Making Peace Where I Live


Forward


To the young people who will use this guide:

    This book is a learning guide designed to help us research the peacemaking traditions in our own communities. It is intended as a contribution to the United Nations Year and Decade for a Culture of Peace and for the Children of the World, a project initiated by all the living recipients of the Nobel Prize for Peace. By using this guide, we will have the opportunity to explore how people make and build peace in our towns and local areas. We will be able to practice our own listening and interviewing skills and learn some new ones, as we prepare to interview people who work for peace.

    After learning a little about the Culture of Peace Program and exploring our ideas about peace and those of our class or group, we will do some special visioning into the future after we have learned about a unique way of looking at our past, present and future world. We will learn about some important peacemaking traditions which are happening around the world and then begin our oral history project, interviewing people in our local area who are working for peace. We will learn about the important work of the United Nations and the agencies connected to it and our own special relationship with this organization. Finally we will think and talk about our own present and future contributions to building a culture of peace.

    Welcome to the exciting adventure of helping to build and sustain a Culture of Peace!


The authors of MAPWIL, "Making Peace Where I Live"


Making Peace Where I Live




Introduction


    A new adventure for school children around the world has started! It began when the United Nations declared the year 2000 (and the decade 2001-2010) the Year and Decade for Education for and a Culture of Peace for the Children of the World. What does that mean? For one thing, it means that the people who represent the 189 countries in the world at an assembly every year in the beautiful United Nations building in New York City and who work hard to help make the world better for everyone have been thinking especially about you.

    Yes, this Year and this Decade are for you-- all the four billion children in the world. The United Nations Assembly wants to make a more peaceful, less violent world for you to grow up in.

    What does nonviolence mean? It is a word used a lot by the great peacemakers of the twentieth century, including Mahatma Gandhi of India and Martin Luther King of the United States. It means a way of being with people that never hurts, only helps. It means a way of handling conflicts and differences by listening and figuring out what is good for everyone. It is something we can learn how to do, but it needs lots of practice to do well. The best part of it is that when we act nonviolently in a conflict, no one is left feeling mad and wanting to start another fight.

    And what does a culture of peace mean? Culture is a word referring to what people in a society think about how they live, as well as to how they actually behave with one another, and what kind of rules they make on how get along. A culture of peace, then, is a way for humans to live together in a way that makes room for lots of difference--because each of us humans is different from every other human-- and to handle the conflicts that arise from those differences in ways that respect each person's needs and ensures fairness for everyone. The caring and loving that we find in peace cultures is also expressed in song dance, art, and poetry, and touches every part of how people live nonviolently.

    Today we have a confusing mixture of violence and, of peaceful and warlike attitudes and behaviors in our world. We will want to learn more about the peacemakers in our own town, how peacemaking works, and how to become peacemakers ourselves. That is how we will help the United Nations achieve its goals for a nonviolent world with flourishing peace cultures everywhere.


   


Part 1
A Culture of Peace: What Does That Mean?


    "Cultures" are about attitudes and behaviors. A culture of peace is one in which the attitudes, values, beliefs and rules make it clear that everyone expects everyone to be kind and helpful to each other and all living things. Conflicts or disagreements are worked out; everyone gets a chance to be heard and feels that their needs have been considered to be important. Resources are shared fairly. A peace culture does not mean that there are never any conflicts or disagreements. A world without conflict would probably be a pretty dull place because differences can be very interesting. A peace culture does mean that when there are conflicts over differences, people will try to solve the conflicts creatively and nonviolently.

    There are examples of peace cultures in the world today. They are relatively small communities of people who share a common philosophy and agree to similar rules for living together. Most people live in societies where peacefulness and aggressiveness are present to different degrees.

    Human beings have needs that are often in conflict with each other. This is true both within an individual person and between people. There is the need to belong and be an accepted member of a group, and there is also the opposite need for autonomy and being separate from the group-for being special in some way. Each of us individually and each society tries to work out how to balance these needs. The secret of having a peace culture is to balance the different needs without violence so that it is not just the person who fights the hardest or the society which has the most bombs that wins arguments. The goal is to find ways to solve conflicts so that everyone feels safe and respected.

    UNESCO, the agency of the United Nations, which is involved in peace education, has issues the following statement declaring 2000 the International Year for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence:


International Year and Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence

THE ROAD TO PEACE


    During the twentieth century, humankind has begun taking- a new road to peace and social justice - the road of nonviolence. In the past, the struggle for human rights and justice has often been violent. But violence reproduces the culture of war - authoritarian, hierarchical, exploitative, male-dominated, secretive, and, above all, mobilized to destroy "the enemy". We have paid the high price - the lives of millions and millions of people - of this culture of war. Now we must build a culture of peace.

    A culture of peace is linked intrinsically to non-violent struggle. Gandhi and King called it "active nonviolence", and they showed that although the non-violent walk to freedom is long, it is a sure way to peace, In the struggle for a culture of peace and nonviolence, there are no enemies. Everyone must be considered a potential partner, and the task is to constantly convince, argue and negotiate with those engaged in the culture of violence, refusing to give up the struggle, until they join in working for a culture of peace.

    There is a road on which we already have major milestones of progress. Some are at the level of intergovernmental relations: for example, the 1899 Hague Peace Conference, the 1919 League of Nations, the United Nations and UNESCO in 1945 and the Yamoussoukro Congress on Peace in the Minds of Men which first formulated the idea "culture of peace" in 1989.

    Other milestones are at the national level: the transition from apartheid to non-racial Constitutional government in South Africa that has galvanized the continent of Africa and provided a precedent for the world. There are many other milestones as well, for example, the non-violent revolution in the Philippines in 1936 when millions of unarmed people, many of them trained in nonviolence, confronted government tanks and forced recognition of the true election results.

    A vast flowering of grass roots initiatives has grown up in recent years that can be joined together as a global movement for a culture of peace and nonviolence - initiatives to save the natural environment, to preserve cultural identity and diversity, for education for all throughout life, for the rights of women, and many others. Everyday, people are engaged in non-violent associations for human rights and social justice at the community level. Their participation is democracy in action. Their actions are often invisible because, unlike violence, they are not shown on the television news or celebrated in the latest feature film. There are heroes all around us, waiting to be discovered. There are role models for tomorrow's generation in every community, whom we need to seek out and learn from.

    The idea of a culture of peace, born in Africa in 1989, has grown into a global movement. It began as a call to base our actions on the "universal values of respect for life, liberty, justice, solidarity, tolerance, human rights and equality between women and men." When, at the end of the Cold War, the United Nations expanded its peacekeeping operations throughout the world, UNESCO helped its Member States to establish national culture of peace programmes. These programmes enabled those who had been enemies to begin to work together in projects of education, communication, science and culture.

    By 1995, the Member States of UNESCO decided to dedicate the full force of the Organization to the promotion of a culture of peace, recognizing it as the great challenge for the coming century. Countries in the North began to join those in the South by establishing national culture of peace programmes. Organizations of youth, of women, religious organizations, media, parliamentarians, educational institutions, even the military institutions of many regions adopted the idea of the culture of peace and made it a priority in their actions. Increasingly, the General Assembly of the United Nations took up the issue. And in 1997, they asked for a declaration and programme of action for a culture of peace, and they proclaimed the year 2000 as the United Nations International Year for the Culture of Peace. In 1998 they declared the Decade 1001-2010 as the Decade of peace and Nonviolence for the Children of the World.

    Let us make the International Year for the Culture of Peace into a global school, a life-long learning process. Let it be a school of values, of attitudes, above all, of practical action so that we team to obtain justice through nonviolence and ensure that all human rights become a living reality for every person.


    Since it was clear that more than a year needs to be spent on developing the culture of peace, UNESCO has emphasized that the whole decade from 2001 to 2010 will be directed at developing peace ideas and skills.


