THE NEED FOR GLOBAL PEACE

BY OGUNBANWO SAHEED ADEBAYO

Despite, the influx of peace keeping forces into the war zones, establishment of peace commissions, global emergence of peace movements, huge cry out for global peace by individuals and organisations as the only panacea to conflicts and wars. Yet the 21^st century has never know any peace as it has already been marked with high levels of violence, crimes, clashes, conflicts and wars particularly in the region that has never been thought of.

In November 2004, Generational Dynamics listed six regions of the world that were so tensed that a spark could ignite a war in any of them which could probably trigger a “clash of civilization” world war as; Palestine/Israel, Russia/Caucasus, India/Pakistan, China/Taiwan, Korea/Japan and Western Europe. According to Human security brief report released by School of International Studies in Simon Frazer University Toronto, Canada in 2006, four regions of the world was later identified to have seen an increase in the number of conflicts between 2002 and 2005 namely: Central/South Asia, Middle East/North Africa, the Americas and South East Asia/Oceania. The list keeps increasing instead of decreasing everyday thereby creating more fear and worries in the minds of the inhabitants of the world in the Present century.

Going back to the memory lane the First World War popularly referred to as the “GREAT WAR” first broke out in Europe in the summer of 1914.As if that was not enough barely two decades after, had the Second World War championed by (Adolf Hitler) which was more devastating followed. With the beginning of the New Year 2010, it is almost a century ago that the whole world experienced the first calamity, pandemonium, crises and chaos and more than half a century, precisely sixty five (65) years ago after the end of Second World War, still there is no indication that the world has learnt any lesson from the Scourge of war that has brought untold sorrow and calamity to mankind twice in our life time. In no distance date of the year the personal memories of the genocide horror and everlasting sorrow will be felt again by people who have sustained injury, lost their properties, their families and love ones during these wars.

Currently, there is no region of the world that is exonerated from one conflicts or the other the only disparity is that the level of committing crimes, violence and conflicts varies according to country, although most developed nations and the Warlord World leaders of the 20^th and 21^st century are proclaiming peace and progress for everyone but their role and savage tactics will forever be remembered as they cannot be exempted from these war zones. Every day we either heard of new invention of “WEAPONS OF MINOR DESTRUCTION” or “WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION”. These are produced with billions/trillions of Dollars while some people are dying of hungers. The argument is, why can’t we use the money wasted on this arms and ammunitions to better the lots of the destitute and the less privileged. All these stand as challenges to the world proving that there is urgent need for global peace.

Studies have shown that there are two (2) kinds of Wars. Crisis (or generational) which is believe to come from people within a society, region or nation and Non crisis (or mid-cycle) which is political in nature, it comes from the politicians and can start at anytime and ends at any time. The “bitter truth” is neither of the two wars is good for individual or a nation as they tend to be horrible and traumatize. ‘Where there is no peace there cannot be development’ says (IMF). Therefore, the structure, causes and values of peace should be understood by all, we all need to bring a strategic approach to raising the world’s attention and awareness to the importance of peace as the only panacea to the global conflicts and the survival of humanity.

The Introduction of Global Peace Index (GPI) in 2007, initiated by Steve Killelea; an Australian IT entrepreneur and philanthropist, Proved to the world that some individual are seriously concerned about the global peace. The sincerity and integration of many sources in its work, with the objective of contributing significantly to the public debate on peace, makes the (GPI) stands out. Although people still believe the (GPI) has its own shortcomings but then, it has proved beyond reasonable doubt that some regions of the world are not only dangerous for people to stay but they are regions of perpetual violence. The Giant and ever- praised Nations of the world contrary to people perception were ranked to be among the most violent country either being directly or indirectly involved. Ironically, being a developed Nation may not necessary mean a violent -free nation. What a pity!

The team has used the latest available figures from a wide range of respected sources, which include the World Bank, Economist Intelligent Unit, International institute of strategic Studies, various UN offices and peace institutes, to provide a quantitative  measure of peacefulness which will over time provide a better understanding of the mechanisms that nurture and sustain peace. It is believe that with the recent ranking of country by their “absence of Violence” using metrics that combines both the internal and external factors such as the nation’s level of military expenditure, its relation with other neighbouring countries and the level of respect for human right, there is the tendency that the world leaders and governments of each nation may be inspired and influenced to further ensure peace in their respective countries.

Also more violent countries can learn from the characteristics of the less violent ones. In other words individuals, the national actors and the international communities can search for the behaviours that are associated with peace and violent free, which they can embark upon instead of trying to fight and prevent conflicts and war.

The “Two Big” questions that come to mind when talking about global peace are: (1) can peace be achieved in the world? And (2) how can we changed the world with all its conflicts and wars into one of harmony and cooperation? The simple answer to the first question is yes, Global peace is inevitable. We must not forget that peace is the only prerequisite for a society to survive bearing in mind that humanity has many and varied challenges.

Causes of Wars

Selfishness, Aggression and Intolerance has been assumed to always be an inseparable part of human nature. But there is the needs for all to move away from this assumption and believe that people can and do change, at least change is the only thing that is constant in life. Intolerance is the major cause of all the conflicts and wars experienced in the recent time. As we all know intolerance breeds injustice, while injustice invariably leads to rebellion and retaliation at long run will lead to escalation on the part of both making reconciliation almost impossible. It appears that during times of despair, stress, problem and frustration people become more irrational and they tends to do things which they never think they are capable of. And so the most gentle and respected people can be easily seen perpetrating the most hideous brutality and atrocities. Studies have shown that there are many causes of wars but the worldly accepted causes have been identified to be: Racism, Nationalism, Religious strife, Ignorance, Language barrier, Extreme poverty and wealth.

Impacts of Wars

The facts remains that apart from immediate consequences of conflicts and wars which are the loss of lives and properties, series of other crises later arises which are even more devastating than wars, for instance in this recent century cases like serious food and fuel price hikes, the global recession, an influenza pandemic; Swine flu, HIV/AIDS, Climatic change, and series of other natural disasters such as flood. War also has long lasting negatives impacts on human developments; destroy physical and human capital leading to increases in malnutrition with a profound psycho-social impact as it rips societies apart. The (UNDP) in 2009 estimated that everyday armed violence has killed more than two thousand (2000) people, most of whom were civilians. Globally, the economic losses caused by criminal violence have been calculated to be as high as $163 billion per year.

The way forward

Conclusively, for the world to be successful in the establishment of peace we must all do away with prejudice in any form be it of race, colour, class, creed, nation, sex and degrees of wealth.

Therefore the ultimate goal of every individual should be how will the world be unite as one family. With the introduction of big and small sophisticated devices such as little phone, history is now been recorded everywhere and every day in the world indicating that these war times will be remembered probably more than history has already recorded. Let us be meticulous in our actions, for if we fail to achieve global peace now; the unborn and succeeding generation will never forgive us for not preserving the environment and saving them from all these atrocities.

Although there are governmental organisation like United Nations struggling to bring peace to the world but there is still mistrust, and some Nations still put self –interest in what they do. So, there should be a more sincere and large world body which will be able to prevent war and settle disputes between countries. There is a need for signing of a world -peace treaty by all the nations, with representative of each country and any nation that breaks the treaty should bear the consequence. If we want peace for ourselves we should be peaceful to others as well. Therefore, it is high time all the actors and actresses in the Movie of War came together and proffer a solution to the global unrest and atrocities.

Ogunbanwo Saheed A.

Dept. of Food Business and Development,

University College Cork,

Cork.

Ireland.