lay Down

Your Arms! (Die Waffen Nider). The book was well received, translated into twenty-seven

languages, and treated with much fanfare among the advocates of the peace movement as a

highly influential piece. It has been compared in its strength of influence on the peace

movement, as was Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin was on the anti-slavery

movement. She did not limit her peace activities to writing; she founded the Society of the

Friends of Peace (Gesellschaft der Friedensfreunde) in Austria and was the vice-president of the

International Peace Bureau (Friedensbüro) in Bern.

A major accomplishment by the Baroness was her ability to convince Alfred Nobel to

fund her attendance at various peace conferences, and eventually to establish a fund for an

international peace prize. Irwin Abrams reported that Nobel still was skeptical about the peace

movement, but that she inundated him with so many materials about the ideals and workings of

the movement that he finally gave in and established the Nobel Peace Prize in his will.

The whole of my remaining realizable estate shall be dealt with in the following way: the capital, invested in safe securities by my executors, shall constitute a fund, the interest on which shall be

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/articles/heroines/index.html


annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind. The said interest shall be divided into five equal parts, which shall be apportioned as follows: one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery or invention within the field of physics; one part to the person who shall have made the most important chemical discovery or improvement; one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery within the domain of physiology or medicine; one part to the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction; and one part to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses. The prizes for physics and chemistry shall be awarded by the Swedish Academy of Sciences; that for physiology or medical works by the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm; that for literature by the Academy in Stockholm, and that for champions of peace by a committee of five persons to be elected by the Norwegian Storting. It is my express wish that in awarding the prizes no consideration be given to the nationality of the candidates, but that the most worthy shall receive the prize, whether he be Scandinavian or not. (http://www.nobel.se/nobel/alfred-nobel/biographical/will/index.html)(http://nobelprize.org/alfred_nobel/will/index.html)

• 8. Personal price paid for peace activism

The Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Austria, Dr. Ursula Plassnik,

issued a statement in praise of Baroness Berta Von Suttner for her hard won contributions as a

writer, lecturer, and fighter for world peace during the period prior to World War I when

European powers were positioning themselves to destroy each other. She indicated that the

Baroness was a model for contemporary Austrians, and that her life’s work needed to be

remembered and continued. (http://www.wirtschaftsmuseum.at/pdf/bseng.pdf)

As a writer and lecturer, Bertha von Suttner was the figurehead of a world-wide peacemovement. Opposing the tides of the time, she relentlessly fought nationalist fanaticism,aggressive militarism, hate-breeding and anti-Semitism. She recognized the destructivepotential of these ideologies and prophesied: “The next war will be more horrible thanany of its predecessors”…………………

Austrian foreign policy will continue to act in the spirit of Bertha von Suttner and work topromote peace and human rights in the whole world. Lasting peace and security is onlypossible if human rights are guaranteed.

http://www.wirtschaftsmuseum.at/pdf/bseng.pdf

http://nobelprize.org/alfred_nobel/will/index.html

http://www.nobel.se/nobel/alfred-nobel/biographical/will/index.html




34

JANE ADDAMS



42

QUOTES FROM JANE ADDAMShttp://womenshistory.about.com/od/quotes/a/jane_addams.htm

• Nothing could be worse than the fear that one had given up too soon, and left one unexpended effort that might have saved the world.

• The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common life.

• Unless our conception of patriotism is progressive, it cannot hope to embody the real affection and the real interest of the nation.

• In his own way each man must struggle, lest the normal law become a far-off abstraction utterly separated from his active life.

• Action indeed is the sole medium of expression for ethics. • Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we often might

win, by fearing to attempt. • Private beneficence is totally inadequate to deal with the vast

numbers of the city's disinherited.


Jane Addams was born in1860 in Cedarville, Illinois. She was the eighth of nine

children, and struggled with a congenital spinal defect. Her mother died when Jane was three

years of age, and her father dominated her life thereafter. He was a prosperous miller, local

political leader; and fought as an officer in the Civil War. His friendship with Abraham Lincoln

was an important part of Jane’s growing up environment. Jane Addams was educated at the

Rockford Female Seminary and the Women’s Medical College in Philadelphia. She was unable

to complete her medical training as a result of serious spinal surgery. She met Ellen Gates Starr

when they were students, and developed a long lasting friendship/relationship. “Addams came

to the city of Chicago frustrated by the options available to a college educated woman in the late

1800’s but determined to make a positive difference on behalf of others.”(http://www.american-

philosophy.org/archives/past_conference_programs/pc2001/Discussion%20papers/Care_Ethics_in_the_City.htm)


Jane Addams’s father was a Quaker and held strong views generated from his religious

beliefs. She began writing at a young age, being influenced by her keen interest and perception

of her family’s context, which was full of matters pertaining to social politics of the time.

http://www.american-philosophy.org/archives/past_conference_programs/pc2001/Discussion%20papers/Care_Ethics_in_the_City.htm

http://www.american-philosophy.org/archives/past_conference_programs/pc2001/Discussion%20papers/Care_Ethics_in_the_City.htm


She was inspired by John Ruskin and William Morris. Ruskin was known for his revival

of the Gothic inspired Illuminated Manuscript, which was believed to have the power of

releasing the light and the truth from within a text.

Ruskin felt the illuminated book was a means to political and spiritual reform, a way of breaking with the capitalist mode of production which took the means of artistic production out of the hands of the individual and placed it in the hands of the factory owner:(http://eserver.org/elab/hfl0236.html)

Morris was a poet, painter, and designer who was responsible for establishing the Kelmscott

Press, and for issuing some of the most beautiful books at the time.

.Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr traveled to Europe, and during the course of their

tour of England, they were enthused by the tenets of Christian Socialism. As a result of that

experience, Addams and Starr were inspired in 1889 to set up a settlement house in Chicago

(Hull House) that would replicate “Toynbee Hall settlement house in London’s East End, where

university graduates lived in community with working class and poor people.”

(http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAaddams.htm)


Jane Addams’ concerns for people were embodied in her writings about the ethics of care.

An ethic of care relies on experiences of the other and habits of caring to provide the corporeal resources for the possibility of empathy and action. In Democracy and Social Ethics, Addams refers to the moral necessity of social experience in a manner that perhaps exceeds the use by modern care ethicists. Addams views a diverse experience of others as essential for actualizing the sympathy needed in the democratic impulse. http://www.americanphilosophy.org/archives/past_conference_programs/pc2001/Discussion%20papers/Care_Ethics_in_the_City.htm

“The city became her inspiration for activism and philosophy and she has left us a tremendous

intellectual legacy because of her urban experience.” Her activism extended beyond the

responsibilities of Hull House. She was an advocate of a variety of causes: women’s suffrage,

http://www.americanphilosophy.org/archives/past_conference_programs/pc2001/Discussion%20papers/Care_Ethics_in_the_City.htm

http://www.americanphilosophy.org/archives/past_conference_programs/pc2001/Discussion%20papers/Care_Ethics_in_the_City.htm

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAaddams.htm

http://eserver.org/elab/hfl0236.html


the rights of children, the peace movement, the eradication of racism, and other progressive and

reform movements.

4. Organization capabilities and results

Addams held exceptional organization skills, which she implemented as the founder of

Hull-House in Chicago, one of the most successful settlement houses, and First President of the

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. She was a founder of the American

Civil Liberties Union in 1920 with Upton Sinclair, John Dewey, Norman Thomas, and Clarence

Darrow.

“Jane Addams was a member of the Progressive Party, a leader in the National

Consumers League, the first woman president of the National Conference of Charities and

Corrections (later the National Conference of Social Work), chair of the Labor Committee of the

General Federation of Women's Clubs, vice-president of the Campfire Girls, and on the

executive boards of the National Playground Association, the National Child Labor Committee

and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.”

(http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/ww/people_addams.html)

5. Reasons for hope during the laureates’ struggle for their causes

A series of quotations from Jane Addams serve to expose her commitment to achieving

her goals and maintaining hope to spur her and her colleagues on in their endeavors:

The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common life.

Unless our conception of patriotism is progressive, it cannot hope to embody the real affection and the real interest of the nation.

America's future will be determined by the home and the school. The child becomes largely what he is taught; hence we must watch what we teach, and how we live.http://womenshistory.about.com/od/quotes/a/jane_addams.htm

http://womenshistory.about.com/od/quotes/a/jane_addams.htm

http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/ww/people_addams.html

http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/ww/organizations-ncl.html

http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/ww/organizations-ncl.html



Professor Halvdan Koht noted at the Nobel Ceremony that the achievements produced by

Jane Addams represented the work that early 20th Century women struggled to do for world

peace and human brotherhood. Jane spent seven years after her graduation from college

searching out what she, a woman, could do within the context of her society. The quotes that

follow comment on the social context of women’s lives at the turn of 20th Century, how women

saw themselves in the social context, and how some women, such as Jane Addams, sought to

order their lives.

The career paths open to women were quite few at the time. She was not orthodox enough to become a missionary. She rejected the idea of becoming a teacher, seeing it as a “routine and bureaucratic profession” ….She avoided marriage her whole life because, to the college women of her time, marriage could not be combined with a career, and she was determined to have a career.………………………………….Her life, then, was a testament both to her imagination and to her determination to break out of the cage of domestic irrelevancy which she felt middle-class women of her time were often locked into.…………………………………Thus the settlement house provided a socially acceptable, if novel, way for educated women to dedicate their lives, wholly or partly, to social and political reform.…………………………………..Hull-House was also woman-centered in providing a socially acceptable alternative to marriage, enabling women to cultivate deep and often lifelong friendships as alternatives to the companionship of marriage.http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~jboland/addams_h.html

“Jane Addams was an articulate cultural feminist who embodied her beliefs. She wrote extensively on the superiority of women's values, worldview, and behavior. She lived her life surrounded by women, and she trusted them more than she did men. Her cultural feminism was actualized in her lifestyle, self-presentation, and epistemology.” (http://media.pfeiffer.edu/lridener/DSS/Addams/CULTFEM1.HTML)


Addams organized women’s groups in support of peace efforts, which still are thriving

organizations. She had first been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 1916 for her efforts to bring the

First World War to an end and repeatedly thereafter. It was not until 1931 that she won the Peace Prize.

Addams became active in the international peace movement in the early 20th century. She spoke out against America's entry into the First World War … in …1913…at the Hague, and

http://media.pfeiffer.edu/lridener/DSS/Addams/CULTFEM1.HTML

http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~jboland/addams_h.html


throughout the next two years as a lecturer sponsored by the Carnegie Foundation….. Nonetheless, she was later nominated to serve as an assistant to Herbert Hoover in providing relief supplies to the women and children of the enemy nations….. She continued her pacifist work through the Women's Peace Party, which became the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom in 1919. http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/ww/people_addams.html


Jane Addams suffered multiple tribulations during her lifetime, as she struggled to find

her place in the world. Her illnesses as a child and young woman were compounded in 1915

when she contracted tuberculosis of the kidneys, and in 1926 when she suffered a heart attack

that left her in serious physical decline until her death. She could have lived a comfortable

middle class life in Illinois, but chose a life of living among the poor and marginal members of

society at her beloved Hull House. She was attacked as the most dangerous American in the

nation because of her public opposition to World War I, her overall international peace

organization work, and for the help that she gave to populations considered to be wartime

enemies of the U.S.A. In addition to being called a “traitor,” Jane Addams was expelled from

membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution. She never married and raised a

family, but lived a life of dedication to her ideals with those who provided her with the

relationship needs that she required.

http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/ww/people_addams.html

http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/ww/outsidelink.html/http:/www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/hh31.html




48

EMILY GREENE BALCH



57

QUOTES FROM EMILY GREENE BALCHhttp://www.people4peace.net/heroes/balch.htm

• "Let us be patient with one another, And even patient with ourselves. We have a long, long way to go. So let us hasten along the road, The road of human tenderness and generosity. Groping, we may find one another's hands in the dark.“

• Men have a sense of being subject to the same fate, of being in the same boat. But fear is a poor motive to which to appeal, and I am sure that 'peace people' are on a wrong path when they expatiate on the horrors of a new world war. Fear weakens the nerves and distorts the judgment. It is not by fear that mankind must exorcise the demon of destruction and cruelty, but by motives more reasonable, more humane, and more heroic.


Emily Greene Balch descended from a family of Old New England stock, with a father

who was an attorney. She was educated in a private school as a young girl, and was among the

students who graduated from the first class of Bryn Mawr. She developed her values and beliefs

through her home life and church affiliation. The environment that she inhabited was filled with

beliefs in dynamic good will, hard work, hope, and theological virtue. Graduate course work at

Harvard University and the University of Chicago equipped her for her career as a college

professor.


Charles Fletcher Dole’s influence, through the Unitarian Church, provided the

foundation of Emily Greene Balch’s beliefs. Her lifelong friendship with Jane Addams was a

significant factor that inspired her peace activism. The educational opportunity to go to Europe

and conduct research about the Slavic peoples encouraged Balch to follow Socialist thinking,

study the subject intensively, and eventually become a professor of the subject. She joined the

emerging female social reform movement in Boston. Eventually her thinking led her to a 1921

conversion as a member of the Quakers. The unswerving support of pacifism, found in the belief


system of the Society of Friends, added to Emily’s propensity to favor peace activism with Jane

Addams. The outbreak of World War I spurred Balch to dedicate her life’s work toward a

mission of peace.


Emily Greene Balch worked for many causes: women’s suffrage, civil rights and

equality, and improvement of labor laws pertaining to women and children. She was a key

builder of the WILPF, and supported the societal inclusion of minorities, the expansion of the

member nations and the democratization of the WILPF's structure. She was the first person to

propose the internationalization of Antarctica, which eventually was actualized. She continually

pressed for greater acceptance in the United States of refugees from Nazi Germany during the

years in the 1930s. She spoke of her guilt in allowing Jews to remain in a state of oppression and

jeopardy to their lives.

“Those of us who are not Jews are oppressed by a sense of our own responsibility for we too are guilty. We are all answerable in part for the development of a state of things where the moral insanity of Hitler Germany was possible. ….for a state of things where the civilized world can find no better way out than competition in reciprocal slaughter and destruction. We were not ready in time with any other method than this slow and cruel one.”

She devoted her energies to helping the oppressed and assisted Americans during the

World War II years when she was between the ages of 72 and 78. She helped relocate Japanese-

Americans who had been forcibly interned in concentration camps.


She had exceptional organization capabilities, which she put to work in

1892 when she founded Denison House, Boston’s first settlement house modeled after Hull

House in Chicago. She established the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom


[WILPF] in 1919 with her friend Jane Addams. This work with the WILPF was followed in

1921 by Emily’s organization of the Third International Congress in Vienna. The interwar years

of the 1930s witnessed Balch’s intense labor in behalf of several governments and international

organizations. She was noted for the assistance that she provided to the League of Nations in the

areas of disarmament, drug control, internationalization of aviation, and the American role in the

League. It was the belief that "she had a talent for enlisting the cooperation of diverse

individuals and groups in the cause of peace."


Emily Green Balch cultivated a “warm faith in the force that makes righteousness,” as a

result of her work with Dole. She was convinced that her life’s work rested with furthering the

effort to rid the world of war after the start of World War I. She supported peace education at

several summer schools conducted by the WILPF. Several quotes from her speeches

demonstrate her long range view for peace: (http://www.people4peace.net/heroes/balch.htm)

Let us be patient with one another, And even patient with ourselves. We have a long, long way to go. So let us hasten along the road, The road of human tenderness and generosity. Groping, we may find one another's hands in the dark

As the world community develops in peace, it will open up great untapped reservoirs in human nature

We are not asked to subscribe to any utopia or to believe in a perfect world just around the corner. We are asked to be patient with necessarily slow and groping advance on the road forward, and to be ready for each step ahead as it becomes practicable. We are asked to equip ourselves with courage, hope, readiness for hard work, and to cherish large and generous ideals


Emily Greene Balch supported the waging of World War II by the United States against

http://www.people4peace.net/heroes/balch.htm


Nazi Fascism, in spite of her strong support of the peace movement. Her belief about the

destruction of Fascism and National Socialism depended upon impressing the brutal leaders

Fascism and national socialism today can be destroyed only through means which are capable of impressing the brutal men of fascism and national socialism...We women pacifists have come to recognize this...without even for a moment, becoming untrue to our pacifist convictions."

Men have a sense of being subject to the same fate, of being in the same boat. But fear is a poor motive to which to appeal, and I am sure that 'peace people' are on a wrong path when they expatiate on the horrors of a new world war. Fear weakens the nerves and distorts the judgment. It is not by fear that mankind must exorcise the demon of destruction and cruelty, but by motives more reasonable, more humane, and more heroic. (http://www.people4peace.net/heroes/balch.htm)

The Nobel.org website described Emily Greene Balch as “an outstanding teacher” who

was gifted by “clarity of her thought….breadth of her experience….. compassion for the

underprivileged….strong mindedness.” She was known as a professor who insisted that her

students formulate their independent judgments, combined with their library research.

(http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1946/balch-bio.html)


Emily Greene Balch contributed a great deal of her energy and efforts to the

establishment of world peace. She joined the American delegation to the International Congress

of Women at The Hague in 1915, with Jane Addams and a team of other women. The result of

her meeting with President Woodrow Wilson was unsuccessful in its objective to win his support

for the ICW’s plan for continuous international mediation as a substitute for battles among

nations. She was very instrumental in authoring the report about the occupation of Haiti by U.S.

marines, and recommending in 1926 that the American military force vacate Haitian premises.


Emily Greene Balch took to heart the teachings of Charles Fletcher Dole who “asked us

to enlist in the service of goodness, whatever its cost, in the service of goodness whatever its

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1946/balch-bio.html

http://www.people4peace.net/heroes/balch.htm


cost.” She wrote that “In accepting this pledge, I never abandoned in any degree my desire to

live up to it.” An example of this commitment was her complete financial and lifetime

dedication to peace activism. She took unpaid leave of absence from her position to study Slavs

in the Old and New World as a way to increase her knowledge base for action. Wellesley

College officials dismissed Balch from her teaching position in 1918 because of her anti-war

views. She never married, and did regret not having the opportunity for motherhood. Her lack

of funds in her old age necessitated that she spend her declining days in a Cambridge,

Massachusetts nursing home.



