If you're not checking out the Friday Night Kitchen Party at the Chatterbox Cafe in Pugwash, you are missing a whole lot of fun and great music.
Organized by the house band, The Abandoned House Band, featuring Ben on bass viol and guitar, Louise on vocals and hand & snare drums, John on guitar and Richard on harmonica, every Friday night is different -- and every Friday the music gets better and better.
   by Sarah Jewel Mattinson

Skabar Headed to Peace Conference in Sarajevo



Amherst News: The Citizen Record
Cumberland News
Darrell Cole
Published on June 04, 2014
http://www.newslocker.com/en-ca/region/cumberland/skabar-headed-to-peace-conference-in-sarajevo-cumberland-news-now/

To commemorate anniversary of First World War

Margaret Skabar is attending an international peace conference in Sarajevo beginning Friday.
AMHERST – A young peacemaker from Cumberland County is on her way to attend an international peace conference this week.

Margaret Skabar is a 21-year old St. Francis Xavier student from Amherst. She will be attending Sarajevo Peace Event 2014.

The conference is taking place from June 6 to 9 in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina and is one of the largest peace conferences in the world to mark the 100th anniversary of the First World War.

The conference is taking place from June 6 to 9 in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina and is one of the largest peace conferences in the world to mark the 100th anniversary of the First World War.

Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire is one of the key note speakers and the program includes more than 200 sessions.

Skabar is pursuing a major in psychology and a minor in political science.  She became involved in the peace movement three years ago when she worked at Thinkers Lodge in Pugwash.

“I was fortunate enough to learn about the history of Pugwash's role in international peacemaking and it changed my life,” said Skabar.

While working at Thinker’s Lodge, Skabar observed some of the sessions of the Canadian Pugwash conference. She later joined the Nova Scotia Voice of Women for Peace.

She will be joining Tamara Lorincz, a board director of the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace, at the conference.

Lorincz is from Nova Scotia but is currently pursuing the Rotary International World Peace Fellowship in the United Kingdom.

Skabar’s trip to Sarajevo Peace Event 2014 is funded by the St. Francis Xavier University and by the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace.

Sarajevo Peace Event of 2014 will mark the anniversary of the First World War that started after the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated in Sarajevo in June 1914. Less than two months later the First World War began and killed millions before ending in November 1918.

The conference will call for a global culture of peace and non-violence. More than 50 organizations across Europe have coordinated to organize the conference with over a thousand delegates expected to attend.

There will be round table discussions on developing a culture of peace and non-violence, gender, women and peace, militarism and alternatives, peace and social justice and reconciliation and dealing with the past.

The conference will include some 200 workshops and a wide range of cultural activities.

The Peace Bus stopped at Thinkers Lodge today. They are driving from Halifax to Vancouver - https://www.facebook.com/PeaceBus — with Elizabeth Eaton.

Big plans to recommit to peace Students from PDHS are hosting a march and sit-in at Eaton Park on Thursday, May 22.

Darrell Cole
Published on May 17, 2014
© Noreen Smiley photo

Students from PDHS are hosting a march and sit-in at Eaton Park on Thursday, May 22. Visual arts students are shown visiting Thinker's Lodge with teacher Louise Cloutier and members of Communities in Bloom.

PUGWASH – Visual arts students at Pugwash District High School have big plans to recommit to the idea of peace and non-violence in their community by staging a Peace March and Sit-in at Eaton Park next Thursday at 1:15pm.

The PeaceGround in Eaton Park is  a collaboration between Pugwash District High School visual arts students and Pugwash Communities in Bloom with the support of the Village Commission.

It continues the legacy of over 50 years of promoting peace in the village of Pugwash. Students from grades 8 and 10 designed four benches with peace motifs. Through this three-month process, the students researched and painted the bench boards while engaging in classroom discussions about anti-violence, anti-bullying, anti-vandalism, peace, the contributions of Cyrus Eaton to the Pugwash community and the 22 scientists who assembled at Eaton Lodge in July of 1957.

The tradition of gifting a chair as a symbol of co-operation and collaboration began in 1960 with presidents of universities donating to the Cyrus Eaton Lodge chairs imprinted with their insignias. The intent of the PeaceGround project is to continue the symbolic gesture of an educational institution offering seats where one can sit to contemplate peace. 

To mark the installation of these benches, the high school population, including teachers and grades 4 to 6 students from Cyrus Eaton Elementary, will march from the high school to the park for the sit-in and special ribbon-cutting ceremony that will hnour the same number of scientists who participated in the 1957 Pugwash Conference.

Pugwash area citizens are warmly invited to take part.

The PeaceGround in Eaton Park will undergo a third phase of development within the next year. Communities in Bloom, in collaboration with the Pugwash Village Commission, will oversee landscaping of the site. The benches will be encircled by low-lying shrubs and a pathway in the form of the iconic peace sign.

