Want To Build A Good Nation? Spend On Children

By: Bikal Dhungel

‘Child shows a man as morning shows the day’. However, ‘morning shows the day’ isnt true about most parts of Europe. They say, never believe in 3 Ws, Work, Weather and Wife. It can change or run away anytime. 

‘Child shows a man’ is however everywhere true. Childhood directs most of us in which direction we go in the future. The way we were raised, friends we had, the environment we grew up, the culture we saw and the teachers who taught us determines how our future looks like.  Teachers and parents role is the most important. Many researches show that the children of Doctors are likely to be a doctor as well, the children of Business men or industrialist have high tendency to continue with the profession their parents had and the same for other professions. High numbers of youths from an academic family are also most likely to be an academic, which means that they’re most likely to get a university degree. There are fewer number of university students whose parents haven’t been to the University. This culture has changed recently in developed world as everybody, nomatter which status they have, have an access to higher education. The European Union has free education system that allows all students to enter the University if they fulfill the requirements irrespective of their income. However, Germany and Norway are among the few countries that provide free education for all, regardless their nationality. This has given a chance for everybody to rise to middle or higher class. Good education policy that gives everybody an equal opportunity is the best justice system. 

Let us talk directly about the situation of children in so called developing countries. It is a scandal that governments and its people are complaining about their poor economic situation but doing less to build the future of children. Future of country lies on the future on children. This includes not only the spendings on education, but also on Vocational Trainings, Sports, Healthcare etc. Only spending more also won’t help because it should be efficient and intelligent. UNDP’s Human Development Indicators figure shows that Sudan spends over 25% of its GDP on education, which is the highest and Cuba and Djibouti spend respectively 13.6 and 8.4%. All three are among the poorest countries of the world. Despite higher education budget, situations arent getting better.  Developed Countries’ don’t even make the top ten among the big spenders on education. It is Denmark which is on 16^th place spending 7.8% of its GDP for education that comes first among rich world. Finland, which tops the best schooling system in the world lies at 39^th place with 5.9%. The US lies on 55^th place and Germany on 95^th. So, ‘how much’ spending is of less relevance, ‘how to’ is what matters. 

Schools should be made like a home where there should be somebody to care the children other than educational stuffs. A psychologist is desperately necessary in schools to monitor the mental situations. Childrens are vulnerable. Their minds are prone to negative feelings. Mobbings, conflicts in family, conflicts with friends or someone they love can leave a permanent dove on their mind. There should be initiatives that prevent such happenings but also professional treatments so that it cannot have a long lasting effect on childrens mind. It is not only a loss for the child and his family if a child choose a wrong path, it is also a loss for the economy. Everybody can contribute something but if he/she arent given a chance to use their full potential, we might loose something that could have changed many things for better. 

I won’t go in details about how to create a better child. There are many pedagogic methods and instruments to intervene in order to bring the best out of a child. These scientific techniques are being used in many countries.There are many examples and true facts how a good childhood could have avoided some of the disasters we faced in the history of humans. There are some people who have changed the world for better because they were raised to do better. There are some who had tragic childhood who turned out to be the most terrible men in the world. 

Most of the mass murderers we know had a difficult childhood. Saddham Hussein’s father died when his mother was pregnant. Though she tried to commit a suicide, she was stopped by a Jewish family. She gave Saddham to her brother who was a military officer. Saddham grew up in his shadows and killed a person in the age of 10. Raised in a military atmosphere, he showed no reservations to take lives. The same characteristics remained until he was the most powerful man in country who then killed hundreds of thousands of people through chemical weapons. Adolf Hitler had a complicated childhood and youth years. His dreams werent fulfilled what he initially wanted to become. Once he took power, the ingredients of hate that he slowely gained throughout child and adulthood, he misused it to execute one of the most terrible act in history. Joseph Stalin was physically abused by his father who was an alcoholic. He along with his mother suffered a lot during those years. This had an enormous impact in his character. Stalin killed millions of people directly and indirectly. 