Objectives of the UNESCO International Year * for the Culture of Peace o Contribute to the "strengthening of universal peace" o Strengthen respect for cultural diversity o Promote tolerance, solidarity, cooperation, dialogue and reconciliation United Nations document E/1998/52.


    Part of working for peace is not only thinking about what peace means, but also imagining how our classroom, community or world at peace might look. Our next activities will involve using our imaginations to both remember the past and envision the future, a future in which our images of peace can help us build a more peaceful world.


Activity #1: What is Peace?

Brainstorming Concepts and Ideas


    Now we are going to think about the word "peace" and what it means to us.

    In order to create our own sense of peace right now, we are going to close our eyes and get very still. Let your body relax and think of peace flowing all through your body, from your head to your toes. Take several long and deep breaths. Listen to the quiet of the room and the soft noises outside. We will stay like this for a couple of minutes. During these moments, think of the word "peace" and remember what images come to mind when you do.

    Now open your eyes and we will brainstorm the word "peace". Peace can mean different things to different people. Some of the questions you might be thinking of include: Is peace important? If so, why? Do we think peace means there is no conflict or violence? Is violence always physical? Does caring for others and the earth relate in any way to peace?

    Brainstorming means to give out our ideas, in one or a few words, without worrying about whether our response is right or wrong. The point is to share and compare our responses and come up with our own definition of peace, based on everyone's sharing. As you give your responses, your teacher or another student can connect the responses which seem to relate to each other, so that in the end, you will have a kind of web or map. You can rearrange the words to fit the web or map. Finally take the related concepts of your web and see if you can put them in a sentence or two which will be the group's definition of the concept of peace.

My definition of "peace" is...

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________


    In this guide we are looking at peace as a process where people can deal with differences in ways which do not hurt one another. Peace means more than just that there is no violence or conflicts. This way of looking at peace involves such things as respect for others, listening, and caring for others, as well as a concern for making our earth a place where everyone has enough to eat, a place to live and the chance to grow up without being forced to do things that their conscience tells them they should not do. As we continue through and complete the activities in this guide, we can come back from time to time to our definition of peace and see if we might want to make some changes or additions to it.


Think About These Questions:
Why is peace important?
What is peace?
How might you best promote peace?
What if there were no conflicts?


Post the answers to these questions during this unit.


   



Part 2
The Two-Hundred-Year Present


    We live in a world that is changing so fast, and is experiencing so many conflicts, that it is difficult to understand what is happening, and in what direction we are going as human beings. One way to get a feel for the larger picture of what is going on is to think of "the present" as a 200-year moment in history that we are personally experiencing. The 200-year present starts exactly 100 years ago today, on the day that all the senior citizens who are celebrating their 100th birthday, were born. The other boundary of a 200-year present is exactly 100 years from today, when the babies born during 2000 will be celebrating their 100th birthday, You and I can't live 200 years, but among our family, friends and relatives are people with memories of a century ago, and children not yet born that we will come to know, will reach the next century. Through our personal contacts with those much older and much younger than ourselves, we experience something of what has been and will be going on in that time span. It is our present.

    The pattern we are particularly interested in understanding in the 200-year present is the pattern of war and violence, and human efforts to get rid of it in order to build a culture of peace for the world's children and grandchildren. What is a culture of peace? It is a way for humans to live together that makes room for lots of difference--because each human being is different from every other human being--and to handle the conflicts that arise from those differences in ways that respect each person's needs and ensures fairness for everyone.

    Just before our 200-year present began, in 1899, Tsar Nicholas of Russia took the initiative to convene a peace conference of squabbling heads of state at the Hague, in the Netherlands, to find a way to settle differences between countries through peaceful diplomacy and negotiation instead of fighting wars to see who would win. It turned out to be a lot harder to do than those heads of state realized. Since that Hague Conference we have had two world wars and in recent decades lots of small wars within and between countries in various regions of the world. This in spite of the fact that the League of Nations was established at the close of World War I to maintain peace, and the United Nations was established as the League's successor after World War II. Each of these, it had been hoped, would offer peaceful ways to settle disputes.

    Sobered by two world wars, the UN knew it had a hard job ahead of it. To help deal with the problem of war, in 1945 it established a special body, UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), with the constitutional mandate to construct the defenses of peace in the minds of men and women. It was UNESCO which developed the concept of a culture of peace; the habits and patterns of everyday life including family life and child-rearing, and local community behaviors of dealing with conflict which involved negotiation, mediation and respectful listening. Such behaviors would ensure fairness for everyone, with no one individual or group simply having power over another. Such customs and practices could then be translated and carried over into how heads of state and diplomats deal with inter-state conflicts, so they would no longer be simply trying to overpower each other, each one determined to be the winner.

    UNESCO's Culture of Peace Program undertook studies which showed that lots of peaceful behaviors took place every day in ordinary life, in families, in communities, in national governments, and even between states. However, the language of winning and losing and the heavy emphasis on history as the history of war, covered over the reality of all that peaceful activity. UNESCO came to see that the peaceful habits and behaviors that already exist are our best resource for developing the new habits that can reduce the everyday violence that also exists, both interpersonally and in wartime situations.

    Where better to start strengthening peaceful habits than with you, the children who will be the adults making decisions in the future? That is why UNESCO proposed to the UN General Assembly that the UN declare the year 2000 as the Year of Education for a Culture of Peace and , and the Years 2001-2010 as the Decade of Education for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence for the Children of the World. That UN Declaration paved the way for this Culture of Peace curriculum. We are doing here what is being done locally in countries around the world as each community seeks to help its citizens of all ages, from elementary school age to senior citizens, become aware of the good peacemaking habits we actually have. We also seek to learn new peacemaking skills so that may deal fairly and without violence with the many differences that crop up around us.

    Now, at the midpoint of the 200-year present that began with the Hague Peace Conference, we have a unique adventure before us -- the adventure of learning how to live with the many other peoples around the planet, speaking many different languages, having many different customs, but all needing to find enough food, water, and materials for shelter and daily life, on a planet with limited resources. In the past people have sometimes cooperated, sometimes competed, for those resources, sometimes killing others to get more for themselves.

    Now we all have to learn how to make room for each other, especially as the planet gets more crowded with people. We also need to learn to live with the planet itself, and with the other life-forms with which we share the planet. We need lots of new skills of listening and learning so we can cooperate with people who are very different from ourselves, instead of competing with them. This is a new adventure for the human race-- an adventure in interdependence, in which each of us grows stronger and more capable by helping to empower others-- within our own community as well as with neighboring peoples.

    Adventure means going where we have not gone before. It means taking risks, having courage. it also means having fun! Welcome to the adventure of peacemaking, peacekeeping and peacebuilding, in the next half of our 200-year present.


Getting Started


    This is a very big job. Can anything we do make a difference? Yes, because we are part of a much larger happening that started a century ago and will take another century to fully develop. You and I are right in the middle of this process. But big changes take time, and if we only look at what is happening today, it is easy to feel confused. Seeing the larger picture can help us first imagine a more peaceful world, and then begin the process of working toward our visions becoming real. Let us try an experiment that will help us see the larger picture. Imagine "the present" not as today, this hour in this room, but as a 200-year moment of history that we are personally experiencing. The 200-year present starts exactly 100 years ago today, on the day that all the senior citizens who are celebrating their hundredth birthday today, were born and closes on the day that babies born today will reach their hundredth birthday.


Activity #1: The 200-Year Timeline


    Let's make a timeline for the 200-year present and fill in some major events we can think of that have occurred from 1900 up to today. In addition to world and national events like the founding of the League of Nations and the United Nations or the fall of the Berlin Wall, you can include things like: changes in music, (ex. When were the Beatles famous, or how about Elvis Presley); appearance of new technology (ex. electricity, telephone, TV, computers); or major sports events like the beginning of baseball in the United States. Be sure to include events that are important in your own life.



