Conflict resolution

Conflict is a serious disagreement or argument, typically a protracted one between people or  nations.   A strong disagreement can lead to violence.

Violence is the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against a person, or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, Mal-development or deprivation.  This definition associates intentionality with the committing of the act itself, irrespective of the outcome it produces.

The main causes of conflict may be

Individual Difference

 

Inn society, men are not alike in their nature, attitudes, ideal, interest and aspirations. Due to this difference, they fail to accommodate themselves which may lead to conflict among them.

Cultural Difference: Culture is the way of life of a group. It differs from society to society. The culture of one group differs from the culture of the other group. These cultural differences among the group, sometimes cause tension and lead to conflict, example in Ghana the culture of the Ashanti's is different from the Ewe's.

Clashes of Interests: The clash of interests of different people makes conflict inevitable. The interests of the workers clash with the government, hence it leads to strike action on the part of the worker.

Social Change: Conflict also arises due to the difference between rates of social change. The change in the moral norms of a society and man's hopes, aspirations and demands leads to conflict The conflict between the old and new generations is owing to social changes. Conflict is an expression of social disequilibrium.

Types of conflict

Personal Conflict

Personal conflict occurs on personal level. It arises when the aims of two individuals clash with each other. The competition among students who wish to be President of the Student Representative Committee (SRC), or people competing for the same position in the work place

Ethnic Conflict:

Ethnic conflict is mostly due to the physical differences. Some ethnic groups consider themselves superior over other groups and there are also ethnic groups which feel that they are inferior to others. The feeling of superiority or inferiority is the root cause of ethnic conflict.

  

Political Conflict

Political conflict arises when different political parties with their own ideologies try to achieve their interest. The main cause of this kind of conflict is power which they want to capture. Example is the conflict between the New Patriotic Party (NPP) which believes in the capitalist ideology and National Democratic Congress (NDC) which is a social Democrats and their current conflict over votes in the 2012 general election is an example.

Conflicts can be resolved in different ways such as Family, religion, Traditional, national and international bodies.   In Ghanaian society, family is the highest priority of every one, to keep the family bond together by being keepers of each other, therefore conflicts are and can be resolved the by family head, who brings the two parties involved in the conflict to a hearing by the family leaders, this is to ascertain the cause or the source of the conflict.  The leaders on hearing each side will meet separately to analyse critically the issues and then bring their verdict.  One important thing to note is that family unity and bond supersede individual interest and should not be broken by any member.

Conflict can also be resolve by religious leaders.  They base their argument on the religious beliefs of the parties and the fact that we must live in peace with all men.  No religion advocates for conflicts that can degenerate to violence.

Traditional chiefs are more important than ever before. While neglected and without real administrative authority, traditional leaders now works hand in hand with politicians for conflict resolution, through mechanisms and methods hitherto only applied in the traditional context.  In Ghana there is a traditional court in Ghana that help to resolve issues such accommodation, marital and family conflicts that proves difficult to solve by the family heads.

Conflict are not healthy in which ever environment it occurs, either t work place, home, church, town, city or a nation.

A strong disagreement can lead to violence if not resolved properly hence creating a bad living condition for people. It can lead to instability, increased stress, reduced productivity, and in some cases sickness like hypertension.  It can lead to negative impact on children’s mental health, poor role-modeling for children, timidity, children worry about taking sides hence leads to wayward children.

Let us avoid conflict by learning to resolve our differences.

A FRIEND

Friendship by phala on flickr

Every one needs a friend, but who do you classify as a friend? Is it the one you go out to party with, church members, school mates or the one you can pour out your heart without fear of betrayal.  Sometimes we see our mothers as the only trusted persons in our lives, but every one needs a friend aside family members.

A Friend for me is that person who can be very honest with me, reprimand me when i go wrong, forgive me when i offend him/her and still defend me before people even when am wrong, that loyal person who knows and sees my weaknesses and still wants to be with me. A friend is someone who understands your past, believes in your future, and accepts you just the way you are

A friend according to Jerry & Mary White in their book "Friends & Friendship" can be defined as a "trusted confidant to whom i am mutually drawn as a companion and an ally, whose love for me is not dependent on my performance, and whose influence draws me closer to God"

Everyone has an ideal expectation of friendship, who, what, how a person is to be classify as a friend, but the most important aspect is whether the person posses the characteristics of a friend.

Best friends forever by Go Splat on flickr

There are different types and levels of friendship. this includes and not limited to:

1st Casual Friends
Theses are people we normally see or meet in our course of living.  We know them by their first names and occasionally initiate social contact with them. They include church friends, some co-workers, neighbors, former classmates and many others.  These friends may last for a few months to years.

