Peace Children

Following on from my last post, I’d like to explore this idea a little further. I came across the idea of the Peace Child when I was writing a Citizenship internet guide for school. And oh, Madam May, what irony. My Grammar School education made me interested in languages. I became a teacher. Very much the National Curriculum included Citizenship and it meant of this planet or even universe. Why educate people one way then rubbish that very education which you claim now to be bringing back? Mayhem!  

I myself became a type of Peace Child. I learnt the languages of some other cultures, learnt those cultures and combined them with my own. The two fused and we exchanged ideas and values. Isn’t that healthy? Might that not lead to Peace?   

The Peace Child originally came from Papua New Guinea. After a dispute, warring tribes would swap Peace Children. A child form one culture would be brought up in the other and would thus understand both. Of course the tribes would be reluctant to go to war again as one of their own lived with the other tribe.  More importantly, these children acted as ambassadors, negotiators and finders of the third way. The latter is particularly important as they understand all of the issues that concerned both sides in a potential new dispute.  

Europe is right on our doorstep. More accurately, we are right on its doorstep. This is the best place to start the Peace Child process.  

Besides, there are many people who cannot help belonging to more than one culture. The Citizens of Nowhere stance denies them citizenship whereas actually they, like the Peace Children, are best placed to bring others together. 

I stopped teaching languages after a while and followed my other love: writing. One of my early works was my Peace Child trilogy. Peace Child Kaleem is a mixed race child and acts as diplomat between the two races. However, as it’s also a YA trilogy so it is story of his own growth. 

In Book 1 he stops Terrestra being an  isolated planet, in Book 2 he gets rid of switch-off - compulsory euthanasia for people over a certain age. This also allows the Z Zone, the poorest part of Terrestra, to integrate with the other zones. In Book 3 he communicates with the Zenoton, who have a really alternative attitude to economics that might be worth a try.  

Book 4 is now in preparation. Yes, Trumpet and Brexit are in there. 

I am a product of my education and of the 1944 Education Act. That screams by the 2000s globalisation and internationalism. Is the baby being thrown out with the bathwater? Shouldn’t we be reforming the EU not leaving it? Shouldn’t Trump be finding the terrorists and not punishing all who share the same faith or are of the same race?    

I now also work as a partner in a publishing company. Out latest venture: Citizens of Nowhere. This is an anthology of stories about the global citizen. 

Will my books get burnt?