LIVING IN HARMONY - Chapter Seven

Empowering Children to Become World Harmony Builders

...Love Starts Here: Building a Just and Peaceful World

Chapter Inspiration:

-If we fight a war and win it with H-bombs, what history will remember is not the ideals we were fighting for but the methods we used to accomplish them.
These methods will be compared to the warfare of Genghis Khan who ruthlessly killed every last inhabitant of Persia.‖ -Hans A. Bethe

-Everyone associates the words: war and peace. Remove the word war. Let‘s talk about peace - the peace that is felt in the hearts of human beings, not in their minds.‖ -Prem Rawat

-Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.‖ -Baruch Spinoza
-Justice does not come from the outside. It comes from inner peace.‖
-Barbara Hall

-Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.‖ - Martin Luther King Jr., - etter from Birmingham Jail

-Justice is the end [goal] of government. It is the end [goal] of civil society. It ever has been and ever will be pursued until [one day] it be obtained.... [We all] wish for a government which will protect the parties, the weaker as well as the more powerful.‖ -Alexander Hamilton

-Peace is first an individual achievement, then it grows into a collective achievement.  Finally it becomes a universal achievement.‖ -Sri Chinmoy

-You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.‖
-Jeannette Rankin

Chapter Story:

Archbishop Desmond Tutu was born in 1931 in Klerksdorp, Transvaal, South Africa. His father was a teacher, and he himself was educated at Johannesburg Bantu High School. After leaving school, he trained first as a teacher at Pretoria Bantu Normal College and then, in 1954, he graduated from the University of South Africa. After three years as a high school teacher he began to study theology.

Desmond Tutu was ordained as a priest in 1960. In 1975 Desmond Tutu was appointed Dean of St. Mary's Cathedral in Johannesburg. He was the first black person ever to hold that position. In 1978 he became the first black General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches. Living with and preaching in South Africa about apartheid, Desmond joined in the struggle of compatriots like Nelson Mandela. Desmond Tutu spoke out courageously and eloquently against the racist policies of the South African Government. He gave many speeches in which he described the pathway that the government should take to become more peaceful and just for all. In the speeches he would say,

-South Africa will one day be a democratic and just society without racial divisions.‖

Desmond Tutu set forward a four-point plan for the achievement of this goal:

1. equal civil rights for all;
2. the abolition of South Africa's passport laws;
3. a common system of education;
4. the cessation of forced deportation from South Africa to the so-called "homelands".

Desmond Tutu repeated this plan in speech after speech. His words made sense, and his speeches became famous around the world. What he said strengthened the activities of Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress. More and more people around the world began to unite in the cause of changing the policies of the South African government. In 1984, Desmond Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his courage and for his nonviolent protests against apartheid. The award of this prize to Desmond Tutu called even more worldwide attention to the unfair situation of blacks in South Africa. It was the beginning of the end for the apartheid system and the old form of government in South Africa.

In 1986 Desmond Tutu became the first black person to be elected the Archbishop of Cape Town. He served in that capacity until 1996. Desmond Tutu has remained active in South Africa's political affairs, and from 1996 to 2003 he headed the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. This was a very important job because the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was responsible for investigating and documenting human rights abuses during the apartheid era. In other words, the job of the commission was to look back at what happened during the apartheid era and to take note of all the people who were killed, injured, imprisoned and relocated so that there could be a historical record of those terrible times, and so the mistakes of that era would never be repeated.

Desmond Tutu still leads a very active life. He still speaks out for peace and justice in the world. While black people in South Africa might be better off than they were under the apartheid system, many of them still live in poverty. In addition, there are still many places in the world where blacks and other minority groups have not yet achieved equal rights. Desmond Tutu continues to speak and to write about these issues. His latest book is called God Has a Dream.

Chapter Overview:

A world of peace and justice is what all the great religions speak of. It is what all of our spiritual teachers have taught us throughout the ages. It is what all human beings ache for deep in their hearts. We have not yet succeeded in making our world peaceful and just, so much work remains to be done. Some people on our planet live in prosperity while many more live in poverty. Some people can enjoy school and the chance to have a job and a career, while for many others this remains a distant dream. Some live in peace and tranquillity, while other cannot sleep at night because they can hear shooting and bombs. Some citizens of the planet have freedom and can speak their opinions openly and without punishment.

Others are in prisons because they dared to disagree with their government. Each day we can take a step closer towards our vision of a peaceful and just world. The more we learn about the world and the challenges people face, the more we will want to help. The more we hear about the unfairness in the world, the more we will want to make it fair. The more knowledge we have, the more power we have to do good. And the more we practice giving of ourselves, the larger our ‗invisible hearts‘ will become. Our invisible heart is our source of compassion, healing and oneness with the world. As Sri Chinmoy says, -the heart that loves unites all.‖ Our first and foremost job is to foster a heart that loves. When each one of us on earth has a loving heart, we will all be united, and peace and justice can reign on earth.

