monthly_oct_05

Monthly for school and families Introduction 1 Happy School 2 Actual events 8 3. International Youth Conference for Peace Introduction of people 11 The Sufi poet and master – Jellaludin Rumi Our Planet 14 Two Worlds Letters of the readers

16

E-monthly is published by Association for a better world. More information: www.forbetterworld.com

October 2006

http://www.forbetterworld.com/

Introduction Monthly for school and families

We don’t have another World, where we could move in to. G. G. Marquez, the Columbian Nobel prize, writer. It’s been one month since we got together, to talk about what we should write for this monthly paper. What to write? What subject should we put in? What sort of audience are we looking for? So we agreed that we would write about what we usually already talk about to each other. Namely, about events that change us, about observations we have on life, experiences that we have. In fact, everything we talk about with our friends. Most importantly, we would like what we write to convey the richness that we find in everyday life. As human beings we like to have a tidy home that is safe and nice. In an environment where there’s peace, it’s much easier to create and build. But our house is not limited to just a few square metres, where we come home to every day after work and where our love ones are waiting for us. What we call “home” is also our neighbours, companions, people that pass us by in the street, regardless of whether they are white or black, or whether they are religious or not, they are all people, human beings. Is that too much to ask, to see life like this? Is it impossible to have room in your heart for everyone in your neighbourhood? Perhaps you feel that it’s too difficult to have enough love in your heart for your wife or husband, let alone your neighbours or people you don’t even know! Love is such a strong word and many times misunderstood. Let’s not mention it at that stage. But everyone knows that a happy family cannot exist if one member is disturbing the peace. It’s hard for a mother and a father to say they are happy if one of their children gets involved in the world of drugs and it‘s hard for children to say they are happy if one of their parents is an alcoholic. It’s hard for the husband to be happy if the wife is nervous and it’s hard for the wife to be happy if the husband is beating her. So it’s clear that our own happiness in co-dependant on the happiness of others and that our home will be nice and kind if we all try our best to keep it like that. But this is only possible, when we develop a sensitity for humankind and when we develop more compassion. It’s as simple as that.

Eva

October 2006 1

Happy school Monthly for school and families

Dear Teachers! In this rubric we have prepared concrete teaching materials that you can take with you into the classroom. It’s meant to be used within classroom hours but you might want to use it in any other way you wish as well – on project days, children’s or parent’s days, perhaps for any work in your own subject area. What is the meaning of this material? I think that when we teach our school children Maths, English, or Chemistry, we sometimes forget that there are more important things in life. Co-operation, tolerance, the peaceful resolution of conflicts, friendship, responsibility, respect, taking care of nature, love… these are social values and without them our lives would be very poor and miserable, hard and dangerous! It’s true that we can teach our children by our own example and it’s good if they look up to us, but it’s even better if we deal with this with consciousness and a plan. This teaching material is from several different sources and it has been tested and in our experience, it really works. It’s not a magic wand but with the teacher’s perseverance many things are possible. This teaching material will show a young person very clearly the values of kindness and respect and that they are not merely moral rules that they get from a professor’s pointed finger, but that this is a practical way, that could help them to reach a successful and happy life. So let’s start. The first subject will be how to trust yourself. Oh someone might think my students are already confident enough. But that is not true, because confidence is respecting yourself and others. It requires strength and courage and has nothing to do with arrogance, acting cool or even aggression. It’s exactly the opposite! Real confidence does not threaten anyone, but helps and gives to others… This material is from the book for class room hours “The Seekers of the Pearls” from the author Darja Vtic

October 2006 2

Monthly for school and families

October 2006 3

Trust in yourself: It can’t be true… Did you know? 1. That Albert Einstein started to speak when he was 4 years old? And that he

never really liked school and he wasn’t a particularly successful student? 2. That Beethoven’s professor said : “ As an composer he is absolutely rubbish” 3. That Louis Pasteur had average marks at Chemistry, but today we know him

as someone who establish Bacteriology and found the remedy for many previously deadly diseases.

4. That Winston Churchill was made fun of many times in school, because he had a speaking impediment? That he often had the worse results in the class room, but later he became the Prime Minister of Great Britain and he played a big role in World War 2, fighting against Nazism.

