Waging peace through service - one person at a time - as individuals and as a humanitarian society - is Global Volunteers' foundational goal. We believe the discipline and practice of peace must be enabled and rewarded in all our affairs - internationally and locally.
As an NGO in consultative status with the United Nations, we support and invest in the Millennium Development Goals toward the end of hunger, poverty, disease and the oppression of children and women. In so doing, we focus our program efforts an work environments on projects and activities that honor and respect peace and justice worldwide. Global Volunteers staff and managers took time on September 21, 2009 to delve into the issue of "peace waging" from four perspectives: peace as a paradigm, peace as a principle, peace as a practice, and peace as a promise.
Following are excerpts from presentations by Global Volunteers Board Members Sue Laxdal and Todd Lefko for our staff "Peace Day" observance September 21, 2009:
Todd Lefko, Global Volunteers Trustee: Morning Presenter
We're peace building across the world. You'll notice I didn't say "peace keeping" or "peace making." Peace building/peace waging begins with three assumptions:
- It's based upon more than the absence of war -- You can maintain control in a dictatorship and not produce a peaceful and productive life.
- It assumes that each individual has rights, responsibilities and a capacity for growth.
- It assumes a holistic approach to the world….a six degress of separation and connectivity of environmental, societal, spiritual and individual needs. Failure has come for many organizations because they believed, and sincerely, that their emphasis upon micro-credit, or simply education, or health, or economic development was the basis for overall improvement…….they were all correct and all lacking in their assumptions. Health without roads, education without water, development without hope of family betterment provide a necessary, but limited approach.
What is Peace?
Worldwide, we do not agree on what is peace; perhap the most popular western view is an absence of dissension, violence or war- a meaning found in the new testament and possibly an original meaning of the greek word for peace, irene. (irenology-the scientific study of peace).
From the anglo-saxon "pas" and meaning "freedom from civil disorder," the English word came into use in various personal greetings from about 1300 as a translation of the biblical term pax -- from the Vulgate --and Greek eirene, which in turn, were renderings of the Hebrew shalom, cognate with the araic "salaam" has multiple meanings: safety, welfare, prosperity, security, fortune, friendliness. The personalized meaning is reflected in a nonviolent lifestyle, which also describes a relationship between any people characterized by respect, justice and goodwill. This latter understanding of peace can also pertain to an individual's sense of himself or herself, as to be at peace with one's own mind attested in Europe from about 1200s. The early English term is also used in the sense of "quiet", reflecting a calm, serene and meditative approach to the family or group relationships that avoid quarreling and seeks tranquility-an absence of disturbance or agitation. The word can be a greeting or farewelll rest in peace..like the English word "aloha."
Peace is also seen as concord or harmony and tranquility. It's viewed as peace of mind or serenity, especially in the east. It is defined as a state of law or civil government, a state of justice or goodness, a balance or equilibrium of powers.
What Does it Mean in Practice?
Such meanings of peace function at different levels. Peace may be opposed to or an opposite of antagonistic conflict, violence or war. It may refer to an internal state (of mind or of nations) or to external relations. Or it may be narrow in conception, referring to specific relations in a particular situation..like a peace treaty..or overarching, covering a whole society -- as in world peace. Peace may be a dichotomy (it exists or it does not) or continuous, passive or active, empiracal or abstract, descriptive or normative, or positive or negative.
Peace derives its meaning and qualities within a framework or theory. Christian, Hindu or Buddhist will view peace differently, as will pacifist or internationalist. Socialist, fascist and libertarian will have different perspectives, as do power or idealistic theorists of international relations. In this diversity of meanings, peace is not different than such concepts as justice, freedom, equality, power, conflict, class and indeed any other concept. Peace is endowed with meaning by being linked to other concepts within a particular perception of reality:and by its relationship to ideas or assumptions about violence, history, divine grace, justice. Peace is thereby locked into a descriptive or explanatory view of our reality and each other.
A home office staff committee paused to "plant" the peace pole.
"The cooperation principle." Cooperation depends upon expectations aligned with power. Through conflcit in a specific situation, a balance of powers and associated agreement are achieved. This balance is a definite equilibrum among the parties interests, capabiliteis and wills: the agreement is a simultaneous solution to the different equations of power, and thereby the achievement of a certain harmony-structure-of expectations. At the core of this structure is a status quo, or particular expectations oer rights and obligations. Conflicts thus interfaces and interlocks and specific balance of powers and an associated structure or expectations cooperation-contractual or familistic interactions-depends ona harmony of expectations, a mutual ability of the parties to predict the outcome of their behaviors. Such is, for example, the major value of a written contract or treaty. And this structure of expectations depends on a particular balance of powers, thus, cooperation depends on expectations aligned with power.
Therefore, gap between expectations and power causes conflict..this is the "gap principle" -- a structure of expectations, once established, has considerable social inertia, while the supporting balance of powers can change rapidly. Interests can shift, new capabilities can develop, wills can strengthen or weaken. As this underlying balance of powers changes, a gap between power and the structure of expectations can form, causing the associated agreement to lose support. The larger this gap, the greater the tension toward revising expectations line with the change in power, and thus the more likely some random event will trigger conflict over the associated interests; such conflict then serves to create a new congruence between expectations and power. Conflict and cooperation are interdependent. They are alternative phases in a continuous social process-underlying human interaction; now conflict, then cooperation and then again conflcit. Cooperation involves a harmony of expectations congruent with a balance of powers achieved by conflict.
We're changing expectations of what people think about themselves..their lives and what they are capable of doing. We're challenging the status quo by our actions. ( More of Todd Lefko's presentation is available by contating Global Volunteers.)
During our lunchtime break, Joe Bailey, psychologist, national speaker and internationally recognized author of "Fearproof Your Life," "The Serenity Principle," and co-author of "Slowing Down to the Speed of Life," spoke to us on integrating peaceful thinking into our daily lives.
"Worry, anxiety, dread, obsession, where do they come from? Throughout time, humankind has sought peace and safety by trying to out-guess the unknown," says Bailey. "We have tried to anticipate and prepare for the unexpected, the imagined, the apparitions of our minds, our efforts to control the unknown and thus keep ourselves safe have led to a collective as well as a personal sensation of fear. Individually and as a society, we've become "addicted" to fear," Bailey maintains. "Fear is antithetical to peace,therefore, we can't be peaceful people until we become peaceful in our own minds.
Sue Laxdal, Global Volunteers Trustee: Afternoon Presenter
In closing, the staff shared insights from the day
about opportunities to wage peace in the next 25 years:
- Work to spread awareness of waging peace in our daily messages.
- Use technology to unite ourselves with the reality of peace building.
- Social justice is connecting with people: Harness the message of social justice with our work?
- Design methods to serve our community: in program operations, our own flexibility, making sure we work as well as we can ourselves?
- Communicate the personal rewards of volunteering, support volunteers in taking responsibility for waging peace, stay ahead of the curve on "age of the mind, and capture the motivation from our volunteers to meet the unforseen challenges of the next 25 years.
