(Triangle symbol here)
NEW at 9 January 2025
Peace: ours to cherish
Peace is precious.
When peace is secure our communities prosper.
Peace is fragile, and invisible until it’s broken.
Welcome to the website of the Woodbridge Trees for Peace Monument
A unique monument for a universal concern
The ubiquitous face of a local monument with a global ambition
A Modern Monument
Together we can make Peace much stronger
Together we'll inspire greater serenity (TWIGS)
Here's why we should and how we can! "
Then, replace the section on "The attraction of Trees" with ...
" Why we should.
Almost everyone wants a peaceful life.
In peace we flourish.
We know how to live peaceably and - mainly - we do.
But when peace is disturbed we flounder.
When disturbance turns to violence many suffer.
And in our globally connected world the violence and suffering can indirectly affect everyone, everywhere.
We are better than that; for example, we try to control and to alleviate the effects of violence.
Research shows that peace across the world has been steadily falling since about 2014.
The value of peace and the cost of violence - opposite faces of one coin
The averaged cost of violence for each of the world's 8.2 billion people is about US$2380 a year.
For many that cost is in reality a lot more because so many others lack the capacity to pay.
In the UK that personal cost is approaching 10% of average weekly earnings.
Put another way, we could enjoy half a day of each paid week more freely - if it weren't for violence.
"
And replace the section on "The Power of the .. trees" with the following …
"How we can.
The Power and the Fuel of a Monument
The simple power of the Woodbridge Trees for Peace is in the hands of each of the monument’s visitors.
We already maintain Peace through the attitudes and skills acquired in our younger years: our attentiveness, calmness, empathy, forgiveness, friendliness, generosity, helpfulness, humility, kindness, patience, sensitivity, tolerance, and more. Two ways to make peace stronger are by sharpening those skills and by using them more often.
The monument's main fuels are our willingness to take action and our knowledge.
Peace depends on co-operation. So without our own contributions those of other visitors are likely to be less effective; and vice versa.
Human knowledge about Peace has grown from a century of research. Its findings have sharpened our insight and expanded our understanding of events and situations that affect peace. In those ways it can also strengthen our capacities for more informed discussion and debate, for education about peace within our communities and for engaging with decision makers.
Much of what's been discovered is not yet appreciated and applied as general knowledge.
The greater depth of 21st century understanding can be sensed in the ambiguity of "peace", of "violence" and of "conflict". For example:
peace - making? keeping? negative? building? positive? lasting? And how strong is it?
or violence - is it cultural? or structural? or direct? And what are the origins of human aggression?
or conflict - development? dynamics? escalation? de-escalation? lateral escalation? or resolution?
To learn and know more about Peace now go to [Link to Learning for Peace]
To do something for Peace now go to [Link to Action for Peace]
"
"How can we? The Power of the Trees and the Fuel in your hands
Woodbridge Trees for Peace are a Modern Monument publicly dedicated as tangible symbols to focus attention on the invisible condition we call Peace.
The monument places the power to make Peace stronger within the grasp of each of its visitors.
Actions that maintain Peace
We maintain Peace by using, among other things, human attitudes and skills listed here:
ACTIONS
ATTITUDES SKILLS
... attitudes and skills often acquired in childhood, such as attentiveness, calmness, empathy, forgiveness, friendliness, generosity, helpfulness, humility, kindness, patience, sensitivity and tolerance.
Those skills and attitudes already shape the quality of our day-to-day Peace.
But how many of them are blunted or neglected in the face of everyday pressures?
Isn't one way to make peace stronger by sharpening and using those skills more often?
Actions that can strengthen Peace
The fuel of the monument is in your will and that of its other visitors.
Peace depends after all on co-operation. So without your contribution theirs will be less effective; and yours will be less effective without theirs.
Knowledge that can help us strengthen Peace
Across the last century research has intensified a focus on peace and conflict. Its findings sharpen our insights and deepen our understanding, both of situations and events that affect peace and of media reporting. In those ways they strengthen our capacities for more informed discussion or debate, for education within our communities and even for influencing decision makers.
As examples, a few of the wider fields of modern understanding are:
peace - negative? making? keeping? positive? building? or lasting?
violence - cultural? structural? or direct?
conflict - development? dynamics? escalation? de-escalation? lateral escalation? or resolution?
Also - armament, discrimination, human aggression integration, justice, non-violence, pacifism, prejudice,
END OF NEW NEW BIT on 7 January 2025
NEW BIT 3 January 2025
Welcome to the website of Woodbridge Trees for Peace
An monument started in Woodbridge but now open, here on the web for the World to see, to use, to copy, to grow, and for all to make effective in ways described in these web-pages.
