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A. Curling: Giving Substance to the Words of Peace
Written by Dr. Alvin Curling, Former Speaker, Ontario Legislature, Canada
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Address to the Global Peace Festival and Canada Leadership Conference
Ottawa, Canada, October 2, 2008
Jesus said, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the Earth” But WHEN? They are only words their value depends wholly on our will to observe and honour them and give them content and meaning.
For over 2,000 years this plea has been on the books and has been issued millions of times from pulpits the world over to many millions of faithful parishioners, many of whom have become the perpetrators of war, the starters of war, the losers of war, and — dare I say it — the winners of wars for there are those who profess that in war there are no winners.
Some time ago, Time Magazine did a particularly well researched study on war in which it concluded with the observation that “at any given moment on this earth there are roughly 60 wars being conducted on various levels of scale and sophistication.” That still obtain to this day.
There are numerous anthropologists who maintain that mankind is, by its nature, a war-like creature whose nature accounts for its success in overcoming its environment and all of its other-than-human threats and enemies. It has outlived and outlasted as a species precisely because it is warlike, because mankind is nature’s most lethal weapon, designed to kill, to conquer, to subjugate. Such a thought — particularly if it is true, and it seems to be true — 60 million slaughtered in World War II and 72 million in the “war to end all wars” from 1914 to 1918.
At the age of 15 my father was recruited to participate in World War I. He proudly told me of the reasons given to him why it was such an honorable thing to fight for his country: the enemy was evil and envious of his way of life and wanted to destroy his country and his way of life. But my father was very confused. At the time he had never met a German, never met a Russian, nor was he aware if the Germans or the Russians knew where his small island of Jamaica was located.
Today we still hear the clarion call that we must defend our country for the betterment of our children so that they, the children of tomorrow, can have a better life than what we have. What is forgotten is that we are the children of yesterday’s children, whose human rights are being violated each day, who have been subjected to racism and discrimination not by those in distant lands but by those who told us that we must defend ourselves from the evil force that is out there.
World War I was known as the First World War, the Great War and the War to End All Wars. Millions of lives were lost; many were my father’s age. What comes to mind is that often old men start wars, and young (boys) men fight them.
Since World War I in 1914 we have had many wars. Millions have died. The threat of global conflict seems to increase day by day. Organizations from the League of Nations to the United Nations have been created to save future generations from the devastation of war. What we are seeing today is that it is not working.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights provided a road map which would lead to a peaceful and stable society and encouraged all governments to comply with the documents. There are 30 basic rights. They are sound and good principles, but within our nation we have lacked them. Over the years we have seen injustices administered to various ethnic groups. The aboriginal people were subjected to rape and cruel treatment by the Roman Catholic Church and newcomers to their country. Japanese and Chinese citizens and residents were subjected to racial discrimination and economic exploitation by the government, and the Jews were persecuted. Attempts have been made to rectify and recognize these injustices, but the injustices to many groups remain to be acknowledged by the perpetrators. The injustices and harm that were inflicted and continue to be inflicted upon them have not been addressed.
If only the written word were enough to bring about change!
The late Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia, said it so well when he said that we exist at times in an atmosphere of sophisticated pessimism and cautious, yet buoyant optimistic. What has been accomplished is not enough. Governments continue to ignore the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and ignore its recommendations. We must overcome petty prejudice to see each other as part of the human community.
And so the issue is raised. If the freedom-loving peoples of the world really relish and adore their freedom and if they deem (which I maintain that they do) that freedom runs to the very soul and quintessence of the enjoyment of peace, then it is almost axiomatic to presume that they all understand and endorse the age–old concept that constant vigilance is the the price of freedom. That is the issue, because beneath benevolent vale of vigilance as the protector of freedom resides a terrible swift sword. So the issue becomes: who is going to police the police, not just domestically but internationally and between nation states?
When war threatened, it was Canada’s Ambassador Lester B. Pearson who came forward with the concept which has endured to this day and signals Canadians as the most creative chemist of a peaceful solution. He proposed the notion, heretofore overlooked all those centuries, of peacekeepers — UN peacekeepers, tough guys in blue helmets representing the interest of no one nation but of all nations.
This concept has endured and emblazoned its stamp on the hostilities in the Balkans — Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia, all the quarreling components of the old Yugoslavia. It has been painful, but with a commitment to intervention, intercession, consultation, and mediation, Alternative Dispute Resolution has worked.
In your deliberations, ask yourselves:
- Why are our young people so angry?
- Why is our society criminalizing young people?
- What is the root cause of the behavior of our young people?
- Why is the incidence of mental health problems so high in young people?
- Why is violence accepted at one level but not at another? For example the penalty for a professional hockey brawl is time out, while the penalty for a school brawl can be jail.
Question the laws that deliberately discriminate against the young. You cannot be married at age 15 but you can be tried in court as an adult. Question the contradiction of our inability to provide for the most basic needs at home from those we demand the greatest sacrifice, our young people who are sent off to war. Question the lies that are perpetuated in our education system and the omission of historical facts.
Note: For more information about the Global Peace Festival in Canada click here.