Do You Have Time For World Peace?

Have you ever left a seminar, training class, or other event, all energized to take action and do something new? You left the event all energized and excited. Yet, nothing happened.

Chances are, taking the action and making the intended changes turned out to be more difficult than you ever thought about. What's worse, the entire plan probably just faded into non-existence after a few days.

What happened? NOTHING.

It is simple. As soon as you returned to your normal daily routine, the normal mundane needs of daily life took over and pulled you right back to where you were. Habit had you feeding the family and pets, going to work, fixing dinner, responding to emails etc... For most people, everyday life is where everything new comes to an end. They become stuck, remain stuck, and have no idea they are stuck. All the new and exciting plans are soon forgotten. The more time passes, the less likely any of the new plans will ever be acted on.

When you take time away from your normal daily life, your time and energy are freed up for something new. When you return to your normal daily life, the normal way of life takes over. The old routine still occupies 100% of your time just as it did before you found a new interest.

The next time you are excited about new activities, schedule time for the new activities. Make room in your old routine. Scheduling time will enable you to get unstuck from old habits and make the changes you planned.

The same is true of world peace. The world has lived, fought, and negotiated the same way for thousands of years. We know how to make time to develop war, anger, and hatred. We watch and cheer for violence on TV. Weapons development is only one way war is in constant development. We spend little time on peace.

Do we know how to develop peace? How often do news programs or other forms of media present ideas that support world peace? We have all heard about anti-war movements - sit-ins, marching against war, etc... Supporting anti-war efforts is not the same as supporting peace. What has been done to support world peace? Very little. What can be done to support world peace?

Imagination.

"Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere." Albert Einstein

Imagination made air travel a reality. Imagination made TV a reality. Imagination made modern technology a reality.

The world we live in could be a world without war.

Imagine the world we live in as being a world of peace. Pay attention to how much time you focus on violence through TV, radio, or even discussions. Try moving your attention to peaceful efforts and focus less on violence. Does this mean sticking your head in the sand like the proverbial ostrich? No. This does mean moving your attention away from what is not wanted and refocusing your attention and efforts on what is wanted. Meditate on your own inner peace. This meditation will develop your inspiration, joy, and peace over time. The peace that is developed within oneself will be reflected throughout the rest of your life. This is one way of supporting and spreading peace. This is how you can get involved.

Make peace a part of your life.

Therese Black's 1World Peace Plan was inspired by a chance encounter with the Queen of England and the Grand Duchess of Luxembourg. For more information on the 1World Peace Plan, go to http://www.thereseblack.com/

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Facing An Overcrowded World

The world's population in 1804, the year before the Battle of Trafalgar, was estimated to be one billion people. In 1927 when more accurate figures were available, it was two billion and last year, 2011 and only 84 years later, it was seven billion with nine billion predicted by 2050. Scary isn't it.

How will all these people live today and in the future? If they live at all most will not live very well.

As the world population grows we are using up more and more resources: water, food timber. Essential resources we need for eating, drinking, warmth and shelter.

The effect of these diminishing resources already is evident in sub-Saharan Africa where drought and the destruction of trees for fuel has led to serious famine and social unrest as more people complete for limited food. The United Nations has stepped in but even the aid provided by Western nations and many charities is insufficient to help everyone in need, even if corruption, poor transport, waste and general inefficiency is overcome.

With living conditions deteriorating and social unrest increasing large numbers of people are on the move. Most, mainly families, end up in squalid camps supported by international assistance but many single people risk their lives in dangerous ocean and desert crossings. Still more in countries at peace end up in overcrowded slums of already unsustainable cities.

Yet still the world's population grows. Infant mortality in countries without welfare services obliges the poor to have large families so someone will survive to look after the parents in old age, lack of birth control and too early marriage, limited education for females, more bodies to work the fields - a litany of reasons which add up to one result: more people.

Although some promise is offered by increasing Third World education and contraception for women it is a race against time and societal beliefs which humanity will not win and we can anticipate with concern large scale population shifts of a millennium ago, except now there is no more empty spaces to move into.

As populations increase and liveable space decreases civilised society will come under threat. Safety and security will become paramount as the world shrinks to the narrow dimension of medieval times. As always however there will be those who are better off than others; those whose lifestyles are more comfortable, more protected than most. And there will continue to be those with ambitions whose optimism rises above the shabby future facing everyone.

The above scenario is not far fetched because academics have been warning of world overpopulation for many years. Unfortunately their concerns largely have been ignored, not least because their worries have been expressed in learned journals of little or no comprehension to the layman - the ordinary man and woman to whom the issue should be addressed if only in the interests of their grandchildren who will face the problem in the crowded future.

This need to alert if not educate our non-academic community encouraged me to write "Shangri-la... when the world is overpopulated" - a fictional novella about the future available from Bookpal (http://www.bookpal.com.au/) or Kindle.

