“It’s Either a Barrier or a Bridge”: Peace through Connection
(Original)

Nicole Apel
(Age 21, USA)
University of Colorado-Boulder

During an airplane ride to Chile last year, I sat next to a sleep doctor from the United States. We struck up a conversation, and I learned that he was going south to visit his wife’s family. Since he and his wife had grown up on different continents, I was curious to know how they had met each other. He told me that while he was traveling in South America shortly after graduating from college, they met in Santiago during a night out with mutual friends. He knew barely any Spanish and she knew barely any English, but he somehow managed to ask her on a date for the following night. He said that they mostly pointed to objects and nodded on that date, but they were able to communicate without much need for words. They continued to see one another and eventually married.

While he was telling me this story, I was in disbelief. I had studied Spanish for seven years and it was my major in college. Still, I doubted that I had the vocabulary to even become friends with a Spanish-speaker. I suggested to him that language must have been quite a barrier for them, especially initially. He thought for a moment and turned to me with a smile. He said, “Well, it’s either a barrier or a bridge.”

I have realized that this simple sentence is actually a profound insight into the workings of the world. After studying the Spanish conquistadores’ history with Native Central and South Americans, I started to understand that our collective past has at times become corrupted by rulers who have seen differences as barriers. These rulers have used their technological resources to conquer these barriers, rather than employing dissimilarities as foot-paths towards new knowledge.

Now, in a time when we are easily able to reach many people around the globe through our technological resources in the media, there is potential to abuse these tools as groups before us have done. Access to others, however, gives us the opportunity to positively impact our world by bridging gaps in communication between cultures and people. More open communication can serve as a tool in the construction of bridges rather than in the destruction of ‘barriers’.

The Contact Theory in social science states that if a person has negative feelings toward an individual or group and that person increases her interaction with that individual or group, then the negative feelings will subside. According to this hypothesis, putting people into contact will foster healthier relationships. In other words, building bridges will promote peace.

In order to construct a bridge, media resources must be used for sharing information on an equal basis. That is, media must be used to include rather than exclude a diversity of people. One way to use our resources positively is by forming some kind of organization that collects funds around the world in order to supply each country, and ideally all subgroups in each country, with the opportunity to broadcast their story over the internet, the television, and/or the radio. Through these pathways in communication, we would be harvesting a sense of belonging to the same world. We would grow the sentiment of a shared past, present and future.

Along with this idea which would require large-scale involvement, there are concrete ways that Ican work as an individual for positive change. For example, I will continue to participate in events such as this one that I read about on the internet, lending a small voice to a very large and very important global discussion. Encouraging these conversations in the media is an important step for me to take in encouraging communication.

Learning other languages is perhaps the most important initiative that I can personally take. Language weaves people together, as it contains meaning for those who share it. Therefore, learning languages other than my own is a vital step toward creating understanding and peace. I will make a priority out of traveling and learning words to share with the people in places that I visit. In doing so, I will be cultivating global community.

In taking these actions to cultivate global community and promote deeper cross-cultural understanding, I will spur change toward a more peaceful global future. As the man on the airplane taught me, I will spend my energy building bridges.