Is Racial Harmony Just a Dream?

Throughout the history of the world, the main war have been because of racial or religious conflict. There seems to be something ugly within man that builds up hatred towards people of other races and, since the two often go together, religions. Much of the hatred is traditional and have been going on for hundreds of years. Some of the hatred arose as a result of some actions in ancient times which have been caused by the members of one racial group to another. Others, because of existing suspicions which have been fed over the years until they become obsessions. Many of the reasons behind racial hatred are irrational and are believed in even by so called 'educated' people. We often see situations where the seeds for racial hatred are irrational in children by adults. When the children grow up, they hate members of another race often for no reason at all. They just have been programmed to hate.

As the world is rapidly shrinking, in the sense that it takes less time for people to move across continents, we are able to see more of each other. Also, the rate at which information is being made available to everyone who needs it, is so fast that it is almost instantaneous. A lot of suspicion between races is brought about because of a lack of knowledge. With the reduction of time it takes for people to get to each other and the time it takes for information to get about, it seems that this lack of understanding will be greatly reduced. This is a blow against racial hatred.

Like in most things in the world, if one form of learning or programming rather, can make races of men hate each other, then it is possible to revert the effect through the same process : Education or reprogramming. Children are not born with hatred or with feelings of enmity towards anyone. They are only programmed that way by selfish or ignorant adults. If the adults can only take a look at themselves and see that all they have done is destroy lives, they will set about reviewing the education policies and plant the seeds of love in their children.

One of the reasons for there being so much racial conflicts in the world is the leadership. Politicians have been known to be unscrupulous and capable of doing anything to get, or stay in power. The recent peace accord between Israel and the Palestinians drew world praise and rejoicing. But the very next day, there were protests from certain quarters in Israel and from the Palestinians also. Both sides had leaders of certain factions who would have been redundant if there had been peace. So they had to pretest immediately. Reasons are usually not hard to find as the two societies had been at war for ages. We see again the case of South Africa. After years of racial conflict, they have finally made it to the ballot box. Yet, there is the fanning of the old anger, and the real possibility that civil war might erupt again. We can see that some politicians are behind the movement. They

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