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. http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/05/egypt-sisi-chooses-stability-over-freedoms-20145119717430958.html 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.

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.

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.

Where is the hope of Peace?

Peace building is very much an act of community building. Every community is built upon trust or at least an understanding of how general day to day life transpires. When we look at the situations in the Ukraine and Syria, this general understanding was broken on both the individual basis and international basis. The individuals in both Ukraine and Syria had held mass protests to hold government accountable. Now someone in both situations had crossed a line and used violence. This is the exact point where fingers of blame begin to thrust. However the reality within Ukraine and Syria, both Western countries and Eastern countries are to blame for violence. The communal peace had asked for change in both countries. Some level of violence is understandable in such situations. What we as a global community must do is to reach back into the values of the United Nations charter and ensure the peace. So far what we have been doing is ensuring the escalation of violence. We have been doing this with such skill that a corridor of violence has sprung up from the Red Sea half way to the Baltic Sea and getting worse by the day. At what point do our leaders work to bring peace to a country? We have seen enough of the garbage leadership that has been brought destabilization to the world – for what? What has been solved in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Chechnya, Rwanda or a number of other places where violence still rages on? We have focused on the international politics and the leaders have brought very little peace. This method of solving chaos has slowly been shifting towards the community focus of peacebuilding. The individual, the local communities, the families that actually make a country what it is are the first steps that need support. This step is the most important. Globalization has proven a falsehood of hope in terms of peace. Globalization has brought the individual more goods to buy in exchange for peace. The world leaders have spewed rhetoric of economic gains will bring peace. Look at Greece, Egypt, Tunisia and other places. Where is the peace that was promised? Now we are witnessing cold war relations play out again all due to the garbage leadership from all sides. The world is slowly falling apart and what hope is there on the horizon? I see little yet I pray for peace, I live peacefully and I demand a peaceful community. Still the mindset of chaos and violence is proving to be a difficult energy to turn around. Where is the hope? Please show me something to grasp on to?

Peace - Simple to understand difficult to do

Peace is Simple to understand and can be simple to do. However, we live in a time where our closest allies have become untrustworthy. What is even more disturbing is that there are so many people who have solutions to many of our problems but the leadership is unwilling to implement these solutions. For example in Syria, the referendum that was held 26 Feb 2011 was a building block to A peaceful transition of power. For whatever reason on 27 Feb 2011 over 3 million worth of weapons poured through the Iraq and Syrian border. This is the exact situation that has brought Syria into the hell they live with now. Who supplied the money to purchase weapons, who orchestrated the movement/delivery of these weapons? All of these questions come up when violence breaks out. We are seeing the destruction of society take place in Ukraine now. The leaders of the world are doing very little to improve the situation, in fact they are adding fuel to the fire. Knowing that options exist which will improve relations and bring peace to the situation is great. Seeing the disruptive actions of the world leaders that erode peace is frustrating. The illegal invasion of Iraq remains one to the largest post World War II crimes that has taken place. Even more troubling is the hypocrisy which is spewed on similar situations such as Ukraine, Syria, Palestine, Yemen, Bahrain and other countries. At what point do actions meet the words of leaders who talk about peace? We built the United Nations for a reason. Sadly the countries that hold a balance of power are the ones causing most of the problems. We hear these leaders talk of peace yet continue to stand on the neck of those who strive for peace. When opportunities arise to be leaders of peace these leaders find ways to cause more trouble. The recent issue with global communications being tampered with for the sole benefit of one country has shaken the entire world. How can we trust such a country that has acted with such disrespect yet speaks about being a global leader in peace? As individuals we must ask for those we elect to have a greater effort to be peaceful. We must understand that each leader today has started out in small communities. This is the where the future leaders will come from and why we must ask more from our locally elected people and leaders.

Crimea Independence

As world leaders continue to take sides in situations such as Syria, Ukraine and other countries, the people who are paying the price are youth. The rhetoric of world leaders is just garbage talk. If any of them actually cared we would not have chaos in Syria or in Ukraine. At best international laws are written to be expansive ideology. At the root of such law is the absolute right to self-determination and Crimea has exercised that right. This is the exact same reasoning the people of Ukraine used to topple the former government. Basically any action taken outside of the governmental structure is open to violation of international law. Instead of the sabre rattling of world leaders and pointing fingers why was there so little talks of commonality? In the realm of peacebuilding the practice of community building and the whole of government approach has been seriously disregarded by all world leaders. Really all that is being done is reactionary politics and that is poor leadership. The damage is done and the clean up is poorly being managed. Here we sit with Ukraine in crisis, Crimea has separated and is now independent. We must wonder who or what area is next. Economic support is needed, government support is needed, diplomatic support and good relations are needed. At best we are getting more tension from leaders which will only make the situation worse. Sadly most leaders today do not have the capacity to understand how to be peaceful in such situations. They think that economic sanctions are a good step. Why was there no economic sanctions against the Republic of the United States when they illegally invaded Iraq? Within that question is the root of the larger problem. We do not live in an equal world. Some can do as they please while others must hurdle the tallest of bars. This is the hypocrisy which must stop. Voicing concerns of what is being done and how leaders act are a big part of diplomacy. However, ensuring that leaders are working to improve situations is rarely the outcome. More often we get stand offs and media sound bites of measured aggression. For all that we hear about peaceful efforts, there is certainly very little being done other than grand standing and rhetoric. Both those actions only serve to strain relations and cause more damage. We have seen the same thing with Syria and look what that has brought us. Now we can actually solve a situation before it gets worse and what do we do? We do exactly what we did in the past and expect a different result. Idiocy of the most magnificent order. Crimea had to deal with an uncertain future inside a collapsing country. Not much of a choice really. So the most stable avenue was to become independent and work with Russia. That was their choice. Just like the choice Syrians made to follow a referendum. The Syrian referendum was overshadowed by the infiltration of weapons and violence the very next day. So far the Crimea situation is vastly more peaceful than Syria, even though world leaders are doing everything to ensure it is not peaceful.

Perception is not Reality

“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.” – Albert Einstein The above quote speaks to how the brain interprets sensory information. We know that the brain can be impacted with a great many elements which alter how the world is perceived. Again, Shakespeare wrote “What's in a name? that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”. The meaning behind this quote is that reality deals with what is and perception skews reality. Today we say that perception is reality and Einstein would agree, according to the above quote. However when it comes to the heavily controlled “message” that is being put forth today, perception is far from reality. For the past few decades we have been told that perception is reality. This mantra has seeped very deep into the psyche of most of the population. Both perception and optics are now very much seen as the focal points for policy development and governance agendas. However, the statement of modern wisdom which tells us that perception is reality, in fact is 100 percent wrong and very harmful. The fact of the matter is, perception and optics are Ponzi schemes. These schemes start off as television news clips, news articles, the harm that has been done in pursuit of addressing perception has brought the world economy to its knees. Perception has brought the country of Iraq to complete destruction. Perception has brought us grocery stores full of junk processed foods, cities engulfed with polluted environments and poor leadership. The statement perception is reality, is very much an abstract painting on the expert scale of Picasso. We can see whatever we want to see and that is our personal perception of the art work. The perception we have towards a certain piece of art will change the moment we learn of the artists intention, explanation and experience. The art never changed but our perception does. We must understand the world at it very simplest and expand from there. The complexity of the world is there, yet we do not have to buckle under that complexity. Nor do we have to hide behind the complexity in order to bring order and peace to the world. Those that live and defend the mantra of perception have bought into a systemic mindset. This mindset has been causing great damage. The reality is we are being sold fools gold at gold prices.