The Peace Corps celebrates five decades | The Journal Watchdog by Community Journals, a media company based in Greenville, S.C

The Peace Corps celebrates five decades | The Journal Watchdog by Community Journals, a media company based in Greenville, S.C: "The inspiration for the Peace Corps came on Oct. 14, 1960, when Kennedy, in an impromptu campaign speech, asked University of Michigan students to give two years to help people in countries of the developing world.

It was a theme he followed with his inaugural urging: “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.”

Within three months of Kennedy taking the oath of office Jan. 20, 1961, the Peace Corps was up and running under R. Sargent Shriver, who was director for five years.

The first group of 51 Peace Corps volunteers arrived in Ghana the next August. Today, 8,655 volunteers and trainees are working in 76 countries.

Volunteers typically spend 10 weeks of in-country training and 24 months of service in the field. Today, 37 percent of the volunteers are in Africa, 24 percent in Latin America, 21 percent in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, seven percent in Asia, 5 percent in the Caribbean, 4 percent in North Africa or the Middle East and 2 percent in the Pacific Islands."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2J8ljzZsRA

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Netanyahu responded more positively to the initiative by the Quartet

Peace No Closer as Netanyahu, Abbas Emerge Unscathed at UN - Businessweek: "Netanyahu responded more positively to the initiative by the Quartet, comprised of the U.S., UN, European Union and Russia. He will begin consultations today with his ministers on issuing a formal response, according to an Israeli official who spoke anonymously because he wasn’t authorized to speak on the record.

The Quartet proposal came after Abbas spoke at the UN General Assembly on Sept. 23 and called on the Security Council to recognize a Palestinian state and grant it full UN membership.

Israeli Satisfaction

Israeli officials expressed satisfaction with developments at the UN, especially the speech by U.S. President Barack Obama stressing Israel’s security needs and not mentioning settlements or referring to the 1967 borders, two issues of contention.

“This was a political win for Netanyahu, most importantly the Obama speech which was a reconciliation with the U.S. on his own terms, and the failure of the Palestinians to bring a vote on their statehood initiative to the Security Council,” said Gerald Steinberg, political scientist at Bar Ilan University outside Tel Aviv."

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“The truth is Israel wants peace. I want peace,” Netanyahu

U.N. UPDATE: Bibi Extends 'Hand of Peace' to Palestinians – Forward.com: "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the Palestinian bid for statehood at the United Nations and insisted that Israel wants to achieve peace through talks.

“The truth is Israel wants peace. I want peace,” Netanyahu said. “The truth is: We cannot achieve peace through U.N. resolutions. We can only achieve peace through negotiations.”

“I extend my hand to the Palestinian people with whom we seek a just and lasting peace,” Netanyahu told the General Assembly, to a smattering of applause. “Our hope for peace never wanes.”

He said it would be folly for Israel to trade peace for land without firm security agreements and vowed Israel would be first in line to recognize a Palestinian state in the context of a comprehensive peace deal."

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“In the course of history, there comes a time when humanity is called to shift to a new level of consciousness, to reach a higher moral ground....

Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Dies at 71 - NYTimes.com: “In the course of history, there comes a time when humanity is called to shift to a new level of consciousness,” she said, “to reach a higher moral ground. A time when we have to shed our fear and give hope to each other. That time is now.” (Wangari Maathai)

"Dr. Maathai was as comfortable in the gritty streets of Nairobi’s slums or the muddy hillsides of central Kenya as she was hobnobbing with heads of state. She won the Peace Prize in 2004 for what the Nobel committee called “her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace.” It was a moment of immense pride in Kenya and across Africa.


Her Green Belt Movement has planted more than 30 million trees in Africa and has helped nearly 900,000 women, according to the United Nations, while inspiring similar efforts in other African countries."


Background Info:

Wangari Muta Maathai was born on April 1, 1940 in Nyeri, Kenya, in the foothills of Mount Kenya. A star student, she won a scholarship to study biology at Mount St. Scholastica College in Atchison, Kan., receiving a degree in 1964. She earned a master of science degree from the University of Pittsburgh.

She went on to obtain a doctorate in veterinary anatomy at the University of Nairobi, becoming the first woman in East or Central Africa to hold such a degree, according to theNobel Prize Web site. She also taught at the university as an associate professor and was chairwoman of its veterinary anatomy department in the 1970s.

