Jon’s Journeys with Peace

The Energies of Conflict

2010-10-15T13:00:00.001-04:00

I was listening to a great talk by James O'Dea on transforming conflict through four sacred skills of peacemaking (see http://theshiftnetwork.com/course/JamesODea/intro/recording) and something struck me about accessing energies to sustain the peacemaker.

James says that in his peacebuilding he is always "aware of the dimensions of the problem but not inside the problem." Called the cycle of violence, these energies of war are fear, disconnection, destruction and do not, in and of themselves, have the capacity for regeneration. Using negativity, anger and even violence (in our hearts or externally) will lead to more of the same in this cycle. Hope and life do not grow from this path.

James comments that "entropy is inside the problem and the energy is inside the solution." A focus on peace draws on the energies of possibility that are infinitely available for sustaining creativity and innovation.. A vision toward reconciliation gives access to unlimited potential for transformation.

Conflict Composting: Microbes

2010-09-13T09:08:00.000-04:00

In composting our conflict we looked at the refuse, elements of water and air and now the microbes necessary for the composting process. There are three types of microbes that operate in a compost pile at three different temperature ranges. There are those who can operate in the cold and those that operate when the compost pile reaches beyond 110 degrees. The hungriest microbes operate best in 70-90 degrees. Warm weather composting is the quickest and most effective way to remake the plant refuse into soil-building and strengthening fertilizer.

Microbes are the microscopic miracles that turn a pile of stinking manure and rotting vegetable matter into life giving soil. Like humans and animals these little life forms need air and water as well as food to survive. It is their work at digestion that makes the compost a truly soil enriching

Microbes are analogous in our conflict composting to the spiritual miracles of life that turn our piles of painful memory into something that enriches our lives and others. A warm, aerated and watered soul provides the best conditions for quickly composting the refuse of conflict. The energy that moves the soul to transformation is somewhat of a mystery but we know its work by the results. We have seen many who, having gone through some fire of violence, trauma or loss, bloom into rich inspiration. Time is the ally of the microbes, the mystery of transformation and thus we have hope because we see that is possible to transcend the present stinky mess we have been given.

I hope this series of conflict composting has helped you to think about what needs to be composted in your own situation.

Picture from: http://www.compostinfo.com/tutorial/MicrobesDefined.htm#Psychrophiles

Conflict Composting: Elements

2010-09-05T13:36:00.015-04:00

In this blog series I am likening conflict transformation to conflict composting. We have seen that this process of composting is actually taking the dead matter, adding some elements of air and water and finally putting some little critters called microbes into the mix and the result is rich blend that regenerates the soil. I suggested that the dead plant matter we added first might be analogous to the trauma and brokenness that violent conflict leaves in its wake and be seen as an opportunity for new growth.

This week we add air and water which will make the composting a transformative work. They are but two elements of four (earth, air/sky, water, fire) that are sacred to indigenous spiritualities and necessary to all life on earth. They should not be owned by any individual but freely available to all. These two elements of air and water are analogous to the very foundations of our social lives.

The first element air, I suggest, corresponds to the rich tapestry of communications within our relationships. Communicating with those around us happens by pheromone, body language, emotion, oh and yes, voice. Add to that the disembodied means of communicating like the phone, email and social networking. This essential ingredient is a resource for composting conflict. While violence alienates, communicating reconnects. With our compost pile, not enough air pockets throughout means that the microbes charged with breaking down the refuse will not breathe well enough and be stifled in filling their function. If air is analogous to communication, then too little of that element will leave us with unresolved and/or uncomposted residuals from damaging conflict.

The second element necessary for proper composting is water. The right amount of water is crucial for microbe health and makes our compost bind together. This is analogous to our bonds clan or tribe. Understanding our valued place within the more complex social structures surrounding us binds us to that community in healing ways.

Cut off from those elements, we are quickly incapacitated by isolation and eventually cease developing just as our soil composting process would stop. Tending to a balance of these two elements results in a conflict composting process thrives.

Conflict Composting: Refuse

2010-08-31T08:37:00.006-04:00

I have always has some discomfort with the term conflict transformation because it is so nondescript and sterile. The word transformation reminds me of transformers (see Schematics for Peace Blog posting in February and March) or worse evokes the image of those awful transformer toy movies in which mechanical things can reassemble themselves into robot war machines. Perhaps likening transformation to composting is a much more organic metaphor including that which is intrinsic to the processes of life, death and regeneration.

To summarize what’s necessary for a good composting enterprise we need:

1. plant refuse/bio trash

2. elements (air and water)

3. microbes (from soil or manure)

Put these three together in proper balance and the outputs are nutrient rich humus and heat.

To start a conflict composting venture we will look at the so called rubbish that destructive conflict can leave in its wake. Individual or community experience with violent conflict leaves trauma, disconnection, fear, and mistrust among other things. These impacts are often seen as bad and to be ‘gotten over’ as quickly as possible with the pat phrases like “moving on” and “turning a new page.” In a post war context the litter of brokenness is often covered up like so much garbage and the open wounds and scars are actively kept out of sight.

This attitude toward the ‘refuse’ is a lost opportunity when left uncomposted. In its organic parallel, uncomposted bio refuse will dry rot losing much of its potential value. Likewise, the unacknowledged pain and brokenness, left uncomposted, will lose its potential for growth unless it is mixed with the elements of air and water as well as microbes.These negative experiences can be cast in a positive light when they are seen as resources for conflict composting.

In coming postings I will make analogies for the elements and microbes. For now, the key to conflict composting is recasting the painful residue of conflict as a necessary part of regeneration, an opportunity for growth and a necessary component of creating life from death.

Conflict Composting: Composting Essentials

2010-08-27T11:29:00.008-04:00

Twenty-five years ago I was studying International Development at Bethel College in Kansas. One required course was International Agriculture. This was a practical class with a real garden containing real soil and plants. While the instructors, Paul and Mary McKay, incorporated all the ‘state of the art’ sustainable agriculture practices known in that day, what I remember most was making a compost pile. It has stuck with me all these years that what I would rather do is grow soil than food.