60

BETTY WILLIAMS



68

QUOTES BY BETTY WILLIAMShttp://www.dadalos.org/int/Vorbilder/vorbilder/peacepeople/zitate.htm#Corrigan

• Compassion is more important than intellect in calling forth the love that the work of peace needs, and intuition can often be a more powerful searchlight than cold reason.

• We have to create a world in which there are no unknown, hostile aliens at the other end of any missiles, and that is going to take a tremendous amount of sheer hard work. The only force which can break down those barriers is the force of love, the force of truth, soul-force...

• You don't have to win the Nobel Peace Prize to work for peace. The simple premise of unconditional love and nonviolence so beautifully brought to life by Gandhi and Martin Luther King can be practiced by all people. Teach only this to your children. If you'll do just this one simple thing, together, we can heal the world.


Betty Williams, born in 1943, resided in the predominantly Protestant part of Great

Britain known as Northern Island. She came from a family of mixed religious affiliations, and

was baptized a Roman Catholic, even though her butcher father was a Protestant. Three of her

four grandparents were not Catholic. One of her grandfathers was Jewish, and she found out that

relatives had been murdered during the Holocaust. These religious aspects of her family life

later influenced her decision as a peace activist. She was employed as an office receptionist,


which led to her meeting Mairead Corrigan, her future co-awardee of the Nobel Peace Prize..

She married and eventually divorced her husband, having had two children with him. Later in

her years she moved to the United States (Florida) and embarked on a teaching and lecturing

career.


Inspiration for Betty Williams’ peace activism came from a wellspring of reading and

knowing the lives of major leaders of pacifism, as she noted in her Nobel Peace Prize Lecture:

You don't have to win the Nobel Peace Prize to work for peace. The simple premise of unconditional love and nonviolence so beautifully brought to life by Gandhi and Martin Luther King can be practiced by all people. Teach only this to your children. If you'll do just this one simple thing, together, we can heal the world. (http://www.dadalos.org/int/Vorbilder/vorbilder/peacepeople/zitate.htm#Corrigan)

The long and cruel fighting between the Protestants and Catholics in Ireland and Great

Britain, and loss of Jewish family members in the Holocaust, left its mark on Betty Williams.

She joined the Irish Republican Army [IRA], but remained a member only one year because of

the violence that she witnessed during the group’s operations. The event that had the greatest

effect on her was seeing in 1973 a British soldier shot and left on the ground. She prayed near

him, and later was criticized by her Catholic neighbors for showing sympathy to the enemy. The

death of three children, killed by an IRA member whose car went out of control after being fired

upon by British troops, tipped the scales for 34 years of age Betty Williams during August, 1976.

She resorted to public demonstrations for peace soon after the incident, joining forces with the

slain children’s aunt to gain support for a cessation of violence between British and Irish.


Betty Williams has had a strong interest in oppressed peoples worldwide, in addition to

her peace marches and petitions against Irish and British government officials. She played an

http://www.dadalos.org/int/Vorbilder/vorbilder/peacepeople/zitate.htm#Corrigan


interventionist role in the Bosnian crisis, worked through the World Centers of Compassion for

Children and Mothers of the Earth for World Peace. Her interest in helping children in crisis led

her to the founding of the nonprofit Global Children’s Foundation in 1998.

She said in a 2006 speech that “It’s our duty as human beings, whatever age we are, to

become the protectors of human life.” (http://www.answers.com/topic/2006#wp-July). She

has traveled as a participant with the Nobel Peace Laureate Group to Thailand in 1993, seeking

unsuccessfully to enter Myanmar (Burma) to protest on behalf of Aung San Suu Kyi, her Nobel

Peace Laureate colleague’s detention.


Both Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan set out to organize the Community of Peace People

campaign. This was a movement comprising Catholics and Protestants who were dedicated to putting an

end to the sectarian fighting that was taking place in Northern Ireland. Betty Williams’ speech, upon

receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, was self-deprecating and made light of her organization abilities, giving

credit to the enormity of the violence in Northern Ireland as the driving force for people to support peace

activities.

But the deaths of those four young people in one terrible moment of violence caused that frustration to explode, and create the possibility of a real peace movement. Perhaps the fact that one of those children was a baby of six weeks in a pram pushed by his mother made that tragedy especially unbearable. Maybe it was because three children from one family, baby Andrew, little John and eight-year-old Joanne Maguire died in one event which also seriously injured their mother, Anne, Mairead's sister, that the grief was so powerful. Perhaps it was the sheer needlessness of this awful loss of life that motivated people to turn out in protesting thousands that week. (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1976/williams-lecture.html)

Williams was accorded a great deal of media attention when she secured 6,000 signatures on a

peace petition after the August 10, 1976 event. Ten thousand people organized to march to the killed

three children’s graves. That event was disrupted by members of the IRA, who did not favor the

religiously integrated nature of the demonstration, and who labeled the two peace activists and their

followers as “dupes of the British.”. Thirty-five thousand persons marched for peace again the following

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1976/williams-lecture.html

http://www.answers.com/topic/2006#wp-July


week. A peace march in November, 1976 in London attracted the attendance of peace signer Joan Baez

to the event, seen in the middle of the front row with Betty Williams on the left.

(http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic-art/644316/18159/Betty-Williams-left-leads-a-march-of-the-Northern-Ireland) (Copyright Hulton Getty/Tony Stone Images)


The best way to identify the reasons for hope, which Betty Williams carried during her

struggle to bring peace to Northern Island, is to review The Declaration of the Peace People by

Ciaran McKeown. (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1976/williams-lecture.html)

We want to live and love and build a just and peaceful society………….We want for our children, as we want for ourselves, our lives at home, at work,

and at play to be lives of joy and Peace………………We recognise that to build such a society demands dedication, hard work, and

courage………………We dedicate ourselves to working with our neighbours, near and far, day in and

day out, to build that peaceful society in which the tragedies we have known are a bad memory and a continuing warning…………………


Betty Williams’ Nobel Prize Lecture clearly states her belief in the role of women to

secure world peace. (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1976/williams-lecture.html)

…..we feel a special sense of honor ... honor for women, perhaps a little specially at this time. War has traditionally been a man's work, although we know that often women were the cause of violence. But the voice of women, the voice of those most closely involved in bringing forth new life, has not always been listened to when it pleaded and implored against the waste of life in war after war. The voice of women has a special role and a special soul force in the struggle for a nonviolent world. We do not wish to replace religious sectarianism, or ideological division with sexism or any kind of militant feminism. But we do believe; as



http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic-art/644316/18159/Betty-Williams-left-leads-a-march-of-the-Northern-Ireland

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic-art/644316/18159/Betty-Williams-left-leads-a-march-of-the-Northern-Ireland


Ciaran McKeown who is with us in spirit, believes, that women have a leading role to play in this great struggle.


Betty Williams’ influence on the peace movement in Northern Ireland brought her

recognition as a Nobel Peace Laureate. Since that time, Williams has continued her commitment

to ending violence and bringing about world awareness of the need for ending international

violence. She has received numerous other awards for her work:

1. the People's Peace Prize of Norway in 1976, 2. the Schweitzer Medallion for Courage, 3. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Award, 4. the Eleanor Roosevelt Award in 1984, and 5. The Frank Foundation Child Care International Oliver Award. 6. the Rotary Club International Paul Harris Fellowship in 1995, and 7. The Together for Peace Building Award.

She passionately has lectured extensively for her cause in the United States and around

the world. On July 24, 2006 she told a group of children that she “wanted to kill Bush”…..and

that she did not know how she ever got a Nobel Peace Prize with that type of emotion. She

explained that “….when I see children die the anger in me is just beyond belief. It's our duty as

human beings, whatever age we are, to become the protectors of human life."

(http://www.answers.com/topic/2006#wp-July)


Betty Williams’ life was impacted by her commitment to the peace movement in

Northern Island and elsewhere. Her financial condition at the time of receiving the Nobel Peace

Prize was not positive. She and Mairead Corrigan had agreed to contribute the prize money to

the Peace People Movement, but Williams reneged on her promise and kept her share of the

funds. The organization was not able to raise sufficient money for operating costs, and

http://www.answers.com/topic/2006#wp-July

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Eleanor_Roosevelt

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Martin_Luther_King%2C_Jr


Williams’ unwillingness to turn over her share of the Nobel money had a negative impact on the

movement and her relationship with Corrigan. Betty Williams also was faced by trouble in her

marriage in 1979, and eventually, in 1981, she and her husband were divorced. A year later, she

married for a second time, to James Perkins, and moved to the United States, where she

extensively toured and lectured. She returned to Belfast, Northern Ireland in 2004 after several

years of teaching on the University level in Texas.



70

MAIREAD CORRIGAN



74

QUOTES BY MAIREAD CORRIGANhttp://www.dadalos.org/int/Vorbilder/vorbilder/peacepeople/zitate.htm#Corrigan

• Nonviolence is not just for an elite few, it is for everyone. It is a way of life based on respect for each human person and for the environment. It is also a means of bringing about social and political change and resisting evil without entering into evil. It is a whole new way of thinking.

• ….And it took me a long time to come to realize that there aren't too many things that are important, but what is important is that we respect each other, uphold our humanity and put our common humanity above the flags, the religions and all of those other things.

• In trying to choose what to do, when faced with such enormous problems, sometimes we can feel powerless and imagine that we personally cannot do anything that will really make a difference.


Mairead Corrigan was born in 1944 in Northern Ireland. Her father was a window

cleaning contractor and her mother a housewife. Mairead was one of eight children: five sisters

and two brothers. She engaged in a variety of jobs, and by the age of sixteen was employed as a

shorthand typist. Her education included primary school and one year of commercial college.

Her sister Anne never recovered from the loss of her three children in the violence that afflicted

Northern Island between the Protestants and Catholics. Mairead married her former brother-in-

law, Jackie Maguire, after the death of her sister.



Mairead Corrigan was inspired to engage in peace activism for the same reasons as her

Nobel Peace Prize partner: disgust with the violence in Northern Island and the killing of

innocent people, and the simple messages of love, mutual understanding, and non-violence

spread by the Nobel Peace Prize winners Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. She

worked on a voluntary basis with Catholic organizations to end the policy of the IRA to drive the

British out of Northern Island. Mairead’s comments about non-violence and love illustrate the

impact of Gandhi and King on her thinking:

Nonviolence is not just for an elite few, it is for everyone. It is a way of life based on respect for each human person and for the environment. It is also a means of bringing about social and political change and resisting evil without entering into evil. It is a whole new way of thinking.http://www.dadalos.org/int/Vorbilder/vorbilder/peacepeople/zitate.htm#Corrigan

3. Specific concerns for the world population and the environment

Mairead Corrigan helped to establish clubs for many physically handicapped children, teenagers,

and preschool play groups. In addition, she was known to visit internees at Long Kesh Prison.

Internationally, Corrigan organized summer camps in other European countries for the purpose

of providing opportunities for young Northern Irish Catholics and Protestants to mingle and get

to know each other in a peaceful outdoors setting. She has travelled to more than twenty-five

countries throughout the world, in pursuit of her mission to promote the establishment of peace

and justice by nonviolent means


Mairead Corrigan worked with the Community of Peace People, speaking, writing, and

supporting the nonviolent conclusion of differences between Catholics and Protestants in Northern

http://www.dadalos.org/int/Vorbilder/vorbilder/peacepeople/zitate.htm#Corrigan


Ireland. Egil Aarvik of the Nobel Committee commented that Corrigan and Williams have shown “a

courageous unselfish act that proved an inspiration to thousands, which lit a light in the darkness.”

(http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1976/corrigan-cv.html )


The initiative taken by Mairead Corrigan and her Nobel Peace Prize Laureate partner provided a

model for other people to step forward and forgive the violence and cruelty of the conflict between

Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland. In the words of Egil Aarvik:

They had the courage to take the first step. They did so in the name of humanity and love of their neighbour; someone had to start forgiving. Love of one's neighbor is one of the foundation stones of the humanism on which our western civilization is built. It is vitally important that it should shine forth when hatred and revenge threaten to dominate.(http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1976/corrigan-cv.html)

Mairead wrote emotion filled letters of advice to her son, Luke Maguire, one of which incorporated her philosophy of life and her hope for the future.

When suffering comes into your life, and sadly I cannot, much as I would love to, protect you from all suffering, and when you come through the winter of your life, remember that summer will return, the sun will shine again, and the road will be covered in beautiful, oh so very, very beautiful, yellow roses of love. (http://www.dadalos.org/int/Vorbilder/vorbilder/peacepeople/brief_an_luke.htm)

She has held a long range vision for a society built on peace, and hope for people to

conduct themselves with humane actions toward each other.

I believe that hope for the future depends on each of us taking nonviolence into our hearts and minds and developing new and imaginative structures which are nonviolent and life-giving for all….. I am convinced that humanity is fast evolving to this higher consciousness. ….let us remember that humanity learned to abolish slavery. ….We can rejoice and celebrate today because we are living in a miraculous time. Everything is changing and everything is possible. (http://www.peacepeople.com/MaireadByJohnDear.htm)


http://www.peacepeople.com/MaireadByJohnDear.htm

http://www.dadalos.org/int/Vorbilder/vorbilder/peacepeople/brief_an_luke.htm

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1976/corrigan-cv.html

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1976/corrigan-cv.html


Usually, women are considered to be non-violent and anti-war in their concern for their

children, families, and homes. Mairead Corrigan Maguire enunciated this generalization in her

comments about women and children during violent times.

Well, I think that many of the issues that we are looking atare issues that women suffer tremendously. Perhaps they have no voices.I am thinking of in war now, women and children are the main victims of war. We hear about the rapes and the displacements. So our emphasis would be to try to give a voice to women and children in situations where their voice is not being heard.

Joan Baez, singer and peace activist, described Mairead as having

‘The breath of God’ running through her like a fair summer breeze. She was a smile. She was a prayer. She was endlessly brave, going into the streets and homes of ‘the enemy’ unarmed and with cheerful countenance. No evil could envelop her or even touch her…..” (http://www.peaceheroes.com/PeaceHeroes/maireadcorrigan.htm)

Mairead Corrigan Maguire, commenting on the work of the Nobel Women’s Initiative in 2006,

noted that “Consensus politics is natural to women,” …. “They do it every day in their homes

and communities. (http://www.glamour.com/women-of-the-year/2008/nobel-womens-initiative)


Mairead continued her activism by working with the Community of Peace People, whose

policy advocated the resolution of the religious conflict in Northern Island between the Irish and

the British through nonviolent action. She contributed her energies to the movement with her

commitment to speaking out publicly and writing extensively. She extended her mission in her

home country to other nations when she travelled to more than twenty- five countries to

encourage people and governments to use non-violent methods of establishing peace and justice.

http://www.glamour.com/women-of-the-year/2008/nobel-womens-initiative

http://www.peaceheroes.com/PeaceHeroes/maireadcorrigan.htm



There is no doubt that the organizational and protest work implemented by Mairead

Corrigan Maguire impacted her personal and family life, when considering the amount of time,

effort, and energy that were required to build the Community of Peace People. Frequently, she

reflected in her speeches and writings that sacrifices had to be made to accomplish the mission of

bringing non-violent reconciliation to the people of Northern Ireland and Great Britain.

Valerie Morgan, writing in her article “Peacemakers? Peacekeepers? - Women in

Northern Ireland 1969-1995,” analyzed the role of women in the Northern Ireland conflict and

provided insight into the work of the women in society.

The Northern Ireland conflict between 1969 and 1994 resulted in almost 3200 deaths directly attributable to violence. Of those killed approximately 200 were women, a figure which suggests that women were much less involved in physical violence than men. However, the long-term impact and consequences of violence for individuals and families has probably weighed most heavily on women, especially in terms of bereavement and separation. But in examining women's attitudes to conflict and responses to physical violence it seems clear that these have spanned the whole range from active support of paramilitaries to direct campaigning for peace. Certainly a blanket assertion that women oppose physical violence in pursuit of political ends a serious oversimplification. Although evidence about the actual recruitment, organisation and operation of the paramilitary groups is limited it is clear that women have been involved in a number of ways, particularly on the Republican side. Much of their activity has been at a support level, - providing safe houses, passing messages etc. But they have also transported guns and bombs and have taken part in major operations. (http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/issues/women/paper3.htm)

Mairead Corrigan Maguire stepped outside of the norm by challenging the violence in

society and organizing people to support peaceful, non-violent means of protest. She truly

represented the “Peacemakers,” and paid the price on a personal level with long-term

bereavement for the loss of her sister, niece, and nephews.

http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/issues/women/paper3.htm




76

MOTHER TERESA



84

QUOTES FROM MOTHER TERESAhttp://www.writespirit.net/authors/mother_teresa/mother_teresa_quotes

• Love is doing small things with great love. • Do not wait for leaders. Do it alone, person to person. • Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their

echoes are truly endless.

• We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.

• There is a terrible hunger for love. We all experience that in our lives--the pain, the loneliness. We must have the courage to recognize it. The poor you may have right in your own family. Find them. Love them.


Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, later to be known as Mother Teresa, was born on August 27,

1910 as the youngest of three children into a Roman Catholic Albanian family that was living in

Skopje, the then Yugoslavian capital of the republic of Macedonia. She was a member of the

local parish’s youth group, Sodality, during her teens. Her activities spurred an interest in

missionary work at about the age of seventeen. She left her family to join the order of Loreto in

Ireland at the age of eighteen; and thereafter, 1928, she traveled to Calcutta, India, where she

taught at a convent girls’ school. Mother Teresa is quoted as having said about her early

teaching assignment “I loved the work to which the congregation had assigned me at St. Mary's

High School in Calcutta. (http://www.ewtn.com/motherteresa/life.htm)


Mother Teresa’s early spiritual experience, the “call” at age twelve to become a

missionary, came from the Jesuit influence attending the youth activities in her hometown’

parish. A second “call” to activism took place after she became the principal of St. Mary’s High

School [Calcutta] during an episode of illness [tuberculosis], when she was sent for rest and

recuperation to Darjeeling. Mother Teresa described this event in her own words as "the call

within the call"….."I was to leave the convent and work with the poor, living among them. It

http://www.ewtn.com/motherteresa/life.htm


was an order. I knew where I belonged but I did not know how to get there."

