Letters | Wednesday, 21 January 2009

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Peace on earth – not even once a year? It is such a meaningless platitude. Though achieving it seems so elusive, we must keep on striving to attain this worthy ideal.
There is reason to believe that until we establish a mass public education and mobilization program, the financial turmoil we are seeing will be followed by even more catastrophic occurrences than already exist in the world as a result of global climate change, the mass extinction of species (as many as 70-100 per day), militarism (Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Russia, USA, etc), poverty (more food riots and worse), oil shortages, water shortages, agricultural contamination and on and on.
Today, the general will of nations is calling for fundamental change. Demands for change, demands for transformation, demands for a return to human values are fast becoming the foremost demands of the nations of the world.
The impact that consciousness change instils on the policy-making process can never be overestimated. Many historical events provide evidence of how changes in consciousness led to profound changes despite the opposition of powerful interest groups. Historic social movements, such as anti-slavery, women’s suffrage, civil rights, environment, peace, etc., all arose from consciousness changes among citizens the world over on key political issues. The consciousness changes ultimately led to private citizens mobilizing to force political elites to change their support away from outdated ideas and policies.
The history of brutality reads like an unbroken thread all down the centuries till the present day. Take Palestine! Thousands wounded, hundreds killed, innumerable lost and unaccounted for. Governments negotiate a ceasefire without any hurry. The U.S. President-elect is forever silent. Our government is just sitting on the wall, deploring and condemning nothing. Silence please – game on! How many times can a man turn his head and pretend that he just doesn’t see?
Meanwhile… the genocide continues. Parents search beneath the collapsed walls for remains of their children. Shattered concrete, random arms and legs, broken glass tossed together in a bloody horrible mess.
It seems that some can get away with anything. However, people will suffer for what they have done, as consciousness is quite profound. We are one, and what we do to others, we do to ourselves.
The world cannot afford any more war… the challenges that plague us demand that we learn to work together towards solutions in support of sustaining life, not misery for far too many.
We fool ourselves into believing that we are immune to the savagery and chaos of wars and conflicts. Take away the rigid social structure, let society continue to break down and we become, like anyone else, brutes. After all, is man nothing more than a cruel animal? I do not think that humans are any more cruel than they are kind, however, we are blind to our hypocrisy.

Joseph M. Cachia
Vittoriosa

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