Summer Peacebuilding Program

The talk given to us by Mr. Willie Stokes was very powerful for me. To hear from a former gang leader about his life transformation was utterly inspiring for me. Often times, as part of the general public, we simply castigate gang members for the violence and destruction that they cause… and with good reason, they cause insecurity, deaths, and lives broken. However, it made me think about whether crime is a product of structural violence.

Hearing Mr. Willie’s story starting from his childhood to now. At a very young age, one can decipher that life wasn’t made for him. He didn’t have a robust support network that an average American family has. I compared his situation from an average American family because I want to take into account the “relative deprivation” that Mr. Willie and young boys like him must consistently battle. When you have default circumstances that are in bad conditions, the natural result is for that young kid to live a challenging life.

Recently, I have been reading about the battle that children from grave circumstances have to fight. These articles that I have attached talk about the small minority of overachieving children from extremely grim backgrounds but manage to “beat the odds” and attain success in their lives. The small minority of “shining stars” is doing well in school. Their mental health is good. They have no trouble with the law, no trouble with substance abuse. However, it doesn’t come without a price. According to recent research, these achievements come at the expense of these children’s health. Measuring DNA methylation, researchers found that in disadvantaged communities, the cells of children who exhibited more self-control (and became more successful) visibly aged faster than the cells of children who maintained the status quo. In short, the most upwardly mobile kids were the most physically unhealthy.

After hearing about Mr. Willie’s life story, society shouldn’t be surprised that he ended up in the path that he was in – “a piece of shit” (from his own words). From the beginning, his life was unfortunately set up to end up that way. Sadly, Our society does not have enough resources and infrastructure to assist the necessary transformation of children from less fortunate circumstances. Hence, I see it as structural violence because some people are “born” to have a crime-ridden life due to their circumstances. Although one can argue that there are some exceptions to this linear process I am talking about, these research suggests that these exceptions, the “shining stars”, are not fully liberated from their less fortunate backgrounds. Their lives might seem to be in “order” but they are paying the price in terms of their health. Essentially, children from less fortunate backgrounds, such as Mr. Willie, have a very difficult choice to make – either they live an orderly life or a healthy life. I don’t think anyone should have to choose.

Mr. Willie inspired me profoundly. He was able to turn his life around and now he works to educate the youth, to steer them away from gang violence, and eventually turn them into “shining stars”. I admire Mr. Willie for his work even if it puts him in a extremely perilous position. He justifies his cause by saying, “if he was willing to die for the gangs, then he is willing to die for this cause.”

Recent articles regarding the choice (success vs. health) that children growing up from less fortunate backgrounds have to make:

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/07/the-health-cost-of-upward-mobility/398486/?fb_ref=Default

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-danger-of-skin-deep-resilience_55a7c87ce4b0c5f0322c76ed

Looking retrospectively, I have had the honor of being lectured by some of the most competent, innovative and resilient minds in the field of peacebuilding and conflict-management. And, while I had enjoyed each and every single one of those, there was something very different, very peculiar about the lecture held by Willie R. Stokes that struck me in a way that no other had. Maybe it was because his approach had no restriction or hesitation; his introduction turned out to be a raw and bewildering description of his life and circumstances that completely caught me off guard. Willie use to be a member of the infamous gang “ Nostra Familia”, but, unlike many others, found himself grabbing for a second chance, a different way of being, and dropped out of the gang. What went through my head the whole lecture was the tendency of the general public to assign brands to people ( like gang member or terrorist or immigrant), which has helped in creating this divide of us and “the other”, the latter being anyone not fitting our norms and values,  which results in excluding them from “our society”. Yet, rarely do people realize the whole causal relationship that stands behind actions.

So while I looked at Willie, and listened to his story, I kept thinking about how many children are out there, who find themselves growing up in the same disadvantaged circumstances and I cannot see there being many other ways for them to end up. Yet, while I was always aware of this, how impoverished economic conditions, absence of the “family cushion” of support and love, and the instability of the future lead to gang membership, violence, drugs etc., this story brought back a face to the statistics and the theory that I had studied before. Here I found a man standing before me, a man who has been surrounded by death and destruction a great deal of his life, and yet he was more positive and hopefully and inspiring that anyone I had met before. When he told us, me : “You never know what you can do”, it is the first time that I had not just brushed it off as another person pretending to have faith in a bunch of strangers, but as a man that has proved it and is simply sharing it with a bunch of bookish children imagining they can change the world by reading a few books.