Compost needs a few essential things to work really well. Those include green matter providing the nitrogen (fresh grass clippings work well here), brown matter providing the carbon (leaves, cornstalks, sawdust) and some source of the microbes (either rich soil or manure of some kind). The right amount of moisture is needed as is some air. If conditions are right the microbes start to eat the other matter and can create enormous amounts of heat.

I spent the morning helping my brother-in-law make a compost pile from his years of accumulated yard waste. Grass clippings, wood chips from a downed tree, leaves, vegetable stalks, husks and cobs were all heaped in separate piles. He had gotten a steaming pile of cow manure complete with swarming flies for the composting venture. We layered these materials together in a wire bound bin in the garden. In the center of the compost pile was a chimney to let the center breathe and let heat escape. The picture to the right is the composting 'layer cake' we made.

While laboring to bring these materials together, I began to think of conflict transformation as actually conflict composing. In the next few blog postings I will attempt to spin this metaphor out. Stay tuned . . .

Mapping 4 Peace

2010-08-18T11:42:00.002-04:00

This is an idea a few friends and I have been percolating. Would welcome feedback and any thoughts.

Mapping+4+Peace

Traditional Conflict Mitigation Systems

2010-06-09T08:34:00.006-04:00

Bishop Jun of Tabuk in Kalinga got a letter from one of his parishioners that changed his life. This woman had recently lost her son to tribal violence. She wished to pray for her son’s murderer and to express her desire to publicly forgive him. This radical act of reconciliation was the start of the Bishop’s vision for the Ka-ili-yan Peacebuilding Institute (KPI).

I was invited to facilitate an introductory workshop on Conflict Transformation and Alternative Dispute Resolution earlier this month as part of KPI’s ongoing work at peacebuilding in the mountainous areas of northern Luzon, Philippines. In the workshop were military and police commanders, persons from the church and government, and some elders who are the holders of the traditional peace pacts called Bodong.

The Bodong is a traditional capacity for peace that is often underestimated by outsiders in its ability to address current violence often based on inter-tribal vendettas. In a planning meeting after the KPI, peace pact holders were adamant that where there were tribal peace pacts, there was no problem with ongoing violence.

While these peace pacts take time and resources to negotiate between the numerous tribes in Northern Luzon, they are a durable way to address violence. I was shown a map indicating that there were nearly 200 different pacts between various tribes. As many as 5 carabao (water buffalo) need to be slaughtered to seal the pact, multiplied times the nearly 200 pacts translates to a lot of money. Yet what are the alternatives? What is the cost of one helicopter or feeding one battalion of soldiers both of which are far less effective in “peacekeeping” than an indigenously owned peace pact. Local tradition and wisdom once again proves to be the best resource.

Not the longest wait

2010-06-04T21:44:00.004-04:00

Upon arriving at Ninoy Aquino International Airport terminal 1 this morning at 4am, I checked in and prepared to wait the remaining time before boarding my Delta flight after three weeks in the Philippines. Comforted by the sight of the 747-400 aircraft sitting at the gate, I was ready to get home. The first clue that something was wrong came from the stampede of persons up to the airline counter in the waiting area. One of the staff said that the flight was canceled. Disbelieving I waited my turn to get to the counter, and moving at a snail’s pace, finally got to talk to an airline representative. To reinforce what they told me about the flight cancellation until tomorrow due to maintenance problems, the plane was pushed back from the gate. We are being well taken care of by Delta airlines in a 5-star hotel. Breakfast consisted of every kind of Western and Asian food you could possibly eat. However, I would much rather be eating airline food over the Pacific knowing I am headed home, than the grand buffets at this glamorous hotel overlooking Manila Bay.

In twenty-four hours until we leave, or so they say. Seems like a long to time to wait but it is not the longest time I have had to wait for an airplane. Once in Somalia, in the late 1980s, I waited 2½ days for a plane. That time it was out on the desert in a windswept coastal town called Berbera. Having missed the Hargeisa>Mogadishu flight, I took the bus to Berbera 4 hours away to wait for the incoming flight enroute from Jedda to Mogadishu on Somali Airlines. But the president absconded the plane for some state business or shopping trip to Europe and so we sat, waiting under a shade tree for the tardy plane. The airport had no terminal, just a shell of a block building from the Russian era that had its windows and doors ripped out, had a dirt floor and stunk of goat pee. The airline put us up in something they called a hotel but there was no running water, was at least 100 degrees F inside and a legion of mosquitoes had a feast on me during the night. With no internet, or TV or even anything to do in Berbera, which was under curfew, we just sat, waiting.

So, lest I am tempted to scowl at this turn of events, I must remember that it can always be worse.

Interfaith Dialogue

2010-05-28T22:14:00.006-04:00

In our Religion: Peacebuilding in Multicultural Societies Course here at the Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute (MPI) we examined five different kinds of interactions or dialogues with persons of different cultures or religions.

The first is the dialogue of life where people live as neighbors, primarily concerned with daily interactions, the joys and sorrows that are the ebb and flow of life. Next is the dialogue of action or it is sometimes called the dialogue of hands. Persons of different faiths work together toward a common goal perhaps addressing some kind of social problem. Buddhists and Christians building a house together at Habitat-for-Humanity would be one example. The third interaction is the dialogue of the religious experience where adherents actually experience each others rituals, worship or celebrations. Participation in others sacred spaces bring a deep appreciation and respect for the differences. The fourth type is among experts sometimes called the dialogue of the head. In this dialogue, “experts” interact round philosophy and theology of beliefs. As the only Mennonite in our class I was considered this authority because I could represent my particular brand of faith even though I am far from being a theologian.

When persons have dialogued long enough and respect for the other gains enough ground in the heart, then the fifth type of dialogue might occur, the dialogue of friendship and/or love. It is usually between two individuals who have developed the kind of friendship in which one would lay down the life for the other.

In our class this week we experienced, in some little way, all of these dialogues. Grouping diverse persons together for class tasks, caucusing people in their respective religious groups to present their faith and attending worshiping at a mosque were all part of this task. Through working closely together designing the an co-facilitating the course Alzad, and I made progress toward the fifth dialogue.

