Khalid Husain

Peace among ourselves and the people around us is very important, and many world leaders and countries strive towards it all the time. 

If no one was working towards peace amongst ourselves, we would be at a war on many fronts, internally and externally, constantly.  Peace is important simply because lack of peace — conflict — can lead to violence and ultimately, joylessness and grief in our lives.

World peace with everything and everyone around us is as important if not more important than peace amongst ourselves. However, I think that world peace is a lofty goal to strive for, since not everything we want to be at peace with is under our control. Ultimately, since we cannot bend everything to our will, aspects of life, including death, are inevitable. As Murphy’s Law states, “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.”

For argument’s sake, let’s say, theoretically, that we achieve ‘world peace’. Even when we achieve it, it will be temporary at best — aspects of nature and life that we can’t control will still eventually come into play. Worse, the longer we manage to stave off the problems we can’t fully control, the more dulled our problem solving skills will be. I say this because conflict is necessary for our development; when handled with an open mind, it constantly adds to our metaphorical bag of answers and gives us experience so that we can handle a difficult task when the time comes.

The fact of the matter is that we cannot live productively with only one of these aspects, peace or conflict, in our daily lives. While conflict can lead to misery, world peace isn’t the solution because conflict invariably arises. Keeping this in mind, total lack of conflict, even among ourselves, could dull our problem solving skills and keep future generations from developing these essential skills. We have to work on each problem with an open mind and extract as much information as we can from it, so that we are best equipped to deal with future conflicts.

While we may have peace amongst ourselves successfully, we do not have control over everything, and therefore, something bad will eventually happen. We must handle conflicts carefully and properly, but not be so immersed in the thought of total world peace, that we set our goals too high. Diplomatic peace is a reasonable goal to strive for, and can be achieved without dampening our conflict solving skills in the long run. However, striving in itself is useful, even if it is toward an impossible goal. All in all, moderation is the best way to deal with conflict and peace, as well as anything else in life.

In this KidSpirit Big Question response, teen writer Khalid Husain explores conflict's role in human development. 

Is Conflict Necessary for Inner Growth?

Akash Mehta

We live in a violent world filled with conflict, and we always have. But every member of every generation has a responsibility to our world — to, in our own way, try to lessen the unhappiness that reigns on this planet. 

Our generation, like the ones before it, is going to grow up and lead the world. It is essential that the leaders of tomorrow, who will have to try to fix so many of our world’s problems, are empathetic and understanding not only of their people’s suffering, but of the suffering of those on the other side as well.

Seeds of Peace and Face to Face/Faith to Faith (F2F) are two organizations that understand this and are dedicated to making sure it happens.

They are two similar organizations — both train high school-aged kids from opposite sides of a conflict to understand each other, and challenge each other’s conceptions about that particular conflict. They bring together teenagers who can speak English and who show leadership skills for several weeks of intensive programs at a neutral site. Seeds of Peace participants go to a camp in Maine, while F2F attendees go to a site in upstate New York. Seeds of Peace is active in more conflict areas, and also works in different kinds of conflict areas. It also doesn’t focus on bringing together kids from many conflict areas (which is something that F2F does) — just kids from opposite sides of a single conflict area. F2F is focused on religious, rather than political, disputes. F2F tries to train potential peacemakers as well as develop and constructively challenge teens’ concepts about their religious and spiritual beliefs. Both programs have many activities — everything from games to serious discussions.

To try to get a better sense of what they go through, I conducted interviews with participants of both programs with kids who live in different parts of the world. Because of the time differences, the interviews were via email.

Meet the four kids I interviewed: Sarah, Yaala, Naomi, and a fourth who prefers to remain anonymous. Yaala Muller is a 17-year-old Israeli from the city of Modi’in, near Jerusalem, and attended the Seeds program in 2009. The other Seed is a Palestinian from Hebron. Now 19 years old, he has long been committed to seeing both sides of the Isaeli/Palestininan conflict and was at the Seeds camp in Maine in 2007. Naomi Lynch and Sarah Logan both attended Face to Face/Faith to Faith and are both from Belfast in Northern Ireland. Naomi is 19 and comes from a Catholic background. She went to F2F first in 2008 and returned since as an LIT (Leader in Training) in 2009.  Sarah who is now 20, attended F2F twice, first  in 2009 and then as an LIT in 2010. She doesn’t identify herself as either Catholic or Protestant, just Christian.

The conflict in Israel/Palestine is extremely well known, while these days the conflict in Northern Ireland is less so. Because of this, I’ll only give a brief summary of the conflict in Northern Ireland. If you want to know more, I highly encourage looking up the conflicts — but just be sure that you don’t jump to conclusions, for as Naomi eloquently said, “Don’t assume that you have all the answers; conflict is a very complex subject and sometimes it’s hard to draw a clear line between right and wrong.”

Ireland was ruled by Britain in the seventeenth century. Since the English and Scottish mainly settled in the North, the north became largely Protestant, unlike the rest of the Ireland, which was Catholic. As the years progressed, the North and South grew further and further apart, due to economic as well as religious differences. In the early twentieth century, Northern Ireland was politically separated from the rest of Ireland, due to the issue of rule: the Southern Catholics wanted to be independent of the British but the Northern Protestants were against being ruled by Catholics. The North and South began a bitter war. In 1921, both sides agreed to a treaty that would create a new state called the “Irish Free State,” which was comprised of Southern Ireland, and that six northern counties, Northern Ireland, would remain part of the United Kingdom. This mostly subdued the violence until the early 1960s, when severe violence broke out and lasted through the 1990s. From 1985 on, constant political struggles and negotiations have been taking place. Since then, violence has been on and off, and remains that way. Sarah says, “it sometimes doesn’t seem like Northern Ireland is moving on. However, there are a lot of cross community programs happening, like F2F, encouraging young people to get rid of stereotypes and discriminating attitudes that they may have of the ‘other.’ Programs such as these will really help to create a more peaceful generation in the years to come.” Naomi says that almost all Irish people are opposed to the current violence: “But our culture of bystanding has not changed.”