Yet, at the end of the day, Willie also said: “Don’t think you can’t do it just because you don’t have the right background”. So, maybe we are not that starry eyed to engage this big dysfunctional world, full of irrational beings, illogical events and confusing behaviors, and make it just a tad bit better than its former self.

As we started our journey home yesterday from the CeaseFire program info session in Oakland, I received a call from my brother who had just received some startling news: his best friend has been arrested and accused of driving drunk and fatally injuring a motorcyclist in southern California this past weekend.

The unfortunate fact about the place where I went to high school is that young people with DUIs are all too common and considering the topics we are talking about in the program, clearly there was a deeper connection. In class, I mentioned that it was extremely difficult to emotionally disconnect from the inmates in the Salinas correctional facility; to be inserted into a situation where other humans exist and be told NOT to interact with them doesn’t agree with my internal wiring. In this specific situation, as many mentioned in class after, there were certain emotional similarities to being in a zoo that I also had a problem with. This same disconnection is now impossible as I now have the unfortunate natural reflex to see one of my brother’s best friends doing pull-ups on the yard bars or running laps with all of his Aryan Brotherhood gang members.

I wasn’t expecting that day in the jail to emotionally influence me in the way that it did. The separation that my circumstances enable me to have from such realities was forever comforting but misleading; although the movies and media portray these types of things quite regularly, there is such a large distance from actually feeling the energy in a prison. However, after having someone very close to me spend some time in that situation, as well as having a very, very recent incident happen that involves someone I know potentially being faced with spending the next 25 years to life in that situation, things became real all too quickly.

Something that has profoundly changed within me as time passes being a part of this program is the idea of unconditional love for other humans. I think that I am inherently like this, but if someone makes a mistake and ends up paying the price to our justice system for it, I would have adopted the “He-deserved-it” approach before I arrived to the “That-poor-man” emotion in the past. Having now been in a prison, accompanied the idea of people very close to me being apart (or about to be apart) of that environment, AND having acquired some of the tools necessary to better understand and draw conclusions about the justice system in the country, I feel nothing but pain for the people in that place.

As humans often do, I immediately felt as though I wanted to help my brother’s friend but I think first I am feeling pain for how his life and the lives of everyone around him are all about to dramatically change for the worse…and that is a tough pill to swallow.

Here’s the article.

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2015/aug/04/murder-charge-fatal-bonsall-motorcycle-crash/

After the visit to Salinas Valley State Prison, I was overwhelmed by the number of prisoners affiliated with gang violence and I was sad to learn that most of these prisoner were probably unable to see life beyond gang memberships and violence as it’s a predominant part of their culture.

Yesterday’s Mr. Willie Stokes’s testimony gave me a hope that there is a way to change the gang culture for future generations and provide a better opportunity for the youths. Mr. Willie was an example to illustrate that to have a challenging background is not entirely who you would become, instead what you do to come out of those difficulties is what defines you. Mr. Willie’s testimonial was inspirational and moving. For me, his story was a life lesson, not only I learned so much about gang violence in America and the role of women and youths in the process, but also how to be the change that has to happen in our communities. I often blame the ‘system’ as I become cynical about what’s is happening in the streets of many lower-income American communities but Mr. Willie made me realize that instead of waiting for something to change the system, I have to be the change.

I have always been passionate about working in NGOs, helping people access opportunities for education. I have always believed that education is a route to economic development. I had the opportunity to get an international education as a young girl. I would like to help develop a system to ensure every child gets a chance to empowerment. I would like to be part of a movement that helps disadvantaged kids get access to education and ultimately eradicate violence.

