- Email: [email protected]
Futures of protracted conflicts
Futures 36 (2004) 379–384 www.elsevier.com/locate/futures
Reflections
Futures of protracted conflicts S.P. Udayakumar ∗ 42/27 Esankai Mani Veethy, Parakkai Road Junction, Nagercoil 629 002, Tamil Nadu, India
Your torment is before the eyes of the world. And it has gone on too long. —Pope John Paul II to the Palestinians (The New York Times, March 23, 2000) In the midst of today’s upheaval, give us a vision of tomorrow. —Muhammad Iqbal, Pakistani poet There can be no future without conflict. After all, building anything meaningful in human society is bound to lead to differences of opinion, clashes of viewpoint and conflicts of interest. It is these healthy conflicts that cement life and future together and make any building project sustainable, meaningful and indeed enjoyable. When an individual leader or a group of persons try to build, without healthy conflicts, a singular collective future for a people, the undemocratic top-down project quickly degenerates into a totalitarian scheme giving rise to deep fissures in the society, destructive discords and even actual deaths. Too much of healthy conflict could also become unhealthy and equally debilitating for any society to build a better future. Just as the future is all about conflicts and transcendence, conflicts are all about the future and uncertainties. Although the past and the present of a conflict are not any less important than the future, it is in the future that the incompatibilities of the conflicting parties are going to be played out in unforeseen ways and manners. This open-endedness is the thing that makes the future of a conflict more significant than its past, which is closed for action. The present of a conflict, which joins its past and the future, is certainly not closed and quite prone to action. But it is not as wide open as the future either. There is less uncertainty in the present and we are significantly more in control of the situation. The present is concrete and tangible and hence a lot more manageable.
∗
Tel.: +91-4652-240657. E-mail address: [email protected] (S.P. Udayakumar).
0016-3287/$ - see front matter 2003 Published by Elsevier Ltd. doi:10.1016/S0016-3287(03)00161-7
380
S.P. Udayakumar / Futures 36 (2004) 379–384
In the case of the future, however, we are uncertain, anxious and helpless. A future with unhealthy conflicts and conflicts with an uncertain future make a disastrous combination for any society. Conflicts and futures have another important dimension too: the future is often the first victim in any conflict. The higher the complexity of a conflict, the greater its impact on all possible futures.
1. Conflict—attack/accident/ailment isomorphism Conflicts are part of life and they often motivate growth and progress. But when a conflict brings about death and destruction, it becomes a matter of serious concern. A deadly conflict that strikes at the body politic of a society can be compared to a physical attack, or a fatal accident or a prolonged disease, the three major sources of death that kill an individual human being. The growing incidence of terrorism is like brutal attacks on the body (politic); they are sudden, swift, surprising and deadly. Religious riots, violent group clashes and international armed conflicts such as the 1962 Indo-China war, the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and other such conflicts come out of the blue without any warning, like accidents, and prove to be deadly. Unlike attack-like and accident-like conflicts, which happen quite abruptly, all socioeconomic–political conflicts have some history and background, however vague and short-lived that may be. Just as diseases that are protracted over a long period of time get deadly, conflicts that drag on for a long time also become deadly. Diseases could be prolonged because of the patient’s ignorance, or a wrong or inadequate or ineffective D–P–T (diagnosis–prognosis–therapy). Similarly, conflicts that do not get a proper and accurate D–P–T analysis may tend to go on and on and become deadly. Martin Luther King Jr. compares a conflict with a boil. He says: “Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured” [1]. If a conflict is a boil, a protracted conflict is a badly infected pestering sore that has long been ignored or ill-treated. As we generally have more control over the diseases than attacks and accidents, it may be worthwhile to concentrate on the protracted conflicts and their possible solutions. This is not to say we cannot do anything about ‘attacks’ and ‘accidents’. In fact, ‘attacks’ and ‘accidents’ are becoming all the more common in today’s world. These ephemeral breeds of the conflict monster assume all kinds of dangerous shapes and forms and become more and more deadly. But if we look more closely, smertniki (fighters who die for a cause), or jehadis or suicide bombers all emerge from unresolved protracted conflicts and they contribute to the protraction of outstanding conflicts. For example, the Moscow theatre hostage crisis came about directly as a result of the Chechnya conflict, and its bloody
S.P. Udayakumar / Futures 36 (2004) 379–384
381
end has certainly contributed to enhancing the ABC (attitude–behavior– contradiction) of the conflict. Terrorism–conflict–protraction is a vicious circle. Similarly, the 2001 Kargil incident between India and Pakistan, which could be branded as an ‘accident’ (according to the analysis here), is an integral part of the protracted conflict that these two countries are embroiled in, viz. Kashmir. So the attack-like incidents and accident-like conflicts could also be analyzed within the purview of protracted conflicts, and this renders the protracted conflict–prolonged ailment isomorphism quite useful.
