WORLD PEACE ESSAY CONTEST, Childrens Category 2nd Prize Learning to live together: promoting tolerance and diversity in globalized societies Fatimah Jejelola Sanni (Age 14, Nigeria) THIS SHORT ESSAY REMINDED ME OF MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE/S LIVING IN A... MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY LIKE SOUTH AFRICA, WHERE YOU ARE INVITED OR COMPELLED TO ATTEND FUNERALS, WEDDING EVENTS AND OTHER CEREMONIES OF DIFFERENT CULTURES/RELIGION: HINDU, MUSLIM, CHRISTIAN, TRADITIONAL AFRICAN CEREMONIES, ETC., MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE ATTENDING TWO SUCH FUNERALS TODAY, ONE AFRICAN INDIAN, AND A NATIVE AFRICAN FUNERAL RESPECTIVELY, COMPELLED ME TO SHARE THIS ESSAY FROM A 14 YEAR OLD NIGERIAN MUSLIM GIRL. IT SPEAKS MY CONVICTION ABOUT LEARNING TO LIVE TOGETHER WITH PEOPLE OF ALL RACES. The world has become a global village with the aid of advanced technology; hence it is inevitable that people of different nationality, race or religion cannot escape living and working together. The spate of riots, killings and wanton destruction of properties across the world for example, the Dafur crisis in Sudan was as a result lack of tolerance.It has become the norms for certain persons in the world to capitalize on ethnic, religious or other disagreements to initiate and execute the slaughtering of innocent persons and destruction of properties. Thus it is not a secret that all these losses are due, often to manipulated violence under the cover of religion or worldly affairs like political or economic reasons. God has never discriminated between nations, in that all potentials of greatness are granted to all races. The earth is created for example, as floor for all peoples.These attributes of God teach us that we too should behave kindly towards our fellow beings since most people of the world adhere to one religion or the other – Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, etc. None of these religions condones nor teaches violence. Rather, all of them teach peaceful co-existence, tolerance, humanness, love, caring and sharing as well as respect for constituted authorities. Many young people grow up viewing others of different religion or race through the eyes of their parents or guardians, who themselves had been misinformed, thus, full of prejudices, misconception about others beliefs and culture. Peace and harmony continue to elude the world because man has refused to acknowledge that we are indispensable to each other, if a calamity besets one nation, others cannot escape sharing the consequences. Some of the ways people of diverse cultures and backgrounds can live together peacefully are: --to focus and work on the common values and teachings of different religions and cultures of the world instead of emphasizing on the differences that tear us apart.For those with no religion, keen observation of nature is recommended because nature is always at peace with itself. --to behave like friends to each other with pure heart, sympathy and good intentions. --to let decent behaviors, sincerity and kindness be our second nature in life. --to desist from abusing and insulting other peoples’ holy personages, cultures and races. nations should avoid policies that are only beneficial to themselves. For example, immigration policies, that hinder the coming together of people of different beliefs. --to show respect, love, understanding and tolerance to all humans irrespective of race and religion. Young people like me can contribute to the creation of dynamic and harmonious multicultural societies by:--promoting cultural integration among ourselves, for example, learning at least two foreign languages or when we are old enough, by not hesitating to marry outside our nationalities. --forming ourselves into groups that will focus on peculiar global issue for example, advocacy on HIV/AIDS, child-trafficking or labour. --not viewing issues through the eyes of fixed prejudices, misconception and biased stories of our parents and guardians. --Adopting compassion and sympathy by not considering others as weak and oneself as strong. --Appreciating and understanding other peoples’ points of strengths and weaknesses and accommodating them accordingly. --Imbibing the spirit of forgiveness and unconditional love. --Having pen pals from different parts of the world to enable the exchange of spectacular issues and happenings in our different environments. --Taking our studies seriously in order to get good grades so that in future we will be highly placed individuals, so as to be part of decision-makers in our different countries. The kind of projects I can start to achieve dynamic and harmonious multicultural societies include: Setting up Library for young people where they will have interesting literatures, biographies and educational materials to read so as to be acquainted with other peoples’ cultures, beliefs, histories etc. Organizing a strong Children’s Parliament that can monitor signing of treaties of peace and enforcing heavy fines and sanctions against troublemakers
Posted on: Mon, 03 Nov 2014 09:55:36 +0000
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