(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
Av Trine Eklund, Grandmothers of Peace.
In April this year, more than 1000 women from 80 countries gathered in The Hague to discuss under the vignette "Women's Power to Stop War", which is also the name of a global movement under the auspices of the international NGO Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILP). In The Hague, there was broad agreement that war today never leads to peace. There was also great agreement that the expenditure on military complexes exceeds all objective reason when the globe faces the problems and challenges we face today. Nevertheless, peace-oriented work also faces enormously strong counterforces: a 7000-year-old masculine war culture where war has been and still is the norm for resolving conflicts, and moreover often also stands as a test of manhood for courage, power and might. In addition, there is an arms industry that has money, power and provides millions of jobs. In order not to zoom in on the US arms industry, which is important for the US economy – the US needs war on a regular basis to use and sell its weapons products. Norway also needs enemy images with the increasing weapons production we have – weapons parts we sell to the USA and countries with weak economies and a lot of conflict. Norwegian defense and security policy is nailed down, and NATO is the guarantor of our security.
A new mindset. In security policy, concepts such as non-violence and disarmament are non-themes. The same goes for alternatives to war and commitment to other values and other methods of achieving a peaceful world. Foreign policy, along with defense policy, is firmly nested with both us and all other NATO countries. We have a defense ministry, not a peace ministry. We have a Minister of Defense and a Chief of Defense – not a Minister of Peace. We have a military defense culture, but no adopted peace culture. We have military duty of care for all young people, not a choice for the youth between military service or peace promotion.
But what do we mean by the power of women to stop war? In The Hague, we experienced how women around the world are angry, frustrated and upset that war will continue to be the means the world's powerful people resort to to resolve conflicts. These women want to stop the madness. The demands were many: No more drones killing civilians and hitting randomly. No more nuclear weapons that can wipe out large parts of the world. No more mass rape as a war strategy or rape without punishment. No more child soldiers. No more harassment of peoples in the name of peace or God. Women will no longer be victims of, but executive opponents of war hysteria and the arms industry. We want to criminalize war and the arms industry. We want to show that militarism is one of our greatest environmental evils. The women of the world will challenge a masculine way of thinking where the exercise of power is central, and where murder, rape, mutilation and destruction are permitted to use force "in the service of peace".
Culture of peace. What the world needs is to build peace. And peace is built with schooling, human rights, health, food and clean water for all. The UN's Millennium Development Goals 2015-2030 also have this as a goal in its 17 points. Unfortunately, the money is missing. When war is imminent, money is seldom lacking, and agreements are often made over the phone for quick implementation. Humanitarian measures, on the other hand, take a long time – and most often there is neither agreement nor money.
Women around the world are angry, frustrated and upset that war will continue to be the means the world's powers resort to to resolve conflicts.
Many women – and men – want this to end. We will no longer be governed by a culture where power over others is the highest goal. The women of the world today are strong, often with good education and good speaking skills, and not least great courage. Today, a unison women's power can stop war as a conflict resolver in the future.
For many, the concept of peace culture means mediating in conflicts. Professionals and ambassadors are skilled mediators, but then the conflict is already underway, and has often lasted a long time. Peace culture is so much more than conflict mediation! UNESCO developed in the 1990s under Federico Mayor Zaragoza a peace culture concept which, among other things, pointed out that war begins in the human mind, and that it is thus also in the human mind that one must build up ideas about peace. Peace culture is a common concept for all who work with disarmament, equality, non-violence and peace education,
and is widely used at the grassroots level by the world's NGOs today. However, it does not help much as long as the countries' politicians and power elites do not take the concepts into their mouths, and refuse to see non-violence and disarmament as alternatives to war and arms trade. If we could get peacebuilding and non-violence on the international agenda for peace, environment and development, and into the UN Millennium Development Goals, it would have been a long step forward. Peaceful communication and non-violence methods in school education and in daily life can also be important steps to stop violence, and to promote peaceful solutions to conflict and disagreement.
Huge sums. "It is naive to think that people will be kinder to being bombed by acts of war or drones." "Had the United States and NATO dropped books instead of bombs on Iraq and Afghanistan, we would not have ISIS today." Such statements were repeated on the podium in The Hague in April, and came especially from women from the Middle East and Asia. Negotiations and negotiation techniques exist, of course, and much of it is done with good results. Nevertheless, perhaps the most important thing will be to make our and the world's politicians aware of what war actually costs. In money, in environmental destruction, in crime and suffering. Maybe we should assume that everyone who organizes arms production and promotes arms exports is a criminal – murderers and potential killers. Perhaps we should emphasize the absurdity of the fact that the world today spends 1 billion US dollars on military installations and bases worldwide, the purchase of modern war materiel, military armaments and soldiers on standby and active duty. That is four times as much as the nations of the world pay to the UN, the only worldwide institution we have created to ensure peace and human rights worldwide.
Those in charge. The UN itself is now without sufficient resources to deal with the current influx of refugees from war-torn countries, or to provide food and water to millions of people in refugee camps around the world and maintain a certain humanitarian standard. People fleeing war and weapons are being housed in inhuman camps.
We who have caused part of this enormous catastrophe, dry our hands and abdicate responsibility. Is it not common for those who cause the damage to also take responsibility and pay the bill? Let the military budgets pay for the refugee crisis. Militarism and the arms industry are largely to blame for the catastrophe we are now seeing. These should also pay for the crime.
Eklund is a peace activist and a member of Grandmothers for Peace. t-eklun@online.no.
