AFTER VIOLENCE: 3R, RECONSTRUCTION, RECONCILIATION ...
AFTER VIOLENCE: 3R, RECONSTRUCTION, RECONCILIATION ... AFTER VIOLENCE: 3R, RECONSTRUCTION, RECONCILIATION ...
position, then bring them together to celebrate a joint approach A basic problem arises when the symmetry breaks down. Their acts may be enactments of structural positions, but in different structures, and from different positions in the same structure. And yet soldiers forced to kill by different states nevertheless enact the same state war logic to fight, unless they both become conscientious objectors. And even if the landowner may prefer to keep the land of his ancestors and not yield to the landless, he may also be brought to see that position as untenable. The same applies to culture: people may be hit by violent aspects of the same culture, or violent aspects of different cultures. In either case the peace worker's task is carefully and tactfully to open the eyes of the parties to the peaceful aspects. [2] The reparation/restitution approach. X has harmed Y, X is conscious of his guilt, Y is conscious of the trauma. X comes to Y and offers reparation/restitution: I'll undo the harm done by undoing the damage, repairing, restituting, restoring the status quo ante. At the simplest level--a tenant buying a new vase for the vase broken to the most complex level of countries and alliances at war with each other--money, goods and services start flowing to undo the damage. Sometimes the relation is direct, sometimes via institutions like insurance companies (e.g., for damage done to cars in accidents; countries are not yet insuring against damage in wars). But, as any house- or car-owner knows: there is also the time lost in the process, with opportunity costs. Reparation must always be at a higher level than the replacement cost. 67
This approach only works when the violence is reversible. Irreversibility not only applies to broken vase from the Minh dynasty; it could have affective value, being a part of family heritage. When trauma has been wrought and is deep-rooted, any restitution borders on an insult, adding violence to violence. Second, there is an element of buying oneself off the hook by trying to make the victim forget what happened by filling the gap caused by the harm, thereby trying to buy release from guilt. The harm is reduced to a commodity to be traded: "By mistake I took something from you, here you have it back with an extra 10% for inconvenience and time lost". Third, "there is no business like reparation business". With goods and services flowing post-reparation demands may be created; with the possibility that this was all premeditated, or at lest that somebody will think it was all premeditated. The task of the peace worker is to explore all these arguments with the perpetrator and the victim so that they fully understand what they are in for if this is the approach chosen. They both have to accept the approach so that the perpetrator does not offer something which falls on barren soil, or worse: increases the aggressiveness. And the victim should not start expecting a restitution that never comes, for whatever reason. Beyond this there is something very practical a peace worker may do: suggesting the concrete act of restitution. People have limited imagination, and this is not a question of finding a gift for an anniversary. In addition to being wanted by the victim, the act of restitution must convey the correct symbolic message. And that also goes for the perpetrator. He may, for instance, be 68
- Page 19 and 20: naive, self-exculpatory German der
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- Page 23 and 24: e proud of. Translated into nationa
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- Page 27 and 28: and property. Creativity in life-en
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- 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 and 56: Christian; South Africa is mixed. C
- Page 57 and 58: ereaved and those who know the bere
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- Page 61 and 62: Restructuration: the peace structur
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- Page 65 and 66: and traumas of the past, in a strug
- Page 67 and 68: know only one good German; a dead G
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- Page 73 and 74: forgive you"? Definitely not. Some
- Page 75 and 76: context, landing it in the Self-God
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- Page 79 and 80: has a system analysis epistemology
- Page 81 and 82: [7] The historical/truth commission
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- 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
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- Page 103 and 104: task of the peace worker is to appr
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- Page 107 and 108: destroy them; a contradiction, to p
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This approach only works when the violence is reversible.<br />
Irreversibility not only applies to broken vase from the Minh<br />
dynasty; it could have affective value, being a part of family<br />
heritage. When trauma has been wrought and is deep-rooted, any<br />
restitution borders on an insult, adding violence to violence.<br />
Second, there is an element of buying oneself off the hook by<br />
trying to make the victim forget what happened by filling the gap<br />
caused by the harm, thereby trying to buy release from guilt. The<br />
harm is reduced to a commodity to be traded: "By mistake I took<br />
something from you, here you have it back with an extra 10% for<br />
inconvenience and time lost".<br />
Third, "there is no business like reparation business".<br />
With goods and services flowing post-reparation demands may be<br />
created; with the possibility that this was all premeditated, or<br />
at lest that somebody will think it was all premeditated.<br />
The task of the peace worker is to explore all these<br />
arguments with the perpetrator and the victim so that they fully<br />
understand what they are in for if this is the approach chosen.<br />
They both have to accept the approach so that the perpetrator does<br />
not offer something which falls on barren soil, or worse:<br />
increases the aggressiveness. And the victim should not start<br />
expecting a restitution that never comes, for whatever reason.<br />
Beyond this there is something very practical a peace worker<br />
may do: suggesting the concrete act of restitution. People have<br />
limited imagination, and this is not a question of finding a gift<br />
for an anniversary. In addition to being wanted by the victim,<br />
the act of restitution must convey the correct symbolic message.<br />
And that also goes for the perpetrator. He may, for instance, be<br />
68
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