12.1.10 - One of my friends posted a TED talk on their facebook status that I was very pleased to come across. It was a mesmerizing talk by William Ury on “The Walk from “No” to “Yes.”” He spoke of our tendency to be more at peace when walking together side by side rather than directly facing off. And with this logic, peace walks have been excellent demonstrations for harmo-nious interactions and means of effective dialogue not only in the Middle East but all over the world. In fact, I attended such a peace walk in West Haven, CT which I created a short video to document. Ury’s talk was excel-lent and I highly recommend for all working for peace in the Middle East.

11.25.10 - Watched two excellent talks on TED with global themes. One by Elif Shafak is on the Politics of Fiction. On the TED description for the talk: Listening to stories widens the imagination; telling them lets us leap over cultural walls, embrace different experiences, feel what others feel. I remember Elif from an excellent NPR interview in which she talks about her two muslim grandmothers; one authoritarian and the other more mystical. Very fascinating talk I turned into a YouTube video. The other talk was by Jessica Jackley called Poverty Money and Love. As the co-founder of Kiva.org, Jessica talks about how her work with microloans has brought new power to people who live on a few dollars a day.

11.8.10 - Participated in a confer-ence call with MePeace founder Eyal Raviv in Israel and other peace makers around the world. The topic of the call was practical applications of compassion in our daily lives. I have been active on MePeace again welcoming peacemakers with a greeting and new animation I put together. I Hope to connect with people around the world who are serious about working towards an alternative for peace in the Middle East that stands a chance of creat-ing lasting harmony between war-ring factions.

9.30.10 - Gave my Dharma discussion titled; Avatar, Enlightenment and the End of Star Wars, at my sangha this last Sunday, but just finally got the online version up. I’m happy how it came out. The global themes make it an effective vehicle for expressing the hope of transcending the war of polarity for the potential of two sides coming together to complete, not destroy each other. If East and West can “see” each other, they can unite under the ban-ner of a global country at peace without the apocalypse scenario expected by those who don’t believe we can resolve opposites through unity.

9.21.10 - Came across this excerpt from Martin Luther King’s “Silence is Be-trayal” Speech set to footage from the Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan wars. King’s words sound just as relevant today as they were in 1968. Glenn Beck or Sarah Palin need to see this.

8.10.10 - Caught Al Gore’s town hall conference call with Repower America. Even though he had to admit defeat this year with the climate change bill be-ing shut down in the United States Senate, Gore reaffirmed that the cause of taking action to avert catastrophe from inaction in the face of a climate crisis would ultimately succeed in swaying the public, because reality is on the side of those who see the need for action. 2010 has already been re-ported as record setting for warmest summer in the Northern Hemisphere. No place on Earth has seen this illustrated more than Russia, which is ex-periencing record setting heat waves and forest fire destruction. The still above was taken from a video uploaded from Russia on July 29th, depicting a harrowing escape through one of the many forest fires near Moscow.

5.14.10 - Recently became aware that United Planet put their web site through a major overhaul. Looks like they have some great features for con-necting folks with volunteer opportunities around the world.

4.27.10 - This is a very thought provoking presentation on the problems with bottled water at the global level. The part that made me the most upset is the report of America shipping its empty water bottles to India. :-( After see-ing this, I don’t ever want to buy any more bottled water.

4.22.10 - I remember watching this TED talk given by Jill Tarter awhile ago. Thought it was appropriate to present it on my blog for Earth Day. It’s an excellent presentation about the likelihood we are not alone in the universe. Coming to a deeper understanding about our place in the cosmos also changes the perspective of our home; where we rise above the narrow con-fines of nationalism into a more healthy planetary patriotism and embrace our destiny as a united species on one Earth.

3.25.10 - My cousin forwarded me this great TED talk by Jane McGonigal on how Gaming can make a better world. Fascinating ideas with global vi-sion for helping people help the world. I love the fact that Jane is not only making games that entertain, but making games that make a difference.

3.24.10 - Watched an excellent debate from the Caltech campus on “Does God Have a Future”. Wanted to put this in the global section of my blog because there were a lot of issues discussed that had global implications for peace between theists and atheists. I thought Sam Harris and Michael Shermer represented the atheist side very well and Deepak Chopra did so-so for the theists. I’ve never seen Jean Houston speak before and loved what she had to say. Very thought provoking material that seemed to show both sides moving towards a mutual respect towards one another even though there were some points they couldn’t see eye to eye on.

2.20.10 - Signed up for the Shift movement lead by the likes of Deepak Chopra, Al Gore, Desmond Tutu, U2 and Dennis Kucinich. I like what they say in the beginning about the Earth being an organism and any organism at war with itself is doomed. Reminds me of the same words spoken by Carl Sagan in Cosmos.

