Newsletters

Peace News August 2008

In this issue:

Official Notification of Annual General Meeting at the APS National Conference 2008 – September, Hobart

The Psychologists for Peace 2008 AGM will be held during the 2008 APS National Conference in Hobart. We would love to meet with those of you who are local or attending the conference. 
Date:  Wednesday September 24th
Time:  During Conference Sessions Lunchbreak 1-2pm
Venue: Harbour View Room 1, Hotel Grand Chancellor, 1 Davey Street, Hobart, Tasmania 

Agenda:
 Welcome
Apologies
Report from National Office  
Treasurers Report
Report from State groups
Other matters
Close.  

The Conference will include a climate change forum on Tuesday 23th September, from 5:15pm-7pm.  The topic is 'what role can psychology/psychologists play in dealing with climate change; urgency and agency’, and PFP are happy to be sponsoring Barrie Pittock, climate change scientist, to contribute to that event.

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PFP joins International Psychologists for Social Responsibility

We have had some correspondence from Jancis Long, (President Elect of PsySR, and Secretary of INPsySR), letting us know that we have officially become a part of the International Psychologists for Social Responsibility at their first general meeting a few weeks ago.  As it happens, Helen Winefield, from SA PFP, was at that General Meeting of the International Network of Psychologists for Social Responsibility, at the Berlin ICP, on 24th July, and heard of our inclusion in the Network. Jancis says: “We will send you an account of the projects we are going to suggest for INPsySR organizations to collaborate on.  You will be able to add your own suggestions to that list. We are talking of having next year's General Meeting of INPsySR at the European Congress of Psychology meetings in Oslo July 7-10 2009.  (In case you want to plan your holiday!). "Peace Human Rights and Psychology" will be one of the themes.       

For more about the International Network, go to http://www.inpsysr.org/

New updated "Wise Ways to Win" Posters now available

PFP are thrilled to have graphic designer Sue Grey Smith work again with Richard Galbraith’s fantastic illustrations, to revamp our popular “Wise Ways to Win” poster.  So if any of your copies are looking a little tired, or you know of somewhere they’d be just the ticket, email cathryan@gcom.net.au or call Catherine on 03 5473 4407 to order.

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2008 Peace Project Award Winner

This year there were 6 applicants for PFP’s Peace Project Award.  As stipulated in the guidelines, selection of a winner was undertaken by a panel of three judges (academics) from different states in Australia.

We are pleased to announce that this year's winner is Irene Giaprakis from the School of Psychological Science at La Trobe University. Her Honours research entitled "The contribution of emotional intelligence and its components in the prediction of forgiveness" is supervised by
Professor Eleanor Wertheim.

The judges acknowledged the high calibre of all applications, and thank commended all the students for their research efforts on topics relevant to "Peace".  For a summary of Irene’s project, go to http://www.groups.psychology.org.au/awards/peace_project/  

Many thanks to Assoc Prof Tony Thompson for coordinating the award so well!

Hiroshima Day Rally for Peace and a Nuclear Free Future - Melbourne

Saturday August 9th at 1pm
State Library, Melbourne  

Rally organisers are spreading a three pronged message: No Uranium Mining, No Nuclear Weapons and No Nuclear Waste Dumps. The Rally will be followed by Peace Festival organised by Japanese for Peace 3-5pm at Melbourne Town Hall, with acoustic music and dance.

For more info to go http://www.nukefreeaus.org/  

Suspicions of the Apocalypse: Global threats, sustainability and human wellbeing - Melbourne

Tuesday 12 August, 2008 at 1-2pm
Room 516, Level 5, 207 Bouverie St, Carlton

A seminar, presented by Richard Eckersley, will discuss different responses to climate change and other global threats, and how the growing understanding of health and happiness can contribute to efforts to create a high, equitable and lasting quality of life. 

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Peace Games - WA - August 24

PFP WA group are hosting an afternoon of Peace Games on August 24, which aim to build a sense of connectedness in a group, create empathy & understanding, focus diffused energy and break the ice for new groups. Session is designed for adults & older teenagers

Facilitator: Helen Fisher, ex-Findhorn Community
Time:  Sunday 24 August 2008 1.30-5pm
Venue:  Hovea Ashram, 805 Margaret Road, Hovea
35 mins from Perth, just off Great Eastern Highway
Cost:  $20 (includes facilitation and afternoon tea)
Book: E psychs.for.peace@gmail.com Manita T 9298 8485 M 0419 043 768

Perhaps this is an activity for your group too?  To book your attendance or for more information email Manita at: psychs.for.peace@gmail.com

Peace Brigades International 

Most recent newsletter includes the story “After eight years in Aceh, PBI Indonesia celebrates handing over to local organization”.

