November 30, 2017, how wonderful it was to be invited by dear Cornelia Zelter to share my reflections on dignity with her outstanding colleagues at the United Nations Ombudsman and Mediation Services (UNOMS) in New York City and around the world (via web-ex from Nairobi, Goma, Santiago de Chile, Bangkok, and Geneva)!

• Video of my presentation:
How Dignity and Humiliation Inform Conflict, Including at the Work Place, Particularly in a Global Setting (Pdf of Powerpoint)

Thank you, dear Raluca, for making such a lovely Human Dignity brochure for us! (Please click on the image to open the Pdf file!)

And thank you, dear Cornelia, for explaining to me the places you love and admire in the United Nations headquarters!
• The mural "Mankind's Struggle for Lasting Peace" was painted by José Vela Zanetti, a Spanish artist, on a curved wall in the third floor lobby of the United Nations Conference Building in New York in March 1953.
• The "Good Defeats Evil" scupture was presented by the Soviet Union in 1990, on the occasion of the 45th anniversary of the United Nations. Created by Zurab Tsereteli, a native of Georgia, the sculpture depicts St. George slaying the dragon. The dragon is created from fragments of Soviet SS-20 missiles and United States Pershing nuclear missiles that were destroyed under the terms of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty of 1987. It is a vivid symbol of disarmament.
• The Permanent Memorial to Honour the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade was unveiled on 25 March 2015, which marks the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The memorial, located on the United Nations Visitors Plaza in New York, will invite people everywhere to contemplate the legacy of the slave trade and to fight against racism and prejudice today.
• Our broken world is depicted with the "Sphere Within Sphere," 1996.
• See also the Knotted Gun sculpture.
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November 15, 2017: A big thank-you to the Office of International Services (OIS) at Teachers College (TC), Columbia University, New York City, for having organized the International Education Week 2017!
Thank you for inviting me to contribute with a lecture, and thank you to Soomin Park and Charlott Macek for coming, and to Patricia Gibson for video-taping the talk!

Video:
• What Is the Aim of Education? The Need to Educate in Dignity and for Dignity

The talk was inspired, among others, by "The case for internationalisation of higher education," by Patrick Blessinger and Barbara Cozza, University World News, Issue No:478, 13th October 2017. This article offers the following chronology:
• 1870 to 1914: the colonial university
• 1945 to 1980: the Humboldtian university
• From 1980: the entrepreneurial university
In my talk, I attempted to model a Humboldtian approach, as also John Dewey would have resonated with. The aim of education is, or ought to be, the dance of dignity, the dance of balancing unity in diversity (see the “infinity dance” at the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater).

The talk was followed by "gifts of dignifying art" from the 2016 dignity conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia:
• Ljoba Jenče Shared Her Art
and from the 2017 dignity conference in Indore, India:
• Pranjali Singh Parihar Taught 'Kathak' Dance to Nira Shahaf
• Pranjali Singh Parihar Taught Nira Shahaf to Dance 'Kathak'

Abstract: TC has a great heritage of inspiring the world with humanistic and critical thinking about education, from the groundbreaking work of John Dewey and William Heard Kilpatrick to the achievements of their most recent successors, an education that educates in dignity and for dignity. This heritage is of highest value in today’s world, where global challenges require innovative solutions that transcend present-day strategies. Lindner has just published a book titled Honor, Humiliation, and Terror: An Explosive Mix – And How We Can Defuse It with Dignity, where she describes her observation that a foreboding sense of fear and terror is in the process of emerging on all continents, and the important window of opportunity that stands open for dignity to step in.

The TC Office of International Services (OIS) organizes a number of events in recognition of the annual International Education Week (IEW), November 13-17, 2017. This year’s theme was "Voices of Inspiration: The Global Heritage of TC." The aim was to explore this theme in celebration of the rich heritage of international exchange and scholarship at Teachers College, Columbia University. They were seeking proposals for presentations by TC Faculty, Visiting Scholars, and TC students (both American and International students).
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November 14, 2017, with wonderful Lydia Deutsch, now 93 years old!
For the first time, our annual meeting is without our dear Mort...
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November 12, 2017: a historical picture of meeting a wonderful new friend, Tom Schiff!
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November 12, 2017, former Sony Plaza, Public Atrium, 550 Madison Avenue (between 55th amd 56th Street), Manhattan.
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November 12, 2017, snapshots of urban development around Grand Central in Manhattan.
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Since 2001, each year, I have it on my to-do list to pay the Norwegian seaman's church in New York/Sjømannskirken i New York a visit. Finally, on November 12, 2017, I was able to do it!
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November 11, 2017, was a great day! Reconnecting with my Adair Linn Nagata! Thank you, my very dear Adair, for being such an amazing nurturer and dignifyer in this world, in our dignity family, and for me very personally! I cannot imagine the world and my life without YOU! We met at the Metropolitan Opera for the Opera Thaïs (see a synopsis, and the program). Thanks also for introducting me to your dear friends, dear Adair!
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On November 10, 2017, it was such a joy to be re-united with my beloved sister Judit Révèsz and brother Ikhlaq Hussain.
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November 7, 2017: What a joy to be part of the Morton Deutsch International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution (MD-ICCCR)!
It was wonderful to reconnect with my dearest friends, on November 7, 2017!
Thank you, dearest Danielle, for a wonderful "annual lunch" with you! And after our lunch, we delved into the "circle of love gifts" with all the wonderful gifts from our friends in India! Thank you, dear Keerthana for explaining: "The bead in the rakhi bracelet is modeled after a spiritual seed called rudraksha. It signifies positive energy and protection :)"
On the photo at the top, you see from left to right: Becca Bass, Keerthana Hirudayakanth, Danielle Coon, and Charlot Macek!
Thank you for a deeply enriching afternoon!
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November 6, and 22, 2017: Seen in the subway in New York City.

• On top: "Helping a half-million New Yorkers rise higher every day" - CUNY.
My thought: When do we rise high enough in awareness to cherish being there for each other, in solidarity and equality in dignity, rather than trying to rise ever higher than others? When is it high enough?

• At the bottom: "New York State, Know Your Rights - If a loved one is detained or missing due to immigration problems, call the New York State New American Hotline." Signed Andrew M. Cuomo, Governor.

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November 5, 2017: What an enriching meeting with Clark McCauley! Thank you so much, dear Clark! We were first connected by email in 1998! Time to celebrate!
See also: McCauley, Clark (2017). "Toward a Psychology of Humiliation in Asymmetric Conflict." In American Psychologist, 72 (3, Special Issue: Psychology of Terrorism), 255–65. doi: 10.1037/amp0000063.
And see also: Hartling, Linda Margaret, and Evelin Gerda Lindner (2017). "Toward a globally informed psychology of humiliation: Comment on McCauley (2017)." In American Psychologist, 72 (7), 705–06. doi: 10.1037/amp0000188.
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November 5, 2017: The center of Manhattan is blocked off for the marathon. Great idea to use the sanitation trucks as barriers!
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November 3, 2017: What a privilege and joy to be together with my very dear Azza Karam and her husband PL de Silva! Azza and I met 33 years ago, a great occasion to celebrate!
See also: Hartling, Linda Margaret, and Evelin Gerda Lindner (2018). "Dignity in Times of Crises: Communicating the Need for Global Social Climate Change." In Routledge Media and Humanitarian Action Handbook, edited by Purnaka L. de Silva, and Robin Andersen. Abingdon: Routledge.
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November 2, 2017: Thank you for another creative staging of Madama Butterfly at the Metropolitan Opera in NYC!
• Please click on the photo above to see the program.

