Peace Monuments Dedicated in 2009
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AJanuary 2009 - Jade Buddha for Universal Peace," Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Sanhurst Town Road, Myers Flat, Victoria (Australia). Carved by Jade Thongtavee Company in Thailand from a rare boulder of translucent jade ("Polar Pride") which was discovered in Canada in 2000. "Perhaps the largest and most beautiful Buddha carved from gemstone quality jade. Including lotus and throne, over 3.5 metres (11.4 feet) tall... Inspired by the most famous Buddha in the world inside the Mahabodhi Stupa in Bodh Gaya (India)." On world tour 2009-2010. Image made in Huntington Beach, California (USA), in October 2010.
March 21, 2009 - Peace Pole?, Shrine of Hazrat Ali (also known as the Blue Mosque), Mazar-i-Sharif (Afghanistan). "A large pole is raised at the shrine, marking the first day of the [Iranian] New Year 1388 in a ceremony that draws thousands of turbaned Pashtuns from the south, Tajiks in flat hats from the west, and Mongol-featured Hazaras to pray for peace at the blue monument built in honour of Ali, the fourth caliph of Islam."
March __, 2009 - Panay Peace Memorial Museum, Iloilo Nikkei Jin Kai (NJK) / Association of Filipino-Japanese Descendants, Iloilo City, Jaro District, Panay Island (Philippines). Inaugurated by 93-year old Toshimi Kumai who had been a Japanese soldier in the Philippines during WW-II and wrote “The Blood and Mud in the Philippines: Anti Guerrilla Warfare on Panay Island” in 1987.
March 26, 2009 - Serenity Garden, DPU Centennial Park, Orangeburg Memorial Gardens, Seeboard Street, Orangeburg, South Carolina (USA). “I want all of the citizens from Orangeburg and the surrounding areas to have a place to come and meditate and have peace,” said Theo Martin, administrator of UniHealth Post-Acute Care. “I think in all of our lives, we need to have peace and have that inner peacefulness.”
April 25, 2009 - Vietnamese Boat People Monument, Westminster, Orange County, California (USA). Memorializes the tens of thousands who died in the high seas as they tried to escape communist Vietnam after the Fall of Saigon in April 1975. Built by Cam Ai Tran and Hap Tu Thai who escaped from Vietnam in 1979 by a boat which capcized, forcing them to swim ashore near Hai Nam Island in the South China Sea.
June 25, 2009 - Peace Bell, Nicholas Roerich Museum, Novosibirsk, Siberia (Russia). "Reminds the humanity about their unity and inspires them to maintain peace on the Planet and protect the unique beauty of the Earth. Peace Bell symbolizes universality, solidarity, harmony and constructive endeavors of people of the whole world. Besides it fosters people to actively participate in preservation of nature, life, and culture heritage on our Planet... In Russia this tradition has been promoted and patronized since 1998 by Anatoly Nikolayevich Berezovoi, Soviet Cosmonaut, Hero of the Soviet Union [sic]." Information courtesy of Ekaterina Gracheva.
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M2009 - Fabryka Schindlera / Schindler's Factory, Historical Museum, Krakow (Poland). Click here for video. Affiliated with International Coalition of Sites of Conscience.
2009 - Manchester Peace Park, Podujevo, (Kosovo). "The Eden Project has been working in a long-term partnership with Manchester Aid to Kosovo (MAK) to develop an urban peace park in the town of Podujevo, which experienced cleansing in the civil war. Formally opened in 2009, the public space offers a sign of hope for the future as well as a way to remember & recover from the community’s trauma."
July 7, 2009 - 7/7 Memorial, Hyde Park, London (England). A £1m memorial to the 52 people killed in the bombings in London on July 7, 2005. Consists of 52 stainless steel 3-meter pillars, one for each victim. These are grouped in four clusters, to mark the four locations of the attacks: Tavistock Square, Edgware Road, King's Cross and Aldgate. There is also a 1.4 tonne stainless steel plaque with the names of all those who were killed. At the dedication the Prince of Wales said: "The creation of a monument or memorial fulfils … a deeper need, for each one offers a path to peace and healing, each one honours the dead and each reminds us to live our lives in a way that would make them proud."
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D E N K M A L September 1, 2009 - Deserteurdenkmal / Deserter Monument, Cologne (Germany). "Pays tribute in the form of a pergola of Swiss designer Ruedi Baur to deserters & war opponents from the time of National Socialism. Stands equidistant from 3 historically relevant buildings: The former armory (now a building of the Cologne City Museum), the EL-DE Haus, which ran the Gestapo once their torture chamber (now the Nazi Documentation Center) & the Administrative Court, were convicted in the building during the Nazi than a hundred people to death. 104 soldiers deserted in Cologne, mostly as a permanent so-called 'desertion,' sometimes only temporarily ('Unauthorized Removal'). In almost all cases, they were soldiers from the lower ranks. To read the inscription on the monument must be turned upward glance, it shows its text apparently written in the sky, without a solid background in colored aluminum letters on an area of 8 by 4 meters. Inscribed on the monument: 'Homage to the soldiers who refused to fire on the soldiers who refused to kill the people who refused to torture the people who refused to denounce the people who refused to brutalize people who refused to discriminate against people who refused to laugh at the people who showed courage, as the silent majority and followed.' [Google translation]" Info courtesy of Peter van den Dungen.