2. Protracted conflicts
So the ‘deadly’ conflicts that we are preoccupied with here are, in fact, ‘protracted’ conflicts. This protractedness is the major characteristic that makes the concerned conflict deadly by hardening attitudes over a long period of time, giving rise to deviant and dangerous behaviors, and intensifying the contradictions. ‘Deadly’, after all, means not just causing death but also being filled with strong emotions. As we lose precious time to intervene effectively, address the contradictions, redress the grievances and bring back normalcy, the conflict gets out of hand and is on its way to protraction. Crossing the stages of needing just one stitch, or ‘nine stitches’, the whole cloth comes apart. Protracted conflicts are those that have become more and more complex and deadly, marked by high ABC with the passage of time. In a time–complexity curve, these may be mapped on the extreme points. Just as the passage of time complicates the conflicts, complex conflicts refuse to go away and eat more of our time and creative energies. In both cases, the protracted conflict that has been pestering for a long time inflicts a high cost on the parties involved, causes greater dangers, and commits the future to serious vulnerabilities. One can easily choose quite a few protracted conflicts. They could be taking place between two nations within a state (Sri Lanka), or between two states that have the same nation (China and Taiwan), or between a state and a nation (China and Tibet), or between two states over a territory (Kashmir), or among many states over a nation (Kurdistan). Kashmir, Tibet, Taiwan, Palestine, Kurdistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Aceh and Mindanao are the homes of some of the potent protracted conflicts in Asia. The Sudan, Angola, Western Sahara, Rwanda–Burundi, Northern Ireland, Cyprus, Basque, the Balkans, Chechnya and Colombia are some of the protracted conflicts in other parts of the world. There are many other long-standing conflicts such as the Spratly Islands issue (to which China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have all staked a claim) that are low-key and do not tend to be deadly. Only a few protracted conflicts, such as Ecuador–Peru, Eritrea and East Timor, have ever been resolved; but they had had their share of death and destruction.
382
S.P. Udayakumar / Futures 36 (2004) 379–384
3. Some aspects of protracted conflicts Almost all of these are land/resource-based and self-determination/identity-related conflicts. A closer scrutiny would reveal that many of the parties involved in these conflicts are intractable and recalcitrant, and some even ruthless. There would be very little trust between the conflicting parties and no willingness to accommodate each other in a meaningful dialogue. To talk, for some of them, is to betray weakness. Because of this, there is little progress towards conflict resolution, reconciliation and peace. In many cases, the vested interests have no urgency to resolve the outstanding issues, because the ongoing conflict provides political sustenance, economic benefits and social cohesion. Hence, present stagnation is a crucial part of the overall protraction of the conflicts. The longer a conflict lingers, the higher the cost it inflicts upon the parties involved. The time and energy that have been lost or wasted could have been used for the development of the societies and for constructive purposes. Besides these missed opportunities, we also tend to allocate our scarce resources to unwanted and unproductive purposes such as military expenditure, weapons procurement, troop mobilization and war preparations. Protracted conflicts have a more pronounced impact on peoples and societies. The theatres of protracted conflicts prove to be major flash points in the international arena and give rise to serious international consequences. Protracted conflicts have the inherent danger of getting out of control and escalate into something more serious. For instance, the 2001 Indo-Pakistan stand-off threatened to degenerate into a nuclear confrontation with disastrous consequences for millions of people in the Indian subcontinent and for the larger world. As conflicts drag on, the culture of violence gets deep-rooted. People cannot think of other creative ways of resolving their conflicts. As a result of militarism, terrorist attacks and wanton violence, human lives become cheap. Reverence for life diminishes seriously. The violent way of life becomes the norm. When human rights are violated so systematically over a considerable period of time, human dignity also stands compromised. Human volition, at both the individual and the collective level, falls victim to protracted conflicts. Hope, faith and the capacity to dream are perilously undermined.
