Sport & Design Blog: live from Tokyo, Japan!
Dreaming big @ Beijing 2008
Artwork by DUZZ: original project poster, featuring Yuki and Ume (Hope 81’s first Youth Sports Ambassadors)
Two years ago, we had a big dream of going to Beijing to see the Gold Medal Mens Basketball Game live. And we wanted to build some new friendship through streetball along the way. So with zero financial support and no tickets, we took a chance and went for it! The project was led by our two Youth Sports Ambassadors from Tokyo (Yuki and Ume). We worked with the Ribbon Magnet Group/MsDS, which helped out with our HIV Awareness campaign, plus a bunch of great local supporters in Beijing (Mark, More Free & CL Smooth Crew, all the ballers from Dong Dan, Di Tan Gun, and Chao Yang Park) and so many more people who stepped up and supported us behind the scenes. Here’s a look back at an incredible journey:
Our first trip to Beijing turned out to be a key starting point for our Sport for P.E.A.C.E. initiative, and set the stage for our other grassroots campaigns. A nice reminder that anything’s possible. Let’s keep dreaming big, Japan!
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Sport for the Promotion of East Asian Community & Exchange
August 22 2010 Filed in: Hope 81 | Sport4PEACE
Sport for P.E.A.C.E. Initiative starts today!
Last month, to celebrate Mandela Day, we introduced our idea of launching a ‘sport for peace’ plan to help encourage reconciliation efforts in the East Asian region. Much the same way in which Nelson Mandela worked toward South African unification through rugby, the time has come to get the ball rolling for our own unification efforts here in East Asia. Here’s how we aim to do it:
AWARENESS BUILDING
It starts with growing more awareness about current/ongoing issues of post-war reconciliation for Japan, China and Korea. We’ve done some lengthy research on the subject over the past several years, trying to understand the root (and severity) of the conflict here. There’s a great article in today’s Japan Times which summarizes the present relationship between Japan and Korea, and developments in the post-war era. Timing the article to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the original conflict, the author offers some interesting suggestions about how government leaders might begin to move forward and reach a true sense of reconciliation. For those interested in learning more, there’s also a useful timeline which maps out Korean-Japanese relations in modern times.
FRAMEWORK
Here’s our suggestion: East Asian reconciliation is a massive and complex ordeal, and we know sport is not going to be a quick-fix remedy to the problem here. A solution will have to be drawn from a comprehensive and structured framework. One which starts with a basic goal of using the power of sport as a catalyst to bring people together. And with that, carefully mapping out a way to build more cooperation and begin to reconcile the past. Such a framework will need to involve regional members of academia, civil society and governments. The challenge is to get everyone across the spectrum involved, and orchestrate the exchange between top-level policymakers, grassroots communities, businesses and more. Our framework will rely on the common ‘language’ of sport, and English will be used as the base language for communicating general guidelines about the initiative, projects, agreements, declarations, etc. The end goal: grow an East Asian community and a culture of peace through sports-based exchange.
SUPPORT
On the 100th year anniversary of conflict, its time to reflect on the past and move forward with a new plan. We’ve made connections with a great network of sports-based organizations working outside the region, such as Peace & Sport, Right to Play, Peace Players International, and the UN Office of Sport for Development & Peace. These organizations are leading the way with sports programs and initiatives in key conflict zones around the world. Learning from current reconciliation initiatives and connecting with the global Sport for Development and Peace network will provide the support we need to establish our own Sport for P.E.A.C.E. initiative for East Asia. Of course, it needs to be grown here with a local support network of regional actors and stakeholders. If you’ve been following our efforts these past few years, you know we’ve been trying to adapt and work together with the interests of our local community. Now we’re ready to bridge the global support network with our regionally-based one at Hope 81.
GET INVOLVED!
If you’d like to learn more about our new initiative, please send us an email today! We’re looking to collaborate with academic researchers, web/media/communications specialists, and anyone with an interest in East Asian community-building & exchange.
Mandela Day: Celebrate Peace Action!
July 18 2010 Filed in: Hope 81
“Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to unite in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair. It is more powerful than governments in breaking down racial barriers. It laughs in the face of all types of discrimination.”
