If there is anything we should learn from wars in the past, it is how to stop them. But I doubt if mankind is able to learn from the past at all. German neo Nazi's kill Turks or make them feel unwanted. Hungarians wave Swastika's in...

Last week Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan looked back on the first weeks of peace talks with the Kurds and happily stated that it had turned into an 'extremely resolved journey of hope'. Could this be a true reflection of what's really going on? In that case...

Last week, Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan appealed to women, especially mothers, to give their support to the resolution of Turkey's Kurdish issue. "If all the women of this country say 'No' to further mourning our children, then this bloodshed will end". He added that his government doesn't want...

World Compliment Day is a nice new phenomenon on the first day of March, 'the most positive day of the world'. The organizers encourage everybody to give a little compliment to the people you live or work with, or to the ones you admire. Just let them know...

During the last two weeks some media wrote about a 'shift in global arms trade'. Without serious fact checking even some peace activists announced the dawn of a new era. Is it really time to party? This month the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) published its

Last week I was in London for 24 hours to meet the management of Emmanuel Jal, the South Sudanese rapper and MasterPeace ambassador.

"Jump in mate, where are you from?" my London cab driver asked at Victoria Station. "From Amsterdam, but I live...

Last month, Time Magazine featured the Egyptian president Morsi on its front page as 'The most important man of the Middle East'. It's an honorable title, but in the streets of Cairo the liberal protesters perceive this as demotivating nonsense.

True, recently he brokered a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel...

Share your condom, on World Aids Day?

Today it's the World AIDS Day. For that reason Durex started a Twitter campaign last week: "For each RT, Durex will donate a condom in our fight against HIV & AIDS. Help work towards an HIV-free generation #1SHARE1CONDOM"

Probably they run to...

This weekend I was in Dakar (Senegal) to meet Mary Robinson and Angelique Kidjo. Kidjo is the most famous diva of Africa who has performed with global top artists like Alicia Keys, Carlos Santana and Peter Gabriel and who travels the world tirelessly to confront leaders with the truth on...

Last week the European Union (EU) took a very courageous decision. Japan has been given to understand that if it does not stop with the so-called 'scientific whaling' there will be no agreement on free trade. Period. The bravery is not in the protest towards Japan, which happens...

When you are working for peace on a full-time basis you cannot avoid using words like 'war' and reading articles about war. Of course our commonly shared Big Brother of these times, Mark Zuckerberg, has found ways to utilize this commercially. Suddenly I am constantly confronted with a targeted ad...

"Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all." - Emily Dickenson

Yom Kippur 2012 is over. The Day of Atonement didn't bring any difference in the news we could...

One week ago UN Secretary General Mr. Ban Ki-moon said during a High Level Forum on The Culture of Peace: "On one day the world spends twice as much money on new weaponry as we at the UN can spend on peace building in an entire year." I was among...