5. That Edison wasn’t liked in school and one teacher even thought he was mentally disturbed but today we know him as one of the greatest inventors of all time. He also invented the gramophone and the electric light bulb.

6. That Mahatma Gandhi was very shy as a child and that later on, when he was a lawyer and he was in court one day he totally froze , from stage –fright, but years later he was a leader for Independent India and he chased away in a very gentle and nonviolent way the English nation.

7. That when Wilma Rudolph was a baby in hospital, it was predicted that she would never walk, and then later she won 3 golden medals in the Olympic Games in Rome in 1960?

…..But it is! Let’s talk about it:

1. Do you think that these people ever doubted themselves? (Maybe they did. Maybe they didn’t. That is not even so important. What is important is that despite many problems and obstacles they went into action: that they were doing with all their heart the things they believed and loved and they knew they had to do them.)

2. What do these examples tell us? (That the people, who are saying to you, that you will never be anyone or accomplish anything, are wrong. That even if today you are not doing very well, there’s no reason why tomorrow you can’t do great things. That with determination, endurance and courage we can make miracles.)

3. Where is the trap of these examples? The trap you can fall into when you read about such cases. (In the case when you think, those things just happened on their own, that you don’t have to put in any effort and that you can spend all your afternoons in front of the TV or with friends and success will just happened anyway. We must tell our children, that this is not the case! If we take Edison for example he didn’t became the greatest inventor of


all time just by accident. Already as a young boy he went to work and made himself a laboratory. Later on he worked allday, even 18 hours a day in the laboratory. All the money he made from his inventions he put into the necessary research and development. He slept 3 hours a day and said, that sleeping is like a drug, the more you sleep, the more sleep you need. And with that you’re losing precious time which you could use for something more useful. This is the other side we need to remind our children of. Let them think of some other example on their own- perhaps a singer, or sports man, how they succeeded.)

Game: Try to guess who this person was:

This person was bankrupt at the age of 22. At the age of 23 he was an unsuccessful parliamentary candidate.

At the age of 25 he was bankrupt again. When he was 27 year old he had a nervous breakdown. At the age of 34 he failed to be elected into Congress. When he was 37 he was finally elected into Congress.

At the age of 39 he was a candidate again for Congress but didn’t succeed. At the age of 46 he lost the election to become a Senator.

At the age of 47 he was a candidate for the vice-presidency but was defeated. At the age of 49 he lost the election in the Senate.

And finally at the age of 51 he was elected as the American President and played an important role in abolition of slavery in America.

Toady we know him as one of the most respectable historical people of all time. (Abraham Lincoln)

Let’s talk about it: 1. What was his strongest point? (self-belief and perseverance.) 2. Do you think that he had bad days and might have thought about just

dropping everything from time to time and doing something more simple? ( Probably yes, but that is not so important. He didn’t let go, he went trough defeats and always tried again and again, until he made it.)

October 2006 4


October 2006 5

SPARKY For Sparky, school has been something impossible. When he was in the 7th grade he was dreadful in all his subjects. In High School, he got an F in Physics. He also failed in Latin, Algebra and English classes. Even in sports he was not any better, even though he made it into the school golf league, he managed to lose the only important game of that year. Sparky had been unsuccessful during all his teenage years. His school mates didn’t even notice him. He was very surprised if any of his school mates said hello to him outside of school. No one could say that he had any success dating. Sparky hadn’t asked out one single girl all of his High School years on a date. He was too afraid of rejection. Sparky had just been constantly defeated. Everybody knew that. That was always with him. But despite it all, there was still one thing that mattered to Sparky and that was his drawing. He was proud of his drawing sketches. Beside him, of course nobody else appreciated his drawing. In the last year of High School he took some of his comic strips to the editor of the school magazine.. They were were not accepted. Even though he was rejected, Sparky believed in his abilities to draw and decided to become a professional artist. When he finished High School he was writing in the Walt Disney Studios. They told him to send them some of his samples of work and also suggested the topic for the strip. So Sparky made the comic strip. He devoted a lot of his time to it and as well to the other drawings that he also sent. He finally got an answer from the Disney Studios. He was rejected once more. One more defeat, one more failure. And so Sparky decided that he would describe his own life in the comic strips. He described himself in his early years as a young boy who was always losing at everything and achieving less that he could. This comic strip hero soon became famous all over the world. Because Sparky, the boy, who had missed success throughout all his school years and was rejected so many times, is none other than Charles Schultz. He’s the one who draws the comic strips of Snoopy dog and is also the author of Charlie Brown, the young comic strip hero, who can never get the kite in the air and who always misses the ball.

