Dialogues and performances were a series of open-for-all activities in Media Baithak program held during 28 June 2019 to 26 November 2019 for the purpose of sensitization and awareness towards peace, peacebuilding and elevating tolerance in society. 8 dialogues and performances covered a range of topics from sports, qawwali, poetry to theatre, cinema, storytelling, and comedy shows.
Sports for Peace Building: The Most Powerful Weapon that We Possess
Sports is one of the most effective tools to bring peace and harmony in the society. After the dialogues “Sports for Peace Building: The Most Powerful Weapon that We Possess”, held on 28th June 2019, participants came to the conclusion that sports has the power to convey essential human values, such as respect, discipline, sacrifice, solidarity, courage, and ethics. The objective of the dialogue was to mobilize sports authority, government, and media to incorporate sports for development and peace in their policies, utilizing the power of sports experts and talent available in Pakistan, and the important role media can play to achieve this objective.
Promoting Peace through Qawwali: Tracing the Journey of Sufi Musical Practices and Traditions across the World
Qawwali is an expression of love and can be addressed to the divine in any of its multiple conceptions of its multiple conceptions or to one’s loved ones here on the earth. These were the takeaways from dialogue “Promoting peace through Qawwali: Tracing the Journey of Sufi Musical Practices and Traditions across the World” held on 19th July 2019. It was agreed upon by all participants that Qawwali as a significant part of region’s culture used by Sufis to spread their message of peace and equality.
Poetry And Reconciliation the Poetic Expressions Quest for Peace to Counter Extremist Thoughts
The poet’s words can generate harmony and guide humanity towards a peaceful world in which the dignity of life is respected. Poetry importance in the region’s culture owe to the iconic poets, they used poetry to spread their message of peace and equality. These were the highlighting words in the dialogue held on 3rd August 2019. It was also discussed that poetry, especially in traditional oral form, has the power to connect boundaries and disciplines to counter extremist thoughts to confront actual and terrible moral challenges the genre of poetry cars itself a special reputation for timelessness and emotional reverence for promoting peace and harmony to build a tolerant society
Performing Arts for Perspective, Understanding, Action, and Tolerance
“Performing Arts for Perspective, Understanding, Action, and Tolerance” was held on 27th August 2019 to develop a conducive environment to instil artistic sensitivity, creativity, responsibility, and integrity to eradicate violent extremism. Moreover, the discussion moved on to toward investigating the impact of theatre through powerful and innovative tools to address the issues of awareness about social justice, human right, peace, and tolerance.
Storytelling for social change: To Create Harmony and Sustainable Culture Diversity Amid Ethnic Conflicts; Peace Transformation
On September 19th, 2019, “Storytelling for Social Change: to Create Harmony and Sustainable Culture Diversity Amid Ethnic Conflicts; Peace Transformation”, a dialogue and performance, helped participants to realize that a culture of peace can be created by using a storytelling based, intergenerational and holistic approach that cultivates ecological, social, and spiritual resilience to counter violent extremism. An effective activity of storytelling and narrations can also help in undermining negativity in the thought process for social change via emphasis on shared values and commonality. Most importantly, storytelling is a catalyst for ideas, discussions, and actions that make the compassion more central and meaningful to people’s lives, in order to promote healthier community, and equitable societies.
Art And Culture in Conflict Recovery Peace Building Through the Artistic Endeavors of The New Generation
A dialogue and performance on 4th October 2019 with the name of “Art And Culture in Conflict Recovery Peace Building Through the Artistic Endeavours of The New Generation” was held to discuss the importance of art in Pakistani society for conflict resolution countering violent extremism end up lifting cultural values. It was agreed upon during the event that art is one of the most portent mediums for the reflection of society of cataloguing the social climate of a community end of keeping records of not just the events in our surrounding but also the sentiments. However, there is a decline in society in form of heart and literature.
Influential Cinema to Promote Tolerance and Cultural Diversity in Pakistan
Dialogue and performance on “Influential Cinema to Promote Tolerance and Cultural Diversity in Pakistan” was conducted on 5th December 2019 to discuss the impact a cinema and movies can have on peace of society, as cinema plays a role of reflecting strengths and weaknesses of a society. Cinema and movies also bridge gap between social divides and mildly provide an overview of politics, social strife, and weak points of a society. Another aspect of the society shed light on causes, consequences, and solutions of declining cinema industry in Pakistan.
Laughing Our Way to Peace Comedy as a Great Across Social Barriers to Unite and Build Tolerance.
These were the key takeaways of dialogues and performance in the dialogue “Laughing Our Way to Peace Comedy as a Great Across Social Barriers to Unite and Build Tolerance” held on December 19th, 2019. Comedy or humour as a peace building tool is a perfect example of decolonizing peace. To point out flaws and weaknesses of a society through humour not only strengthen tolerance but also gives an opportunity to people to have a serious reflection within. Social humour highlights the precarious issues of the society in an entertaining way in order to challenge prevalent insecurity an intolerance. It was realised that culture of peace can be created using humour that cultivates social and spiritual resilience with the individual and the community to counter violent extremism negativity in thoughts can be taken down and positive change could be brought through humour most importantly humour is a catalyst for ideas that makes compassion more central and meaningful to people’s life in order to promote a healthier community and equitable societies.
