“Many of the Western countries have been wasting time on supporting and
building the Rwandan economy, and the end has come out of full hands of a bloody
dictatorship and a terrorist state built on:
the horrifying Tutsi minority (14%) ethnic domination, the Tutsi minority ethnic rule with an iron hand, tyranny and corruption in Rwanda. The Tutsi-led government has always been characterized by the total impunity of RPF criminals, the Tutsi economic monopoly, the Tutsi militaristic domination, and the brutal suppression of the rights of the Hutu majority (85%) added to their assassinations, mass arrests and killings by the RPF criminal organization”. =>AS International]
“Peace, president Obama said, relies on the golden rule of doing unto others as we would have them do unto us. “Adhering to this law of love has always been the core struggle of human nature.”
‘You negotiate peace with your enemies not with your friends‘
 |
Former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker |
“If you want to make peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.” – Moshe Dayan.
For pretty much his entire time, man has been fighting wars against his enemy, which is traditionally also man. Yup, that’s right. Mankind, a
species with so much going for it, with such a wonderful potential
future ahead, seems to be more interested in spending its time fighting
itself.
Irrespective of what these fights are about, there are generally 3 possible outcomes for any given faction –
- Win.
You beat your enemy, overwhelm them with superior force and strength,
until they are so badly destroyed that they can’t stop you and they give
in. - Lose. Your enemy kills so many of you and destroys so much
of your resources that you can’t fight any longer and you give in,
letting them do whatever it was they wanted to do. - Draw. Both sides suffer such heavy losses that they both agree to stop fighting for now and nothing is resolved.
And
so the fighting stops for a while. But there is no real lasting
resolution. The victor rejoices for a while. The loser goes away and
licks their physical wounds, while the psychological wounds run deeper
and fester away, ready to resurface later when the loser’s strength and
numbers have increased or the winner has got complacent; often it will
be some other excuse to start fighting again, but the root cause is the
unfinished business from the first fight. And so the destructive cycle
continues, fighting until one side loses, both go away, the loser
brooding and regrouping, the victor having to keep an eye out for the
next attack, neither side able to grow and move on. And should the
result be a draw due to mutual attrition, then both sides will regroup
and fester and plot until they spot a weakness in the other side and
launch the attack anew.
Such has been mankind’s history for longer than there has been history.
However,
there is another way. One which doesn’t happen too often but when it
does, can lead to lasting peace and growth for both sides. And that is
to talk with the enemy. To negotiate with them. To find out just what
the heck you are both fighting about and why. Because when two enemies
can actually talk about the issues, they open up the very real
possibility of finding areas of common ground, areas of mutual interest,
areas of potential compromise which do not mean having to “give in” to
the other’s demands, but which stem from fostering a mutual respect and
understanding and, over time, working together to achieve common aims.
Alas this happens all to rarely – it is so much easier just to keep
battering the “enemy” down, safe in the knowledge that you are right and
they must be wrong, completely rejecting the reality that you re both
right and both wrong and both have more in common than you might choose
to believe.
Yet when this does happen, it can have very strong positive and rapid results.
A
prime example of this is “The Troubles” (as they were known) regarding
Ireland, Northern Ireland & Eire. These had been going on for
decades or even centuries, depending upon where you trace the roots.
Certainly the open warfare element arose in the 1960s with several
different armed groups on all sides being heavily involved in 30 years
of ongoing fighting, attacks, terrorism (it all depends upon which side
you were on as to which was which). People on all sides were murdered
with disturbing regularity, including a great many members of the
general public both throughout Ireland and on the British mainland. No
end was in sight.
Until the late 1990s which suddenly heralded
negotiations and a peace treaty which, whilst not resolving all of the
issues overnight, certainly lead to long-term ceasefires, weapons
decommissioning, cross-community co-operation and growth, the removal of
the British Army, and a cessation of violence in a very short space of
time.
What decades of outright and brutal fighting had failed to
achieve, discreet discussions and negotiations between the “enemies” on
both sides managed to achieve in very short time.
They talked with
each other. Listened to each other. Understood what each actually
wanted, what each was working towards, and found common ground. Not by
fighting but by talking with the enemy.
Far more solid progress
can be made by talking with the enemy rather than with friends.
Understanding what you are fighting over, understanding what you are
both looking to get, understanding that in many cases you have common
grounds and aspirations and goals, and realising that the only way to
achieve them is to stop fighting and to work together.
Of course, I’m not just talking about armies or countries or towns fighting, am I?
Just
like our species at large, each and every one of us is capable of many
achievements and a great future; we
spend a disproportionate amount of our time fighting ourselves. We face
these battles with ourself on a daily basis, sometimes many times in a
day, and every single battle is destructive, counter-productive and a
waste of our time and resources, holding us back from fulfilling our
potential (or even just from making it unscathed through another day).
What do I mean when I say we fight ourselves?
Well
consider any time you’ve wanted to do something, anything, and you find
yourself in the position where part of you wants to do it, part of you
doesn’t. and you have a great long fight with yourself over whether you
should or shouldn’t. Sound familiar? When you are in that position, you
are fighting yourself! And the sad thing is, the part of you that wants
to and the part of you that doesn’t, both reached their position based
on wanting what they believe is the best for you – they are both working
in your own best interests! Or when you want to do something but this
nagging voice at the back of your head says you can’t do it because you
are not good enough. Or any of countless other examples where we fight
ourselves, but the fight is based upon each aspect of us wanting what is
best overall.
If only we realised!
If only we talked to our
own internal enemies instead of fighting them, finding that common
ground, working together, how much more could we be?
If only we
understood not what each side wants, but why they want it, what is
driving them, what do they think it will get for us… Try it. Next time
you are “in two minds” about doing something, don’t just write down the
age old list of pros and cons; instead, consider what doing it would get
for you, what it would mean for you, what the purpose behind it might
be. And then do the same for the other side of the argument.
You might be surprised at what comes up…
The Truth can be buried and stomped into the ground where none can see, yet eventually it will, like a seed, break through the surface once again far more potent than ever, and Nothing can stop it. Truth can be suppressed for a “time”, yet It cannot be destroyed. ==> Wolverine
