AFTER VIOLENCE: 3R, RECONSTRUCTION, RECONCILIATION ...
AFTER VIOLENCE: 3R, RECONSTRUCTION, RECONCILIATION ... AFTER VIOLENCE: 3R, RECONSTRUCTION, RECONCILIATION ...
ebuilding, repairing the material damage, constructing new habitats, including helping nature renew itself./57/ But a look at Table 3.1 informs us that there is much more work to do. To limit reconstruction to rehabilitation and rebuilding is to commit the fallacy of (badly) "misplaced concreteness", as they used to say in sociology. It means being mesmerized by visible (ruins, people in pain, people crying) at the expense of invisible effects, like military bulletins. The other items in Table 3.1 can by and large be summarized under two headings: damage to structure and damage to culture. Structures have to be woven together, but not too tight, not too dominant; cultures have to become peace cultures. More below. How about damage to nature? We then have to go beyond cleaning up a forest used as a battlefield, using detoxification and planting new trees. We have to try to build mature eco- systems with a structure of diversity and symbiosis, and we have to try to inculcate in those who did the damage a culture of peace which of course would include respect for nature. Two remarks about the particle "re". Like for research it means again. And again. No end. And it does not mean the restoration of status quo ante except if that is good enough. And then let us be more specific about reconstruction. Rehabilitation: the collective sorrow approach. Post- traumatic stress disorder is problematic because of the high level of irreversibility. Only one approach will be explored here: collective sorrow, also as an antidote to triumphalism. Horror has struck. The normal reaction is sorrow, among the 54
ereaved and those who know the bereaved. The sorrow is expressed as a condolence, a period is set aside for the sorrow; women used to dress in black and men had a black ribbon around the arm. At the end, to mark the ending and to mark that life goes on, there is a celebration. The memory of those who passed on is invoked; the challenge to carry on is another basic theme. So far, so good. All of this can be organized by victor and vanquished alike, after the horror. The basic problem is the theme, the reason for sorrow. Because we are missing the dead, and commiserate with the bereaved and the wounded? That can and should be done, at the family and the community levels. The past- war sorrow, however, should carry another message. For the victor to deplore collectively the sacrifice that was necessary to win, and for the vanquished to deplore collectively the sacrifice that was insufficient, are parts of the culture of war. A culture of peace would deplore the war as such, any war, as a sign of human failure and folly. War should never be justified; given human potential resources. War is a scandal; any war is a crime against humanity, to be deplored as such. Around that theme sorrow can crystallize; deploring not only the effects, but war as such. For that to happen not only violent actors, but also violent structures and cultures have to be deplored, as pointed out so often above. Rehabilitation is built around a new cause: abolition of war. But that is a long term goal, like abolition of slavery and colonialism when the abolitionists started (and by and large succeeded). In the short term we are talking about healing, as a very important part of rehabilitation. The wound should no longer 55
- Page 5 and 6: potential. Violence is not like eat
- Page 7 and 8: democracy is an answer. If the cont
- Page 9 and 10: [1] The impression is given that vi
- Page 11 and 12: violence till the cease-fire confus
- Page 13 and 14: the underlying structural and cultu
- Page 15 and 16: level of participation, a rich, blo
- Page 17 and 18: up to net and gross national produc
- Page 19 and 20: naive, self-exculpatory German der
- Page 21 and 22: There is a special aspect of the da
- Page 23 and 24: e proud of. Translated into nationa
- Page 25 and 26: Cold War is by now a classical case
- Page 27 and 28: and property. Creativity in life-en
- Page 29 and 30: discourses good deeds may lead to s
- Page 31 and 32: case, substituted the verbal duel o
- Page 33 and 34: Scenario 4: Z hurts both X and Y fo
- Page 35 and 36: wounds to the spirit never, as psyc
- Page 37 and 38: chronologically. To the four cases
- Page 39 and 40: soldiers were the limbs and "we" (t
- Page 41 and 42: Let us try to summarize. Who/what w
- Page 43 and 44: accident. The only recourse might b
- Page 45 and 46: The white lynchers, victimized or n
- Page 47 and 48: massive, even collective, political
- Page 49 and 50: there an underlying, universal, que
- Page 51 and 52: structural specificities./55/ Thus,
- Page 53 and 54: enemies into court, they did not mi
- Page 55: Christian; South Africa is mixed. C
- Page 59 and 60: opportunities. There is the good th
- Page 61 and 62: Restructuration: the peace structur
- Page 63 and 64: exchanges of apologies and forgiven
- Page 65 and 66: and traumas of the past, in a strug
- Page 67 and 68: know only one good German; a dead G
- Page 69 and 70: positions in a deficient structure.
- Page 71 and 72: This approach only works when the v
- Page 73 and 74: forgive you"? Definitely not. Some
- Page 75 and 76: context, landing it in the Self-God
- Page 77 and 78: victim relation is translated into
- Page 79 and 80: has a system analysis epistemology
- Page 81 and 82: [7] The historical/truth commission
- Page 83 and 84: empirical facts: counter-factual hi
- Page 85 and 86: the video and say: "This is the tur
- Page 87 and 88: model would be a village, a town, a
- Page 89 and 90: facilitating reliving on the spot.
- Page 91 and 92: outcome, never that violence again!
- Page 93 and 94: acts in the light of extenuating ci
- Page 95 and 96: y committing crimes of war, against
- Page 97 and 98: CONFLICT = ATTITUDES/ASSUMPTIONS +
- Page 99 and 100: Table 9.1. The praxis triad: DIAGNO
- Page 101 and 102: The democracy, parliamentarian appr
- Page 103 and 104: task of the peace worker is to appr
- Page 105 and 106: ecoming a permanent state of societ
ebuilding, repairing the material damage, constructing new<br />
habitats, including helping nature renew itself./57/<br />
But a look at Table 3.1 informs us that there is much<br />
more work to do. To limit reconstruction to rehabilitation and<br />
rebuilding is to commit the fallacy of (badly) "misplaced<br />
concreteness", as they used to say in sociology. It means being<br />
mesmerized by visible (ruins, people in pain, people crying) at<br />
the expense of invisible effects, like military bulletins.<br />
The other items in Table 3.1 can by and large be summarized<br />
under two headings: damage to structure and damage to culture.<br />
Structures have to be woven together, but not too tight, not too<br />
dominant; cultures have to become peace cultures. More below.<br />
How about damage to nature? We then have to go beyond<br />
cleaning up a forest used as a battlefield, using detoxification<br />
and planting new trees. We have to try to build mature eco-<br />
systems with a structure of diversity and symbiosis, and we have<br />
to try to inculcate in those who did the damage a culture of peace<br />
which of course would include respect for nature.<br />
Two remarks about the particle "re". Like for research it<br />
means again. And again. No end. And it does not mean the<br />
restoration of status quo ante except if that is good enough.<br />
And then let us be more specific about reconstruction.<br />
Rehabilitation: the collective sorrow approach. Post-<br />
traumatic stress disorder is problematic because of the high level<br />
of irreversibility. Only one approach will be explored here:<br />
collective sorrow, also as an antidote to triumphalism.<br />
Horror has struck. The normal reaction is sorrow, among the<br />
54
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