100 Reasons to Blog4Peace ~ 12 Major Wars on Planet Earth

 Reason #72

There are 12 current ongoing wars and 23 conflicts on planet earth

Black = Major wars, 1,000+ deaths per year Purple = Other conflicts Credit = Wikimedia (public domain)

1. Colombian Armed Conflict (1964) 
2. India (1967) 
3. Afghan Civil War (1978) 
4. Somali Civil War (1991) 
5. War in Iraq (2003) 
6.  War in northwest Pakistan (2004) 
7. Shi'ite Insurgency in Yemen (2004)
8. Mexican Drug War (2006) 
9. Sudanese Nomadic Conflicts (2009)
10. Libyan Civil War (2011) 
11. South Kordofan Conflict Sudan (2011) 
12. Syrian Uprising (2011)

23 CONFLICTS: North and South Korea (1948) Internal conflict in Burman (1948) Israelia/Palestinian conflict (1948) Insurgency in Northeast India (1964) Insurgency in the Philippines (1969) Papua conflict Indonesia (1969) Western Sahara War in Mauritania, Morocco and Western Sahara (1975) Insurgency in Laos (1975) Turkey and Iraq - Kurdistan Worker's Party Conflict (1978) Lord's Resistance Army Insurgency in Uganda, South Sudan, DR Congo and Central African Republick (1987) Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir India (1989) Casamance Senegal (1990) Insurgency in The Maghreb in Algeria, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco & Niger (2002) Conflict in the Niger Delta (2004) Balochistan - Iran and Pakistan (2004) Iran - Party For a Free Life in Kurdistan conflict (2004) South Thailand insurgency (2004) Cambodia & Thailand Thai Border Stand-Off (2008) Insurgency in the north Caucasus Russia (2009) South Yemen insurgency (2009) Yemeni al-Qaeda crackdown (2010) 

There are 54 countries flying peace globes in 2011

EUROPE: Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Serbia and Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom AFRICA: Kenya, South Africa, Morocco, Niger, Zimbabwe AMERICAS: Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Canada, Costa Rica, Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, United States, Virgin Islands   ASIA: Afghanistan, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Oman, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emeritas  Australia New Zealand

Countries not flying peace globes .... yet

We're on it.

If only it were as easy as switching maps.

List of countries not flying peace globes: Akrotiri, Albania, Algeria, American Samoa,  Andorra, Angola, Anguilla, Antarctica, Antigua & Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Ashmore & Cartier Islands, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Bassass da India, Belarus, Belize, Benin, Bermuda, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Bouvet Island, British Indian Ocean Territory, Brunei, Burkina Faso, Burma, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, Christmas Island, Clipperton Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Cook Islands, Coral Sea Islands, Cote d'lvoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Dhekelia, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Europa Island, Falkland Islands, Faroe Islands, Fiji, French Guiana, French Polynesia, French Southern & Antarctic Lands, Gabon, The Gambia, Gaza Strip, Georgia, Ghana, Gibraltar, Glorioso Islands, Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guatemala, Guernsey, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Holy See (Vatican City), Honduras, Hungary,  Iceland, Iran, Iraq, Isle of Man, Jamaica, Jan Mayen, Jersey, Jordan, Juan de Nova Island, Kazakhstan, Kiribati, North Korea, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Libera, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mayotte, Federated States of Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montserrat, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Navassa Island, Nepal, Netherlands Antilles, New Caledonia, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Niue, Norfolk Island, North Mariana Islands, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paracel Islands, Paraguay, Peru, Pitcairn Islands, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Reunion, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Pierre and Miguelon, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Georgia & The South Sandwich Islands, Spratly Islands, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Svalbard, Swaziland, Syria, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tokelau, Tonga, Tromelin Island, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam, Wake Island, Wallis and Futuna, West Bank, Western Sahara, Yemen, Zambia

Do you blog from one of these countries? Do you know someone there? Please invite them to participate.  Join us for BlogBlast For Peace Nov 4, 2011.

If words are powerful, then this matters.

100 Reasons to Blog4Peace ~ Drills

Reason #73

We interrupt our regularly scheduled lesson....

Join us for BlogBlast For Peace Nov 4, 2011.

Monday Mimisms ~ If Only The Baby Would Get Here

 Baby blues on the table

Tissue paper peeking out...

beside floppy-eared things...

 Flowers and bears and balloons

 oh my!

 I thought I saw a man holding blue baby booties today....

A two-sided ragdoll

 once carried by the man who holds booties....

and feet

which now must walk in a daddy's shoe

Memories on my table

in a yellow-lined book

candles and cupcakes
I did not cook

Hair "bows" 

gifts 

and a beautiful dark-haired woman in pearls

who carries my grandchild

100 Reasons to Blog4Peace ~ We're All Human

 Reason #74 
Blogging for peace has afforded me a real-time education. I have spoken and connected with people from many countries. They give me their perspective, sometimes interweaving their personal lives into peace posts....making it relevant to every human on the planet. 
At the end of the day, we're all human.

