Fri May 18, 2012
Pierre Mario Fitter with friend from Afghanistan
Corporate Clues to World Peace
By Pierre Mario Fitter, Europe – September 2006
Imagine for a moment, that Hamas and Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert have declared an end to their conflict. Why? Because what both Palestinians and Israelis really want is peace. Imagine that India and Pakistan have jointly announced that they have resolved their differences over Kashmir. Why? Because Kashmiris on both sides of the border want to return to the hundreds of thousands of years of cultural, social and economic ties that were abruptly snapped when a line on a map divided them 59 years ago. Possible? Yes – because despite the seemingly insurmountable differences of opinion, ordinary people in every area of conflict share a common bond – one that compels them to wish for peace.
A lesson most governments should pay heed to, comes from one of history’s most bitter rivalries. At MacWorld, in Boston, 1997, amid loud jeers, Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer announced a landmark partnership with Microsoft. To many in the audience, this meant that the company had sold its soul by dealing with the enemy. Silencing the crowd, Jobs said, “We have to let go of this notion, that for Apple to win, Microsoft has to lose.” After outlining his vision for the future, Jobs had his audience on their feet, applauding him for his far-sightedness.
Microsoft and Apple Computer understood that their own well being lay in the well being of the other. Apple needed a partner to ease it out of billions of dollars of losses. Microsoft wanted to power sales of its flagship Microsoft Office product line and Apple’s Macintosh computers provided the perfect platform. “Apple lives in an eco-system and it needs help from other partners,” Jobs said. “It needs to help other partners. Relationships that are destructive don’t help anybody…”
In the last 100 years conflicts of all kinds have ravaged almost every nation on earth. Vast battlefields have given way to crowded neighborhoods and apartment buildings, where bombs and bullets fly, killing hundreds of innocent civilians. This “collateral damage” as some military generals describe it, is modern warfare, but it is unacceptable. Losing a friend or a mother or a cousin to a sometimes stray, sometimes deliberate bullet or missile is not acceptable.
As I write, I am aware that somewhere in Afghanistan, a Talibani fighter is moving towards his target to prolong the carnage in that country. Somewhere in the mountains and forests of Kashmir, a terrorist plot is being hatched that will end in bloodshed on both sides of the border. Somewhere in Africa, rival warlords shoot at each other in the middle of a city street.
But I am also aware that somewhere in Africa there is a young man, a friend of mine from Kenya in fact, whose ambition is to build a multi-national business that will give jobs and money back to his community – to all of Africa. I know friends from both India and Pakistan, who nurse ambitions to become leaders of their countries, just so they can end the conflict and begin an era of peace. I’ve met the next generation of Afghan leadership – young men, who wish to remove the AK-47s and landmines that destroy their country and replace them with hospitals and schools to nurture life. I am hopeful of the future because I have spoken to the people who will lead it; and they are hopeful. We must give them a chance to win.
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