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December 2004 Board members Gudrun Schyman and Jan Oberg together with co-founder Christina Spännar publish PressInfo 206, New Year in the Sign of the Tsunami. Ending his term as visiting professor in peacebuilding at Nagoya University, Oberg returns to the TFF HQ in Sweden on December 19. With colleagues of Nagoya University, Oberg participates in a conference on genocide, human security and reconciliation at Tokyo University. He gives a guest lecture about Iraq at the International Christian University on Dec. 13. Katsuya Kodama, professor at Mie University and former Secretary-General of IPRA; Hisai Nakanishi, professor at the Gradual School of International Development, GSID, at Nagoya University and professor Yasunobu Sato, also GSID, accept to become TFF Associates. Board member Jørgen Johansen develops a project on the non-violent changes in Yugoslavia and elsewhere.
November 2004 Various fund-raising activities begin for the rest of the year. November 12, TFF Board meeting # 58 takes place in Lund, while the founders are in Japan. Board members Gudrun Schyman and Jan Oberg continue working on a series of articles focussing on the relations between patriarchy and security policies. One of them becomes TFF PressInfo 205. Oberg gives guest lectures at Soka University and at SGI Youth Centre in Nagoya, Japan and participates in a weekly seminar at Nagoya University on peacebuilding. In addition, he plans various fund-raising activities and projects in 2005, including a contribution to a Danish textbook on psychology. On the 8th Johan Galtung and Jan Oberg meet in Kyoto to plan the content of a future book on Yugoslavia. The third author, Håkan Wiberg, is in Australia. Co-ordination by mail the rest of the year with a view to writing the book through 2005.
October 2004 TFF co-founder Christina Spännar launches a new project, this time local - on immigration issues in the neighbouring municipality of Eslöv, a project financed by the EU - see the new section Eslöv Forum here. The TFF Feature Collections are intensified on our website, particularly those of relevance for the US Presidential elections on Nov. 2. We also begin publishing the Positive News, Views and Stories. October 11-15, Jan Oberg gives an intensive workshop on peacebuilding at Nagoya University for 25 students from Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Cambodia a.o. It's the first course related to peace at the university. Early October we launch a comprehensive bibliography of literature by and about Mohandas K. Gandhi in Norwegian, Swedish and Danish. It covers about 80 years of books, articles and some newspaper articles, films etc. The search for this was done earlier this year by TFF volunteer Kirstine Rønnov Due.
September 2004 On September 16, Oberg departed for Japan to be a visiting professor for three months at Nagoya University, Graduate School of International Development, GSID where he will focus on peace-keeping in a broad sense. The visit offers ample opportunities for developing the working relations TFF already has with the International Christian University, Soka-Gakkai and others as well as explore fund-raising opportunities. In the small town of Celle sul Rigo in Toscana, Italy, early this month, Jan Oberg gives a training workshop on reconciliation with people from Greenland. The workshop is arranged by Fatuma Ali, a Somali psychologist who has spent the last 30 years in Denmark and Greenland. TFF becomes an adviser to the individuals and organisations that promote peace and reconciliation in Greenland. Early September, "Ondskabens Psykologi" by Rolf Kuschel, Faezeh Zand og Jan Øberg is published in Danish by Frydenlund Forlag, Copenhagen (Title in English, The Psychology of Evil. Social Psychological Essays).
August 2004 From the 20th to the 26th, Jan Oberg is on mission in Burundi, coordinating with the TFF Amahoro Coalition members and meeting with representatives of the international community there. A number of feature articles about the peace process and the November elections in Burundi are written in August together with Burundian TFF Associates Chantal Mutamuriza and Sururu Adolphe. A second-hand G4 Macinstosh and a brand new Mac iBook G4 portable computer are installed both with the new Operative System X. General overhaul and updating of TFF's computer system and e-mail service. TFF Associate Annette Schiffmann visits the HQ for a week and offers much inspiration and practical assistance. The founders participate in a workshop on The Crisis, The Movement and the Alternatives 20 Years After, a workshop with some of the contributors to three books in Swedish edited in the mid-1980s by Mats Friberg (former TFF board member) and Johan Galtung, TFF Associate. Board member Håkan Wiberg, Galtung and Oberg plan their forthcoming common book on what happened in Yugoslavia - and how the international community could have handled the conflicts. The workshop was held at Orust on the Swedish west coast with our Associates Erni & Ola Friholt.
July 2004 Professor Svetozar
Stojanovic, Belgrade, joins
TFF as Associate. TFF is proud to be nominated by a number of organisations for the 2004 World Cultural Open, WCO Award (but does not win it).
June 2004 Jan Oberg's book (in Danish), Predictable Fiasco. The Conflict with Iraq and Denmark as an Occupying Power is published by Tiderne Skifter in Copenhagen. Several reviews, interviews and follow-up articles. TFF's Håkan Wiberg and Oberg contribute chapters to a book about the Violent Dissolution of Former Yugoslavia as follow-up to the March conference in Belgrade on that theme. Board member Gudrun Schyman and Jan Oberg write 3 articles for the Swedish press with a focus on the EU, security and patriarchy, arguing that we need alternative security with feminist perspectives. Happily, Danish sociologist and peace researcher, Claus Kold, accepts to become TFF Associate. TFF Associates publish an increasing number of analyses on our website as well as on other organisations' website. TFF sends out slightly more PeaceBrowsers and PeaceTips than before. We pass 225.000 visitors to our front page, one of 3.000 documents. TFF Associate Jonathan Power gets the first interview with India's new prime minister. And Jan Oberg begins to plan his three months-stay as visiting professor at Nagoya University in Japan from mid-September.
