kazu haga

kazu haga bw

we asked Kazu..

two questions

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Kazu is one of idec 2013’s coffee talkers:

I want to create a space where young people can feel that working for peace is a powerful and courageous action.

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the struggle is not between the 99% and the 1%, it’s between the 100% and injustice

if we use violence and intimidation to get what we want, that’s what’s going to be reflected in the world we create

Uploaded on Dec 19, 2011

Kazu Haga, Kingian Nonviolence trainer, Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice and the Peace Development Fund speaks on behalf of nonviolence at “How Will the Walls Come Tumbling Down? Nonviolence & Diversity of Tactics in the Occupy Movement.” Visit http://www.positivepeacewarriornetwork.com for more.

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11:30 – one of the dangers of direct action/protesting – thinking it’s the goal. … the goal of direct action is to end in reconciliation…

13:30 – fav quote by Tagore: i slept and dreamt that life was joy, i awoke and found that life was service, i served and found that service was joy

15:15 – shares his intro to doing the walk – the Interfaith Pilgrimage of the Middle Passage, a walking journey from Massachusetts to New Orleans to retrace the slave trade – he decided to go on it for a week – and didn’t come back for a year and a half. knew it was going to change him at day 3 – this is where i’m meant to be….

21:25 – training yourself to get at a larger goal

27:55 – if we just sat down and got to know each other…we could bypass many misunderstandings, assumptions

30 – often the conflict doesn’t come in the differences, but in the assumptions of which different thing is – right

35 – oscar grant

37:35 – we need to create safe spaces for people (youth) to release anger – anger can spark movements, but it can’t sustain movements – it will eat itself up – that’s what happened with the oscar grant movement.. it doesn’t matter how legit the argument is.. if we can figure out how to relate with each other

41 – wars waged in our own backyards

42:30 – the violence was so normal for her – she couldn’t imagine it wasn’t happening everywhere

44 – we continue to invest in violence, then we are shocked that it continues, imagine if we invest instead in peace

45:40 – harnessing outraging compassion

47:50 – twice as many suicides in this country than homicides

Published on Jul 9, 2013

Kazu Haga keynote at Fellowship of Reconciliation- Seabeck conference July 5, 2013, “King’s Final Marching Orders: Institutionalizing Nonviolence”

Kazu Haga is a trainer in Kingian Nonviolence and currently serves as Operations Director & Bay Area Coordinator for the Positive Peace Warrior Network. He also sits on the board of PeaceWorkers, the One Life Institute, and Communities United for Restorative Justice (CURYJ), of which he is a co-founder. He has been active in various social change movements since he was 17, when he embarked on an 18-month journey with Nipponzan Myohoji, studying nonviolence and social change throughout the United States and South Asia. He has 10+ years of experience working in progressive philanthropy, where he served as Program Director for the Peace Development Fund and a founding Steering Committee member of the Bay Area Justice Funders Network.

As a trainer in Kingian Nonviolence, the philosophies of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., he has led trainings for thousands of individuals throughout the country: in high schools, detention centers, jails and prisons, community organizations, and in many different movements and campaigns including the Occupy movement.

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Kazu is Operations Director & Bay Area Coordinator for the Positive Peace Warrior Network: