What is the price of Peace?

The word peace can be a difficult word to try to explain or define. We say it is absence of trouble, or of challenges, but sometimes, it can be defined as the confidence and re-assurance in the face of difficult situations. I am not trying to take this definition from any slant, but the other day, I happened to watch a documentary on Al-Jazeera, on a little (by their standards) skirmish between Israeli soldiers and Arab stone mongers. As gun battle raged on, the cameras were focused on a girls' only school, and the sound of gunfire and noises of confusion was making the girls scared to the bone; they were crying not just for their own safety, but also of their families and homes.

I didn’t watch all of it, but in the little that I saw, a scene was shown of a 17 year old male high school student who was shot dead by the Israelis, and a Palestinian leader was shown announcing to the rest of his class how the dead boy was now a martyr going to paradise. As much as I don’t really mind what people say to deal with their emotions in moments of extreme sadness, what struck me really is the effect that this had on the rest of the student and even the community. What they were being told is that it is normal to want to be a martyr and to want to die, but die for what really? Is it for an ideology? Or an age long hatred? Or for land? What do people really fight for? I know one; power! Barefaced, ugly, deep seated desire for power and authority and what goes along with it; this is why most people fight. Let me correct that; this is why most people start a fight. However, the people who start the fight mostly never even fire a gunshot, nor are they ever shot at. Their kids are usually enjoying life is some faraway sanctuary removed from all the noise back home. Yet people keep getting enrolled to fight for these men.

Our world is in a deep turmoil. If it is not war, it is economic crises, or natural disasters, or religious issues. We are living in a debased, depraved, and despairing world. Our leaders are not sure what to do to sort it out. The ecosystem of the world that allows trade and mutual development to happen symbiotically has long ago been lost to greed, hatred and desperate ambition.

Men are dying daily from gunshots, bombs and shrapnel from bombs and the things they destroyed. They are dying from diseases, illnesses and a lot of other things that can get you killed after dehumanising you. It is amazing that there are food shortages in half of the world, yet another half does not know what to do with its food surpluses. There is inflation in some parts, and others are experiencing deflation. Drugs are getting expired because no one needs them in some countries, but then in other parts, there is not enough access to the same drugs. There is such a lop-sidedness in our world today. The planet’s ecosystem was not designed like this. God didn’t design it like this! The ice caps were doing something significant, holding gazillions of water from flooding over our world, but now that we are melting them away from reckless living, we are now seeing floods in places never before imagined.

Ironies are all over the place. Just after seeing reports on TV of whole nations and regions in major upheavals, our news networks simply move on to the next commercial, and interestingly, this is an invitation to one of the exotic places still untouched by the destruction we are bringing on ourselves. It struck me then that the only one who really knows how difficult things are is the person in the eye of the storm. The rest of us are simply just looking in from the outside, almost unfeelingly. Tell a girl from Aleppo, Syria about Disneyland right now, and she will look at you like you are insane. She is fighting for survival, for her life, her family, city, and their way of life. But to us, it is just another news item on TV. I am watching the TV while typing and you see whole cities destroyed, houses bombed out and erstwhile beautiful cities looking like it was a world war 2 battle ground.

I don’t want to open the cans of worms on Nigeria, or other places in Africa. My heart bleeds for Zimbabwe, and I am sick to hear that President Mugabe is going for his 8^th term in office! Even if he is the best president in the world, he still should have left that office decades ago. Take a look at the guys in power in Burundi, Botswana, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Gambia, etc. and you just wonder, what is wrong with African leaders?

How can we achieve world peace? Or shall we ever achieve world peace at all? What do we all need to do? More importantly, what do you and I need to start doing to reinforce our desire for world peace? Okay, let’s think small now and act; what should you and I be doing now in our small corners to promote and perpetuate peace? Starting from your family, can you assure us (the rest of the world) that you will hold yourself accountable to ensuring your family is at peace? If you can do that, and also ensure that they are at peace with the world around them, you have passed the exam. If we all do that, soon our communities will be at peace; then our cities, state, countries will be at peace. As with anything that is achievable, it can be broken down into small baby steps. Start taking yours today, that is if you are really serious about world peace.