Esityksemme Nobelin rauhanpalkinnon saajaksi

Nomination of Dr. Heide Goettner-Abendroth for the Nobel Peace Prize

Heide Goettner-Abendroth has carried out peace work and research for over 30 years without funding, inspiring scholars and peace activists around the world to follow in her footsteps: to study and make known societies of peace and egalitarian social structures worth emulating. Today, when the climate change, food crises, ecological short-sightedness, the commercialization and commodification of our shared resources of food, energy and clean water are threatening human survival, it is of vital importance to consider alternatives to the hegemonic worldview, economic models and social arrangements.

Most women’s peace organizations believe that green technology alone will not save the planet, for what we really need is a radical change of attitudes and values. We have much to learn from the ecological and social wisdom of non-western and non-westernized societies, past, present and future. Heide Goettner-Abendroth has excelled in producing the much-needed information about peace-oriented peoples still living in harmony with their environment. She has made the information available for use in education, free, on the internet (www.gift-economy.com as well as www.goettner-abendroth.de, www.hagia.de) which itself is a peace gesture in the era of greed and the increasing commodification of knowledge.

The scholar/activist has already previously been nominated for the Nobel Peace prize and has unanimous support for this within international women’s organizations (e.g., the international network of Feminists for a Gift Economy).

Enclosed please find Goettner-Abendroth’s biography, list of publications and a description of her latest book, Societies of Peace, Matriarchies Past, Present and Future, 2009.

It is high time that peace work includes the study of societies that have best succeeded in creating the conditions of ecosocial balance; I feel there has been too much focus and funding given to the study of war under the category of ”peace studies”. Most Peace Programmes and Institutes study peace through war and conflict resolution, but do not make a serious effort to learn from the cultures of peace that still exist in the contemporary world.  Please consider this nomination very seriously for the impact it can have for world peace.

Yours sincerely,

Kaarina Kailo
Ph.D, Docent
Department of English

Minna Sirnö
M.A., Member of Parliament
Chairperson, The Finnish Federation of Women’s Organizations (NYTKIS)
The Parliament of Finland