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Why Do Retired Generals Become Peace Advocates? Let Us Create a Curriculum for Peace in Our Military Academies

Read in Japanese.

By Akio Matsumura

During September in 1973 I found myself beginning a two hour bus ride, headed for the outskirts of Jakarta. I was with the Japanese Parliamentary Study Mission on Population and Development, headed by former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi. We had already had very fruitful visits to India and Thailand, and were now moving through Indonesia.

All parliamentarians and three foreign special guests — General Draper, former Maryland Senator Joseph Tydings, and Mr. McDonnell — sat in their own private car, while the rest of us—government bureaucrats, population experts, media and staff—traveled behind by bus. As the youngest member of the group I sat at the back of the bus. Before we departed, a member of the Japanese Embassy staff came to the back of the bus, saying that General Draper was calling for me. General Draper and Mr. Tatsuo Tanaka, Member of Parliament and deputy head of the mission, were sitting together when I got to the car, with the staff member from the Embassy. General Draper wished to speak with me during the trip, and asked me to sit in the car instead of the staff member. Meanwhile, Mr. Tanaka seemed to be uncomfortable next to General Draper, and excused himself to the front seat because he wanted to operate the video camera, so the front seat would be a better location. So, I ended up next to General Draper in the back, to the astonishment of the embassy staff. Mr. Tanaka assured them it was the request of General Draper, and we began the two hour ride.… Continue reading

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Why Did McDonald’s Go the Moon? There Are No Financial Deposits in the Spiritual World

Read in Japanese.

By Akio Matsumura

In September of 1973 I was working down to the last moment to arrange the Japanese Parliamentary Study Mission to Asian Countries on Population and Development headed by former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi. It was hosted by the International Planned Parenthood Federation in London and the UN Population Fund in New York. General Draper called me from Washington to tell me that Mr. McDonald would be joining the mission and would be arriving the following day in Tokyo from the U.S. I was to meet with him and explain the program for the trip. I didn’t know who Mr. McDonald was, so I asked a Japanese friend who he might be. He said, “Oh yes, a McDonald hamburger restaurant just opened at Ginza, so he might be the owner of the McDonald restaurant company.”

The next day we met and ate lunch at the Hilton Hotel in Akasaka. He was an older gentleman, with white hair, so I asked him at the beginning of lunch, “Mr. McDonald, when you were 31, like I am now, what did you dream of being?” He told me, “Akio when I was your age I was so interested in the universe, and spacecrafts. My dream was that one day man would go to the Moon. And Akio, when we first landed on the Moon in 1969, many of my company’s products went there.” His face was glowing with pride–he was telling me the story as a grandfather would to his grandson.… Continue reading

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Sovereignty’s Struggle in a Search for a Common Future



By Chris Cote

In 1648, with the Peace of Westphalia, a system of sovereign states was established. Sovereignty gave these states’ complete self control over internal affairs, and since World War II, has evolved to include external sovereignty, a term defining the legality of inter-state interventions. European growth has contributed to an expanding evolution of the term, now subject to interpretation and debate. One thing holds true: a state’s rights to sovereignty are undergoing change.

Deep century old lines of territorial sovereignty are becoming blurred. Expanding global communication and economic routes are introducing new concerns regarding security and ethics. Transboundary concerns spur on international wars, internal crises and conflicts, and are redefining our politics, economics, and future on the whole. Security has always been the main concern of states, and as a state’s security, or ability to control the goings-on within its borders, erodes, states move to action. Factors that contribute to the erosion of state sovereignty include growing technology, economic interdependence, environmental degradation, poverty, human rights violations, and failed states. These can each be seen as having different levels of causation for one another, indicating that they are all interconnected and part of the same puzzle.

