Peace. The Only Battle Worth Waging.

I am basically concerned about what am going on in the world. I cannot understand the starvation, the destruction, the killing of innocent people. Making sense of those things is a very difficult thing to do.

And at that point I felt that all sectors of society have a responsibility to try and progress mentally and move things forward. And that fascinates me, because I've been messing around with my computer most of my life. And then I realize, well maybe I could do something different. Maybe I could spread awareness about a topic that has always been so close to me. Maybe there's a little change I can get involved in. 

Peace was something that really affected me emotionally. “Peace,” doesn’t it sound enchanting, like something that is so close to us yet unfortunately so difficult to achieve?

Peace starts from an individual. I know that spreading awareness isn't going to be easy, I know that there is a mountain to be climbed, a journey to be accomplished and if I take this journey, whether I fail or succeed, that is completely irrelevant, I would be satisfied that whoever will read this blog understands and wants to change the world.

So I was thinking about peace, and then I was thinking, “Well where's the starting point for peace?” And that was when I wanted to do that something. There is no starting point for peace. There was no day of global unity. There was no day of intercultural cooperation. There was no day when humanity came together, separate in all of those things and just shared it together -- that we're in this together, and that if we united and we interculturally  cooperated, then that might be the key to humanity's survival. That might shift the level of consciousness around the fundamental issues that humanity faces -- if we did it just for a day and forever.

Do you know why World Peace Day is celebrated on the 21^st of September? While doing some research I found out that in the month of September, 1942, 400 soldiers from USA bombarded Japan and Japan occupied China. Out of these 400, 23 returned and 2 died of disease on their way back. Hence in 1981 the United Nations and the Peace One Day declared 21^st September as International Day of Peace.

I have always wanted to know how people from different parts of the world interpret the word “peace”. Most of my friends said it means the end of war while some said it was the sharing of different cultures, literature, music, art and sport but one of my friends said, “Vihar, do you think it is enough to just talk about it? You must believe in it and you must work at it, bro.” This actually encouraged me to take active part in creating a blog that can make a difference.

During the Arab Spring one of the journalist at ground zero said, “The echo of the gunshots lingered; it was soon drowned by the chanting of the mob, and I didn’t believe what I was hearing. They were chanting, ‘We want peace. We want peace.’”

It is this determination that got them their freedom. Sometimes this United Peace chant can shatter the mightiest of people and history bears witness to this. I do feel that it is time the world sees itself from a different perspective, not as a landmass with barbed wires separating religion, race and nationality but as a single, extremely big house that has a huge family living peacefully together. At the roof of the house there is a white flag swirling, trying to tell mankind that God made the Earth why did you make divisions?

I see peace as the only battle worth waging. What about you?

-- VIHAR PATEL
    Podar International School
    IBDP 1