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	A sense of balance by Aung San Suu Kyi Burma   Aung San Suu Kyi, Burmese politician and Nobel peace prize-winner, calls for balance from both individuals and nations.   The world will not end in 2012. The Arab spring will pass into another summer and whether it will be long and parched or a transition to fruitfulness will depend on how healthy a balance can be achieved between the conflicting goals and expectations of numerous players.   There will be those who emphasise economic and social development and those who focus on political reform. The necessary balance can be achieved only by recognising that neither will be sustainable without the other.   The end of authoritarianism is not synonymous with the disappearance of dissension or the demise of fundamentalism. Dissension in itself is not inimical to balance if it is handled through processes that promote compromise and consensus. Fundamentalism, which often becomes more intense in times of change and uncertainty, however, is the natural enemy of balance. The peoples of the newly liberated countries will have to decide how to balance their psychological and material needs. The big powers that are eager to promote stability will also have to join in the balancing act, trying to achieve harmony between strategic interests, the aspirations of the peoples concerned and the means available.   Terrorism will remain a preoccupation. The tragedy of Norway’s Utøya island has demonstrated with frightening clarity that a single individual who is mad enough and determined enough can wreak as much havoc as extremist organisations with access to arsenals of lethal weapons.   Even the greatest powers now accept that military solutions alone are not the answer to the terrorist problem. The terrorist mentality is spawned by intellectual and social influences that widen to an extreme the gap between “us” and “others”. This destroys the essential balance that promotes a sense of the common bond of humanity.   How is such a balance to be restored? The answer lies in measures that will help to instil in people a feeling of their worth as individuals. Those who need to terrorise others to prove their own worth are lacking in genuine self-respect. A person who cannot respect himself is incapable of respecting others; he cannot know compassion, nor restraint when faced with what he considers an opportunity to get back at those he holds responsible.   When teenagers went on the rampage in the United Kingdom in the summer of 2011 there was dismay, horror, mystification. What had gone wrong? The thought of so much discontent and anger in so many young people, so much latent violence waiting to erupt at the least provocation. This implies very real deprivation, which in an affluent society denotes grave dysfunction, a lack of the essential balance that maintains harmony between different interest groups.   Measures aimed at ameliorating social ills require sunstantial and necessary real funding. For countries trying to regain control of the economy through imposed spending cuts and debt ceilings it will not be easy to fulfil the requirements of communities trapped in economic distress.   Asia will continue to do well economically but political, social and environmental concerns will demand increasingly urgent attention. To ignore this would be to store up trouble for the future. The rising powers of the east, China and India, will have to aim at more than the achievement of a more equitable economic and social climate within their own countries; they will also have to work towards harmony in their relations with other countries of the region. If the strategic balance of the world is to change, every effort must be made to ensure that it changes in a direction that will promote peace and stability.   A positive development that has gathered strength over the past year has been the rise of civic consciousness, the acceptance by ordinary citizens that they too must play a part in the process of change and adaptation. It is usually in crisis conditions that individual initiatives emerge to meet public challenges and there will be no lack of crises—economic, environmental, governmental and international—in the years to come.
	An injustice to one is an injustice to all by Megan Macgarry South Africa   One positive energy molecule moving through space, colliding into another, creates powerful potential. Combine more of these positives, and you get amazing explosive power. This is what I felt like on meeting 16 young people from various countries around the world, who were in South Africa for a four day workshop on youth activism and transitional justice. Pure energy and potential!   The workshop, “From Cape to Cairo: The Role of Youth in Democratic Transition”, brought together passionate activists from far flung countries such as Venezuela, Belarus, Egypt and Zimbabwe, among others, to share their stories, explore ideas with peers and meet with experts on transitional justice mechanisms and tools. The focus of the workshop and the date had been very carefully selected, bringing this group together on a very significant date that serves as a reminder of the struggles of the past, and ones that are still going on today.February 11 marks a significant date for African people and their aspirations for freedom as the date Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990. More recently, it marks the date last year that long standing President Hosni Mubarak resigned, following the powerful protests of the Egyptian people. Using this anniversary as an occasion to explore and build on the expertise of youth leaders in democratic transition processes, the African Democracy Forum (ADF) and the World Youth Movement for Democracy (WYMD) bough together a selected number of youth representatives to build political leadership, enhance networking and explore what this group, with their varied country contexts, expected from the process of ‘democratic opening’.   During the workshop, the group held a special session at CIVICUS house to explore how they could work with the global CIVICUS alliance and the various projects and work areas we offer.   We were lucky enough to be joined by Gino Govender and Noel Kututwa, from Amnesty International- South Africa, both experts in transitional justice issues, within the South African context and from other countries around Africa. They helped to frame discussion around the issues of activism within repressive states, transitional justice problems and mechanisms to use to ensure that justice occurs and is available for all.   The sharing of experiences was fascinating, because no matter how different the countries or specific contexts are, common issues, problems and the possible ways to create change emerge. What came through as important in the discussions, and is something that we should constantly keep in mind, is that in all activism and advocacy work, and all fights against the repressive, we have to create a vision for the future and clearly articulate what we want to build as an alternative. Once achieved, freedom must be for all, not the few, as has been evident in so many post-conflict countries. It was a harsh reminder that one cannot simply fight against something, but must be ready for the long road of rebuilding a society and ensure fundamental rights for all, as many of the countries of the Arab Spring are now experiencing.   What was astounding is that each of these people around the table had experienced hardships and struggles in their fight for democracy, and yet how passionate they still are for change. We all need to maintain that passion, need to ensure that change happens, and that it benefits all of society. Despite only being with them for a few hours, it felt like everyone in the room was united in our ambitions for the future; and that our futures are possible to achieve.   * Megan Macgarry, Every Human Has Rights Project Coordinator, maintained by Civicus. Visit the related web page
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