Diminish Violence and Extremism
By Kamala Sarup
Peace will reduce conflicts, violence and extremism. If the leaders of countries promote education and values that emphasize national and international identification, then the conflicts will diminish, in the long run. If they promote sufficient economic, judicial and political equality, then the people at the bottom of the ladder will not want to topple those at the top. Therefore, the results of reducing violence and extremism are that when people engage in production and art rather than war, then the killing and maiming are reduced and the general living standards are increased and people are more satisfied.
The results of reducing conflict, violence and extremism are that when people engage in production and art rather than war, then the killing and maiming are reduced and the general living standards are increased and people are more satisfied. However, people are ignorant, aggressive and acquisitive, so conflicts remain. That is why, in every country, it is necessary to have organized, non-violence groups.
Most of the conflicts, violence and extremism in the World are the result of poverty and oppression. Unfortunately, under capitalism, "the consumer is king", and under communist governments the hierarchy takes care of itself, so people born in more favorable environments with ability and motivation will get a big share of the food while those in less favored environments will go poor and they engage in war.
Every nation must redistribute income to the poor, but these efforts do not close the inequality gap sufficiently to prevent poverty. Therefore, there will be continued violence and poverty. Today, humanitarian organizations, must redistribute funds for the those who become poor as a result of wars. It is amazing to some people around the world that violence and poverty go together. The rationale for such policies would depress economy and bankrupt capital producers. Such is the thinking driven by market economics.
The leadership of many counties are against improving peaceful coexistence. So to reduce conflicts, violence and extremism, every nation would have to import goods, including knowledge, rather than just tourism and unskilled or semi-skilled labor, which do not buy very much. To make matters worse, tourism has not expanded and maybe even has declined because of the ongoing war and terrorism, which have also drained the economy of money that could be used more productively and for peace.
However, we must have sufficient money to improve the economy competence of our people either internally or by sending them to foreign schools in sufficient numbers to make a difference economically to the entire world. It would be a major contribution if scholars would make a cash flow analysis of the economy to determine with some precision where money comes from and where it goes. That analysis might suggest some equalizers, like Bill Gates, that could accumulate wealth in sufficient quantities to spend on improving under-developed countries.
How to contribute to equality? How does fundamental social change come about? What role do social movements or organizations play? What about protest, education, public policy, personal growth, alternative institutions, reform?
However, some internal conflicts, including wars, would not exist if we improved the World economy more generally. If we study history, we will find continued bloody and non-bloody conflicts associated with poverty. However, every nation must be peaceful, both internally and externally, if we are to have equity in the world.
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Nepali Journalist and Story Writer Kamala Sarup is specialising in in-depth reporting and writing on Peace, Anti War, Women, Terrorism, Democracy, and Development. Some of her publications are: Women's Empowerment (Booklet). Prevention of trafficking through media (South Asia, Nepal Book) Efforts to Prevent Trafficking in for Media Activism (Media research). Two Stories collections. Her interests include international conflict resolution, cross-cultural communication, philosophy, feminism, political, socio-economic and literature. Her current plans are to move on to humanitarian work in conflict areas in the near future. She also is experienced in organizational and community development. A meeting of jury members held on 21 March in Geneva has decided to attribute Kamala Sarup, with a Honorable Mention of International Award for Women Issue