1.14.10 and 1.28.10 - Caught the tail end of the 1.28.10 Integral Enlighten-ment conference call again on Evolutionary Spirituality with Brian Swimme.

The Integral Englightenement program seeks to harness global community to help facilitate conscious evolution on a personal, cultural and collective level.

10.8.09 - Been working on some posters for Artists for World Peace and recently finished two new ones. One is for the band RX Bandits with their performance in NYC and the other for musician Michael Franti whose music video I showcase below.

6.26.09 - 7.4.09 - Just got back from Canada on a mission for the Peace Belt. It’s an ornamental belt made from coins and pre-cious stones from every nation of the world and is used in artistic performances to spread the mes-sage about our commonality as human beings bound together on the same planet. The belt has already traveled to 17 countries and for this particular journey, me and some friends were able to find three artists to use the belt in their performance. The first was in a drum performance, the second in a jazz performance and the third a rock performance. Read more about our Peace Belt journey at our blog: http://peacebeltcanada.blogspot.com Or check out more about the Peace Belt at: http://www.artists-forworldpeace.org

6.18.09 - Had some friends alert me to a new mind blowing documentary on par with Baraka and the Koyaanisqatsi trilogy. Sat through it all and was transported to another dimension. The soundtrack is fantastic and imagery so beautiful at times that it left me in tears. I posted this trailer on Earth-pledge.net. Everybody should see this movie. (Click here to view the full movie)

3.15.09 - Attended a Peace Cafe event in New York City sponsored by MePeace; a nonprofit organization dedicated to finding peace-ful solutions to the Arab / Israeli conflict. Got to meet the founder, Eyal Raviv (center) who lives in Israel. Also, the two gentlemen on each corner of the photo are part of some great organizations promot-ing peace. Click on their image above to go to their particular website. I’ve been on MePeace for a month or so and would describe it as the face-book of peace. I was asked to become a volunteer greeter to new people who join the site, so I leave a signature with a small animation I made for each person who signs up.

2.7.09 - Finally put me and my friend Viso’s footage together that we took from the inauguration and put it on YouTube. Access our video here:

2.3.09 - Participated in a conference call with the Peace Alliance - The guest speaker for this call was Takashi Tanemori who survived the atom bomb drop in Hiroshima. He passionately told his story about losing his entire family, later traveling to America to seek revenge but then coming to a place of forgiveness and choosing peace. Here’s some links on Takashi I found on the internet: Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4

1.18.09 - 1.20.09 - Attended the inauguration of Barack Obama in Wash-ington D.C. I wanted to pass out my brochures but found few opportunities. My goal was to bring attention to the big picture as a challenge for the next administration and all Americans to not just see the U.S. as the center of the universe. The necessary steps must be taken to move humanity forward in the right direction through peaceful means while avoiding the undesirable path of reshaping our world into a new order through Empire and warfare. The cause of a united world will be helped by an Obama administration. Barack has already expressed world citizen sentiment during his 2008 speech in Germany, where he called himself a “fellow citizen of the world.”

While in Washington, I attended a great Martin Luther King Jr. Day event at Howard University. It was entitled “Refreshing Black America” and included speakers such as Tara Wall, Cornel West, Jessie Jackson Jr., Donna Bra-zile, Amy Holmes and Al Sharpton. The panel was moderated by CNN’s Roland Martin who I was able to slip several of my brochures to. Best way to spread the big idea is through the media. :-)

12.6.08 - Recorded video at the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Mid-dletown, CT Recognition Ceremony at the Inn at Middletown and enjoyed it. The Bahá’ís are my kindred spirits who believe in world unification. Here’s an excerpt from Saturday’s program: “The Bahá’í teachings emphasize that all of us, as creations of one God, are part of one human family.” How cool is that to have a religion built on the foundation of the brotherhood of humankind? The picture above from the events program says it all. The great thing about Bahá’ís is their diversity. They attract a pretty good cross section of humanity. In the above picture to the right, Mayor Sebastian N. Guiliano of Middletown addresses the Bahá’ís.

Guest speakers for the event included, Auxiliary Board Member for the Northeastern States: Gilbert Smith, Middlesex County NAACP President: Roxanne Aaron-Selph, Re-gional Bahá’í Council Representative: Vickie Nizin, National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the US Representative:Druzelle Cederquist, Secretary of the Spiritual Assem-bly of the Bahá’ís of Middletown: Shelley Rothman.

November 2008 - Just got back from a trip to California to attend the Screenwriting Expo. Also visited an interesting place that I blogged about here; The Self Realization Fellowship Headquarters in Pacific Palisades.