November 2, 2017, it was a great privilege to be back at Maria Volpe's Monthly Roundtable Breakfast, hosted by the CUNY Dispute Resolution Center at John Jay College and The Association for Conflict Resolution of Greater New York, with many dear friends attending, among them Janet Gerson, Claudia Cohen, Becca Bass, Karen Davis, Ted Schulman, Anne-Rose Moore, and Denise Shaw.
This time, the topic was:
Facilitating Difficult Conversations about Race and Racism with Lecia Brooks
See also "Let's Talk"
"Lecia Brooks will discuss the Southern Poverty Law Center's Teaching Tolerance project. She will examine a variety of strategies designed to support safe and courageous conversations about social inequities. LECIA BROOKS leads the Southern Poverty Law Center’s outreach efforts on key initiatives and social justice issues. As outreach director, she frequently gives presentations around the country to promote tolerance and diversity. She also serves as director of the Civil Rights Memorial Center in Montgomery, Ala., an interpretive center designed to provide visitors to the Civil Rights Memorial with a deeper understanding of the civil rights movement. She joined the SPLC staff in 2004 as director of Mix It Up at Lunch Day, a Teaching Tolerance program designed to help break down racial, cultural and social barriers in schools. Previously, she worked for 12 years in a number of capacities for the National Conference for Community and Justice in its Los Angeles office. She is a graduate of Loyola Marymount University."
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October 28, 2017: Les Contes d’Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann), by Jacques Offenbach, at the Metropolitan Opera, New York City. See the synopsis and the program: Offenbach "was a German Jew in a city [Paris] that had suffered terribly during the Franco- Prussian War of 1870–71 and the bloody aftermath of the Commune in 1871. The Third Republic ushered in more sober times, and Hoffmann tried to adapt to changing tastes, with varying degrees of success. It was not until he neared the end of his life that he took on the task of truly serious opera, the kind of drama he both feared and valued above all else. But heroic subjects, political idealism à la Beethoven’s Fidelio, or mixtures of religion and eroticism in opera were not to Offenbach’s taste. He needed an anti-heroic subject and finally found the perfect source in a protagonist who is four times a loser with women, all beautiful but either unreal, dying, or cynical opportunists. It is Hoffmann’s sense of himself as an outsider artist hunting for a deeper purpose in a greedy, shallow, sensual world, and able to find it only in his art, with which Offenbach so strongly identified at the end of his life."
At the end of the opera, the muse of Hoffmann says: "Des cendres de ton coeur réchauffe ton génie, dans la serenité souris à tes douleurs! [Hoffmann sort de son immobilité] La Muse apaisera ta souffrance benie, ta souffrance, ta souffrance benie..." (The ashes of your heart warm your genius, in serenity smile at your pains! The Muse will soothe your blessed suffering, your suffering, your blessed suffering ...)
This ending touched me. The ashes of my heart - ashes from impossible hope for love (during the first part of my life) - now nurture serenity, which makes new love possible in entirely unexpected ways.
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October 27, 2017
Women, Peace, and Security Program Launch Symposium
Columbia University, Low Library, Rotunda
The official launch of Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Program, housed at Advanced Consortium on Cooperation, Conflict and Complexity (AC4) at Columbia University.
The mission of the new WPS program, under the directorship of Nobel Peace Laureate Leymah Gbowee, is to contribute to a greater understanding of the diverse roles women play in successfully influencing sustainable peace and human security through everyday activism. Through education, public service, outreach and research, the WPS program will advance the visibility and capacity of women peacekeepers and practitioners – domestically and internationally – and codify and disseminate lessons learned from their experiences and participation. On October 27th, leading scholars, practitioners, activists, and policymakers convened to explore the possibilities, challenges, and complexities of a global, intersectional women, peace and security agenda.
• Graça Samo, grassroots feminist activist and International Coordinator of the World March of Women, gave the morning’s keynote address.
Speakers included:
• Elena Ambrosi, Peace and Victims’ Rights Protection Delegate, General Inspector, Republic of Colombia
• Leymah Gbowee, WPS Executive Program Director and 2011 Nobel Peace Laureate
• Allison Julien, Dorthy Bolden Fellow/ We Dream in Black Organizer, National Domestic Workers’ Alliance
• Chirlane McCray, First Lady of New York City, Founder of Cities Thrive Coalition
• Alaa Murabit, Phase Minus One Executive Director, UN High-Level Commissioner on Health Employment and Economic Growth, and Global Sustainable Goals Advocate
• Lakshmi Puri, Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and Deputy Executive Director of UN Women
•  Joni Seager, Goldman Distinguished Professor, Global Studies, Bentley University
• Gloria Steinem, Writer, Lecturer, Political Activist, and Feminist Organizer
An original photography exhibition, Voices of Everyday Peace and Security: Portraits from Mozambique and New York City, was also on display.
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October 26 and 27, 2017: Dear Bhante, thank you so much for your incredible support for our dignity work! Thank you for taking me to bookshops to explore the possibility of presentations of the book Honor, Humiliation, and Terror!
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18th September 2017: What a privilege to meet with dear Ongmu Tshering at the airport of Mumbai!
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18th September 2017: Saying good-bye to Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India... wih Vinita Raj and Dr. Atul Bhat, who were so very kind to come to the airport!
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17th September 2017: We made the 'Message to the World' that we did not find time to create during our conference.

See the videos:
• WDU Message: Dr. Rajesh Dixit, Dr. Amita Neerav, and Evelin Lindner (Hindi)
• WDU Message: Dr. Rajesh Dixit, Dr. Amita Neerav, and Evelin Lindner (English)

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17th September 2017: Pooha! One of he favourite dishes in Indore! Together wih dear Amita and Rajesh!
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28th August 2017: I have the great privilege of living in Mussoorie. I am waving from the yellow balcony in the middle!

Thank you, dear Latha, for sharing your thoughts with me!
Latha has studied the old times, when a person could leave home to walk and find a guru, from the age of 8. Then this person would become a hermit in the forest (clean water, seclusion). Slowly, there would be a path to his hut and students would come, later kings. He would perhaps relocate nearer to the king, or not. These hermits together represented a kind of forest academy. Sometimes, they would sit together and discuss, there would also be the Kumbha mela, a gathering. For thousands of years, the knowledge of the forest was kept alive orally. There were, however, inconsistencies. Shankara was the first to set out and create texts that would point at the foundation which is consistent. He started in the area of Indore, and then came to the Himalayas. All the roots of Indian thinking are around Mussoorie. (The Kumbha mela festival is traditionally credited to the 8th-century Hindu philosopher Adi Shankara, as a part of his efforts to start major Hindu gatherings for philosophical discussions and debates along with Hindu monasteries across the Indian subcontinent)

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Mussoorie is also called 'the queen of hills' and this picture is taken from the Internet.
Indira Gandhi was in Mussoori already as a child, and her father, Jawaharlal Nehru, wrote her letters from prison in 1928 when she was 10 years old:
Nehru, Jawaharlal (1929/2004). 'Letters from a Father to His Daughter'. New Delhi: Viking.
Also later, she used to retreat into the guest house Ekant Bhawan, just behind my home.
She was later the one who, as I was told, motivated the authorities to protect Mussoorie from the fate of other famous hill cities that are being spoiled by high-rise concrete blocks that bring brutal aesthetic uniformity into a place that is praises itself for its beauty of diversity. Here, no house has an elevator, and trees are not allowed to be cut down. Unsightly and ugly hotel structures are absent. What local people do, however, is turn their homes into guesthouses.

