dougnoll’s posthaven

Segment 1: IARP.org.  On this edition of The Doug Noll Show we review the recent history of Iraq and speak with Iraqi peace activist Sami Rasouli. Sami is Executive Director of the Muslim Peacemakers Team, which is part of Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project (www.reconciliationproject.org), a nonprofit organization that works to rebuild what war and occupation has destroyed. 

On September 12^th, 2001, Sami was scared and confused and did not want to go to work, or even out in public. He tells us that once it was learned that a group of Muslims were responsible for the attack of 9/11, every Muslim was affected negatively. At that moment he felt self-hatred for being a Muslim. However, his family forced him to go to work and face his fears.

Segment 2: Healing from 9/11.  When Sami was at work, two Jewish women came in to see him and talk to him about what happened. He was offered a safe-haven --- a place to hide and heal. Sami and these two women shared food, hopes, dreams, and tears on that day. They brainstormed about how to heal from 9/11. They decided to form a dialogue organization to bring together families of all races, religions and nationalities. They do not talk about politics or religion; they only socialize and have a good time together. Kids are encouraged to attend. At the moment the idea for the organization was created Sami says he felt an inner peace, and something inside him woke up and started paying attention.

Segment 3: The Attraction to Violence.  Doug believes there are a lot of people who are attracted to violence because they don’t have any choice. They perceive threats to their existence. In some areas, where there is a poor education system, the women are oppressed, and there is deep poverty and no hope, they turn to violence. They see a Western lifestyle that is affluent compared to their lifestyle, and it scares them. Their identity and existence are being threatened, and it angers them. As a result of this fear and anger, young men who have no hope are driven to violence.

Segment 4: The Division of Iraq.  Prospects for Iraq: Sami thinks one of the important objectives of the invasion of 2003 by the U.S. was dividing Iraq into three pieces. For the last 11 years the Iraqi people have woken up each morning to find themselves divided into different ethnicities. The invasion and its objectives were implemented, one after another. Baghdad is considered a mixture of people, although Southern Iraqis feel it’s dangerous to visit Baghdad. They are psychologically already divided. There are a lot of people outside of Iraq that want to see Iraq broken into a number of pieces. The goal is to fragment and dismember the country into smaller pieces. To find out more about Sami’s organization, please visit http://reconciliationproject.org/. 

To listen to the entire interview, CLICK HERE or visit http://wsradio.com/070314-reviewing-conflict-iran-middle-east/.

Segment 1: From War-Torn Vietnam to Restorative Justice.  On this edition of The Doug Noll Show we have the honor of speaking with Dr. Carl Stauffer, Assistant Professor of Development and Justice Studies at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding. Dr. Stauffer grew up in Vietnam, as his parents were missionaries. The Stauffer family lived among the Vietnam people and saw the impact of the war from that perspective. They fled the country a mere 3 weeks before Saigon fell to the communist government. Carl tells us it was very surreal, but he never felt terror to the credit of his parents. Eventually his family made their way to another part of the city where there was less fighting, and then to the Philippines.

Dr. Stauffer was an early proponent of Restorative Justice movement (first called Victim Offender Reconciliation). He believes the research – especially the neuroscience aspect - is finally starting to catch up with the practice. Our brains are actually chemically wired to try to find the humanity in another person, and to empathize.

Segment 2: Interest in Healing, But No Opportunity.  There is something magical and transformative about the restorative justice process. The capacity for human compassion surpasses understanding. All we need to do is give willing victims and offenders the ability to do this in a safe space and it simply unfolds.

Carl and his young family spent 16 years in South Africa. A mediation trainer position opened up in Johannesburg and they made their way there, along with their two small children. At that time there was a lot of political violence that he did not take lightly. In their years there they did race reconciliation, post-war reconstruction, and transitional justice. Carl believes South Africa enjoyed a partial restorative justice process, but not a true restorative justice. It gave a voice to victims, and made people accountable. However, there wasn’t an attachment to remorse, and there was little or no restitution. There was a lot of interest from the African communities in mending the harm of apartheid, but no opportunity. 

