The Moral Imagination

Title: The Moral Imagination
Author: John Paul Lederach
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 978-0-19-517454-0

From the publisher: John Paul Lederach's work in the field of conciliation and mediation is internationally recognized. As founding Director of the Conflict Transformation Program and Institute of Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University, he has provided consultation and direct mediation in a range of situations from the Miskito/Sandinista conflict in Nicaragua to Somalia, Northern Ireland, the Basque Country, and the Philippines. His influential 1997 book Building Peace has become a classic in the discipline. This new book represents his thinking and learning over the past several years. He explores the evolution of his understanding of peacebuilding by reflecting on his own experiences in the field. Peacebuilding, in his view, is both a learned skill and an art. Finding this art, he says, requires a worldview shift. Conflict professionals must envision their work as a creative act - an exercise of what Lederach terms the 'moral imagination'.

And Still Peace Did Not Come

Title: And Still Peace Did Not Come: A Memoir of Reconciliation
Author: Agnes Kamara-Umunna
Publisher: Hyperion Books
ISBN: 140132357X

From the publisher: When bullets hit Agnes Kamara-Umunna’s home in Monrovia, Liberia, she and her father hastily piled whatever they could carry into their car and drove toward the border, along with thousands of others. An army of children was approaching, under the leadership of Charles Taylor. It seemed like the end of the world.

Slowly, they made their way to the safety of Sierra Leone. They were the lucky ones.

After years of exile, with the fighting seemingly over, Agnes returned to Liberia—a country now devastated by years of civil war. Families have been torn apart, villages destroyed, and it seems as though no one has been spared. Reeling, and unsure of what to do in this place so different from the home of her memories, Agnes accepted a job at the local UN-run radio station. Their mission is peace and their method is reconciliation through understanding and communication. Soon, she came up with a daring plan: Find the former child soldiers, and record their stories. And so Agnes, then a 43-year-old single mother of four, headed out to the ghettos of Monrovia and befriended them, drinking Club Beer and smoking Dunhill cigarettes with them, earning their trust. One by one, they spoke on her program, Straight from the Heart, and slowly, it seemed like reconciliation and forgiveness might be possible.

From Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Africa’s first female president, to Butt Naked, a warlord whose horrific story is as unforgettable as his nickname — everyone has a story to tell. Victims and perpetrators. Boys and girls, mothers and fathers. Agnes comforts rape survivors, elicits testimonials from warlords, and is targeted with death threats — all live on the air.

Set in a place where monkeys, not raccoons, are the scourge of homeowners; the trees have roots like elephant legs; and peacebuilding is happening from the ground-up. Harrowing, bleak, hopeful, humorous, and deeply moving — And Still Peace Did Not Come is not only Agnes’s memoir: It is also her testimony to a nation’s descent into the horrors of civil war, and its subsequent rise out of the ashes.

Peace Is In Every Breath

Title: Peace Is In Every Breath
Author: Thich Nhat Hanh
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 9780062005816

From the publisher: In his travels around the country and the world, Zen master and international best selling author Thich Nhat Hanh witnessed a growing unhappiness among the many people he encountered. He saw the hectic pace of our day-to-day lives taking a toll on our health and well-being. In response, the renowned teacher sat down to write Peace Is Every Breath, a book that makes the core teachings of Buddha accessible for everyone. In this jewel of a book, Thich Nhat Hanh does not suggest that we escape from reality and put our busy lives on hold. Far from it. Instead, he provides the insight and tools we need to incorporate the practice of mindfulness into our every waking moment. Thich Nhat Hanh shows us how we can transcend the mad rush of our days and discover within the here and now our own innate ability to experience inner peace and happiness.

Offering personal anecdotes, meditations, and advice for mindfully connecting with our present experience, Thich Nhat Hanh guides us around potential pitfalls along the way. We do not need to escape reality to harness the joy and peace that is possible with every breath we take—the power of mindfulness can heal us from the suffering caused by the many stresses that surround us. Including original calligraphy by Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Is Every Breath is a timely book filled with timeless wisdom and practical advice.

I Shall Not Hate

Title: I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor’s Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity
Author: Izzeldin Abuelaish
Publisher: Bloomsbury
ISBN: 9781408813676

From the publisher: The extraordinary story of a Palestinian doctor who, despite witnessing the death of three of his daughters in the Israeli incursion into Gaza in January 2009, continued his medical and humanitarian work aimed at bringing the people of the region together in peace.

Heart-breaking, hopeful and horrifying, I Shall Not Hate is a Palestinian doctor’s inspiring account of his extraordinary life, growing up in poverty but determined to treat his patients in Gaza and Israel regardless of their ethnic origin.

A London University- and Harvard-trained Palestinian doctor who was born and raised in the Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, Abuelaish is an infertility specialist who lives in Gaza but works in Israel. On the strip of land he calls home (where 1.5 million Gazan refugees are crammed into a few square miles) the Gaza doctor has been crossing the lines in the sand that divide Israelis and Palestinians for most of his life – as a physician who treats patients on both sides of the line, as a humanitarian who sees the need for improved health and education for women as the way forward in the Middle East. And, most recently, as the father whose three daughters were killed by Israeli shells on 16 January 2009, during Israel’s incursion into the Gaza Strip.

It was his response to this tragedy that made news and won him humanitarian awards around the world. Instead of seeking revenge or sinking into hatred, Izzeldin Abuelaish called for the people in the region to start listening to each other.

From The Guardian interview: Two years ago, Israeli shells fell on Dr Abuelaish's family home in Gaza, killing three of his young daughters and their cousin. The horror was caught live on Israeli TV when the doctor phoned his broadcaster friend. Amazingly, the loss did not embitter Izzeldin Abuelaish. Instead he decided his girls' deaths must not be in vain – and slowly he has turned his family tragedy into a force for peace. Read on...