Human violence

Man kills for any excuse, for any excuse whatsoever. Hindus can kill Mohammedans, Mohammedans can kill Hindus, Christians can kill Mohammedans, and Buddhists…and so on and so forth. And for what? For abstract doctrines, principles–and nobody is ready to live for those doctrines and everybody is ready to kill others for those same doctrines. If somebody insults the Bible, the Christian is ready to kill you, and if you ask him, “Are you living your Bible?” he will say, “It is very difficult.” He is not interested in living it, nobody is interested in living it; but if it comes to killing, then everybody becomes very much interested.
—Osho

Coordinating Communications

I have been in the Czech Republic for nearly a month now, but am just now starting to hit the ground (still haven’t set up a post office account). I’m living in Most (in north-western Bohemia on the border with Germany). This is the BOA for Atlantic Bridge, the non-profit I worked with in the Netherlands this past summer. I will continue my work with AB on their curriculum from here (some interesting developments; I’ll talk about that in a later post). I’m living in one of the flats AB has here and will be working with their interns and local partners in the Czech Republic. However, though I am living in Europe, my actual employment is in Philadelphia with BuildaBridge International.
BuildaBridge is an organisation with a bright future; we aim to work with some of the world’s most as-risk people. Unfortunately, this is a growing population. Though globalisation has raised the mean standard of living for the world as a whole, it has also left many behind in an ever widening wake of economic, political, and environmental difficulties. Though we are a small organisation now, there are few who fill our particular niche and we are poised to grow quickly over the next few years (we maintain contact with many creative people who want to make a positive contribution to society). At the moment, we are developing a strategic plan and reviewing our mission and vision. I’ll post much more as we bring these materials on-line.

Though this position is paid, I am expected to raise a major portion of my support through donations an grant funding. BuildaBridge is a 501c3 non-profit organisation. As such, donations are tax-deductible. If you’d like to support my work here, send a check (with “European Office” written on the memo line) to:

BuildaBridge International
attn: Overseas Program Coordinator
205 West Tulpehocken Street, Suite 2
Philadelphia, PA 19144
United States

Alternately, donations can be processed on-line through our Just Give account (again, be sure to note “European Office” in the “Designate my donation” box.) If you give online, drop me an e-mail so I can send back a thank you.

You may request an organisational financial statement from the address above. We are accountable to a board and are required to openly report our finances

Below is a release concerning my new position that will be posted on the BuildaBridge Website.

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Writing across borders

The major challenge in editing material such as this is compressing down the broad topics it considers into just these few sessions. For example, we propose to cover world religions in one session. Obviously, the participants are not going to develop an in-depth understanding of the history and complexities of world religions in an hour and a half session with games and a snack. However, we do hope they will at least gain an initial introduction; that they will pick up some key points that can be called upon later (either in later sessions or in a life situation where they must either discern the difference between people’s beliefs or call upon their own).

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