4. Protracted conflicts and futures If we map the possible future courses of these protracted conflicts in a continuum, we can easily identify some possibilities. At the extremes would be the miraculous possibility of the total disappearance of the conflict and the further degeneration of the conflict. In between would be the stagnation of the conflict in the present position. One can easily identify the wrong direction and the right direction of the conflict. The major responsibility of the futurists is to nudge the conflict toward the right direction. One can do that by pointing out the costs of the present stage of the conflict and the likely deterioration of it and also by highlighting the benefits of the deescalation of the conflict. This futuristic cost–benefit analysis would be just the beginning. The
S.P. Udayakumar / Futures 36 (2004) 379–384
383
actual task would be to point out the likely courses of these conflicts to the parties and others involved and to ask them all to choose the best amongst them. An even more important task would be to train conflict workers, social activists, policymakers, youth leaders and others. The futurist’s task is to instill future consciousness in all their work. So, protracted conflicts need greater involvement of futurists, as these conflicts need a lot more discussion, debate and dialogue on all possible solutions and their impacts on the future. It becomes very important to diagnose the protracted conflicts accurately, discern their prognosis precisely, and administer appropriate therapy. Here are a few ways futurists can help in reducing protracted conflicts around the world.
(a) Create hope and faith: Just as we try to make a patient who is suffering from a prolonged ailment believe that there is hope, so must protracted-conflict-ridden societies be given a lot of hope and faith. They must know that their ‘disease’ is curable with proper D–P–T, and they should be encouraged to participate actively in the process. Individuals and communities should be empowered to transcend contradictions, forgive and forget, dream new dreams and envision peaceful futures. They should know that it is in their own hands to get out of the present mess and proceed to peace and prosperity. (b) Provide every support: Just as the family members and friends of a patient suffering from prolonged illness are given hope that there is indeed a future for the patient concerned, the neighbours of the protracted-conflict-ridden societies must be provided with hope and awareness of the future. Those who report on or talk about the protracted conflicts should desist from assuming and reproducing foreign cultural biases and prejudices. The outsiders could recommend the right D–P–T by making use of local conflict resolution, peacemaking, peacekeeping, nonviolence and futures heritage. They could increase the trade and investment, facilitate educational and cultural exchanges, and engage the conflicting parties in other ways to break new grounds in peacemaking and peacekeeping. Europe now takes this point of view. The Danish Foreign Minister, Per Stig Moeller, has said that the EU would work with poorer countries to improve human rights and develop their economies and education systems. (c) Give conflict education: If conflicts are all about contradictions, the people involved need to be told about these contradictions and ways to address them effectively and meaningfully. This ‘conflict education’ could enlighten everyone involved on their counterparts’ perspectives, their norms and values and their ways of doing things. It could also employ other educational tools such as roleplay, theatre, music and the internet to educate various sections of the societies concerned in the necessary attitudinal changes, behavioural modifications and possible solutions to their conflict. (d) Highlight the human element: While talking about or reporting on protracted conflicts, it is imperative to avoid dehumanization, highlight the human element, and evolve a humane conflict discourse. Such an approach would help us focus
384
S.P. Udayakumar / Futures 36 (2004) 379–384
on the human agency rather than the historical dialectics, which often render us helpless passive objects. Pleading for negotiations with the British, Mahatma Gandhi famously said: “I respectfully invite you to… open a way for a real conference between equals.” Respect for the opponent, letting the opponent take an initiative, seriousness of purpose, equality and self-assertion were the hallmarks of good negotiation for Gandhi. Futurists can use the same approach to guide communities and societies, nations and states, away from violence and conflict and move them towards embracing our true humanity.