(http://www.ewtn.com/motherteresa/life.htm). Multiple quotations from Mother Teresa’s speeches

and writings revealed her pious conviction that love led to faith and peace; and that, care for the

poor in society may become the healing ingredient to accomplish that end.

I do not pray for success. I ask for faithfulness.

The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty.

There is a terrible hunger for love. We all experience that in our lives--the pain, the loneliness. We must have the courage to recognize it. The poor you may have right in your own family. Find them. Love them(http://www.writespirit.net/authors/mother_teresa/mother_teresa_quotes)


Mother Teresa’s concern for people came from a deep seated view that every human

carries within him/her the attributes of God: “I see God in every human being. When I wash the

leper's wounds, I feel I am nursing the Lord himself. Is it not a beautiful experience?”

(http://www.writespirit.net/authors/mother_teresa/mother_teresa_quotes)

She had a love of the poor who were neither of her ethnicity, nor of her religion; and, her

willingness to assist them was an act of significant service, according to Mother Teresa: “Love

cannot remain by itself -- it has no meaning. Love has to be put into action, and that action is

service.” Her speech in response to being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize highlighted who

comprised the poverty stricken people in her mission.

I choose the poverty of our poor people. But I am grateful to receive (the Nobel) in the name of the hungry, the naked, the homeless, of the crippled, of the blind, of the lepers, of all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared-for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone

• 4. Organization capabilities and results The early years of Mother Teresa’s “call” to her lifetime mission appear to have been

preparatory for her eventual organization of an order that carries out her chosen path even after

http://www.writespirit.net/authors/mother_teresa/mother_teresa_quotes




her death. A series of events between 1948 and 1952 witnessed Mother Teresa’s ability to

establish the order of the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India.

(http://www.ewtn.com/motherteresa/life.htm)

She was granted permission from the Pope in 1948 to implement her calling under the

jurisdiction of Calcutta’s Archbishop; whereupon, she set up a school to teach the children in the

slums, learned basic medicine, and administered to the ill in their homes. A year later, former

students joined Mother Teresa in her work; and together, they rented a room to conduct the work

of saving men, women, and children who would die on the streets of Calcutta because they were

not accepted in the city’s hospitals. Soon thereafter, in 1950, the Missionaries of Charity were

recognized by the Roman Catholic Church as a Diocesan Congregation of the Calcutta Diocese.

The City of Calcutta made available to Mother Teresa and her Missionaries of Charity the first

Home for the Dying in 1952.

Over the years, Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity grew from 12 to thousands serving the ‘poorest of the poor’ in 450 centers around the world. Mother Teresa created many homes for the dying and the unwanted from Calcutta to New York to Albania. She was one of the pioneers of establishing homes for AIDS victims. For more than 45 years, Mother Teresa comforted the poor, the dying, and the unwanted around the world.(http://www.ewtn.com/motherteresa/life.htm)

Critical comments about Mother Teresa’s organizational behaviors were made after her death in

1997. (http://www.knowledgerush.com/kr/encyclopedia/Criticisms_of_Mother_Theresa/). However, a

quotation from Mother Teresa’s words provides insight into how she was able to acquire

organizational and financial assistance for her mission.

When once a chairman of a multinational company came to see me, to offer me a property in Bombay, he first asked: ‘Mother, how do you manage your budget?" I asked him who had sent him here. He replied: ‘I felt an urge inside me.’ I said: other people like you come to see me and say the same. It was clear God sent you, Mr. A, as He sends Mr. X, Mrs. Y, Miss Z, and they provide the material means we need for our work. The grace of God is what moved you. You are my budget.

http://www.knowledgerush.com/kr/encyclopedia/Criticisms_of_Mother_Theresa/




God sees to our needs, as Jesus promised. I accepted the property he gave and named it Asha Dan (Gift of Hope). (http://www.ewtn.com/motherteresa/words.htm)


Mother Teresa was not deterred by challenges that would mitigate her mission to the

poor. She placed her faith in a deity that gave her hope for a future of love and peace

(http://www.writespirit.net/authors/mother_teresa/mother_teresa_quotes)

Love is doing small things with great love……………………………………………Do not wait for leaders. Do it alone, person to person……………………………….There should be less talk. A preaching point is not a meeting point……………………..It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing. It is not how

much we give, but how much love we put in the giving…………………..

She envisioned a world of love in the family and in the home as the hope for peace. Her notion

was that poor people needed the help of those financially better off, in order to accomplish those

ends. (http://www.writespirit.net/authors/mother_teresa/mother_teresa_prayers/view)

Because I believe that love begins at home, and if we can create a home for the poor, I think that more and more love will spread. And we will be able through this understanding love to bring peace, be the good news to the poor. The poor in our own family first, in our country and in the world.


Mother Teresa was a strong adversary of the concept of “choice,” as it was applied to the

right of women to end their pregnancies. This was an outgrowth of her Catholic belief system.

Therefore, she did not represent feminist ideas as an anti-abortion proponent. Her speeches and

writings were replete with praise for motherhood, the family, and love for children borne of all

classes of women, especially the poor. Her message to the participants of the Fourth UN

Women’s Conference in Beijing, China encouraged women to fulfill their roles as mothers, to

bring love to their families, and work toward worldwide cooperation and peace.

I hope that this Conference will help everyone to know, love, and respect the special place of women in God's plan so that they may fulfill this plan in their live…….I do not understand why some people are saying that women and men are exactly the same, and are denying the beautiful differences between men and women. …..God has created each one of us, every human being, for

http://www.writespirit.net/authors/mother_teresa/mother_teresa_prayers/view


http://www.ewtn.com/motherteresa/words.htm


greater things-- to love and to be loved. But why did God make some of us men and others women? Because a woman's love is one image of the love of God, and a man's love is another image of God's love. Both are created to love, but each in a different way. Woman and man complete each other ….That special power of loving that belongs to a woman is seen most clearly when she becomes a mother. Motherhood is the gift of God to women. ……… Instead of death and sorrow, let us bring peace and joy to the world. To do this we must beg God for His gift of peace and learn to love and accept each other as brothers and sisters, children of God. ….. The family that prays together stays together, and if they stay together they will love one another as God has loved each one of them. And works of love are always works of peace. (http://www.ewtn.com/New_library/MT_woman.htm)


Irwin Abrams’ view of Mother Teresa in “Heroines of Peace” was that “The hallmark of

her work has been respect for the individual and the individual's worth and dignity.” Former U.N.

Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar has referred to Mother Teresa in a meaningful way:

"She is the United Nations. She is peace in the world." (http://www.ewtn.com/motherteresa/reflection.htm)

Mother Teresa gained worldwide acclaim with her tireless efforts on behalf of world peace. Her work brought her numerous humanitarian awards, including: the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. In receiving this award, Mother Teresa revolutionized the award ceremony. She insisted on a departure from the ceremonial banquet and asked that the funds, $6,000 be donated to the poor in Calcutta. This money would permit her to feed hundreds for a year……Mother Teresa traveled to help the hungry in Ethiopia, radiation victims at Chernobyl, and earthquake victims in Armenia. Her zeal and works of mercy knew no boundaries. (http://www.ewtn.com/motherteresa/vocation.htm


Mother Teresa’s choice to follow the path of her religious convictions to help and live with the

poorest of the poor in Calcutta was paid for at a heavy personal price. Early in her young years she gave

up her biological family, only to relinquish it to her second family with membership in the Congregation

of Our Lady of Loreto. The website set up for Mother Teresa’s beatification on October 19, 2003

included an online article by Renzo Allegri “Mother Teresa: The Early Years,” in which there were some

quotations from her about the emotional loss that she felt in order to follow her mission.

Leaving the Congregation of Our Lady of Loreto was the biggest sacrifice of my life…..I suffered a lot when I was 18, and left my family and country to go to the convent. But I suffered a lot more when I left the convent to begin the new experience that Jesus had proposed…………………………………………….……………………………………

http://www.ewtn.com/motherteresa/vocation.htm

http://www.ewtn.com/motherteresa/reflection.htm

http://www.ewtn.com/New_library/MT_woman.htm


I paid a tremendous price by taking the step of leaving forever what had become my second family. When I closed the door of the convent behind me on Aug. 16, 1948, and found myself alone on the streets of Calcutta, I experienced a strong feeling of loss and almost of fear that was difficult to overcome.(http://www.ewtn.com/New_library/MT_early.htm)

Information surfaced in 2007 that about the same time that Mother Teresa was awarded

the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, she wrote of her despair and crisis of faith: “the silence and the

emptiness is so great, that I look and do not see, — Listen and do not hear — the tongue moves

[in prayer] but does not speak ... I want you to pray for me — that I let Him have [a] free hand."

(http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1655415,00.html)



87

ALVA MYRDAL



95

QUOTES FROM ALVA MYRDALhttp://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/alva_myrdal.html

• How often and with what weapons are killing and murder committed, in society and within families, which actually appears to be the commonest scene of violent crime?

• We should never forget the interconnections with the fact that the aforementioned personal violence, the crimes of violence committed in our cities, are to a large extent a result of the spread of arms.

• War is murder. And the military preparations now being made for a potential major confrontation are aimed at collective murder. In a nuclear age the victims would be numbered by the millions. This naked truth must be faced.


Alva Myrdal (nee Reimer) was born on January 31, 1902 in Uppsala, Sweden to middle-

class parents. Her father, Albert Reimer, was a building contractor. His influence on his

daughter came about as a result of his involvement in local politics as a strong believer in social

democracy. Her mother, a traditional-minded woman, was opposed to Alva borrowing library

books for fear of the transmittal of germs, and disapproved of her daughter getting a higher

education degree. Needless to say, Alva did not have pleasant memories of her childhood at

home with her parents. She was known for her intelligence and disagreed with her mother about

her educational goals. Eventually, she was able to attend Stockholm University, where she met

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1655415,00.html

http://www.ewtn.com/New_library/MT_early.htm


and married Karl Gunnar Myrdal the same year that she graduated from the institution with a

Bachelor of Arts degree. (http://everything2.com/title/Alva%2520Myrdal)


Both of Alva Myrdal’s parents were instrumental in developing her commitment to the

betterment of society. Her education in Scandinavian languages and literature, as well as the

history of religion contributed to her ideas. Myrdal indicated in her own words that “My

personal philosophy of life is one of ethics,” and that “I have always regarded global

development as a struggle between the forces of good and evil. Not to be simplified as a struggle

between Jesus and Satan.” (http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/alva_myrdal.html).

She believed that rhetoric about world peace was not enough; that peace would only come

through negotiation and the development of well-reasoned, concrete plans for action.


Irwin Abrams described Alva Myrdal in “Heroines of Peace” as a person of strong social

commitments that stemmed from the 1930s “when she played a prominent part in developing the

welfare state” in Sweden. Both she and her husband traveled to the United States in 1929, where

she was able to participate in learning about American experimental education at Yale

University, under the tutelage of Arnold Gessel. (http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-

3435000131.html). She returned to Sweden at the conclusion of her and her husband’s Rockefeller

fellowships in America, and continued her education in the 1930s so as to be equipped to serve

her country as an educational policy maker. She believed in a system whereby the state would

have a predominant role in the raising and education of children, using the Montessori Method to

instill appropriate discipline and good habits. Alva Myrdal served as the director of Sweden’s

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3435000131.html


http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/alva_myrdal.html

http://everything2.com/title/Alva%2520Myrdal


Social Pedagogical Institute through the 1930s, when concern for international changes in

Europe engaged her attention.

A return to the United States between 1937 and 1942 because of Gunnar’s Carnegie grant

enabled the husband and wife team to lecture and be exposed to new ideas at Columbia

University. Their return to Sweden in 1940 alerted them to the pro-Nazi influences in their

country, and they both responded by writing against fascism. Abrams characterized Alva

Myrdal as “a champion of reason: one of its most brilliant practitioners in her writing and in all

her activities.”(http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/articles/heroines/index.html).

Several quotes from Alva Myrdal’s writings highlight her concerns about war and its

effect on peoples of the world.

How often and with what weapons are killing and murder committed, in society and within families, which actually appears to be the commonest scene of violent crime.………………………………………………………We should never forget the interconnections with the fact that the aforementioned personal violence, the crimes of violence committed in our cities, are to a large extent a result of the spread of arms…………….(http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/alva_myrdal.html).


Alva Myrdal dedicated a great deal of her energy in the post-World War II years to the

disarmament movement. She found herself making history in the late 1940s, when she became

“the first woman to be appointed head of a department in the United Nations Secretariat,” being

named in 1949 as the principal director of the U.N.’s department of social affairs. Irwin Abrams

recorded that she said “I had not held my first important position until I was forty years old.”

Her husband’s career took precedence with Alva in the years before she was offered this major

appointment. Thereafter, she moved to New York City alone, and on to Paris to perform the

duties of UNESCO’s director of social sciences.

(http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/articles/heroines/index.html).





Alva Myrdal was known as the “Grand Old Lady of Swedish Politics,” and her

appointments read as a succession of recognition of her special capabilities on the world scene:

1949 - 1950 head of UNO's section dealing with welfare policy;1950 - 1955 chairman of UNESCO's social science section;1955 appointed Swedish ambassador to India; 1962 nominated Sweden's representative to the Geneva disarmament conference; 1962 member of Sweden’s Parliament; and, 1967 member of Sweden’s Cabinet, responsible for promoting disarmament. (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1982/myrdal-bio.html)

She was the first woman to lead the Swedish delegation to the UN Disarmament Committee

from 1962 to1973, according to Irwin Abrams in his article “Heroines of Peace.” She was

considered to be a champion of reason and one of its foremost practitioners.


Alva Myrdal served her nation and the U.N. in strategic disarmament committee

positions, and authored a major book pertaining to the dangers of the use of nuclear power. Her

writings proclaimed the need for humans to engage in cooperative efforts to head off the use of

nuclear weapons to solve issues among nations.

We can hope that men will understand that the interests of all are the same, that hope lies in cooperation. We can then perhaps keep PEACE………………………….

All mankind is now learning that these nuclear weapons can only serve to destroy, never become beneficial…………………………………

Despite the fact that the experts have disclosed what is the simple truth, misconceptions arise and are proliferated: the idea that more is needed when one already has more than sufficient…………………………..

(http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/alva_myrdal.html)

There seemed to be a cloud over Myrdal’s ideas about the possibility of the achievement

of international peace at the time of the Cold War, when in one of her statements she said that

“The longing for peace is rooted in the hearts of all men. But the striving, which at present has

become so insistent, cannot lay claim to such an ambition as leading the way to eternal peace, or

solving all disputes among nations.” (http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/alva_myrdal.html)



http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1982/myrdal-bio.html


She was awarded the first Einstein Peace Prize in 1980 by the Chicago-based Albert

Einstein Peace Prize Foundation. Her acceptance speech reiterated her reason for hope for the

future of disarmament: "I have, despite all disillusionment, never, never allowed myself to feel

like giving up. This is my message today; it is not worthy of a human being to give up."

(http://everything2.com/title/Alva%2520Myrdal)


Alva Myrdal co-authored a book in 1956 about the changing role of women entitled

“Women's Two Roles.” Viola Klein, a British psychologist, worked with Alva to produce the

piece. Both women agreed that their contemporary women were living two lives. They referred

to studies comparing the short life span [to age 45] of women in 1854, with women who lived

one hundred years later [to age 75]. Their point was that the former group of women dedicated

most of their lifetime to raising six children; and that, the latter group produced three children

and were able to spend another thirty years being productive in a second career. Myrdal’s ideas

were based on her background as an educator, when she was alerted to the potential for changes

in child-rearing practices to free women from their sole preoccupation with bearing and raising

their young. (http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3435000131.html). Myrdal was a champion of

women’s liberation and equal rights, and saw warfare as a dangerous threat to human life.

War is murder. And the military preparations now being made for a potential major confrontation are aimed at collective murder. In a nuclear age the victims would be numbered by the millions. This naked truth must be faced………………………..

The age in which we live can only be characterized as one of barbarism. Our civilization is in the process not only of being militarized, but also being brutalized…………………


http://everything2.com/title/Alva%2520Myrdal



An accurate analysis of Alva Myrdal’s contributions to world peace efforts was quoted in

the obituary of the Boston Globe when she died in 1986. It quoted Jerome B. Wiesner, president

emeritus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as saying that Alva Myrdal was

....One of the great persons of our period. Though mostly known for her actions against nuclear war and her pro-human rights activities, she was very important in the social development of Sweden, a model, I would say, for everybody. A humanist and a political person, she contributed very much to the shape of modern Sweden's social programs. Her husband, Gunnar, of course, was equally committed to all these things. He also was a strong person, and they made a fantastically powerful team. - first woman to be appointed head of a department in the United Nations Secretariat

Sissela Bok, in her 1992 biography, “Alva Myrdal: A Daughter's Memoir,” wrote that her

mother was a model for women and young people when Alva was in her eighties, still actively

speaking at rallies and fighting for disarmament. She strongly encouraged women to engage in

anti-war debates, encouraging them to use their skills as peacemakers

Alva Myrdal was known over the years of her professional life for her writings, briefly listed here:

Nation and Family (1965, nonfiction)Women's Two Roles (1968, with V. Klein (nonfiction)The Game of Disarmament: How the United States and Russia Run the Arms

Race(1976, nonfiction)War, Weapons and Everyday Violence (1977, nonfiction)Dynamics of European Nuclear Disarmament (1981, nonfiction)

8. Personal price paid for peace activism

Sissela Bok, in her biography about her mother, revealed the stress that Alva Myrdal was

subjected to as a prominent Swedish politician and diplomat. Once she became active in politics,

long term separations worried Alva about family life for her, her husband, her three children, and

her siblings. Alva and Gunnar Myrdal’s son Jan wrote and had published a book in 1982 that

was a negative expose of his childhood with his parents. Alva Myrdal knew about the freezing

and brittleness of human bonds for ambassadors, ministers, and high international officials as

http://everything2.com/title/humanist

http://everything2.com/title/human%2520rights

http://everything2.com/title/nuclear%2520war

http://everything2.com/title/Massachusetts%2520Institute%2520of%2520Technology

http://everything2.com/title/emeritus

http://everything2.com/title/president

http://everything2.com/title/Jerome%2520B.%2520Wiesner


they traveled from one continent to another, always concerned about the current and next crisis

that they would have to handle. Consequently, according to her daughter Sissela, Alva sought to

reverse this trend in her own life by keeping close, responsive relationships with her family. She

always was troubled about her effectiveness to accomplish that goal. Alva Myrdal’s own

writings record the dynamic of the arms race between the major Cold War powers during the

1970s and 1980s, and its impact on her ability to balance work and family life.

