Introduction
In When Blood and Bones Cry Out: Journeys through the soundscape of healing and reconciliation (2010), John Paul Lederach, together with his daughter Angela Jill, study the use of metaphors from sound to foster new pathways of conflict transformation and healing. They ask the question “How do people express and then heal from violations that so destroy the essence of innocence, decency and life itself that the very experience penetrates beyond comprehension and words?” (2010, p. 17). In the Lederach’s perspective, aural properties found in music, poetry, story-telling and creative dance, with their regard for repetition and capacity to resonate diverse sounds, offer alternative facets for conflict transformation and broadminded dialogue. These ideas, linked with aural and sonic metaphors, give voice and sound to societies needing to express the atrocities incurred at the hand of violence. Together, the Lederach’s propel the reader to envision another approach to social healing in settings of protracted violence.
A New Approach
An elemental point made throughout the book is the shift away from the linear and sequential methods for healing transformation and reconciliation to a dynamic and circular process. From their perspective, the linear method is not equipped to handle post-conflict environments where the end of the conflict does not signal the end of violence. As Lederach & Lederach point out with their story of Sierra Leone, the disturbing reality for women is that the sexual debasement and the silencing of their voices increase after a peacekeeping agreement has been made. The ebb and flow of violence found in a multifaceted experience of protracted violence requires a process that can correspond to a f...
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... resolution and transformation is never lost, both sets of authors focus on the development of the relationship as where the healing takes place. Additionally, there are correlations to be found with the Native American peacekeeping process. Both philosophies use the circle process to maintain a spatial relationship of ritual, colloquy and the restoration of K’e—the restoration of dignity and worthiness—to all individuals and communities who have suffered atrocities related to protracted violence as well as a restoration of harmony and balance. Lederach and Lederach manage to challenge the linear and traditional models of conflict transformation and healing with an alternative approach of aural and sonic metaphors. This father and daughter team gives a graceful regard to the notion that love, forgiveness and healing are effective and worthy peacemaking frames.
During the author’s life in New York and Oberlin College, he understood that people who have not experienced being in a war do not understand what the chaos of a war does to a human being. And once the western media started sensationalizing the violence in Sierra Leone without any human context, people started relating Sierra Leone to civil war, madness and amputations only as that was all that was spoken about. So he wrote this book out o...
A short, fat man who owns a little band of sheep on the flats at
In the beginning of the story the main character, Fever Crumb, is rational and reasonable. “Then there was her hair, or rather, lack of hair. The order was keen to hurry humankind into the future, and they believed that hair was unnecessary. Fever shaved her head every other morning.” (8). This quote shows how Fever is rational because she removes things from her life that have more to do with comfort and beauty, which she believes to be irrational, than have to do with usefulness. Fever has been sheltered from irrational things for most of her life so when she is thrust into the city of normal people she doesn't understand why they have or do irrational things. In the end of the book she doesn’t have the same disapproval of irrational things as she does in the beginning. “Fever touched her fuzzy scalp, and tried out a smile. “I’m planning to grow it out.”(324) This shows that Fever doesn’t mind irrational things anymore. Her shaved head was a symbol that she did not fall victim to comfort and beauty but now she is growing her hair back. Initially when Fever interacts with other people she is usually not shy and she will tell them if they are doing something irrational unless she can sense that it has a lot of meaning to them but by the end she no longer cares.
Black Hearts tells the story of a few bad soldiers from 1st platoon, Bravo company of the 1-502nd Infantry Battalion of the 101st Airborne Division, that was plagued with toxic leadership and lack of control over soldiers. The book documents the events that led to the ultimate demise of the soldiers involved in the horrific incident that occurred on March 12, 2006. Four soldiers were arrested in the brutal murder of an Iraqi family, which was a result of the lack of leadership and structure these soldiers received. Black Hearts takes a deep look into what happened to this troubled platoon and what unfortunate events occurred during their deployment.
In 1996 the war in Sierra Leone was becoming a horrific catastrophe. Children were recruited to be soldiers, families were murdered, death came easily, and staying alive was a privilege. Torture became the favorite pastime of the Revolutionary United Front rebel movement, which was against the citizens who supported Sierra Leone’s president, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. I was in the grips of genocide and there was nothing I could do. Operation No Living Thing was put into full effect (Savage 33).
David W. Blight's book Beyond the Battlefield: Race, Memory and the American Civil War, is an intriguing look back into the Civil War era which is very heavily studied but misunderstood according to Blight. Blight focuses on how memory shapes history Blight feels, while the Civil War accomplished it goal of abolishing slavery, it fell short of its ultimate potential to pave the way for equality. Blight attempts to prove that the Civil War does little to bring equality to blacks. This book is a composite of twelve essays which are spilt into three parts. The Preludes describe blacks during the era before the Civil War and their struggle to over come slavery and describes the causes, course and consequences of the war. Problems in Civil War memory describes black history and deals with how during and after the war Americans seemed to forget the true meaning of the war which was race. And the postludes describes some for the leaders of black society and how they are attempting to keep the memory and the real meaning of the Civil War alive and explains the purpose of studying historical memory.
