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We all have choices to make. Each of us can make a conscious
decision about whether to help perpetuate the culture of violence by being
complacent, abdicating our responsibility, behaving disrespectfully in our
personal and professional lives and not supporting preventive and interventive
work. Or each of us can make the choice to confront the culture of violence and
to contribute to building a culture of peace — in whatever small way. It starts
with self, and we can all make a difference.
Violence is easy. No real skill is needed to pick up a knife,
hijack a car, go on a shooting spree, throw a pipe bomb, batter a wife and
child, rape, murder, or abuse with words. But the way of peacebuilding is much
more difficult. There is no time or capacity for spoon feeding. Books and
‘how-to’s’ may provide the theory, but it takes dedication, commitment, time,
risk and skill to put it into practice and — in the case of institutional
structures — the necessary management support to make it meaningful and real.
Cultures of constructive conflict resolution need to be cultivated in
organisations, institutions and homes — to become part of the way things are
done.
Given this, I see the primary education tasks for the future
as follows:
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We need to ensure that teaching young people to approach and deal with
conflict in creative and constructive ways should be a core and valued
component of their formal and informal education;
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We need to help young people develop broad social literacies and build
vocabularies of hope and empowerment in terms of decision making, taking
responsibility, skills training, visioning alternatives and making them
happen;
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We need to develop intergenerational partnerships with young people, to
actively engage with them and hear their voices in homes, schools and other
institutions and in the media — to listen to their stories, opinions, dreams,
fears, needs and frustrations, and to take them seriously. At the same time we
need to ask ourselves if there are aspects of cultural and emotional violence
involved in the ways in which we listen, or neglect to listen, to what young
people are saying;
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We need to challenge the media to talk about the ‘good news’ and to take their
social responsibility role in terms of education more seriously;
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Every young person is entitled to the respect of others and to the recognition
of their inherent worth and dignity as human beings. With this entitlement
comes the responsibility to treat others as we would like to be treated
ourselves. But cultivating this mutual respect doesn’t just happen. We need
systematic governmental, organisational, institutional, religious, community
and media support to commit to making this kind of education happen, and to
do what we can as ordinary citizens to ensure that it does.
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We need to encourage young people to develop internal vocabularies of hope
and empowerment — to “search for the hero inside themselves,” as the vocal
group M People suggest in their song Search. Imagine if all youth could
sing those words in their hearts, or the words of the R Kelly song I
Believe I Can Fly?
I believe I can fly
I believe I can touch
the sky
I believe I can soar
I see me running through
that open door
I believe I can fly
'Cos I believe in me
If I just spread my
wings I believe I can fly.
If I can see it
Then I can do it
If I just believe it
There’s nothing to it.
If we don’t encourage our youth to
sing this kind of song, we are going to end up with more and more victims of
the present and future shock that violence inflicts on our land.
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