BBC Statistics

First get your facts; then you can distort them at your leisure.

Mark Twain
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In August 2006 BBC World conducted the Peacemakers survey. The figures are interesting. Some are as we might expect but others are surprising. Let’s see:

• It’s not surprising to see that the top three qualities a Peacemaker should have are Problem solving, Persuasive skills and Judgement. But we may ask why Religion got the lowest score – is it because being religious is anachronic these days or because religion might affect the impartiality?


• Again, not surprising to see that the sense of peace is given by the thought That your family is secure, followed by Financial security and Health. And again faith got the lowest score. I guess these days you have faith because your family is secure and not the other way around!


• Some questions about Nobel prize winners revealed that the most known persons and deserving were political ones and the least were spiritual leaders.


• The answer to the last question illustrates perfectly the half-full / half-empty glass. But I wonder which are the pessimists here and which are the optimists. And they can be in both ways. I think that any interpretation of these tied percentages will lead to a misjudgment.

So, if religion and faith are losing their importance it’s ok to say that we won’t have wars anymore (knowing that most of them have something to do with religious beliefs)? Or on the contrary, if we lose faith we lose our humanity and we’ll start wars easier? Which one would be the right answer? I would say "None!" I would say that Education followed by Wisdom will stop the wars. Not the fear of God’s punishment will stop the murders but becoming aware that if we feel the pain the fellow next to us will feel the pain too.

This survey shows that we feel secure when our family is secure. My travel guide in Türkiye said a wonderful thing "I’m living in Türkiye but I don’t own Türkiye. You live in Romania but you don’t own Romania. We are all citizens of this planet and we all have the duty to keep it safe and clean" Thus, our family is our planet. I can’t help myself from quoting Mustafa Kemal Atatürk: Yurtta sulh, cihanda sulh "Peace at home, peace in the world." He said it in one line, I just wrote a full article.

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