Transcript
Conflicts
Conflicts are barriers for the positive and strong development of human beings, and at the same time are the major causes of the failure of this development. Comment and justify using your own experience and the current news.
"Antagonism, opposition of feelings, of opinions between people or groups". That is the dictionary’s definition of the word conflict. This word is found in newspapers everyday, all around the world. Does it mean that people cannot succeed to live together without disagreement? Or do they need it to progress? Conflict is a word with a negative connotation but is it a really so? Conflicts always appear as harmful to the society but beneficiary for the good economic development. We can also study the positive consequences that derive from conflicts. All this to say that any conflict has positive and negative aspects.
Every conflict, whether it is religious, ethnic, politic, or even military is harmful or dangerous for the population affected by it. In fact, if we look in the past, we can see conflict has always been at the source of many deaths. History is full of examples. It is not necessary to look too far back history to see it. You just have to open your newspaper and read the international column to see what is happening today on our planet. For example today, in Le Monde, the international news is: "148 people killed in confrontations in China", "Iraq: six people killed in an attack". These are everyday occurrences. Often when a conflict arises, the opponents try to retaliate in order to save their family, land, and belongings. Therefore the number of dead never ceases to increase. Sometimes this is also a source for revenge and vendettas. So the conflict between the two parties becomes out of control and very difficult to be brought to as end. This being one of the major difficulties for any evolution. Finally, this can bring any area, at any time, into a chaotic situation.
But conflict is not only and simply a negative fact. If we look closer at past events, we can observe certain conflicts that brought positive aspects and often some progress to democracy. For example, in the fifties, Khrushchev took the leadership of the communist party in the USSR after Stalin's death. The country is impoverished, and the population is still very much suffering from the totalitarian government. Despite all that, the government entered the Cold War opposite the United States of America (U.S.A). Thirty years later, after a jolt of armament, the economic power of the U.S.A gives them a strong advantage. The communist party begins its fall. In 1989, democracy is born in Russia, in this way the population see its freedom become more of a reality and they can adhere to the free market.
There is right and wrong in every conflict. The first sign is maybe the technologic progress that appears during conflicts. During the battle of Verdun planes are used for the first time in a war. To this date, aviation never stopped to progress, bringing us to aviation today. Internet has been developing for the communication of US army during conflicts. Today this technology is in every home. However in compensation we cannot forget every life lost and every place, building destroyed. Moreover, it is not because technological progress has been realised that populations have not continued to live in a huge precariousness. We have to help them. After the war in Kosovo, entire populations were decimated because of ethnic conflicts. These conflicts had permitted to draw new borders and today this area lives a better situation, even if this was at the cost of too many lives lost for a cause that was never worth a single life lost.
In conclusion we can say that every conflict is harmful because it brings a certain number of dead and destroys full population, areas, and even civilisations. Maybe all these conflicts could be settled in a pacific way. But it is true too that conflicts bring a technological progress and in a certain ways a pacification of an area. Moreover I think after a conflict it is necessary and important that the United Nations or other internationals organisations help populations of these countries rebuild and avoid future difficulties linked to old or new conflicts.
