The Cycle Between Poverty and Conflict: Solving The Problem with The Help of Liquidation Ignorance

CONFLICT AND POVERTY

The links between poverty and conflict are complex and impossible to define precisely. There is no single and one-directional explanatory framework; mono-causal explanations have limited value. Most balanced assessments argue for two-way causality – poor countries have a greater disposition to conflict and poverty is also a probable outcome of the conflict. Therefore poverty and conflict are closely interconnected, creating a cycle between them. Many topics shed the light on what makes, the cycle between poverty and conflict, unbreakable and ignorance is one of these major topics.

Ignorance is simply the state of being destitute of knowledge about something or someone. Ignorance is the main cause of interethnic conflicts, such as interpersonal and intergroup violence. Increased ignorance increases the likelihood of ethnic identification (strengthened ethnic boundaries); racism (hatred against ethnic competitors); and ethnic mobilization (movements and collective action). But, more importantly, ignorance leads to stereotyping, prejudice, and myth about the other. Ignorance leads to stereotyping. Just as stereotyping is an obstacle to competent communication, it is ignorance or the lack of correct information that leads to such social grouping. The incorrect information one may have about people of diverse ethnicities multiplied by their use of stereotypes will lead to an unwillingness to let go of their old ideologies. However, there is no reason to use stereotypes. Bad information is the child of ignorance and ignorance is the mother of failure to communicate effectively. When one has the opportunity to meet or work with someone from a diverse background, one has to investigate for oneself. One will find that when one keeps an open mind, one will not be afraid because the person is more like oneself than one thought.

Despite this enormous progress in education, ignorance remains a global problem for two major reasons. First, there is a significant difference between the desire of a society and its ability to provide public education. Although in recent decades there has been a significant improvement in the level of literacy, a major segment of the world population continues to remain incapable of reading and writing. Everyone who has dealt with the problem of literacy recognizes that an illiterate person may not be necessarily equated with an ignorant person. Clearly, the ability to reason is an inherent part of the human being and is the major difference between the Homo sapiens and other species. However, for obvious reasons, literacy improves the probability of acquiring information and thus enhances the base knowledge for informed reasoning. Second, and equally important, is the content of education. Someone who can read and write does not necessarily think critically and is not automatically capable of distinguishing between fact and fiction. Therefore, the two traditional prongs of public education must be revised by the addition of a third prong to teach the child how to think critically. Clearly, neither the problem of poverty nor environmental damage can be solved without the ability to think critically.

SOCIAL RECOVERY IN POST CONFLICT ZONES

Post-conflict recovery sits at the nexus of earlier developed subjects such as development studies and peace and conflict studies while overlapping considerably with traditional subjects such as political science, economics, sociology, psychology, and history. The varied interventions undertaken in the name of post-conflict recovery infrastructure rehabilitation, governance, economic development, demilitarization, security sector reform, public administration reform, refugee resettlement, peacebuilding, women’s empowerment, health, education, and many others further complicate the discussion by involving medicine, engineering, architecture, education, gender studies, and numerous other disciplines. The practice of post-conflict recovery has proven even more multifaceted. So-called ‘mission creep’ and the introduction of new activities in the post-conflict period, have made the concept difficult to define in sectoral terms. Instead, it should be defined by its aims and objectives, namely ‘to reactivate economic and social development … and to create a peaceful environment that will prevent a relapse into violence. Despite widespread agreement upon such a definition in the literature, the boundaries between relief, recovery, and development are in constant flux, and a single post-conflict context is likely to include several geographical areas and populations at varying stages of crisis and development. As such, no empirical criteria for differentiating between the three phases have been or can be established, although the authors prefer a broad definition and one which excludes basic, life-sustaining relief activities while seeing itself more closely aligned with questions of local capacity, sustainability, and conflict-sensitivity inherent in much contemporary development theory and practice.

