Paris, France - UPF-France organized four "Weeks of Peace" events in September at an office near two university campuses.
The sessions start at 7:15 pm every Tuesday. People discuss the topic of the day around three or four tables, while sampling cakes brought by everyone. Then reports are offered, followed by singing two songs related to the topic of the day accompanied by piano, guitar, and two violins. At 8:15, a 40-minute PowerPoint presentation is given. The evening ends with resolutions.
On September 7, the theme was "Declaring War," and we examined the issues of language and peace in two ways:
- Most languages and encyclopedias define peace in a negative way, i.e., as the absence of war. We studied a few exceptions and then proposed a positive definition of peace based on the Principles of Unification.
- We studied Marshall Rosenberg's theory of non-violent communication (Marshall Rosenberg and offered an analysis, critique, and counter-proposal.
On September 14, the theme was "Being at Peace - The Peaceful Personality." Our final resolution of the evening was that we need an institute for the study of the peaceful personality, just as there already exists an institute of peaceful societies (see www.peacefulsocieties.org).
On September 21, we will deal with "Making Peace" and on September 28, we will examine the concept of a "Culture of Peace."
For more information [in French], click here.