The world is fast turning into a global village and the need to ensure that the world is peaceful

and conducive cannot be overemphasized. Striving for peace, promoting development and seeking cooperation have become irresistible historic trends. The international community is striving to build a harmonious society featuring sustainable peace and common prosperity. Peace, cooperation and development constitute the trends of our times, and push human beings to develop and progress at an unprecedented speed. The responsibility of ensuring that the world is peaceful and harmonious to live in does not rest in the governments only, corporate bodies and individuals all have a role to play. Despite the geographical and ethnic differences that exist in the nations of the world today, nations have set aside these differences and have at different times under the umbrella of different organizations like the United Nations, European Union, African Union etc come together to discuss how lasting peace can be ensured in the world. Although power politics still exist and the democratization of international relations hasnt been achieved, dialogue, communication and living with each other in peace and harmony have already been the main stay of international relations. Mutual respect and equal treatment among nations have been the important consensus of the international community. The world needs peace, the people want cooperation and nations long for development. These are the irresistible trends of our times. Facing the complex world, we should pay more attention to harmony, emphasize harmony and promote harmony.T he historic trend of peace, development and cooperation provides an unprecedented opportunity for the realization of peaceful and harmonious coexistence among various countries and people, and there is objective possibility to construct a harmonious world. In this short essay, I am more concerned on how individuals like myself can contribute to the peaceful and harmonious co-existence of our world. In this essay, I shall share my own vision of a peaceful and harmonious world and what young people like myself can do to realize the vision. It has been said that the future of a nation lies in its young people. Thus, young people must be given the chance and opportunity to contribute to the peaceful co-existence of their immediate society and world at large. Their voice must be heard in the struggle to build a peaceful and harmonious world. THE TERM PEACEFUL AND HARMONIOUS WORLD The word peace and harmony is not a freshly coined political jargon, but a philosophical tradition. Harmony means coordination, combination, integration and peace among different elements. The two terms are co-terminus and they go hand in hand. Historically, thousands of years ago, Chinese carved the character He, which means harmony and peace, on tortoise shells, and philosopher Confucius (551 B.C. to 479 B.C.) expounded the philosophical concept of harmony without uniformity, meaning a world is full of differences and contradictions, but the righteous man should balance them and achieve harmony.

Thus, the drive for global peace and harmony has been an age long initiative and it has always been a major talking point at various forums. MY VISION OF A PEACEFUL AND HARMONIOUS WORLD The world is in segments and thus my own vision of a peaceful and harmonious world will be constructed in five different aspects which are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Politics Economy Culture Security, and Environmental Protection.

1. POLITICS- Politically, all countries should respect each other and conduct consultations on an equal footing in a common endeavor to promote democracy in international relations. Though all nations are not balanced in terms of political strength but there should be a mutual respect and understanding for each others stand on political issues that affect the world at large. Sovereignty of nations should be respected and external interference should be at the minimal level. 2. ECONOMY- Economically, they should cooperate with each other, draw on each others strengths and work together to advance economic globalization in the direction of balanced development, wealth divide, shared benefits and win-win progress. 3. CULTURE- Culturally, they should learn from each other in the spirit of seeking common ground while shelving differences, respect the diversity of the world, and make joint efforts to advance human civilization. 4. SECURITY- In the area of security, they should trust each other, strengthen cooperation, settle international disputes by peaceful means rather than by war and work together to safeguard peace and stability in the world. 5. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION- On environmental issues, they should assist and cooperate with each other in conservation efforts to take good care of the earth, the only home for human beings. THE ROLE OF THE YOUNG PEOPLE IN REALIZING THE VISION A cursory look at our society and world at large will reveal that the young people are not effectively represented in the decision making bodies that exist in the world today and this has hampered the contribution the young people can make towards ensuring a peaceful and harmonious society and world at large. So the question is, despite this difficulty, how can the

