Forgiving the unforgivable: Kia Scherr’s story
Image via edition.cnn.com
Two years ago, Alan Scherr and his 13-year old daughter Naomi were killed during the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, leaving behind not only a grieving wife and mother but a heartbroken community that was like family. They were traveling in India with the Synchronicity Foundation, a spiritual community that Alan and his wife Kia joined in 1996. Although he worked for the organization as their vice president, the compound where the Scherrs lived with other Synchronicity members was also home: the monks residing on the grounds watched Naomi grow up, and remember her as both a little girl who liked to draw pictures and as a teenager who dyed her hair blue.
Immediately after the attacks, Kia Scherr voiced a seemingly radical sentiment: forgive the attackers. read more…
(from cartoonstock.com)
The Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) and Media Tenor recently announced the results of “Measuring Peace in the Media”, the first study that takes a fact-based approach into understanding the accuracy of international television networks’ coverage of peace, violence and conflict.
What they found is that while most media reports reflect actual levels of violence in the countries they cover, US media often devotes considerably more time to violence. Four networks devote over 50% of their time to topics of violence: CBS Evening News, Fox Special Report, ITV News at 10 and ABC World News. read more…
Hello Searchers,
If you have read and enjoyed the articles from the Common Ground News Service – Partners in Humanity, we hope you’ll take a moment to fill out a short survey that will help us improve the product.
What do you want to read about? What would you like to change?
Take the survey and let us know!
Image via Common Ground Productions
The Communication Initiative Network knows that media can be a powerful tool in changing attitudes and promoting peace throughout the world. At the organization’s resource-rich website, academics and practitioners alike can learn about the complex challenges facing this community, celebrate hard-won victories, and explore new opportunities to affect lasting change. Recently, they highlighted some of the media-specific efforts of Search for Common Ground… read more…
Image via The Fuller Center Bicycle Adventure
By Tanya Castle
There are more than one billion people aged 15-24 throughout the world, with 87% living in developing countries and more than 200 million living on the African continent alone.
In many African countries, childbearing begins much earlier than in Western countries, with girls as young as 14 years old giving birth. With 200 million Africans of childbearing age, and an average fertility rate of 5.7, it is easy to do the math: Africa will soon experience dramatic population growth. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the fertility rate is even higher than the rest of the continent, averaging 6.7. In anticipation of these population changes, there is a growing awareness of the need for modern family planning methods. read more…
