I remember vividly that scene. Arafat and Barak attending a peace summit in US. There came a time that they had to go through a door. TV cameras were witness to the generosity.”you first..no no you first ..please after you..”!! What? These guys would have killed each other hundred times over in any other circumstances, so why so respectful all of a sudden?!!
Answer, this is how humans behave!! The walls, the barriers, distances make for animosity and hatred. At a distance, beyond headlines everyone is an image just a name and usually an evil one. Shake hands, drink tea, crack some jokes and everyone comes back to earth, human again.
We are all like that for most part. Without trying to trivialize the major crisis in the world and ignoring or down playing the suffering of some people I would like to forward the following idea in order to diffuse world crisis, at least the ones that are unnecessary and I believe most of them are!!
Ready? Every year set up a summit, say in United nations. Invite the heads of states, leaders, etc. Don’t let them sit stiff on their chairs and look at the world from their own egotistic, self righteous point of view. Mix’em up. Let them interact. May be do some karaoke, divide them into teams and let them play in a volley ball tournament. Just try to break the egos. Break the walls among them. Let them feel they are all humans. For example set up a beach volleyball tournament and let them compete for the seats on security council (swim suits are optional!!), seriously. Let them form a bond with each other. you see a world takes a sigh of relief when Bush and Ahmadinejad exchange high fives when they score a point against Assad and Olmer!!
Call me crazy, but I’ve seen enough homo sapiens in my life to know what to expect from them. Lots of the dire problems we have in the world are rooted in ignorance. Lets break the walls. Lets stop being gods and be humans again. I am serious!!!
