http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUEkDc_LfKQ

The 14th Dalai Lama officially took his title on November 17, 1950. In this video, the Dalai Lama describes happiness by saying: “I usually describe happiness in the sense of more satisfaction, happiness is not necessarily some pleasure experience, but neutral sort of experience that can bring deep satisfaction.” When asked what makes him truly happy, the Dalai Lama responds: “I believe… peace of mind. That peace of mind also comes firstly from warm-heartedness, that I think reduce ill feelings towards others and also reduce distrust. I always open. I never consider myself as something special. If I consider myself something different from you, like I am Buddhist, or even more, I am His Holiness the Dalai Lama, or even if I consider I am Nobel Laureate, then actually you create yourself as a prisoner.” Sexual health is also a big part of life. Being in good sexual health means you are well informed, careful, and respectful to yourself and others. It can also mean enjoying yourself sexually with a reliable rabbit vibrator.

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Dalai Lama Discusses Happiness appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGpjLX1BeHM

Colleagues such as Mary Burton of Archbishop Desmond Tutu discuss how he got involved with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) assembled in South Africa after the end of apartheid. The TRC reviewed thousands of statements from witnesses and victims of human rights violations during the apartheid as a method of catharsis. TRC commissioners describe Tutu’s mission to hear the “stories of the little people,” whose sufferings had been previously ignored and how within the second day, he broke down from all the deeply heartbreaking stories he heard. But a colleague says that Tutu recovered and said, “‘This shouldn’t be about me. This should be about the victims…I can learn to control my emotions.’ There after, you would see him biting his hand when he was getting emotional to ensure the focus remained on the victims.” The TRC was set up in 1995 and the hearings began in 1996.

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Desmond Tutu’s Key Role in the Truth & Reconciliation Commission appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atlr1uMaltE

On October 6, 1979, Pope John Paul II became the first Pontiff to visit the White House. In the video above, Jimmy Carter addresses the media following an hour-long meeting with the Pontiff in the Oval Office. Of their discussion, President Carter noted: “We share a belief that the church must in no way be confused with a political community, nor bound to any political system”. President Carter also spoke of the need for greater humanitarian intervention as a nation and as people.

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Pope John Paul II: First Pontiff To Visit The White House appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PD91z7ZVdk

Shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks began, Amer Ahmed remembers thinking, “I hope this wasn’t a Muslim.” As the spokesman for the Muslim Student Union at Indiana University, Amer recounts the harrowing experience of being a voice for a community that instantly made him a target of suspicion. Since 9/11, Amer has learned to cope with other people’s assumptions about who he is as a Muslim and an American. Every day moments like getting on an airplane and choosing whether or not to grow a beard have taken on a more important meaning: “It fundamentally altered the way my body moved through space in the United States.”

Produced by Thea Chaloner & Alex Schein
Special thanks to participants: Rory Murray, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, Amer Ahmed, Aristarchus Patrinos and Carmel Pryor.

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Amer Ahmed on Being Muslim After 9/11 appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjcOrC8iUrA

Immaculée Ilibagiza recalls the start of the Rwandan Genocide on April 7, 1994 by the Hutu majority in Rwanda and going into hiding in a small bathroom because she was a Tutsi. She describes praying to not be caught when Hutus were looking for more victims and not being found: “For me, it was that moment that gave me back my faith.” Ilibagiza describes how through self-reflection and God, she learned to not hate the perpetrators: “I don’t have to hate them for me to find justice”–she is even reunited with a friend, who is Hutu. Ilibagiza says, “When you forgive, you can be objective. And really see that the person who have hurt you doesn’t mean that their whole tribe had done that…what I found when I was able to let go of that anger.”

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Surviving Rwandan Genocide & Forgiving Its Perpetrators appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RfmqrMTvPE

Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, has become the frontline for war between Taliban insurgents and western troops. In this interview, two failed suicide bombers, Abdul Quboshi and Farman Ullah, discuss how they got involved with the Taliban.  The young boys explain that they were at school when the Taliban came to talk with them, claiming that it was their religious duty under Jihad to become suicide bombers and that they would be immediately taken to “paradise” once they followed through. They talk about the explosives that were strapped to their vests and their mission of killing a local Afghan governor. Hekmat Karzai, an expert on the Taliban’s ability to brainwash their participants, explains how they use the religious obligation of Jihad to justify war and recruit suicide bombers.

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Techniques of the Taliban to Recruit Suicide Bombers appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8vFYovIjZY

One of the landmark American legal cases of the twentieth century, the Scopes Monkey trial was one in which teacher John Thomas Scopes was accused of violating Tennessee’s Butler Act, a law which forbade the teaching of human evolution in any state-funded school. The highly publicized trial gained national attention and highlighted the divide in American views on the role of religion in education. 

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Footage From the Scopes Monkey Trial appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RypZG0ERmh0

In an old newsreel, a reporter outlines the basic facts of the Scopes Monkey Trial and talks about how the trial attracted a lot of publicity. The Scopes Trial took place in 1925 in Dayton, Tennessee and revolved around the topic of evolution versus creationism. A substitute teacher named John Scopes was accused of teaching evolution in a state-funded school, which violated Tennessee’s Butler Act at the time. The trial was staged to attract publicity to the evolution versus creationism debate and big-name lawyers such as Williams Jennings Bryan, a three-time presidential candidate, and Clarence Darrow came to Tennessee to participate in this infamous trial.

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‘The Trial Took Place in a Circus Atmosphere’ appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiW0GOOyvro

Eloise Reed, resident of Dayton, Tennessee and present during the Scopes Trial of 1925, explains the face-off that occurred between defense attorney Clarence Darrow and prosecutor William Jennings Bryan. Darrow, a well-known criminal lawyer and agnostic, called Bryan–a fundamentalist Christian and leader of the Democratic Party–to the witness stand during the trial in order to denounce his beliefs and defend the rights of people to teach evolutionary theory. Reed, along with other historians and experts, explain the tensions and harsh exchanges between the two as Bryan fought to defend the Bible and Darrow fought to discredit Bryan’s anti-evolution beliefs.

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The Face-Off Between Clarence Darrow & William Jennings Bryan appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H918KZgtqrU

David Menton, a creation scientist with a Ph.D in cell biology, analyzes the significance of the 1925 Scopes Trial, also known as the “Monkey Trial.” John Scopes, a teacher from a small town in Tennessee, was put on trial for teaching the theory of evolution in a state where laws had prohibited evolutionary teachings. In this video, Menton explains various aspects of the trial, including the strategies of the defense attorney, the prosecutor and the underlying cultural issues that accompanied this trial.

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The Significance of the ‘Monkey Trial’ appeared first on Witnify.