Discuss the following:
1. Topic:
During his trip to Mexico in 2016, Pope Francis said the following about the suffering of indigenous people in his address in Chiapas State:
"On many occasions, in a systematic and organized way, your people have been misunderstood and excluded from society. Some have considered your values, culture, and traditions to be inferior. Others, intoxicated by power, money and market trends, have stolen your lands or contaminated them. How sad this is. How worthwhile it would be for each of us to examine our conscience and learn to say, 'Forgive me!'"
How would you examine this speech in terms of a possibility of reconciliation?
Discussion:
Resolving a conflict can involve either apologies, forgiveness or reconciliation, but the possibility for any of these interpersonal or public forms of requests for forgiveness after a conflict is determined by certain qualities being present in the conflict. When seeing if a conflict, like the conflict highlighted in Pope Francis' speech that he gave in Mexico in 2016, could lead to public reconciliation, the conflict needs to be thoroughly analyzed for certain conflict qualities. Jandt (2017) explains that a reconciliation takes place if: there was a significant conflict between two parties; the request for forgiveness is a joint venture; there can be a in-depth conversation between the victim and offender to share stories and express the hurt; and both parties want to reestablish trust after listening for remorse. The Pope's speech can be analyzed for the possibility of reconciliation as it gives many details for clues about if as a would constitute the possibility for several reasons.
First, Pope Francis' speech in Mexico highlights some of the nuances that lead a certain conflict to meet the first requirement of a significant conflict between two parties. The conflict involved excluding indigenous people from society and assuming their other aspects like values and cultures as inferior. There are several other facts about the conflict stated in Pope Francis' speech that are indicative of the conflict being set up for reconciliation.
Second, this conflict in Mexico has the second requirement of a joint venture as there are two parties involved: the indigenous people and the rich class. The possibility of a public reconciliation truly needs both parties to actively be involved in working through the resolution process to show the public their intent to resolve the conflict. Jandt (2017) explains that a public resolution is "sought to make the truth public and move their countries toward reconciliation". In this case, Pope Francis' public plea to forgive and examine and acknowledge what happened with both sides answers the specific need for the resolution in the public sphere.
Another requirement is there can be a in-depth conversation between the victim and offender to share stories and express the hurt. The Pope's speech admonishes both sides to examine their consciences, and that conscious examination and reflection of the conflict would make each side more open to reconciling what happened in Mexico.
The final need for a possibility of reconciliation is reestablish trust after listening for remorse, which will further legitimize the reconciliation in the eyes of the public. This might be difficult in this specific example, but the influence of world leaders, like the Pope.
2. Topic:
Narrative mediation can be helpful to understand conflict, and moreover, to understand family conflict. In a family composed of parents, grandparents, children, and grandchildren, narrative mediation can be particularly useful. Explain and discuss why that is the case in a "traditional," nuclear family.
A traditional nuclear family is comprised of a husband/father that works outside of the home, a wife/mother that is a stay at home mother, and their biological children. The typical familial roles that are established in these households are that the father works all day, pays the bills, and makes the rules; the mother cooks, cleans, and tends to the children; and the children are to listen to the parents, go to school, and contribute around the home. With these tightly constrained roles, there is bound to be conflict, and it generally escalates and needs resolving before things get really bad. Narrative mediation "is based on the notion that the way we talk about a conflict shapes the way we perceive and react to it" (Jandt, p. 231). Within the parameters construed by narrative mediation, the mediator creates a safe space, deconstruct each members approach to the conflict, and help to uncover the the assumptions that each member is bringing to the conflict. With this setting and role established by the mediator, family members are able to share their feelings and be understood because of the clarifications provided by the mediator. This helps the family members express the type of effect that the conflict is taking upon them, and then be guided down a path of exploration in finding alternative approaches. After alternative approaches are explored, the narrative mediator encourages the members to create a counterstory to the conflict story, usually built on the understanding, respect, and collaboration instead of individualism, disrespect, and closed-mindedness. At the end, "narrative mediation asks the parties to choose which story they prefer: the conflict story or the counterstory" (Jandt, p. 232). Narrative mediation can be beneficial to the traditional nuclear family because the perceptions and roles are all so different, and ones expression of feelings can cause a deeper issue because of misunderstanding and misinterpretations by another.