After visiting the Salinas Police Department last week, I was eager to see the other sides of the criminal justice system and analyze the different factors that contributed to the massive incarcerated population in our country.  I expected there to be differences in the level of security, my general comfort level upon entering the area, and an attitude that was overall more negative and less friendly when arriving at the prison.  Some things I was not surprised by, like the massive amount of inmates or the way that the prison was structured.  But what I found most surprising was the difference between the attitudes of the police officers and the prison guards.  When we visited the police station, I noticed a level of willful blindness related to issues of race when it came to policing methods.  The police portrayed a positive attitude, and a can-do attitude in the sense that they wanted to help everyone they could and that no person was more or less deserving of fair treatment.  But they seemed oblivious (whether by choice or pure ignorance) to the clear facts that demonstrate the inequality present in our prisons and policing systems, especially when it came to young men of color.  I was expecting this same blindness when we got to the prison since I figured that the attitude of the people in charge would be similar, but I was surprised to see how up front the prison guards and officers were when it came to race and gender issues and how those played out within the prison system.  While I was unable to specifically observe the relationships between the guards and the prisoners very closely, it was clear that everyone who worked in the prison was not trying to pretend that people are treated differently because of their race, gender, or sexual orientation.  This was demonstrated by the guard’s ability to talk openly with our group about who the different groups within the prison were, who tended to align with which groups, where those groups would hangout, and how figuring out how to take care of transgender inmates can become a complex issue to deal with when your prisons are split into either all male or all female facilities.  While I do not believe that the workers in the prison were without any bias on many of these social issues, it was clear that they were much more comfortable talking about these things as issues instead of things that don’t exist.

As I was contemplating why this might be, something that one of the guards said stuck out to me.  One of them mentioned the level of respect he has for police officers who are performing their jobs out on the streets because they are constantly working in an environment that is unpredictable.  Within the prison system, everything is controlled.  For the most part, all of the people working there know what to expect and when to expect it.  They know which groups exist and how they respond to others as well as the workers.  Aside from occasional events like riots, the environment within the prisons does not come with any surprises.  Out on the streets, police officers constantly have to make split second decisions when it comes to enforcing the law, protecting the community, and protecting themselves.  At the police station, Chief McMillin mentioned the challenge that police officers face to make these split second decisions rationally and safely.  It is only human to make mistakes when you know that somebody’s life might be on the line if you don’t take action immediately.  But more importantly, I think this shows how internal biases are hard to look beyond when you are thinking this quickly.  If a police officer judges a suspect based off of their skin color or what they are wearing, it is nearly impossible for that bias to not be imposed on their split second decision making, whether they know it or not.

From a psychological perspective, I think this says a lot about the impact of high stress situation on police officers and prison guards.  When it comes down to the moment, people will act differently in the fraction of a second, and judgments that we may argue do not have logical backing will likely overtake the thought process of someone in an authoritative position.  Police officers face these high stress situations much more often than prison guards do.  Therefore it is easy to see how police officers have more of an attitude of blindness, because they do not want to recognize that their biases have control over their decision making in such a quick moment.  But if prison guards don’t recognize that people are treated differently in our society, it could mean being totally unprepared to control a violent situation that breaks out due to these biases and tensions and oblivious as to why it happened or how to stop it.  This could be something as prevalent as why the Northerners hangout at a certain picnic table to why transgender inmates need an extra level of protection and support within prisons, but they are all things that cannot be ignored.

Last Tuesday, we visited the Salinas Valley State Prison and it was one of the greatest experiences of my life. Not because I felt joyful because there were plenty of people incarcerated there but because I learned so much from the experience. I have never been to a state prison, not even in my country. I only have a vague idea about how prisons should look like from the media that I encountered. Fortunately for us, the officer that showed us around was very amiable. He walked us through the area, explained how the prison functions, and answered some of our questions.

There were two things that I found really striking. The first was the continuation of the drug culture INSIDE the state prison. I may be naïve but it shocked me to a high degree. I imagined American prisons to be one of the most innovative facilities since they spend too much money on it. However, even here, drugs can still pass through. It utterly belittles the purpose of the prison. Prisons were made to serve as punishment for crimes and eventually lead to the personal transformation of inmates. In prison, inmates will hopefully realize their mistakes and recreate themselves and become better human beings. But with drugs running around, can that transformation happen? I don’t think so. Instead, it would lead to more crimes INSIDE the prison. It just blows my mind that even in the “most secure, most monitored” place in the world, a drug market can successfully flourish.

