Does the world choose war or peace?

The cover of this month's MO magazine (Belgium) shows the picture above and asks the reader if the world chooses war or peace.

Of course, I choose peace, and probably many other sensible, well-meaning people too. Unfortunately, I doubt that peace is possible in today's dominant economic paradigm that chases material growth and maximizes shareholder's profit.

There is so much money to be made with warfare that those in power are happy there is a large scale war once more. Even more so, is it in their best interest that wars continue for a long time.

Unfortunately, due to the Urkanian-Russian war, multiple governments are redirecting public money towards the military at the cost of projects tackling poverty, climate change, the wellbeing of its citizens, and so on. I understand that no one wants an 'enemy' taking over your country, but what a waste of money - and of course, of so many precious lives on both sides today and in the future. Ray Anderson called this intergenerational tyranny, where we tax future generations because of today's actions. This war, actually all wars on this planet, needs to stop. We have other more important things to worry about.

When teaching the 5P's of sustainaibility defined by the United Nations - People, Planet, Profit/Prosperity, Participation and Peace - I've always neglected "peace" because it was not really on my radar, but now it is.

I am more convinced than ever that we need another kind of economy, one that actually serves humanity and life on this planet; an economy that makes it no longer necessary to create and fuel wars becauce a handfull of people make a lot of money out of it.

There are many organizations such as Happonomy and Rethinking Economics who actually have valuable alternative proposals, and we are happy to give them a floor at the Emagine Life center in the heart of Antwerp.

And in my course Regenerative Business at the International Business Management (IBM) KdG, University of Applied Sciences and Arts, I teach my international business students to be an entrepreneur, not for the money, but to do good for humanity and the planet, as it proves to be much more rewarding and fulfilling.

We need to change the rules of the (economic) game in order to give peace a chance, so that we get the time and money to be innovative, creative, and entrepreneurial in projects that truly add value to society. Join our events via https://www.emagine.life/kalender.