Another area of concern to Alva Myrdal was the idyllic picture that was created about her

and her husband’s marriage, professional cooperation, and life in retirement. She was wary of

too much public attention being paid to her, and not enough to her husband. It should be noted

that this was the woman who spent the first part of her forty years putting her husband’s career

before her own, rejecting offers of high positions, and eventually becoming his full equal as a

husband and wife Nobel Prize winning couple.



95

AUNG SAN SUU KYI



103

POLITICAL TESTAMENT:FREEDOM FROM FEAR

• "It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it."

• Fearlessness is the best response to governmental violence.

• "truth, justice and compassion... are often the only bulwarks against ruthless power.“

• These are the teachings of Buddha. • http://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Fear-Other-Writings-

Revised/dp/0140253173


Aung San Suu Kyi, born in June 1945, is a national of Myanmar, formerly known as

Burma. Her life history is one of intermittent travel abroad, return to her homeland, and nineteen

years of living under house arrest in Myanmar. She is one of three children born to her parents:


Khin Kyi [her mother] and Aung San [her father]. Her mother played a major part in her

upbringing, since her father was killed by political rivals when she was two years of age. She

endured family grief in her early years, when at the age of eight she lost one of her brothers in a

drowning accident.

Much of her early education took place in English Catholic schools in Burma, India, and

the United Kingdom while she traveled with her diplomat mother. She graduated in 1964 from

Lady Shri Ram College (http://asianhistory.about.com/od/profilesofasianleaders/p/ProfAungSanSuu.htm),

and continued her higher education in England, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree

from Oxford University in 1969, and her Ph.D. in Oriental and African Studies at the University

of London in 1985. (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14865943)

Aung San Suu Kyi married in 1972, and she and her scholar husband, Dr. Michael Aris,

lived in Bhutan and England, where she bore two sons. (http://www.who2.com/aungsansuukyi.html).


Several variables inspired Aung San Suu Kyi to engage in peace activism: her father’s

example, Mohandas Gandhi’s ideas and actions, and her Buddhist religion. General Aung San,

her father, led the struggle for Burma’s liberation from the United Kingdom; he is viewed as the

father of modern-day Burma; and, it was he who negotiated the nation’s independent status from

Great Britain. The impact of her deceased father’s accomplishments led Aung San Suu Kyi to

believe that it was her duty to provide leadership for the people of Burma.

Khin Kyi, while raising her children, was active in the politics of post-independent

Burma; and in 1960, when her daughter was 15 years of age, she was appointed as ambassador to

India. The non-violent ideas and practices of Mohandas Gandhi were central to Aung San Suu

Kyi’s readings, and complemented the model set for her by her father.

http://www.who2.com/aungsansuukyi.html

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14865943

http://asianhistory.about.com/od/profilesofasianleaders/p/ProfAungSanSuu.htm


Aung San Suu Kyi’s belief system is steeped in the teachings of Theravada Buddhism,

which is practiced predominantly in South East Asia [e.g. Sri Lanka, Burma, and Thailand], is

similar to Gandhi’s ideas about non-violence, and is characterized as conservative and closest to

early Buddhism.

She has supported non-violent resistance throughout her long battle as an activist on

behalf of establishing democracy for her countrymen, as leader of the National League for

Democracy, and a prisoner of conscience in her homeland, David Rubien, in his 2001 article

about Aung San Suu Kyi, described her strength of will to accomplish her mission.

Buddhism aside, Suu Kyi's commitment to Burma's freedom is bedrock, and this also anchors her. At every opportunity presented she reiterates the demand that SLORC must yield to the election results of 1990 and make the country democratic. Her steadfastness has led to some almost comical situations. In 1998, during one of the rare periods SLORC released her from house arrest -- but still prohibited her from traveling outside the capital -- she attempted to leave town to meet with another NLD official. When soldiers blocked her way she refused to turn back and ended up camping out in her car for six days before she was forcibly returned home. She tried it again, she was taken home again and right away she vowed to make another attempt, asserting that she was not "legally restricted in any way." Finally SLORC reimposed house arrest. (http://archive.salon.com/people/bc/2001/02/27/suu_kyi/index1.html)


Burma never left Aung San Suu Kyi’s thoughts and spiritual commitment. She

continually believed that any time the people of Burma needed her, she would return to assist

them. This idea especially took precedence when Burma’s government, in 1962, was seized by

its non-democratically organized military. The event that eventually prompted Aung San Suu

Kyi to leave her “stay at home” role in Great Britain was the "8888 Uprising" in Burma on

August 8, 1988. (http://asianhistory.about.com/od/profilesofasianleaders/p/ProfAungSanSuu.htm)

The military government’s mishandling of economic affairs, coupled with a slight relaxation of controls on the population, led to wide-spread protests. The military responded by firing into the crowds and imposing martial law; an estimated 3,000 protestors, mainly students and monks, were killed.


http://archive.salon.com/people/bc/2001/02/27/suu_kyi/index1.html


Coincidental with the turmoil in Burma, her mother’s terminal health condition spurred Aung

San Suu Kyi to leave England, return to Burma [Myanmar], and provide nursing care for her.

Irwin Abrams, in “Heroines for Peace,” described the Nobel Laureate’s character traits.

She unites deep commitment and tenacity with a vision in which the end and the means form a single unit. Its most important elements are: democracy, respect for human rights, reconciliation between groups, non-violence, and personal and collective discipline. (http://nobelprize.org/peace/articles/heroines/index.html)


Aung San Suu Kyi’s political involvement in Myanmar’s government was launched in

1988, when she sought to bring democracy to her country, with the founding of the National

League for Democracy. Irwin Abrams wrote that “In the good fight for peace and reconciliation,

we are dependent on persons who set examples, persons who can symbolize what we are seeking

and mobilize the best in us.” (http://nobelprize.org/peace/articles/heroines/index.html)

Aung San Suu Kyi later was her party’s successful candidate for office against the State

Law and Order Restoration Council [SLORC] in the 1990 elections allowed by the military

dictatorship, simultaneous to the name change of Burma to Myanmar. Several of the NLD’s

leaders were jailed at this same time. (http://archive.salon.com/people/bc/2001/02/27/suu_kyi/index.html

An NPR online article by Corey Flintoff, “Aung San Suu Kyi Remains Influential in

Myanmar” provides background information about how she came to be put under house arrest by

her government, and the fact that she is not the “prime-minister-elect” but still exerts an impact

on her co-nationals.

....The confusion arises from an election in 1990, which her party, the National League for Democracy, won decisively, despite vote fraud and intimidation by the military. Suu Kyi, though, was unable to run in that election because she was under house arrest — and she was constitutionally barred from serving as head of state because she was married to a foreigner. In any case, the military rulers nullified the results they didn't like and kept themselves in control. (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14865943)

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14865943

http://archive.salon.com/people/bc/2001/02/27/suu_kyi/index.html




She is accepted as “the intellectual leader of the democracy movement,” and believes that her co-

nationals need to practice their citizenship obligations in order to build a democratic society. A

photo on the Voice of America News website, taken in Yangon, demonstrates the loyalty of

NLD’s members to Aung San Suu Kyi at the twentieth founding anniversary of the political

organization (http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-10-26-voa6.cfm)


Aung San Suu Kyi’s faith in Buddhism provides a structure for her belief in human rights

for all, and fuels her strong opposition to the Myanmar military dictatorship. World attention

was directed to her in 1991, when she learned via radio that she had been awarded the Nobel

Peace Prize. She was prevented by her captors from curtailing house arrest to accept it. Her

sons Alexander and Kim substituted for their mother at the award ceremony. World wide

acknowledgement of Aung San Suu Kyi’s battle against tyranny has provided her with protection

from the Burmese junta. (http://archive.salon.com/people/bc/2001/02/27/suu_kyi/index.html). She

expressed her hopefulness in 2002 that “a new dawn for the country” would emerge between the

NLD and the military junta when the latter group responded to the United Nations’ intervention

on her behalf. (http://asianhistory.about.com/od/profilesofasianleaders/p/ProfAungSanSuu.htm).

However, this was not the case, since Aung San Suu Kyi still is under house arrest in Myanmar.


http://archive.salon.com/people/bc/2001/02/27/suu_kyi/index.html

http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-10-26-voa6.cfm


She is permitted to communicate with leaders and organizations outside of her country, as

is evidenced by this portion of a letter of solidarity sent to her during a period of Burmese

protests by Dr. Nguyen Dan Que, Chair, Non-Violent Movement for Human-Rights (Cao Trao

Nhan Ban), Saigon, Vietnam.(http://www.asiaamerica.org/programs/LetterFromDanQueToSuuKyi.html)

We wish Buddha's blessing for the Burmese people at this critical historic moment. We hope that a miraculous enlightenment of the military junta will lead to a bright future for Burma through dialogue and reconciliation with pro-democracy movements, including your National League For Democracy.

Recent information from the NLD membership, reported on the Voice of America News

website, indicated that security around Aung San Suu Kyi’s home and compound has been

relaxed by the military dictatorship: “barricades and checkpoints preventing people from going

near her house have been removed” in the thirteenth year of her house arrest in Rangoon.

(http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-10-26-voa6.cfm). The government has been urged by leaders,

in attendance at the October Asia-European meeting in Beijing, to “lift restrictions on political

parties and release political prisoners.” These actions serve to fortify hope for Aung San Suu

Kyi and her human rights mission for her nation.


Aung San Suu Kyi was not permitted to attend and deliver the key note address at the

1995 NGO Forum on Women in Beijing, China. Her message was delivered by video to the

conference participants; and, a major portion of the addressed focused on the reasons for her

absence, and her perspectives about women’s rights and feminist ideas.

……………….Last month I was released from almost six years of house arrest. The regaining of my freedom has in turn imposed a duty on me to work for the freedom of other women and men in my country who have suffered far more - and who continue to suffer far more - than I have. It is this duty which prevents me from joining you today. Even sending this message to you has not been without difficulties. But the help of those who believe in international cooperation and freedom of expression has enabled me to overcome the obstacles. They made it possible for me to make a small contribution to this

http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-10-26-voa6.cfm

http://www.asiaamerica.org/programs/LetterFromDanQueToSuuKyi.html


great celebration of the struggle of women to mould their own destiny and to influence the fate of our global village……………………..………..For millennia women have dedicated themselves almost exclusively to the task of nurturing, protecting and caring for the young and the old, striving for the conditions of peace that favour life as a whole……no war was ever started by women. But it is women and children who have always suffered most in situations of conflict. (http://www.uscampaignforburma.org/assk/beijingaddress1.html)

She expressed her trust in women that they will be able to set the example “for a more caring,

tolerant, just and peaceful life for all.”

Yet the very high performance of women in our educational system and in the management of commercial enterprises proves their enormous potential to contribute to the betterment of society in general.

Aung San Suu Kyi noted that even though the women in her country were capable of much

achievement, they lacked “those fundamental rights of free expression, association and security

of life denied also to their menfolk.” Further, she spoke on behalf of the future gender

cooperation in Burma that could bring forth a democratic society and body politic.

The adversities that we have had to face together have taught all of us involved in the struggle to build a truly democratic political system in Burma that there are no gender barriers that cannot be overcome. The relationship between men and women should, and can be, characterized not by patronizing behavior or exploitation, but by metta (that is to say loving kindness), partnership and trust. We need mutual respect and understanding between men and women, instead of patriarchal domination and degradation, which are expressions of violence and engender counter-violence. We can learn from each other and help one another to moderate the ‘gender weaknesses’ imposed on us by traditional or biological factors. (http://www.uscampaignforburma.org/assk/beijingaddress1.html)


Aung San Suu Kyi’s political involvement in her homeland put her in a position to

marshal the efforts of her countrymen to bring democratization to Burma. She addressed a

gathering of about half a million Burmese on August 26, 1988 in Rangoon, and again on April 5.

1989. Army troops aimed their guns at her during the latter event, but she fearlessly continued

speaking when the soldiers did not receive an order to fire on her. She was placed under house

http://www.uscampaignforburma.org/assk/beijingaddress1.html

http://www.uscampaignforburma.org/assk/beijingaddress1.html


arrest by the government during July, 1989 for her first detention term of six years.

(http://asianhistory.about.com/od/profilesofasianleaders/p/ProfAungSanSuu.htm)


The major price that Aung San Suu Kyi has paid for her peace activism in Myanmar has

been the loss of her personal freedom from 1989 to the present day. Her health has suffered over

the years of her confinement and limited availability of food has damaged her body, as evidenced

by her extreme weight loss, degeneration of her vision and spine, and undergoing operations.

She has been separated from her children in the United Kingdom, according to the government’s

policy that if she left Myanmar to visit her family outside of her country, she would not be

allowed to return to her homeland. Her husband died of prostate cancer in 1999 without seeing

his wife before his demise, because she refused to place herself in exile from her country and end

her mission for its democratization.

Her women colleagues, winners of the Nobel Peace Prize, have not given up hope for her

release in their efforts on her behalf. Jody Williams Long wrote a lengthy commentary in the

Wall Street Journal in September, 2003 after visiting with Aung San Suu Kyi, in which she

wrote:

….for nearly two decades, Ms. Suu Kyi and other activists have repeatedly called for international support to bring the military to the negotiating table and begin the transfer of power that should have taken place after the NLD's 1990 electoral victory. Tragically, Ms. Suu Kyi-- known to millions simply as "The Lady"--has spent 12 of the past 18 years as a political prisoner. Her most recent house arrest began in May 2003 after her convoy was attacked while she was traveling around Burma speaking at large public rallies. (http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110010653)

The story of Aung San Suu Kyi’s resistance to the military junta in Myanmar is not yet finished.

http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110010653

http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110010653





104

RIGOBERTA MENCHU TUM



114

QUOTES FROM TUMhttp://www.irwinabrams.com/books/excerpts/annual92.html

• "I started thinking about my childhood," she has said, "and I came to the conclusion that I hadn't had a childhood at all. I was never a child. I hadn't been to school. I hadn't had enough food to grow properly. I had nothing. I asked myself: 'How is this possible?'“

• "perhaps people understood my message through the anguish and despair that I was suffering.“

• Revolution means "transformation," she said, "If I had chosen the armed struggle, I would be in the mountains now."


Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Rigoberta Menchu Tum was born in Chimel on the Pacific

coast of Guatemala in January 1959 to a family belonging to one of the twenty-three groups

called the “Quiche,” a branch of the Mayan culture living in the mountains of Guatemala. Her

people followed principles of community responsibility for all of the children, and intense

feelings about the land and the natural world. Her parents were well respected in the peasant

community. Her father, Vincente Menchu, occupied a leadership position among the people, and

her mother, Juana Tum, was a valuable midwife and healer in the community. Two of the

children born to Vincente and Juana died as infants, victims of malnutrition. Rigoberta worked

with her family in the sugar cane, coffee fields in the highlands, and cotton plantations by the

time she reached eight years of age. (http://www.irwinabrams.com/books/excerpts/annual92.html).

She never had formal schooling, and it was not until the age of twenty that she learned to speak

Spanish. (http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/1992/tum-bio.html). Her autobiography, “I, Rigoberta

Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala,” starts with the disclaimer that her life was similar to

that of the people in her community, and that what she experienced was not different from that of

the other poverty stricken peasants in her country.


http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/1992/tum-bio.html

http://www.irwinabrams.com/books/excerpts/annual92.html


Both of Rigoberta Menchu Tum’s parents were inspirations to her. Juana Tum exerted a

strong influence on her daughter through her Catholicism; and, Rigoberta became a catechist in

the community church by the time she was twelve. Vincente Menchu served as a model for his

daughter, and stood as an example of a Guatemalan who resisted the tyranny of the government

as a leader of the Committee for Compasino Unity [CUC]. He rejected encroachments by the

mestizo landowners on the peasants’ plots. His actions, considered to be rebellious, led to his

arrest, serving jail time, being tortured, and in 1980, being burned to death. Thereafter,

Rigoberta’s mother and brother also were tortured and murdered by Guatemalan army personnel.

(http://www.irwinabrams.com/books/excerpts/annual92.html). The 1970s and 1980s in Guatemala

were marked by large-scale repressions of the Indian peoples. These events were milestones in

her life, thinking, and dedication to activism against the military. She was a participant in

community organizations, and by the time Rigoberta was fifteen years of age she had joined the

CUC. Her family’s death was a decisive event in her life, and impelled her thereafter to travel to

Mexico to speak with the Catholic clerics gathered at the Conference of Bishops of the

Americas, and to plead for their assistance with her goal to save her co-nationals from military

oppression. The Nobel Committee, in presenting the Peace Prize to Rigoberta Menchu Tum,

commented that “She has been in so many difficult situations. It is our conclusions that her long-

term goal is peace.” (http://www.irwinabrams.com/books/excerpts/annual92.html)


Rigoberta Menchu Tum returned to Guatemala in 1981 after her trip to Mexico, where

she garnered multiple offers of asylum from the various Bishops. This was a turning point in her

life. She resumed her political work with the CUC, and was forced to go into hiding in order to

save herself from the pursuing military. In addition, she joined the Vicente Menchú




Revolutionary Christians to further her goals of securing democracy and social justice for

Guatemalans. Her two sisters, in contrast, joined guerrilla forces in the mountains to participate

in the armed struggle with the military. She explained her actions with the following words:

As a Christian….my work is just like being a catechist, except I'm the one who walks on the Earth, not one who thinks that the Kingdom of God only comes after death. The work of revolutionary Christians is above all to condemn and denounce the injustices committed against the people. (http://www.irwinabrams.com/books/excerpts/annual92.html).