Now with your group work to develop a list of key events. Some kinds of events that you might want to include:

Cultural events- music, theater, literature, dance, movies, etc.
Economic events- oil embargo, mergers or breakups of corporations, Depression, etc.
Spiritual Events
Political events - wars, formation of intergovernmental organizations and alliances including the League of Nations and the United Nations, desegration, Berlin Wall, overthrow of one regime and replacement by another.
Sporting events


    Draw a timeline like the one above on a 12 X 18 sheet of paper (or what ever fairly large sheet of paper you have available.) Mark off the years, perhaps by 10's and write in the events that you want to highlight.

    Share your timeline with your group and talk about why you chose the events that you did. What events did you choose that are the same as those other people chose? You might want to mark the ones that are the same by putting a border around them. Which ones are very different? Why do you think this is so?

    Make a timeline now that shows the events that all of the class or group you are working with agree are really important to the group. You might need to leave out some things that are very important to you, like when your brother or sister was born, or when you moved, etc. because those things are very personal. But you might be willing to add something about sports or games that you didn't know before, like when Chess became an international activity.


Imaging a Memory


    So that's what we want to remember right now of things in the not too distant past. We could go back much further, but that is really history, and remember we are talking about the 200 year present. Now we are going to practice imaging what could be in the future. People sometimes talk about imagination or imagining something . This is what inventors do; it is also what peacebuilders do. They create an idea, a picture, in their minds and then they go about building it. Learning how to imagine what isn't already there is a wonderful skill to have. It's the very first step in inventing something new.

    Notice that the United Nations Year of Education for and a Culture of Peace comes exactly at the halfway point on our time line. From here on out, the happenings are ours to make. What shall we put on the rest of the time-line? Since events beyond today haven't happened yet, we are going to have to imagine them. From as far back in history as we have any records, people have done just what we are about to do, they have imagined what the future would be like. Being able to imagine something that hasn't happened yet is a very special ability that we humans have. In fact each of us does this every day. Before you leave home for school each morning you run through in your mind what will be happening at school in order to know what to put in your book bag or what things you will need for the day. Any time we think about what we are going to do next, we are doing a kind of imaging. Remembering is a kind of imaging too. The ability to experience both things that have already happened-- remembering-- and things that you would like to have happen in the future-- sometimes we call this "daydreaming"-- are very important to us daily as we live our lives. Sometimes things we hope and imagine for the future actually come about; sometimes they don't. Whether they do or do not come about depends at least in part on whether we can find a way to work to help bring about what we hope for. We will come back to that question later.


Activity #2: Imaging/Remembering a Pleasant Event


    Close your eyes and remember an especially fun time you have had recently with a friend, or with your family. You can see it in your mind, can't you!


Think about who was there.
What were you doing?
How were you feeling?
Can you remember what you were wearing?
Where were you?
What was special about this time?
Why do you remember it?

    Write or draw about this time. Think about what helped you remember this time. Did you see pictures, hear sounds, smell something? Be as specific as you can because making pictures in our heads, or remembering smells or sounds is the way we also can think about the future. And when we think about the future clearly enough, we can help make what we want come to be.

    Share what you have learned about how you remember with a partner.


Activity #3: Imaging a Peaceful Future (Part A)


    Now comes the best part of our filling in the time-line: filling in the second half, which hasn't happened yet. We can make representations in our mind about the future in just the same way we made representations in our mind about things that really happened in the past. We can choose what we want to have happen; we can imagine it! Let us for now just go ten years into the future on our timeline. That means going to 2010, the end of this special United Nations Decade.

What are some of the things we would like to see in the world of 2010? Jot down what you think of. We can take a little time to make a class list of hopes. Those hopes will guide our imagination.


    Now close your eyes and imagine that we are going out the front door of this building. Before us stretches a tall hedge as far as we can see in either direction. On the other side of that hedge it is the year 2010, and things are as you hoped they would be. Find a way through the hedge-- maybe a path or gate, or just squeeze through the branches. Now step free and clear into 2010 and begin exploring. The air smells so fresh and good! You are a time traveller! Find a road or path to a neighborhood, where there are people. What are they doing? What sort of place are you in? How are people relating to each other? You can ask questions, move around freely. Now spend a few minutes quietly observing-- in your imagination-- how people interact. Note especially how they manage differences, how they behave when they disagree.


    Spend a few minutes writing down the things you imagined. Draw a sketch of what was going on. You might have the people in your sketch talk by using balloons, like cartoon characters have. Think about how you might make your image into a story.


Activity #4: Imaging a Peaceful Future (Part B)


    In groups of 3 to 5, tell each other what you saw and explore together what made it possible for everything to be going on so peacefully. What was the same? What was different? Together, come up with a story of 5-6 pages (pictures) that show how you imagine a future as you would like it to be.Now, create a short play that shows what is going on in the place that you have created in 2010. Share your play with others.


    We have just experienced a process of imagining a future where people are good to each other by doing a kind of "social daydreaming" just as people in many different societies have been doing for thousands of years. Sometimes in the past people have become excited about what they have imagined, and they have said to each other, "hey, let's make that happen here!" And they have done it! That is what happened in India when Gandhi helped the people imagine a peaceful and independent country. Farmers, villagers and city people worked together to bring it about. Martin Luther King's vision for a violence-free United States where everyone was equal, and Nelson Mandela's vision for a South Africa in which blacks and whites had the same rights and opportunities, inspired many people to work together to make each country a better place. Each of those countries still has problems with violence and injustice, but each country has a growing culture of peace, and is in a much better place today than before those movements started. Visions of what a better future could be like give us something concrete to work for, in our personal lives and in our schools, our neighborhoods and our country. After we learn about the activities of peacebuilders in our communities, we will finish our time line of the future.

    It is important that we understand that our actions today can have an impact even 100 years into the future. We will keep the timeline we have just made posted, making some additions right now for the year 2010 based on what we have imagined today. Over the next few weeks we will come back to this project from time to time and imagine happenings twenty, forty, sixty, eighty and one hundred years from now!


   



Part 3
Peacemaking Traditions: The Work of Making Peace
Back To Now


    Getting rid of violence and making peace where there is conflict is not only something to work for at a future time-- there are people practicing and peacemaking in our own community, and in communities like ours and different from ours around the world. We need to know about these activities and about the cultures of peace that exist around us. We will explore the places in our community where conflicts are being handled without violence. Who are the peacemakers in our town? What, where and how do they do it? Soon we will read about people in towns and villages and other environments who have been making peace between persons and groups in conflict for centuries, following ancient practices that still work in the modern world. We will learn about councils of elders who meet in a special place-- by a tree, or a rock, or a spring to listen to troubles. They listen to those who are angry, to people who have been hurt, and to those who have done the hurt. These councils are sometimes called healing circles, and their purpose is not to punish acts of violence, but to gain understanding of the hurts that have been done. Such circles help people to accept responsibility for their acts, to make restitution for hurts, so that relationships can be restored and everyone's needs are met. This is the ancient human tradition of nonviolent peacemaking that has been practiced from humanity's earliest days, and continues to be needed today. These healing circles are a traditional way of developing peacemaking skills.

    Here we will learn peacemaking skills and strategies that fit our time and our place, skills that we can use at home, at school, in our own neighborhood, and anywhere that we go. Learning about them will help us to understand the kinds of skills that the men and women who represent their governments at the United Nations have to practice as they work to make peace among countries at the United Nations. Those skills have to be developed first in local neighborhoods if they are ever going to be passed on to our diplomats and heads of state. So by learning skills ourselves we are setting in motion a process that helps the United Nations do its work.