Hands Photo by Hai Arap

Principled and Pragmatic Nonviolence

2010-05-22T19:41:00.006-04:00

I just finished co-facilitating the Active Nonviolence (ANV) course here at Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute (MPI). ANV is a course I have helped teach here since 2005 and every year I understand the role of ANV in peacebuilding better thanks to the Mindanaoan and international participants.

This year while presenting Mahatma Gandhi’s and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s principles of nonviolence it struck me that there have been many successful nonviolent movements that have not articulated the individual worth of each ‘opponent’ like Gandhi and King. Some of the foundational values evident in the Indian struggle for autonomy and the US civil rights movement include:

o There is divine in all beings
o Humans can’t be reduced to the evil they perpetuate (Gandhi)
o Actively loving our adversaries while identifying our own blind spots (Gandhi)
o Seeking to win friendship and understanding (King)
o Defeat of injustice not people (King)
o Chooses love instead of hate (King)

The above values were insisted upon by their leaders.

But some successful nonviolent movements have embraced a much more pragmatic approach like the simple removal of a dictator or righting an injustice. In these movements physical violence to infrastructure, sabotage to economic systems or character assassination were encouraged. While these movements would go so far as non-lethal coercion of political leaders and lampooning individuals, they rejected violence toward humans be they occupying soldiers or corrupt leaders.

My insights crystallized as I realized that Gandhi and King invoked principles that were internalized in their nonviolent followers while in more pragmatic situations external limits were what held the movement in check. In the long run I wonder which starting point, principled or pragmatic, will bring the most sustainable change.

Demonstrating Reconciliation

2010-05-17T19:01:00.004-04:00

My friend Chito has an inspiring story of reconciliation. Early in World War II the Japanese had over run the Philippines. Toward the end of the war, pressed on all sides by the Allies, the Japanese occupation forces were retreating. In a desperate bid to slow the American advance, they conducted a scorched earth policy to deny their adversary the resources they were leaving behind. In the village of Bauan in Luzon, Chito’s grandfather was one of the hundreds killed by vengeful Japanese forces one day in February 1945.

Chito, committed to nonviolence, is concerned about lingering hatred toward the Japanese people from the unresolved memories during this war time. He instigated a day of remembering the civilians killed in the war for the purpose of healing. Most of the remembering is for losses and victories of the military. A focus on the civilians, he feels, will bring closure and healing. He even reached out to some Japanese peace advocates to include in the rituals of healing memories.

Chito’s rational for remembering is three fold. First, to bring closure for the many whose trauma is still unresolved. Second, is to have a symbolic process of forgiveness, apology, healing, and reconciliation between the people of Japan and the Philippines, devoid of demands for remuneration and monetary compensation. Finally, the remembering and memorial will bring into national consciousness the urgency of refocusing people’s attitude and values from predatory victim – offender paradigm and into positive and transformational interaction between conflicting parties.

Chito showing me a picture of the Buan monument remembering casualties of war.

Update; MPI 2010

2010-05-15T05:29:00.007-04:00

I will take a break from the Schematics for Peace Series and give some updates during my time in the Philippines at the Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute (MPI). I left on the 14th of May and expect to return on the 5th of June with most of my time will be spent in Davao City, our former home for 6 years under MCC.

This is the 9th year I have had a role at MPI, co-facilitating courses such as Fundamentals of Peacebuilding, Active Nonviolence and Religion; Peacebuilding in Multi-cultural Societies. My Filipino/Filipina co-facilitators are the ones who made a trainer out of me. I didn’t intend to become a facilitator but as a result of another facilitator “no show” in our early years living in the Philippines, I was convinced by my colleagues Deng and Myla of Catholic Relief Services to try co-teaching a course.

This year I co-facilitate Active Nonviolence with Deng. The second class I co-facilitate is Religion; Peacebuilding in Multi-culture Societies with Alzad, a Muslim who is from Basilan Island. It is exciting to think of once again engaging Asian Peacebuilders with these two topics.

I love the Philippines and especially MPI. The participants often come from communities that have experienced so much violence and conflict yet have such a hopeful disposition. Out of the crucible of their pain each person, facilitator or student, comes away from MPI with hope, learning and a sense of community.

Please send prayers, warm thoughts and healing intentions our way in the coming weeks. Thanks!

Schematics for Peace: Motor/Generators

2010-04-20T09:35:00.002-04:00

If you have ever followed a truck down a steep grade, you may have smelled hot brakes. You could fry an egg on their brakes after such a work out. I don’t advise eating that egg though because along with heat, friction in the brakes produces fine dust from the brake pads. Conventional vehicles take potential energy stored in gas/diesel fuel and convert it into the kinetic energy of vehicle movement. Once the vehicle is moving the only possibility for stopping it without damage is through friction in the brakes. The heat generated on the brake pads as you push on the pedal is an unwelcome and wasteful, but unavoidable byproduct of removing the the vehicle motion. The heat and friction cause wear on the brake pads and they periodically need to be changed.

One of the reasons that hybrid cars such as the Toyota Prius and the Honda Insight get such good gas mileage is the principle of regenerative breaking. The same electric motor used to turn the wheels during acceleration is switched to a generator by engaging battery charging electronics which resists wheel spin thus slowing down the car. When stopping the car in this way, some of the kinetic energy is recaptured back into potential energy which is stored in the batteries.*

It takes lots of potential energy to get a community moving toward unity and purpose. Conflict is like the friction of brakes, creating lots of heat and wearing down its momentum. The ability of a community to function cohesively when so much kinetic energy is lost to in-fighting taxes every facet of community life. Brute force methods of quelling conflict produce unintended side effects that can stifle creative problem-solving. Muscling conflict out of sight into the subsurface rarely ‘resolves’ the core issues but only proliferates and in some cases energizes the conflicts to reappear later on.

Conflict transformation is like a regenerative system that takes a conflict and works at converting the potential heat, sparks and violence into strengthened community potential. New capacities are created that can more quickly react to trouble spots. Since conflict transformation sees the process of addressing issues as consistent with the ends, it values relationships and uses reconciliation, humility and collaboration as a means to reconnect that which is fragmented by violence. Conflict transformation uses analysis tools to help map out actors, events and energies involved in the conflict. In the end, communities at risk of careening down the steep grades of conflict who have worked at transformation have greater potential and capacity for peace.