Born Sinner Aren’t we all sinners? We all have committed acts of violence at some points in our lives, and our answer we are human, we are wired that way or it is our instinct. People have a habit of hurting one another and it comes naturally to them. After reading Flight by Sherman Alexie, violence is a prominent theme throughout the novel. This idea of aggression is represented in many different ways, shapes, and forms.
"Peacekeeping and Peacemaking." Reading and Remembrance . N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Jan. 2014. . (tags: none | edit tags)
“Blood Brothers” by Willy Russell Blood Brothers seems to have been set in the 1970s/80s around Liverpool. There is a lot about striking and major redundancies in it. Also about people moving "out of Liverpool" into the "country" ( Skelmersdale ), in order to provide better housing and better prospects for everyone. The social climate of the working class appears to highlight the differences between working and middle classes.
A gesture that formerly connoted weakness grows to represent moral strength and provides a crucial step towards potential reconciliation. Within his text, Philpott expresses wholehearted belief in the power of apology stating, “Few acts undo the legitimacy of a crime more effectively than a perpetrator’s renunciation of it” (Philpott 205). Philpott describes the practice of apology as, “When a perpetrator apologizes, he condemns his own role in the political injustice and thus helps to defeat its standing victory from one angle. Yet, the victim retains his own freedom to decide how he will respond to the perpetrator and thus retains a measure of control over whether the standing victory of the injustice is defeated” (Philpott 264). Philosophically, the idea of apology within restorative justice and reconciliation could mark a reaffirmation of the fundamental moral principles of the community, promote national reconciliation, strengthen a principle of transnational cooperation and contribute to the improvement of international law and diplomatic relations. Following an apology, a relationship becomes possible between the perpetrator and the victim, which in turn creates the potential for a less hostile environment for the community, and marks a society’s affirmation of a set of virtues in contradistinction to a past of
Michael MacDonald’S All Souls is a heart wrenching insider account of growing up in Old Country housing projects located in the south of Boston, also known as Southie to the locals. The memoir takes the reader deep inside the world of Southie through the eyes of MacDonald. MacDonald was one of 11 children to grow up and deal with the many tribulations of Southie, Boston. Southie is characterized by high levels of crime, racism, and violence; all things that fall under the category of social problem. Social problems can be defined as “societal induced conditions that harms any segment of the population. Social problems are also related to acts and conditions that violate the norms and values found in society” (Long). The social problems that are present in Southie are the very reasons why the living conditions are so bad as well as why Southie is considered one of the poorest towns in Boston. Macdonald’s along with his family have to overcome the presence of crime, racism, and violence in order to survive in the town they consider the best place in the world.
The most evil in the world at that time and what Harriot Stow tells readers about the evil that is slavery. The regards to the slavery the evil is that it affects everyone. The way she details the events in the story shows the struggle of slavery but also the way family life was affected by it. Not because it was just cruel but that to the white slave owners would act as if it was completely normal. That is what the evil is the fact that it is nothing to them just a part of their lives.
happy as can be and builds up to the climax. It is a gradual crescendo
The war was worsened by the wealthy minerals in the ground and the influence of the mineral was strengthened by the fear and displacement the war caused. The intertwining of these two destructive forces is seen in the story Salima is told by a man who bought her. In this he tells of a man who stuffed”...the coltan into his mouth to keep the soldiers from stealing his hard work, and they split his belly open with a machete”(31). Not only does this story show the harsh conditions the men are exposed to in war, but also it further demonstrates the hold coltan has on the minds of those who live in the Congo. The want for coltan leads to the destruction of the community and individual identities of those involved as it perpetuates a cycle of war that damages men, induces violence against women, and ultimately creates a cycle of lost identity.
In John Donne’s sonnet “Death, Be Not Proud” death is closely examined and Donne writes about his views on death and his belief that people should not live in fear of death, but embrace it. “Death, Be Not Proud” is a Shakespearean sonnet that consists of three quatrains and one concluding couplet, of which I individually analyzed each quatrain and the couplet to elucidate Donne’s arguments with death. Donne converses with death, and argues that death is not the universal destroyer of life. He elaborates on the conflict with death in each quatrain through the use of imagery, figurative language, and structure. These elements not only increase the power of Donne’s message, but also symbolize the meaning of hope of eternal life as the ultimate escape to death.