Reference [1] Martin Luther King Jr., in: Why We Can’t Wait, Signet, New York, 2000, p. 85.
Reflections
Futures of protracted conflicts S.P. Udayakumar ∗ 42/27 Esankai Mani Veethy, Parakkai Road Junction, Nagercoil 629 002, Tamil Nadu, India
Your torment is before the eyes of the world. And it has gone on too long. —Pope John Paul II to the Palestinians (The New York Times, March 23, 2000) In the midst of today’s upheaval, give us a vision of tomorrow. —Muhammad Iqbal, Pakistani poet There can be no future without conflict. After all, building anything meaningful in human society is bound to lead to differences of opinion, clashes of viewpoint and conflicts of interest. It is these healthy conflicts that cement life and future together and make any building project sustainable, meaningful and indeed enjoyable. When an individual leader or a group of persons try to build, without healthy conflicts, a singular collective future for a people, the undemocratic top-down project quickly degenerates into a totalitarian scheme giving rise to deep fissures in the society, destructive discords and even actual deaths. Too much of healthy conflict could also become unhealthy and equally debilitating for any society to build a better future. Just as the future is all about conflicts and transcendence, conflicts are all about the future and uncertainties. Although the past and the present of a conflict are not any less important than the future, it is in the future that the incompatibilities of the conflicting parties are going to be played out in unforeseen ways and manners. This open-endedness is the thing that makes the future of a conflict more significant than its past, which is closed for action. The present of a conflict, which joins its past and the future, is certainly not closed and quite prone to action. But it is not as wide open as the future either. There is less uncertainty in the present and we are significantly more in control of the situation. The present is concrete and tangible and hence a lot more manageable.
∗
Tel.: +91-4652-240657. E-mail address: [email protected] (S.P. Udayakumar).
0016-3287/$ - see front matter 2003 Published by Elsevier Ltd. doi:10.1016/S0016-3287(03)00161-7
380
S.P. Udayakumar / Futures 36 (2004) 379–384
In the case of the future, however, we are uncertain, anxious and helpless. A future with unhealthy conflicts and conflicts with an uncertain future make a disastrous combination for any society. Conflicts and futures have another important dimension too: the future is often the first victim in any conflict. The higher the complexity of a conflict, the greater its impact on all possible futures.
1. Conflict—attack/accident/ailment isomorphism Conflicts are part of life and they often motivate growth and progress. But when a conflict brings about death and destruction, it becomes a matter of serious concern. A deadly conflict that strikes at the body politic of a society can be compared to a physical attack, or a fatal accident or a prolonged disease, the three major sources of death that kill an individual human being. The growing incidence of terrorism is like brutal attacks on the body (politic); they are sudden, swift, surprising and deadly. Religious riots, violent group clashes and international armed conflicts such as the 1962 Indo-China war, the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and other such conflicts come out of the blue without any warning, like accidents, and prove to be deadly. Unlike attack-like and accident-like conflicts, which happen quite abruptly, all socioeconomic–political conflicts have some history and background, however vague and short-lived that may be. Just as diseases that are protracted over a long period of time get deadly, conflicts that drag on for a long time also become deadly. Diseases could be prolonged because of the patient’s ignorance, or a wrong or inadequate or ineffective D–P–T (diagnosis–prognosis–therapy). Similarly, conflicts that do not get a proper and accurate D–P–T analysis may tend to go on and on and become deadly. Martin Luther King Jr. compares a conflict with a boil. He says: “Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured” [1]. If a conflict is a boil, a protracted conflict is a badly infected pestering sore that has long been ignored or ill-treated. As we generally have more control over the diseases than attacks and accidents, it may be worthwhile to concentrate on the protracted conflicts and their possible solutions. This is not to say we cannot do anything about ‘attacks’ and ‘accidents’. In fact, ‘attacks’ and ‘accidents’ are becoming all the more common in today’s world. These ephemeral breeds of the conflict monster assume all kinds of dangerous shapes and forms and become more and more deadly. But if we look more closely, smertniki (fighters who die for a cause), or jehadis or suicide bombers all emerge from unresolved protracted conflicts and they contribute to the protraction of outstanding conflicts. For example, the Moscow theatre hostage crisis came about directly as a result of the Chechnya conflict, and its bloody
S.P. Udayakumar / Futures 36 (2004) 379–384
381
end has certainly contributed to enhancing the ABC (attitude–behavior– contradiction) of the conflict. Terrorism–conflict–protraction is a vicious circle. Similarly, the 2001 Kargil incident between India and Pakistan, which could be branded as an ‘accident’ (according to the analysis here), is an integral part of the protracted conflict that these two countries are embroiled in, viz. Kashmir. So the attack-like incidents and accident-like conflicts could also be analyzed within the purview of protracted conflicts, and this renders the protracted conflict–prolonged ailment isomorphism quite useful.
