The bully in your face

Being peacefull needs understandig that courage is needed to hold back all desires to act violently while standing ground. Many people experinece such places where peace is further away than hell.Standing ground peacefully means walking into hell without a weapon - other than your own self. Your own self and peace. A single person can be at peace and when shared provides magical moments. A group of friends that share responsibility and values are a coalition of force the world needs. Such a step was attempted in 2000 with SHIRBRIG. That force is needed today with one change. Not a stop gap force but a force that manages and patrols demilitarized zones. Three such areas are Ukraine, Palestine and DRC. https://www.unwatch.com/shirbrig.shtml

The 200 year plan for peace

 Currently peace operations as well as war operations, economical operations and political operations focus on six months to five year end cycles. the worst of that list is the focus on peace operations. The time frame for peace has no end date. The best we can do is to improve on our  courage each day towards peace. We committed to an oath of peace after World War II. That oath of peace is being tested to its most extreme since 1945.

A great way through the current situation is to have a 200 year plan. Here it is.

From day one this is a peace mission which is to patrol a Demilitarized Zone. The complications of such is for another day. However, the focus will be to assess the construction of hospitals, schools, and ,of course infrastructure for exit/entry transition points. There will also have to be bases for the soldiers built. A great deal of work to do in step one, never mind the clean up that has to be done. 

Step two is the second 100 years, will know more when we get there.

International Peace obligation.

 International Peace.

Every thing needs a start date. Peace has 1947 as a year of great hope. The founding nations of the United Ntions agreed to the boundaries of Israel and Palestine. Those Founding Members which Ukraine and Russia are, gives clear evidence as to the politacal bloundaies for Russia and Ukraine - as well as Irsael and Palestine. That is reality.

Any peace deal must be based on truth and Ukraine has been an independant state for centuries so stop fighting truth.

All nations should patrol a Demilatariezd zone expanding from those 1947 borders, at least 100km wide swath. For the next 100 years this border shall be patroled by United Nation Department of Peace Operations.Forces. 

worth a shot.

I think Canada should commit 200 000 soldiers trained in peace operations every years to patrol that DMZ for at least one hundred years.

Spider web theories and six degrees of separation

 

Over the past number of years, there has been an increase of information that drives distrust in society. The information being provided starts with making connections of realities which are undeniable. For example, two people are seated side by side on an airplane and find out they are going to the same conference concerning some issue of global awareness. Once at the conference they meet again and are photographed together a number of times. There is no other connection or workplan in place other than that. A few months go by and the photos are placed all over making the accusation that these two people are controlling global events. Even though in truth there is nothing taking place, the connections can be made and events can be traced back to those meetings.

Such situations take place often in the current world of information sharing. This phenomenon is known as spider web connections and six degrees of separation. This is a very dangerous reality because it so happens that one event in thousands actually turns out to be true. Even though the failure rate is enormous, that one event is enough for people to post about it on social media and broadcast on other forms of media to amplify the importance of that one event.  Thus is born the distrust and cementing factually rare evidence as a commonality.

All this leads to the distressing truth, which is that most times things are more often happenstance rather than orchestrated, that peace is lost to fearmongering, hatred, distrust, anxiety, etc… All because some person hits on a relational fact that spans from one thread of a spider web to another connecting two points that in fact have nothing in common other than that thread providing evidence of the six degrees of separation.

The place of peace studies.

 

Everything that we do involves peace. To study is to seek understanding for a greater knowledge of what is taking place. This knowledge is a step towards peace. Every school and program of study that exists seeks understanding, which is a component of peace. In essence, every school is a study of peace. Which is why most peace programs are interdisciplinary.

The formal labelling of peace and conflict studies is noted to have been started by Johan Galtung. However, it is my view that peace is the foundation of very relationship and the main pursuit of knowledge. With that view, peace and conflict is the sole purpose/goal for any educational institution, society and person.  Also, it is important to understand that each of us are engaged in the task of peace each day. It has been that way from the beginning of time. That is why peace and conflict education has been part of everyday life from the very beginning of life.

To have a program of peace under any other discipline is putting the cart before the horse. Peace is not a component of philosophy or psychology or politics or law.  In fact, all of those are components of peace. Each of those are avenues that we use to obtain peace. Most of the time, all of them are utilized on a daily basis for peace to have even the slimmest of success.