*Hybrid vehicles still use friction braking to supplement regenerative braking.

Schematics for Peace: Diodes

2010-04-08T08:27:00.002-04:00

A diode is a passive device that allows current to flow only one way. Based on semiconductor material, variations of these devices make it possible to convert AC to DC, make digital logic matrices, generate light (as in LED-light emitting diode), maintain a constant voltage and even were the basis for the invention of radio. In fact, one can make a simple radio today out of one diode, a very long antenna and a high impedance set of headphones. No power needed.

I once put a diode in my experimental circuit and no current flowed because I had it in backwards. This reminds me of the nature of communications on contentious community issues that have a direct bearing on peace.

Communications is like the current in a wire that flows between people (components in our circuit analogy). The more people are connected through dialogue the stronger the capacity for peace. If you put the diode of one-way thinking and by extension a one way-flow of communication, in the community circuit these capacities are diminished. It is critical for community peace capacities that civic and religious leaders open themselves to listening not just making statements about where they stand on issues, shouting proclamations or issuing edicts. One-way communications flow polarizes people and will eventually dissolve cohesiveness.

For an outside peace advocate who demands to be heard before there has been reciprocity in the two-way flow of conversation, trust is usually not forthcoming. In this case the "diode" should be set to allow the advocate to listen and not speak. Once trust is established and the right to speak has been won, the "diode" can be removed.

Diodes are useful devices but put in the wrong way at the wrong time or place can cause trouble.

Schematics for Peace: AC or DC

2010-03-29T08:28:00.003-04:00

When electricity was discovered to have practical applications in the late 19^th century, there were two proponents for the way it should be generated and distributed. One, by Thomas Edison, advocated the use of direct current (DC) where electricity generated by batteries flow only one way through the wire. Edison’s proposal of using DC for our electrical needs meant that the generation would have to as close to where it was consumed as possible since losses in transmission lines would be high.

The other way of electrical generation, called alternating current (AC), is made by rotating magnets around coils of wire (a generator) and was favored by guys like Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse. That camp won out on the early debate and today our house wiring, light sockets and large appliances, are AC powered. In this system electricity alternates polarities 60 times a second in a sine wave. A device called a transformer can increase the voltage while subsequently reducing the amount of current (thus losses) in transmission lines. Electricity could be generated great distances away and fed by huge overhead hi-tension lines into urban areas. Ironically, green electricity generated by fuel cells and solar electric panels, work best when electricity is produced and consumed locally.

What does this have to do with peacebuilding? Often the attention for peace process in any war situation is the national/international level peace talks. While these agreements may be necessary, if they are not adapted and internalized at a local level they are often not sustainable. Asking; “what is the genesis of peace… locally grown or generated from ideas outsiders and transported into the community?” The locally generated capacities for peace are what enable communities to resist violence. These local capacities in many of the places I have worked were traditionally quite large. Through colonization, globalization and cultural homogenization these capacities have been diminished. Restoring these local capacities for conflict mitigation and transformation is essential to sustainable peace.

Schematics for Peace: Resistors

2010-03-03T09:08:00.005-05:00

One of the most fundamental components in electronics is a passive device called a resistor. They vary in size from less than half a grain of rice to large cabinet sized water cooled behemoths. A majority are half the size of a single macaroni noodle.

These little two legged parts are in almost everything that can be called electronic. Their function is to limit current in a circuit. By doing so, they develop a voltage across their terminals proportional to the value of the resistor and the current flowing through it. Since they restrict the flow of electricity, they also develop some heat. If they are not sized appropriately there is first a burning smell and then a spectacular flash/pop and they burn out.

Now I admit here is where my metaphor could take any number of directions or even start to sound contradictory. So let me offer one possible analogy. These resistors in conflict prone social networks could represent those persons or institutions that limit/resist the free flow of justice from the Source. By doing so, they manifest heat in and around themselves in the form of conflict. If they are not robust enough to handle the conflict generated heat they may blow out with smoke and fire totally stopping the flow from the Source to the networks they are attached to.

What is hopeful is that as they draw conflict attention to themselves (voltage drop) this is evidence that the Source is still supplying the current of justice and peace.

2010-02-24T08:17:00.003-05:00

Schematics for Peace: Theories

Electronics is about the manipulation of electricity for some function. While electrons, the basic building blocks of electricity are far too small to see directly, they can be observed through indirect methods like their effects on things. These observations have generated some very durable hypotheses about the way electrons and electricity work. Extremely complex systems (like an iPod) have been built on the theories that hitherto fore have not been proven incorrect.

Some electronic systems have become so complex that they are beyond any one individual to comprehend the whole device at its smallest level. Thus, theories, formulas and subroutines break the whole into manageable parts. Since all of these conjectures seem to work consistently it is easy to forget that all of this is based on faith in working theories.

Social scientists have developed theses about how people and groups respond in the intense pressure of conflict. By observation, we understand, for example, about how trauma affects a person or the dynamics of the mob mentality. So we put those theories to work on larger more complex peacebuilding issues. As with electricity, we are still working by faith from hypotheses. The simple peacebuilding models we use break down quickly as the complexity of human interactions overtake our ability to see the whole. Electrons, it seems, are far more predictable than humans.

With that bit of philosophy we move ahead next week, in faith, to the building blocks of electronics.

Schematic for Peace: Connections

2010-02-17T09:01:00.003-05:00

The most basic and easily overlooked part of any schematic is the lines between components. Taken for granted by anyone reading a schematic, they are vitally important. Why? Because if there are no connections between devices, no current will flow and you have a bucket of parts but not a working system.

From computers to toasters copper wires or traces on a circuit board are used to make the connections between individual components. In my years of tinkering with electronic gadgets I have found two major reasons why things quit working. First, too much current has passed through the copper wire or trace and it has melted open. Second, with time and stress, the solder joints, used to bond two components together, get loose and no longer make connection.