Mussoorie was the Dalai Lama’s first home in India. Then he was invited to search for another place, as far as I learned, a place where he was not in direct proximity with governmental institutions, such as the National Academy of Administration in Mussoorie. What I learned also is that India's support for the Dalai Lama is one of the main reasons for the hostile relationship between China and India. Just during the recent days, a hot border dispute between both risked to turn even hotter.
See: 'Chinese and Indian troops face off in Bhutan border dispute', by Michael Safi in Delhi, The Guardian, 6th July 2017. Regional rivalry escalated as forces mobilised near borderland that China claims but India says is in Bhutan. Chinese and Indian soldiers clashed at a border crossing. Analysts say armed conflict is, however, unlikely in the near future.
See also:
'When "Queen of Hills" was the resort of celebrities', by Jaskiran Chopra, Daily Pioneer, State Editions Dehradun, 11th June 2017.

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21st - 23rd August 2017: This is the view from the home of dear Latha and her husband! Three glaciers can be seen at the horizon. Glaciers that were once one single entity, are now divided as the ice has melted. On the left side of the horizon one can see Bandarpoonch and Swargarohini (see the pictures above), on the right side it is the Gangotri range, and further to the right it is the Kedarnath mountain.
See also the many photos taken by Latha's dear husband on TrekEarth and Foto.no.
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This is the Gangotri range of the Garhwal region in the Uttarkashi-Tehri Garhwal district. The Jaonli mountain, for instance, which I see from the home of Latha and her dear husband, is 6,632 meters high.
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20th August 2017: These are pictures out of the car during a car drive from Delhi airport to Mussoorie in the Himalayas! From Mussoorie one can see the Gangotri range of the Garhwal region in the Uttarkashi-Tehri Garhwal district. Mussoorie was the first place where the Dalai Lama stayed after leaving Tibet. On the way out of Dehradun, one passes in front of the Sakya College, Institute of higher Buddhist studies, and the Shiv Temple.

Wherever I am in the world, I ask myself how we might imagine a better future for humankind on our planet. I ask myself many questions, such as:
— How should we organise our global and local economies in the future so that we are spared to be assaulted by such appalling sexualised advertisements for loans as you can see on the picture at the bottom left? How can we prevent that global power elites use local power elites to manipulate and exploit the rest, just as the British colonisers used the Rajas and made them complicit in raiding the resources of the colony? When I speak with young people, I hear that they have three main wishes: (1) more individual freedom from traditional rules, (2) love marriage, and (3) money. The wedding advertisement at the bottom right shows their dream: to become like Rajas! Enough money to be free and marry for love. Unfortunately, this dream, as understandable as it is, is bound to increase the world's deadly race for competition for domination...

— What about the unsafe and unsightly 'cable salad' you see all over the world? Will we have decentralised sources of electricity in the future, such as solar panels?

— What about the world's roads? We have unsafe dirt roads and ecologically unsound asphalt roads...?
— What will we have instead of cars on roads? Bicycles on smaller pathways? Two wheelers?
— What will we have instead of trucks?

— How can we overcome the rural/city divide? How can we, in the future, prevent that people are being 'forgotten'? How can we prevent that 'forgotten people' take 'revenge', for instance, by voting for extremist leaders?
— Who should be responsible for the city floor (streets and sidewalks) in a city? I learn that also in India, adverse possession laws allow people to appropriate land if they have used it for several years, and therefore people avoid taking responsibility for common space, as this can be misinterpreted as wanting to appropriate common land.

— What will we have instead of concrete as building material for houses? What will we have instead of the aggressive rectangularity of concrete buildings? In India, as in other parts of the world, I observe that rectangularity is missing where it should be, and is overdone where it should not be: doors and windows are not fitting, for example, while the aggressiveness of concrete buildings is readily accepted. How come that local approaches to building houses are being despised and neglected? Koti Banal is not just advisable for a better India, but for the world! Thank you, dear Latha, for showing me this! After Dehradun, we saw Gurjar or Gujjar people at the road side, a pastoral agricultural ethnic group, who builds their houses from local materials. Local materials and local designs seem to be the answer to my question, rather than the global uniformity of concrete boxes that violate the human soul!

— Unity in diversity: What is cultural diversity? If we take biological diversity as guidance, how can we then best identify those cultural 'species' and their habitats that call for protection? Is language a suitable marker? What about the human tendency to destroy diversity for the promise that becoming part of global uniformity will provide them with higher status? Nynorsk and Sami languages are but two examples of languages whose speakers strive to save them from extinction. Those speakers attempt to rescue cultural diversity. On the other hand, diversity can also become divisive: Did Urdu, Bengali, and Hindi create hostile division, division that militated against unity? Thank you, dear Latha, for giving me this question! Would unity be achievable if all people learned Esperanto in addition to their indigenous language?

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15th August 2017: What a WONDERFUL moment! Avi Shahaf arrived! And he met with dear Tejas Kumar Jain and Yashasvi Dhand!
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14th August 2017: The streets of Indore, India!
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13th August 2017: My first time in a sari! Thank you so much, dearest Amita! And a huge thank-you also to dear Sarla Dixit, Dr. Rajesh's loving mother! I learned later that a sari can be worn in many different ways. The current fashion originates from the Tagore’s family who made an art of draping saris, at a time when Bengal and Kolkatta were still a cultural hub.
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12th August 2017: Thank you so much, dearest Amita, for sharing your wonderful clothes with me, so that I can turn into Evamita!
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11th August 2017: Thank you so much, dearest Amita, for sharing your wonderful clothes with me, so that I can turn into Evamita!
And thank you so much also for sharing wonderful music with me:
• Pt. Bhimsen Gururaj Joshi (4 February 1922 – 24 January 2011) was a legendary Indian vocalist from Karnataka in the Hindustani classical tradition. He is known for the khayal form of singing, as well as for his popular renditions of devotional music (bhajans and abhangs).
• Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna (6 July 1930 – 22 November 2016) was an Indian Carnatic vocalist, musician, multi-instrumentalist, playback singer, composer, and character actor.
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11th August 2017: Thank you so much, dear Amol Mishra, for introducing Pranjali Singh Parihar to our dignity work!
Her passion is passon for life is 'kathak' and she is working for her PhD in that field. See her work on YouTube, among others, here.
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11th August 2017: Thank you, dear Jyoti Gupta, for bringing a lovely gift for the 'circle of love gifts' that she made herself, two little plaques that can be glued on a surface, a door, for instance. On every door of a shop, labh (profit) is placed first, on the left side, and then comes shubh (good) on the right side. Brahmans, however, would place those two messages in the inverse order: first 'good' and only then 'profit'! Thank you, dear Dr. Rajesh Dixit, for explaining this!
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8th August 2017: What a privilege to be with Menika Soni Jadon in town to buy what we need for our upcoming conference! Thank you, dear Menika, for a wonderful day! And another big thank-you for you beautiful gift of earrings from the great Indian Fabrics shop!
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8th August 2017: Pictures of the Indore, where you see both, India (left) and Bharata (right). India is a Western name, while the name of the country in Indian languages is Bharata, after the emperor Bharata. The Westside store has a Western and an Indian section for women's clothes.
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8th to 12th August 2017, in a Mall in Indore, India
(the left side offers vegetarian fillings for sandwiches, the right side non-vegetarian fillngs):

