At the age of 48, Moritz Thomsen sold his pig farm and joined the Peace Corps. As he tells the story, his awareness of the comic elements in the human situation--including his own--and his ability to convey it in fast-moving, earthy prose have madeLiving Poora classic. "Hilariously funny at times, grimly sad at others and elavened with perceptive insights into the ways of the people and with breathtaking descriptions of the Ecuadorian landscape."-St. Louis Post-Dispatch
In this inspiring memoir, the author of Reviving Ophelia explores her personal search for understanding, tranquility, and respect through her work as a psychologist and seeker. "There are three kinds of secrets, " Pipher says. "Those we keep from everyone, those we keep from certain people, and those we keep from ourselves. Writing this book forced me to deal with all three." After decades of exploring the lives of others through her writing and therapy, Pipher turns her attention to herself--culling insights from her own life to highlight the importance of the journey, not just the destination. She tells her own remarkable story, and in the process reveals truths about our search for happiness and love. While her story is unique, the basic map and milestones are universal--reflecting on her life in a way that allows readers to reimagine theirs.--From publisher description.
The Peace Chronicles is poet and scholar-activist Dr. Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz's second full-length collection. Documenting her last moments in the Vortex, the book moves from a searing betrayal by Tyrone (Love from the Vortex & Other Poems) to her equanimity with it. The poems also record her peacemaking with her father, the tireless work of her ancestors, and celebrates the freedom that brings her tranquility, contentment and joy. In this sophomore collection, readers are carried along a journey that asks: How can we learn from pain that grips us tightly? When does a moment seat itself between two halves of our lives, and when do we actually notice? When time is not a sufficient healer, what language allows us to fill our wounds with light, knowing they may never fully close? Where does love go to be laid to rest and when it rises again, do we name it resurrection, awakening, or reimagining?
"Is there reason to suspect evil in this?" I asked. "None... but that the man was robust one day and a corpse the next." Master Hugh, surgeon and bailiff, has been asked to provide a sleeping potion for Sir Henry Burley, a friend and guest of Lord Gilbert at Bampton Castle, near Oxford. Three days before St John's Day, in the year of our Lord 1368, Sir Henry went to his bed hale and hearty after enjoying a long evening music, conversation, and dancing in Bampton's Castle's hall. The next morn his valet found him cole and dead. Master Hugh is asked by Lord Gilbert to determine the cause of death - despite shrill accusations from Sir Henry's grieving widow...
"The philosophical tenets that inform the Jedi Code are focused on peace, knowledge, serenity and harmony, and are applicable not just in the galaxy far, far away, but also in our own galaxy, here and now. This accessible pop culture spin on mindfulness takes lessons from Star Wars-based in character statements and quotations-and briefly illuminates and expands on them (in a few sentences to a paragraph) to illustrate how readers might apply them to their own lives"--
This book explores the meaning of local ownership in peacebuilding and examines the ways in which it has been, and could be, operationalized in post-conflict environments. In the context of post-conflict peacebuilding, the idea of local ownership is based upon the premise that no peace process is sustainable in the absence of a meaningful degree of local involvement. Despite growing recognition of the importance of local ownership, however, relatively little attention has been paid to specifying what precisely the concept means or how it might be implemented. This volume contributes to the ongoing debate on the future of liberal peacebuilding through a critical investigation of the notion of local ownership, and challenges conventional assumptions about who the relevant locals are and what they are expected to own. Drawing on case studies from Bosnia, Afghanistan and Haiti, the text argues that local ownership can only be fostered through a long-term consensus-building process, which involves all levels of the conflict-affected society. This book will be of great interest to students of peacebuilding, peace and conflict studies, development studies, security studies and IR.
Make movies in the Peace Corps? Richard Wallace did just that. Fresh out of college and packing his film production degree, he wanted to travel. In 1977, he joined the annual deployment of trainees to Morocco's capital city of Rabat, learning French, some Arabic and the nuances of Islamic culture. Richard's job post: a media team for the Ministry of Agriculture, producing training films and printed materials for farmers. Sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer with a new job to tackle, he was challenged to assimilate into the Moroccan way of life. Associations with his female roommate and co-worker, plus a steady parade of visitors, proved both entertaining and educational. This memoir relates the adventures a bunch of ambitious, curious and mostly dedicated twenty-somethings would experience, living and working among a population so unlike their own. For Richard, trips to many small towns expanded his impressions of his adopted home. The sights, the banter, the flavors of Morocco are vividly captured during Richard's excursions. Highlighting his account are the favorite memories recalled by volunteers in his 1977 class, all cherished personal examinations and life lessons -- unforgettable moments -- cemented in their minds. The Couscous Chronicles delivers a lighthearted behind-the-scenes look at life in the Peace Corps, capturing volunteers' efforts to make a contribution to one of America's longstanding allies -- as JFK's ambassadors of peace.
Pointing to the horizon where the sea and sky are joined, he says, 'It is only an illusion because they can't really meet, but isn't it beautiful, this union which isn't really there.' -- SAADAT HASAN MANTO Sometime in 2016, a series of dialogues took place which set out to find a meeting ground, even if only an illusion, between A.S. Dulat and Asad Durrani. One was a former chief of RAW, India's external intelligence agency, the other of ISI, its Pakistani counterpart. As they could not meet in their home countries, the conversations, guided by journalist Aditya Sinha, took place in cities like Istanbul, Bangkok and Kathmandu.On the table were subjects that have long haunted South Asia, flashpoints that take lives regularly. It was in all ways a deep dive into the politics of the subcontinent, as seen through the eyes of two spymasters. Among the subjects: Kashmir, and a missed opportunity for peace; Hafiz Saeed and 26/11; Kulbhushan Jadhav; surgical strikes; the deal for Osama bin Laden; how the US and Russia feature in the India-Pakistan relationship; and how terror undermines the two countries' attempts at talks.When the project was first mooted, General Durrani laughed and said nobody would believe it even if it was written as fiction. At a time of fraught relations, this unlikely dialogue between two former spy chiefs from opposite sides--a project that is the first of its kind--may well provide some answers.
This exquisitely illustrated and authoritative volume presents a concise account of the history of the Hopi people, including the legends, customs, and ceremonies that form the Hopi "Road of Life," in an illuminating introduction to one of the most intriguing and influential of Native American cultures.
