In “the good ol’ days” the monthly theme for February used to be ‘World Understanding’. So, why did the powers in charge change the name? Well, ask me… From where I sit, “understanding” is the very rock on which conflict resolution is based. It is a condition of peace. Without understanding, there can at best be a cease-fire, but not genuine peace.Rotary is, always has been and hopefully will continue to be non-aligned to any particular religion. [No, Henrietta, this is not the forum to discuss the role of religion in war over the centuries and millenia...] Equially, political boundaries also are just about off-limits - note our District boundaries and, on a greater scale, our Zone 8, which encompasses not just Australia and New Zealand, but also includes PNG and the vast bulk of South Pacific Islands, all the way out to French Polynesia and up to Kiribati.
But what can we as individual Rotarians do to promote peace and resolve conflict? Let me start by putting it the other way: if conflict is resolved, peace is a logical consequence. It’s unlikely we can personally influence the course of events in Ukraine, the Middle East, Ecuador or South Sudan. But "peace" is not just relating to major international conflict. Conflict can happen within a country, within a state or community, or even within a family. So, perhaps we can keep an open mind rather than being pig-headed, we can communicate rather than argue with a fixed, inflexible point of view. That doesn’t mean we have to agree with everything the other party comes up with, but we can genuinely try to empathise. As former US President Barack Obama is quoted: “Learning to stand in somebody else’s shoes, to see it through their eyes, that is how peace begins. And it’s up to you to make it happen.”