peace - a concept

My views on the ideals of peace and its achievement have transformed over the course of the UN Humanitarian Affairs Peace Summit for Emerging Leaders 2018, undergoing multiple shifts in thoughts and beliefs following comments that were emotionally charged, inflammatory and sometimes enraging, thought-provoking but above all - inspiring. I arrived at the conference with a rather rigid, realist approach (as per my last post) to peace, but more broadly the concept of dreams. This approach was challenged on a number of occasions, some of which I wish to recount in an attempt to explain the enriching three days.

I was exposed to explorations of various dimensions of peace. I learnt the importance of education in relation to peace, having the privilege of listening to Ponheary Ly, a survivor of the Cambodian Genocide orchestrated by the Khmer Rouge regime. Her injections of laughter and humour into every situation despite the atrocities she’s lived through provide reason to every individual to see past the horrors and live in the light, not the darkness. She recounted times where they were forced to forage through the jungle for food, and an account on which a young boy had found a frog only to be discovered by soldiers moments later. When asked by the soldiers moments later whether he wanted to eat it raw or cooked, the boy responded innocently “cooked”. Ponheary recounted the event of the boy being burnt alive by the soldiers, simply for asking for his rogue frog cooked - he instead was cooked alive. Her father was murdered for the sole reason of being an educator, with the genocide being carried out against the educated. The fire ignited within her to pursue education and educate others led her to set up a school, now educating over 2000 children and helping them pursue further education. Her admirable motivation and strong will to see the best of every situation despite everything she’d been through appealed to our humanity, her words “lighting the candle is better than cursing the darkness” still ringing in our ears. We saw firsthand the value and power of education in building dreams, without which peace would be unattainable.

Over the course of the conference, we were later introduced to two sides of arguably the same coin, a US veteran and a survivor of the Afghan war. First the veteran, Derek Schwartz, told his story of his journey through war. He had gone on two circuits in Afghanistan and Iraq. This phrase of his stuck with me: “I hate war, but I don’t know what else to do”. It reminded me of the idea of hating the game, not the player, with this hating the system and structure of war rather than the soldiers itself. He explained how war was his normal, his solitude - it made sense as he had directions and orders; there was no ambiguity unlike the decisions he had to make in “real” life. Being a staunch believer in non-violence and anti-war, he made comments that challenged personal views with regards to war and third-party intervention. However, in the moment it also demanded me to appeal to my empathy and humanity. It raised the point of the intention, as with anything in conflict. The good intention to help existed, and you could tell he was a genuine individual, but the manifestation of the good intention may not have been the best or most constructive approach. Nevertheless, it was extremely insightful to hear a perspective not often voiced, and his strength to relive the traumatic events as well as hear the authenticity in emotions and the life after war was truly an eye-opening experience.

We then heard from Rahila Haidary, born in Afghanistan during the genocide against her ethnic group, the Hazaras. I had only heard of the conflict briefly through elements mentioned in the Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. She spoke of how she dressed up as a boy to go to school, but got caught and had her life threatened by the military for doing so unless she left the country. The life-threatening risks she took to simply acquire education led me to recognise my own privilege, the education I often take for granted - one so many crave for around the world. Her strength and resilience towards racist remarks after moving to Australia as a refugee was truly commendable, with her actions speaking even stronger as she attempted to appeal to her haters compassion through reason, only to receive greater backlash but still persevered through it all. Her approach to attaining peace and making a change aligned very much with my own views of identifying specific causes within our individual communities and attempting to address those instead of reaching for bigger issues and making minimal impact. This recurring theme of education was mentioned by Derek too, on how giving pen and paper to an Afghan child in the middle of war, as said by Rahila too as girls were not allowed to be educated, was like a million dollar pay-check. She expressed her belief in education as a tool for peace, but also during the Q&A session raised how it can be used contrastingly as a tool for conflict, sparking discussion on how to cultivate it carefully and positively.

We had the privilege of listening to the a survivor of the Rwandan genocide, Hyppolite, who spoke of the atrocities but also of the power of forgiveness and its instrumental role in peace-building. His address was brief, but the emotions he displayed through it communicated the rawness and authenticity of the experience, as we were all taken on his journey. His response through forgiveness in relation to the whole situation of the genocide spoke volumes to his character, and to what extent elements of forgiveness and methods of peace like the reconciliation commissions proved to be constructive ways in achieving peace. On the final day of the conference I was lucky to be in the parallel session with him and Ponheary, in which he held an activity on Keeping Peace. The activity, a common ice breaker taken to another level, involved us holding hands and getting tangled, with the audience invited to help us untangle ourselves. Initially about 5-6 audience members came to our aid, while the rest sat back and watched. In the end, one person took charge and we found this to be most effective as seeing it from an external and objective perspective as well ask asking us how we felt rather than instructing us, we were able to untangle ourselves in a more systematic manner rather than undoing the actions that other people were trying to do. It came across as an immensely accurate representation of third-party intervention, both on the audience members who tried to help as well as those who sat back and felt it more useful to not help and increase the complexity of the situation. It led to an understanding that intentions are often at the core of the actions and their heart is in the right place - their actions just may not be the most effective.

