True peace can take hold only when it is firmly rooted in justice. In order to allow democracy and justice to take root in a country or region, the deepest causes of conflict must be brought to light, examined and addressed.

The problem is that many people have become inundated with media images of war, and are unable to imagine peaceful solutions because they have not considered the causes that give birth to conflict. There is nothing glamorous, naïve or idealistic about peace.
Peace is not a dream, it is hard work. However, working for peace demands a more comprehensive understanding of global injustice.

The world today is facing multiple Crisis in development, leadership, spirituality, morality and democracy. While these problems do not grab international headlines, they must be addressed and dealt with in order to achieve peace.

It is a Development Crisis when nearly 1.5-BILLION people have no access to clean water, and a billion live in miserably substandard housing.

It is a Leadership Crisis when we allow wealth to be concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, so that the world's three richest people have assets that exceed the combined gross domestic product of the poorest 43 Countries.

It is a Spiritual Crisis when - as Gandhi said - many people are so poor they only see God in the form of Bread, and when individuals seem only to have faith in the capricious "invisible hand" that guides the free market.

It is a Moral Crisis when 35 000 children die each day from malnutrition and disease.

And it is a Democratic Crisis when 1.3 BILLION live on an income of less than 1 dollar a day, and are effectively excluded from public decision-making because of the wrenching poverty in which they live.

To truly eliminate the menace of terrorism, we must fight both, the fanatism of extremist leaders, and the hopelessness of the poor masses that constitute their base of popular support.

By responding to terrorism with war, the evil of killing innocent people is repeated, and the causes that give rise to terrorist movements are deepened. The US is fighting a modern war with jets that drop bombs from 1500 feet above the ground, killing many innocent women and children. Killing from afar, is the definition of cowards.

Instead of responding to violence with violence, a five-point peace plan could improve the chances of our living together in harmony as a human race.

• Establishing an international criminal court for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
• Putting some controls on the $40 billion worth of international arms trade every year.
• Cutting military spending in favor of fully funding health care and education needs of the poorest.
• Opening First World markets to Third World countries, and increasing foreign aid from wealthy countries to the developing world.
• Changing the values that dominated world politics during the last century: Greed, Cynicism, and a false sense of moral superiority.

Rather than continuing on this track, I believe it is imperative that we discard these outdated values and replace them with their opposite: Generosity, Tolerance, and Faith in humanity. It is our values that determine our priorities and from these flow our actions. A change from violent actions to peaceful ones will only come about with a change of values and priorities.

While peace may seem like a daunting task in a world filled with conflict, every little action to combat injustice, ignorance, violence and harm helps to brighten the prospects of future peace.

Any positive action brings light and dispels some of the darkness, and the world needs all the illumination it can get.

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