2. Protracted conflicts
So the ‘deadly’ conflicts that we are preoccupied with here are, in fact, ‘protracted’ conflicts. This protractedness is the major characteristic that makes the concerned conflict deadly by hardening attitudes over a long period of time, giving rise to deviant and dangerous behaviors, and intensifying the contradictions. ‘Deadly’, after all, means not just causing death but also being filled with strong emotions. As we lose precious time to intervene effectively, address the contradictions, redress the grievances and bring back normalcy, the conflict gets out of hand and is on its way to protraction. Crossing the stages of needing just one stitch, or ‘nine stitches’, the whole cloth comes apart. Protracted conflicts are those that have become more and more complex and deadly, marked by high ABC with the passage of time. In a time–complexity curve, these may be mapped on the extreme points. Just as the passage of time complicates the conflicts, complex conflicts refuse to go away and eat more of our time and creative energies. In both cases, the protracted conflict that has been pestering for a long time inflicts a high cost on the parties involved, causes greater dangers, and commits the future to serious vulnerabilities. One can easily choose quite a few protracted conflicts. They could be taking place between two nations within a state (Sri Lanka), or between two states that have the same nation (China and Taiwan), or between a state and a nation (China and Tibet), or between two states over a territory (Kashmir), or among many states over a nation (Kurdistan). Kashmir, Tibet, Taiwan, Palestine, Kurdistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Aceh and Mindanao are the homes of some of the potent protracted conflicts in Asia. The Sudan, Angola, Western Sahara, Rwanda–Burundi, Northern Ireland, Cyprus, Basque, the Balkans, Chechnya and Colombia are some of the protracted conflicts in other parts of the world. There are many other long-standing conflicts such as the Spratly Islands issue (to which China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have all staked a claim) that are low-key and do not tend to be deadly. Only a few protracted conflicts, such as Ecuador–Peru, Eritrea and East Timor, have ever been resolved; but they had had their share of death and destruction.
382
S.P. Udayakumar / Futures 36 (2004) 379–384
3. Some aspects of protracted conflicts Almost all of these are land/resource-based and self-determination/identity-related conflicts. A closer scrutiny would reveal that many of the parties involved in these conflicts are intractable and recalcitrant, and some even ruthless. There would be very little trust between the conflicting parties and no willingness to accommodate each other in a meaningful dialogue. To talk, for some of them, is to betray weakness. Because of this, there is little progress towards conflict resolution, reconciliation and peace. In many cases, the vested interests have no urgency to resolve the outstanding issues, because the ongoing conflict provides political sustenance, economic benefits and social cohesion. Hence, present stagnation is a crucial part of the overall protraction of the conflicts. The longer a conflict lingers, the higher the cost it inflicts upon the parties involved. The time and energy that have been lost or wasted could have been used for the development of the societies and for constructive purposes. Besides these missed opportunities, we also tend to allocate our scarce resources to unwanted and unproductive purposes such as military expenditure, weapons procurement, troop mobilization and war preparations. Protracted conflicts have a more pronounced impact on peoples and societies. The theatres of protracted conflicts prove to be major flash points in the international arena and give rise to serious international consequences. Protracted conflicts have the inherent danger of getting out of control and escalate into something more serious. For instance, the 2001 Indo-Pakistan stand-off threatened to degenerate into a nuclear confrontation with disastrous consequences for millions of people in the Indian subcontinent and for the larger world. As conflicts drag on, the culture of violence gets deep-rooted. People cannot think of other creative ways of resolving their conflicts. As a result of militarism, terrorist attacks and wanton violence, human lives become cheap. Reverence for life diminishes seriously. The violent way of life becomes the norm. When human rights are violated so systematically over a considerable period of time, human dignity also stands compromised. Human volition, at both the individual and the collective level, falls victim to protracted conflicts. Hope, faith and the capacity to dream are perilously undermined.
