The dream of World Peace I

This quote from this week’s reading struck me:

“The rhetoric goes
that the ability to communicate quickly
and easily leads to greater understanding,
which then leads to tolerance and the cer-
tainty of harmony. Demonstrably, this is not
true, and arguably whether it is the goal of
prosecuting war without casualties by
remote communication… the communica-
tions network and technologies have not
had any calculable effect on humanity’s
penchant for destruction.“

It sounds like a pessimistic sentiment but it is for the large part true.  This week, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the chemical weapons watchdog, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). The decision drew much criticism globally; many favoured Pakistani teenage activist, Malala Yousafzai for the prize. It makes me question why there is such apparent favouritism for an award which credits attempts for global unity.  While Yousafzai’s efforts are no small feat and beyond honourable itself, surely OPCW too deserves credit for using its communications network to safeguard humanity from those who use those same networks for potential destruction.