I interviewed Eric Kapenga, the Director of Communications at Seeds of Peace, to find out more about the program. He lives in Israel so I couldn’t get a face to face (or a faith to faith!) interview with him, but I was able to voice chat with him for about an hour. He told me that the kids were often extremely polite in the beginning, because they wanted to show that theirs was the more civilized and rational side. They pretended to be calm and unemotional, and were talking about movies — not about their conflicts. The supervisors of the discussion had to push them to talk about the actual issues.

Sarah says this about her experience at the F2F program: “The variety of activities available was remarkable, including dancing, yoga, art, meditation, discussions about religion, listening to a gospel choir, games, plays… the list goes on and on. I feel truly privileged to have had such a chance to get away from normal life and try different activities and experiences.”  The sites are in many ways like a normal camp, but in addition to regular camp activities, they focus on the issues at stake. In the F2F site especially, they talk about worldwide issues that aren’t particular to them. Of course, the real jewel of the program is when kids from opposite sides of issues interact with each other: when Israelis would play soccer — excuse me, football — with Palestinians, and Irish Catholics would have discussions with Irish Protestants about their beliefs and their conflict. They forge ties that will last them a lifetime, and that will influence all decisions they will make regarding their conflict.

In many conflict areas — if not all — there is a lot of misinformation. Take the conflict between Israel and Palestine. “The image I held about the Israelis was that one we see on TV, as soldiers who have nothing except tanks and [fighter planes],” says the anonymous Seed. Alternately, Israelis tend to only see images of Palestinians as terrorists and both groups fail to really see each other as they are, namely as innocent kids in the middle of a larger conflict. “So many Israelis go their entire lives without speaking to a Palestinian or even an Arab-Israeli, and so many Palestinians go their entire lives only confronting Israeli soldiers. Rarely do ‘regular’ Palestinian and Israeli folks have a chance to speak and interact,” Yaala told me. “In many of these conflict areas, one can’t safely discuss issues. So one of the greatest parts about these programs is offering a place for kids — many of whom have stifled questions about their conflict issues — to be able to talk freely, especially with kids from the other side of the conflict, who they normally would never get a chance to meet. These are kids who they’ve been brought up to believe are all terrorists who want to kill them and take their land, or some other rubbish.” Seeds of Peace and F2F give kids an opportunity to learn that the kids across a border are . . . just like them.

The programs normally choose kids who are not only smart and can speak English, but also are outgoing. For instance, take Seed of Peace’s domestic program for the people of Maine. New England is a fairly white region; there is very little racial diversity. The government put a federal refugee and asylum center in Maine. But in addition to lacking diversity, Maine also lacks money. So, in many of the communities of Maine, where five to ten new families who weren’t like the rest (in racial, religious and/or ethnic ways) were relocated, there was tons of tension between the local white community leaders who suddenly had to provide for five to ten more families, and the new arrivals. Seeds of Peace helped ease the tension between native schoolchildren and the arrivals, by putting them in the camp together, where they could discuss their issues. They select children who are looked up to, because when the native white children (whose parents were probably telling them horrible stories about the asylum seekers) see the captain of the football team becoming best friends with a Cambodian boy after a summer spent together, they rethink their knee-jerk decision to isolate those who are different from them.

Both Seeds of Peace and F2F teach lessons that are applicable to conflicts everywhere. When we fight our fellow brothers and sisters we forget that they are who we are. There is no nation, religion, or other group anywhere that is populated only with evil people. There are nations with evil rulers — but we must fight only those leaders, not the people of those leaders. Tonight, as I write this paragraph, President Obama confirmed that the CIA successfully killed Osama Bin Laden, leader of Al Qaeda. The news station cut to a scene of a joyful celebration outside White House gates. A throng of jumping, yelling exuberant twenty-year-olds chanted, “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” And I can only hope that these people are celebrating for the right reasons. I can only hope that they don’t see Bin Laden as a representative of  Islamic people. And if they do? That’s misinformation for you. And it is just that view these programs are fighting. They aren’t fighting Israelis or Catholics or U.S. refugees or Muslims — they have only one real enemy, and that is the tragic force of misinformation.

The teens from these programs realize that they are the ones who will lead their nations. But most of us who don’t live in areas of intense conflict lack the motivation to fix our own problems. And yet we, as privileged kids without many problems, have just the same amount of responsibility as kids who come from less fortunate backgrounds, if not more. Because we live in some of the best parts of this world, we should try to help others who don’t, almost to compensate for our own good  fortune. So I urge you — get involved! Make the world a better place, in whatever way you can.

