Speech of Dr. Ogarit Younan, Founder, AUNOHR

 

Lebanon - Ministerial Decree n°487 date 04/09/2014 ● www.aunohr.edu.lb

Beirut, P.O. Box 17 5227 - Gemayze; Tel/Fax +961 (0) 1- 445333; Mobile +961 70-111382; 

E-mail: university@aunohr.edu.lb

 

International Fellowship Program on Nonviolence & Peace

Oct 02, 2023, to Jan30, 2024

IFPNP -II Certification Ceremony ● April 9, 2024.

Dr. Ogarit Younan speech

AUNOHR University Founder

Dears,

The International Online Fellowship Program on Nonviolence & Peace – IFPNP II,

Thank you to all the people who contributed to the success of this program.

Allow me to thank especially,

Dr. Siby Joseph, Director of IFPNP, the Director of the Jamnalal Bajaj Memorial Library and

Research Centre for Gandhian Studies, in Sevagram - Wardha, India, and 

Prof. John Chelladurai, Dean of the Interdisciplinary Gandhian Studies in MGM University, India.

Gandhi is present with us. I can feel it.

Greetings to him, and to the legacy he presented to the world, with his spirit,

behavior, thought, experiments with truth, and his social, political, and economic

struggle. And of course, at the heart of all this is the term NON-VIOLENCE, which

we celebrated in 2020 its first century since Gandhi coined it in mid-1919 and

enshrined it in history since 1920.

104 years: This is the age of the word Non-Violence. Of course, the principles

were rooted before through history, but the word Non-Violence itself is still

‘young’ in counting the years of history...

For the IFPNP, it is as if I see Gandhi himself organizing the program with Dr. Siby

Joseph! I can imagine Siby sitting in his office in Sevagram, steps away from

Gandhi's hut and the group of huts spread around it, the library, the education

center, the prayer court, the beautiful trees...

That's where I met Siby for the first time about two years ago in India.

We agreed to cooperate. And so, it happened.

Louis Campana had paved the way for this cooperation. Merci cher ami Louis.

We love Gandhi. We love his Non-Violence. So, we love

the human being in us who chooses this path.

For Walid Slaiby,

Non-Violence is two ‘NOs’: No to self-violence, and No to the others’ violence, to injustice.

The first No is individual ethical; and the second No is an efficacy both social and political.

At the same time,

Non-Violence is four ‘Yeses’: Yes to love, yes to ethics, yes to justice, yes to efficacy.

Did you notice that the word violence is inside the word Non-Violence!? It is on

purpose, not a mistake… Especially to keep it clear in front of us, to always say No

to violence, the self-violence and the others’ violence, the injustice. This was

Gandhi’s message.

What matters to us in universities and in training and cultural programs, such the

IFPNP, is to live Non-Violence, not to take it merely as a collection of information

and discussions. It is not preparation for life, it is life by itself.

While human being has both the potential of violence and of Non-Violence by

nature, and it is up to education, the environment and life path to reinforce either

of the two, then HOPE exists to choose to cultivate the nonviolence in us.

Dear Fellows,

The knowledge and the experience you have had the opportunity to build in this

program is an opportunity of hope.

Today we celebrate Non-Violence, precisely because violence surrounds the

world. We want Non-Violence loudly because the human face has fallen in more

than one place in this world, especially now in Gaza - Palestine.

The scene today in the world is deeply divided between the lust for violence and

the exploitation of the interests of violence, and the aversion to it and the

cultivation of paths of Non-Violence.

Walid Slaiby concluded in his final years that “We are not in a world where

violence has won; We are in a world where Non-Violence has not won enough

yet”.

Today we are in an academic cultural program that

celebrates the active role of the fellows to spread Non-Violence and peace

culture.

So, let’s keep in mind this lesson, to understand that,

[ Some resort to violence by ignorance of Non-Violence. We know that the culture

of Non-Violence still marginalized…

Others resort to violence by profit from exploiting violence.

Ignorance we remedy. As for exploitation, we challenge it, regardless if it is

intended, disguised, or mythicized.

This is one more responsibility of the non-violent activists: in addition to struggling

for their cause, they must also strive to remove the thorns of ignorance and

exploitation from society.

Non-violent struggle, therefore, is multiplied reform: a simultaneous revolution on

more than one front.]

It’s more difficult but it’s doable.

I am pleased that students from AUNOHR University participated in this program.

Many reached the final stage, and today they receive the Fellowship Certificate in

nonviolence and peace.

Congratulations. Congratulations.

It is a word that is repeated today... to every Fellow...

Today is for joy.for love.

And I am with you, nothing is stronger than love...

When I was in school, I chose early to be a writer and a nonviolent militant for

social change and to be a volunteer all my life, away from positions, fame,

money... It helped me in this that I met a person who had chosen the same thing.

Walid Slaiby and me.

We lived together in simplicity, since 1983, during the Lebanese war, companions

in life and struggle, day by day for forty years!

Walid passed away 11 months ago after a twenty-year struggle with illness.

He is the Arab nonviolent thinker.

He lived for freedom, justice, and love.

And from his messages,

I wish each of you to adhere to freedom of spirit and thought.

The last thing we accomplished together was creating the “Academic University

for Non-Violence and Human Rights – AUNOHR”, a first of its kind in Lebanon and

the Arab world, and UNESCO considered it unique in the world. I am pleased to

convey to you a common phrase repeated by all students at our university,

“AUNOHR changed my life. It is a turning point.”

Dear Fellows,

Today you will bear an additional certificate in your journey honored by the title

of Non-Violence.

I wish you to carry it in one hand, and in the other hand to carry the human being

inside you. It is your testimony, your certificate of life. Bring it out in you, raise it

up so that we may see it always... It is your humanity. And with Bertrand Russell

we will continue to say, “Remember your humanity and forget the rest.”

With my love to everyone,

Ogarit Younan