An easy example of the deterioration of sovereignty is the United States entering Iraq and Afghanistan. Our security was threatened (before?) September 11, 2001 by the Taliban and extremist Islamic groups, presumably encouraging the United States to eliminate the Taliban as a threat to its security. The United States’ “War on Terror” is immediately seen as a result of almost all of the factors listed above, except perhaps less obviously environmental degradation (although it is still a relevant factor).… Continue reading

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An Environmental Bonus: Finding the Missing Piece

By Chris Cote

Over the past few weeks, President Obama has sent an important message to the United States and the world: we will not sacrifice the environment. Sure, several pressing environmental issues have been put further back on the burner in order to stimulate banks and other economic sectors, but these issues are all connected. Stability is needed in all sectors to have any be truly effective. $70 billion (8%) of the stimulus package is being provided for our energy economy, and most of those dollars are directed toward green energy. The boost is aimed toward solar and wind technologies, infant technologies that are more vulnerable in economically difficult times. America cannot afford to have these technologies wiped out. We are in a period when their importance grows each day. Thankfully President Obama has shown that he is not just a fairweather friend of the environment and will continue to support it in hard times as well. To move forward in a sustainable manner, a manner which we can continue over many generations, we must link together our social, economic, and environmental issues.

Green jobs are an example of one way to link these three issues together. By developing new green technologies, such as solar or wind, we are creating jobs. These jobs can largely employ people with low incomes providing benefits to them as individuals, and to society at large. Whatsmore, we are clearly helping the economy, developing more jobs and diverting away from dead-end industries. With investment, these sectors will continue to grow and produce more jobs, becoming sectors indespensable to our workforce/economy, and leading America into a new future.

… Continue reading
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Peace as Process: Religious Interpretation and Political Compromise

By Akio Matsumura

At the Kremlin in Moscow in 1990 I learned a life changing lesson, watching those Jewish in attendance, all prominent leaders, pray to attend during the Sabbath. For those who are not familiar with Jewish tradition, the Sabbath is a weekly day of rest, lasting from Friday to Saturday evening, with the timing depending on the time of year. Observation and remembrance of the Sabbath is one of the Ten Commandments. I’ve mentioned this story in my blog before, on September 1, 2008 and Inauguration day, January 20, 2009 and received many responses. People have continually expressed deep surprise that we were able to transcend the religious tradition and have everyone in attendance at the closing ceremony. Although the story itself is extraordinary, it is the lesson that is most important.

Our global world is experiencing a battle of ideologies—of cultures. As these cultures grow, spread, and become more interconnected, more confrontations arise between them. Over the years I have stressed the importance of approaching each issue from a practical and spiritual perspective, encouraging effective change to be made while keeping long term ideals in mind. Many ideologies and values, especially in religion and politics, are not shared cross-culturally because of their self-contained traditional barriers. So how in this case, were the rabbis able to transcend their religious barrier? Why was the meeting able to go on?

If we had planned the closing ceremony originally for Friday night, the Jewish participants would not have attended. If I had bluntly ignored their important religious tradition, I would have been disrespecting them, and the situation would have gone awry.… Continue reading

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America Sets Sail: Crossing the Border toward Peace and Hope

Read in Japanese (日本語)

By Akio Matsumura

In December 1995 the World Assembly on Reconciliation was to be held at Jericho, hosted by Prime Minister Rabin and Chairman Arafat. A steering committee meeting I attended was held at Jericho in June, 1995. During our lunch break we went to see the Dead Sea. In case you haven’t been there, the Dead Sea is between Israel and the West Bank. It is the lowest point on the surface of the Earth on dry land and the water is 8.6 times saltier than the ocean. It was remarkable to see people reading their books while floating on the water. On the tour my friends also pointed out the Mount of Temptation where it is said Jesus was tempted by the Devil. We enjoyed our lunch and tour and returned to the afternoon session of our meeting. We kept moving to finish our agenda because I was scheduled to meet with Chairman Arafat at 9 PM that evening in Gaza.

During the afternoon, while finishing our agenda, we received an emergency phone call informing us that a suicide bomb had exploded on a public bus in Tel Aviv. There were more than 25 deaths, one of the largest death tolls in many years. The accident closed the border between Israel and Gaza—no car, diplomatic or not, was allowed to cross the border.