Making Peace: An Old Human Story


    There are lots of different ways communities deal with conflict. We have local government officials, town meetings, and systems of policing and courts, wise elders, teachers and spiritual leaders, resources in our local civic organizations, from women's clubs to business associations, parent-teacher organizations and professionally trained mediators and counselors. All these are modern institutions. But what happened in the olden days, before these modern institutions came into being? From the time of the earliest human tribes, many thousands of years ago, people have had to deal with differences. This is because no two humans are the same; each of us has our way of seeing things, our own special wants and needs. And yet we all need each other too. None of us can simply "go it alone". So when we disagree, we have to find ways to deal with our conflicts.

    We are beginning to learn more and more about how people used to manage conflicts before there were modern governments and courts. In fact, we are discovering that there are many peoples living within and across the boundaries of modern states, who still practice traditional (old-time) ways of dealing with conflicts outside the court system. They are referred to as indigenous peoples; people who have been living in the same area with their own language and customs for a very long time. Their peacemaking practices are now being seen as a very special resource that can help relieve overburdened courts and governments that simply can't deal with the many conflicts modern life keeps generating. These indigenous peoples still live in what is left of their homelands on every continent. The Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe and the island nations of the Pacific are all home to peoples who are even today still practicing traditional ways of dealing with conflict.

    Here are a few examples from Africa. The Fulani of West Africa are a people who are nomadic, that is they are always moving from place to place and, as keepers of cattle, they have to be careful of conflicts with the settled farmers whom they encounter in their territories. They are trained from childhood to practice hersa, a type of reserve, of discretion, to avoid the appearance of assertiveness, in interactions with settlers, thus dealing with differences cautiously, always with awareness of the views and needs of those with whom they are dealing. You might say that hersa is their method of dealing with conflict. Also widespread in Africa is the role of the du nku, the person who is the "community eye", who sees conflict and deals with it in the role of wise elder who serves as adviser and conciliator when troubles arise.

    In the Horn of Africa the Oromo peoples practice the gada system: everyone belongs to an age group, from young to old, and within each age group people have special jobs that need doing for the community as a whole. The oldest age group, the Luba, have the job of serving as mediators and diplomats, and the older women serve as peace messengers among those who have disputes.

    The Xhosa people of South Africa are taught the values of ubuntu from childhood. Ubuntu means we are all human, we are all part of one another, no one is an outsider. Ubuntu is expressed in the saying, "I am because we are". The inkundla legotta is the circle of elders, representing all parts of the community, who handle disagreements and conflicts among the Xhosa.

    The concept of sitting in a circle to talk through differences can be found among many different peoples. Sometimes it is a circle of elders or specially designated wise people, but sometimes the circle includes everyone in the community, as among the African Bushpepole. When a conflict arises they convene a xotia, or community pow-wow (the term pow-wow is also very familiar as a practice common among Native American tribal peoples). Everyone takes part in the process of talking through the problem until there is some general agreement.

    In the Arab world something called the sulha is widely practiced by Muslims, and also by Christians, Jews and Druze. A sulha (peacemaking or reconciliation) is convened by respected elders of the community who will hear the stories of the conflicting parties. The harm done will be identified and acknowledged, restitution promised, and forgiveness granted. The sulha leads to a restoration of the wholeness of the community.

    Whatever the peacemaking practice is called, it has a certain formal, ritual character, and usually involves a gathering of the whole community, not only those involved in the conflict. Not only will stories of the conflict be told, but traditional peacemaking stories may also be told. Often there will also be singing, dancing and gift giving as part of the peacemaking ritual. If the conflict is serious it may take a long time to achieve resolution, but no one gives up. And once resolution has been achieved, it is a cause for celebration.


Governments and Local Peacemakers: Working Together


    Conflicts in today's world often involve fighting between armed groups within a country, about who is to be in power and run things. There may be guerrilla armies and government armies fighting each other in different regions. Making peace under these conditions is very difficult. How can governments connect with the traditional peacemakers in local communities for help in getting factions that are fighting each other to start listening to each other?

    One way is for a government to set up a national peace commission, including representatives from all the groups in conflict. This commission is responsible for linking with local communities so that local peace commissions are formed which include local peacemaking elders. A famous example is South Africa, where a National Peace Accord Commission resulted in the formation of many local Peace Accord bodies. These local groups helped lay the groundwork for the new post-apartheid government by getting groups in conflict to sit down and talk to one another face to face. The work of the Peace Accord groups was followed by the establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission by the new government. This Commission holds hearings in different communities around the country, where local victims and victimizers from past political and tribal conflicts of the apartheld era can face each other and acknowledge what really happened. At best, after the truth has been told, there is some degree of reconciliation between the parties. Reconciliation does not always happen, but the peacemaking efforts continue, kept going by local peacemakers. There are now over 15 countries that have some form of Truth Commission at work to heal wounds from civil wars, many of them in Latin America but also in Asia, as in Sri Lanka and Cambodia. Without local groups of elders, this process could not work.


Peace Brigades: New Kinds of Peacemakers


    When Gandhi was leading the nonviolent independence struggle of India against its colonial ruler, England, he created the Shanti Sena, brigades of young people trained in to work with local communities in dealing with their conflicts with the British and also conflicts between Hindus and Muslims. The Shanti Sena greatly strengthened the work of traditional local councils of elders. The Indian Shanti Sena became the model of Peace Brigades International, which sends nonviolent peace teams to a number of countries with serious internal conflicts. These brigades help train and empower local citizens to bring those who are fighting each other into situations where they can sit down and talk to one another. An important part of the work of such teams is to empower the work of local councils of elders.

    New international networks of women peacemakers, such as the Women Peacemakers Program of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation, are now sending out all-women's peace teams to work in the special ways that women can work because of their responsibilities for the basic survival of their families. These teams strengthen the work of local women elders, who traditionally have had an important role as peace messengers between parties in conflict.


The Problem of Guns: Zones of Peace


    We can see that the old ways of peacemaking never died out, they only became less visible. This is partly because the new modern court systems ignored the old ways for seeking justice, and partly because it has been so easy for groups to get hold of guns and use them to settle differences. Controlling the growing supply of weapons on every continent will be an important task for national governments and the United Nations in the coming decade. In the meantime, local communities are beginning to learn how to declare their villages or towns, their local lands, as zones of peace where no weapons are allowed.

    Traditionally through the centuries temples and churches and other sacred places have been zones of peace where no fighting may take place. Now, with so much fighting going on in so many places, peacemakers in local communities have begun to speak up, and to declare that the territory of their community, where they live and work and grow food, is now a zone of peace --just as if it were a temple or a holy place. No guns may be brought there. The groups in their area who are fighting must leave their guns outside the community-designated territory if they wish to enter that space. Generally zone of peace declarations are respected by fighters in the area. The zone of peace movement is spreading, and there are about 18 states that have declared their whole country a zone of peace. These countries have given up having armies and have a policy of negotiations to resolve differences with neighboring states instead of seeing who can win by fighting. The United Nations holds regular disarmament conferences to encourage states to reduce the size of their armies and to establish more effective ways of settling differences. In the meantime, strengthening local practices of peacemaking and the national and international networks that support them, and that are also able to work with governments and the United Nations, is a good strategy. This will help create social environments of peace culture in every region that will make a disarmed world possible.


   



Part 4
Peace Makers in My Community
Conducting Oral History Interviews
with Local Peacemakers and Peacebuilders.


    Now that we have explored the 200-year present and have talked about ways of making peace, its time to investigate the peacemaking traditions that are present in our own community.


Overview


    Now that you have explored the idea of a culture of peace and have learned about peacemakers and peacebuilders from communities all around the world, you are well-prepared to identify and interview those people in your own community who contribute to peaceful ways of living. In conducting these interviews, you are being true historians: not just reading what somewhat else has decided is important, but deciding yourselves whose stories should be recorded, what questions to ask, and how you and others can learn from the stories that you hear.