Irwin Abrams commented that “Over the years, Rigoberta Menchú Tum has become

widely known as a leading advocate of Indian rights and ethno-cultural reconciliation, not only

in Guatemala but in the Western Hemisphere generally, and her work has earned her several

international awards.”( http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1992/tum-bio.html)


Rigoberta Menchu Tum showed that she had (1) leadership qualities as a young capable

catechist, (2) skills as a hardworking member of organizations on behalf of compasino unity in

the CUC and the Vincente Menchu Revolutionary Christitans, and (3) enthusiasm and energy as

a demonstrator. She has justified her affiliation with Christian organizations. “The work of

revolutionary Christians is above all to condemn and denounce the injustices committed against

the people.” (http://www.irwinabrams.com/books/excerpts/annual92.html). The period in Guatemala

after her return from Mexico was significant for Rigoberta.

That marked the beginning of a new phase in her life: as the organizer abroad ofresistance to oppression in Guatemala and the struggle for Indian peasant peoples'rights. In 1982, she took part in the founding of the joint opposition body, The United Representation of the Guatemalan Opposition (RUOG).(http://www.famsf.org/dynamic/downloads/download_file_144.pdf)

She recognized the value of the Nobel Peace Prize as a banner “under which I shall

continue to denounce the violation of human rights committed against the people in Guatemala,

in America and in the world, and to take a positive role in the most pressing task in my country,

http://www.famsf.org/dynamic/downloads/download_file_144.pdf


http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1992/tum-bio.html



to achieve peace and social justice." (http://www.irwinabrams.com/books/excerpts/annual92.html). An

outcome of receiving the Nobel Peace Prize has been to encourage Rigoberta Menchu Tum to

become a significant defender of Guatemalan and indigenous peoples’ human rights on the

international scene, dedicating herself to organizing resistance to their oppression.

Rigoberta Menchu Tum was the first Indigenous and the youngest person [age 33] to win

the Nobel Peace Prize and the financial award that it carried for the Laureate. She applied her

money to the establishment of the Rigoberta Menchú Tum Foundation for the following

purposes:

In view of the urgent need for change in our society, the ,,,Foundation looks to contribute in the following ways: prevention of conflicts; mediation for the negotiated solution of conflicts; preservation of peace; support for economic development, social justice, diversity and plurality as a base for peace; support of Indigenous communities affected by conflict; and defense of the rights of women, children, and youth in health care, education, and economic progress. (http://www.famsf.org/dynamic/downloads/download_file_144.pdf)

“It [the Nobel Peace Prize] is also a symbolic recognition of the victims of repression, racism

and poverty as well as an homage to Indigenous Women,” according to the Foundation’s

website. (http://web.archive.org/web/20010219112037/www.rigobertamenchu.org/rmtfenge.htm)

The Foundation sponsors and carries out multiple projects in Guatemala, such as: (1)

Education, health care, and human rights, with an emphasis on citizens’ civil rights; (2) Housing

and urban planning, as well as agricultural production for community development; and, (3)

Strengthen the unity between different groups of Indigenous Peoples, to promote their mutual

cooperation and reflection on their rights and values.

5.Reasons for hope during the laureates’ struggle for their causes

http://web.archive.org/web/20010219112037/www.rigobertamenchu.org/rmtfenge.htm




Rigoberta Menchu Tum was subjected to much turmoil in her life, but she commented

that "What I treasure most in life is being able to dream. During my most difficult moments and

complex situations I have been able to dream of a more beautiful future."

(http://web.archive.org/web/20010219112141/www.rigobertamenchu.org/bionge.htm)

Her Nobel Peace Prize Lecture was a remarkable record of the shoddy way that the Indian

peoples of the Americas historically have been treated, as well as an expression of her hope for

the future. Excerpts from the Lecture are important examples of Rigoberta Menchu Tum’s

concept of hope. (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1992/tum-lecture.html)

I would describe the meaning of this Nobel Peace prize, in the first place as a tribute to the Indian people who have been sacrificed and have disappeared because they aimed at a more dignified and just life with fraternity and understanding among human beings. To those who are no longer alive to keep up the hope for a change in the situation in respect of poverty and marginalization of the Indians, of those who have been banished, of the helpless in Guatemala as well as in the entire American Continent.

This growing concern is comforting, even though it comes 500 years later, to the suffering, the discrimination, the oppression and the exploitation that our peoples have been exposed to, but who, thanks to their own cosmovision - and concept of life, has managed to withstand and finally see some promising prospects. How those roots, that were to be eradicated, now begin to grow with strength, hope and visions of the future!

It also represents a sign of the growing international interest for, and understanding of the original Rights of the People, of the future of more than 60 million Indians that live in our Americas, and their outcry because of the 500 years of oppression that they have endured. For the genocide beyond comparison that they have had to suffer throughout this epoch, and from which other countries and the elite of the Americas have profited and taken advantage.

Let there be freedom for the Indians, wherever they may be in the American Continent or elsewhere in the world, because while they are alive, a glow of hope will be alive as well as a true concept of life.

The expressions of great happiness by the Indian Organizations in the entire Continent and the worldwide congratulations received for the award of the Nobel Peace Prize, clearly indicate the great importance of this decision. It is the recognition of the European debt to the American indigenous people; it is an appeal to the conscience of Humanity so that those conditions of marginalization that condemned them to colonialism and exploitation may be eradicated; it is a cry for life, peace, justice, equality and fraternity between human beings.


http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1992/tum-lecture.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20010219112141/www.rigobertamenchu.org/bionge.htm


Information provided by the Rigoberta Menchu Tum Foundation indicated that she was

introduced to formal concern for women’s rights by her involvement with the Catholic Church’s

social reform activities in her country. She became a major proponent of women’s rights in her

teen years, even though there was opposition to this trend by influential people in the

community. (http://www.famsf.org/dynamic/downloads/download_file_144.pdf) She continuously has

campaigned for the rights of women and indigenous people worldwide. Both of these

populations have undergone thirty-six years of civil war in Guatemala that has produced

suffering caused by poverty, racism, and military torture and massacres. She was honored by the

Feminist Majority Foundation in 2006 with a Global Women’s Rights Award.

(http://feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswirestory.asp?id=10513) Six of the seven living women Nobel

Peace Prize Laureates, in 2004, joined to form the Nobel Women’s Initiative [NWI], except for

Aung San Suu Kyi, who still is under house arrest in Myanmar. “A primary goal of the Initiative

is to get international leaders to listen to—and learn from—women.”

(http://www.glamour.com/women-of-the-year/2008/nobel-womens-initiative). The Laureates have been

successful in lobbying for an international treaty banning cluster bombs. They met with activists

and officials, clinic workers and refugees to investigate the status of women on the Thailand-

Burma and the South Sudan Darfur-Chad borders. Their concluding report recommended that

the U.N back the International Criminal Court’s indictment of Sudan’s president for genocide.

Rigoberta’s comment was that “On a global scale…women can help create a culture of dialogue

and negotiation.”…. “Women are the guarantee of harmony.” (http://www.glamour.com/women-of-

the-year/2008/nobel-womens-initiative)





http://feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswirestory.asp?id=10513



Rigoberta Menchu Tum’s contributions to world peace efforts are connected to her

concern for the rights of women and indigenous peoples. She has traveled to a multitude of

nations to give speeches that would win people away from armed aggression, and to favor

peaceful negotiations. She has met with various heads of state and the Pope. She has received

several international awards for her campaigns, including being invited to act as UNESCO’s

good will ambassador. She brought other Nobel Peace Laureates to Guatemala in 1996 to meet

with approximately 5,000 students, in celebration of the Guatemalan peace process.

From Left: Nobel Peace Prize 1987 and Costa Rica's President Oscar Arias, Nobel Peace Prize 1997 Jody Williams, Nobel Peace Prize 1992 Rigoberta Menchu Tum and Nobel Peace Prize 1976 Betty Williams, pose for photos

during an event in Guatemala City, Guatemala, on Friday, Nov. 17, 2006www.daylife.com/photo/08KigwW8OQ7XT


Rigoberta Menchu Tum and her family paid a heavy personal price for their peace

activism. Her parents and brother were brutally tortured and murdered when she was a young

woman. She was left to negotiate her path in life alone, solely with the memory of her parents’

community and social justice values. She was separated from her two sisters, who worked with

anti-government guerrillas in the mountains of Guatemala, instead of working with Rigoberta

through Christian and compasino organizations. She was exiled from her homeland, and was

threatened with death upon her brief returns to Guatemala. She was arrested by the military and

was set free only because of her international reputation as a peace activist.

http://www.daylife.com/photo/08KigwW8OQ7XT


Rigoberta Menchu Tum’s acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize included a

message of hope, alongside a reminder of the price that was paid by indigenous peoples through

the period of European domination. (http://gos.sbc.edu/m/menchunobel.html)

We the Indians are willing to combine tradition with modernism, but not at all costs. We will not tolerate nor permit that our future be planned as possible guardians of ethno-touristic projects at continental level.

At a time when the commemoration of the Fifth Centenary of the arrival of Columbus in America has repercussions all over the world, the revival of hopes for the Indian people claims that we reassert to the world our existence and the value of our cultural identity. It demands that we endeavor to actively participate in the decisions that concern our destiny, in the building-up of our countries/nations. Should we, in spite of all, not be taken into consideration, there are factors that guarantee our future: struggle and endurance; courage; the decision to maintain our traditions that have been exposed to so many perils and sufferings; solidarity towards our struggle on the part of numerous countries, governments, organizations and citizens of the world.

That is why I dream of the day when the relationship between the indigenous people and other people is strengthened; when they can join their potentialities and their capabilities and contribute to make life on this planet less unequal.



119

JODY WILLIAMS-LONG



134

Jody Williams and the International Campaign to Ban Landmines 1997

http://www.nobelpeacelaureates.org/pdf/JodiWilliamsandICBL.pdf

• “The rest of the world did not go away because New York was attacked. There are many,many problems in the world we need to address, not just that one.”

• “Emotion without action is irrelevant.”• When Bill Clinton refused to sign the Mine

Ban Treaty in 1997, Williams called him a “weenie”


Jody Williams was the tenth woman to receive a Nobel Peace Prize, and the third woman

from the United States to be granted the award. She was born the second child of five children in

Putney, Vermont in October, 1951. She was considered a quiet student in high school, and her

http://gos.sbc.edu/m/menchunobel.html


family still sees her as having “a very private personal side.” Her educational background

included changing her college major five times until she earned a BA in 1972 from the

University of Vermont, and later two Master’s Degrees. One MA is from the School for

International Training in Vermont, for the Teaching of Spanish and ESL; the other MA was

earned at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in 1984 for International

Relations. (http://timesargus.com/article/20071014/NEWS01/71011011/-1/REALVERMONTER)


Three items have sparked Jody Williams Long’s peace activism. She has acknowledged

that her early years of defending her deaf and schizophrenic older brother nourished her peace

activist streak. She has hated any form of injustice since that time, when she saw children at her

school cruelly harassing him. “Growing up, I ended up defending him and I often think that is

what started me on my path to whatever it is I am

today.”(http://globalcalltoaction.org/nobel-laureates/laureates/jody-williams.htm)

Secondly, Jody protested against American involvement in the Vietnam conflict, and the

war that was being conducted there. She dedicated her energies to the cause of peace concurrent

with her anti-war protests. Years later, she randomly was given a brochure about the dangers of

landmines, made contact with veterans’ groups opposed to landmines, and started to think about

her possible role in global activism. (http://www.myhero.com/myhero/hero.asp?hero=JodyWilliams) It was

veterans who had a major influence on her thinking and activism

She was soon exposed to activists in the veterans’ community who were trying to do more than simply refit landmine victims with prosthetic limbs. Acting upon the old homily, ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,’ these veterans were trying to convince the world's leaders that removing landmines before they harm innocent people was the most effective solution to this deadly problem. (http://www.myhero.com/myhero/hero.asp?hero=JodyWilliams)

http://www.myhero.com/myhero/hero.asp?hero=JodyWilliams

http://www.myhero.com/myhero/hero.asp?hero=JodyWilliams

http://globalcalltoaction.org/nobel-laureates/laureates/jody-williams.htm

http://timesargus.com/article/20071014/NEWS01/71011011/-1/REALVERMONTER


The post Nobel award years have witnessed Jody Williams Long’s extension of her peace

activism about landmines to defense of human rights. She was able to meet with Aung San Suu

Kyi in 2003, prior to the Burmese Nobel Peace Laureate’s latest period of house arrest. Jody

Williams Long asked Aung San Suu Kyi what the international community could do to help

her and the Burmese people. The reply was not to aid the military junta economically, nor to

encourage tourists to visit the country until the establishment of democracy. She made a

personal plea to her visitor, “Please use your liberty to promote ours.” Thereafter, Jody Williams

Long started to work on a new cause by serving on a U.N. team to investigate human rights

violations in the Darfur-Sudan situation. (http://timesargus.com/article/20071014/NEWS01/71011011/-

1/REALVERMONTER)


Jody Williams Long’s first exposure to extreme poverty occurred as a result of her

experience living and teaching in Mexico. Her interest in the landmines issue came about

incidentally, but she made it her commitment to raise public awareness for their elimination.

This was based on her concern for the people who were wounded, maimed, and killed by these

weapons. The extent and number of landmines in many locations is very troubling: “60-100

million mines still lie below the ground in 60 countries.” (news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/38427.stm)

A report that she wrote in September, 2002 for the International Criminal Court

MONITOR addressed the connection between anti-personnel landmines and the conditions that

have resulted in their use. The problems that she included in the report revealed her concern for

diverse populations and the environment: Biological/Chemical Warfare and Attacks on the

Environment and Public Health; Children and Child Soldiers; Economic and Social

Development; Persecution of religious groups; Gender and Women; Hunger and Food Aid;

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/38427.stm




Ethnic, Religious, and Political Minorities; Small Arms; Torture, Victims, and Survivors’ Rights;

and, Genocide. (http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/International_War_Crimes/Relevance_ICC_JWilliams.html)

In her own words, Jody Williams Long has said that

Landmines distinguish themselves because once they have been sown, once the soldier walks away from the weapon, the landmine cannot tell the difference between a soldier or a civilian, a woman, a child, a grandmother going out to collect firewood to make the family meal………The landmine is eternally prepared to take victims. (news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/38427.stm)

Former Nobel Peace Prize winner Jody Williams pauses in front of a poster during Oslo Landmine Week, which started in Oslo, Monday, Sept. 17, 2007,

on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of key negotiations for the Mine Ban Treaty.http://timesargus.com/article/20071014/NEWS01/71011011/-1/REALVERMONTER


Jody Williams Long was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997, in conjunction with the

International Campaign to Ban Landmines [ICBL], for work to eliminate antipersonnel

landmines. The Nobel Committee noted in its award of the Peace Prize that the International

Campaign “started a process which in the space of a few years changed a ban on antipersonnel

mines from a vision to a feasible reality.”

The ICBL was launched in 1992 with the involvement of six non-governmental

organizations [NGOs]. In the words of Jody Williams Long, the diversity of the NGOs was

critical to the formation of the ICBL, as was their unity of purpose.



http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/International_War_Crimes/Relevance_ICC_JWilliams.html


It was the NGO community that gained a broad and early understanding of the degree and complexity of landmine contamination. Ultimately, it was their all-too-real experience in various aspects of the landmine problem that compelled these NGOs to come together in an organized effort to achieve a global ban on antipersonnel landmines. (http://www.icbl.org/campaign/ambassadors/jody_williams/coward_s_war)

Her early experiences with projects in Central America between 1984 and 1992 provided her

with the skills to coordinate and direct policy when she became involved with the ICBL. Her

belief that “Emotion without action is irrelevant,” served as a guideline for her activities.

The actual process of influencing a ban on landmines started in October, 1996, when 122

nations agreed to sign a treaty to end production of landmines. Treaty signatories were to

destroy their landmine stockpiles by the year 2000 and clear deployed landmines by the year

2006. Three nations refused agreement to this treaty: the United States, Russia, and China. (news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/38427.stm)(http://nobelprizes.com/nobel/peace/1997b.html)

Her post-Nobel Peace Prize years have been filled with activity on behalf of

investigations about violations of human rights issues, in areas such as Darfur and Burma.


Jody Williams Long’s international push to have landmines banned took a great deal of

her energy and commitment, as well as an inner sense of hope that a multitude of nations would

comply with the ICBL’s long term goal.

We believed what we were doing was right and no matter what the outcome we would build the movement, build public awareness so that citizens everywhere (civil society) would tell their governments to get rid of the weapon (http://www.icbl.org/campaign/ambassadors/jody_williams/coward_s_war)

She was challenged in her work by the attitude of world governments that her ideas were “nice,”

but utopian; that she was seeking a dream that never would come true.”

http://www.icbl.org/cgibin/faq/landmines/index.cgi?subject=996244752#0996244892

http://www.icbl.org/cgibin/faq/landmines/index.cgi?subject=996244752#0996244892

http://www.icbl.org/campaign/ambassadors/jody_williams/coward_s_war

http://nobelprizes.com/nobel/peace/1997b.html


http://www.icbl.org/campaign/ambassadors/jody_williams/coward_s_war


The ICBL stands as an example of cooperation between civil society and governments,

small and medium-sized powers, and efficient focusing on humanitarian concerns to improve

cooperation in the international community.

(http://www.icbl.org/campaign/ambassadors/jody_williams/politics_unusual_a_different_model_of_international_cooperation)

Jody Williams Long incorporated recognition of the Ottawa Treaty to ban landmines in her

Nobel Peace Prize Lecture.

