Peace awareness in Kapeacetahan

Awareness is the starting point where change of behavior could take place. Positive awareness could motivate people to positively respond.

Before I didn't care about the Mindanao conflict as long as we were not affected directly. I live in one peaceful community in the province of Sarangani. We got no Muslim neighbors, which prevented me to understand how they live and behave.

By attending various forums  initiated by the UNYPAD, MUSA, and Young Moro Professionals in the University, I slowly learned what is their struggle all about.

That's why I find the peace awareness campaign of the OPAPP, the KAPEACETAHAN as equally important to the peace talks of the GPH and MILF. Massive awareness and education campaign is needed to augment and complement the talks. At the end, it will be the people who will decide, should there be a plebiscite on Constitutional Amendments. It will be the people, informed or not informed, will influence the actions of the politicians.

More programs like these are needed in the grassroots. There are many who are not yet aware of the conflict, and are deprived of an informed judgment.

Now starts the real negotiation

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My Hope For Peace by Jehan Sadat

I love reading books with personal insights. Like this one, it seems we are talking with each other in one room while she was explaining her concept of peace in the Middle East, founded on his husband's principles on how to attain it. This can compliment your reading on Jimmy Carter's. The husband of the then President Anwar Sadat of Egypt, she now takes her stand in continuing the struggle to achieve peace in the Holy Land. As a woman, she emphasizes the significant role of women to play in the peace process. Jehan Sadat continues to share her hope for peace in the world because she believes this is attainable.

Mindanaoreader notes:

Weapons alone are easy for all men to have, yet claws alone do no make a lion brave.-Al Mutanabi

 Peace. This word, this idea--this goal--is the defining theme of my life.-p.1

Fear is a most effective tool in killing the soul of an individual---and a people.-Anwar Sadat.p23

Without the correct intention, a religious devotion is meaningless; with intention, even the most ordinary activity is transformed into an act of worship.p33

This seems a clear indication of something most Arabs know: a state shaped according to Al Qaeda's vision of Islam is profoundly unappealing, and the means by which they promote their agenda--indiscriminate murder--are unacceptable.p.43

If you have God for a friend and establish a bond of mutual love between you, you will always have peace of mind whatever the circumstances.p55

She believed in me when all others disbelieved; she held me truthful when others called me a liar; she sheltered me when others abandoned me; she comforted me when others shunned me; and Allah granted me children by her while depriving me of children by other women.-Hadithp.133

 If we women fail to support each other, choosing instead to retreat from the battle for our own emancipation, everything we have accomplished will fall into decay, and then, as we say in Arabic, "Only our own eyes will weep for us."-p.172

I will always hope for peace. I will always pray for peace. And so I say to you, As-salaam aleikum, Peace be upon you. p.190

We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land by Jimmy Carter

photo source: wikipedia.com

I visited the Bookshop last Tuesday and found this book for P45 ($1). Having interest in peace and conflict resolution, I bought it. It's a personal narrative and view of 2002 Nobel Peace Prize Jimmy Carter on what's happening in the Middle East specifically the Israeli-Palestinian relations. It enlightens me in the complexity of their situation. Relating it in the Mindanao conflict, I could say that the Mindanao conflict is easier to solve compared to Israelis. It's not worth comparing at all, but we can learn from them. In Mindanao, the major players (GPH, MILF, MNLF, Abu Sayyaf) are domestic with some international presence (International Monitoring Team, Malaysian facilitator, foreign observers) while the Israeli-Palestinian conflict involve countries like Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Jordan, US, EU, and other Arab countries. 

mindanaoreader notes: 

Everyone who engages in the Middle East peacemaking is bound to make mistakes and suffer frustrations. Everyone must overcome the presence of hatred and fanaticism, and the memories of horrible tragedies. Everyone must face painful choices and failures in negotiations. Nevertheless, I am convinced that the time is ripe for peace in the region.-Introduction

Perhaps the most important overarching decision for the Palestinians is whether to seek equal citizenship within a single nation instead of continuing their frustrated struggle for separate statehood. The Israelis will have to provide the ultimate response.p.170

"The blood of Abraham, God's father of the chosen, still flows in the veins of Arab, Jew, and Christian, and too much of it has been spilled in grasping for the inheritance of the revered patriarch in the Middle East. The spilled blood in the Holy Land still cries out to God---an anguished cry for peace." It is time to replace anguish with joy and celebration. -p.182