By Charles Mercieca, Ph.D.
President, IAEWP

The 18th IAEWP World Congress took place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, October 29-31, 2008. It was attended by educators from across e very continent: North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. Needless to say, this well organized peace event proved that people from every walk of life and profession, as well as from every culture and religious orientation can live together in perfect harmony and peace.

By Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations

My experience, each morning, may not be unlike yours. We pick up our newspapers or turn on the TV-in New York, Lagos or Jakarta-and peruse a daily digest of human suffering. Lebanon. Darfur. Somalia. Of course, as Secretary General of the United Nations, I at least am in a position to try to do something about these tragedies. And I do, every day.

In the strict sense of the word, enemies are viewed as sources of evil.
Their ultimate objective is the same – the utter destruction and annihilation of anything positive and constructive. In the culture of war society, which we inherited, several theories were developed to justify, at least under certain circumstances, actions that lead to devastation, agony and death. This has been going on now for centuries and a line needs to be drawn. The culture of war needs to be replaced by the culture of peace the sooner the better.

Every single human being has at least one great sacrosanct obligation, namely, to shape the future of a new generation that would enjoy life to the maximum possible without experiencing unnecessary and needless suffering. Hence, we are all obligated to promote peace and to eliminate war. To this end, we need to understand properly the culture of war as it is compared and contrasted with the culture of peace.

Culture deals with people's way of life, which is influenced by their philosophy, historical background, traditional beliefs, and vision of the future. Such a culture may lead to peace or to war among us or with others. The choice is in our hands since we are given the option to choose actions that may lead to peace or to war. In creating a culture of peace we are setting the stage for a future generation to choose harmony over dissent and to embrace peace over war.