- Nelson Mandela
Today, the world celebrates the life of revolutionary South African peacebuilder Nelson Mandela, on his 92nd birthday! His incredible legacy continues to inspire peace action around the globe, and our Hope 81 community would like to thank Madiba for helping us get to where we are today.
Mandela’s quote above is from a speech given at the 2000 Laureus Awards. Its a wonderful reminder of what sports-based initiatives can do to help ease tension and conflict in the world. After researching about this topic (and writing a 175-page masters thesis on Sport for Social Change in East Asia), Hope 81 founder Jason Hutson is aiming to find a way for Mandela’s words to become source of inspiration for action amongst East Asian civil society and government leaders. If you’ve seen Invictus or read the book Playing the Enemy, you know the story of how sport helped a nation grow together across racial barriers. Now, bringing an entire region together with a history as complex as it is here in East Asia, through sports-based exchange...it may sound like just another pipedream. The issues concerning postwar reconciliation are deep and one must be sensitive to the feelings of hardship and pain so many have suffered. No doubt, its still a very difficult subject to discuss for people here, and sport alone is not the suggestion being made. Can we find a common ground through shared interests and aspirations in games, and from that as a starting point, create a new culture of peace and harmony? A good starting point was to be the FIFA 2002 Japan-Korea World Cup, which many hoped would bring the two nations closer together and create a lasting sense of peace and friendship. Almost eight years later, we have little to speak of in terms of a lasting legacy for peace and cooperation through sport between Japan and Korea. Basically the problem stems from the fact that we had a one-off, mega event with no framework to grow more grassroots exchange. Such a framework would require government leaders to step up and take the initiative from the top, invoking a concerted effort with strategies, para-public alliances, policies, funding, etc.
Actually this sort of ‘Sport for Peace’ plan is already in motion, though for various reasons, it hasn’t reached East Asia yet. The Sport for Peace and Development agenda has been gradually assembled over roughly the past ten years by the United Nations, under the leadership of Kofi Annon, Adolph Oggi, and now Wilfred Lemke. The UNOSDP office works with support from the international NGO Right to Play and the now UN-based Sport for Development and Peace International Working Group, which published a special Recommendations to Government document in 2008-- measuring the effectiveness of sports-based initiatives being used in areas of peacebuilding, conflict resolution, reconciliation, human rights, gender equality, HIV/AIDS, poverty, and more. While Japan, China and Korea continue the struggle to find a lasting sense of reconciliation of their war-torn past, hopefully government leaders in the region are considering the potential power of sport to change our world, to unite our East Asian community, to connect East Asian youth across borders, to give our younger and elder generations hope where once there was only despair, and to help government start a large-scale healing process for the collective people of this region.
Bringing sports-based initiatives to help East Asian reconciliation on a broad scale requires a great deal of help from top-level institutions. But of course, it must also start with local action on the ground level = People Power. This is the goal of Mandela Day. To encourage everyone on the planet to step up and work toward social justice, fight against racism and discrimination, help protect the environment, support under served communities in need of relief... there is something you can do in your local community today. Go for it, and celebrate this day of peace action! So what are we doing at Hope 81 today?? We’ve chosen Mandela Day as the official launch of our new ‘Sport & Peace for East Asian Community’ (SPEAC) action campaign. We’ll have more to share here on our blog in the days ahead, and a special section on our new website (hopefully coming early August!) with feature stories, academic reports, new projects and more...
Thank you, Nelson Mandela! Find out more about his ongoing efforts for social justice on the Nelson Mandela Foundation site.
Life, Basketball and Japan
March 02 2010 Filed in: Rising Suns | Hope 81
When I speak about Hope 81, people often ask me why Japan? To me, its sort of a no-brainer. I love my life here! But I guess the idea of a guy from California launching a nonprofit organization in Japan might seem a bit out-of-the-ordinary (or intriguing) to some, so the question deserves a better answer than that. Sometimes my answer turns into a long story of academic discourse, overlapping with personal anecdotes and so many twists and turns. I wish I had a 30-second version. Trust me -- I’m working on it. For now, here’s a special blog entry to give you a better idea.
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