SPECIAL APPEALS

Different laureate organizations also made several individual appeals, e.g. to

• Protect our global commons
• Stop domination of each other and of nature
• Change our consumption patterns
• Encourage implementation of Millennium Development Goal no. 8 on partnerships
• Avoid nuclear energy. ‘Building a nuclear power plant is like building a house without a toilet - no where to put the waste’.
• Abolition of nuclear weapons with reference to the Rome Declaration of the Summit of 2006 http://www.gsinstitute.org/docs/Rome_Declaration_2006.pdf
• Prevent an arms race in space by advancing cooperative security based on the rule of law

The city of Stavanger, Norway, European Capital of Culture 2008, invited the Summit to Stavanger in September 2008. The organizers of the Stavanger meeting, ‘Points of Peace’, are putting particular emphasis on interaction with youth, and the main themes will be climate change and peaceful conflict-resolution and reconciliation. Bob Geldof, who last year got the Peace Summit Award for his work with the G8 for raising money and awareness for development requirements in Africa, announced the launch of an interactive web TV Peace Channel. Points of Peace cooperates on this with the Nobel Peace Laureates' follow-up programme and the Ten Alps, a factual media company, founded by Bob Geldof.

PRESENTATIONS

Muhammad Yunus spoke with passion about his work to rid Bangladesh/the world of poverty; how he gives loans to the poor, a majority of them women, whilst previous business thinking was/is to give to those who already have money - mostly men. He informed that poverty is reducing in Bangladesh by 2% per year, and he is convinced that Bangladesh will reach MDG1 (and all the other MDGs) by 2015. He further is of the opinion that it will thus be easier to help the second part of the poor out of poverty by 2030, and will by then open the world’s first poverty museum to show how the world, with all of its resources, for centuries has not been willing to share its assets in a more just and equal manner. He compared the poor to a bonsai, where the seed is the same, but where hampering factors reduce normal growth. Mr Yunus got a lot of attention for his micro-credit loans to beggars.

The concern related to the risk of entering a new ‘nuclear phase’ was strongly felt at the Summit. President Gorbachev spoke about how the world had moved to end the cold war, how arms had been reduced and treaties put in place. He talked in depth about his historic meetings with President Reagan and how close they came to eliminating nuclear weapons and how their aspirations stumbled on the US so-called Star Wars/missile defense agenda. He called on civil society to again take strong stands and to organise action, against nukes and for the environment.

It was very clear that the Laureates see the pursuit of sustainable disarmament and sustainable development as very much part of an important integrated agenda, consistent with IPB programmes, but one Laureate also addressed the importance of our inner world, our human qualities and the pursuit of personal fulfilment.

The Dalai Lama expressed concern that we are dehumanizing the very concept of human beings by so constantly portraying all the torture and abuse that we are capable of. He was of the opinion that the majority of people are kind and compassionate. He reminded all that we do not come from the sky or from flowers – but from mothers, and that we all survive primarily because of the care and compassion of mothers. He warned against letting hatred, fear and suspicion ‘eat our inner system’, which would not be good for our health and well-being.

According to the Dalai Lama, concrete human compassion can be shown both in religious and non-religious ways, including through a secular ethic. He felt there is a lack of will/capacity for implementation of the many expressed good intentions and goals, and thought it was time to establish an effective body for implementation (without defining more.) He was of the opinion that taking care of others is taking care of oneself and that it is better to be wisely selfish than stupidly selfish. He called for creating zones of peace, beginning with ourselves and stretching into our communities and beyond.

Mairéad Corrigan-Maguire called for solidarity with the people of Tibet, and hoped that the Chinese would decide on dialogue with the Dalai Lama. She was deeply disturbed by the news that the Pope decided not to see the Dalai Lama on this occasion and considered it a tragedy if the spiritual leaders do not give leadership and do not engage in dialogue. She asked everyone to ‘bring the heart to the mind’ and to ‘disarm the mind’. She also called for the full release of the Israeli whistleblower, Mr Mordechai Vanunu.

Lech Walesa underlined that ‘the time of blocs is over – now we need to agree on common values’. He brought up the issue of the many ‘speaking about peace, but producing weapons at the same time.’ He felt that rules and regulations without the right spirit would lead to nothing.

Betty Williams spoke about the role of women and insisted that women should get the possibility to ‘carry the world as we carry our children’. She made reference to the work of the recently established Nobel Women's Initiative and to the Jodi Williams report on the situation in Darfur (to the Human Rights Council), and called for an initial 1% reduction in military spending. Ms Williams also held a separate press conference announcing her initiative for a ‘city of peace’ in Italy.

George Clooney and Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda) received the Peace Summit Award for their work in Darfur. They attracted huge media interest. The two actors have set up the association ‘Not on our Watch’ (http://www.notonourwatchbook.com/) to attract worldwide attention to the tragedy in Darfur. Don Cheadle is the protagonist of the recent documentary Darfur Now and Clooney figures in the documentary A Journey to Darfur. Both men spoke with insight and commitment about ’the latest genocide now happening in Africa’.

Benjamin Quinto, Ex-Officio Executive Director of Global Youth Action Network gave an inspiring account of how he took the individual initiative to form an organization which has now grown into an effective network with tens of thousands of youth worldwide. “If you were walking down the street and saw a child being slapped by an adult, what would you do?” He said that thousands of children die around the world every day from diseases, hunger, and other preventable causes. “If a person would intervene on behalf of one child, shouldn’t we all be intervening on behalf of those thousands of children? We are asking young people to get involved. We want young people especially to know what is going on and figure out what they can do about it.”

Ambassador Nobuaki Tanaka, Japan’s Ambassador to Turkey and former UN Under Secretary General for Disarmament Affairs, highlighted the need for substantial progress on nuclear disarmament; and representatives from the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and Pugwash with great passion and clarity set forth their programs to fulfil disarmament obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. IPPNW called attention to its grassroots-focused International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons and called upon participants to join with this effort.  The American Friends Service Committee’s Board Chairman Paul Lacey gave a powerful analysis of the need to end reliance on war, end the Iraq war in particular, and advance international cooperation and nonviolence.

The very strong emphasis on education, notably peace education, by all the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates is worth noting. Non-violence and compassion should be an integral and essential part of educational systems. Rita Levi Monticelli (Nobel Prize Laureate in Medicine) insisted on the importance of girls’ and women's education in Africa. She said that ‘suffering comes because of a lack of education’. Mairéad Corrigan-Maguire said that schools need to educate boys to protect girls against AIDS, and educate girls to dare to say ‘no’. She asked for a higher investment in education at all levels and also, and not least, for education for a culture of peace to permeate educational institutions. Betty Williams is even developing a city devoted to education and nurturing of vulnerable youth. Both the Dalai Lama and Muhammad Yunus spoke about the importance of helping the young to have a goal to be compassionate about. Prof. Yunus was very critical of the school system often being reduced to ‘being good in school and getting a good job’. He insisted that the school system should help the young imagine what they would like the world to look like in 20-30 years (future scenarios) and not only provide technical skills. He also wanted protection and care for the environment to be part of the school curriculum. Bob Geldof spoke about releasing creativity through schools and Mikhail Gorbachev said we need a proper education through which we learn to understand the world and only then can society mature. The American Friends Service Committee representatives said that ‘Peace will only come through education in nonviolence’. 

There were many more excellent presentations that reiterated the need to redefine security in terms of meeting people's real needs, all consistent with IPB’s programs, values and practices.

Continued...