Towards a culture of peace

For more than 100 years Rotary has cultivated peace and respect for human rights as indivisible elements that belong to all humanity.

A culture of peace is closely linked to the development of the human being, which is the main reason for the very existence of Rotary. Peace is also established with social justice.

There’s no sustainable development without peace. Consequently, peace can’t flourish if there’s no development and social justice. For a culture of peace it’s necessary first to identify the conflicts inherent to human relations and develop methods and techniques for the prevention and peaceful resolution of these conflicts.

Culture of peace is a complex subject and requires community involvement.

In this 21st century, we shall see more multiracial and multicultural communities as a result of globalization, thus different parties will have conflicting interests that will oppose each one against the other. Therefore, these parties will need an organization and prepared and competent negotiators to mediate their disputes, whose emphasis is on love, peace and world understanding.

In this regard Rotary must become the catalyst for generating forces for this new world community, for which service was represented until then by providing volunteer or financial assistance. Although still needed, this model is changing into new models.

Rotary’s mission is to find solutions for the new models of service, to which our governments have failed to address efficiently.

It’s imperative to move from a culture of confrontation to a culture of coexistence, using to this end the formal and informal education systems.

To contribute to a culture of peace Rotary is:

 Training specialists who graduate in peace and conflict resolution;  Training specialists in conflict resolution through short term programs;  Providing adult literacy programs;  Establishing a network of peace mediators formed by former

Rotary scholars;  Alleviating hunger and thirst and decreasing child mortality;  Promoting youth exchanges through which young people can live abroad and learn a new culture, which in the end promotes peace;  Preserving Planet Earth for future generations.

All the above have to have our support for us to achieve success.

Incredible as it may be, a professor from Universidade Federal do Paraná in Brazil, after being nominated by UNESCO to teach the subject of Culture of Peace in other places, could not find one book about the subject in the several bookstores of the large cities he went to.

In the process of promoting a culture of peace, the fight is unequal.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute reported back in 1990 that US$2 million were spent every minute with the purchase

of weapons around the world. In one single day, more was spent on weapons than Rotary Foundation’s total yearly budget to promote peace. Each missile “Harm” fired in Yugoslavia, to give an example, cost US$ 800,000. In the United States alone, the arms industry employs over 3.5 million people.

But these facts should not dismay us.

These numbers are staggering, but what is more staggering is the evil, the war, is human beings killing human beings.

The great philosopher Cicero said: “I prefer the most unfair peace to the most righteous war.” Peace, individual peace, urban peace, peace with no limitations of borders, religion, race or ideology. That’s the peace we need. Rotarians, let’s then move forward carrying the oldest flag we know, the white flag of PEACE, symbolizing all its purity.

Peace everywhere, every time in all languages.

PAZ, PEACE, PAIX, DER FRIEDEN, SALAM, SHALOM, PACE, PACO, PINGAN, PAX, XANTI, POKÓI, UKUTHUALA, MIR...

Peace, simply put, peace.

Peace, one thousand times peace. More than 6 billion times peace, so there’s peace in the heart of every human being.

165