Below are messages to all kids who care, from the teen peacemakers in this article:

“At Face to Face, we were taught a Hopi proverb that says ‘We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.’ In other words, don’t wait for someone else to bring about the change that you would like to see in the world — go out and do it yourself!”  – Sarah Logan

“My advice to our generation is to follow our nature as humans and to believe that we are all able to live side by side and share the efforts for a better world. And my message to my Israeli brothers and sisters is that we are all humans, and that this land is a common thing between us. Let’s build it together and make it a peaceful place.”  – Anonymous

“For all the other peacemakers out there, my only advice to you would be to teach what you are. Don’t fight for what you believe in — just be it. Fighting should not be our universal language anymore. Demonstrate the values you believe in, speak the words that guide you, define yourselves by what brings you joy and happiness, rather than by what makes you angry and upset. Don’t be afraid to be who you are and speak what you think is right, even at times when you think it’s unacceptable. It is these times that we learn the most, and these times we truly can make a difference. Also, I guarantee that these will be the times you will most affect and influence those around you. You might not even know it or feel it, but it will happen. Carry peace, and whatever it means to you, with you wherever you go. Go against the flow of the current and don’t be afraid. Please also remember to listen. At camp, we were always told that we have two ears and one mouth for a reason. Remember that sometimes listening is the greater achievement. Finally, I would like you to remember that you are never too small to achieve the great feat of being the change you want to see in the world.”  – Yaala Muller

“For teen peacemakers … I would encourage you to question. Meeting and dialoguing with other young people your age is a really big help in this. Don’t assume that you have all the answers; conflict is a very complex subject and sometimes it’s hard to draw a clear line between right and wrong. With that in mind, you should be able to challenge yourself to meet with, listen to, and understand other perspectives without judgment.”  – Naomi Lynch

In this KidSpirit Features article, teen writer Akash Mehta explores the role of teens as peacemakers in conflict areas, and how their perspectives and actions can influence the leaders of tomorrow towards change.

Talking With Tomorrow's Peacemakers

Prerna Chatterjee

Love feels no burdens, thinks nothing of trouble, attempts what is above its strength, pleads no excuse of impossibility; for it thinks all things lawful for itself and all things possible. – Thomas à Kempis

One fine evening during our stay at Madhya Pradesh, Daddy took me to a local fair. I was hardly five years old then. Fairs always excited me. Daddy bought tickets for a ride on the Ferris wheel. He also bought me some colored bangles from a shop. Then we both devoured candy floss. Suddenly at a distance I noticed a crowd of people. I dragged Daddy over. He scooped me up and had me sit on his shoulders. I saw a strange man amidst the crowd, draped in a simple cloth which clung to his waist. His head was clean shaven and he wore specs. He also carried a stick in his hand. People all around us clapped and cheered as he bowed. I wondered if he was a film star, but as far as I knew, film stars were drop dead gorgeous and this weird little fellow was anything but handsome. While walking back to our hotel, I asked Daddy who the man was.

“It’s just some local chap, dressed up like Gandhiji,” Daddy said. (In India, adding -ji after someone’s name connotes respect.)

“Gandhiji. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.”

“Who is that, Daddy?” I wanted to know.

“He was a freedom fighter. He fought for the country.”

“Wow! So is he like Superman? Superman fights a lot, you know,” I said.

Daddy laughed. “No silly. He’s not Superman. He’s braver than Superman and much wiser.”

“Nobody can be braver than Superman,” I argued.

“You’ll see when you grow up,” Daddy said, smiling.

From that day, I was determined never to acknowledge the bravery of any person called Gandhi. Nobody could excel my Superman in terms of bravery and courage.

But within a few years I grew up. History was included in our list of subjects in school. I came to know about the history of my India, about the royal emperors and the ancient civilizations. Superman was soon replaced by none other than Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.

India had been under British rule for about 200 years. In the beginning, British rule was considered to be divine, for Indians were mostly ignorant of their rights. Nationalism was yet to evolve as a developed concept. Moreover, since India was a country of diverse races, religions, and cultures, the Indians had varied opinions regarding British rule. It was in the nineteenth century that Indians became politically conscious. An organized political body, the Indian National Congress, representing the Indians, came into existence for the first time. Uprisings took place against the British government, petitions were sent to the authorities, and organized political movements began during this time. Small-scale terrorist activities against the British were also prevalent. However there were no mass movements in the country.

It was Gandhi who first organized mass movements throughout the country. These movements were unique. By “movement” we usually mean “rebellion.” Gandhi’s movements were rebellions, no doubt, but they were without arms. He called this “passive resistance.” Gandhi realized that violence would only bring devastation to the country and not lead to its ultimate goal of freedom. He launched the Non-Cooperation Movement in 1920. The Non-Cooperation Movement had two aspects, negative and positive. The negative aspect included abandoning of British institutions. Indians left schools sponsored by the British, the military, and police services. British goods were also boycotted. The positive aspect of the movement encouraged adoption of national goods. National education received a boost. This came as a shock to the British for they did not foresee this kind of agitation. They were puzzled and completely at a loss. However when the movement reached its climax, Gandhiji called for its withdrawal due to an unforeseen incident. On February 4th, 1922, an excited mob of agitators set fire in a police station in the small town of Chauri Chaura in Uttar Pradesh. Gandhiji immediately called off the movement. According to some scholars, this was a foolish decision on Gandhi’s part and questions were raised about his ability to lead the country. But Gandhiji was determined to carry on the freedom movement on non-violent terms. According to him, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”

In 1930, Gandhiji began the Civil Disobedience movement. This movement affected the British economy badly. Due to the pressure of the All India National Congress, the British promised the Indians self-governance. In return they got Indian support in the World War. During this time, the British Government formed the Simon Commission, consisting solely of the members of the British Parliament in November 1927. This Commission was entrusted with the work of framing a constitution for India. Since there was no Indian representative in the Commission, it was completely rejected. A movement broke out in all parts of India against the hypocrisy of the British. The British were warned of a large scale Civil Disobedience Movement if India was not granted the status of a dominion. Needless to say, the British remained indifferent.

Gradually, the Indians lost both patience and faith in the British government. Gandhiji and other leaders of the Indian National Congress declared the Civil Disobedience Movement. On March 12th, Gandhiji made his historic march to Dandi from Sabarmati Ashram in Gujarat, followed by hundreds of his supporters. He reached Dandi, on the shores of the Arabian Sea on April 6th. There he broke the existing Salt Laws of the British Government by manufacturing a handful of salt on the sea shore. This is considered to be the beginning of the movement. A wave of nationalism swept the whole India after this incident. People in different cities began breaking British laws. Picketing of shops selling foreign goods became a daily phenomenon. British clothes were burnt. Indians refused to pay taxes. Unable to cope with the situation, the British Government arrested Gandhiji and other prominent leaders of the movement.