This is Julie in Taiwan from 2008. She writes,

"All over the blog world, on June  4th, people are uniting with one  message…. PEACE"

Taiwan

Join us for BlogBlast For Peace Nov 4, 2011.

100 Reasons to Blog4Peace ~ Making a Preacher Cuss

 Reason #75

I blog for peace because there are days when blogging for peace is hard and that needs to be recognized. The point is that you write something anyway - that you trudge on. Today has been one of those days, when the glaring nuisances of life had to be dealt with, whether I wanted to or not, momentarily stealing my peace and replacing my joy with...well....strife.   It was a day to make a preacher cuss.  But the one good thing about a cuss is that it is full of real - and once it's gone, it's gone.  Peace is way down below the raving echoes, deep down on the inside, and not so easily dismissed.   In the ebb and flow of peace-building, around a thinking table, let me remember to embrace the uglies of authenticity.

I needed to be reminded today that it is better to let fly a true cuss than fake your peace.

Cover your delicate ears.

Join us for BlogBlast For Peace Nov 4, 2011.

100 Reasons to Blog4Peace ~ Write On

Reason #76

I blog for peace not because I believe blogs themselves have special nuances of influence, but because those who write them do. We have begun as a society, finally, in the form of online journaling, to publicly write about our deepest fears and highest aspirations. Joining those common threads of humanity is what makes each word of peace a million times more powerful.

Homer Is Going to Yale

The Upside Down Question Meme

If you could ask one question of the following .....what would your question be?

1. Your iPod - Do the other pods in the pond call you narcissistic?

2. Casey Anthony - What were the last words you heard your daughter say?

3. Your ex's last ex -  How much do you think those "I told you so" people were wrong now, Pencil Skirt?

4.  Your pet -  Dear Homer, Why did you text me yesterday asking for a 3-ring binder and a pencil sharpener? 

5.  John Lennon

What was the single greatest heartache of your life and how did it influence your music?

6. Your great-grandmother on your father's side

What was your daughter like and do I look like her?

7.  Your mirror

When you look at me and I look back, what do I see in there? Think about it...
 

 And thanks for the love advice, Homer. You were right about my Russian pookie. You should have gotten a scholarship!

You're one smart dog. Please come home on the weekends. 

Don't send laundry.

Join us!

100 Reasons to Blog4Peace ~ Ain't Got No Home

 I blog for peace to honor the millions of displaced people who ever fled a war zone.

Reason #77

What's yours?

Join us for BlogBlast For Peace Nov 4, 2011.

Reason #78 to Blog4Peace ~ Bubbles

Reason #78

It was a day of questions and truth-telling. It was a day I'll never forget. One minute he was splashing in the bubbles, the next I had to shatter his peaceful world with the ugly reality. Because he asked. Because he trusts me....I told him the truth.

I blog for peace because there is a little boy in my world; one so full of innocence and goodness, one who deserves a chance to go back to his world of wonder and play and never have to leave it. That is the world I want for him. He is the 78th reason I blog for peace.

Read Blue Whales and Bubbles. 

Then tell me you can't believe in peace.

Join us for BlogBlast For Peace Nov 4, 2011.

100 Reasons to Blog4Peace ~ Elie Wiesel

Reason #79 

  I blog for peace because of people like Elie Wiesel, a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (1986) and one of my personal heroes. He lost most of his family in a concentration camp during WWII and later became one of the world's most profound voices on the subject of tolerance and peace. He suffered unimaginable horror, as did millions of others, and turned what could have been the beginning of lifelong bitterness and retreat into compassion for others and a search for his own truth.  He and his wife, Marion, founded The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity.

The world is a better place because of the words and deeds of Elie Wiesel.

Join us for BlogBlast For Peace Nov 4, 2011.

Reason #80 to Blog4Peace ~ Stillness

I blog for peace because I value its presence. I took a walk in the woods yesterday...touched some leaves, listened to the birds, got a little dirt on my hands and listened to the silence. 

There is great peace in stillness. I wish the whole world knew it.

Join us for BlogBlast For Peace Nov 4, 2011.

It's Just Background Noise (Reason #81)

I blog for peace because the meaning of such a beautiful word is not only found in silent battlefields, but also in the steady sure love of comrades and friends in the towns and villages of our lives. Without the noisy background of strife and lack and war, we can listen again. (Reason #81)

Join us for BlogBlast For Peace Nov 4, 2011

Hurry back. I miss you.

