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Ali Raza Khan
Joined: Apr 21, 2002
Posts: 2 (view all)
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Tongue-tied
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Province/State: Punjab
City: Lahore
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Respect for Diversity
April 26, 2002 - 02:04 AM
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One of the most critical challenges before us is learning and teaching how to be peaceful, empathetic, tolerant, responsible and effective global citizens; how to be contributing members in a global community. Communities have always transmitted to new generations how to be responsible members of the community--whether of the clan, the family, the tribe, or the nation. Now we have to extend this to being responsible participants in a global community. A staggering increase in international and national violence in the last few moths has left a great number of families mourning the violent death of a loved one. We believe that intolerance is a "a global threat." A danger to all humanity. When a violence or terrorism takes place, a great many family members and friends are left grieving and seeking justice. The murder of a loved one shatters your sense of safety, destroys your trust in the institutions that should be protecting you, and forces you to examine your own vulnerability. Because of the finality of this horrific situation, survivors often feel trapped and isolated in pain and anger. They need people who understand their pain, people who have been there, to be there to support them as they deal with this horrific tragedy.
The world is dangerous not because of those who do harm but because of those who look at it without doing anything. How can there be a world without war? This is a reasonable question. For many centuries we've been governed by a policy based on the Roman motto that says: Si vis pacem para bellum-If you want peace, prepare for war. Throughout the centuries, we followed this motto. We prepared for war and what we had was war, not peace. And this continues even now in the Nuclear Age. We have got to do something about this.
I believe that every person is entitled to the respect of others and to the recognition of their inherent worth and dignity as human beings. How we value what people are saying about the future then becomes important. How much non-judgemental attitude do we adopt? How much active listening do we do? How much empathy do we give? How much foresight and solidarity do we display? We have designed a campaign with the belief that until we explore our own values and beliefs and understand them as rooted in our own cultures; we will draw inaccurate and judgmental conclusions about others based on our own limited perspectives.
The goal of the Campaign is” to build cultural competence among people especially in young people by providing knowledge and skills for the promotion of communication, tolerance and cooperative compassionate action”.
I have developed this campaign “What is Peace to you?”" in order to give the leaders and peace loving members of every country in the world a chance to express themselves as to what, in their view, is important to world peace. I am eagerly looking forward to get responses in the light of which a peace curriculum will be developed. Your feedback will offer us topics and issues that touch the lives of the people every day such as resolving conflicts, clarifying values, and understanding diversity. Please reply to me i am eagerly looking forward to hear from you.
Peace to all of you .
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