 2nd Close Friends
Theses are people we develop close friendships through our various association.  They can be grouped into three categories, as associate friendship, personal friends and mentors.
Associate friends are our co-workers with whom we have necessary close working relationship on the job with, such as your boss, subordinate, committee members etc.

Personal Friends are people we have personal relationship with, they are those we see or talk to frequently.  They remain close for many years regardless of age and distance.

Mentor: this is a person who contribute significantly to your life. It could be the one who counsels you in hard times or who disciples you.

3rd Intimate Friends
These are few people to whom we can pour out our souls, share our deepest feelings and hopes.  They meet us at the point of deepest need and enjoy and look forward to being with them above all others.  This friendship have a lasting quality which develops over years.

Characteristics of a friend

Loyalty
self sacrifice
love
deep sharing
fun

Friendship will either be strengthened or broken by conflict, conflicts that are unresolved breaks friendship, but conflicts that are recognized and resolved builds friendship.  We must learn to solve problems with our friends amicably and in love, issues that are beyond reconciliation should not break friendship completely.

Benefit of the Web2.0 Workshop

@ Web 2.0 workshop

The participants of the Web2.0 workshop organized by CTA, FAO and INSTI  has benefited greatly due to the in-depth knowledge and the practicality of the workshop. 

The resource person introduced the participants to twitter on the first day,  taught them how to create  twitter account and how to tweet by following people and being followed by others.  

Some features of twitter are:  a limit of 140 characters only can be sent per each tweet, people can send you direct messages, people interested in your topics can follow you as well as you following them, you can link to your face book accounts, post research topics to be discussed by followers. You can be notified in your email when people send you a tweet for quick response.

Blogging as part of the workshop is gaining grounds among the participants, since it is free to publish and can have as many post as one wish. Blogging has several features such as your documents being archived for you as long as you wish, adding gadgets like search button to search your blog, linking your twitter to your blog so that you can easily see and contribute to the topics being discussed, blogging is gradually taking over the the traditional way of web design, since it can be done by anyone who wishes to learn and cost effective.  Pictures and movies can be uploaded to the blog to enhance it.

Blogging provides several communication benefit. makes you a better writer because people will be reading what you have posted and comments on it, it also gives you visibility or presence on the internet for people to hear about your expertise. it increases you creativity because you have to be creative to organize your blog well and help you to be consistent in your field.

Abuse

We often use the word bully for people who uses force or coercion to abuse or intimidate others. The behavior can be habitual and involve an imbalance of social or physical power. Bullying is repeated acts over time that involves a real or perceived imbalance of power with the more powerful individual or group attacking those who are less powerful. Bullying may consist of three basic types of abuse – verbal, physical and emotional. 

Verbal abuse is described as a negative defining statement told to a person or about a person or by withholding any response thus defining the target as non-existent.

Physical abuse is an act of another party involving contact intended to cause feelings of physical pain, injury, or other physical suffering or bodily harm.   In most cases, children are the victims of physical abuse, but adults can be the sufferers too. Physically abused children are at risk for later interpersonal problems involving aggressive behavior, and adolescents are at a much greater risk for substance abuse. In addition, symptoms of depression, emotional distress, and suicide are also common features of people who have been physically abused.

Psychological abuse, also referred to as emotional abuse or mental abuse is a form of abuse characterized by a person subjecting or exposing another to behavior that may result in psychological trauma, including anxiety, chronic depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder.  Such abuse is often associated with situations of power imbalance, such as abusive relationships, bullying, and abuse in the workplace

Emotional abuse can be hard to know. Most women think that their husbands are allowed to make them have sex. That's not true. Forced sex is rape, no matter who does it just as cruel or threatening words.  And sometimes emotional abuse is a sign that a person will become physically violent.

The ff are list of possible signs of abuse. Some of these are illegal. All of them are wrong. You may be abused if your partner:

• Monitors what you're doing all the time
• Unfairly accuses you of being unfaithful all the time
• Prevents or discourages you from seeing friends or family
• Prevents or discourages you from going to work or school
• Gets very angry during and after drinking alcohol or using drugs
• Controls how you spend your money
• Controls your use of needed medicines
• Decides things for you that you should be allowed to decide (like what to wear or eat)
• Humiliates you in front of others
• Destroys your property or things that you care about
• Threatens to hurt you and the children
• Hurts you (by hitting, beating, pushing, shoving, punching, slapping, kicking, or biting)
• Uses (or threatens to use) a weapon against you
• Forces you to have sex against your will
• Blames you for his or her violent outbursts
• Threatens to harm himself or herself when upset with you
• Says things like, "If I can't have you then no one can."

If you are going through such treatment, get help. Abuse can have serious physical and emotional effects. No one has the right to hurt you. Report to the police before you are killed.