Segment 3: Justice is a Human Need.  So how do we heal ourselves? How do we find justice in a community context? And what exactly is justice? This discussion doesn’t make sense unless we reframe the definition of justice. Dr. Stauffer defines justice as imbedded in relationships. We need to ask ourselves how we can build respect and accountability and work out issues without violence. This can only happen when we work on relationships; it’s not going to happen by a set of codes or legal parameters on paper. The myth of Adversary Ideology permeates western law and judicial teaching.  True justice is an actual human need.

Segment 4: Revenge Is Short-Lived.  Vengeance arises out of the dopamine center of the brain. However, the problem with our brain is that once you get revenge, you feel no pleasure. We have an escalation cycle of punishment without reward. What’s really interesting is that when you bring people together to work on reconciliation, there is a huge dopamine release as people come to an agreement and feel peace. We get no reward to anticipating peace; we only get the reward when we achieve it. Sweet revenge might be there in a moment, but it is very short-lived.

All the things that the criminal justice system stands on, such as incapacitation, deterrents and rehabilitation, are not being backed up by research. They are not effective and yet we are continue to pour a huge amount of resources into them. With restorative justice we are repairing harm and mending society. To find out more about Carl’s work and the classes he teaches, visit http://emu.edu/personnel/people/show/cds494.

CLICK HERE to listen to the entire interview.

Segment 1: Conflict, Rebellion and Corruption.  On this edition of The Doug Noll Show we are speaking with anthropologist and author Christopher Duncan. Dr. Duncan, a graduate of Yale University, is currently a professor of Religious and Global Studies at Arizona State University. Christopher took his first cultural anthropology class as an undergraduate. In grad school he had the goal of working with indigenous healers in Guatemala but ultimately decided to study Indonesia. Indonesia has been a hotbed of conflict for a long time. In general Christopher thinks the cause of this conflict is due to the fact that Indonesia is an incredibly diverse country with between 400-800 different language groups and 5 major religions. Additionally, at the turn of century Indonesia’s very long and powerful iron fist dictatorship fell. Once the dictator’s grip was loosened, conflict and rebellions and corruption began to surface.

Segment 2: A Religious State.  Halmahera was Christopher’s first research site. His initial research project was to find a particular forest-dwelling hunting and gathering community that lived in the interior area of Halmahera and live with and study them.

Christopher tells us that there has been a long-standing Indonesian government policy to force people to convert to one of the world’s large religious groups (Muslim or Christianity). The compromise: Indonesia decided that rather than having a state religion, they would be a religious state. After 1965 when the military dictatorship came into power, in order for an Indonesian to function in society, they needed an ID card. To get an ID card, they had to have a religion, which is listed on the ID card. They are unable to send their kids to school, vote, register their land, etc. unless they had an ID card with a religion listed.

Segment 3: North Maluku.  In North Maluku there was what Christopher called a Communal Conflict. It ended in a stalemate. Each side took over the areas they were able to take over and everyone was pushed into their corner. There was a large massacre in a church where 20+ people were killed, and after that the Indonesian government declared a state of energy. The Indonesian government did not do any formal peacemaking programs in North Maluku. It fell upon local communities to make peace and reconnect with their neighbors and enemies.

Segment 4:  Violence and Vengeance.  Christopher’s book, Violence and Vengeance, is about the way people are remembering the various conflicts in Indonesia. There’s a landscape dotted with monuments dedicated to religious conflict. He believes the biggest issue was the breakdown of the security in the country. If the security apparatus would’ve been a bit more robust, the conflicts might have been avoided. To find out more about Dr. Christopher Duncan, please visit https://webapp4.asu.edu/directory/person/853633.

CLICK HERE to listen to the entire interview.

Segment 1: Holism and Cross-Cultural Comparison.  Our guest on this edition of The Doug Noll Show is Dr. Brian Ferguson. Dr. Ferguson is a Professor of Anthropology at Rutgers University and is an expert on war within the context of Anthropology. Brian is of the age that he was up for the draft to Vietnam. He was opposed to the war but also came to understand that he didn’t know why we were even in the Vietnam War, which prompted him to study it for his graduate degree.

Cultural Anthropology means different things to different people. Brian learned that the hallmark of anthropology were the two pillars of Holism and Cross-Cultural Comparison. Holism is the belief that the different aspects of a society all fit together to form a whole. To understand one aspect of a community you need to understand the whole picture, as they are all parts of an integrated whole. Cross Cultural comparison means you look at a great number of societies to understand a particular society.