It is amazing. It is historic. It proves that civil society and governments do not have to see themselves as adversaries……………..It demonstrates that small and middle powers can work together with civil society and address humanitarian concerns with breathtaking speed…..….for together we have given the world the possibility of one day living on a truly mine-free planet.(http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1997/williams-lecture.html)

She specifically discussed the concept of hope at the 4th Summit of Nobel Peace

Laureates in Rome, Italy in November, 2003. A portion of her comments related the work of the

ICBL to her feelings of hope for international peace and cooperation.

In today’s world I believe we are in a delicate balance between terror and hope… His Holiness the Dalai Lama talked this morning about his belief that despite the terrible state in which we find the world today, he senses a palpable feeling in people of a hope and possibility for change. I, too, choose to believe in that hope. I believe that our work in the landmine campaign is part of that hope. (http://www.icbl.org/campaign/ambassadors/jody_williams/comments_to_the_4th_summit_of_nobel_peace_laureates)


One of the purposes of the formation of the ICBL was to prevent innocent people [i.e.

women, children] from becoming unwitting victims of the landmines planted by enemy forces

during conflict and/or wartime. Jody Williams Long continued her work to end the damage

inflicted on people by the landmines and to defend human rights by joining as a member of the

“Women Defending Peace” Global Coalition, which was organized in 2004 by Suzanne

Mubarak. Two significant purposes of the organization demonstrate Jody’s commitment to

http://www.icbl.org/campaign/ambassadors/jody_williams/comments_to_the_4th_summit_of_nobel_peace_laureates

http://www.icbl.org/campaign/ambassadors/jody_williams/comments_to_the_4th_summit_of_nobel_peace_laureates


http://www.icbl.org/campaign/ambassadors/jody_williams/politics_unusual_a_different_model_of_international_cooperation


protecting and expanding women’s rights on a world wide basis.

(http://www.womenforpeaceinternational.org/en/index.aspx)

1, Involve women in all steps of the peace process from prevention to negotiations, peacekeeping and post-conflict peace building and reconciliation, including at decision making levels;

2. Protect women and children, especially girls, in time of war, occupation and conflict from all forms of violence and exploitation


The International Ban on Landmines website describes Jody Williams-Long as having

multiple traits which have enabled her to contribute to efforts for world peace. “International

organizer and activist, teacher and writer….an eloquent speaker on human rights and

international law, the role of civil society in international diplomacy, and individual initiative in

bringing about social change.” (http://www.icbl.org/campaign/ambassadors/jody_williams/bio)

The early years of Jody Williams Long’s activism was focused on Central America. Her

experiences in Mexico, as a teacher of English as a Second Language [ESL] strengthened her

interest and involvement in Spanish speaking countries. She spent eleven years of her life

laboring to make the American public knowledgeable about the nation’s policies toward that part

of the Western Hemisphere. She served as coordinator of the Nicaragua-Honduras Education

Project between 1984 and 1986, at which time she was in charge of fact finding delegations in

those two countries. Jody continued her commitment to Central American affairs from 1986 to

1992, when she served as deputy director of the humanitarian relief project called Medical Aid

for El Salvador

Jody Williams-Long’s activities since being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize have

immersed her in a variety of accomplishments. She has represented the ICBL since 1998 as its

Campaign Ambassador, traveling world wide on the organization’s behalf and speaking for its

http://www.icbl.org/campaign/ambassadors/jody_williams/bio

http://www.womenforpeaceinternational.org/en/index.aspx


cause. The United Nations High-Level Mission of the Human Rights Council asked her to be in

charge of an investigation and report on Darfur’s human rights situation. She cooperates with

other Nobel Peace Prize Laureates to develop the objectives of Peacejam,

..an international education program built around leading Nobel Peace Laureates who work personally with youth to pass on the spirit, skills, and wisdom they embody. The goal of PeaceJam is to inspire a new generation of peacemakers who will transform their local communities, themselves, and the world.

She and five other Laureates united in 2006 to establish the Nobel Women’s Initiative to

build “peace with justice and equality by working together with women around the world.”

(http://www.icbl.org/campaign/ambassadors/jody_williams/bio). The women Laureates include: Jody

Williams, Rigoberta Menchú Tum, Betty Williams, Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Shirin Ebadi,

and Wangari Maathai. They represent all parts of the globe: North and Central Americas,

Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. An article about this initiative was written in 2006 by

Linda Burstyn who asked “The Peace mongers: Can these Nobel laureates help stop a war?”

After forming the Nobel Women’s Initiative in April, Williams and her colleagues immediately called for a meeting of American and Iranian NGO leaders—all women—in Vienna. Held in early June, the meeting set forth a plan for the NGO leaders to take back home: a strategy for building international pressure to help convince the U.S. and Iranian governments that negotiations and compromise are better alternatives to war.(http://www.msmagazine.com/summer2006/peacemongers_full.asp)

Four of the Nobelists for peace:(left to right) Jody Williams, Betty Williams, Shirin Ebadi, Rigoberta Menchú Tum. Photo: Michael Collopy (http://www.msmagazine.com/summer2006/peacemongers_full.asp)

http://www.msmagazine.com/summer2006/peacemongers_full.asp

http://www.msmagazine.com/summer2006/peacemongers_full.asp

http://www.icbl.org/campaign/ambassadors/jody_williams/bio



People who dedicate their life to political causes and reform movements eventually find

portions of their personal lives shortchanged. Jody Williams Long is one of those people. She

shared some of the aspects of being a person of note during an interview with her hometown

newspaper in 2007. “I travel too much and don't get home enough.” Apparently, she even found

it difficult to schedule a phone call as a nonstop traveler who has visited every continent except

Antarctica. She has given her time and almost $500,000 in Nobel Peace Prize money to further

her mission to ban landmines.

The glare of the public spotlight focuses on those who become Nobel Laureates. “People

expect a lot from peace prize laureates,” …. “We are asked to intervene, help, and support

numerous issues.” She has responded over the years to those calls from the United Nations and

her Nobel Peace Prize colleagues.

As time has passed, I have become a bit more comfortable with that public role. At the same time, in some ways I feel the weight of responsibility as a Nobel Prize recipient more with each passing year, particularly as our world seems to be going through a period of especially dramatic change and turmoil.(http://timesargus.com/article/20071014/NEWS01/71011011/-1/REALVERMONTER)



134

SHIRIN EBADI



153

EXCERPTS FROM EBADI’S NOBEL LECTUREhttp://www.international.ucla.edu/showevent.asp?eventid=1641

• “The discriminatory plight of women in Islamic states, too, whether in the sphere of civil law or in the realm of social, political and cultural justice, has its roots in the patriarchal and male-dominated culture prevailing in these societies, not in Islam.

• This culture does not tolerate freedom and democracy, just as it does not believe in the equal rights of men and women, and the liberation of women from male domination (fathers, husbands, brothers ...), because it would threaten the historical and traditional position of the rulers and guardians of that culture.





Shirin Ebadi was born in 1947 in Hamadan, Iran. She grew up in a Muslim family headed by her

father, Mohammad Ali Ebadi. He was the city’s chief notary public and a professor of commercial law.

Information about her early family life and education is found in her Nobel Peace Prize autobiography.

I spent my childhood in a family filled with kindness and affection. I have two sisters and a brother all of whom are highly educated. My mother dedicated all her time and devotion to our upbringing.

I came to Tehran with my family when I was a one year old and have since been a resident in the capital. I began my education at Firuzkuhi primary school and went on to Anoshiravn Dadgar and Reza Shah Kabir secondary schools for my higher education (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2003/ebadi-autobio.html)

She earned her law degree from the University of Tehran, and in 1965, Shirin was

admitted to the law department of the University, graduating four years later in 1969. She passed

the qualifying examinations that allowed her to become a judge six months after a period of

internship. It was not until 1970 that she was able to commence her career as a judge. She continued

her higher education studies for a Master’s Degree in law, and in 1975 became the first Iranian woman to

preside over a legislative court.

The Iranian Revolution of 1979 had a negative effect on her career, and she was demoted to the

rank of a secretary when the Iranian mullahs declared that women were forbidden to become judges,

according to Moslem law. Eventually, she and her other women colleagues who were judges protested

against their demotion and achieved reassignments as “law experts.” She eventually retired when the

situation remained static. She wrote books and articles, became widely known, was granted a lawyer’s

certificate in 1992 and only a year thereafter was permitted to practice as an attorney.

She is married to an electrical engineer, and the mother of two adult daughters. Shirin

Ebadi is known for her quiet and soft spoken nature, as well as her stubborn opposition to being

silenced about legal cases that are politically sensitive.

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2003/ebadi-autobio.html




A 2005 article entitled “Shirin Ebadi, A Conscious Muslim,” by Diana Hayworth asked

the question of whether or not an activist is born or bred. Ebadi attributed her inspiration for

peace activism to her parents, her inherent beliefs, her religious commitment to Islam, and the

political oppression of women in Iran.

I learned absolute human equality from my father, who treated her, her sisters, and her brother with equal respect as they were growing up, an exception to the rule in her country. (http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/imow-Ebadi.pdf)

Her religious beliefs represent the principles of Reformed Islam, since she favors an interpret-

ation of Islamic law that is harmonious with human rights: democracy, equality before the law,

religious freedom, and freedom of speech. (http://nobelpeaceprize.org/eng_lau_biography2003.html)

She uses Islam as her starting point to campaign for peaceful solutions to social problems, and

the promotion of new thinking about Islam. (http://nobelpeaceprize.org/eng_lau_biography2003.html)

Several quotations of Shirin Ebadi’s beliefs shed light on the wellspring of inspiration that she

gets not only from Islam, but from her Iranian nationality.

I am a Muslim. In the Koran the Prophet of Islam has been cited as saying: ‘Thou shalt believe in thine faith and I in my religion….That same divine book sees the mission of all prophets as that of inviting all human beings to uphold justice….Since the advent of Islam, too, Iran's civilization and culture has become imbued and infused with humanitarianism, respect for the life, belief and faith of others, propagation of tolerance and compromise and avoidance of violence, bloodshed and war….The luminaries of Iranian literature….are emissaries of this humanitarian culture. (http://www.writespirit.net/inspirational_talks/humanitarian_talks/talks_shirin_ebadi/speeches_shirin_ebadi/view)

On the other hand, her professional experiences that led her to become a judge and a lawyer in

Iran also shaped her inspiration to become an activist for humanitarian reform.

In removing her rights, Khomeini gave birth to her activism, and in this phase of her life, she found her calling. She also found supportive allies and eventually rose to national prominence. ‘Once I did get the license to practice', she says, 'I

http://www.writespirit.net/inspirational_talks/humanitarian_talks/talks_shirin_ebadi/speeches_shirin_ebadi/view

http://www.writespirit.net/inspirational_talks/humanitarian_talks/talks_shirin_ebadi/speeches_shirin_ebadi/view

http://nobelpeaceprize.org/eng_lau_biography2003.html

http://nobelpeaceprize.org/eng_lau_biography2003.html

http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/imow-Ebadi.pdf


knew exactly where I was headed, and that was towards the defense of human rights.'(http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/imow-Ebadi.pdf)

She has admitted to an internal propensity to seek justice and fairness for all people.

Everyone is born with certain characteristics. I always had a feeling during childhood, almost like a calling, which I could not name then but I later found that it was about seeking justice, a certain commitment to justice. When I was a child, whenever I would see children fighting, I would naturally try to defend the underdog, the weakest, I even got beaten up myself a couple of times doing that!(http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/imow-Ebadi.pdf)

She believes that shared values should enable diverse cultures and religions to dialogue.

Her preference is for enlightenment and conversation as the cornerstones of conflict resolution

and changing attitudes, but she provides a rationale for those who seek violent means of

resolving their issues. “When a person is humiliated, when his rights are being violated, and he

does not have the proper education, naturally he gravitates toward terrorism.”

(http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/s/shirin_ebadi.html)


Shirin Ebadi’s concerns for the protection of human rights within Iran extend not only to

Moslems, but to members of the Iranian Bahai community, as well. She has been an activist on

behalf of refugee rights, and women and children. She defended Iranian families of writers and

intellectuals who were victims of "serial murders" in 1998-1999 Her view of who should benefit

from peace, security, and guarantees of welfare is an ecumenical one.

To me security means people should have the right to express their minds. and the national resources of the country should be used for the welfare of the people, not the militarization of the country……..If the 21st century wishes to free itself from the cycle of violence, acts of terror and war, and avoid repetition of the experience of the 20th century – that most disaster-ridden century of humankind – there is no other way except by understanding and putting into practice every human right for all mankind, irrespective of race, gender, faith, nationality or social statushttp://www.womeninworldhistory.com/imow-Ebadi.pdf

She is “a vocal advocate of using the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights as the


http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/s/shirin_ebadi.html




standard by which all cultures should be measured.” She also sees human rights as Universal

rights, applicable to everyone on a global basis. (http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/imow-

Ebadi.pdf)

She spoke before the Third World Forum in 2004 about the effects of poverty, and how a

commitment to human rights by governments could reverse the situation.

Extreme poverty is a violation of human rights since people are deprived from the rights to healthcare, education, food or housing. It also results in further human rights violations since, without resources, many rights become pure theory - rights to a fair trial, freedom of expression and opinion, right to free and fair election. I believe that this situation is not ineluctable : remedy lies in a greater respect for human rights.(http://www.writespirit.net/inspirational_talks/humanitarian_talks/talks_shirin _ebadi/third_world_forum )


Shirin Ebadi’s skills as an attorney appear to have enhanced her organization capabilities.

Her concern for the welfare of children led her activities in the direction of establishing two non-

governmental organizations in Iran. She was the cofounder of the Association for Support of

Children’s Rights in 1995, its president until 2000, and has continued assistance as legal adviser

to the association an its more than 500 active members. The second organization was the Centre

for the Defence of Human Rights, founded in 2001 with four defense lawyers for the Centre’s

clientele. Shirin served as the latter organization’s president.

(http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2003/ebadi-autobio.html)

Her post-Nobel Peace Prize activity has included her idea for and implementation of the

Nobel Women’s Initiative with the five other free Laureates referred to in the section of this

paper about Jody Williams Long, who readily admitted that Shirin “suggested the Nobel women

work together to support peace and women's rights.”

(http://timesargus.com/article/20071014/NEWS01/71011011/-1/REALVERMONTER)



http://www.writespirit.net/inspirational_talks/humanitarian_talks/talks_shirin_ebadi/third_world_forum/







Quotations from Shirin Ebadi’s speeches and writings unpack her hope for a respectable

future for world populations.

If the 21st century wishes to free itself from the cycle of violence, acts of terror and war, and avoid repetition of the experience of the 20th century - that most disaster-ridden century of humankind, there is no other way except by understanding and putting into practice every human right for all mankind, irrespective of race, gender, faith, nationality or social status.(http://www.writespirit.net/inspirational_talks/humanitarian_talks/talks_shirin_ebadi/hope_for_future)

She demonstrated her ability to learn the lessons of history and the results of failed

dictatorships when she commented that “I hope the example of Saddam Hussein will give a

lesson to leaders of other countries where human rights are not respected.”


The 2003 Nobel Peace Prize was a milestone in Shirin Ebadi’s life and legal career as a

warrior for human rights. She was awarded the honor of becoming a Laureate “For her efforts

for democracy and human rights, especially the rights of women and children, in Iran and the

Muslim world in general.” Her acceptance lecture revealed her thoughts about the anticipated

positive outcomes and hope that she felt would be forthcoming from the award for her

coreligionists and nation.

The decision by the Nobel Peace Committee to award the 2003 prize to me, as the first Iranian and the first woman from a Muslim country, inspires me and millions of Iranians and nationals of Islamic states with the hope that our efforts, endeavors and struggles toward the realization of human rights and the establishment of democracy in our respective countries enjoy the support, backing and solidarity of international civil society, (http://nobelpeaceprize.org/en_GB/laureates/laureates-2003/ebadi-lecture/)

A year later she spoke at the Third International Forum about her hope for a non-violent and

humane world, and that those who would contribute to injustice in the world would be held

accountable for their deeds.

http://nobelpeaceprize.org/en_GB/laureates/laureates-2003/ebadi-lecture/


http://www.writespirit.net/inspirational_talks/humanitarian_talks/talks_shirin_ebadi/hope_for_future

http://www.writespirit.net/inspirational_talks/humanitarian_talks/talks_shirin_ebadi/hope_for_future


This Forum is a symbol of hope in this changing world, torn by conflicts, violence, inequalities and injustice. This Forum gathers thousands and thousands of people who, all over the world, believe that another world is possible, where globalisation would not be synonym of inequalities and wild liberalisation, people who believe that the human being should be at the center of globalisation…………………….

By ensuring the justiciability, and consequently the effectiveness of economic and social rights, we can make them a reality for the majority of the planet. By making all actors responsible for the human rights violations to which they contribute, including the transnational corporations, human rights can concretise much more widely. These issues are on the top of our agendahttp://www.writespirit.net/inspirational_talks/humanitarian_talks/talks_shirin_ebadi/third_world_forum/

Shirin Ebadi;s address to the participants of the First Nobel Women’s Initiative

Conference in Dublin, Ireland in 2007 included her belief and the hope that the conference’s

deliberations would bring models of best practices from Iran and the greater Middle East of how

to deal with human rights, peace issues, fundamentalism, and securing rights for women on a

global level. (http://www.huntalternatives.org/download/568_6_1_07_nobel_women_initiative.pdf)


Shirin Ebadi has proven herself to be a model of feminist career behavior as the first

female judge in Iran, and a staunch supporter of women’s rights through her public speeches,

writings, and organizational skills. She has been the “driving force behind the reform of family

laws in Iran by seeking changes in divorce and inheritance legislation.”

(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3181992.stm)

An example of the work of the Nobel Women’s Initiative, led by Shirin Ebadi, is the

stand that the Laureates took when Iranian police harshly suppressed the June, 2006 peaceful

demonstration by Iranian women to secure equal, non-discriminatory rights for their gender.

