The Etiology Of A Culture Of Violence And Maturation Toward A Culture Of Peace

The concept of a culture of peace as an alternative to cultures of war and violence was initially discussed at a conference in 1989 at Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast. Based on the assumption that peace is more likely to occur if there is acceptance of common values and beliefs and a common governing body that could mediate any differences, a Program of Action with eight areas was developed as a foundation for a culture of peace program. The founders of this program proposed that, if practiced by all nation-states at the macro level, it could move nation-states from cultures of war and violence to a culture of peace. A relationship between a culture of war and a culture of violence has been established as has the direction of learning violent behaviour which is top-down. What has not been demonstrated to date is the relationship between cultures of war and violence and a culture of peace, and the direction of learning attributes of culture. In addition, what has not been demonstrated is whether the macro areas of UNESCO's Program of Action can be successfully applied at a micro individual level. This research demonstrates that there are similarities between cultures of war and violence at the macro level, and a culture of peace at the micro level, and that education and praxis at the latter will facilitate intervention at the former. This will occur as individuals become aware and gain the skills to implement the eight areas within UNESCO's Program of Action as a means of dealing with differences and, as a result, mature toward a culture of peace. The direction of the learning attributes of culture is bottom-up. Peace building, peace maintenance and the prevention of conflict should be facilitated as a result of the maturation process

Anatomical and physiological changes with age

This chapter is aimed to help to inform designers new to the active ageing market. The chapter looks at changes in the body that occur with age, with an emphasis on “natural changes” rather than clinical conditions. The difficulty with this is that one of the aspects of ageing is that the older we get, the more likely we are to see the effects of time, through wear and tear, e.g., osteoarthritis, development of cataracts, development of late-onset diabetes, etc. A lot of the literature is rightly concerned with diseases and their symptoms and how they affect the body. However, to avoid looking at old age as a medical condition, it is necessary to look at the changes that are natural and that affect all of us with time. Many of these changes are not changes of old age but age in general, and may occur earlier or later in different people depending on genetic and environmental factors. It is important that ageing is viewed as continuum in that we start to age as soon as we are conceived. Changes occur naturally as puberty leads to adulthood, and as we age so we realize, in the words of a song about old age by John Gorka, “Things aren't the way they used to be.