(From J. Canfield, M.V.Hanson, K. Kirberger)


October 2006 6

Let’s talk about it: 1. How was Sparky at school, or at sports or with the girls? 2. What was the thing he was good at? Did the others agree with him? 3. What did he do, when he was defeated even in his drawing area? And later?

When did he succeed? 4. Who is Sparky today? 5. At school, the kids take their own roles. You know who everyone is and what

he is. What are these roles? (Someone is a good student, someone is a classroom clown, someone is the leader, and someone is very brave… What can be a problem with these roles? The problem can be with “the bad role” we can’t get rid of sometimes. We have an opinion about ourselves and we are afraid to go a step further, to improve upon that. We don’t believe it’s possible.)

6. Try to think of some examples. (Someone who’s got very bad grades in school will start thinking he’s stupid and that he’ll never accomplish anything. Someone who’s very shy and closed up believes that this is what he’ll always be and he can’t change it. This is sad, because it isn’t true. Everyone has a chance to change and for development, everyone has a potential to do great things, and we only need to discover this. That is not very simple, but it is possible! And not only possible, it is urgent to find it! This is also one of the most important roles in our lives. To find your own mission, to find something you’re good at and to do it and become better and better at it.)

7. What is Sparky showing us? (That things can turn upside down. Someone who’s always the last is suddenly the first. Before nobody noticed him, today the whole world knows him. That’s why it’s important to believe in yourself and to find in yourself some ability, some knowledge or talent that makes us different from others, something that can become our mission.)


Me in the mirror – social game Put the students into groups of 7-10. Everyone gets a blank sheet of paper. The students draw a mirror on it covering the whole page and put down their name somewhere on the paper. Then they give away the mirror to their neighbour sitting on their left. This student writes on it one nice quality of the class mate who just gave him the piece of paper. The mirror is circulated so that everyone gets to write down one nice quality for every class mate. In the end everyone gets back their own mirror, on which they find many qualities that their school mates see in them.

Let’s talk about it:

1. In your opinion what was the meaning of the game ? 2. How did you feel when you were writing down all these nice qualities? 3. How do you feel now, when you read all these nice things about you? 4. Are you happy to see that your school mates see so much nice qualities in

you? 5. Do they tell you this very often? 6. And what about you, do you more often criticize or praise?

Homework: The mirror that you got in the game put on the wall beside your bed in your room. Every morning when you wake up, read what it says on it.

Darja

October 2006 7

Actual events Monthly for school and families

3. International Youth Conference of Peace Chekhov Slovakia, Strilky, 27.8.2005

“The children from the entire World have the same wishes: peace in the World, happiness in the family and a clean environment.” That was written in the concluding report of the 3rd International Peace Conference in Chekhov Slovakia. The young delegates aged from 5 to 25 years of age came from 12 different countries (Chekhov Slovakia, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Monte Negro, Germany, Austria, Poland, Israel, USA, New Zealand and Slovenia) Through song, dance and play, they showed their views on life in the future on our Planet. The whole project was organised under the Yoga in Daily Life organisation and was supported by Chekhov Slovakian Premier and Minister for the Environment and the Minister for Schools. Slovenia was introduced by the youngest members of Ecological Culture Association For A Better World. The children described our World in a very pure and simple but a deep way. Grown ups, parents and teachers were learning from our future generation and this gave them great pleasure. At the end of our contribution here are some of our thoughts and pictures.

• “We children don’t need a passport to understand each other” –Hannah 12 years old , Chekhov Slovakia

• “The rich countries should help the poor ones” – Cindy 16 years old, USA • “ Peace on Earth will be, when all the children will be fat” Jan, 8 years old,