Arguably one of my favourite parts of the conference though was the address on Peace through Art by Kya Kim. She conveyed the power of amalgamating multiple forms of art to transcend barriers within conflict, reaching to the deeply-rooted and complex elements of cultural violence. I had multiple fangirl moments through her application of peace and conflict global politics concepts, especially when she mentioned Johan Galtung and his theories - something we’ve studied heavily in class and I have concentrated on in coursework and research papers. She also spoke about art as a tool for representation, which led me to see possibilities for application of such strategies in my own community with the ethnic tensions. Her work with the peace masks between conflict groups was an extremely interesting concept, as each mask is different, but taking a step back the differences are not noticeable. She provoked inspiration with regards to the creative nature of journalism, something I had lost hope with over the past few month, helping me find the value in its subjectivity, but also using it to offer solutions for sustainable peace. Her authentic answers during the Q&A session in which she attempted to address the core of the questions and offer truly constructive solutions was something I really respected, and her idealistic yet practical approach to peace through various forms something truly commendable.

Other things through the conference that added to the experience were simple aspects like the view from our hotel room, which seemed to be a perfect metaphor for privilege: looking up and seeing dozens of skyscrapers but below us the sight of metal corrugated roofs and clothes lines. Another was the opening speaker and President of University of Kuala Lumpur, Prof. Dato' Dr. Mazliham Mohd Su’ud, who duly noted how Malaysia attained independence through negotiation, not war, something I hadn’t explicitly realised up till that moment.

Caroline, my Danish co-year, and I had a conversation in the bus ride to the UN about the most effective method in enforcing something, to which I came down hard with regulation. However, her approach with education came at me by surprise, which was later followed by a full day of speakers speaking about the power of education. Having the day to ruminate over this led me to realise the culmination of both regulation and education seemed to be the most sustainable approach in attaining peace, explaining to people why the regulation is in place rather than enforcing it without rhyme or reason.

Comments by a member of Humanitarian Affairs on organising a trip to Cambodia and Bangladesh to help individuals who needed it automatically raised questions within my conscience. It produced thoughts about the idea of feeding into volunteerism, and how to approach solving issues more pragmatically rather than getting that “feel good” feeling of going into another country and helping the people the way we think is best, what I saw to be a very colonial or imperialist way of doing things. Coming back to the idea of intentions, his were good and pure, but I saw it more constructive to either help out communities in our own backyard, or if wanting to help a community abroad ask how we can help rather than going in and asserting our own views. I also realised how much people undermine the effect of financial aid in helping organisations, when used appropriately. Speaking to another delegate, her work with building a hut which took them 4 days could’ve been done by locals in 2, with their expenses for accommodation and flights being able to cover so much more for the community. Evaluating our true impact through this allowed for a reassessment of my commitment to service, and what steps I could take to make sustainable and the most effective change possible.

Through the conference I was also reminded of the increasingly polarised opinions in our world today, and how we immediately shut off at the thought of opposing views, dismissing them as invalid or not worth our time. I recognised this as a fundamental problem within our society, and a key cause to conflict as are often not willing to hear out the other side. For example, opening my mind to Derek’s perspective allowed me to explore other opinions on war and be more understanding of the system. It sparked questions with regards to ignorance - whether I was ignorant for having only been exposed to an idealistic approach in my bubble of nonviolence, and whether he knew better having seen the conflict first-hand. It also allowed me to further ideas about war and violence, and where to draw the line. I came to understand that violence occurs when we legitimise it. If we cap resolution of disputes at negotiation and sanctions, essentially structural procedures, eliminate the first form of physical harm, an element of direct violence. While there is still need to address the more deeply rooted structural and cultural violence, it could be a step in the right direction.

Being one of the youngest delegates of the conference representing UWC Thailand with the rest being university students or working adults, the experience was rather interesting. We were exposed to two types of individuals. The first group, those who saw us as younger and therefore dismissed our opinions with a remarks like “aw cute”. The second group, which thankfully most delegates fell under, was those who respected us and valued our opinions as equals. With these individuals I was not only opened up to enriching conversations but also insight into possibilities I could explore in university and the real world. It was a great escape into the “real world” outside our UWC bubble, allowing us to apply the experiences and conversations from UWC into developing relationships with individuals from ranging ages and have compelling debates on moral absolutism and the feasibility of peace, all conversations that transcended law, politics and education and how individuals from all ends of the world (though mainly Australia) came together in a pursuit for global peace. It felt extremely rewarding to be surrounded by like-minded individuals who were funny, inspiring, interesting and motivated to achieve the same goal - a global, sustainable peace.

In general, I encountered a transition from idealism to realism then later pragmatism on my views of peace throughout the course of the conference. I acknowledged a need for the fusion of the former two to preserve dreams while attaining tangible and sustainable solutions. Losing sight of the idealism would only lead to peace being unattainable - that even if it wasn’t possible within my lifetime, someone needed to start if we wanted to be attained at all. I am extremely grateful to have been given the opportunity to partake in this experience, be inspired by other Peace Ambassadors and begin my application of what I learnt over the span of the conference in my pursuit for peace in the world!