Segment 2: War Has an Origin.  There is a theory that says throughout humanity’s past, war has been ubiquitous. This is not true. In fact, anthropologists can see when they look at the total archeological record (instead of cherry-picking certain times and places) that war has an origin. At some point in a society’s history, war appears. Usually it’s after the onset of agriculture. From then on, war does not go away.

Brian has always opted for a minimal definition of war. His definition involves a collection of people who engage in an activity against another collection of people that involves killing. 

Segment 3: Moral Values to Make War Acceptable.  The neurological aspect of war and cooperation is something that Brian has studied. He does not believe that war is innate in our nature. Most human decision-making is not rational; it’s emotional. This provides content as to why we quickly escalate into conflicts. In some cultures, not only is war not viewed as “bad”, but it’s also an essential part of maintaining the balance of society and allowing young men to become and be perceives as adults. Whoever makes the decision to fight looks at the practical outcome of fighting or not fighting. As they convince others to go to war and try to rationalize to themselves the need for war, they will connect their own self-interests to the highest values and morals within their culture (revenge, democracy, etc.). As people make their decisions to go to war, they evoke their moral values to make it an acceptable practice.

Segment 4: Leaders and War.  Brian tells us that leaders often favor war because war often favors leaders. From tribal societies to ancient states to modern societies, leaders often find their own interest being elevated by heightened conflict and war with others. When there is deadly conflict, leaders are usually elevated. In fact, working for peace actually takes more strength than going to war. It’s all about the leadership. To read more about Brian, visit his bio: http://www.ncas.rutgers.edu/r-brian-ferguson.

To listen to the entire interview, please CLICK HERE.

 

Segment 1: The Military Creates Wars.  On this edition of The Doug Noll Show we are speaking with David Swanson, author, journalist and radio host. David is working to organize a movement to end all war (worldbeyondwar.org). David started in journalism and a press secretary in 2004, and from 2005 onward he’s been organizing peace organizations. Similar to a lot of children in the United States, he was brought up being told he should use words instead of fists, but as a young adult he realized we as a society put a tremendous amount of energy fighting. When you’re raised with such contraction, you either pretend it’s not there or you decide to support one side or the other.

We spend more on recruitment into the military than we do on education. Why is this fact not catching people’s attention? When you look at polls you have a strong majority saying we should have never invaded Afghanistan and Iraq. Nobody wants a new war, either. But when you ask people if we should stop having war or stop having a military, many people say NO WAY. They think the “evil people will get us.” This thinking spans both the left and the right. We tend to redefine war and tweak the numbers to accomplish a minimization of war deaths. In reality, the military doesn’t protect us from wars; the military creates wars. 

Segment 2: 190 Million Deaths.  During the 20^th century, 190 million deaths can be attributed directly or indirectly war, more than the previous two centuries. One thing people do is argue that proportionately speaking, 190 million isn’t as big a percentage because our population has increased. Even more unfortunately is that 85-90% of the deaths are civilian. The media does not discuss all the civilian deaths. In the U.S. we have a different standard of holding our government accountable. Since we have not had a war in our country in recent history, many people cannot possibly understand what war is really like. 

Segment 3: Planning for War.  David tells us that President Obama has tripled the troops in Afghanistan and is now pledging to keep 5,000 troops for 10 more years. When we put all our resources and efforts into planning for wars, we will end up getting more wars instead of avoiding them. Annual U.S. spending amounts to $1 trillion per year! David thinks we are making an effort to dominate the entire globe.

Segment 4: A Highly Reactive Issue.  There is a myth of redemptive violence that is very much a part of our culture. How do we get people back to peace? First of all, David tells us to get rid of the TV and treat it as a dangerous weapon. TV is misleading. We are trained to believe that the U.S. government intervenes to protect people from evil and the bad guys, but in reality the horrors are usually brought about by the government intervention. It is a highly reactive and non-integrated issue. To find out more about David’s work, visit www.davidswanson.org.

To listen to the entire interview, please CLICK HERE.

