Războiul din Georgia încotro va duce?

2008 September 2
Posted by Viorica Antonov


O lună Europa vorbește despre violențele din Caucaz. Acest lucru îl privesc și bine și rău. Bine, deoarece liderii politici europeni pare că și-au dat seama în sfârșit că Caucazul nu e doar un teren viabil pentru conducte de gaze spre Europa, dar și un punct strategic vulnerabil pentru ea. Și rău deoarece încă nu s-a luat nici o decizie cu privire la intervenția militară rusă din Georgia. Rusia a depășit normele acceptabile ale dreptului internațional cu prețul de a menține conflictul cât se poate de lung. De ce? Simplu. Pentru că ura față de americani, altfel nu pot să numesc, este întratât de mare, încât un conflict dintre două sate, cum a fost la început, a fost transformat în unul dintre două state, doar pentru a demonstra cine e stăpân pe situație din regiune. Rusia nu poate uita independența Kosovo și intențiile americanilor de a finansa proiectele energetice din bazinul Caspic precum ar fi Baku-Ceyan.

Rușii singuri au provocat acest conflict până ca el să înceapă în această formă sângeroasă, oferindu-le, de-a lungul ultimilor ani, pașapoarte rusești populației Abhaziei și Osetiei de Sud. Și plus la toate, Rusia nu poate accepta ideea de aderare a Georgiei la NATO. În cazul Ucrainei, se va proceda la fel, dacă aceasta va decide să adere la Tratatul Nord Atlantic în timpul apropiat? Ori se va aplica o altă tactică necunoscută nouă, căci aceasta din Georgia pare să repete cazul Ceceniei, când conform ”planului Barbarossa” opoziția cecenă a fost formată din soldați ruși mascați în rebeli și militari de opoziție doar pentru a avea motiv de intervenție militară în Cecenia și astfel de a realiza ideile cruciale.

Nu sunt de acord nici cu politica SUA, care astăzi mi se pare una dubioasă și urătă în sensul adevărat al cuvântului. Cred că cel mai bine această politică externă este criticată de însiși americani, care, după părererea mea, au înțeles mai bine decât alții pe cine l-au ales, deși, nu exclud că mulțimea încă mai crede în dreptatea politicii externe americane. Dar să lăsam pe americani să se lămurească cu liderii săi. Datoria noastră e să înețelegem jocul pornit în Caucaz.

Mi se pare acest joc o ecuație politică de extremă raritate, căci rezolvarea acestei probleme nu constă în greutatea ei, ci în variabilele apărute în procesul de calcul. Ce urmărește Rusia este previzibil – transformarea spațiului Caspic și Caucazian într-un monopol energetic rusesc, lucru apropo deja observabil prin vizita recentă a lui Putin în Uzbekistan pentru a demara negocierile cu privire la importarea gazului uzbek în Rusia, lucru deja și negociat cu viteza cosmică, doar că prețul nu este afișat, deși experții presupun a fi unul foarte și foarte flexibil pentru Uzbekistan, a cărui lider, Islam Karimov, amintesc, este unul autoritar. Prin urmare, acolo unde e controlul rusesc al gazoductelor ce vin sau spre Rusia sau spre Europa, acolo nu e SUA, sau cel puțin așa pare să fie. Capacitatea militară a Rusiei nu e atât de peformantă cum ar fi cea americană, însă potențialul energetic compensează multe lacune și vulnerabilități pe care le are astăzi acest stat. Ce urmărește Georgia este la fel de previzibil dar șocant – absolut nimic în privința rușilor. Dacă Rusia nu s-ar fi împlicat în acest furnicar creat de georgieini, osetini și abhazi și nu le-ar fi promis nimic celor două regiuni din Georgia cum ar fi un ”anschluss” la Rusia, ci le-ar lăsa să se lămurească singuri cu autodeterminarea teritorială și politică, lucrurile s-ar fi liniștit, pentru că soluția ar fi Georgia o federație la început și apoi, cine știe, poate o singură țară unitară europeană multietnică. Iar dacă vreți independență de Georgia adresațivă la ONU. Toți ar fi avut de câștigat. Însă ambițiile Rusiei nu au avut liniște și au izbucnit, mai întîi odată cu declarația independenței Kosovo, apoi prin ciudate explicații de ieșire din Tratatul FACE ca totul să sfârșească cu acest conflict sângeros. Reputația Rusiei a scăzut și încă scade. Nu le pasă nici că pot fi privați de dreptul de a organiza Olimpiada din Soci. Dacă Kremlinul continuă tot așa, Rusia riscă să-și piardă simțul statalității și să dispară ca stat, cât de banal nu ar părea acest lucru la moment, dar ea a luat o cursă greșită care poate duce la așa consecințe grave. 