Slovakia

October 2006 8


• “ Our world is a small rose” Ivan 11 years old, Croatia • “When the children can sleep sweetly, the parents are happy. When the

parents are happy, there are no wars. “ Aisha 13 years old, Israel

• “ The animals are our best friends” Satja and David 6 years old, Slovenia • “ The birds wake up every morning happy and they sing” Dusan, 9 years

old, Serbia and Monte Negro

October 2006 9


• “We all have the same mother. Her name is Earth” James, 15 years old,

New Zealand • We children know much more than you grown ups think. You only need to

listen” Eva, 13 years old, Hungary Goran

October 2006 10

Introduction of people Monthly for school and families

The Sufi poet and master – Jellaludin Rumi

Biography: Jellaludin Rumi (Jelal al-Din Rumi), was born in 1207 in the Persian town of Balkh (it’s the area of today’s Afghanistan). He was a Persian lawyer, theologian, poet and a Sufi mystic. Rumi was known under many names, till the 19th century, when the fame of his poetry started to spread around the West. He was also known as Mawlavi and Mevlana which means “our leader” in the Persian, Arabic and Turkish languages. His students called him Allahal-azam, which means God’s big secret. When Rumi was around nine, his father moved away further to the West with his family and some students, because the East was threatened by the Mongolian army. When they were in Naysharpuri, they met a famous Sufi poet Farida al-Din Attar on who the young Rumi made a big impression. He said to his father: “Your son will soon light the fire for all of those who long for it” After they left Nayshapuri they continued on the road towards Baghdad, where they met many wise man and Sufis of that town. Afterwards they came to the place called Hejaz and from there they went to Maka. After that journey his father decided to settle down in Konya, a place in peaceful Anatolia. (The area of today’s Turkey). This place is still connected with Rumi’s family, because there he spent the rest of his life until he died in the 1273. His father had a reputation of being a wise and educated man and he died when Sufi was 14 years old. A year after his father’s death, he met a Burhana al-Din Muhaqqia Tirmidhia, the Sufi master, who once was his father’s student. Through this man he gained his father’s wisdom and spent nine years studying the secrets of the Sufis. At that time, he also spent some time in Damask, today’s Syria. There were more and more people gathering around Rumi, who was teaching in the years of 1240 and 1244. He was helping the poor, meditating and was a very popular teacher. His lectures was visited by 400 students at a time. In the year of 1244, he met a man called Shams al-Din Tabriz, who came into Konya after spending some time in Baghdad. Shams was a powerful and mysterious Sufi. Nobody knows even where he died, so he owns several vaults around the country. Rumi changed from a sober and serious teacher into an enthusiastic poet beside that man. The first song he ever wrote was in the letter to the Shams, and after that he never stopped writing. You couldn’t find a bigger role model friendship in the whole of Sufi history than these two had. But many of Rumi’s students were disappointed that he spent so much time with Shams, so Shams decided to leave Konya. Rumi was so upset by that, that he sent him

October 2006 11


October 2006 12

letters all the time. After some time, his friend came back and they once again spent much time together in mystic conversation. This upset his students once more, so Shams left in 1248 and Rumi never saw him again. He spent 2 years travelling around to find him, but with no luck. So he finally came back to Konya and started teaching Sufism and spiritual dance, which his order Mawlawi is famous for during the last 700 years. His Poetic Creations: Rumi dedicated his poetry to his spiritual teacher Shams. Only after 13 years since Shams’ departure, did he write his most famous work Mathnawi, which has 25, 000 verses. The rest of his work is: Rubayat (1,600 strophes that were written when Shams first left), Shams-i-Tabriz (2,500 odes, written after Sham’s death), letters, Fihi-me-Fihi (written speeches to his students). In the East, Rumi is so famous that his work Mathnawi is called the “Persian Koran” which is certainly a great accolade. Rumi’s work is very well known in Europe and is translated into almost every world languages. To Shamsuddin, he dedicated more than 45.000 verses. Quotations from the songs: “Don’t be a water drop, be an ocean. If you want to be an ocean, you must destroy the water drop.” “Even though life near the King is more dangerous, the people can’t resist the strong longing.” “Love is the language which can’t be seen or heard” “You sculpture your body image in all the things, and that’s the sign that you have forgotten where you really come from.” “Tailor Time has never sewn anyone a dress, and never ripped anyone’s later either.” Rumi’s reputation in the World Rumi’s influence goes beyond national and ethnic boundaries. Representatives of the Persian language in Iran, Afghanistan and Tandzikistan, see him as one of the most important classical poets and a role model for many following poets in history. His poetry has formed the cornerstone of Afghanistan and Iran’s classical music. Through subsequent centuries, he had a big influence on Turkish literature. And for the many Western readers, authors, translators and experts, Rumi represents the best introduction into the philosophy and practical application of Sufism. The basic principle of Sufism is: How can I help all the people in the World, regardless of their religion. The mystical direction of Islam, that was invented by the Sufis, demands respect of Islam’s duties and especially unconditional devotion to the Lord. They refer to the place in the Koran that mentions the love between God and the people. They wish to devote


