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HQ activities and all the rest What follows is an account of what is done mainly at the TFF HQ in Lund with board members, advisors and some of the Associates. It does not tell you what all TFF Associates - about 100 around the world - do on their own or as Associates of the foundation. If you added it all up, TFF's network represents a uniquely broad and productive community for peacemaking.
December 2005 Detailed planning of 2006 activities in Burundi. TFF PressInfo 231 - Is the European Union pro-peace? - by Jan Oberg. Is sent out together with Erni & Ola Friholt's analysis of the EU Treaty and alternative formulations of it. Fund-raising campaign by e-mail. Various preparations in advance of the 20th Anniversary of the foundation in 2006, e.g. production of an anniversary logo. Some fifty new articles are posted on the site, several pages updated in advance of the new year. TFF PressInfo 230 - by Richard Falk in how to end the Iraq war - sent out with reference to other related TFF articles. On December 6, the TFF Amahoro Coalition in Burundi publishes its proposal for an Amahoro Open Peace Center in Bujumbura, an idea paper with which we hope mobilise support and enthusiasm. TFF PressInfo 229 - an appeal by TFF Associate Annette Schiffmann to give clemency to Tookie Williams who is scheduled to die on December 13 - is published on December 2. We also participate on our site in the international campaign to free the four abducted Christian Peace Team members in Iraq.
November 2005 Various TFF Associates sign the Statement on Iran drafted by the British-American Secuity Information Council, BasicInt. Three experts join TFF as new Associates - Martin Smedjeback (nonviolence), Annabel McGoldrick and Jake Lynch (peace journalism). Foundation maintenance: Various site updates and technical changes are finalised after our site is moved to a new server. Re-organisation of the foundations' library and archive is begun. Work on various book manuscripts in the pipeline. November 24-25 Oberg gives a lecture on the role and responsibilities of universities at a conference on international development and peace in Siena, sponsored by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the University for Foreign Students. Board meeting # 61 is held at TFF HQ on November 11. The founders are on holiday October 31-November 5 - on the occasion of Christina Spännar's 60th birthday.
October 2005 Christina finalises her Eslöv project report and the book, "Med rötter i fjärran land. 20 berättelser." Jan does the editing and layout. October 27, PressInfo 228 on "Kosovo - Many options but independence" is published. October 14-24, Oberg visits Burundi to do fact-finding and plan the activities for the next 10 months, including teaching and training with TFF's Amahoro Coalition and at the Lumiere University. Planning of the next mission to Burundi - see Burundi Forum. And we take the first steps with our Burundian partners to outline a new Peace Centre in Bujumbura. TFF adviser Gudrun Engström visits the DRC and Burundi in September- October . Oberg gives 3 public lectures on various issues related to peace, peace education and peace movements, in Denmark. The first of several series of photos from Greenland are posted on the site - a collaborative project between Gitte Arvegaard and Jan Oberg. On the 8th, Jan Oberg serves as official opponent on Stellan Vinthagen's doctoral dissertation on the social practise of mass non-violence at PADRIGU, Gothenberg University. The focus of this PhD is on interpretations of the social meanings of actions of nonviolent disobedience as well as on how transnational movements' breaking of system rules influences economic and political system and violence-based power. Oberg gives a series of lectures in Gothenberg in connection with this event on October 7 and 9.
September 2005 Christina Spännar works intensely on a book containing the stories of 20 foreigners who have come to Sweden from troubled areas. This is one of several results of the project conducted in co-operation with the Eslöv Municipality - see more at the Eslöv Forum. The project will end towards the end of the year with a summarising report. On September 21 - the UN Day of Peace - TFF PressInfo 227 goes out. Scilla Elworthy writes about "Tackling terror is women's work". Jan Oberg prepares his opposition on Stellan Vinthagen's 500-page doctoral dissertation (see under October). Comprehensive additions to our homepage, more frequent mail dispatches. On September 10, PressInfo 226 goes out. Chaiwat Satha-Anand writes about "Remembering the Nonviolent September 11" - Gandhi's in South Africa in 1906. TFF Associate Yasunobu Sato, Tokyo University, visits the foundation September 1-3 to discuss a major project on human security as a barrier against genocide - to be developed with numerous Japanese and international scholars and institutions and (hopefully) financed by the Japanese Ministry of Education.