Evelin Lindner wrote to Linda Hartling on 11th August: What pains me most, personally, is when the West is being imitated to the detriment not just of indigenous 'Bharata' practices, but to the detriment of human health and well-being altogether. Western practices provide the illusion of status at the price of health! The photo you see shows a Subway shop in a mall, serving terrible "plastic"-food, while I assume it is exploiting its workers and siphoning off the profits to a wealthy few somewhere outside of India... The fact that people here in India (as everywhere else in the world) accept such exploitation, and even are proud of it, is what I call 'voluntary self-humiliation'... (I do not wish to 'hang-out' Subway here; I do not know enough about its corporate ethics. I use it only as an example for wide-spread practices.)

Linda Hartling responded on 12th August: This situation breaks my heart. It makes me ill to see the 'plastic'-food practices being exported by U.S. corporate predators. They are never held accountable for the harm that they are doing in the world. Corporate predators seduce people into participating in voluntary self-humiliation. Perhaps this is why Mahatma Gandhi emphasised the importance of 'non-cooperation with everything humiliating' (from 'The first principle of nonviolent action is non-cooperation with everything humiliating'). Our dignity work as a community is our form of non-cooperation with everything humiliating!

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7th August 2017: Rakhi or the bond of relationship between brothers and sisters! From top left to bottom right: approaching a Rakhi shop, the shop from the inside, a dish for the ceremony, a set for a brother and his wife, the festive hand decoration!
This is a temporary tattoo which is called 'Mehndi' in Hindi and 'Heena' in Arabic, and it is an ancient art to decorate hand and legs on special occasions. It is made with a paste of leaves which can be used in dried and in fresh form. Thank you so much for explaining, dear Menika Jadon!
The bead in the rakhi bracelet is modeled after a spiritual seed called rudraksha. It signifies positive energy and protection.
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7th August 2017: Rakhi or the bond of relationship between brothers and sisters!
Above: A BIG thank-you to Amita's sister-in-law Swati Taksali for making these wonderful earrings!
Below, left, from dear Rajesh: Shagun means 'omen' or 'presage' and represents a 'holy gift' (a gift of money becomes a shagun when one rupee is added, otherwise it is just money).
Below, right: Damaru, a little drum that Lord Shiva used as his instrument, a lovely gift from dear Amita!
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7th August 2017: Rakhi or the bond of relationship between brothers and sisters!
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6th August 2017: See this very special and creatively decorated 'Rajesh coconut drink'!
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5th August 2017: Flowers, flour, and vegetables (bitter gourd and garlic)!
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5th August 2017: I was in heaven in these wonderful fabric shops in the Sindhi colony of Indore! Such fabric shops no longer exist in Western countries! Thank you so so much, dearest Amita and Rajesh, for taking me there! And for helping me buy wonderful gifts for our 'circle of love gifts'!
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4th August 2017: The streets of Indore! First from the Indore Indira Group buildings (newly transformed as Renaissance University) to the Renaissance College, and then from there to my new home with dear Amita Neerav and Dr. Rajesh Dixit. You see both: India and Bharata. India is a Western name, while the name of the country in Indian languages is Bharata, after the emperor Bharata. Thank you, dear Dr. Rajesh Dixit, for explaining to me that both names also stand for two different Indias, the Westernized and non-Westernized. These photos show both. At the bottom you see the IT Park of Indore.
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4th August 2017: 'Induction' ('Introduction') for the new students at the newly formed Renaissance University, previously Indore Indira Group of Institutions.
For the first time, I met its Founder and Group Chairman, Swapnil Kothari. Even though his address to the students was in Hindi, I had no problems understanding that he is an exceptionally gifted orator and inspirational speaker! The students were totally mesmerised!

Sarabjeet Singh Bharaj opened his talk to the students by saying that they have to work hard, with enthusiasm, to learn as much as possible in these two years before graduation: 'You have to be tough on yourself, then life will be easy on you, but if you are easy on yourself then life will be tough on you'.
Then Sarabjeet Singh Bharaj talked about five philosophies for self inspiration:
1. Always expect more from yourself. Expectations should be introvert and not extrovert.
2. Align yourself towards the highest of work ethics. One should have empathy, team work, quality driven work etc.
3. Both of these philosophies should be backed by relentless intelligent effort. Sarabjeet Singh Bharaj quoted a story of Socrates and the Noble Prize Winner Professor Chandrasekhar: learning is successful when a person starts enjoying the position in the business instead of enjoying the business.
When all these three philosophies inspire you, there is a maximum chance of success.
But some time failure may still occur. Therefore Sarabjeet Singh Bharaj concluded:
4. Treat every success as motivation gain and don't let it feed your ego.
5. Treat every setback as maturity gain, don't see it as failure.

As a gift for my contribution to the event, I received a sacred Tulsi plant,
and two books that the students are required to read:

1. Radjou, Navi and Jaideep Ahuja Simone Prabhu (2012, seventeenth impression 2016): Jugaad Innovation: A Frugal and Flexible Approach to Innovation for the 21st Century, Gurgaon, India: Random House. This book outlines six principles of 'jugaad' innovation: Seek opportunity in adversity, do more with less, think and act flexibly, keep it simple, include the margin, and follow your heart.

2. Covey, Stephen R. (1989/2013). The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change. London: Simon and Schuster.

• Please click on the photos above or here to see more pictures.
• Please see more photos of the buildings, also the venue for our conference here.

July and August 2017: Approaching the Renaissance College in Indore, India, which, since a few days, is part of the newly formed Renaissance University.
• Please click on the photos above or here to see more photos.

1st - 3rd August 2017: Please see Evelin transforming into a true sister of Amita Neerav!
• Please click on the photos above or here to see more photos.

30th July 2017: Welcome to the new Dialogue Home for our global dignity network in the home of Dr. Rajesh Dixit and Dr. Amita Neerav, in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India!
• Please click on the photos above or here to see all the 39 pictures that dear Amita took with her remote control arrangement!
• The photo at the bottom was taken on 3rd of August, you can click on it or here to see more pictures from that day!

