World Peace: a Way Forward

World Peace is possible when we work at it.

Redefining the Concept of Peace

We define Peace as a state of well being in all the five aspects of life: spiritual, social, financial, psychological and physiological well being. Peace is the identification and free expression of one’s inner potential. When one’s potential is not discovered, it leads to inner discontentment, lack and conflict. When the potential is discovered but cannot be freely expressed, it similarly leads to frustration, inner grief, anxiety and conflict. It is obvious that the search for peace must extend beyond the enactment of laws, treaties, protocols, quotes and agreements. Yes, external wars and conflicts are destructive, repulsive, deplorable etc., to say the least, and must be stamped out. However, the nagging internal conflicts in individuals, which grow into family, group, national and international wars are more fundamental and should be addressed if peace must be realised.

The fundamental causes of internal conflicts are Fear, Anger and loss of the individual sense of uniqueness. The solution is to create a new generation of children who are free from these forces. We call such a child the empowered child. You grow a child who is happy, confident, creative, and responsible with a drive for excellence when that child is free from these forces. Such an empowered child lives in every adult and can be awakened.

Today, we have grown into adulthood without the necessary education that will give us our sense of uniqueness and free us from the internal demons of fear and anger. The battle is however, not lost; we can recreate the internal codes that run our lives with simple processes.

What is this new concept of world peace?

Our concept focuses on creating peace through the conscious building of the culture of peace. Peace is not the absence of war but having peaceful people whose natural disposition engenders a peaceful planet. The concept takes the responsibility for peace off the shoulders of international negotiations and agreements and places it on the individual. At the centre of this new concept is the individual whose actions or inactions either tacitly or overtly generates conflict situations in homes, offices, governments, the nation as a whole and ultimately on the international arena. If we are aware that the angry child that we nurture today will become the angry adult who will be making decisions that will bring about war and conflict in future, we would be more cautious in handling our children better right way from conception. Thus we need to promote peace through the promotion of a culture of peace. The thrust of this concept is aimed at achieving the following

• Growing peace internally and extending it to externally
• Nurturing of the individual as an agent of peace
• Shifting from the persuasive method of attaining peace to the cultivation of peace at the individual level. This concept prescribes peace as a culture and not as an event.

History of Planetary Liberation Day

Etherean Mission, the church for spiritual empowerment based in Sakaman has taken a giant leap forward in this direction. In 2001, after the September 11^th event which set the world on a ‘Third World War,’ we instituted Planetary Liberation Day to promote the culture of peace worldwide. It is celebrated annually on the third Saturday of September to draw attention to this new concept of peace. The initial theme for Planetary Liberation Day in 2001 was “BIRTHING THE WORLD OF PEACE FROM WITHIN.” This theme is the foundation around which the subsequent themes are based.

It calls on society and individuals to pursue peace from within themselves and teaches that there is an internal faculty, which knows what is right and necessary for the establishment of peace. A similar faculty in birds directs them to fly thousands of miles from dangerous weather conditions to more conducive ones without any navigational guide. When we make time to listen to that faculty within and decide to follow its directions, we will be directed to peace.

Consequently, Planetary Liberation Day is focused on three main themes which are:

·         Inter-Religious & Inter-Political Harmony: The Road to World Peace.

·         Growing The Empowered Child™ A Formula for World Peace and

·         Recreating the Family: A Road Map to World Peace

Righteous Politics

This year, our theme, ‘Inter-Political Harmony: The Road to World Peace’ focuses on the internal politics of thoughts and feelings that lead to their external expressions.

Politics is the theory and practice of government. The essence of governance is to bring about peace and progress for the government and for the people it is governing. The practice of governance starts with the governing of oneself. This extends to the governance of your environment, family, community and nation.

Many people shy away from politics. To them, politics is a dirty game. The fact is, we practice politics in every sphere of our lives. Your relationship with your thoughts and feelings, with your spouse and family, with your parents and siblings and with your workmates and friends are all expressions of politics. If the righteous do not get up to head the affairs of governance, the wrongdoers will take that position and make and unmake laws to rule them. Politics is our day to day way of life and we cannot escape it; we must participate in it meaningfully.