Take economics for example. Peace has been understood as perfect balance, which is zero. To have peace in economics there can be no constant growth because that is out of balance. This does not mean that there is no wealth accumulated. It means that there is equal distribution of input and output. To have more on either side is out of balance. The same scenario plays out with all other components of peace.

This balance is the calm resolve needed to obtain peace. In order to have that balance, each of us must study their own personal balance.

Peace in everyday life

 

Peace in everyday life

Peace is not for the faint of heart. To ensure peace, you have to work every second of life, there is no vacation or time out, unless you are sleeping. For most, it is a goal to have your life and/or the world be in a better place at the end of the day than it was when you woke up. How that day goes is unknown. So, each day as you wake up, there is a mystery of what will happen. That mystery can be a good thing, a bad thing or a bland thing. A peaceful person understands that each reality needs to be met with a sense of calm resolve.

For example, the day begins and you spill stuff on yourself. Your clothes are in need of changing and you catch a hang nail that rips a good chunk of skin off. Of course you bleed on the new clothing you just put on. A few mad minutes of rushing to prepare to get out the door and you slip in the puddle of stuff you had spilled earlier on yourself. The day is now a basket case of shite. How do you stop from “losing your mind”? Then there are those that have other people such as family involved while all the above takes place. How do you keep from “losing it” on them as well. You still have to contend with everyone else and the rest of the world. That is the struggle of every second to have peace.

Meditation, yoga and other strategies are popular to help with coping in times of stress. There is no doubt that the mental work to focus in such times is not easy. As the cliché states, life does not get easier, you just get better at managing yourself during such moments. In such situations each person must find what works for them to ensure they act with calm resolve.

Keep in mind that there are no time outs or vacations from peace. Even as you take your yoga sessions or meditations you are working to manage your own peace. Now the tricky part comes when your style of peace is not what is shared by another person standing in front of you. Peace needs to evolve for both. This will ramp up the intensity of work to ensure peace.

As the intensity increases, the need to work towards peace also increases. This is where many see those who advocate for peace as being weak. Such a perception is as far away from the truth as a perception can get. To be peaceful in such situation takes great skill and courage.

There will be perceptions of giving in at times yet the calm resolve will allow you to see the longer play. Of course the reality of insanity needs to be kept in check. For example a person is rushing at you with the intent to destroy you. A completely peaceful person would be able to understand that destruction of self is an absolute anyway so how can both people engage in peace? For most of us, self preservation is paramount and the insane person must “lose” in this circumstance. This reality is what is known as war.

We have not figured out how to live without war yet and we may never figure it out. At this moment in time, the world has slipped in the stuff that was spilled on its clothes earlier as the dog barks, the children cry, the phone is ringing and the bus you take to work just went by. Oh yeah, that hang nail is still aching and bleeding. Have a nice day.

What is Ownership of Peace.

 

What is Ownership of Peace.

 

In this article, the idea of peace ownership will be discussed. For the purpose of this article, ownership are the roles/actions each individual person and/or organization acknowledges and works towards to ensure peace. Ownership is linked with responsibility and are cornerstones of peace. As an example, ownership is illustrated with this phrase by Judi Chamberlin, “Nothing about us, without us”. That simple phrase is seeking ownership and involvement. The simplicity of that quote holds a very complex reality about the efforts of ownership needed for peace.

One complicated area of peace ownership is the reality of a person who has been a child soldier. The life of Dominic Ongwen is one such example. Dominic was forced into the Lords Resistance Army as a child. He lived many years as a member of that group which is known for committing crimes against humanity. He was brought to the International Criminal Court and found guilty of such crimes. His story is well documented as he lived as a victim and a perpetrator. The questions that are debated in the example of Dominic Ongwen reach deep into the complexities of peace. One such question asked by Renée Nicole Souris (2023), concerns the issues of passive victim, political actor and, moral character. Souris states that we need to “construct a new narrative that accounts for the coexistence of agency and vulnerability”, (2023, pg. 696).

 The two words, agency and vulnerability stand out as important markers of peace ownership. As in the quote “nothing about us, without us” there are elements of agency and vulnerability. In the case of child soldiers or youth gang members, they experienced a cycle of vulnerability and agency.

