International Year For A Culture Of Peace – Archive Article
December 13, 2008

RADIO 2GB NEWS COMMENTARY BROADCAST ON FRIDAY JULY 5 2000 ON RADIO 2GB’S “BRIAN WILSHIRE PROGRAMME” AT 9 PM, AND ON JULY 7 2000 ON “SUNDAY NIGHT LIVE” AT 10.30 PM.

This is the International Year for a Culture of Peace. There is some good news: the Hatfields and the McCoys have agreed to stop their century and a half of fighting.

On July 4. I spoke at a Parliament House Luncheon organized by the Woollahra/ Double Bay Uniting Church, with the proceeds going to Edward Eagar Lodge’s work with homeless people. The topic was “Conflict Resolution and a Culture of Peace”.

The outbreak of peace between the Hatfields and the McCoys is an interesting contribution to this “international year”. Officially about 20 people have died since the 1860s, with an unofficial figure of being about 60 dead.

But there is now no agreement on why there has been this small war in West Virginia. The origins have been lost in the mists of time. It may have been over a broken romance, a residue from the American Civil War, a dispute over cutting down some trees or the theft of a pig. No can remember for sure.

This is a good example of how conflicts develop. There is a small incident and the situation escalates. After some time, people are involved in the fighting for the sake of fighting rather than for the original cause. Eventually people will be fighting just because there has always been this fighting.

If there were a culture of peace, then people would stand a greater chance of avoiding being caught up in a conflict in the first place. They would know instinctively what to do and what to avoid. Conflict resolution is like a language – it works best when everyone knows it.

A fish does not know that it swims in water. It takes its surrounding environment for granted. Likewise, we humans often live in an environment – or “culture” – of violence. We take it for granted. The United Nations is encouraging us this year to look afresh at our environment and try to develop a culture of peace, which includes giving greater attention to conflict resolution.

An advantage of conflict resolution training is that people know that a little dispute can injure a great friendship. Therefore they make sure that their conflicts do not escalate out of all proportion to the original dispute.

Conflict is an inevitable part of life. It cannot be avoided. Therefore, the challenge is to bring good out of the conflict: the make lemonade out of the lemon. Conflict resolution is a valuable survival skill.

Unfortunately, the Australian Government has decided to do little to publicise this international year for a culture of peace. This has been a wasted opportunity. One thing the Government could have done would have been to encourage all Australians to undertake one conflict resolution course this year. The Government could have made such courses tax deductible.

The eyes of the world have been – and will be – on Australia. Australia played a very important role in East Timor and Sydney will be hosting the Olympic Games. This would have been a good opportunity to reinforce Australia’s international good standing by letting the world know that all Australians (irrespective of age) have been doing conflict resolution courses.