THE STORY OF PEACE + FREEDOM STARTS IN A WAR ZONE.
When Jay Godsall’s high school friend, Michel Rugema invited Jay to visit him in Burundi, Jay thought it would be the trip of a lifetime. And it was. But Jay, a Canadian of 19 at the time, had never been to a place armed and ready for war, nor to a place where having an idea could have you thrown in prison. Jay loved Burundi, but its sunny skies had foreboding clouds of war and restriction.
Years later Burundi and Rwanda descended into war. Jay and Rugema worked to bring peace, in any way they could. But a question persisted:
Can one have sustained peace without freedom?
As the Canadian peacekeeper Harjit Sajjan, who became Minister of Defence said in his speech at the UN Peacekeeping Defence Ministerial Conference in Vancouver, 2017: “As peacekeepers, we can bring in the heavy equipment and impose peace with force, but unless we create the conditions for free enterprise, there will be no peace. Eventually, the heavy equipment must leave. How do we create the conditions for creative entrepreneurial minds to bring the area back to life?”
Free enterprise does not mean a person focused on making money. It is a person seeking to “entreprend” - take things into their hands. In the context of disaster, whether created by humans or nature, those willing to entreprend are key to saving lives and solving problems.
Years later Burundi and Rwanda descended into war. Jay and Rugema worked to bring peace, in any way they could. But a question persisted:
Can one have sustained peace without freedom?
As the Canadian peacekeeper Harjit Sajjan, who became Minister of Defence said in his speech at the UN Peacekeeping Defence Ministerial Conference in Vancouver, 2017: “As peacekeepers, we can bring in the heavy equipment and impose peace with force, but unless we create the conditions for free enterprise, there will be no peace. Eventually, the heavy equipment must leave. How do we create the conditions for creative entrepreneurial minds to bring the area back to life?”
Free enterprise does not mean a person focused on making money. It is a person seeking to “entreprend” - take things into their hands. In the context of disaster, whether created by humans or nature, those willing to entreprend are key to saving lives and solving problems.