    The process that you will be using to learn from the local peacebuilders and peacemakers is called "oral history" - or learning about the past and the present by listening to the stories people tell. There are several steps to this project.

    First, we need to prepare to conduct the oral history interviews. This involves:

thinking about storytelling as a special way of learning
deciding who to interview
learning to listen in special ways
developing the questions you want to ask
practicing using a tape recorder, videotape, or taking notes

    Second, we actually conduct and document the interviews with local peacebuilders and peacemakers.

    Third, we will follow up on these interviews, by:

discussing and learning from the stories
presenting the stories to others, in writing or through art projects
celebrating the project and the people who shared their stories
expressing appreciation to everyone who helped with the project.


What is 'oral history'?


    In the simplest of terms, oral history is a way of learning about the past and the present by listening to the stories that people tell. At the heart of the oral history process is the sharing of life stories: interviewers listen and ask questions and interviewees tell stories about their lives.

    The stories that people share about their lives can be understood in different ways. Historians gather life stories in order to learn about particular events or eras, and how major historical forces were experienced in the lives of "regular" people. Anthropologists gather life stories in order to understand the patterns of relationships and meanings that inscribe a particular culture. Literary scholars listen to life stories as a special kind of literature, rich with texture, rhythm, and images.

    'Oral history' refers not simply to the gathering of stories, but of reflecting on and organizing the stories we hear so that we can learn from them. Depending on the goal of the project, we may be more or less interested in the "accuracy" or "truthfulness" of the stories we gather: we might ask ourselves whether they factually true, whether the story they convey is emotionally true, or whether the dilemmas they present are true to life.


Stories and values


    In every society in the world, stories of all kinds are used as vehicles for the teaching of values. When young people listen to the stories of older people - including stories not only about actions, but about the choices they made and their reflections on those choices - they can use these stories as inspiration to to act intentionally and ethically in their own lives.

    The stories gathered in oral history projects can be looked at through all of these lenses. In this project, we emphasize the gathering and reflecting on life stories in ways that celebrate the work of those we are interviewing and that help us make good choices in our own life journeys.


Relevant cultural differences


    Stories are shared in different ways in different cultures. In some cultures, maintaining eye contact is a sign of interest and respect; in other cultures, eye contact (especially between young and old, or between women and men) can be interpreted as a sign of disrespect. In some communities, stories are shared in group settings, perhaps in certain locations or at certain times of the day, week or year; in other communities, the kind of personal, intimate story that we can learn most from might most likely be shared in a one-to-one conversation.


Activity #1: Deciding on Peacebuilders and Peacemakers to Invite to be Interviewed


Discuss with your teacher or leader the number of people who will be interviewed. Who will conduct the interviews? Where?

    Think back to the previous discussions about the work of making peace and peacemaking/peacebuilding roles. Remember that two of the most important skills a peacemaker has are 1) the ability to listen carefully to everyone; and 2) the ability to be a creative problem solver. Make a list of all of the local people you can identify that might be good examples of people who promote a culture of peace.


Some suggestions on the kinds of roles in which people may contribute to a culture of peace in your community:

Artists, dancers, musicians, journalists, media personalities, actors, poets, writers
Police
Court Systems including judges, lawyers, truant officers, prison administrators
Ministers, priests, rabbis, religious leaders
Teachers, counselors
Governments officials including mayors, town managers, town clerks
Leaders of scouts, YMCA/YWCA, Rotary, Kiwanis, women's clubs, chambers of commerce, community business organizations, recreation directors.
Others, such as a good neighbor


    Look over your list. Is there anyone you might have overlooked? Does your list include people of all ages? Both women and men? People from different religious, ethnic and cultural groups? People with different kinds of abilities and disabilities? People who might be more or less wealthy? Does it include people who are well known and some who have not received attention for the work they do?

    You will probably end up with a list that includes more names than the number of people you can realistically interview. How will you decide?

You could ask for advice from someone who knows many of the people. Who is likely to be a good storyteller? Who has done work that young people can learn from? Who would benefit the most from having their stories celebrated?

You could take a vote and interview the five people who receive the most votes. Or you could take a vote, but then have a committee of students work with the teacher to choose from among those with the most votes to be sure that all important groups are represented.

    Once you decide whom you most want to interview, the next step would be to contact those people by letter, or by a visit in person, or by telephone. You should explain the project, and ask if they are willing to be interviewed. Arrange the time and the place, making sure you have time to complete the activities below before the interview itself is scheduled.



Activity #2: Storytelling as a Special Way to Learn


    Listen to the following story told by a sixth grade boy who was born in Haiti and lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the United States:

    When I was small I lived in Haiti. I did many things there that I liked a lot. Right outside my house there was a mango tree. I used to climb to the top and eat mango with my friends.

    Some people buy mangoes in the market and bring the mangoes back to their family. It's fun for the whole family to eat mangos together and tell stories. In my family, my grandparents would always tell stories.

Discuss with your friends the following questions:

Do people in your family tell stories?
Do you hear stories from older people, such as grandparents?
Do you hear stories in other ways, such as from television, or books, or from friends?
Why do you think people like to tell and hear stories?
What can be learned from a story that might not be learned in a classroom?
Do you know anyone who is an especially good storyteller?

    In every culture in the world, people tell stories. And, as far as we know, human beings are the only animals who tell stories. We seem to need not only to live through experiences, but also to think about them, to reflect on them, and to tell other people about them.

    Oral history is a special way of learning about the present and the past by listening to the stories people tell. It is special because when people tell stories about experiences that have been important to them, they reveal their feelings, their disappointments, their choices, their learning and their hopes.

    We are going to spend several sessions preparing ourselves to gather stories from the peacebuilders and peacemakers in our communities. In this way, we will gather the stories in a way in which we can learn as much as possible, and the people who tell the stories will hopefully feel good about telling them.


Activity #3: Learning to Listen


    Sit quietly for 5 minutes (or go out to a particular nearby place outside) and listen. Notice all of the sounds that you can hear, and notice what it feels like to be still. Write down all of the sounds you heard in your notebook, and then see how long of a list of sounds you and your friends can make.

    Pair up with a friend. One of you will be the leader and then the other will be the follower. The leaders can move any part of their bodies, as long as they keep their feet on the ground. They should try to surprise their followers. The followers should try to mirror their partner exactly. Switch roles. Discuss listening with your friends, beginning with these questions:

Did you learn anything about listening from being still and from the mirror game with our partners?
Is there a difference between listening to someone and doing what they tell you?
Who usually tells you to listen? How do you feel about it?
Can you think of times when you didn't listen, but wish you had?
Can you think of times when it is a good idea NOT to listen?
Have you ever had into an argument or fight just because someone wasn't listening?
Do you wish people would listen to you more? Who? Why?
Why is being listened to important to us? How does it feel when someone isn't really listening?

    Who do you know who is a really good listener? Perhaps it is one of you, or your leader, or someone else in your school or organization. With help from your teacher or leader, invite that person to come to your next session to model an oral history interview for you, with a second adult to serve as the one being interviewed.


Activity #4: Learning to Listen, Continued


    In this session, you will watch a model oral history interview to see how someone who listens well can help another person to tell his or her story. With help from your teacher or leader, you should have two guests: one to conduct an oral history interview, and the second who will be interviewed. You or your teacher can suggest a topic, such as:




    As you observe the interview, notice how the interviewer communicates that he or she is really, really listening. After the interview is complete, ask the interviewee if he or she felt listened to, and why. Ask the interviewer how s/he tried to communicate s/he was listening, and how s/he felt inside.

