Values

The never ending values discussions are very interesting.

Why do we say that there are values? Because we, humans, think in values.

This means that any value we accept is exactly because of that WE VALUE what it

stands for.  Don't take me wrong, nothing Wrong in doing this, but please see that this is what we DO.

Most of us thinks that dogs deserve a good life and that bacteria doesn't necessary. Harm a dog-no!

Harm a bacteria-what do I care?

To really see that it is the average human value that we put as "True" values in societys,countries, the world,

is insightful!

Take differing opinions like eating meat. The more people opposing it, or the less, will affect how much

we as a society "cares" about it.

To say that something Really is wrong or right, without change,

is only saying that I will always think ,or humans will always think, that this is wrong/right.

When going against wrong and right, you are either not liking what you do yourself, OR, a lot of other people

do not like what you do. Nothing else. To claim that god judges you is a foundation for the "Ultimate human

thinking" This of course means that people of major different views than the rest of us, such as murderers,

only are doing something the REST OF US thinks is wrong! The rational thinking of them could be:

the only loss for me is that other people will oppose and try to take me down. AND WHY NOT?

Of course I think that it is wrong and want to take them down, but that is only because I share the thinking

of the majority! It will be a fight between Different values!  NOTHING ELSE!

Imagine a world with 90%  thinking murder is ok, and 10 not.  I Repeat, I do not want that kind of world,

BUT!!  It is the aggreggate values that will rule.  The ten percent who has the same values as majority today,

would fight for their thing but they probably loose. I would fight with those. But nothing says that

there is anything else then this conflict! The 90% would be stronger and the value they have,

the same as a smaaal minority today, would be the globally most accepted OF COURSE!

Peace goals :)

Hmm. Nice last task. I think that long term is most important,
I will try to act more glad and positive towards everybody I meet. I am very positive and glad but to spread it all the times, because I really think that makes a lot of difference, also for me.

To spread happiness is what I believe is the biggest difference we can make for others. We can always make ourselves better, but to tell other what to do is not going to do much I think.

I will also to try to help others more. I always think that the world isn't helpful enough so it's stupid not to try to do that myself.

For short term, I guess that except from the same as the long term, I could take all the stuff at home that I don't want to keep to some sort of collecting charity or similar to get it useful and helpful somewhere,

so i'll do that! :)

HAVE A NIIIIIIIIIIICE SUMMER  all!

Inner peace

For me, inner peace will always be closely related to 'no worries'. Whether it depends on events in life or the actual choice, like in the song Don't Worry Be Happy, the inner happiness will be determined by how much more to be glad about than to be angry about. Of course there is stuff you can't control, dear friends or family members dying or getting very sick for example. But what I really want to say, is that you will always be able to choose the better perspective to everything that happens to you in life. I even think that sadness is something beautiful that we can share with close ones. One way to put the choice of perspective is of course the classical saying "always look on the bright side of life". Optimism and positive spirit is obviously also related. Again don't misunderstand this as saying you aren't allowed to see the sad parts in life, no question that being totally open is the best, you are not supposed to ignore and close your eyes, what you really are choosing is what to do with what happens in your life. Admit that the world isn't perfect and then on the other hand see all the amazing great wonderful that there is. The feeling of being here together, even when struggling. Passion and love is not without torns, everybody knows that. So choose! And live life! :)

Why isn’t it easy to have peace?

There are four words that can explain pretty much all of the disagreement in the world, and therefore the biggest part of the lack of peace. Those words are; the distribution of resources. In a world without limits on the supply of resources, there wouldn’t of course be any problem at all for us to deal with in this perspective, we would have everything everyone needed and wanted in terms of material things. As we don’t, who gets what will always be the ultimate challenge.

I am mainly focusing on the global distribution, who gets what when it comes to water, food, other well-being necessities and everything above the basic need? We all know that in our time, this seems unfairly done. Some countries do not have water while others suffers from sicknesses because of having too much of the worlds gifts. But then, who is to decide what new rules and distribution standards should be applied? As we already have a system, it would be an overwhelmingly complex thing to set an actual way of global distribution based on the average values of the human race. Not only that everybody’s opinion would have to be secured, but to make a compromise in combining all those thoughts, ideas and ideals seems impossible. So instead we continue to use groups, like countries, communities, and so on. We are placing larger amounts of people into groups and then continually in a group somewhat decide what the best interest of that separate group is, using representative leadership which is backed up by a majority. Now, the distribution depends on what potential resources the countries have, and how good and effective they are at extracting them. It is the easiest thing to understand that we become divided instead of one world unit here. That is one reason of the “unfair” distribution. Another thing is ignorance. Even if you really think it should be a fairer world, you aren’t voting for a world community, at the top level for your country. This leads to that you fool yourself to not care how much we help other countries and communities, because we narrow our focus. Of course there is foreign aid and likewise, but I think that this attempt to even out the possessions wouldn’t even exist if the whole humanity had a common ruling. It’s easy to say now of course, that if that was the case we would be better off in the hard task of distribution. But I say that it would still be beneficial to try to work get a common ruling for the world. I’m not talking about global organizations like the UN, I mean a world government. If we could achieve this fundamentally huge change in our system, the number one task we have to face in order to maintain peace, the distribution of resources, would be so much easier.

