Jointly Venturing - Let's Talk World Citizenship Oneness World

Meditators of the World Unite! You Have Nothing to Left Lose But the Illusion of Your Separateness!

Today's episode explores the thousands of years old practice of meditation.

Why do it?

What will it allow you to experience? And how does meditation relate both to political activism and psychotherapy?

How would more meditation and more meditators assist in bringing us all - all 8 billion of us - closer to the oneness world that would surely emerge on a planet of world citizens?

We're pretty confident that the closer we get to a unified world, the more meditators there will be out there.

In Episode 32 of Jointly Venturing - Let's Talk World Citizenship we speak with meditation practitioner and teacher Eyal Lang from Melbourne, Australia deep in the second major COVID-19 lockdown since March 2020. Eyal has been a committed meditator since 2014 and now teaches meditation to beginners who are interested in pursuing this ancient practice designed to calm the mind, bring peace to the soul and ever-deeper understanding of the delusions of separateness that are still so common in normal life for most people.

Eyal is both a great human being but an excellent teacher as well, and if you'd like to be directly in touch with him to discuss meditation and how to get started, please go to www.eyallang.com and have a look around.

Thanks so much Eyal - hope we can do it again soon! Happy listening everyone!

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Eyal Lang has been on a six-year journey where he has been deeply exploring the practices of Western Mindfulness and Eastern Meditation to understand the nature of the mind. He’s immersed himself in several extended trainings, retreats, and workshops. This includes over three years of study and practice with his current teacher, Senior Meditation Master and Professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School, Daniel P. Brown PhD. He is currently studying and practicing the ancient wisdom teachings of Mahamudra and Dzogchen from the Kagyu, Nyingma and Bon Tibetan traditions.

His passion for meditation has led him to study teaching and become a fully certified member of the Meditation Association of Australia. His professional training includes 100 hours of Professional Instruction with Dr. Dan Brown and a Certificate in Meditation Teacher Training from the Melbourne Meditation Centre. He has also nourished his curiosity for understanding the nature of the mind by studying behavioural sciences and psychology at Monash University. His intention as a meditation teacher is to guide people on their journey to understand and organise their mind to create a more positive way of being.

Among other things, this episode includes a run across Australia, biking through snow in the Yukon and a grizzly bear attack - wheeww!

We've all heard the old adage "Think Globally, Act Locally" and besides those adventure stories, today's episode focuses precisely on that; how can we be world citizens and simultaneously work locally for a better world for everyone?

In Episode 31 we speak with Gregory Heming about his life and work in Canada to transform the locales where he has lived into better communities built on the foundations of compassion, equality and respect for the environment.

We hope you will enjoy this episode. Drop us a line and suggest future themes.

Have a look at www.onenessworld.org for all episodes of Jointly Venturing - Let's Talk World Citizenship.

Gregory's bio follows below. Thanks Gregory!

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Gregory Heming is a Municipal Councillor in Annapolis County, NS. He holds a PhD in Ecology with post-graduate studies in religion and philosophy, and has spoken, written and published on economics, environment, and public policy. He is also the Executive Director of the Centre for Local Prosperity.

Over the course of the last 30 years Gregory has devoted much of his time to participating in processes and procedures that promote a dialogue on the inter-connectedness of environment, economics, rural community development and politics. He has done so as a journalist, academic, published author, community activist, businessman and elected representative. Gregory has written, lectured and published over 250 essays, papers, presentations, and journalistic columns most of which have dealt directly with the notion that ‘economy and ecology are integral partners in civic life’ and they are best understood and delivered through what he calls place-based education.

He has served as President, Environmental Education Association of Yukon, and as Regional Editor, Northern Affairs, Environmental Education and Communication Newsletter.

Gregory currently serves as chair of the Annapolis County Economic Development Committee. He is a member of the Club of Rome, serves on Fundy Energy Research Network socio-economic committee, and is on the board of directors of the National Farmers Union-New Brunswick. He has been a strong and consistent voice for a new economic model based on steady-state economics and a more enlightened and restorative approach to business.

The Centre for Local Prosperity initiates conversations intended to encourage communities to begin a shift toward an economy that is properly scaled for the place. It is our hope that such a dialogue will result in real action for change by creating a new climate for change. The Centre takes pride in working alongside community groups, businesses and governments to identify opportunities and assess the risks in making the shift to a new economy. We are prepared to hold workshops, conferences, and targeted discussions on topics as far ranging as local currency, climate-change, restorative business modelling, living wage, affordable and efficient housing, local energy production, food & community hubs, entrepreneurial start-ups, transportation, arts & culture and social and economic justice.