We women Nobel Peace Prize Laureates condemn this act of violence carried out by the police force, particularly the attacks of policewomen, against citizens who had merely gathered together peacefully to call for their legal rights. We believe such attempts to use women against women are a manifestation of an oppressive patriarchal system which cultivates a culture of fear. We welcome and encourage men's support of women's demands for equality. We urge the immediate release

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3181992.stm

http://www.huntalternatives.org/download/568_6_1_07_nobel_women_initiative.pdf




of the remaining detainee, an end to the persecution of nonviolent activists and an investigation into the police beatings. The struggle for women's rights in Iran will be mighty but will prevail. We will continue to support our courageous Iranian sisters and brothers until such time. (http://www.peaceworkmagazine.org/nobel-womens-initiative-calls-peace-between-human-rights-within-iran-and-us)

She has commented that “no society deserves to be labeled civilized unless the rights of

women and children are respected.” She has blamed patriarchal ideas for the suppression of

women’s equal rights, and warned that democratic institutions will not survive in cultures where

there is a limitation of women’s rights.

Domestic violence is a direct result of patriarchy and as we know,patriarchy is not compatible with democracy. So in a larger perspective, when we look at it in a nondemocratic society, it is patriarchy that limits freedom and that damages the rights of people. I think that as a result of the patriarchic culture what happens is that democracy will fall apart. So there won't be any national security either. (http://www.opendemocracy.net/files/nwi_1.pdf)

The condition of women in Islamic societies as a whole is also far from desirable. However, we should acknowledge that there are differences. In certain countries, the conditions are much better and in others much worse.(http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/s/shirin_ebadi.html)

Shirin Ebadi has inspired the younger generation of Iranian women to seek the gender

equality that she has espoused in her activist accomplishments. She has indicated that the

democratic goal that they aspire to is not immediately possible, but that “It's little steps like the

gradual amendment of social culture for the better that results in the ultimate creation of social

democracy." (http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/imow-Ebadi.pdf) A special message from Shirin

to the women in Iran and other Moslem countries is to

Keep fighting. Don't believe that you are decreed to have an inferior position. Study the Koran carefully, so that oppressors cannot impress you with citations and interpretations. Don't let individuals masquerading as theologians claim they have a monopoly on understanding Islam. Educate yourselves. Do your best and compete in all walks of life. God created us all equals. In fighting for equality we are doing what God wants us to do.(http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/imow-Ebadi.pdf)




http://www.opendemocracy.net/files/nwi_1.pdf

http://www.peaceworkmagazine.org/nobel-womens-initiative-calls-peace-between-human-rights-within-iran-and-us

http://www.peaceworkmagazine.org/nobel-womens-initiative-calls-peace-between-human-rights-within-iran-and-us



Shirin Ebadi’s contributions to world peace have been demonstrated in her own country

and internationally. She has defended victims of Iran’s conservative forces in her writings and in

the court system when their speech and political freedoms have been attacked. She commented:

This culture does not tolerate freedom and democracy, just as it does not believe in the equal rights of men and women, and the liberation of women from male domination (fathers, husbands, brothers ...), because it would threaten the historical and traditional position of the rulers and guardians of that culture(http://www.international.ucla.edu/showevent.asp?eventid=1641)

She thought that her Nobel Peace Prize award would contribute to the courage of her co-

nationals who worked for human rights in Iran, because they would see her international

recognition as validation for their cause. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3181992.stm). She

expended her oral, written, and legal expertise in defense of politically sensitive cases in Iran, at

the risk of her own safety: (1) Leading several research projects for the UNICEF office in

Tehran; (2) Providing various stages of free tuition in children’s rights and human rights cases;

(3) Delivering over 30 lectures to university and academic conferences and seminars on human

rights in Iran, France, Belgium, Sweden, Switzerland, Britain and America; (4) Representing

several journalists or their families, accused or sentenced in relation to freedom of expression;

(5) Representing families of serial murder victims; (6) Representing the mother of a child

separated from her as a consequence of the child custody law; and (7) Proposing to the Islamic

Consultative Assembly (Majlis) the successful ratification of a 2002 law on prohibiting all forms

of violence against children.

The formation of the Nobel Women’s Initiative has stretched Shirin Ebadi’s support for

humanitarian reform to other parts of the world, wherever the NWI has been active: in Darfur,

and in Burma.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3181992.stm

http://www.international.ucla.edu/showevent.asp?eventid=1641



The pursuit of human rights and protection of women and children in a closed society

carry the price of personal reprisal to the activist. Shirin Ebadi has been and is in such a

situation. The Nobel Committee, in conferring the 2003 Peace Prize on her, also commended her

for her courage, since she neither paid attention to threats to her own safety, nor stopped her

work, as she fought for the protection of the rights of others.

She has been imprisoned by the Iranian government for her activism, and has been the

subject of several schemes to assassinate her. She has had brushes with governmental authorities

in Iran on several occasions: (1) in 2000, when she was charged with publicizing “the videotaped

confession of a hardline hooligan who claimed that prominent conservative leaders were

instigating physical attacks on pro-reform gatherings and figures.”; and, (2) when she was given

“a suspended jail sentence and a professional ban (which was later lifted).”

(http://www.answers.com/topic/shirin-ebadi).

The conservative Iranian forces that are in charge of the judiciary have been known to

harass her. Quotations from Shirin Ebadi about her legal career in Iran indicate the stress that

she must have endured during the years prior to being named a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.

Lawyers have a dangerous job in Iran.

Lawyers should not be charged with the same crimes as their clients. Trials related to political charges are not in accordance with human rights.

Sadly the job security of lawyers has been ruined, so they are less willing to defend political defendants.(http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/s/shirin_ebadi.html)

Nevertheless, she determinedly has continued in pursuit of her goal to bring change for

the human relations conditions in Iran. Is she fearful for her family’s and her security? Yes, she

has admitted that fear does discomfort her "Don't tell anyone, but I am afraid," she says.


http://www.answers.com/topic/shirin-ebadi


"Anyone who fights for human rights in Iran lives in fear. But I have learnt to overcome my

fear." (http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/imow-Ebadi.pdf)

Contemporary news sources have reported that Shirin Ebadi may be in danger for her

life. She recently announced [May, 2008] that she would undertake the defense of the Iran’s six

member leadership of the Baha’i religion. The government has retaliated, to force her to drop

the defenses, with information to the effect that Shirin Ebadi and other members of her family

have converted as Baha’i. This, in essence, is equivalent to apostasy in Islam, and punishable by

death under Moslem Sharia law. (http://irannuclearwatch.blogspot.com/2008/08/shirin-ebadis-life-may-

be-in-danger.html)



172

WANGARI MAATHAI



177

NEED FOR A GLOBAL ETHIC

• We can work together for a better world with men and women of goodwill, those who radiate the intrinsic goodness of humankind. To do so effectively, the world needs a global ethic with values which give meaning to life experiences and, more than religious institutions and dogmas, sustain the non-material dimension of humanity. Mankind's universal values of love, compassion, solidarity, caring and tolerance should form the basis for this global ethic which should permeate culture, politics, trade, religion and philosophy. It should also permeate the extended family of the United Nations.

http://www.wangari-maathai.org/


Wangari Maathai was born to parents who were members of the Kikuyu community in

the village of Ihithe, in the central highlands of what was then known as British Kenya. They

were peasant farmers living with their six children. Wangari was born in April, 1949, the third

child and the first girl after two sons. Her autobiography provides mental pictures of her

upbringing, her attachment to nature, the rich qualities of Kikuyu family life, and the impact of a

changing Kenya on her life path.

http://irannuclearwatch.blogspot.com/2008/08/shirin-ebadis-life-may-be-in-danger.html

http://irannuclearwatch.blogspot.com/2008/08/shirin-ebadis-life-may-be-in-danger.html



We lived in a land abundant with shrubs, creepers, ferns, and trees………..When a baby joined the community, a beautiful and practical ritual introduced the infant to the land of the ancestors and conserved a world of plenty and good that came from that soil ……………..When European missionaries came to the central highlands at the end of the nineteenth century, they taught the local people that God did not dwell on Mount Kenya, but rather in heaven, a place above the clouds………………By the 1930s the British had ensured that native communities, including Kikuyus, had been restricted to designated regions known as native reserves while their land was sub-divided among the new arrivals(http://greenbeltmovement.org/index.php)

Wangari moved with her mother to where her father was working, Nakuru, in the Rift

Valley when she was age three. Her memories of those years indicate that both of her parents

toiled on the land; her mother was the second of four of her father’s wives; and, she grew up in a

joint household of ten children; (http://greenbeltmovement.org/index.php).

Wangari Maathai had a varied educational background, infused with concepts from non-

African, American, European, and African sources. She earned a degree in 1964 in Biological

Sciences from Mount St. Scholastica College in Atchison, Kansas. Two years later she obtained

a Master of Science degree from the University of Pittsburgh. She was the first woman in East

and Central Africa to complete a doctoral degree, pursuing her Ph.D. studies in Germany and

completing them at the University of Nairobi in 1971. (http://www.joinafrica.com/africa_of_the_week/maathai_wangari.htm)

Wangari Maathai’s family and educational background set her on the path of an academic

career, political and governmental involvement, and founding of the Greenbelt Movement over a

period of thirty years. (http://almaz.com/nobel/peace/2004a.html)

• 1973-80 Director, Kenya Red Cross • 1976 First Female Chair of Dept of Veterinary Anatomy at University of Nairobi • 1977 First Female Associate Professor of Dept of Veterinary Anatomy at University of

Nairobi • 1977 Founded The Green Belt Movement • 1981-7 Chairman of the National Council of Women of Kenya • 1997 Ran for Presidency of Kenya • 1998 Launched Kenya Jubilee 2000 coalition • 2002 Elected to Parliament with 98% of the vote, Tetu Constituency

http://almaz.com/nobel/peace/2004a.html

http://www.joinafrica.com/africa_of_the_week/maathai_wangari.htm

http://greenbeltmovement.org/index.php



• 2003 Appointed Assistant Minister of Environment, Natural Resources & Wildlife • 2004 First Female African to be awarded Nobel Peace Prize


Wangari Maathai’s parents, especially her mother, the importance of women as peace

builders in Kikuyu society, the course of study that she selected during her higher education, and

her closeness to nature in Kenya influenced her attitudes about peace activism. An excerpt from

her autobiography attests to the influence of her parents on her thought patterns.

What I know now is that my parents raised me in an environment that did not give reasons for fear or uncertainty. Instead, there were many reasons to dream, to be creative, and to use my imagination. As I grew older, I learned that we can convince ourselves and our children, and if we are leaders we can convince our citizens that we are in danger, either from what people might do to us or what we might do to ourselves. (http://greenbeltmovement.org/index.php)

She was the first girl born in the family, and as such had a special closeness with her

mother that gave her a model for leadership. “….you become almost like the second woman of

the house. You do what your mother does and you are always with her. The two of you become

almost like one. As far back as I can remember, my mother and I were always together and

always talking. She was my anchor in life.” ((http://greenbeltmovement.org/index.php) Wangari’s

heritage as an African woman impacted her perspective on her role as a peace builder in society.

In African tradition and culture, the woman’s maternal instincts and herresponsibility in the upbringing and socialization of her children predisposes herrole as an educator and transmitter of values like responsibility, honesty andloyalty through mutuality and deference; and faith and compassion through innerstrength and self-control. They also focus on the importance of humanity andconsideration for others. In this respect, women are looked upon as a peacebuilder responsible for the upbringing and socialization of the young.(http://www.uwas.org/uwasArchive/Conferences/

Paper_ordinarywome_Xordinaryqualities.pdf)

British rule in Kenya influenced the way in which the indigenous population viewed its

ability to decide about and control land usage; it was in a restricted inequitable manner that

favored the Europeans, and which eventually awakened resentment by the Kenyans to strive for






self determination. Wangari Maathai wrote about the shift in her perspective as a child to how

she thought as an adult, believing that sustainable equitable development and management by the

people were inextricable with their peaceful existence.

What I know now is that my parents raised me in an environment that did not give reasons for fear or uncertainty. Instead, there were many reasons to dream, to be creative, and to use my imagination. As I grew older, I learned that we can convince ourselves and our children, and if we are leaders we can convince our citizens that we are in danger, either from what people might do to us or what we might do to ourselves. (http://greenbeltmovement.org/index.php)

She believed that sustainable development and peace were related: ‘There can be no peace without equitable development; and there can be no development without sustainable management of the environment in a democratic and peaceful space.’ (http://www.writespirit.net/inspirational_talks/talks_wangari_maathai/nobel_speech_maathai/)

Wangari recognized the efforts of Africans through the ages to disengage from unjust treatment

by outside groups. “It is important that a critical mass of Africans do not accept the verdict that

the world tries to push down their throat so as to give up and succumb. The struggle must

continue. It is important to nurture any new ideas and initiatives which can make a difference for

Africa.” (http://www.writespirit.net/inspirational_talks/talks_wangari_maathai/nobel_speech_maathai/)

Quek Geok Cheng, writing about women who have been notable in working for

international peace, has evaluated Wangari Maathai’s achievements: “In politics, Maathai

courageously stood up against the former oppressive regime in Kenya. She has served as

inspiration for many in the fight for democratic rights and has especially encouraged women to

better their situation.” (http://www.uwas.org/uwasArchive/Conferences/Paper_ordinarywome_Xordinaryqualities.pdf)


Wangari Maathai’s two main concerns for world population and the environment have

centered on the Kenyan environment and African nations’ debts. How the land could or could


http://www.writespirit.net/inspirational_talks/talks_wangari_maathai/nobel_speech_maathai/





not benefit the people led to the formation of the Greenbelt Movement to promote “sustainable

livelihoods, citizen education and reforestation, involving mainly women.”

(http://greenbeltmovement.org/index.php). The second concern led to the campaign called Jubilee

2000, in order to assist debt ridden African countries to secure debt relief. “Third world debt is

one that a nation incurs from international sources like the World Bank, to encourage

industrialization within the nation’s infrastructure.” (http://www.jubilee2000uk.org/)

She has credited her varied educational experiences as beneficial for her environmental

accomplishments “The privilege of a higher education, especially outside Africa, broadened my

original horizon and encouraged me to focus on the environment, women and development in

order to improve the quality of life of people in my country in particular and in the African

region in general.” (http://greenbeltmovement.org/index.php) In addition, commercial development

in Kenya worried her about the future of natural resources for Kenyans. “As I was growing up, I

witnessed forests being cleared and replaced by commercial plantations, which destroyed local

biodiversity and the capacity of the forests to conserve water.”

(http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2004/maathai-lecture-text.html)

Her Nobel Peace Prize lecture contrasted the conditions of the land in her childhood and

her adulthood. She associated the described contrasts to the underlying reasons for her

environmental and political activism.

I reflect on my childhood experience when I would visit a stream next to our home to fetch water for my mother. I would drink water straight from the stream. Playing among the arrowroot leaves I tried in vain to pick up the strands of frogs’ eggs, believing they were beads. But every time I put my little fingers under them they would break. Later, I saw thousands of tadpoles: black, energetic and wriggling through the clear water against the background of the brown earth. This is the world I inherited from my parents.

Today, over 50 years later, the stream has dried up, women walk long distances for water, which is not always clean, and children will never know what they have lost. The challenge is to restore the home of the tadpoles and give back to our children a world of beauty and

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2004/maathai-lecture-text.html


http://www.jubilee2000uk.org/



wonder. (http://www.writespirit.net/inspirational_talks/talks_wangari_maathai/nobel_speech_maathai)


Wangari Maathai conceived the notion of the Green Belt Movement in 1977 for the

purpose of combating soil erosion, and to produce sustainable wood for fuel use. It was

established under the auspices of the National Council of Women of Kenya. Information from

the home page of the organization’s website provides an important introduction to what has

become a significant example of Wangari’s organizational abilities and political beliefs.

Its vision is to create a society of people who consciously work for continued improvement of their environment and a greener, cleaner Kenya. Its mission is to mobilize community consciousness for self-determination, equity, improved livelihoods and security, and environmental conservation. It is guided by the values of volunteerism, love for environmental conservation, pro-action for self-betterment, accountability, transparency, and empowerment.(http://www.greenbeltmovement.org/w.php?id=30)

The Green Belt Movement began as a small tree nursery in Wangari’s backyard and in her words

became one in which “thousands of ordinary citizens were mobilized and empowered to take

action and effect change. They learned to overcome fear and a sense of helplessness and moved

to defend democratic rights.” (http://www.writespirit.net/inspirational_talks/talks_wangari_maathai/nobel_speech_maathai)

Initially, the work was difficult because historically our people have been persuaded to believe that because they are poor, they lack not only capital, but also knowledge and skills to address their challenges. Instead they are conditioned to believe that solutions to their problems must come from ‘outside'. Further, women did not realize that meeting their needs depended on their environment being healthy and well managed. They were also unaware that a degraded environment leads to a scramble for scarce resources and may culminate in poverty and even conflict. They were also unaware of the injustices of international economic arrangements. (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2004/maathai-lecture-text.html)



http://www.greenbeltmovement.org/w.php?id=30




Vincent and the GBM community planting a tree in Tumu Tumu.Photo by Peter Ndunda, Date: 11/01/06

(http://www.wangari-maathai.org/gallery.php?s=1)Over the years, the Green Belt Movement has changed in its understanding of the

meaning of sustainable development to include peace, democracy, and prosperity as integral to

sustainable development.

(http://www.uwas.org/uwasArchive/Conferences/Paper_ordinarywome_Xordinaryqualities.pdf)


Wangari Maathai’s Lecture upon receiving the Nobel Peace Prize focused on the

meaning of the award for her, the first African woman to be so recognized as a Nobel Laureate,

and the people of Kenya and Africa. Further, she called for people to see each other as family to

protect the earth and cooperate for world peace through fair and just societies.

It is 30 years since we started this work. Activities that devastate the environment and societies continue unabated. Today we are faced with a challenge that calls for a shift in our thinking, so that humanity stops threatening its life-support system. We are called to assist the Earth to heal her wounds and in the process heal our own – indeed, to embrace the whole creation in all its diversity, beauty and wonder. This will happen if we see the need to revive our sense of belonging to a larger family of life, with which we have shared our evolutionary process.

In the course of history, there comes a time when humanity is called to shift to a new level of consciousness, to reach a higher moral ground. A time when we have to shed our fear and give hope to each other.

That time is now.

