Comfort women | | Peace rally with "comfort women" |
By guest author Dot Walsh
Comfort women were women and girls forced into prostitution by the Japanese government during World War II. The name "comfort women" was taken from a Japanese word meaning prostitute.
In reality these women were sex slaves for the military. The recruitment was not voluntary but often involved being kidnapped from countries taken over by the Japanese army.
A recent article in the New York Times highlighted a speech given by Mr. Hashimoto, the mayor of Osaka, who maintained... Read more...
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Creating young martyrs: What leads young people to resort to violence?
By guest author Alice LoCicero 
The accused Boston Marathon bombers, Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, grew up in my hometown of Cambridge and went to the high school my kids attended. They look like kids my children would have gone to school with, and their friends and family describe them in ways that make them seem normal and good.
How could young folks we might easily have known and loved act intentionally to create carnage, terror, and radical disruption of lives and psyches? As President Obama asked: What would... Read more...
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Poverty: The worst violence | | Photo by Michael Coghlan used under CCA-SA 2.0 Generic license. |
By guest author Charikleia Tsatsaroni
Mahatma Gandhi said it: "Poverty is the worst violence." More and more people around the world must recognize the truth of his words. In the fall of 2008, when banks collapsed and the financial crisis struck with hurricane force, I was starting my doctoral studies in Boston. In spite of the media's dramatic broadcasts about ordinary people's losses due to the crisis, I was full of excitement for this new chapter in my life. For months, I mindlessly... Read more... |
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Featured comment on Engaging Peace
By Ross Caputi
 The title "Creating young martyrs: Conditions that make dying in a terrorist attack seem like a good idea" makes a link between the Islamic notion of martyrdom and terrorism. This makes me highly suspicious. Ever since 9/11 there has been pressure to focus on the terrorism carried out by so-called Muslims, as if that is the only kind... Read more...
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Children and youth peace corner
Landmines in Vietnam 
By Michael Morrison, age 9
Landmines are bombs that are placed in the ground. In Vietnam, huge amounts of land have been cleared of mines and put back into farming.
According to a 2010 article, Vietnam "annually invests hundreds of billions of dong (Vietnamese money) on disposing...unexploded ordnance and supporting victims" (www.the-monitor.org). Vietnam still has about 3,500,000 mines.
Every country that signs the Ottawa Treaty agrees to never use landmines. Eighty percent of the countries in the world have signed the treaty, although the United States, China, and Russia have not.
The government of Vietnam feels that the removal of landmines is critical because they have "serious and lasting social and economic consequences for affected populations," according to Le Minh Thoa from the United Nations General Assembly. The delegation of Vietnam thinks all countries should agree to clear landmines from land that is being used by civilians.
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