Over time, the Centre envisions the crafting of a new narrative: a language that invites a balance between a culture of economic development and the preservation and restoration of natural systems. History demonstrates that vision without enlightened action is destined to lie fallow. Our hope is to discover an older grace and intelligence that binds us together in ways we could never have imagined. Once discovered it becomes the new social, economic and political narrative that restores the commons, elevates the notion of fairness, and sets a higher standard by which all progress is to be measured.

www.gregoryheming.org

If you've ever wondered how much can one person do to bring about international justice against the world's dictators, the three parts of Episode 26 will provide some amazing answers.

Tonight we talk again with a very special guest: international human rights lawyer and 'dictator hunter' Reed Brody of Human Rights Watch. Reed famously once said, and we para-phrase "If you kill one person, you go to jail, if you kill 40 you are put in an insane asylum, and if you kill 40,000 you get a safe haven with your bank account in another country." How sadly true this is.

Reed has dedicated his entire working life to the pursuit of human rights, with the past two decades or so focused on bringing former heads of state and political leaders to justice for crimes committed while they were in power.

Following the first part of Episode 26 where Reed outlined the efforts to hold former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet to justice when Pinochet was arrested in London in 1998 for crimes committed during his vicious reign that lasted from 1973-1990, tonight's episode switches continents and moves to Africa. Part 2 of Episode 26 tells the remarkable story of a two-decade long quest to bring one of Africa's worst dictators to justice for his crimes.

With the backing of the United States, Hissène Habré seized power in the impoverished nation of the Republic of Chad in 1982 and ruled until 1990 when he was forced to flee to Senegal. Reed and a group of Habré''s victims faced countless obstacles in their search for accountability but refused to give up, and as a result Habré was sentenced to life in prison in 2016. He is now behind bars in a Dakar prison.

Reed has been involved in many other cases concerning crimes committed by political leaders, and in the final part of this series, we will discuss his ongoing work to end impunity and bring dictators to justice, as well as his thoughts on the future of international criminal justice, where we stand in the fight for human rights, and who might be the next dictator to be brought to court.

Jointly Venturing would again like to thank Reed for joining us in Episode 26!

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Reed Brody is Counsel for Human Rights Watch, where he works alongside atrocity victims who are fighting for justice. His advocacy with the victims of the exiled former dictator of Chad, Hissène Habré – who was convicted of crimes against humanity in Senegal – and in the cases of Augusto Pinochet and Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier has been featured in five films, including “The Dictator Hunter.” He currently works with victims of the former dictator of Gambia Yahya Jammeh. He wrote four Human Rights Watch reports on U.S. treatment of prisoners in the “war on terror” and the book “Faut-il Juger George Bush?”

Before joining Human Rights Watch, he led United Nations teams investigating massacres in the Democratic Republic of Congo and monitoring human rights in El Salvador, and he helped to prosecute human rights crimes in Haiti. He coordinated the 1997 International Commission of Jurists report “Tibet: Human Rights and the Rule of Law.” In 1996, he was expelled from Indonesian-occupied East Timor. At the 1993 UN World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna, he coordinated lobbying for 2,700 NGO representatives and helped negotiate the creation of the post of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

His 1984 investigation uncovered atrocities by the U.S.-backed “contras” against Nicaraguan civilians and led to a halt in U.S. funding. In 2016, he represented US journalist Amy Goodman to dismiss criminal charges for reporting on an attack against Native American-led anti-pipeline protesters at Standing Rock, North Dakota. In January 2017, he was elected to the International Commission of Jurists.

Episode 30 - The Man Behind the Podcast: Who is Scott Leckie?

By Brian Gorlick

This episode is a little different. The tables are turned on Scott Leckie, who this time will be the interviewee. Guest host Brian Gorlick, an old friend, international jurist and university instructor and former UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) official, will be asking the questions.
From his early days running track in Southern California and Oregon, to establishing and leading not-for-profit NGOs working on international housing rights and evictions, and forced displacement and climate change, Scott shares details of his globe-trotting journey, work and vision as a human rights expert, activist, writer, lecturer, teacher and thinker.

As the founder of Oneness World, Scott remains a unique voice who takes his work to promote and protect human rights and world citizenship and how to save the planet, very seriously. But he does so - always - with a jolly mind and sense of humour. This Grateful Dead aficionado and international human rights lawyer and Director and Founder of Displacement Solutions (www.displacementsolutions.org) is on a quest to change your mind. Especially those in positions of power. To ensure the commonality and potential of the global human community and Mother Earth can live in sustainable peace and harmony for generations to come. Sounds lofty and idealistic and kind of interesting? It is. Tune in!

