Ode to Gaza
I have never been to Palestine, nor Israel for that matter, for fear my heart would break. Now it breaks anyway. I cannot see those lovely brown-eyed children playing, laughing, bleeding, dying, dead. So quickly: here today, gone tomorrow. Or those who lost their parents and wait patiently in groups of other orphans for a bit of food or the next bomb. I cannot bear to see it because it fills me with rage at my own helplessness. With all my privilege and intact housing. My smooth bike ride to work on a road with no rubble. Three meals a day, if I choose not to diet. I can harvest my olive trees without fear of being shot.
Read more…It’s getting late
For some time, it’s been apparent that the world’s nations are not meeting the growing challenges to human survival.
A key challenge comes from modern war.
Read more…by Mitch Bogen, originally published on IkedaCenter.org
On January 22, the Center furthered its commitment by hosting a seminar that brought together students from Soka University of America (SUA) with representatives from Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility (GBPSR) and International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), which won the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize for ”perform[ing] a considerable service to mankind by spreading authoritative information and by creating an awareness of the catastrophic consequences of atomic warfare.” As an institution also founded by Mr. Ikeda, SUA brings a global citizenship aspect to all of its courses and programs. The 12 students from SUA who were in attendance are all students in a collaborative research seminar on disarmament issues taught by Professor Alexander Harang, who joined the students in journeying to Cambridge from SUA’s home in Southern California. Representing IPPNW were Executive Director Michael Christ and Program Director Molly McGinty. They were joined by Dr. Joe Hodgkin, Co-Chair for Nuclear Disarmament for GBPSR, an affiliate group of IPPNW. Dr. Hodgkin is also a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and an instructor at Harvard Medical School.
Read more…Remembering Boris Bondarenko
by Prof. Igor Korneev, St. Petersburg, and Dr. Lars Pohlmeier, Bremen
If peace had a face and if kindness, mutual cultural understanding and respect had a name it might well be the face and name of of our Russian colleague Boris Bondarenko.
Born on January 7th in 1938 in Magadan to a family of doctors, Boris made a great contribution to the creation and development of the Leningrad Research Institute of Cardiology where he worked as the head of the scientific and clinical department since its founding in 1980.
Read more…No nukes, no war, no warming!
by Drs. Angelika Claussen, Harrison Kuria Karime, Bimal Khadka, and Knut Mork Skagen
“What are you guys doing here?” As the first IPPNW delegation attending the UN climate summit (COP28), this was a question we heard often. For years, the security sector has described climate change as a “threat multiplier,” retooling the crisis into an argument for increased defence research and spending. The UN climate negotiations have, on the other hand, avoided mentioning the damage inflicted by military activity on people, ecosystems and the climate.
Read more…
Although, according to the UN Charter, the United Nations was established to “maintain international peace and security,” it has often fallen short of this goal. Russia’s ongoing military invasion of Ukraine and the more recent Israeli-Palestinian war in Gaza provide the latest examples of the world organization’s frequent paralysis in the face of violent international conflict.
Read more…Changing paradigm of war–increasing humanitarian crisis
by Dr. Arun Mitra
War is the most serious threat to public health with catastrophic effects on infrastructure and environment and accounts for more deaths & disability than many major diseases combined. It destroys families, communities and sometimes whole cultures. It channels limited resources away from health and other social needs. Any nuclear exchange can be an existential threat to humanity.
Read more…We are stronger together: Reflections on 2023
by Dr. Sally Ndung’u, IPPNW At-Large Board Member and XXIII IPPNW Congress President
The XXIII IPPNW World Congress – Mombasa, Kenya
2023 was a climax year in my medical peace advocacy work. The year started with a lot of hope; at the time, hope to successfully host the very first IPPNW World Congress in Africa and therefore give an opportunity to many students and young doctors from my beautiful continent to experience the magic that is in IPPNW Congresses. I had only attended one IPPNW World Congress before in 2017, and the great experience gained learning about various indirect determinants of health such as violence and climate change was enough to push me to host this Congress and steer more local and international discussions and solutions surrounding these crucial topics. Therefore, on April 25th to 29th, 2023, IPPNW Kenya with myself leading as the Congress President managed to host slightly over 200 healthcare providers and medical students (both physically and virtually) at the XXIII IPPNW World Congress, “Disarmament, Climate Crisis and Health”. The Congress held at the Travelers Beach Hotel in Mombasa, Kenya was preceded by a successful 500km 5-day IPPNW bike tour from Nairobi to Mombasa that aimed to raise awareness on climate change and how it affects health in addition to encouraging locals to embrace cleaner means of transport.
Read more…The fallacy of deterrence
by Kati Juva
The idea of deterrence is that when the adversary is aware of your capacity to punish it very forcefully (to make a counterstrike) for its unwanted behaviour (using nuclear weapons), they will make a rational decision not execute the unwanted act. Otherwise, they would also be destroyed.
This has been the mantra of all nuclear weapons states since the beginning of the nuclear arms race. That nuclear arms actually safeguard the peace between nuclear powers, when no one dares to use them.
Unfortunately, there are terrible flaws in this reasoning.
Read more…The TPNW provides hope for nuclear disarmament: Part 3
Written by Dr. Lars Pohlmeier, Co-Chair of IPPNW Germany, and translated by Stella Ziegler, IPPNW International Student Representative
This article was originally published on IPPNW Germany‘s blog in German following the second Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, 27 November – 1 December in NYC. This is the final part of a three-part blog series by IPPNW Germany members.
The UN Conference of States showed signs of determination for disarmament, and for a few days at the United Nations in New York, the world was something like “all right”. Speaker after speaker called on the world community of states to consistently disarm nuclear weapons and announced that they would take all necessary measures to do so.
Let’s say “almost all”, because the NATO countries Germany and Belgium, which had attended the conference as observers, were unimpressed by this and took the hard NATO nuclear weapons line. First and foremost, this was embarrassing. Even more so as, in the run-up to the conference at the end of October, the UN General Assembly had for the first time called by an overwhelming majority for concrete activities to research the health consequences of nuclear weapons development. Only North Korea, Russia and the NATO states France and Great Britain had refused to do so.
Read more…
Bimal Khadka
Bjorn Hilt
Charles K. Johnson
Gunnar Westberg
IPPNW
John Loretz
Lawrence Wittner
Maria Valenti
mollymcgint
Sue Wareham
Tilman Ruff
Tim Wright
Xanthe Hall
IPPNW peace and health blog 