This project was made possible with grants from the Sheonoroil Foundation of the Nova Scotia Teachers’ Union and the Pugwash and Area Community Health Board as well as the Pugwash Village Commission and the Pugwash Communities in Bloom.

CISV Canada Peace Bus
http://c2cpeacebus.org/

We are still looking for one more delegate for the Eastbound leg of this year’s great Canadian adventure on the 2014 PeaceBus – a boy is especially wanted!

The Peace Bus consists of two 39 day cross-Canada journeys in a 15 passenger van for 12 delegates (14-18 yrs), 1 junior leader (19+) and two leaders. During the trip, the group volunteers in communities, visits local CISV chapters, engages in educational projects, participates in team building activities and learns about Canada, all while lodging at CISV family homes and camping in breathtaking national parks.

Trip 1: Eastbound Victoria to Halifax June 22-July 31, 2014, ages 14-16 yrs.
Trip 2: Westbound Halifax to Victoria July 17 – August 26, 2014, ages 15.5-18 yrs.

We are taking names for our waitlist too, as plans sometimes change & delegates might drop out.

A big thank you to Windsor Salt, which has been our main corporate sponsor for several years. Aside from investing in youth programs like the Peace Bus, Windsor Salt has also been actively involved in improving health through the eradication of Iodine Deficiency Disorders. Thank you Windsor Salt for your generous financial support.  Check out:  http://www.windsorsalt.com/utility/outreach.htm

• Associated Press in Washington
• theguardian.com, Saturday 7 June 2014 16.10 BST
• http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/07/us-iran-direct-nuclear-talks-geneva?CMP=twt_gu

US and Iran to Hold Direct Talks in Geneva over Nuclear Programme

US will send two top negotiators to meet with Iranian officials Monday, ahead of July deadline for comprehensive nuclear deal

US deputy secretary of state William Burns will be leading the discussions in Geneva. Photograph: Kim Hong-Ji/AFP/Getty Images The US announced on Saturday that it is sending two top negotiators to Geneva for direct talks with Iranian officials over Tehran's nuclear programme.

The discussions involving deputy secretary of state William Burns and undersecretary of state for political affairs Wendy Sherman are set for Monday and Tuesday.

An interim deal reached in November by Iran and six world powers – the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany – limited Iran's uranium enrichment programme. In exchange, some penalties imposed against Iran were eased. But sanctions such as those targeting Iran's oil imports, have remained in place.

Those nuclear talks are scheduled to resume 16 June. There is an informal deadline of 20 July for a comprehensive deal.

Iran's official IRNA news agency said the upcoming US talks would be followed by separate discussions in Rome between Iranian and Russian officials on Tuesday and Wednesday. IRNA quoted Abbas Araqchi, a senior member of Iran's nuclear negotiating team, as saying that the Islamic Republic planned to hold other bilateral talks as well with the other world powers, but those meetings had yet to be set.

Iran insists its program is for peaceful energy and medical research purposes. Much of the world fears Iran may be trying to develop nuclear weapons.

The new face-to-face talks come as the deadline approaches for world powers and Iran to translate their interim nuclear agreement into a comprehensive deal.

Talks have focused on restricting Iran's uranium enrichment and eliminating the possibility of it producing plutonium that can be used in warheads. In exchange, the US and others would ease penalties that have crimped Iran's economy.

International inspectors would monitor Iran to ensure it doesn't ramp up activities to reach a nuclear weapons capability.

Negotiators hope to clinch the agreement by 20 July, but can extend the current interim arrangement for an additional six months.

That deal, reached in broad terms in November and implemented in January, provided Iran up to $7bn in eased trading conditions for several nuclear concessions.

The Associated Press reported at the time that the compromise resulted from a series of secret meetings between US and Iranian officials. The talks took place in the Middle East sultanate of Oman and elsewhere going back to 2012. They only really heated up with the election of Iran's moderate president, Hassan Rouhani in the summer of 2013.

Burns and Jake Sullivan, vice-president Joe Biden's top foreign policy adviser, were part of the original back-channel team. Sherman joined them as the American and Iranian negotiators began to make progress on nuclear matters.

Sullivan is expected to participate in the upcoming sessions in Geneva.

British Pugwash, in cooperation with the Pugwash History Project, has launched an initiative to digitalise and archive the many photos that bring to life the history of Pugwash.  The Pugwash Photo Archive is committed to preserving, identifying and organising the photographs so that they can be made accessible to researchers, in conjunction with the large collection of documents and correspondence now held in the Rotblat Archive at Churchill College, Cambridge.

With the participation of several dedicated interns, a new Pugwash Photo Archive blog aims to involve Pugwashites and others who are knowledgeable in the history of Pugwash, in our ongoing research on the photos.