We cannot abandon our brothers and sisters around the world. We cannot just enjoy our comforts and our pleasures, without ever thinking of those in the world who have so little and who live in such terrible circumstances. We can have fun, live our lives, enjoy ourselves and still have a sense of social responsibility. There are many little ways we can help build a better world. There is no limit to what we can do if we want to do more. It isn‘t just a few global citizens that we need. All of us must learn to be global citizens, because the planet is home to everyone. Therefore, as Sri Chinmoy says, -Let it be the bounden responsibility of all human beings to love and help one another.‖ Part of our duty as human beings is to work to make a better world for the children that will inherit the earth after us.

Chapter Lessons:

Lesson #1 - Tug of peace
Tug of war is a game most of us have played. It is a game in which two teams, of equal size, pull on opposite ends of a rope to see which team can pull the other across the midline to the opposite side. Tug of war can be a fun game, but sometimes it can lead to hurt feelings and even hurt hands from the burns of the rope. Also, the name ‗tug of war‘ is kind of upsetting, considering that there are more than 30 wars going on around the world right now. So why don‘t we create a different game, called the ‗tug of peace‘? It can spread the message of peace and it can be a lot more fun. For the tug of peace, we will need to find an old rubber automobile tire and tie it to one end of a rope. We can arrange for teams of two, three, four, or five people to pull the rope. Instead of pulling against another team, we will pull the tire a certain measured distance. We will keep track of how many seconds it takes each team to pull the tire the designated distance. Then each team will get two chances to try to beat their original score. As each team is trying to transcend itself, the other teams should be encouraging them to beat their previous mark. The tug of peace helps us to practice cooperation, teamwork, and sportsmanship, and nobody‘s feelings get hurt.

Lesson #2 - Modified musical chairs
Modified musical chairs is a great way to show that we can always find a way to share if we keep a positive attitude and remember that it is never fair to leave someone out. This game is just like normal musical chairs with one big exception: In this version of the game, nobody ever gets left out.

a) Arrange a line of chairs as you normally would for musical chairs. There should be as many chairs as there are people. We will arrange the chairs in an alternating pattern so that the first chair is facing in one direction, and the next chair is facing in the opposite direction, and so on.

b) The group of players stand around all sides of the chairs in a circle (it‘s really more like an ellipse). We will make sure that the players are far enough apart so they are not touching.

c) The music begins. (We can use a CD player, tape player, or a radio to provide our music. Another option is for the teacher, or an appointed leader who can sing or play an instrument, to make the music that way.) When the music stops, everyone must find a chair to sit in. In the first round everyone will have a chair.

d) After the first round we take one chair away. The music begins again. This time someone will not have a chair to sit in. Instead of ‗putting them out‘, the person who doesn‘t have a seat will gently sit in someone‘s lap. This usually creates a lot of laughter.

e) As the game goes on, we will keep removing one chair. Soon everyone will have to sit in someone‘s lap, and before we know it three people will have to find a way to sit on one chair.

f) By the end of the game, everyone will have to sit on one chair. Of course this is not possible to actually do, but we will try our best to do it.

g) This is intended to be a fun and gentle game. It is important that we make sure that nobody gets hurt.

Lesson #3 - The global village
Read and discuss the following information. Pay special attention to the number of people who don‘t have some of the basic necessities, and also take note of how the wealth of the planet is distributed.
If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look like this:

There would be 57 Asians, 21 Europeans, 14 from the Western Hemisphere (North and South America) and 8 Africans

70 would be people of color; 30 would be white

70 would be non-Christian; 30 would be Christian

50% of the entire world's wealth would be in the hands of only six people, and all six would be citizens of the United States

80 would live in substandard housing

70 would be unable to read

50 would suffer from malnutrition

Only one would have a college education

Lesson #4 - 100 hungry people
In this lesson we will break into three groups:

Group One will represent the U.S, Canada, Japan, Western Europe, Australia,New Zealand, Israel and Saudi Arabia. These are the wealthiest countries in the world and they have about 20% of the world‘s population, so this group should have a pretty small number of people.

Group Two will represent Russia and Eastern Europe. These countries are not the wealthiest but not the poorest either. They have about 10% of the world‘s population, so this group should have the smallest number of people.

Group Three will represent Africa, Asia, and Central and South America.
These are among the poorest countries in the world and they have about 70% of the world‘s population, so this group should have the largest number of people.

We will prepare some kind of snack that we can count easily. For now, the snack will not be for eating. Instead we will use the snack for our demonstration. We will give out 70% of the snack to Group One, 10 % to Group Two, and 20% to Group Three. The snack represents the percentages of food and other resources that the different countries use.

