by Leela Ramdeen, Chair of the Catholic Commission for Social Justice
Peace is not the product of terror or fear.
Peace is not the silence of cemeteries.
Peace is not the silent revolt of violent repression.
Peace is the generous, tranquil contribution of all to the good of all.
Peace is dynamism. Peace is generosity.
It is right and it is duty. (Archbishop Oscar Romero – 1917 -1980)
Today’s Psalm (84), is a prayer for peace: “Mercy and faithfulness have met, justice and peace have embraced…”
Our country and our world yearn for peace. As people of the Beatitudes; as a people of hope, Catholics believe that peace is possible. However, peace will not be achieved if we remain in our comfort zones and fail to take action to build God’s Kingdom. Peace-making is an active process. As Pope Paul VI said: “If you want peace, work for justice.”
CCSJ’s 2011 calendar focusses on Pope John XXIII’s Pillars of Peace: truth, justice, love, and freedom. In 2002, Blessed John Paul II added a fifth Pillar – “forgiveness”.
Archbishop Romero said, people have a right to “peace”, but it is also a “duty”. Each of us has a duty to contribute to the process of building peace. This is part of our Catholic Culture and Identity: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.” Our vision for our country/world, must be in line with Jesus’ vision. He came to bring life; to bring peace.
On August 1 we observed Emancipation Day. I believe that we must do more to use this occasion to promote integral human development for all our people. The UN has designated 2011 as the International Year for People of African Descent. The year aims: “to strengthen international, national and regional cooperation to benefit the people of African descent, and to recognise and promote their political, economic, social and cultural contributions from their diverse heritage and culture”.
As Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, has said, this year “offers a unique opportunity to redouble our efforts to fight against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance that affect people of African descent everywhere.”
Inter alia, CCSJ plans to organise a seminar during Respect for Life Week (September12-19) to focus on the contributions made by people of African Descent to T&T/the world and to highlight human rights issues affecting people of African Descent. In doing so, we need to locate their rights within the context of the rights of all so that no one will be left behind.
Building peace requires that we promote justice e.g. social justice, distributive justice, commutative justice, and legal justice. Where there are huge gaps between the rich and the poor; where there is a lack of trust, love and mutual respect between ethnic groups, there will be no peace.
As I said at a recent conference, we need some commonly accepted/shared values if we are to overcome fears and prejudices about “the other”. We must acknowledge the inherent dignity of each citizen in T&T. Accepting and promoting unity in diversity is an active, on-going process. Unless we are prepared to work at this, we will remain a fragmented society. As long as we allow inequalities and inequities to persist, each ethnic group will continue to look over its shoulders and complain, and rightly so, that certain groups have more access to the nation’s resources, employment opportunities etc. than they do.
Let’s thank God for our multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-religious society and welcome the gifts we all bring to the table of life. At the end of the day, what we need is a framework that would allow people to live aspects of the culture that their forebears brought to T&T with them; to be able to share these; and to open our hearts and minds to aspects of other people’s culture. We need a framework that would promote mutual respect, social cohesion, equity, peace and harmony in our nation and in the world.
For nearly 50 years we have had responsibility for paddling our own canoe, as the saying goes – for charting our own course. Although there have been areas of growth and development, we cannot say that we are anywhere near promoting sustainable development in T&T.
Let’s strive for “unity without uniformity and diversity without fragmentation” (Roxanne Lalonde). Our vision for Trinidad and Tobago must be inclusive; one that embraces the various ethnicities, religions, and cultures that make up the rich tapestry that is T&T.
