Rehumanising the 'enemy'

The first and most effective tactic used by warmakers to justify their actions is dehumanisation. We will always be reluctant to accept the killing of real people on a mass scale. When the enemy is constantly reduced to a single entity about which we only hear awful things then we have a much better time supporting war. I'll talk about exactly how this is done later on.

I want to start by sharing something that I found myself doing recently. Then I'll talk about my first hand encounters with ex-members of the totalitarian regime in Cambodia.

I'm back and how I began to believe in nonviolence.

Long story short it's been three years since I even looked at this blog but I wanted to continue it to share my reflections about peace, nonviolence and the experiences that I've had in Cambodia which have helped to strengthen my beliefs. As a recipient of a post-Arrupe Jesuit education and as someone who works very closely with the J's and the Marists I'll be linking it to my spiritual beliefs as well so if that's not your thing then just skip those bits.

To begin I want to give a brief history of how I became committed to this kind of philosophy. 

Onward!

Heroes Pt. 1: Song Kosal

Everyone's got them. I have Batman. But I digress. During my time here I have met some brilliant people, people who live to create peace, who have made great impressions on me.
I truly believe that there are many people on Earth whose mission it is to teach us all how we can become like them. You can pick them immediately, by their humility, humanity and diligence.

I want to share stories of some of my heroes from Cambodia (and elsewhere) who deserve recognition, enjoy and perhaps you'll meet them someday...

Khmer Photos

Last week Kafia, Joe and I decided to have our photos taken in tradtitional Khmer style

 (read: washed-out, made-up, dressed-to-kill and cheesier than Wallace's wildest fantasies).

An essential part of any volunteer's time.

There are just too many stories of overseas volunteers having things lost, stolen or vaporised during their time in country. I have one more tale to add to this canon of catastrophes:

Election time.

The Cambodian commune elections are on Sunday, so cue the Blues Brothers-esque loudspeakers on cars, party supporters yelling into microphones at the speed of light and the silencing of activists.
It's that time of the year.

CPP supporters gather in Phnom Penh

State Department Human Rights Report 2011 and the inevitable hypocrisy.

The US State Department has released its annual world human rights report recently and it has made for some interesting reading.