WHY PEACE? I give you 20 reasons and more

Source: http://necrometrics.com/pre1700a.htm

(Possibly) The Twenty (or so) Worst Things People Have Done to Each Other:

Rank Death Toll Cause Centuries
1) 63 million Second World War 20C
2) 40 million Mao Zedong (mostly famine) 20C
3) 40 million Genghis Khan 13C
4) 27 million British India (mostly famine) 19C
5) 25 million Fall of the Ming Dynasty 17C
6) 20 million Taiping Rebellion 19C
7) 20 million Joseph Stalin 20C
8) 19 million Mideast Slave Trade 7C-19C
9) 17 million Timur Lenk 14C-15C
10) 16 million Atlantic Slave Trade 15C-19C
11) 15 million First World War 20C
12) 15 million Conquest of the Americas 15C-19C
13) 13 million Muslim Conquest of India 11C-18C
14) 10 million An Lushan Revolt 8C
15) 10 million Xin Dynasty 1C
16) 9 million Russian Civil War 20C
17) 8 million Fall of Rome 5C
18) 8 million Congo Free State 19C-20C
19) 7½ million Thirty Years War 17C
20) 7½ million Fall of the Yuan Dynasty 14C

What other people say:

"The destruction of the Indians of the Americas was, far and away, the most massive act of genocide in the history of the world." David E. Stannard, American Holocaust: the Conquest of the New World (1992) page x

"The Mohammedan Conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history." Will Durant, The Story of Civilization: I - Our Oriental Heritage (1935) page 459. (see alsothese)

"Little did we guess that what has been called the century of the common man would witness as its outstanding feature more common men killing each other with greater facilities than any other five centuries together in the history of the world." Winston Churchill

E VIVA FRIOUR !!!

From Stefano Fossiant Sini, Italy

VANS AGAINST TANKS

From Kathleen Hartman, on Facebook, love this!

Let’s end war to feed the poor

From Superhero, USA

Peace in Blue

From Anja Christine Ross, Germany

Peace is to collect discarded items in a New York subway station at 14th street, display them and print them in a chapbook

Intervention for peace by Mark Sonnenfeld in New York on November 11 (Armistice Day), 2006

From Lavona to Guido to Lavona

Dear Little Owl,

The day I realized
Frogs were made of clouds
Clouds were made of frogs
I jumped into a pond
To catch a winter fish
Lit by moonlight
Lit by shadows dark

Smashing mirrors were no longer
Part of my desires
Smashing desires were no longer
Part of my mirror

A big smile in the rippling waters
Without clothes
Naked I howled
Change is here
To come!


Guido Vermeulen

Art from Lavona Sherarts, USA
Poem as reaction on that art from GV

From Lynn

Diplomatic Removal (true story)

I live in Brussels and today
I saw a truck whose sides did say
‘we do Diplomatic removal’
With, I wondered, whose approval?

I know that politics is tough
With euphemisms for that stuff
Like cleaning house, and cutting slack
And stabbing people in the back

But you are really out of luck
If they remove you in a truck


From Lynn Palmiter Jr, USA

Text by Winston, a Brit living in Belgium

Peace is mailing a blue fish for your aquarium

From Zois Elizabeth, fab mail art object

From Zois

From Zois Elizabeth

From Zois & Lynn

From Zois Elizabeth & Lynn Palmiter Jr

From Zazzle

Education

I was taught from my first tooth
That education searched for truth

But these days universities
It seems, are geared for companies
Who want their candidates anointed
In Marketing, and business-pointed

Perhaps our land of milk and honey
Requires that, in truth, be money


Collage from Zazzle Com, USA

Text from Winston, a Brit living in Belgium

From Vaiva

From Vaiva Kovieraite

From Torma

From Torma Cauli

From Suzlee

From Suzlee Ibrahim

From The Strada's

From Giovanni & Renata Strada

From Snappy

From Snappy

From Sinasi

The perfect program

If I was a programmer
Gifted with grace
I’d write a new program
That took up no space

This program would right
All the wrongs that we know
And bring snow to places
That used to have snow

It’d feed the world’s hungry
Make government good
Then save a rare species
To prove that it could

If I was that programmer
God how I’d smile
But I’m not, so I won’t
And God’s resting a while


From Sinasi Gunes, Turkey

Text from Winston, a Brit living in Belgium

From Silvano

From Silvano Perione

From Sietse

Parties

Isn’t it funny how the names
Of parties over time change meaning
Indicating subtle change
Of choices made, and of the leaning

Way back when, Republican
Meant progress, new ideas and such
An openness of mind to things
But now, it doesn’t matter much

Back in England, old Disraeli
Desired a party of the masses
One whose forthright slogans could
Transcend the dogma of the classes

Alas successors misconstrued
The meaning of his message plain
And nowadays Conservative
Means “You keep yours, and I’ll keep meyhn.”


Drawing "the end of an empire" from Sietse Hoeksma aka RAEL MAIL.

Text from Winston, a Brit living in Belgium.

From Schoko

Omnibus?

If God is good, and God is great
Omnipotent to us
Then how come he can’t regulate
A simple London bus

In pouring rain and winter’s grime
You wait there like a dunce
Until the pre-appointed time
When five come all at once

From Schoko Casana Rosso, Germany

Text by Winston, a Brit living in Belgium

From Sabriye

From Sabriye Celik

From Robert

From Robert Varlez

From Reid

From Reid Wood aka State of Being

on Barack and John

President

What say you, Barack Obama
Are you black, or are you grey?
And does it matter if your mama
Bore you in the USA?

Well, some say yes and some say no
But this question does it beggar
Would the ‘yesses’ worry so
If your name was Schwarzenegger



John McCain
(with thanks to A.A. Milne)

If I were John
And John were me
Then I’d be pushing
seventy-three

If John were me
And I were John
I’d be a darn
Republicon

From Winston, a Brit living in Belgium

From Node

From Node Pajomo

From Raymond

From Raymond Furlotte

From Winston

Condo Leezza

Condoleezza, Condoleezza, men have named you
I’m so very happy that I wrote this song
Does it matter ’bout the soldiers, Condoleezza
Or the blurring of the lines ’tween right and wrong?

Do you like the smell of napalm, Condoleezza
Or is this your way to gain the trust of folk?
Many men have been brought to your compound
They just lie there
And they die there
Are we done, have we won, Condoleezza
Or we now go bomb Iran to ash and smoke?
Condoleezza, Condoleeeezza


From Winston, a Brit who lives in Belgium. These lyrics can be sung on the song Mona Lisa

From Ramon

From Ramon Cruces