Yemen war - why the world is ignoring - When a Thought of War Comes, Oppose It By a Stronger Thought of Peace
Yemen war - why the world is ignoring
When a Thought of War Comes, Oppose It By a Stronger Thought of Peace
The United Nations declared that Yemen is the largest humanitarian crisis in the world and millions are at risk of starving to death in crisis driven by war. Yet according to a report from the International Rescue Committee (IRC) just 15 percent of Americans are even aware of the crisis. Also a recent report from IRC suspected cholera cases have hit one million in Yemen - a country ravaged by war. The United Nations reckons three-quarters of Yemen’s 28m people need some kind of humanitarian aid.
So, why the world is ignoring the war in Yemen - one of the Arab world's poorest countries that has been devastated by a war since 2015 - and poor and innocent Yemenis, as a result, have become the pawns in the regional power-struggle between super powers in the Middle East.
Unfortunately, civilians have borne the major brunt of the fighting and more than 8,000 people have been killed - more than 20% of them children. The war has resulted in the mass exodus of certified physicians and nearly 50% of healthcare facilities have been destroyed by fighting and airstrikes. A child dies in Yemen every five minutes. WHY?
(Photo source: The New York Times)
Not only in Yemen, but the war and everyday violence represent an enormous drain on both human potential and economic growth in most of the countries around the globe. With the crisis in the Middle East, and the war in Syria and Afghanistan, it can sometimes feel like the whole world is at war - a world more and more divided by a resurgence of national interests, the very idea of shared governance is losing its strength in the world. Worse still, the world as a whole has been getting incrementally less peaceful every year since 2007.
Well, how about UN? United Nations has lost its significance as the arena in which to reach consensus and legitimacy and is sliding into a state of unimportant. This may sound depressing, but of the 162 countries covered by the Institute for Economic and Peace’s (IEP’s) latest study, just 11 were not involved in conflict of one kind or another.
Now, by looking around the wars and conflicts around the world, as a member of the worldwide community of the Baha’i Faith, I feel confident that world peace is not only possible, but also inevitable. My trust and confidence is reflected in a statement offered to the world by the Baha’i international governing body, the Universal House of Justice. In October 1985, the Universal House of Justice addressed a letter to the generality of humankind on the subject of universal peace, titled “The Promise of World Peace”. (http://www.bahai.org/beliefs/universal-peace/promise-world-peace/)
“World order can be founded only on an unshakable consciousness of the oneness of mankind, a spiritual truth which all the human sciences confirm. Anthropology, physiology, psychology, recognize only one human species, albeit infinitely varied in the secondary aspects of life. Recognition of this truth requires abandonment of prejudice—prejudice of every kind—race, class, color, creed, nation, sex, degree of material civilization, everything which enables people to consider themselves superior to others.”
“Acceptance of the oneness of mankind is the first fundamental prerequisite for reorganization and administration of the world as one country, the home of humankind. Universal acceptance of this spiritual principle is essential to any successful attempt to establish world peace. It should therefore be universally proclaimed, taught in schools, and constantly asserted in every nation as preparation for the organic change in the structure of society which it implies. In the Bahá’à view, recognition of the oneness of mankind “calls for no less than the reconstruction and the demilitarization of the whole civilized world—a world organically unified in all the essential aspects of its life, its political machinery, its spiritual aspiration, its trade and finance, its script and language, and yet infinite in the diversity of the national characteristics of its federated units.”
Well, looking around the globe and witnessing war and conflicts, one may conclude that universal lasting peace may be in our distant future. But, the urgency of laying the foundation is before us now. Baha'i community whose purpose is to channel energies into patterns of action that promote the betterment of society around the world are working towards spreading the teachings of the prophet of the Baha’i Faith, "The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens.”