Thank you, dear friends, for explaining this to me:
• 4 varna (system of social divisions of people in Hinduism): brahman (traditionally: priests, scholars and teachers, surname mostly: Kumar), kshatriya (traditionally: rulers, warriors and administrators, surname mostly: Singh), vaishya (traditionally: agriculturalists and merchants, surname mostly: Chandra), and kshudr (traditionally: laborers and service providers, surname mostly: Lal) (Dalit, meaning 'oppressed' in Sanskrit and 'broken/scattered' in Hindi/Urdu, is a term for the members of lower castes in India. The term is mostly used for the ones that have been subjected to untouchability. Dalits were excluded from the four-fold varna system of Hinduism and thought of themselves as forming a fifth varna, describing themselves as Panchama.)
• 4 ashram (stages of life): brahmacharya (to study, to get knowledge), grihasth (build a family), van prasth (go to nature), and sanyas (know yourself)
• 3 rhin (debts needed to repay): devrhin (repay to god), rishirhin (repay to whoever gave you knowledge), and pitra thin (repay to your parents)
• 4 purusharth (duties/efforts): dharm (correct living), arth (make a living, see also the traditional Hindu joint family system), kama (reproduction), and moksha (salvation, becoming part of the supreme soul)
• 6 ritu (seasons): basant (spring), grishm (summer), varsha (raining season), sharad (autumn), hemant (winter), and shishir (winter)
• 6 svad (tastes): mitha (sweet), namkin (sour), khatta (tamarind), kadva (bitter), kasaila (fenugreek, styptic), and tura (tasteless)
• 7 sur (musical notation): sa, re, ga, ma, pa, dha, ni
• 8 vivah (types of marriage): brahm (platonic soulmate love), dev (divine love), arya (arranged marriage), prajapatya (), asur (one-sided love marriage), gandharv (love marriage), rakshas (rape marriage), and pishach ()
• 9 ras (expressions in drama and dance): shant (calm), shringar (love), hasya (laugh), raudra (anger), karun (pity), vir (fight), bhayanak (fear), vibhats (ugly), and adbhut (astonishment)
• 10 disha (geographical directions): poorva (east), paschim (west), uttar (north), dakshin (south), vayavya (north-west), nairutya (south-west), ishanya (north-east), agneya (south-east), prathvi (earthwards), and aakash (skywards) (five important elements of vastu shastra – fire, water, earth, wind and space are mutually related to the four cardinal directions and four inter-cardinal directions of the compass. Each direction is associated with an element and an area of life.)

See also:
• 5 holy animal: have been traditionally considered sacred in Hindu culture, The symbolic significance of animals in India are as vehicles of god or deities themselves. Bull, the vehicle of Lord Shiva,Tiger the vehicle of “Maa Durga“, mouse* is also considered as one of the holy animals in India, It is vahana (mount/vehicle) of the Lord Shri Ganesh. The Karni Mata Temple is very popular as the temple of rats in Rajasthan. Indian Eagle Garuda and peacock are considered as the sacred bird of Hindu. Not only animals are worship as sacred in India, Holy rivers, Sacred trees, land and birds are also worship in Indian culture. Street show of animals like monkey, bear and snakes used by the tribe people for living hood. Still in the rural parts of the country,buffalo, goat and chicken’s are sacrificed to deities by the various tribes. The animals are sacrificed as part of an old annual tribal custom or tradition in India and some time there are incident of killing of wild animals by the villagers too. To describe the Significance of animals in Indian culture “Sacred Animals of India” book has been published. The book “Sacred Animals of India” authored by Dr. Nanditha Krishna and released by Maneka Gandhi the animal rights activist.

*The house mouse was originally native to Asia (probably northern India), and spread to the eastern Mediterranean about 13,000 BC, only spreading into the rest of Europe around 1000 BC. This time lag is thought to be because the mice require agrarian human settlements above a certain size. They have since been spread to all parts of the globe by humans.

30th July 2017: Dr. Rajesh Dixit is a deep-thinking poet. He generously sends his poetry to our Dialogue Home of Linda Hartling and Rick Slaven in Portland, Oregon. The title of his book is: 'I am Jealous of the Ocean'. The woman on the front cover is his wife Amita Neerav.
• Please click on the photos above to see them larger.

30th July 2017: Article by Amita Neerav in the weekend edition of Naidunia ("New World"). The title of the article is 'A Global Saint Connects People of the World with a Circle of Love Gifts: A special talk with Evelin G. Lindner, who has been nominated consecutively for the third time for the Nobel Peace Prize'.
Wikipedia: Dainik Jagran (Hindi: दैनिक जागरण) is an Indian Hindi-language daily newspaper. It is the largest read newspaper in India and the second-largest newspaper in India by circulation... It has also been declared by the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) as one of the most read newspapers in the world. It was named the most credible newspaper source in India in a survey commissioned by BBC-Reuters. The newspaper is owned by Jagran Prakashan Limited... Jagran Prakashan Limited also acquired Mid Day in 2010 and Naiduniya in 2012.
• Please click on the photo above to see it larger or click here to see the article.
• Please click here to see more pictures of the interview.

29th July 2017: What a gift it is to have found a new home! Thank you, dear Dr. Amita Neerav and Dr. Rajesh Dixit, for declaring your house to be a Dialogue Home for our global dignity network!
• Please click on the photos above or here to see many more pictures.

Gorgeous and brilliant Amita Neerav.
• Please click on the photo above or here to see more photos.

After being in touch with Vinita Raj for years via email, it is almost unbelievable that we finally are together in person!
What a great privilege it is for me to meet her and be welcomed into her wonderful family!
"Humanity is our identity" is their motto!
• Please click on the photo above to see it larger.

On 26th July 2017, it was a great privilege to meet Sarabjeet Singh Bharaj, Chief Executive Officer and Director of the Renaissance College and the Indore Indira Group.
I thank the principle of the Renaisssance College, Dr. Rajesh Dixit, for taking this nice photo!
• Please click on the photo above to see it larger.

Since 15th July 2017, when I arrived in Indore, India, what a privilege to be included as a family member in so many homes and to be allowed to wear my hosts' wonderful clothes wherever I am welcomed!
These pictures were taken on 20th and 21st July in the loving home of dear Dr. Rajesh Dixit and his extraordinary wife Dr. Amita Neerav. Thank you so much, dearest both of you, for giving me a new home! What a gift this is to me!
• Please click on the photo above to see it larger.

On 3rd August 2017, what a privilege it was to learn about Hindu worship!
In the middle, you see Sai Baba of Shirdi, Sai Baba of Shirdi, also known as Shirdi Sai Baba, was an Indian spiritual master who is regarded by his devotees as a saint, a fakir, a satguru and an incarnation (avatar) of God. He is revered by both his Hindu and Muslim devotees during, as well as after his lifetime.
At the bottom, please see two holy books, on the left side, Shri Ramcharit Manas, and on the right side Shrimad Devi Bhagwat Mahapuran.
• Please click on the photos above or here to see more pictures.