In the case of Ongwen, the reality of forced events and choices made is the area of question where ownership of peace is concerned.  The vulnerability portion is being made to commit crimes or be punished. As the experiences and time in such an organization, a person can become numb to the disintegration of peace. Each of us also have such realities take place, perhaps not to the degree of a child soldier yet realities none the less. As we comprehend the disintegration of peace, those are the moments of most need to be aware of agency, vulnerability and what ownership of peace will be.

What is provided here is an example of the complexities involved in peace ownership. Questions of personal survival and societal survival are all involved in this example. In another similar example are the youth who endure gang violence in Central American, (Moreno, 2023).

In the article written by Moreno, the question of peace ownership is dealt with through understanding, “how youth morally deliberate about conditions of gang violence shaping their communities”, Moreno, 2023, pg., 1). The reality that youth “deliberate on the shaping of their communities” provides evidence of ownership. Also. The similarities between these youth and Ongwen are relatable. Decisions of survival and moments of forced actions would be present in each situation. As the forced actions reality evolves, at some point the argument will be made that a person was “just following orders”. In such circumstances the consequences of not “following orders” is physical harm and perhaps death.

In the two examples of child soldiers and youth gang members, the individual is met with an organizational force based on violence. This shows the importance of societal/organizational ownership towards peace. These organizations span communities and the world. To have a look at the complexity mix of global peace and community peace scale, ownership rings loud in this quote, “More often than not, stakeholders and official agencies do not give proper attention to community members to become central in the processes of peace”, (Idebe, 2023). The term “proper attention to become central” is echoed in the Judi Chamberlin quote, “Nothing about us, without us”. In those two quotes, the systems that are built to provide peace have become systems that hinder peace. The hinderance of peace is not only criminal organization. There are systemic factors in organizations that are built to protect and maintain peace.

Perhaps the top of the heap of organizational peace is the United Nations Security Council. To that point, The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) sponsored a discussion concerning global perspectives on United Nations Security Council Reform. Now, this has been a topic of great discussion for years. It is noted in the CEIP work that the United Nations General Assembly formed a working group concerning equitable representation in 1992, “More than three decades later, that body continues to meet—with no tangible results”, (Patrick, 2023, pg., 1). Further to that quote are more remarks of peace ownership, “The permanent members have stymied progress. Each of the Permanent 5 (China, France, Russia, United Kingdom and, the Republic of the United States) are determined to maintain its permanent seat and veto - power”, (Patrick, ed, 2023, pg., 4). This reality puts the question of ownership of peace in a global complex cycle. This are more sparks of debate when we equate the individual person as though that individual were a member state of the United Nations.

To live in peace and to build peace so we share ownership is what we strive to accomplish. There exist are responsibility of actions and, those actions either builds or destroys peace. For example, going back to the gangs “gang membership seldom provides the supportive, family type advantages that entice youth into belonging”, (Beare and Hogg, 2013, pg.,421). In this quote the “family advantages” speaks to the peace that a youth is seeking. The organizational composition of the gang sells that family yet, “are characterized more by tension, violence, and betrayal, both from rival gangs and from fellow gang members”, (Beare and Hogg, 2013, pg.,421).

These elements of selling family and delivering much less is a path of many. Such paths are destructive yet those who sell it prosper from the destruction, and thus a cycle of violence begins. To stop such cycles, those who take great ownership of peace battle against the cycle. That battle is a direct reality for the quote, “nothing about us, without us”. The battles of racism, hatred, injustice, inequality, etc… rage on as we seek the answers to questions such as, what is ownership of peace.

 

 

Bibliography

Beare, Margaret E., and Chris Hogg. "Listening in to Gang Culture." Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, vol. 55, no. 3, July 2013, pp. 421-452.

Moreno, Franklin. “Moral reasoning about gang violence in context: A comparative study with children and adolescents exposed to maras in Honduras and not exposed in Nicaragua.” Child Development, Wiley. 2023.

Souris, Renee Nicole. “Child Soldiers, Agency, and Aristotelian Virtue Ethics”. The International Journal of Children’s Rights. Brill, 31(2023), pages 698 – 728.

Patrick, Stewart. Editor. UN Security Council Reform: What the World Thinks. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. 2023.