So, these example shows that a complicated childhood can have a huge impact in our life. Hence, it is necessary to take the issues of children seriously. Other than investing in their education, we should make sure that they grow up in an atmosphere of love and compassion. We should monitor the social network website they use and what do they see in TV or listen in the Radio. In developed countries, there are already limited TV shows for children till a certain age. Parents are strict about what children see and what they are doing. In developing world it is still a big issue. Childrens arent barred from inappropriate actions. A child that has seen people shooting each other with a pistol also wants to have a pistol as a toy. As an adult, he’ll have no reservations killing people. This leads to a catastrophe. 

Children are our future, future of our culture and society and they will lead the world of tomorrow. It is time to decide in what kind of world we want our children to live tomorrow. If we don’t want them to live in a world of wars, conflicts, violence, hate and even genocides, it is time to cultivate love, respect and compassion in them. I want to end this article by some lines of Tibetan Wisdom

If children are criticized
they learn to condemn it.
When children are attacked,
they learn to fight it.
When a children are ridiculed,
they learn to be shy.
When children are ashamed
they learn to feel guilty.
If children are understood and tolerated,
they learn to be patient.
If children are encouraged,
they learn to trust themselves.
If children are praised,
they learn to appreciate themselves.
If children are treated fairly,
they learn to be just.
If children live salvaged,
they learn to trust.
When children are recognized,
they learn it, to like themselves.
If children are accepted in friendship
it is believed
they learn to find love in the world.

Join the ICC

By: Bikal Dhungel 

International Criminal Court (ICC) came into existence after the allied powers gained victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. Major Officers and the ones held guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity were tried in Nuremberg, Germany in  so called ‘Nuremberg Trails’. Among the verdicts were Hermann Goering, president of Reichtag, who was convicted and hanged to death and Rudolf Hess, deputy to Adolf Hitler. The Nuremberg Tribunal was the birth of an International Criminal Court, with a principle “Persons who commit international crimes (war crimes, crimes against humanity, and crimes against peace) are criminally liable and subject to universal jurisdiction”

122 countries of the world today are the members of ICC. Many have signed the membership but not yet ratifed it. However, even in the presence of ICC, many atrocities have taken place. In Yugoslavian conflict, a war broke out and many officials were guilty of war crimes. Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia was tried in the ICC and found guilty. The Yugoslavian Tribunal also brought other guilties to justice. The International Community created Ruanda Tribunal for the genocide that took place in 1994 when Hutu militants killed almost a million ethnic Tutsis within 3 months. In 2002, Sierra Leone Tribunal was created. Then again in 2006, tribunal was created for Khmer Rouge of Cambodia for the crimes that were committed in the killing fields of Cambodia. This has been an achievement for the sake of justice. 

Not to forget, many others enjoyed or still enjoy the freedom despite doing the war crimes. Joseph Stalin’s terror is known to us all, why nobody pointed a finger on him? Amin of Uganda killed almost half of his country’s population, why nothing happened? Joseph Kony, about whom a big facebook campaign was made to tell the horrors of his Lords Resistence Army in Uganda who have kidnapped over 60,000 children and forced them to take weapons. Why nothing is happening? Why Srilanka’s Mahinda Rajapakshya isnt held responsible for war crimes against Tamil minority? The problem is, these countries do not recognize the International Criminal Court. The ICC can only take action within the member states. 

There is another problem which is ‘Trading justice for Peace’. For example an Army Officer topples a government, takes power in hand and fires thousands of people to death. Then International community intervenes. The officer is unwilling to step down, so he now involves in guerilla warfare. If it continues like this, additional lives will cost and there’ll be much financial burden to both sides. Then the international community makes an offer to the officer, if he allows an election and let a democratically elected politician rule the country, he will be exempted from punishment and can live in exile in any other country. There are many many examples of ‘Trading for Justice’. Idi Amin, after killing so many people, fled Uganda to Saudi Arabia. Charles Taylor fled Liberia to Nigeria, which was a deal negotiated by the United States. In one side it stops violence and saves life but in the other hand, is it justice for the victims who lost their loved ones in the hands of war criminals? Isn’t it our moral duty to hold the criminals accountable for their deeds and bring them to justice whatsoever? Is is fair to let people commit crime first and then send them to exile to enjoy their retirement? Trading justice for peace doesn’t stop any potential war criminal from taking such actions. Adolf Hitler pointed towards Turkish military officers who massacred a million Armenians in World War I who were not held accountable. That gave him a green light to pursue his dream that ended in a catastrophe.