The second striking aspect of the Salinas Valley state prison was the politics of the Charlie (C) – yard. In the A-yard, there were the inmates who were considered in the “special needs” category. A-yard has the inmates who decided to dropout from their former gangs. However, later, we discovered that some of them created new gangs after leaving their old ones. Meanwhile, C-yard was home for the “general population” inmates. The differences were highly noticeable. I was disturbed how the C-yard reminded me of the stereotypical American public high school where everyone is strictly segregated. I can only imagine how limiting their environment is. Their space is already limited but they created these social structures that further compress their already limited space. I cannot imagine how they survive with the constant tension and perpetual paranoia. It is something that I am still thinking about but I am grateful for the experience of knowing.

When we had our debrief, I felt surprised that my peers felt that we were intruding the inmates’ space. For some odd reason, I felt comfortable. I was extraordinarily eager to go in and learn as much as I can from our visit. I know that the things I learn from here will be instrumental in the future. That what I saw in Salinas Valley will forever influence my future decisions as a citizen and as a future public servant. There was something powerful about seeing the inmates, the prison guards, and the physical structure of the prison. Oddly enough, I felt inspired after the visit. I saw a huge window of opportunity there. Prisons can be improved to divert the talents and creativity of the inmates for something good. I can just see it.

One key lesson that I am getting from the experience thus far at the Summer Peacebuilding Program is that peace building is a form of art. It is not something that one can learn from by just going through articles and papers written by renowned scholars (although that provides a strong base). From our experience over the past few days, I have come to conclude that peace building requires greater amount of engagement in the field from the very beginning to ensure that peace builders can make a connection between theory and practice. Almost all of the professors and speakers that we have heard from, have worked in the field at some point in their life, and that too, extensively. One of the many speakers who inspired this thought was Kazu Haga, who is the founder of East Point Peace Academy. In an extremely engaging presentation, he talked about how the army, before going into the field, practices and ensures that they are perfect and ready to wage war on countries. According to him, that is precisely the kind of training that is needed for peace builders to be able to wage war on violence. He said “you cannot face violence without serious training. I compare nonviolence to martial arts – its a lifelong learning process”. Therefore, he has started the East Point Peace Academy, which “empowers communities by helping to nurture the skills and the inspiration to be the agents for change”. By training and supporting local communities to voice their opinions and fight against injustice, he has been able to inspire movements in various prisons, and local communities. This was one example of how peace building is a form of art, because Kazu took the Kingian philosophy of nonviolence and created a program that can further motivate young people to take up nonviolent means of protesting. Another point that was interesting about Kazu’s presentation was his emphasis on how, as peacemakers, we should be comfortable with the concept of conflict. He urged us to understand conflict in order to transform such conflicts for the betterment of these communities. This is an important advice, because it reenforces the idea that in order to be peace builders, we should spend considerable amount of time on the ground talking to the different groups involved and ensure that we help foster solutions that are desirable by community members. As Kazu said, it is key to put yourself in other’s shoes and understanding their perspective before making a judgement about their action. And it is key to remember that understanding doesn’t mean agreeing with the other group and their perspective.

An example from SPP that helped me understand some of the ideas that were put forward by Kazu was during our visit to the State Prison in Salinas, I was walking across various prisoners who had been tried for decades, if not for life. It was absolutely disheartening to see these people, yet I could not but think of the reasons for them to be in prison. At first, my thought was that they were in prison for doing the wrong thing. However, the same evening, we met with Willie R. Stokes, who was once part of the Nuestra Familia gang which is the Northerner gang in California. The gang culture in California is very powerful and maintains a strong network. As a young boy, he was a smart and hardworking kid, who went through difficult circumstances in life, eventually leading to a life in the gang, and eventually in prisons. Although he went through such difficult situations, he was able to change is life. Currently, he runs a program called the Black Sheep Redemption and works in prisons, schools and various halls to provide training and support to the youth who are about to enter the dangerous gang culture. After hearing from him for a few hours, I was able to understand the words of Kazu, who said that it is important to understand the perspective of the group which we usually consider to be in fault. Yes, Willie has made mistakes in his life, and yes he was involved in a poisonous gang culture, but there were powerful reasons which led him to such a life. Even more importantly, he is now a changed man who is helping other young people while risking his own life. It is also important to remember that many times, the real oppressors are not gang members such as Willie, but actually the society which provide minimal support to young children in vulnerable communities, eventually leading them to find groups which are more accepting.