August 2005 On August 28, Fatuma Ali and Daniel Thorleifssen from Nuuk, Greenland, visit the foundation. Further co-operation between the Greenland-Denmark Reconciliation Group there and TFF is discussed as follow-up to the seminars and activities with Jan Oberg held in Greenland in May. August 26, TFF Associate Biljana Vankovska visits the foundation. Galtung, Wiberg and Oberg continue writing on a book about Yugoslavia (see July), co-writing and editing in Spain August 14-21. August 6, Oberg participated in a nuclear weapons symposium in Copenhagen in commemoration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 60 followed up by a longer personal interview in the Danish Broadcasting (DR) "People and Faith" series on August 8. August 4, Jan Obergs book in Danish, Fremmer EU freden? Analyse, kritik og alternativer - Does the European Union Further Peace? Analysis, Criticism and Alternatives - is published by the Copenhagen-based NyAgenda thinktank. A seminar is held with invited press and interested people. The front page of the foundation's homepage is reorganised. New sections about nuclear weapons as terrorism, about world reforms (Vicky Rossi) and about TFF associates are posted. Lots of new articles posted too. TFF Associate Annette Schiffmann visits the foundation August 2-8.
July 2005 On July 26, we publish TFF PressInfo 225 - Dietrich Fischer writes about "The real threat is nuclear terrorism". Jan Oberg joins the Advisory Board of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies founded by TFF Associate Evelin Lindner. Oberg finalises a manuscript for Nuuk University in Greenland, based on his lecture there in May, "Balance the Igaliku Agreement with Peace Politics" (23 pages) to be published in the Nuuk University Yearbook. TFF advisor Erni Friholt is nominated, together with 999 other women around the world, for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005. PressInfo 224, Purple Hearts - My Heart Is Burning, by Annette Schiffmann - dealing with the photos of Nina Berman of the soliders who have been wounded in Iraq, is sent out on July 16. Major updating on the website and other foundation maintenance in the summer weeks. Jan Oberg agrees to serve as an Associate Editor of the prestigeous Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace and Conflict, 2nd ed. TFF Associates and board members Håkan Wiberg, Jan Oberg and Johan Galtung work on a book about the dissolution of former Yugoslavia and what could have been done differently in terms of international conflict-mitigation. Working title, Former Yugoslavia - Opportunities Lost, Opportunities Regained. PressInfo 223, Economic Boycott as Nonviolence, by Johan Galtung is sent out on July 13. Jan Oberg agress to join the advisory board of Institute for Policy Research & Development whose executive director is Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed. PressInfo 222, Srebrenica Muslims Remembered, the Rest Silenced, written by Jan Oberg, is sent out on July 11, the day of the 10th Anniversary of the massacre in that Bosnian town. Stuart Rees, Centre for Peace & Conflict Studies, University of Sydney Australia, joins us as TFF Associate. Vicky Rossi, TFF Antenna, achieves an MA degree in Peace and Conflict Studies at the European Peace University with founder Oberg as her advisor. A Shared Human Identity - The Foundation of a Peace Culture (pdf 615 KB). Micro and macro perspectives on humanity; peace and patriarchy; the UN and a planetary society; towards a peace culture in accordance with the Earth Charter. (56 pages). With this she is accepted to study for her PhD at Bradford University. Founder Christina Spannar updates the description and reports on the project on improving the migration process in the Eslöv municipality. On July 1, Oberg finishes writing a 60 page booklet in Danish about the EU - its peace, security, defence and foreign policy as well as about conflict-management - a a debate piece in the run-up to the planned (but later cancelled) Danish referendum of the EU Constitution. Commissioned by the Danish think tank NewAgenda. Title: Does the EU promote peace? Analysis, Critique and Alternatives - Fremmer EU Freden. Analyse, Kritik og Alternativer (in Danish).
June 2005 The foundation receives a grant of Swedish kronor 304.000 (38.500 US$ or 32.200 ¤ for the next 12 months of project work in Burundi from the Folke Bernadotte Academy in Sweden. Less outreach activity this month because of the founders' writing obligations. Three TFF Associates, Richard Falk, Johan Galtung and Hans von Sponeck are keynote speakers at the World Tribunal on Iraq held in Istanbul in late June. June 10, Oberg gives a lecture at Siena's University in Italy, on "Another Way of Seeing Things: 9 Roads to a Peaceful World." 150 people, television and newspaper interviews. June 11, speaking for about 300 Soka Gakkai members of 18-25 years of age in Soka Gakkai Italy's centre in Firenze. June 15 speaking at Vestjyllands Højskole in Jutland, Denmark and in Skive in the evening. June 18 did an interview of 60 minutes about people, peace and faith for the Danish Radio Broadcasting Corporation - to be aired on August 6. Also, interview with the Swedish Broadcasting about media, conflict, war and peace.