Peacebuilding has parallels to these maladies in circuits. Peace is about relationships; with self, others, nature and with a higher power. These connections can fail because they are not strong enough or have been stressed too much. In dysfunctional relational systems, peacebuilding concerns itself with rebuilding the dis-connections and rebonding those connections that have come loose with too much stress. The repair comes through diagnostics and implementing a fix that will restore connections. These are topics of coming postings. Stay tuned…

Schematic for Peace: The Source

2010-02-10T13:04:00.002-05:00

On my previous posting I suggested that complex systems can be pictorially represented by the use of schematics. This is similar to one of the tools we use in conflict analysis called mapping of actors. This mapping tool tries to see all the persons/organizational entities involved in the conflict and depict their relationships or lack thereof. In a schematic for peace we will start with the basic components and see how they interact in any given conflict.

The first schematic component we need to explore is the source. An electrical circuit is useless without some source of electrons to make it work. The source is an apt description because all electrons flow from this device through the copper wires or traces on a circuit board and let the other components fulfill their purpose.

I once had a friend who described peace and justice as a river from God. The river flows well until some impediment blocks the flow of the river. It is our duty to wade into the water and remove the obstacles so that the channel is clear again. The point here is that we do not create peace and justice. It flows naturally from the Higher Power.

In our schematic then, the source of peace and justice is depicted in two forms. The first one, drawn on the previous posting, is an infinite supply of electricity in the form of an AC generator. The second depiction is that of a battery as the source of electrons. A battery is finite and is either disposable or rechargeable. I like the idea of peacebuilders as rechargeable batteries. We can create a finite peace within our circuit of influence but ultimately need recharging from the unlimited, ultimate SOURCE.

Metaphors for Peace

2010-02-03T10:50:00.004-05:00

I am intrigued by all the metaphors for peace used by friends and colleagues in the peacebuilding field. John Paul Lederach in his book Moral Imagination uses spider webs to help give shape to how things come together for conflict transformation. In the Philippines, a network of organizations call themselves the Mindanao Peace Weavers to denote their efforts at weaving a tapestry of healthy, violence free society. Jay Rothman developed the ARIA framework which uses the harmony of voice and orchestra to describe an identity based conflict engagement. In our conflict analysis models we use icebergs, pyramids and egg shaped paradigms to describe the dynamics involved in war. People take what they know and apply solutions, frameworks and descriptors for addressing the conflict around them. It would make a fascinating study to collate the various metaphors that have informed our peacebuilding thinking.

I know electronics and it recently it dawned on me that my ability to read schematics would be a helpful metaphor in mapping conflict actors and interactions. While I never thought that the world of electricity could help shape my thinking about solutions to violence there is no reason why it should not. In writing the Mindanao Reflecting on Peace Practice document I used the phrase “theories of change schematics.”

A schematic, according to Wiktionary, is “a drawing or sketch showing how a system works.” In electronics a schematic is a pictorial representation of how some simple or sophisticated set of parts interacts to perform some function. Each part has a unique symbol denoting its role and value. The engineer designing a system knows the characteristics of each small part.

A schematic for peace would take into account how adding components with specific characteristics/values, will interact within the whole. I hope to develop this concept in the coming months. Maybe we will soon see electronics technicians adding their unique metaphorical understanding to the development of peace programs!

Surrender

2009-12-23T14:53:00.000-05:00

Surrender is not in our vocabulary here in the US. It’s a dirty word denoting failure, cowardliness and weakness. In the church the language of “conquering sin” and “victory over death” trumps the word surrender. Even in peacebuilding, so much of the language and skills we promote are for the purpose of asserting our rights or obtaining justice. Not that any of this is wrong or misguided but some balance between victory and surrender is needed. In fact these two are intimately linked in the narratives of many a faith.

My work at peacebuilding, from previous posts, is acknowledged to be both personal and global. For the past number of years I have been an observer of the dynamics of violence. One facet in particular has commanded my attention and that is the addictive nature of violence. My tentative conclusions are from both first-hand and international vantage points. As a peacebuilder I am always looking for tools to assist those addicted to violence.

I stumbled upon the Alcoholics Anonymous 12-step program and realized that they had discovered a critical first step to making headway against any addiction…surrender. This is not the same as giving up. It is surrender to trying to overcome the addiction through sheer willpower by giving it over to a “higher power.” This surrender to a “higher power” will eventually include the giving up of any resentment, grudges and need for revenge. The AA people have documented these toxic attitudes as impediments to true inner peace. By taking responsibility for our own issues and shifting the burden of change to a “higher power” we will actually tap the ultimate power of the universe. Next time you are up against something seemingly unchangeable, surrender to your “higher power” and let the transformation begin.

An Average Day

2009-11-16T20:42:00.006-05:00

I went to the office this morning and had an average day. First, as I was at my desk typing a letter when a giant meteorite crashed through the roof and landed square on my computer smashing it to bits. After chips, connectors and plastic finished falling I thought: "Now what do I do?"

I decided to file some of the stack of papers on my desk and walked toward the file drawer. Just as I pulled out the first stack of files a runaway truck came careening down the road, burst through the outside wall and smooshed the file cabinet flat against the opposing wall. After a blizzard of papers settled I thought: "Now what do I do?"

So I decided to photocopy some documents. While hunching over the copy machine a colossal wind blew through the window and pushed this sensitive apparatus right off the table. Glass shattered, springs sprung, and sparks flew. When the sprockets were finished rolling across the floor I thought: "Now what do I do?"

With the one side of my offices in disarray, I went to the library side with the hope of organizing some books. While working on the books, an alien spacecraft landed nearby, a three headed, green scaled beings from outer space walked into the library, pointed a wicked looking incoherent photon disruptor weapon at me and demanded our books. When the alien walked out with 5 tentacles full of absconded books I thought: "Now what do I do?"

I decided to call it a day.

When I got home that evening my wife, Carolyn, asked me: "How was your day honey?" "Oh", I said, "You know how it is here, I didn't get much done."

[Story told to Solomon (5) and David (3) Rudy at the supper table one evening to keep the boys seated and make them stop squirming, Swaziland Sept. '96]

Violence Debunked

2009-11-04T21:58:00.001-05:00

A friend of mine once said that if war would bring peace, the human race would have achieved peace long ago. This idea exposes one of the lies about the use of violence to accomplish any kind of so social change, that ends and means can be inconsistent.