"Thoughts of war bring destruction to all harmony, well-being, restfulness and content. ...Thoughts of love are constructive of brotherhood, peace, friendship, and happiness. If you desire with all your heart, friendship with every race on earth, your thought, spiritual and positive, will spread; it will become the desire of others, growing stronger and stronger, until it reaches the minds of all men." (Source: Abdul-Baha, Paris Talks)
When a Thought of War Comes, Oppose It By a Stronger Thought of Peace
The United Nations declared that Yemen is the largest humanitarian crisis in the world and millions are at risk of starving to death in crisis driven by war. Yet according to a report from the International Rescue Committee (IRC) just 15 percent of Americans are even aware of the crisis. Also a recent report from IRC suspected cholera cases have hit one million in Yemen - a country ravaged by war. The United Nations reckons three-quarters of Yemen’s 28m people need some kind of humanitarian aid.
So, why the world is ignoring the war in Yemen - one of the Arab world's poorest countries that has been devastated by a war since 2015 - and poor and innocent Yemenis, as a result, have become the pawns in the regional power-struggle between super powers in the Middle East.
Unfortunately, civilians have borne the major brunt of the fighting and more than 8,000 people have been killed - more than 20% of them children. The war has resulted in the mass exodus of certified physicians and nearly 50% of healthcare facilities have been destroyed by fighting and airstrikes. A child dies in Yemen every five minutes. WHY?
Not only in Yemen, but the war and everyday violence represent an enormous drain on both human potential and economic growth in most of the countries around the globe. With the crisis in the Middle East, and the war in Syria and Afghanistan, it can sometimes feel like the whole world is at war - a world more and more divided by a resurgence of national interests, the very idea of shared governance is losing its strength in the world. Worse still, the world as a whole has been getting incrementally less peaceful every year since 2007.
Well, how about UN? United Nations has lost its significance as the arena in which to reach consensus and legitimacy and is sliding into a state of unimportant. This may sound depressing, but of the 162 countries covered by the Institute for Economic and Peace’s (IEP’s) latest study, just 11 were not involved in conflict of one kind or another.
Now, by looking around the wars and conflicts around the world, as a member of the worldwide community of the Baha’i Faith, I feel confident that world peace is not only possible, but also inevitable. My trust and confidence is reflected in a statement offered to the world by the Baha’i international governing body, the Universal House of Justice. In October 1985, the Universal House of Justice addressed a letter to the generality of humankind on the subject of universal peace, titled “The Promise of World Peace”. (http://www.bahai.org/beliefs/universal-peace/promise-world-peace/)
“World order can be founded only on an unshakable consciousness of the oneness of mankind, a spiritual truth which all the human sciences confirm. Anthropology, physiology, psychology, recognize only one human species, albeit infinitely varied in the secondary aspects of life. Recognition of this truth requires abandonment of prejudice—prejudice of every kind—race, class, color, creed, nation, sex, degree of material civilization, everything which enables people to consider themselves superior to others.”
“Acceptance of the oneness of mankind is the first fundamental prerequisite for reorganization and administration of the world as one country, the home of humankind. Universal acceptance of this spiritual principle is essential to any successful attempt to establish world peace. It should therefore be universally proclaimed, taught in schools, and constantly asserted in every nation as preparation for the organic change in the structure of society which it implies. In the Bahá’à view, recognition of the oneness of mankind “calls for no less than the reconstruction and the demilitarization of the whole civilized world—a world organically unified in all the essential aspects of its life, its political machinery, its spiritual aspiration, its trade and finance, its script and language, and yet infinite in the diversity of the national characteristics of its federated units.”
Well, looking around the globe and witnessing war and conflicts, one may conclude that universal lasting peace may be in our distant future. But, the urgency of laying the foundation is before us now. Baha'i community whose purpose is to channel energies into patterns of action that promote the betterment of society around the world are working towards spreading the teachings of the prophet of the Baha’i Faith, "The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens.”
"Thoughts of war bring destruction to all harmony, well-being, restfulness and content. ...Thoughts of love are constructive of brotherhood, peace, friendship, and happiness. If you desire with all your heart, friendship with every race on earth, your thought, spiritual and positive, will spread; it will become the desire of others, growing stronger and stronger, until it reaches the minds of all men." (Source: Abdul-Baha, Paris Talks)
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