May 2005 May 30, lecture and training seminar with participants of the Swedish immigration authorities and municipalities. May 25-28, Oberg participates in the Toda Institute's conference in Madrid together with TFF Associates Nur Yalman and Chaiwat Satha-Anand. TFF will continue its participation in the Toda endeavour in continuation of the book, Democratizing Global Media. One World, Many Struggles, during the next year with a focus on peace journalism: articles, a website, development of a prototype curriculum, etc. May 20, board meetings 59-60 are held at the HQ. May 6-16, TFF's director visits Nuuk, the capital of Greenland on the invitation of a number of NGOs and the University of Greenland, Department of Culture and Social History - a follow-up to the seminar in Tuscany, Italy, in September 2004. Oberg will give a series of lectures and seminars on the role of Thule and Greenland in the Ballistic Missile Defence, on conflict-mitigation, reconciliation and civil society empowerment and discuss Greenland's role in global peace policies. Several TFF Associates - e.g. Francis Boyle, Richard Falk, Glenn D. Page, Chaiwat Satha-Anand, Jay lifton, David Krieger, Papandreou - join the International Advisory Board of the newly established Mahatma Gandhi Center for Global Nonviolence at James Madison University, founded by Sushil Mittal, PhD. Founder Christina Spannar continues the project on smoothing migration procedures in the the project on improving the migration process in the Eslöv municipality with ever more partners in the network. Much to do before the first one-year reporting in August.
April 2005 TFF participates in the international symposium, Another Voice. The UN in Conflicts - in Stockholm on April 17. At that conference, the Swedish Peace Council awards its "2005 Small Peace Prize" to Jan Oberg. New book on Media and World Affairs is published, Democratizing Global Media. One World, Many Struggles, edited by Robert A. Hackett & Yuezhi Zhao. Includes Jan Oberg's chapter "The Iraq Conflict and the Media: Embedded with War rather than with Peace and Democracy." See contents and order your copy here. The foundation is invited to a meeting in Paris, at the initiative of the Oxford Research Group, with the aim to make 10 selected organisations within the EU join forces in their work for peace and global security. The gathering decides to call the 3-year co-operative effort "The European Peace and Security Policy Initiative - EPSPI". We publish the tenth and last article in the Kosovo Solution Series. It's referred to by Reuters as the place you can learn more, also used by Balkan media, Transitions Online, etc. Jan Oberg is invited to join the Japanese Study Group on Peacebuilding.
March 2005 During Easter, TFF Associate Johan Galtung and Jan Oberg meet members of the political leadership of the Sri Lankan Tamil Tigers in Austria, lectures, dialogues and mediation under the leadership of Gudrun Kramer and Wilfred Graf, Institute for Integrative Conflict Transformation and Peace-Building (IICP) Vienna. March 17 sees the beginning of the TFF Kosovo Solution Series, 10 PressInfos on the present situation and possible future solutions to the Kosovo conflict. TFF Associate Aleksandar Mitic and Jan Oberg are the authors. Some 15 articles by TFF Associates posted on the website, including a special series of works and interviews with Robert Jay Lifton. On March 12 we commemorate the 75th Anniversary of Gandhi's Salt March from Ahmedabad to Dandi with a series of articles and links on our front page. Jan Oberg gives and introductory course on peace and conflict research at the European Peace University, EPU, March 1-3. Back on March 7, work on a series of PressInfos related to the present and future situation in Kosovo, the first being PressInfo 208 The UN in Kosovo praises potential war criminal - why?
February 2005 TFF mission to Belgrade and Pristina, Kosovo between February 21 and March 7. Some 25 interviews with, among others, United Nations and OSCE staff as well as Albanians and Serbs in Kosovo and intellectuals in Belgrade. TFF Associate Svetozar Stojanovic helps set up a meeting with deputy Prime Minister Nebojsa Covic who coordinates relations with Kosovo. Oberg speaks about Visions of Peace for the Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society on February 12. The day after TFF participates in the establishment of the Danish-Swedish Sound Committee on the 75th Anniversary of the Salt March. Grant-proposals are made for projects in Iraq and a fact-finding mission to Iran. We develop a TFF Feature Collection about the peace process in Burundi and post it on the site on the 16th. Various public lectures, preparation between Galtung, Wiberg an Oberg for their forthcoming book on ex-Yugoslavia. Mission preparations - Belgrade and Kosovo.
January 2005 TFF PressInfo 207 about the U.S. military on the Diego Garcia island in the Indan Ocean knowing about the coming tsunami but not informing others about it - written by Dietrich Fischer - is posted. Jan Oberg writes a chapter for a Danish textbook on psychology with a focus on the psychology of conflict and peace. (Frydenlund Publisher, Copenhagen). He also guest lectures at Rotary in Landskrona Sweden, gives a one-hour interview to Radio Fredrikshavn in Denmark. Vicky Rossi becomes a new Peace Antenna and Riane Eisler joins TFF as Associate. The annual update of the website, updating the archives of articles of the preceding years, takes place. A smaller e-mail fund-raising campaign results in about US$ 5.000 in the first weeks of the year.
Fund-raising 2005 We received US$ 25.866 in individual donations from our Nordic friends and friends in the rest of the world. That was a bit disappointing compared with US$ 26.009 in 2004. Thanks to every single one of you! Jan Oberg & Christina
Spännar
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