(A tribute to Jos & World Trade Centre September 2001 – September 2011)
(This Essay was written in 2006 for GioPeace Japan International Essay Competition)
For over a century, the world in the wake of globalization and industrialization, as being calling for peace and friendship, which is the greatest oil for sustained global community. Everybody in the global community wants to live in peace, no matter their philosophy, colour or religious belief, however the trait to these wish, is violence which is brought about by intolerance, or lack of respect for other peoples culture and belief.
Peace however has been linked with education, a UNESCO maxim “Since war begins in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed”. We are living in a world of Panasonic speed, yet threatened with avalanche evils.
In years past, world leaders have sacrificed, true friendship on the altar of bilateral talk, most at times on selfish aims, be that as it may, some bilateral talk brings about economic growth and peaceful co-existence, but peace is early forgotten at slightest misunderstanding when such businesses are built on selfish political interest. We must not wait on bilateral dealings; a need to go beyond bilateral deal, genuine efforts should be made to foster international peace and friendship.
Accurate information and genuine commitment in passing such information, on any issue or crisis, is major tool in achieving success or putting any end to such problems. However most intervention or promoter of tolerance in the past, has taken this into consideration for others they have neglected genuine commitment.
A lot of things have made men to neglect tolerance and respect for other people’s culture, religion, ethnicity, colour (racism), Government action, insincerity of developed nations to poorer nations, family crisis and the media, which has been the brain behind most intolerance acts.
Over the year we have all held to our religion and ethnic believes on the hypocritical side, using religion as an excuse to kill and cause atrocities in our community. However what baffles me, is that the God we claim to serve either through Christianity, Islam, traditional religion or whatever form, we worship him says in the Bible “How lovely is it when brothers live peace.” Those hiding under religious mask should know that even God, says also in the Bible He that does not love has not come to know God, because God is love. (1John 4:8. Holy Bible)
If everyone of us in the global community leaves by the moral standard of God the world would be better place to live in you must love your neighbour as yourself says the good book.(Matt: 22v39). I believe, if this simple law is followed, tolerance will pace ahead instead of violence, which has taken over every nook and crane of the world.
A close alley to religious intolerance is ethnic hatred, every day innocent people are being abused and were killed, murdered, merely because of their race or nationality. Almost all ongoing crisis/conflict are as a result of ethnic hatred. Yet many, of us that support such act, want other people to tolerate our short coming. Even God tolerate our mistakes. If only we can tolerate ourselves most of the crisis experienced will not have come, let me quickly tell you a story of what intolerance can caused. It is a story of what caused the miss-world beauty pageant to be relocated from Nigeria to London during the programme in 2002, a National paper in the country THIS DAY, Daily Newspaper, located in Lagos the commercial city of Nigeria and a Branch in Abuja the capital city. The paper published a story about the Muslim refusal to allow the event grand finally to be staged in the capital city. This report erupted a violent protect in Kaduna a City in the northern part of Nigeria with predominately Muslim and about 885km form Lagos , and 250km from Abuja the venue of the programme. THIS DAY office, private houses, churches, mosque was burnt down and innocent people died as a result of intolerance, but the question in mind as asked by Peterx Maji in AVP (Alternative to violence Programme Newsletter, Nigeria 13th June 2003 on Pg.10-11) are;
- The Pastor/Reverend /Imams that were killed were they working for THIS DAY Newspaper or were part of the organizer of the pageants?
- The Churches/Mosques that were burnt were they THIS DAY office or stores or venue for the pageants?
- The innocent men on the street that were killed…what have they got to do with the pageant?
- The business and properties that were destroyed, were they investment of the publisher of THIS DAY or the organizers of the pageants?
A lot of questions like these kept coming to mind and no justified answer to these questions before going to the street, a lot of things that happens would not have been but if only…
The reporter that wrote the piece was all based in Lagos and the killing and destruction happened in Kaduna 885km, over 14 hours drive from each other. What has it got to do with it?