On 17th July 2017, it was a great privilege to share my 'circle of love gifts' with the wonderful faculty of the Renaissance College in Indore, India! As everybody knows, I live globally, and whenever I receive a gift in one part of the world, I take it to another part of the world and look for a worthy recipient for that gift. I call this the 'circle of love gifts'. When I have found a worthy recipient, I try to take a picture of her and send it to the giver of the gift. In that way, not only is my global life a bridge-building endeavour, also the gifts that I carry help build more bridges.
• Please click on the photo above to see it larger.

1. A Puja kit includes the following items, see from the top left to the bottom right (thank you, dear Poojaram for explaining this to me):
- Ittar scent bottle
- White (abir) powder for Lord Shiva, orange (kesar) powder for Lord Ganesh, red (gulal) powder for other gods, yellow (turmeric) powder for gods (read more about colors in Hinduism here and here)
- Incrense (loban) sticks
- White cotton (bati), to dip in oil or butter and burn
- Ready-made candles of butter
- Moli threads, to be tied on the rist
- Campher
- White cotton (bati)
- Incense (loban) stick to burn

2. Chanting mala made from tulasi wood

3. White cotton (bati), to dip in oil or butter and burn

4. Toran, or Bandanwar (bandan is 'to tie', and war means 'your gate'), this is a decorative door hanging that it is placed above the entrance door of a house or an apartment to invite positive vibrations into the house. It has an image of God Lakshmi and of Lord Ganesha, signs of prosperity and knowledge.

• Please click on the photo above or here to see the pictures larger.

When I lived in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Burma in 1981, I got so used to squat toilets that I could no longer sit on a Western toilet. Upon returning to the West, I had to climb up on the seat, exactly in the way depicted in the picture on the left side as 'don't do'. Coming to India now, I am very surprised to see not only squat toilets, but also combi-toilets, as shown on the picture on the right side.

I am very glad that the myth that Western toilets supposedly are more 'civlised' is finally being dispelled! See:
'The Great Sit or Squat Debate: ... squat toilets are more effective and better for your health'.

• Please click on the photos above to see them larger (both photos are taken from the Internet).
See also 'How to Use an Indian Bathroom'.

On 26th June 2017, it was a great pleasure to be invited to the "red sofa" in front of the museum of Hamelin in Germany. The invitees were the Pied Piper of Hamelin, or, to be precise, his contemporary personification by Michael Boyer, together with the director of the museum, Stefan Daberkow. See the flyer of the event and its announcement.
It is a privilege to be born into a family that was forcibly displaced from Silesia in 1946 after WWII to Hamelin. When I was a child and went to school in Hamelin - I was born in 1954 - I was not aware that my family was not alone and that the population of the city had almost doubled to more than 51,000 persons by the year 1950, with the majority of the new citizens beings expellees from Silesia. Only today, I learned from my mother that my grandparents were indeed active in the gatherings that those Silesians of Hamelin regularly held. My lack of awareness clearly proves that my parents succeeded in shielding their children from the burdens of a past full of traumatic loss and humiliation.
If we look at the legend of the Pied Piper, then historical evidence shows that there was indeed such a person as a Pied Piper. It is possible that he was a recruiter for German settlement into the East, the so-called Ostsiedlung (settlement of the East), that took place during the High Middle Ages. This settlement included also what later became known as Silesia. As it seems, the historical Pied Piper left Hamelin in 1284 with 130 of the city's young people, perhaps taking them eastward (perhaps not, there is no evidence of what happened to them after they disappeared). During the years after World War II, from 1945 onward, the arrival of masses of forcibly displaced people people arriving precisely from that east could be interpreted as a "return" of those youths that left in 1284, albeit many hundreds of years later. Michael Boyer reminded me of the relief above the entrance to the Bürgergarten, where, as he explained, Hans Walther made a connection between the legend and this "return." See the picture at the bottom.
Clearly, however, for my parents, to be forcibly expelled from their homeland Silesia was not a happy "return" but a traumatic displacement. On reflection - and this I can only say after forty years of global experience - this traumatic family background constitutes the motivational force behind my life work. In a way, I have become a "recruiter" like the Pied Piper, or, in my case, I would rather call myself an "inspirer." I did precisely what a recruiter ought to do: A recruiter's first task would be to make himself familiar with the overall life situation of the people he would like to recruit. He would have to identify whether there would be any reason for people to give up what they have, and venture into something new. This indeed describes my life path. When I finished high school, still in Hamelin, I was nineteen years old. At twenty, I began with what I call "global living," which means that I attempted to learn about the world we live in on all continents, about its nature and its people. One could also say that I continued with displacement. Until the age of forty-five, my identity was that of so many people who also today have no place to go: "Here, where I am, I am not at home, and there is no home for me to return to." Roughly at the age of forty-five this identity changed: it transmuted from "I belong nowhere" into "I belong everywhere." By now, the entire planet Earth is my home. After forty years of global living, at the age of sixty, my global "apprenticeship" is accomplished and I can enter into "adulthood," in the sense that I now have a "recruiting message." The Pied Piper, in 1284, might have called out: "Dear young people of Hamelin, look at all the problems you have here! I would like to invite you into a new life!" This is also what I say: "Dear citizens of this Earth, look at all the problems you have created for yourself - from sociocide to ecocide. I would like to invite you to join our global dignity movement and co-create better ways of living together, and being in synchrony with our planet, so that our children will find a future worth living in."

• Video:
The Red Sofa with the Pied Piper of Hamelin and Evelin Lindner

• Please click on the photos above to see them larger.

It feels ages ago that I was on MS Fantasy the last time! Here I am, from Oslo to Kiel, on 29-30th March 2017. My first experiences with Color Line connecting Oslo and Kiel, back in 1994, were so different, not to speak of the time when Even and I took the ferry to and from Larvik from 1978 to 1984! Now the Color Line ships are no longer ferries, they are luxurious and expensive cruise ships (I got the last inexpensive ticket for a day before the prices rise for the season). And they committ all the crimes we as humankind perpetrate at this historical juncture: inviting people into frantically overusing our planet's resources ("shopping"), and keeping people entertained while the Titanic sinks (pun intended) by way of bread and circuses (so-called "shows," now with impressive digital effects, rushing through their programme as if the devil were chasing them...)
• Please click on the photo above or here to see more pictures.

What a privilege and honour it was to be together with Aase Myrtveit and Bernt Hagtvet on 24th March 2017! Thank you so much, dear Aase, for inviting us! And for you brilliant questions! And thank you, dear Bernt, for your brilliant answers!
Hva et privilegium og ære det var for meg å være sammen med Aase Myrtveit og Bernt Hagtvet på 24. mars 2017 og lære av dem! Tusen takk, kjære Aase, for at du inviterte meg! Og for dine strålende spørsmål! Og takk, kjære Bernt, for dine fantastisk flotte svar!

• Ydmykelse - følelsens atombombe, NRK P2, verdibørsen, opptak 24. mars, sendt den 28. mars 2017
• ...hva gjør ydmykelsen så farlig? ...sammenhengen mellom terror og ydmykelse ...terror handler ikke bare om ydmykelse, mens også heltemot og ære: hvordan? ...hva med politikken og ideologienes rolle? ...følelser i politikken; DE føler seg ydmyket, mens VI er redde? (hva gjør denne redselen med oss?) ...hvor viktig er følelser i politikken ...fører globalisering til mer konflikt? ...om å vende seg vekk fra den globale landsbyen ...hvorfor ikke vende seg vekk?

