What is 'Peace'?

What is Peace? Any initial inquiry into this strange word reveals that we are all too willing to fight for it, die for it and protest for it but what do we actually understand it to mean when we talk of Peace? Just stop and wonder for an instant; what does Peace really mean to you? Ok, now is that what you really want? Would you be willing to fight to keep the Peace? Maybe not, so how would you deal with those who are not prepared to live in Peace? Perhaps now you are starting to think that understanding the concept of Peace is not as simple as it first might appear. No wonder that over the centuries such questioning has challenged even the most enlightened of thinkers, and driven many of them to war!

Perhaps we should start with what the word Peace actually means. Dictionary.Com provides 17 definitions of what Peace means within the English language, while the Online Etymology Dictionary reveals that the Hebrew word for Peace is Shalom and both the words Islam and Muslim are derivatives of Salam, also meaning Peace. Do you think these three major religions are paragons of Peace? To further confuse matters, Christianity, Judaism and Islam are all derivatives of a single Semitic tradition, tracing its roots back to Abraham. So these three religions’ understanding of Peace comes from a single source. Do you think they all mean the same thing? Maybe you feel limited, or curtailed, by just three words for Peace. Well why not click on the link below to see what Peace means in other languages: http://www.geocities.com/thetropics/9356/wordsof.htm

No doubt you are wondering why so many people are so fixated with the meaning of Peace? Or perhaps you are thinking, ‘please, just give my head peace’. Well, it is quite simple, how can you become a peace builder if we don’t even know what Peace is? What is it you are supposed to be building and what are the materials you should be using to build Peace? Many activists working in a peace building environment will tell you, there is no script, and once the architects of a ‘Peace Process’ have moved on those at the grassroots, of Government or Community, are expected to ‘get on with it’. But get on with what?

To firm up what people mean by Peace, it might be a good idea to ask them what they think Peace is. So this blog is providing a space for people to communicate and share insights, views or ideas of what Peace means. We hope to create a valuable resource for peace builders, who can draw on it to inform their own working environment. If you are interested in Peace why don’t you ask yourself, friends and neighbours, your enemies and opponents: What does Peace mean to you? Then send us your replies below and we will piece them together to create an innovative resource for the architects, makers and builders of Peace. Shalom, Salam, Peace be with you.

Seán Brennan is the Development Officer for the Edward de Bono Foundation NI and works in partnership with Intercomm’s Developing Leadership Initiative CEP in North Belfast’s Interface Communities.

Welcome to Intercomms Blog

   Welcome, we hope to use this blog as a means to promote, and generate discussion, on a range of issues affecting peace building, economic regeneration and community development across and within North Belfast. While we may be geographically based, our comments will not be limited to North Belfast because we believe that unless people start communicating effectively across local, regional and international divides, our problems today; will be yours tomorrow, and vice versa. So there is a need for peace builders to develop a bigger picture, of where our work fits in to the local, regional, national and international process of peace building. For example, how can the lessons of sectarian conflict in North Belfast inform or influence the reduction of sectarian violence in Iraq? What learning from Los Angeles on ‘gang culture’ can be applied here, to ensure that as new immigrant communities arrive we don’t end up substituting sectarian violence for ethnic or gang violence.

   Here, in North Belfast, as political discussions move towards the November 24^th deadline, many peace builders wonder what the implications will be for local governance, statutory accountability and grassroots peace building if, as expected, it ‘all ends in tears’? With international goodwill all but expended how will grassroots peace builders rise to the new challenge of sustaining peace in the face of yet another failed political initiative? Within such a political stalemate, how will grassroots community groups give leadership in the introduction of new policies, on Neighbourhood Renewal and Shared Future? What role is there for the business community to contribute to addressing such issues? How can the health sector begin to play a more active role in addressing endemic inequalities in health? With a potential absence of local government, how will our civil servants implement such policies and who will hold them to account in the absence of a local assembly?

   And ultimately, the question needs to be asked, when international and EU funding for peace building ends how will the British and Irish government’s sustain the peace? As John Paul Lederach, the American peace scholar points out, for every year of conflict we need ten years of peace investment. So we all must start asking our Governments, and elected representatives, what plans are you developing to ensure that we never have to experience such conflict again? In classical Conflict Resolution theory, fear and ignorance have been identified as the root causes of all conflict. One of the central ideas for this blog is to examine such causes, and by encouraging and promoting discussion and debate, identify possible solutions, to transform our conflicts into peace. Over the coming months we hope to use this blog to encourage discussions and new thinking, as Seámus Heaney would say, ‘to set the darkness echoing’ with the sound of our enquiries into peace. We know this is no easy task and are mindful of Pastor Dietrich Bonhoffer’s observation that ‘great battles are easier to fight than daily skirmishes’ but we are committed, to ensure that peace, like a river, flows through our cities, interfaces and divides.