World Pax

What does Pax see?

Earlier this week, I met a chimpanzee named Pax, whose name means “peace” in Latin. In an ironic twist of fate, Pax was emasculated during a brawl in his youth, leaving him without reproductive organs. And yet Pax prevails to this day.

It is interesting to me how easily peace can be emasculated. Traveling over the past two weeks, I have been shocked by the events taking place in Kenya. At times I have found myself asking taxi drivers “What is the news on Kenya?” instead of “How much will it cost to the post office?”

If you are reading this site, you probably have access to major media sources (radio, TV, newspapers), and you no doubt have seen photos of people fleeing their homes or lying motionless in empty streets. I have unfortunately had relatively little access to news, but I have had the chance to talk with people – including a few who have fled Kenya – to get second-hand news and stories about what is taking place there.

The facts are heart-wrenching: a church burned while dozens of women and children were trapped inside, police not only shooting protesters but kicking them when they fall, and “neighbors looting from neighbors,” as one woman reported wearily on Al Jezeera. At least six hundred people are dead; about a quarter of a million are homeless, and still the unrest continues.

I have asked many people to help me put this conflict into perspective, asking lots of "How?" questions of people I meet. Regardless of the answers – tribal politics exacerbated by age-old tribal clashes – they still don’t explain how the conflict turned so violent.

“It’s the 1.5 million people living in the slums that are the problem,” one woman told me, explaining that Kenya's poorest have nothing left to lose, and as a result they keep fighting. But does poverty really strip someone of their humanity? I certainly hope not.

Seeing Pax this week reminded me that humans did not invent warfare. Jane Goodall discovered chimp warfare years ago. It was one of her breakthrough discoveries. But Jane has been quick to remind people that humans are not chimpanzees. Unlike chimps, we have complex brains that enable us to overcome our impulses and do what we know is right. We may want to strangle someone who voted for the other political candidate, but we don’t actually do it.

And yet, apparently we do.

Reports from Kenya have been horrific and shocking, but the storyline is not new. Nor were these political prerogatives invented by headline predecessors such as Northern Ireland, China or Rwanda. But I continue to hope that one of the things that separate us from Pax is our ability to lift above our impulses and achieve true peace, but the will has to be there for us to do it.

Otherwise, we will continue to create peace in name alone; and when peace is just a name, there is often little peace at all.