 

 

Segment 1: 17,000 Nuclear Weapons.  On this edition of The Doug Noll Show we are speaking with Alice Slater, the New York Director of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and a member of the Global Council of Abolition 2000. Alice is also the Secretary for Sustainability of the Green Shadow Cabinet and is on the Steering Committee of the World Beyond War Coalition.

Alice was originally a New York school teacher. In 1968 she was watching TV and saw a program about Vietnam becoming a communist country, and on that same night the students at Columbia University were rioting in protest of the war, which terrified her. The very next day she went down to the Democratic Club and joined, and within a month she was the co-chair of Eugene McCarthy’s campaign on Long Island. Once her youngest child went to college she attended to law school and eventually wound up getting involved in the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. She’s now a United Nations representative working to ban nuclear weapons.

Alice tells us there are 17,000 nuclear weapons on the planet, and 16,000 of them are in U.S. and Russia. A nuclear bomb is made out of the waste of a nuclear reactor. We are currently developing a whole new warhead, and we are not even being threatened. This is a huge waste of time and money. 

Segment 2: Military Industrial Complex.  Eisenhower warned us about the Military Industrial Complex. When Kennedy stopped the atmospheric testing, the testing went underground. Clinton finally stopped the underground testing (the Soviet Union halted it first) but then the industry went into the labs. 

There was a Non-Proliferation Treaty signed in 1970 between 5 nuclear weapon states: U.S., Russia, England, China and France. They promised to give up their nuclear weapons if all the other countries in the world promised not to use them. Everyone signed except India, Pakistan and Israel. The treaty was supposed to expire in 1995, but many non-governmental agencies showed up at the United Nations to lobby the governments to make good on their promise of disarmament. The treaty was renewed indefinitely and the Abolition 2000 Network was formed to draft a nuclear weapons treaty and international renewable energy agency treaty, which is in effect. 

Segment 3: Government is not Going to Save Us.  Iran wants the technology to make nuclear power. There’s been a move to control the proliferation of materials, so a number of countries want to get their hands on the technology. There is no way to handle the waste. Nuclear power is highly technical and there is only a select group of people who know how to handle it. There is no rational reason for engaging in the development of nuclear weapons. What’s in our favor is that the earth can’t take it anymore and people are becoming more aware of the issue. Government is not going to save us. Citizens need to take steps to change this themselves.

Segment 1: War is Not Inevitable.  War is not inevitable. It’s time to think about different possibilities. Alice thinks NATO should be disbanded, as she views it just as an old military alliance. We need to work locally but also look after foreign policy and make sure the policy makers stay on task. To find out more about Alice’s work, please visit www.abolition2000.org.

To listen to the entire interview: 

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Segment 1: Building a More Peace-Able World.  On this edition of The Doug Noll Show we have the honor of speaking with Prabha Sankaranarayan, a conflict transformation consultant who has mediated, facilitated and trained in Europe, Asia, Africa and the USA. She is the current CEO and President of Mediators Beyond Borders (http://mediatorsbeyondborders.org/), an international organization focused on building a more “peace able” world. Prabha started her career as a clinician working with individuals who had experienced violence, trauma and large-scale disasters. After realizing most of her days were spent actively listening to clients – which she enjoyed - she took a mediation class and was instantly hooked. She then begin practicing family mediation and eventually restorative justice.

Segment 2: Build Local Skills for Peace and Promote Mediation Worldwide.  MBB’s Liberian project just ended after a successful 7-year run. The intensive project brought about a higher employment rate as well as less violence among the participants. They have now established a mediation center in the Liberian camp and have been asked to come back and do some work with women in the community as well.

MBB’s mission is simple: to build local skills for peace and promote mediation worldwide. The idea is that practitioners from around the world can actually contribute to building the capacity for peace on every level. They focus on the local level with volunteers who initiate projects with an invitation from MBB. MBB puts out a call for action, collects volunteers who have the necessary skills, and then they’re off and running. Each project looks different, with different participants, different volunteers, different issues, different goals.

Prabha divides their work into two main categories: building local advocacy and promoting mediation. These projects are always in partnership with local volunteers. The goal is to find what is resilient within a particular community and use those properties to rebuild the community after a trauma.