It is this incompatibility of methods and goals that has become such a blind spot in western culture today. From influencing a person to change their ways to nations being persuaded into giving up certain ambitions, the west continues to try to heckle, strong arm and bomb the other side into ‘correct’ actions.

I suppose the conventional wisdom is that the use of force is the most ‘rational’ course in many cases. However, how many of the ‘rational’ military adventures in this nation have started out as seeming the right thing to do only to become a quagmire once they are underway. Likewise, how many nonviolent campaigns start by looking like irrational and untenable efforts only to, in the end, bring real sustainable change? See http://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/PDF/IS3301_pp007-044_Stephan_Chenoweth.pdf for a hint.

Connecting the Pieces of Peace

2009-10-11T13:44:00.009-04:00

Something clicked in my head about the nature of my work while working on a sermon for Willow Street Mennonite Church. At the Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute (MPI) over the past 8 years I have co-facilitated courses on nonviolence, the basics of peacebuilding and how religion can be a source of conflict or a resource of peace. It strikes me that these three are on a continuum somehow for Christians.

One of Jesus' core teaching was to love our enemies. This is not just a 'nicey-nicey feel good stuff. It was his way of saying the work at making peace is with enemies, not friends and in order to do that you gotta move toward tough spots in relationships. This is the way it is when conflict sides fall on the fault lines of faith. We have to get together and talk with our religious neighbors, not just about the commonalities and points of overlap but the tough things that could divide us. In so doing, respect and tolerance are generated.

Jesus says that we will be blessed in our peace making. Blessing is such a nebulous word. But I can tell you from experience that anyone who has experienced the calm of peace after the storm of violent conflict feels blessed. The hard work is to refine skills of peacebuilding so that they become the norm out of which people seek to address conflict not violence.

Jesus' life demonstrated that nonviolence is the only way to undo the spiral of violence in which humans are trapped. Our commitment to non-retaliation is costly. It is not popular and makes no sense. But if I have learned one thing it is that the use of violence to solve problems, while seeming to be the logical choice at the beginning quickly spirals into irrationality.

So these three topics - dialogue, peacebuilding and nonviolence- are intimately linked. I suppose these three are what make sense to me because they are in such short supply in the world today. I suggest you read my mentor/friend Deng's blog to see how blending these three are making a real-life impact.

Two Books - One Stand

2009-09-02T20:35:00.004-04:00

In a place where the religious differences are easy handles used to manipulate communities to perpetrate violence, inter-religious dialogue is critical. When faith communities come together, they can dispel biases, clarify misconceptions and denounce outright lies that some spoilers use to derail peace processes.

I have been meeting with a few groups who have taken the risk to come together across, sometimes large, divides. These leaders are demonstrating that your religious neighbor is still your neighbor and each faith has an imperative on how to treat them.

Inter-religious dialogue does not mean giving up our faith to meet the other. Rather, it sharpens our own beliefs as we articulate why we believe what we believe. Dialogue is not about least common denominators and brushing aside differences, but rather respecting the differences which opens up the possibility of learning from the other.

The picture is of a holy book stand. It is made out of one piece of wood, carved to open like a clam shell. It was made to hold one book, but this one is holding the Bible and the Koran. It is a symbol of dialogue.

Reflecting On Peace Practices

2009-08-29T22:13:00.002-04:00

I am now back in Davao. For the next 2 weeks I will be working with colleague Myla Leguro on a project for CDA Collaborative Learning Projects called Reflecting on Peace Practices. We will be traveling around Mindanao meeting peace stakeholders to try to surface what peace practices have worked. The results of our work will be a case study paper posted on the CDA site.

For more information on this project and previous case studies go to: CDA RPP

Loosing Your Head on an F-12

2009-08-17T10:18:00.000-04:00

My dad, Carl, suggested that Sol, David and I go to the Rough and Tumble antique tractor/steam show in Kinsers, Pennsylvania last Friday. What a calliope of steam whistles, huffing diesels and slow put puts of ancient stationary engines. In the midst of hundreds of old restored tractors, dad told us of the time he nearly lost his head (literally) in a farming accident as a young man.

He was driving the family International F-12 tractor, pulling 2 heavily loaded hay wagons down a hill. As he looked back, he noticed the tongue of the first hay wagon starting to bend under the pressure. Keeping a cool head (figuratively) he quickly turned right as the pin sheared off and the wagons careened down the hill. The tractor stayed upright and all was well. He told us that, if he would have taken no action, the wagons would have run up over the back wheels and pinned him against the steering wheel.

If that would have happened, I would not be writing this today.

Dad with the International F-12

Passing of an Icon

2009-08-05T02:44:00.006-04:00

Cory Aquino, former president and icon of the EDSA revolution in 1986, succumbed to her bout with cancer while I was here in the Philippines. Beloved by many, she was mourned continuously in many parts of the country from the time of her death last early Saturday morning to the funeral today (Wednesday). The Manila Cathedral was packed and the streets where her casket passed were pressed with people waiting to say good-by. The television stations had nonstop coverage of the events of her life, emotional comments from grieving family and friends and reflections on her presidency. Today was declared a non-working holiday. While out on the streets today many a small vendor had a TV tucked into the corner of their shop, each tuned into the funeral as a majority of the country collectively stopped for a moment in time.

Not everyone has been equally affected by this outpouring of national grief. When Ms. Aquino died I was in Western Mindanao, which has a high population of Bangsamoro people. No one bothered to tell me of Cory's passing and the coverage was more subdued. The recently jumpstarted peace process between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front will take a hiatus today. As one Muslim friend told me, “today is an emotional day…. A day for condolences…tomorrow we begin politics again.”

Paradise Lost?

2009-07-28T08:40:00.002-04:00

Pristine white beaches, palm trees swaying in the breeze, sipping exotic fruit drinks. These are the images of tropical paradise.

But the Philippines, with it’s 7107 Islands (at low tide) has literally of thousands of miles of beach front property. In urban areas this property has often been relegated to the poorest areas. Note on the picture the densely populated waterfront compared to the rest of the city. While the open bays, gulf or sea offers a twice a day flush for raw sewage poured into it (the tide) the drawbacks of this kind of population density are far greater than the benefits. Disasters such as tsunamis, typhoons and epidemics sweep through these areas with devastating impact.