Immediately I rushed to the office of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Palestine to meet with the representative, Mr. Wate.… Continue reading

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A Day of Service

 

“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity. “ -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

 
Martin Luther King Jr with medallion NYWTS

President-elect Obama is setting an important example for Americans today with his participation in the national day of service. A commitment to service, be it in the Armed Forces or in a local homeless shelter brings about a set of values that will propel this country to be a world leader in many new ways. Here are 3 values that are as important to individual relations as international relations.

1. Compassion. United we stand, divided we fall. Every school children in the country knows that. Yet we are too often divided in this country. Our compassion is neutralized through competition in the labor market and many other areas of life and we far too often forget the plight of others. By volunteering we see a different area of life and begin to understand how someone else’s life works–an experience that encourages us to live in a better way. Realizing the difficult decisions and struggles other leaders are making, we can rethink our decisions and perhaps not to choose to exploit a situation that would leave us better off but damage others.

2. Cooperation. The US often ‘goes it alone’ until we realize we can’t. Competition is emphasized daily in this countryfrom the job market to the supermarket. We constantly jockey to be first in line for everything we do.… Continue reading

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From Akio: My Honeymoon Memory of the Israelis and Palestinians: Can a computer game for peace be profitable?

 

On December 27, 2007 the World Business Academy published my article, “Planting the Seeds of Peace.” In it I mentioned how I visited India after many years and met with many parliamentarians and business leaders, encouraging them to establish an unofficial network with their counterparts in Pakistan. Sadly, the date of December 27, 2007 also became the date of the assassination of Mrs. Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan. Exactly one year later, December 27, 2008, Israel began her assaults against Hamas, escalating the ground war. My aim is to steer you away from what we are all watching on television. I will put the conflict of the moment aside to tell you the story of my honeymoon memory of the Israelis and the Palestinians.

In Cairo on May 4, 1994, the Gaza-Jericho agreement (sometimes called the Cairo Agreement) was signed by Israel and Palestine. From this accord grew the Palestinian Authority and the relationship led to the Oslo Peace Process. During this time, October 1994, I was at my home with Ambassador Angier Biddle Duke and Mr. Bradford Morse, former Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). We judged that, in light of the positive climate, it was a good momentum to organize what would be the Jericho conference.

I sought the counsel of several old friends: Co-chair of the Global Forum, Rabbi Awaraham Soetendorp of the Netherlands; Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, Director of the Israel Institute of Talmudic Publications in Jerusalem; and the Israeli Minister of Culture, Mrs. Shulamit Aloni.… Continue reading

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Social Time Bomb: migration in cities


The UN published a report (read summary here in the Guardian) that cities are growing and their inequalities are growing with them. Now over half of the human race lives in cities and that trend is not predicted to change. The cities are not growing equally, however, and become more fragmented and unjust with growth. The UN report finds that race is a crucial factor regarding equality in the US and Canada. Many US cities such as New York and Atlanta ranked as equally as high for inequity as did Nairobi. Racial inequality in cities stems from trickle-down theories and creates social tensions that lead to violence, political fractures, and over all destabilizes the society.

Most migration has been from rural areas to cities, thus creating mega cities such as Mexico City, Mumbai, Sao Paulo and Delhi. This migration has left rural areas weak without working-age men and little room for development, economically or communally. Flooding into the cities, migrants have created slums around the outside of the cities in an urban cone, such as El Alto adjacent to La Paz in Bolivia, or the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. These informal homes have shaken the economies and infrastructures of the cities that they surround. The governments can’t account for their activities nor govern them effectively. Poverty is the defining factor of these shanty-towns and from it stems a multitude of social problems. Cities are ruining themselves with their inequity and social divisions.

Paradoxically, as many cities have been facing the dilemmas of population growth, others are dealing with its converse.… Continue reading