There are certain words that I come across every time I read about Gandhiji. One of them is “Satyagraha,” a Sanskrit word meaning “the force of truth.” This was the main philosophy of Gandhi’s non-violent ideals. He urged the Indians to fight for truth.

The last movement launched by Gandhiji was in 1942. It was the Quit India Movement. This was Gandhiji’s last call for absolute independence. However within 24 hours of the announcement of the movement Gandhi ji was imprisoned along with other prominent leaders. The movement did not die down even after Gandhiji’s arrest and was carried on by the people themselves.

There is a movie called “Gandhi,” directed by Richard Attenborough. I remember a certain scene from the film. There were British police officials standing with lathis (wooden sticks) in their hands, obstructing a wide road. A rally of Indian protesters was approaching without arms of any kind. As they came near the police officials, they were smacked hard by the police. The protesters fell down, unconscious. None of them hit the police back. They just sacrificed themselves to the police. In this way the policemen knocked out about a hundred people until they could not hit anyone anymore. This determination of self sacrifice was instilled in the Indian minds by Gandhi.

Sometimes I search for the relevance of Gandhism in the present age of terrorism. I don’t know how successfully Gandhism can be implemented in today’s world. These things are beyond my ability to understand and pen down. But all I know is that nowhere in the world has there ever been a leader like Gandhi who through his life and actions has demonstrated the power of love which triumphs in the end. His greatness lies in the unique method he adopted for fighting wrongs. In doing so, has he not given us a substitute for warfare?

Gandhi was a believer in Hinduism. But he was tolerant of other religions as well. He realized that all religions with different rituals and methods of worship led to the same supreme force. Many of us feel that politicians are not to take religion seriously, for politics involves a more practical approach. But Gandhi attacked this view. He said, “To see the universal and all pervading Spirit of Truth face to face one must be able to love the meanest creation as oneself. And a man who aspires after that cannot afford to keep out of any field of life. That is why my devotion to Truth has drawn me into the field of politics; and all I can say without the slightest hesitation and yet in all humility, that those who say that religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion means!” For Gandhiji serving his countrymen was equivalent to serving God and it was this love for his own people that was reflected in his patriotism.

India attained her freedom on 15th August, 1947. She was reborn with her own government, her own policies, her own people. India has walked a long way since her independence. Times have changed and conditions have improved. Behind all these, there was a man, a man with a clean shaven head, a man who carried a stick in his hand. To this man patriotism was religion. This man spoke of love and truth. He is the father of my country. His name is Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the man who surpassed Superman in his bravery and determination.

Sources:

Gandhi, Mohandas K. An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments With Truth. Public Affairs Press, 1948.

Cortright, David. Gandhi and Beyond: Nonviolence for an Age of Terrorism.  Paradigm Press, 2009.

In this KidSpirit Features article, teen writer Prerna Chatterjee explores the life and work of Mohandas Gandhi, a leader of the Indian independence movement. Gandhi proclaimed a liberation struggle and "Satyagraha," which encouraged Indians to fight through non-violent civil disobedience and passive resistance.

Gandhiji: The Father of My Nation

Naomi Chasek-MacFoy

The Internet affords the average person unprecedented access to channels for communication. It has also become the new frontier for bullying.

This new form of online bullying is known as “cyberbullying.” Cyberbullying is simply harassment or intimidation that takes place online, via texting, or any other electronic medium. These new technologies have opened up a whole new world for the purveyors of spite and revenge. Not only is cyberbulling particularly painful, it is becoming more and more prevalent. When I researched the topic on Polling the Nations, I found that while only 19.5% (14% boys; 25% girls) of young people aged 13-18 sampled in a 2009 study reported being cyberbullied, 68% of young people aged 13-18 (sampled in a different 2009 study) believed strongly that cyberbullying is “a serious problem with today’s youth.”  Just as electronics have swept through our society, becoming more and more commonplace, so have the practices that piggyback on them.

Because kids often use these new technologies more than adults, they are more often the victims of such cyberattacks. These attacks range in origin: some are the continuation of school yard tiffs, and some a way to vent venomous feelings without facing the person they’re angry with (or trying to hurt). Although many of these encounters occur among young people, their ramifications are far from small. In 2006, Megan Meier, who was then only 13 years old, took her own life because of the attacks of a local mother posing as a teenager online. What is so surprising about this case is that it was a mother, who would most likely have never bullied without the Internet as a cover, performing the harassment. Because the anonymity of the Internet can pose many worrisome dangers, some parents have become overly cautious. These dangers are real, but do not create a legitimate excuse for writing off technology altogether.

While suicide is a real and heartbreaking consequence of cyberbullying, it is not the only consequence. Many kids who have had to face cyberbullying’s crushing effects come away crying and demoralized, which although not tragic, can still cause lasting self-confidence issues. Online bullying can “influence how somebody behaves,” said a New York City parent in an article on cyberbullying in the New York Times. Another parent in New Jersey was aghast at the deleterious effects of cyber bullying on her daughter. She stated to the Times: “She was very, very, upset. She’s always been self-conscious, and in a way this just flushed out what people might been thinking all along.”  It is these kinds of situations which highlight latent insecurities that may cause enduring damage to young people.

Often it is the case that anyone can do or say anything online with complete anonymity. The social networking site Formspring has developed this anonymity into an integral aspect of the service it provides. On Formspring, you have the option of posting potentially degrading or generally harmful comments completely anonymously. Because of this, many Formspring walls are often rife with mean-spirited comments. In many ways, this makes Formspring the perfect place for a cyberbully.