Yet these areas offer some of the finest in Philippine life too. People live in communities, know their neighbors and come to each other assistance when needed. What they lack in basic services is made up with tenacity of survival and sheer force of determination to make the best of it.

By all means, I do not want to glorify poverty. But I wonder if living so close to ones neighbor brings out the best in humanity that the folks, in the internet isolated affluent areas, have lost.

Juxtapostions

2009-07-22T04:14:00.003-04:00

I arrived in Davao City, Mindanao having been scanned numerous times by infrared cameras seeking out anyone who might possibly be suffering from H1N1 virus, swine flu. People are wearing masks to protect them from an invisible enemy. The whole building where we normally hold the Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute has been closed, only running on a skeleton crew, the bulk of the staff sent home. All because of one case of the flu among the students who normally inhabit the compound which includes a medical school. The remaining staff are cleaning walls with Clorox in order to 'disinfect' the whole place, a seeming quixotic goal in this fetid tropical air.

A government report in mid July states that over 745,000 people are displaced in Central Mindanao due to the fighting between the government (GRP) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). School compounds, safe havens for families who have no where else to go, displace students wanting to study. Now the Philippine military states that they view these displaced persons as host communities for enemy combatants. Indeed, the military has bombed areas close to where these displaced persons have huddled to escape areas of intense fighting. Children have been traumatized and hurt.

I juxtapose a world held captive by the latest news of a microscopic virus and three-quarters of a million people hostage to a military chasing 2 or 3 people that doesn't even make national headlines. Something in the scheme of human priorities seem wrong to me. Does it to you?

Philippines Once Again

2009-07-20T08:59:00.002-04:00

I am off to Mindanao, Philippines once again. I have been hired as a facilitator for the CDA Collaborative Learning Projects Mindanao Listening Project. This is a project that solicits the experiences of recipients of international relief and development help. Through a dialogue process with a multitude of people impacted by this assistance lessons learned and best practice as well as gaps and challenges can be documented in an attempt to better the delivery of aid.

For a more complete picture of CDA Collaborative Learning Projects visit: http://www.cdainc.com/cdawww/default.php

Peace Contributions

2009-06-17T08:48:00.003-04:00

I have been thinking a lot lately about how much a person can contribute toward world harmony if there is not total peace in his/her heart. Can angry anti-war protesters contribute toward ceasefire? Can a strong leader in peacemaking who has a violent temper really make a difference? Can someone who harbors a bitter quest for revenge call for justice?

These questions are sharpened by a comment from my brother. “Resisting a thing only causes it to push back with equal strength…” or something like that. It’s a logical statement first summed up by Newton (his 3^rd law of motion). The chair only pushes up on us when we push down on it. There is equilibrium in the pushing. Or at least until I am more weight than the chair can bear and then it collapses.

If I am calling for justice, peace and shalom, does it matter how much integrity I have in my life in these areas? Do I sit down and wait for true inner balance and harmony with these values before I act, speak or give witness? Perhaps it is the direction I am headed and not necessarily the progress on the path that is key here. Perhaps it is the quest of balance, inner and outer peace, which actually brings about true peace. If this is so, essential to the pursuit are humility and courage.

Drone Wars 2

2009-06-03T06:42:00.003-04:00

I think a bit more explanation is due on why drones, executing individuals thousands of miles away from the control point, are problematic. Soldiers are taught to dedifferentiate between enemy targets and ‘legitimate’ targets of war. They look through their gun sights and make split second decisions about the target. They bring their morality and humanity into the decision although the military is training them to shoot first and ask moral questions later. And yes they sometimes make mistakes. There is a cost to these mistakes in what some soldiers call, “losing their humanity” a realization that they have made the ultimate mistake. This ‘miscalculation’ haunts many a combat vet and it is the crux of many who face post traumatic-stress syndrome (PTSD).

With drones, there is electronic medium in between decision makers and the actual humans that are the object of interest. The destruction of the target, usually human, is isolated from the decision makers by a virtual barrier. Repercussions for decisions taken have no immediate feedback loop that touches the morality of the decision maker but ironically are much more subject to the political whims of the day.

The real problem with drone wars is that they relegate ultimate responsibility for the taking of life to the virtual space where reality and abstract overlaps, thus removing immediate accountability. In a world connected through electronic medium, let us increase human connectedness, and ultimately peace, through the virtual medium, not disconnect it through one-way drone war.

Drone Warfare

2009-05-26T08:54:00.007-04:00

"We appreciate what the Americans have done to help build our country..." confided Mohamed from Afghanistan. He qualified by saying "...its just that we don't accept their policies." He was referring to the unmanned drone attacks on civilians. These drones, launching hellfire missiles, are used to reduce American exposure to combat or fight in areas inaccessible to ground troops. The level of anger in Afghanistan is raising at the judge, jury and execution without due process. Many civilian casualties are a by product of this method of warfare. Pilots fly the drones like a computer game and pull the trigger to destroy life while sitting in air conditioned offices thousands of miles, if not half a world, away. Stories also abound of the drones flown over Mindanao's islands looking for 'terrorists'.

These and many other tales of people working for positive, peaceful change, demonstrate the challenges facing global peacebuilders. The Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute 2009 included people from thirteen nationalities and many more ethnicities. Course offered by MPI include basics in peacebuilding and conflict transformation in addition to more advanced courses like mediation skills, trauma healing and religious peacebulding through dialogue.

It Makes Me Curious

2009-05-22T00:09:00.006-04:00

“It makes me curious; the way the Mennonites live,”said one participant in the Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute (MPI) Active Nonviolence (ANV) class. The models and principles presented in the class were peppered with stories, especially from my own Mennonite faith tradition. The realization that the use of violence to achieve change or reach some social goal at first looks very rational but quickly moves to irrationality. This is abundantly clear enough if one examines the US’s wars of the past 50 years. Embracing nonviolence as a social change agent looks crazy and irrational at first but as change comes, the rationality of intact social systems and infrastructure makes the ANV movement look sane indeed. There are numerous examples we use in the class to demonstrate this point. Starting with Gandhi’s experiment with Satiyagraha (truth force) in India to oust the British and Badja Khan his contemporary in Pakistan to the Ogoni People in the Niger Delta, the nonviolent movements are as innovative and creative as the human species is resilient. Check some of these movements out by reading the book “A Force More Powerful.” Amazon has it. My library has it too.

