Southwest Times Record October 01, 2014

International Peace Day something to imagine

It is unclear at this writing if anyone will notice today marks the international Right of Peoples to Peace. Although observed annually by the United Nations since 1982 as a day to note the basic tenet that peace is necessary for all people to experience full human rights, since 2001, the day has been designated even more specifically as a day of non-violence and cease-fire.

If it were to be observed by combatants everywhere, the sudden cessation of violence would be deafening.

How many conflicts are underway on the planet today? The number will be determined by one's definition. The Wars in the World website identifies 64 countries at war and 571 conflicts between or among guerrillas, separatists and anarchic groups, a pretty staggering count by any definition.

GlobalSecurity.org presents a similarly long list of countries not at peace, but notes that the United Nations defines a major military conflict as 1,000 battlefield deaths a year. That reduces the number considerably, to just 10 major military actions and a score or so lesser conflicts by mid-2005.

But that definition may not reflect the reality of most of today's conflicts, which often are not between countries with clearly identifiable battlefields, but within countries where terms like battlefield and combatants are terrifyingly fluid.

Just 5 percent of the casualties in World War I were civilians, according to Global Security. Today, as many as 75 percent of casualties may be civilians.

Africa has been disproportionately affected by war, and its countries suffer disproportionately from its affects, according to Global Security, which notes: "War has caused untold economic and social damage to the countries of Africa. Food production is impossible in conflict areas, and famine often results. Widespread conflict has condemned many of Africa's children to lives of misery and, in certain cases, has threatened the existence of traditional African cultures."

That doesn't even begin to address the issues inherent in having large refugee numbers in areas that are unstable politically and inhospitable climatically. Or the problems that arise when the populations of wide swaths of a continent are deprived education and basic medical care and and infectious diseases break out. Or the devastating impact on every aspect of civilization when women and girls as systematically raped, beaten or otherwise abused and sold into slavery as "acceptable" acts of warfare.

The International Day of Peace, a day of non-violence and cease-fire: We must be grateful to live in a corner of the world where it is possible even to consider such a thing. It is beyond imagining in too much of our world.