The advent of cyberbullying indicates that technology is no longer a tool through which we enhance our lives; it is a way of life. Technology has infiltrated even the most ancient of phenomena, the school yard fight. This, however, raises the question: If technology can be used as a tool to hurt, and create conflict, why couldn’t it be used to resolve conflict? The anonymity of these new technologies could be used for good. One who would normally feel uncomfortable stepping into a fight in real life, under the cover of the Internet, could break up a potentially fatal war of words. Our new forms of electronics could even change the implementation of conflict resolution in our society.

The Internet can now be used for an intervention as quick in transmittance as the originally hurtful message or as a mechanism to raise consciousness about issues of cyberbullying. In the same way that information can disseminate quickly to spread rumors and do harm, positive messages can go out quickly as well.

While new technologies are changing the implementation of conflict resolution, the new found prevalence of cyberbullying could be changing the role of conflict resolution and conflict revolvers. Initially, spurred into action by many accounts of cyberbullying throughout the country, many parents took steps towards taking more control over their kids’ online interactions, changing their role in these sort of school-based fights. This step was made possible by the new found prevalence of at-home technology, but would not have been feasible before. These, however, are kids’ fights and perhaps, contrary to the prior situation, they should continue to be solved by kids, with a more limited, but still relevant parental role. Hopefully, this change in response to the tragic outcomes and hard lessons that have arisen from the new Internet freedoms we have today can help today’s kids take responsibility for their actions, both on and off line.

It does seem that the microcosm of cyberbullying can tell us something about the trajectory of peacemaking and technology going into the future. Because everything down to the seemingly simple and necessarily face-to-face schoolyard fight is moving online, it seems that all our interactions are. Peacemaking is undeniably part of this trend. One aspect of this online shift with a definite downside is its immediacy, which can be dangerous. Once sent, communications can no longer be taken back as they could before the rise of super-fast technology. Statements can no longer be retracted, however embarrassing or deleterious they may be. This instantaneousness, although at times harmful, has the potential to be quite useful. Global peacekeeping, humanitarian, or military forces can use the same swift technology which cyberbullies use to save lives where vital communication before would have been nearly impossible. The split between the potential to do harm and the potential to do good will doubtless continue to appear as society wrestles with the prevalence of new technologies.

In this KidSpirit Feature article, teen writer Naomi Chasek-MacFoy explores internet safety and the effects of cyber-bullying in our new age of online communication and social media .

Cyberbullying: Know Your Boundaries

Gautama Mehta

The four pages of blurbs in my paperback copy of Life of Pi, a novel by Yann Martel, though all adoring of the book, give scattered, bewildered, and generally unhelpful impressions of what it is actually about.

The New Yorker calls it “an impassioned defense of zoos;” the Wall Street Journal likens it to “comic strip ‘Calvin and Hobbes’ with an overt religious theme;” the Financial Times (London) claims it “suggests Joseph Conrad and Salman Rushdie hallucinating together over the meaning of The Old Man and the Sea and Gulliver’s Travels.” Yann Martel, the author, in his Author’s Note (part, secretly, of the novel) at the beginning of the book, is introduced by a mysterious elderly stranger named Francis Adirubasamy in a coffee shop in Pondicherry to what he is told is “a story that will make you believe in God”— and thus, when the reader is not sure which has been raised higher, his expectations or, proverbially, his eyebrow, he is launched into Chapter 1, which begins with a long and vaguely academic discussion of the eating and sleeping habits of the three-toed Brazilian sloth.

The reader voyages through this novel unprepared.

Martel takes to heart the idea of splitting up a book into three parts and each, though nearly identical in style and format to the others, is practically a different book. Part 1 is primarily a refreshing, lively account of the protagonist Pi’s upbringing in Pondicherry, and his experiences with religion, family and his father’s zoo, interspersed with a portrait of his adulthood in Canada: his double major of religious studies and zoology, and his family in Toronto. This is funny and philosophical and light, and the reader zips through it with a smile on his face, but wondering when he will encounter what the Times of London called a story “so harrowing and astonishing that it will make you believe imagination might be the first step (to believing in God).”

Part 1 ends with young Pi and his family boarding a ship headed to Canada, laden with the zoo animals his father is selling along the way. Then comes an account of the fictionalized narrator, Martel, meeting the adult Pi and his wife and children. The last line, from Martel’s perspective: “This story has a happy ending.”

The first line of Part 2: “The ship sank.”

Part 2 continues in this vein. Here is the harrowing story of adventure and survival we were promised, always simultaneously playful and truly terrifying, drawing almost exclusively on the themes introduced in Part 1, and yet the reader feels that the two parts have nothing in common, except for occasional and subtle reminders of the larger, philosophical points Martel is trying to make, the overarching narrative that unites all the disparate elements of the book. But these are swept aside in the Robinson Crusoe-style adventure story that makes part 2 enjoyable to read. As Pi’s voyage across the Pacific Ocean alone with a tiger progresses, he grows weaker and more tired, and his exploits grow steadily more fantastic, until he, a hallucinating castaway who has been alone with little food for many months, is hardly a credible narrator, and his connection to reality mirrors the weakness of his grasp on survival. The reader’s relationship with him changes. But just when his story is at its wildest, most surreal, Part 2 abruptly ends. He tells us, in its penultimate chapter, “I grew weary of my situation… The rest of this story is nothing but grief, ache and endurance.” Then he effectively skips the details of the remainder of his voyage and the final chapter of Part 2 begins with his arrival on land.

