Reflecting on Peace

Gosh how do you sum up a three day symposium on PEACE with some of the world’s most active, dedicated and renown peace keepers, shakers and builders?!

Motivational, Inspiring, Soul-searching, Life-fulfilling…the list goes on.

I was able to sit in on four different panels over the three days: Founding Principles, Future Plans (on Rotary’s Peace Centers Program), Conflict: Natural Resources and the Environment, Mediation, and Alumni and International Development in Asia.  

Rotary Peace Fellows who I got to know over their three months at Chulalongkorn - I will miss them so much!!!

My favorite snippet was listening to Nabil Oudeh, who wrote the famous manual “Conflict is for the Birds” in which he categorizes conflict participants into five different kinds of birds (woodpeckers, owls, hummingbirds, ostriches, and parakeets).  He started off by saying: “Listen. Think. Act.  How many conflicts in your life have happened as a result of the direct opposite?”  He couldn’t have spoken truer words!

(see full caption at the bottom :)

As I sat in on these four panels, ready with pen and pad to frantically take notes, I realized that while I was incredibly thankful to Rotary for allowing me to participate in the Symposium, I was more grateful for the past SIX MONTHS of training in conflict resolution and conflict transformation that had been bestowed upon me thanks to Rotary.  My courses at Chula are one of a kind, and this was reinforced today when I knew each and every term, idea and theory presented by the panelists.  And the best part is – my education at Chula is only half-way complete!  Furthermore, to speak towards the panel events that I was unable to attend (because they hold multiple events at one time so you are forced to choose!) it made my decisions easier not to go because my professors from my program were on the panels!  From what I could count, eight of my lecturers were seated on the six other sessions I did not choose.  These lecturers are amazing experts and phenomenal educators – and I realize most from this Rotary Peace Symposium that I truly have received the best education possible in my field.

The picture on the right is of my friend Ann Marie, an Ambassadorial Scholar studying in Malaysia.  I first met Anne Marie at our Rotary Outbound Orientation over a year ago in San Jose California.  Since then, we have traveled to Southeast Asia and were able to catch up in our studies and travels together at the Symposium and Convention.  To check out Ann Marie's blog on her adventures (including trekking with Rotarians through Nepal!) please click here: Ann Marie's Blog: Dunia Kecil