Conflict.is "a social interaction in which the participants believe that they have incompatible goals." When parties are incapable or unwilling to find more constructive ways, violence is a means to solve conflicts. It can be defined as avoidable insults to basic human needs and may be subdivided as direct, structural and cultural (religion, ideology, language, art, science). Basic needs include-survival, well-being, identity and freedom. War is an extreme form of direct, collective violence, which severely impacts on all of these basic needs.
Peaceis not merely the absence of direct, cultural, and structural violence (negative peace), but a state of complete loving, harmonious acts to elicit the good in each other (direct peace), of complete equitable, horizontal relations (structural peace) and of complete positive culture, which promotes peace and non-violence (cultural peace).
Health definitions are remarkably analogous. “Health is not merely the absence of disease and infirmity, is the state of complete physical, mental and social well-being.” It is “a fundamental human right and that the attainment of the highest possible level of health is a most important world-wide social goal.” Health promotion is “the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health. To reach a state of complete physical mental and social well being, an individual or group must be able to identify and to realize aspirations, to satisfy needs, and to change or cope with the environment.” The first fundamental condition for health is: peace. (Others are shelter, education, food, income, a stable eco-system, sustainable resources, social justice and equity)
We now can see the links, but how does peace promotion or health promotion really work? Each one of us in this room has unique talents. What are the unique characteristics of health workers that allow them to work for peace? Fortunately, the model which we have created at McMaster, allows us an insight into these capacities. We might subdivide these by categories: Who we are (our values), what we know (our Knowledge), and what we do (our skills) each including various mechanisms of action. For instance people recognize physicians as being impartial, bright and caring, allowing us to evoke and broaden the concept of altruism and to personify victims. We can engage in non-cooperation with our regimes and even in diplomacy and get the attention of leaders. In the interests of time, I will focus on the second of these three categories, what we know.
What we know in public health has been confirmed by the economist, Amartya Sen. Countries of equal wealth, represented by per capita income can have vastly different health and peace. It is distribution of wealth or social justice, which actually determine health status. Education is an independent determinant of health. Francis Fukuyama, conservative author of “The End of History”, promotes the concept of community or Social Capital, our connectedness with those around us which helps lead to health and to peace. Medical people also recognize interpersonal cycles of violence. We understand how ‘psychic numbing’ can prevent us from reacting to the major threats to global survival.
Resulting from this knowledge are new definitions of Security. A health-based definition of Security would involve not only protection from physical harm but access to resources to meet basic needs and a psychological dimension. Security is better reconceived as human, rather than state security. Human Security according to Kofi Annan is not just freedom from pervasive threats to security and human rights but values such as economic development, social justice, environmental protection, democratization and respect for human rights and the law.
We understand the need to ask the right questions before launching a war that can kill hundreds of thousands. We in Peace through Health have also broadened what we mean by health to studies of Palestinian mental health, a Butterfly healing garden to bring war- traumatized children from factions in Sri Lanka and to puppet shows Afghan schools with people of all ethnic groups. These projects operate under the assumption that individual healing helps lead to group healing-an as yet unproven hypothesis. In the last half year I have spoken to medical students, physicians and allied health professionals from Dublin to Beijing, and from Sydney to Ramallah about Peace through Health. IPPNW and Peace through Health with the Lancet magazine are sponsoring a conference in Canada, May 6-8 and hope that many of you are able to attend.
Getting back to our original point. Why Canada and India? How have these countries overcome the challenges of multi-ethnicity, religious differences and human rights? Empowerment of the people, true democracy, justice, tolerance, respect for law- creation of community, with just cooperative relationships among all, addressing basic human fears, hopes and needs, providing true human security. When those leading us do not follow these principles, it is we who ultimately suffer. States which provide these become in turn more stable, secure, healthier and more peaceful.
Two weeks ago, my father received a new lease on life with a coronary artery bypass graft. Canadians are enriched by our acceptance of diversity. We too, can renew ourselves, and obtain a new lease on Peace if we are willing to open our hearts to embrace others. Tomorrow is Remembrance Day where we remember our war dead. Let us recognize that the ties that bind us are greater than those that separate us. Let us not choose destruction but rebuilding Let us create of a culture of peace. Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with us.