Finally there is Part 3, the most brilliant and rewarding of the lot. Martel magically, supernaturally seems to draw all of the bizarre themes and subplots of the book into a beautiful, resounding message or meditation on the subject of reality, storytelling, religion, truth, and so much more — but here I fall into the trap of the reviewer of this book: since I can’t explain what actually happens at the end of this book, I’ll just have to leave it infuriatingly ambiguous, and ask you to read the book to experience it for yourself, armed with one more strange set of preconceptions as you go in, given to you by this reviewer in the hope that your adventure through this work of fiction will be as surprising and unexpected as Pi’s through the wonderful waters Martel has created for him.

In this KidSpirit Media article, teen writer Gautama Mehta reviews "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel. He explores the adventures, challenges, and conflicts within the book, and how Martel's writing drew him into the fictional world of Pi.

Review of Life of Pi: An Adventure Story about Adventure Stories

Marc Gopin

I have spent the last twenty-seven years of my life as a peacemaker working on the Arab/Israeli conflict. It has been a long hard road, but I have traveled this road with many amazing people.

Their stories have rarely been told, as they are not ‘famous’ in the Western world that defines fame and power and impact with a very limited lens. I live in a different universe, a universe of the places in this world where two peoples are divided by bitter and violent sorrows, old resentments, outrageous but understandable suspicions, and completely polarized affiliations.

Within that world there is another world, a secret world, of those people who dare touch those on the other side with their words, with their food, with their hearts and souls. It is the world of spiritual peacebuilders. That special world to me as an activist, as a spiritual seeker, and as an analyst of conflict, is a magical world of enormous significance. For it is in that mysterious world of human bridges between enemies that we find, flowering up from the ground of death and hatred and war, the seeds of life, the seeds of the future, the seeds of what makes the human being such an exalted and courageous being, created in the image of God.

Spiritual peacemakers are a unique subset of human beings, partners in peacemaking across enemy lines. Jewish, Muslim, and Christian peacemakers stand on the bridge of a divide that goes back two thousand years to the very foundations of the split in the cluster of their religions known as ‘the family of Abraham,’ or the Abrahamic religions. These are very serious and violent divides with so many wounds of history, and they are the valiant healers of these ancient wounds.

My focus here with you is on the inner lives of spiritual peacebuilders, because it is the inner spiritual life that is most challenged in the effort to create a true partnership across enemy lines.

Any partnership is challenging for human life, from friends to lovers to business partners to academic colleagues. Partnership that is respectful, trustful, and generous, is a precious human experience that requires constant effort, much trial and error, and long-term evolution. The rewards are great but so are the challenges.

Imagine how much more difficult and how much more consequential–indeed fateful–is the difficulty of creating trusted partnerships and friendships across enemy lines where blood of the innocent, blood of family, has been shed for decades. The obstacles are overwhelming, the pressure from both sides to desist is unimaginable, and the inner challenges of guilt-ridden thoughts of betrayal are intense. Peace partners find themselves often deserted by their closest friends, family members, and neighbors as a price for their association with a peace partner.

My principal focus and interest is self-reflection. This is particularly important for me because I have concluded after decades of observation that a central source of endless conflict between enemies — but also a central source of misery in families and communities — is the emotional, cognitive, and ethical failure to be self-examined.

An inability to examine oneself is one of the greatest impediments to peace, because it prevents the crucial calculations of reason, it prevents an analysis of power relations, material relations, and it precludes a thorough examination of justice and fairness. The fulfillment of every human need in conflict resolution is thwarted by the inability to look at oneself, and it assaults each and every one of us every day in our personal conflicts.

The gifted spiritual peacemakers know this, and that is why they are working on themselves all the time. They are not saints, they are not perfect, but they are far more conscious of their internal life and struggles, and much more likely to ‘look into the mirror’ as they struggle for answers.

I am defining ‘self-reflection’ as our capacity to engage in profound and extensive internal conversations where we evaluate the good, the bad, what could be better, where we are going ethically and spiritually, and where we long to go. I further define it as a quality that is engaged over long periods of time, really as a fundamental part of a life journey.

Self-examination also means the capacity to openly share these conversations with others as a part of your personal growth, as well as a part of your peacemaking. This is vital to becoming a role model to others who also have difficult and contradictory feelings, and are often tempted to avoid self-scrutiny and instead channel these feelings into anger or violence. This makes self-reflective people far more authentic, persuasive, and peaceful in their character as well as their political work.

Self-reflection boldly confronts one’s own tragedies, and those of others; it confronts the resulting emotions of fear, remorse, and rage. It is about emotional honesty, striving to tell the truth to oneself and to others from one’s own group. Self-reflection also involves working on the capacity to hear hard truths and grow from the experience.

Self-examination is an internal process that not only is the key turning point between violence and nonviolence, it is the principal means of confronting and overcoming despair. Here is how. Reflection is the ultimate defense against burnout, because burnout, mental and emotional exhaustion, comes often due to an inability to face oneself honestly and accept the limits of one’s capacities. Reflection and self-examination, however, are by nature understanding of limits. Reflection encourages taking of responsibility for things we have evaded, but it also exposes the seizing of too much personal responsibility that is often a hallmark of burnout. Reflection is therefore very forgiving, and frequent forgiveness prevents burnout.

There is a good reason why thousands of years ago the Greeks summed up most wisdom with two words: Know thyself.

Inner knowledge is the key to the authentic peacemaker.

Inner knowledge is the antidote to despair, it is the path of authentic growth, and it is the key to nonviolence in the face of adversity, injustice and the tragedies of war.