Make a list of as many listening skills as you can. Your list might include:

Using the interviewee's name and helping him or her feel at ease.
Using body language such as eye contact, gestures, smiles, facial expressions to respond to the story.
Refraining from interrupting; allowing silences.
Asking questions that follow up on the story being told.
Asking open-ended questions and questions for detail when appropriate.
Asking questions about feelings.

Discuss with your friends: How is an interview different from a regular conversation?

    Pair up with one of your friends and agree together on a topic for your trial oral history interview. You might interview each other about: 1) a favorite place; 2) a favorite animal; or 3) a favorite holiday. Using the interview skills you observed in the model interview, interview your friend, trying to learn as much as possible about the topic you have selected. Remember to conduct an interview, not just have a conversation. Don't take notes during the interview, but when you are finished, each of you should draw a picture illustrating the other person's story.

    After you finish your drawings, bring all of your chairs into a circle.
First, discuss the interviewing process:

What was it like to interview your friend? Could you think of questions to ask?
What was it like to BE interviewed by your friend? Was it hard to think of things to say? What did your interviewer do that made it more difficult or easier?
Did your partner listen to you? How could you tell? Can you make any suggestions to improve his or her listening skills?

Then, each person in the circle can share his/her drawing and tell the most important parts of his/her partner's story.


Activity #5: Developing Questions


    Work with your teacher or leader to develop a list of questions that can guide you in your interviews. Remember, the most important thing is to LISTEN to the stories being told and to ask questions that follow up on those stories. Still, it will help you to have a list of general topics and some sample questions you can ask about each one.

    Here are some general topics and questions, although you and your friends might want to think up your own list first, based on the people and practices of your own communities. You can work in small groups, each group developing many questions about a particular topic. Make sure that your list of questions include:



You can see if any of these topics or questions give you ideas for your own list.



Questions for well-known community peacemakers


Becoming a Peacemaker

1. We are studying about peacemaking and peacemakers in situations of conflict. How would you describe what peacemaking is all about? What do peacemakers do?

2. In what ways is it hard to be a peacemaker?

3. We have all experienced conflict in our families. When you were a child, who were the peacemakers in your family? How did they make peace? Tell us how they would help end a conflict.

4. When did you first realize you could be a peacemaker? Tell us about one of your first memories as a peacemaker.

5. Who were the people you knew in your community when you were growing up who were peacemakers? What did you learn from them?


Making Peace in our Community Today

1. What are the most important conflicts going on in this community these days?

2. Tell us about a community conflict you are involved in, and how you are trying to help solve it.

3. What are the most helpful things going on in relation to the conflict?

4. What are the things that make it most difficult?

5. Which community organizations or groups are helping the most? What keeps you working at this problem, what keeps you from giving up?

6. What needs to happen in this community so we can work together to solve conflicts like this one without getting mad at each other?


Questions for people who contribute to peace culture in our community.

Artists, dancers, musicians, actors, writers, poets, journalists, media personalities

1. We see so many depictions of violence through art, literature and the mass media today, yet we want a more peaceful world. In this class we are studying peacemaking. Do you feel that your work contributes to making our community more peaceful?

2. In what ways does your work strengthen our capacities for peaceableness and draw us away from violence?


Police

1. Police are sometimes referred to as "peace officers" and part of their work involves dealing with violence. What are some of the ways that your daily work help make the community more peaceful?

2. Give us some examples of peacemaking activity.

3. What are the hardest things you have to do in "keeping the peace"?

4. What are the most enjoyable things you do?


Courts and criminal justice system - judge, lawyer, truant officer, etc.

1. How does your work in the courtroom (prison) make our community more peaceful, less violent?

2. From your work, give examples of creative solutions to difficult conflicts that are leading to violence and injustice.


Leaders of faith communities, including priests, rabbis, imams

1. There are many different kinds of conflicts in any community. How does your work contribute to the capacity of this community to deal peacefully, creatively and without violence, in difficult situations?

2. Give an example of how you have contributed to peacemaking in a difficult conflict situation in this community.


Leaders of community-based organizations such as Scouts, YMCA/YWCA, Rotary, Kiwanis, Women's Clubs, Chamber of Commerce, Community Business Organizations.

1. There are many different kinds of conflicts in any community. How does your work contribute to the capacity of this community to deal peacefully, creatively and without violence, in difficult situations?

2. Give an example of how you have contributed to peacemaking in a difficult conflict situation in this community.

3. What projects are you planning for the future?

4. What advice do you have for young people who wish to be peacemakers and peacebuilders - in their families, classrooms, schools, communities, countries and in the world?


HERE ARE SOME QUESTIONS FOR YOU TO CONSIDER IF YOU WANT MORE INFORMATION. THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS FOR YOU TO DECIDE ON THE QUESTIONS YOURSELF. IF YOU GET STUCK, USE THESE BUT TRY TO COME UP WITH YOUR OWN QUESTIONS FIRST.

Becoming a peacemaker or peacebuilder:

What has been your journey or your path toward becoming a person who promotes a culture of peace?

Were there any turning points or milestones you remember?

Were there any people who influenced you?

What different kinds of peacebuilding work have you undertaken? What projects have you worked on, and what organizations have you worked with?


Being a peacemaker or peacebuilder:

Do you see yourself as a peacemaker? A peacebuilder? If so, how?

What is it like for you to work for peace in the ways that you do?

What do you like about it? What do you not like?

What kinds of risks do you take to be a peacemaker?

Where do you turn for strength when your work becomes difficult or when you have to confront violence?

What are the biggest challenges you face?

Can you think of any moments when you had to make a choice about how to respond to something in a way that would promote peace rather than violence?


Advice and hopes for the future:

Many of us want to become peacebuilders and peacemakers. Do you have any advice for us?

What kinds of work do you think we should do in order to create a more peaceful future?

What is your vision of a peaceful future?

What projects are you planning for the future?

What advice do you have for young people who wish to be peacemakers and peacebuilders - in thier families, classrooms, schools, communities, countries and in the world?


Once everyone has had a chance to review the questions, add new questions and organize them in the most logical way, then someone should make a set of questions for each person who is conducting an interview. Remember, the interviewer may not ask all of the questions on the list, but they can be useful to look over before and during the interview to remember the general topics and possible questions.


Activity #6: Logistical Preparations for the Interview


    You are now almost ready to conduct your oral history interviews. This is a good time to review what you have learned so far - about a culture of peace, peacemaking roles, listening, and the topics and questions you've prepared.

    In addition, you should decide with your teacher or leader how you will document the interview. You and a friend may simply be taking notes during and after the interview. Or, you may be using a tape recorder or a video camera. Whichever technique you are using, be sure you have the equipment and supplies you need and you are comfortable with using them.

    Be sure to test any equipment you are using ahead of time. Spend time experimenting with it so you can use it comfortably. If you are using a tape recorder and can get an external microphone, the sound you record will be much better than if you use only the microphone in the tape recorder itself. If you plan to use the stories you collect in a public setting - on the internet, or in a book, or in a play or radio show - you should get permission from each person you interview to use their stories in this way. You will ask each interviewee to sign a form that gives you permission to use their stories for educational purposes. Some people may require you to show them the written version of their story before they sign the release form.

    On the next two pages, you will find some tips for conducting good interviews. Most of these are based on common sense. Take a few minutes to review these tips and discuss them with your friends.

    Finally, think about where you will conduct the interview. If you will be going to the house or workplace of the interviewee, ask ahead of time for him/her to choose a comfortable and quiet place (if possible) where there will be few interruptions. If the person you are interviewing is coming to your classroom or recreation center, then you can set up the room ahead of time. Plan enough chairs for everyone who will be there, set at a comfortable distance apart, but close enough so you can hear clearly and the tape recorder can pick up the conversation.

    Talk with your classmates and friends about how to make an outsider feel welcome in your school. You might wish to arrange for someone to meet your guest at the door, to hang up his or her coat. If it is someone who is unfamiliar with the school or recreation center, you might want to include time before or after the interview to offer a tour of the building. If you think about what would make you feel welcome and comfortable in a new setting, you will know what to do to make your guest feel at home.