A day before she was scheduled to receive the Nobel, Dr. Maathai was forced to respond to a report in The East African Standard, a daily newspaper in Nairobi, that she had likened AIDS to a “biological weapon,” telling participants in an AIDS workshop in Nyeri that the disease was “a tool” to control Africans “designed by some evil-minded scientists.”

She said her comments had been taken out of context. “It is therefore critical for me to state that I neither say nor believe that the virus was developed by white people or white powers in order to destroy the African people,” she said in a statement released by the Nobel Committee. “Such views are wicked and destructive.”

In presenting her with the Peace Prize, the Nobel committee hailed her for taking “a holistic approach to sustainable development that embraces democracy, human rights and women’s rights in particular” and serving “as inspiration for many in the fight for democratic rights.”

Dr. Maathai received many honorary degrees, including an honorary doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh in 2006, as well as awards, including the French Legion of Honor and Japan’s Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun.

She is survived by three children, Waweru, Wanjira and Muta, and a granddaughter, according to the Green Belt Movement.

Former Vice President Al Gore, a fellow Peace Prize recipient for his environmental work, said in a statement, “Wangari overcame incredible obstacles to devote her life to service — service to her children, to her constituents, to the women, and indeed all the people of Kenya — and to the world as a whole.”

In her Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Dr. Maathai said the inspiration for her work came from growing up in rural Kenya. She reminisced about a stream running next to her home – a stream that has since dried up – and drinking fresh, clear water.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT98uQ74X1c

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World Peace Update: Egyptian-Israeli Peace Stretches Thin : NPR

Egyptian-Israeli Peace Stretches Thin : NPR:

NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson joins host Scott Simon from Cairo to talk about the latest there. (pls clink link for complete transcript)

"SIMON: And the trial of former president Hosni Mubarak continues. What's the latest on that front?

NELSON: Well, today is another closed session. This time they're looking at CDs featuring critical evidence, according to Al-Ahram, which, of course, is a state-run newspaper here. But it's been very difficult to find out what's been going on.

Last week we had many top officials testifying, including the former vice president, and intelligence chief and a former interior minister. All those sessions were closed. But this is still the prosecution's turn. They're very much trying to prove that Hosni Mubarak and his interior minister basically issued shoot to kill orders for protesters, which resulted in the deaths of about 850 protesters. And they're case, at least as far as we've been able to ascertain, because again, the government has now shut down coverage - in fact - banned coverage for a while with threatening to put people in jail. But so far it seems the prosecution's had a very tough time making their case."

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World Peace Update: Residents rally for peace in Palmetto

Residents rally for peace in Palmetto: "The rally comes just a week after a shooting at Club Elite in Palmetto left 2 people dead and another 22 injured.

Event organizer Shavonda Bailey says there needs to be more cooperation between the community and local law enforcement.

"We've got to start working together as one unit as a team because it's going to take a team to fight the crime that's taking place in the community," said Bailey

Bailey knows the pain of gun violence all too well.

In 2007 her aunt was shot and killed when a masked intruder broke into her Palmetto home.

She said the Club Elite shooting should serve as a wake up call.

"22 lives were injured, 2 people dead. Isn't that enough?" asked Bailey.

Those who spoke Saturday touched many topics but stressed that the community needs to help the police to get a handle on crime in their neighborhoods."

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World Peace Update: U.S. focuses on peace talks as Palestinians' bid for UN membership looms | Detroit Free Press | freep.com

U.S. focuses on peace talks as Palestinians' bid for UN membership looms | Detroit Free Press | freep.com: "White House officials say it's unclear what course the Palestinians will take in New York. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Friday that he will ask the UN Security Council to endorse his nationhood bid, though he said he was open to other unspecified options. The U.S. has pledged to veto the bid, and the Obama administration has senior diplomats in the region making a last-ditch effort to persuade the Palestinians to drop the measure.

But the White House insists its main focus is on resuming direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. U.S. officials contend that those negotiations provide the only credible pathway for the Palestinians to achieve nationhood.

"Whatever happens at the United Nations, there's going to have to be a process to get these two parties back to the table when we get beyond next week," White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said Friday."

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