Our external attitudes and expressions come from within. A nobler way and process for self governance and for the governance of your environment and others is ask yourself constantly: ‘What peaceful and progressive reasons do I have for the thoughts I have and or for the actions I am taking or intend to take?’ If the reasons are peaceful and progressive, the actions will be right and will benefit all concerned. The next internal monitor is to ask, ‘what peaceful and progressive ways are there to doing what I intend to do?’ Again, the response to this will guide you to the right actions for yourself and those you govern.

Is it possible to mount political platforms without ridiculing your opponents or sowing seeds of anger and fear in them? If you sow seeds of suspicion and hate in the electorate against your opponents, they will be suspicious of you come to power. To sow hate in people is destructive and may lead to violence against your own regime.

Whatever the manifesto of a political party, it is seeking to bring about peace and progress for its people. In effect, therefore, there is only one manifesto of peace and progress with different approaches to its achievement. When a political party is genuinely for peace and progress, it will support its opponent whether they win or lose power. The real issue is whether political parties are working for peace and progress for their people or for some personal human drive for power, superiority or for personal gain. The electorate has a simple task to check the true intentions of the parties seeking their mandate to rule them and to see if their chosen party has the capability to deliver. There should be no reason why a party having peaceful and progressive reasons for its actions will come into conflict with another.

So much energy is spent in what I call ‘sabotaging politics,’ in which political parties and their electorates persistently look for errors in each other and magnify them. If you look for the evil in a person expecting to find it, you usually will. If you continue to label your child as bad, the child will grow into a bad person. If we continue to see the evil in each other, we shall grow an evil community. A new approach in politics must be to see the good of your opponent and show, yet, a much nobler way.

A new mindset of politics is needed. It behoves on political parties to win votes by showing what greater good they will bring rather than by showing the evil in their opponents. We cannot grow by focusing on the evil in each other. A Ghanaian adage states that ‘If you do not want your brother to achieve nine, you will not have ten.’ Pulling each other down is not the way to progress; such an attitude will create a fallen generation.

If at the core of your propaganda you want peace and progress for your people, then there should be no reason why you will not support the winning party with your resources. Similarly, there should be no reason why the winning party will not humble itself and seek knowledge and resources from the losing parties. No one is the repository of all knowledge. ‘Even the philosopher leaves the coat cutting to the tailor.’ There is something we can all learn from each other.

When the focus of both the political parties and their electorates is peace and progress then collaboration is the way forward.

If for example, a nation is ruled by the 51% votes of its electorates and is pulled back by open and secret sabotaging thoughts and actions of the 49%, peace and progress will be a real struggle.

If we want peace and progress we must direct all of our efforts to their achievement no matter which side of the political divide you are on.

Using this prompt: ‘What peaceful and progressive reasons do I have for the thoughts I have and or for the actions I am taking or intend to take?’ will put you in internal balance that honours you and those you relate with. I call this the righteous politics.

We Are One

Politics fails if it divides the people.

Let’s come together as one family of God and stop the pretence that we are divided or enemies just because of our political differences, tribes, culture, religion or race.

We are one: We eat from the same bowl of Mother Nature and in fact, the yam you eat may come from the same village where mine comes from.

We are one: We breathe the same air even though we have different shapes of noses. And the air you breathe now may be coming from the nostrils of people of another tribe or political divide.

We are one: We share the same elements such as water, sunlight...  We Are One!

We Need Each Other

We need each other to survive as we journey through life. You need people on your way to the top just as you need them to lift you up if you happen to get to the bottom. Broaden the scope of your thinking and you will realise that however rich and wealthy you are, you do not feed all the poor in the world; and the child of the poor may rise to prominence to rule you or be your physician. We need each other to survive so our actions must be for the peaceful and progressive cohabitation with all.

Affirmation for Peace on Earth

I change the world and all men by changing my mind concerning the world and all men. I choose to see the world and all men as God sees them in beauty and righteousness. I greet the divine and the great good in all men and welcome its manifestation. And So It Is. Amen.