Why Peace Education? What is it anyway?

2008 July 25
Posted by Viorica Antonov
Letter of Peace to Dr. Andria Wisler, Georgetown University, Washington, DC

Dear Andria, I want to share with you my understanding about peace education. Before I came here to EPU, my feelings about peace education were like chalk and cheese. I did not know how I could understand peace education. Should I consider it a participatory holistic process (which is very huge perception for me)? Or should I take it as a non-violent behaviour or maybe in some different way? These, all became issues for me and this is the why I came to EPU. I cannot say my background is wrong. I just improved it and I am still improving it thanks to various approaches in peace education which I hear in the classes. You can ask me why peace education? I think because it is the process for me to acquire the knowledge of nonviolence in my behaviour, attitudes, skills, and values. If I will live in harmony with myself it does mean I will live in peace with others. It doesn`t make me selfish or egocentric, this changes just my worldview. What I can tell you is that peace education is teaching me to think critically…
I cannot remember unfortunately who mentioned this but he or she was absolutely closed to truth:
‘A child born today in the U.K. stands a ten times greater chance of being admitted to a mental hospital than a university…. We are driving mad our children more effectively than we are genuinely educating them. ‘
I have been teaching more than 7 years in Moldova and I saw cases of degradation in mentality and thinking amongst the young people. I asked myself why young people come to schools and universities and use the violence and discrimination as technique of their behaviour. What is the mistake of adults? I know that media, especially TV channels which are the most adorable amongst young people, influence their behaviour. But is not all in this. I mean the problem is not just here. One question is how are TV monitored channels today? They are commercial, arrogant, false, and indifferent. And almost the newspapers and magazines are too. Second question is why are they so brutal?  Because is not commercially to educate in the art of peaceful living. Violence is a result of emotional impulsivity which is an outcome of wrong perception of the things which is a consequence of wrong information and education. At least, it is my thoughts.
I am really happy to know that there is a growing realization in the world of education today that children should be educated in the art of peaceful living. In schools and universities curricula need to develop peace-related disciplines such as values education, moral education, global education, human values etc. We stressed cognitive learning in schools and universities at the cost of developing children’s emotional, social, moral and humanistic aspects. The consequence of such imbalanced learning is evident today in the forms of youth unrest with their antisocial attitudes and behavioural problems.
Peace education means to learn about and for peace, harmony, human values, tolerance, reconciliation, understanding, open-mindedness, charity, patience, endurance, ethics, indulgency, help, love, compassion, etc.
Learning about peace means obtaining knowledge and understanding of what contributes to peace, what damages it, what leads to war, what does ‘peace’ mean on each level anyway, what is my role in it, and how are the different levels connected? Knowledge of peace is the human values and how we can keep them in our hearts and minds. Nonviolent knowledge brings peace of mind.
 Why peace education? I am still thinking on this issue. I consider we have many reasons to do peace education:
-          There are over 600 million small arms in circulation around the world – one for every 10 people on the planet.
-          Studies show that more than 500,000 people are killed due to these weapons every year – or, one person every minute.
Because small arms can:
-          destabilize regions;
-          spark, fuel, and prolong conflicts;
-          undermine development;
-          obstruct peacebuilding initiatives;
-          exacerbate human rights abuses; and
-          foster a “culture of violence.”
Accordingly with UNESCO Program of Action on a Culture of Peace and the Culture of Peace News Network the real peace has a chance. I think that violence is a resistance to something what is wrong or immoral in someone perception. And in the same time, the motivated violence, such as military interventions, brain wash process “in the name of nation and for reasons of international security” became a hypocritical culture. Accordingly with programs mentioned above we can see what the perception of culture of war is and what the perception of culture of peace is.
Culture of War & violence
1.      belief in power based on force
2.      acceptance of an “enemy”
3.      authoritarian government
4.      secrecy and propaganda
5.      reliance on arms
6.      exploitation of people
7.      exploitation of nature
8.      male domination
Culture of peace & non-violence
1.      belief that peace is possible and can be learned
2.       reconciliation, tolerance, cultural understanding
3.      democratic participation, cooperation
4.      free flow of information, critical awareness
5.      negotiation, disarmament, non-violence
6.      the same human rights for all
7.      respect for the Earth, sustainable development
8.      equality of men and women
I don’t believe that culture of war is highest that culture of peace, but in conditions of economical concurrence and crisis of energy security as well of food missing and others became more difficult to keep peace and tolerance, non-discrimination and indulgency. 
I don`t dispute why we need peace education, I just want briefly to show you, my friend, who says we need peace education.
-           “If we are to reach real peace in this world, if we are to declare war on war, we must begin with the children.” Gandhi
-           “Establishing a lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war.” Maria Montessori
-          “They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not rise up against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” Prophet Isaiah
-          “Violence begets violence, toughness begets toughness….It is either non-violence or non-existence.” Martin Luther King Jr.
-          “Peace education has evolved into studying violence in all its manifestations and educating to counteract the war system for the creation of a peace system.” Leonisa Ardizzone
These persons contributed to development of peace education in different corners of the world bringing together the chance to peaceful development for international society. The peace education is important for everyone who wants to live in harmony and tolerance. For me peace education is a challenge to improve myself as citizen of the world and to remain the person who I am. It is difficult to do if you live in violent zone or background, if your family practice violence, if you see the violence in the streets and on TV, in the schools and on international relations. But actually for all these facts I have the rationale to learn and teach peace. The peace education is the central thesis of tolerance. It teaches me to think critically and be open-mindedness. It is pedagogy teaching you to live with yourself in peace and to cohabitate with the all others in the world.    

