Demonstrating Reconciliation

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

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

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

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

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.