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12/31/02
Twenty years ago, On December 31, 1982, my father was
speaking at a gathering of hundreds of people in my
hometown in Sumatra, two hours flight from Jakarta to
the Northwest of Indonesia. He spoke about peace, Cold
War and the consequences of nuclear war. In a town
where the majority of people only have high school
education, his speech did not really make sense to
many including myself - still in junior high school –
who was sitting next to the front row.
At that
time, the Soviet Union had invaded Afghanistan three
years earlier. Iraq and Iran had been in war for two
years. The US president, Ronald Reagan was almost died
from an assassination attempt one year before. The
USSR leader, Leonid Brezhnev had just died a few weeks
earlier, on November 10, 1982.
A mysterious disease was reported
killed 40% of its victims. It was later named AIDS.
British had just defeated Argentina in Falklands war
on June 15 and Israel invaded Lebanon in attack on
P.L.O. on June 4. The world was under constant fear of
a potential nuclear war and the relationship between
two superpowers, the US and USSR was one of the
coldest ones since the Cuban missile crisis of 1962.
The US’s help in arming the Afghan Mujahiddin in their
fight against the USSR was one of the contributing
factors to the cold relationship of the US and Soviet
Union. The ex head of the KGB, Yuri Andropov was
appointed as successor to Brezhnev. A hardliner and a
member of Politburo for almost a decade and who maintained
a repressive and hardline policy against political
dissidents, Andropov
was the least figure liked by the West (although
he was a hardliner, Andropov was responsible for the
rise to power of a group of younger, more liberal
officials, including Mikhail Gorbachev).
In return for their work in the nuclear disarmament
movement, the noble prize committee awarded Alva
Myrdal (Sweden) and Alfonso Garcia Robles (Mexico)
with Noble peace prize.
The
world economy was gloomy. Just picture this: US
inflation was 6% and the unemployment rate was one of
the highest since the Great Depression of 1930s, 7.6%. The
value of the world export was down. The world
production and the world GDP were stagnant (see Graphs
1-3 below). Simply, the world was not a pleasant
planet to live.
A knowledgeable person who was used to
travel from town to town to meet people with his Jeep
Willis in the early of 50s – sometimes even took him
hours just to reach a short distance due to a terrible
condition of roads, my father told the audiences that
the consequences of a nuclear war was a complete
disaster of the world. The capabilities of the nuclear
arsenal possessed by the US and the USSR were much
more than enough to destroy the whole world. But, he
then stressed that although the nuclear weapons are
capable of destroying the world beyond imagination, a
more dangerous weapon in our arsenal is our own heart
and mind. It is the human’s mind that creates the
nuclear weapons, directs them toward the enemy’s lines
and would dictate superpowers’ leaders to push the
launching button if necessary to bring their mass
destruction. But while they are also potentially more
dangerous than the nuclear weapons, he said, they are
also capable of bringing peace to other people and to
the whole world, something that the weapons of mass
destruction or military power would never be able to
achieve. My father, a peace-loving individual, died in 1987
after working diligently to bring peace to his
community.
What strikes me is that
not only the relevance of his message to today’s
situation but the somewhat resemblance of the global
economic and politic developments in the 1982 with the
today’s developments. Although some settings are
somewhat different, déjà vu all over again.
Today, the US economy
is not in a good shape, unemployment rate reaches at
6%. The Texan cowboy, George W. Bush is for
Hollywood’s Cowboy, Ronald Reagan, after replacing a
Southern democrat. And the tax cut, didn’t Reagan
proposed a major tax cut as well? Another superpower
attacked Afghanistan. The world economy, from Japan to
Germany, is in trouble. A potential war in Middle East and the most striking resemble: A potential nuclear war. As reported
by the New York Times in “Pakistan
Was Prepared to Use Nuclear Weapons”,
Pakistan's president suggested Monday that he had been
ready to use atomic weapons if Indian forces entered
his country during a flare-up in tensions this year.
The nuclear crisis in the North Korea is also another
problem. Already believed to possess at least a couple
of nuclear weapons, North Korea has in recent days
signaled its intent to build more the nuclear
weapons. The difference between the early 1980s’
concerns with the today’s ones is: In the former, the
fear was the nuclear clash between the two titans, but
today the major threat is the possession of nukes by
rouge states or by terrorist groups.
The world, once again,
is being held hostage by the fear of weapons of mass
destruction and the worry of gloomy economy. In less
than two decades, the world is transformed from the
Cold War into the Cold Heart. The prospect of peace
is seemingly small given the ways the world leaders,
from the underdeveloped countries to developed
countries, are handling the world’s current and future
problems. The question is, is still possible for
peace to exist? Is, as John Lennon sang, possible to
imagine that there is no people living life in fear
and free from fanaticism and oppression? The answer is
“yes, it is possible.” And one of the most possible
ways is to appeal to the heart and the mind of people.
Global Causes vs People
Causes
Liberal thinkers and
scholars often argue that the only
way
to end fanaticism and oppression is by formulating
political solutions that will alleviate the poverty
and injustices subjected on people. And then they go
on to attack multilateral organizations such as the
IMF, the World Bank and the WTO as well as the
transnational companies which according to their
arguments are most beneficial to the Western nations,
leaving the Third World in perpetual poverty. These
facts that, according to them, create fertile grounds
for fanaticism and terrorism. So, in their conclusion,
it’s impossible to achieve a peaceful world without
major reform in those multilateral
organizations/enterprises and international relations.