4. Protracted conflicts and futures If we map the possible future courses of these protracted conflicts in a continuum, we can easily identify some possibilities. At the extremes would be the miraculous possibility of the total disappearance of the conflict and the further degeneration of the conflict. In between would be the stagnation of the conflict in the present position. One can easily identify the wrong direction and the right direction of the conflict. The major responsibility of the futurists is to nudge the conflict toward the right direction. One can do that by pointing out the costs of the present stage of the conflict and the likely deterioration of it and also by highlighting the benefits of the deescalation of the conflict. This futuristic cost–benefit analysis would be just the beginning. The
S.P. Udayakumar / Futures 36 (2004) 379–384
383
actual task would be to point out the likely courses of these conflicts to the parties and others involved and to ask them all to choose the best amongst them. An even more important task would be to train conflict workers, social activists, policymakers, youth leaders and others. The futurist’s task is to instill future consciousness in all their work. So, protracted conflicts need greater involvement of futurists, as these conflicts need a lot more discussion, debate and dialogue on all possible solutions and their impacts on the future. It becomes very important to diagnose the protracted conflicts accurately, discern their prognosis precisely, and administer appropriate therapy. Here are a few ways futurists can help in reducing protracted conflicts around the world.
(a) Create hope and faith: Just as we try to make a patient who is suffering from a prolonged ailment believe that there is hope, so must protracted-conflict-ridden societies be given a lot of hope and faith. They must know that their ‘disease’ is curable with proper D–P–T, and they should be encouraged to participate actively in the process. Individuals and communities should be empowered to transcend contradictions, forgive and forget, dream new dreams and envision peaceful futures. They should know that it is in their own hands to get out of the present mess and proceed to peace and prosperity. (b) Provide every support: Just as the family members and friends of a patient suffering from prolonged illness are given hope that there is indeed a future for the patient concerned, the neighbours of the protracted-conflict-ridden societies must be provided with hope and awareness of the future. Those who report on or talk about the protracted conflicts should desist from assuming and reproducing foreign cultural biases and prejudices. The outsiders could recommend the right D–P–T by making use of local conflict resolution, peacemaking, peacekeeping, nonviolence and futures heritage. They could increase the trade and investment, facilitate educational and cultural exchanges, and engage the conflicting parties in other ways to break new grounds in peacemaking and peacekeeping. Europe now takes this point of view. The Danish Foreign Minister, Per Stig Moeller, has said that the EU would work with poorer countries to improve human rights and develop their economies and education systems. (c) Give conflict education: If conflicts are all about contradictions, the people involved need to be told about these contradictions and ways to address them effectively and meaningfully. This ‘conflict education’ could enlighten everyone involved on their counterparts’ perspectives, their norms and values and their ways of doing things. It could also employ other educational tools such as roleplay, theatre, music and the internet to educate various sections of the societies concerned in the necessary attitudinal changes, behavioural modifications and possible solutions to their conflict. (d) Highlight the human element: While talking about or reporting on protracted conflicts, it is imperative to avoid dehumanization, highlight the human element, and evolve a humane conflict discourse. Such an approach would help us focus
384
S.P. Udayakumar / Futures 36 (2004) 379–384
on the human agency rather than the historical dialectics, which often render us helpless passive objects. Pleading for negotiations with the British, Mahatma Gandhi famously said: “I respectfully invite you to… open a way for a real conference between equals.” Respect for the opponent, letting the opponent take an initiative, seriousness of purpose, equality and self-assertion were the hallmarks of good negotiation for Gandhi. Futurists can use the same approach to guide communities and societies, nations and states, away from violence and conflict and move them towards embracing our true humanity.
Reference [1] Martin Luther King Jr., in: Why We Can’t Wait, Signet, New York, 2000, p. 85.