Segment 3: Nepal, Sierra Leone, and More.  MBB also has a Nepal project going, as well as one in Sierra Leone. The organization consists almost entirely of volunteers, with many of them funding their own trips to countries in which they are assigned. Although the long-term impact is difficult to evaluate, there is reason to believe their work is having an effect, even in as short as an 18-month period. Since they work at a local level they leave a group of people who help to train others on the ground. There is a huge range of projects in which MBB has been involved.

Segment 4: A Web of Peace.  Doug believes peace begins with our neighbors. We can’t depend on political leaders or foreign diplomats or NGO. It has to happen person-to-person and face-to-face. MBB creates a web of peace, and that’s where the real change occurs. To find out more about Mediators Beyond Borders, or to get involved, please visit http://mediatorsbeyondborders.org/. They’ll put you to work if you have an interest in being an on-the-ground peacemaker.

To listen to the entire interview:

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Segment 1: What Animals Can Teach Us.  On this edition of The Doug Noll Show we are speaking with bestselling author Jeffrey Masson. Jeffrey has a PhD in Sanskrit, is a Freudian analyst, and an expert on animal relationships and behavior. His latest book is called Beasts: What Animals Can Teach Us About the Origins of Good and Evil.

When we are engaged in conflict, we think of the other side as evil. However, Jeffrey doesn’t believe we’re born with evilness within us; it is learned. Our species is on the verge of destroying ourselves because of our inability to look with objectivity at other animals who we have treated with disdain as possible teachers. Why is it that orcas, who are very similar to humans (large brains, sociable, top of the food change, live in complex societies) have never killed another orca in the wild? This is the thought that drove Jeffrey to study why humans are so different than other animals.

Segment 2: Us-Them Comparisons.  War is a learned behavior. When you’re killing for food, it’s different than killing for fun. We’re the only animal in all of nature that gets to choose what we eat. Learning how to eat meat was something that allowed our predecessors to spread out on the land and find additional food sources. So what is it about humans that causes evil - such as killing for sport - to occur in us and not other animals? Jeffrey tells us that animals do not make an us-them distinction when it comes to other animals. For example, a dog wants to play with every dog he sees. He doesn’t care what kind of dog it is or what it looks like. There is no language barrier, no racism. Humans are different. We make constant us-them comparisons. We can find the most minor things to differentiate “us” from “them.”

Segment 3: How Can We Unlearn Evil?  If we learned war, we have the capacity to unlearn it. Most animals don’t have the concept of vengeance. Jeffrey thinks it’s important to look at animals as our teachers instead of beasts. We can look at the animal world to learn how to deal with anger and hatred in a different way. If you look at big cats, bears, sharks, etc., they don’t want to fight because they know one of them might get killed. Humans need to learn this concept. Almost all animals, even the ones we consider to be the most ferocious, have learned to avoid conflict of a deadly nature.

Segment 4: Trained By Culture.  Humans, unlike other animals, have huge egos. Animals have a ranking, but they don’t have the sense that it’s my God-given prerogative to treat this other animal this way. We’ve been trained by culture and history to hide vulnerability. Animals don’t kill just for the fun of it; they kill to eat. It’s not driven by vengeance or greed or any type of concept of an enemy.

To learn more about Jeffrey’s work and his latest book, please visit http://www.jeffreymasson.com/.

To listen to the entire interview:

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Segment 1: Move Out of Denial.  On this edition of The Doug Noll Show we are speaking with Brenda Adelman: actor, life coach and forgiveness expert. Brenda grew up in Brooklyn in a close-knit family, but in 1995 her father shot and killed her mother and then married her mother’s sister before going on trial. Her father never took responsibility for the murder. Brenda believes some of the triggers were his unhappy marriage to her mother, an inability to handle emotions, the fact that divorce is expensive, and perhaps an undiagnosed mental illness. Her father, who has now passed, got out of prison in 2 years for good behavior. As Brenda was studying for her master’s degree in spiritual psychology she had a huge breakthrough while learning about healthy boundaries. She then decided to take her dad to court for wrongful death, and ultimately won a large settlement. She finally started to heal when she moved out of denial.

Segment 2: Forgiving, Not Forgetting.  Brenda tells us that when she couldn’t find compassion with father she couldn’t forgive him, and when she couldn’t forgive him she closed her heart to him, and when she closed her heart to him she closed her heart to everyone else, including herself. She finally began to be cognizant of the effect her actions were taking on her own world. It’s about forgiveness, not forgetting. Forgetting means you lose the lesson.

