________________
NEWS FEATURE
For once, let us stop using metaphors like "smoking them out of their holes where many lives are involved
For once, let the terrorists be wanted for trial and not just wanted dead or alive.
For once, let us try to see the other side of the coin, extrapolate our actions and their consequences.
For once, let us not become the evil that we deplore. We do not live in jungles where survival of the fittest is the rule. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
We do need to respond, this is true. But be aware: a violent response is bound to breed resentment. A good response has to be multifaceted, resolute, just and effective. It must be made in parallel with attempts to explore the causes of conflicts. It has to be long-term, driven and guided by values that ensure the kind of world we want our children to live in.
"If you want peace, work for justice," said Pope Paul VI. The most profound dangers today are unequal rights, economic and social injustice, hypocritical foreign policies, deprivation, human exploitation and polarisation of the world. The deepening gap between the rich and poor countries leads to an increasing readiness to use violence to satisfy the greed of power and profit. Weapons of mass destruction are traded to satisfy this greed. To seek economic justice, the disparities between the rich and poor countries need to be reformed by enhancing foreign policies, by sharing wealth and resources.
Human rights need to be protected, for if human dignity is violated and abused anywhere, we are all injured and will be in danger. Real security can be achieved only through full respect for the rights of all. There should not be favouritism of any kind among ethnic groups or nationalities. There is a need for international law applicable to all. No nation has the right to punish human beings outside their border without legitimate judicial process. No government has the right to kill innocent men, women and
children or train people for the purpose Martin Luther King said, "The past is of killing. “Every gun that is made, prophetic in that it asserts loudly: wars every warship launched and every are poor chisels for carving out missile fired, signifies in the final sense peaceful tomorrows. World peace by a theft from those who hunger and are non-violent means is neither absurd nor not fed, from those who are cold and unattainable. All other methods have are not clothed" (Dwight D. failed, thus we must begin anew. We Eisenhower). Trillions of dollars each have the choice in this world between year are spent on destructive pursuits, non-violence and non-existence." justified in the name of defence and Along with King. Gandhi, Albert security. But true long-term security Einstein, Bertrand Russell, Leo Tolstoy needs an investment of a different kind. and Romain Rolland were all Billions of dollars were allocated for convinced that the problems of the the war against Iraq. Imagine what this world cannot be solved by violent amount of money would do if invested means. in health, education, infrastructure or In both a personal and a political environment.
sense we must dig out the roots of We need to engender an violence in our hearts. Political leaders environment of trust through fair and and governments need to understand common nuclear disarmament. The that manipulating human feelings for rich industrialised states are like selfish interests may yield short term leaders and hence carry the main benefits, but eventually will have responsibility. They need to set an disastrous effects. Long-term peace example by adhering strictly to interna- needs justice, tolerance and nontional rules. They need to be peaceful violence. To be non-violent one does in mind, generous at heart, humble in not need to be strong and powerful in spirit and selfless in soul, to chart out the conventional sense. It is being new directions in response. The entire powerful and strong in front of the world has to unite. Global effort is beast inside that is important. It is only needed to establish equal rights for all, fear within us that drives us to misuse to build an international court of law power and harm others to maintain, where none is exempt and to find gain or reclaim that power. It is the solutions to disputes that help in strength within us that can make us building security and peace. It is non-violent. The power of nonneeded to bring about nuclear violence to stand up for rights and disarmament, welfare and not warfare, justice comes from the spiritual to eliminate transnational terrorism and qualities of love, understanding, the financial networks that sustain courage, patience and tolerance. No terrorism. Global effort is needed to amount of military might can resist this work in this interdependent world power. across all boundaries, to secure a We cannot live apart. We must not common fate, to protect democracy, to live as nations here and there but as part improve education, health and of a whole. We all must let go of hatred infrastructure.
and bloodshed. After all, we want the Justice cannot be achieved by world to be peaceful. A song comes to retaliation. Neither is it achieved by my mind which I have sung right from passive submission. We need a path of kindergarten to high school: "Deep in non-violence, such as Mahatma my heart, I do believe, we shall over Gandhi's satyagraha movement which come one day, we shall live in peace succeeded in attaining freedom for one day..." India. There were successful nonviolent movements in the Philippines in 1986, in the Soviet Union in 1991; and Costa Rica showed the world that a Vidhi Jain is a 23-year-old MBA state can exist without an army while student in Bhopal, India, aspiring to a working positively towards peace. PhD in Organisational Behaviour
September - November 2003. Jain Spirit 5
Jain Education Intemational 2010_03
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