Homophobia

As with a lot of differences among us, homosexuality is yet another fuel for harassment. Everybody know it's a bad thing to not respect it, so why does things like bullying actually happen anyway? I think that it origins from a need of attention, it is a social thing to discuss someone else, in secret or out loud. So it is a group thing most often, I haven't seen a bully not using people around him/her. The focus is not what you say, but the basic need of being part of something, so it is only the amount of attention that drives this. When it comes to actual homophobia, it's about feeling uncomfortable with the difference. Maybe there is a fear of the hypothetical interaction between oneself and someone of the same sex. This is just something to work on I guess, I think people with homophobia still knows intellectually that homosexuals will not attack them, like kiss them using force etc, it is just rejecting emotion, feeling or even instinct that they need to try to put to perspective.

Happenings in Egypt

A lot of uprisings and protests seem to have started at the same time in a lot of countries. For Egypt, the biggest country in the Arab world, there has been a long time of grievance against president (or dictator) Hosni Mubarak. The recent months actions and counteractions have moved faster.  In January this year, mass protests occured. In february 11, after 18 days of wild protesting and the fact that Mubarak lost support from the military and the United States, he resigned after 30 years of rule. The military in Egypt took control, however there still is a lot going on, who knows whether the military, which has vowed to hold free elections, will give way to a new era of democracy or just another form of instability or maybe Islamist rule?
Protesters are still going and different strikes still occur, of course almost every different group will try to shape a bit of the new time, or actually just try to not be left out with similar unfairness as before. Also a lot of efforts to try to get people accountable for different actions, like police officers shooting at protestors, are going on. It will not go bang and be calm just because the dictatorship is over, at least not for a while. The latest big thing was the voting on march 20, where a record of voters got the constitutional amendments approved.

The University for Peace

The way I see it, in order to help develop peace all over the world, there are two things to focus on. Spreading the understanding to all people, the difference peace actually does to them, their communities and countries, and getting the knowledge out there of how to succeed in doing it. The University for Peace is working with exactly those things.

Grown from the United Nations, the University has its headquarters and main campus in Costa Rica and increases its number of partners all over the world, right now including programs or affiliated institutions in South America, Africa, central and pacific Asia, Europe, Canada, the Philippines and an office in New York. The official mission is “to provide humanity with an international institution of higher education for peace and with the aim of promoting among all human beings the spirit of understanding, tolerance and peaceful coexistence, to stimulate cooperation among peoples and to help lessen obstacles and threats to world peace and progress, in keeping with the noble aspirations proclaimed in the Charter of the United Nations”.

Just as it seems, the focus of improving the world peace is education. Students are taking master programs in the fields of peace and conflict studies. Some programs offered right now are Environmental security and peace, where Gender and Peace Building, International Law and Human Rights, Peace Education, International Peace studies, Media and Conflict Studies and several others. There are also three special master programs; Asia Leaders Programme, Natural Resources and Sustainable Development and HUFS Dual Programme, which includes studies at a Korean Foreign Study university. The courses taught are similar everywhere, adapted to local cultures and conditions at different locations. The headquarter is disseminating course materials to partner universities for them to teach and develop and offering distance education and continuing education programs. The courses are not only given to graduate students but also to mid-career professionals, leaders of civil society, business, the military, etc. The teachers of the University are multi high degree professors and doctors and above all having years of experience in working with peace in a lot of different perspectives. To apply you have to write a complete application of who you are. It should include work of your own, preferably essays. There should also be letters of recommendation written by faculty or other individuals qualified to evaluate your potential for graduate study. You have to write a statement of purpose including reasons for applying, your expectations, career prospects and background in multicultural experience. There are a lot of possibilities to receive a scholarship at the University, some of the programs even have an automatic scholarship for admitted students.

By educating people at this very high level, they can help human beings, societies, even countries, everywhere, starting chains of information, inspiration and will to change, by passing their knowledge on. I believe that the concept is an amazing way to go. Even when so many people want to have peace and want to help others to have it, it will always come down to how it can be done. The work needs leaders to guide people. And they have to be top performers.