MPI Active Nonviolence

2009-05-19T05:37:00.007-04:00

Working through the different types of power during a presentation in our Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute (MPI) class on Active Nonviolence (ANV), we introduced the power of Love as the most powerful and omniscient force in the universe. One participant shared how that power is challenging her to see her presence in the class as part of God's direction for her. She is from one of Mindanao's troubled areas and her father and uncle have been shot. This institute is part of her healing, she asserted, as she discovers the dynamics of nonviolence.

The class is looking at effective methods of change through the use of ANV. The use of nonviolence leaves communities stronger and more secure. Violence has asserted itself in many contexts as the only option. It is not. A majority of the time people meet each other the interactions are amicable and problems solved through simple negotiation. Nonviolence is the norm of human relationships while violence is abnormal.

While this is the seventh year I am facilitating at MPI, this the fourth year I am co-facilitating the ANV class with Myla Leguro, a Filipina who has worked nearly 20 years at peacebuilding here in Mindanao. Its a privilege and honor to work with someone so experienced and talented.

LGU’s and Laryngitis

2009-05-15T01:54:00.003-04:00

“Injustice and land disputes yield armed conflict and result in poverty and malnutrition,” said a municipal counselor in our peacebuilding class for local government units (LGUs) in the Philippines. It has been gratifying to see the lights come on in some participant’s eyes as they learn that conflict transformation offers an alternative between suppressing justice concerns and asserting justice violently.

The two and a half day training started the afternoon after I got off the longest plane ride of my life, 24 hours from Houston to Singapore via Moscow. Add the 4 hours to get from Harrisburg to Houston and the 4 hours from Singapore to Davao and that makes 32 hours flying time in the silver aluminum can.

That aside, I arrived in Davao City with no voice. On my layover in Singapore I conducted a seminar entitled “The Good News of Christ Confronts a World of Violence” for the students of the Bethany International University. One student came up afterward and thanked me saying “The church doesn’t talk much about this topic.” I wonder why.

Now, short on voice I had to rely on my mentor and co-facilitator Deng Giguiento (pictured). She has trained community person for years in Philippines and East Timor and knows how to improvise on the fly should one of her colleagues loose his voice. I am here in the Philippines early for Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute (MPI) which starts the week of the 18 May. Stay tuned for more postings from MPI…

2009-05-08T11:43:00.004-04:00

Fog of Life

The mist rolls in
blocking the vistas
with grey
sameness

Fog horns sound
from ships far and near
visioning by sound
blind

Unfamiliar ways of perceiving
when foresight is blunted
by uncertainty
senses

Hearing the Spirit
touching the invisible
smelling sweet peace
knowing

Fog of life
seeing through chaos
feeling our way to
God

17 Feb 2005
Lantau Island, Hong Kong
by jon rudy

2009-04-16T08:08:00.004-04:00

Clear the Table

Life is like a table scattered full with Lego

A calliope of reds, and blues and yellows, and greens and blacks and whites

More than enough to create a masterpiece

With age the pieces are gradually and gently pushed from the center

To open a space to build

Those who pay attention to the shapes and patterns of the parts

Can use them to take the fragments and create coherency

As the pieces drop and the table top is cleared

Just the right piece is left when needed

So clear the table and expect perfection

Jon Rudy

16 Apr 2009

2009-04-08T08:09:00.001-04:00

CITY IN THE TROPICS

Streets bleeding the stuff of the breathing

sewage, water, mango skins, banana peals

Mingle as one to form the soup of our existence

Afternoon rains, on the good and evil

wash the air clean of diesel and plastic

Making room for the scent of flowers

Sweltering heat as if the whole planet perspires

in this one in a myriad of cities with its mega malls and barrios

Sweat drips from the pores of the global economy

By Jon Rudy

Dec 11, 2001

Upcoming Seminar

2009-03-27T08:36:00.007-04:00

The Good News of Christ Confronts a World of Violence
for pastors, church leaders, teachers, parents, young adults and students

facilitated by Jon Rudy

With violence fast becoming a universal framework for working out all sorts of disagreements, this seminar will explore how a missional church can overcome the violence which is a fundamental concern for people hearing the preaching of the gospel.

We will explore the violence of our culture, look to Jesus as the starting
point for engaging violence, examine Old Testament theology as it pertains to violence, and focus on assumptions of change. We will also explore how Christian nonviolence, relying on the Holy Spirit's transforming power, gives witness to the Kingdom of God here and now.

2009-03-23T08:18:00.002-04:00

Change

greet the change
as the morning dew
something that wets the feet
and sparkles with iridescence
to delight the eyes
until the morning sun
with it’s persistent heat
and ageless arc
burns it away by noon
and we are left with bittersweet memory
anticipating its return
at the next crossing
of day to night
and night to day

Jon Rudy
30 July 2003
At the end of homeleave

Three Generations...

2009-03-16T10:16:00.010-04:00

Three Generations of Death, Three Generations of Hope
Jon Rudy
January 22, 2004
Mae Sot, Thailand

A drab grey canon sits outside the high school
testament to the madness of a world at war
proud of her projectiles of death
symbol to our children might makes right

An windowless highschool built as a fallout shelter
proclaiming the lunacy of the world
form meets function in extreme efficiency
message to youth; “you have no future”

The video gaming sport of death
shoot the enemy, watch him explode
profit on playing with virtual weapons
subtle training for a warrior nation

* * *

Our grandfathers resisted the draft
meek opposition to the face of global conflagration
heritage that said no and yes to death and life
paving the way by their witness

Our fathers marched in the streets
speaking truth to insanity
hammering bombs as an act of creation
doing time in jail for protest; the crucible of hope

As a father will I resist?
the slow march of soldiering youth
toward the rigidity of thinking
that guns make peace?