The spiritual peacebuilder knows himself well, and it is for this very reason that he understands and empathizes with the heart of anger that is part and parcel of the injuries of war. The peacebuilder struggles day and night with her tendency to pass judgment on the violent ones, knowing full well that ‘there but for the grace of God go I,’ that she could easily have become a warrior herself. The peacebuilder knows that the goal is justice and peace, but the journey there is through humility, self-examination, empathy, love, and compassion. It is a noble journey, worthy of those who hold their souls as precious gifts in the midst of oft-raging storms.

In a KidSpirit PerSpectives essay, Marc Gopin shares his thoughts on peace and global conflict.

The Mysterious Inner World of Spiritual Peacebuilders

Rachel Rucker

The land still remembers what people do not,

It remembers battles fought and bloodshed,

It remembers the lives given and the lives taken,

The land still feels what people have forgotten how to feel,

It still feels the blood seeping into the soil,

The soldiers falling, shot dead, onto its ground,

Shots fired into trees that still feel the pain,

Pain that ran with the rivers bloodstained,

The land still hears what people are no longer able to hear,

It still hears final screams of men shot down by the “enemy,”

Shouts of generals commanding their brigades,

In this KidSpirit poem, teen writer Rachel Rucker uses imagery to explore the memory of a battlefield.

The Land Still Remembers

Madi Friedman

The Yoga video Shanti Generation for Youth Peacemakers is relaxing, helpful, and a good tool for relieving stress.

The video’s “main menu” has five separate choices, three of which are designed to help you relax and learn how to do yoga, and the fifth being “special features.”  The first choice “Library of Poses” is, in my opinion, one of the best features of the video. In this section, the person watching is able to choose the type of yoga he or she wishes to do, whether it be “Focus,” “Energy,” or “Calm” yoga. This allows you to control the video.

The interesting thing about this video that sets it apart from other yoga instructional videos is that the people on the screen teaching the watcher are all teenagers. This is a great feature, and makes it more interesting for other children to watch, seeing as they can relate to it in this way. Therefore, I would recommend this video to people from around twelve years old and up.

This is a good video for both beginners and people with more advanced yoga skills, and for both girls and boys. In the “special features” section each of the “youth peacemakers,” or yoga instructors, are briefly interviewed. This part of the video is interesting to watch because you are able to hear the reasons for why each teen loves yoga. The two boys say that they love yoga because, not only is it relaxing, but it also helps them with sports. One of the boys has asthma, and he says that yoga gives him good breathing techniques.

The girls say that it helps them to relax and forget about any problems that they might be having. Every person, however, mentioned that it was helpful with relieving stress caused by schoolwork. This is one of the main reasons why I would recommend the video to teens, especially high school students. School is stressful for everyone, whether it is academically or otherwise, and this video is very helpful in relieving the stress that it causes.

I would give the video a 4 out of 5. There are a couple reasons for why it is not a perfect 5. For one thing, the music for most of it is a little hyper for a yoga video; however, if you chose “calm” yoga, the music does slow down a bit. Also, the instruction is a little fast, and at times hard to follow.

All in all, the video has very good instruction and is great for teaching kids to live more peaceful and stress-free lives.

In this KidSpirit Media review, teen writer Madi Friedman gives her take on the film Shanti Generation: Yoga Skills for Youth Peacemakers.

Finding Peace in Yoga

Madison Friedman

It was early. I was still half asleep as I dressed and quickly ate a bowl of cereal.

My dad called up to me and I hopped down the stairs, pulling on my other shoe as I went. I opened the door to meet my dad and I immediately felt the morning Florida breeze. My brother, Alex, had made this countless times before and was already waiting for us in the golf cart.

We drove through the quiet streets, the wind hitting us on all sides in the open cart. Small bumps rose on my arms and legs and I reached for the sweatshirt that my mom had correctly warned me to bring. When we reached the golf course my two grandpas were waiting. We didn’t practice, and went straight to the tee. My dad and brother hit, then my grandpas. I was the last to tee off. My heart sunk and I felt a knot forming in my throat. Even though I was with my family I was still very nervous. I had never played with all of them at once. Usually it was just “the guys,” and that, on top of me being younger, meant that I was never invited to these early games. I had never been considered good enough to keep up with these older and better adults, and now, for the first time (with me playing from the ladies’ tees) my dad thought that I could do it.

I choked down the knot and took a practice swing. Then I hit the ball. It was solid and down the middle. I let the breath that I was holding go, and felt a smile form across my face. On that first hole I ended up shooting a bogie, which was the same as my brother and dad, and was better than both my grandpas. This was very exciting for me, and it lifted the pressure on the next hole.

For the rest of the round I ended up shooting no worse than a bogie, except on two of the holes. I looked down at my scorecard in my shaking hand; my heart pounding excitedly while my dad drove me over to my mom and grandma. I jumped out of the cart before my dad even stopped and ran to my mom to show her.

I had finished with a 46–the best round I had ever played for nine holes. I was so excited. It was the first time I had ever played with the “serious golfers” in my family, and I had shot the best round of my life.

My heart refused to cease its rapid and excited beating, and I was unable to form anything but a smile on my face.

This was by far the highlight of my trip to Florida.

- The goal is to get the ball into the hole in as few strokes as possible.

- Every hole has a par; it can be par 3, par 4, or par 5.

- Getting a par is good, however the number of strokes a par varies between holes depending on whether the hole is par 3, 4, or 5 (Ex: getting a par on a par 4 hole would be getting the ball into the hole in 4 strokes)

- A birdie is very good, and is one under par (Ex: getting a birdie on a par 4 hole would be getting the ball into the hole in 3 strokes)

-  An eagle is the best and is two under par (Ex: getting an eagle on a par 4 hole would be getting the ball into the hole in 2 strokes; also, an eagle on a par 3 hole is a hole in 1)

- A bogie is still good, but is not great, and is one over par (Ex: getting a bogie on a par 4 hole would be getting the ball into the hole in 5 strokes)

- A double bogie is two over par (Ex: getting a bogie on a par 4 hole would be getting the ball into the hole in 6 strokes)

- A triple bogie is three over par.  This continues.