Today we speak with Alaskan Robin Bronen about her vital work in addressing the severe climate crisis unfolding throughout the Arctic region where temperatures recently reached 38C in a region that is meant to stay frozen all of the time! Though often ignored by much of the world, what happens in the Arctic will affect us all. As permafrost melts, as pack ice melts, as glaciers melt, not only does human habitation become increasingly difficult, but this is accompanied by the release of massive quantities of methane gas which is a far worse contributor to worsening climate change than CO2. Thousands of Alaska's indigenous residents are facing the prospect of permanent relocation, and resultant landlessness and homelessness with only sporadic government support to these increasingly vulnerable populations.

Episode 29 is a wake up call for everyone, everywhere, so please listen closely and determine how best you can help to stop these horrible developments.

Jointly Venturing again would like to thank Robin for today's episode and for her amazing work on behalf of the people of the Arctic and beyond.

We dedicate Episode 29 to the indigenous people of Alaska and throughout the Arctic who by no fault of their own stand to lose everything as climate change threatens their very existence.

Robin Bronen lives in Alaska, works as a human rights attorney and has been working with Alaska Native communities since 2007 on the issue of climate-forced relocation. She is a senior research scientist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Institute of Arctic Biology. She is also the cofounder and executive director of the Alaska Institute for Justice, a non-profit agency that is the only immigration legal service provider in Alaska, houses a Language Interpreter Center, training bilingual Alaskans to be professional interpreters, and also is a research and policy institute focused on climate justice issues. She worked with the White House Council on Environmental Quality to implement President Obama’s Climate Change Task Force recommendation to address climate displacement. She works as an expert on climate-forced planned relocations as a member of the advisory group for the Platform on Disaster Displacement, an international consultative process intended to build consensus on the development of an international human rights and protection agenda addressing the needs of people displaced in the context of natural hazards, including the effects of climate change. Her research has been featured in the Guardian, CNN, and others and she regularly presents her research at conferences focused on climate change adaptation, disaster relief reduction and climate change and population displacement. The Alaska Bar Association awarded her the 2007 Robert Hickerson Public Service award and the 2012 International Human Rights award. The Federal Bureau of Investigation awarded the Alaska Institute for Justice the 2012 FBI Director’s Community Service award, the International Soroptimist’s awarded her the 2012 Advancing the Rights of Women award and Victims for Justice awarded her the 2014 Advocacy Award.

We all know of the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestine, but how much do we really know about the origins of how Israel came into being?

Do we really understand the ideological struggles within Judaism in the century prior to the establishment of Israel or the ethnic cleansing that accompanied the violence by Zionists in 1947 and 1948 - so painstakingly documented by Israeli author Ilan Pappé in his 2006 book 'The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine'?

Does the Occupation of Palestine date from 1967 as is commonly characterised, or does it date all the way back to the founding of the state of Israel?

Was Israel really built partially on the land on which some 531 Palestinian villages once stood?

Why are there more than 7 million Palestinian refugees in 2020? Do these refugees - like all refugees - have a right to return and a right to restitution for their properties?

These and many other themes are addressed in Part 1 of Episode 28 where we discuss the origins of Israel until 1967 with scholar and human rights advocate Joseph Schechla.

Since 2000, Joseph has coordinated the Cairo-based global and Middle East/North Africa programs of the Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN) of Habitat International Coalition. The Coalition was founded at Habitat I, in Vancouver (1976) as the civic movement supporting and further developing the UN Habitat Agenda. HLRN, as a structure of HIC, develops capacity of civil society organizations to specialize in economic, social and cultural rights advocacy, particularly the habitat-related human rights to adequate housing, water and land, and apply human rights methodology in research and advocacy, including participation in UN mechanisms and forums, especially the UN Human Rights System. Joseph has lived and worked in the MENA region for 25 years. He also has represented OHCHR in Palestine and Tunisia, and recently concluded a multi-agency project to develop a handbook for “Housing and Property Restitution for Refugees and Displaced Persons: Implementing the Pinheiro Principles in the Middle East and North Africa.”

Speaking to Jointly Venturing from Cairo, Joseph outlines in detail the origins of Israel and how and why so many refer to Israel as an Apartheid State. Part 2 of Episode 28 will outline developments in historic Palestine from 1967 until the present day - so stay tuned.

Thank you again to Joe for his extraordinary work in support of occupied peoples everywhere and for his compassion and dedication to justice for everyone affected by occupation or oppression. His work is truly that of a world citizen!

This episode mentions a number of important books which provide insights into the discussion. These are:

Pappé, Ilan. The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (Oxford: One World, 2006);

Berger, Elmer. The Jewish Dilemma: The Case against Zionist Nationalism (New York: Devin-Adair, 1945);

Fischbach, Michael R. Records of Dispossession: Palestinian Refugee Property and the Arab-Israeli Conflict (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003);

McCarthy, Justin. The Population of Palestine: Population History and Statistics of the Late Ottoman Period and the Mandate (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990).