Children

“Peace is no mere matter of men fighting or not fighting. Peace, to have meaning for many who have known only suffering in both peace and war, must be translated into bread or rice, shelter, health, and education, as well as freedom and human dignity - a steadily better life. If peace is to be secure, long-suffering and long-starved, forgotten peoples of the world, the underprivileged and the undernourished, must begin to realize without delay the promise of a new day and a new life.” - Ralph J. Bunche

The words of Ralph Bunche, reminded me one about the true meaning of freedom. For is one truly free if they must depend on others for the basic essentials of survival and humanity? War’s do no end overnight, homes are not suddenly rebuilt, the land is not suddenly lush, families are not instantly reunited, and so forth. Freedom does lead to peace, but only when freedom is accompanied by sustainable development that is led by those who’s futures depend on freedom and peace. It is this instable rebuilding after freedom that can lead to the demise of peace.

The axe of freedom does not just fall on peace, it falls on injustice and once injustice is gone peace is possible. But peace does not just happen, and it does not happen over night, it takes years to build stable peace. Peace is found on the back of education, gender equality, adequate healthcare, nutrition as well as democracy. Peace is found among children, as they have disproportionately been effected by the ravages of war, and therefore they too must be included in the process of rebuilding their country to ensure that a lasting peace is found. To find true peace no one must be left behind, no one must be forgotten!

“We call a child’s mind “small” simply by habit; perhaps it is larger than ours is, for it can take in almost anything without effort” - Christopher Morley

So often we over shadow our children, and fail to hear their thoughts and perspectives. By looking at a child as small minded serves only to underestimate their knowledge and their contribution to the development of our future. Children can truelly take in ‘almost anything without effort’, and thus we must not only work to see that we do not discount their contributions and abilities, but also see that the wealth of knowledge and information that we give children is what will best lead them towards a bright and peaceful future.

“Come, let us put our minds together to see what kind of lives we can create for our children.”
-Chief Sitting Bull (Lakota Indian Chief)

The future of the worlds children is in all our hands, it is not for one alone to strive to see that the children of today and tomorrow are given the lives they deserve. As a global community we must come together as one, united for a better world…a better future for all children, then and only then can we create the best future for our children.

They say that two heads are better than one, imagine the the lives we could create for the worlds children if we truly worked together as a global community to ensure that all children are brought up in a world where poverty, discrimination, slavery, preventable disease, conflict and war, are not part of their future.

Yes, even if we work together, we are a long way off from a world free of pain and anguish for our children. However we sit here in a world riddled by preventable diseases, gender discrimination, low literacy rates, child soldiers, child labor…and we can work together to change these for the better. While the root cause to most of our worlds evils is poverty, we can work to increase education and advocacy…we can work for empowerment. Empowerment is the true key to the future for the worlds children and their families.

While aid programs are indeed necessary and vital, we must see that the aid and support we are giving is not only suited to the situation and culture at hand, but sustainable. We can not apply a band-aid to the future and pray that it fixes itself, meaning one cannot just toss aid at people without looking at what they really need and what will really assist them in the future. Therefore we must look at each situation, culture and climate individually and provide sustainable development programs. For example we can not put into place job skills programs such as sewing if there is no market or the market is saturated, we cannot put the same literacy programs into place for children and adults, etc. So let us not look to give people aid, but give them empowerment and no longer look at development as helping the week, but giving resources and empowerment to the strong. This is the lives that we must create for out children.

-Friedrich Nietzsche, The Twilight of the Idols (1899)

Millions of children are forced to grow-up in a conflict ridden nations, children from Afghanistan, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Iraq, Lebanon, Occupied Palestinian Territory/Israel, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda, to Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Colombia, all faces the daily challenges, violence and destruction of war. The UN estimates that more than 2 million children have been killed in armed conflicts; another 6 million permanently disabled; and over 250,000 children are used as child soldiers.

One can only hope that the children of war who survive its tragedies, those who witness it’s horrors will in truth be stronger adults. However the sad reality is that many children of war, do not survive, as war puts children at an increased risk for disease, hunger, and displacement. In addition many more do not grow in positive strength from the trials and tribulations of a childhood of war, as war makes them more prone to acts of violence.

For more information on children in conflict, please see the UN Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary General for the office of Children in Armed Conflict. Please also see my other posts on Children and War.

“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.”
- Haida Indian Saying

When we borrow money we pay it back with interest, when we borrow a car we fill it with gas, and when we borrow our friends clothes we clean them before we return them. However when we borrow the future from out children we look to be giving it back to them broken and worn, with no resources to fix it with. Our world is not replaceable and our children’s futures should not be taken for granted. We must live today with the future in mind, so that our children will not inherit our failures.

“If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children.” -Mahatma Gandhi

Children are the root of peace, should we not invest in them and their future then peace will only be an enigma. Children who are only shown war see only a future where war is the only option. Peace must be a priority for all of life’s education and the best students and teachers of peace are children.

“There are no seven wonders of the world in the eyes of a child. There are seven million.”
-Walt Streightiff

Children truly see the world through unclouded eyes, in everything they see beauty and hope. It never ceases to amaze me what the eyes of a child see that the eyes of adulthood cannot, as they have become so blinded by the tediousness of life. The world would be a better place if only we could all look upon it through the eyes of a child.

In childhood we forget not the simple things, one finds joy for hours in a simple box. Yet somehow with time we soon notice not the box an eagerly tear at it to see what is inside, never to be fully satisfied with what we find. Our lives spent searching for what does not exist, while in childhood we search to find everything that exists just so we may see it and learn from it.

Maybe if we say the world with pure wonderment one would find less poverty and suffering, and more simple joy.

-Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Children are the light of the future, let us care for them today, so that we may see clearer in the future.

“Bear in mind that the wonderful things you learn in your schools are the work of many generations. All this is put in your hands as your inheritance in order that you may receive it, honor it, add to it, and one day faithfully hand it on to your children.” -Albert Einstein

Children inherit our mistakes, our wars and the backlash of our greed. The mistakes of history are never truly seen until the reach the children of future generations. Often I hear people say, “but it doesn’t affect me.” or “It won’t effect my children.”, when it comes to so many global issues, such as the environment, poverty, modern slavery and so forth. The truth of the matter is these ‘global’ issues affect us all and it is the children of the future who will suffer the consequences of our mistakes or our turning a blind eye. Let us remember that the future is in our hands and our values and our actions is what marks the future, so dare we leave it scared or do we leave it in hope for a better tomorrow, the choose is ours, the price is the children’s!

“Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.” - James Arthur Baldwin

Children follow the path that we set for them, they look to their elders for examples and guidance. As we have all too often seen, as with the children’s poll I mentioned in my Earth Day post, the best example for the worlds children is not being set. If children only see hate, destruction, greed, violence and war then these are the examples we have given them to imitate and turn into the reality of adulthood. Let us give the children of today more examples of kindness, peace, and preservation to imitate, so that the children of tomorrow will need not look so tirelessly for good imitations of life.