In this KidSpirit Awesome Moments article, teen writer Madison Friedman recounts the first time she broke fifty in golf.

Breaking Fifty

Ma Xingchen

Standing on the platform of the 59th street subway station, I listened to the music people were playing and felt one of the best moments I’ve had in New York.

Having stayed in New York as an exchange student for already half a year, I’ve seen places that I’ve never seen before, met different kinds of people, and found different ways of life. I began to know how to live by myself and thought more about what kind of life I really want in the future.

Of all the awesome parts of New York, I was impressed most by its art. Art in New York is not only the world-famous Broadway shows, or the masterpieces in the Met, but also the music we hear in subway stations or the small pictures we see on the street. To me, these are all part of New York.

It was about 10:30 in the evening. My friend and I were walking on the platform of the 59th street subway station when we heard a song sung by a young man and a young lady. The man was playing the guitar while singing along with the lady. “Taking this sinking boat and point it home, we’ve still got time.” They were singing "Falling Slowly" with the most beautiful voices I’ve ever heard. The song was from the movie Once which also tells a story about people who perform on the street. I could feel that they were singing from the bottom of their hearts as if they were telling their own stories. Their smiling faces showed that they were truly enjoying their music just as everyone else who stopped around them did. I was fully touched by their amazing voices and their moving music.

When I got onto the train, watching them still playing as we were driven away, I thought about all the people who have played in the subway station, with the music still in my head. Undoubtedly, they were all very talented people, but not everyone can become famous in New York. Still, they love their music, their art, and they love playing in the city where people will stop to listen and enjoy. They were people who made New York subway stations unique and fascinating. Getting off the train and seeing more people performing in another station, I made up my mind that I’ll try to sing the music that touched me one day, just as the young man and the young lady did in a New York subway station.

In this KidSpirit Awesome Moments article, teen author Xingchen Ma brings to life a moment on the New York City subway.

The Sounds of the Subway

Lexi Longo

In a set of KidSpirit haikus, teen poet Lexi Longo shares her wish for world peace, inspired by the book
Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes.

Haikus for Peace

Lucia O'Corozine

Blue  stone  sky  
Could  be  crushed  to  powder    
And  used  to  make  the  richest  pigment    
Known  
So  deep    
So  endless    
You  could  lose  yourself  in  its    
Vastness  and  live  another  life  below    
This  sea  
Outside  this  world    
Hands  to  glass    
Peering  in  with  stars  looking  over  our  shoulders   

In this KidSpirit poem, teen writer Lucia O'Corozine describes a strikingly blue sky on a clear day.

The Watching One

James Edward Dimitri Depp

Shooting stars are like little flash bulbs

from a glistening soup bowl of stars. Shooting

at the night sky of a trillion little lights

In a KidSpirit poem, teen poet James Edward Dimitri Depp contemplates the beauty of shooting stars.

Star Poem for the Dark

Poems for Peace

Oh mother, she looks like a lamp in the air

When I look at them, we have peace in our hearts

We pray to the high that torments us daily,

“Boom! Boom!” dashed the sounds. Panic

I wrote this poem in order to promote peace. Although it’s not a big thing, I hope it will make people around the world have a different view of wars, because there are “old-fashioned” solutions. There are ways that we can solve problems in which we can create a better relationship and a better society, instead of destroying things and leaving negative effects behind.

Kids from around the world offer poems that express their wish for a more peaceful future.

Selected Poems from Around the World

Makenna Klay

How my guilt-stricken parents looked at me when I’d said I wanted to join.

How they thought they couldn’t see me die when really staying with them was no comparison.

My head held high as I walked to the airport doors with my few items that belonged to me, on my way to my new home.

How the new bullet resistant vest and printed uniform felt on my immense body.

Living with strangers that had been to hell and back and who also thought this was the only way out.

The feeling of a hard canvas cot under my blistered fingers, and the memory of how I thought it would be my last bed.

Strangers becoming ones I could trust with anything, and who I could count on to be my crutch when I was hurt physically or mentally.

How I hadn’t realized where I was until I was in the middle of an enemy filled oven.

The burning feeling of the sand when you left your finger on too long, or the piercing sound of the unmistakable gunshots.

When I could finally look up, I was beside a wall of sand that would either save my life or burn me.

I had suddenly remembered Christmas morning with my parents as they looked at all of the green and red presents like they had never seen them before in their lives.

The smell of baking cinnamon buns and cold eggnog in the air.

And then I remembered their fight and remembered why I was in the middle of nowhere in the first place.

All of a sudden my gun felt extremely heavy in my hands, as if the whole world were resting in my arms.

There was a loud explosion in the distance and everyone was screaming at me to move.

How running over the vast desert made me feel like I was the only one left in the world.

When I’d tripped over a body and realized it was one of my close strangers struggling with his shredded thigh.

How he whispered “good-bye” to me as if they were his last words.

Not knowing what to do- keep fighting to kill someone else’s close stranger, or to help mine.

How I made it through without a scratch is one of the biggest mysteries in the world and I will still not forget the chilling, warm feeling on my back as I carried my friend’s body on my shoulders.

I wasn’t capable of feeling scared or sad anymore, for I had lost it all at war.

Remembering my daughter’s birth, or my son’s first birthday.

Or how I proposed to my wife, or how my parents hated me.

But the strongest memory I will ever hold is of my close stranger in a hospital bed saying, 

In a KidSpirit poem, teen poet Makenna Klay dives into the memories of a soldier.

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