After the 26 December 2004 tsunami in Aceh peace accords were signed between the Indonesian government and the separatist movement. Since then PBI Indonesia has contributed to the peace process by working with local women’s organisations, youth groups and doctors on a peace education program with a view to building capacity locally and then withdrawing from the province. One hundred and fifty people from a wide range of organisations attended an event to recognise PBI's work and to mark the closure of the PBI team. PBI leaves behind an extensive Peace Education manual in Bahasa Indonesian and a film entitled Kita Tida Sendin.’ PBI Indonesia will continue working in Jakarta and Papua.

They also talk about their work in Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico and Nepal.  To find out more go to

http://www.peacebrigades.org/

New Publication - "Consequential Damages of Nuclear War: The Rongelap Report" by Barbara Rose Johnston and Holly Barker, July 2008, 312 pp, colour photos

http://www.LCoastPress.com/book.php?id=148

As the United States and the world debate the future of nuclear policy, The Consequential Damages of Nuclear War offers a ground-breaking history of 20th-century nuclear science and testing in the Pacific. Using both first-person accounts of Pacific Island residents and scores of previously classified documents, authors Barbara Rose Johnston and Holly Barker uncover shocking human rights violations and explore the culture of classified research and secrecy under which nuclear science flourished. Working with the people of the Marshall Islands-who endured decades of nuclear fallout and were used as medical research subjects-the authors constructed innovative expert-witness testimony to the Nuclear Claims Tribunal that contributed to a landmark award of $1 billion for psycho-social and environmental damages.

Pre-publication Reviews:

**"This powerful, sad, outrageous, important, spellbinding book is a dramatic history of America's second nuclear war, the one the United States Government waged with nuclear weapons tests in the Pacific against the Marshallese people, and with our own military personnel. The consequences were devastating, the cover-ups were criminal, and the lessons are palpable and relevant today. The Rongelap Report is at the top of my 2008 required reading list for both candidates and voters. That includes you!"
-MARTIN J. SHERWIN, PhD, Pulitzer-Prize winning author (with Kai Bird) of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer

**"A must read for anyone interested in the impact of nuclear weapons’ use upon any human society. In this riveting study, Johnston and Barker show what happens when a defenceless population is exposed to radiation from a bomb 1000 times as large as the one that destroyed Hiroshima. Following the bomb test, the U.S. government subjected the victims to decades of medical testing as part of a secret military research project-even going so far as to deliberately put evacuees back into harm's way for further exposure. With extraordinary sensitivity and insight, the authors draw upon extensive scientific and medical research but do so in a way that allows the Marshallese to tell their own story."
-PETER J. KUZNICK, PhD, Director, Nuclear Studies Institute, American
University

**"This book lays bare one of the cruellest chapters in modern history, where the people of the Marshall Islands were used as unwitting human guinea pigs for 67 nuclear blasts in the South
Pacific, their homelands drenched by wave after wave of radioactive fallout and its deadly legacy of cancers, birth defects and infertility. Here is a disturbing and unflinching chronicle of official lies, broken promises and felonious governmental indifference to horrific human suffering, cultural genocide and environmental ruin. Yet this terrifying story is not entirely grim.
The pages pulse with the defiant voices of the Marshallese people themselves, who courageously refuse to play the passive role of atomic victims. At last, Johnston and Barker have given us a transcendent tribute to the heroic resistance of these nuclear nomads."
-JEFFREY ST. CLAIR, CounterPunch; author of Born Under a Bad Sky

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Past Issues

Past issues of newsletters are available to download at Past issues  

 

Don’t forget the News and Events page ...

There’s more on the webpage … Lyn Bender’s Blog from the “Our World In Crisis” Course … Supporting Psychologists for Social Responsibility by using the “GoodSearch” search engine … A “Peace Review” issue of interest … Our books/posters etc
 
http://www.psychology.org.au/peace

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