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. ​

Peace + Freedom goes to the rainforest.

In seeking to find the path to Peace + Freedom, Jay brought Rugema to a place he knew well to do an Idea Exchange hosted by Dr. Nat Quansah and Prof. Patricia Randrianavony. It was very different from Burundi – the island nation of Madagascar. The great island had no war, but somehow it was much poorer than Burundi. Jay warned Rugema that he would see poverty unlike anything in Africa. Rugema did not believe his friend, until he saw it with his own eyes. How could Burundi, a landlocked, war-torn nation, be richer than a small continent with 6 climates and the world’s most unique ecosystems?

How can one have peace, fertile land and yet be trapped in poverty?
As with many new democracies, debates with the people of Madagascar often turned to what government and the UN can do. People in Madagascar were well versed in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They knew Madagascar was eligible for global support to achieve these SDGs, but why did they see no results?

Madagascar has 13 ports accessible to global trade. It has no war. No land disputes with neighbours. No invading forces threatening peace. No barriers to freedom. Yet Madagascar had high death rates and few people launching new ideas at a scale relevant to their problems.

This ideal place did not have Peace + Freedom.

What would Madagascar need to prototype a path to sustainable Peace + Freedom?

Transport - Mobility for people and things; the ability to physically connect
Communications - Internet access for people and things; the ability to use data flow to continually predict and improve
Energy - Power for transport, communications, living, working and keeping critical supplies cold
Accommodations - Places to work, live, meet, exchange ideas, launch new ventures
Wild - Protecting wild people and wild places
● Wild people are those with new ideas not yet tested and tamed, but capable of changing things
● Spaces to give ecosystems room to innovate, generate and replenish life
● Spaces to give wild animals freedom to move, compete, survive, teach us, inspire us

​If this was good for Madagascar, should it not apply to the world? Do we all wait for someone to implement the SDGs? Or can we take things into our own hands? Can we entreprend a path to Peace + Freedom?

Peace + Freedom goes to the Arctic.

Canada is ranked in the world’s top 5 countries in quality of life index, yet its northern peoples were suffering. Jay and Rugema took their Idea Exchange north to the Canadian Arctic. The people of the Arctic lead the world in death rates and few have freedom of movement from the north to the south to seek solutions. Islands of poverty in an ocean of wealth, perhaps the Arctic could light the path to Peace + Freedom from a different angle than the war zone and the rainforest.

It was perplexing to the Burundian and the southern Canadian: How can a place with so much wealth lead the world in death rates? Why were the cemeteries growing faster than the villages?

First, they went to see the elders. What has changed? They explained that suicide rates had been climbing for years. It was not their tradition, but it had become their epidemic. Next they visited with youth at schools and youth organizations. Arctic youth couldn’t imagine living in a war zone or jungle. Rugema described the difference between fear and danger in the tropics, then invited the Arctic youth to join him to visit Burundi and Madagascar – would they be afraid? There were many different reactions. Then the topic turned to Arctic dreams and dangers.

What did Arctic youth see as their greatest threats? All agreed it was climate change. Their culture was built on a foundation of predictable snow and ice. Now that foundation had melted. It meant adjusting to change. Many were not surviving this adjustment.

How did Arctic youth view the 5 things suggested in Madagascar to create Peace + Freedom?

Transport
If you wanted to leave the Arctic to see something new, study or work, could you?
Almost none could afford to move. These were fly-in communities with no transport apart from aviation.

Communications
What about studying on-line?
If they wanted to take a course on-line or start a business on-line, what would they need?
They had no internet.

Energy
How did they get their energy today? Diesel, flown in at great expense from far away places, powered the Arctic.
No power was generated by renewables, yet carbon was the one thing marching Arctic people to extinction.

Accommodations
Places to work, live, meet, exchange ideas, launch new ventures did not exist outside of school or a hockey arena.
With no transport system apart from aviation, building costs were the highest in the world.

Wild
Protecting wild people and wild places.
People with new ideas had no place to go to seek support.
Ecosystems were changing fast due to climate change.
Wild animals – the foundation of their way of life – were on a path to mass extinction.

Unlike Africa, where the youth population is 600 million strong, Arctic youth represent less than 60,000. How would the path to Peace + Freedom include Arctic people with so few numbers?

Peace + Freedom Design Exchange with Zambia and Malawi.

Jay and Rugema returned to the Great Lakes region of Africa, this time to peaceful Zambia and Malawi, both with strong youth populations, to see how to launch the path to Peace + Freedom. Their local partner, Mataka Nkhoma, is of Zambian and Malawian heritage, and the three set out to organize a pilot project. The starting point was a Design Exchange, inviting university students from Africa, Canada, US, UK, UAE, Europe, China and India to work with mentors and partners to design the infrastructure for Peace + Freedom. Half the teams were assigned the challenge of creating Peace. Half the teams were assigned the challenge of creating Freedom.

Teams designed a Peace + Freedom Corridor connecting the two countries with transport and communications infrastructure powered by solar, wind and hydrogen. Designs were presented to funders, regulators and innovators.

The Design Exchange gave Jay and Rugema clarity to proceed: Launch The Peace + Freedom Challenge and create Internships for inviting youth from around the world to invent the future.