young people still play a role and contribute to the peaceful and harmonious co-existence of our world? I have been able to identify three ways by which young people can help to realize the vision of a peaceful and harmonious world and they are: 1. By joining International and National Voluntary Organizations- In this present world, there are so many national and international voluntary organizations that a young person can join and through which such a young person will be able to play a role and contribute to a peaceful and harmonious world. Such organizations include AIESEC, ROTARY, AMNESTY and RED CROSS just to mention a few. These bodies are notable for the efforts being made by them to ensure that the world will live in is peaceful Thus, a young person can join any of these organizations in his domicile country and be effective in projecting the vision. Also at the national level there are other organizations that a person can join. In Nigeria for example we have Access to Justice, CODER, Save Democracy Group and professional bodies. This is also another forum where a young person can make himself/herself effective in ensuring global peace and harmony. 1. Through the Local and International Media- The media has proved to be one of the best tool through which global peace and harmony can be ensured. A young person can share his ideas and views through the media. The Internet which the young people are so used to is another effective avenue through which a young person can contribute to global peace and harmony. Social network sites like Facebook, Badoo and HiFive host millions of youth around the world and it can also be employed to contribute to global peace and harmony. 2. Through Students bodies and organizations- Majority of young people are at different stages of the educational structure such as the High School, College and the University. Students bodies exist in most institutions and where properly employed, they can become effective means of participation in ensuring the vision for global peace. The popular social network site, Facebook was started by a group of students in Harvard and today it has become the largest and most popular social network site in the world. If a group of students could achieve this feat then we can imagine greater things students bodies will be able to do. Thus, Students organizations can be an effective platform for a young person to contribute to world peace and harmony. CONCLUSION In conclusion, to build the theory of a peaceful and harmonious world, we should hold the historic opportunity of peace, development and cooperation, and take the lofty mission to accord with the trend of our times and aspirations of our people, properly tackling all contradictions and challenges, contributing to a peaceful world, and creating prosperity for various countries, compelling our human society to step forward. There have been moments in almost everyone's day-to-day living when one has experienced the true joy of living, with calm, peace and tranquility.

What has usually disturbed these moments are memories of guilt and shame, carried by the ego and which resurfaces every now and then, causing discomfort. These feelings could be because of one's own (mis) deeds or another's.

What if you can be totally convinced that no action is anyone's doing, that all action was merely a happening that simply had to happen? This is what spiritual seeking is all about. Masters may talk about enlightenment or Selfrealisation, but what it means is to be able to experience the peace and tranquility that the sage enjoys in his day-to-day life. A sage is considered a sage because he seems to be anchored in peace and tranquility while facing the pains and pleasures of day-to-day living in his chosen field of activity, like any other ordinary person. 'Self-realisation', to the sage, simply means the realisation the absolute, total conviction that 'events happen, deeds are done, but there is no individual doer thereof," as Buddha put it. Both the sage and the ordinary person respond to their respective names being called. In both cases, therefore, there is identification with body and name as an individual entity separate from all others. The difference is that whereas the sage knows that "events happen, deeds are done, but there is no individual doer thereof," the ordinary person has the conviction that each individual performs his action and is responsible for it. Every action is happening according to a Cosmic Law and not because of something 'done' by an individual human being. If this is accepted, it also has to be accepted that no one can blame anyone for whatever happens through any body-mind organism. Therefore, he need not blame himself for any action, need not feel guilt or shame for any action; he need not also hate anyone for whatever might hurt him in life COVER PAGE 1. CATEGORY: 2. ESSAY TITLE: HARMONIOUS WORLD 3. NAME: 4. MAILING ADDRESS: 5. PHONE NUMBER: 6. EMAIL ADDRESS: 7. NATIONALITY: 8. AGE: 9. SEX: 10. SCHOOL NAME: 11. WORD COUNT:

YOUTH BLUEPRINT ON HOW TO REALISE A PEACEFUL AND AKINYEMI OLUSEYI GABRIEL P.O.BOX 15325 IKEJA LAGOS +2348037377149 mind_of_haykeens@yahoo.com NIGERIAN 24 YEARS OLD MALE NOT APPLICABLE 783

Many of us believe that peace is a situation where there is no hatred, aggression, fighting, terror or distrust. For me, it is to a certain extent true but peace in authenticity means an intact balance

of inner existence and external natural world in the universe. It is universally a state where there is a total absence of inner suffering and outer pain. Where there is peace, there is balance in the world. With presence of peace, there is an equivalent and whole share of love, friendship, and tolerance, honesty, impartiality and boundary in the outer world. My vision of a peaceful and harmonious world is when each individual stylishly stands for peace and justice day by day through treasuring these values that increase while utilizing rather than exhausting, we can bring the end of physical destruction, injury, oppressions, wars and mental fear or sorrow. Hence, there will be a state of calm, harmony, healthy and absence of agitation which we call peace and harmony. In genuineness, peace and harmony is the central ruling law of existence or fundamental nature of the world. A Peaceful and harmonious world is equally same for every one despite of diverse acknowledgment. It is the most basic to all of us. Peace is within us and it starts from our hearts. It is timelessly our true nature