(http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2004/maathailecture-text.html

She especially has focused her words on young people, who she anticipates will assume

the mantle of responsibility for continuing the work that she started for sustainable development

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2004/maathailecture-text.html


http://www.wangari-maathai.org/gallery.php?s=1


and management, as well as for the spread of democracy and peace. It is on the next generations

that she has placed her hope to meet the challenges and constraints that will continue to face the

world. Maathai expressed her hope for her country in an interview with Sutart Jeffries of the

Guardian newspaper inthe following words: "I have seen rivers that were brown with silt

become clean-flowing again ... The job is hardly over, but it no longer seems impossible".

(http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/feb/16/ethicalliving.lifeandhealth/print)


Wangari Maathai has been and is an extraordinary example of womanhood for her

countrymen and internationally in the areas of education, politics, and strength of character. Her

autobiography [Unbowed] recorded the trials that she underwent to achieve her Ph.D in 1971, the

first woman to do so in East Africa. The political dictatorship of President Daniel arap Moi,

which lasted until 2002 in Kenya, interpreted her forging of the Greenbelt Movement as an

attack on his environmental and budgetary policies. She revealed that situation was a

determining factor in what she was permitted to do to apply her educational expertise;

That has been the tragedy of my life and that of many other well-trained African women… We have not been able to do what we trained to do. I had to take part in the struggle rather than do academic work. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/feb/16/ethicalliving.lifeandhealth/print)

However, she still understood that her professional condition was better than that of other

rural Kenyan women; and that the circumstances that propelled her into politics had to be

addressed in order to insure “that healing the environment was central to my country’s future

health.” The establishment of the Green Belt Movement signaled her great respect for women

and girls, and their abilities to contribute to their nation’s growth and development. She brought

to their attention the fact that their daily needs were contingent on the health and well managed

condition of their environment.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/feb/16/ethicalliving.lifeandhealth/print



She recounted in her 2004 Nobel Lecture the long-term importance of women planting

trees and working to protect the environment as a route to reversal of the harm to nature that had

occurred in Kenya, without specific mention of Britain’s colonial occupation, commercial

farming, and the reckless policies of President Moi as causes of harm.

In 1977, when we started the Green Belt Movement, I was partly responding to needs identified by rural women, namely lack of firewood, clean drinking water, balanced diets, shelter and income.

Throughout Africa, women are the primary caretakers, holding significant responsibility for tilling the land and feeding their families. As a result, they are often the first to become aware of environmental damage as resources become scarce and incapable of sustaining their families.

The women we worked with recounted that unlike in the past; they were unable to meet their basic needs. This was due to the degradation of their immediate environment as well as the introduction of commercial farming, which replaced the growing of household food crops. But international trade controlled the price of the exports from these small-scale farmers and a reasonable and just income could not be guaranteed. I came to understand that when the environment is destroyed, plundered or mismanaged, we undermine our quality of life and that of future generations.

Tree planting became a natural choice to address some of the initial basic needs identified by women. Also, tree planting is simple, attainable and guarantees quick, successful results within a reasonable amount time. This sustains interest and commitment.

So, together, we have planted over 30 million trees that provide fuel, food, shelter, and income to support their children's education and household needs. The activity also creates employment and improves soils and watersheds. Through their involvement, women gain some degree of power over their lives, especially their social and economic position and relevance in the family. This work continues. (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2004/maathai-lecture-text.html)


Wangari Maathai contributed to world peace efforts by opposing Government and other

commercial interests in Kenya over the issues of land-grabbing, deforestation, and governance.

She saw the connection between self-sufficiency for Kenyans as being connected to the

peacefulness that would result from women’s actions. Her example of successful sustainable

development and maintenance in Kenya has become a model for other nations in Africa and the

world, where “Women are suffering while their male leaders are so busy fighting over resources

and power,”…. “We have no option but to work [together] for peace.”







Wangari Maathai has been a determined protector of the Kenyan environment and a

model for her nation to adopt the concept of sustainable development and maintenance. She has

paid a heavy price for her environmental and peace activism in two areas: her marital

relationship and danger to her person. Her marriage came to a halt in 1977, when her husband

divorced her for being "too educated, too strong, too successful, too stubborn and too hard to

control". (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/feb/16/ethicalliving.lifeandhealth/print). Powerful

political forces, especially those under the guidance of former President Moi, have borne down

on her because, according to him, her divorced condition did not give her the moral right to

speak about the environment or the way the government was run. She has been jailed and beaten

for her activities by riot police under Moi’s administration, and it was suggested by a member of

the Kenyan parliament that she “should be forcibly circumcised.” Wangari’s response was that

she did not fear such action against her. “It is wonderful when you don't have the fear, and a lot

of the time I don't,"…."I focus on what needs to be done instead."

(http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/feb/16/ethicalliving.lifeandhealth/print)

Section Four Summary

BRIEF REITERATION OF RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The focus of this paper, “Internationally Renowned Nobel Women Laureates Who Were

Peace Activists,” incorporated two research questions:

1. Did the twelve women Nobel Peace Activist Laureates transition through the “Six Steps

of Consciousness Development” and “Six Opposing Types of Difficulties” that could

have hindered them as they reached each developmental step, as postulated by David

Adams?




2. Did the twelve women Nobel Peace Activist Laureates have specific traits, postulated by

Irwin Abrams, which enabled the women to fulfill their goals as “Heroines of Peace?”

FINDINGS

The writer’s intense reading of resources and materials provided on electronic websites

about these twelve women Nobel Peace Prize Laureates provided cross referenced factual and

evaluative knowledge and perspectives about their lives for the data collected to answer the

questions posed in this paper.

The writer of this paper concurs with Irwin Abrams that the twelve women Nobel Peace

Prize Laureates were “Heroines of Peace,” with respect to the criteria that Abrams selected for

measuring the twelve Laureates.

• High ideals • Prepared to work and sacrifice to bring something better into being • Labored in the certainty that their objectives would eventually be realized • Carried within that sacred flame which inspired them

– to struggle against odds, – to withstand disappointments and defeats,– to resolve never to give up.

• Shared a faith in humanity, whether born of religious conviction or humanism.• Displayed remarkable courage

– Not all faced the aimed rifle, as did Aung San Suu Kyi, or – Had to hide from the soldiers, as did Rigoberta Menchú Tum,– Withstood the slings and arrows of the militaristic press of Imperial

Germany,– Withstood the war-time patriotic fervor in the United States, – Took the first step to break the circle of violence in Northern Ireland.

• Persons who set examples, – Symbolized what we are seeking, and – Mobilized the best in us– "Gives us confidence and faith in the power of good."


The inductive case studies of the psychology of ten 20th Century American peace activists

conducted by David Adams, which included Jane Addams and Emily Greene Balch, enabled

Adams to identify “Six Steps of Consciousness Development” and “Six Opposing Types of

Difficulties” that could have hindered them as they reached each developmental step. The

following quotes from David Adams’ Psychology for Peace Activists speak to the pattern that

Adams found in his research, and which have relevance to Irwin Abrams criteria for the label of

“Heroines of Peace” for the twelve women Nobel Peace Activist Laureates, and what the writer

found in collecting and analyzing the data for this paper.

In the autobiographies of the great peace activists, we find a pattern of consciousness development that can be described as six cumulative steps. They are:

1) Acquisition of values and purpose;2) Anger; 3) Action; 4) Affiliation; 5) Personal integration; and 6) World-historic consciousness.

The steps tend to be taken in the order mentioned, although we should not forget that they are cumulative so that each step continues to operate in combination with later steps at a higher level of functioning.

Not only is there a logical sequence to these six steps of consciousness, but we also find them described in rough chronological order in the autobiographies and biographies of the great peace activists.

We will find it useful to consider each step in terms of its opposite, i.e., the difficulties that can hinder development at that step:

1) Alienation; 2) Fear and pessimism; 3) Armchair theorizing; 4) Individualism and anarchism; 5) Burnout; and 6) Sectarianism.”


This method of combining psychology, historical context, and the study of primary

autobiographical and secondary biographical sources fortified the writer of this paper’s findings

that the twelve women Nobel Peace Prize Laureates truly were “Heroines of Peace.”

LIMITATIONS OF THIS STUDY

1. Secondary source electronic documents, a preponderance written by Irwin Abrams about

the twelve women Nobel Peace Activist Laureates, comprised a great deal of the data

collected to answer the posed research questions. Autobiographical sources and

quotations from the speeches and writings of the Laureates were found in online

websites, and not in hard copy texts located in various university and public libraries.

2. The author did not consider an investigation of the psychology of the twelve women

Nobel Peace Prize Laureates as an area of initial research for this paper. Close to the

conclusion of the research, the author found the online edition of David Adams’ book,

Psychology for Peace Activists, which included the results of his inductive case study of

20th Century American peace activists. Adams’ model of the six steps for consciousness

development and the opposing difficulties that may occur and hinder that development

led the author of this paper on to another investigative track. However, a limitation

became the inadequate time to read autobiographies by all of the twelve women in

preparation for the completion of this paper. Consequently, it was necessary to depend

upon excerpts of autobiographies online and secondary sources of the Laureates’

biographies, as well as quotations from the Laureates’ speeches, writings, and Nobel

Lectures on various websites.

NEED FOR FURTHER RESEARCH


1. It appears that it would be valuable to replicate David Adams’ inductive case study of ten

of the twelve women Nobel Peace Activist Laureates [not Jane Addams and Emily

Greene Balch] by reading the women’s autobiographies, speeches, and writings.

2. An extensive comparison of the similarities and differences among the twelve women

Nobel Peace Prize Laureates’ lives, in context of their historical periods, could open new

perspectives on the interaction between historical events and the Laureates’

accomplishments. Were they reactive? Were they initiating?

3. The twelve women Nobel Peace Prize Laureates should be compared according to Clare

Murphy’s categorization of the type of work that they accomplished.

Individuals and organizations which have sought to resolve

wars or minimize the potential for conflict

Those who have tried to bring humanitarian relief to others

caught up in conflict

Those who have sought to further the march of

democracy and human rights

4. Which other women should have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize? Why should they

have been chosen for the award? Which criteria should be used as the basis for the

award? Why should those criteria be used?

5. Brian D. Osborne’s question for the writing of biographies, “How and why the world

would have been better or worse had the person not lived?” could be another interesting

approach to examining the lives and accomplishments of the twelve women Nobel Peace

Prize Laureates.

6. Is biography an outmoded genre, and has the approach of “Life Writing” replaced it?

Section Five Selected Reference List:

NOTE: The paper’s citations for quotations and sources of information, as well as this Selected Reference List, do not follow the standard APA format for reference citations because of time limitations in getting the paper ready for inclusion in the Proceedings of the 7th Annual Hawaii


International Conference on Education. This will be rectified with further research related to the topic of the twelve “Internationally Renowned Nobel Women Laureates Who Were Peace Activists.”

The author highlighted the plethora of electronic data about the twelve women Nobel Peace Prize Laureates within the body of Sections Two and Three by including the URLs of valid and reliable websites which had provided the quotations and information to answer the two research questions.

Section Four includes the paper’s findings, limitations, and need for further research without the inclusion of any URLs.

SELECTED BIOGRAPHICAL WEBSITES

http://www.nobel.se/peace/laureates/1905/">1905, Baroness Bertha Sophie Felicita von Suttner, n=E9e Countess Kinsky von Chinic und Tettau

• "http://www.nobel.se/peace/laureates/1931/">1931, Jane Addams

• "http://www.nobel.se/peace/laureates/1946/">1946, Emily Greene Balch

• "http://www.nobel.se/peace/laureates/1976/">1976, Mairead Corrigan

• "http://www.nobel.se/peace/laureates/1976/">1976, Betty Williams

• "http://www.nobel.se/peace/laureates/1979/">1979, Mother Teresa

• "http://www.nobel.se/peace/laureates/1982/">1982, Alva Myrdal

• "http://www.nobel.se/peace/laureates/1991/">1991, Aung San Suu Kyi

• "http://www.nobel.se/peace/laureates/1992/">1992, Rigoberta Menchu Tum

• "http://www.nobel.se/peace/laureates/1997/">1997, Jody Williams

• http://gos.sbc.edu/nobel.html Nobel Lectures by Women Laureates.

• Nobel Lectures , Peace 1901-1925, Baroness Bertha Von Suttner. Editor Frederick W. Haberman, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1972

http://nobelprize.org/nobelfoundation/publications/lectures/index.html

http://gos.sbc.edu/nobel.html












• http://womenshistory.about.com/library/qu/blqulist.htm Quotations by Women collection assembled by Jone Johnson Lewis

• www.nobel.se/peace/laureates/1931/addams-bio.html Jane Addams - Biography

<http://www.nalejandria.com/utopia/english/RigobertaMenchuTum-eng.htm> Great Pacifists - Rigoberta Menchú Tum 6/23/99

<http://www.nobel.se/essays/heroines/index.html#anchor62850> 6/23/99 Essay: Heroines of Peace (Nobel Institute)

<http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/rmtpaz/frmt/bioeng.htm> 6/23/99Rigoberta Menchú Tum (from Rigoberta Menchú Tum Foundation)

IRWIN ABRAMS’ HEROINES OF PEACE http://nobelprize.org/peace/articles/heroines/index.html

THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE AND THE LAUREATES:An Illustrated Biographical History 1901-2001Centennial Edition By Irwin Abrams. Foreword by Kenneth Boulding. Science History Publications, 2001. 350 pages. $35.00. Paperbound.

SELECTED LAUREATES’ WRITINGS FROM WEBSITES

• Freedom from Fear and Other Writings by Aung San Suu Kyi, Michael Aris (Paperback )• Letters from Burma by Aung San Suu Kyi, Heinn Htet (Paperback ) • The Lady: Aung San Suu Kyi: Nobel Laureate and Burma's Prisoner by Barbara Victor (Paperback )• Prisoner for Peace: Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma's Struggle for Democracy (Champions of Freedom Series) by John Parenteau (Library Binding )• The Voice of Hope by Aung San Suu Kyi, et al (Hardcover )• Aung San Suu Kyi: Standing Up for Democracy in Burma (Women Changing the World) by Bettina Ling (Hardcover )

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1558611967/qid=1097466284/sr=1-8/ref=sr_1_8/103-8866138-5906200?v=glance&s=books












http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/rmtpaz/frmt/bioeng.htm

http://www.nobel.se/essays/heroines/index.html#anchor62850

http://www.nalejandria.com/utopia/english/RigobertaMenchuTum-eng.htm



http://allaboutwomenshistory.com/mbiopage.htm

http://womenshistory.about.com/library/qu/blqulist.htm

http://womenshistory.about.com/library/qu/blqulist.htm


SELECTED WRITINGS BY AND ABOUT BERTHA SOPHIA FELICITA KINSKY VON SUTTNER

Abrams, Irwin, «Bertha von Suttner and the Nobel Peace Prize», in Joumal of Central European Affairs, Vol. 22, No. 3 (October, 1962), 286-307.

Kempf, Beatrix, Bertha von Suttner: Das Lebensbild einer grossen Frau. Wien, ÖsterreichischerBundesverlag, 1964.

Playne, Caroline E., Bertha von Suttner and the Struggle to Avert the World War. London, Allen & Unwin, 1936.

Suttner, Bertha von. Most papers and manuscripts are in the Bertha von Suttner Manuscript Collection in the Peace Archives of the United Nations Library in Geneva, Switzerland. The Nobel Archives of the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden, contain communications from Baroness von Suttner to Alfred Nobel.

Suttner, Bertha von, Bertha von Suttners gesammelte Schriften in 12 Bdn. Dresden, E. Pierson, 1906.

Suttner, Bertha von, Briefe an einen Toten. Dresden, E. Pierson, 1904, 1905.Suttner, Bertha von, Inventarium einer Seele. Leipzig, W. Friedrich, 1883.Suttner, Bertha von, Krieg und Frieden: Ein Vortrag. München, A. Schupp, 1900.Suttner, Bertha von, Lay Down Your Arms: The Autobiography of Martha von Tilling.

Authorized translation [of Die Waffen nieder]. London, Longmans, 1892.Suttner, Bertha von, Memoirs of Bertha von Suttner: The Records of an Eventful Life.

Authorized translation [of the Memoiren]. 2 vols. Boston, Ginn, 1910.

SELECTED WORKS BY AND ABOUT JANE ADDAMS

Twenty Years at Hull-House: With Autobiographical Notes (Signet Classics (Paperback))

Democracy and Social Ethics by Jane Addams, Charlene Haddock Seigfried (Paperback )

The Education of Jane Addams (Politics and Culture in Modern America) by Victoria Bissell

Brown (Hardcover ) Jane Addams, a Writer's Life by Katherine Joslin. Published by University of Illinois Press.

306 pages.ISBN 0252029232, 9780252029233Jane Addams and the Dream of American Democracy: A Life by Jean Bethke Elshtain

(Paperback - December 2002)

SELECTED WORKS ABOUT EMILY GREENE BALCH

MILLER,HEATHER. [Writer and Editor]. EMILY GREENE BALCH: NOBEL PEACE LAUREATE, 1867-1961. online Notable American Unitarians. http://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/unitarians/balch.html

http://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/unitarians/balch.html









EMILY GREENE BALCH http://www.wellesley.edu/Anniversary/balch.html

SELECTED WORKS BY JODY WILLIAMS LONG

”The Role of Civil Society in Disarmament Issues: Realism vs. Idealism,” A Disarmament Agenda for the Twenty-first Century, UN-China Disarmament Conference, Beijing, China, 2-4 April 2002, DDA Occasional Papers, UN Department for Disarmament Affairs, New York, No. 6, October 2002.

”The Relevance of the ICC to Other Campaigns to Strengthen Human Security,” The International Criminal Court Monitor, Issue 22, September 2002.

”Women need a stronger role in global peace efforts,” (op-ed) The Ledger, Lakeland, FL, 24 May 2002.

”US Landmine Policy is Headed in the Wrong Direction,” (op-ed) The Record, Bergen County,NJ, 31 January 2002; and The Macon Telegraph, Macon, GA, 25 January 2002.

http://www.wellesley.edu/Anniversary/balch.html

#757 nobel women peace laureates

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