Welcome to The Queen's Meme

7 Royal Questions on Tuesday

The first meme I ever did was The Book Meme in October 2006, tossed from the Philippines by a blogger named Lizza who turned out to be one of my best online girlfriends ever, even after all these blog years. She received it from a guy in England who talked about his underpants. Eventually I was crowned Mimi Queen of Memes by a man who wore underwear on his head.
But I digress.

The first meme I ever created was The Peace Meme.  I asked people to tag 5 other people and we were on a roll. So to speak. Tagging is not so much an internet sport anymore but it sure was back in the baby days of blogging. Then I did the 9 Weird Things Meme in which I attempted to list 9 weird facts about myself. I thought it was scandalous but most people did not think I was weird enough. #1 was "I hate clocks." See? Not weird at all.  Boy, have memes come a long way since!

**I know. You're wondering...will she ever get to the point?**

Well, the point is that since I've been revamping my blog, re-labeling, revising, editing photographs and sending some to the dump heap, I came across a gold mine of memes unheard of for years! Back then we listed things a lot. Tell me 3 Things You Did Today, 4 Things You Ate For Breakfast, 5 Things You Want To Say To Your Mother-In-Law etc.  After a whole bunch of friendly tagging and whatnot in 2006, finally in January 2007 along came a question meme. I was tagged by Duchess Linda Upon The Thames (who wasn't a Duchess yet), Princess Sanni from Germany and Gemmolina who wrote a blog nobody could pronounce - all at the same time. So I named it "Triple Tagged and Slapped Silly." It was called the Silly Questions Meme.
 I've taken one question from each of the first 7question memes I ever did and put them into this meme. 

Mimi's Old Memes Meme

1. When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thing you thought?

It's dark in here. Turn on the lights.

2. Name something about humanity you absolutely hate.
 Some humans are still learning how to be human.

3.  What was the first lie your mother ever told you?
 "I saw you do that!"  I finally figured out she usually didn't see anything, but man could that tree switch put the fear of God in my pencil shorts.

4. Name one thing you should never say around a Ouija Board.
 Is there really a devil?


5. What kind of soap is in your bathtub right now?
Who wrote these questions? I do not use common soap. I use designer made royal imported crystals from the sea of Japan to bathe my royal skin. 

6. If a doctor told you today that you were pregnant, what would you say?
It's a little early to be drinking today, isn't it Doctor?

7. Are you in a complicated love situation?
Situation...situation...does couch kissing with a  Russian man constitute an international scandal? And if any of you tell him I'm only entertaining his pucker for a peace globe from Russia, I will never tell you another silly story. 

(#1 from The Silly Questions Meme)
(#2 from The Monday Melee Meme)
(#3 from Ten Lies My Mother Told Me meme)
(#4 from The Ten Things You Should Never Say Around a Ouija Board meme - from Frank @ Honk'n'Hollr)
(#5 from the I Think I Caught Something Meme)
(The Honesty Meme)
(#6 from The Don't Call Me, I'll Call You Meme)

Join us for BlogBlast For Peace Nov 4, 2011.

Monday Mimisms ~ Staring Down The Devil

I've been looking out the window lately. Observing how things are working in the world. I thought I'd jot down a few things I've noticed. I am feeling somewhat sassy. I need to clear the cobwebs. A little random writing therapy can't hurt on a Monday.

12 Things I Learned Just Hanging Out the Car Window

1. True friends not only have your back, but occasionally, they may also want to smack the silly out of anyone who hurts you. Of course you don't want them to actually do it, but it means everything that they want to.

2. Almost dying taught me how to toss out the trash in my life.
I need a few more bags.

3.  Mistaking kindness for weakness always comes back to bite those in the butt who make that mistake.

4.  It's easy to tell someone to turn the other cheek when it's not your cheek. Turning the other cheek gets harder when you've done it 2,000 times already. Sometimes the only thing to do is stare down the devil. 

5. I hope the devil doesn't mind that it's his cheek this time.

6. Baby Boy's doodles look like masterpieces to me.

7. I'm ever so thankful that the world is full of more good people than the other kind.

8.  Daddy used to say, "Watch out for that hornet's nest." He knew stirring it up would surely involve a painful sting. On my life lessons wall I've written...If you want to stir up a hornet's nest, prepare to be stung. Thank you, Daddy.

9.  You know your day is not going well when you put conditioner on your hair before the shampoo and publish a blog post without a title all in the span of 30 minutes. Giggling at myself in the shower doesn't make me too silly, does it?

10. Men who know how to kiss are worth a fourth date. Maybe just for the kissin'.

11. A bully can gleefully knock you down 2,000 times and never expect you to get up.
It's 2,001 they have to watch out for.

12. I am not one to hold back. Ever. I'll be damned if I'm going to start censoring now. This is Mimi Writes, not Mimi Mum.


Don't tell Baby Boy I said damn. I forget he can read now...
Peace