Finally, as we enter this art of peace building, it is important for me to remember the word Agape, which was also put forward by Kazu. Agape is the unconditional love that we have for all of humanity – the idea that I love you because you exist. This kind of unconditional love is important as we become peace builders because only then can we become true listeners and support communities in the way they desire.

On Monday evening, Mr. Kazu Haga presented about the principles of East point peace academy. He is the founder of the East Point Peace Academy. He shared the principles that East Point promotes. During the session, we learned more about the history of Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream of “institutionalizing and internationalizing nonviolence”. This was how the Kingian nonviolence was born. It was through the last marching words of Dr. King.

Mr. Haga walked us through the concept of Kingian nonviolence. We did an interactive activity wherein we had to share information about us to our partners and then we had to introduce our partners to the rest of the group. But here’s the twist: when introducing we must use the first person voice “I” and the audience must look at the person being introduced instead of the person talking. If we break the rules, we start from the beginning. Everyone got very excited. Three pairs went in front to do the activity and we did extremely well as a group. Then, we reflected upon the activity. Then, Mr. Haga asked us to define words that are important in peacebuilding. Eventually, he introduced us to the six principles of the Kingian nonviolence.

Here are the following things that I learned from Mr. Haga:

1. As humans, we tend to overthink things. The meaning of violence are usually defined, and for good reasons, using all-encompassing, highly precise, profound terms. However, sometimes it helps us do our work effectively when we define violence or other complex umbrella terms such as peace in simple yet universal terms. One that says very little but means a whole lot to a lot of people.
2. Non-violence does not mean nonviolence. The hyphen makes a huge difference.
3. When we stay quiet after being attacked but never release our anger, that’s still violent… we’re being violent to ourselves.
4. Vengeance does not mean justice.
5. Conflict is neutral but the way we respond to it depends on us. It can go both ways, positive or negative. This reminded me of the “Introduction to Peacebuilding” by Professor Iyer on our first day. Professor said that as peacebuilders we must be comfortable with conflict. This way, we can effectively change the status quo.

I really loved this session. Not only because of the upbeat delivery by Mr. Haga but also because it was very inspiring to me on an individual level. Often times as peacebuilders, we are overwhelmed with structures, policies, and sad news that we forget about the inner self. The Kingian nonviolence concept really educated me about the power of nonviolence. It may take a lot of practice but I think it’s going to be worth it. As peacebuilders, we need to have enduring spirits. I think practicing nonviolence will help build that stamina.

I was particularly struck by Dr. Susan Hirsch’s session on trauma in the peace building context, and it has reignited a burgeoning interest I have developed in trauma in the political context. Trauma is a universal and often life-changing experience. Many events or phenomena can be traumatising, often in different ways, and often to varying degrees. I would say that trauma has touched all of us, and if it hasn’t yet, it likely will. The prevalence of trauma in our lives, particularly in the lives of those who live in conflict zones – at home, regionally, or indeed internationally – is overwhelming, most notably because trauma can be experienced in countless different ways, at times of war and times of peace. This can lead a potential peacebuilder to the conclusion that trauma healing is a daunting task, perhaps a task so frustrating that it may be futile. However, while trauma healing and the work of transitional justice advocates in general is taxing, there is much to be said not in favour of trauma, but the resilience that individuals and societies can gain in the process of recovery.

