Essays
This is the second part of a collection of the introductions written over recent years by Gita and Anthony Brooke for Many-to-Many Newsletter.
September 1995: our own Back Yards
"We are explorers – it is written into our genetic code" said an astronaut in a recent TV documentary.
We could perhaps see evidence in favour of this sentiment in every human life. From womb to tomb we are endeavouring to discover new territories, test our capabilities, assess situations, make decisions and try to discriminate between what is and what is not good – all of which is contributing to the conditioning and the shaping of our own lives as well as creating the atmosphere and quality of our environment.
With curiosity, ferocity and impatience we have pushed our boundaries on all levels, physical, emotional, and mental: whether we climb mountains, soar into space, split atoms, experiment with our own and others' emotional nature or probe into moral and spiritual issues, we are leaving debris and waste behind. Like children we have tended to get so engulfed in our own pursuits that we give little energy through our Elders and Wise Ones wince the beginning of time spoken of the importance of the clues and answers to be found there regarding causes and effects.
It is at the base, the foot of the mountain, that the explorer is able to gather sufficient energy and means for his or her mission. Only with the support and cooperation of the group can the individual burst through old limitations and achieve that which was deemed impossible.
However it is as individuals that the choice must be made as to what causes deserve our support and energy. The increasing understanding attained from previous explorations gives us both more freedom to choose and greater responsibility for the choices we make. As individuals we must determine the direct our thoughts and energy are to take, but it is as a group that our common goal can be reached.
Would it be unreasonable to assume that the universe of which we are part might also have a "genetic code" which holds the key to where we "fit in" and how we are meant to contribute to the greater scheme of things? Because, even as children's play has a purpose, so too must our innate urge to explore. Without purpose, without vision and without a heart which knows right from wrong, the outcome of our explorations can become futile exercises, short term excitements and selfish exploitations with very little meaning to or benefit for the peoples of the world.
So perhaps we should pause a little while, turn our attention to the "foot of the mountain" and "tidy up" all that we left behind: broken and unhealthy relationships; children in need of food, education and love; a polluted and exhausted planet; a human family killing and maiming each other...
This – overdue – redemptive venture is obligatory but need not be dreary. It could be the most exciting, most wonderful and fulfilling mission that we have ever undertaken this time together, as one family.
March 1996: Poverty
Poverty is the theme chosen by the United Nations for the year 1996 with emphasis on how to overcome and eradicate the many ills which follow in its footsteps. This is also the year in which UNICEF will be celebrating its 50th anniversary. UNICEF hopes during the anniversary commemorations to increase public awareness of the plight of the world's children and also to raise funds for more programmes to help alleviate the tragically poor conditions of children in every part of the world. It seems so relevant that the eradication of poverty is on the global agenda this year, thus stressing the strong link between poverty and its foremost victims.
In spite of international organisations constantly raising funds and the many people volunteering their services, statistics tell us that the gap between the rich and the poor is not closing but is instead getting wider. Must we not draw the conclusion that, regardless of all the humanitarian aid and volunteer help, the causes to the problem have not been touched? In some ways, the conditions surrounding poverty could be said to have worsened.
A doctor working in Africa has pointed out to me that today Leprosy is being treated successfully but that the stigma which is traditionally attached to this 'illness of the poor' remains psychologically with the victim. It seems therefore that neither goodwill nor any amount of donations of medicine and food, although giving temporary comfort and relief, can in themselves eradicate poverty or the feeling of being poor.
In a rapidly changing world perhaps we can hope that the real source of every kind of poverty will have to reveal itself. Camera lenses focussing on the frail and tormented features of starving children have left us with an image of poverty which with all its heartbreaking realism might nevertheless not have uncovered that which causes - and continues to cause – such suffering.
Starvation, deprivation, as well as all manner of deficiency can surely be tracked down to corrupt economics and poor management of world resources, sustained by selfishness and reluctance to administer proper and fair housekeeping for more than one's own 'household'. It seems that we have let "Economy" become an almost separate entity to which we pay homage in the hope that this "Economy" will secure our way of life. Poverty, then, is an unfortunate and sad, but largely unavoidable, 'fact of life'.
Governments and voluntary organisations are undoubtedly doing the best they can within our present social system and mode of thinking. Even so, poor housekeeping and the discriminatory regulations through which the world's natural resources and wealth are today being controlled, together with a very basic and general lack of the will to bring any radical and comprehensive changes to this situation – all this perhaps is at the core of all aspects of poverty within the dysfunctional family which constitutes humanity.
