AFTER VIOLENCE: 3R, RECONSTRUCTION, RECONCILIATION ...

outcome, never that violence again! How long that fatigue effect
will last is another matter./82/
One problem, mentioned many times above, is that the tasks of
reconstruction are so pressing that reconciliation, leave alone
resolution, recede into the background. The peace worker has to
keep the resolution probl‚matique alive. Above we have given many
examples of how reconstruction and reconciliation can transform
the whole setting so that a conflict that once was very hard can
become softer. Thus, Germany will probably ultimately have no
border problems, because borders wither away within the same
super-national organization, the European Union. An overarching
structure reduced the polarization in Europe's midst, and made
transformations possible, at least in the longer run. So the task
is to steer 2R so that they have positive effect on resolution,
never forgetting that the task is 3R.
[12] The ho'o ponopono approach. A man is at sleep in his nice
home. There are some noises, he gets up, catches that young boy
on his way out, with some dollars. The police is called. The
young boy is now a "juvenile", known to the police, obviously a
"delinquent", and as they say: "Three strikes and you are out".
The place is Hawai'i. In Hawai'ian culture there is a
tradition in a sense combining reconstruction, reconciliation, and
resolution, the ho'o ponopono (setting straight);/83/ known to
others through cultural diffusion, e.g., to the owner of the
burglarized, violated house. He looks at the boy, thinks of him
twenty years in prison. And he looks at the police. "Hey, let me
handle this one". It transpires that the boy's sister is ill, the
family is too poor to pay. Every little dollar counts.
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