The pageant was to hold in the capital city of Nigeria, Abuja with fees to be paid before entrance and it is very expensive tickets. The Minimum ticket was, 15,000 Naira Nigerian money equivalent to 160 United State Dollar, for a country living below 1 Dollar a day, thus if you are not interested you do not have to go and watch. For those that felt it would be aired on National Television, they had choices, other stations are available, that would not air the show, and so they as well can switch there, or even play video/CD or for the cast resort switch off their Television set. So why the killing and destruction.
If only … we will learn to respect other people opinion…ourselves…cares for others, if only… we will ‘tolerate others’. We can see from what happened in Kaduna-Nigeria, that we must learn to live together to avoid such happenings if we must achieve our aim of a globalized community.
The media has failed us over the year, with its promotion of violence and prejudice, through films, information about people’s traditions. If we must have tolerance then prejudice, must be sent packing, King of Prussia, Frederick the Great said Drive out prejudices through the door, and they will return through the window. The Millennium Development Goals of having a multifactor, human-centered vision of development cannot be achieved, if tolerance and diversity is not promoted with sincerity. Achieving the MDG, is a collective responsibility of the global community, so if we must not fail then tolerance and diversity must be promoted by the media, government of poor and rich nations, religious leaders and followers.
If tolerance most reign then a balance must be reached been the poor and the rich, a hungry man, they say is an angry man, so to achieve a friendly world, the extreme poverty must be eradicated, they must be food on the table of the poor. Decades of research as proved the link between the practices of tolerance and diversity and economic development.
Charity they say begins at home, the family as the entrance to the society, quality of the family determines the qualities of the nation, so families has a greater job of bringing tolerate children’s, families must share affliction with neighbours and non-tribe friend. Family ethic should be restored; western promotion of device is not happing matters, civilization must not break the bond of love between families. A case study of the Israelis and Palestinians conflict as shown that adult citizens are not helping matters; innocent children are given wrong information on the crisis. They are just told an Israelis is your enemy no friendship vice versa.
In school, acquisition of academic knowledge should not be the sole priority of a child going to school. Moral and leadership skill should be included in their syllabus. A report by New York times, as a result of Children in Japan been taught early in life to hand in anything they find to the police, in 2002 $23, million in lost cash to the Tokyo, Japan Metropolitan police lost and found centre. In want to tell such children, will also tolerate others, without communication, each individual would merely be an Island isolated from all other island. Tolerance must begin with me and you, our position should be based on truth; people seek truth. We as individual must be ready to reverse our position if, we discover it is not fair, learn to listen to people everybody has made a journey, know where he/she is coming from, before you conclude. Always work towards a win-win situation.
The wind of change can only come from the heart of human beings. Like said by the World greatest pop singer Michael Jackson, Starting with the man in the mirror is the surest way of recreating our form world into a paradise of joy…especially at times like these when prejudice and hatred have turned our lovely planet into a place of suffering.
We must not allow ourselves to be overwhelmed with the staggering static of violent acts as a result of in-tolerance. The future is a subject of intense fascination; we must promote true friendship and cultural tolerance thanks to UNESCO and the goi peace foundation who are custodian and promoter of peace and tolerance. The saying “catch them young” and “pay now or cry later”, should be taken seriously young people’s hearts should be arrested now that they young. The cost of living together and promoting tolerance and diversity for now, through ensuring access to vital/life saving information, will be small compared to a future generation stigmatized and discriminated race, if nothing is done now..
The big question, I am leaving you all with is “What kind of world will this be in 10-50yrs time? If we all want peace, then tolerance and friendship must be our watch word.” Our word our bond”, we should all leave wishful things or thinking and gripe the truth.
I am looking forward to a future generation like in Askanya-Nova Biosphere reserve in southern Ukraine, where heralds of world animals from the six(6) continent of the world meets and roam the plane ranging from Cape buffalo from Africa to emu, a large flightless bird from Australia, all staying together in peace and harmony. The reserve shows how animals’ wild in nature, from various corners of the earth can adapt to their surrounding and co-habit peacefully, tolerating one another; prototype of what we all want!
For me, I am for peace, mine stand!
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