Also known as the ‘International Day of Peace’, as formalised by UN General Assembly Resolution 55/282. Hopefully we will see a lot of warring states, groups and combatants all over the world, observe one day of ceasefire in line with this resolution. As the resolution states:-
Declares that the International Day of Peace shall henceforth be observed as a day of global ceasefire and non-violence, an invitation to all nations and people to honour a cessation of hostilities for the duration of the Day
We shall have to repent in this generation, not so much for the evil deeds of the wicked people, but for the appalling silence of the good people ~ Martin Luther King, Jr. If throughout history, we didn’t have individuals like MLK Jr., Nelson Mandela, Reverend Tutu, who each dreamt of accomplishing such seemingly far-fetched things that others mocked them, then where would we be today ? Where would South Africa be today without the dreams of Madiba?
It might not solve anything, but if it forces some of us to consider the state of affairs we find this world in and how we can, in our own little niches of life, implement change for the better - then where’s the harm, eh?
This website contains links to download the Peace One Day song by Dave Stewart and Jimmy Cliff; this website contains a link to the 8-minute Peace One Day film, containing short interview clips from Annan, Mary Robinson, Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa, former Secretary General of the Organization of African Unity, and many many more. It’s only eight minutes long.
>>>Hopefully* we will see a lot of warring states, groups and combatants all over the world, observe one day of ceasefire in line with this resolution. <<<*
Like CM said it doesn't seem likely, but where would we be without hope?- A dream whether it be a mirror of reality or a distant echo is still something, and something is better than nothing......right?:)
Nadia it is a pipe dream. You should never contridict me. You know better :p It is a pipe dream because man is not a peaceful creature. If man was inherently peace loving and good, they in the past would have been living in harmony to nature, as the Druid socities of Ye olde England. Rather man by nature likes things that both destory and help it gain power.
Peace is not possible in todays day and age as morals dont govern international politics. National interest does and by definition that is not morally based at all. It looks after the interests of a few to the determent of the others. Peace is a pipe dream in this day and age because people steal feel that you need to be use force to prove your point.
Mandela, Gandhi, Tutu etc, did not stop what happened in Rwanda. They could not. As the movie title goes, a Few Good Men. That is all they are a very few men who have attained greatness, but at the same time they have had to undergo intense and horrible physical and mental pain. Not every man is capable of that.
This is short i agree, but unless we can agree with a certain attribute we wish to discuss regarding why peace is not possible, posts will remain abstract and ambigious.
>>It is a pipe dream because man is not a peaceful creature.<<
Glad to see you are finally coming around to my point of view, CM. The above is precisely why women should rule the world :queen: (And no, don’t bring up Benazir:~p i’m talking about a real woman:)).
Seriously, yes humanity is violent. But at least we have those “Few Good Men”, right? All throughout our history, we have examples of horrendous things being committed by EACH group against another… and also throughout history, we have the Mother Teresas and the Madibas of this world.. they are few, but that does not discount the fact that they are there. Imagine Mother Teresa at the start of her work, when no one knew her, when her face was not a globally-recognizable icon, when she hadn’t won the Nobel Peace Prize. Imagine someone asking her, What do you want to do with the rest of your life? And imagine their reactions when she answered, I want to be a friend to the poor, the sick, the blind, I want to give my life in service to those who are in most desperate need of it. We would have automatically thought, Man that sounds so naively pathetic, she’s not going to get anywhere doing that. But how many children did she help? How many hungry people slept better at night, with full stomachs that for once weren’t grumbling with hunger, because of HER - one person’s - dedication?
This is a theoretical example. Let’s say you get married and have a child. Consider: what sort of world would you wish your child to grow up in? What perceptions would you want him/her to have of the world? Just a guess, but i think any parent would feel far more motivated to endorse initiatives such as Peace One Day because you - as a parent - have a deeper, more passionate incentive for making the world a better place. Not only that, but wouldn’t you want to show to your child that his father is trying to be a part of the solution, not the problem? Show your child an alternative way of thinking…?
i’m rambling now, so i’ll finish with this quote of a very smart Irish fellow, Edmund Burke: The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men [and women] to do nothing. Let’s not be the silence of those good men and women… Peace One Day is not the utopian solution to all our ills, it is simply an awareness that conflicts are not the solution, and it is action built upon that awareness. It’s not going to do anything that will take our breath away, but anything great that needs doing always takes time, n’est pas?