SOCIAL RECOVERY THROUGH SOCIAL LEARNING

The post-conflict cycle of violence and poverty that occurs within families, communities, and entire countries can be lessened through Social and Emotional Learning education and reintegration programs. Research shows that Social and Emotional Learning programs reduce fighting and bullying and increase academic achievement. Implementing Social and Emotional Learning in post-conflict countries can accelerate their social and economic recovery and provide the foundation for a brighter future.

Beyond having the basic needs of food, safety, and shelter met, all people benefit from gaining a basic understanding of their emotions and how to manage them. Emotional Intelligence is key to leading a happier and more fulfilling life. It enables us to understand ourselves and forge meaningful relationships with others. Developing and cultivating Social and Emotional Learning in education, therefore, creates a foundation for success and helps kids develop emotional balance, self-esteem, and the ability to adapt to life’s challenges.

SOCIAL RECOVERY THROUGH ARCHITECTURE

As architects, we have the responsibility towards our community and society to rend what's been broken, and to rebuild when needed, architecture is the craft of construction of the space in which society occupies and lives in the best possible outcome to individual wellbeing and comfort's favor. Architects and planners are necessarily involved in influencing human behavior, As there has been a long-lasting connection and a clear recognition that the way people live their lives is directly linked to the designed environments in which they live; this link and power comes at hand when dealing with social difficulties and conflict, whether the explicit intention to influence behavior drives the design process, or whether the behavior consequences of design decisions are revealed, or by social scientists or psychologists studying the impact of development; the links between the design of the built environment and our behavior, both individually and socially, that link can be invested in many approaches toward social recovery to shape the people's behavior in a society to our favor. “Designers often aspire to do more than simply create buildings that are new, functional and attractive they promise that a new environment will change behaviors and attitudes”. The behavior intended and techniques used can vary from high-level aspirational strategies such as communal areas creating the potential for involvement, interaction, and knowledge sharing, to specific tactics, such as Frank Lloyd Wright's occasional use of very confining corridors for people to walk along so that when they entered an open space the openness and light would enhance their experience. There is the possibility of changing people's perceptions of what behavior is possible or appropriate, and the possibility of actually forcing some behavior to occur or not.

Our goal as architects is to shape people's behavior in a peaceful one, as well as bring them together to get involved and interact with each other accordingly. the physical arrangement of elements can be broken down into different aspects of positioning and layout; putting elements in particular places to encourage people's interaction, putting them in people's Way to prevent access to somewhere, putting them on either side of people to channel or direct them in a particular way, hiding them to remove the perception that they are there, splitting elements up or combining them so that they can be used by different numbers of people at once, or angling them so that some actions are easier than others (termed slanty design by Beale, both physically and in metaphorical application in interfaces).

The architect, as well as the architectural profession, is based on design and aesthetics; giving the opportunity to strike the community and introducing a better, healthier, and more collectively beautiful environment to interact. What matters to a community is the nature of a building in its space, within a specific locality, as part of a town or city, within a community territory in which people lived, worked, traveled, and expressed their freedom, while also requiring a response to the needs of an increasingly fragile planet; Consequently ending up with tidying up people's comfort and relationship with each other making social recovery possible.

CONCLUSION

Our world is colorful and diverse and so are the people. People are diverse; they come from different cultures, environments, and beliefs. The collision of cultures and communities may lead to conflicts and wars due to greedy desires. Post-conflict communities that went through inter-communal conflicts, may suffer psychologically and economically. The poor post-conflict communities are then prone to conflict since poverty and conflicts cause each other one way or another. False information and stereotypes between the opposite parties of a post-conflict community created by their ignorance towards each other become a vicious trap that generates clashes again. In order to heal and recover such communities, we need proper education that spreads awareness inside the community to prevent poverty and conflicts. Architecture could be the solution to recovery where we could build and design interactive learning spaces that invite and attracts the community to learning and therefore spread the message of awareness.