May 2004 We develop the "Solidifying Peace in Burundi" An integrated project with 8 Burundian NGOs in the TFF Amahoro (Peace) Coalition, May 2004. And Jan Oberg's photo series from Burundi is launched on the TFF site. Board meeting 57 takes place on May 14. On May 13, Italian school children
interview Jan Oberg over the phone, as part of their
school's efforts to promote world peace and reconciliation;
it is organised by member of the local Soka Gakkai
chapter. TFF Assocuate and project co-ordinator in Burundi, Chantal Mutamuriza, spends 5 days at TFF HQ, visits institutes and programs in Lund and Copenhagen and together we plan our forthcoming larger project in her country.
April 2004 On April 15, TFF Associate Hans von Sponeck and Jan Oberg are keynote speakers at a hearing on Iraq in Copenhagen, alternative to that held by the Danish government. Jan gives a series of lectures and participate in radio programs concerning Iraq and global terrorism. We design a new navigation menu ifor the website. PressInfos about Kosovo, the nuclear proliferation issue etc. More frequent PeaceTips and PeaceBrowser dispatches. And more Feature articles than usual - all to attract every larger readership to TFF's website. During the first days of April, TFF associates again convene in the Balkans, this time in Skopje, Macedonia. Professor Biljana Vankovska is in charge of a project "Post-Ohrid Macedonia: Designing an Agenda for Genuine Post-Conflict Peacebuilding" and a first workshop will be held around this theme with, among others, TFF Associates such as Hakan Wiberg, Ann-Sofi Jakobsson-Hatay and Jan Oberg. After that, in Belgrade, Oberg gives a lecture on comparative aspects of the Balkans and Iraq at the Serbian-American Centre whose president is Zvetozar Stojanovic.
March 2004 The TFF Amahoro (Peace) Coalition consisting of 8 Burundian NGOs submits its integrated project to TFF and fund-raising for it begins. A series of TFF PressInfos about The Balkans Five Years After the Bombs begin to emerge on our site. Lecturing and training at a number of Danish people's colleges as a follow-up and testing of the educational materials produced last months. Presently, TFF Associate Dietrich Fischer is academic director at the European University Center for Peace Studies (EPU) in Schlaining outside Vienna. Jan Oberg teaches a 3-days introductory course there on peace and conflict studies with about 30 students there during the first days of March. TFF board member Håkan Wiberg and Oberg then participate in a conference in Belgrade on what to learn from the dissolution of what was once Yugoslavia. Oberg continues to Eastern Slavonia, including Vukovar, to see what it looks like today and link up with local citizens and groups TFF worked with up to 1998. This mission lasts March 1-10.
February 2004 Jan Oberg produces the larger, final version (75 pp) of the educational materials for the Danish people's colleges. It enters the website on February 17 and promoted to other educational institutions throughout Denmark. Board members work on various elements of our fund-raising campaign. Through PeaceTips, selected sections of the website are promoted; our analysis of last year show an average of 4,200 visits to our site per day. The TFF Amahoro (Peace) Coalition members work on their proposal for a common project in Burundi. TFF board member Jørgen Johansen participates in the World Social Forum in Mumbai. Oberg produces a 40-page manuscript about evil in the international society for the book Ondskabens Psykologi. Socialpsykologiske Essays (The Psychology of Evil. Socio-Psychological Essays) by Rolf Kuschl and Faezeh Zand to be published later this spring by Frydenlund Publishers, København 2004 Oberg works until mid-March on revising and updating the manuscript for his book, Forudsigelig Fiasko. Konflikten med Irak og Danmark som besættelsesmagt (Predictable Fiasco. The Conflict with Iraq and Denmark as an Occupying Power) which is in Danish and will be published by Tiderne Skifter in May 2004.
January 2004 PressInfo 193 about Burundi is published. The TFF Burundi Forum is established on our site. Board chairman Christian Hårleman reports to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs about our mission to Burundi. We publish a new TFF report on the risk of violence and war in Macedonia. On February 17, Jan Oberg is awarded the North-South Cultural Communication Prize for 2004 by Mahdi Elmandjra, President of the Research Fund for the Study of the Future of North-South Cultural Communication in Rabat, Morocco. More. The educational materials about conflict resolution in general to be used by all Danish people's colleges in spring 2004 - are published here in English, here in Danish with two contributions by Jan Oberg. In January he produces another set of materials for that project, this time about the relations between EU/Europe and the US. He also writes a foreword to the Danish edition of Daisaku Ikeda's book, The World is Yours to Change (Det er Dig der Ændrer Verden, Askov Højskoles Forlag 2004).
Fund-raising 2004: US$ 26.009 We received US$ 26.009 in individual donations from our Nordic friends and friends in the rest of the world. That was a very good increase compared with US$ 14.211 in 2003. Thanks to every single one of you! Jan Oberg & Christina
Spännar
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