Promoting Tolerance or Criticizing Intolerance?

Tolerance is a societal ideal noted by the respect and recognition of the rights and beliefs of others. Today’s  observance, the International Day of Tolerance, seemingly focuses more on the strident identification and reorientation of intolerance (injustice, oppression, racism, unfair discrimination, etc. as stimulated by exaggerated senses of self-worth and pride from individuals and groups) then it does on the actual celebration of tolerance’s fruition. 

With the promotion of tolerance being straightforward in more-or-less functioning societies in which intolerance can be pin-pointed amongst the everyday norms of personal and collective freedom and mutual belonging, we must regard the tension within developing countries and regions in which the very cords of society…friendship, trust, community well-being…have been worn through due to outright war or the systematic and generational mistrust of the other.  In such places, like Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and Balkans at-large, any attempt to advance an ideal like tolerance is a daunting and frustrating challenge. So where does one start? Do we optimistically promote tolerance or painstakingly critique and identify intolerance with the intentions of inventing change?
 
From our standing as agents of social change in BiH, we believe in a realistic vein of action focused on the inspired normalization of people’s lives and attitudes with a special focus placed on citizens’ opportunities to work with dignity and further stabilize their home and local economies; Thus enriching their communities native soil in which natural ideals like tolerance can be sown, sprout and flourish.
It is our prerogative to empower individuals, citizen groups and the next generations to realize their unique opportunities for shared-progress (economic, educational, cultural, ecological, etc.), so that the question of tolerance and communal good becomes personal and naturally achievable instead of theoretical. Specifically regarding our investment as community development foundation and social enterprise here in BiH, we have assumed and verified that individuals, communities and their overarching formal structures (religious, political, ethnic) will never move past, push ahead, into a future of assured and advanced rights and self-expressions without securing tangible existential footholds like family-sustainable income. Without that basic avenue of employment, any person is bound to remember and reinvent grievances and reasons to doubt and hate every sphere of influence outside of their familiar control, whether it be his catholic neighbor, international NGO manager or elected official from the opposing party.
 
There certainly is a level of intentionality and value-based organization of these development initiatives but at their core is a conviction that ordinary work, proper day-to-day functioning and opportunity for self-realization in whichever sense, is critical for the truest forms of social cohesion and acceptance of diversity to self-manifest. As leaders and social innovators, we must believe in, uphold and invest in the latent demands and will from inside communities to mature and blossom: One graduate, one job and one pure act of self-less tolerance at a time.
 
Luke Kasitz and Zoran Puljic

 

Editors Note
Luke Kasitz, Volunteer, Mozaik Foundation, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Zoran Puljic, Director, Mozaik Foundation, Bosnia and Herzegovina; Regional Social Entrepreneur of the Year, Central and Eastern Europe, 2009.

Mozaik Social Enterprise helps citizens in Bosnia and Herzegovina organize and advance their communities by providing financial and advisory assistance.