By Mesha Oh
Consider this hypothetical situation: A river runs through a chunk of land. Their inhabitants on either side of the river need to regularly interact with each other. They need to meet friends and relatives on the other side and exchange goods and services. So, what do they do? They build a bridge over the river. Passing over the bridge, people from both sides can easily come and go as they wish. The bridge works for their mutual advantage.
This same principle of bridge-building for mutual advantage holds true with regard to relations between communities. In our closely interconnected world, it has become indispensable for members of various communities to closely interact with each other, including at the social, economic, cultural and political levels. Hence, for their mutual advantage, there is a need for strong bridges that connect them. These bridges can help facilitate exchange of ideas, knowledge and experience and resources between communities, which benefits all concerned. Bridge-building is in our times indispensable in order for people from different communities to be able to peacefully coexist and to work together for their own benefit and for the benefit of the wider human community. Such bridges should be built at all levels, from the local level right up to the global level.
Here are some practical things builders of bridges between members of different communities can do:
· Promote positive personal interaction between people from different community backgrounds.
· Bring together people from different community backgrounds to work on issues of common social concern.
· Work to promote understandings of religion, culture and identity that promote respect for, and a positive appreciation of, people of different community backgrounds, promote peace, harmony and the wellbeing of all and advocate the peaceful resolution of disputes.