“Hope and Doubts: My Peacebuilding Journey in Berlin”
By Patrick Asiñero (Duke MIDP ’25)
Summer 2024 AFE Blog Post Series
While sipping a cup of tea that rainy afternoon of July 2024, I started writing the accounts of my Applied Field Experience (AFE) and reflected on my learning journey as an intern. I was smiling and grateful to be back at the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) in Berlin. More importantly, I celebrated finally making it to Germany, despite the probability of not getting a Schengen visa for my AFE at KAS.
KAS is a political foundation committed to achieving and maintaining peace, liberal democracy, and justice through political education in Germany and abroad. Apart from supporting political dialogue between Asia and Europe, its Asia and Pacific department focuses on issues related to security policy dialogue, climate change, human dignity, democratic participation and representation, and peacebuilding.
At the department, I have been working closely with its Policy Advisor for Asia and Pacific to assist and provide technical support and policy research work on its maritime and peacebuilding efforts in the Indo-Pacific region. More prominently, I lead the research of its flagship youth program in Asia, which focuses on young indigenous and minority representation in post-conflict and fragile democracies of India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, and the Philippines. In addition, I am writing with a fellow intern from Myanmar on the UN Youth, Peace, and Security implementation and democratic strengthening in both of our countries.
Despite the bureaucratic challenges of getting a visa, I finally joined my KAS colleagues in Berlin in the middle of July before my AFE ended in August 2024. Before this, I was in the Philippines doing my role remotely, while hoping and patiently waiting for almost a month and a half to have my visa approved by both the German Embassy in Manila and the German Consulate in Atlanta given that I am a non-resident alien in the U.S.
For many, my situation was a hopeless case. With all honesty, I was doubtful at certain points of my visa application journey given the nuisances that I went through, and I did not have the luxury of time and energy to go through such bureaucracy. If there were two opposing words that truly described my experience applying for the Schengen visa, they were “hopeful yet frustrated.” While feeling frustrated at that moment, I opened the idea to my supervisor to do the internship at KAS’ regional office in Singapore, instead of having it at the headquarters in Berlin. Human as I am, can you blame me for feeling discouraged with the bureaucracy?
Working in the humanitarian space, particularly with vulnerable young people in Asia and Africa for more than a decade now, I have developed a genuine sense of hope and humility in facing challenges. Through time, I have taught myself how to be hopeful, whenever I work with young people and their families in conflict and other crises affected communities. Often, I have shared with them my vision of hope: things will get better despite all the political noise and challenges that we go through every day. However, there are some moments that these realities have bugged me down and annoyed me while working with the bureaucratic system that I facilitate to positively transform. Indeed, these instances of my vulnerabilities are a constant reality in my peace and development work routine. When moments of frustration, fear, and uncertainty happen, I have fully accepted my powerlessness and limitations. Certainly, I acknowledge that I do not possess all the power and influence to create transformative change. More notably, I have realized the crucial role of my community, and the power of the universe is conspiring so that I truly make meaningful results in the lives of young people.
At KAS, I have never been ashamed of telling the truth and asking for help from others, including my supervisor. To me, asking for help does not mean being weak, but it is liberating and reassuring to trust and have faith (hope) in the collective strength of the bigger community to pursue positive change.
My detour to the Philippines was a blessing in disguise. Because of my presence in the Philippines, I was able to reconnect with my family and friends, and easily manage the research that I was leading for KAS in Asia. Working remotely in the Philippines during the data gathering period, I was able to easily adjust and negotiate with all respondents their availability for the online interviews. If I had been in Germany, I could not imagine in a short period of time effectively managing the interviews of key respondents with demanding roles from six Asian countries – India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, and the Philippines – of different time zones. While doing the interviews, I got connected with diverse young women and men leaders – policymakers, politicians, civil society organizers, and political activists, and listened to their stories. In those conversations, they narrated their fears, triumphs, and hopes as they struggled collectively to make their societies more peaceful, free, and just. Consequently, I became more inspired by their bravery and conviction in risking their lives to advance peaceful coexistence and democratic governance including the voices of the indigenous people and minorities within fragile democratic spaces in their countries. Their stories are a reminder that there is hope despite the heartlessness, hostilities, and chaos that occupy the headlines of most (social) media outlets in the world.
Not too far from the KAS office, I have walked to see the Victory Column, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, and the Berlin Wall Memorial, and paid a silent tribute to the lives of the people who died during those wars in German history. In fact, all these edifices are reminders of the ugly memories of conflicts and crimes against humanity that transpired in the heart of Berlin, Germany. It was not too long ago that World War I, II, and the Cold War wreaked havoc on the lives of the people in Berlin and stripped them of their dignity. I could not imagine the division, cruelty, and violence that plagued the city and the rest of Europe during those times, while tourists of various backgrounds, nowadays, flock to these monuments peacefully smiling while taking their Instagram-fit photos.
As a student of history and peacebuilding, I am always reminded of George Santayana’s words: those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Hence, telling the truth of these stories of war and terror, no matter how ugly and horrific, needs to be repeated because war is inevitable unless we work hard to maintain the peace and freedom that we cherish today. These narratives of conflict and the violence that it perpetuates are also integral in understanding our human story of how we easily forget our humanity during conflicts despite the advancement of our civilizations.
Amidst the political noise outside coupled with fear and tensions in various parts of the globe, I am still hopeful that one day we can achieve genuine peace across the globe. To do this, we need to work together to sustain Positive Peace – rule of law, good governance, respect for human rights, etc., and preserve the very institutions that nurture our freedoms and protect our people, including our young people, from any harm or even the fear of violence.
With individuals and institutions like KAS and Rotary working together for world peace and democracy, I cheered with a bottle of beer as I finished this blog on one sunny afternoon at a Kneipe in Berlin.