Unusually, a monument to the aftermath of the present, because if we simply go on as we have we'll go on getting more of the same, and because in our dreams, our hearts and our heads we are better than that.
In fact, a Modern Monument for Peace - one that helps its visitors to know more, to talk more and to act more, together, as champions and builders of a stronger Peace
A stronger Peace that visitors may each find, enjoy, grow and share with others, and that will in that way spread itself as a deeper, far-reaching serenity
Where did this come from? Origin, Founder, first steps, vision,
A monument founded on two trees and a walking trail. A monument that can be spread to anywhere anyone wishes: a walk in a garden, a walk in a local park or nature reserve; a walk about a town or village. See here [link yo Activity for Peace] how to set up Anywhere Trees for Peace.
How can we make a difference? Even the budget, powers and valiant efforts of the United Nations Organisation leave more to be done to secure Peace. We though can each take and spread simple actions from roots within communities almost everywhere. Every little bit helps. [Do a little bit, or more? - link to Actions for Peace]
Why do anything more for Peace? The history lesson list of battles and wars goes on getting longer. For ten years the millenial Global Peace Index has been falling. News media tell us that when Peace breaks down suffering spreads widely, even globally. The annual cost of violence is estimated as almost £2000* for each person on planet Earth; rather more for those of us who pay while many cannot. How much of your working time is spent as that cost of violence? [Find out a little more? - link to Learning for Peace]
What's new that can help us? 1 Voices from the past Quotes.
2 Recent decades of research into Peace (and conflict) have uncovered detail and created a new field of understanding that is not yet 'general knowledge'. Here [Link to Learning for Peace] you can top up your general knowledge about Peace and find out more deeply about conflict, the conduct and effects of violence and about alternatives that can make Peace stronger and create more serenity.
END OF NEW BIT 3 January 2025
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Why? There are compelling reasons for doing something to strengthen Peace.
Recent years and months have vividly shown the effects when international Peace is broken by violence.
Illustrate with media photos etc
There is local suffering, but in today’s connected world almost everyone can be affected indirectly.
Research shows that the quality of Peace globally is falling.
Illustrate and comment around graph from GPI
The annual cost of violence equates to some 13% of the Global Domestic Product (GDP).
Personal annual cost averages at £1800; so is much higher for those paying in place of the many who have less means to pay.
Read more [Here] about why a stronger peace is needed.
How? Research also illuminates why Peace is broken by violence and how it can be recovered and made strong. There is a substantial field of knowledge, ideas and information that has yet to enrich and deepen public understanding of Peace.
Illustrate with a set or key words
eg in Crossword form
or better with a moving / swirling set of key words.
Knowledge is power!
Fresh knowledge and understanding can stimulate and help to build stronger Peace within and between ourselves and around our communities.
Illustrate the idea of expanding from inner via between etc
Read more [Here] about Learning that can help to make a stronger Peace
Why Trees?
Many organisations, small as well as large, promote Peace in different ways.
They range from large international interventions by the United Nations to national, regional and locally smaller interest groups.
They have given a range of helpful visible symbols as chosen faces for the idea of Peace, that is otherwise invisible.
Illustrate with number of symbols, badges etc
The Woodbridge Trees for Peace have been chosen as large faces for a project with a large ambition, namely:
- to generate stronger Peace locally by modest means
- in a way that can be adopted elsewhere, and in that way
- can spread further afield, without limits
Their power comes from their modest part in a larger entity that is a Modern Monument, a monument that is made alive and active by its visitors and encourages action to create a better future.
Illustrate with aerial satellite picture of the area
eg Google
It’s a monument with little use of bricks and concrete, that entails walking to promote physical and mental well-being, and and that is curated to promote learning about peace.
The trees are also attractive places for gathering with others to celebrate, picnic, share in sympathy or concern or simply to talk.
Illustrate with picture or a rolling set of pictures
Read more about the Trees and the Monument [Here]
A highly unusual website about Peace
The Woodbridge Trees for Peace as a highly unusual website about peace
Of the many websites about Peace this has unusual features that make it perhaps unique.
Joined here in one place are some of the multiple ingredients that can, together, help us make Peace stronger, notably:
- advice from eminent leaders in the arts, science, politics and more:
- all peace may need is for us to think and talk about it more often – YO
- real peace can be achieved only by understanding, not by force – AE
- peace is a daily, weekly, monthly, gradual process – JFK
- knowledge about Peace from research on past violent conflicts
- peace-enhancing skills we all have and could use more
Search and see on this site where the Trees are, some simple ways of enjoying them and some ideas to deepen Peace.