Editorial

Only peace makes the world a happy place

Yesterday was globally celebrated as International Day of Peace, otherwise known as Peace Day.

The Day was established in 1981 by a unanimous United Nations (UN) resolution, choosing the third Tuesday of every September for its celebration until 2002 when September 21 was settled on as a universally-shared date, no matter on which day it falls.

It is a day on which the whole world must commit to peace such that even where there are disputes and fighting, there must be a 24-hour ceasefire and observance of non-violence.

There is always a 100-day countdown to the day at the beginning of which the UN Secretary-General delivers a Countdown message.

This year, the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, delivered the annual message on June 13, urging the world to stand up against hatred and care for planet.

His message on peace and security dwelt on COVID-19, stressing that as the world striving to heal from the COVID-19 pandemic and reimagine a better future for people and the planet, we should acknowledge thatregardless of ethnicity, location or religion, the virus attacks everyone.  

“Confronting this common enemy, we must remember that we are not each other’s enemy.  To be able to recover from the devastation of the pandemic, we must make peace with one another,” Guterres said. 

In that message the Secretary-General introduced the theme for this year’s celebration: “Recovering better for an equitable and sustainable world.” 

Guterres’s message, particularly the bit on COVID-19, must be taken with all seriousness because besides waging a relentless war to defeat the pandemic, we must acknowledge that the disease has forced on us a new normal concept that calls for new ways of doing things.

The concept must therefore be embraced for creativity in national development that ties in with this year’s theme ‘Recovering better for an equitable and sustainable world’.

On Peace Day every country organises an event or events to mark it.

Therefore in Ghana, an event was organized in Accra with a call on Ghanaians not to take the peace the country was enjoying for granted.

The United Nations(UN) Resident Coordinator Ghana, Charles Abani, asked Ghanaians not to prevent conflicts in some African states and remain peaceful by jealously guard peace for sustainable development to flourish.

This call is significant because in the 2021 GPI Report, Ghana ranks as the most peaceful country in West Africa, the second most peaceful in Africa and 38th in the world out of 163 countries reviewed.

If this is anything to go by, then Ghanaians, especially politicians and their supporters, should guard against utterances and actions that have the potency to undermine the peace in the country, which becomes a reference in peace talks all over the world.

Even if for nothing at all we should take pride in it and also think of the sufferings in places where there are instances of all manner of turbulence.

After all, this year’s day is said to be particularly significant because it coincides with the 20th Anniversary of the UN Resolution on the Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace.

The Ghanaian Times believes every nation should make peace the topmost element of its culture because without it, there can be no progress and development and life would be full of only misery.

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