Peace and Security
Begins with Youth
by Carah Lynn Ong*, November 2000
At the age of 21, I was invited to travel to Japan
from 13-21 November 2000 and speak in the Youth Forum of the Nagasaki
Global Citizens’ Assembly for the Elimination of Nuclear
Weapons. It was an extreme honor to be a speaker at the Assembly.
For me, the trip was more of a pilgrimage to the crime scene of
the last atomic bomb dropping and it reminded me why I chose to
work on nuclear abolition. Being in Nagasaki was a time to commemorate
and honor those who have suffered so long from the production
and development of nuclear weapons and energy.
More than 200 young people and adults attended
the Youth Forum held at Shiroyama Elementary School, a symbolic
place for the workshop because the original was devastated on
9 August 1945, when the atomic bomb, code named “fatman”
was dropped on the city. I was asked to speak at the Youth Forum
because I believe that young people have a tremendous responsibility
to effectuate the change needed to abolish war and all weapons
of mass destruction. Peace and security are age-old issues that
have been around since the advent of war. The existence of war
and nuclear weapons evidences our insecurity and our inability
to understand how our actions affect others. As human beings,
we desire to be secure, yet we have some-how deemed it in our
nature to live in fear of each other and therefore we try to justify
our urge to resolve conflicts through violent means. Today, we
have the greatest opportunity to make peace and security a reality
in this globalized world and we as young people have the obligation
to achieve it.
Like many young people in countries that are termed
“developed,” I did not grow up truly understanding
the threat that nuclear weapons pose to the existence of Earth
and its inhabitants. In fact, to the contrary, I grew up falsely
believing that we need nuclear weapons to protect us and that
war was necessary to resolve conflict. However, when I was 12
years old, I had the opportunity to visit Guatemala for the first
time. In Guatemala, I experienced first-hand the devastation that
war and weapons cause. It was there that I first began to understand
how fortunate I was to grow up in a prosperous country where most
people live free from the threat of war. However, it was not until
I was studying Spanish and Global Peace and Security at the University
of California at Santa Barbara that I realized how the belligerent,
arrogant and willfully ignorant behavior of “developed”
countries prevented “developing” countries from ever
realizing lasting peace and security.
After graduating from UCSB in 1999, I became the
Coordinator for Abolition 2000, a global network of more than
2000 organizations and municipalities working together to achieve
a nuclear weapons convention and redress the environmental devastation
and human suffering caused by the nuclear cycle. There are many
people around the world who believe this is possible and many
of the international leaders of the nuclear weapons abolition
movement participated in the Nagasaki Assembly. Despite growing
international consensus for nuclear weapons abolition, there are
very few young people who know about the nuclear issue and even
fewer who are actively working to abolish nuclear weapons. Unfortunately,
many young people do not understand that the nuclear cycle affects
them and will continue to affect them for many years to come.
The Youth Forum of the Nagasaki Assembly demonstrated
that young people do care about making a difference, especially
after they gain consciousness of an issue. Knowledge may give
individuals power, but it also obligates responsibility. As young
people we are responsible to share what we know about peace and
security issues with our friends, our families, our communities
and all those with whom we come in contact. We must realize that
as individuals, the knowledge we have gives us the power to make
a difference and we must not be afraid to stand up and be a voice
for positive change. As Mahatmas Ghandi said, “We must be
the change we wish to see in the world.” Learning about
an issue is the first step to realizing the responsibility we
have as young people, but knowing is simply not enough. We must
also actively work to achieve the secure and peaceful world we
envision.
At the close of the Youth Forum, I asked the participants
as young people and as citizens of Nagasaki to be a strong voice
for the abolition of nuclear weapons and to remind the world of
the horrors that these indiscriminate weapons cause. The citizens
of Nagasaki can speak from experience of the unjustness and devastation
of the use of nuclear weapons.
As a token of my appreciation, I gave each participant
of the Youth Forum a packet of sunflower seeds to plant as a symbol
of hope and a vision of a world free of nuclear contamination.
Sunflowers became the symbol of the nuclear abolition movement
on 4 June 1996, the day the US, Russia and the Ukraine celebrated
the last missile being removed Ukrainian soil, making it a nuclear
weapons free country. William J. Perry, former US Secretary of
Defense stated on this day, “Sunflowers instead of missiles
in the soil will ensure peace for future generations.” On
the inside of the sunflower seed packet, was a petition calling
upon the leaders of the nuclear weapons states to immediately
begin negotiations to abolish nuclear weapons and redress the
environmental degradation and human suffering caused by more than
55 years of nuclear weapons testing and production. The participants
were asked to sign the petition and to return the petition to
Abolition 2000 in care of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, which
has collected signatures on this petition from more than 13.4
million individuals world-wide.
During my speech, I also encouraged the young people
to be involved politically. Many young people, especially in the
US, tend to be apathetic to how their government acts. But governments
only have the authority to rule based on the will of the people
it governs. We must constantly remind our governments of their
responsibility to us their citizens as well as their obligation
to citizens around the world. Many participants made a commitment
to write letters on a regular basis to their Prime Minister, urging
him to support a treaty to abolish nuclear weapons.
It is very easy to be apathetic to peace
and security issues as, unfortunately, many young people are,
but even taking the smallest action will make a world of difference.
As youth, we have the greatest challenge, but also the greatest
potential to create a world that is just and secure for all.
*Carah Lynn Ong is 21 and the International Coordinator
for Abolition 2000 Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons.
If you would like more information about nuclear issues or the
global movement to abolish nuclear weapons, please contact Carah
at admin@abolition 20000.org
|
