International Year of Reconciliation

2009 is the International Year of Reconciliation, proclaimed by the UN upon an initiative from Nicaragua. The Martin Luther King Institute at UPOLI (a technical university run by the Baptists in Managua) in 1997 initiated efforts culminating in the UN decision in 2006. It takes nearly 10 years to bring a project to the UN for decision and 12 years from the conception of a project until its actual implementation. However, the vision and timeliness of the MLK Institute is stunning: Back in 1997, reconciliation as a theme, although applied in South Africa with mixed but mostly positive results, was not ready for the international political arena and the UN system - or better, the political arena and UN system were not ready for reconciliation as a theme then. Nor had reconciliation made its entry into the vocabulary of political parties. Now they seem to be closer, as many signs indicate, from Canada to Angola and elsewhere across the globe. Stalin's motto was to divide and rule, as was generally the practice, also by Western nations. Uncounted communities in Africa, Latin America and Asia still suffer from the late symptoms of Western colonial imperialism and Jean Ziegler's book on the hatred against the West is a powerful testimony of that reality. It is truly frightening when you consider the possibilities of a pay-day for the nations if the old regime of pacification through violence, division, oppression, and merciless rule were to continue. The Taliban push in Pakistan is an unpleasant indication of such rule at its worst being still and again alive and attractive to some.

At the same time - thank God because who could claim credit? - there is a sense and discovery that what might heal the world and allow for productivity, welfare, and peace is the road of reconciliation. Churches can't say, see, we've always known, because they were too often too much part and accomplices of the divide-and-rule regimes. Their time has expired and that's good news indeed. The tide is turning and it is turning in favor of those who seek reconciliation and justice.

Here's where we find a thorn in the flesh, though: it happens easily and quickly that justice gets in the way of reconciliation or vice-versa, depending on whom you ask. There is no easy way out and any quick or cheap fix will not do. At least there have to be two more ingredients: truth and mercy. None of which come easily, neither in politics nor in the church.

Meanwhile we continue the journey - reconciliation is a long and winding road -towards a more humane and less deadly world....