When we talk about combating the levels of violence and abuse, and the effect it has on society, we need to consider that once we have reached the level of reporting - no matter to which service provider (social worker, police, justice, hospital) - we are retroactively addressing the issues.
You can't put the milk back in the cow. All of that is work we do to minimize fallout and heal damage. It is not preventative, it is reactive.
When we are addressing education and changing social norms to be more peaceful, sensitized and compassionate, we work on the underlying problems - the root causes.
After generations of combative approaches to life, this is an enormous task that requires great effort, and will, to change one person at a time.
It requires encouraging people to go against their natural tendency to judge, classify and label, out of fear and anger, and rather foster connection and humanity when dealing with others.
Results take a long time.
We have been taught to label each other by gender, race, class, wealth, intelligence, physical appearance, spirituality - the list is endless.
All of those things have created wars, in homes, families, communities, countries.
They are all ideologies that strengthen the ideas we have grown up with - superiority ideologies.
For thousands of years this has torn the world to pieces - death, destruction, violence fostered everywhere. From the movies we watch, the songs we listen to, from political platforms, through sport, popularity pandering and down into religious pulpits we hear the call for supremacy.
The call that says "We are better than you! We have the monopoly on truth!"
For this to change, we have to challenge these ideas. We need to grow into a different understanding of connection and humanity.
After all these generations, we have learned so little about peace and hope; that being connected doesn't mean you have to lose who you are, it simply means you can also let other people be who they are.
It doesn't mean there won't be consequences for inhumanity, but it does mean that the majority of conflict can be resolved without resorting to the destruction of anyone who disagrees or objects.
There is always a peaceful solution.
Celeste Louw
Vice President
Optimystic Bikers against Abuse