To say that the aftereffects of trauma, including the diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are devastating is a radical understatement. Much like violent conflict itself, trauma needs to find its resolution somehow if a healthy, fruitful continuation of life is to be realised. It is in this principle, I believe that trauma and peacebuilding find not only a fundamental nexus, but fundamental similarities. The work of Judith Herman, and her classic work concerning the analysis of trauma Trauma and Recovery, can be employed to offer insights into how we must encourage the same empathy and sensibility for victims of trauma as we must for societies emerging from violence of any kind. Herman’s analysis offers that there are three stages to recovery from trauma that I think are fundamental for any individual, or notably, any society to bear in mind when laying the foundations for peacebuilding and recovery from any violence – structural or visible. Hence, I employ a wider interpretation of Herman’s work that I sincerely hope can be applied, of course to individuals, but also to wider communities as they search for recovery from traumatic events of all scales and of all styles.

First, establishing a sense of safety and stability. This could concern counselling and psychotherapy, but could also include efforts at resettlement, establishing aid flows, or bringing physical security to a region – essentially whatever it takes to make an individual, a community or a state, feel as though the source of their trauma is at its least likely to re-emerge. Second, working actively against the trauma. This includes tackling the irrationality of triggers – perhaps overcoming a fear of gunshots for alarms for the individual, but for the society it may entail the lustration and eradication of a genocidal political system, the writing of a new constitution, or a 20-year poverty eradication plan. Third, the move toward recovery, and a post-traumatic life, or a post-traumatic society.

I use this hastily written manipulation of Herman’s work with a motive in mind. I wish to make trauma as an individual and societal phenomenon more broadly visible, so that we can move towards a healthy form of post-traumatic society. I strongly believe that intrinsic to the realisation of a healthy post-traumatic society is the development of a post-traumatic politics. Herman, in Trauma and Recovery makes a very interesting case that people who walk away from trauma treatment often do so with a new, broadened view of society. Survivors of trauma may no longer be traumatised, but they are more sensitive than anyone to the plight of those enduring trauma. Governments and other political agents must be careful to do the same. Political actors must be secure and reasoned enough in their approach to peacebuilding to move to recovery, siege mentality, insensitivity to the plight of vulnerable peoples, violent genocidal nationalism, and so on. Some may consider this macro-level, politicised analysis of trauma, a deeply personal individual condition, to be a rather broad stroke to paint, but we must remember that a human analysis of structural and systemic issues often does not go amiss. After all, as we as a course are reminded all too often: structures are not made by bricks, they are made by people.

I was thoroughly pleased after yesterday’s sessions on the roles of Trauma Healing and Nonviolence in the process of peace building, because these are two topics that I strongly resonate with.

By emphasising the level of personal healing that must take place after communities of individuals are witnesses to – and perhaps also perpetrators of – violent offences and traumatic events, Dr. Hirsch effectively communicated the reality of a concept we’ve been returning to over again over again throughout these weeks: that the “structure” is composed of human beings. Because of my academic background in Psychology, and my personal interests in healing to promote peace and wellbeing, I sometimes experience difficulty feeling totally committed to political and economic strategies for peace building, simply due to the sheer size of institutional establishments that will need so much funding, rallying, and popular support to mobilize. While I do not wish to degrade the significance that structural change from the top bottom can have on peace, it is my preference to focus on grass roots change, because I believe that when the individuals of a given society are at peace with their neighbours, and themselves, then the political changes and economic changes will naturally reflect that state of the community.

Mr. Kazu Haga’s lecture on the nature of Nonviolence was a powerful ‘sequel’ to end the day with. I was struck by the truth I felt when he made the point that the Justice of the Universe is not always “good”; to paraphrase, if a PoC is shot and killed by the police in America, then that, unfortunately, is a Just consequence of all the time, money, and emotional capital (energy) we as a society invest in racist and violent institutions. I think this is an important truth to keep in mind when I proceed with my daily actions and my efforts to peace building, which also ties in beautifully with Dr. Hirsch’s key point about weight of each Individual’s role in creating and perpetuating societal systems. By allowing for my life to be universally loving, compassionate, and unconditionally inclusive in Forgiveness, I play a role in constructing a portion of the world that reflects this peacefulness. Furthermore, I open the possibility for countless others of whose life I am a part of to walk through this same door to Nonviolence, and the Power of Love.