Johan Ganzevort

Johan Ganzevort, Director of "Children to Children for peace" Organization,Paris

PEACE IN SOCIETY OF POWER RELATIONSHIP

We all live in a society, and we all want to live in another, in a better society.

Man are equal also in the sense that inside us, we all have a great desire for a better world.

We chase that feeling away, we are saying to ourselves: you be realistic, that fantasy, fanciful, an eccentric thought.

However, I ask you: If everything were possible, I repeat: If everything were possible, would you want to live in a better world? Please answer spontaneously by raising you arm, or both arms!

Now, don't move, but have only a look around you.

Yeah with such similar question was asked a feeling we feel ourselves often alone, now you see: you are alone.

A similar question was asked in the meeting of 800 people, and with the expectation of 2 or 3, all did show: Ye, we want to live in a better world, if possible. It is everybody's dream It was the dream of Martin Luther King, and others.

Why is that not possible? What hundreds us?

Our professors in history will perhaps answer: perhaps in other civilizations

as the Celtic one, or the Atlantis, or civilizations of South America, people were nearer to the dreams of making. And, in civilizations, there are highs and lows.

Psychologists or sociologist will perhaps answer differently. They will draw our attention to the fact that man how rich they can be, are never satisfied! As soon as one of their needs is satisfied, another appears in its place. The process is unending.

In France 2 billionaires had a big fight for the ownership of a fashion company: Gucci. One could not stand that the other could possess something he also wanted to have. Plenty made them poor.

When they invaded in 1940 Belgium and Holland, German soldiers were singing: "Urns Vaterland muss grosser sein (Our country must be bigger). One of German's obsessions that perhaps one day, there would not to be enough for all...Jealousy and fear create tensions, clashes and wears.

Religious leaders will probably answer our question: it is the fault of Adam, who sinned, and since then...They will also stress the fact that men created with the freedom to close.

Eva Pierrakos got from her angel the teaching, that we are on this planet to learn, and to accomplish a task. This is confirmed by the Talmud, the authoritative body of Jewish tradition, adding: "This planet is a square of a broad and vast reality", a preparatory school for realities, so to say.

Philosophers will be perplexed, as always. Some will try, and already did, some speculations. Whereby an Englishman gave a good advice: Speculation should be avoided in two circumstances. One is : when you can afford it. The other: when you cannot afford it.

But, let us leave that for now, and let us have a nearer look on some of the characteristic of our society.

Our very first observation is that we live in a society of power relationship: at international level, in politics, in the economy, through pressure groups, and even sometimes in the world of region, although they are all different colors of the same rainbow.

And, the very first characteristics of a society of power relationship is distance.

They can have their roots in objective situations, but that distance is mainly of psychological nature:

• Between those who have power and those who have not,
• Distance in social classes
• Between those who have and those who have not
• Although there is progress, there is still distance in the state of being a man or a woman.

In a society of power relationship, the entry doors to have access to power are:

• Studies education
• Money
• Action, alone or with others
• Relations.

These doors can lead to very good action, to generosity, to be constructive. But they are not innocent, and one can also be trapped.

In Paris, an important man in a company got fired, became unemployed. During two years, he continued to leave his home normally at 8 o clock in the morning, and to return home in the evening at normal times. His life had been built only on achievements, relation, and money. Now, he was not anybody anymore.

Man are experiencing the distance in themselves, as well as in a society:

• Distance between who he is really, his better self, and how he is behaving.
• Distance between the worker who wants to earn more money and the consumer who refused price increases of product and services he himself is contribution to produce
• Distance between the citizen who is clamoring more and more from the government, and the taxpayer indignant that level of taxes is so high.
• And in our affluent society, distance between our increasing needs, and not so increasing means.

The society can be improved through the same methods: by power, better conditions, better access to education, etc. But even when the slaves become masters, the masters, the masters remain in the same society of power relationship. The dictatorship of the Tzars of Russia were replaced by the dictatorship of the proletariat, or rather there representatives: the apparatchiks.

Men generate the society, which resembled to him. One observes that a society using the methods of power relationship generates the same type of society.

Why? Because of this law: One gets always the society, the situation of these methods, never the society, the situation, of his intentions.

You may forget all what I said, the whole conference, but never, never forget this low: one gets always the society, the situation of his methods, never the society, the situation of his intentions.

Around 1980, I was living in the outskirts of Paris. It was electric time. The French communists party did distribute their programme, a booklet of more than 50 pages. Extraordinary!

A society of equal chances for everybody controlling everybody, the fair sharing of wealth, access to educate for everybody, no privileges anymore. As in Russia. One could sign at the bottom of every page.

Not one mention of the methods to achieve this society: in Russia no freedom of press, of religion, of opinion, of meeting, everybody controlling everybody, police with arbitrary, despotic power. And as Soljenitzine put it: this society can exist a long time, by contribution of each to the lie.

In Russia, they did generate a society of the method used, not of their intentions.

So the question is always: intentions, fine, but what are your methods?

Is another society possible? Are there examples of society/ situations of power relationship?

Yes and no.

No, I am not aware of a whole nation living as a society without power relationship.