Activity #7: Conducting and Documenting the Interview


    If you have gone through all of the steps to prepare for the interview, you can relax and enjoy getting to know someone new. The more you can relax, the more the interviewee will relax - and the better the interview will be.

    If you are using a tape recorder, be sure to do a sound check before you launch into the entire interview.

    If you are taking notes, be sure to have pen and paper in hand. Jot down a few words during the interview, and then spend as much time as you need after the interviewee leaves to write down as much as you remember from the interview. This would also be a good time to sketch pictures that capture the most vivid aspects of the stories you have heard.

    Once the interview is complete, be sure to thank your guest and ask him or her to sign a release form that allows you to use the stories for educational purposes.

    If you tape record or video tape the interview, be sure to label the tapes and the cassette boxes with the date, your name, and the interviewee's name. You can create a general record of what is on the tape without taking the time to copy each word. You can make an outline, or an index of the tape, in which you list the counter numbers and the main topics discussed. Once you have discussed the interview, you might then choose portions that you will want to transcribe word for word.


Activity #8: Discussing and Learning from the Stories You Heard


After each oral history interview, it is important that the whole group take time to discuss the stories that you heard. If everyone has heard the interview, then you can begin the discussion right away. If you've split up into teams, then the students who conducted a particular interview will need to share what they have heard with others.


Questions for discussion:

What are the most important stories we heard in this interview?
Are there any historical events or local activities we want to add to our timeline?

Does the interviewee think of himself or herself as a peacemaker or peacebuilder? In what ways?

What aspects of this interviewee's activities and approaches do we think will enhance a culture of peace?

Were there any surprises in the stories we heard?

Were there any parts of the stories we heard that were confusing or upsetting?

Are there any questions we forgot to ask that we can try to ask in another way or at another time?

What parts of the stories we heard inspire us? Are there any aspects of the interviewee's choices that we would like to think about for ourselves?

Has this interview given us any new ideas for the future we are imagining? Are there any ideas we want to add to our future timeline?

Which of the stories we have heard do we want to include in our presentation?


As you gather stories from more and more people, you can begin to compare their stories with each other. Do people work to promote a culture of peace in ways that are similar or different?


Activity #9: Preparing the Stories for Presentation


    By this time in the project, you have probably decided how you want to present the stories you have collected - to other students in the school, to your families, to the peacebuilders and their friends, to people in your town, to leaders in your government, and perhaps to other children in communities around the world.

    You might decide to present the stories you heard in one or more of the following forms:

books
exhibit of photographs and stories
website
play
mural
comic book for younger children
fictional diary
radio show
public reading of stories with discussion
quilts
poems
ballads


    As you work with the stories, translating them in to pictures or songs or combining them into a play, you will learn more about them. You will discover which aspects of the stories are most important to you. If you take on the voice of the person whom you interviewed, you might feel what it is like to walk in his or her shoes. The challenge is to find ways to present the stories so that other people can feel the same excitement and liveliness as you felt when you talked to the person face to face.


Activity #10: Presenting the Stories, Celebrating the Project, and Appreciating the Peacebuilders


    As you complete shaping the stories you heard for presentation, it is time to plan the celebration of your project. Be as creative as you can! Think about a good time and place, where people in your community can gather to witness the presentations you have been preparing. You might want to set up an exhibit where people are likely to see it on their way to work; you might want to plan a reading at a local festival where people are already gathered.

    No matter what, you will probably want to bring together all of the people you have interviewed to thank them, to give them tokens of your appreciation (perhaps a flower, or a written version of their story, or a performance of a song written that includes their words, or a letter of thanks). You might need to write invitations, or send a letter to your local newspaper or design a flyer. The peacemakers you interviewed will be encouraged to know that you have been inspired by their words.

    This is also a good opportunity to thank all of the people who helped out with the project - perhaps there were volunteers who made phone calls, or prepared snacks, or took pictures, or helped transcribe tapes.

    A good celebration gets everyone involved in the planning. There can be space for music, dancing, food, storytelling, exhibits, games - whatever people in your community do together when they want to remember something and honor important people and projects well done.


   


Part 5
The Local is Global
The United Nations


    We have been learning about peacemaking through finding out how peace is made right in our own community. But now it is time to remember how we got started on this project! It was the 189 states of the United Nations General assembly declaring a Year and Decade for Education for a Culture of Peace and from the UN General Assembly Hall in New York City, that brought all this activity about.

    What we have learned locally is part of a great worldwide process of bringing peace culture to life for all our brothers and sisters in every country. Since the United Nations itself is coordinating this major effort, our peace-building work actually connects us directly with the United Nations. We are the United Nations' helpers! In fact, every one of the six billion people on the planet can relate directly to the United Nations through a series of steps, which many people don't know about, but it's not a secret! Here is how it works. In every town there are local branches of national nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) which are voluntary people's organizations covering the whole range of human interests from service clubs and scouting associations, religious groups and professional groups to groups working for peace, justice and human rights. Many of these national NGOs are in turn sections of international organizations (INGOs) that span all continents and link people of like interests across national borders.

    There are about 20,000 different INGOs-that's a lot! 859 of them involve children and youth. Each INGO can apply to be recognized by a secretariat at the UN which handles relationships with INGOs. Once recognized, the INGO appoints a special representative to the United Nations who is able to attend certain public meetings and special committee sessions of the UN system, and be kept up to date on United Nations work of special interest to that INGO. That representative may have the opportunity to speak at certain meetings on subjects they are concerned about. Many of these INGOs have special culture of peace projects.

    Here, then, is how your local culture of peace project might get attention at the United Nations. Say your group reports on what you have learned in this culture of peace project to a local branch of a national organization which is also an INGO-maybe to a Scout troop, or local Rotary club, or a local church, temple, synagogue or mosque. That local branch really likes your report, and brings it to the national office of the INGO in question (usually going through the organization's office in your state or province). The leaders in the national office get really excited about what you have done, and bring it to the next international meeting of this INGO, to encourage members in other countries to support young people in doing the same kind of interviewing about local peace culture. The next international meeting of this INGO feels that the UN secretariat for the Culture of Peace Program, which is based in Paris at UNESCO, should know about this activity so they can encourage all INGOs and NGOs around the world that work with children (especially networks of children's clubs, faith groups and inter-school networks) to begin interviewing local peacemakers. They send the word out through all the INGO networks, from the head offices to the national offices to the state/province office to the local offices. The result? A lot of young people your age get to go out and interview local peacemakers in countries around the world. AND there is greatly increased awareness, in many local communities, on every continent, of the possibilities for peaceful settlement of differences. Just think. It all started with your report to the local branch of an international organization: a report that traveled step by step from your town to the United Nations Culture of Peace Secretariat in Paris at UNESCO, and then back down through the INGO networks of all the member countries of the United Nations to local communities like yours.

    We have described how you could work through a local branch of one of the older existing international nongovernmental organizations. If your country has a National Youth Assembly Organization, here is another possibility. National Youth Assemblies began to be active at the time of the United Nations World Summit of Children held in 1990. There is now a loose coalition of young people involved in such assemblies, the Coalition of Children of the Earth, representing youth in about 60 countries. These groups usually meet annually with local governments and with the national parliament of their own country to give their views on public issues. The Coalition has prepared a proposal for a United Nations Youth Assembly that is being presented to the UN General Assembly in 2000. When the UN Youth Assembly is finally formed, you may be able to vote for your country's representatives to that Youth Assembly, and send in your own proposals to that Assembly through your own representatives. You may even want to be a representative yourself!