September 7, 2009 - UAW Tribute to Women, Sitdowners Memorial Park, Flint, Michigan (USA). "An original member of the Women's Emergency Brigade who came to the aid of the Sitdowners at General Motors in Flint in 1937, stands in front of a new monument that depicts the Sitdown Strike during the Unveiling of the 'UAW Tribute to Women' at the UAW Region 1-C headquarters on Labor Day. Women who took part in Flint's historic sit-down strike in 1937 were honored today at Sit-Downers Memorial Park."
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September 9, 2009 - Hiroshima Peace Monument, Ottakring District, Vienna (Austria). "Some 100 people from Japan and Austria attended the unveiling Wednesday of a stone peace monument featuring a flagstone that was exposed to radiation in the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The Vienna monument is linked with a children's peace monument in Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park that is dedicated to Sadako Sasaki [1943-1955], a girl exposed to atomic radiation at the age of 2 & who died at age 12 from a radiation-caused illness. Austrian children's writer Karl Bruckner [1906-1982] authored "Sadako will leben" ("The Day of the Bomb") in 1961 with Sasaki as its heroine. The book has been translated into more than 20 languages. Citizens' groups in Hiroshima & Vienna decided to build the stone monument in the Austrian capital's Ottakring district, Bruckner's home area, to mark the 140th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between Japan & Austria. The Hiroshima Municipal Government contributed the flagstone from Hiroshima's old City Hall. It measures 180 cm high & weighs about 800 kg. It is inscribed with the words "world peace" in Japanese & German."
September 20, 2009 - Peace & Justice Plaza, Chapel Hill, North Carolina (USA). Renaming of the Old Post Office Plaza. " The following individuals currently are honored on the historic marker: Charlotte Adams, Hank Anderson, James Brittian, Yonni Chapman, Rebecca Clark, Joe Herzenberg, the Rev. Charles M. Jones, Dan Pollitt, Mildred Ringwalt, Hubert Robinson, Joe Straley, Lucy Straley & Gloria Williams. Nominees for the marker must have demonstrated a lifelong commitment to furthering the causes of peace & justice in Chapel Hill, & they are individuals who are no longer living."
September 20, 2009 - "Who Sends Thee?," between Watson Library and the Meriam R. Hare Quaker Heritage Center, Wilmington College, Wilmington, Ohio (USA). "750-pound bronze statue features Quakers and tells a uniquely Quaker story. Indeed, members of the Society of Friends were behind much of its $84,000 fundraising effort... Reflects the Quaker Testimonies of peace, integrity, simplicity, community and equality. Depicts locals Quakers, Isaac and Sarah Harvey, on their way to Washington D.C. to speak with President Abraham Lincoln about the emancipation of enslaved persons in 1862."
October 8, 2009 - Holocaust Memorial, Bucharest (Romania). "In memory of some 300,000 Jews and Gypsies killed during the Holocaust in the country... Romanian authorities set up the Elie Wiesel International Commission on the Holocaust in 2003 after one ministry in the Social Democratic government denied there had been a Holocaust in Romania during World War II."
October 29, 2009 - China-US Peace & Friendship Sculpture, Recreation Center, Georgia State University (GSU), Piedmont Avenue & Decatur Street, Atlanta, Georgia (USA). One of six such sculptures in the US & China. The words "peace" and "friendship" are engraved in Chinese, English, French, Spanish and Arabic. Inscription: "We casted peace and friendship, the most desired and cherished words of man kind into this sculpture as a present to the hometown of President Jimmy Carter from thousands of miles away, China. This sculpture is to commemorate the 30th anniversary of establishment of formal diplomatic relations between China and the United States, which symbolizes the sincere hopes and best wishes of Chinese people for lasting peace and friendship between our two countries."
November 2009 - Global Peace Ring, Amin & Co., Suha Bazaar, Lahore (Pakistan). "World's biggest ring." Seven goldsmiths toiled for 577 days to create the 50 x 57 inch ring weighing 74 kilograms. From owner Muhammad Amin Saleem: " 210 FLAGS on the surface of my Ring are an indication of Global Unity and Integrity which is the dream of every eye in this complex modern world... By the grace of Allah, the ceaseless labour of my team and the prayers of my nearest and dearest ones, I feel pride of having the honour in accomplishing the dream of my late father (may God bless his soul rest of eternal heaven) who longed for such a marvellous ring as a token of Love and Peace for the whole world. Global peace has been in constant threat for many years. The only way out is the establishment of Peace Free from territorial bias and prejudice. Peace has its own victories no less renowned than war." Info courtesy of Julie Obermeyer.
December 10, 2009 - Obama Nobel Peace Mural, Miami Art Palace, 7900 SW 77 Avenue, Miami, Florida (USA). Measures 200 feet long by 8 feet tall. Made of 700 original paintings devoted to one subject, USA Transformation. Unveiled the same day that President Obama travels to Oslo (Norway) to accept his Nobel Peace Prize. Presented by the Peace Mural Foundation. The artist Huong says, "I was in Washington, DC, on Inauguration Day, with 1.8 million others... These panels reflect what I saw and felt on that day and what I have been seeing and hearing in the months since... As the Nobel Committee noted, in Obama’s America, 'Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts.' So stop for a moment. See what dialogue looks like, and hear the many voices. YES, WE CAN hear each other with respect. It’s the path to peace."