Doug teaches that there are 3 steps of forgiveness: 1) Meet your own needs and forgive yourself. 2) Forgive the event by putting it in perspective and looking at it objectively (which could take a lifetime or could be a quick process). 3) Forgive the person who caused the injury.

Brenda was shocked at how much vengeance she had. It first showed up in poetry, written at night when she couldn’t sleep. It was filled with vengeance and rage. For 30 days she wrote poetry, and at the end of the month she felt an opening and felt the vengeance release. The process of healing started with deeply reflective work like writing, and more recently, from preforming her one-woman show and leading workshops.

Segment 3: No Shame.  One of Brenda’s main messages is that there’s never anything of which to be ashamed. It’s all about applying love to the parts inside you that hurt. She holds space for clients as they process their emotions and sees the truth of each person. Brenda tells us the first step of forgiveness is to move out of denial and into the awareness of what’s really going on. Get in touch with the anger. The second step is to give up the need to be right. The third step is to move into gratitude and volunteer. Be of service in your community.

Segment 4: The Key is to be Conscious.  What happens first when people go through trauma? At first there’s shock. People need some time to grieve and just be in shock. They need time to process and just “be” in the initial pain before starting to heal. It takes about 30 days for the memory to reconstitute itself so that the worst of it slowly dissipates. At that point we can use therapists, healers, mediators, and other specialists to start processing the emotions. We can reframe the memories so that our stories are consistent with our reality. Brenda thinks the key to healing is being conscious. It changes everything.

To find out more about Brenda, her one-woman show, or her workshops, visit http://www.forgivenessandfreedom.com/.

To listen to the entire interview:

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Segment 1: It’s an Emotional-Based Issue. Arianna Jeret is a mediator and divorce coach who focuses on lessening the emotional trauma and financial strain of divorce by facilitating communication techniques. On this edition of The Doug Noll Show we’ll speak with Arianna and learn how she develops a customized process with each client to work through high-conflict divorces quickly, amicably and cost-effectively.

Arianna began her career in fundraising but quickly found that the work that she most enjoyed was more of the communications-based one-on-one work with donors. After going back to school she eventually partnered with another mediator and started a Family Law mediation business. At the time she was going through a complicated divorce herself and found the work tremendously therapeutic and healing. Her current practice consists of both coaching and mediation, but her cases are predominately mediation. Divorce is an emotional-based issue. Arianna helps her clients navigate a slippery legal slope, but she realizes the social management portion of the divorce is just as, if not more so, important than the legal aspect.

Segment 2: They Just Want to be Heard. ianna tries to humanize the situation and personalize what her clients are going through. She tells stories of similar situations, as well as her own mistakes and how she’s acknowledged them and moved forward. She also uses humor. Divorce is so difficult on an all-consuming level. She wants them to feel safe and supported when they’re in her office. It’s important to build trust right away.

Often clients are feeling a deep injustice. Their brain is telling them that they want vengeance, but in reality, they are wanting something else. They want to be heard. They want connection. They want control of their own lives. Arianna reminds people that when they go to court they end up disempowering themselves and putting their needs, wants, desires into the hands of a judge. In mediation, however, they have total control.

Segment 3: Empathic Listening. You cannot deal with emotions with logic alone. When in the middle of a conflict, don’t listen to the words; listen to the emotions. There are four levels of being an empathic listener:

1) Repeat the words

2) Paraphrase

3) Give core message

4) Label the emotion

Segment 4: The Cost of a Divorce.  It costs roughly $100,000 to get a divorce in LA County. It’s a huge waste of money. Collaborative Divorce costs about 60% of a regular divorce, and mediation is considered to cost 10% of the cost of a regular divorce. Mediation is the way to go. Additionally, Loyola and other law schools have programs where people can go to and get free advice. As a client, you need to go in knowing what needs to get done and have your homework ready (including financial data, etc.). She encourages clients to constantly do a cost-benefit analysis of their actions. Ask yourself, “How much is this day in court going to cost me? How much would mediation cost me?” To find out more about Arianna’s services, please visit www.ajmediation.com.

To listen to the entire interview:

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