    Yes, this kind of local to global and back to local networking process goes on all the time. Opportunities for that networking are growing and you can be part of it! If you are curious about these 20,000 INGOs, you can go to your local library and locate a copy of the current Yearbook of International Organizations, published by the Union of International Associations in Brussels, Belgium, or you could visit the website of the Union of International Organizations and call up the Yearbook on a computer screen. Every INGO will be listed there with the address of its international secretariat, the list of all the countries with national sections, and the statement of purpose of the organization. Members of your family or other adults you know probably belong to a local branch of an INGO-may be you do too! So you see, the United Nations is actually not in a far-away place. We can connect with it from wherever we live. And we are all of us the United Nations' helpers in making a culture of peace come alive in this special United Nations Decade.


   


Part 6
Making Goals and Integrating What We've Learned


    We have now had lots of opportunities to learn about peacemaking and peacebuilding in our community. And we have celebrated those people who have contributed in some ways to making a culture of peace where we live. And we have learned about how the United Nations system can extend down into local communities, into our own community and into our households.

    It is now time for us to think about ways in which we ourselves can contribute to making a more peaceful world. First we might think of ways in which we believe we already are making peace. Then we will try and set some goals for ourselves, to think of some new behaviors and things we can try. We will list these things and set a timetable for ourselves to try them out. Finally we will go back to our timeline and complete our wishes and imaging for our world from the years 2010 to 2100.


Activity #1: Listing the Ways I Now Make Peace


    Take a moment to think of things you are already doing or have done to make a more peaceful classroom or family or community. Write those things down.
Some examples you might include:



    Share your list with a partner and compare your two lists. Are there some things that he or she is doing that you forgot to mention which you do also? Share some of what you discovered with others in your class. Can you figure out in which of your actions you were being a mediator? A witness? A referee or peacekeeper? With your class, you can devise other actions which might also be considered peacemaking or peacebuilding.


Activity #2: Making Goals for Ourselves


Remember what we have learned from the various peacemakers and peacebuilders whom we have interviewed.
Remember what kinds of things we are already doing to contribute to peace. Now think of two or three new things that you think you can do over the next few weeks to make a more peaceful classroom, community or world.
Write those down.
Beside each item write a date by which you plan on doing these, or having them completed. You might be thinking of something that you will do over a long period of time, such as to try and be more patient with family members. If that is true, then write that instead of a date.
Share some of your goals with your classmates. Your class can compare the activities listed by its members and the activities of the people interviewed.
How are they alike?
How are they different?
How do they each contribute to peace?

    We are discovering that there are many ways of building peace, some new, but some that we are already practicing, perhaps more than we realized. We do not necessarily have to be a well-known or famous person to be a peacemaker. We can do it in our everyday lives!


Activity #3: Making Goals for Our Group


    Now we will think of some things that we could do as a group that would contribute to the quality of peace in our community. Let us brainstorm some activities as a group in a similar way to what we did for our individual goals. Some of the goals that you thought of individually may also be good ones for us to work on as a group or there may be some that are possible for us to do as a group when we combine our resources.

You can do this the same way that you did for your own goals.

Assess whether your goals are realistic for you. Can you really do this? And will you?


Activity #4: The 200-Year Present: The Future


    We will now go back to our timeline of the second half of the 200-year present and fill in what we imagine a peaceful world will look like from the year 2010. Find the small group of people with whom you worked for the first half of the timeline and find your drawing of your timeline. Think of different kinds of events that might happen over the next 100 years and fill those in the timeline. Be sure and include different kinds of events that you imagine might take place, such as a new kind of music, sporting events, etc. And place them when you think they will occur. But pay particular attention to putting in events that relate to a culture of peace. For example, you might add something like "in the year 2040 young people, as delegates, came together in a new United Nations Youth Assembly representing every country in the world" or "in the year 2030 in our town, every school becomes a peace center where all students and family members learned how to mediate".

    Think about ways in which you act now that might help some of these things to come about. Remember we can be peacemakers right now and right where we are! You can discuss these with your class or group.

    In the next few weeks, as you think of more items, add them to the second half of your timeline and continue to imagine new ways of building toward a more peaceful world.




   


Peace
Quotes About Peace, Peacemaking and Peacebuilding


Great quotes to inspire, empower and motivate you to live the life of your dreams and become the person you've always wanted to be!

Harmony is one phase of the law whose spiritual expression is love.
~ James Allen ~
Right human relations is the only true peace.
~ Alice A. Bailey ~
Seek peace, and pursue it. [Proverbs 34:14]
~ Bible ~
In truth, to attain to interior peace, one must be willing to pass through the contrary to peace. Such is the teaching of the Sages.
~ Swami Brahmanada ~
If you want to make peace, you don't talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.
~ Moshe Dayan ~
Every kind of peaceful cooperation among men is primarily based on mutual trust and only secondarily on institutions such as courts of justice and police.
~ Albert Einstein ~
For peace of mind, we need to resign as general manager of the universe.
~ Larry Eisenberg ~
Peace and justice are two sides of the same coin.
~ Dwight D. Eisenhower ~
Nothing can bring you peace but yourself; nothing, but the triumph of principles.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~
There never was a good war or a bad peace.
~ Benjamin Franklin ~
A peace that comes from fear and not from the heart is the opposite of peace.
~ Gersonides ~
It is easier to lead men to combat, stirring up their passion, than to restrain them and direct them toward the patient labors of peace.
~ Andre Gide ~
Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it.
~ Thomas Jefferson ~
To get Peace you must work for Justice.
~ John Paul VI ~
It is an unfortunate fact that we can secure peace only by preparing for war.
~ John F. Kennedy ~
Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.
~ Martin Luther King Jr. ~
Please, we can get along here.
~ Rodney King ~
Yes, we are all different. Different customs, different foods, different mannerisms, different languages, but not so different that we cannot get along with one another. If we will disagree without being disagreeable.
~ J. Martin Kohe ~
Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will be as one.
~ John Lennon ~
I heard the bells on Christmas Day. Their old familiar carols play. And wild and sweet the words repeat. Of peace on earth goodwill to men.
~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ~
Let the ideas clash but not the hearts.
~ C. C. Mehta ~
One can always win a war, but how does one conquer peace?
~ Michael Holmboe Meyer ~
Everybody today seems to be in such a terrible rush, anxious for greater developments and greater riches and so on, so that children have very little time for their parents. Parents have very little time for each other, and in the home begins the disruption of peace of the world.
~ Mother Teresa ~
There is no way to peace. Peace is the way.
~ A. J. Muste ~
Peace is no more than a dream as long as we need the comfort of the clan.
~ Peter Nicols ~
The greatest honor history can bestow is that of peacemaker.
~ Richard M. Nixon ~
The world cannot continue to wage war like physical giants and to seek peace like intellectual pygmies.
~ Basil O'Connor ~
One little person, giving all of her time to peace, makes news. Many people, giving some of their time, can make history.
~ Peace Pilgrim ~
When you find peace within yourself, you become the kind of person who can live at peace with others.
~ Peace Pilgrim ~
Nonviolence is the supreme law of life.
~ Indian Proverb ~
Peace with a club in hand is war.
~ Portuguese Proverb ~
If a man would live in peace he should be blind, deaf, and dumb.
~ Turkish Proverb ~
If we want a free and peaceful world, if we want to make the deserts bloom and man grow to greater dignity as a human being-we can do it.
~ Eleanor Roosevelt ~
Peace is more precious than a piece of land.
~ Anwar Sadat ~
Peace is the one condition of survival in this nuclear age.
~ Adlai E. Stevenson ~
Wars begin in the minds of men, and in those minds, love and compassion would have built the defenses of peace.
~ U. Thant ~
Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed.
~ UNESCO ~
Peace is the deliberate adjustment of my life to the will of God.
~ Source Unknown ~
Observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all.
~ George Washington ~


Source: peace@htm


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