This is my message to you, my dear friend.
I am really hoped that is open discussion which can have continuity…

Religion and Law – how purchase forgiveness?

2008 July 25
Posted by Viorica Antonov

I put this question to myself. I am religious person. I am orthodox. Does religion change the world perception of life, or is it a myth, when your world becomes destructive beyond of diesis, nuclear power, genocides, murders, military interventions, starvation, and undernourishment?
The world was always in changing despite of misunderstands between nations, religions and cultures. To identify you to one religion does mean to recognize you as a natural human being, as a person who has the right to one mistake, as a person who needs a set of values to adapt them in his/her life and to believe in these rules.  But should we recognize and forgive the mistakes – sins – of military interventions, Nazism, genocides, international crimes which have been done by human beings just because we have this right to one mistake, instead what kind of mistake is it global or local? What religions say to people about mistakes? I want to mention about my perception about religious contexts. In the world there are many religious contexts, manuscripts, saint books, but all of them have been done by human being perceptions, mentalities, understandings and discernments. These texts brought to us the peace perception in our souls and balance of intelligence in our minds and just with latitude of time they became saint for future generations, and it is happened, how I think, because they represent the historical past of old generations, their perceptions and faiths and it has continuity – people believe in saints and make sins.
Here there are some common ideas surrounding sin in various religions:
-       Punishment for sins, from other people, from God either in life or in afterlife, or from the Universe in general.
-      
The question of whether or not an act must be intentional to be sinful.
-      
The idea that one’s conscience should produce guilt for a conscious act of sin.
-      
A scheme for determining the seriousness of the sin.
-      
Repentance from (expressing regret for and determining not to commit) sin, and atonement (repayment) for past deeds.
-      
The possibility of forgiveness of sins, often through communication with a deity or intermediary; in Christianity often referred to as salvation.
-       Crime and justice are related secular concepts.

Regardless of all mentioned ahead there is one the most important moment which I would like to develop in this essay – forgiveness. I want to share how it is my perception about the sin and forgiveness. Sin is closed to misdeed which is closed to crime. Sin asks forgiveness, which is closed to exoneration, which is closed to amnesty. How I can put in order the crime which has been done – genocide, atrocities, mass destructions – with forgiveness and reconciliation which does mean the understanding the situation which has been done or created by someone who committed a crime, a transgression to human beings?
It may be very difficult to remove forgiveness from its spiritual context; in fact, the notion of a secular forgiveness may be, for many people, an oxymoron. In our days for international crimes, genocides and various atrocities there are the principle of responsibility and punishment accordingly with the international criminal law which is substitute to public international law. Therefore, the forgiveness from spiritual background removed to one international. There is one moment here which I want to laud. Religions as a set of values and convictions don`t recognize crime and remove it to higher category of sin. The international criminal law recognize crime and add it to highest type of violence against people. The paradox here is that the sin and crime are considered criminal acts in both cases, but in one is no punishment in order it is. Religion cannot be violent. It is the framework of peace and reconciliation. The belief helps us to forgive and to reconciliation in spite of our critical thinking.
Most of us like to believe that every human being deserves a chance at redemption. But are some crimes so dark that forgiveness can never be earned. And forgiveness became one emotional topic
connected with the criminal justice system. Crime and violence against human beings, nations request penalty when the last sentence can be absolute. I cannot answer if the victims can be encouraged to give forgiveness to whom committed atrocities. Perhaps their religion and their principle of life can give an answer. And I cannot answer if any other criminal need this forgiveness, perhaps his or her religion and principle of life can give an answer.
One think is factual that I am spiritual person and I can give forgiveness for sin, but not pardon for crime.