Peace Day 2018

The world is characterized by diversity- of race, personality, religion, interests and more. The needed binding force to firmly hold our diverse forms is peace. Peace is what creates a blend of these differences. Peace is freedom from disturbance, war or violence. It symbolizes love and unity. It is also an important opportunity for change and increased understanding. Peace is a commitment not to harm but to nurture all individuals. Peace is an important and a non-negotiable phenomenon in the human society, the human society is made up of diversities which cannot be seen as a disadvantage but to bring forth the beauty in her diversity for the betterment of the world. Globalization is fast gaining ground in the 21^st century and there is a unification of world cultural values and norms and also a strong relationship between countries of the world. For globalization to be on the positive side it should propagate peace other than unifying world cultural values. Without peace the world will be an unsafe place to live. Respect for human rights, countries sovereignty should always be propagated in order to yield a positive result in the world where each country is given equal opportunities to produce and to be in charge of the global market, every individual or country has the right to peace and respect for human dignity.

Peace is the soul of love and love is the body to peace, the two phenomenon makes a better world, let's embrace this call for a better world.

Peace can be said to be freedom from or the cessation of war or violence.  Some UN officials have explained Peace to mean dignity, well-being for all, not just absence of war. The need for peace cannot be overemphasized. We have had series of tragic events in the pasts, from wars to racism, genocide, tyranny and oppression because there wasn't any regard for human right. Hatred and anger have helped destroy our faith in humanity and need for sustenance of peace. The UN swung into action to prevent future re-occurrences by highlighting the need for freedom of speech, mutual understanding, explaining why the rule of law should be absolute and our justice system should be incorruptible. Nations will not be able to coexist without putting these into consideration. Humans are competitive in nature and studies have shown that we are naturally violent but whatever fuels that brute strength and vigor, can be dismantled or rather, we should be fighting to keep the peace.

The word, "peace” has its origin from the old French language; "pais" which means; reconciliation, silence and agreement. The word peace, generally used today by different people in different cultures all over the globe, has been viewed in different perspectives peculiar to each culture. However these divergent views are not necessarily very different, so to speak, they all have a centralized meaning, which in simple terms, sees peace as; "the absence of war or conflict". Conflict on the other hand is; anything that causes unsettling and dissensions. If one was to define peace and conflict to a four-year-old, he could say; peace is the mother of friendship and conflict is the mother of war.

The world as we see it today, with the way dissensions, terrorism, hate, racism and the likes seem to be the daily headlines of the news, it all seems like "peace" is one thing that the world is against. However, one would also beg to disagree at this notion, because even though the action of some races and countries policies seem to be "anti-peace", we still see that deep down, everyone wants to be in that place of serenity, calmness and agreement. The soldier that has spent his whole life at the war front, wants to go back to his family and live peacefully having seen blood being shed for years at the war-front, Martin Luther fought for peace in America and people respected and still respect him etc. Everybody searches for peace via the medium of religion, love, friendships and families. So we see that, we all want to live in peace, some have not just learned to manage our different beliefs and cultures.

 The ability to manage our differences is where our journey to peace starts.

If we all make peace that sole priority, we will forget and condole our differences. There is a difference between relaxation and peace. Without peace you cannot relax and where there is peace, the world becomes colorful. Paint the world around in the colour of peace. Start with the person next to you. We all have a right to peace.

Thank you for reading. This piece was co-written by Isaac Bakare, Chris Iheagwam, Morufat Murtala, Demola Makinde, Michael Amah and I. Please feel free to share  and post comments.