I’m Proud to be a Butterfly
THE ARMED ETHNIC CONFLICT BETWEEN HEMA AND LENDU IN ITURI, NORTHEASTERN DRC
To be a very beautiful butterfly, it needs time and many processes to transform. To be a good Peace Builder also needs a lot of time for educating, training, dedicating and self-development to qualify as well. Since I have got the fellowship from The Rotary Foundation I knew this is the big step to transform myself to be a good Peace Builder.
Is three months enough to transform? I can say that it’s enough and it’s not enough. It’s enough because everyone, who was selected to this program has worked for promoting world peace for a long time in different areas around the world. They all have great experiences before joining this program. That’s why I said three months is enough to qualify and encourage them to be even better Peace Builder. On the other hand, it’s not enough due to we still cannot find the way that everyone can work together practically to build the world peace in reality. Truly peaceful world seems to be something untouchable and idealistic because all mankind are struggling with finding peace to their families, societies and the world since the ancient time, which the countless wars happened. However, the real world peace has never happened on the Earth.
As my major is the focus on inner peace by practicing meditation, in Buddhism the root causes of all kinds of sufferings and problems are desire (greed), anger and delusions, these are defilements in human minds. These are individual inner conflicts, which occur in each one’s mind and affect each other until it becomes a problem in families, societies and the world. If we don’t know how to control these defilements in our mind to not harm others, the world peace will never happen.
Using the concept of ‘World Peace through Inner Peace’ is my journey as a Peace Builder. I strongly believe that I will be able to transform myself little by little to be a beautiful butterfly that can make changes to the world. I wish my flying wings, which only cause the gentle wind as the first time will become powerful winds that can truly drive world peace to happen.
Dr. Suchada Thongmalai – Thailand
Rotary Peace Fellow – Class 28