In other words, they argue that it is the global
causes that matter.
It is undeniable that to some extend the operations of
those organizations/enterprises contribute to the
global instability and turmoil. But often, the
disorders and conflicts around the globe are rooted at
the local causes. For examples, the conflict of land
in the Middle East, bloody chaos in Moluccan, the
demand for independence in Aceh, the massive
corruption among leaders, politicians and bureaucrats
in many poor countries and etc. It is these local
causes that often are far damaging and potential
source of conflicts and hence become a greater
challenge in promoting peace around the world. Or, it
is the local causes that mostly matter.
Moreover, majority of
these local causes can also be traced to individual
causes. Take for instances President Iraq Saddam
Hussein, Osama Bin Laden and many irresponsible and
corrupt nation leaders, citizens and corporate leaders
across countries. And at the end of the day, as my
father said, we eventually have to appeal to human’s
heart and mind because as much as they can bring
unimaginable destruction to our civilization, they can
also bring peace and order to the world. In other
words, it is the people that often matter.
Peace Resides in Our Mind and Heart
The greatest thing in
life is not so much about the discovery of
supercomputer, the exploration of outer space and the
invention of super fast microprocessor and other
sophisticated technological inventions. Rather, it is
the freedom that every human being is endowed whether
she or he chooses to become a peace-maker or a
trouble-maker. Sufferings of course are not a
justification to be in the second option as Gandhi,
Mandela and others had shown that even under the most
severed conditions, peaceful attitude and spirit can
blossom.
As Baruch Spinoza and
Ralph Emerson said, peace
begins with us. Each of human beings must find inner
peace - a sense of calmness, security, joy and love
which flows at every moment and has no beginning and
no end. It therefore resides in human’s heart and
mind.
Peace in our mind and heart begins when we stop: (1) thinking that
we are being victimized, (2) comparing ourselves with
others, (3) acting that we are superior to others, (4)
thinking that everything is wrong and (5) being lazy.
A perception that one is being victimized will produce hatred and
eventually make peace impossible to be achieved (see
A Self-destructive Play or a Winning One). An attitude to always compare one’s self with others
will tend to make one to disregard ethics and morality
boundaries which finally bring turmoil to others. This
is often considered as one of the motives why people
(bureaucrats, leaders, politicians and business
leaders) are so corrupt. An attitude to act superior
than others will produce arrogance which is a fertile
ground for creating
oppressors. This is the basic tenet of criticism
toward the US as a sole superpower and toward
multinational corporations, as well. An attitude to
always think that everything is wrong will produce
pessimistic people who are not able to provide
solutions to any problems. And lastly, an attitude to
be lazy will produce envy and resentment.
Peace of mind is an attitude and a choice that people can make.
Living peace, sharing peace, and promoting peace will
help us strive to build bonds of friendship and love
with every interaction that we make with others
regardless their religion, nationality, race and
socio-economic backgrounds. In promoting peace,
actions and words are equivalently important. People’s
actions - the way they live their lives - will reflect
their attitude toward peace and could effectively
persuade others to follow their peaceful actions.
Equivalently, peaceful words can also have
significant impact in promoting peace. Inspiring
messages, the ideas of cooperation with others
regardless their backgrounds, non-violence words and
kindness wishes are all powerful “devices” at human’s
disposal to promote peace.
Building Peaceful Communities
And so, peace of mind and peace of heart are the most important
keys to peace on earth. When each of human beings
learns how to live in peace and harmony with all,
regardless their backgrounds, there will be peace on
earth. And when each of human beings takes every
moment of her or his lives as an opportunity to build
bonds of friendship, community and peace, there will
be peace on earth. (see
Who
are Our Neighbors?)
Therefore, the attitude for peace is transferred from people’s mind
and heart to a greater group: Community. It is this
community that becomes the second pillar in realizing
peace on earth. Communities can be a family, friends,
neighbors, a nation, or the world. Communities give us
a sense of belonging and purpose. (see
Knowing Our Callings)
Various definition of community provided by
Merriam-Webster Dictionary can give us a greater
understanding of this commonly heard word:
1 :
a unified body of individuals: (2) a group linked by a
common policy; (3) an interacting population of
various kinds of individuals in a common location; (4)
a group of people with a common characteristic or
interest living together within a larger society and
(5) a body of persons or nations having a common
history or common social, economic, and political
interests.
Simply, a community is a
group of individuals who work together for the common
goal of all members of the group. Each person is
unique, with their own unique perception and vision of
the world. But each individual cares about every other
member of the group, and each person's life is an
integral part of every other person's life in the
group.
In this sense, one may think of a human body as
an obvious example of a community of parts of human
body. When leg is injured, the whole body is in pain.
But on the other hand, the hand cannot throw out the
eyes without turning a human being into a disabled one.
Blessed are the peace-makers.
Iowa
City, Dec 30, 2002.
Data
sources:
World Trade Organization.
Graph 1
Graph 2
Graph 3
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