Peace One Day is exactly that...for one day the people who could do something but choose to turn their backs on what is happening all over the world will be (shamelessly) showing hey we are doing something..and then it will fade into the shackles..thats about all...Utopia is a place I built years ago...and then I placed it in my silken scarf..and tied it with a ribbon of my hopes and dreams and the Faiz I had read..and I placed it under my bed..and looked at the world..and I saw that it was REAL......................................................................
If we're not part of the solution, then we're part of the problem. Take that Utopia out from under your bed and give it a good shake; facing reality doesn't mean that one has to be pessimistic. A laissez faire mentality towards all the world's problems won't make them go away; it's no better than the governments of the Middle East doing nothing to help Palestinians except wringing their hands, then going back to the UN and agreeing with every Resolution that goes against the Palestinians.
It's Peace One Day because it's recognizing the fact that to do great things you have to take it one step at a time..bit by bit.
Nadia i will repeat. If we have women rulers, we will have wars for mudane reasons like they have the same dress, not for manly reasons of he is one ugly ***********.
Anyway a few good men do not make a world of difference. They can change a country, or even a complete region. But no mortal man can change the world and esp. if he is of pure mind and spirit. That would be because many would be out to stop him as it gets in their immoral ways of life.
Man is inherent self-centered. Some are not. Thus a few good men. But i will not believe that every single person on the face of this earth is a nice person. I have met alot more people whose bad qualities far outwieght their goods ones. From work, to normal things on the street.
An example, I help Indians and Pakistanis in geneva all the time. I help old couples find places they want. I act like a guide sometimes to desi couples when they are here for the first time in Switzerland. I do it just because i can. Also because i know the Swiss people will not help. Does that mean i am inherently a good person? No.
Man can do good things and bad things. However the bad far out weighs the good, as we cant see the after affect of things. Now for the marriage example. I aint getting married so it aint relevant :p. But i will bite. For my child i will not be an idealistic fool. I will see what is realistic. Life is dangerous. To live is to know pain.
My child will be protected, but i will not shelter them from all that is bad in this world. He or she would need to be able to tell what is wrong and right but aim to do good all the time. I will not give them false hopes about humanity. We are capable of far more evil than good.
Personally opinion: It is far easier to be evil that good. To be evil you look out for number 1 yourself. To be good you have to make sacrifices. Most people dont have the will power or the courage to do so. That is why they are a few good men and a good leader is so rare.
I can hope for a peaceful earth. But i know this will only happen after a majority of the planet is declimated and people die horrible deaths. Humanity only learns when the evil is of great proportions.
I know i am rambling, but peace on earth is a pipe dream as a human cant live in peace with is neighbour. Take India and Pakistan, Iran and Iraq. If neighbors cant live together. How can the whole of humanity?
My Utopia, Nad..remains within the shackles of my soul..it does not stop me from dreaming ..dreaming big..or working..working hard..but I know that berucracy is a totally different story as compared to the inherant goodness within the human spirit..I speak from personal experience but thats besides the point..It would be wonderful and a positive step if ONE DAY could be not just one day...the one liners are all scattered across the jagged space that war and politics has created in Mans Life...I believe I have said this in a thread about the Arafat Crisis at present..just a quick restatement: The UN and the world looks away as Middle East continues to exist in its apathy..its a shame that ONE DAY PEACE will be there whereas all along UN and the entire world looks on or away rather as this continues in M.E and all over the world...Danda is Dhanda..I suppose.
"It's Peace One Day because it's recognizing the fact that to do great things you have to take it one step at a time..bit by bit."
Yaar.. (with no offense..but I am kind of blunt)...for crying out loud for how long will the world and the powerful continue to make a fascade of the truth...one step le bhi chuken....its been going on for yrs...we used to condemn Pakistan for lack of intent...jeez..look at the world and talk about LACK of INTENT...
War is looming. Once again war looms. Or is war only being threatened so as to stop war coming? Does the limiting word “only” mean that this is just a mock threat, this staged build-up of US and British troops and ships on the Arabian peninsula and in the Red sea, with its supply of pictures to the media of overwhelming military might? As soon as one of the world’s two dozen dictators has crumbled into exile or preferably is dead, will this all turn out to be a show of force which brought peace and can vanish away again?