Any form of crimes in today’s time should be avoided and those who still commit it must be brought to justice. Still, many countries including China and India aren’t the member of ICC. Yes, according to ICC statute, it’s not possible to bring those who are citizens of countries that havent signed the ICC treaty. But if the war crime has been done in a foreign territory which is a part of ICC, the international community can make the use of force to bring him to justice or impose economic sanctions. 

Hence, being a member of ICC helps countries in two ways. 1) It might minimize the chances of foreign aggresion towards the particular country because they fear actions from international community. 2) Anyone within the country is then less likely to commit any crime because he again will fear that he’ll be transferred to ICC in The Hague if found guilty. So, especially countries that have vulnerable economic situation, it is a good option because where there is no functioning economic system, democracy is more likely to suffer and chances of sectoral or ethnic violences increase. When ethnic violence increases based on culture or religion, war crimes are more likely. Most of the War Crimes in the past were commited in ethnic grounds for example in Yugoslavia and Ruanda. 

Nepal should immediately join the ICC based on current political scenario. The Maoists who were responsible for War Crimes are still likely to choose the way of violence, at least some wings. Crimes within the jurisdiction of ICC includes: War Crimes, Crimes against humanity and Genocide. Maoists committed the first two. There are records of childrens being abducted to admit in the guerilla force, killings of journalists, teachers, students, family members of national army and many who raised the voice against maoist ideology. I personally also consider the bombing of infrastructures like schools, bridges, hospitals and hydropower projects a crime against humanity because it prohibits the poorest of the poors from using the already limited resources and bombing the schools stripes off the children from education and from a good future. Maoists don’t need to justify their deeds by telling that they want equality and justice. Where is justice when you don’t let the poorest of the poors drink clean water? Where is justice if you bomb a hospital? The maoist ideology contradicts with itself and in today’s political scenario; this is a proof that their intention is not to re-build a nation rather just to fill the pockets of party members. 

The Peace Process was signed in order to stop violence but violence continued again, only in another form and it is rising and might one day go back to the same situation that caused 14,000 deaths. But we can avoid it. First step for that is to become the member of ICC. Then, those who vow to return to violence and exercise it, could be tried in the court and sent to the ICC. This might make them think twice before taking any such actions. By this way, we can save life. Join the ICC.

Always Take The Side of Love

By: Bikal Dhungel

It doesn’t feel nice to see so many unsatisfied people these days. Longing for money, popularity or a successful career, more and more people are unhappy. People forget that life has to be lived with compromise and all we wish may not come true. Hapiness comes from accepting these facts and still going forward with a smile in the face. It is not hard to have a happy life but it is also not easy. Accepting onceself, service to others, and selflessness are the three key things you got to follow strictly. We are beautiful as we are and unique in our own way however we might look like. Service to others in whatever we can should always be the first priority in our life. What we are today is because of other people, not because of ourselves. They are the ones who made us who we are today, so it should be our responsibility to give back to the society and people. Selflessness is the key for inner satisfaction. It requires immense amount of love, respect and sympathy and love remains above everything and is most powerful thing in our life that is capable to make anything we wish possible. 

Noone was born with hate. Hate is what people were forcibly installed by some. So, if we think that there is some portion of hate in us, inorder to lead a peaceful life, we need to unlearn this, which is twice as difficult as to learn. Large portion of life will be used to unlearn things if we want to free ourselves from the toxic thoughts we already possess. 

With love and mutual respect you will have more inner peace, you will feel happier, feel better and inner peace and hapiness is also one of the major factors that enhance our immune system and help us to be protective from diseases. 

