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.

The speed of peace - Who controls you?

 

This may seem like an easy question to answer. However, we often take actions that are counter-productive to living in peace. For example, we know that mass/public transit is a better method than everyone owning a car. Yet the perception of public/mass transit carries a degree of shame.

Each of us wants to protect ourselves from harm yet we are willing to give information freely for the sake of convenience as we stay connected to the internet. We are spending more money on security because of the want of convenience as this want destroys peace. The programs of social media platforms have been designed to encourage content. That content is filled with hateful rants and shallow lifestyle advertising. We know this and yet as a society we are not willing to curtail ourselves away from what we know is destroying us because to an individual there is no way anyone is going to tell me what to do.

There are great arguments about what the “government” is doing to our lives, yet a democracy is rooted in the people being informed, being engaged, being respectful and being willing to work at finding solutions together. Often, we get people who only vote and think that is enough. Again, it is not convenient for us to be that involved because there are shows on streaming services to watch, sports, vacations, jobs, families, healthcare, and community partnership volunteering. Because of all the pressures people feel, the decision process that is crucial to a democracy is left to erode. The speed of peace relies on each of us to take greater responsibility to be correctly informed. Peace relies upon each of us to engage in public dialogue with respect as changes are made to improve society. This is the situation we are in and if society decays, the tasks of peace become greater.

As people begin to feel constrained for whatever reason they will need to vent. How that is done is an important component of peace. What is funny is that it is rare for a persons to say they suck at communication. Often people say they are good at it. If that were true we would not be in the mess we are. What this indicates is that we are lying to ourselves every day and that is very harmful to peace. How can we say we are in control of ourselves when we can not even speak truth to our own selves. We built a society that wants cheap products, quick service, and no one responsible for our collective actions. That is a recipe for disaster.

It has taken thousands of years to get where we are today. It will take a few more years to improve peace. But it will hinge on each of us to be responsible, respectful, patient, caring and willing to work harder at peace. At your speed, the world will have peace.

The Speed of Peace

 

Without a doubt, we are living in interesting times in 2022. In my view, the largest shift has been the increase of distrust in the world. In particular the question of trust in authority to a multi-pronged monster including who are the trusted authorities?

A number of years ago there were the protests of the Multi-lateral Agreement on Investment. The protests around the world for peace as the Occupy Movement, We Are the 99%, Jasmine Revolution, Arab Spring, and others. Each of these protests have asked questions of trust in authority. Of course, there is the reality of war on a global scale being discussed and in every war, trust is a casualty each second. Now those are some of the ideology questions towards mistrust. The physical impact of trust is also being tested.

Physically, we are being shown that this planet is alive on its own. We are witnessing unprecedented weather and geological events across the globe. It was not too long ago the  Indian Ocean had an earthquake that sparked a tsunami during 2004. Japan, 2011 had a similar experience. Hurricanes, heat, floods, fires have all set records for intensity of force.

Those two areas of mistrust are the mind and body, now we have the spiritual impacts. What is peace telling me about the impacts on the spirit. First, peace tells me that this is the utmost of importance. Trust needs a leap of faith sometimes and now is such a time. Sadly, the population of the world has been going through some shite and people need to vent. How are we do deal with that “venting”. For proper ventilation, we need to understand the speed of peace. This is what my spirit is asking me, what is the speed of peace?

That question leaves me with this – strengthen your patience, you are going to need a shit ton of it.

Corruption Management

 

There is a significant dispute as to what are facts. The debate is of such force that I am sure this time frame of the last 20 years will be of historic interest. At some point, the monster that has been released upon the world of late will be tamed.

Taking a step into a mindset of insanity, I rant:

We have the rise and impacts of the internet. The entire world is open to everyone who can get to a computer. The impact is just beginning, which is connected with the depths of electronic technology integrated into each person life. Households and the content of those homes are now connected to the internet, automobiles are connected to the internet and drive themselves, most people carry a mobile device/phone, billboards are now television screens, the average television size has expanded beyond necessary. A wristwatch is now command central where you can start your car, lock your doors and windows, tell you to buy toilet paper and probably give you wipe techniques for a better clean. OOOOOHHH, What can be done?

All this connectivity is stressing people out. As the cliché tells us, too much of anything is a bad thing. I hope we have a long way to go before we reach the tipping point, but I must fear that it is too close. What can be done?

The amount of garbage that takes place daily bothers me. To be as simplistic as possible, the garbage is corruption. This ranges from the person who wipes snot on a bathroom wall to those who say they are good drivers yet could not follow another car properly because they have to go faster than the speed limit. Also, there is the person who steals cars, those who are involved in human trafficking, and let us not forget about the corporate corruption, and state corruption. For years, these people have caused a constant gnawing of disgust. OOOOOHHHHH, What can be done?