Hardly. This looming war is a wanted war. It is already going on in the heads of the planners, in the world’s stock exchanges, and in what seem to be forward-dated TV programmes. The enemy target is in the sights. He has been named and - along with other enemies on the stocks who will be targeted and named next - he fits the bill for those who want to conjure a danger so grim that it undermines careful reflection.
We know how people create enemies where none exists. We know, and have plenty of pictures to illustrate it, what happens in war when the target is not quite hit. We are familiar with the words for damage and casualties which we are told to accept as inevitable. We are used to the relatively small number of its own dead that the world’s number one ruling power has to count and mourn while the mass of enemy dead, including women and children, go uncounted and are not worth mourning.
So now we wait for the new war and the old repetitions. This time new missile systems will be even more accurate. We can be confident about the choice of pictures from this looming war. The flow of images will be sanitised of every detail of horror. Familiar TV channels will be there to give us a new instalment of war as soap opera, interrupted only by ads for consumers who are living happily in peace.
The only issue for discussion is whether people approach this coming, already happening war as loudmouthed or half-hearted allies, or the sort who may only make a small contribution on the sidelines like the Germans, whose time for making war is over by now, or should be.
Who is the target of this war which is only being threatened? A fearful dictator. But Saddam Hussein, like other dictators, was once a brother-in-arms to the democratic world power and its allies. On their behalf, and heavily armed by the west, he waged war for eight years against his neighbour Iran, because at that time the dictator who ruled there was enemy number one.
But, the argument goes on, Saddam Hussein is in possession of of weapons of mass destruction (which has not yet been proved). We are also promised that after this dictator is defeated democracy will be installed in Iraq. But this dictator’s neighbours, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, which are western allies and serve as launchpads for invading Iraq, are also dictatorships. Are they the next targets for wars to bring democracy?
I know these are idle questions. The world power’s arrogance has an answer for all of them. But everyone knows or assumes that it is all about oil. To be accurate, that it’s all about oil again. The spectre of hypocrisy which the last remaining superpower and its chorus of allies use to cover their true interests has become so threadbare that the drive for dominance shows right through. It stands there in its hubris, unashamed and dangerous to the rest of the world. The current US president is the perfect expression of this common danger we face.
I don’t know if the United Nations will be resolute enough to resist the US’s clenched drive for power. My experience tells me this wanted war will be followed by other wars with the same drive behind them. I hope my country’s citizens and government will give convincing proof that we Germans have learned the lesson of the wars we have caused and will say no to the oncoming madness, called war.
"What should I do if in fretful sleep
the ghosts of the slaughtered were to appear,
bloody, pale, and wan, and weep
in front of me, what should I do?"
That’s the question the 18th century writer, Matthias Claudius asks in his poem, Warsong. Looking back on our wars and the people we have slaughtered, this is the question we have still not answered completely.
That distant, looming war which is already under way and which never stops, poses his same question yet again.
“Alas, it is war, and I don’t wish to carry the guilt for it.”
· Günter Grass won the Nobel prize for literature in 1999. His new novel, Crabwalk, will be published by Faber in April.
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*Originally posted by Braveheart: *
John Lennon also sang the words and no religion tooand that is because he understood the underlying reason why people go to war.
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This is true Braveheart: I know no religion that would not allow a day of peace. And maybe, just maybe; religion ,not the act of beleaving, is the problem in the world today.
This is true Braveheart: I know no religion that would not allow a day of peace. And maybe, just maybe; religion ,not the act of beleaving, is the problem in the world today.
[/QUOTE]
Organised religion certainly has a lot to answer for as far as i can see.So called religous leaders who dress up in their gold finery,living in their palaces,not one of them who would not condone a war if they thought their precious jobs were at risk.
I often wonder what these guys say when they meet their maker.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by CM: *
Peace?
Ha.
More like a pipe dream.
They seem to have been smoking the good stuff when they came up with this resolution.
[/QUOTE]
If that is what it takes, I'm buying!
Might as well eat and smile on that day, huh? lol
What 
CM, it’s no “pipe dream” :~p