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People Choosing Peace: Hassan (Iraq)

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I am ‘um Hassan. I lost my son, Nabil, in the war with Kuwait in 1991. His fate is still unknown. His body was not found, and we do not know any news about him.

Some people say he is martyr, others say he went to Saudi Arabia and then emigrated, and some people say he lost his memory and lost his way.

Since the day he disappeared, my life has been destroyed. I was not ready to lose my young son, especially after my husband died in 1985 in the Iran-Iraq war.

From the day I lost my son until this day, I sit at the door of my house every day waiting for him to come back, and I hope he is still alive. I search people faces hoping to see my lovely son’s face.

What’s the State of Peace in the World?

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Peace News Staff
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Newsreader: Brandon Richardson

Peace increased in 93 countries over the last year, compared to 68 in which it deteriorated, according to the recently released 2017 Global Peace Index.

Iceland ranked the most peaceful country, followed by New Zealand. Syria was the least peaceful, after Iraq and Afghanistan. In the USA peace declined, ranking it number 114. Peacefulness in Canada improved, and it came in at number 8.

“The most important thing that we need to deal with issues of peace and war, economic development, is knowledge and information,” John Garamendi, US Representative (D-CA), told the Diplomatic Courier.

“And that’s exactly what this global peace index does, it gives us the information about – first of all – factors that lead to a more peaceful society, a more peaceful country, and then the comparison, one country to another,” he said.

Some of the more disheartening trends included the global decline of peace in over the last decade (2.14 percent), the number of refugees doubling in 2016, and terrorism deaths increasing 247 percent since 2008.

The global economic impact of violence was $14.3 trillion last year alone. That’s 12.6 percent of the world’s GDP, or $1,953 per person.

One of the big finds was the gap between the most peaceful countries and the least is widening – the more peaceful nations are improving, but situations in the least peaceful nations are getting worse. But the report also showed that globally, homicide rates have decreased, as has political terror in most regions.

If the world can decrease violence by 10 percent, then $1.43 trillion in spare economic resources could be generated. And every $1 invested in peacebuilding, can lead to a $16 decline in the cost of armed conflict.

Former US president Jimmy Carter told IEP that peace has to actively be part of international relations.

“The Carter Center‘s slogan is “waging peace”, instead of “waging war”, but that means an aggressive effort in every troubled, international incident – to have peace as a pre-eminent consideration, and a goal,” President Carter said.

For more information, and interactive maps, go to Vision of Humanity.

Voices From Gaza: How Do Palestinians View Peace?

By
Masoud Kafah
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Israel and Palestine have been at war for generations. Peace News traveled to Gaza to find out how people view the conflict.

At the end of the Muslim month of Ramadan, families in the Gaza Strip emerge to celebrate. We asked them about their hopes for the coming year.

Gaza resident Marina said that youth are struggling to see a chance for peace in Gaza, but that she still has hope.

“For more than 10 years or 11, we see the same thing during the month of Ramadan, the same situation,” Marina said.

“We are still under siege, and conflict rages between parties. If I’m going to talk about peace, I would say that Palestinian youth don’t see any solution to make peace between Palestinians and Israelis, because the world is suffering. But, I think that conflicting parties can coexist, permanently or even temporarily, to get over the conflict in the future.”

Rawan, another Gaza resident, felt the same.

“I don’t think we can make peace right now, but we hope so in the future,” Rawan said.

Another resident, Heba, believes leaders can make a difference.

“We hope that our leaders can make peace for us and make life better for the people of Gaza,” she said.

“It’s not wrong to make peace for the next generations.”

Ahmed, Gaza resident, said peace is a matter of life or death for the people of Gaza.

“We hope in the future that we can build peace,” he said.

“The peace is not wrong actually, so we have to negotiate the other side until we find a solution. There’s nothing without cost, but if we don’t negotiate with them we will lose our houses and our families are going to die.”

Another resident, Waleed, believes peace is possible but with time.

“In my view, we can resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, after we resolve [the Palestinian issue], because it would benefit us to make peace with Israelis,” Waleed said.

“At this point, Palestinian’s are open to make peace, even though they couldn’t make plans to create peace with Israelis, and the [the Israelis] have the same problem. We can’t know where we are going, or if we can create peace or not, but I assume that we will make peace as soon as all the parties are ready.”

People Choosing Peace: Dhieu Williams (South Sudan)

By
Peace News Staff
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My name is Dhieu Williams. I’m 30 years old. I come from small village of Piol, which is in Jongolei State, South Sudan.

The situation in this country is complex, but one thing is very clear, life for the status quo is getting worse. At the moment the situation almost all over the country is very much characterized by violence, displacement, killings, and cases of rape – and all this has laid heavy burden upon me, personally.

For example, my own brother is a soldier, serving in the government forces, but his monthly salary isn’t enough to take care of himself and his family for one week. It’s also usually irregular payments. Many times I have come in with a helping hand to see his family gets survival supplies they need.

More and more of my relatives are increasingly becoming vulnerable to the hardships, especially economic difficulties. Additionally, the problem of economic crisis perpetuated by the inflation boils down to one word – insecurity. This has made it difficult for businesses to cope. Thus, average citizens pay the price. War must stop.

I wish everyone embraced togetherness, regardless of our tribes, or political affiliations.

Baghdad After the Bombing: Returning to Life

By
Mustafa Nader
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Only days after a car bomb exploded at an ice cream shop in Baghdad, Iraq, people braved the streets again.

Since the year 2000 more than 50,000 people have been killed in terrorist attacks in Iraq. Al-Faqma ice cream parlor was the site of an ISIS attack which killed 16 people in the city’s southern Karrada neighborhood during Ramadan this year. However, residents are refusing to live in fear and have returned to the shop to show solidarity.

“What happened was an explosion, followed by destruction everywhere,” said Al-Faqma owner Montsr Almashhadany.

“The shop was damaged, and a lot of people got hurt,” he said.

“Despite that, we didn’t give up. On the next day we started cleaning the place, organizing and rebuilding the place. If we hadn’t done that we would have been helping terrorists achieve their goal.”

Many customers expressed hope for the city, in the wake of terrorist attacks. “We re-opened yesterday and families have come, as you can see. Al-Faqma has come back, better than ever,” an Al-Faqma worker* said.

“Honestly, I came today to stand against terrorist attacks,” said a customer*.

“Life continues, thanks to God. Life still goes on, we are used to these things. The Iraqi people may get ill, but we never die,” he said.

“Contrary to expectations, we are strong, life-loving people, and life won’t stop because of an explosion. If every person stopped living after seeing an explosion then the whole country would die,” Mr Almashhadany said.

*Names suppressed for security reasons.

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