After giving out the snack, discuss the unfairness of the distribution of the snack. How does it feel to get so little? Does it seem right that the group with the most people gets the fewest snacks? This is exactly what happens in the world at large. The wealthiest countries in the world get and consume most of the food, energy and other resources, even though they don‘t have nearly as many people as the poorer countries do. This is the challenge we all face, and this is the kind of challenge that the United Nations and other world organizations are trying to solve. For now, it is important for us to just be aware of the situation. Then, as we continue to learn the tools for becoming global citizens, we can begin to do things to help. Now we can divide the snack up fairly and have a treat. If only it were that easy for countries to share their food and resources!

Lesson #5 - Organize a world marketplace
The world we live in is a vast and wondrous place. There are so many different kinds of people on the planet. People live in just about any place you can imagine - high up in snow-covered mountains like in Nepal, inside great canyons like the Grand Canyon, in the middle of the desert like the Outback of Australia, on boats floating on lakes and rivers in Southeast Asia, on frozen tundra in northern Canada, in enormous cities like Shanghai, and in many other strange and fascinating places. Human beings have proven that they can live and thrive in almost any kind of environment. They have learned how to adapt to all kinds of different circumstances. They have had to use creativity to solve problems, ingenuity to build new kinds of tools, appliances, and homes, and determination to stay in their new places in spite of great challenges.

All people on the planet - no matter how they dress or talk - are our brothers and sisters. No matter how different we are, we all share the same planet. As we get to know more about so many special places on the planet, we can also learn about the unique people who live in those places. Each culture we learn about can teach us something new. Each culture has wisdom that has been passed down from generation to generation through the ancestors to the present day. Each culture brings us a special language, music, food, dress, and customs that can make our lives more enjoyable and lively.

You can divide into groups or as a whole class - choose any other country in the world that you already love or want to learn more about. Find out more about the traditional clothes, decorations, music and customs in that country and look for some traditional recipes. You can even learn a few words or sentences from that country‘s language. Get your parents involved and create your own little village. Check with the other camps if they are also organizing their own country ‗stands‘. During the World Harmony ceremony each class can set up their stands in the Park - offering a taste of the chosen country (i.e. food, music, etc.). You can visit each stand and learn more about some of the different cultures and nations around the world.

Discussion Questions:

a) -Justice does not come from the outside. It comes from inner peace.‖ Given what you have learned in this book and in your other Global Citizen lessons, discuss what this quotation from Barbara Hall might mean.

b) Prem Rawat says, -Let‘s talk about peace - the peace that is felt in the hearts of human beings, not in their minds.‖ Why is it easier for us to feel and to make peace in our hearts than in our minds?

c) -You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.‖ Discuss the meaning of this quotation by Jeannette Rankin.

d) -Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.‖ Martin Luther King Jr. spoke these words more than 40 years ago. They are still very true today. As long as injustice exists in some places on earth, then the justice we enjoy is not totally complete or permanent. Discuss.

Supplemental Activities:

• Dr. Untangle: Gather in a group of six to ten people. One or two people will not join the group, but will stand outside the group and wait. They are the "doctors". We will stand in a circle, and then everybody will walk towards the middle of the circle, until the group is kind of bunched up but not squished.

Each person should take hold of the hand of another person, using one hand. Using the other hand, they should take hold of the hand of a second person.

Each person should now be holding hands with two other people. You are now like a tangled knot. (If you are not tangled enough, the teacher might move you around to get you tangled some more!)

Now, your job is to get everyone untangled and make a circle without breaking the chain - that means without letting your hands go from any of your partners. Dr. Untangle will help you, so listen to his/her instructions. You will have to cooperate to be able to move your bodies in the ways you need to get untangled and to make a circle. Be patient, otherwise your chain will break!

Once you have the circle, it‘s all right if some people are looking in one direction and some are looking in the other direction. If it‘s too hard to end up in a circle, you can at least try to end up in a straight line. If anyone gets frustrated along the way, Dr. Untangle can administer "knot-aid" by gently breaking a pair of hands and reconnecting them at a better place, to make the task a little easier.

We are still all connected! Now let‘s take a break and discuss the meaning of this lesson. The purpose of this lesson is to show that because we are all connected, we must work together to solve our problems. In real life our hands are not chained together, but nevertheless we are all part of one human family. Our human family has to work together to solve the world‘s problems, just as we did today in getting ourselves untangled.

• Blind trust walk
Version One:
We are going to walk to a spot across an empty field, across the playground, or across the classroom to see the spot where you will need to go. Then we are going to put on blindfolds and you will try to go to that spot with your blindfold on. We will choose certain people to be ‗spotters‘. It will be the job of the spotters to ensure the safety of the participants who are blindfolded.

Version Two:
I am going to show you a route that you will be traveling while blindfolded.
After you get started and after a couple of minutes of observation, stop the group and appoint a leader who will not be blindfolded. It will be the leader‘s job to get the group safely to the appointed spot, but he/she will only be able to give them three separate sets of directions. If the group starts going off course, the leader can only stop them three times. It will be the leader‘s job to ensure the safety of the participants.