Following Einstein's advice to embark upon a new way of thinking, could we not learn from the many sorrowful symptoms of poverty in today's splintered world community and then – with the riches of human ingenuity and the inexhaustible courage of the human spirit – venture forth, building yet again a new society, a new civilisation which takes to heart, nurtures and celebrates the unique quality and beauty of all its parts?
June 1996: Habitat II
In June 1996 (3-14) the UN Conference on Human Settlements, the so-called Habitat II, will take place in Istanbul.
From the Earth Summit in Rio, 1992, through the various UN conferences since then, each with their own specific theme on human development, to the preparations for this 'City Summit', the input and participation of civil society in parallel 'NGO Forum' meetings has been dramatically increasing. In recognition – perhaps even appreciation - of this fact, the Habitat II organisers have decided to invite the non-governmental community and the local authorities to assist in the preparations of this conference and in the formulation of a draft Plan of Action.
The Secretary-General of Habitat II, Dr. Wally N'Dow, believes that the conference will come to be seen as a "...precedent-setting conference of nations, localities and groups seeking to learn from one another how to solve the human settlements problems that now make for the common denominator of an urbanising world". Conference members will be listening to examples of 'good practices' from all over the world with a view to learning from them and gaining insight into how local ills of a similar kind can be solved.
Someone has made the comment that Habitat II may well be the least glamorous of all the big UN summits, but it could nevertheless turn out to become the most crucial of all.
Taking into account the human right to a habitat, a home, which ensures the physical and spiritual health and well being of each person dwelling therein; which enhances and supports in every way the building of creative and harmonious relationships between all people; which stimulates personal initiative and encourages collective action - all this and more with deep comprehension for the needs of other species within this earthly habitat – is it not then a fact that we are all, willy nilly, part of this monumental endeavour?
The conference will no doubt provide a multitude of up-to-date statistics and data on just how devastating are the effects of the way we have been thinking and acting, whether on personal, national or international levels. But however terrible the state of affairs of our ravaged, exploited and polluted home, Habitat II provides a tremendous opportunity for us – all of us – to bring 'good practices' to our local neighbourhoods.
The main characteristic of this conference is, it seems, its comprehensive approach to the predicament of human settlements everywhere, pointing to a 'common denominator' - a common set of values – which is reflected in every aspect of our dysfunctional community.
Time has come to acknowledge that it is the accumulation of small habits of selfishness that sets the scenes for the senseless rampage of multinational enterprises and the shortsightedness of government decisions. This summit, more than any other before it, has confirmed the tremendous power to good and potential for change within each human being. Instead of turning this habitat of ours into a cemetery of failure, we have all it takes to make it the birthplace for a whole new way of life and of living.
August 1996: Cultural Sensitivity
The following is Peace Through Unity's contribution to an international women's seminar which took place in August and was arranged by Taganrog Women's club, called 'DIALOGUE' (President Ludmilla Arseni). Taganrog (the birthplace of Anton Chekhov) is situated at the Azov Sea in the Rostov region. Muriel Beard, president, UNA Wanganui Branch and vice president, Wanganui Chamber of Commerce, represented Peace Through Unity and introduced this paper at the conference. The theme was:
The Dialogue of Culture and Women's Role in It
The role of women is perhaps more important than every before in a world where social structures are rapidly crumbling, borderlines dissolving, challenging people everywhere to reevaluate all past and present relationships. Society, however reluctantly, is opening up to include women in many different fields of work and will one day come to involved us in every aspect and sphere of our future society. When the first initial stages of competitive struggle to assert ourselves in a complementary and non-exploitative working relationship with our male partners is well and truly behind us, we can no doubt look forward to a new civilisation emerging during the next millennium.
The choice of theme for your conference is therefore, in my view, so timely and appropriate. We all need to reconnect with our culture and also ponder – as you indicate – the role we are to play in it.
In today's world we are having to deal with a continuous flow of almost instant communication. Whether we want it or not, we are daily reminded of the fact that we live on the same small planet with people of different cultures and belief systems, yet with the same basic needs as ourselves. We live in a phase of our human evolution where immigration, inter-marriages and the continuous movement of refugees are turning almost every country into a multi-cultural community. Maybe this is what makes us feel an urgency to reestablish a secure link with our own culture – whatever the term means to us individually.
In recent years we have witnessed, many have experienced personally, the most heartbreaking conflicts, said to be stemming from religious or cultural differences, and the concept of 'cultural sensitivity' is creating minefields of potentially explosive encounters.
Circumstances are clearly calling for an answer to the question: What exactly is 'culture'? What do we have in mind when we use the word? And I wonder: Are we perhaps sometimes confusing culture with being the same as traditional practices and behaviour? Have such habitual patterns, slowly and without anyone noticing it, crept into the place in our hearts where culture used to reside?
