Any place around the world that is rife with conflict, practitioners think immediately how to resolve this conflict and how to bring peace. That’s what we learn in school too, various conflict resolution techniques and what peace means. While in the field, I learned the simplest and the most intrinsic ways that people wanted peace. The average Mindanoan is not concerned about the policies being enacted at the national level or to understand the impact the conflict in Mindanao has had on them psychologically. Every organization (private or federal) that we heard from spoke to the need for good governance and the various methods they are using to train people in good governance. However, after talking to everyday people and what they need, all they wanted was food on their table and shelter over their heads and maybe good governance. That is not to say that good governance and understanding the underpinnings of a conflict is not important, but rather that while we pursue these avenues, we forget about the most basic needs that human beings have.
Food served to us at a civil society organization.
Since I have been back to Monterey, I have seriously contemplated how unnecessary and conflated our needs are on this side of the world. Our lives are so complex and there is so much that we constantly want…yet, even if we do achieve that, there is always more. For me, that speaks to our basic needs, and how much we take them for granted. Looking at the bigger picture, our privilege justifies these needs while others are barely able to put food on their tables. I am not exactly sure where I am going with this, but I have been meaning to write about the insane privilege we posses in the western world. The people we met in Mindanao, especially those that are affected by these macro level policies and the laws just want their basic needs met. I am not sure if we as a society have forgotten that people only need the simplest things to survive, but then again, these very conflicts exist over these very simple things such as food sources and land.
The food in the image above was grown in the land behind the house.