Insanity rant over.

Sense of Peace and Purpose

What is the goal of humanity? Ponder that question for a moment. When you feel you have a good grasp of a simple answer, put yourself at the centre of that responsibility to achieve that goal.

What characteristics will be different from your present person? If you say nothing, you are not being honest with yourself. If there was nothing to change, the world would be at total peace. Each of us is a reflection of the world. Right now the world has some massive challenges taking place. In turn, each of us must also carry a certain amount of responsibility to overcome these challenges.

Most of us can not handle the pressure of the entire world on their shoulders. Thankfully we do not have to, if each of us do our part. It must be a reality that many of us are not doing their part. Due to the fact that the world is not experiencing a great time of peace, there has to be many people that are not doing their part. The complexity comes form those who say they are acting in the best interests of others when in fact the opposite is true.

When the reality of intentions, actions, and impact result in breakdowns of peace, those involved in specific acts may be caught up in the chaos. For those people, they may not even understand they are acting in harmful ways. With that, we need to find away through all the hate that is being spread around the world. More specifically, we need to find away through all the hate in our own mind and then outwards from own lives.

From the work we do to find peace within our own minds, the focus needs to be extended into a purpose of peace outwardly. Seeking calm and patience while we work together for peace is a goal. This is most needed when the frustrations of life cloud the mind. Peace in purpose while we have purpose in peace. As we build a sense of peace, that work and purpose will become the pathway to a greater peace than we currently have.

Peace

 Even before there was a formal recognition of the study of peace, there has always been the pursuit to obtain an understanding of how to be peaceful. There is an immense amount of work done that discusses peace

Is there a program of peace at your school? Is there a faculty of peace at your school? Is there an institution dedicated to peace at your school?

Those questions point to a reality of school which is to educate, to bring understanding to the person and the world. To bring a singularity of thought to the questions above is to see that, in essence, school is a device for peace. Everything we study is a device for peace. Every society and organization built has, in its own way, sought peace. Even though we may not agree with how laws, rules, systems and institutions have all been devised to bring peace, the ideology of such actions has been to bring order, predictability, justice, rights, and truth to the world.  

A few theories and processes that have been fun to explore in terms of peace are chaos theory, complexity theory, social cubism, sense of coherence, reflective practice and community psychology. There are many more theories, processes and ideologies that are applied to understand peace. Some ideologies include religions such as Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. This list can be endless.  Each are needed as people have their own versions of how and what peace is. With that understanding, because of the number of people, there are over 7 billion ways to achieve peace and that number is growing.

The difficulty of peace is when we have to mix these billions of methods into some semblance of singularity. For some, the ease of causing harm, using might, fear, and violence to find peace is the go-to method. For example Ukraine and the people who engage in corruption such as human trafficking. In such realities as those two, peace becomes a very difficult place for the mind.

In such situations, violence, revenge, hate, terror, loathing and a number of other elements that bring rot to the world can become instant reactions. In peace, instant reaction is an enemy. Peace asks needs us to be careful with what we are doing and thinking. Peace needs many things that include we have patience, empathy, forgiveness, fortitude, resolve, charity, and creativity.

We have a great deal of work to do and the rest of time to complete it. It would be best to complete such work as early as possible so that we can enjoy peace longer.

Trust can Rust

 In earlier posts I wrote about trust (Broken Trust and Peace, 2017. Trust and Peace, 2013 and Trust, 2012). The idea in this post is how we trust some people to be honest and others to be dishonest. There is another element where trust is slowly eroded – hence trust can rust. Now this erosion is not always a negative element.

Sometimes there are those who are trusted to be assholes, we all know a few of those people. When those people begin to change and lose that element of assholishness, that trust begins to rust and transform into a positive trust. This is like a copper roof rusting into a green colour which everyone likes. Sometimes things change and the manner in which we trust others can change as well.

On a global historical scale, we have examples of trust going from enemies to allies, such as the battles between France and Britain. For centuries these two fought all over the world with the final battle taking place in 1775 on the Plains of Abraham in Quebec. This battle is why Canada and RUSA are mostly English speaking countries. If France had won that battle, these two might have been French speaking countries. Again the two world wars pitted Germany and others against France, Britain and others. Today all of these countries form a military alliance under the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

On a personal basis, each of us will have dreams. These dreams indicate a change of some sort. As the change takes place, the old you must rust and be removed. The old you will have a new layer of trust as the old version is no more. Each of us are in control of that process. How each of us will go through such a process and what we are at the end is always in flux. Sometimes we come out better, other times we may come out worse.

The next phase is to understand how we come out is always a learning experience. Taking the experience as just that “a learning experience” we need to see the benefits to building a peaceful person and society.