Because, in my understanding, culture has its seat in the very heart of peoples and nations; culture is the living soul, continuously finding expression through people: through their arts and crafts; through their daily lives and relationships with one another, with nature and with God. Tradition and ceremony on the other hand are meant to be the tools of communication between spirit and form, handed down from generation to generation.
December 1996: Expectancy
It was a mother's anxious warning to her child that started a train of thoughts on the concept of expectation. "Don't expect too much", she said, "you might only get disappointed". Yet expectancy is as basic to human nature as giving birth; as striving onwards; as envisioning...
One of the Oxford Dictionary's interpretations is 'looking forward'; another, 'look for as due'. However, in a crises-ridden society, where expectations have predominantly come to focus on material possessions or comfort, personal satisfaction or status, maybe the mother instinctively knew that the child could be setting itself up for disappointment.
The turmoil of a drastically changing world is continuously creating havoc with our personal dreams and expectations, opening up opportunities and wiping them out again seemingly without any rhyme or reason. Disillusionment, cynicism and mistrust seem inevitably to follow in the footsteps of disappointment.
Maybe one of the many changes we can look forward to in the dawning of the 21st century could be a new and possible truer relationship with the concept of expectancy so essential to our approach in – and to – life. Perhaps it is the word disappointment that we should leave behind as we move into the new millennium?
Disappointment – even the fear of it – has tended to condition and dwarf the very livingness of our lives. Maybe expectancy is the inherent element in our being which could help us meet every experience that comes our way with the resolve to let it provide us with further information, insight, energy and skills for the travelling and challenges of the road ahead.
One world teacher reminds us that there are different kinds of expectation: there is 'revealing' expectancy and 'obstructive' expectancy. In the first instance 'the heart awaits'; in the second it is the personality that awaits.
In the awaiting heart an inspiring thought or that which we 'look for as due' are recognised and welcomed, but even the loftiest though 'flies with difficulty through a wall of egoism'.
It seems that the long awaited new kind of thinking which we to an increasing degree have come to accept as necessary, even vital, for laying the foundation for a new civilisation, will need the open gates of an expectant heart. Only from there can this new thinking be ushered into collective action.
But, says the teacher, "One must know how to preserve this expectancy even amidst increased labour".
Expectancy forever keeps the heart courageously awaiting.
September 1997: Government by the People
With democracy loosening up old restrictions and weakening traditional boundaries, there seems inevitably to follow a period of general chaos, confusion and mutual mistrust. Everyone appears compelled to voice an opinion on any issue under public scrutiny. The continuous flow of painstakingly detailed accounts of human suffering and wrongdoing makes it difficult to focus on lasting solutions to the seemingly endless variety of predicaments and shortcomings.
Even so, this persistent prying and probing should perhaps be seen as offering us all an unprecedented opportunity to better understand one another and to help clear the stage, so to speak, preparing for setting the scene for the next act in the play. Because, if democracy of any substance and meaning is ever to become other than a hotch potch of bickerings focussed on narrow self interest and long intellectual discussions regarding the vices and virtues of the latest theory or news bit in town – then we people of all nations will have to begin to open our hearts to each other. We will have to find unity in shared vision and common goals, and agree that differences of approach may well come to prove invaluable assets in the creation of a government by the people.
As rapid and inexorable globalisation takes place, the world stage is well and truly being set for the venture into global governance. New and brighter illumination floods the entire scene with light, revealing all and every player on it. No backdrop or curtain is hiding hitherto invisible helping hands. The light on the world scene now embraces the presence of all living beings.
So is it any wonder that our immediate response to such a drastic change of scenery is not merely a cacophony of mixed emotions, strong opinions, a clamouring for position - but also of great hope of things to come? This period of transition will surely subside as we strive together to come to grips with the tremendous opportunities for creating new relationships based on a sense of mutuality and holistic thinking.
Future world democracy will inevitably challenge the at present accepted interpretation of sovereignty. The sovereign right and responsibility of individual citizens to participate in the creation of a dynamic and harmonious global neighbourhood will be the hallmark of an emerging democratic world civilisation.
However, a government by the people is neither necessarily nor automatically democratic or good for the whole. The ideals and the principles, clearly and simply described in the preamble of the United Nations Charter, have not prevented the perversion and corruption of its international system. Values and principles must be lived and practised by us all if we are to succeed in making a new and better world come true. Nothing but change of heart will suffice.
"Burdened by knowledge, but unwinged, will be those who are heartless"
--"HEART", 1932.
Many to Many
a quarterly publication issued by
Operation Peace through Unity
Anthony Brooke and Gita Brooke, co-founders
Te Rangi, 4 Allison Street, Wanganui 5001, New Zealand
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Many to Many
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