ARTISTS FOR WORLD PEACE: EDUCATING FOR PEACE SERIES
Money may move economies, but art moves people. Artists have the ability to affect those around them without even speaking. Women’s Federation for World Peace (WFWP) Canada and the Universal Peace Federation (UPF) hosted their most recent Educating for Peace talk on September 22nd in honor of International Peace Day with a theme of “Artists and World Peace.” The day began with remarkable Pakistani artist, social worker, and peace activist Jimmy Engineer sharing his incredible testimony, followed by a Keynote Address given by Senator Salma Ataullahjan, who accompanied Jimmy to the Canadian Houses of Parliament, where he spoke the following week. The main program consisted of overviews of UPF and WFWP given by Mitch Dixon and Lilly Tadin respectively, a video about WFWP, and a panel discussion on the theme, “What lessons can be learned through centuries-old, enduring art that could add value to human life now and in the future?”
Jimmy’s visit was facilitated by WFWP’s good friend and well-known local radio host, Ms. Arooj Aarooj, who gave Jimmy a stirring introduction. He was born on August 13, 1954, in Balochistan, Pakistan, in a Parsi family and raised a Zoroastrian. In his adult life, Jimmy was guided and influenced by a Sufi master who called him to be the “servant of Pakistan,” to eschew all material possessions, and to “give without thinking.” His biography is titled “In Search of My Master” and he told us that his personal motto is, “Always remain a student.” (http://www.jimmyengineer.com).
Jimmy has created in excess of 2,000 original works of art and nearly 1,000 calligraphies. There are over 200,000 prints of his exquisite work in private collections throughout more than 50 countries. He has held over 60 art exhibitions around the world. At the same time, he led more than 50 walks for noble causes, which began with spending 15 years raising awareness of the needs of handicapped, blind and orphan children, before turning his attention to young prisoners and then widows. Although now hard of hearing, Jimmy graciously answered many questions after his deeply inspiring testimony.
Senator Ataullahjan, also an artist born in Pakistan, began by expressing how humbled she was to speak after Jimmy Engineer. But she quickly captivated the audience with her description of her own work as a Senator, specifically with issues surrounding newborns, the Middle East, and the Rohingya crisis. She went on to explain the role of art in helping Syrian refugee children recover from the trauma of their war-time experiences after they’ve resettled in Canada. As head of the Canadian Senate’s committee on the Middle East, Sen Ataullahjan spoke of the difficulty to find a topic that can even be discussed. When reviewing the “role of water” for example, they had to define between ‘new’ and ‘old’ water before a conversation could begin, whereas art, “needs no translation.”
The panel discussion comprised of the Hon. Sheref Shabawy MPP of Mississauga, Erin Mills, Mrs. Eveline Stewart who was representing WFWP, and Rev. Stoyan Tadin of UPF. The Hon. Shabawy, an Egyptian-born Coptic Christian, spoke of his philosophy of, “community working with community to serve the community,” doing something because you want to, not should, and the importance of NGOs to help preserve and protect what we have in Canada.
Eveline Stewart began by reading a quotation from Rev. Moon, the co-founder of WFWP and UPF: “People often think that politics moves the world, but that is not the case. It is culture and art that move the world. It is emotion, not reason that strikes people in the innermost part of their hearts.” But she warned that even in art we must, as St. Augustine said, “love the right things” and that, “people fail because they love the wrong things. A nation defines itself by what it loves, and the wrong kind of love condemns it to eventual ruin.” Eveline concluded with a brief explanation of the 5 principles of the new cultural initiative inspired by Mrs. Moon, the Hyo Jeong Cheon Won (Garden of Filial Love).
Rev. Tadin spoke that “truth is true, a smile is a smile, a cough a cough,” and that yes, “art needs no translation.” He emphasized that each one of us has so much to give and add to our rich inheritance, but we must be careful as we can see that there are two internally contradictory art forms: the love of life and the love of death, the latter so often on display in the products of Hollywood. Even faith communities can fail us by being exclusive instead of inclusive. Thus each of us must be an “artist for world peace.”