Unity: Gross National Happiness is the Real Indicator of Success

When you win I win, when I win you win  When we all win we experience unity.

 
UNITY = DIVERSITY + EQUITY (HAPPINESS)

To ask questions,
Is to question beliefs,
A Socratic dialogue,
Revealing an agora of infinite possibilities,
When to know thyself is to not know,
But to feel what is true,
Do unto others as you would have done to you.

We live in a world of diversity  …

Different faces,
Different expressions,
Different lessons.

And constantly we all experience conflict …

Of beliefs,
Of desires,
Of meaning.

Is peace unity in diversity?  Is it …

Personal peace,
Peacefull families,
Peacefull communities,
A peacefull world community,
Serving unity in diversity.

For peace is piecemeal,
To sit down together and share diversity,
Is breaking the bread of fellowship,
For many suffer in silence,
Or are bullied into submission,
Yet we sit at the same table in truth,
And you could be me,
I could be you,
To break bread is sharing friendship based on trust,
To encourage confidence in sharing and airing differences,
Freeing all from misunderstanding …
…To live, love and laugh in happiness.

Peace has no roots in abuse or power politics,
Sharing is unconditional love,
That is neither romantic or foolhardy,
It has a sincerity that few can see,
As many tables are exclusive,
As outsiders may beg outside your window,
Awaiting a crumb to fall from the table,
Of compassion.

Do universal values lead to equality?

Step by step we learn universal values leads us to what is in common,
A common ground paved with the philosophers stones uncovering
…Responsibility, Awareness and Honesty,
Indeed a level playing field of equality,
That is diverse yet travels the same path for all,
Where discipline is not in holding positions of right or wrong,
It is to ensure nonviolence is the modus operandi  that empowers us all to be strong,
It is the long march to the sea of Dandi,
That sees further than self interest,
To be the change we all wish to see.

Is diversity and equity found in acceptance?

To live in structures of conformity,
Suppresses diversity as all are taught to agree,
Albeit silently,
For this is the team that brooks no real challenge,
Yet democracy invites all to the table to break bread,
In an Agora that values freedom of speech,
That is not about one way lectures,
Or closed door tactics,
It is an open air forum where all are heard
to interact,
Where all teachers and learners have a pact,
To encourage questions that challenge and inspire,
To perspire and provoke higher thoughts,
To break out of unquestioned patterns,
To rekindle passions,
For answers reveal diversity and character,
Public opinion becomes the levee from which all measure equity,
For it is human nature to seek the middle,
To discover the level playing field,
To share equally,
For infinite possibilities can only exist in this forum,
Unchallenged conformity stifles diversity,
Minimises equality in favour of competition,
Restricts openness in favour of control,
For roles cover reasons,
And motives shroud motifs,
That have lost the root,
Of why we are really here,
For we are here to learn from diversity,
To find equity in balance,
As true knowledge rewards
degrees of freedom.

Is our World dying?

We cannot work together,
For the higher good,
Each has an agenda,
Holding onto security in a myriad of ways,
Develops rationales to ensure fate accompli,
At the expense of others,
For often pay is the real determinant as many desire to have jobs,
Professionalism plays by overt and covert rules,
Yet what if our job was to work on our humanity?
What if our pay was the payoff of unity in diversity?
What if we worked towards Our Common Future?
Increasing Gross National Happiness as the real indicator of success,
Would economy serve a society worth living in?

Voltaire impresses on us the answer to a democratic agora of unanswered questions:

“I disapprove of what you say,
but I will defend to the death your right to say it”

The temptation is to suppress what we don’t want to hear,
To curtail rights and call it wrong,
Yet tears fall facing impunity,
When the call was always for unity,
That is not agreement,
It is a honest relationship in community,
And this is the harmony
I call peace on earth.