their lives to God and as mystics in all their religion they wish to experience God. Their path leads to the condition, when deep inside you there is no separation from God anymore. A lot of Sufi’s sayings were even seen as sacriligeuos. Al Haladz was executed in the year 929 because of these words: “I have become the one who loves him, because the one that I love has become I. We are two spirits joined in one body”. Sufism had a strong influence even on the arts. The people tried to come closer to God’s mystery through the music, dance and poetry. So music and dance became a Sufi’s way and with that they had created the God’s rapture.

Barbara

Naš planet

October 2006 13

Our planet Monthly for school and families

Two Worlds “There are enough goods for all our needs, but not for all our greed”

We live in a world full of everything. Technology has achieved enormous success. Just a few years ago, we could not imagine all the inventions. I think of course of the computers, cars, household devices etc. And they are making our life so much easier. The number of cars is growing. Air travel has become cheaper and such an everyday thing now. Computers are almost in every household. The Internet has given us such a quick and fast way of getting information. All this has brought the world closer. But has it brought the World closer? Well yes, the developed part of the world, such as the USA, EU and Japan. But the rest of the world, especially Africa has stayed behind. They haven’t reached anywhere near as high a level of technological development. Most of them don’t have a car. They see the planes probably as some iron birds in the sky, as so many of them have never experienced flying in a plane. Most of them don’t have any access to computers and the internet. They are not connected with the rest of the world. Of course all of these things are not the most important for human life. But they don’t have any food or water either. They live in the parts of the world where it’s harder to grow food and they are much more vulnerable to catching diseases. In these conditions it is very hard to live or to grow old. Death is with them every day and it’s taking even the children. In the West because of developed medicine, we no longer suffer from many of the diseases that they do. Many, many millions of people live on less that £1 pound a day. In every 3 seconds a child dies because of hunger and diseases. In one year because of poverty 200 children die. And this is not just statistical information but the reality of our world. Our entire world today does not know the lack of food, because we grow enough of it. We even have 10% more that we need. But this food is not equally spread around the world, but it’s wasting away in the warehouses. And this is caused by the individuals who put their profit before people’s needs. And the global economy is supporting this. So that average European cow gets £1.5 subsidy a day, while 75% of people in Africa have to survive with less than £1 a day. That makes no sense. Most of the diseases that we have already cured

October 2006 14


October 2006 15

such as smallpox and typhus... are still killing the people and children. The biggest problem is the money for the medicine that they don’t have. It’s also true that inside the poor countries there are struggles for power and authority which makes development even harder. Western nations grew rich through the slave trade and exploiting less developed countries’ natural resources. Even if a developing country is technically independent it is prey to the vested interests of the multinationals looking for cheap labour and economic opportunism and the interference of western goverments whose plans for ‘globalisation’ only thinly veil their own greedy and power-hungry interests. People are sadly still full of egoism, racism and prejudice. We forget that they are only people like us. We justify that by sayings like: “They were born there and are used to living like that; it’s none of my business etc...” The children that are dying have parents as well. They also want to be happy like us. It’s time we see them as human beings and give them rights. To have enough food and drinking water is a basic human right. For the lack of food in this world there’s no excuse. We need to pressurize the leaders, we need to give donations, support humanitarian organizations and develop the will power to help these poor countries. To make politics fairer, we can use our vote as well.Humanity does not only consist of people from the developed world. We are all humans throughout the planet. Are there two worlds? The eyes of love do not separate between the developed and the undeveloped world but they see only one world, the world we all live in. The World is in our hands; let’s make it better for all people.

Ales

Letters of the readers Monthly for school and families

Letters from the readers This section is for you our dear readers of e-monthly. We are looking forward to hearing your questions, opinions and ideas. You can send us an e-mail on [email protected] The creators of e-monthly

October 2006 16

mailto:[email protected]

Documents

monthly_oct_05