Sunday, May 11, 2014

Social transitions need strong leadership

After reading the article in the following link, I recalled a number of discussion I had on the need for strong leadership during transition from chaos to order. Each and everyone of us understand the difficulty that arises within a society that has endured a complete breakdown in peace. During such times, the leadership of society is often a military style of governance. The reasons for this is that military leadership is much quicker and effective than a democracy. Even after a period of chaos there is a strong need for such a governance style to exist. It is rare that an entire society transitions peacefully after a period chaos. More often than not society will slip back into chaos if a democratic system is brought in too quickly. As mentioned in the linked article, stability is paramount to freedom in the early stages of rebuilding peaceful societies. The main reason for this is that there are too many sides seeking their way forward. Such a reality promotes segregation in thoughts, that spills into verbal confrontations and then into physical violence. This cycle of human nature is very common and the ultimate reason for military style governance immediately following a violent conflict. Such reasoning is often debated yet there is a reality at play which many ignore. Every society that uses democracy has a set of laws for emergency situations. These laws bring about military style governance in times of disaster or social upheaval. Also organizations such as the United Nations which preach democracy actually does not engage in such a practice. Take for example the Security Council, five members hold the entire organization hostage. Freedom is a great state of being when peaceful society is able to cultivate such an environment. When society is unstable, peace is very difficult to maintain. For peace to take hold in an unstable environment the system of governance must be strong and quick to hold the peace. At present we are seeing the collapse of peace in Ukraine and each side speaks of what the people want. As the situation erodes, the irony of such leadership is that the people want peace but the leaders are ensuring chaos. Egypt has also experienced the same ironic reality. The words of peace are easy to speak but the actions take great courage and will power. This task of being peaceful takes such great courage that very few have been able to accomplish it. The governments that proclaim to be peaceful have been the exact opposite of peace. We know who those hypocrites are. As we work to solve chaotic situations, the need for strong leadership is a must. What is refreshing is to hear a leader talk about the need for a multi-governing style as society transitions from chaos to peace.

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Peace is our dream

Even though many world leaders have focused on erosion of peace, Ukraine society is spiralling out of control. What we are seeing is typical of human nature as we constantly make mistakes in chaos. Finger pointing and admonishment of others actions has taken over. The peace that is eroding in Ukraine is now spreading to international relations. The person who wakes up and needs to gather food for the family is now struck with fear of life for the entire family. Food is pushed down the list of concerns. What was a normal routine just months ago is now a distant dream. Children are thrown into question mode as they try to understand why the people who are to provide and protect them are no longer able. As the hand of death slowly cradles the children, the adults are gripped with revenge. This situation is what we must understand as the reason violence should be avoided. Taking that knowledge of reality with in conflict zones also spreads to every other country around the world. Every city, community, family and individual faces these spirals of chaos. Each of us have been involved in circumstances when a breakdown of some order occurs. It is natural to point fingers and seek out a cause for blame. In such situations each of us is trying to rebuild order, peace and good relations. However that desire is lost more often due to the fact that we interpret other peoples intentions are to blame, correct, admonish or even punish us. This is a natural state of individuals protecting themselves. For peace to reign, that understanding of personal protection must be met with great courage. Such courage allows the freedom of expression. The courage to stand in the face of these verbal bullets is the price we must pay in order to ensure a wider peace. Each of us are soldiers of peace and the bullets fly each day. Some bullets hit hard and are fired with great repetition. In these situations, we soldiers can lose control, some of us actually die. Each day we face these battles and each day we must carry the courage to stand up speak with peace. This world we live in has everything. From the most horrendous nightmare to the wonderful beauty of peace, each of us can experience such realities. For someone to experience all of this takes great courage. To be okay in the face of the nightmare as well as in the presence of total beauty is rare. Each of us work to be just that person and along the way we will falter, yet we will succeed. The salvation of this human world lies nowhere else than in the human heart, in the human power to reflect, in human meekness and human responsibility. Vaclav Havel.

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Peacebuilding in the face of Amnesia.

Often the phrase, “truth is the first victim of war” is thrown at the general public. That phrase is an exact assessment of war – every war. When we work to rebuild societies, rebuild peace the largest barrier is the general understanding or what the truth is. At the base of every war there has to be someone that wanted the violent chaos more than peaceful order. That decision is an absolute cause of every war. At some point a single person must act with extreme violence (killing another person) which then quickly spirals into the chaos we know as war. This scenario is exactly what took place in World War One, Two, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Rwanda, Egypt, Ukraine, Yemen, etc…. Ukraine is now focused upon the edge of war as Russia places forces at the border. However we have forgotten that the situation would not have even gotten to this point if western countries did not support the illegal coup in the first place. Even though such a truth is forgotten, pointing this out will not bring peace any quicker. In fact, such highlights have proven to deepen the desire for greater violence to silence such realities. We are left with a situation where the past is not to be talked about, the present is to be ignored and the future left unmanaged. This is where we find ourselves in the efforts of peacebuilding – if we leave it up to the world leaders. At some point we have lost respect for each other. There are two sets of rules if not more in the world today. Some countries can act as they please, others are beaten into whatever role they are forced to take, some are ignored and few actually carry the intelligence and/or knowledge that peace is the ultimate goal. As violence continues in society, the youth are being raised in an environment where violence is normal. The peaceful methods which existed in communities before violence erupted, is quickly forgotten within the youth psyche. The longterm memory of peace is difficult to rebuild once a generation is lost. Due to this reality, peacebuilding needs to be a very important goal on a community level as well as international.