In the last IFP meeting, we were given a simulation about two countries: “Jah” and “Kah”. We were split into two “countries” and I was a part of Jah. Jah is a poor country with less development and few resources but we as the citizens were fine with it. We were celerating our first independence day and we were planning to build a monument. While we were brianstorming the design for the special monument…

Our design for the monument: 

Materials: newspaper, pencils, toilet roll tubes, some rubber bands

• The wings represent freedom and victory.
• The drawings on the tubes symbolise our history background and there are three parts to it.
• The bottom part represents our struggles in the past.
• The middle part represents our development along the way.
• The upper part represents our success.

A group of Kayns came to us. They stood right in front us and asked us whether we need their help. I was kind of surprised when they first came to us and many citizens in our country told them to go away. We thought that their task was to distract us from making the monument. The scence suddenly became chaotic. Many of us claimed that they were like intruders coming to our place without much respect. They simply sticked a poster on the board and started talking how we can make changes such as setting law policies. I felt like they were telling us how bad we were and we must make some changes. They were kind of rude…”strangers”…

This scenario paints the Kayns to be like us as the IFPs. They symolise the peacebuilders’ intention when they approached the Jahns giving ideas, offering help and resources to the Jahns. But the Jahns reaction was defensive, unwilling and unrecptive. They immediately told the Kayns to go away – this shows that they were prideful and territorial. Trust has not been built between the 2 countries.

On the other hand, I being the Jahn, while I was willing to listen to the Kayns, their approaching us was unexpected and uninvited. We felt they were intruding and that their intrusion was rather ostentatious. This is an important value that I see – a good intention to help must be accompanied with the right approach at the right time. The Kayns’ approach felt like a bulldozer.

I also realized how important is our behaviour in helping others and their situation, those who are different from us. We cannot just simply bulldoze in and give a speech without concerning the others’ feelings, needs and priorities. We cannot say ‘you are doing this and that wrong” but we need to take time to understand the needs of those we want to help and explain to them with patience. We should consider things from their perspective.

 

My nugget of gold today: Peace is Patience and Perspective.

LO 5 COLLABORATION (Working together to achieve an outcome)