• Please click on the photo above to see it larger.

Dearest Fanny Duckert! I am so touched by all the gifts you give me! Thank you so much for having me in your lovely home on 23rd March 2017!
I am so glad that you take your responsibility seriously, namely, to be an influential Elder now! The world so much needs the wisdom and insights of Elders like YOU!
On behalf of humankind and of our planet, let me thank you for your crucially important sense of responsibility and service!
• Please click on the photo above to see it larger.

Det var en stor ære å bli invitert til å holde foredrag på Litteraturhuset i Oslo av OsloHuman-Etisk Forbund, Oslo og Akershus fylkeslag, den 22. mars 2017! Se invitasjon. En stor takk til dere, kjære Inger Marie Helle og Moa Myklebust!

Video:
• Åpent temamøte: Om ydmykelse
Takk til Lasse Moer for å gjøre videoopptaket!

• Please click on the photos above or here to see more pictures.
Tusen takk, kjære Heidetraut von Weltzien for de fine bildene du tok!

On 13th March 2017, it was a great privilege to be invited by Inga Bostad to talk about 'Honour, Humiliation, and Terror' at the Monday lunch / Mandagslunsj at the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights / Norsk senter for menneskerettigheter, University of Oslo, Cort Adelers gate 30, 0162 Oslo, Norway, Seminarrom Asbjørn Eide, see the announcement of this talk.
Thank you to Zuzana Luckay for coming all the way from Slovakia! And what an honour to have Nils Butenschøn with us, together with Trine Eklund, Lisbeth and Per Glad, Barbro Bakken, and Inga's dear friend Annette!
Thanks a lot also to Lisbeth and Barbro for taking such lovely photos, and to Zuzana for doing the video recording!

Video:
• Honour, Humiliation, and Terror

• Please click on the photos above or here to see more.

Dearest Trine Eklund! You have no idea how thankful I am to you for opening your Dignity Home for me every year! This year, 2017, I had the pleasure and honour to be with you in February and March! You are my beloved 'adoptive mother'! How can I ever thank you enough for including me so lovingly in your amazing circle friends, all pioneers for peace! Every day, you teach me new insights, and I grow into better understanding the shoulders on which I stand! Through you, it is as if my life-time is prolonged back into the past, I learn to deeply understand how it felt to work for peace, for example, during the Cold War, or even further back in time, the dilemmas that Norway faced when being attacked by Nazi Germany... (see, for instance, the 2016 film The King's Choice)
• Please click on the photo above to see it larger.

Dearest Trine Eklund! How can we ever thank you enough for opening your home for all of us for a wonderful lunch on 12th March 2017! You opened your home for Lisbeth and Per Glad, Gerdelin Bodvin, and Zuzana Luckay who came all the way from Slovakia to be with us!
• Please click on the photos above to see them larger.

Dearest Ragnhild Nilsen! Congratulations! Congratulations with so many wonderful achievements! Most importantly, with a new chapter in your life, a chapter that is crucially important also for Norway as a country, and far beyond Norway!
6th March 2017 was a great day!
• Please click on the photo above to see it larger.

On 2nd March 2017, it was lovely to meet Sima Barmania!
Sima Barmania is a British Muslim medical doctor from London, with an intercalated BMedsci and a Masters in Public health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and a PhD from Malaysia looking at HIV, interfaith and religion from a public health perspective.
Sima is in the process of setting up a peace education initiative for primary school aged children to help them understand different religions, cultures and ethnicities, and reverse the dehumaniSation process.
• Please click on the photo above to see it larger.

On 2nd March 2017, what a wonderful gift to have dear Beth Maina with us, meeting her in person for the first time, after so many emails!
Beth Maina is of Kenyan origin, a holder of PhD in sociology, and Professor of International Health at the Unit of International Maternal and Child Health, Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, Faculty of Medicine, Uppsala University, Sweden.
Our deep gratitude goes to you, dear Catherine Odora Hoppers (see us in May 2013 on the right picture!), for connecting us three in such a wonderful shared sense of loving Ubuntu!
• Please click on the photo above to see it larger.

On 2nd March 2017, 12.15-14.00, everybody was welcome to 'Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Reconciliation: The Case of Rwanda', Evelin's lecture at the Department of Psychology, Harald Schjelderups hus, Forskningsveien 3, Oslo, Norway, auditorium 2. It is a privilege to be part of PSY4506 – Human Rights, Democracy and Reconstruction after Conflict; A community based approach, with Nora Sveaass and Inger Skjelsbæk. See the announcement of the talk.
It was a great honour to welcome not only the wonderful students, but also so many amazing intellectual pioneers and pillars of the Norwegian peace movement! And thank you so much, dear Beth Maina, for coming all the way from Uppsala to bring the message of Ubuntu to us all! And thank you also to you, dear Sima and Nooshin, for coming all the way from London with your peace work!
This lecture is also part of an annual series hosted by the Department of Psychology at the University of Oslo, Norway (until 2014 in the context of PSYC3203 – Anvendt sosialpsykologi, in 2015 as guest lecture; see the video site of the Faculty of Social Science at the University of Oslo). In June 2015, the 25th Annual Dignity Conference took place in Kigali, Rwanda.

Video:
• Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Reconciliation, 2nd March 2017
Thanks a lot also to Alan Serhan for wonderful support
See the YouTube edition and also a short video clip by Esben Østbye
See also a similar lecure from 2016: UiO Podcast 2016 edition | YouTube 2016 edition.

• Please click on the photos at the top above or here to see more pictures from Evelin's camera.
• Please click on the photo at the bottom or here to see more pictures taken by Esben Østbye, and his wonderful gift of a picture of a fern-hand! Thank you so much, dear Esben!

Please see Mai-Bente Bonnevie and her wonderful new book Magma!
Omtale: Mai-Bente Bonnevie er kjent som kunstner, feminist og fredsaktivist. Denne boken er vakkert illustrert med hennes kunst. Forfatterne Gunnar Danbolt og Paula Fure setter henne inn i en nasjonal og internasjonal kunsthistorisk kontekst. Mai-Bente Bonnevie skriver selv om sin angst og veien frem til det å bli kunstner. En vakker bok som vil glede mange og være til hjelp for mennesker som har opplevd angst som følge av vonde opplevelser i barndommen.
English translation by Lindner:
Book description: May-Bente Bonnevie is known as an artist, feminist and peace activist. This book is beautifully illustrated with her art. The authors Gunnar Danbolt and Paula Fure place her work into a national and international context of art history. May-Bente Bonnevie writes about her anxiety and the way forward to becoming an artist. A beautiful book that will delight many and be of help to people who have experienced anxiety as a result of painful experiences during childhood.
• Please click on the photos above or here to see them larger.
• See also a vellykket kunstnersamtale in Tjøme, 18. august 2016.

On 28th February 2017, what a wonderful first meeting it was with dear Anne Lene Hompland! Thank you so much, dear Anne Lene for deep sharing, and CONGRATULATIONS with your crucially important peace work!
• Please click on the photo above to see it larger.