Mutual respect comes from respecting each other. No matter who you are, Hindu or Buddhist, Muslim or Christian, Banker or Teacher, Communist or Capitalist, there is a human side in everybody. Everybody has a family, friends or children whom they love. A key to have a peaceful heart is to treat everybody as your own family member, by being selfless. 

The most incredible people I know always took the side of love even though their circumstances were lot more different and difficult than mine. For their deeds, they have been able to change a lot in people’s lives. They were explorers, travellers, or even a normal people like everybody of us who have seen the world and universal suffering. This has led them to raise their voice, to make a world a better place for everybody. These people possesed important characters like respect, understanding, forgiveness, selflessness, love and most importantly, service to others. 

These people are for example: George Harrison, John Lennon, Albert Schweitzer, Martin Luther King Junior, Alexander von Humboldt, J.F Kennedy, Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Einstein, Nelson Mandela and many others who refused to give up and fought for the righteousness and service to others.  From the past, not only such heroic individuals, even many institutions are contributing for the better world. 

Nelson Mandela was 27 years in Prison. He decided to forgive those who sent him to jail. Is there anything that can be more courageous than this? Learning forgiveness is hard, it takes time and lots of practice but it is possible. Dalai Lama still chooses the path of non-violence even though thousands of Tibetan people are massacared every year for no reason. He still proudly campaigns as an ambassador of peace. The power of peace and non-violence was already displayed by Mahatma Gandhi who kneeled down the most powerful empire where the sun never set. Albert Schweitzer, Martin Luther King or John Kennedy are the symbol of selflessness who sticked to the service to others in a hope to create a better world. While doing that, many of them have paid their vision from their life, everything for other people, for us. Kennedy, John Lennon, Dr. Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Yitzak Rabin all were shot, they were murdered. Many such good people were murdered. This shows that in our society hate is still present but this is not the reason to stop fighting for peace and love. Rather, it shows us the nessesity to fight even more so that one day we can eradicate hate completely. For that we need such heroes and many other organisations that are performing extraordinary tasks everyday in all the corners of our world. 

International Committee of Red Cross (founded by Henry Dunant in Switzerland), gives hopes to the hopeless people in the warzones who just lost their loved ones, and all belongings. Showing the human sides of life, the volunteers of Red Cross have risked their life in places where noone wants to go to help the people disregarding their political view, their country and skin colour. Henry Dunant got the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901 as a founder of ICRC. Again, International committee of Red Cross won the Nobel Prize in Peace in 1917, and again in 1944 ‘for the great work it has performed during the war in behalf of humanity’, and again in 1963 ‘for the protection of human rights’. 

United Nations High Comissioner for Refugees also deserves the highest respect. It was handled the Nobel Peace Prize in 1954 and 1981 for its extra-ordinary efforts by helping the refugees in the warzones by bringing them to safety, giving them a new home and a perspective of a good life. Especially, the most vulnerables in any war are the innocent childrens. Helping these powerless children, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) got peace prize in 1965 and still continues to serve for the sake of humanity. 

Being peaceful and non-violent also saves cost. Our world has a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 70 trillion dollars. 2 trillion dollars per year are spent worldwide as military expenditures (1). 2 trillion means 2000 billions. 2000 billion dollars means the combined GDP of 130 countries of the world starting from the bottom. This money is huge. With this money, we can easily fulfill the Millenium Development Goals. We can feed the hungry and provide free education for the needy. It is surely not possible to cut all military expenses at once but it is possible to reduce it massively if there is more peace and love in the world. Then it will automatically reduce security expenses and the amount we save there we can invest in our real problems namely poverty, climate change, global health and education. The first step for this is love. 

