"Life hangs in the balance", Dubai

"Life hangs in the balance" Dubai 2007

Lead Teacher/Coordinator: Sara Lowndes

Teacher Wendy Harris

Our message of Peace

A Message of Peace from the Students involved in the Guernica Project at the Dubai British School in the UAE. These are the children’s words:

The whole experience has so far been a great team effort and we have, as a group worked together and discussed our ideas before we started the painting.

It has been a chance to learn about the devastating effects of war on the human race, particularity the innocent children that always seem to be the victims of war.

The experience has opened our eyes to the number of conflicts that are being fought around the world today.

“Life hangs in the balance” -

This Report was given by Sara Lowndes at the ECCM Symposium, 'Productivity of Culture' held in Athens Oct. 2007

www.productivityofculture.org

Hello, my name is Sara Lowndes-Rostek and I am a teacher at the Dubai British School that initiated the idea of a Kids’ Guernica in the school setting. The idea to create a Guernica came to me as I watched a friend of mine in Australia initiate a Guernica in the school that she was working in. She took her inspiration in turn from a colleague at Monash University, David Zyngier, who was my tutor during my time at the university. I took her inspiration and presented the idea to the school.

I have a group of fantastic students who are committed to and have been able to work cooperatively together for the last 5 months. Now that the painting is completed the students are very proud of their achievement and the end result. This is how we got there.

Students who did the painting they are Adam, Oliver Zara, Elliott, Sandra, Darina and Patrick, Claudia Rostek, Verity McSheaffrey and Ashley Blandford-Newson.

Our first challenge was measuring the canvas.

The second challenge was transferring our ideas onto canvas.

Then, we started to paint.

That was the exciting part. We did according to panels and were surprised when the first one was complete.

It meant working cooperatively.

The first panel included three doves flying across the canvas with a huge peace sign as used by anti war demonstrator painted in the middle. As if flying into bad storm, there was a figure warning them while the first dove seemed to fly already into some bloody terrain.

After that we started to place our hands on the canvas at the bottom.

More and more the overall image of a Kids’ Guernica mural came together.

Then, the students used their own bodies to create the images seen on the canvas.

We discovered a need for bigger space to see the whole picture and went into the gym for that purpose.

The achievement can be summed up best in the words of the children:

“As Students who were involved in the Guernica Project at the Dubai British School in the UAE, we proclaim that:

We have now finished our Guernica and we are very proud that our teacher Mrs Lowndes-Rostek is able to bring it to Athens for display and to be able to talk about our achievement.
The whole experience has been a fantastic way to learn how to work along side other people and to learn how to cooperate and share not only ideas but also the most important TO LISTEN to other people’s points of view and negotiate the desired outcome.
It has been a chance to learn about the devastating effects of war on the human race, particularity the innocent children that always seem to be the victims of war.
The experience has opened our eyes to the number of conflicts that are being fought around the world today.”

Substantiating that, they stated what they have learned in the process the following:

“We have learnt that reconciliation is harder to achieve than sitting down at a table to talk about what the differences are before we enter a conflict.

That it is easier to resolve conflict this way than by using war as a tool to reach the desired outcome, which always involves the loss of life.

Communication, cooperation, listening and negotiation are the tools that are required to contribute to achieving a common goal.

Learning to work alongside each other and accepting that we are all different and have different ideas and views on most things.

That through these initiated ideas we can try and understand our differences and find a common ground that we can all live with.

We, as the students that have worked on the Guernica for the last 5 months here in Dubai, wish the Foundation continuing success and hope that we have made a difference, even if it is only in a small way to achieving peace.”

This brings about a message of peace:

“Through the workshops we were able to learn about the devastating effects of war and who was ultimately left to pick up the pieces.

We looked at what peace means to each one of us. We as a group of students felt that the following represented peace:

No war and everybody, especially children, have the right to study

No conflict and no poverty

Children have a safe place to live and study

That the world will one day be a safe place and we can live side by side

without conflict regardless of creed, colour and religion.

Are we asking too much?

We are proud to be part of the Kid’s Guernica Foundation for Peace and we wish the Foundation all the success in the future and maybe one day we will see world peace.”

The children then added words of thanks:

“We would like to thank our teacher Mrs Sara Lowndes-Rostek and Mrs Wendy Harris for their time and inspiration.

We wish the Rally every success and hope that peace in the world in not too far away.”

Signed by: Adam, Oliver, Zara, Elliot, Sandra, Darina, Patrick, Claudia, Verity and Ashley

Tainted dreams – some after thoughts by Sara, the teacher

There it is again the photograph of a child on the front of the newspaper crying over his father’s coffin as part of his city is bombed again. The caption says “Father Killed by Suicide Bomber”. Their house is a pile of rubble that is blood stained. The child’s shattered dreams hang in the air like a balance waiting to fall. I stare at the picture of the child with a tear streaked face and then I look away and put the paper down.

A series of thoughts run through my mind. How old is the child? What further misfortune is going to befall him? What is going through his mind as he lies across the coffin of his father? Are his feelings numbed by the loss of his father and all that is familiar to him? What has the world in store for him in the way of further violence-ridden acts?

Mankind’s utter disregard for humanity takes it toll. This is just another child and his father has become another statistic; what does that matter in the greater scheme of things that are happening today, some might wonder?

Is there any cause that can be won by taking parents away from children?

Nothing changes by these acts of violence, the world and its many wars rage on relentlessly and the human costs and suffering just gets higher.

Children, they are nameless, faceless and casteless. Do we always try to look outward, search the universe and look to our physical limits for answers?

Perhaps the way forward is to look within ourselves, which we are not that good at doing, and see what it is that makes us human and how we justify the atrocities, to ourselves, that are going on around the world and what we can do to try and make a difference even if it is a small one.

Man made boundaries seem so superficial in the face of looking to tackle things that see no division between human beings. Let us try and break down at least one wall today and look at the human being sitting or standing next to us and start a conversation.

Sara Lowndes-Rostek