On 24rd February 2017, what an honour it was to be together with eminent philosopher Inga Bostad, Director of the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights / Norsk senter for menneskerettigheter!
Inga’s visionary leadership and extraordinary efforts are an inspiration to every aspect of HumanDHS work in the world. Her life is a testimony for the power of dignity and peace. Inga Bostad embodies the indomitable courage, conviction, and spirit of Bertha von Suttner, the first women to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Dear Inga! The world needs you now more than ever! YOU are our dignity hero! YOU are our model of the leadership we need to see, today and far into the future! How proud Norway can be, how proud can the University of Oslo be, to have people like YOU!
• Please click on the photos above or here to see them larger.

On 23rd February 2017, it was a great privilege for Egil Bergh-Telle and Evelin Lindner to honour Øivind Hoff for his extraordinary contributions to the global dignity work with his wonderful wide expertise in information technology!
• Please click on the photo above to see it larger.

In March 2017, our dear Jingyi very kindly created a seal for our World Dignity University.
• Please click on the seal to see it larger.

Please meet Jingyi! Please see her Preface to the Chinese Translation of the book Making Enemies.
In March 2017, our dear Jingyi very kindly created a seal for E-lin Lin.
Since the family name goes first in Chinese names, it sounds: Lin E-lin, that is: 林艾霖

林 means woods, as one can see, it is composed of two trees.

艾 has multiple meanings. It may mean beautiful. It also refers to a grass called artemisia (Artemisia argyi H. Lév. & Vaniot). As one can see, the upper part of the word looks like a grass. It is a vegetation that may be used in medical treatment. Treatment with artemisia is a good care for elderly people. Therefore, the word means senior, or good care.

霖 means rain that lasts for more than three days. As you can see, it is composed of 雨 and 林. Rain is of course good for woods. So, this long rain is not the kind that will lead to flood, but will promote the growth of life. So this word is often used together with “sweet”, that is, at a time of drought, when you suddenly have rain, you call it a “sweet rain”, and you will use the word霖.

Evelin Lindner altogether has more than three syllables. When pronouced in Chinese, we may use six characters, like this: Lin-de-na E-ve-lin.

• Please click on the seal to see it larger.

Please meet Jingyi! Please see her Preface to the Chinese Translation of the book Making Enemies. Please see also her video 女侠林艾霖 "The Story of Evelin Lindner: Evelin the Knight,” made in May 2017 (video with English subtitles | Pdf of English subtitles).
In March 2017, our dear Jingyi decorated the photos that Tor Stenersen had taken in March 2016 with Chinese poems. She chose highly symbolic poems about orchids and chrysanthemum flowers.

Pictures 1.1 + 2 + 3:
Zhang Jiuling, the author of this poem, was once a prime minister. He wrote the poem when he was excluded from the palace. The following is the English translation.
Orchid and Sinnamon
by Zhang Jiuling (678 – 740):
Tender orchid-leaves in spring
And cinnamon- blossoms bright in autumn
Are as self-contained as life is,
Which conforms them to the seasons.
Yet why will you think that a forest-hermit,
Allured by sweet winds and contented with beauty,
Would no more ask to-be transplanted Than Would any other natural flower?

The following is Jingyi's interpretation: Tender orchid-leaves in spring, and cinnamon- blossoms bright in autumn, their rich lives respectively make their own seasons sweet. Can anyone understand the forest-hermit who is allured by the fragrance of the flowers and contented with the beauty of the flowers? The beauty comes from the nature of the flowers, whether or not a beauty would pluck the flowers to wear them, the flowers do not care, since a beauty could not add more beauty to the flowers.

Pictures 1.4 + 5:
Poem written by a poet named Qu Yuan (343 – 278 BCE),
the first poet in Chinese history (before him, all poems were anonymous):
The way ahead is long;
I see no ending,
yet high and low I’ll search with my will unbending.

Pictures 2:
The Song of the Orchid
by Confusius
(English translation unavailable)
Orchid plants bloom in the cold season and send out an elegant fragrance. They therefore symbolize a noble and pure character. But they have to suffer loneliness, because when they bloom, other flowers are gone.
Confucius' life was divided into two periods: During the first stage, he spoke about peace to the political elites. In the second stage, he was disappointed with the elites and turned to the population at large. This poem was written between the two periods. When Confucius finally turned to the wider populace, empowering talented youths from the underclass, his ideals were widely received and he had 3000 followers.

Pictures 3:
Han Yu was a famous essay writer and politician and he wrote “The Song of the Orchid” using Confucius’ format. By his time, Confucianism already had become the orthodox view in China. For some time, Han Yu was excluded from the palace. In comparison with the original poem written by Confucius, we may sense some arrogance in Han Yu's poem. The following is the English version:
The Song of the Orchid
by Han Yu (768 – 824):
The orchid is flourishing, its fragrance spreads.
If no one plucks one to wear it, how could that harm the orchid!
My coming back today, who caused it?
I have been traveling everywhere, for years on end.
The luxuriance of the frost and snow (will bring) luxuriant crops (in spring)
If you are not sad I will not come to see you.
Luxuriant crops (mean) a good harvest
Although a gentleman may be sad, he keeps proper conduct.

Picture 4:
Chrysanthemum
by Yuan Zhen (779 – 831)
Flowering shrubs all around as if at Tao’s home,
They cluster at the fences in the declining sun.
No other reason for my special love of chrysanthemum
Than that all the other flowers have now been done.

Chrysanthemum flowers bloom in the cold season of autumn. Because they are so proud in the cold, they symbolize the character of a gentleman. Tao was a hermit who was famous for his poem about chrysanthemum. He was once a prime minister, but later was excluded from the palace. He planted chrysanthemum plants around his house.

Picture 5:
Ink Orchid
by Shi Tao (1642 - 1708)
The poet was a fine artist. He used ink to draw orchids, and the poems were used to decorate his pictures. He was a descendant from the royal family. When the Central Land was conqued by the Manchu aristocratis, local men were forced to adopt Manchu hair style: shave hairs off the forehead and keep a pigtail at the back of the head; otherwise their heads would be cut off. The peot refused to adopt Manchu haire style and shove all his hair: he chose to become a monk.
The two poems may be interpreted as: In the cold season when all the flowers are gone, the orchid may see me painting with ink; the orchid then becomes less lonely, and this poem is supposed to be a companion to the orchid. Every leaf of the orchid demonstrates the strength of the orchid; its amazing bravery challenges the wind. My ink and my paiting in fact compose a portrait of my own character.
The artist used ink only, without any color, to paint the orchid, to highlight its elegance, its highly elevated taste above the secular world. Ink, which is used by the literati, symbolizes the elegance that is unique to intellectuals.

Pictures 6:
Ink Orchid by an artist named Shi Tao

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On 2nd February 2017, it was an honour to be in Hamburg with my dear friend of more than 40 years, Ellen, and to walk through the Elbphilharmonie, which had opened only very recently. Thank you so much, dear Ellen, for these lovely photos! On the photo on the right side, very faintly, you see the "old" landmark of Hamburg, the 'Michel', in the background on my left side. The Elbphilharmonie will be the new landmark of Hamburg from now on...
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