We can justify this argument with some other figures, the most peaceful countries in the world, presented by Global Peace Index (GPI), are lead by: Iceland, Denmark, New Zealand, Canada and Austria. Security Spending of Denmark was 1.3% of GDP, Canada’s was 1.1% of GDP, Finland’s was 2% of GDP, and Iceland has no military. Whereas, countries with internal conflicts or that has a repressive governments have higher percentage of GDP spendings on security, for example: Bahrain spends 4.5% of its GDP for security, Equatorial Guinea spends 6.3%, Yemen spends 6.6%, Syria spends 5.9%, Oman spends 11.4%, Qatar spends 10% and Saudi Arabia also spends 10% (2). Please note that I havent taken countries that have higher military expenses due to particular conflicts that are dependent on neighbouring countries or long term conflicts for example Israel, Greece or Cyprus. These figures show us that love also saves costs. Peaceful countries are spending less money for security purposes whereas not so peaceful countries are spending heavy amount for security purposes. They could rather invest in other sectors which will profit all people if there is an absence of hate and repressions 

Hence, it is necessary to abolish hate from our society. It is too destructive and too costly. Hate destroys us all. It will seed you a dangerous ingredient in you which will appear to be a terrifying suicide attack in your career. Your mission should be to be the best version of you by your service towards other people by keeping other people’s interest in mind and by always reminding yourselves that we also have a moral responsibility to take care of innocent creatures that share this world with us and our planet earth that gave us home and food to live. We have to follow the principles of great people who gave up their live for the good causes. 

The world visioned by these visionaries are the optimal world to live in, they have made the world a better place to live, with their work and vision. We have a proof today that love is in fact the most powerful weapon in every aspect of life. And most of these wonderful people and institutions were thanked by the sacred gift called The Nobel Peace Prize. Be it Dalai Lama for his ‘non-violent struggle for the liberation of Tibet’, be it the United Nations for its ‘more peaceful world’, be it Muhammad Yunus for his ‘social and economic opportunities for the poor’, be it Medicins Sans Frontieres (Switzerland) for its ‘pioneering humanitarian works on several continents’, be it the United Nations Peace Keeping Forces for their effort to reduce conflicts, be it Mother Teresa for her missionary charity, be it Amnesty International for ‘protecting the human rights of prisoners of conscience’, be it Martin Luther King Junior for his ‘peaceful civil rights movement’, be it Carl von Ossietzky ‘for his struggle against Germany’s rearmament, be it Jimmy Carter ‘for his effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts’ or be it the group called International Physicians for the prevention of nuclear war for their ‘awareness programs for the catastrophic consequences of atomic warfare’. All the efforts done by these extra-ordinary people were for love, for peace and the goodness of our society in order to make a better world. Their vision has indeed made our world better. It would not have been possible without the ingredient of love. Hence, love is the most important of all, the most powerful of all that makes everything possible. 

Our struggle for daily life may not always let us keep love in our mind, neither the struggle for limited resources in the world where every individual is running to be the best, to be the top and to earn the most. It may not simply be possible to live with love. But it is all wrong, it is possible. Peace and Love beings in personal level, It beings with you. You have to force yourself so that love still remains in your mind. The neighbour might be too loud and disturbs you, still love him. Your friend might have excluded you from the birthday party invitation. You still invite him to yours and appreciate him. There might be too many immigrants in your country, still give them a feeling that they are important and treat them with respect and love. Force yourself to love in the beginning, then slowely it will be your habit. Remember how hard it was to wake up in the morning for school, college or work, but you forced yourself and now it’s your habit and you realise now how easy it is. It is same for love. Loving unconditionally brings peace to your mind and you will be happier. Even though others hate you, do not hate them back. Buddha once said, ‘Hate can never be ended by hate, rather by love’. So, especially those who hate you, you got to love more. It might not lie within your comfort zone but you have to go beyond your comfort zone. Try this and remember how the great people I mentioned above did this. If J.F Kennedy could forgive the Russians and start a dialog with them in much more complicated situation than today by saying “Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings”, If Nelson Mandela could forgive the people who sent him to prison for 27 years, if Dalai Lama could forgive the people who kept him 54 years out of the homeland, you can surely forgive your enemies by the thing called love. In your life, if you have a choice between love and hate, always take the side of love. 

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Sources: 

All Facts Related to Nobel Prizes: www.nobelprize.org . Retrieved  on 16^th  March, 2013

(1)    - http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/spending.htm Retrieved on 16th March, 2013

(2)    Global Peace Index 2012 , Retrieved 16^th March, 2013 .

(3)    http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/spending.htm Retrieved on 16th March, 2013