From: jim.speirs@canrem.com (Jim Speirs) To: dannys@iis.ee.ethz.ch (Danny Schwendener) Subject: Ideas for a Peace Theme Article #R127. ============== Ideas for a Peace Theme Robb Baker The Leader, January 1990 It is certainly a most exciting time to be a member of the world community! In recent months, people living in Warsaw Pact countries in Eastern Europe have gained new freedoms long sought after and repressed. What a wondrous sight to witness, live via television satellite, the opening of the Berlin Wall and thousands of people moving freely back and forth. Stranger still to see East German guards handing out roses to passersby--the same guards whose job the week before was to prevent people from trying to cross the wall to freedom. The wave of freedom is starting to affect Scouting in positive ways. In Hungary, the World Scout Organization is currently working with leaders and community personalities to encourage the development of a contemporary program that will enable Hungarians to rejoin the World Scout brotherhood. Scouting started in Hungary in 1912. During WWI, patrol leaders kept it going, doing Red Cross work and helping at refugee centres. In 1933, Hungary was host to the 4th World Jamboree, attended by 25,792 Scouts from 58 different countries. Since then, Hungarian Scouting has been disbanded and outlawed several times, but a new law granting 'freedom of associates" in Hungary took effect in January 1989. This has brought about a renewed interest in all that Scouting has to offer. As Canadians, we have little if any day-to-day experience with life in a strife-torn country. In this and many other blessings, we are most fortunate. The notion of the importance of a peaceful free existence seems remote for many of our members. Our only experience with anything else comes through media reports and history lessons, and we tend to take our freedoms for granted. Just don't dare to suggest that we should or could set aside any of them. How can Scouters try to enlighten our young members to the notion of peace and all that it entails? Perhaps the first step is to gain further insight into the topic, and an organization called Amnesty International is a good place to start. Amnesty, a worldwide movement independent of any government, political group, ideology, economic interest, or religious creed, plays a specific role in human rights work. It seeks the release of men and women detained anywhere in the world for their beliefs, colour, sex, ethnic origin, language, or religion, provided they have not used or advocated violence. It supports fair and early trials for all political prisoners and works on behalf of those detained without charge or trial. It opposes the death penalty and torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of all prisoners without reservation. Its Canadian address is: Amnesty International, 900-130 Slater Street, Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5H4. If you are looking for a number of practical ideas to work with or explore the topic of peace with Scouts, read on. Why not get together with a Cub pack or another Scout troop and try an evening with the theme of peace? Things To Do Make peace badges from plastic card or clay. Attach brooch pins with clear glue. Discuss and research peace slogans. Think about what design aspects are involved in an eye-catching badge. As individuals or in groups, make dove peace mobiles. Hang doves from the ceiling. Make peace plates from clay--large platters decorated with peace symbols such as the dove, olive branch, or rose. Make peace puppets to dramatize events that create peace. Devise a play for the puppets, add props, and negotiate practice times and space. Build peace kites decorated with peace symbols or messages. Make tails from paper doves Create masks of feelings. Use them in a play or role play. Draw peaceful lines; i.e. create a peaceful pattern. Discuss reactions to different types of lines. What is a peaceful line? After discussion and research, draw peace cartoons. Is the message verbal, visual or both? Prepare a storyboard sequence exploring ideas about a world without war. Draw a sequence where an aggressive object is transformed into a peaceful object. Draw illustrations for myths, legends and fairytales where conflict is resolved peacefully. Design peace posters or T-shirts after research and discussion of design aspects and production. Paint or silkscreen your products. Design peace cards for a friend, parents, a special event such as Christmas, Easter, birthdays, International Day of Peace, Hiroshima Day, Peace Festivals. Create peace banners. Use paint, glitter, stars and textiles. What will your banner say? Brainstorm messages: e.g. "I want to grow up, not blow up!" Create peace stamps using coloured pencils, paints, linocuts, etc. Make peace candles to light at dusk during a Scouts' Own. Research the symbols of peace; doves, daffodils, roses, olive blanch. How can you symbolize peace? Make mail art postcards. The person who drew the mail art postcard illustrated here wrote a message on the back saying how he was entranced when this tiny bird perched on his 2 year old daughter's fingers. The fingers are opened in a "V". What might it mean? The artist used red, brown, black, and yellow. Choose your own colours to finish the picture. Cut it out and glue to card. Write a message for peace on the back and send it to a friend. Design your own postcard, write a message for peace on the back, and send it to another friend.