But yes, we know of man and women already experiencing other behavior. They already act differently in our society. You rarely read about them in the press. They live on all continents, you find them at every level of responsibility: in the army, in business, in government, in universities, etc. Only some of them came in the limelight.

During World War II, Belgium was governed by the Wehrmacht, the German Army officer was responsible for the town Leuven/Louven. In the given circumstances (you can easily imagine wartime), he did his job so good, that after the war, Leuven offered him the honorary citizenship of the town.

In the last days of the war, the American army did liberate a concentration camp. The prisoners who survived welcomed the liberators saying:"We have hidden the German commanding officer? We will only tell you where he is hidden, if you promise us not to do army any harm. He did everything possible to make life here bearable, he bought medicines for the prisoners with his own money". Very astonished, the Americans did promise!

During the apartheid in South Africa, Mandela got s lifetime sentence for treason against the state, for not accepting the apartheid. He was imprisoned on the Robben Islands during 20 years. He behavior was such that his jailer became a better man. Later as head of the government, with all power to revenge, he restored right relationship in the country, with so many wounds.

Not without emotion, I visited 3 weeks ago a little town in France: Chambon-sur-Lignon. During the war, the whole town did hide Jewish children, and saved the life of hundred of them. One man achieved to mobilize the town, a minister of a protestant church. His name:

Other did the same, at different scales. Those man and women are called:the Just, the Righteos.

In Burma, about 50 years ago, the father of Aung San Suu Kyu, has been murdered by the army. Since then the country is ruled with dictatorship by the army. In 1988, Aung San Suu Kyi, in front of half a million people, made the promise of a democratic government, and honouring all those who have political integrity.

Since then, the Army is trying to get rid of her, to get her afraid, and not succeed. She is free from fear.

There are many others, we do not know the number, we do not the names. They all broaden the world into a brotherhood.

Since we get always the society/ situation of the models used, can we identify their methods? Yes, we can identity some common characteristics!

Very fast: in all circumstances, it are prisoners, it are persons with a genuine solidarity of being. Solidarity means: if you have lost every friend on earth, you have one friend left, and that friend is down, inside you. Living at the level of their innermost self, they have grown into persons who change relationships. And some of you may remember the definition of peace I proposed at the first conference here: The Kingdom of Peace is the Kingdom of the right relationship. They construct peace by changing the relationship into the right relationship. With humble authenticity and authority.

Secondly: when meet an abstracted, they do not use a power hammer, a pneumatic drill. They use the method of water. When water meets a roc, it goes around.

An ambassador asked President Lincoln of the United States a way to deal with a problem in relationship in a given country. Lincoln advised: "If you cannot go by the road, go though the bushes."

In Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi could never leave her home. So she built a little platform inside her garden, and from there she makes her speeches to the people gathering at the other side of the wall of her estate, giving hope and courage.

In Chile, a minister of Allende did constitute during the dictatorship of Pinochet a group of person, preparing them to conduct in the future the affairs of the country, in a peaceful way.

A third characteristic /method: they do not want to change the world. It was the aim of Hitler to change the world. Of Staline too. But the constructor of peace only wants to change where they live, where they have responsibilities. In WHO, the world Health Organization, in Geneva, I saw on board the following prayer: " Oh God, give us serenity to accept what cannot be changed, courage to change what should be changed, and wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.

They act as if they all know that prayer. Perhaps they do. I do not know!

Another method: not to be dogmatic, but humble. They may have strong opinions, but they know that the opposite of a corner statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.

And last but not least: they have an attitude of empathy, of charity, of love. They know that all man are a part of family of men, are underway, striving, suffering, hoping and learning.

In the middle of the 19th century started a civil war in the United States. The South wanted to keep the slaves for their cotton field. The North, more industrialized, did not agree. The South wanted to stop out Union. The North, with the voice of Lincoln said: a house divided against itself cannot exist. A nation partly slaves; partly free man is not acceptable. A civil war was the result, necessary to free the salves.

Elected in 1860, that President Lincoln conducted war. The war was bitter and long, lasted more than 4 years.

In 1864, Lincoln was elected for a second mandate. The war was not over, when he bade; in his inaugural address his misguided brethren of the South to come back.

"With malice toward none, with charity for all" he implored his fellow countryman "with firmness in the right as God gives us to use right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nations wound, to care for him who shall have born the battle and for his window and his orphan may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and within nations.

Many of us come to this conference with the question: how to built peace?

The second question is now: how can we learn from the methods, the characteristic we referred to. How can we be effective?

Let us examine one by one.

1. Genuine solidity of being. Solidarity can be acquired, developed. It is a process with different aspects. Firs you need to know you are. We often live at the surface of personality. We often have been educated by: you are not this or that, the negative sides. But to acquire solidity, you have to discover your real self, your genuine identity, and your better self. And to accept it! We are all unique. Examples like Mandela, Licoln, Aung San Suu Kyi may inspire us, but they are Mandela, Lincoln, Aung San Suu Kyi, and not you or I. They teach us the ability to stand back from instinctive reactions, not by a reasoning process but by the best of us, this is our innermost self.