Greg Cornwell

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Fort Garry Horse - Stan Butterworth - A World War II Vet

This man who greets me at the door with a smile and rosy cheeks is 88 years young. As he takes my coat, a courtesy of his generation and invites me to sit at his dining room table, we sit down for a chat that easily could have taken many more hours.

Stan Butterworth proudly shows me photos of his family and friends. He shows me how his school team won the city-wide championship in soccer. He then shows me a newspaper from 2005. It is the edition that the Winnipeg Free Press put out to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the end of the war. In it, there are over 20 pages of soldiers who have died from the province of Manitoba. He tells me that there are over 4000 soldiers who lost their lives in the second war just from our province alone. He says this with much sadness and concern. He discounts his own involvement with the war effort as a member of the Fort Garry Horse Regiment, an armoured unit to those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

We talk about the past. He tells me of how he joined up with his brother, Fred Butterworth. They joined up at the Fort Osborne Barracks which is now home to the Izzy Asper Centre School and the Rose & Max Rady Jewish Community Centre near Assiniboine Park. That location has a lot of memories for a lot of people. They did their initial physical and aptitude training there. Their choices at the time were between the armoured corps, the artillery corps or the service corps. They chose to become armoured and so took on wearing the Black Beret as part of the Canadian Armoured Corp.

Training continued at the University of Manitoba. There, the residential dorms were turned over to the military. The famous, centrally located brick Administration Building of the University of Manitoba was turned partially into an Orderly Room. The parking lot behind Dafoe Library, Fletcher Argue and Tier Buildings was turned into a parade square for the soldiers to practice on. Many students of the University of Manitoba do not know the rich history of how their campus was used in the war effort.

For graduation, they marched down south to Elm Park Bridge beside where now the BDI stands, which for many Winnipeggers know a great place to get ice cream before walking the very same bridge these soldiers were on. The soldiers continued down St. Mary's Road to what would now be close to the perimeter. They had to cross back over to Pembina Highway and the only way they could do this back then was by crossing on a ferry. They then headed back north to the University of Manitoba campus.

Having graduated this portion, they travelled to Camp Borden where they took more training with 13 weeks of gunnery and 13 weeks in wireless. However, the Allies were preparing for D-Day and so every available soldier was being taken over to Europe in preparation. This meant that Stan and Fred had to teach recruits even though they were not finished their own. While the new people came in to learn the first portion, they also continued to learn on their own second part of the training program. Finally, they headed to Nova Scotia and then onto a boat called the "Isle de France" in March 1944.

Their voyage was interesting as the ship left Halifax and started heading south as if to go to Africa but then during the night, it turned north back towards Europe. He suspects that there were u-boats on their trail. At various times, they were escorted by corvettes and Sutherland Flying Boats. Travel on the boat was another thing as mats were laid on the ship's floor and then immediately above them were hammocks. The ride was so rough that their boat was like a cork in water bobbing in the rocking waves. Stan, Fred and a few others did not like this so at night time when they went into black out conditions for their own safety, they would sneak off and sleep in the lifeboats instead. They made it to Scotland on April 1st, 1944.

As time went on, they made it to Aldershot, England which is only an hour from the famous Stonehenge Monument and is "Home to the British Army." This is where Stan and Fred received real "Advance Training" in preparation for going over. They fought in France, Belgium, Holland and Germany. There is much more of a story here but not enough time or space to write it all down. Let it be said that on April 13, 1945, Fred, Stan's only brother, made the ultimate sacrifice and died in the war effort.

Stan came back and married his sweetheart, Hazel Carlson, had two sons of his own, naming the first one in honour of his brother and his family lineage. He went on to live in various places in Western Canada with his family but returned to Winnipeg where he had renewed his interest and involvement with the Fort Garry Horse Regiment in 1975 to this day.

He, along with many other key people, was instrumental in having the Fort Garry Horse Memorial placed in Assiniboine Park beside the Pavilion. It stands tall and proud in reflecting the battle honours this regiment has been a part of. Interestingly now, a 100 years has passed since its inception and the Fort Garry Horse have produced a history book to be released at McNally Robinson's on April 13, 2012 at 1:00 pm in the Atrium. For more information, see http://www.mcnallyrobinson.com/product/category/0/item/716849/mcnorgan-crossley-facta-non-verba

In addition, the Fort Garry Horse is commemorating the 100th anniversary with a series of events including a parade at the City Hall and another at the Provincial Legislature to which the general public is invited. There is also a Gala Cavalry Ball. For more information, go to http://www.fortgarryhorse.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=91&Itemid=99

Mary Mikawoz is a teacher, freelance writer, artist and photographer. She was born and raised in Winnipeg and then lived in eight Canadian cities as an adult. She has a wealth of knowledge with continuously learning at eight Universities and Colleges in Canada. She has two University degrees and a College diploma. She strives hard to produce work that is representative and is a very good reflection of people and their organizations.

For more information - http://mikawoz.wordpress.com/ or contact Mikawoz@gmail.com or @MaryMikawoz

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