Articles by George Kent

We found 13 results.


Who Benefits from Persistent Hunger?
Prof. George Kent | World Nutrition – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Dec 2022

I am writing this because an article of mine on ‘The Benefits of World Hunger’ was unclear. Some readers have taken it to mean I advocate having more hunger in the world. That was not my intention. I have been pushing for reduction of hunger for decades. I am writing this to explain my views relating to who benefits from hunger.

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(Italiano) Arte e Costruzione della Pace
George Kent – TRANSCEND Media Service, 26 Sep 2022

I significati non sono inerenti alle cose, bensì sono socialmente negoziati. Come il significato di un’opera d’arte, così il significato di un conflitto non è inerente ad esso. Il conflitto è come l’arte. Le parti non dovrebbero considerarsi vittime indifese del conflitto. Partecipano alla sua costruzione. Hanno il potenziale per decostruirlo e ricostruirlo.

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Joint Analysis across Conflicts
George Kent – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 May 2021

Under some conditions, dialogues between parties in conflict can be facilitated through joint written analysis of the issues produced in systematic ways; a mediation process. Their final text could describe their disagreements. Their joint document is likely to be more helpful than uncoordinated separate statements from them. The availability of the Internet now makes it possible to conduct this sort of cooperation over great distances. Specialists in peace studies could develop skills in facilitating constructive dialogues across conflicts.

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Structured Dialogue
Prof. George Kent – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Jan 2020

Under some circumstances discussions of major public issues could be more productive if the participants prepared a joint analysis about the issues, including observations about the historical background, the major relevant facts, the points of contention, and proposed actions. Even for the most contentious of issues, there would be a great deal about which the participants could agree. Conflicts can be addressed in constructive ways. One path to peace is to work toward a jointly imagined peace.

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Can Flourishing Communities Fix the World?
George Kent – TRANSCEND Media Service, 21 Oct 2019

The challenge of ending global hunger can be addressed by ending hunger in local communities. This is the cellular approach to dealing with big problems. The health of the larger body is established by ensuring that its cells and the interactions among them all function well. It can be used to deal not only with hunger but also other big issues such as climate change, economics, disaster management, and peace. The approach is based on the simple fact that people are more likely to care about the well-being of people and things close to them than those far away. Caring works best at the local level.

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Hunger, Universal Health Care, and the Right to Food in India
Prof. George Kent – TRANSCEND Media Service, 1 Apr 2019

1 Apr 2019 – I appreciate Moin Qazi’s recent article on India’s losing the battle against hunger, but reducing waste in India’s food system is not likely to be an effective remedy. If large quantities of food are prevented from rotting, who is likely to get it? In the food chain, refrigeration and other technologies for preserving foods are more likely to be used to protect food for the rich than food for the poor. In market-dominated food systems, food migrates toward money, not toward needs.

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Nourishing Communities
Prof. George Kent – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 Dec 2018

There are many guidelines for dealing with specific nutrition problems. Often treatments are delivered by specialists through community-based nutrition programs. Some are initiated and designed by outside experts and are community-based only in terms of their geographic location. Some community-based programs involve local people in implementation. In some cases, nutrition programs are initiated and carried out by people in the local community. It is important to recognize that the need for such interventions is likely to be far lower when the community itself is healthy.

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Peace Education: Pedagogy of the Middle Class
Prof. George Kent – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Nov 2018

When I visited Paulo Freire at his Geneva office in 1975, I asked whether someone like me, concerned about justice issues, ought to leave my comfortable setting with the middle class in Hawai‘i and instead pick up a rifle and join the rebels in Latin America. (It was a hypothetical question.) Without hesitation, he said there are justice issues around you. Do the work where you are. Bloom where you are planted.

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Statement on Gun Violence in the USA
Submitted by Prof. George Kent – TRANSCEND Media Service, 9 Apr 2018

4 Apr 2018 – The faculty of the Department of Transformative Social Change at Saybrook University believes that it is our role as scholar-activists to share with the Saybrook community, and beyond, our views on the context of contemporary events.

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On Caring
Prof. George Kent – TRANSCEND Media Service, 29 May 2017

Author George Kent feels the theme of caring needs more attention and analysis because of its importance in all social contexts. He used “On Caring” as the foundation for his recent book, ‘Caring About Hunger,’ published by Jørgen Johansen’s Irene Publishing.

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Regulating Fatty Acids in Infant Formula: Critical Assessment of U.S. Policies and Practices
George Kent – International Breastfeeding Journal, 20 Jan 2014

The FDA does not assess the safety or the health impacts of fatty acid additives to infant formula before marketed, and there is no systematic assessment after marketing is underway. Rather than making its own independent assessments, the FDA accepts the manufacturers’ claims regarding their products’ safety and effectiveness.

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Ending Hunger in Caring Communities
George Kent – TRANSCEND Media Service, 18 Nov 2013

When people care about one another’s well being, and do not exploit one another, people don’t go hungry. This is true even where people have little money. The challenge, then, is to find ways to increase the caring. The approach suggested here is based on three propositions.

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Art and the Building of Peace
George Kent – TRANSCEND Media Service, 11 Nov 2013

Meanings are not inherent in things, but are socially negotiated. Like the meaning of a work of art, the meaning of a conflict is not inherent in it. Its meaning depends on what the observers bring to it… The joint exercise of imagination by parties to conflict is the exercise of the art of peacefulness.

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