A rose who want to be a tree will not be anymore a rose, and will never be a tree. But when I am aware of all positive, of the gifts I have been equipped with, and also of my limit and fragilities, I can throw away the crutches I use to be accepted by acceptable to others.

2. The second aspect is to look at what hinders. The wounds, the prisons.

A friend of mine set up in the Dordogne in France a superb business. He likes to tell us that in 25 years he had not only vacation. He adds:" You know, my father always said, I was too stupid, too lazy for having a successful life". His obvious motivation "Look at me Daddy"!

Such people have a very negative self-image and an overrated self-image, the negative image being prevalent in times of depression.

All human beings need recognition, to be seen and understood as they really are, to be believed in, to be loved for themselves, to be themselves. And hurts are inflicted when one is not seen, not understood as he or she really is, not accepted, disbelieved.

Some may feel unwanted. Worse: they may even tell that they are.

A friend of mine, her name is David. At her birth, her father was so disappointed that maintained the chosen name for the son he wanted. Her profession: therapist for children! She knows a lot about suffering!

My former secretary told me the same story. Her second name is Andree.

The hurt may be inflicted through fun, or sarcasm, in family, in the office, in school. In school, I was not an angel. But that day, at the age of 10, the schoolmaster slapped me in the face without reason. By chance I saw him on the television 30 years later. At a given moment, he stumbles over his words, his performance became catastrophic. When I saw this, a joy overwhelmed me entirely. It was the best day of my life! During 30 years, the wound had not been healed in my memory.

Wounds, who can say/he she had never been hurt.

Aung San Suu Kyi said: "When so many wounds have been inflicted to people of a country, often when so many trauma s are there, the Truth and Reconciliation

approach is necessary. Truth and Reconciliation go together. When Trust is admitted, pardon becomes possible. When Trust is refused, hatred and anger continue, because the suffering inflicted has not been recognized.

At our first conference, the Grand Mufti of Bosnia, Sir. Mustafa Ceric, put it in the following terms: "I believe, he said, that neither weak not the aggressive will inherit the Earth, but the cooperative in truth, justice, peace and reconciliation among people and nations".

In practical terms, how to deal with these wounds? Because if you do not deal with you. It will be a prison to you, and hinder your growth. The basic question is: can initial wounds initial wounds be healed? The answer is: Yes! This is not a speech about therapy, but some remarks.

• You can go and see a therapist. Some situations are complex. And professional help is than necessary.
• A shorter and practical way is often to share this with a person you have confidence in. Also you may chose to put it in writing, a letter to a person you trust, or a letter to a person you trust, or a letter to yourself.

Prisoners are not happy. Aggressiveness and violence, hatred and racism are often, if not always, consequences of not feeling good about oneself. They can even become supports of one s identity.

But you can liberate yourself, end little by little you will acquire more solidarity. And you will become more friend of yourself. It takes time. This is why one must be patient, persistent and strongly motivated.

3. The method secondly mentioned is the method of water. Not to use the power hammer when there is an obstacle, but trying to find a solution by going around, by adapting yourself... Anyone can use this method don't they?

The third method: to accept what cannot be changed, courage what can be changed, and wisdom to distinguish the one from the other. Possible also if there is the will.

4. The fourth method: not to be dogmatic but humble.

And finally, to be continuously aware that others are also in the learning process on this planet, somewhere underway, exactly as I am. That humanity is work in process. This learning process includes justice for those who did harm.

Tolerance! At the first conference, I told you I had difficulties whit the word tolerance as defined by my dictionary "as the fact of allowing something indulgence for beliefs and practices differing from one's own"

But who has the standards for others?

A better approach: the need for everyone to be respected in their ways of thinking and acting, in their opinions, religions, whereby they too have to respect my freedom.

As far as standards are concerned, Khalil Gibran, the famous Lebanon author of "The Prphet", tells the story of a dog asking a cat what he's doing. The cat answers: "I am praying. When you pray long enough and deeply enough, then mousses will fall from heaven."

The dog tons his head, laughing!

"Those stupid cats! You must be a cat to believe such stupid things! Everybody knows that when you pray long and deeply heaven will never give mousses, but bones!" Different standards!

And at the end! The Chinese say: "I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand."

Often at the end, there will be rather scars then diplomas. But let me tell you a story from Bresil.

Not far from the Amazon River, a colibri (in English a hummingbird) discovers a fire in the jungle. He fills his little beak in the River, flies the drops to the fire, and repeat this in the evening, when exhausted, he takes a rest near a pelican.

The pelican had fished in the morning two fishes, enough to allow him to spend the rest of the day looking the clothes passing by, and the birds flying. He did see our colibri flying all day from the River to the fire and back, and sad to him: "What you are doing, that does not serve any purpose!"

The colibri answered him: "Whether it serves any purpose of not, I don't know. What I know is, that I did what I could."

Perhaps at the end, we will say: "I was rather an eagle, or a wild goose, or a swallow, or a just that colibri. But I have tried to carry on my vocation my profession, my job of a human being. I have done what I could "and that is the ultimate peace.