In 1981, by unanimous resolution, the United Nations declared 21 September as the International Day Of Peace. The goal was to create a worldwide culture of peace, in which the conflicts between nations and communities would be solved peacefully.
“Peace on earth” and “goodwill toward men”; we hear such phrases quite often, but in South Africa they appear to be evaporating before our eyes. Sadly our beloved country has been rocked, mutilated and decimated by mindless violence and devoured by destruction unprecedented in our recorded history. We wonder how our people have been able to weather the storm, despite the severity of the issues at stake, irrespective of their colour or political affiliation.
Do not relent in your quest for continuous sustenance of peace and unity among us all. It is only on this basis that our potential can be realised. South Africa is our country and we are all duty-bound to protect it, no matter what the circumstances. Let us all join hands together to ensure that the future of generations to come is assured. Let us hand over to them a future free of violence, racial prejudice and political bigotry. I urge my brothers and sisters to embrace peace and observe restraint in volatile situations.
Our beleaguered souls seek calm amid the storm, peace among the chaos. We turn on the news and see another upsetting story unfolding across our battered landscape.
Approaches to peacebuilding must focus not only on the security dimension but also on the underlying causes and consequences that characterise our grotesquely imbalanced society.
We have a society that consists of immense wealth and monumental poverty. No nation on earth can sustain such a dangerous and precarious imbalance. Sooner or later this imbalance will erupt into an inferno that no power on Earth will be able to contain.
This widening chasm must be bridged if we are serious about preventing another catastrophic uprising. We urgently need to formulate a positive developmental agenda and eschew sentimental rancour that can only bring doom and regret to the entire nation.
The greatest impediment to progress in our strife-torn land is demonic corruption, which has destroyed the quality of life and turned many of our citizens into beggars. The money that was embezzled by the elite over the past 27 years could have completely obliterated poverty.
Nevertheless, we must continue to strive for peace under these difficult conditions.
Peace is not the absence of conflict, which is inevitable in human society. However, a society is judged on how it is able to manage its conflicts to ensure peaceful co-existence. The common refrain is that there can never be development without peace; and indeed, peace is the sine qua non to the development of any society.
Today there are rampant suspicions in most parts of our national life. Suspicion breeds fear. Our country has been ranked as corrupt and violent. It is not a medal we should wear with pride. In this critical hour, the people of our pulverised land are crying out for positive leaders to lead us, steer us away from calamity, reunite a battered land, restore a shattered economy, lead us from death to life, from falsehood to truth, from despair to hope, from fear to trust.
We live in polarised times. Division, hatred, prejudice and jealousy have infiltrated every layer of our society, separating even close friends and family members. New politically inspired divisions continue to tear at the seams of the fabric of our nation.
As a poignant plea in our darkest hour, we must put aside our own feelings, jumbled and confused as they may be at the moment, in service of others: our neighbours, the unemployed, the destitute, the jobless and the masses who are unfortunate victims of the calamity that overtook us and destroyed our spirits.
During these days of anger, division and uncertainty, most of us aren’t quite sure how to respond. Peacebuilding is an enabler of development, security, social and economic justice and reconciliation. They are the reasons why investing in peacebuilding and conflict resolution should be our response.
Let us all as injured South Africans strive sincerely for collective and genuine peace, and in the process construct a revised nation built on equality for all. The alternatives are too ghastly to contemplate.
Farouk Araie writes from Actonville in Gauteng.
English
Arabic
Chinese (Simplified)
Dutch
French
German
Italian
Portuguese
Russian
Spanish